I never thought I'd say this...

Today I actually like something about college football more than the NFL. Impossible, you say? Well, just for today I'm going to give some props to the wacky BCS system.

Tonight, the hopes of the Cleveland Browns and all their fans rested on the shoulders of Jim Sorgi. If you are a casual NFL fan, you are excused for asking if he is a player on the Browns (he's not). In fact, he is the backup quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts. But wait, didn't the Colts play the Titans, not the Browns?

Indeed they were. However, the Cleveland Browns had won their game earlier today and had a playoffs spot clinched if the Colts could beat the Titans tonight. However, the Colts had nothing to play for. They had clinched their second seed weeks ago and regardless of tonight's outcome, no change would occur in their playoff seeding. So, they did exactly what they had the incentive to do. They played their starters for about 15 minutes and then brought in the scrubs. Enter Jim Sorgi. Sorgi played reasonably well, but he played with the second and third team players against a first team defense for the Titans.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not criticizing the Colts. What they did was in their best interests. However, it doesn't make it any more bearable for the Browns. Almost certainly, if the Colts had played their best players, they could have beat the Titans. As it was, they only lost by 6 points. Browns fans should be upset--the fact that the Colts didn't put forth their best effort to win cost them a playoff spot.

In some wacky way, the BCS system takes care of this. If a team wants to win a championship, they can't take any game lightly. Could you imagine if the Colts were a college team playing the last game of the regular season, with a chance at playing in the BCS title game on the line? No way would they have their second team playing at all.

This does happen in all major sporting leagues. Teams clinch their playoff position and take a few games off. However, the teams on the bubble occasionally suffer. Browns fans, tonight I feel your pain.

A great sunset

Mrs. floporama convinced me to drive her to the coast last weekend. While we were there, we saw one of the most amazing sunsets ever. Here's the picture. Enjoy!

The Mitchell Report

So, the long-anticipated Mitchell report came out today. As promised, it implicated many many major league players as having bought or used steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs. ESPN was kind enough to post a .pdf version of the report here. For an easily formatted list of players it mentions, click here.

I've decided to read the 400 page report. Luckily, there is enough material in footnotes that it is a fairly quick read. I'm about halfway through already.

What I've learned so far:
1. Steroids was a big problem in baseball (duh)
2. It is no longer as big a problem, now that there is testing and severe penalties (duh)
3. Human Growth Hormone is now the drug of choice, since there is no urine test for it
4. The MLBPA is about as crooked as a union could be. If the Mitchell report had been a government sanctioned investigation with subpoena powers, we would know even more. Except that MLBPA would have fought every subpoena and the investigation would be another 5 years from being released.
5. Tony LaRussa is a dill weed. I never liked him before, especially after his DUI, but he is just a weasel. If I get more ambitious, I'll detail why i dislike him so much in a future post.

So, here is my dilemma. I love baseball. However, the Mitchell Report has given me even more disdain for what has been happening in baseball for the last 20 years or so. I'm more disgusted now than I was after the 1994-1995 lockout. And until there is a good, transparent testing system in place that includes HGH testing, I'll have no confidence in the game being clean.

I will defer my final judgement until I finish the Mitchell Report. However, it's a bad day to be a baseball fan.

Grandma

Yesterday Grandma had a stroke. She is a great lady and I hope she's not in pain. As of right now, her left side is paralyzed. She is unable to speak. The doctors cannot make a prognosis as to whether she will make a full or even partial recovery.

Grandma is not a young woman. She is in her late 80s. Recovery would probably include a lot of painful physical therapy.

I'm not sure how I feel. I don't want to lose my last surviving grandparent. She and I have had a special relationship for a long time. She spoils me terribly, even now when I'm in my 30s. When I have visited her home, I always knew I was loved.

I also don't want her to be in pain. And while I never felt like she complained too much, I know she's been miserable in her own way for quite a while. Many times when I've visited, she's told me how she wished she could walk better, because she always used to enjoy taking walks.

