Requested Speed
This morning the inevitable happened — realizing that he had finished his previous day's ration of food already, Ivan woke me up at 5:30am.
Geez, that's a persistent cat.
You have to understand, "woke me up" was actually a half hour process which included raking all the books off the bottom two shelves of the bookshelf, rolling the empty food bowl around the floor, and, at two-second intervals, demonstrating that the cord which crosses my bedroom floor to my piano keyboard is unsafe and makes a loud thwopping sound when you trip over it, which could be lethal.
I'll go back to bed in a little while, but for the moment I'm up, and the weather is beautiful (for a non-morning-person I can still definitely appreciate what a great morning can be like), so for the time being I'm enjoying it.
* * *
The monthly Vancouver weblogger meetup was this past Thursday, and since I was the person who most recently purchased a digital camera and am still in the habit of carrying it around everywhere, I was sort of the de facto photographer this time around. Pictures are here.
You'll have to forgive the graininess of the photos. I'm still in the process of making that 35mm SLR vs. digital point-and-click mind meld. I'm [nearly] perfectly capable of operating the camera manually, like my 35mm SLR, which is fine when taking pictures of flowers and other things who don't seem to mind holding their pose for 3 or 4 minutes while I fiddle with knobs and dials, but when photographing things like people or animals, using the auto features makes my subjects way less fidgety.
Except for the fact that in lower lighting the camera will choose an ISO of about 150 gazillion (didn't know it went that high, did you?) but still a catch-a-fired-bullet-in-motion shutter speed, and I frequently get caught forgetting to compensate for that. Case in point: a frequent observation when I'm looking at my photo stats includes, "ISO Speed: 1400. ISO Speed Requested: 400 (May be different to Speed Used when Auto ISO is on)." Yeah. Great. Thanks, camera. I love you, too.
Yes, I know how to fix it. Yes, it'll be better next time. I know, I know, I know.
Also, I realize that several of the pictures look like they were all cropped from the same wider shots. But the honest truth is that Jamie, Jen, Ian, and David actually all four share a superhero power where they, when fueled by the right combination of pizza, salad, calamari, and beer, can hold a pose perfectly for up to a half an hour. It's astounding. I can't even stay that still while sleeping.
* * *
Speaking of requested speed, I cashed in my chips on "Exciting Weekend Kayaking Getaway!" and traded them in for "Enjoy a Relaxing Weekend on Your Own Couch or Sipping a Latte the Size of God at a Friendly Internet Coffee Shop."
I've caught up on some music exploration I've wanted to do (unfortunately for fans of my streaming audio channel it's not that style of music — maybe next time), talked to some friends on the phone, gotten my finances [a little] in order, and that kind of thing.
I also fixed the Auto ISO bias on my camera. Yeah, shut up already.
* * *
This morning I also caught some online time with my old work friend Hari. His stories of daily drama in India are at the very least elucidating, and usually side-splittingly funny. Several years back his family fell victim to an enterprising refrigerator raider monkey, who would sneak into the house (via opening the front door, if you call that sneaking, but as far as I'm concerned that's the last means of ingress I would expect from a monkey, as opposed to windows or a chimney), scoop giant armloads of food from the refrigerator, and then take it all into the front yard to sort through it and decide on the one single mango he wanted to keep and carry off with him into the trees. This made their grocery bills quite high, I imagine.
Matt: Did you ever try to catch the monkey?
Hari: Oh no. If you surprise the monkey while inside the house, he climb the bookshelf and scream at you and you never get him out. Get too close he bite you. We just wait until monkey done his business, then remember to lock door. I tell my kids every morning lock door or monkey eat all your food. They are still not remembering.
Matt: What about animal control? Can't you call someone to catch him?
Hari: Animal control? Oh you mean dogcatcher? Oh yes, in India we have dogcatcher. Dogcatcher not so good at catching monkeys. When taking food, is one monkey. When calling dogcatcher, monkey calls also many monkey friends in trees. Very skilled at throwing. Dogcatcher usually goes home.
This morning's bit of wisdom is that if I'm ever driving in India, and am stopped in traffic, watch out for men bearing snakes. Partial IM transcript:
Hari: yeah..some of things only in India
Hari: sometimes while you are driving, people may come and drop the snake in your car and ask the money
Matt: oh no! and then they take the snake out?
Matt: if you pay them?
Hari: actually those people make snakes poision inactive, but it is not known, and people get scared and give money
Hari: once you pay them...they will take out
Matt: seems like people using live cobras for a scam like that would not live very long
Hari: looks dangerous...but not poisions
Hari: but scarry
Hari has been living and working in Connecticut the past year or so. Not so many monkeys and snakes there. Just Yale students. Which I hear can also cause quite a stir if tossed into a moving car.
