Category: Tech

Almost Time to Punch In

I’m sitting at my desk eating some scrambled eggs (two eggs, four ounces total). My exercise ring is closed. Dad’s camera has been reloaded. I could use a shave, but otherwise the full morning routine is complete. It’s 8:53am. Time to punch in for the day.

I screwed up the Time Machine backup on my Mac the other day. I tried to restore it but failed (don’t ask). I kicked off a new backup yesterday after work. It still has 15 hours to go. Urgh.

I have a meeting at 10:00. I have to wait 60 minutes after eating before I can drink. I am not going to finish these eggs before 9:00 so I am going to be pretty dehydrated when the meeting starts. Coworkers are going to see me sippin’ not long after the meeting starts.

I tried Googling the problem I had with Dad’s camera today but didn’t come up with much. I found a few more tips on loading film so that it winds, but nothing about what happens if it stops winding halfway through the roll.

I checked the forecast. Tomorrow will not be a good day to try again (too cloudy), but Thursday might be. We’ll see. I’m kinda pissed off. Partly at the camera, partly at the roll of film, partly at the universe in general (fucking Covid), but mostly at myself for getting so hyped over something so stupid that could so easily go wrong.

I wonder if Nikon makes an equivalent, fully manual film camera that can also use the lenses I already own for my D90. Also, I wonder if such a mythical camera would be really cheap on ebay. That might be the next thing I research.

Okay. Time to punch in. Happy Tuesday, folks.

No Pain, No Gain, Something Something

I walked/marched in place for 30 minutes this morning before work. At lunch time I rode the exercise bike for 15 minutes. I have been trying to work the bike into my daily routine for a couple of weeks. Hopefully things will work out in such a way that I can do this regularly.

The downside is that my legs feel like rubber and walking is a little bit of an adventure. Yikes.

Here comes some camera nerd thoughts. Ready? Okay, I installed a light meter app on my phone yesterday. Dad’s camera has a built in light meter and I would utterly be toast without it. I assume my Nikon has one built in too, but I don’t know where it is or how to use it (now that I think of it, it’s probably just the auto mode). At lunch today I tested it out a smidge. I picked something to shoot, used the light meter, used manual mode on the Nikon, set everything the way the meter told me to, and took a picture. It looked okay on the D90’s little view screen. I then turned off half of the lights in the cellar and did it again. The picture looked okay but it was a little on the dark side (insert Vader’s breathing here).

I then repeated the entire process with the Pentax. The internal light meter looked good in both cases, so I think the app is probably close to accurate. How will the pictures look when I get them developed? I haven’t a freakin’ clue. Not even a tiny inkling of an idea. It may be a long time before I get the results. I took the roll that was in the camera (the 35ish year old roll that Dad started and I finished) to CVS on Saturday. They said 7-10 days… so I should be getting a call from them any minute now. (For those of you reading this post at some random future date, it hasn’t even been 48 hours yet. I was kidding. Get it?)

What else? Do I need to get a camera bag for Dad’s camera, or do I need to rearrange the bag that I have so that it can hold both cameras? My bag has the D90, two lenses, and some other little things. I can change the size of each section in the bag so I know I can fit the camera in there somehow, I just won’t be able to fit all of the other stuff. I have three lenses for the D90, including one that would be on the camera, and two for the K1000, again including one that’s actually on the camera. I may have to leave the extra lenses at home when I take the bag out somewhere. Maybe I get a bag for the two cameras and another bag for the lenses? Do amateur goofballs do that?

I also saw some youtube videos showing a couple of accessories that have kicked off my camera gear acquisition syndrome. Amazon has a remote shutter that screws on to the actual shutter switch. I could use the shit out of that for long exposures. I also saw a timer that is a little windup clock thing that also screws onto the shutter. I think K1000s might have come with that at some point. I wonder if Dad had one. I can’t find any of those anywhere online, including ebay.

And that, dear friends and neighbors, is my lunch break post for today.

Not Ready for Monday

I am just not ready for this… Monday. Crud.

I’m on track today. I started work before starting breakfast, which I don’t like, but otherwise all is well. My day’s exercise is done, the laundry is running and the bed is made and things are looking good. I just want another day for the weekend, that’s all.