Grandpa's been gone for almost 15 years now. I'm sure that Grandma would love to join him in the great beyond.

Many of my friends (who I think are the only ones who look at this blog) have been the beneficiaries of Grandma's hospitality. Her house has been a convenient way station for trips to Las Vegas or Zion's National Park. If you have been touched by her kindness, please take a moment and say a prayer for Grandma Lub.

"Ocean in view! O! The joy!"

Since I had nothing better to do this weekend, I decided to spend a few hours making the drive to see the ocean. I hadn't been on the American coast of the Pacific ocean in several years, and I figured today, although rainy, would be a good day to see it again.

Even though Medford is actually only about 80 miles from the coast, to drive there you have to take a circuitous route that involves going into and out of California. The good news is the drive is everything a leisurely drive should be--winding roads over mountains, next to rocky cliffs, and full of some of the best views I've seen in a long time. See some of my pictures from the trip here.

The drive starts by taking the freeway from Medford to Grants Pass. As freeway drives go, this is a good one. Lots of verdant hills full of evergreen trees. Just enough windiness to keep things interesting, and not enough to make you sick of the turns.

Once you get off the freeway in Grants Pass, you see what is the ugliest part of the drive. Typical small town sprawl with supermarkets, fast food, and every other business to meet your needs. As you leave the town, you pass through a speed trap where you see 3 cops in 1/2 mile. Then, you are on your way.

I feel bad about it now, because I found the drive to be beautiful, but I'll ignore the stretch of the trip from Grants Pass to Cave Junction. It was great, but it's after you leave Cave Junction that things get really interesting. As I was scoping out the directions on google maps, I noticed a large amount of the California part of the trips was in "Smith River NRA." As it happens, NRA is not National Rifle Association here, but National Recreation Area. I have just two words for it--holy crap! The area is amazing. You have 10 miles of very winding roads as you follow the Smith River. Then, just as you get onto a faster part of the road, you start seeing redwood trees. Out of the blue. 10-12 feet in diameter. Right next to the road--literally. As in asphalt touching bark. It was just seriously amazing and beautiful.

It made getting to the point where I could see the ocean feel less impressive. But it was still pretty amazing, even if it was raining pretty good the whole time I was down on the beach. And of course, after I had been rained on for about 45 minutes and finally had gotten back in the car with dry clothes, it started to clear up.

Fortunately, the drive back was so amazing it made up for the rainy time I had on the beach. On my way to the coast, I had kept thinking, "sheesh there are a lot of creeks and rivers." So on the way back, I made a list of every body of water I passed. Here goes:

Pacific Ocean
Winchuk River
Gilbert Creek
Smith River
Rowdy Creek
Middle Fork (Smith River)
Hardscrabble Creek
Mary's Creek
Patrick Creek
Little Jones Creek
Siskiyou Fork
Knopki Creek
Elk Creek
West Fork (Illinois River)
Rough and Ready Creek
East Fork (Illinois River)
George Creek
Holton Creek
Lake Selmac
Deer Creek
Anderson Creek
Clear Creek
Butcher Knife Creek
Slate Creek
Waters Creek
Applegate River
Rogue River
Bear Creek

Okay, that's all of them. Mrs. Floporama and I will definitely be taking this trip again once she comes out here.

A little webcam fun

To try to alleviate the separation anxiety faced by mrs. floporama and myself, we decided to buy webcams. After purchasing the cameras with free two-day shipping (thanks, Amazon Prime!), they arrived today to be put to the test.

After a short setup, we were on our way. Since we got Microsoft webcams, we decided to try a video chat with Windows Live Messenger. The experience was a mixed bag. After a few minutes getting everything going, the connection was decent for a few minutes. Then it would crap out. Close the chat window and restart. This time there was a very annoying echo. Try again. Works for a few minutes, then freezes. Finally give up for the night.

