Author: robertjames1971

I'm wicked tall.

I Feel Let Down

I just signed up for ChatGPT. I wanted to have it write a blog post for me. I asked it to write something about the Bruins clinching a playoff spot yesterday. It wrote one, but all the facts were wrong. I feel like AI let me down in a big way. Well… by
“big way” I really mean “totally insignificant way.”

The Bruins clinched a playoff spot yesterday with a month still to go in the season. They are so far ahead of the pack that it’s unprecedented. Unfortunately this level of insane regular season success often doesn’t translate to playoff success. We can’t get overly confident this year.

I was hoping ChatGPT would write this up for me but of course it didn’t. Stupid artificial intelligence.

Change of subject.

We had all sorts of problems with our Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions yesterday. Our passwords suddenly didn’t work. We changed them all and then they didn’t work again. It was annoying. Jen straightened it out this morning so I am celebrating by watching Star Wars TV shows. I started by rewatching Wednesday’s Mandalorian episode, which then inspired me to find a list of Bo Katan episodes across all of the various shows. I’m up to the end of the final season of The Clone Wars now. So I am basically now watching the alternate view of Episode III.

Okay, for now I’m going to watch another episode, then I am going to make some lunch. I might make some for Harry too, if he wants.

Go Bruins.

No Sunrise for Me

I woke up early today with every intention of getting some sunrise at the ocean pics. It’s the first day of daylight savings and the sunrise is super late in the morning, the skies are supposed to be clear, it’s perfect.

Then I saw the temperature was 29 degrees and I completely changed my mind.

Maybe when it’s a smidge warmer in the morning.

Maybe when it’s Spring.

Hockey East Quaterfinals

My old school won a playoff game tonight. UMass Lowell beat Connecticut in their Hockey East Quaterfinal game tonight, 2-1 at UConn.

Their Semifinal game should be Friday at the TD Garden in Boston. If they win that, the Hockey East Final will be Saturday, also at The Garden. If they win Friday, should we go to the game on Saturday? It wouldn’t be my first Hockey East Finals game. I went to one once. BU vs Maine? Was that it? That was the day we all decided to pretend we had Irish accents for some reason. One or two fellow spectators at The Garden that day bought the deception, though most didn’t… and I think it was still called the Fleet Center back then.

Until then, let’s go Lowell, right?

Marvel Catch Up

I am thinking about making this weekend my Marvel Movie Catch Up Weekend. I’m already halfway there. Only the two most recent movies hadn’t been seen, and now only the most recent.

Harry and I watched Wakanda Forever today. He’d already seen it. I liked it. It wasn’t as good as the first Black Panther. I found the bad guys kinda too goofy. Also, minor spoiler risk, there was a funeral scene that I found very difficult. Too close to home, I think.

Ant Man 3 is the only movie left now. I’m trying to talk everyone into going to the theater to see it tomorrow. I know the reviews are bad, but I hear that the fan reactions are quite a bit more positive. I think it’s worth a look. I should check to see if it’s playing at our local theater tomorrow. Hold on a second or two…

It’s playing, but no matinees. I checked Methuen, Lowell, and Salem, NH. Same at all three. Maybe I’ll wait for Disney+.

Cat Nap

192/365

The picture has nothing to do with the rest of the post. It’s just really cute when Lily sleeps. It’s also unusual to see her do anything other than chase Robin around and try to bite her head off.

I’m still feeling a little under the weather. The headache is lingering but it’s not too bad. I just feel sort of worn out after last night. These experiences take a lot out of me.

Jen is working on some hardware upgrades to her computer. Harry is asleep. I’m in the living room watching YouTube videos about camera gear. I can’t afford a good medium format film camera, but what about an ancient folding camera? That could be fun, right?

I’ve been thinking about camera gear over the last few days. Specifically, I have been thinking about Bellana’s graduation. We are not going to be able to sit close this time, unlike her high school graduation where they let the valedictorian’s family get right up to the front. Did I mention she was her high school class’ valedictorian? Anyway, I don’t have a zoom lens for my mirrorless camera. I should get one. I have a couple of zoom lenses for the film cameras. My Nikon has a 35-70 which would help a little, but it’s in pretty crappy shape. Dad has an 80-200 which would be really great, but it’s a pretty cheap, crappy lens so I’m a little afraid to put any faith in it. I am going to use it with the Pentax to Nikon adapter on the next roll of film I shoot on my Nikon to see how it goes. If it works okay and gives half decent results, then it will come to graduation for some film moments. Mostly I plan to go digital for the important things at graduation, so the question of a lens for the mirrorless camera still needs to be answered.

In the meantime though, I have a small project for myself. Photographically speaking, I need new places to shoot this year. I need to prep with Google. One project is lighthouses. I need to find them so I can visit them. Beyond that? Google: “hiking trails near Methuen, MA”. Think it will give me anything worthwhile? Here’s hoping.

For now though, I might go over to the eBay and search for Nikon lenses. I’ll let you know if I find anything.

Dirty Window

DSC_1117

It was 6:30am. I was about to start my morning fake jog (yog) when I looked out the insanely dirty window and saw that the stormy looking sky through the trees looked super cool. In the four seconds it took to pick up my camera the cool sky went away and I was left with this awful picture through an unbelievably dirty window.

It was worth a shot, I guess.

So I had another migraine last night. I was trying to cook some spaghetti. I reached out to turn on the burner and realized I couldn’t see it. It wasn’t the center of my vision that was missing, it was the right side. Just gone. The headache hit me a few minutes later and it was pretty bad. I laid down a little after 6:00pm and didn’t get up again until about 9:30. My eyes were okay at that point but I still had a nasty headache. I went back to bed a short time later and didn’t wake up until almost 5:00am. There was still a mild headache but it seemed manageable. When I got up to exercise I took some Tylenol and now, an hour later, I am feeling okay.

That’s three migraines in two weeks. I’ll be calling my doctor on Monday. Enough is enough, folks. I’m pretty scared about all of this.