Who ordered the scrambled brains?

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A startling start

This morning, I started my day with a startling start. I sat up, and staggered a statistically significant seventeen steps to this scribing station. Seventeen steps to travel ten feet? Yes, for I was too preoccupied with matters of the mind to concern myself with those of the body.

Why doesn’t KFC deliver? Seriously. It’s time those from Chicken Capital, USA, wherever that fairy wonderland paradise may be, to get with the program. If every pizza joint in town is required to have delivery service, for fear of being driven out by an angry mob of farmers with pitchforks and torches, then why not every fried chicken joint? I’m not just taking a cue from the sacred haven of Shakey’s, whose dialetical menu inspires awe and makes the bones of men tremble. Pizza and Asian take-out alike serve families and groups. Why then, isn’t the archetype of fast-food chicken dinners required by those mob farmers to offer delivery? Rise up, I say, let your voices be heard! Chicken-eaters of the world unite!

Speaking of fine dining, I have just recently discovered a new piece of “edible art” created by the culinary masterminds of In-N-Out: French Fries, Animal Style. Yes it’s true. You can get your fries covered in cheese, chopped grilled onions, and special sauce. So good, but should be consumed no more than once per year.

I’m struggling to decide what digital camera I want. At first I wanted the Canon PowerShot A610. The A610 has 4x optical zoom, aperture and shutter speed control, uses SD cards, is powered by AA batteries, takes replacement wide and telefoto lenses, and is about $275 at Amazon. On the other hand, it’s bulky and weighs almost 9oz. I really wanted that 4x optical zoom and low-level control, but I decided the bulkiness was too much. So I turned my attention to the Canon PowerShot SD500 and SD550. They’re basically the same but the SD500 is $340 while the SD550 is $400 and has a larger screen and some other minor improvements. They were both 7MP cameras with only 3x optical zoom, but in fact offer slightly better image quality when factoring both focal lengths and image widths. Basic formula when comparing zoom and megapixels is QualityRatio = (FocalLength1 / FocalLength2) * (ImageWidth1 / ImageWidth2). The QR of a 7MP/3x to a 5MP/4x is 1.04, with anything over 1 meaning the first camera’s image quality is better. In other words, if I take a picture on a 7MP/3x fully-zoomed and crop it will look better than a 5MP/4x fully-zoomed uncropped. I think. Anyway, those were tempting, but then I noticed the Sony DSC-P200, which is slightly larger, with a volume of 8 cubic inches versus 7.85 cu. in. for the SD5×0’s. The P200 weighs in at 5oz, with the SD5×0’s at 6oz. The P200 is nice-looking though, and matches most of the SD500’s specs for $5 less. Both the SD5×0’s and the P200 uses proprietary Li-Ion batteries, which is a drag, but the P200 also uses Sony’s proprietary Memory Stick media, which can be more expensive than SD. Another consideration is color quality, with Canon considered the industry leader and expert. I’ve seen shots from both cameras online and the SD5×0’s seem much more vibrant. I guess I’ll have to check them out in store for tactile considerations, and to determine how much of a difference exists between the 2″ and 2.5″ screens of the SD5×0’s.

Random thought. What if, in 500 years, when man finally makes contact with another intelligent life form, they shun us and ignore us like it’s no big deal. I came to this thought when I pondered the old cultural notion of dogs habitually chasing firetrucks. Ponder that!

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