All in all, it was a nice experience. It was great to see my wife's smiling face and also my lazy lazy cat. I wish the functionality were a little better, and I wonder how much of it has to do with the somewhat unreliable wireless network adapter on her computer. However, we will definitely be giving it another try. Slow video is better than no video, I always say.

Actually, I never say. In fact, until just now I've never said it. And come to think of it, I still didn't say it--I typed it. Okay, but now I did say it out loud. You'll have to take my word for it though, because I didn't record myself saying it. Which means, it may have never happened at all. If a guy says something in an empty apartment and nobody else hears him, does it make a sound? Also, I'm retarded. Kill this post now...

Yet another cat video

Today's cat video of the day--the cat vs. the ferret:


via neatorama

Kids are random

Nothing spectacular here, but one thing I like about kids is how random they are. On the shuttle bus from the rental car lot to the airport yesterday I was eavesdropping on a little (about 6 years old) girl and her mother. They had been talking about something completely different and out of the blue, the girl says:

"There are only two kids in my class who wear glasses."

Followed by stunned silence for about 5 seconds. Then the girl says, "Brittany and Hunter wear glasses."

More silence and then the mom finally says, "that's great honey." And the girl moved on to another random subject.

Back in Oregon

After a Thanksgiving trip to Utah to visit mrs. floporama, I've returned to Oregon. While there are plenty of things I will miss about being in Utah (my wife, my cat, my home, my bed, etc.), there is one thing that I will absolutely not miss--Utah drivers.

I've lived in Utah for the better part of my adult life. However, I grew up in the Atlanta area. I've taken multiple business trips to southern California. I've driven rental cars in New York City, Chicago, and many other cities across the country. And I am convinced that drivers in Utah are the worst.

What makes them so bad? First is the passive-aggressive nature of many LDS people. It makes for an incredible amount of road-rage fueled drivers. Since they will likely never interact with their fellow drivers outside the confines of their vehicles, they can act out the aggressive side of their passive-aggressive nature. The road rage I encountered on the relatively tame roads of Utah puts New Yorkers to shame. In New York or Los Angeles, you will get honked at, but it's expected. In Utah, the same person who might be teaching your gospel doctrine class on Sunday could be flipping you off on Monday.

For me, this would be mostly forgiveable except for the one behavior of Utah driving that I truly truly hate. As soon as a driver gets on the freeway, they immediately get over one lane to the left. This happens even when the right hand lane is completely empty. Then, every lane except the slow lane will drive THE EXACT SAME SPEED. Granted, this speed is sometimes fairly quick, but the fact that the best place to pass cars on the freeway is the right hand lane is very messed up.

The situation is so stupid that the legislature felt it needed to take action recently. (I'm too lazy to find a link to prove my point, but I read about it in the paper about six months ago.) They passed a law stating that if you are in the far left hand lane and someone behind you wants to pass you, you need to get over as soon as possible and allow the pass. It's amazing that lawmakers had to waste their time on a common sense driving principle, but then again, the Utah legislature has to meet in Salt Lake, so I'm sure it's passive-aggressive members encountered many bad drivers themselves.

In California or Georgia, drivers understand the principle of increasing speeds as you move leftward on the freeway. Or at least they do if they can actually move--traffic is hideous in both places. You might have drivers going 65 in the right lane, 70 in the second-from-right, 75 in the next, and so on. In Utah you have people either not driving or going 60 mph in the right lane and 75 in every other lane. It annoys me greatly and I'm delighted that I don't have to face it again on a regular basis.

I drove to the SLC airport this evening and just had to laugh at how many times I got caught in the so-called "Utah Box". In three weeks of driving in small-town Oregon, I've never once experienced road rage or felt like some other driver was angry with me. Slow and easy is the way it goes here, and that's just fine with me.

One of these things is not like the others

My temporary apartment is right next to an elementary school. On a
walk today, I noticed the following signs:

I just can't help myself

I know, I know...two cat videos in one day. But after going onto youtube to grab the html code for the previous video, I couldn't help but search for my all time favorite cat video. Mrs. floporama is a big fan of this one as well.

