Bummed
21:48 Wednesday, 13 August 2014
Words: 130
I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling pretty bummed out. I don’t watch TV, and the only web news site I regularly visit is the New York Times, so it’s not like I’m being bombarded by this information 24/7, but it just seems like all the news is so utterly, utterly bad.
Ebola in Africa, along with Boko Haram. Israel and Hamas. ISIS (which used to be a fun thing when it was Sterling Archer’s employer). Russia and Ukraine and Malaysia Airlines. Anti-semitism in Europe. Unarmed black teens being shot by police. Police dressed like Special Forces tear gassing and pointing weapons at protestors. Our utterly idiotic, feckless, criminally irresponsible Congress. A Supreme Court that just discards the separation of church and state.
Then Robin Williams.
Damn.
On the Brighter Side
22:38 Wednesday, 13 August 2014
Words: 307
Always carry a camera.
I took the E-M1 this morning, with the mZuiko 75-300 mounted because I wanted to get a shot of the waning "super" moon before I went for my run. Got downstairs with Bodhi, took a few frames of the moon and took off for our walk.
At some point in the early part of the walk, I hear jet engines and I happen to look up and spot a rather low 737 and it looks as though its flight path will have it crossing the moon!
The camera is still on, and still configured for shooting the moon. It hunted for a fraction of a second, which made me think I was going to miss the shot, then locked focus.
I chimped after the sequence finished, and was thrilled. Herewith being the results, jpegs "straight out of the camera" as they say:
mages/August_2014/Aug6.jpg" title="Moon and Airliner">
In Lieu of Thinking (Or Taking Pictures)
17:02 Saturday, 13 August 2022
Current Wx: Temp: 74.48°F Pressure: 1012hPa Humidity: 94% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 1331
I feel like I'm having another "blinding glimpse of the obvious." It's something I've been peripherally aware of for many years; but I think it's taken until now to begin to crystalize into something I can articulate. Maybe I'm not there yet, given how hard it seems to get this post going.
So, let me just get this out there in whatever form, and maybe I can refine it into something move concrete.
To be clear, I observe all of this in myself, but it's only because I've seen it in others first. Introspection has its blind spots, I think.
We have some affinity for an activity, something creative. We see others create things we that admire. More than just the creation, we admire the fact that they created it. They're just a person, like we are. We should be able to create something worthy of admiration too.
So, do we want to create something, or do we want to be admired?
I suspect that's the first disconnect. That, for many of us, the desire to create is secondary to a desire to be admired, that creation is the route to admiration.
For many years, I used to disclaim that I wasn't a "photographer," I was just a guy who likes to take pictures.
Superficially, that was true. I didn't make my living as a photographer, and saying I just liked to take pictures relieved me of any risk of being criticized for being a poor photographer, or, almost worse, an average one.
But there I was, posting pictures a lot, and often receiving praise from friends and acquaintances on social media. Of course, that didn't relieve the anxiety or insecurity. Still had to recite the disclaimer.
Many years ago, I used to keep up a fairly regular correspondence with an Australian, a writer and photographer named Jonathon Delacour. I admired his photography (and his writing), and his praise was most alarming. It was modest, he wasn't bullshitting me. He was just encouraging. We haven't corresponded in a long time now, I think it was last in 2014 or something. But I still think about Jonathon, every time I straighten a horizon. He told me never to do that, that was how I saw the image. But then, conventional critiques take up residence in your head, and now I'm always straightening my horizons. Don't get me started on converging verticals.
So there's this anxiety about creating, I think, that isn't about whether or not your pictures are shit, but whether or not you are.
Rather than confront that risk, we hide behind disclaimers, but also devote a hell of a lot of time and attention, to matters tangential to the thing we ostensibly love to do. We spend too much time thinking about our tools.
Part of this, I think, is cultural. We live in a capitalist, consumer society that is obsessed with competition and ranking things. But I think it's only part. We're burdened with an abundance of choices, which acts as a kind of attractive nuisance. We also covet stuff, mostly the stuff other people have. And social media is nothing if not a gallery for showing off our stuff.
I'm fortunate, or unfortunate perhaps, enough to be able to have many of the things I coveted. I have a ridiculous number of cameras. I'm sure there are many people equally or more ridiculous, but that doesn't get me off the hook. After a certain point, having so many tools itself becomes an impediment. It takes some cognitive effort to pick just one from a number of very similar devices. There have been times when I didn't bring a camera along on a walk or something because I couldn't make up my mind if I wanted a telephoto zoom or a prime!
As an aside, I just bought a used Olympus PEN E-PL6. It's a decent little camera, but it's not much different from my E-PL7. It's less capable in many ways. But it's red. So red. It wasn't until after I'd bought it that I noticed that the black E-PL6 has red accents around the lens mount and the shutter button. Looks sharp! I've got to pay for this AC going in the garage, and the insulation in the attic, or I'd have that coming in now too. But I would not bet against having a black E-PL6 on my shelf of too many cameras before the year is out. We'll see.
