The day was mostly good today. I helped Kirk edit some stuff for his sister and I completed several assignments way ahead of schedule for customers that needed them urgently but had no justification for a priority upgrade. I got a few things taken care of online and a few old photos restored from slides. The day was cool (mid-80s) and humid and windy and rainy, which is very refreshing given our recent streak of broiling heat. ( Financial woes )
Tonight's shoot was really frustrating because I messed up on my settings the same way I did last time, so I'm feeling awfully stupid. In my defense, I only do this shoot once every two months or so, but seriously. I've done it like a dozen times. I corrected by the end of the ceremony (like last time), but I'd really rather start off right. That whole learning thing is apparently lost on me for the long term connections.
This has been a terrible week for cooking. I often have time with meals when I travel on the weekend because that's when I usually cook for the next week. This week I failed to account for being unable to cook tonight and tomorrow night due to work obligations, so I'm raiding the freezer. I'm finding mostly just raw meats and frozen produce. Good starting ingredients, but not so good when there's no time to prepare. Will have to make a late night shopping trip tomorrow night so I'll have food for Friday morning. At least this is a down Friday.
My Mpix order came in today and it's absolutely beautiful. Paying (literally) ten times more for product was totally worth the expense. Not only are the silver process black and whites flawless and rich in their tonality, not only are the color prints deep and bold, but the print of Kelly I've been trying to get adequately reproduced was FINALLY produced to my abusively exacting standards - and surpassed. It's all very exciting for me. I got two prints on their metallic paper, which I admit to initially being very hesitant about. The price spiked for using that paper and it seemed kind of questionable sight unseen. But the prints are really something to behold and dynamic in a very interesting way. I'm uncertain as to how well they'll serve on display, but just looking at them in hand is quite remarkable. A very special kind of print. Makes me feel like I'm living in the future. This is definitely the most exciting moment for me on the print side of photography since I started wet processing prints in the darkroom.
My alarm didn't go off this morning, so I was about 15 minutes late for work. Lame. I mention this so if in the future I can travel through time, I can make sure to double-check all the alarm settings and correct the error or replace the clock. Today was very busy. AETC wanted a big photo project done today (as in lots of photos taken specifically today), so Kemberly and I were running about - albeit her moreso than me. Got an awkward photo of an MRI scan and a slapdash photo of someone using a microscope. Got a halfway decent photo of students in a weather training course. There was a change of command today that taught me about watching my white balance settings.
I bought some wine tonight. I didn't intend to open a bottle tonight, but I also hadn't intended to buy any for myself at the store, so I suppose today was a day of failed restraint. I can live with that. I'm drinking a blended wine I haven't tried before: Crimson, by Stephen Vincent (2006). I admit, I thought I made a very serious mistake when I tasted it. It's not so bad after half a glass, though. It has a very peculiar attribute to it that I unfortunately cannot describe due to my limited wine critiquing vocabulary. I think I need a trainer.
Tomorrow's the last day of my work week! I don't feel very relaxed and I'm not prepared for travel. I'd like to sleep for a while, but this wine isn't going to help me stay asleep. Such foolish decisions.
Quick update QOTD: "The wheel turns, does it not, Ambassador?"
Simply because I haven't posted in a while... Haven't really had much of anything happen in my life as of late. I'm managing to find a whole lot of time to do a whole lot of nothing. That usually means I don't have nearly enough time to do anything. I've been lounging around most evenings after work, trying to regain some sense of momentum which will only be accomplished when I actually stop to relax. And while lounging around may constitute relaxing or simple outright laziness to some, it takes a long time for me to spin up to relaxing. I cannot relax at the drop of a hat. So... working on that.
Did some photo editing today from the D.C. trip photos. I'm abysmally behind. I did lots of family photos just recently that occupied a large portion of my free time. Furthermore, getting prints of them to send to appropriate (and ungrateful) relatives was something of a wallet burn. 94 prints from Winkflash ($20) and 20 from Mpix ($30). Mpix does honest-to-god silver black and white processing, so I'm really excited to see the results. I'm also keenly interested to see what a 66¢ 4x6 print looks like compared to a 6¢ print. Did some editing on some old family photos from my dad's side of the family (which my mom had taken), which was interesting. Almost all of the photos of my family are from my mom's side. There are about four photos of my dad's father and maybe the same number for his mother, but there are no photos of anyone farther up the tree, to my knowledge. Not on his side, anyway. Whereas on my mother's side, we have a group photo of my mother (?), my grandmother, one of my great grandmothers and then one of my great great grandmothers. A nice photo, mind you. 8x10 in a presentation frame-folder. I guess that's socioeconomics for you.
