Where a picture falls short Aug 21, 2006
I'm a fan of photography.  Sort of.  I don't spend a lot of time or money on it, but I own a camera and I enjoy taking pictures with it.  But there are some instances where a picture falls short of capturing a moment, event, object, or view.  And actually, I'm noticing more and more of these instances as I take more and more pictures. 

Traveling anywhere with views of "big things" usually presents a problem.  It's really difficult to capture the hugeness of something like Mount Rainier with a tiny little electronic box that stores color information in the form of pixels.  I would imagine it would be difficult no matter what type or size camera was used.  There's just too much information.  There are too many colors, too many details, too many pieces.  I always end up feeling disappointed with a tiny little picture of a big huge thing. 

It's similar with wildlife shots.  My cats do the funniest, most uncatlike things imaginable.  But as soon as I get my camera, they're doing something else.  If I try to get them to do it again, they don't understand what I'm trying to do and they bite me.  "Real" wildlife is also hard to film sometimes because animals and bugs are often unpredictable and skittish.  Moving objects are really hard to capture on film, and jumpy squirrels and speedy deer are no exception. 

Nighttime photography is notoriously difficult and unsuccessful.  Actually, low-light conditions are pretty similar to no-light conditions.  A flash would normally light up a dark room, but it won't do anything for a picture of a full moon or a nighttime landscape.  One of the most amazing experiences of my life was witnessing the Elkmont fireflies in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, where tens of thousands of lightning bugs blinked in unison.  I tried taking a few pictures but couldn't get anything to show up because it was pitch black except for those thousands of little blinking things. 

This brings up another interesting point:  Some experiences are hard to capture on film because much of the experience takes place outside the visual realm.  Pictures of the ocean don't capture the smell of salt water.  Pictures of a street in Chicago don't capture the force of the wind.  Pictures of New York don't sound like New York.  With experiences like these, I wish there was a way I could capture and package everything that's communicating with my senses.  It would be cool to go back and experience certain things all over again, from the sites and sounds to the smells and "feels". #entertainment
Treadmill bike (1) Aug 21, 2006
The Treadmill bike is a "bike" that's powered by walking/running on a treadmill instead of by pedaling pedals.  The idea is somewhat interesting, but the video on the site shows that the product is laughably ridiculous.  Other "bikes" on the site include the Couchbike, the HulaBike, and the Rowingbike.  I would say the website is a joke, but videos prove that these products exist and can be used.  (via Mental Floss) #sports
WordPress autosave Aug 21, 2006
WordPress.com just recently enabled autosave functionality while writing posts.  This seems like an insignificant addition, but I think it's extremely significant.  Several times in the past, I was writing a post (usually long, in-depth, and unfathomably awesome) and I accidentally clicked a link or pressed a magic button on my keyboard that made me navigate away from the post-writing page or just completely erase everything I had written up to that point.  This is incredibly frustrating and completely impossible to undo.  But with an autosave feature, there's no reason to worry about it ... except for the fact that regular WordPress won't have this functionality until the next major version.  Enter the Twilight Universe Autosave plugin.  This plugin automagically (finally, I used that stupid word) saves the post content so that if you accidentally navigate away from the post-writing page or close the window, you can go back to the post-writing page and get the contents of the post.  It doesn't store the post's title or category, but that's not a big deal.  It's also a little buggy, but for the purpose it serves, it's worth it.  So until WordPress comes prepackaged with autosave, I'm using this plugin. #technology
New Mondays (3) Aug 21, 2006
Although it may seem a little weird (I can't believe I'm typing it), I sort of enjoy Monday mornings.  I don't enjoy getting up at 6am after a weekend of sleeping in, and I don't enjoy going back to the normal weekly routine.  But I do enjoy sitting around in my quiet office and catching up on my reading list.  I usually have a lot of catching up to do because I'm often away from a computer the whole weekend.  Plus, certain sites like News of the Weird publish a new thing once a week, which means Monday morning is my time to read it.  Also, ever since I moved to a different job function at work, mornings have been quite a bit different.  My old boss used to get in at 6:30am (he lived in PA and needed to beat the commute), so I would have to enter the office at a run instead of a walk (or a crawl as is usually the case).  But my new boss doesn't come in until somewhere around 9:30 or 10am, so I have a solid 2 hours of catchup time and Monday morning tiredness. #psychology