Our friends at Avis give me a 2 door
"mid size" for posing in.August 29th September 9th September17th October 9th
| Our friends at Avis give me a 2 door
"mid size" for posing in. |
My apartment is in The Oaks, an estate 4.5 miles from Verbatim. Yet another apartment that looks like all the other U.S. apartments I've stayed in: bright, clean, and well fitted out; but none of the walls are 100% true!
(I will defer to the pressure. Flats are apartments, I will say "Zee" for "Zed". I will resist the temptation to drive on the correct, left hand side of the road. I'm here for a month, so I'll behave. There will be no further mention of the differences between our 2 great countries. Must get a Union Jack for my cube. And set the computer startup.wav to play the signature from the BBC World Service.)
Jenny let me borrow her Ixus camera before this trip. Very light and portable. Must have one. So down to Pineville, find Best Buy, and get an Ixus. The equivalent in the US is a Canon PowerShot S100.
There is a shopping center in SouthPark. This I must visit, being a fan of Kenny, Stan, Cartman et al.
The local supermarket, Harris Teeter, is excellent. Scrunchy Munchies are obtained. There is a chance to eat healthily in this country. The cranberry juice is a must!
If I may misquote "The Wall": "65 channels of shit to choose
from."
One channel, CSPAN, carries an articulate, humorous discussion of the
forthcoming presidential election. There is hope! (King of the Hill, Simpson's,
and Star Trek are also aired this evening.)
The S100 camera is great. Small, high resolution ...but the bundled software really sucks. Just like bundled fax software with modems - tries to do everything - but does it badly. Please just transfer the files and let me clip, adjust levels, and save. I don't want albums, or stitchers...
I may knock up a .png (ping file) utility to do this - I have the source from the "Flash Message" application the Gang of Three developed last year...
The radio plays a light rock ditty. "Dancing on the beach; Shagging on
the beach..."
I do a double take.
I enquire with my work chums.
Apparently a shag in the US means a dance.
I inform them the British slang "shagging" means something more, er,
earthy, as in "D'ya wanna shag, Darlin' ?"
The office staff at the Oaks are a friendly enough bunch - a few slices of pizza and Diet Coke are offered when I collect my mail key. The outside pool is reasonably large with 5ft depth. A heated Jacuzzi is also inviting.
A docking station, monitor, and promise of a "Road Runner" cable modem means I'll be "wired" in the apartment "real soon now."
It's Lee's 39th birthday today. He's our "main man" and buys the beer! Several pints later...
Lee's surprise birthday party. Kelly has organized
a buffet in The Graduate, a bar in downtown Charlotte. Downtown Charlotte is not
that large, and easy enough to get around. The center is compact, with several
tall buildings, fountains, and statues. (A one liner doesn't do it justice!)
Newcastle Brown is on tap - albeit cold. This is a good time to get to know some
of the boys and girls I'm working with. Nearly everyone is armed with a partner
- everybody mingles.
Driving back is interesting - torrential rain and splendid lightening. You don't get rain like that at home. Why do Yanks always do things bigger than us Brits?
Time to read the manual. So my new PowerShot S100 camera is an Ixus after all. The European Ixus logo has been left in the user manual. (Hands up: who remembers the S100 bus?)
Apparently "If your camera is used for prolonged periods, the camera body may become warm ... your hands may experience a burning sensation". I shall be aware of this.
I believe that the ergonomics and usability should be intuitive. (This applies to software applications, toasters, cars, as well as cameras.) Reading the manual should be unnecessary. If you feel you need to do this - look for another product.
However, there are a few useful short cuts I'll list here for fellow Ixus users:
Release version 1.00 of Email To HTML 
QX3
Not bad construction for $60 - look forward to see it doing something.
|
There are 2 products that interest me:
The Panasonic has the edge - newer, neater, and a longer playing time.
Best Buy at Pineville had both available to demo - well hold, touch, feel the weight of, because the batteries were flat, and they didn't know where the charger was...
Sears at Concord had a fully working Panasonic DVD-L75 to demo - but none in stock. They also quoted list at $1299.
I shall persevere with this - see what web references Andrew can dig up!
This weekend is Labor Day Holiday. I think it's similar to our May Day holiday in historical terms. I've brought UK bank holiday weather with me - it's thunder, lightening and lots of rain.
5 inches of rain in an hour was recorded locally.
Today is a national holiday. The locals treat this as an excuse to catch bargains at the sales.
A planned barbeque is rained off - Jeff calls "Another day Mate!"
I knock up a clipboard clobberer utility This is a
useful tool when creating web pages with content from other apps.
I treat the camera to a 32 Megabyte "Compact Flash" ram card. No problems - it works! The camera should now be able to store 64 images at 1600 by 1200 pixel resolution.
Getting the QX3 to install - hacking hwdiag.dll! The installation proceeds -
but a Vxd doesn't load... Hack Hack Hack!
Still I can now run a demo of a Ladybird walking across my screen!
|
I grab a Hibachi grill with Jeff and Terry. A Chinese guy cooks us shrimp and chicken on a big hot plate in front of our noses. He's a clown but the food's good.
|
This evening I'm invited out to Jeff and Rosie's (Brits) in Dilworth - 1950's suburbia. I last visited them in October 1999 when they were moving in; they're now well settled in.
I present them with Milk Chocolate from the UK - and a pleasant evening is had demolishing a 3 course meal Rosie's prepared.
I meet Alice (7 months) - their very own American wriggler. (Fortunately, she will be able to chose her nationality when she's 18.)
Lunch with the girls and boys - Kelly, Donna, Howard and Josh at a Mexican at
"University". As I expect large portions arrive!
Socializing has an ulterior motive - I pay on plastic - and I collect the green
backs from my colleagues. Drawing cash out is expensive!
It's funny you know - whenever I go to the States the pound tumbles against the dollar. It was 1.55 USD to GBP last week - now 1.45. Life!
Jenny requested one of these toy microscopes. Made
for Mattel by Intel. Gives 10x, 60x and 200x magnification. CCD array
connected via USB. Unfortunately it's Windows 98 only, and I run 2000!
I'll search the web for a driver...
Sting