- I had what I think is a meaningful exchange with a friend on the Birdsite; they were wondering if a small camera like a Canon G7X is worth it when we all have cameras in our pockets. Putting aside the old saying that the best camera is the one you have with you, I would say that if you’re not getting paid for your work, your phone camera is often better than an SLR any day of the week. Plus, and this is by no means necessary, Moment makes a case and lenses for your phone. I generally shoot videos with a CPL and an ND 32 filter attached. I have a telephoto and wide-angle lens, but I rarely need to use them. Also, while I have a DJI Osmo Gimbal, I rarely use that. If I’m shooting a video, I use my mini tripod as a handle with a phone clamp. If I’m shooting photography, I don’t need anything else. But, again, I’m not a professional, and what works for me may not work for you.
- My SLR has taken up residence in my studio in a locked-down position, and I’ve just bought a teleprompter system that uses my iPad for the scripts. We used something similar when I worked at Canon, but I was in the market for something that didn’t cost an arm and a leg. Next up, lav mics. I might still have one somewhere; I’ll need to dig around and test it. Finally, perfect world, I want a boom mike on a stand.
- While caring for the wife, I give a moment of praise for the ability to get groceries delivered and the gig workers who bust their asses to deliver them. I did it for a while, so I know the wear and tear they put on themselves and their cars. I also know what a treasure it is to have those 2-3 hours back so I can do other things. If you use a similar service, please take the time to thank them and tip them as well as you can.
- A handy tip for those who feel compelled to pick the low-hanging fruit tweets of some of our more colorful wingnuts: Don’t. You’re being baited, and too many of us take the bait. More engagement boosts it in the algorithm. They cry about being shadowbanned when they don’t get the engagement they think they deserve. With Elon being Elon, now is the perfect time to follow the screenshot method. Screenshot the post, crop it, post that picture with your response, and do not tag the OP. Let them cry to Elon. Hell, let them cry, period. We do not have to engage these people. We can point and laugh at them while they melt down, though.
Month: February 2023
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Thursday, February 23rd, 2023
A reminder that these new posts are also in podcast form, over on my Patreon Page
- I think I may have hit upon one of the reasons I’m having the issues I’m having: Too many inputs. Or, more specifically, too many unwanted inputs. It may be time for me to go be quiet myself for a little while, and figure out how to cut these unwanted issues, or mitigate them.
- I noticed today that the phrase “The Mask Mandates Did Nothing”. Bret Stephens wrote a column in the New York Cage Liner. This is the same guy who opined that climate change is mass neurosis and claimed that climate science had been discredited, so let’s make sure we know what kind of idiot we’re talking about. I don’t often speak directly to the redhats, but let me make an exception in this case. Yes, morons, I know that a lot of you made it all the way through a once in a lifetime pandemic without getting vaccinated or wearing a mask. I also know that you feel really good about that. Maybe you should. I would also feel great about not taking a single precaution to protect myself and not dying. A better word to use would be relieved, but let’s not get confused because you know what’s going to happen to that once in a lifetime pandemic because you feel no obligation to anyone around you? It will become a twice or maybe even thrice in a lifetime pandemic. We’ll get a more deadly mutuation that we don’t yet have protection for, or we’ll get some new novel disease we haven’t thought of yet. When we do, you’ll stay true to your cult. I invite you to, because Russian Roulette is not an infinite game. What boggles my mind is the number of pastors and radio talk show hosts in the last three years that beat their chests and shouted at the top of their lungs until they had a tube down their throat and begged for your prayers with their last dying raggedy breaths. But what we’re not gonna do is gaslight people by saying mask mandates didn’t work when a large and very stupid portion of the population kept shouting “MUH FREEDOM” and crying “MASK HURT MUH FACE” at the same time, or just lying about religious objections (I know one person who just out and out lied) or underlying medical conditions (I was behind one person straight up RUNNING past me into a Walmart and when asked to put on a mask by the greeter said “I have asthma” as they ran right by) , and then say “MASKS NO WORK, HA HA STUPID LIBTARDS”.
- Would someone who cares about this person please tell her to shut the fuck up?
- Do you remember about a year ago when Ron DeSantis got butthurt over Disney saying they were suspending political donations over the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill, and abolished the Reedy Creek Improvement District, accidentally setting in motion a transfer of the 1.2 Billion dollars in bond debt to the taxpayers in the counties where Disney World resides? Well, Sour Puss wants to be President, so he’s claiming victory while backpedaling like a motherfucker in defeat. He’s about to sign a bill that renames the district, gives him the power to name the board, and leaves the financial arrangement alone. So, no new taxes for the residents of Orange or Osceola Counties. If I’m a guy who doesn’t want Ron DeSantis to be President, I’m running ads about about how the butt-hurt got in the way of thinking things all the way through. Seems to me that’s something I’d want in a President and his administration. Knee jerk revenge-oriented politics is dangerous, and that’s the part that worries me more than anything. I don’t want that guy anywhere near the football. I bet there’s ketchup on the walls at his place as well.