The Cat and the Crawfish

I defy anyone to watch this video and not end up whistling a certain tune that shall not be named for the rest of the day. Enjoy! I love that the dog is completely uninterested in everything going on around him.

Curious signage

It's now been a little over two weeks since I started my new job. Every day, on my way to and from my desk when I come in or leave work, I've seen this sign on a door in the hallway on the way out of my building. Every day, at least 4 times a day, I've wondered an Oubliette is. Finally, last night, as I was leaving the building, the door to the Oubiette was left ajar and a discovered....

A dark closet that appeared to be a combination janitor's/old junk closet. And so I finally decided to try to figure out what an Oubliette is. Once I did, the name on the closet made perfect nerd sense. So as to not spoil anyone else's fun, I'll leave the exercise of determining what it means to my few, sparse readers. Best of luck.

Not your next car

While I've been waiting for the relocation company to ship me my car, I've had a rental car. A very nice perk, if I do say so myself. However, my friendly neighborhood car rental company gave me a Ford Focus. Let me preface the rest of my post by saying that I have no agenda against Ford. I've owned a Ford Explorer that I dearly loved. However, the 2008 Ford Focus is simply not a well designed vehicle.

So as I was instant messaging with a friend tonight, I made the claim that I could think of at least 5 things about the car that really bothered me. Then I decided to find out if I really could. So, here they are, my five primary complaints about the 2008 Ford Focus:

5. The windshield wiper controls. Again, I'm just not sure what engineering was thinking about on this one. Virtually every car I've driven, foreign or domestic for the last 10 years has had the exact same control system for turning on your wipers. Ford decided to mix it up on the focus. Everything is the opposite of what you expect. Up is down and down is up. To speed up the wipers, you turn a knob on the control stick towards you instead of away.

4. This is nothing new for Ford, but instead of putting your headlights on your turn signal, they still insist on a separate knob clear up on the left side of the dashboard. Again, why are you persisting in being different from almost every other car maker?

3. The rearview mirror is very very stiff. When I try to adjust it, i feel like I might accidentally rip it off the windshield if I'm not careful. I don't want a floppy mirror, but I do want some ease of adjustment.

2. One of my more common complaints about cars...the cup holders. They are positioned in the center console toward the front. However, when I tried to put a large soda from a famous fast food chain in the holder, it was too tall. The cup leaned to the side and dumped several ounces onto the shoddy floor mats.

2a. The cup holders come with rubber liners that you can remove for easy cleaning. Good idea, right? Not in this case. They stick to the cups they hold so you end up picking up your drink and a rubber sleeve. But because the sleeve only fits into the cup holder in precisely one position, its impossible to put your drink back into the cup holder.

1. Special guest complaint by my wife--the turn signal is loud. Very loud. As in if I'm driving home and talking to my wife on the phone she complains about how annoying it is. So loud that when she came to visit me last weekend, we took her rental car (2008 Pontiac Grand Prix) out several times just to avoid it. It makes me imagine the following conversation between two Ford engineers:

Nerdy engineer #1: On my way in this morning I got stuck behind some lame-o who changed lanes and never turned off his blinker.

Nerdy engineer #2: You know, for the new Focus, we should make it so it is really hard for a driver to leave his on.

Nerdy engineer #1: Good idea...I've heard of some car manufacturers creating an alarm where if it is on for very long while the car is in motion, it will alert you.

Nerdy engineer #2: Hmmm...we don't want to worry about patent infringement. Let's come up with a blinker that is really loud all the time, even if you are waiting at a red light.

Nerdy engineer #1: Sounds good. But couldn't that lead to a safety issue if it annoys drivers too much? We don't want to really piss off our own drivers...

Nerdy engineer #2: We have a scheduled break in 2 minutes...let's just put the damn thing in and go get our coffee.

So, what is good about the car? The stereo is pretty decent. I think it's not a horrible looking car--except for the hideous shade of blue they stuck me with. In another color, it might be an okay looking car. And I guess at a MSRP of $14,375, its not a very expensive car. Just be prepared to be annoyed.

