Category: photography

Bad Night

Another migraine. What the hell, brain? Twice in one week?

It hit me at about 4:00pm. I hung in there until 5:30 when the work day ended and the. Locked myself in the dark bedroom with my head under the blankets. The headache was crushing and darkness is the only relief. I fell asleep for a few hours and feel a little better now, though not 100% at all.

Lily has decided to lay between my legs and keep me company, though I have to get up for a minute and she is refusing to move.

Unrelated, I took this next picture this morning. I was about to make the bed and I found Lily hiding under the covers. Cute factor 10, captain.

Random Photo Thoughts

I haven’t shown Bertha the Houseplant lately. We had to get rid of almost all of the plants because we weren’t sure if they would harm the new cats or not. We had to move Bertha to the top of a cabinet in the dining room. She’s not getting nearly as much sun as she was before but she seems to be hanging in there and staying healthy. I saw evidence of a new branch a week or so ago. I took a picture today that I can reference back to the next time I check on her to see if she’s still growing.

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After last night’s post where I spit balled a new guitar pedal chain, I put together as close to that board as I could.

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The Bonamassa signature Crybaby is at Mike the Bass Player’s house. This is the Gary Clark, Jr signature Crybaby which is really good, but not quite as good. I looked into ordering a Marshall Bluesbreaker reissue pedal last night. Everywhere I generally shop from is out of stock so I didn’t order one. The Blooze Maker is a copy of the original Bluesbreaker. I used the holy hell out of it on this year’s RPM Challenge. It’s super noisy so I kinda don’t want to keep using it, but until I get a real Bluesbreaker, this will be a thing.

The office has two candles burning again. Just ’cause.

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Finally, in closing:

Robin…

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…and Lily.

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Running Late on a Friday Morning

I didn’t get out of bed until almost 6:00am, which is almost an hour later than I was hoping to get up, and then got wrapped up in a couple of things and didn’t get to my morning joggin’ (yoggin’) until after 7:00am. Yikes!

While exercising, I watched a youtube video with two film guys gone shootin’ in New York. I thought to myself, self? You and your wife are going to New York this weekend, damn it! Then I checked the weather and saw we’re getting a foot of snow starting tonight and ending sometime tomorrow night.

Shit.

No New York this week. No ocean pics, no nothing pics outside of the house. What a waste. We need to go to New York soon though, and I need to take one of the film cameras with me. There. I said it. New York on film, babie! It’s going to happen. The sooner the better. I used to write all of those Stir Crazy Files posts in the early days of the pandemic lock down, but this one is stir crazy for really reals. I need to get out of the house.

My mother’s big brother is out of the hospital. I am happy. We needed some good family news, and now we have some. Continue to get well, Uncle Jim.

Jen is having computer problems. Last night I went to Micro Center in Cambridge, MA to get some components that might help, but apparently they aren’t. We might have to fly back there tonight after work, assuming the snow doesn’t come early. The Bruins aren’t playing tonight, but the Celtics have a home game at 7:30. We’re bound to hit rush hour traffic plus Celtics traffic, but it will be okay. Assuming the snow doesn’t come early. Fingers crossed.

Okay. It’s 8:24 and I still need to shower and shave and get dressed before punching into work at 9:00. I am way behind schedule today. I hate this feeling.

I am going to cheer myself up by sharing one of my favorite film shots from the Disney World trip in January. This is my road tripping travel companion love of my life woman of my dreams wife Jennifer. I absolutely adore this picture. It’s my favorite film shot by far. By miles. By astronomical units. By light years. I love her and I love this photo of her. How could you not fall head over heels in love with that smile?

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I love her more than I could ever put into words

Hack Gag Yak

I have spent a significant chunk of my day gagging and hacking and spitting up into the little trash barrel next to my desk. Too much information?

Okay, here’s my shitty and pointless photo a day picture for today. I haven’t taken a candle pic in a while. Maybe tomorrow we’ll do a time lapse video to celebrate?

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Catching Up After a Couple of Off Days

The last couple of days have been weird, health-wise. First it was the headache issue on Tuesday, then it was stomach issues on Wednesday. Now here we are on Thursday and I am feeling a little like a wrung out face cloth. Here’s hoping today will be a quiet day.

We’re having some HVAC folks come and tell us what they need to do to replace the mini-split in the bedroom. We’ve had it serviced a couple of times this winter, but it’s just not working and we’re more or less unable to heat the bedroom without using a space heater as a supplement. They won’t actually replace it for another week or two, but they are coming for a fact finding mission.

So, television. Yesterday was the premier or season three of The Mandalorian and I could not be at a higher hype level. The first episode was excellent but… I think today’s third episode of season three of Picard might have been better. I did not see that coming, kids. I was just glued to the screen as I was getting this morning’s jogging (yogging) in. The captain vs admiral conflict seemed a little forced and out of character, but everything else? Fan-freakin-tastic. The bad guys behind the bad guy? Fan-freakin-tastic! I can’t wait for episode four. I also can’t wait for episode two of The Mandalorian, but that’s a given. In the Star Wars vs Star Trek debate, I come down on the Star Wars side, generally, but only by a little bit. Regardless of which franchise you prefer, it’s a pretty good time to be a space opera fan, am I right?

For the first time in a year, I am suffering from guitar gear acquisition syndrome. There are two overdrive pedals that I really want to buy, and I also really want to buy an amplifier simulator that I can use as a plug in through GarageBand. Last year I finished the RPM Challenge with a plan to do their Record Every Month challenge throughout the rest of the year. I had a goal of two songs each month that I could pretend were a single. I failed completely. I didn’t write a single song over the 11 months between the 2022 RPM and the 2023 RPM (with the exception of a few failed attempts in November). I am going to try again, but I am probably not going to record guitars through my amplifier on a regular basis. I am thinking I can do direct input more often and I want a good amp sim that I can use consistently. The one I am looking at is only $40, but I just don’t want to spend any money. We have a mini-split to buy after all.

Speaking of gear acquisition syndrome, I also really want to buy a new lens for my new camera. I adore the 40mm lens we bought for Disney, but I’d like a little zoom option. Possibly because the cats are suffering from The Zoomies every night and it just sort of inspired me, you know? I also really really want to buy a 35mm film point and shoot and I don’t know why. I want to buy a 35mm film camera with autofocus functionality too, but that’s going to cost some dough, and I think I can get a point and shoot for pennies. I want to go Nikon, as usual, but decent Nikon point and shoots are stupidly expensive on ebay. I looked for Pentax options yesterday and saw some with the starting bid of $1.00… so yeah, that could be a better option. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll hit the thrift stores more often.

Okay, time to get breakfast and get my day started. I have a lot of meetings today and need to be ready for a long day at the home office. Wish me luck.