- Apple Fanboi news: Apple is close to the holy fucking medical grail: A continuous non invasive blood glucose monitor on the Apple Watch. The methodology already exists. For example, the Freestyle Libre is a sensor on the back of your arm that monitors a related fluid. The watch would do the same thing, but with sensors on the bottom of the watch. Nothing breaks the skin. As a diabetic, I can’t stress how huge that would be if they nail this. I don’t know of any other watch that is doing this right now, feel free to correct me. This one is personal, I would buy this immediately. Apple Watch is 300-400 dollars? Drop in the bucket compared to meters, strips…I probably spend that in supplies right now EASY. This would make life so much easier for people. I wonder what the ROI for health insurance companies to provide an Apple Watch for a co-pay of 75 to 100 dollars? Would that save the company money in other areas? Would it lower our co-pays or premiums? Would we need to consent to sharing that information? Probably, but I’m curious about the risk/reward ratio for this.
- Wave a magic wand, and cable news is gone tomorrow. The infotainment model of news across the board as a format is gone. What replaces it?
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Wednesday, February 22, 2023
- First day back to work after the holiday, which is weird. Since I work for a gubmint-related thing now, I get gubmint-related holidays off. This is one of the most un-call center-like things about this job. Most places like that give a minimal amount of holidays, and in some cases, you work them on a volunteer or round-robin kind of thing. I worked last Christmas, may I have this Christmas off? No? Shit. (This actually happened.) When I got married, the place I worked wouldn’t approve the actual DAY of my wedding off, but approved the WEEK of my wedding. That is how the Week of Fun Started. Looks like for the 3rd time in 29 years we’ll have to put off the Week of Fun again this year. The way our vacation allotment shakes out is that I get the full amount in September of every year, which makes it a challenge for the following July. Since Kimmers didn’t start her job until November, she doesn’t have PTO. For the year. Which is also weird. I’d have thought they’d pro-rate, but it doesn’t appear so. Also strange because she was just in the hospital for a week, so that’s fun. That’s enough bitching for how, let’s navigate to the meat.
- In a piece of news I will file under “I want off this ride”, let me pose a question to you: If the principal of your elementary school leaves his gun in a bathroom stall, and a third-grader finds it and reports it to his teacher, what is the correct thing for that teacher to do? Clearly, It’s sending another third-grader to the bathroom to check if it’s a real gun. What–and I can’t stress this highly enough–THE FUCK.
- Britney Griner signed a one-year contract with the Phoenix Mercury, making it her 10th season with the team. Of course, she missed last year because of her detention in Russia. Now, I’m not a big basketball fan, (note: watch this space for the day they announce the Sonics are coming back), but before today I had not seen a news story mention why she played in Russia to begin with. The NPR article I linked here says that WNBA athletes often play overseas in the off-season to supplement their income because of gender pay inequalities with their NBA counterparts. Now, admittedly, this may be a different situation from the USA Women’s soccer team which has carried the load for US Soccer while the men have done fuck-all, but if the pay difference can be argued as a safety concern? “Hey, if y’all would pay me I wouldn’t have to go anywhere else.” I’m not the brightest bulb on the tree, but that would be my argument next time salary arbitration comes up. Does the WNBA even HAVE a player’s union? (They do.)
- In the next town over, Chesapeake, BM Williams Elementary School went into lockdown and was dismissed early because they received a bomb threat email accusing them of ‘devil worship’. BM Willams is the school you may have heard about in the news because they have the After School Satan Club. The email accuses a Chesapeake school board member, the Chesapeake schools superintendent and the organizer of the After School Satan Club of ‘promoting devil worship and unIslamic values.’ Without evidence to the contrary, the letter implies the writer of the email is Muslim. I don’t believe it for a second, but I’ll be willing to admit it if I’m wrong. However, let’s be clear about what we’re dealing with here. This is a person who saw the word Satan and didn’t look beyond the paint. I’m not a member of The Satanic Temple, but I know that’s there’s a big difference between them and Anton LeVay’s Church of Satan. To begin with, The Satanic Temple doesn’t actually believe in Satan. They don’t worship Satan. They use the imagery to troll evangelical extremists. They use satire to get under the skin of people. They’re activists that preach—if you’ll pardon the expression—equality, social justice, and to point out religious hypocrisy. They’re all about personal autonomy, curiosity, pragmatic skepticism. The after school program is an answer to the Good News Club, a Christian after school program. It doesn’t try to ‘convert’ kids, it teaches “about rationalism and understanding the world around us.” in other words, how to make sense of the world using critical thinking skills and natural curiosity. Questioning everything. That’s a good thing in my opinion. In fact, the only group of people I can think of that wouldn’t think that’s a good idea are folks more interested in indoctrinating their kids.
