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I went to the 48th annual Eeyore's birthday. It was crazy crowded and trying to find parking was a definite problem.

There were a couple of drum pits with people dancing and playing different drums. But it was very odd. They were closely surrounded by people watching and taking pictures. I think at least half of the crowd had cameras of one type. Maybe about 10% had professional DSLRs. I definitely felt out of place. Did people want to just dance and play music without being watched or photographed? Did they mind photographers taking their pictures from a long distance? Or from a close distance? Or at an extreme close up position? I saw Kirk Tuck there taking pictures. He posted his view about this here. I wonder if he was talking about me? I was using my Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens with the lens hood on. So it might look like a "big ass zoom lens", but it is pretty equivalent to a 50mm lens. 70mm does not get you that much farther away from a person. Some more viewpoints about street photography are here.

There was a game of unicycle tag football going on. I don't know what it had in common with Eeyore. But it was interesting to take pictures of.

More after the cut, including some possible NSFW pictures of painted costumes...

With the new computer setup, the following is my workflow.

• Take pictures/video.
• Backup the data from the compact flash card to the Colorspace UDMA.
• Copy the data from the card onto the computer via a Lexar Professional Firewire 800 CF Reader.
• The data resides on the OCZ RevoDrive. This is known as the temporary drive (because I don't care if I lose it at this stage). But the PCI-E interface combined with 4 SSD drives in RAID0 mode makes for blinding access rates (read up to 740 MB/s, write up to 690 MB/s).
• Preview the pictures with Adobe Bridge.
• Process the data with Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Premier Pro/Adobe After Effects. 16 Gb and 6 3.2Ghz cores make for fast work.
• Save the data on the temporary drive.
• When happy with the final product, copy the data to the local Seagate Terrabyte drive.
• Back the data up over Gigabit Ethernet to the Synology NAS RAID6 array.
• Occasionally sync the NAS RAID6 array to a duplicate NAD RAID6 array (which is kept offsite at my office).

As for timings, for 200 files (2758MB) on a Photofast 533X Plus Compact Flash Card, it takes:

• 3 minutes, 35 seconds to backup to the Colorspace UDMA.
• 1 minute, 8 seconds to copy from the Lexar Professional Firewire 800 CF Reader to the OCZ RevoDrive.
• 1 minute, 28 seconds to copy from the Colorspace UDMA (via USB 2.0) to the OCZ RevoDrive.
• 1 minute, 56 seconds for Adobe Bridge to cache thumbnail and preview images on the OCZ RevoDrive.

I am curious how fast the Lexar Professional USB 3.0 Dual-Slot Reader will be on my system.

I like my new computer. It is pretty fast. And great for picture processing and video editing. The only drawback is that it generates a lot of heat. My house air conditioner is not well suited for keeping my office cold while keeping the rest of my house warm (79). Maybe I should buy a window AC?

It's always a little scary putting a bunch of components together. You never know if the computer will work correctly when you turn it on for the first time.

Here is what I purchased:

Antec Nine Hundred Two Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

GIGABYTE GA-890FXA-UD5 AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor

SAPPHIRE 100297L Radeon HD 5830 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ ATI Eyefinity Technology

Thermaltake Black Widow W0319RU 850W ATX 12V v2.3, EPS 12V v2.91 CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Kingston 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model

Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2MH160G2R5 2.5" 160GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive

OCZ RevoDrive X2 OCZSSDPX-1RVDX0240 PCI-E 240GB PCI-Express x4 MLC Internal Solid State Drive

Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"

Pioneer Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Internal Blu-ray Burner Blu-ray Disc/DVD/CD Writer

Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM

Synology DS411J 4100 4TB (4x1TB) DiskStation 4-bay NAS Server for Small Office and Home Use

Synology DS411+ Diskless System DiskStation 4-bay All-in-1 NAS Server for SMB Users

While I technically did not buy them when I bought my computer, I did buy some more toys for speed and reliability recently. They were the RevoDrive and the two Synology RAID NAS drives.

