Author: robertjames1971

I'm wicked tall.

My Ideal Home

Daily writing prompt
What does your ideal home look like?
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There are two answers to this question.

The first answer is the honest, real answer. My ideal home is the home I have today. Why? Because Jen is here with me. In my eyes, and in my heart, my ideal home is where ever she and I are together. Simple. Perfect.

The second answer is the fantasy, you-just-hit-the-lottery kind of answer. Huge kitchen, huge master bedroom, big bedrooms for both kids and a couple of extra guest bedrooms, an in-law apartment, a huge ass recording studio with all the best toys and all the best bells and whistles, office spaces for me and Jen, a big game room/lounge space, a huge yard with a screened in gazebo, a pool/jacuzzi area, a big library/den space, a theater room, and all of that awesome rich people shit that we would likely never use. You know, the fantasy house.

I don’t need the fantasy house because I already have the real ideal house. Jen and I are here together and that’s all I want. That’s the difference between a house and a home to me. We have a home.

Prep

I mentioned in yesterday’s daily writing prompt post… I think it was yesterday’s at least… that I’ve been writing pointless blog posts for about 17 years. I did something today that I have never, in all that time, done before. It has to do with my dumb haikus for you’s thing.

I have a new note on my iPhone where I have already written tomorrow’s haiku for you.

I did prep work. Really. I feel so gross. Like, this page is supposed to be spontaneous brain droppings, right? Where do I get off doing prep work?

Whatever. Anyway…

I have a couple of tasks for work that I wanted to crank out this weekend. It’s 7:11pm on the final day of this glorious three day weekend and I haven’t even started them yet. What the hell is wrong with me?

I had a bad case of what my mother used to call “the hungry horrors” after lunch today. I feel like I had a full days worth of between meal snacks in the space of about 30 minutes. It turned me into a giant gas bomb that’s ready to burst at any moment. It wasn’t bad enough to ruin dinner (I didn’t eat anything for four hours prior to dinner) but it’s left me uncomfortable and distracted. Blah. I have to push through and get that work done before I go to sleep tonight. Moron.

Okay, time for Robert to buckle down.

Lowell

I said I was going to do it on Saturday and then didn’t.

I said I was going to do it on Sunday and then didn’t.

I didn’t say I was going to do it on Monday and then did it.

I took a couple of cameras out with me this morning. I went to downtown Lowell. Market Street, specifically. I walked from the parking garage to the train museum, shooting film the whole way. Then I turned around and went back, shooting digital the rest of the way.

I was going to stop at another place or two after I finished with that neighborhood, but the ticket machines in the parking garage were down and I couldn’t get out. I had to call their office for help, and while trying to move from one exit lane to the other I clipped a cement post and dented my car. I am so effin’ pissed at myself. I just went home.

Here are some pics.

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Photo a day challenge day 4/365
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I still have about half a roll of black and white Kentmere 400 in my film camera. I need to finish that roll before Disney World so I can load it up with color film. Probably just cheap drugstore Fuji. I could shoot black and white at Disney World but that feels wrong. I need to go color. Assuming I am going to bring a film camera with me when we go. I am still undecided on that, but I am leaning toward bringing it.

Tears of Joy

Daily writing prompt
What brings a tear of joy to your eye?
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What brings a tear to my eye indeed? Here is a list of a few candidates…

  • MAGA candidates losing elections, then getting charged with crimes when they try to overturn the legitimate elections they falsely claim were stolen from them. As joyous as those charges are, they really need to turn into actual convictions. Those are going to be worthy of two tears of joy, let me tell you that for nothing.
  • That moment when you’re recording some music and you get through a whole take without screwing up. Major tear of joy moment.
  • That moment when a new Jedi successfully uses The Force for the first time. Three episodes into Ahsoka, I’m looking at you, Sabine. Show us what you (probably don’t) got, kid.
  • That moment when you finally get that mosquito that’s been buzzing past your ears for the last hour. Squish, babie.
  • You’ve closed all three rings on your Apple Watch Activity App, you’ve hit your water goal for the day, and you’ve hit your protein goal for the day. All of your health goals are complete and you can stop thinking about it until tomorrow. Total tear of joy moment.
  • Photographs with blurry backgrounds. Pardon me while I wipe away that tear of joy.
  • Not to double back on Star Wars, but I love you. I know.
  • Not to double back on Star Wars yet again, but that moment where the proton torpedos drop into the exhaust vent. Yeah… that’s the stuff right there.

Yeah, this was a really bad question. Hashtag sarcasm all over this sucker.

Three Dates to Save

I was just wondering if there was any chance that the Boston Bruins training camp might coincide with some time off from work that I have already booked. Nope. Camp begins on the first day back from my vacation. No dice.

