Still Around

Yes, I still am around but I guess you could say I have had "blogger's block".  A quick perusal of my post list shows three different posts in the last 4 months that are still in the editing stage but I can't remember what prompted the thought or where I was going to go with it.  Then there has been "life" - a couple of vacations to the mountains of Colorado and New Mexico, working some cattle one weekend with my family, and then some personal things I've been working through.  But now I'm wrapping up a work trip to our nation's capitol and have some time to sit and put down some thoughts since there isn't anything worth watching on TV and I'm trying to figure out if I ate something I shouldn't have today.

I really like visiting Washington D.C.  Being a history buff, there is something about being in the midst of what I think is living history.  Not only is there all the stuff that develops and moves day-by-day, good or bad, in this town but there is also the rich history that precedes the "now".  When I fly into Reagan National Airport, I look out across the city and can't help but think that our founding fathers may have walked on some of the same ground I may.  How many people in benchmark/milestone/historical moments were in the various places that I was/am walking that aren't commemorated by a marker, memorial, or named street.  Then there are the collections; the Smithsonian system, National Art Museum, Library of Congress, FBI, U.S. Treasury, and so on - all of which bring a wealth of educational knowledge for those who seek it out (as opposed to those who go to say they have been there or the schoolkids that view a field trip as only a day away from school).  The memorials also speak to those that have come before and fought for what I more often than not and so many definitely take for granted.

The other thing I can fill up on for a bit is the "closeness" of everything.  Being able to take a 10 minute walk to work (and it DEFINITELY helps that the weather is cool and relatively dry out here right now), shops, restaurants, a Whole Foods within a short walking distance, and a fairly routine scheduled mass transit system.  Yes, there are cracks in this; the Metro is really showing it's age, infrastructure construction has resulted in some traffic jams which I guess slows the buses down, and you can see some areas of urban blight in the midst of the renewal that is attempting to take place in Silver Spring where I am working.  I also can get my fill of a vast collection of cultures.  We had lunch at an authentic Italian Ristorante two days this week and neither time was I disappointed.  Then there was the outstanding Thai cuisine I had last night in Sterling with a good friend and former co-worker from the Panhandle.  Basically, I need two more days to try out the Ethiopian food place that smells so good when I walk by and the Indian restaurant that from the outside looks like a dark, dingy hole in the wall but is rated 4-stars by several reviewers and locals.

If there was a way that I could manage to do it, I would come back much more often and explore all that D.C. has to offer.  Matter of fact, I even made the comment to my friend that if my employer had a temporary assignment lasting a year, with close housing (basically here in Silver Spring) that allowed me to walk to work every day, and weather like we've had so far here year-round, I would have to give it SERIOUS consideration.  But then after five days here, I also realize that there are so many things I miss.  The trees, hills, and overall green are nice but I feel claustrophobic at times.  I can't see the horizon to know what is moving in thanks to the mass of steel and concrete around me and outside of the city has trees which do the same.  The cost of living is much higher here, I cannot honor our founding father's gift by practicing my rights under the Second Amendment in Maryland (or D.C. proper for that matter), and the traffic would drive me insane.  Drivers here feel entitled to the road therefore normal pedestrian laws don't apply because they are running late for work, the light is still red, but they could turn right and I'm in the crosswalk and give you a dirty look, honk, or cuss you out.

I also think I'm not ready yet in other areas: how do I respond to the homeless man that follows me for a while saying I look like a rich boy and could spare some change because I walk in fancy boots?  What do I do on the Metro when a stoned/drunk out of their head guy is confronting a lady because she won't take him home with her (they got off at Metro Station so I have no idea how it ended up) and I feel that it isn't a good situation?  Getting in my car and driving to think or unwind; impossible with this traffic and it would be pretty hard to find a place of solitude within 15 minutes like I can back home...

Too many things to think about right now and I've got an early departure in the morning.  So I bid you adieu once again Washington D.C. richer in some ways and yet empty in others.  We'll see what the next couple of years bring and (Lord willing) I'll be back sometime soon.

A Retirement...

New post coming but I'll leave you with this preview as a hint:

Something to do with changing cameras...

Thoughts on HDR Photography

I am a slacker.  I've been busy and preoccupied with various things and my blog has fallen by the wayside as a result.  BUT, this has been in the queue and I've decided to get it out in hopes of jump-starting my blogging time.

