Well, so I've now had some time to try out and make sense of all those new lenses. Here's how they sorted out:

* 50/f1.8 vs 50/f1.4. The 50/f1.4 is a great lens, clearly sharper than the 50/f1.8 at equivalent apertures, and the +2/3 stop is nice on occasion. It also focuses slightly faster and more accurately, although it's still noisy because it's not a ring USM. On the flip side, it's almost as heavy as my 85/f1.8, which just destroys it for shooting portraits, and the great thing about the no-frills 50/f1.8 is that it gives you 85% of the quality of the 50/f1.4 for less than a third of the price and weight. I'll use the 85/f1.8 for portraits and 50/f1.8 for ultralight shooting, so the 50/f1.4 is out.

* 100-300/f3.5-5.6 vs 70-300/f4-5.6 IS. The stabilizer really worked wonders, but the gyros were also much noisier than the ones on the other Canon IS lenses I've used. The lens was also pretty big and slow to focus (micro USM). Oh, and I hate the fact that the AF changes the length of the barrel, which you can't manually retract without shifting into MF mode, since the focus ring locks in AF mode. I don't shoot much in the long tele range, but when I do, I want a lens that's pleasant to use. I'm keeping the 100-300 for now, and I'm eyeing that new 70-200/f4 IS, although it's way pricier than I wanted. Or maybe I'll bite the bullet and get the monster 70-200/f2.8 IS, whose only problems as far as I can tell are size and price. The 70-300/f4.5-5.6 IS DO is also an outside possibility, although I'm not keen on that dreamy fuzzy look that it imparts on high key regions.

* 10-22/f3.5-4.5 vs 17-40/f4 L. I shot exclusively w/ the 10-22 on my DSLR for two weeks in Europe, and I got some wonderful shots. In hindsight, I should have also brought along a small portrait lens, but for a one-lens ultralight travel setup, I can't think of a better combo than the 10-22 w/ the Rebel XT. The 16mm (effective) focal length is indispensible for all those grand landscapes, magnificent interiors, and famous architectures that one encounters as a tourist. It did take a few hundred shots before I became really comfortable w/ its radically different perspective, but it was the same when I first started shooting w/ the 17-40. Speaking of which, as much as I hate to give it up, I think I'm going to sell the 17-40. It has a better build and I got some fantastic shots w/ it while hiking in New Zealand, but even there I often found myself wishing it were wider. Its focal range is really meant for full frame use, but if I were shooting full frame, I'd probably pay the big bucks for the 16-35/f2.8 L.

* 60/f2.8 macro vs Sigma 105/f2.8 macro. Not even close. The 60/f2.8 wins huge on build, size, handling, and AF, and the image quality is similar in that both are razor sharp and very contrasty.

So now my lineup is 10-22, 50/1.8, 60/2.8 macro, 85/1.8, and 100-300/3.5-5.6. The 17-55 still calls to me as a non-travel walkaround lens, but it's just too expensive given its lame build and tendency to flare. Instead, I might go for one of the 70-200 variants to replace the 100-300 in the near future. I've shot both non-IS variants before, and the f4 shook too much handheld, while the f2.8 was pretty heavy. So if the new f4 IS is comparable to the others optically, I may give that a serious look.

I seem to have come down with a low-grade lens fever. Symptoms include doubling my lens collection and pixel-peeping at test shots ad nauseum. Here's what I added so far:

* Canon EF-S 10-22mm F3.5-4.5 USM
* Canon EF 50mm F1.4 USM
* Canon EF-S 60mm F2.8 macro USM
* Canon EF 70-300mm F4-5.6 IS USM

The 10-22 makes sense, because the ultrawide range (16-35 equiv.) can be useful for the landscapes and architectures that I often shoot. On the other hand, the sweeping coverage at the wide end is somewhat offset by the fact that there's necessarily quite a lot of distortion present at the edges. It's sharper and lighter than my 17-40, but the 17-40 is better built and has a more typically useful range. I'll probably keep this, but I'm not fully decided yet.

The 50 doubles up my 50/1.8 in focal length, but it's 2/3 stop faster and noticeably sharper at wide apertures. On the other hand, it's also about 2.5x heavier and 2x bigger, and its micro USM is a bit noisy and hesitant. I bought this for low light and indoor portrait work, but I think this is going back, because the 85 has a nicer image quality and superior AF.

The 60 is a keeper. My Sigma 105 macro is wonderful but too long for the work that I do w/ my macro lens. This lens is easier to handhold, plus the AF is faster.

The 70-300 replaces my 100-300. The huge upside is the IS, which actually makes this range usable. The 100-300 was impossible to use on all but the brightest days, because it really needed to be stopped down around F11 for best results. Achieving 1/500 shutter speed shooting 300mm (480mm equiv.) at F11 often meant kicking up the ISO even in bright sunlight. IS will buy me 3 stops, plus it's quite sharp even at F8. The one inconvenience is that there's a problem w/ portrait orientation screwing up the optics and blurring the images, for which Canon will be doing a recall and free repair next month. And the IS doesn't freeze motion, so it won't do well for wildlife and sports. Still, since I don't shoot telephoto much, this will probably suffice for most of my long telephoto needs.

