I enjoy digital photography and I hope that one day I'll have
some willing models
to help perfect my craft. Until then I will happily gain inspiration from Norwegian
photographer Petter Hegre. Hegre specializes in female nudes and you
can check out his brilliant work at Hegre-Art.com.
Hmm. I just figured out all I need to do is combine beautiful models
with luxuriant locales and perfect lighting and I will dethrone
Petter!
Back in reality... you will find my latest wallpaper creation.
It's edited from one of Petter's photos. The model is named Evi and
this particular shot comes from a photo set called Bed Scenes.
My Xbox 360 had been working fine for over two years, but then
suddenly died at the end of September. The screen took on a green
tint and then produced no video signal at all.
It was one of the original "Premium" or "Pro"
units that shipped with a 20GB hard drive and no HDMI port. I bought
it at Best Buy on 09-Aug-2006 with a 2-year product replacement
plan. Unfortunately, my 360 died seven weeks after the Best Buy
warranty expired. Ugh.
Microsoft originally offered a 1-year warranty but extended it to
3 years for units that displayed "three red flashing
lights" (aka the Red Ring of Death). I never got any red
lights so my unit wasn't covered. My options were to either pay $99
to have Microsoft service/replace it, fix it myself using a $20 kit
and instructions available online or buy a new unit (at a minimum
cost of $200). I ended going with the first option and got a
refurbished 360 back today. It's working fine, but it still produces
a tremendous amount of heat. I was hoping the refurb would run
cooler. If the replacement dies after the warranty period, I'll try
the DIY route. At that point I'll have less to lose.
I got a new TV! Samsung LN46A550
22-Sep-2008
My home theater has re-entered the modern age. The old Mitsubishi
VS-4541 45" CRT RPTV died after 13 long years of service. It
was a power issue as none of its three bulbs would turn on. Finding
no obvious and easy (read inexpensive) fixes, it was time to send
the hulking box to the recycling center and invest in a svelte flat
panel.
After reading many reviews at AVS Forum, CNET, Consumer Reports
and PC World, I decided on the Samsung
LN46A550, a 46" 1080p LCD. Out of the box, the picture was
astoundingly bright. It looked much better after the settings were
adjusted based on these suggestions.
For TV viewing, I'm relying on the LN46A550's internal tuners.
Standard definition analog cable is just bearable, but high def
channels picked up by the set's QAM tuner look great. Sadly, I can
only pick up a few HD channels this way, but I don't watch much TV
on my home theater anyway so digital cable or satellite is not a
priority right now. Audio is routed through the set's digital
optical output to the receiver to take advantage of Dolby Pro Logic
II processing.
Fast motion sports such as football look very good. The Sunday
night game on NBC in HD was super sharp and detailed. The LN46A550
is 60Hz and I did notice some very slight motion blur, but it wasn't
distracting. Standard def DVDs also look very good. Children of
Men and Casino Royale elicited no complaints from me.
Keep in mind the other components are older with accompanying
older technology and I don't have a Blu-ray player yet, but so far
the Samsung LN46A550 is making a fine foundation to reinvigorate my
home theater.
I've watched the infomercial for the Flower Power: Music
of the Love Generation box set hosted by Peter Fonda and Sheli
Sanders numerous times late at night. I love the
classic hits from the 60's & 70's and this box set contains 10 CDs
(with a total of 175 songs) worth of ear candy.
I've been pining away for this collection for months. Well, I
finally ordered it today and got a fantastic deal. TimeLife.com sells it direct
for $149.95, but you can get it at Amazon (via one of its sellers,
Sound and Vision Planet) for only $96.98. I applied $75 worth of
reward certificates and knocked the price down to only $25!
My latest wall features a close-up shot of the incomparable
Krista Allen. I like this one a lot as the purity, simplicity and
starkness really brings out her beauty.
I first learned of singer-songwriter Holly
McNarland thru the Lilith
Fair music festival. I've listened to her album, Stuff,
countless times and it's become one of my all-time favorites. But it
remains the only album I have of hers as I've never gotten around to
locating the rest of her discography.
You may have noticed (but mostly likely not) that I've been
updating all the pics on the individual lyrics pages of my favorite
songs. I've rummaged through the depths of YouTube looking for
music videos to create the collages. In doing so, I found the music
video for Holly's "Beautiful Blue." This song is a
revelation and as the title suggests, it is indeed beautiful. I heard she'd gone
to a softer sound and this song is evidence of that, but it doesn't
matter that it lacks the hard edge of Stuff. Take a
listen and immerse yourself in Holly's brilliance.
And here's a 2003 live performance! I love how Holly places her hand
over abdomen as if she's straining during the louder passages.
If you want to save these files, go to their respective YouTube
pages and copy the URLs, then paste them into KeepVid
and save them as High Quality mp4's.
The Sundays wallpaper
27-Jul-2008
Three new wallpapers of my favorite band, The Sundays, are now available. I
got my little hands on several high resolution publicity photos from
way back and have turned them into simple walls.
I reinstalled Grand Theft Auto III and was once again able to terrorize
a city.
However I soon discovered that the game did not recognize the two
trigger buttons, one of which is normally used as the handbrake
during driving. The handbrake allows you to slow down when turning
and perform power slides to whip around corners.
Without a handbrake, driving was tedious and not nearly as much
fun. I pulled out the Logitech Cordless Rumblepad 2
that I originally used and it worked splendidly. It also turned out
that it was easier to control the various automobiles with the
Rumblepad 2's directional pad rather than the Xbox 360's stick.
Oh well, the receiver wasn't as great a purchase after all.
Got the Australian/American horror flick, The Ruins, the
Russian action flick, Day Watch (Dnevnoy dozor) and the UK
musical, Once. Also picked up Sarah's second Rarities.
I'm thrilled to unveil a new Art
section. It's really just the old Wallpaper section that is now
gone, but if I ever create more than just walls, now I'll have a
place to put everything. BTW, all the wallpapers
have been moved to the new Art section.
Speaking of which, over the past few months I've been putting the
finishing touches on the wallpapers I've created over the years and
they are now available at deviantART,
the online community and social networking site for artists of all
kinds.
Take a look and let me know what you think (especially if you're
a member as you can leave a comment.) The Download link is on the
left side of each page and inside the ZIP file are the goodies in a
multitude of resolutions.
BLOG
ABOUT
My name is Dixon and this is my personal home page. I'm a
geek and ex-marketing exec and wannabe- writer, hacker & artist living in
Boston.
