My tsundoku keeps multiplying and I won’t apologize for this self-infliction. I saw this beautiful novel titled S. in a bookstore recently and decided I had to have it knowing very little about this other than it was sealed in plastic, but well designed.
I was not disappointed. Once I removed the plastic, I then had to break the seal to slide the hardback from its cardboard-protected shell. The hardback itself is designed to mimic a novel from the 1940’s from a fictional author who tells his fascinating life story. Inside, the pages are designed to appear weathered, worn and faded yellow. The story within the story within this story is not only the biography itself, but of two people who communicate through each other’s marginalia (I LOVE marginalia) on these pages. But wait, there is more. Inside the pages are inserted, physical letters, postcards, notes on a cafe napkin, photographs and even a paper compass wheel.
Which do I read first? The typed novel, the novel written as margins or the inserts??
I enjoy a good story, but even more so the approach that publishers are crafting multi-dimensional books to tell a good story and keep the reader engaged. Much like the Rabbits series and my current reading of XX.
The only other book I want but not in my physical possession is The House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. I need to rectify that soon and increase my tsundoku.
I look forward to devouring S. as soon as possible.
I know, I know. I can hear you bringing thisup to me when I said “new year, no new gear.” After weeks of waiting, I finally have a new camera in my hands. I said goodbye to my fantastic but bulky Nikon D90 DSLR and lenses and traded all of those for this compact but powerful single-lens camera. See? It is a used camera and an even trade so that really doesn’t break the “no new gear” rule I set for myself now does it?
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The idea here is to minimize my load and workflow and I think I am there, finally.
Yes, it is an older, used camera but still younger than the Nikon. Sure, there are newer models of the Ricoh GR but those are currently $1k and I just don’t think it is worth it, so here was the compromise. In my mind, this is currently the best bang-for-the-buck digital camera for street photography. I love the compact size, the superb image quality and high-ISO performance, as well as the ergonomics and handling. Looking forward to putting it through the paces soon.
The big things worth noting in the Ricoh GR:
16MP APS-C sensor (a DSLR-sized crop sensor in a compact camera)
28mm f/2.8 lens
Ability to change from 28mm to “35mm crop mode”
No anti-aliasing filter (sharp images)
Solid magnesium alloy body underneath
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is still going to be my always-carry camera of course, and I still have a gifted-to-me Canon DSLR system in reserve as well. The other cameras in the arsenal are all analog film.
I usually take photos of urban landscapes, and street portraits, so this compact, but brilliant Ricoh GR is going to be perfect.
This new website has been designated as a repository for a small set of images to be stored online instead of an expensive third-party photo hosting site (see ya, Flickr!). The actual photo archives are numbered to almost 50,000 images, so only a select few are chosen to be represented on this site. While you are there, take a look around inside the archives!
This is an extension to my main portfolio website that can be clicked here or in the nav bar up top.
I have not yet begun to upload images to this photo archive site and will do so throughout the next week. Okay, maybe one or two of my favorite subject:
I decided to go for a walk and capture a view of downtown Tulsa this morning. I set the iPhone shutter to open for 3 seconds to capture light streaks and capture it in RAW. Then I decided to go without light streaks, for a straight scenic view:
24mm @ f/1.78 looking northwest from Peoria Ave and Hwy 51
Parsing an exported .json file into something readable like a plain .txt format is proving troublesome. These are old posts that need to be translated and then migrated over to the Archives site since they were not imported due to these .json errors.
Unfortunately, there has been no easy solution. It is all copy/paste and manually removing the gratuitous code, then format it properly and then copy/paste and date manually into the Archives.
I can’t tell you how many times in the past ten years that there was a desire to build and maintain a map as a photo gallery of places I have been and things I have seen in all of my travels. No, it’s more than one map. I have wanted to build my own map(s) displaying all the images of hidden and discovered geocaches across the country. A separate map showcasing all the neon signs I have documented from Miami to Portland and all points in between. Another map to display all the locations of documented wall art from New Orleans to Chicago, you know, up and down the length of the Mississippi River.
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“If you have no road map, you have to create your own.” – Jacqueline Woods
Thanks to careful documentation in the past, I tagged GPS coordinates on to images to look them up later. Then, with incoming new technology, GPS coordinates were built in to the EXIF data of every image, making it so much easier to locate. But what does one do with that information? Build a map to document your travels, of course.
Previously, I relied on Google’s “My Maps” which allows you to enter these in and attach photos to them, but I do not like Google. Unfortunately, they are one of the best, free sources (free as in they will hoover all of your data for their use, of course.) But I’ve always known there exists open-source mapping programs to help me build one myself. After all of this time, this may be a good opportunity to build and ship one out, allowing me to lovingly document these locations. You know, as a photo diary.
Just a few of my neon images attached inside Google My Maps
So, I downloaded Visual Studio Code, an IDE, installed Python inside and went to work creating a photo gallery that works with ArcGIS, a mapping software tool. Then created an account on GitHub to keep all of my code in the cloud and act as a virtual server, ready for me to pull requests down when needed. Well, I discovered that the costs to maintain these wouldn’t be a solution, especially ArcGIS (Geographic Information System.) Enter QGIS, an open-source tool that allows me to do this at zero cost.
Python code inside an integrated development environment
Then I went to work in Python, coding out the framework and processes to make these maps a reality…and then hit a brick wall. Do I really want to do this? I do, yes, but currently I can’t be arsed. It isn’t laziness, it is restlessness. What else could I be doing instead? But wait, I have the time to do this now because in the near future I may not.
So frustrating is this internal debate that I upload what little code I had to GitHub and then decide what to do with all of this…later. Maybe the reason is I just spent the last few weeks in code building this website and the Archive website and writing articles on here, and creating newsletters and podcasts and and and I just need a break. I’ve lost my way and my desire.
Speaking of breaks, I am going to relax and finish listening to this album that was playing in the background while typing this up:
I have successfully switched my Apple ID to the current email address, signed out of most of my devices from old ID and logged in properly. There are some residual issues with the old ID on some devices that I need to sort out soon but not now.
Microblogging is a combination of blogging and instant messaging that allows users to create short messages to be posted and shared with an audience online. Social platforms like X (formerly Twitter) have become extremely popular forms of this type of blogging. These short messages can come in a variety of content formats including text, images, video, audio, and hyperlinks.
Formerly known as a “Quickie” tag here, I’ve re-assigned a “Micro” tag to every microblogging post I published. Again, think Twitter but without the algorithm and adverts. If you only want to see these quick snippets then, I have generated a “Micro” page at the top of this website. Or, click on the two lines in the upper right hand corner on your mobile. This will display a collection of Micro posts to date.
I am about to merge, consolidate and liquidate older IDs in favor of a new, more permanent Apple ID. I’ve made a mess of things these past few months. I hope for minimal damage and quick recovery process if it does happen.
