Cianna's daycare center is still closed from drying out from last week's floods. They took her to an alternate facility today, but the break in routine caused her to implode into a 90-minute fit of crying. So we picked her up early. Here she isjoining our management meeting. My boss, who was on speakerphone said, "we need all the help we can get!"

- mike lee - washington, dc

One thing I found frustrating on the Sidekick 3 is the virtually flush shoulder buttons. As someone who takes A LOT of phone cam pictures, I needed a more affordance in the upper right shoulder button. For a while, I stuck a small dot of foam on the Sidekick from a kids' crafts kit. That worked very well, but this weekend, I picked up a crystal bling kit and replaced the foam tab with a blue jewel. While at the maul, I also found aBytech Treo 650/600 case held the Sidekick 3 perfectly. The power port is nicely exposed too. The main reason for a this new case is its noiseless magnetic closure. I was getting tired of the loud ripping sound of the original case's velcro which is conspicuous in meetings.

- mike lee - nesting on this 4th of July to escape the heat, humidity, and crowds - wheaton, md

I watched the special featurettes on the new Aeon Flux DVD tonight. There was a segment on the costumes (2-4), which were designed to portray a post-apocalyptic utopian society in the year 2415. A fusion of historic and contemporary styles were used. The fashion designer also described how they pulled colored stockings over the extras' shoes and boots to economically create a fresh appearance (4). Another segment described how futuristic locations (5-7) were used throughout Berlin, including Hitler's aircraft testing windtunnels (5). The last featurette was unique: the set photographer described the contents of his equipment case, and talked about how his still shooting style differs from that of the cinematographer. He has shot publicity stills for 40-50 films. The Nikon D1x was the camera he showed. His favorite lens is the 85mm f/1.4. Because digital SLRs still have mechanical mirrors that make noise, he often has to enclose his camera in a sound muffling foam blimp (9).

- mike lee - wheaton, md

Stopped into the post office near my house to pick up a Pocket Wizard receiver I bought off eBay. This gadget is part of a system of radio devices that let's me trigger one or more flashes up to 800 feet away from my camera. The rest of the photos are: Cianna banging piano at the Major family house near Annapolis, sleeping in the car, eating dim sum at Good Fortune, taking a nap with me while I watched the new Aeon Flux DVD, and picking at dinner tonight.

- mike lee - wheaton, md

These are photos from a big retirement party held this afternoon at work. I arrived well into the event as I had a team appreciation lunch today. The party was for one Curt Moore who has been with the company for 31 years! This is after a previous career of 20 years. Curt was recently in charge of member relations in my division. He is a corporate treasure who will be missed by the hundreds who turned out for the party, and many more who couldn't make it. I think of Curt as a tall Yoda who also is a lady's man. He had wise words of wisdom and comfort for any situation, and yes, he is smooth with the ladies. Next Friday, when Curt leaves the building for good, he'll take a piece of the heart of the company with him.

- mike lee - washington, dc

- mike lee - wheaton, md

When I wrote my last post, I forgot that I have about 340 megs of mp3s and other files on the 2gb card, so in reality, you'll be able to store way over 3000 pix. But my 2800 number is more real given that people will store a mix of stuff on their card. No matter how you look at it, that's a lot of pictures and data.

- mike lee - wheaton

I got my 2GB miniSD card from Amazon marketplace today. Check the number of photos that can be stored: 2821 at 1280x1024, medium compression!

BTW, e-mailing a screenshot is easy once you know the secret. Press MENU+SHIFT+CLICK (upper right shoulder button), and the current screen with be save as an attachment to an e-mail message.

- mike lee - wheaton, md

I returned home tonight in the monsoon rains to find a bunch of packages. The Lego Mindstorms NXT arrived! I pre-ordered it months ago. More detailed photos on Flickr.

Building Scalable Web Sites The Flickr Way looks like great reading on how large scale web sites like Flickr were built with open source software.

NOVA: The Great Robot Race is out on DVD. I saw the winner, Sebastian Thrun, speak at Stanford earlier this year. This is a great story.

My order of OSRAM Dulux Mini flashlights also arrived from Solvenia.

The Bud Plant catalog is always a treat to flip through. There's a book on every page that I want.

- mike lee - wheaton, md