Recently I have started to play with High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. The human eye can perceive a high range of brightness with clarity; from dark corners of a building to the bright blue sky out the window in the same scene. However, cameras do not have this ability. Print film/slides can "see" about 7 stops of contrast, my Canon Digital Rebel XT can "see" about 10 stops of contrast, and the computer screen can display about 9 stops. The human eye on the other hand can see anywhere from 20 to 30 stops.

This poses problems for tying to capture in a picture with what I am seeing when there is a large difference in brightness/contrast in the scene.  Before the advent of digital photography, the use of neutral-density filters, over and under exposure, ISO push, and film development techniques all tried to compensate for the limit of technology.  I still have in my gear bag many of these filters and from time to time will pull them out and use them.  Then I dove into Digital Photography when I purchased my Canon Digital Rebel XT in 2005.  After becoming comfortable with the abilities of the camera, a friend of mine introduced me to HDR photography 3 years ago.  I filed this newfangled process in the back of my mind believing I would stick to the true nature of photography and not let technology do the work for me.

Another reason I didn't dabble in HDR was an unfounded belief that anything altered or created significantly by digital means is NOT photography in true form.  Don't get me wrong, I used Paint Shop Pro and now Photoshop to remove dead pixels, dust on the sensor, and a blur or two from fingerprints or water on the lens.  However, I felt for the longest time that HDR images didn't look "real" mainly because HDR was still in it's infancy.  For example (pulled at random from Picasa), this album just doesn't look right to me for some reason.  The color balance was off and it looks as if the sky was burned into the image.  Several other pictures had this similar unnatural discontinuity.  I also had to deal with on occasion at work images submitted of tornadoes that were obvious fakes that soured my taste for heavy digital editing.

But as is usually the case, technology improves, methods improve, and my mind started to change.  I started to see stunning images created through HDR work, and now there are videos starting to arrive that are made through HDR techniques (and probably take a LOT of work!!!).  Information on various methods, techniques, and software started to grow and I finally started to realize that HDR images can bring the actual image out MUCH closer to what I was seeing through the viewfinder.  Let me give you an example:

This image was taken by my XT at 5:27 AM MDT at 0 EV.  The color in the sky is nice but the foreground is rather dark.

For this case, I had set my XT to bracket at +/- 1 EV for three shots (Ideally, I would have done +/- 2 EV and +/- 1 EV for a five shot bracket but my XT cannot do this).  So, the -1 EV shot looked like this with a nearly invisible foreground but the deeper reds came through in the sky:

And then the +1 EV images came in with the sky almost totally washed out BUT the foreground is totally visible now!

For my HDR processing, I plinked down for Photomatix Pro after reading many a blog, review, and webpage on the various software packages out for HDR work.  Taking the three images (remember, you need at least two or more images to combine into HDR, ideally several from the + and - EV sides) and letting Photomatix Pro combine them, then tonemapping the image, reloading into Adobe Photoshop Elements, then only doing a weak sharpening for this example, we end up with this image:

And THIS is what I saw that morning about as close to what it really was as I can reproduce right now.  That is what I am supposed to do; capture the images as close as to how it is in nature so that others can see and enjoy.  If HDR helps me to do so, then I am all for it AS LONG AS it is stated that the images is indeed HDR and not a single exposure.  Not disclosing this fact in my mind is misleading to the viewer/buyer and is also dishonest at the least.  I prefer integrity and honesty over being a fake or liar any day...

ANYWAY, having worked through my initial issues with the idea of HDR, I am now actively looking for scenes where this may work to help convey what was truly going on at the time I saw the scene in the picture. Matter of fact, technology has come such a long way that I now have an app on my iPhone that will take HDR images using the built in camera.  I can now capture more realistic images while out and about and share them with others while still using the digital SLR for archival, print, and maybe eventually selling higher quality images.  Besides, since I don't have a tripod for the iPhone, there are still some alignment issues with the images and the tonemapping isn't quite as robust as in Photomatix but it gets the job done:

I continue to warm to HDR photography as yet another tool in my camera bag (well, now camera AND laptop bags) to try and represent the best image possible.  It opens a new way to give you the image that I saw with my eyes or at least something as close to it as possible.  Hopefully images that make you have the same reaction when I see them in real-time:  "WOW!"...

Lesson Learned.

My laugh (and hopefully yours) for the day...

Spring has Arrived

Spring has arrived out here on the Llano Estacado; warm days, cool nights, low relative humidities that make your skin look like it was from a lizard, and an occasional day of 1/2 mile visibility in blowing dust. Ugh...