The other day I asked Jen if there was any chance she’d go see some live hockey with me this year. I don’t think I have a Bruins game in me after Covid. Not yet at least. That’s a smidge too much crowd, though when I stop and think of it the crowds will be a lot smaller than the crowds at Disney World were in January, specifically the fireworks show at Hollywood Studios. Still, not an NHL game. I was thinking of UMass Lowell.

I just Googled UML’s schedule. I knew there were two games against the kids school, University of Vermont, and they were both home games for UML. Those would likely be my first choice for games to see in person, unless BU or BC are lighting the world on fire, in which case I’d probably picked one of those as my first game back. Then I noticed that there is a third Vermont game. It’s on the road in Vermont. It’s Sunday December 3rd at 4:00pm. My step son is still a student at UVM and my step daughter is a graduate who still lives in Burlington. Once, pre-Covid, we tried to go to a game in Burlington but the plans fell through at the last minute.

Is it possible that the December 3rd game is now the front runner for my first hockey game post-pandemic? Maybe Jen and I could book time off for the next day so that we don’t have to worry about getting home late and working the next morning?

These are important things to ponder. Very interesting. I put all three UML/UVM games onto my Google calendar, just in case. We’ll see what happens.

Testing Testing: The Return of Hipsta-Kitty

Okay… so if I am not going to have a point and shoot camera that at least rivals my iPhone 14 Pro Max, then I should really start using my iPhone 14 Pro Max’s camera more often, right? That’s just logical, even if you are a friggin’ snob like me, right?

It’s been over a year since I’ve thought about camera work flow using my phone. What are some of the things I used to do? Edit on Camera+? Okay. Edit in CameraBag? Do I still have that app? I haven’t used that one in many generations. Okay.

Hipstamatic. If I start using Hipstamatic again, will I be the only red head on Earth using it? Yeah, maybe. I still have the app on my phone, but only because it was there when I initially restored the new phone from a backup almost a year ago. Do I have any of my in-app purchased film/lens packs? No. None. Fortunately I was able to restore all of those purchases… and there were a lot of them.

To test drive that the two main settings I used to use in Hipstamatic are still functioning (shake to shuffle and save the original photo with the filtered photo) I decided to bring back and old “favorite”*, Hipsta-Kitty!

Granted, The Hipsta-Kitty was our Miss Patches and she has passed away, so this is more like Hipsta-Kitty Mark II, but it still works. Here is Robin, who slept through most of this.

This one is the winner

So yes, shake to shuffle and save the original both still work, and all of my favorite combos are still there, and all of my previous purchases have been restored. Should I end up going with my iPhone 14 Pro Max as my go-to point and shoot, Hipstamatic will once again be there for me… even if I am the only living creature in the known (or unknown) universe (or multiverse) still using it.

Groovy.

ADDENDUM: I hit publish, forgetting I was going to add a footnote. So I will add the footnote to the addendum. Right on.

*When I say “favorite”, was hipsta-kitty ever really anyone’s favorite or was it just me verbally yanking the universe’s chain? Probably the yanking.

Signs of a Road Trip Plan

The road trip for today is not happening, but there are signs around the house that something was in the works. One such sign is a small shopping bag full of protein bars and sugar free Gatorade (fruit punch flavor).

This is another sign:

I mean… we weren’t going to stop anywhere that would have been photo worthy but… it’s me so… yeah. Three friggin’ cameras. Mirrorless, point and shoot, and film. Nerd Deluxe.

No Road Trip

We were going to drive to Vermont and visit the kids but my stomach is off a little today and a 3-4 hour drive while in this state is not a good idea. We’ll try again another day.

As I sit and wait for my stomach to calm down after my lunch’s french fries I have been watching Doctor Who like it’s going out of style. I finished season seven of the original show and I am down to the last couple of episodes of season 12 of the new show. Right now I am taking a pause from the Doc to deal with some gear acquisition syndrome.

I mentioned my little Nikon point and shoot camera (Coolpix S7000) is on the fritz. I want to replace it with another pocket sized point and shoot but the research I’ve done online is staggeringly depressing. The one camera that I keep looking at, to the point of almost drooling over, is a Ricoch GRIII. It looks like the pocket sized point and shoot of the gods. Feature wise it looks as good as my Nikon Z5 mirrorless, outside of the ability to swap lenses though.

Unfortunately this little bugger costs almost as much as my Z5. It costs a friggin’ fortune at nearly a grand in US dollars. WAY too expensive for what I am looking for. Way too expensive by light years. Every other manufacturers competitor is even more expensive too, and also a little bigger which defeats the purpose.

There is no way I would spend this much money on a pocket point and shoot, but holy shit snacks kids do I want one of these suckers. Woah is me, right?