M&M Halloween

Most of the time I post comments about my frustration with using poorly designed technology. But last weekend I discovered a fun web site which lets you design your own MM character, and then do some cool things with it. You can choose options for everything; shape, color, hair, legs, arms, face, and there are also lots of accessories. After you create your character, you can save it, download it to your computer, put it in scenes, greeting cards, movie clips, and games. I had fun with it, so I'm sure if you have kids they would love this. Someone put a lot of work into this web site. There is also the Million Dollar giveaway on the MM home page that you may have seen advertised on TV during the past few weeks. It would be sweet to win that. Oh, the character I have shown here, is supposed to be my girlfriend. Happy Halloween.

Fall in Wisconsin

My cat doesn't mind getting out among the leaves on these cool fall days. He sure looks content laying there. Sometimes I wish I had it that easy.

This week the days just flew by because I was so busy at work. I can't believe that we are in the middle of October already. I will hopefully be able to take a vacation soon when we slow down for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

I have a few new videos to post on Poetlady.com and I posted a preview to the Midwest Machine Shop Network web site that I am working on. This new web site will allow machine shops to list for free. There will be some ads on the site to help pay for my time, but no charge to have a listing. The site will allow machine shops to decide how they would like to be contacted. They will also have the option of telling visitors what type of work they are looking for. It should be very useful for engineers, designers, and purchasing agents. Since I was a mechanical designer for many years, I have a lot of experience and knowledge to put into this project. Use the email address on Budget Homepage.com if you are interested in listing early.

Marantz PMD671

This week at my audio tech job, I got a new Marantz PMD671 digital recorder. I could have gone with the old PMD670 model, but I figured why not try the new improved product. Well as most things have been going for me lately, the PMD671 is missing one of my favorite features. The menu option to mute the internal speaker during recording with an external mic is gone!

What this little setting did was prevent feedback if you accidentally left the volume to high before hitting record. They decided to replace this important feature with the ability to time shift and listen to previously recorded audio while you are still recording. I can't imagine many people who actually need a feature like that. So once again, I am stuck with a product that does not meet all of my needs. Normally I would send it back, but other than the missing speaker mute, I need the equipment for our busy recording schedule. Before letting other people use the equipment, I had to add a label which says "lower the volume before you record". How lame.

Kodak Z712 Digital Camera

Last weekend I purchased a Kodak Z712 Digital Camera. The reviews on this camera are excellent and the price was very reasonable. The only thing I don't like about it is that the housing feels like cheap thin plastic. I feel like I need to be extra careful not to bump the camera to hard or it will break into pieces. Other than that, it takes great pictures. The 12x optical zoom, image stabilization, and scene settings make it easy to start taking great looking pictures. I also purchased a charging dock, because the camera does not come with a rechargeable battery. With the charging dock, I can load the pictures onto a computer and then use the EasyShare software to print. My old Kodak was in need of an upgrade. This one should come in handy the next time I need to take photos for a new website. I will also try to get some fall colors posted here. That's all for now.