HOWEVER, as a sure sign spring is here, these guys have bloomed in the past week (all images ©2010 Jason Jordan, all rights reserved):




It also appears that I will have at least one tulip...pics when it finally decides to wake up and open to the world.

REVIEW: Asus Eee 1005Ha Netbook

Gotta get into the habit of this thanks to the new FTC disclosure regulations: no payment was received either in equipment or monetarily for the product below. In other words, I bought it, I like it, and I want to share my thoughts. So there...

ANYWAY, I have been keeping this review in the edit list for quite a while but I think I have enough experience with it now to share my thoughts. Lugging around my "supercomputer" laptop has become quite cumbersome, especially when flying on AA or SWA. This machine is a 17" widescreen Dell Dual-Core with Vista and is primarily used for photography editing and was used as my primary stormchasing machine as well. All the horsepower is nice when compared to my 8-year old desktop and the laptop is handy for quick edits while in the field. However, this machine is H E A V Y; even in a backpack carrying case, it is quite cumbersome to lug around. When stormchasing, the laptop is also quite big and takes up the entire arm rest leaving little in the way of comfort for long hauls (and no, I'm not interested in a Ram Mount just yet).

With my desktop starting to show signs of it's age, I started to look at how to handle swapping machines around. An iMac is still in my future for a desktop and eventually a MacBook Pro once my laptop gets quite a bit of age on it. Until then, I'm leaning towards leaving the 17" laptop as my replacement "desktop" until enough money is saved up for the 27" iMac. BUT, with all the pain (physically and logistically) lugging that 17" laptop around, I started to look at Netbooks.

Netbooks are technically a different class than a laptop in that the screen sizes are generally limited to under 11-inches. They are based on different processors, different graphics cards, and often times, different hard drives than their bigger notebook brethren. Most are also designed for minimal software options; they are underpowered for the graphics intensive games, for hard-core computations (i.e. photo editing, mapping/GIS processing), and for long-winded typing. However, netbooks are perfect for what I use most on the road when work-related travel takes place; e-mail, web surfing, and an occasional blog entry or quick photo upload. I have two friends with netbooks and one of them has "hackintoshed" his machine. Disappointed that Apple continues to think that a mac-based netbook is unnecessary (the iPad may try to fill this gap), this hackintoshing seemed like a pretty sweet option (especially since OSX was only$29).

ANYWAY, after evaluating my needs for a portable netbook BUT also support for the GRLevelX family of products for stormchasing, I decided to go ahead and stick with a Micro$oft-based machine. Perusing through CNET and a fairly new netbook review website helped considerably in narrowing down all the options. I also opted to cap my spending to at or under $300 as I didn't need a top-of-the-line model but also didn't want something an the bottom end that couldn't handle 3G-cellular internet and GPS/radar data processing. As is usually the case, I wanted the best bang for the buck. With all these in mind, I finally found what I was looking for: the Asus Eee 1005HA Netbook:

Granted, mine is jet black but you get the overall idea. Intel Atom Processor at 1.6 GHz, 1GB RAM, 160 GB SATA HD, 10.1" LCD display, 3 USB 2.0 ports, and built in SD card reader. Best of all, bought this puppy on sale for $279 at newegg.com. Again, it isn't the top-of-the-line but gets the job done for me. I was hoping to get this in by the time I was leaving for home around Thanksgiving but had to wait until after I returned to open it up. So, after having my Eee for a while, a trip to Kansas City under my belt, and finally getting the GPS drivers and radar maps installed for a test-drive home, here are my likes and dislikes:

Likes
LIGHT - weighs in just over 1.5 pounds. Much nicer than the heavy 17" laptop.

PORTABILITY - I LOVE the fact I can carry this in my work bag as opposed to the backpack I carry the Dell around in. It is no bigger than a large book and getting this through TSA checkpoints has allowed me to lose one of the bins I had to have JUST for the 17" laptop.

BRIGHTNESS - screen is backlit by LEDs and I could run the screen at minimum brightness without any problems in an office environment. I'm afraid I would be blinded going full brightness...

COMPUTING POWER - there is enough juice in the processor to handle the GRLevelX applications (including 3D rendering in Analyst with full GIS road support), GIMP, Spectran, iTunes, and OpenOffice without too much drag on the system.

SD CARD SLOT - quite handy for use out in the field when needing to download pictures off the SD card.

THREE USB 2.0 PORTS - more than enough for my needs (GPS, AirCard, and an open port for whatever), two on one side and one on the other. That leaves ample clearance for USB accessories as opposed to a stacked configuration (one on top of the other).