I think the fever is slowly subsiding, but I'm still feeling somewhat tempted by three very lovely (and expensive) lenses: 17-55/2.8, 24-105/4, and 135/2. Stay tuned....

Date:	2006-02-07 08:52
Subject:	Steelers win!
Security:	Public
Mood:	jubilant

I'm watching the live webcast of the victory parade on WPXI right now. It's a wonderful sight. I can almost imagine myself standing there with my friends, waving the Terrible Towels and breathing in the crisp grey air on what looks like a reasonably nice day for February in the 'burgh.

The Steelers won the Super Bowl.

I see Cowher smiling. I see Bettis waving. I see the Steelers Nation celebrating, a joyful mosaic of black and gold stretching from Mellon to Point State. I see beautiful--yes, beautiful!--Pittsburgh, its familiar buildings and streets seemingly cheering along with the crowd and pointing out that they, too, have been waiting for this for 26 years.

I close my eyes, and I feel like I'm there.

Date:	2004-08-22 23:26
Subject:	yay
Security:	Public
Mood:	loved
Music:	Respighi: Ancient Airs and Dances (Orpheus CO)

I'd just like to say: I have the best parents in the world.

Date:	2004-07-28 02:35
Subject:	latest buys
Security:	Public
Mood:	sleepy
Music:	Bach-Hess: Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (Angela Hewitt)

• Credo (Helene Grimaud, piano)
  
• Mendelssohn & Shostakovich violin concertos (Hilary Hahn, violin)
  
• Brahms & Stravinsky violin concertos (Hilary Hahn, violin)
  
• Bach Arrangements (Angela Hewitt, piano)
  
• Latin (Los Angeles Guitar Quartet)
  
• Encores (Itzhak Perlman, violin)
  
• Chopin: Sonatas 2 & 3, Fantasie, Barcarolle, Berceuse (Arthur Rubinstein, piano)
  

I've switched violin string brands. Like most violinists, I've been using the popular Thomastik Dominants for as long as I can remember. But it recently dawned on me that my violin is already pretty bright as it is, and the Dominants are well-known to have a bright and aggressive tone. So, after some research, I decided to try out the Pirastro Obligatos, which are supposed to a have darker and more complex tone. However, I also read that the Obligato E tends to whistle on some violins, and my violin is definitely whistle-prone; so I chose to go with the popular Wondertone E instead.

I've been playing on the Obligatos for a few days now, and although the strings are still far from being fully broken in, I'm already noticing some interesting differences between them and the Dominants. For one thing, the Obligatos seem to stay in tune better. I've barely had to re-tune them after the first day. They also have a smoother tone, in that there's less "fuzz" (for lack of a better term) in their sound. The tone also blends more nicely across strings, including the Wondertone E. And the resonance is incredible -- the increase in volume and "openness" of the tones is immediately apparent upon just plucking the open strings. On the flip side, the silver D and A are exhibiting some odd nasal qualities, though they've been getting better. The Obligatos also seem to really favor bow speed over bow pressure, which is forcing me to alter my playing style. As for harmonics, the natural ones have a less ringing quality to them, and the artificial ones feel harder to catch, though they do sound cleaner and purer when I do catch them. And the Wondertone E, while not that bad in its whistling tendencies, still does it more than the Dominant E.

Overall, I'm really liking these strings, and I think they'll turn out to be my new strings of choice. I'm very much looking forward to seeing how their sound evolves as they break in fully.

I'm so Gmail-enabled... and I even managed to snag a pretty nice alias. (Thanks, R!)

If you want an account, let me know, and I'll try to hook you up once Google starts supplying me with invites.

Date:	2004-06-22 04:19
Subject:	and around and around...
Security:	Public
Mood:	sleepy
Music:	rain

I went to pick up a friend from the airport this evening, and I ended up circling the terminal for over two hours while the airline proceeded to lose my friend's luggage. Apparently, the line for filing a lost luggage claim was about 30 deep, which accounted for at least 1/3 of the wait time. Unbelievable. And of course, the airport security guys refused to let anyone stay parked at the terminal curb for more than three seconds, hence the circling around and around. Fortunately, I eventually found a relatively inconspicuous spot to park the car and pass the time listening to WQED and pondering the meaning of life, the latter of which quickly gave way to playing Yahtzee on my cell phone. :P

Anyway, all this served to remind me just how aggravating losing your luggage can be. The thing that's really maddening is that you must stand there the whole time, staring increasingly more despondently at the conveyor belt while everyone else eventually collects his/her bags and walks away, ultimately leaving you all alone at an empty carousel as the sickening realization slowly dawns on you that your bags are probably lost and may even never be seen again. The whole experience is a tightly wound bundle of irritation, despair, and loss. This is why, after I suffered this a few times myself, I learned and mastered the fine art of packing lightly. As a result, I haven't checked any bags for several years now. And that includes fairly long trips, including my two week jaunt in Europe a couple of years ago. Needless to say, I love my Mountainsmith backpack.

