My first couple of days were last weekend.  I recorded a little video of us riding some groomers so I’ll hopefully try to get an edit together.

Still a lot of riding to do!

For some reason, when I’m really looking forward to a game I won’t pop it in the second I get it.  Maybe I don’t want to ruin the image I have of it in my head.  When I played Starcraft 2 last year at Blizzcon, I was really excited for the game to come out.  I purchaed Starcraft 2 with release day delivery from Amazon and ended up sitting on it for weeks after Amazon delivered it.  Well, I finally installed it this week and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it.  I’m probably 1/3 of the way through the single player campaign (I’m trying to get all the achievements along the way so it is taking forever!  The game is not easy :hs: ) As expected, I played some placement matches in 1v1 and got placed into copper league (the lowest league)  which is kind of a bummer.  I’m trying to find a 1v1 partner to improve my opening/mid-game so if you want to add me my id is “PHI.650″

I’ve also played some comp stomps and custom matches which are a lot of fun.  So if you’re wondering why I haven’t been posting, that’s why (my sleep schedule getting severely messed up contributed as well).

On Saturday I attempted to summit Mt Baldy via the Bear Canyon Trail in 7 hours. Unfortunately it took an hour to find the trailhead which left me with 6 hours. Needless to say, I failed miserably. About 3.5-4 miles into the hike I realized that there was no way I would be able to summit and descend in time so I turned around and headed down. The trail was relentless at almost 920 feet per mile the entire way. In retrospect I should have attempted to summit via the Ski Hut Trail. Time to plan my revenge…

The good news is I made it back to OC in time to hit up the Foodie Fest where I got to try out some pretty sweet food truck food.  We were so hungry from the hike that all the food trucks and the smell of BBQ in the air was like heaven.  Too bad you have to pay for your ticket, pay for parking, then get in 10min lines just to order food.  :fu: It was a lot of fun trying out different food trucks though, although it was a bummer that the event organizers decided to prohibit trucks from selling drinks so that they could gouge people on $3 bottles of soda or water.  

After I plan revenge on Mt Baldy I’m going to have to track down the Dan Dan BBQ food truck to get some more of those short rib tacos or sliders…

For all the hate we direct towards “the man”, sometimes the little guy is just as bad.  When I e-mailed Amazon last week about my issue with the 35L they sent me, I did not expect them to do anything about it but they surprised me by refunding 20% of my purchase price.  At that time I thought my luck was rolling because a week prior to that I e-mailed Radio Poppers about an issue I was having with my transmitter.  The radio popper unit has plastic “stoppers” after the hotshoe mount to prevent the unit from coming off after you slide it in.  Well, my stopers got pushed in and the thin plastic that connects them began to show fatigue which made it impossible for the RP to stay mounted to my hot shoe.   To remedy this problem, I used a piece of gaffers over the stoppers to thicken the “hook” part.  This worked for a while until the screw on the hotshoe somehow got stripped and the unit stopped making contact during a shoot.  Yikes, right?

Phi,  I am sorry to hear that your JrX transmitter is having some issues.  Rather than trying to rig the transmitter with a temporary fix, I am just going to replace your unit with a new one.  Expect an email shortly from admin with further details.

So I e-mailed RP asking about replacement parts and to my surprise they told me that they’d fix it.  Awesome right?     Nope.  I sent the unit in this week and it arrived at RP today and instead of “replacing [my] unit with a new one” they want to charge me $20.  Talk about a bait and switch.  Honestly, I don’t mind paying to have it fixed.  I initially e-mailed asking for prices and availability of replacement parts but to say they are going to replace it and then turn around and say they aren’t is pretty grimey in my book.

Hello Phi,This is in regards to your RM 13xxx. We have received your JrX Transmitter and in preparation for repair we found that the damage on the bottom part of the JrX Transmitter is not from typical use, as one “stop” is torn off and missing, and the other is bent down. We can repair your loose screws under warranty, free of charge.  However if you would like the bottom part of your JrX Transmitter case replaced so that the unit is able to stay on your camera’s hotshoe more securely the repair fee will be $20.00

At this point, I don’t even think I can recommend RPs to people anymore.  The transmitter hotshoe design is awful and they obviously do not even stand by their product.  I’m going to pay to get it fixed (mainly for resale reasons) but I don’t see how this issue isn’t going to happen again; the design is just not durable in my opinion.