BUILT-IN WEB CAM - if for some reason I ever need to stream while chasing or get into video calls via Skype, the camera is built in.

BATTERY LIFE - I think the longest I have run on battery power alone is 8 hours but much of that was doing easy-on-the-processor web browsing. Most of the time I'll get 6 hours, still not bad on the factory battery.

UPGRADEABILITY - Although the netbook came with 1GB RAM and this seems to be enough for now, the memory port is easily accessed for upgrades. I also got the 160 GB SATA hard drive but this too can be accessed (although not quite as easily as the RAM) for an upgrade if needed. I don't see the need to upgrade storage space with all the external drives I have though...

TOUCHPAD - This is one of the few laptops/netbooks that the touchpad is integrated into the case itself. In other words, it isn't recessed into the top making cleaning SUPER easy. The pad is also set up for multi-touch; you can use two fingers to zoom in/out or scroll pages.

Dislikes
KEYBOARD - my netbook has a keyboard about 90% as big as a "normal" PC/laptop. I knew this going in and the only real complaints I have are the split up/down arrow key (they took one "standard" size key and split it into two) and lack of Home/End/Page Up/Page Down keys. The last four are there...but you have to hold a function key to get them to work.

SOUND - The stock speakers are rather "tinny" sounding. Easily solved by using the external speaker jack with a set of good quality earbuds.

FINGERPRINTS - the case has a glossy finish and being jet black shows every fingerprint and/or smudge. After a couple of weeks, the case looked like I had used it after eating a greasy cheeseburger.

HEAT/CLEARANCE - although equipped with a stout fan to keep the innards cool, the clearance under the case has a lot to be desired. I usually find a way to elevate the back of the netbook to give an extra half an inch or so of clearance to get more air underneath it. However, even at full blast, the fan is able to keep things tolerable on the heat levels. How well this will work in a hot car in the middle of the summer does remain in doubt though. It did get a bit toasty on my pickup arm-rest so I'll have to figure out something for the vehicle to help keep it cool.

DISPLAY - as much as I liked the brightness earlier, it still isn't bright enough to handle certain color combinations...most notably black background with thin blue lines (such as what I have for my GIS display in GRLevelX). There isn't any way to adjust the contrast either, only brightness.

POWER ADAPTER - Although there is a nice catch feature on the power plug going into the netbook to hold it in place, the pin is REALLY small which could pose problems if it is yanked. I already have had one close call tripping over the unusally long power cord and bending the pin a bit. Too bad Apple has the patent on magnetic power cable attachments...

Overall Opinion
I am quite impressed and happy with this purchase. The ASUS Eee 1005HA is on the low-end of the price range but doesn't have the low-end performance I was worried about. With a powerful laptop already in hand for the heavy-duty processing, all I needed was a very portable PC for e-mail and web surfing while on short-length or work-related trips. This netbook has fit that need and surprised me a bit with how much it could actually run. The ample hard drive space allows me to use the netbook as an "emergency" storage medium for photographs if I am in the field and don't have my external hard drive. This was also purchased knowing that there was no optical drive/burner and if worse comes to worse, I can purchase an external one down the road. If all you need on a trip is something to get e-mail or web access with, take a look at a netbook and see if it may fit your needs...

Where are you?

I've been busy, thanks for asking. Have a major workshop I'm helping set up and get going that has taken quite a bit of my time. Then there is trying to diagnose an intermittent check engine light and "Check 4WD" icon on my dashboard status display (and no, it doesn't display fault codes). See, the four-wheel drive has gotten quite a bit of use the last couple of days thanks to yet another snowstorm. Three and a half inches of snow on top of one quarter of an inch of ice. Yeah, not fun to be driving on but 4WD (when it is working) has helped immensely. Add in pricing out parts to finally upgrade the Jeep since I managed to blow a shock on it and I've just had "life" taking up a lot of time. Did I also mention that I had family in town for Christmas (during yet ANOTHER snowstorm), and then a trip home for the last weekend of hunting season? Top everything off with a healthy helping of doing some work around the house and I just haven't made the time to sit down and blog. But there are some thing I have in the edit queue that I'll hopefully get out soon so be expecting a flurry of posts in the next several weeks...

