Corey Gouker's Machine Inside the Mind

So BA flight 48. The Ferris factor didn’t really strike this time around. I don’t think it had a chance to. I mean the entire flight went pretty much normal and the snafu with Gate Gourmet really doesn’t seem to affect that much. If anything this was one of the most painless international departures I’ve ever been on. For a start I did BA’s online check-in. So I had my boarding pass about 11 hours before the flight was set to depart. Then when Dom dropped me off at SeaTac I just walked up to the check-in desk and handed the lady my bag and passport. She just verified my home laser printed pass okay and sent me on my way. Mind you there was only one person in front of me. I think that’s because the quick bag drop off shared the counter with the First Class counter. Anyway, it went by so fast she didn’t even ask me if I had a bomb or if I had knives or anything like that. She didn’t tell me which gate to go to. And she totally forgot to give me my $20 food voucher. Then again I totally forgot as well. I only remembered when I went for my grande soy caramel macchiato.

Some family was in front of me and loaded up on $60 worth of random Starbucks food which was ridiculous. Got to the gate and asked the guy about the voucher. Noticed he already had my seat number written down on paper to remember to give me a voucher. Not bad… Apparently one could only use the voucher at one location and couldn’t get change. Guess that explains the Starbucks family. Sitting and waiting, no WiFi, where’s T-Mobile HotSpots when you need them. WayPort and Cingular for $7 and $10 respectively, I think not.

For about $19 I managed to get two sandwiches (one of which is probably all soggy by now, yuck, wet bread), 4 cookies, and a croissant. Won’t be too bad if I can make it last the 9 hours for the flight. Oh and when we boarded they had the all day deli ready made junk to hand out. So yet more food. As long as there’s some wine I’ll be okay.

The chav’s (most likely from Stoke) are just annoying me as we board. The one girl is in a Mackenzie track suit which is obviously 3 sizes too small for her. The dad is wearing a track suit bottom and a England football jersey plus a chavtastic jumper. Some other girl with them is in full decked out Burberry. I just want to yell chav at the top of my lungs and get the camera to film the aftermath. On the other hand there’s a much more reasonable English family on the other side of me. Quite posh sounding accent though I can’t place it. The Dad has called his daughter by “darling”. So south, somewhere. Probably on the beach, undoubtedly with a yacht just down the road docked at the marina.

Oh how I miss the English accent. It really is a thing of beauty. So many varieties to choose from,

With just barely enough room to type I think I’m already getting carpel tunnel. The X1 is the first laptop I’ve been able to get out and use without having the screen and keyboard in some freakishly weird position. Even so this is starting to hurt. Oh and… The Sennheiser PXC-250’s with their lovely NoiseGuard (noise reduction) kick ass. With them on and not plugged in switching NoiseGuard on and off is amazing. Granted it’s not like some listening room with them on but without you get the blaring noise of the engines.

View outside the window is dismal at best. Looks like Manchester already, nothing but gray.

Argh!!! No wine. No ice for the water either. Suppose I’ll finish up now and continue again once we pass over Greenland.

Chris and Jake randomly asked if I'd like to review one of the original Lensbabies lenses ages ago. I'm only just now getting around to it. Is it way too late? Possibly, especially since they've now released a second and improved version of the lens. Though even taking that into consideration I honestly can't say that it would change my opinion any. Basically they sent me the lens and I went at it.

After toying with it to figure out the focus and the aperture and such I grabbed a couple shots. I really wasn't impressed with any of the shots as it really seemed to be too sensitive to movement when it came it getting the specific area I wanted in focus. After taking 5 shots I went to remove the lens and started having major difficulties. Having used non Canon lenses on my 20D before this was a bit unusual. After pressing down on the lens quite a bit more than normal it finally came out. But not without damaging the bracket and pins slightly. Because of this I had to send the camera into Canon for repair which took a week and a half. I received the camera back as good as new but I refused to pop the lens back on.

So in this post we've got the one shot I'd actually think that might be worth posting. The end result is interesting but nothing one couldn't do in Photoshop. Since I'd classify this as a post processing effect I'd say that's where it should actually be staying. When shooting digital it's really important that you're keeping original digital negative, whether that be the untouched JPG or the RAW image. Because this lens is no where near the quality of any one of my Canon lenses it wouldn't make sense to shoot with it. It would be much better to shoot with the Canon, visualize the concept in my head then apply a Lensbabies like effect to the photo in Photoshop. That alone makes me think that for digital photography the Lensbaby idea isn't all that great.