Not a great week QOTD: "Psychiatry enables us to correct our faults by confessing our parents' shortcomings."
So yesterday I got an unexpected bill in the mail from my dentist for $278.40. After digging through a digital landfill, I managed to track down my dental EOBs, which never seemed to make it to my mailbox, and discovered that I'd exceeded my maximum $1000 insurance payout for this period. A little over $600 of that work was for my root canal, however I still had to use my entire tax refund to pay the balance that insurance wouldn't cover. The rest is for work done on the tooth prior and a slew of associated (necessary) x-rays and cleanings. Bills stack fast, it seems. It's very apparent how people get in over their heads when they get sick. (Perhaps I'll take this opportunity to remind you all of the merits of a national health care plan.) The real stick in my craw is that with my reduction in rent, I've been redoubling my efforts on paying off my loans. Not only does an unexpected bill of this size flush my tiny reserve funds, but also disrupts my budget for two months. Not amused. Lesson: Pay more attention and pay less money.
Work this week was slow and agonizing. I complain, but truly my job is ultra posh. I have commercial, unrestricted internet access at work, self-paced work with typically reasonable deadlines, flexible scheduling and occasional overtime hours from a company that doesn't like to pay overtime under any circumstances. I have gotten a bit bored, though. My only recent challenges involve deciphering the nuances of using a flash in difficult low-light venues. I've been doing a lot of tedious restoration work lately. Usually I find this calming - albeit strenuous - but this week I've found it unsatisfying.
Spider mites struck my pepper plants this week and last night they hit my newest goji berry plant, decimating it. I spent the afternoon cleaning plants. I had planned to take my dad two of my pepper plants tomorrow, but I only have one that wasn't infested that I'm willing to give up that's also good enough to give. My lemon tree is doing badly. It will have to be pruned heavily after the current lemons have been harvested in a few months. Mealybugs have infested my rosemary, peppers and the older goji plant. The rosemary got heavily pruned (it needed it anyway, I suppose), the peppers and goji plants were cleaned. I've discovered goji berry leaves (at least the ones I've kept) to be particularly fragile and easily severed. The heat here has been extraordinary, with the average today being around 96°F and the humidity in the 80% range. It's been baking my plants. I have to water at least twice a day. I also discovered some clear eggs all over my grape plant, which I cleaned off this evening. I need some natural pest predators on my balcony... like dragons.
I haven't done much of anything this week and I'm exhausted.
I've been eating a lot lately. This is probably directly correlated to me buying more food. And the pints and pints of Häagen-Dazs I've been consuming as of late (I blame the coupons). I suppose I need to do something about all that. Admittedly, I do have more energy (what, fuel generates energy?) but this is not a sustainable course of action (like the county's health care system?) so I need to initiate some kind of exercise routine, else I be committed to the fates of overweight Americans and join the likes of my father, who become quite wide before being slapped with a diabetic diet and maintaining the eyes of an underfed puppy - albeit the blood sugar level of a non-diabetic. I can pinch fat and my navel is enlarging. Unacceptable terms. This is not a negotiable matter. No more food and eighty thousand miles of running every day. You know, or something. Anything.
[deleted paragraph about work stuff that wasn't worth posting]
Drank some wine tonight (which is what brought on this post and all these parentheses). Finished the Budini ('08) and opened the Hey Mambo. I will strongly recommend the Budini as a very smooth malbec (I'm adoring the malbecs for reals) both for meals and on its own. Alicia got it the last time I visited her (I haven't gotten around to that LJ post... gah) and she got this bottle as well. We went to Bin 605 after eating at Mr. Greek Saturday (Daniel in attendance). As far as Mr. Greek, I'm getting a little tired of how insanely acidic their vinaigrettes are. Other than that, the food was good and I became much more conscious of the limited gluten-free items on the menu. But following that, we went to Bin 605 because Alicia was seeking wine and I knew that was their thing and I hadn't yet been there. It was a pretty nice place. Not as flashy as Drinx (what, no enormous glass cube for expensive wine?) but I found the aesthetics more appealing.