Merry Christmas

Yes, I am still alive; just extremely busy. Went home for thanksgiving, was at work for a week, went to Kansas City for a week-long training, back at work for a week, a couple of days off, and then back at work for Christmas. Family has also come to pay a visit and I had to make the house presentable. Add in shopping for presents, some vehicular fixes, and raking leaves three separate times to make the yard somewhat presentable and there just hasn't been much time for writing on here!

This certainly has been an interesting winter so far; all the snow I had in Colorado (24-38 inches), another two to three inches while I was in Kansas City (along with 50 MPH winds and temperatures in the low single digits), and now another 3 to 6 inches here in the Hub City. This too had a bunch of snow and wind with it:

Yup, there was about 4-6 inches of snow on the Jeep thanks to the wind and drifting. I loved it; the Jeep handled it without any problem thanks to the Interco TrXuS Mud-terrains and the softer compound was able to grip the ice nicely once the snow melted and refroze overnight.

It did cause some problems for my family and I; Southwest canceled all flights from Love Field into the Hub but they didn't make the decision until late. The part of the family hoping to arrive instead had to brave the poorly sanded and cleaned highways from the Metromess out here on top of all the stress from yesterday. However, they made it in and we were able to celebrate a wonderful Christmas night...a first for our family!

I hope that the few readers of this blog have had a blessed 2009 as it comes to a close. Hopefully 2010 will be as good or better.

Merry Christmas!

Review: Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8L

Updated 2009/11/12 to include a few sample images

After losing my 10-year old Canon EF 75-300 f/4-5.6 III (and my original Rebel XT 28-80) lens to a dunking in the Big Meadow Reservoir outlet, I had been on the search for a replacement zoom lens. While visiting friends in Albuquerque for the Balloon festival, I borrowed a28-135 f/3.5-5.6 IS USM to see how well it performed and to see if that might be a balance between price and features. The main comparison was how well the Image Stabilization worked to allow for low-light shooting versus the fast 2.8L-series lenses.

Well, after shooting two mornings of bright sunlight and one overcast morning, I was not impressed with the IS lens performance. The biggest issue I had was shooting at full zoom and when the object (in this case the balloons) was moving. I found that the IS would overcompensate the stabilization when moving fast as the gyroscope would continue to move resulting in an "overshoot" of the balloon. It was almost like a pendulum; I had to swing the lens back and forth with smaller movements until the gyro stabilized and I had the subject framed as I liked. This was an annoying feature as some of my photography includes fast moving animals, sporting events, and young children. This is not to say that the lens itself is bad; the pictures I did take were still of good quality but the framing was not what I had hoped as I couldn't figure out the subtleties of the Image Stabilization hardware.

Another reason I explored the IS lens was cost. Although the hardware is a bit more involved thanks to the gyro stabilization, the cost of the IS lenses are still considerably less than those of the top-of-the-line L-series glass. However, as with many things you pay for what you get and I just didn't like the image clarity and quality of the IS lens I tried. One might also say why not just buy the same lens I lost. Well, as with many other hobbies, breaks, dunks, failures, and other mishaps; it is not a time to replace but upgrade. I don't claim to be a professional photographer (although I would like to earn some extra cash on some of the photos) but the pictures I do take have significant personal meaning and are usually taken for immediate friends and family. If I can provide them with the best I have to offer, I need to invest in the equipment to do that.

SO, after that test and a couple of extra dollars from shift differential I saved up, I plinked down for this beauty:
This is the Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8L. The fast speed (indicated by the f/2.8 as opposed to a range like f/4-5.6) and the high-quality optic glass (indicated by the "L") allows for telephoto photography in fairly low light conditions. I was able to use this lens in an auditorium at full zoom and ISO 1600 setting had a shutter speed around 1/50 to 1/60 and resulted in useable (although a bit grainy) pictures from my 8-megapixel Digital Rebel XT. This weekend I was also able to use the lens in low-light conditions (almost 20 minutes after sunset) to photograph white-tailed deer again at ISO 1600 with only minor issues with blurred deer due to shooting at 1/40 and 1/50 resulting from both hand shake and subject movement.

There are two downsides to this lens. It is H E A V Y and Canon lists the weight at 1310 grams...or a few ticks under 3 pounds. The lens comes with a mount ring so that you can attach the camera/lens system to a tri/bi/monopod as opposed to the body mount which makes sense based on the lens weight. Holding the lens/body system up for minutes on end waiting for the right moment to take picture of wildlife became quite tiresome and my arm muscles are still sore two days later. Purchasing an additional tripod attachment is an option but I don't see this lens staying on the camera all the time. My second, albeit minor, issue is that although the lens itself is waterproof, the mounting ring does not have a rubber gasket like my 24-70f/2.8L lens. This is a bit disappointing as living out here in the dusty west could mean an increased likelihood of that golden grain of sand getting between the lens mount and body ring, possibly damaging something.

