So, I got a call yesterday telling me that I’m a new brother…

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So, I’m an idiot… I could have saved myself $300 had I not used Fix-a-Flat on my tire today. I found a screw in my tire just before picking Lauren up, so, to ensure that I get to Costco to have the needed fix made, I put the can-o-crap into my tires.

Long-story-short, Costco doesn’t fix tires that have that stuff in them because they don’t consider it safe since the fix-a-flat eats away at the rubber. So as to not be running on the spare for too long, I’m going to have to pick up a new pair of tires in the next few days to replace the pair that had one damaged. The ironic part about it is that the pair that I’m going to have to replace was the newer pair on my car.

Eh… it’s just money… or two or three guests at my wedding next year…

Lesson for the day: Fix-a-flat is the devil!!!

Well, after growing up on the east coast reading about how great Fry’s Electronics was on all of the computer technology websites, I finally had a chance to witness it for myself.

I’d say Fry’s Electronics was a mix between Best Buy, Circuit City, and Costco. The Phoenix (Tempe, really), location was a large warehouse with bins, racks, shelves, and dirty floors. The DVD prices were nothing spectacular (typically $20 for just about any DVD). The computer hardware offerings were a bit nicer (I found a rather hard to find USB header cable that goes from a spare usb header on the mother board to a rear expansion slot), but still not spectacular. They did happen to have a decent hobbyist electronics section, but the prices were not on par with what I could get parts for from Digikey. And the other consumer electronics offerings left a little to be desired.

Another let down was the “help” (if you call it that) I received from two of the employees. Neither one really knew what I was looking for (a bluetooth GPS receiver that didn’t cost $200 and the aforementioned USB expansion cables), but after wandering around for over an hour in a store with almost no organization, I finally found one of the two sought-after items, the USB cables. The first employee handed me off to the second employee after realizing that I wasn’t looking for a USB hub. The second was a touch more helpful, but still said “it could either be here with the cables or over in that section there with the random stuff.” It turned out, the cables were in the random crap section next to some TV antenna cables and BNC connectors, who’d of thunk?

Well, at least I can say I’ve been there. As for going again, I’d have to be near there already for something else to even consider it. I’m not going to make a special trip up to Phoenix just for the Fry’s Electronics store. Now, IKEA, on the other hand…

Last night, novelist and satirist, Kurt Vonnegut, passed away at the age of 84. I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to hear him speak at my grad school graduation less than 2 years ago. Though he was a bit saucy and perverse in his speech, it was still quite enjoyable. His wit and sarcastic commentary on the progression of American society will be greatly missed.

I just ran across this great website where you can print patterns for lens hoods for just about every lens made today. The site allows you to download PDF files with the patterns for you to print. Though they recommend A4, A3, or A2 paper, I found that printing to standard 8 1/2″ by 11″ paper with the Adobe Reader auto cropping allowed me to have the same results. These look like a great alternative to paying $45+ for the custom hoods from Canon. I’ll finish cutting mine out and snap a few pictures to see how well they work.

Update: The results were less than exciting, but, it does provide a temporary fix until you get fed up with it and decide to either opt for the rubber retractable lens hoods found at the local camera shop or shell out the big bucks for the real deal lens hoods from the manufacturer.

[via LifeHacker]