Author: robertjames1971
I'm wicked tall.
Today Might Be the Day
Today might be the day that I cancel all of my social media accounts including this blog. I’m about 80% sure that I’m done.
I am completely uninterested in comments on the subject.
Here’s a duck to celebrate:
Bribes
Remember when bribery was illegal? That was before the nazi in chief of the fascist states of america declared that it was a smart move to let a foreign government give you an airplane as a present. Our new air force one, which will stop being air force one and become trump’s personal plane once he leaves office, assuming he leaves office before he dies.
Yeah, this country fucking sucks. Can you imagine if Barack Obama told the public he was taking a passenger jet as a gift from an Islamic nation? Fucking fascists.
Change of subject. Two things to look forward to this week. First, I have my three year post-gastric bypass surgery check in at the weight loss clinic. I expect them to tell me that I am the greatest patient they have ever had, and that no patient they’ve dealt with has ever had such overwhelming success with their post-op program. I am hoping for a plaque or something to honor me.
Of infinitely greater importance, my step son Harry is going to graduate from the University of Vermont this weekend. I am so proud I am so proud I am so proud I am so proud. Did I mention how proud I am? We’ll be heading up there after work on Friday. I am really looking forward to it. I don’t know if you can tell by the context of this paragraph, but I am really proud of Harry.
Okay, Robert. Back to work with you.
Happy Mothers Day
If you are a mother living in the US then today is your day. Happy Mothers Day to you. I hope you had a good one.
I learned something today that will make the whole nightmare that is shooting film easier. Turns out the post office in Salem, NH has a package drop box. I ordered developing for four rolls of film earlier and the package is already in the mail. Granted the post office was closed so it won’t be going anywhere until some time tomorrow but yeah, the post office piece of the workflow is done.
What else? Because I got up at 4:00am to go sunrise chasing, I didn’t do my daily exercise first thing in the morning. I did it at 4:00pm and somehow, someway, it was 1000000000000000 times harder to do in the afternoon than it is in the morning. Why is that? I don’t know.
I have made a command decision. Normally I try to make my work-in-the-office days Monday and Wednesday. This week I am swapping Monday for Tuesday. Why? Because tomorrow is Monday, I only got four hours of sleep last night, and I just don’t wanna.
Okay, there is a new episode of The Last of Us airing tonight. I need to go get ready for that, emotionally speaking.
Morning Photos
Finally! The sky was clear at sunrise on a weekend. I took four, count ’em four, cameras out with me. My digital, Nikon Z5, my two 35mm, Dad’s Pentax K1000 and my Nikon FG-20, and my new/ebay medium format experiment, Lomo Lubitel 166 Universal.
The 35mm cameras each had a roll already started. My goal was to finish them off. The Lubitel… what the hell, Robert. I’ve had the camera for months and had not completed even a single test roll. I had already messed up the first roll by over advancing it once and blowing a shot, and then flashing the film when the camera back popped open on its own once. My goal was to finish that roll and then put a second roll through and hope that something worked on one of them enough to let me know if the camera actually works or not. Besides all of that film fun, I just wanted to take a bunch of pics with my Z5 because it’s super fun.
I completed all of those goals. I now have four rolls of film to develop. I’ll place an order today and ship them out tomorrow. The two 120 rolls were fucked up even more than I already knew. I didn’t have any trouble with the second one… or so I thought. The camera can be setup to shoot in 6×6 format or in 4.5×6. I was using the 4.5×6 numbers for advancing the film after each (well… most… there are going to be a bunch of double exposures because I am too stupid to operate a manual camera, I guess) but upon further review, the camera is clearly set up to shoot a square format… so every single shot is going to overlap. Moron.
Anyway… here are a bunch of digital pics.
Hampton Beach, NH at sunrise!
These are from a spot in North Hampton, NH, just a little north of Hampton Beach.
These are from a little spot on route 1A just south of Hampton Beach. I don’t know if it is in Seabrook or in the town of Hampton Beach, but you can see the Seabrook nuclear power plant from here so… kaboom.
After that spot I drove home, but didn’t go home. I went to the Spicket Falls Dam in downtown Methuen. We’ve had massive rains over the last week so the river was roaring.
At this point I still had a few shots left in two of the film cameras so I went over to Greycourt Park where I got my brand new sneakers soaking wet by walking around in the grass. It was nice.
