It's big.

That's what she said...

Where I spend the majority of my time when I am at home...

How nerdy, huh? At the time I had my receiver playing bluetooth audio from my Nexus One's Dock.

My new baby... The Google Nexus One. I purchased mine unlocked so that I could get a pretty awesome rate plan. It's not an iPhone killer, it's an iPhone annihilator. For Apple's sake, I hope that they come out with something amazing for the iPhone 4G, and I am sure they will.

But judging from how closed-off Apple's design strategy is and how uncustomizable their iPhones are, I think that the Nexus One will probably be the best phone available in the US until Windows Phone 7 comes out. [Yes, I know about the HTC EVO 4G coming out in June, but that thing is too big, doesn't have an OLED screen, is running the same CPU/GPU as the Nexus, is too big to be pocket-able, and is not nearly as pretty... though it does have HDMI!]

[For the geeks out there: 1 GHz Snapdragon (almost double the speed of the 3GS's 600 MHz Arm A8, and it's dramatically smoother while scrolling in image-heavy pages such as engadget), 3.7" 800x480 AM-OLED Display (simply amazing and makes the 3GS's low-res 3.5" 480x320 LCD looked like a washed out 1990s phone), supports flash (I installed it through the HTC Desire's ROM, but Adobe will officially release it in few weeks), dual mics for noise cancellation (I spoke with my girlfriend while walking in a very crowded area and she thought I was alone in my apartment), full Google integration (including Goole Voice and Translate), amazingly accurate speech recognition for almost every text field (they disable it while entering phone numbers and web addresses), and all this in a package that's actually thinner than the iPhone.]

So first post of the new decade... What to post?

This morning, I went ahead and snapped a few lazy shots of my MX-5, since she recently had a few more upgrades (Hard Dog Hardcore Dual Diagonal Roll Bar, DDMWorks Cold Air Intake for my Jackson Racing Supercharger, Goodwin Racing Roadster Sport Low Restriction Catalytic Converter and Midpipe, Goodwin Racing Roadster Sport 3 Cat-Back Exhaust, Flyin' Miata Level 2 Performance Clutch, Flyin' Miata 10 lbs Lightened Flywheel, Flyin' Miata Starter Interlock Bypass, DBA Cross-Drilled and Slotted Rotors, Goodridge Stainless Steel Brake Lines, and Hawk HP Plus Racing Brake Pads).

Her older mods are: Jackson Racing Supercharger, Jackson Racing Power Card Fuel Management, Flyin' Miata Stage 2 Suspension and Sway Bars, Konig Minuz 11.3 lbs Rims, and Toyo Proxes R1R 205 width (but actually about 235 in real life) tires. I thiiiiink those are all of the mods. Not entirely sure anymore, haha.

Unfortunately, I was too lazy to wash her first.


Closeup of the DBA Rotors (yes... I know... hideously dirty.)


DDMWorks Air Intake


Side View... You can see the Hard Dog Rollbar peeking it's head a little through the window (fire sticker)


Random Other Shot

Now I need to install the Jackson Racing Supercharger Boost Upgrade and its ECU, which have been sitting under my bed for about 7 months. I really AM lazy...

Here's my little 2100 lbs race car...









Jackson Racing Supercharger + Jackson Racing ECU + Flyin' Miata Stage 2 Race Suspension + Konig 11.3 lbs rims (with Rota caps, grr!) - Spare Tire and Trunk Carpeting = ULTIMATE FUN. Now all I need is a roll bar, race seats, and an exhaust.

Grace is now SUPER-Grace

PS. Huge thanks to Richard for substantially helping in the install...

Here's another picture that I took in my outing two days ago...



PS. Merry Christmas Everyone!

So my nose is so stuffed up from being sick that I can't even breathe, and thus can't sleep... Anyway, here is a picture I took at Fort McHenry, one of the key locations for the War of 1812. Here's a picture I took from a reenactment held here in Baltimore.

This is a shot I took back in January when my friend Jack (with whom I went to high school back in San Diego, CA) and I were walking around Baltimore's Inner Harbor. I just happened to have my old Rebel XT (now replaced for a 20D) on me, and my 35mm f/2 just HAPPENED to be attached.

I guess I had a lucky shot.

I took a similar shot of this fountain that I posted about a year ago... I now present you with another.


Hope everyone's days are going well.

Do you ever feel refreshed all of the sudden? Every once in a while, I suddenly find added inspiration, and I feel lucky to have these bouts of productivity. Anyway, here's an early morning pseudo-macro shot of some pistils and stamens, which look rather refreshing!


Canon 350D: Canon EF 70-200L @ 200mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO 200