Lately, I've been obsessed with the reliability of my data storage. I used to have Buffalo Terrastation NAS drive. This used RAID5. Now RAID5 is good for reliability. But if a second drive fails during a rebuild of the first failed drive, then you can lose your data.

While doing research, I came across Synology. They supported RAID6 (among all of the others) and they supported a bunch of other features. They are actually small computers running Linux. I liked the fact that I would not need another computer to synchronize my data between the two NAS storage units. I could ssh directly into the NAS box and perform my rsync there.

So I bought a Synology DS411J with 1.78 Terrabytes of storage. I definitely made a mistake here and under-bought for my future needs. Because when I was satisfied with the Synology architecture, I bought a Synology DS411+ with 5.6 terrabytes. They are both 4 drive bay systems. But the 411+ has a faster CPU which will help in computing checksums during rsyncs.

Another thing that worried me is what would happen if my house burned down or some thief stole my computer equipment? There were no backups. So I decided to have two NAS drives. One would be in my house and the second would be at work. I could easily keep them synced up. And I would have backups in those two scenarios. Of course, if Austin got nuked and I survived, I would still lose my data. A slightly better scenario would be to keep the second NAS in some other state (like Florida).

My friend, Ryan Harper, made another home-brewed beer for me to try out. He called it a Winter Warmer. Unfortunately, I was not able to notice the subtle tastes that he was associating with it. But it was a good beer!

I woke up on a narrow ledge, bleeding profusely. Large clouds of dust are swirling around within the confines of my safe haven. But the muffled sounds of explosions are steadily growing louder. I must move on. I roll down and splash into a muddy drainage tunnel. Dim lights are receding off into the distance. It must be other survivors leaving the area. I start running in an effort to catch up with them. But I must have been mistaken. There is only one light now. I am not giving up. Even one person can make a difference now. However, my hopes dash when I see that it is not a human. But a steadily plodding machine. I'm too tired to care now what happens. I only have enough energy to tie a rope around a protruding plate and hang on for the ride. My efforts seemed to have uncovered some stenciled letters. GeekBot 000000010000000? A one in a sea of zeroes? At least the writing is in English. I pass out again...

For some reason, my local H.E.B. doesn't carry a good selection of dark chocolate bars. I don't know why that is. Isn't there anyone else around here who likes more than three choices? So I drove down to H.E.B.'s Central Market. I bought a selection of 9 different kinds of flavored dark chocolate bars for $58.36. That is 27.5 ounces of chocolate at an average of $2.12 per ounce. Which is pretty expensive. I guess that just answers my question. People around here don't want to pay that much for candy. The Chipotle and Oaxaca were the best of the bunch. But that's nothing new. Chocolate pairs well with spicy peppers. I didn't like the bacon bar (too gimmicky and flavorless). Or the black salt caramel bar (the caramel was too liquid). The Black Pearl and Naga were not strong enough flavor-wise. The strawberry and mint were okay.

Jeff, Jill, Tim, Buffy, and myself went to the Sherwood Forest Faire. It was located close to Austin out East along Highway 290.

There was this small, human powered, roller coaster set up like a joust. It was fun. Tim went first and I took some pictures. I used high-speed burst mode, but the camera's computer assisted auto-focus didn't track that well. Sigh. Then I took it for a whirl...

Next, we watched the performance of the Fatima Belly Dancers. They were pretty good. I took some video, but not during an entire song. Oh, well.

Then we went to see the Knights of Mayhem and their jousting show. Unfortunately, there was no real joust. Only a couple of passes with a horse throwing a spear at a stump and then taking a swing at a melon on the top of a participant's head.

Then we went and watched the Filthy Rotten Scoundrels Mud Show. I was lucky enough to get a spot at the front row. Well, the fourth row actually, because the first three rows were within the "splash zone." I took a bunch of pictures and some video. Unfortunately, the video was hand-held with a long lens. So it was a little shaky. I played around with Adobe's After Effects and figured out how to stabilize certain sections of a movie. Well, mostly stabilize as it wasn't 100% effective. Still, I learned something.

