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All this deferred resignation stuff has meant the departure of a few key staff members, one in particular I've worked with for nearly 15 years and deserved something more than an Irish goodbye. So I made him a little something for his retirement yesterday. That's the blank walnut, engraved/machined with the cnc machine. Finish applied, awaiting infill bits. Finished project. The middle bit is an original survey boundary marker for the island that I rescued from a demo project. It's likely way more than 100 years old. I thought he deserved to take a little piece of the place with him even if it's a little tarnished and scarred. I prefer things that way actually, probably because I resemble the description.

That's awesome of you Nate, and I love the antique piece. Takes one to know one. 👴🏼

Nice work, Nate. You are a good man.

Have not had much time to consume TV lately but family vacation finally offered a chance to check out: Thoroughly enjoyed this, looking forward to Season 2 this fall even if a very different story arc is proposed.

Does reheating lunchtimes leftover pizza by the pool count? With extra sauted garlic mushrooms

In the summer of 2007 I hiked up Mount Sugarloaf in Sunderland. I went up there many times in the '00s, both with and without a camera. The view from it is spectacular and really shows off a pastoral and idyllic perspective of the Happy Valley. The weather was fantastic and there were some hot ail balloons floating around merrily. Unfortunately for me, on this date I took the always terrible Canon 75-300mm lens and I did NOT know what I was doing. The photos came out terribly. I sat on them for nearly 18 years until last month when I sat down and processed them with some modern apps. I had to make deft use of Luminar 4, Topaz Sharpen AI and Photoshop to extract remotely decent results. The sharpening was key, and a faustian bargain. The 75-300mm is never sharp. I wasn't smart enough to up my 30D's ISO to improve shutter speed so a bunch of the shots have lens motion blur. The 30D isn't the most sharp thing to begin with in the best of circumstances. Too much AI sharpening makes for weird and very obvious artifacts. There is no perfect solution. With all of this said, the end results here aren't half bad. I rate this set a solid "Crank up that ISO you dumbass" out of 10. I did take a few shots with the 17-85mm, which is is a Leica rangefinder lens in comparison to the 75-300mm.

Wild and Clear and Blue by I’m With Her (2025) https://album.link/kkwxgxxchdbdn Example: Finally released today. First listen was at 2am before bed. Did not disappoint. Happy to have more I'm with Her music.

The cats broke the glass lamp in our entryway, so I needed a non-glass replacement. Similar to a design I made a few years ago, but smaller and with some refinements.

I got stuck on the second season of Fringe, which decided to make the advances of the deep plot slower. So watched Adolescent or Adolescence. I only liked the 3rd episode, the rest was just meh for me. I was expecting more drama or perhaps something more realistic. Right the beginning with half of Scotland Yard assaulting the kid's house seemed too dramatic and exaggerated. Looking for something funnier I started Chuck yesterday. Being only one season I think it's very likely that it wasn't good enough, but to be honest, I don't care . Oh, I just learned that they delivered like 5 seasons...

^ ^ Just completed. Best television of 2025

Yep. Just finished the first episode. Great so far.

Heavy stuff, but done so well. Absolutely worth the watch.