My response:

In my initial e-mail I stated that the stops had been pushed down, a problem I remedied by putting gaffers tape over the stops. While shooting I then discovered the problem with the screw which was found to be stripped/loose on further inspection. I was inquiring about replacement parts for the transmitter. Brent replied by saying, “Rather than trying to rig the transmitter with a temporary fix, I am just going to replace your unit with a new one.” When I prepared the transmitter for shipment, I removed the gaffers from the stops, at this point the right stop came off. I don’t see how Brent would agree to replace a unit with stops pushed down but now it is not OK. Functionally the condition before and after gaffers tape is the same; the unit would not stay in the hot shoe securely, which is what my initial e-mail was addressing anyway. Basically what this boils down to is Brent telling me not to worry about jerry rigging the transmitter to work and send it in and now you are telling me that unless I pay I will have to jerry rig it to work.
Do you see how this is contradictory? If Brent had told me in the first place that it would be $20 to replace the bottom plate after telling him that both stops were pushed down I would have just used superglue or loctite to secure the screw and continued using my gaffers tape solution on the stops. Instead I was baited into sending the unit around and now the terms of RMA are being changed. If RP doesn’t want to keep their word, I am not sure what I can say other than that I am really disappointed. My biggest regret is that I have recommended radiopoppers to people based on value and customer service.
Regards,
Phi Dong

I doubt they’ll do anything about it. Instead of paying $20 on top of the $10 shipping I’ve already paid, I bought a used transmitter for $60 so for $40 more I get a working transmitter and one that doesn’t lock. Hooray.

Update (8/31/2010): RP called me and apologized.  They explained that they figured “someone got impatient and just broke the RP off”.  I guess their tech support department is separate from their RMA department so whatever.  They are keeping their word and repairing the unit free of charge.  Hooray I guess.

Finally took the Civic in to get an oil change which was long overdue; the oil light finally started flashing and was counting down into negative miles.  What drained from the oil pan had to be some of the most epic oil ever though.  It had cycled through the engine throughout northern and southern California on journeys and expeditions that I can only describe as legendary.  It will definitely be hard to top the multiple trips to Mammoth Mountain and June Mountain chasing POW, a solo trip to Yosemite to explore the valley, an epic 3 day hike through Cottonwood Loop where we ran out of food, or even navigating through a road that some say is only possible to traverse with a 4×4.

Epic snowfall @ MM

The Civic saw its first snow on this oil on a trip where it dumped nearly 2 feet.  While other vehicles got stuck on the road, it sat in the parking lot accumulating snowfall which I planned on giving Dam the honors of digging out but when it was time to leave two girls volunteered to shovel the car out or at least “until [they] got bored”  We managed to get in before it started snowing and out by the time it stopped so the trip back home was smooth.

The Civic in Yosemite Valley

When snow season was over, the Civic and I made a solo trip to the Valley to capture rainbows and moonbows.  It wasn’t car camping, but it was close with nearly 16 hours spent in the car over 3 days. Here I got to drive on some twisty mountain roads in light and dark (with some sketchy moments) but we made it out ok and I came away with some of my favorite pictures of all time.

Near the top of Cottonwood road above Lone Pine

Still summer and with the oil light beginning to turn on, gauge reading 15% life left, Dam and I hit up Cottonwood Loop. Originally we planned to do a 2 day hike into Dusy Basin for some fishing but permits were out so we hiked ~26 miles of Cottonwood Loop, passing by 6 lakes along the way.

This is what happens when you bottom out in sand. Wounds from Anza-Borrega Desert SP

Finally, with the oil gauge at 10% life I took the Civic on its last trip, driving down to Anza Borrego Desert SP where it journeyed over soft sand through a 4 mile stretch to Font’s Point where I captured and watched some Perseid planes meteors. The ride was sketchy in many parts and it bottomed out a few times. aiming the tires for “firm looking” parts of the sand helped me get to Font’s Point in one piece on the way up but the journey back in the dark was definitely scary :noes: Keeping the speed at ~30mph I kept my momentum all the way back to the road.