Geez, that's a persistent cat.
You have to understand, "woke me up" was actually a half hour process which included raking all the books off the bottom two shelves of the bookshelf, rolling the empty food bowl around the floor, and, at two-second intervals, demonstrating that the cord which crosses my bedroom floor to my piano keyboard is unsafe and makes a loud thwopping sound when you trip over it, which could be lethal.
I'll go back to bed in a little while, but for the moment I'm up, and the weather is beautiful (for a non-morning-person I can still definitely appreciate what a great morning can be like), so for the time being I'm enjoying it.
* * *
The monthly Vancouver weblogger meetup was this past Thursday, and since I was the person who most recently purchased a digital camera and am still in the habit of carrying it around everywhere, I was sort of the de facto photographer this time around. Pictures are here.
You'll have to forgive the graininess of the photos. I'm still in the process of making that 35mm SLR vs. digital point-and-click mind meld. I'm [nearly] perfectly capable of operating the camera manually, like my 35mm SLR, which is fine when taking pictures of flowers and other things who don't seem to mind holding their pose for 3 or 4 minutes while I fiddle with knobs and dials, but when photographing things like people or animals, using the auto features makes my subjects way less fidgety.
Except for the fact that in lower lighting the camera will choose an ISO of about 150 gazillion (didn't know it went that high, did you?) but still a catch-a-fired-bullet-in-motion shutter speed, and I frequently get caught forgetting to compensate for that. Case in point: a frequent observation when I'm looking at my photo stats includes, "ISO Speed: 1400. ISO Speed Requested: 400 (May be different to Speed Used when Auto ISO is on)." Yeah. Great. Thanks, camera. I love you, too.
Yes, I know how to fix it. Yes, it'll be better next time. I know, I know, I know.
Also, I realize that several of the pictures look like they were all cropped from the same wider shots. But the honest truth is that Jamie, Jen, Ian, and David actually all four share a superhero power where they, when fueled by the right combination of pizza, salad, calamari, and beer, can hold a pose perfectly for up to a half an hour. It's astounding. I can't even stay that still while sleeping.
* * *
Speaking of requested speed, I cashed in my chips on "Exciting Weekend Kayaking Getaway!" and traded them in for "Enjoy a Relaxing Weekend on Your Own Couch or Sipping a Latte the Size of God at a Friendly Internet Coffee Shop."
I've caught up on some music exploration I've wanted to do (unfortunately for fans of my streaming audio channel it's not that style of music — maybe next time), talked to some friends on the phone, gotten my finances [a little] in order, and that kind of thing.
I also fixed the Auto ISO bias on my camera. Yeah, shut up already.
* * *
This morning I also caught some online time with my old work friend Hari. His stories of daily drama in India are at the very least elucidating, and usually side-splittingly funny. Several years back his family fell victim to an enterprising refrigerator raider monkey, who would sneak into the house (via opening the front door, if you call that sneaking, but as far as I'm concerned that's the last means of ingress I would expect from a monkey, as opposed to windows or a chimney), scoop giant armloads of food from the refrigerator, and then take it all into the front yard to sort through it and decide on the one single mango he wanted to keep and carry off with him into the trees. This made their grocery bills quite high, I imagine.
Matt: Did you ever try to catch the monkey?
Hari: Oh no. If you surprise the monkey while inside the house, he climb the bookshelf and scream at you and you never get him out. Get too close he bite you. We just wait until monkey done his business, then remember to lock door. I tell my kids every morning lock door or monkey eat all your food. They are still not remembering.
Matt: What about animal control? Can't you call someone to catch him?
Hari: Animal control? Oh you mean dogcatcher? Oh yes, in India we have dogcatcher. Dogcatcher not so good at catching monkeys. When taking food, is one monkey. When calling dogcatcher, monkey calls also many monkey friends in trees. Very skilled at throwing. Dogcatcher usually goes home.
This morning's bit of wisdom is that if I'm ever driving in India, and am stopped in traffic, watch out for men bearing snakes. Partial IM transcript:
Hari: yeah..some of things only in India
Hari: sometimes while you are driving, people may come and drop the snake in your car and ask the money
Matt: oh no! and then they take the snake out?
Matt: if you pay them?
Hari: actually those people make snakes poision inactive, but it is not known, and people get scared and give money
Hari: once you pay them...they will take out
Matt: seems like people using live cobras for a scam like that would not live very long
Hari: looks dangerous...but not poisions
Hari: but scarry
Hari has been living and working in Connecticut the past year or so. Not so many monkeys and snakes there. Just Yale students. Which I hear can also cause quite a stir if tossed into a moving car.