This week I have to finish uploading and ordering the photos from my aunt and uncle's anniversary. I've also discovered a hole in the roof of my apartment building that I need to report. This is of particular concern since I'm on the top floor. I climbed into the attic-like area via my closet this evening to investigate. I donned only boxer shorts, an undershirt and a pair of New Balance sneakers in order to give the first responders something to talk about should I have a dramatic incident. I discovered that one of the vents was missing, resulting in direct exposure of the breezeway ceiling to the elements. I'm relived it's something that should be able to be repaired from the outside of the building because my closet's a mess. Much like the rest of my apartment. I don't want to have to clean just to have maintenance climbing all over the place, moving in and out of my apartment all the time.
Infrared post QOTD: "Never forget what a man says to you when he is angry."
So I've been trying to get around to posting these for some time now and it seems that I'm finally getting to it. I always forget how long photo posts take until I'm about 2/3 of the way through. Mostly this foray into infrared was a disappointment. Really I only started to get the hang of the stuff at the end of the last roll, which is amusing since the best stuff came from the beginning of the first roll. The first roll I underexposed soundly (Kodak HIE is some remarkably clear film), the second roll I overexposed handsomely, and the third (and final) roll I got about half right but had run out of things to photograph that were interesting and thus very little of interest turned out. I roll of Rollei Infrared I shot recently with Eric W. proved that there's no substitute for spectral sensitivity, though I have hopes that the Efke AURA Infrared (formerly the MACO I used in college) will give me back some of the magic of the days of yore. I'll have to get a new lens before I try any of that.
There's actually another version of this one with some sun that I prefer, but it doesn't transfer well. I think this shot/composition is my favorite out of all of the infrared.
Preoccupations and delays QOTD: "I'm detecting massive positron emissions! She's turning your manga into antimatter for her doomsday bomb!"
It's been a good while since Pintsize has made me laugh like that.
Haven't posted much lately because I've been slowly cleaning my apartment. And cooking. I have a lot of photo work to do this weekend. Maybe I can manage to get updated plant photos posted.
Yesterday, while cleaning, I found a pack of ground coffee in my apartment. I don't buy coffee.
Awful QOTD: "Keeping your clothes well pressed will keep you from looking hard pressed."
Having a moderate clothing freakout. Supposed to be going with my parents' so we can then go to a surprise party for my uncle and aunt's 25th anniversary. I don't need anything special for this, but it should be at least halfway decent. Well apparently a solid 50% of my clothes have OIL spots on them. How exactly oil gets on my clothes, I truly have no idea. I'm at a total loss. Of the remaining 50%, 30% don't fit and 20% are inappropriate. Yes, I threw a bit of a tantrum. No, I'm not done throwing that tantrum. I'm fucking insanely sick of not having decent clothes. And it's so goddamned hot here it's not helping my temper. I have to do laundry anyway and I would've started on that already, but I was going to get that underway once I found something to wear.
I'm under attack! QOTD: "Human pain does not let go of its grip at one point in time. Rather, it works its way out of our consciousness over time. There is a season of sadness. A season of anger. A season of tranquility. A season of hope."
Oh no, they're breeding!
So yeah, having some plant trouble. First I notice the horrible mitelike web-spinning horror bugs that destroyed BOTH my sages last year had infested one of my pepper plants. I considered a few remedies, but ultimately scrapped the plant. I have lots of peppers. Then I discover that another pepper plant has holes in its leaves. Upon closer examination I discover many of the leaves are deformed. I attribute the deformities to extreme heat damage but am uncertain on the cause of the holes. As I moved away from that plant, I looked at the top of my only pablano pepper (acquired from Lowe's in Gautier and apparently not well-inspected) and discovered it was infested with aphids. Given that ladybugs aren't often spotted on my apartment balcony, I excised the infested sections of the plant. I'll inspect it again tomorrow to see if I missed any. Additionally, all of the blossoms on my dwarf pomegranate have fallen off. I attribute this to high heat, as well. I'll probably move that plant to a slightly more shaded area. Oh, and my tomatoes were struck with those horrible squiggly leaf worm things. I presume they got it from my basil, which had them a few days ago. I'm going to have to set up a quarantine zone on my balcony soon.
The strain of sentience QOTD: "I bought a cactus. A week later it died. And I got depressed, because I thought, Damn. I am less nurturing than a desert."
