eMarkLee

Apparently I’m not the only hater of the San Diego Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer, who cost the Chargers the game (along with Nate Kaeding, the kicker). ESPN had a nice story that sums all this up.  Here are the basic points:

1. Schotty decides to punt instead of kick a 47yd FG on a 4th and 11.
2. Schotty challenges a lame obvious play and leaves the Chargers with 0 timeouts.
3. Schotty doesn’t discipline the players and as a result there are all kinds of botched plays.
4. Going to a conservative prevent defense at the end of the half. Madden would have something to say about that.

As my friend drgonzo told me today (something someone else told him): If you get in a car accident… f it, I’ll just copy and paste:

drgonzo: this game wasn’t really his fault, but you have to look at the overall picture
drgonzo: and the overall picture is losing in the playoffs
drgonzo: and with this team more than any, there’s no excuse for not mustering at least one win
drgonzo: so he’s got to take the fall
drgonzo: it’s like i heard someone on the radio say– when you get in one accident it’s bad luck, when you get in 5 accidents it’s really bad luck, but when you get in 13 you’re just a shitty driver

Everybody, Schotty is a shitty driver…we need a new driver. We also have a shitty valet in Kaeding…gotta replace him too.

I was introduced to Lomography this past weekend when a friend snapped some shots with her Lomography Fisheye camera. Lomography is a former Russian state-run optics/camera company that produced pictures with characteristics of distortion on the edges while keeping the center sharp. My friend’s camera was a basic non-digital film camera with a big fisheye lens on it($50). The Lomo effect is basically a fish eye look with a grainy, darkened border. There’s a subculture of people that take cool artistic pictures with their Lomography cameras.

Typical Lomographic picture

While I like the fisheye effect, it is a very specialized look that you only take certain shots with. If you take all of your shots using fisheye, you would be missing some detail in your pictures for good or for bad. The biggest deterrent for me has been the price of these lenses. At ~$600, this lens in itself would cost more than my camera cost me. That sucks. While I’m prepared to spend a lot of money on a nice lens, it won’t be on a fisheye lens. I did find what looks like a cheap alternative adapter but the distortion and blurriness on the edges would not be desireable, although for $40+s/h it might be worth trying.

I decided to see how I could simulate the Lomo Fisheye effect with Photoshop CS2. First to simulate the Fisheye effect, then to simulate the Lomo effect. I found a Photoshop action here, which seems to give the effect I am looking for.

Original image

Fisheye effect using the Photoshop Edit->Transform->Warp->Fisheye effect

Fisheye effect using the Photoshop Filter->Distort->Spherize

Lomo effect using the Lomo action

The effect I am looking for is best applied to wide angle shots (shots that span a wider area rather than zooming in on specific objects), so here we go again, with a wide angle picture I took at the auto show.

Original Image

Lomo effect

Lomo with Fisheye

That last one came out pretty well, although it still is not perfect. To truly achieve what I want, I would need to get the real lens or probably tweak the image in Photoshop a bit more. Since I am not all that great at Photoshop, it will probably take a while before I create the desired effect…..fun stuff though.

Talk about predictable. The Chargers, who have dominated this NFL season with a 14-2 record with no home losses, lost this past weekend to the New England Patriots. The thing is that all Chargers fans were expecting this to happen, even after being up by 11 points. Quite simply, the Chargers don’t have what it takes to win at that level despite having the most talented team in the NFL. It really comes down to two individuals, with which the Chargers will never get to another Superbowl:

1. Marty Schottenheimer – Schotty has never won the big games and is known for conservative play called “MartyBall”. He was unable to bring discipline to the Chargers, which resulted in some key penalties, loss of yards that moved the team out of field goal position twice, and a stupid challenge that resulted in the Chargers having no timeouts at the end of the game, which may have given Nate Kaeding an extra 10 yards to work with….which brings us to the next problem.

2. Nate Kaeding - This 5 foot 0 kicker cannot kick under pressure. Both times the Chargers have been in the playoffs the past few years we have seen Nate blow the game. That’s right, two for two. Chargers need a good kicker to be able to make it in the playoffs and we do not. Chargers need to get rid of this midget before next season in order to succeed.