I filed my taxes before they passed a budget so I knew I’d be waiting around for my refund to come through. Checked on my Refund Status and it said it was processed on 3/17 and could take up to 10 days for direct deposit. Checked my checking account today and saw my refund had been deposited. Next year’s taxes won’t be so rosey, especially if you have kids. Speaking of California’s broken government, the May election is coming up so The Blarg and I will be posting on the propositions sometime soon.
Shared Google Reader Items #13
- Rope, Trees, Some Assembly Required
- Consumer Reports’ Five Best Value Small Cars
- Why Don’t Young People Care About Finances?
- The Index Fund Wins Again
– Index funds FTW - Netflix Signs South Park for Streaming Seasons 1 – 9
- Where the dangerous home mortgages are
- Is the Criminal Justice system racist?
- Not Obama’s Budget
- Bank of America CEO on housing
- Jim Cramer Sputters On The Daily Show
– Quote: “Even Stewart admits Cramer isn’t the real problem, which is that the purpose of 99% of the financial industry is not to make you rich. It’s too extract money from you, while you think they might make you rich.” - Foreclosures up in February
– Surprise! Housing is going to get worse before it gets better. - Google Reader starts a conversation
– Yes yes yes yes! Awesome. Lots of us have been wanting this and it sounds like they were listening. - Pub evacuated after Monty Python prop mistaken for grenade – Telegraph
– And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, “O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.” And the Lord did grin. - Obama’s deficits will be four times bigger than under Bush
- computerdesks.com: Wat!
- Why Government shouldn’t mandate what people buy
Abe’s Oddworld Series cheap on Steam
Abe’s Oddysee and Abe’s Exodus are on sale in a pack for $3.75 this weekend. I’ve heard great things about these games, but have never had a chance to play them.
The Nikon 35mm f/1.8 AF-S DX arrives – First Impressions
The Nikon 35mm f/1.8 was created specifically for the DX shooters who were lacking the classic 50mm “normal” focal length fast prime. The 50mm f/1.8 is a great lens, but is just a tad too long for normal use. The 35mm and 50mm are pretty comparable in size with the 35mm being just a bit wider around, but both are dwarfed in size and weight by the 18-200mm:
The 50mm becomes a 75mm with the DX crop factor and the 35mm becomes a 52.5mm. The difference between the two focal lengths is quite apparent when viewed side by side:
Getting up close and personal with a subject is a little easier now since the 35mm focus 5-6 inches closer than the 50mm. That difference more than makes up for the difference in focal length. Here we can see the 35mm (top) was able to reproduce a slightly larger view of my lamp:
So far I’m very happy with the lens. It’s lightweight, pumps out some great pictures wide open and focus quickly. I love my 18-200mm, but I see this spending a lot of time on my D90. Focus noise is also much lower. The 50mm f/1.8 is fairly noisy and when it hunts for focus it can give a nice thud when it hits infinity. 52mm UV filter is on my list to buy to protect the front glass. Look for some more pics and comparisons coming up.
Planning our trip to Boston
We went on a roadtrip to Arizona last August and decided our trip this year would be Boston over spring break. We’re flying out April 9th and coming back the 20th so we’ll be missing Easter with family. I’ve only been to the east coast in the middle of the summer so it should be a little more enjoyable temperature wise. We’re flying in and out of Logan so we’ll be Downtown for about half the trip. We’ll rent a car for the middle half and head up to Maine and then down to Cape Code and Martha’s Vineyard, but that all needs to be planned still.
The only snag we hit so far is that the Boston marathon happens to be on the day we leave. I went to book a hotel for the 17th-20th a couple weeks ago, found out about the marathon and fell over when I saw hotel rates. Nothing under $250 to be found. Your average Hilton or Raddisson were $300 and the nicer places were even more. For our first 3 nights in Downtown I booked a nice King room at the Omni Parker House for $150 a night and the 3rd night free on a Spring special. The next weekend before the marathon that same room was about $400. The only affordable option in Downtown would be a bed and breakfast. Emailed some B&B management companies to see if there was anything available and found a nice affordable room with private bath just a couple blocks south of Back Bay and the marathon route. Much better than the Holiday Inn Express, pretty much the cheapest hotel that whole weekend at $250 a night.
So all we have planned is that we’ll be in Downtown Boston for our first three nights, Maine/Cape Code/Martha’s Vineyard the next 4 nights and back to Boston for 3 nights. I got tickets to see the Presidents of the United States of America at the House of Blues on the 17th, but that’s really all we have set in stone. Just some of the things we’re looking at doing:
- Boston Red Sox vs Baltimore Orioles on 4/18 at 7:30pm
- Demetri Martin at the Wilbur Theater
- Samuel Adams Brewery tour
- Freedom Trail
- Duck Tour
- Paul Revere’s house
- Harvard
- USS Constitution
- Lobster for dinner in Maine
- Walden’s pond
- Fenway Park tour
If you’ve been to Boston and the surrounding area before post a comment with suggestions of stuff to see and places to eat. Anybody stayed on Martha’s Vineyard before? Debating if we should spend the night there or just go for the day.