Today I took a few hours off work and hung out with Eric, who was released from his training duties early. We shot my roll of Rollei 400 and I shot the roll of Efke 25. Ate at Mr. Greek and then stopped at the Buddhist temple on Oak Street. We picked up the only pamphlet in English (most were in Vietnamese) and Eric talked to a guy for a while. We came back to my place and I showed Eric how to develop the film and he did the Rollei pretty much from start to finish. The exposures look very good, but I won't really know until I get the images inverted. Almost all of them were shot through my B+W 091 red filter, so they're going to be pretty contrasty. I didn't have time to develop the Efke. Maybe tomorrow since Eric now isn't free to hang out in the evening due to laundry needs.
I hope to have an infrared photo post up in the next two weeks.
Eurovision 2009 QOTD: "If you don't know your destination, who determines your destiny?"
Norway is the winner of this year's ESC, and by nearly double the points of the runner-up, Iceland (with Azerbaijan right on their heels).
NORWAY To be totally honest, I wasn't really thrilled with the song. However, he did perform very well and he was expected to win.
ICELAND It's a lovely song, really. It could sell in the US, yeah?
HUNGARY From the semi-final since they didn't qualify for the finals. Token posting of the gayest video. I enjoy it far too much. DISCO!
THE UKRAINE My favorite performance for several reasons. I must confess, however, the biggest reason is the Spartans. OMG, HQ, full screen, fo' real. This is the Semi-final performance since the routine is a little cleaner than in the final. Possibly NSFW on public computers.
I'll now return to courteous lj-cut operations. Thank you for watching. If you're interested in watching the complete final or either/both full semifinals (including the unimaginably ridiculous hosts), you can go to eurovision.tv, where the programs will be available on-demand for the next week or so.
Star Trek QOTD: "What is necessary is always wise."
Dear J.J. Abrams,
I was deeply concerned at some of your comments concerning directing the eleventh movie in the Star Trek franchise. To me, they were indicative of a mind preoccupied by the glamor of theater and not the manifestation of the dream of one Gene Roddenberry. To that end, I felt that you were, perhaps, inherently a doomed albeit unseen character in the very work you were overseeing. That combined with the very nature of the movie itself I found to be deeply troubling at the least and profoundly unsettling at the most, and I was left feeling that it was unavoidable for you to further tarnish Trek canon, plunging a universe I hold sacrosanct even further from its course.
Eurovision 2009: Early favorites QOTD: "To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other."
This year's selection looks pretty serious in an unfortunate way, but there are a few interesting items. Hopefully the stage performances and the event itself will be stronger than the entries themselves. Eurovision 2009 will be held in Moscow, Russian Federation, on May 12, 14 & 16 at 2100 CET. You can watch the shows live on Eurovision.tv via the Octoshape plug-in.
And yes, I'm loading up your Friends page with YouTube videos without a lj-cut.
Ukraine The Ukraine never fails to disappoint! Outstanding! Suggestive content warning if you're on a public computer.
Greece For a moment I thought I might be watching a Dahler Mendi video remake. Some great European flavor here. A good contender, I say.
Finland I get the feeling I'm watching a Finnish version of Aqua. You know, but better. Because they're European.
Norway I expected this kind of thing from Armenia or FYR Macedonia, honestly. Sure, he can sing and he can play, but he sure knows where to find stage dancers.
Why I try not to care QOTD: "By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man's, I mean."
Spent two hours this morning shooting my first of three rolls of Kodak HIE infrared 35mm film and a roll of Fuji Neopan 400 120mm film. The shooting went fine for the most part. However, when I went to put the 120 on its reel, things got harder very quickly. I fought with the stuff for probably half an hour. I admit I threw a little tantrum after the eighth attempt. I fought with it so long that the dim light along the edge of the door frame had become enough for me to have decent vision in the dark. This annoyed me sharply as that meant my film was going to start to get fogged. I fought with it and fought with it and fought with it. I finally got the film wound on with no crimping or bending. I develop it and discover that the reason there was no crimping is because it hadn't attached to the coil, it was all wound on top of itself around the core of the reel. It also appeared that half of the roll was unexposed, though that's difficult to ascertain given the debacle of developing that had occurred. One exposure might've been salvageable, but I was too heartbroken to deal with it, so I threw it in the trash without bothering to put it through the fixer.
