Frugal Film Project Take Two: June Edition

I am typing this post on a MacBook Pro using a Windows keyboard which means the keyboard shortcut for copy and paste is different than I am used to, which means that I am going to screw things up left and right. Enjoy.

The Frugal Film Project Lives. My second attempt at shooting a roll of (relatively) inexpensive film through a camera I spent less than $50 on each month for a year. I tried it last year and failed after four months. This year I am trying it again. I started in May. This post covers June. July’s edition is 50% shot but nothing has been developed yet. It’s only July 6th, give me a break, okay?

As stated in the May edition of the blog posts, I am trying to do this twice this year. One attempt is shooting Kodak Gold 200 through my Lomo Lubitell 166 Universal. The other is the same camera shooting Kentmere 100.

First, we’ll look at the Kodak Gold images. There should be 12 but because I suck at life there are 11. The camera needs to be manually wound. There is a little red window on the back that lets you see the back of the film as you wind it. You’re supposed to wind it until you see the number 1 in the little window and then stop. That spot will be your first photo. Makes sense, right? Numbnutz over here wound too far and had to start on number 2. Idiot.

So here come the 11 shots. First we have a sunrise at Hampton Beach in Hampton Beach, NH. I took these on June 14, 2026.

000371110008 — I suck at photography, part 1

000371110007 — After a short drive to the North…

000371110006 — I want to say I like the lens flare but… maybe not

Okay, we’re done with Hampton Beach. Now we move on to the Newburyport Harborwalk Rail Trail in Newburyport, MA.

000371110005 — I had a feeling the sun was going to be too much for this really slow camera and sure enough…

000371110003 — I feel like I am learning a lesson here

000371110001 — The bad photography continues

With that, our color experience comes to an end. There should be 12 photos but I am an idiot and there are only 11. Project 2A is complete. Now we move on to project 2B and everything is in black and white. These pics are also from the Harborwalk Rail Trail and they also have problems with too much sun… because I suck.

000370260011 — I mean, at least I wasn’t looking directly at the sun, right?

000370260010 — I suck at photography, part 2

000370260009 — Do I actually like this one? If so, why?

000370260007 — A bridge too far, or something

000370260006 — I suck at photography, part 3

000370260005 — Yup, I suck at photography, part 4

000370260003 — Chairs. I feel like I could have composed this better

There we have it. Frugal Film Project 2B has been shared. Next time I will avoid shooting into the sun when it’s high and overpowering like this. Oh well.

I said the July edition of the project is half done. I shot the roll of Kodak Gold yesterday (July 5th) in Boston. I was planning on shooting the Kentmere roll too but I got pulled away. I will have to go out and shoot one more time this month in order to stay on track. I mean, I can’t have a project go bust faster than last year, right?

Also, in closing… I feel like a putz for missing a shot on the first roll. I’ll share one more pic. This was taken one week later, July 21st, on Harman Phoenix II, which I have officially moved to the “never buy this film again” list. I just don’t like it. Unfortunately, I still have a bunch of it in my film stash. Crap. This one is the Concord River in Lowell, MA. It sucks, but at least it brings this masterpiece of a blog post up to 24 photos.

PS: As I was posting these pics I was blowing them up pretty huge on my big gigantic monitor. These are medium format photos and even though they really suck ass, after viewing them… I get it. The medium format thing. I get it. The resolution is just… I don’t know. It’s something though. I get it.

Closet Blues

I tried to make today a photography fun day. Early in the morning at least. I went to Boston thinking I could shoot a couple of rolls of film on Beacon Hill and along the Charles River by the Esplanade where they had the 4th of July spectacular yesterday.

I got through one roll of 120 and one roll of 35mm and was starting to think of what to load up next when I got called home. I guess that means I have to go back soon, right?

When I got home it was time to start cleaning out the closet where the plumber needs to work tomorrow. We also went to IKEA and another furniture store. Tomorrow, after the plumber leaves (assuming he fixes the problem) I will be putting together a Swedish dresser.

We also picked up an order of a couple of rolls of bread from a bakery that Jen’s high school friend is running out of his house with his husband. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ve had some of their baked goods before oh my goodness…

I think I am going to have a piece of bread now and then I am going to go to sleep because I am freakin’ exhausted.

G’night, folks.

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 1/90

You know it is summer when that red haired doofus in Massachusetts starts talking about writing 50 songs in 90 days. Day one was yesterday, July 4th. How did I do?

