Congrats! The Box is like an electronic I-Ching, in my opinion. Just open to any page and soak up the profundity.

Arrows of the profound.
Overflying Goose (bay) to the South.
Enchanted winds of hot-dipped-galvanized-nuts.
The king waits patiently.

:p

I am about ready to take some C-4 to the bolts holding my toilet seats to the bowl. Mrs. MBM3 asked for me to replace them, which seemed simple enough until I was on my back under a place only my a$$ should see and could not get the damn things to budge. :mad:

B&H/Adorama are both quite a bit more expensive compared to Amazon. The 55-250 is delayed. I can still purchase it with the XSi kit, but it would not ship for 1-3 months while the camera would arrive this week.

I was under the impression that the 18-55 IS kit lens was a big improvement over the older 18-55 non-IS. Is this not the case?

Did you all see the recent new reports about President Bush? He took a surprise last trip to Baghdad and in the middle of a press conference a reporter took off his shoes and threw them at the President as hard as he could. Amazingly, the reporters around him reacted quicker than the Secret Service.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/15/wo...y.html?_r=1&hp

Brother had a nice fastball:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7782774.stm

Get the camera and play with the 18-55. The 18-55 IS version is better than the old non-IS. 18-55 is a walkaround lens for sightseeing and people, etc. Do you particularly like to shoot one thing over another? I know that for my uses (especially planespotting) 250mm is on the short side.

No matter the side of the aisle on which one sits, I think it's agreeable that putting a bullet in the reporter would have been bad form. :D

I just saw the video clip on CBS during the Jets - Bills game

As a poli sci junkie, I agree and I am glad it was just a shoe. In the video it was amazing to see the security literally come out of the woodwork.

Plus, I enjoy reading about how they hid this trip and still chuckle about one of the trips when AF1 tried to pass off as a G-V to other aircraft in the area.

Hmmmm. :confused:

The Times photo is utterly out of context, as the video showed how short of an armswing Maliki had. His arm wasn't held up. Maliki swung and missed. And the translation in the Times article is kinda curious at best: "This is a farewell kiss, dog" - as opposed to "this is the end" in the BBC version.

Bush is still sharp for age 62, gotta give him that. It would have been downright hilarious if he caught the shoe and threw it back.

The President did a darn good Neo impression, now didn't he? :)

I guess his days in the baseball business payed off in a different way!

A good sightseeing lens is all I will really need for the next few months. I like to mostly shoot buildings and landscapes with the occasional planespotting outing thrown in. I'm guessing you go up to 300mm for planespotting?

I'm kind of set on buying the extra lens with the camera because of the $100 off offer.

I max out at 300mm when I'm spotting, yeah. I zoom in as tight as I can on the aircraft while it's on final and slowly back off until I see "the shot" if I'm shooting landings. There's not much of a need for a wide lens when spotting, unless you want to replicate sbm12's fun shots that he got when we were in PHL, or shoot your own concept of something like it. If I had a lens that was longer than 300, I would use the long end of it for spotting...more is more with zoom for me.

I'm tearing up here.

Or maybe it's the Jets' defense causing that.;)

Goose...that reminds me.:D

Pom Martini doesn't sound so good and they could have put too much Pomegranite juice in it :td:. Just a splash is all you need.

What a game! Glad he's okay but it bites that his goal was called back! Congrats to him on the win and his goal that should have been.