Mmmm, purdy. I've always wanted to do some kind of shark pond.. <sigh>

That 280 could house a coral banded....just throwing it out there. LOL I've seen coral bandeds kept in reef style setups

*thinks*...How big is your garage? LOL

A shark in a reef would be pretty darn cool. I definitely think a massive pool is the proper way to go tho.

Reef in pool would kill 2 birds...but that means the half of my garage filled with garbage would need to be cleaned out!

we were talking about this actually over at Greg's yesterday. I've been considering getting some lower light corals and trying them in the pool. But they'd have to be ones that look good top down...I don't know if I ever will do this, but it's a thought I've been tossing around for a while

My dream "tank" would actually be a pond that is 1/4 reef with a drop off and the rest sand for sharks and rays. I think it would make a wicked display and perfect for top down viewing if you stocked the reef with sps. My idea would be to do mostly caps and tabling acros. You could just light the reef area heavily and leave the rest a bit more dim.

well if you ever start that dream tank I"ll gladly make the trip out there to help you set it up.

Boo on the break in. I've been broken into once, our car, and they ended up just cleaning it out. They tried, but failed to steal it, 'cause they couldn't drive stick. They did pop the clutch though and move the car forwards by about a foot. They came by our apartment the next morning, and were a little surprised to not only find the locks changed, but someone home. Campus police were 100% more helpful then the city police. The city police almost wouldn't let us put in a statement until I asked for his name and number. Definitely a crappy time. I couldn't imagine it being my house though...

Dexter looks like a classy guy, I like it! There is nothing wrong with being a loveable and sweet dog.

I picked up the Nikon D40x shortly after it came out. I debated for a long while about D40 vs D40x and eventually decided on the x, only because it was mislabeled and priced as the 40. You might want to look into the D70, I believe its the same as the 40/40x, however it has video capabilities.

Issue with the d40 tho is it has no drive pin to enable auto-focus on any lenses without motors inside them. My father-inlaw had the d40 and was stoked to take some awesome pics with a cheap but awesome lens: 50mm 1.8. It however was not capable of using the lens with AF.

The d80 should be much cheaper now that the d90 is out. It's a great camera and what I currently use.

I think I'll more than likely go with the d40. I really liked doing manual focusing etc with old 35mm cameras in school and I like the idea that now you can acchieve some of the same effects with digital

Decisions decisions!

decide already...take a demo model home for a tryout, take some picture..post them...then be picky :)

I've always been told by my photography friends who are into nikon and canon, if you are starting out and have no "glass" already then checkout a pentax. I have one...a k10...i like it, photo skills suck, but the camera is nice :)