Anyway, people spend a lot of time not doing the thing they ostensibly love to do; instead doing something related, but less risky. Just go the the Digital Photography Review forums and visit the Micro Four Thirds forum. It's filled with anxious, would-be photographers with anxiety about their skill and their small sensor size. I, of course, among them. Though I don't post much, mostly lurk.
Which brings me to a similar phenomenon in the tools for thought space, or personal knowledge management.
The thing that got me into "personal computing" forty years ago wasn't video games or some desire to "compute" anything, it was seeing text or graphics on a TV screen that didn't come from a "studio." I suppose it has something to do with being especially attuned to visual stimuli, itself perhaps because of TV, that I coveted having a personal computer to put my own text and graphics on a TV screen!
My introduction to computers was a traumatic experience. Two 5 credit hour Ds in Calculus with Computers in my plebe year at USNA. I was not a natural either for programming or calculus. So you'd think I'd want as little to do with computers as possible. But I volunteered at USNA's campus FM radio station, WRNV. One of my jobs was to type in the playlists that we sent to the record companies, which was our end of the deal for getting promotional albums. (Which I got to take back to my room and play for my friends.)
But we entered those playlists on some kind of database, which I don't recall anymore, but I used a Tektronics video terminal to do it! That was some very science fiction stuff right there. Calculus with Computers was really calculus with a mainframe by way of a teletype in a noisy, hot little soundproof booth! Ugh.
Anyway, that turned into a fascination with computers that lasted for almost forty years. I'm less fascinated with them today. I'm actually more interested in the history of computing than its future, which looks pretty grim, I think.
What has remained is an interest in kind of doing what I'm doing right now. Putting my own words on a screen, soon to be accessible to anyone with a web browser. Not that they're likely to be of interest or utility to many. Or anyone.
And I'm still interested in all the different ways we can put those words (and images) on our screens.
But I'm not so sure about their utility as an aid to thinking. I mean, I've heard writing is a way for some people to see what they think, and maybe that's kind of what I'm doing here. Especially given the opening to this post.
Thinking is hard. It's risky. It's much easier to spend time searching for the right tool, arguing about the utility of back-links, or the virtues of markdown. I have anxiety because here I am, over sixty-five years old and I haven't created my own personal knowledge graph! How do I know what I know? ("The map is not the territory.")
Oh, the depths of my epistemological and ontological despair!
Anyway, we should probably all be taking more pictures and doing our own thinking. Admiration? I guess we all just want to be loved. Don't have to be an artist or a genius to deserve that. And you probably get what you give. So there's that.
Another blinding glimpse of the obvious.
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01:22 Sunday, 13 August 2023
Current Wx: Temp: 95.47°F Pressure: 1011hPa Humidity: 59% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 84
With regard to the previous post, I modified the program in each of the machines to eliminate the display of intermediate results. In that instance, the performance changes radically. The HP-75C comes in first, displaying the result in about 1s. The TI-74 is second at about 2s, while the HP-71b comes in a distant third at about 5s, which is still radically quicker.
I was surprised a bit to see the HP-75C overtake the TI-74, given the original performance.
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09:15 Tuesday, 13 August 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 84.24°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 83% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 629
(Not to be confused with 15 Tons.)
"Rucking," is a fitness thing, where people walk or hike with a backpack of some weight. Probably an oversimplification that offends people who actually do it. Anyway, I read a little bit about it and figured I'd try something like it.
One thing I read suggested to start out at 15-20% of your bodyweight. (I gather genuine rucking involves around 40%, something I don't see myself ever attempting.) I went with a bit less than 10% and stuck a 20 pound dumbbell in my little Osprey daypack. Putting it on, I decided, "Oh, hell no!" Switched it out for a 15-pounder and figured I'd give that a try.
I don't know if it was the weight or the density, but I definitely felt it. The daypack has a waist belt, so I had that cinched up tight; and the shoulder straps linked with a "sternum strap," (Are we going for alliteration here? Why isn't it called a "chest strap"? Beats me.) Anyway, the load was secure.
I didn't use the sticks, I figured I'd just try wearing the pack and see how that felt. 78°F and 95% humidity was how it felt. My heart rate wasn't elevated, and my pace was slower, just under 20 minutes a mile. There is no "rucking" workout on the Apple Watch, oddly enough. I didn't think to look for it until after I finished my walk and saw I supposedly burned the same amount of calories I'd have burned without carrying the daypack.
I'd have thought there'd have been one for "rucking," where you enter the weight of your pack at the start of the workout, but no. Doesn't seem that there is.
My usual 5K route has nearly zero elevation gain. There are a couple of spots that go up and down a couple of feet, but it's basically flat. I wore my regular New Balance 608s. ("Dad shoes," Caitie says.) They seemed adequate, though I suspect the insoles will flatten or wear out faster.
Anyway, it was definitely something of a workout. I'll try it with the poles one of these days. I was surprised at how such a small amount of weight seemed to increase the effort, though that was never reflected in my heart rate. I think it might have been of more value doing something like going over and back on the CR 210 bridge, where there's some elevation gain. That would have bumped up the exertion.
I did get a chance to get a good look at Jupiter and Mars, just above Orion, this morning. Mars looked redder than I recall, but maybe that was just because it was so near Jupiter. Cool though.