Hopefully the next 5,000 miles can live up to the last 5.  Heres to more adventures!

A couple weeks ago I took my Olympus 28mm f/2.8 and it served me well for landscape photography (pictures of that trip coming soon!). I couldn’t help but feel like a 24mm would serve me a little better so I created an eBay search to try to get a  version of this lens for cheap.

. I was planning on trying to get one for around $70 but gave in but when I saw this SC for $130 shipped (everything at the time had bids up to $100 already, even on single-coated versions). It arrived today and the glass is near mint and the body is in pretty good condition despite what the auction said so I am pretty happy.

I am always a little impressed when I see how small Olympus was able to design these OM lenses. It’s pretty interesting to see how it all packs so tidily into the leather case. Compactness was definitely the goal with OM and it shows. It’s too bad no one is currently in the same mindset.

Olympus 24mm f/2.8 inside leather case; hood fits snugly into top of the case with a piece of padding to protect it and the lens upon closure.

Olympus 24mm f/2.8 with leather case, hood, and OM to EF adapter.

I can’t wait to rough this up on the trail! fsjal I think I’m set on my lens line-up for a while though.   There are still some lenses I want to get rid of but as far as acquisitions go, this is probably going to be the last one for a long time (unless I can snag a Mirex T/S adapter for cheap!)

I can honestly not believe the amount of views this video got because for me it was a huge disappointment.  I drove out to Anza-Borrega Desert State Park with a pretty specific vision in my head.  I wanted to capture as many meterors as I could and create a time lapse of them.  The sky was going to be dark and ABD SP was listed as one of the top spots to watch the shower so on the peak of the Perseids, I headed out and maneuvered my Civic past 4 miles of sand to get to Font’s point.  Immediately, I realized this wasn’t the ideal place to be.  To the east, I saw a low looming layer of smog or pollution rolling in and city lights in the distance.  It was going to be a challenge but as I began to shoot my timelapse and chimp on the rear LCD, I realized I had a much bigger problem–air traffic.  The amount of planes were ridiculous; at times there would be 4-5 in the sky at once.  At this point I was tempted to turn around, hike back down to the car and go home until I got the call from my friend, Joe, who was planning to meet me up at Font’s Point.  His truck was stuck only a couple hundred yards from the entrance.

At this point it was already completely dark and my fear of getting stuck in sand 4 miles from the road were definitely creeping in so I kept shooting with my camera hoping to at least piece something together.  This is what I came up with.  The only saving grace is that I was able to witness some of the shower with my own eyes, even if I didn’t capture many on camera and I did make it out of the sand alright.  Heres for hoping the Leonids in November are better!

On Thursday I took the plunge and decided to order the 35L with overnight shipping (thanks Amazon Prime).  Unfortunately I overslept on Friday and ended up driving to the UPS sorting facility in Anaheim to pick the lens up at 8PM which was perfect because today was my sister’s birthday and I got a chance to take it out for some real world samples using one of the hardest subjects to photograph, kids!  We went to the supermarket where I was able to snap some shots of my niece, Adeline having a blast.  More pictures after the break!

It’s been a long time but I’ve finally reacquired the Canon 35mm f/1.4L.  I can’t even remember my reasoning for selling it; the 20mm was one of my most used lenses on 1.6x crop which has an effective focal length at 32mm. Logically, this would mean that when I upgraded to full frame the 35L should have been one of my most used lenses but I ended up selling it and never replacing it for whatever reason. Fortunately I found one on Amazon Warehouse deals for $1290 and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to “cheaply” repurchase this lens.  I put cheaply in quotes because the price on this lens went from ~1200 to ~1400 since I sold it. Unfortunately when the lens arrived it was missing some accessories but Amazon is making up for it!

Based on the condition in which the Canon EF 35mm Lens arrived, we’d like to offer you a refund of 20% of the purchase price of this item, of $256. 20, if you are interested in keeping it. If this is acceptable, please let us know.

So overall I am pretty excited to get this back in my hands.  I’ve heard a lot of bad stories about buying open box stuff on Amazon Warehouse deals but so far everything seems fine.   I’m going to test the lens for a couple days to make sure the person who returned it didn’t have a good reason and then I’ll probably take Amazon up on their refund offer.