Over the last few months, I’ve become increasingly unhappy with Firefox as my browser. With each new release, it becomes more and more sluggish, waiting on web pages had become unbearable
I had high hopes when Apple released Safari for Windows, but that turned out to be a total pig in a pretty blanket.
While eating lunch, I happened to see a reference to Opera. I had checked out Opera in the past but didn’t see much to make the switch worthwhile. Wow, have things changed. Within ten minutes I had ported over all my bookmarks and left Firefox in my rear-view mirror.
Opera is lightning fast, cleanly handles every web page I threw at it, and has several features Firefox apparently stole from them.
My favorite new feature is “speed dial”. When you create a new tab (a feature invented by Opera and copied by FireFox and MSIE) it shows you a grid of website thumbnails. You control which sites appear there, it’s like a brainier version of bookmarks. One click and you’re on your way!
Check out http://www.opera.com
Bought a nice little Mossberg shotgun. Wow, what a difference from other guns I’ve shot, the recoil is brutal.
OK, why does a photographer need a shotgun? Well, we’ve had a big increase in the number of cottonmouth moccasins around the house lately. I guess it’s because of the drought (we have a big pond beside the house). It’s hard to hit that little head with a .22 without getting uncomfortably close.
Plus, I figure it’ll come in handy for that eventual wedding reception that gets really out of control 
Wow, it’s been a while since I was able to post. The disease I picked up at Kidz Kamp has been running rampant though our entire family, one at a time. I think everyone is finally well again.
Also, last week was our church’s annual Vacation Bible School. Jean and I taught one of the 4th grade classes. We had a terrific time. Best of all was the response of our kids. Of the 20 in our class, 16 had already been saved. From the remaining four, three accepted salvation, a far better rate that I would have believed possible.
Another major goal for the week was raising money to fund the schooling of some children in the Pokot tribe of Nigeria. I had doubts whether they would make their goal of $1,200. As usual, I underestimated the kids’ hearts, they managed to raise over $2,400 in just a few days!
For anyone who attended the terriffic 4th of July party at Chuck and Angel’s house last week, I’ve put a pile of shots up on the site. Call me to get the right URL.
I’ve been using Imagenomic’s Noiseware software to reduce high-ISO sensor noise. Hands down, it’s the best noise reduction tool I’ve ever used. It even beats out Noise Ninja, a past favorite. It reduces noise just as well, perhaps a bit better than NN but doesn’t induce the “haze” that NN does, at least not as bad. Highly recommended at only $70.