I don't carry a flashlight or wear a headlamp, but I encounter a few people who do. The things are blinding. I don't know, maybe they're afraid of snakes, or tripping over something, but it always seems to me like there's enough light without one. There are a couple of dark spots between the street lights, but even there you can usually make out the leaves on the sidewalk. I was on the road at 0512 this morning, and still ran into four people!
Checked the tide data for the Tolomato and it's midway on the ebb for the next couple of mornings. It'll still be on the ebb on Friday, but just coming off so there'll be plenty of water. I don't know the area, and I don't want to find myself in some oyster beds with the tide running out. Friday maybe I'll put the kayak in and paddle up the river a little while and let the current help bring me back. Just get the feel of it. We'll see.
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Current Wx: Temp: 90.73°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 70% Wind: 10.36mphWords: 341
Went out to pick up the mail and spotted this guy in the road. Tried to casually shoo it back toward the retention pond and he just wasn't having it.
Got the mail into the house and went back out to collect it and carry it back to the pond. It's a Florida softshell turtle. I've picked them up before, much bigger ones than this one. They do bite, but if you're careful, you can pick them up from behind, a little past halfway down the shell toward the back end. The neck is pretty long and they'll try to bite. The hind legs can get you, but the claws usually aren't very sharp.
They have pissed when I've picked them up before, so I know better and keep them at arms' length. This one didn't, but it did hiss at me before turtling. Back legs kicked a bit but didn't put up much of a fight.
The link at FWC says you should only move it in the direction it was heading across the road. But I'm guessing this one was coming from the retention pond across the street. At any rate, it wasn't moving when I saw it and I figured I'd put it back where I'm pretty sure it came from. Otherwise, it was likely to get run over and that's a whole other mess with vultures and all that.
After, I took my IR thermometer and checked the temperature of the asphalt: 118°F. I'm not sure how healthy that is for turtles, but I'm guessing it's not great. When I put it in the grass near the pond, it bolted for the water so I think it's probably ok.
It may have been looking for a better place to live, but the FWC also says not to translocate them to prevent the spread of turtle frasiervirus 1.
This is at least the third one I've picked up and taken back to a retention pond in the past 20 years. Hopefully I'm banking some good turtle karma.
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15:42 Wednesday, 13 August 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 78.49°F Pressure: 1011hPa Humidity: 79% Wind: 4.32mphWords: 258
I was a bit bored this afternoon. We did some more yard work this morning, which kind of put me off my plan to work in the garage. But after some time in the recliner, I seemed to rally and managed to get out to the garage and put up a couple of shelves.
I've been deleting images from my Photos library, and that had me looking at shots I took with the tiny Olympus E-PM1, which was my first micro-four thirds camera. I don't know why, but I find those images appealing somehow. It's the last iteration of Panasonic's LiveMOS 12MP sensor, at least in an Olympus body. I believe it's the same sensor that was in the E-5 and E-30 DSLRs. Panasonic's earlier 8MP and 10MP LiveMOS sensors were known for somewhat high levels of chroma noise at any ISO above base. The 12MP sensors were much better controlled in that respect.
Anyway, it's probably just something subjective, but I do like those sensors paired with the Olympus jpeg engine, so I pulled out an E-PM1 I bought some time ago, specifically to have a body with one of those sensors on hand. I don't shoot with it a lot, so I got the tiny E-PM1 so it didn't take up much space.
I bought some flowers yesterday, and I thought this looked nice. It's unedited, straight out of the camera. Something that afforded me a few minutes of diversion this afternoon.
And gave me something to blog about too.
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09:13 Thursday, 13 August 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 68.65°F Pressure: 1012hPa Humidity: 94% Wind: 4.59mphWords: 314
Yesterday was a pretty good day. We had the crew down here at the back patio for a little burgers and dogs lunch. They finished the stairs and the subflooring so we won't see them again for a while.
Builder Brad and his trusty sidekick Derrick are up there today getting the bucks built for the doors. Bucks are wood frames that the windows and doors are mounted in, and the ICF blocks are stacked around them. They'll do the doors first, then start stacking and then build the bucks for the windows.
Today's "On this day..." has a post from 12 years ago that feels like it could have been written today, except for the part about Robin Williams. I noticed that all the images are missing from that month. I'll see if I can find them in one of the archived Photos libraries I have one of these external SSDs. Not optimistic.
Rained hard last night. A couple of thunderstorms blew through and the rain was pretty intense. We have a metal roof and it was louder than I'd ever heard it before in this place. Didn't last long though.
Filled up the Maverick yesterday and calculated 42.3 mpg on the last tank, which brought the lifetime average up to 39.3. Winter seems to be the worst season for hybrid driving. I only had 3 fill-ups between December and March, but they all came in below 30 mpg. Everything since then has been near 40 or above.
I'm corresponding with an HVAC contractor up near Geneva about our HVAC system. They're called Simply Installs, so I'm hoping they'll be able to take this design and equipment list and put it together for me. It seems it may be a little different than what they're used to, so we'll see.
The MegaFlash arrives today, and I'm looking forward to getting them installed.
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