I started work on two songs. The first one started ridiculously early in the morning and it started with guitar, while most songs (including song number two) start with MIDI bass and drums. So two songs with the complete song form and bass and drums and one of the two has the rhythm guitars. That’s it.

Alert! Alarm!

My beloved bride had a cool idea today. We have a Sonos audio system in our living room. It’s how we get surround sound and movie theater audio goodness. She wanted to upgrade the system. Good idea, right? She ordered a new beam and we went to Best Buy to pick it up.

After, while we were still in the parking lot, she had another great idea. Wanna go for a mini road trip somewhere? Sure! How about the ocean? Sure! Off we went.

When we got home a couple hours later, Jen heard a noise. Oh wait! You don’t know the back story. Hold on a second while I fill you in.

Back story: Our house used to have a garage. Years ago we had it remodeled into a primary bedroom suite with an attached bathroom. The outflow pipe from the bathroom was far away from the outflow for the rest of the house and we had to have a pump installed. The pump is under the floor with a little trap door to get to it. That trap door had not been opened in the 500 years since we finished the remodel. It is located in a closet and we had put a big closet organizer into the closet and part of it was sitting on the trap door.

Okay, back to the main story. When we got home from the ocean a couple of hours later, Jen heard a noise. She was standing next to the bathroom and I was on the other side of the room. I thought the noise was a bird being loud and obnoxious outside. She said no, it wasn’t a bird. I then thought it was the mini-split system’s door being squeaky. She said no, it was not the mini-split. I stood next to her so that I could hear what she was hearing and I heard it too.

There were two sounds. One as an alarm beeping like crazy. The other was the pump running more or less continuously. I went into the closet with the trap door and sure enough, the beeping was coming from there. Well, shit.

We both had a job to do from that point. Mine was to clear almost everything out of the closet (there was a lot of stuff in there) and open the trap door. Jen’s was to find a plumber. Oh yeah, it’s Independence Day. A national holiday. Almost everyone in the country had the day off (except for the poor staff at Best Buy).

I was able to get to the pump. I had to move almost an entire wardrobe and partially disassemble the organizer but I did it. Jen was able to eventually get a plumber on the phone who could not come help tonight but did offer to help talk us through shutting down the pump until they could come… on Monday. While she was giving the plummer the details I found that the alarm beep was tied to a flashing red light with a label that said to open the unit to see what was causing the alarm. Well, I wasn’t doing that. There was also a button that said push to silence alarm. I pushed it. Oh what a relief.

So the alarm was still going off but it was silent now and at the plumber’s suggestion we killed the power to the pump from the circuit box. The situation has been remedied for now. On Monday the plumber will come and tell us that we need to replace the unit which should cost $10000000000000. Would that be preferable to finding out there is a clog in the sewage pipe? I don’t know. Would it be preferable to finding out there is a leak in the sewage pipe? Probably. I mean, our house doesn’t smell like donald trump so I don’t think our en suite bathroom is shitting itself. We’ll find out on Monday though.

Eventually we were able to relax and that lead to us putting up the new Sonos system. It got a little annoying trying to link everything together in their app, but eventually it all worked and now we are watching Project Hail Mary (again) and enjoying the kick ass audio.

Tomorrow I think I am going to go into Boston really early in the morning and wander around Beacon Hill and the riverwalk along the Charles with my cameras. I’m also officially into the 50 Songs in 90 Days Challenge, so there will be music to make too.

One thing is for sure… we are not going to use the primary bedroom suite’s bathroom for a couple of days.

Day Off

Oh the glorious day off. Friday without work? Perfection.

I slept late, I ran some errands with the love of my life, I cooked dinner on the grill, and I am thinking about going to bed early.

Who could ask for anything more?

It is July 3rd and the sun went down 30 minutes ago and we just heard our first fireworks in the neighborhood. All fireworks are illegal in Massachusetts, but not in New Hampshire and New Hampshire is maybe 100–200 yards away from my house.

Now the question is, do I go to the ocean at sunrise tomorrow and take some 4th of July sunrise pics?

Probably not.

Long Weekend

Tomorrow is July 3rd. July 4th is Saturday so we get the holiday day off tomorrow. My beloved bride’s company gave them Monday off so I took a vacation day on Monday too. Instant four day holiday weekend. Awesome.

We don’t have any plans. I might get a haircut. I might get the car inspected. I might ask my beloved bride if she wants to go see Supergirl before it goes away.