- Lastly, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Gonzalez v Google today, this is the first of two cases regarding the Internet and Section 230. I’ll have a deeper take on it in the coming days, but here’s the link if you’d like to hear it.
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Tuesday, February 21st, 2023
Has anyone else experienced the following: You’ve been stressed out past your limit so much for so long that you stop holding back about things? That’s where I’m at right now. Whether that’s good for my mental health–or anyone else’s–is up for debate. Film at 11, as they say.
- RIP to Richard Belzer, most likely the first comedian I ever saw on TV and knew what he was. A brilliant comedian. The character of John Munch will have him on TV from now until the heat death of the Universe because SVU is playing on TV somewhere on the planet. I heard yesterday that he took the settlement money when Hulk Hogan dropped him and bought a house in France that he named Chez Hogan. I don’t know if that’s true, but that sounds like him. And, of course, let’s never forget his brief moment of MTV stardom.
- MTG posted this tweet this morning (it’s there as I type it, card subject to change) where she says:
“We need a national divorce. We need to separate into red states and blue states and shrink the federal government. Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.”
Honestly, I’m warming up to this idea, but not for the reasons she would like. It would appear that the red states are more dependent on Federal Aid than the Blue states, which generally have a higher income and GDP. The Blue states pay more taxes, and the Red states appear to be the–to be generous–slightly larger beneficiary of those taxes. But, of course, this ‘national divorce’ will never happen. She knows that. This is just red meat for the ignorant. Her citizens will expect the same services they’re getting today with a fraction of the tax base. You have to make up for that somehow. Someone should ask her how she plans to….oh, wait. Right. What plan, right?
- MTG Related: Could someone please tell her that giving access of the 1/6 tapes to Tucker Carlson is not the same as releasing the tapes? If there are 41,000 hours of footage, you can bet Tucker is going to release about 30 seconds of some guy from Dubuque taking a leak in the Bushes and claim it was Antifa, so TOTAL EXONERATION. Of course all that footage will NEVER be made public, but that’s ok. We have C-Span.
- To get back into photography, I’ve signed up for a newsletter from Digital Photography School. This week’s challenge appears to be about using lines in your images. I received a beginner’s guide to street photography for signing up for their newsletter. I was today years old when I realized one of the best tips about street photography is to find a place you like aesthetically and JUST FUCKING WAIT THERE. I’m the Goofus walking around with a camera making everyone uncomfortable. Plus, the last time I went out shooting street photography, I had my Canon T5i. My iPhone 12 camera with the Moment Gear is much more suited to this purpose. So, I think I have two things to work out this week. Let’s see how it goes.
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- Photography related: I see that Canon is releasing the R50, which seems to me to be the entry level mirrorless camera. This is clearly meant to be replacing the M50; the M Line was Canon’s first excursion into Mirrorless cameras and after a while it was clear that Canon wasn’t going to devote more time to it. A fine camera, but a limited amount of glass. The R50 along with an 18-45mm and 55-210mm lens is out for pre-order for 1029.00, and I have to tell you I’m wanting this one. There is an adapter for my EF Lenses, so there’s a way to keep my current glass involved. My more professional friends might laugh at wanting just the entry level camera. I don’t need more than that. I’m not a pro, but I do want a new camera. My T5i was out of date when I bought it at a pawn shop with two lenses for 300 bucks. I’ve held off on getting a new camera until Canon made an ‘affordable’ replacement they were going to stand behind, and this R50 is that camera.
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- Jimmy Carter is entering hospice care, and the amount of tributes he’s receiving for the life he’s led post-Presidency is nice to see. Honestly, he wasn’t the greatest President, but he’ll be leaving this Earth knowing beyond the shadow of a doubt that he wasn’t the worst. I stand by my belief that Carter freed the Iranian Hostages in the hours before Reagan’s Inauguration, and Ronald Reagan got credit for it, and I hope in the coming weeks the tributes make that abundantly clear. Of course, there will be the vultures, you’ll see them come out of the woodwork the moment the announcement is made. I suppose I’d ask them how they felt when someone spoke ill of Reagan when he died, but they’ll never answer that question as long as the white hot hatred of Carter/Clinton/Fonda/Ted Kennedy fills them with impotent rage. That Venn Diagram is the most perfect of circles, you can be assured of that.
- The human equivalent of the slime you scrape from a hull under the water line James O’Keefe has resigned from Project Veritas. No doubt he’ll find another grift, they always do. On the other hand, maybe he’ll end up doing dinner theater in Branson. Kind of a coin flip, truthfully.
- At last, the true power of AI: Let it decide who gets laid off. You know this is how we get Friend Computer, right? Please report to the Food Vats for…uh…Reassignment.
- Lastly, I’m starting a little experiment. This post is also a Podcast on my Patreon Page. It’s got what you see here, plus a little more in the way of my flavor of crazy because it’s me. I’m making every Monday Patreon show public so it can be shared and promoted. Feel free to check it out, share and subscribe. Thank you.