Filthy Rotten Scoundrels Mud Show from Mark Hamzy on Vimeo.

Jeff and Jill posed for a picture in one of those picture-posing-thingies. They make a very regal couple.

I think Ok Cupid's similar users feature is mocking me. They are calling me kinky, old fashioned, and not independent.

We got a light dusting of snow this morning! I stayed home of course. There ain't no way I'm going to drive around in that weather. No one around here knows how to drive in rain let alone snow.

So what did I do? Make a snow angel, duh!

I came across a 1/2 coupon for a flight lesson from 365 things to do in Austin and decided to try it out. It was definitely fun! Although not what I thought was going to happen. There was no instruction beforehand. I jumped into the left seat and the pilot went into the right seat. The pilot started explaining how everything worked, and we just took off. Taxing to the runway was somewhat easy. As was taking off. But it was rather slow compared to a commercial jet. Flying was interesting. I liked how things were multi-dimensional. If you wanted to make a left turn, you would lose altitude and start to speed up. So you had to account for many different variables. We flew out to the downtown and then turned around and landed. Not a very long flight.

I came across this interesting inforgraphic about Austin's past year in weather.

I went to New Orleans again this year. I had a blast! I spent days walking around the French District taking pictures. First, I walked down every street running SW-NE. Then, I walked up every street running NW-SE. This time I was fascinated with stickers. There were a bunch of cool looking stickers placed everywhere. I wonder how many people do that kind of thing: stick arty stickers as graffiti.

On Wednesday, I stopped in Lafayette at Julien's Po-Boys Cajun Style. I had the Gator Po-Boy. I then drove to New Orleans and stayed in La Quinta. Ugh. It was horrible. The shower's water pressure was almost unusable. I should have switched rooms. For dinner, I went to K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen and ate pan fried flounder with shrimp Marigny, and a three cheese sausage for an appetizer. It was delicious as usual and, by far my favorite restaurant in New Orleans.

On Thursday, I went to Cafe du Monde for breakfast. Man, I can eat here every morning. And I think I did when they were open (Unfortunately, they close during Christmas). For dinner, I went to The Palace Cafe on Jeff's suggestion. I had a Lime Daiquiri, Barbecued Shrimp, Grilled Gulf Fish Panzanella (substituted tuna), and White Chocolate Bread Pudding. It was okay.

On Friday, (Christmas eve) I went to Camellia Grill for breakfast. I had the Western Omelette with cheese and orange juice. For lunch, I went to Mother's Restaurant and had the 2/3rds Famous Ferdi. I am not a fan of these po-boys. But, when in Rome... For dinner, I went to the Gumbo House and had Seafood Gumbo. I like this restaurant. And many other people do since there always seems to be lines here.

On Saturday, I went to Oceana and had the Grilled Mahi-Mahi étouffée. It's a shame that most everything closes down on Christmas. Stoopid holidays.

On Sunday, I went to the Cafe du Monde for breakfast. For lunch, I went to Johnny's and had the Crab cake po-boy. For dinner, I went to NOLA Restaurant. I had the Garlic crusted Drum (sauce beurre rouge) and succotash. For desert, I had the Banana pudding layer cake.

On Monday, I went to Mr. B's Bistro for dinner. I had the soups 1-1-1 (Gumbo Ya Ya, Seafood gumbo, sweet potato and chorizo), Shrimp & grits, and Profiteroles & chocolate sauce.

On Tuesday, I went to Irene's Cuisine for dinner. This place was crazy busy. I lucked out and was able to walk in and get seated relatively quickly at a tiny table. I had the Winter Caprisee salad, the Soft-shell crab linguine, and the pecan praline bread pudding.