Here are a couple of images that I have taken recently with the new lens:

From my backyard.

© 2009 Jason Jordan, All Rights Reserved

A recent trip to the Hill Country
© 2009 Jason Jordan, All Rights Reserved

Now begins the next great debate...a new body or a new lens to round out the collection. My Digital Rebel XT is approaching 5 years old and after hard use it is starting to have some issues. The autofocus doesn't work, the flash is having some issues, and I might need a higher resolution CMOS sensor (i.e. greater megapixels) should I decide to become a part-time freelance photographer. So, do I keep with the 1.6 crop sensor as in the Canon 7D or do I save up for the middle-range Canon 5D-Mk II (and before the Canon faithful ask; the 1D-MkIII/IV is too expensive for me right now...and I'm a faithful Canon person for those Nikon fans)? OR, do I hold off since the camera is still working and save up for the low-end range lens such as the Canon 16-35 f/2.8L II to round out my collection (16-35, 24-70, 70-200 mm)?

Anyone wanna permanently loan me a 1D-MkIII AND the 16-35 f/2.8L??

Cracks Already Showing at Jerryworld?

One of my sorrows so far is that I haven't been able to attend a live U2 concert on any of their tours of the U.S. of A. as my work schedule always seems to have me on the graveyard shift. I was especially sad since the U2 360 tour was making a stop at the new Cowboys Stadium which would have been quite easy to attend, but alas...midnight shifts one again messed things up.

However, perhaps it was a good thing that I wasn't able to attend. Apparently there are quite a few people upset with the acoustic situation at the new $1,000,000,000 (yes, that is a lot of zeroes; one biiiiiiiiiiiiiiillion dollars in your best Dr. Evil impersonation) Cowboys World that Jerry Built. Those willing to spend the big bucks on first and second level seats are saying the experience is unbelievable while those relegated to the third, fourth, and Mount Everest atmospheric pressure nosebleed seats are reporting problems with the acoustics. I will have to join the chorus of people claiming that Mr. Jones skimped on the planning for the seats that "ordinary folks" are able to get and/or afford.

Back in July, two of my good friends and I were able to attend the Chelsea FC vs. Mexico Club America game of the Football/Soccer World Classic at Jerryworld. Our seats were on the 4th row of the 410 deck which is the aforementioned Mont Everest level but still several rows short of the nosebleed atmospheric pressures. The view was incredible:


Those with a fear of heights need not apply for row 1 seats. It is quite a drop and some fans can attest to that fact when some sunglasses were lost to the inevitable force of gravity. Of course, there is also the controversy of the world's largest hi-definition television screen and how it will affect the few punters wanting to deliberately go for it:


Yeah. I would like one of those for my house if it were able to fit in there...but I digress. There really was only one major issue we had; the sound system was horrible.

As others have said (and my friends and I wholeheartedly agree), it sounds like you are listening to the teacher from all the Charlie Brown cartoons on T.V. Wah wah wah wah, wah wah. Forget being able to sing along with the National Anthem or enjoying any other music up in the "Average Joe" seats. It simply was a cacophony of noise. Some may argue that this was by design; while we were there the roof was closed and the stadium was not packed to capacity so there were ample surfaces to bounce sound around. Perhaps an open roof and ends will alter the acoustics so that the upper seats are somewhat tolerable.

Our experience and those of others are a blessing in disguise; I now know that it is best to get seats for concerts on the lower levels even though it might cost quite a bit more than the cheap seats (for sporting events, the good-grief-do-we-have-air-traffic-controller-clearance seats will be fine). However, you would think that Mr. Jones would have opted to build a stadium that provides the best experience possible for EVERYONE. But I guess the average stiff that isn't willing to pay the big bucks for licenses, tickets, parking, and it is a privilege just to be in the building sections won't help Jerry pay off the mortgage on his new building. Knowing how much he meddles with his football team makes me wonder how much he meddled with the design of his new stadium...

SO, remember kiddos; go for the cheap seats for sporting events. Be willing to pay for the floor or first level seats if you want the best experience for concerts. Don't expect refunds if your experience isn't up to enjoyable standards either should you get the nosebleed seats and cannot understand a word that is being spoken. And feel free to send your complaints to Mr. Jerry Jones...