Below are the most recent 7 friends' journal entries.

Monday, December 28th, 2009
joedecker	7:59a	zomg The C Programming Language, by Kernighan, Ritchie and Lovecraft. via maradydd ( Spoiler ) (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 27th, 2009
joedecker	12:01p	Gear closet cleanout This Christmas I ended up with some old Canon gear not being used my dad anymore, plus a few things Chris and I have had in our collections but haven't been using. I'm offering the gear here first, will ebay whatever doesn't sell here in a couple days, but you can save a few bucks by offering me money now and saving me the trouble. (I've tried to provide reasonable pricing here based on eBay and providing some discount, but if you think my data is way off-base, let me know.) You're responsible for actual shipping costs, or you can pick up here at Casa Joe in San Jose, CA. Feel free to forward. ... Canon EF 24-70L/2.8, very good condition. (Still use this as my primary shooting lens, but someone had a copy as well, and I don't need two.) Asking $970. New prices are $1300, used VG-mint copies regularly pull $1000-$1150 on eBay. Roughly half of my portfolio was taken with this lens (not this copy, but this specific lens design), it is versatile and sharp. Canon TS-E 24/3.5L (first generation, good condition) Asking $775. eBay prices for comparable lenses are $800-$850 with outliers to $900 on the upside and a single $750 outlier on the bottom side, new around $1200. Lens, lens cap and body cap only. (This is not the newer second gen. 24mm TS-E, which runs about twice these prices.) Canon EF 28-105 f/3.5-4.5 (two copies, both in good condition) Asking $90. (that's for each of the two, not both together.) eBay prices are variable but seem to mostly be in the $100-$135 range. Canon EF 75-300 f/4-5.6 IS, very good condition. Asking $275. Used copy at Amazon available for $300, only copy I could find at ebay was well over $300. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
joedecker	8:23a	Fifty people a day.... ...the movement continues, snowman style. So cool! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
joedecker	7:24p	Meme meme meme: places I've slept in 2009 Look!  A relatively accurate MAP of the big travels. Hiouchi, CA Arcata, CA   Sacramento, CA  Alameda, CA  Half Moon Bay, CA San Jose, CA Santa Cruz, CA  Lee Vining, CA   Bishop, CA   Lone Pine, CA Needles, CA Bandon, OR Grants Pass, OR South Tucson, AZ Holbrook, AZ Alamogordo, NM Socorro, NM Santa Fe, NM Boulder, CO Wall, SD Buffalo, WY Billings, MT As near as I can recall (corrections welcome), I haven't been on an airplane this year. WIN! Actually, one air trip. :) (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
wooddragon	6:01p	View from my windshield Current Mood: cheerful (Comment on this)
Sunday, December 20th, 2009
wooddragon	8:30a	Brief update School's over (for now). We have an inversion, so the air quality is awful and we have no precipitation, which bites. I did virtually all of my Christmas shopping yesterday. Although the stores seemed crowded, I didn't really have trouble parking, and my purchases went very quickly (perhaps a sign of the economy). I didn't have any issues with people being impatient or pushy, and I found folks in all the stores I went to that helped me out. I had a little trouble finding the video games my brother's kids wanted, but I came home and made some phone calls and found them at a store nearby. (Walmart! They held them in electronics for me, I drove over, waited for one person to finish a transaction, got 'em and paid for 'em! (I'm still not a big fan of Walmart, but they saved my bacon yesterday.) I was leaning over the container with my yarn stash yesterday morning, pondering a new project, and felt a twinge in my back. Now it's stiff. Crap. The socks I'd started several times, I got to the heel and realized I was three stitches short. I couldn't figure out what the problem is. The sock is frogged and in a timeout; maybe I'll try again in the future. Right now, I'm working on a leafy scarf (just started it). (My current trouble is starting projects and losing interest; I didn't used to have this trouble...) Today I wrap gifts. On the 24th, I'll drive to Vacaville to spend Christmas with my brother and his family, my parents, and my brother's wife's parents. My brother wants to ski with me in Tahoe on the 26th, but it would cut out time with his kids and my back isn't feeling too great right now. Well, I can put the ski clothes in the car, and if I don't use 'em, no big deal. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
joedecker	7:35p	Disko Fever "What will happen now, is that ... our production manager will send you an official email of acceptance of the 2 trips." Looks like I'll be artist-in-residence on a pair of week-long cruises through Disko Bay, Greenland in August. Disko Bay is at the terminus of Greenland's rapidly shrinking Ilulissat Icefjord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Icefjord is an enormously fast glacier, moves ice at an average rate of 125 feet per day, and has retreated nine miles in the past four years. See also this TED talk starting from 14:25 or so to see time-lapses of the Icefjord in action. (17 Comments |Comment on this)