“You’re seeing a whole team of psychiatrists, aren’t you?”
Watching one of the all-time greatest movies while simultaneously watching psychotic folks with nuclear codes on mania inducing steroids Tweet nonsense, and that line comes up.
If only.
Author Archives: momdude
Never A Team Of Psychiatrists Around When You Need One
Filed under Freakin' Idiots!, Movies, Politics
Depth Of Field
It was a bit hazy and smoky, after sunset, so it was starting to get dark. That’s why the flowers were out.
I had the camera with the big lens, which was part of the problem. Basic optics say that with a wide open lens you get a much smaller depth of field, and the telephoto lens is worse than the “normal” lens. With the dim light, the big lens wide open, and being fairly close to begin with, it was a hat trick for getting a very shallow depth of field.
So I can focus on the big petals on the far side, but the near petals, which are only maybe three inches closer, are out of focus. Or I could do it the other way around. But I can’t do both.
To get better pictures, use the smaller lens. To get a bigger depth of field shoot it stopped down and take a longer exposure. To keep from blurring, use a tripod. To make it all work better, try to get it with more light, or maybe use the flash.
To play with all of those variables and get some practice taking better pictures, find an extra couple of hours a day that I don’t expect to have until about six months after I’m dead.
I knew there was a catch…
Filed under Flowers, Photography
Smoky October Full Moonrise
Three days ago, back before I realized that I would be triggered by a software “update” (done no doubt for “my benefit”) (YES, I’m still pissy about it, I’ll start behaving now, sorta), I was down the block looking for the first full moon moonrise of October.
There was a LOT of smoke still being kicked out by the Bobcat Fire off in that direction. (Hey, they’re all the way up to 88% contained now!) That streak above it is a plane going into Runway 08 at Burbank – we’re looking right down the flight path.
It was incredibly orange! This doesn’t even begin to convey it.
Shorter exposures that don’t show the landscape but bring out the detail in the moon do a much better job of showing what it actually looked like. Let’s hear it for the human eye with a MUCH higher dynamic range than even the best digital cameras.
Twenty-five minutes or so after rising, the moon was out of the worst of the smoke and just looking a bit brownish.
That’s one – look for a second full moon, a “blue moon,” on Halloween night, October 31st!
Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space
With A Little Help From My Friends – October 03
Thanks to suggestions from fellow writers & bloggers Wendy and Jemima, I think I’ve regained control of my WordPress editor. I’m grateful for their help – if the WordPress customer support had been 1% as useful I probably wouldn’t be still sticking pins in their mental voodoo dolls.
Of course, with everything (by which I mean EVERYTHING) going on along with all of the usual everythings, I’m too drained to do much tonight.
But I did get this:
As has been famously said recently, “I’m not throwin’ away my shot!” One vote might be the equivalent of a single drop of water – hundreds of millions of them will be a tsunami.
Left Turn Into Absurdity
Sometimes when the world is going out of control and the whackadoodle news stories are hitting faster than you can read them (you know which ones I’m talking about), the only choice to to take a hard left turn into absurdity.
Thus I found myself at lunch, avoiding the news as much as possible, awash in deadlines and data entry, hauling around large pieces of equipment heavier, more bulky, and more awkward than I am.
No harm, no foul. I think.
What does it mean? It means after last night’s debacle I figured out how to post pictures again? Maybe? And maybe even links?
And there aren’t any holes in any walls! It’s a winner!
Don’t worry. None of it matters.
Filed under Castle Willett, Freakin' Idiots!
Infinite Corporate Stupidity
I took some really nice pictures of the full moon rising tonight.
I can’t show them to you on my website, because WordPress in their INFINITE CORPORATE STUPIDITY has “upgraded” their editor. They’ve done this once or twice before during the seven and a half years that I’ve been using them to host this site, but always in the past I’ve been able to go back to the original, “classic” editor. Not this time.
Nope, now I find out, after an hour and change of having my blood pressure raised by some tech support chat person who’s only help was to send me links to the “Learning The New Super-Duper Ultra Fancy Wow-You’re-Gonna-Love-It WordPress Editor” documents and to “check my spam folder” for all of the notices they say they’ve sent (I’ve never seen a single word) about the imminent, fundamentally destructive change in their product.