Date:	2004-06-19 02:48
Subject:	play ball, part 2
Security:	Public
Mood:	mellow

Mariners vs. Pirates. It was actually a somewhat boring game. Sadly, the Mariners this year are but a shade of the great team that they've been for the past few years. They really just collectively imploded this year. Yet they still had enough to grind out a 5-4 victory over the hapless Bucs, giveaway rally parrots and Ichiro's 0-for-4 performance notwithstanding.

Still, it was a lovely night for watching baseball with friends, and the fireworks display after the game was spectacular. Good way to wrap up the long week.

Mozilla Firefox 0.9 and Mozilla Thunderbird 0.7 both came out this week. I'm running them right now, and they are very sweet. There's a marked improvement in responsiveness, and they feel more stable than the previous versions. Also, the new theme and extension managers are really slick. I strongly recommend the All-in-One Gestures extension for Firefox, which vastly improves the browsing experience.

If you're not using Mozilla Firefox as your web browser of choice, here are some reasons why it's so much better than the justly-maligned Microsoft Internet Explorer:

• Built-in pop-up blocker.
• Superior security and protection from hacking.
• Tabbed browsing lets you open up a dozen different sites without cluttering up your task bar with twelve instances of IE.
• "Open in tabs" lets you create a folder containing bookmarks of all your regularly viewed pages, then open them all with just one click of the mouse.
• Want to find something on the page? Just start typing it. No need to press CTRL-f. Repeat your search forwards and backwards with CTRL-g and SHIFT-CTRL-g, respectively.
• With the mouse gestures extension enabled, just hold down the right mouse button and move the mouse in certain ways to make the browser do all sorts of things. For example, drag right-to-left to go back one page.
• Faster performance: pages load and render a lot faster on Firefox.
• Customize the look-and-feel of the browser with very nice-looking themes.
• Give nicknames to bookmarks, so you can just type that in the address bar. For instance, you can nickname www.google.com as "g", and then you can just type "g" and press enter to go to Google. You can even let them take arguments, which enables tricks like typing "g red sox" to do a Google search for all things Red Sox.
• New features and fixes come out every couple of days, so the browser continuously improves over time. I upgrade mine about once a month, and it's always fun to find all the little tweaks that have been made in that time. And it's all completely free.

Date:	2004-06-15 23:29
Subject:	play ball, part 1
Security:	Public
Mood:	mellow
Music:	Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Angels versus Pirates.

Think about that for a moment:

Angels. Versus. Pirates.

Never in my wildest baseball dreams did I dream that I'd one day find myself sitting at a stadium watching the Califor... er... Anaheim Angels play the Pittsburgh Pirates. I mean, for that to happen, they'd both have to be in the World Series, right?

Welcome to the wackiness that is the interleague games. Yes, it's been happening for several years now, but this was the first time I actually got to experience it live. And it definitely felt odd. Not bad, mind you, but odd, like when you play a double stop just ever so slightly not quite in tune, or when you smack a squash ball just slightly off the sweet spot of the racquet, or when you feel a light tickling sensation on your leg and you can't tell if it's a bug or just some hair spontaneously rearranging themselves.

Anyhow, the game was OK. Nothing thrilling, but generally enjoyable and relaxing. The Pirates lost 4-2 by giving up 2 runs in the 9th inning, then stranding a runner at second base.

Later this week will be another personal baseball first: I'm going to see two games in one week. The Seattle Mariners are coming to town, and several of us are going to go catch the action. EE-CHEE-RO!

Date:	2004-06-01 12:29
Subject:	it's that time of the dodecade again...
Security:	Public
Mood:	nostalgic
Music:	Brood X (Dance Mix)

They're big, slow, dim-witted, and LOUD -- basically, the Siegfried and Brünnhilde of the insect world. :P Still, there's something delightfully nostalgic about seeing them again after all these years. Besides, is there anything that says "summer" quite as emphatically as a symphony of cicadas?

Date:	2004-05-28 12:52
Subject:	poultry-geist
Security:	Public
Mood:	sick

Food poisoning is most definitely not fun, even when it isn't severe. The pain never got to be excruciating, but what it lacked in intensity it more than made up in diversity: aching joints, chills, fatigue, headache, dizziness, an extremely upset gastrointestinal tract, and low-grade fever. It also took most of the week to run its course, during which time I operated at varying levels of incapacitation. Ugh. The primary suspect is a piece of chicken from a barbecue I went to last week, which seemed slightly undercooked when I got near the bone. Good thing I stopped eating after that one piece.

Date:	2004-05-24 13:19
Subject:	LJ premiere
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused

10 print "Hello LiveJournal world!"
20 goto 10

And away we go.

Whee....