I only got four hours of sleep Saturday night, thanks to the sunrise chasing. Last night I got seven hours but the numbers were as good as I’ve ever seen. I don’t know if that’s enough though because I am pretty seriously sleepy right now.

I stayed up later than I should have last night because I was being a camera nerd. Well… a camera researching nerd. Is that a thing? I was on youtube watching videos of common film photography mistakes, and tips and tricks for film photography beginners, and videos of people taking their Pentax K1000 on street photography photo walks around various places. I’ve done that a couple of times in Boston and New York. Well… usually I was doing something else and just took my camera with me and pretended I was on a photo walk.

I want to do it again with Dad’s camera now. Like… lets do it now! I need to get some fast film so I can do it at night too (assuming I don’t screw up loading the film again). I want to start at the old Tower Records location and just walk down Newbury Street to the Common, and then walk through the theater district, and then go back up to the building formerly known as the Hancock building and the church next door, and then go to the North End and go through the farmers market, and then, and then, and then. Man, I friggin’ love Boston. Screw Covid for keeping us away.

Oh, and then we need to go to New York, and then we need to go back up to the mountains and find waterfalls. All of it.

Also, if I don’t play my guitar soon I am going to die. Just saying. Thursday is the day I have pegged for trying to trade in my Strat. If they give me cash I will use that cash for the upgrades to the two 1970’s Gibsons.

Okay. Time to take on Monday. Mondays suck. I wanna go to Boston and wander around instead. Unless it starts raining… and it’s supposed to rain. Crud.

Absent Minded Doofus

I am in the office today. It’s the first time since before the surgery. The traffic was really bad. Another sign that the pandemic is over, even though people are still getting sick in droves. Hooray.

I was 10 miles down route 93 before I realized that I forgot my headphones. Damn it! Fortunately I had an old set of ear pods in my desk, so we’re good to go for today but… dumb ass.

It’s my first attempt at monitoring liquid and protein intake from outside of the house for a full work day. I will also be taking my meds (just vitamins, actually) at work today too. What could go wrong?

User Manual

Remember two posts back when I asked if anyone had a user manual for my father’s old camera?

I found it.

Pentax K1000. Now all I need to do is find someplace that develops film. Weeeeeee!

ADDENDUM: That manual is actually a service manual. The owner manual lives here.

Monday Monday

It’s Monday and I’m back on trackish.

I slept a little late this morning and got a slow start. I got a little juice into my system along with my morning vitamins. I went through the morning routine and did a little laundry. I had everything wrapped up by 8:15 so I started my walking in place thing. I got all 30 minutes in and was feeling pretty good. I tried to help Jen find a charger for her MacBook Pro, and then I punched into work. I went through a good chunk of the weekend email and then grabbed half of a protein shake. I have a meeting at 10:00. I don’t know if I am going to be able to get any food in before then, but at least I’ll have some protein and some more liquid. I wonder if today might see a protein shake in place of breakfast. We’ll see.

Things I want to do today include going grocery shopping after work, maybe spending the first few minutes of my lunch break on the exercise bike. I have been wanting to up the exercise, and the bike is the way to do it. Is today the day I make it happen? Could be.

I wanted to play guitar this weekend and I failed. I spent a lot of time with my parents, and the rest of the time I spent hanging out with my wife. Time well spent. We finished The Offer, which surprised us both which how much we enjoyed it. Then we binged all 10 episodes of How I Met Your Father. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t great. I think I had exactly one laugh out loud moment through the whole 10 episodes, but I did like it. When season two happens I’ll watch it if Jen wants to watch it. I also finally started season three of The Boys. There are five episodes out right now and I am half way through episode three. Butcher as a Sup? Nooooo.

Okay. Time to get some working in. Have a good Monday. In the immortal words of U2, don’t let the bastards get you down! Huzzah!

Messing with Twitter

So I found out how to add multiple users to the Twitter for Mac app, but you can still only have one open at a time.

Also, for some reason it won’t let me view individual tweets, but if you right click on a tweet in your timeline you can still get the link, which wordpress.com turns into this…