Category Archives: Paul

August 10, 2023 · 23:58

Doing Its Best

When I was out watching and filming the Falcon 9 launch the other night, I also had my DSLR with the big lens, just in case the opportunity came up to use it. I tried to take one picture but it was immediately obvious that it wasn’t going to work. Because it was so dark the camera automatically tried to take about a 60-second exposure, I didn’t have a tripod, the handheld shot was going to be blurred and useless, so I just let the camera go and hang by the neck strap for the final fifty or so seconds.

It turned out remarkably interesting and even borderline beautiful!

The brave little robot camera, having been given an order by me, its mentor, boldly went forward to do its very best to comply and produce what it had been asked to.

In the upper left corner, I believe that’s the Falcon 9 rocket. And all of the arcs and lines? I have no clue. Probably street lights, maybe a plane overhead, maybe lights on nearby houses as the camera swung. Who knows?

But all together? Sublime.

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Filed under Art, Paul, Photography, Space

August 6, 2023 · 23:39

Thank You Sirius XM & Pandora

It’s been a long weekend with considerable room for improvement. Deadlines loom, time is short, my butt is starting to drag. Headphones on, listening to my “Erasure” Pandora Station channel on Sirius XM. It’s fine, I’m hanging in there, but I could really use…

(Image: Siriux XM app)

YEAH! That’s the ticket!

Later I stumbled across a channel that I hadn’t seen before. It might be only on the app, not on the car radio, and it might be temporary, but if yu can get it, look for the “Classic Rock Top 1000 Countdown.” I like a really, REALLY eclectic playlist and their definition of “Classic Rock” here seems to come from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, so it’s pretty eclectic. It’s not perfect since I’m not a huge fan of every group in the R&RHoF, but the last few songs have been Led Zepplin, Edgar Winter, Paul Simon, AC/DC, The Who, Jackson Brown, Prince, and Steely Dan.

Music, FTW!!

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Filed under Music, Paul

August 5, 2023 · 23:47

Dear Apple iPhone Design Team

The odds of anyone from the Applie iPhone 16 or 17 design teams reading this site are low – but they’re not zero! So just in case, here’s a request.

Can we please get a stylus we can use on the iPhone? At least on the Max Pro models with the big screens?

Some of us are getting older and not quite as dexterous as we used to be, and some of us have fat fingers to boot. It’s so much easier to use a nice, pointy, pen-like stylus than stab at virtual keyboards with the aforementioned fat fingers.

Even better if it’s the same stylus I already have for my iPad! I use the CRAP out of that wonderful device, it makes life so much easier!

Maybe the option of something like I used to use on an early something or the other – it might have been a Blackberry? It looked like a normal, retractable ballpoint pen, but when you clicked on it you got a stylus instead. Make that a stylus that will work on both the iPhone and the iPad? SOLD!!

Just a suggstion, if anyone’s listening. (You can send my royalties and free equipment thank you gifts to me here care of the site!)

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Filed under Computers, Paul, Photography

August 3, 2023 · 22:58

I Hate Plumbing

My father grew up on a farm and it was sort of the job description to be “handy,” able to do lots of different mechanical and handiman jobs. Everything from woodworking, plumbing, electrical, painting, engine repair and body work on the car – it had to be quite the significant or highly specialized task before he would just pay someone else to do it. Needless to say, I got tutored on all of these things, and while some of it stuck, the results varied. While we visited my grandfather’s farm for a couple of weeks here and there over the summer, I did *NOT* grow up on a farm.

One lesson I remember very distinctly, something I heard him say every time we were elbow deep in some array of pipes and drains and fixtures – “I hate plumbing!” That one I learned pretty well.

One guiding principle in my approach to plumbing repairs comes from astronaut Chris Hadfield. I don’t remember the exact quote, but the gist of it is, “First, don’t make it worse.” Meaning, I’m sure I could hire a plumber to fix this for $500 to $700 (hopefully not too much more) but if I had the correct $5 part I think I could probably fix it myself, but in the process of disassembling and attempting to repair and attempting to reassemble, don’t turn it into a $2,000 repair.

So far, I think I’m still good. But I haven’t been able to find that $5 part, and there are a zillion of these valves and they’re all different manufacturers and sizes and models and they’re all 1000% NON-interchangeable and the best way to get what I need is to shut off the water to the house, pull this sucker out, take it to the plumbing supply place, and let them ID it and sell me the $60 full replacement that includes the $5 part that I need, then go home and reverse the entire process.

It seems straightforward but there are so many places in there where I’m wandering further and further into “WTF am I doing?” and “I have no idea what to do next, but now the water’s off” and then I’m calling that plumber on a weekend and *POOF!*, $2,000 is gone!

I hate plumbing.

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Filed under Castle Willett, Paul, Photography

July 27, 2023 · 23:56

No Context For You – July 27th

How does one tell the difference between having long-COVID brain fog and just being tired, exhausted, overwhelmed, and confused?

I’m one of the lucky (or obsessive paranoid) ones who has never yet (as far as I know) had COVID. I’ve never tested positive, I’ve never had any of the bad symptoms, just the odd cold once or twice a year like normal. I’ve never had the fever, breathing problems, or any of the other major symptoms of COVID. I mask pretty religously out in public, still. On all of the flights to Winnipeg and back I was usually one of the only three or four folks on the entire plane who was masked. I’m vaxxed, with a full set of boosters.

