Jim Washkau Jr.

My Gear:

Body-Canon Rebel XSi 12.2MP
Lens-Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS Telephoto Zoom Lens
Lens-Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS SLR Lens
Lens-Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens
Flash-Canon Speedlite 430EX II Flash
Bag-Lowepro EX-140 Digital SLR Camera Bag
Memory-Transcend 8 GB Class 6 SDHC Flash Memory Card
Memory-Connect 3D 4GB Secure Digital Card
Accessory-Universal Wireless Digital SLR Remote for Canon
Accessory-2x Canon LP-E5 Battery Pack
Accessory-2x Canon LC-E5 Battery Charger

For those of you who don’t know about it, Google Wave is a self-described “personal communication and collaboration tool” announced by Google. The easiest way to describe it would be a mix between Facebook, Twitter, and WebEx. I have had an account for a few weeks now (courtesy of MickSchroeder) and want to give out all my extra invites. Use the links below to enable your Google account with Google Wave. They are one time use only.

Google Wave Invite #1
Google Wave Invite #2
Google Wave Invite #3
Google Wave Invite #4
Google Wave Invite #5

I finally caved in and bought myself the new generation of Apple’s Macbook pro series. With the brand new integrated battery and aluminum unibody case it just seems to overshadow all other laptops on the market. I believe I got a decent deal on it too with the student discount as well as a free iPod touch and $30 printer (after mail-in rebate) which I plan to sell on eBay anyway. I made a HD unboxing video of the Macbook Pro you can watch below too.

Being the Tea enthusiast that I am, I ordered some more Pu-erh tea imported directly from the Yunnan province of China. Pu-erh tea is actually very rare in North America as it is a tea between green and black tea. It is fermented longer than a green tea but less than a black tea. Basically this means that Pu-erh contains more caffeine than green tea but also retains many of the health benefits. Pu-erhs also have a more “earthly” taste meaning its more bitter than a green tea. The unique trait of Pu-erh teas is that much like Wine, Pu-erhs taste better with age. What I ordered is a Pu-erh “cake” which has aged since 2006 and is about 400 grams. I also ordered about 150 grams more of the other Pu-erh aged since the year 2000 which I enjoyed from my last order. They also added 50 grams of the “Silver Thread Tea” which I have yet to try; it looks like a green tea.

A few days ago I upgraded my Canon Rebel XS to the Rebel XSi. While there is really little difference between the two models getting the Rebel XSi ($600 retail) for $50 less than the XS($500 retail) is one hell of a deal I could not pass up. I may have even bought the last XSi on clearance in all of NJ too! The XSi has 12.1MP compared to the XS 10.2MP in addition to a larger screen, a few extra shooting modes, and a faster FPS.

It’s true, the Free 4 pack of Amp energy drink coupon works, well some of the time. The coupon is valid until December 2009 or until some kid ruins it for everybody by cleaning out an entire store. I do not know if these are real or fake so use them with due diligence.

Update: Coupons removed, seems like Pepsi is cracking down hard on this one.

Here is my success and failure list.

Target: Worked no problems. Only had 1 box left.
Wal-Mart: Had to get manager: Worked. Dropped off in car and bought 2nd pack.
Walgreens: Worked, still had to pay $1.50 though.
Shop-Rite: Had to get manager. Said coupon was fraudulent. FAIL
AP&P: None in stock.
Rite-Aid: Doesn’t stock them.

Just got my new Canon Rebel XS DSLR 10.2MP camera today via UPS overnight. I used whats left of my Amazon gift cards so I got a pretty good price on it too. I don’t know much about photography however I have heard that this is a great camera to learn on. Now I just need to buy different lenses and all that shizz. I will probably be making a new page on my site with some of the pictures I have/will be taking.

Sample Pictures:
Update: Gallery http://jimwashkau.com/photography/

So I was just going browsing my Amazon associate account stats when something strange caught my eye. Now I, of all people, realize that the internet is a strange and pathetic place where morals, ethics, and simple common sense are completely meaningless but I can honestly say that for the first time in awhile this caught me by surprise. If you take a close look at the screen capture you will see that not only did somebody actually buy a bottle of fresh, warm, and apparently lucrative bottle of Wolf Urine but they bought 3 of them. That’s a grand total of 96 ounces of Wolf Urine. What possible use this so called product can actually serve is anybody’s guess, but I am really not going to complain as I have a feeling he will be buying more in the future.

Consider this a fair warning; this isn’t anything particularly spectacular, interesting, or exciting  but I know your probably going to read it anyway for some reason. Anyway, Yesterday I managed to fix both my somewhat older Asus S96j laptop and my 1995 Mitsubishi Montero. After sitting in the driveway all winter my Montero needed a few hoses replaced which was causing both a lack of power steering and brake pressure. It’s an easy fix…if you have the parts. After going to global Mitsubishi all the way down ‘22 3 or 4 times I finally got all the parts specially ordered.My father and I installed them with little problems. Now I just need to sell it, anybody interested?

In addition to that, I also fixed my Asus 15.4″ S96j Laptop. Even though it’s an almost 3 year old laptop and I have already had to replace the screen, keyboard, power adapter, and battery I’m not giving up on it yet. With a core 2 duo processor, x1600 dedicated graphics card, and a 7200rpm hdd it rivals most modern day performance laptops; it gets a 4.9 rating in Windows 7, that’s damn good! Through normal wear and tear the ac power adapter tip soldering directly onto the motherboard stopped working after becoming loose so I could no longer power or charge it. My first attempt to fix this failed after I bought a new power tip but ended up doing a horrible solder job and screwed up the pins that hold it into place. So I ordered a new power tip again last week and hoped I could figure out a way to make it work. I ended up getting a drill and actually drilled through the motherboard in order to reseat the power tip. It was risky because if I scraped one trace line on the motherboard it would be ruined. I then filled the holes with some solder and to my surprised it powered on flawlessly. Now if I only had a use for 3 laptops…

Here are the various drafts of my sister’s head on a Left 4 Dead Boomer body. The crappy version was my attempt at it but John’s version was clearly better.

Sister + Boomer + McDonalds = Win

Just got my new 22″ Acer X213w yesterday for $99. I’m glad I jumped on this deal as early as I did because they sold out within the first hour. The Acer looks very nice but the default brightness level is so bright it may actually give you a headache . I also had some trouble adjusting the colors to match my Samsung. Im satisfied overall though.

Well through my usual sources I got the new Xbox 360 game Prototype about a week early. I just started playing through it and it’s certainly a fun sandbox game. Of course, there is enough gore to traumatize a small child but that was to be expected.

Update 06/08/2009: Finally achieved my goal of beating Prototype before its officaly released. It’s a pretty cool story but the boss fights were so frustrating I felt like breaking something.

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Just a random project I decided to do yesterday out of boredom after getting back from Philly; Wardriving through Bridgewater NJ. I guess I should of had some way of mounting the camera to the dashboard as it would fall after most turns.