Knuckledragger

I like trains. I fucking hate TechBros.

Don't ask me why I do things.

Fair warning: Incoming gratuitous cat photos. I've been editing a bunch of shots I took 12-15 years ago. Two friends of mine (who are now married and have son about to turn eight) lived in an apartment in a former mill town. They had two cats. Ozzie was a Russian Blue and exhibited the characteristics of his breed. He was inquisitive, always tuned into what the silly humans were doing, but also very independent. He was not a lap cat. The other kitty was Mauro, who ...a bit heavyset (he was an absolute chonker) and possibly the extreme example of a polydactyl cat I have ever seen. Ozzie's antics were legendary and I took many photos of him "helping" me DJ. These four I posted when I took them in the spring of 2010: Note the first photo being used as the wallpaper in this shot. Ozzie helping me wire up my Korg Z1's MIDI connections. I mentioned in another thread that Kate (one half of the couple mentioned above) had a birthday on the 11th of this month. I had plans (of the "mice and men") variety to send her a bunch of photos from early 2010s on her birthday, but it took me a week to finish editing them. I mean, I'm still editing them, but that's another matter. All of the above were photos I edited and posted around the time they were taken. The following are newly edited. In August of 2010, we (and by "we" I mean "me and I have no idea who else") did a "photo shoot" with Ozzie and some accessories: Ozzie was mostly cooperative (not a guaranteed thing) an held still while we placed smokes, Snapple, a phone and some kibble in front of him. Another shot of Ozzie with wallpaper Ozzie behind him. I used the 50mm DoF separate the actual cat from the photo of him, but still keep the latter recognizable. Ozzie, warming himself on the exhaust fan of a Windows laptop. He's got his paws on a USB battery. Part of the "Where is your god meow?" series I did with Ozzie. Circle cat could use a good brushing, but I wouldn't recommend trying it. Ears back momentarily, for aerodynamics. Mauro being chill, which was his normal state. He was very stead in a windstorm. Tune in next time for pre-civil war bridges!

Seems legit!

Short version: Got the shit kicked out of me. Long version: There were two birthdays this weekend. My friend Kate turned 37 on Sept 11 (her 14th was the worst.) My (sainted, octogenarian) mother advanced one year the day after. I ate a number of things that I don't normally, to be sociable. I paid a steep price. I felt kind of ill on the 12th, but still drove my mother to the alpaca farm here on MV. We had done so previously all the way back in 2009. I took photos, more on that (much) later. I slept terribly that evening and woke up on the 13th praying for death. I felt weak, nauseous, and worst of all I had an icepick-through-the-temple headache. When I have these issues, I clench my teeth while I'm sleeping so hard it gives me a headache that lasts most of the day. The is enough of a problem that it's damaging my jaw. If I ever disappear completely, it will probably be due to some related catastrophic event. Yesterday I was only moderately ill. I managed to get a few things done ...including like a 3 hour nap in the middle of the day (which is very unlike me.) Today, I am not in pain (this is a miracle) but I'm fantastically weak. I had to move a picnic table bench that belonged to my grandparents from the front of the property to the back and I needed to sit down afterward. I cannot eat highly processed food anymore, especially store made desserts. They kill me. It's so bad I have to straight up say "no" when I'm offered.

Isn't there at least one surround sound codec that has an option for ceiling mounted speakers? I tapped out of surround during the Dolby Digital/DTS era and have been content with two channel since, so I'm a bit out of the loop.

Room porn, really.

Charlie Kirk officially dead. Dude was an inauthentic, dark money backed grifter. For years we made jokes about an entire generation being unsure of the exact size of his face. There's even a web widget based around it. He certainly did not deserve to be shot and killed. As for the rest of us, this bodes poorly for the future of our political landscape.

With the passage of Rick Davies, I am reminded of one of my favorite mashups of all time. Mashups are invariably novelty tracks, and many (most) of them try too hard and don't really gel properly. Once a great while, one comes along where the whole is is greater than the sum of its parts (like a really good remix.) In 2006, the artist Arty Fufkin combined Gnarls Barkley, Supertramp and Rockwell. It's been in my record back in one form ever since.

RIP Maru the cat, who was at one point the most famous cat on the internet (and by extension, the world.)

Somewhere on this site there's a "here's a neat YouTube video I found" thread. I have no idea what it's called. I usually just post such things in Slow Forum. This video his a number of areas of interest of mine. Also, anamorphic lenses for for DSLR and mirrorless bodies are now widely available and remarkably cheap for what they are. There's even at least one autofocus anamorphic lens, which is some true "I'm living in the future" shit right there. Of course, it's only for goddamn Sony bodies. I swear, you'll see me buy a Hasselblad before a Sony. Watch me buy a Sony full frame body next year.

Silksong crashes Steam, Nintendo eShop on release day — highly anticipated indie video game took six years to arrive and is already one of the most played games ever on Steam. My (sainted, octogenarian) mother asked me about Silksong today. Its launch was so big that the type of news she listens to covered it.

I went back to 2010 this week. I didn't buy and bitcoin or, ahem, play any classic 8 bit Nintendo games. I did blow the metaphorical and some of the actual dust off my PowerShot S95. (More on that in a minute.) It took me a couple tries to get it going. It took me even longer to figure out how to use the damn thing. The S series of PowerShots (S95 to S110 or so) have dual physical wheels, which is the best. I had to work to remember exposure compensation. I also had to set the time, date and things like picture style. All of this took some futzing. Unfortunately, about 10 years ago during one cold and miserable winter, I got depressed and left the S95 on its back for six months (while running the wood stove). The meant it got some killer sensor grime, which I cannot clean. In broad daylight the dirt is invisible, but indoors the dirt specs are a curse. This is a shame as the S95 has an F/2 lens and works quite well in low light. With that said, I took a stroll through downtown Edgartown and snapped a few street shots. The best second hand store on MV was on this street for decades. Now it's a boutique that sells uber-expensive skin care products. Downtown Edgartown is still bustling with "shoulder season" people. The kids are back in school, so now it's blue haired retirees and buses full of people with name tags. It's a PITA to navigate around them, but TBH I cannot blame them. The weather is perfect here this time of year. The four trees in front of this house are of historical significance. That thing on the other side purports to be a Volkswagen. Looking down toward South Water St. That farthest point is Chappaquiddick. Built in 1703(!), this is one of the oldest buildings on the Vineyard. I quite like it, but the modern signs in front of it are ugly AF. This is the only shot I posted that I don't totally like. For some reason I shot it wide open (F/2) and there's significant smearing in the upper corners. As I mentioned, I'm just getting re-acquainted with the S95 after a decade. Also what's happened in the interceding 10 years is that my vision has deteriorated sufficiently that I can NOT read the controls of the camera without my glasses on. This makes all aspects of photography more complicated. EDG harbor with Chappy in the background. There's not one but two catamarans in this shot. One is the famous Mad Max and the other is even more strange looking, somehow. My mother was friends with a Swiss woman who owned a farm on Chappy. (That is a huge deal. Chappaquiddick isn't that big, and the island itself is eroding. Land on it is very precious.) She was born in 1924 and refused to accept the idea that Mad Max was a real boat. A kid dropped their heart glasses and some kind soul put them on top of a mailbox in case they came back looking for them. This sweet dog was waiting patiently for his mistress. He turned to look at me just for a second before she returned. The S95 is fast enough that I caught him the moment his head turned.

I mean, it's a nice starter system.