With the heavy disappointment from the 120, I decided to go ahead and process the HIE. The sun was still up and that small amount of light that gets into the bathroom would be too much for such sensitive film, so all work from unloading the camera to getting the film on the reel and sealed in the canister was done in a small changing bag as well. All of that went especially flawlessly. I did all of my processing in subdued light even though I was confident in my canister's IR opacity. I even opened a new bottle of Rodinal to process it (though the fix was probably a bit old). After the fixer, I looked at the negatives before putting them in the wetting agent. Underexposed. Almost totally blank film. Three exposures turned out well enough to work with. I was very upset at such a massive failure. I expected to have trouble, but I didn't expect to have a greater than 90% fail rate. I cut out the viable negatives and sleeved them. I played with them a bit in Photoshop, but the results weren't very strong at all and it just made me more upset. I sat outside with my plants for a while but now I think I'm just going to go to bed early.
Lots of Navyfolk in for photos today. I don't care for that since the Navy officer photos are significantly different than other branches. God forbid an officer lose his left hand in battle, let me tell you.
Tomorrow night I load my first roll of my precious Kodak HIE infrared film. My apartment doesn't have any light-safe rooms and certainly none that are infrared-safe, so I'll be loading it with all the blinds shut, all the doors closed, in the bathroom, in the bathtub, with the camera in a changing bag. We'll see how that goes. If weather permits, my goal is to have one entire roll shot tomorrow and developed tomorrow night. My car is in urgent need of washing, but I might forgo that one more week if I have especially suitable weather on Sunday. I'll also be shooting a roll of 120 Neopan 400 in a Zenza Bronica (with side grip and pentaprism viewfinder, omg!) while I'm doing the infrared. Should be a huge night for film developing. Really wishing I would've just bought that film drying cabinet that Danny's dad was unloading when I got the enlarger. This apartment isn't really dust free and some of the films I'm going to be using don't appreciate heated drying.
How 'bout them apples? QOTD: "If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure?"
I can't find the memory card with the rest of my D.C. photos on them. So that update post is on hold indefinitely.
Oh.
And as I wrote that, I found it. Sooo... maybe later this week. I have to cook tonight. Today the CCM of our local numbered air force gave me his (challenge) coin, so that's exciting. I'm averaging about one a year. This is the first I've gotten from an enlisted member and is from the highest organizational tier so far. It's a big coin! haha So, I'm excited.
Also, my first B&H order came in and I got a 120mm developing reel (an el-cheapo variety), a roll of 120 Fuji Neopan 400 (to test out a Bronica from work), a 55mm B+W 091 red filter (to shoot infrared film) and a 55mm to 52mm step down ring (so that the filter that I ordered can be used on the lens I borrowed without making it useless later). I loaded the film and it seems to engaged properly in the camera. I'm hoping to shoot with it this weekend while I'm shooting the infrared. I really wanted a 092 filter, but B&H didn't sell them and they're pretty awfully expensive. I think the 091 will be good enough. I hope it's enough to black out the sky. I'm hoping for deep blue skies this weekend with cumulus clouds. I made another order from B&H for developing supplies and film, but didn't think to add 120mm negative sleeves. I might have to make one more order. What a waste of shipping charges.
The chicken fried rice is done, but it's too late to start on muffins. Not sure what I'll snack on tomorrow before lunch. Hrm. Apples?
27 QOTD: "You know that children are growing up when they start asking questions that have answers."
Have I mentioned I can see wrinkles forming on my face? I can, you know. Unfortunately, I think it has more to do with progression of age and less to do with localized gravity inconsistencies.
I had to work today, doing a shoot of a children's basketball clinic. I did not enjoy it and did not do a good job. I didn't enjoy it because I didn't do a good job. It wasn't my fault I didn't do a good job. It's not easy getting good shots of people when they're face-to-face but several feet apart and moving erratically.
I've been working on my big D.C. entry. It might be ready tomorrow. I'm almost through with the text, but the photos will take some time, especially since most of them aren't ready yet. As soon as that's done, I'll probably start posting more. I hate having big events not logged in and this one's kinda hanging over me.
In recent news, I got 14 hours of overtime on my last check, which I think is a new personal best at this job. A total of over 104 hours in the pay period (semi-monthly). And this period is a 98-hour pay period naturally and I'll have about two hours of overtime on it already from today, so that'll be two really nice checks back-to-back. Then my rent will drop the next month. This paragraph is deceptively cheerful. My life has not been so rosy, but the monies should work out pretty cleanly and progress made on loans.
Erik called and made a cheeky comment about how I shouldn't have been at home, but in New Orleans getting drunk. I informed him that I don't have any local friends. Sad but true. Geographically this is not a good place for me. I've never been good at math or chemistry, but I need to find a better solution.
EDIT: 10:22CST Sean M. called and also complained that I wasn't drunk.
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stressed
crushed
accomplished