So I’m guessing it’s just still that “burning the candle at both ends” habit. Although I’ve always said that for me it’s more like just sticking that sucker into an industrial strength microwave and melting it down from every direction.

I guess in theory one could get some rest, catch up on sleep, figure out how to eliminate (or ignore) the stress and deadlines, and see if it goes away – but we all know that’s not ever going to happen.

So – little steps. Try to get a bit more sleep. Try to take a few more breaks and maybe use some of those meditation apps. Some more exercise, eating better, and losing a few pounds from that vacation wouldn’t hurt.

Can’t hurt!

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Filed under CoronaVirus, Health, Paul, Photography

July 25, 2023 · 23:08

New Canadian Friend

Yesterday we knew that we would be in the Winnipeg airport for something on the order of four hours. With the delays caused by mechanical issues in the aircraft coming from Minneapolis St. Paul to pick us up, it ended up being way over seven hours.

I get bored easily.

I’m easily amused.

I don’t get embarrassed easily.

This is a bad combination.

I went looking for new friends. The good folks who designed the “holding pen” (I think that was actually their term) which is two or three gates at the Winnipeg airport for flights going to the US, where they can isolate the folks who had already cleared US customs) knew there would be people like me. So they put a friend there to find.

And what does one do with new friends? TAKE SELFIES!

Suffice it to say, the BEST part of this was watching the faces of many of the other travelers waiting in “the holding pen”. Particularly the ones who were likely from other cultural backgrounds, where a certain amount of decorum and cooth is expected, especially in public. There were people who were openly horrified to think that they were getting on the same plane as I was and then being locked in with me. Others were snickering and trying not to get caught pointing because that would be “rude,” but it was a losing battle.

My work was done – I had helped ease their boredom for a tiny bit of those seven-plus hours. “Ooh, look at that lunatice American!”

Yep!

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Filed under Paul, Photography, Travel

July 13, 2023 · 23:56

Boy, Is THAT A Deep Rabbit Hole!

Looking for something else, saw a directory that seemed out of place, checked it out…

Oh, so THAT’s where those EIGHT YEARS of cell phone photos got misfiled. Just exactly what’s in there?

Thank god for my phone alarm going off and warning me that it’s 23:50…

Old trips, football games, baseball games, plane trips, pets, old houses, CYA stuff from work…

I know that I never throw old files out (disk space is cheap) but that doesn’t mean that it can’t get accidentally deleted or misfiled. Deleted is bad, misfiled is inconvenient.

And then you get a surprise and a rabbit hole to disappear down into for a while.

Surprise! I was on a plane!

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Filed under Paul, Photography

June 16, 2023 · 23:06

A Long Weekend

I’m sure when I was younger there were stretches of 2-3 weeks like this. I spent years as a single dad with three teenagers and a job that required way more than 40 hours a week and I got through that. When I was in my early 50’s I still had that job, it was going through a stretch that was busier than all getout and I was going to Pepperdine for two years to get my Masters and I got through that. So, yeah, this isn’t a first.

But I might have lost a step between my 40’s, my 50’s, and now my late 60’s. In other words, I’m getting too old for this shit.

It is always a surprise when I see news of another high school classmate retiring. Or one my brothers, all of whome are one to seven years younger than I am.

Retire? Not any time soon. I’ll be happy to just get some time off this weekend instead of working all three days.

But there’s a lot of satisfaction in what our team is doing and the teamwork concepts that I learned at Pepperdine are being put to good use. So we’ll press on.

Perhaps with an extra nap or two for a couple of days. Maybe I’ll even have time to go find something other than this one rose bush to take pictures of.

Maybe. The possibilities are endless.

 

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Filed under Flowers, Paul, Photography

June 14, 2023 · 23:31

A Plateau

The last ten days or so have been like running a triathalon and doing so while trying to keep up with the Kenyans in the marathon, Lance Armstrong in the bike race, and Michael Phelps in the water. There were three critical, like, “Scotty I need warp speed in three minutes or we’re all dead!” deadlines, plus a whole huge other longer term project, plus, you know, the usual day in, day out operations stuff.

Needless to say, I’m a little short on sleep. And there were moments when I had doubts. But the three critical deadlines all get met, the other big project is being picked back up but at a more “normal” rate, and the operations thing keeps chugging along.

One dictionary definition of a “plateau” is, “a relatively stable level, period, or state.” I’m there. This evening I’ve been just watching a baseball game, fighting off that nagging feeling that I MUST be missing something critical if I’m not going 100 miles an hour.

It’s fine. The 10-day long adrenaline high will fade.

There will be a ton of more work, and new deadlines, and new crises. But I (and the amazing team of folks I work with, I’m no freaking solo superhero) have shown once again that we can get the job done. We’ll deal with those deadlines and crises.

Tonight however, I will sleep. A little bit, at least.

Now if I could just get a better, final solution to the multiple plumbing problems in this #*#$%$&!# rental house…

The semi-random picture isn’t really a plateau, more like a hill. Close enough for government work!

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Filed under Paul, Photography

June 12, 2023 · 23:32

Desk

You can thank me later for taking a look at that picture before just blindly posting it. You don’t even want to know why.

Meanwhile, the other random thought in my head for the last several days since Ted Kaczynski had the good grace to shuffle off of this mortal coil was this, like my fourth or fifth favorite scene in this spectacular film, “Good Will Hunting”:

I’m still breathing! How are all y’all doing?

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Filed under Entertainment, Paul, Photography