My car was in the shop and I lucked out in the loaner car department! A new Z4 hard-top convertible. Woo woo! It was a fun car to drive. And, of course, nothing was going to stop me from driving with the top down. Not even the cool weather. I just blasted the seat warmers and the heater to high to compensate... It would be a fun car to own. But the only negative thing to say about it is that the trunk space is minimal to non-existent. I would need to rent a car to go on long trips to carry my luggage.

Nick was up for a hike around Lake Georgetown. Initially, I wanted to do the entire 26 mile loop in one go. But eventually decided to try an 11 mile segment. We started at 9:30 here. We finished at 13:40 here. Well, according to the mile markers. I suspect that they lie though.

When I noticed these shadows, I had to stop what I was doing and film them. I also like how there is chaos in the film grain and in the audio as well...

Chaotic Shadows from Mark Hamzy on Vimeo.

Buffy!

I got a new laptop for work today. A ThinkPad W510. It came preloaded with a version of Windows with customized work software on it (such as Lotus Notes and a back-level IE). I deleted it and started from scratch. I first installed Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 6.0. Then I downloaded a bootable CD image of a lifeboat rescue installer. This will reinstall the work versioned Windows if you ever lose your hard-drive. I then created a new virtual machine with KVM. I attached the iso image as a virtual CD and created a 40 gigabyte blank file to act as a virtual hard drive. I then booted into it and waited a long while as it downloaded the necessary files and installed Windows. I did all this from home as my laptop was sitting in my office thanks to a remote desktop sharing protocol called VNC.

Isn't technology cool now adays?

After disc golf, we headed to the 1st annual (I assume) Gypsy Picnic Trailer Food Festival. I had high hopes for this festival. Trailer food is a hot trend right now in Austin. You can view a map with a lot of the trailers on it here.

Unfortunately, reality turned out to be complete and utter chaos. :-( Word of mouth and advertising worked much better than was anticipated. I have to imagine that there were over 20K people here. Parking was a nightmare. Jon and I parked over at Whole Foods and we walked over the bridge and down to Disch field. Once we got there, the place was already packed. Lines were incredibly long! We each split up into separate lines and waited for food. The line I was in was over an hour long. And that was just to pay for the food. I had to wait another twenty minutes for the food to cook! Also, with so many people using phones here, the phone was unusable. I could not call or text anyone. Sigh. I even got sunburned waiting outside so long...

I even saw a film crew here using a Canon DSLR as a video camera. I wonder where that video aired...

A friend of mine is getting into brewing beer at home. And I wanted to see just what was involved in the process. Luckily, he was willing to invite me over to watch (and help -- but mostly watch).

The first interesting thing was that he used an Igloo ice chest as a container to steep the grain in. He also used a very fine nylon mesh fabric to line the bottom. This was supposed to allow the wort to drain off easily (kinda like a reusable tea bag). Although we still had some small problems with the mass of the grain blocking the drain outlet.

Once the grains (mash-tun) steeped for 60 minutes, we drained off the liquid (wort) into a container.

We then poured the wort into a rather large aluminum stock pot and boiled the wort for 60 minutes. This is where the hops are added. And, depending on when they are added, that determines what function they serve. At the beginning of the boil, the hops are bittering hops. For the last 15 minutes, we added flavoring hops. And for the last 5 minutes, we finished off with aroma hops.

We then had to cool off the hops down from boiling to a temperature where the yeast can ferment the sugars into alcohol. This had to be done rather quickly. Which is difficult since water is a great heat-sink. So we used two sets of large copper tubing twisted into a radiator. One copper tube sits in a large ice chest filled with ice and water. The other tube sits in the stock pot. Water is then circulated from the outside garden hose to the first tube, through to the second tube, and then draining out to the yellow bucket. The bucket is just to capture some of the water runoff to be used for cleaning.

After the wort is cooled down to 70 degrees, it is then siphoned off into a large glass fermentation chamber. At the top of it will be placed an air lock which will allow the excess carbon-dioxide to vent off.

It was a pretty easy process. Perhaps someday I will get into it.

I noticed this subtle tagging on a tree during disc golf today.