Also, I just thought of one more annoyance, also courtesy of my wife. Most cars these days have an alarm to remind you to fasten your seatbelt if you are driving. Ford took it one additional annoying step by beeping if the passenger has decided not to fasten her seatbelt. I didn't know whether to be more annoyed at Ford or at my wife for this one, but it really does grate on you. I'm all for safety, but driver annoyance should not be the method for implementing safe practices in a vehicle.

Drive safely. Also, don't be like Catherine and drive too quickly.

Sweetest...Dessert....Ever

Today I had the pleasure to try the most ridiculously sweet dessert ever known to man...or at least to this man. I went to a meeting and one of the snack options was a Harry & David Christmas Tree Cheesecake. It was an experience like no other.

My only complaint was about the presentation. I thought it looked like a Little Debbie Christmas snack cake. As soon as I picked it up, though, I knew something was different. It was cool to the touch and clearly had a hard chocolate coating.

It was love at first bite (not funny, I know). But I was thrilled when instead of a sub-par cake filling that you would expect from a Little Debbie, it was a moist, sweet piece of raspberry cheesecake.

My recommendation? If you can stomach the price tag ($32.95 for 9), give these a try. One tree is more than sufficient for a dessert. Order here.

NBA is craptastic!

Most of those near and dear to me know that I am not a big fan of the National Basketball Association. Tonight I tried to watch a few minutes of a game on ESPN and had to turn it off after just a few minutes. So tonight, in honor of the Association, I'm going to lay out why I don't like the NBA.

1. The way games are officiated. I hate that superstars "get calls" and everyone in the arena knows it, from the fans to the players to the refs. Kobe got brushed on the forearm? Foul! KG ran into someone on the follow through of a shot? Better head to the foul line. Some second round draft pick on his way to the basket gets massacred by Shaq? No whistle there--it's the rookie's fault for being so sucky.

1a. The jump-step. I've still never heard a compelling case as for how this isn't travelling. It does look cool, but what the heck?

2. Almost every team runs the same play over and over. Player X gets possesion of the ball on one side of the court. All other players on X's team head to other side of key. The isolation play is b-o-r-i-n-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Oh sorry, I mean "g".

3. Posting up. I hate that everyone on the team except for whoever happens to have the ball sits around the top of the key waiting for something to pass them the ball for an open three pointer. Of course you're open--you are a seven foot tall lerp who should be playing 5 feet from the basket, not 22 feet away!

4. The pay scale. Apparently, I'm not the only one who hates this. Just for fun, I created the following chart. It shows an interesting relationship between the average salary for an NBA player (adjusted for inflation) vs. the average NBA finals rating. Tell me if you don't see two very different relationships.

5. The unbelievable stupidity and arrogance of certain players (think Stephon Marbury).

5. I'm sure I could think of more reasons, but I need to go check out the MLB and NFL sections on ESPN. Maybe there will be some sort of sporting news I care about. Oooh, it looks like John Beck will start for the 'phins this Sunday!

Top 10

Things to love about Oregon:
1. No sales tax!
2. Full service gas only. (I will admit this one is still a little strange to me. It makes you feel a little lazy sitting in your car while someone else operates controls so simple that in most states teenagers can do it.)
3. Bike lanes everywhere--even though I am without a bike at the moment.
4. The sales tax is 0%
5. No traffic whatsoever--at least here in Medford.
6. Oregon Trail--the greatest educational computer game ever. And yes, I'm calling you out, Carmen Sandiego. No kid actually wants to try to track down obscure geographical trivia in order to chase after some dilettante in a floppy red hat. Also, it was endlessly frustrating to chase after Ms. Sandiego only to end up capturing some vile henchman. However, the TV show did have a great theme song. In fact, just thinking about it has made the song stuck in my head for at least an hour.

