Balance the Budget Challenge

The recession has left North Carolina with a deep and unprecedented budget shortfall.

In this crisis I see an opportunity to streamline programs and refashion state government into a more nimble organization focused on serving you, the taxpayers. I also believe that as your governor, I have a responsibility to protect the investments in education, jobs and public safety that help make North Carolina great.

This is a new website set up by the North Carolina Governor’s Office to let you try to do their job of balancing the budget. The site lets you decide what to cut or what new revenue streams to add to make the budget balance. When I saw this I had two initial thoughts: isn’t this a cool way to get people to think about how difficult it is to make these cuts and HOLY ?@&! – we are $2,400,000,000 in the red and someone thought it was a good idea to make a website about it.  If it is anything like a certain local city’s website we’d only be $2,399,000,000 in debt if we didn’t do this.  Talk about keeping the spending in check.

That being said it is fun and it does let you see first hand some of the choices the Governor and the legislature are facing this session.  Should we add more students to classrooms, raise tuition, privatize the ABC system or legalize video poker?  All of them come with a cost and a price. This budget even allows you to spend money on specific line items like increasing economic incentives to encourage companies to move or expand in NC.  At the end it tells you what you have done by way of cuts to existing jobs but it doesn’t tell you what the outcome is beyond a under or over budget status. In this way it is decidedly less political than one might assume.

If you take the Challenge and decide to act like a politician let me know what big ticket items you cut. I’ve done it once today but plan on doing it again and being a little more serious.  If you like your budget you can even forward it the Governor’s Office. Just remember:

There are real people – real families – behind these numbers. In the real world, building a budget is about more than just making hard decisions about where to cut and what jobs to lose.

Give it a try and if you are good – run for office in 2012. We can likely use you.

Tamron Macro Test

So I mentioned in my last post that I had purchased a Macro lens and the closest distance I could shoot was about 18 inches.  BobG (veteran camera-dude and purveyor of knowledge) challenged me on this and turns out he was right.  (He just hit Control-P to print this page.)

Turns out that is an auto focus limitation and doesn’t matter when you switch to manual focus.  The image to the right and the ones in the gallery below were shot at closer than 18 inches using manual focus.  (Exception being the shot of Princess I took in the middle of playing and posted because she is a cute dog.  Take that Westminster Dog Show.)

Still having fun and learning and open to suggestions or ideas on how to improve my shot taking. These images have been re-sized but are otherwise unedited.  I was playing with the depth of field on the Star Wars figures that are less than 2 inches tall so the blurriness is intentional.

Beer Me Leia!

Was Luke the original redneck jedi?

Happy Valentine’s Day!

CBS cares…  and so do we.

Tamron 18-270mm F/3.5-6.3

This weekend I broke down and purchased a new toy that I have had my eye on for a while – the Tamron 18-270mm lens.  I’ve read the good the bad and the ugly about it and weighed the options and decided that 15x optical zoom seemed like a great lens.  This should be a lens that keeps me from changing lenses or a “walkabout” solution for a DSLR.  So far – it has been great.  Expect many more pictures in the coming months from this monster.

The image to the right was taken standing in the same place.  The top at 18mm and the bottom at 270mm.  I did this to get an idea of the zoom capabilities.  Both images were crystal clear and we’re modified beyond shrinking them for the purposes of comparison.

The lens is much larger (filter size 72mm vs. 52mm) and much heavier than my other lenses. I’ve heard this as a disadvantage although I can’t say that it is so much vs. the utility of the lens and not having to change lenses for different shots. It is a macro lens so I can shoot from 18 inches away vs. the nearly a yard distance I had to stay back before.

Want to throw in a quick plug for Peace Camera – they have been great to work with and purchase from.  The store’s staff can’t be beat.  I’ve been in there a lot and asked a ton of questions and can say this is the best place to go in the area.  I’ve linked to them before but feel it bears repeating – they are a really great asset here in our backyard.

More pictures soon – better pictures as I learn to use the equipment.