The moon’s red tonight. It’s got something to do with a lunar eclipse apparently. And despite news reports to the contrary, it’s quite clear outside with the sky devoid of clouds, let alone rain. Good picture-taking conditions.

The next one’s not until 2011…

My dad wanted me to take a shot of it tonight with his 300mm lens. So since I’m not going to be in town on Fathers’ Day this year, here’s your present dad… oh, and that silver package on your table too. Hope you enjoy it.

As an aside, can someone explain to me why it’s called a lunar eclipse? If the moon blocks the sun it’s called a solar eclipse, but when the earth blocks the sun it’s called a lunar eclipse??

If you haven’t heard yet, Canon and Nikon have both beefed up their SLR ranges in the last couple of days.

Canon’s semi-pro 30D has been replaced with the new 40D. The new model brings with it a new 10 megapixel sensor (upgraded from 8mp), 6.5 frames per second (upgraded from 5fps), Live View (I’m not a big fan of Canon’s implementation yet), 3″ LCD monitor (upgraded from 2.5″), a Digic III image processor (as seen in the 400D & 1D Mk III) and the now standard EOS Integrated Cleaning System.

The other new Canon in the line up is the replacement for the flagship 1Ds Mk II. The new Mk III is capable of capturing five mind-blowing 21 megapixel images every second. That means it’s capable of processing 185MB of image information every second. That’s crazy!

I’d have to admit that as a Canon shooter, I’m not that familiar with the Nikon range. However their two new entries in the market do look temptingly tasty. The D300 offers many similar features of the Canon 40D, but with a 12 megapixel sensor that shoots at a fractionally slower 6 frames per second.

The Nikon competitor to the Canon 1D range is the new D3. It has the same megapixel count as the D300, but it uses a full frame sensor. With the same number of sensors over a larger area the D3 is able to crank up the ISO to an amazing 25600. On top of that it can shoot between 9 and 11 frames per second depending on the autofocus settings.

These four new SLR offerings are prime examples of why Canon and Nikon are still leading the photographic market.

Read more about these cameras by clicking below:

Canon 40D
Canon 1Ds Mk III
Nikon D300
Nikon D3

Here’s a mock up of some poker chip designs I’ve been playing around with. I’ve still got to work out a logo and a better name than “Paul’s Home Game”. Not bad for a first effort I guess. I think most designers are using Adobe Illustrator, but all I’ve got is Photoshop…

Last month I bought a large piece of burgundy velveteen fabric to serve as a portable poker playing surface. I chose that over those store-bought fold-up options because it’s easier to transport, it can comfortably fit more people and it doesn’t have those dinky little in-built chip trays. In-built chip trays are about as useful as those dice that come with every poker set. Basically, velveteen’s a “truer” poker playing surface.

FYI, it’s not a very commonly known fact that poker felt isn’t actually felt. Real felt pills badly with use and isn’t terribly durable, especially if it gets wet.

Also pictured are my WSOP chips.

Anyway, the point to this story is that Elaine and I hosted a poker game last night. It drew a whole bunch of our good friends despite starting quite late. The guys kicked off the first game while the girls… well, they talked girl talk. The initial aggressive play almost completely negated the low blind structure I’d set up on the Home Poker Organizer (see the below post).

The cards ran cold for me most of the first game which resulted in my stack being eaten right down, but I still managed to grind it out to the final two. However, Laz played too well heads-up and I finished second.

The second game started just before midnight, and again with cold cards I just had to grind it out. Everyone played tight this time and it took about three hours to whittle it down to two players, Kevin and me. Heads-up saw a couple of huge swings, including the decisive second last hand where Kevin spiked an ace on the river to form a wheel straight. The very next hand Kev finished me off and won himself some very well deserved “nappy money”.

It was a long night that finished up after 3am, but what a great way to break in the new felt.

As you’d probably be aware, the poker craze is sweeping the world. If you host your own home games you might find this little tool a great help.

PokerRoom’s Home Game Organizer is a poker clock that tracks increasing blind levels automatically so you can focus on your game. No more manually tracking blinds for this fish!

PokerRoom’s Organizer has default settings which are useful if you’re not familiar with building your own tournament blind structures. However it’s also completely customisable, so you can choose your own blinds, antes, intervals, breaks, buy-ins, add-ons and payout structures.

The interface allows you to change the settings for your tournament.

PokerRoom’s Home Game Organizer in action.

Get your free copy of PokerRoom’s Home Game Organizer by clicking here.