Give me Oregon Trail instead. Give me random illnesses. Give me dead oxen. And above all, give me a loss of most of my supplies from trying to float a dangerous river crossing! That's a real educational game!
7. Great weather--no ground snow in the winter, or at least so I've been told
8. Lighted street signs--while these are far from omnipresent, I've seen enough to be won over. It makes a world of difference just looking up and clearly being able to read the intersecting road, rather than having to slow down and look for which corner the road sign is on, then squinting to make it out in the dim streetlight.
9. Did I mention how everything is about 6.5% cheaper because there is no sales tax?
10. From my current apartment, all of the following are less than 10 minutes away:
Barnes & Noble
Fred Meyer
Applebee's
Quizno's
Subway
Ross
Taco Bell
and many more...oh, and did I mention that they are less than a 10 minute walk away? In 10 minutes I could drive to almost every store or restaurant imaginable.

Something I won't miss about Utah

Today I was out in my driveway filling some cracks. I know, I know...you are all thinking, "my, what an exciting life you live!"

As I was working, some neighbor kids from a few doors down across the street were running back and forth between their house and their friends' house next door. I don't remember what prompted the outburst, but at one point the two-year old girl blurted out, "oh my heck!"

Even though I have occasionally caught myself using this expression, I can't stand it. Maybe even loathe it. Sometimes you might say I detest it. Mostly though, I just don't like it whatsoever. And for a two-year old girl to be saying it--oh my heck! that is just ridiculous. What the fetch is wrong with her parents to teach her such naughty language?

The final week, day 1

Since today was the first day of my week-long vacation before moving to Oregon, I decided to do one of the pain-in-the-butt things that I've been putting off for far too long--taking our psycho cat Finneran to the vet. Conveniently, my lovely wife would be returning from a trip to New York, and so would be unable to assist in the fun.

The preparations began last night. I had noticed his claws were sharper than normal. Anticipating a potential struggle getting him into his carrier, I decided to clip his claws. As usual, he put up a little fight--he's always much more interested in rubbing his chin on the clippers than in letting me trim his claws.

Then today at 1:30, the fun began. Luckily, the cap had decided to take a nap on the futon in our office, so I could make preparations without him seeing. I went out to the garage and got the kennel out from under the workbench. Because it had been there undisturbed for about 3 years, it was very dusty. I cleaned it up as best as I could, then brought it inside and hid it around the corner from the kitchen, so even if the cat woke up, he wouldn't see it.

Next, I grabbed Mrs. floporama's favorite bathrobe. Incidentally, this is also Finneran's favorite bathrobe. If she leaves it on the bed, its a sure bet that we will find him nestled into it when we come home. I spread the robe in the cage so the cat could nestle right in, if he so desired (yeah right!).

Finally, the real fun began. I went and started to pet the cat to wake him up. He finally groggily began to open his eyes and I picked him up and carried him downstairs, rubbing his belly the whole time to try to lull him into a false sense of security. It was working okay--at least until we got close to the carrier. Then, as soon as I turned the corner and he saw the carrier, he turned into:

CRAZY PSYCHO ANGRY CAT!!!
(Cat shown is not my actual cat)


He literally went bananas as soon as he saw it. It took three tries to finally get him far enough into the carrier to think about shutting the door. However, he had quickly turned around and managed to get a paw out that I had to shove back into the cage. Finally, I was able to shut the door and then the howling began. MEEEEOOOOW! RRRRROOOOWWWWW! Repeated about 900 times over the next 20 minutes. Fortunately, we live only about a mile from a vet and mercifully, the vet was not at all busy today, so the whole round trip only took about 18 minutes. However, the cat did not shut up for longer than 30 seconds of that whole 18 minutes. Loudly, at the top of his voice, letting me know of his extreme displeasure. The vet took about 60 seconds to actually give Finneran his two shots. I spent more time filling out paperwork and then waiting to pay my bill than the vet took to do his business.