Now if I were a film photographer then I'll admit that this lens would actually be pretty cool. But that's not how I tested it so I won't go into that. Now realistically if I hadn't been jaded by the fact that the lens messed up my camera I probably would've used it quite a bit more and probably have gotten much more experience with it to get some decent shots. I'm normally all for cool gizmos like this lens but this is one time where I'd fall back on my Photoshop skills.

So what's the bottom line? Well, I wouldn't buy one, nor would I recommend it. Save your money and buy Photoshop and become proficient at using that.

So about 10 minutes ago while in bed sorting music and reading the news I heard a gunshot followed by two more then two guys who sounded like they were yelling from afar. Not quite sure what was going on and chatting to Mark at the time I just randomly ask if he thought if it was worth calling in. Typically, he says sure, so I do. Figured what the hell, was probably nothing but it couldn't hurt since I could use a real test of the 911 service with Vonage. It's a shame I didn't have it on speakerphone and recorded it. But it went something like this:

• Lady 1: National Emergency Fire, Rescue, and Police can I verify your address is x on Old Redmond Road, in Redmond, Washington.
• Me: Yes that's correct.
• Lady 1: What's the emergency.
• Me: Just heard 3 gun shuts and what sounded like two men yelling from the street.
• Lady 1: Okay sir, let me transfer you over to the Redmond Emergency Fire, Rescue, and Police. Please hold the line.
• Me: Okay.
• Hold: Kenny G - Theme from Dying Young plays. And yes I kid you not it was actually Dying Young. Oh the irony.
• Lady 2: Redmond Fire, Rescue, and Police, what's your emergency.
• Me: Almost about to open my mouth and speak.
• Lady 1: Yes this is the National Emergency line with a transfer from Corey at x on Old Redmond Road in Redmond.
• Lady 2: (Can't quite remember exactly what she said) okay, transferring to Bellevue Police.
• Lady 1: Sir, please hold the line while we're transferred.
• Me: Yep.
• Lady 3: Bellevue Police, what's the emergency.
• Lady 1: National Emergency line with a transfer and report of gun shots on Old Redmond Road in Redmond.
• Lady 3: Okay sir, please provide me the details of the incident.
• Me: Oh I just heard 3 shots which sounded as if they were coming from the road and then a male (possibly two) with what must've been yelling from the road.
• Lady 3: Okay, thank you sir, it looks like we've had other calls regarding this. Thank you for reporting it.
• Me: No problem.
• Lady 3: Thank you, good night.
  Click

About 15 minutes later I get a call from what I figure is Redmond dispatch (Lady 4) requesting a little more info for the officer that will answer the call. Provide the same details again and verify my apartment number.

Now 20 minutes since the initial call as I'm sitting in the dark writing this post the officer knocks. Repeat the details, show him general direction in which the supposed shots and yell came from. He says they're not too sure yet if they were actually shots and they've not found anything yet. Not surprising. Whatever. I'm tired and this being Redmond and this sort of thing being just about unheard of maybe it was just someone shooting a beer bottle or something stupid after having a little too much to drink.

As for the entire 911 experience. I can't really say if I'm satisfied or not. I mean, the one time when I had a proper land line and had to dial some years ago things were immediate with no transfers and someone on the scene within 5-10 minutes. The entire Kenny G on hold via the National Emergency line was absolutely insane. Granted the type of call I placed wasn't an immediate emergency for myself and it's just a report of a possible emergency. I can't quite say I'd feel comfortable with being transferred 3 times if I was the person who was shot and needed help.

So quite interesting regardless. I'll have to reread the E911 information that Vonage has sent me in the mail recently. IIRC basically, it spells all the information out in some long terms of service. There's a cover letter stating that Vonage is in the process of rolling out E911 service nationwide and that they'll notify me of when E911 becomes active. Coupled with 112 from my mobile I'd say there's plenty of ways to contact the emergency response.

Actually, just got me thinking, I wonder if in any areas they've enabled SMS reporting of emergencies...