One More to Go

My epic binge watch of the new Doctor Who show ends tonight. One episode to go and then I’ll be caught up until new episodes air in November.

I still have 7355427846428 episodes of the original series left though.

Shake to Shuffle the Back Yard

I cooked my lunch on the grill in the back yard today. It’s cold inside the house and roasting hot outside. In between hamburger flips I took a few random pics with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone. As I did so I posed the question to the universe: If I do start using Hipstamatic regularly again, will I be the only person on Earth doing so?

I posed the question to the 900,000 folks on BlueSky Social and no one responded. I went to Flickr and searched for images tagged “hipstmatic” and sorted the results by date taken. There seem to be a few people there still using it. I checked a couple of Hipstamatic groups as well and they are still getting updates with recently taken images. Based on that I would not say I will be the only user left on Earth. I will say that I am one of the only users left. That’s okay with me.

As usual, I used the shake to shuffle function to randomly assign film/lens combinations.

Hipstamatic: Shake to Shuffle
Hipstamatic: Shake to Shuffle
Hipstamatic: Shake to Shuffle
Hipstamatic: Shake to Shuffle
Hipstamatic: Shake to Shuffle

Someday I am going to buy a medium format film camera. Consider this as me practicing for using a square format option. You’re welcome.

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.

Friday Morning Car Music

I recorded some vocals this morning. Three songs worth. I drove to the movie theater parking lot so no one could hear me, which is how I do things because I am such a wimp. Here’s the view:

I was only out for about half an hour and I did cut things off early. I had three songs ready to go that were written in August and two more that were written in July. I did the three August songs and was about to start one of the July songs when I opened up the GarageBand file and found there were a lot of lyrics to sing. I just didn’t have the energy and decided to save the two July songs for a weekend session.

I have changed up my workflow a little. Mostly in terms of standards. I am thinking of quick and dirty demoes now, due to flaking off for three weeks and falling so far behind the 50/90 pace. Last night when I wrote the melodies and lyrics for the three songs I recorded this morning I purposely decided to use the same parts in multiple places. Meaning I wrote one verse part and used it 2-3 times. I usually do that with chorus sections but I’m doing it more often now. I also purposely did not write a lot of harmony parts. One or two here and there but nowhere near as many as I usually write. I’m also lowering my standards for what is a useable take. That goes for vocals and guitars. I’m going to be much sloppier than usual and much less nitpicky. Is nitpicky a word?

I want finished demoes from here on out, rather than quality demoes. Know what I mean?

Anyway, here’s the obligatory downtown Methuen clock from the drive home pic:

359/365