Finally, we were mercifully home. I took the still screaming cat upstairs and let him out next to the bed. He immediately ran under it and I haven't seen him yet. However, I'm not sure I'm going to sleep tonight--I'll be too fearful of vengeance from the evil psycho cat.

The final weekend...

No new posts since September...well, that seems a little fishy. Nothing important could have been going on. Oh, except that I found a new job in a state far far away. And while I plan to discuss the career move here, I think I'll wait until a slightly later time to do so. Meanwhile, back at the stately floporama manor, I am the king of the castle.

No, actually that would be the cat, who seems intent on taking over whatever portion of the bed I might choose to sleep on. Also, who is scooping whom's poop?

At any rate, my lovely and talented wife has decided to go on a trip to New York City. And even though she booked the trip months in advance, it just so happens that the trip coincides with my last full weekend in Utah, or at least my last weekend as a full-time Utah resident. As much as that detail thrills me, it is also a little bittersweet. Utah has been my home for almost 10 years now--it will be strange to just walk away.

And, since I'm positive everyone is just dying for a picture from New York, here it is. Nothing like a big pile of blurry New York trash to make you yearn for the city.

Rain in Utah?

Out of the blue today we got an afternoon thundershower. By my very
unofficial tally that makes almost 3 weeks since we got any moisture
at all. And as you can see from the picture below, we didn't get very
much.

It was very nice to sit outside and get wet, though. Instead of 95
degrees, we got 75.

Master of his domain

My lazy cat lying on my belly

Bobble o

Football draft tonight

Just like the mafia, everytime I think I'm out, I get sucked back in. Despite my massive apathy for fantasy baseball this year, I'm gonna play fantasy football. Our draft is tonight. I have no chance.

Mrs. floporama of course thinks I'm an idiot. She's probably right.

Six months later...

So I seem to have dropped off the face of the earth for about 6 months. Sad, really, since they should have been pretty exciting months.

New Camera

On her most recent trip to Costco, mrs. floporama picked up a new digital camera, the Panasonic TZ1. At first, I was very skeptical since we already have a digital camera. At first I was skeptical since looking at the very base specs, the camera is fairly similar to our current model. However, after playing around with the camera a little, I've discovered that I really like the new one--or at least my initial impressions are very favorable.

Here's what I like:
Image quality: if you compare the average picture from this camera to our other current 5 megapixel camera, the difference is astounding. The Panasonic has a Leica lens and I think between the better quality lens and digital sensor, it really makes for a much higher quality image. It also has a 10x optical zoom, allowing you to get ridiculously close in on your subject.

Has a little heft to it: The size is a little larger than most new cameras in the same megapixel/price range, but there is nothing wrong with that. It does make it a little heavier and harder to carry around, but this is about the same size as most film point-and-shoot cameras from the early 1990's.

Customization: There are two different scene settings on the dial. You can set each of these to whatever settings you'd like and then shoot away to your hearts content. Each setting comes with recommended usage and techniques, but these can then be further refined through menus. In all honesty, I probably will never personalize the settings much, but with so many options for each scene mode, I'm not sure a casual user like me would really have much need to.

Speed: On our other camera, you would press the button and wait up to a second while it decided how badly it wanted to take your picture for you. Then, you would wait another 2-3 seconds for it to save to the memory card. When you press the button on the Panasonic, it quickly focuses and takes the picture. I have no desire to actually time the difference, but it is very noticeable. Then, the Panasonic quickly saves the image to the memory card and you are ready to go again. I would say that using the same memory card, the panasonic can save the picture in less than a second.

Optical Image Stabilization: This could be my very favorite feature of the camera. At full zoom (10x optical), the OIS system makes it hard to take a shaky picture. As you can see from the duck picture, between the autofocus and the OIS, it's very easy to make things look nice.

My only real beefs with the camera? It takes a proprietary rechargeable battery rather than AA's and because of its huge lens, it requires a lens cap.

We have Sam's working on doing some actual prints in various sizes to see how good the images look once you get them on paper, but my initial reaction on this camera is "Wow!"