So I have no idea what this is going to look like, or how long it’s going to take to figure out how to do fundamental things like insert a photo or a link or change formatting.
I did find a way to turn on the HTML editor. As long as there’s a learning curve to be battled, maybe it’s just time to do it old, old, old, old school.
Now, where did they bury, hide, stash, or otherwise conceal the Categories pulldown menu? Where would I put it if my goal was to make it hard and really piss me off even more? Hmmmm…
Yep, there it is!
(Oh, yeah, and for shits and giggles they apparently just announced that Trump, Melania, and about half the White House all are COVID positive. Fun times!)
Filed under Freakin' Idiots!, Writing
The Monkeys, She Are Winning
Say something silly about hypothetical, rhetorical primates and they go out of their way the next day to prove they exist and they’re in charge…
Between the deadlines both scheduled and spontaneous at both the office, the hangar, the home, and the world, plus the aches and pains of getting through this decade, plus the gremlins that are inhabiting my computer hardware, plus…
I’m sure we’ve all had those days.
I’m sure we’re all having a lot more of them these days.
That’s probably going to get worse in the next five weeks, and I don’t have a lot of faith that they’ll get better a whole lot after that.
Maybe in February. Or March. March would be nice. Maybe a trip to Tempe Diablo in the middle of the month…
Again, I’ve wandered. My apologies.
Perhaps sleep will help. Remember sleep? It was so nice…
Hang in there. One foot in front of another. It’s not how many times you get knocked down, it’s how many times you get back up! (I suspect the smarmy schmuck who came up with that one never, EVER got knocked down.)
Just be there for one another, be there for others when they need help, ask for help when you need it. We’ll get through this.
But that printer may get chucked into traffic if it doesn’t get its shit together tomorrow.
Filed under Castle Willett, Deep Thoughts
My Circus, My Monkeys
There’s an old Polish proverb that goes, “Not my circus, not my monkeys!”
I wanted to think that today, between the deadlines and work piling up and then tonight’s “Presidential” “debate.” (Yeah, read the Twitter feed on the right if you’re still in the dark about where I stand on that Charlie Foxtrot situation. This is the sorta clean, I’m-trying-by-best-to-keep-it-mostly-family-friendly site – I place no such limitations on my Twitter feed and I’m pretty much on my last nerve there about 24/7/365.)
But in verifying the origin and exact wording of that circus/monkeys thing I got a half-dozen ads for coffee mugs that say, “That awful moment when you realize that this is your circus and those are your monkeys!”
First of all, I probably need one of those mugs.
Secondly, it’s true. Being one of the grown-ups in the room, with a sense of responsibility along with certain PTSD issues about quitting and giving up, this really *IS* my circus and those really *ARE* my monkeys.
Shit.
Well, that probably explains the trouble sleeping and the stomach pains…
Blooming Mexican Bush Sage
We’re into our third year in this house (time flies…) but I don’t remember this Mexican Bush Sage ever blooming quite this overwhelmingly before.
Maybe it’s been encouraged by all of the stinking hot weather?
Maybe the gardeners have fertilized it this year?
Maybe it was that “golden hour” light as the sun set? (This is where my money lies!)
The bees have found it in the past, but apparently not tonight.
Whatever’s going on, it was worth a trip back into the house for the good camera.
No aroma that I can smell, not like the roses (search the site, there are a gazillion of them) on the other side of the driveway.
Whatever’s happening, it’s worth a trip down to the mailbox when the sun starts to set! (Wear a mask!)
Filed under Flowers, Photography
Twin Tree Lizards
I saw the big tree lizard out gathering some sun.
At this point I’m just at the edge of the porch, maybe fifteen to twenty feet away with a telephoto lens.
Two small steps forward, slowly, I don’t want to spook him. Another half step…
…wait, what’s that on the left that just moved?
I had failed to #FindThatLizard. There had been an assumption on my part, which was incorrect.
This guy was off on the left, ready to bolt.
The first guy was still holding steady on the right, but my guess is that a quick getaway wouldn’t be long in coming if I twitched.
Y’all are good – enjoy the afternoon sun and watch out for those crows. I’ll back away slowly and let you have the yard.
Filed under Critters, Photography
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 