Bliss is at right about 21:30.
I’ve had about two weeks with a Joby Slingstrap Pro and I have to say I like it very much. I’ve used it with both my Nikons and the Canons at work, and I carried it to the car show on Sunday where I shot 220 pictures inside and out. It’s extremely handy for on the go shots–I used it at Finn’s soccer game on Saturday and found that I could be talking to someone, see something interesting, and have it up and ready to shoot in seconds. It’s got a locking clip right under the lower buckle to keep the camera tight under the shoulder which is great for commuting. The only issue I’ve had is when I take it off, like I was doing at the car show to shoot low from the ground, and then try to figure out how to put it back on. I have to hold it out in front of me and tell myself, “the loop goes in the front.”
Meanwhile, I used a Canon 5D mkII over the weekend exclusively and while its focus issues haven’t gotten any better, I think I’ve learned how to work with it in shooting situations to get what I want more consistently. The menu system still confounds me, as it does on the 7D, but I can get around a lot easier now that I’m used to the layout. It’s hard to say what I enjoy so much about the results I’m getting, but I suspect it’s the lenses.
Renie sent me a link to missingmoney.com, a link that’s been making the rounds of social media lately, and it turns out they have a record of me from back in my immediate post-college days. After hesitating for a few minutes, and looking over the disclaimers, I printed out the requisite forms and made ready to send my information in. There’s no telling how much or what the money might be from; all I can do is send the information in and hope for the power of compound interest.
I’ve got it down to a bit of a science. But I keep forgetting to check the windshield gasket before I tighten the bedrails down.
Summer is officially over, I guess.
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.
Predictably, Yahoo fucked up my payment again. I sent another message through their worthless email link, and having tracked down a phone number for customer service, I’m spending another half an hour on the phone waiting to speak with someone. Really? How hard does this shit have to be?
Answer: Apparently, pretty easy–when it works. What was impossible two weeks ago took two minutes today.
After Jalopyrama yesterday, we followed the Morrises into the crowded center of Annapolis to grab a bite to eat. As we bit into our dinner, my left kidney began to throb, and within about 15 minutes I was up in the men’s bathroom splashing water on my face, trying not to throw up. Jen and Finn bundled me up in the car and hauled ass all the way to the Howard County hospital, the folks who took such good care of Finn before she was airlifted to Hopkins. (The Morrises texted me in the car on our way home: “Best dine N dash ever! LOL”)
After an X-ray, a CAT scan, and some urinalysis, it turned out I was dealing with a kidney stone working its way down to my bladder. Jen found a bed for Finn at the neighbors’ and came back to pick me up when I was discharged. For most of the overnight I was OK, but at about 6AM I had to bust into the pain meds to get back to sleep.
Nothing has come out yet as far as I can tell, and the afternoon has been pretty mild compared to dinner yesterday. Hopefully I’ll see some progress tomorrow, because I’m staying home from work until I’ve got an idea of what’s happening.
Renie mentioned she’d upgraded her 4S to iOS 8.1 and it’s been much better for her, so I’m looking at a progress bar on my phone this evening. Hopefully I won’t have to try and roll it back. As it turns out, I can’t use Instant Hotspot with my phone, as it requires a 5 or higher. Most of the Continuity features require a 5 actually, so I’ll probably stick with my upgrade plan.
I did some minor housekeeping here at IK central while I was on the couch, mainly moving the sidebar and utility links from the bottom of the page over to the sidebar. Given the average length of the posts here, it was getting to be a drag to scroll all the way down to find the search and links and other functions.
I updated the bones of the Scout blog to the same framework I use for Idiotking this afternoon, mainly because this one isn’t mobile responsive and I’ve not touched it in two years. I’ll keep working with the look and tweak things slowly over the next few weeks. Mainly, I’ve got to go back and relink photos to show up larger (they’ll resize on the fly like they do at IK).
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.