What is that baseball doing there? Who left that behind?
And there you have it. Finally, a photography kinda morning. You would think this would hold me over for a little while at least, but nope. I want to go out again right now. Right Freakin’ Now.
Street Legal
I just spent an hour and a half or so at the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles. The dreaded RMV.
My drivers license expired on my birthday, two days ago. I needed to renew it (which could be done online) and I also needed to upgrade to the stupid fascist federal RealID card bullshit (which could not be done online). I had an appointment for 3:30 so I was able to get into the office, but the lines were long and I didn’t actually get into to do my business until around 4:30. Once I was at the window though it went off without a hitch.
When I got home, there was a visitor standing next to our driveway.
Morning Errands
Out running errands in the shitty weather on a Saturday morning. Let’s do it Hipstamatic style, what do you say?
Also, as a bonus… cats.
Jen gave the cats some medication today. Something to prevent… something… heart worms? I think. It was just a drop of stuff on their skin. Lily was annoyed but mostly okay with it. Robin was pissed. She was not happy. Sorry, cat.
In closing, music to run errands to…
It is Friday
It is Friday at last. It’s also raining. Son of a…
On May 4th I wrote this big gastric bypass surgery update where I said that I am having far fewer side effects then I did a year ago. The bad experiences are less and less common with each new day.
Then last night I had a piece of toast with my dinner. I took a bite, no problem. I took another bite, no problem. I took another bite… uh oh. I knew instantly that I had taken one bite too many. It took about an hour for all the fun to end. The moral of the story being, don’t be over confident. That thing that passes for your stomach these days can still kick you in the nards, Robert. Figuratively speaking, of course.
Here’s a cat to remind you of your place in the universe.
Smoke
I heard that there was white smoke in Rome today. This was my first response:
Turns out the new pope is an American. Weird, huh? Dude’s going to speak English with an accent that I can understand. Too bad I’m not catholic anymore. It might mean something to me if I were.
Here’s a cat to celebrate:
Here’s another cat to keep celebrating. The new pope stole the thunder from my birthday. What a jerk. At least he’s not maga. Civilization has that going for it, I guess.
Art Imitating Life
Sometimes I hate it when art has to imitate life. I hate it even more when the people being called out metaphorically by said art are too fucking stupid to realize the art is talking about them.
Mild spoilers for Andor season two episode nine. If you haven’t seen the episode, or if you haven’t seen Star Wars Rebels season three episode 18 (I think that’s the one), stop reading. You have been warned.
Last chance to bail (Bail Organa, if you will)…
In Star Wars The Return of the Jedi, a rebel leader gives a briefing spelling out the details of the second Death Star. It’s the “many Bothans died” speech. That character’s name is Mon Mothma. She was a senator who became one of the primary leaders of the Rebel Alliance. She shows up in a deleted scene in Revenge of the Sith, then she shows up for real in Rogue One and Rebels and Ahsoka and she’s one of the main characters in Andor. In a novel that is canon and takes place after Return of the Jedi she is actually elected to be the first Chancellor of the New Republic. Pretty sure that’s the job she’s doing in her brief scene in Ahsoka, but I have to go back and watch that entire series again just to be sure.
In Rebels we learn that her last act as a senator was to give a speech where she called out the Emperor as the bad guy for the whole galaxy. She gets chased out of the capital and smuggled to the rebel base by our Rebels heroes. Once at the rebel base she gives another speech that basically calls for revolution and the rest is Star Wars history.
This week’s third episode of Andor gave us the speech at the senate. It was perfect. Both in terms of the story itself and for our current shit show of a country. Replace the name Emperor Palpatine with Donald Trump, or even Orange Shit Clown, and it stops being fiction and starts being reality.
The distance between what is said and what is known to be true has become an abyss. Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest.
“This Chamber’s hold on the truth was finally lost on the Ghorman Palaza. What took place yesterday… what happened yesterday on Ghorman was unprovoked genocide. Yes, genocide. And that truth has been exiled from this Chamber. And the monster screaming the loudest, the monster we’ve helped create, the monster who will come for all of us soon enough, is Emperor Palpatine.”
Like I said… I hate it when art has to imitate life, and I hate it even more when the monster and his cult are too fucking stupid to realize they are the monsters and not the heroes. Fucking maga cult bullshit.
That’s all I have to say about that.
Inside the Red Head's Head 