On saturday July 4th nothing happens because we’re a fascist shit hole of a country. Musically for me, the 50 songs in 90 days challenge starts. From July 4th to October 1st write 50 songs. I’ve tried it a bunch of times and failed all but three. The challenge used to be part of fawm.org but last year the dropped it. I’m still doing it. Fawm replaced it with a short term thing, Write five songs in nine days. Maybe I’ll sneak one of those in as part of 50/90. We’ll see.

Happy long weekend, everyone.

Nothing

I have nothing to write about. I wish I had something to write about but right now at this moment in time on a Wednesday on the first of July in 2026 I have squat to write about.

My step daughter flew to Baltimore tonight. She also signed a lease on a place to live in San Diego in September when she starts grad school. My beloved bride and I both booked a week’s vacation so we can go out there to help the move in. We’re going to fly all the way to California and then spend a week putting together IKEA furniture. It’s going to be EPIC.

What else… my beloved bride and I have started another rewatch of Parks and Recreation. The show is a classic but the first season or two are just good. It doesn’t get great until Rob Lowe and Adam Scott show up. It was good at the beginning, it was great eventually.

I had a decent day at work today after three consecutive ball busters. I have to work (from home) tomorrow and then we get Friday off for the 4th of July. My beloved bride and I both took Monday off too. Can you say four day weekend? Too bad this year’s independence day is awful because we’re a nazi state and the whole american dream is just a farce ruined by the fascists in the white house. The fascist rapist pedophile in the oval office has destroyed literally every thing he’s involved with. Whatever.

Yeah… I think I need to take a nap or something. It’s been a long couple of days. Goodnight everyone. Talk to you tomorrow.

Record Every Month: June

I finished two songs by creating half assed mixes. The RPM Challenge’s Record Every Month challenge thing will have an entry this month. I just don’t know which of the two songs to submit. I think the second one might be a smidge better but I put some wobble on the rhythm guitars and I am starting to think I shouldn’t have. Also, the first song is in 7/8 time so… yeah.

This is the first one.

This is the second one.

Now I can go to sleep. Insert the sigh of relief here.

My Fingers Really Hurt

I am probably going to get my two songs finished for the month of June. File it under the RPM Challenge’s Record Every Month challenge. Yesterday I wasn’t sure if I would be able to finish a song or two, but I had a decent day music wise and now I am in good shape.

Last night before bed I wrote lyrics and melodies for the two songs that got guitar tracks earlier in the day (see the previous post). This morning I cut my exercise short and used the time to record vocals. Both songs were cranked out quickly and poorly. Tonight after dinner I was able to sneak back into the cellar and record lead guitars for both songs. I did so on a guitar with old and dead strings and with a left hand that is 100% free from calluses because I don’t play enough these days.

Oh my goodness, do my finger tips hurt right now. Oh the pain. Oh the horrible icky pain. Ouch-town, population: Me, bro.

I’ll mix the two songs tomorrow night after work. Probably while sitting up in bed wishing I was asleep. You know how it is.

Enjoy tonight’s crappy photos that are basically the same as the crappy photos on last night’s post except I am wearing a work-appropriate collared shirt today where I was wearing an awesome Rush Snakes and Arrows Live t-shirt yesterday.

Music Sunday

I told myself I was going to write and record an album’s worth of music this month. 10 songs or 35 minutes. That was the plan.

I have failed, epically.

I started working on seven songs. As of this morning they were only midi bass and drums tracks with a midi guitar track acting as a guide for when I record the actual guitars.

It has been two weeks since I did anything musical at all. Yeah, the 10 song plan isn’t happening and the seven songs are going to mostly fail as well. Last month I wrote and recorded two songs. That’s my new goal. Call it a single. One song for the A-side and another for the B-side.

I put rhythm guitars onto two of the songs today. That’s good. I’m still probably going to fail though because now I have to write lyrics and a melody for both songs, then I have to record the vocals, then I have to record the lead guitars, then I have to mix the two songs and I only have two days left in the month. Most of my recording time takes place in the morning before work, and one of the two remaining days is not only a work in the office day, but its a work in the Foxborough office day and Foxborough is super far away from home so I won’t have any before work time.

So before I sleep tonight I have to write the lyrics and the melodies, and then tomorrow before work I have to record the vocals. Then probably after work I will have to record the leads. Then I can mix after work tomorrow.

Before any of that happens though, I have to have a watch-a-movie-on-the-living-room-couch with my beautiful wife. We’re watching Project Hail Mary again. Know that it is a great movie that is made better by a series of t-shirts with science jokes on them. If you haven’t seen the movie, you should. Then once you’ve seen it you should write a song or two.

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