Month: October 2013

Postcards from the Netherlands and Virgina

Yvette sends me a card from Texel, which is an Island that is part of the Netherlands.  The church is from her village.  I love how upright the church is.  I also love that the lambs are nursing.  There is not a lot of nursing usually happening on the postcards.
 
Here’s another one from Kadir Nelson via Arlington, Virginia.  It’s labeled #1, so it is not surprising that it arrived with…
 
#2, another Kadir postcard.  You would think that someone just saw Kadir live and in person.
 

Worry.


I’ve had my eye on this corner since I moved to Kenton.  I love the uber-tiny house on the left and all that space just ready for a fabulous yard.  But the large tree that was on the lot has been removed.  And I’m worried that that large yard space will soon be gobbled up by a large house much like the green guy next door.  Who once upon was a much smaller house with a larger yard.

Oh infill, will there be any tiny houses with big yards left by the time I’m ready to move?

New Camera!!!!!

With the sadness of the death of the old camera, comes the happiness of the new.  This one is another Canon.  It’s a PowerShot SX170IS.  I’m not in love like I was with my previous camera.  But I think we will like each other very much.

Let’s play!  Here is Antares, looking grumpy that I have taken his picture.
 

And again.
 
And here is how far away from Antares I was standing when I took those two pictures.  Excellent zoom!
 
Sentinel!  With flash.
 
Let’s test the fish-eye feature.
Normal.
 
Moderate.
 
Extreme.
 
Extreme fish-eye and Antares.
 
Back to normal.
 
Here’s a new feature I didn’t have before.  Timer, than three shots.  Here are three of Antares.
 
 
 
And three of Sentinel (with flash).
 
 
 
Three more of Sentinel (without flash).
 
 
 
Here is an early morning shot of Paul Bunyan peeking through the trees.

As soon as I read that owners manual (which I have to download as a PDF, it didn’t come with the camera) we will discover all sorts of interesting things, I’m sure.

Welcome Canon PowerShot SX170IS!

Requiem: Canon PowerShot Digital Elph

Oh beautiful camera, you are not fixable.  And this is a sad thing, because you have been my constant companion for the last six years.
 
I resisted getting a digital camera for a very long time.  I had always enjoyed film photography, though I enjoyed it less once everyone else was suddenly carrying around a camera.  Back in the day of print film, only the dorky film people with the big cameras could take the really good pictures.  I liked being one of those people.
 
But a strange thing happened when I got you, darling camera.  You were so small that I could carry you anywhere.  I never had to decide if I was going to bring the camera along because you were so small that you just came with me everywhere.  And, unlike all the small film cameras, you actually took good pictures.
 
And with the whole blog thing happening, and I had somewhere to put all those pictures I was taking aside from a drawer in my dresser.  So we spent our years together, until that dreadful day when I dropped you and you split open.

The loyal part of me wants to repair you, but the sensible part won out.  For less than the cost of repair, I now have a brand new camera.  But you were always my first, little friend.  And I won’t forget you.

Essay: On Not Going to Work.

I did not want to go to work today.  I’m sure you are familiar with the sensation.  I mean, that guy wrote a poem about it and everything.  I’m convinced that there are maybe five people on the planet who want to go to work every day and the rest of us sometimes just wake up in the morning and think, “Nope.  Don’t want to do it.”
Which isn’t to say that we have that thought and then immediately follow through.  There’s a trajectory, and it can go in a number of different directions.  In my own case, there are several levels to travel through several stages before reaching a conclusion.
Stage one:  General health.
Am I unwell?  Aside from the persistent skin thing that doesn’t keep me from working, I’m generally rarely unwell.  I (knock on wood) haven’t had the flu in ages, I don’t run fevers, my colds rarely progress to the point where I need to take a day off of work.  Usually after this general health check, I must continue on to other avenues.
Stage two: What do I have to do today?
Is there a reason I absolutely MUST be at work today?  Sometimes there is a staff meeting, sometimes someone is coming in and I have to meet with them.  Sometimes there too much work to do that day.  But if not, I spiral over to the next phase.
Stage three:  Will my not being there adversely affect anyone today?
I work in a small nonprofit, and we know when someone is absent, especially the three of us who can’t call substitutes.  If I don’t go to work, one of my coworkers will have to take my 45 minutes of recess duty and the other coworker will have to triage all the various “school office” things that happen during the day.  Mostly I don’t get past this stage, but if I do…
Stage four:  Will my staying home leave me feeling guilty and thus ruin the exquisite pleasure of not working on a work day?
Sometimes I can work through my stages, call in sick and not mind much that I’ve thrown a wrench in my colleagues’ day and am neglecting my work.  But mostly when I do it, I can picture how their days are going and how mine will go when I return the next day and it spoils the freedom of the day at hand.
I went to work today.  I knew why I didn’t want to go and it had more to do with the book I consumed the night before and the lack of sleep resulting from this consumption.  It was an okay day, plus it was a short day anyway.  I’ve noticed I take many fewer sick days since I reduced my hours from 40 to 32.  There is something about working 7:30-1:30 that is much easier to bite off than 8-4:30.

 

I suspect I won’t want to go to work tomorrow, either.  I know this has more to do with the un-done things at home than it does with work.  So I will do my best to crawl into bed at a normal time, work through my day in a diligent fashion, and come home and plunge into chores to regain my footing.

Postcard from Las Vegas, Nevada

I love this postcard, only my second in the mail-art category.  Is it not beautiful?  From the number of Postcrossers who request NO mail-art I assumed that I would be receiving a lot of it.  But it has shown itself to be rare, even though my profile says that I love it.
 
Aside from creatively annotating the stamp, I learned that one of J.D.’s favorite places in the universe is Powell’s Books.  Also that Allen Ginsburg once had to physically move her out of the way because she was blocking the door to the men’s room and also that her favorite movie is Bull Durham. With her favorite line being “don’t THINK. It can only hurt the ball club.”

I kind of think JD and I could be friends.

Three sentence movie reviews: Don Jon

Important porn warning:  this movie is about porn and addiction, which I knew and was ready for, but I didn’t imagine that there would be so much porn imagery in the film itself.*  I liked that Joseph Gordon-Levitt was so tightly wound that he was hard to watch–kind of the guy version of the pretty girl making herself ugly to get the Oscar nomination.  I thought the addition issue was captured quite well and overall, this was a good solid film, and I heartily approved of the ending.

Cost:  free (early birthday present)
Where watched:  Living Room Theater with S. North.

*”I’m having porn flashbacks!” my movie-going companion texted me later.