My cell of choice at the moment is an HTC Droid, and as strictly a cell phone, it’s frustrating to use because the stinking screen keeps going to black at key moments. Otherwise, it’s a handy little device with the usual slate of cool Android apps.

The nicest feature is the camera. I don’t know the technical specs except it takes darn nice pictures. Maybe the biggest weakness is I always take pictures slightly askew to the right (easy to fix in Picnik) and it’s be nice if there were an onscreen “leveler” but that’s a minor thing.

Here’s some samples that I keep in the “HTC Droid Pix” set on Flickr. I like landscapes:

Not long after a soldier (we’re tracking down his name currently) was killed in Afghanistan, his platoon returned home. In his honor, they stood in formation, as they always did, only this time there was a gap where he normally stood; his 2 year-old daughter taking his place in formation.

Via TheBrigade. The video on the page is worth ten minutes of your life.

This week’s Postcard.

Today we have been married 10,304 days…and counting.

Whenever I get irritated or flatly pissed off at the racist, sexist, fear-mongering, hate-spewing, closed-mindedness of the radio and television pundits (both conservative and liberal) using their First Amendment rights to abuse rather than inform, I watch this clip.

These people serve a useful purpose: they remind us that we must always be on guard to ensure our country’s freedoms and opportunities are available to all of its citizens, not just a chosen few.

/soapbox

On this day of annual leave, I headed up the road to Virginia City, the boomtown that practically created the state of Nevada. The discovery of the Comstock Lode in the 1850s drew thousands of miners from around the world and, at one point, the town had over 10,000 people living there. The Lode died out and so did the town, which survives today as a tourist stop.

Folks in my generation remember Virginia City as the second home to the Cartwright family on the television show Bonanza. In real life, V.C. looks nothing like a Hollywood backlot and there’s not a flat piece of ground anywhere to be found.

Being a tourist town, it does its best to pull folks into the shops.

And being Nevada, it has its share of idiots and notoriety.

Nevada’s first Catholic church was St. Mary’s in the Mountains.

Here’s a candle for JT and Danielle.

The mandatory “V” above the city.

Oh yeah. Breakfast at the Delta Saloon. Nice atmosphere but I’m still feeling the grease.

V.C. is a nice little town and worth the drive. Y’all should stop by and spend some money there. And soon.