Category: Generic

Busy Morning

The snow came early. It was supposed to switch from rain to snow by 9:00am or so. At least that’s what weather.com told me last night. When I got out of bed at 5:30 it was already snowing. Not a lot, but enough to cover everything.

I did my fake running and tried to have a shake for breakfast (and failed, see the previous post). Then I cleaned off the cars and took the Mazda for an oil change. It went a lot faster than I expected so I drove to Lowell for my 9:30 appointment at the Mazda dealer (a recall that involves a software update) and stopped to snap a few film shots along the way.

Now it’s 9:17 and I’m in the dealer’s waiting room. They are telling me it’s 45-60 minutes for the update. What is this, an Apple Watch? Sheesh!

Next on the agenda is going back to the mall to get the effing security tag taken off my new winter jacket. I might try to snag a couple of near-last minute xmas things while I’m there, and maybe a black and white film pic or two? After that it’s back to the grocery store for the stuff we forgot to get last night (how typical of me), and then I t’s home to ride out the rest of the storm and wait for kids to start showing up.

Busy morning, but it should be a good day. Here’s hoping.

Social Media Confusion and Collapse

I don’t think I am ready to abandon twitter completely yet. I don’t know why. Maybe that putz will sell the company for a gargantuan loss and someone who isn’t disgusting will buy it and fix all of the bullshit and I’ll want to use it again. Doubtful, but maybe. So I haven’t deleted my account, but I did delete every single tweet and mark the account as private so no one else will ever be able to follow the shell of what used to be my social media presence.

I barely acknowledge facebook anymore, though I’ve been on there a few times this week talking to other people about gastric bypass, and twitter is no longer a thing. Despite that, I have spent more time on social media this last week or two than I have in ages. Why? Because I’ve been looking for alternatives.

Post.news, Mastodon, Counter.Social, Hive. Not to mention this page, Flickr, and Instagram. Post feels like it’s in the lead for the new favorite service. None of the new guys are big enough to really know what they are going to be when they grow up yet. All but Hive have feeds that show all new posts, regardless of whether you follow the posters or not. Counter.Social and Post update at a pace where it is possible to follow along and pick out things worth reading. Mastodon is too busy to follow along. Things just go bombing by. I assume the same will happen for the other two if they keep growing in user numbers.

I guess the question I have for myself is this… why do you care? Sure, you were a social media whore 10+ years ago, but why do you still care today? No clue. No idea.

Oh well. I’m done with twitter and I’m done with facebook. Post.news feels like the new leader to me but maybe it will be something else. Maybe I’ll just post here 20 times a day for a while until I get it out of me, if you know what I mean what I mean.*

*That’s a Genesis reference. Back in NYC from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. “Let me out of Pontiac when I was just seventeen, I had to get it out of me, if you know what I mean, what I mean.”

Two Left

robertjames1971's avatarRob Shoots Film

I’ve spent the last week or so going through photos taken with my Dad’s Pentax K1000 to see if there are any that I haven’t posted here yet. I’m down to the last two, not counting things that were taken with the roll of film Dad loaded back in the 80’s that are basically just blobs of green weirdness. Here’s the lamest of the last two. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking with this one.

827402250007_7A

Hopefully I was trying to take something else and just bumped the shutter button accidentally. Who knows. The other unshared shot is of a couple of buildings. Pointless, but better than this one. You’ll likely see that sucker tomorrow. After that I will go through anything still unshared that was taken with my Nikon FG-20. I think there are a lot more to go from those rolls.

After that? After that…

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Another View

robertjames1971's avatarRob Shoots Film

I took two shots of this building during our brief walk around Boston last summer. I forgot I was using a manual film camera and just looked up and snapped without checking the light meter. Then I took the same view again setting things up correctly. The first was a little underexposed… and I think I liked it better, which is why I posted it ages ago. Here’s the more properly exposed yet not-as-good shot.

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Musical Desks

I don’t have a desk in the office anymore. Now when I need to go in I have to reserve a desk through our scheduling system. It’s not a bad deal, really. I just pick a desk location at random, show up, sit down and go. I can see the desks’ names but not a map of where they are, or who else has signed up around that spot. Today I had a desk in the Foxborough building for the morning, now I have a desk in the Westwood building that is closest to home. There are a few people sitting within ear shot of me right now. No one is close enough for Covid-discomfort, but I can hear them when they are on the phone… and they are all on the phone… and have been for over an hour.

Worse? I forgot to pack some headphones today. I have a headset mic I use for conference calls, but nothing that I can use with my iPhone. My solution? I installed iTunes on my work laptop for the first time in 100 years. I had to take multiple updates and reboot once before I could get it to run, but it’s working now. I’m listening to a photography podcast and I’m thinking about switching over to some Boston based 80’s punk rock. Moving Targets, maybe? Overall my impression of iTunes for Windows in 2022 is, wow does this application SUCK. It really does. Oh well. It’s working and I am okay with that.

On a personal “Duh” note, I have been sitting here for nearly two hours and just happened to notice that my laptop battery was down to 40%. I have a power strip that I brought with me and I plugged it into the wall when I got here, and my laptop is 100% plugged into the power strip. What the hell? Oh… there’s a little on/off switch that I didn’t see at all. The power strip was off. Oops.

Unrelated, I am hoping to take Dad’s film camera out around town tomorrow before work. I’ll freeze my ass off, but I still want to do it. I’m not sure where to go, I just know I need to finish the rolls in both of the film cameras, Dad’s Pentax and my Nikon, before Disney. Both cameras have black and white film in them and Disney needs to be in color, you know? Also, my Nikon is a test case, using Dad’s 50mm lens via an adapter. The lens/adapter combo worked perfectly on my DSLR, but I’d like to have some proof that they work on film too before I take them to Florida. There are only a few weeks left. I need to get on this. the light is supposed to be crappy tomorrow morning, but I’ll do what I can.

Another unrelated topic. On the way home tonight I need to stop somewhere and buy a winter coat and some gloves. We have snow in the forecast this weekend, though it looks now like it might be mostly rain, and I need to be ready. I also wonder if I should get a couple of extra t-shirts for the Disney trip. I only have three that fit me correctly. Maybe if the weather holds this weekend I might go to a thrift store and see if I can get some 2x shirts cheap. Hmmm. Interesting thought. Maybe I could look for some camera gear while I’m there. Heh heh, ain’t I a stinker?

Okay, back to work with you.