Week Forty: Take a Moment

I recently received the fruits of a Kickstarter I backed. Got two Moment lenses for the iPhone, one a tele and the other a wide lens. To keep things simple (much homework and teaching a class all week), I figured I'd just experiment with my new toys and post the results.

Day 1 (274): 7th of September
Busy week ahead, as it is never simple to simultaneously run a class and do a day job. Apparently someone (OK, someones, and I was one of them), dropped a ball on reporting something Friday. Not that the world ended, but everyone got a new orifice added to their person as punishment. Brings some things to light, however., besides the fact that we need to Do Better. One is that what I and mine do has a marked similarity to an important bridge; we keep things supported all the time and generally no one notices, but the one time things go awry and the bridge is less bridge-y, the spotlight shines oh so bright and we become the Biggest Failures on Earth. A second is that no one really has a clue what our hours are; I am personally in the office from 0530 until 1600 on most days (much later on others), but because things went a little bit wrong, the fingers wag about leaving early on Fridays (I wish). Right, enough whinging. Here is Photo #1 with the Moment Tele lens.

Yup, that was the cat again. Here is not the cat - Photo #2 with Moment Tele lens.

Here's another with the Tele.

Day 2 (275): 8th of September
Decent weather today demanded a little workward jaunt for Indy. Still not a grand treatment of the spine, but we are getting better, so there we are. The Tele lens does such a nice job.

Gets such great detail. Far better than the old iPhone alone.

Even makes the battery holder look cool.

Day 3 (276): 9th of September
Not even sure what to say about today. Generally Wednesday-ful in that it is a Wednesday. And random, so that was the motivation behind these Moment Tele shots. Will tackle the Wide lens soon.

Yeah. Tree trunk.

Day 4 (277): 10th of September
Gosh I love teaching. Wish I could just do this all the time. But becoming a public school teacher only sounds good in theory. And in the Navy, one cannot stay in instructor land too long, or woe be to one's chances of promotion. Soggy day, though, so soggy shots. This is the first go with the Moment Wide lens. Not quite right, I know.

Also this. Still not quite right. I may get this sorted eventually.

Back to the Tele lens for this. Look! Drips!

Day 5 (278): 11th of September
Am so very losing track of things that I did not realise it was today till well into today when someone mentioned a remembrance / memorial ceremony for 11 September 2001. How silly. Of course I knew it was today. It has always to be today. No other choice. Wouldn't it be funny if it were tomorrow at some point. Would certainly make choosing weather appropriate clothes a bit easier. Ah well. No such chance. Not in this dimension, any rate. Got some good sunset shots (back with the Wide lens...). This one I cropped rather severely.

This one, too, but I like the way the clouds came out.

And a Tele shot of bright sun and a tree.

Day 6 (279): 12th of September
Largely soggy weather this week broke into a gorgeous morning. As I loafed in bed reading, I looked out the window and had to capture the cake-decoration looking cloud sitting on the horizon. Still think I've not solved the wide lens, but no matter; there's plenty of time for that. Also, when I was uploading these at the NEX (power outage broke my internet again), I heard some woman wearing an odd white wig beckon her son with the name "Atreyu." Ahhh, the people of My Generation. What can one say.

Another of the same cloud. Such crazy morning colours.

Day 7 (280): 13th of September
On the way to Madrid today (got another class to teach) despite Air France's best efforts. Means I'm missing out on a Backer-only screening of Wish I Was Here with a follow on Q&A, all in Rome (which they kept saying would be in October/November). Also means airports, so to keep things simpler still, here is a look at the lenses that have been doing all the work this week. First, the ever reliable Tele.

And the Wide. These guys are going to give me some fun.

So here we end this week's installment of Most Boring Girl on the Internet. Hope you had fun and we'll see you again next week, this time with some photos of Madrid. Might possibly be a little more interesting. 

Week Thirty-Eight: Fenestration and Circumvolution

This week features a trip to Ireland, but first the Internet offers up a word each day. Not because there is a vocabulary drought, but rather because words are so lovable. My brain files have so many collected in the great halls of Stuff I've Learned, but accessing just the word at just the right time sometimes proves difficult. Aren't words just gorgeous? The ubiquitous They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but it really isn't that simple. My pictures are worth 500 at the outside, and sometimes just the right choice of word can paint the perfect picture far better than any camera or canvas.

Day 1 (260): 25th of August
Bloviate i.v. To speak or write at length in a pompous or boastful manner.
How appropriate that the first word in a personal blithering blog is all about being wordy. Granted, the intent is that this particular blog not really be pompous or boastful. All there really is to boast about is the level of self-deprecation. Or perhaps the extent to which things only just don't get screwed up too badly. Windows are lovely and can really make for nice photos when captured the right way.

Sometimes the right way is hard to execute. Does one go fully centered? Slightly angled?

How much monkeying about in post is too much?

Day 2 (261): 26th of August
Rhetorical adj. Of or relating to rhetoric. Characterized by language that is elaborate, pretentious, insincere, or intellectually vacuous.
What, then is rhetoric? Many things, it turns out. It is everything from the undue use of exaggeration or display, to the study of effective use of language, to the art of prose in general as opposed to verse. We all know about rhetorical questions; we use them every day. The entry for yesterday used a couple. But the rhetorical behaviours that fall into the "pretentious" and "intellectually vacuous" are the ones that really cause great personal frustration. I've not time or tolerance for pretense. Nor indeed do I give time to the vacuous. It is not worth it. Here are a couple more windows. They have some other windows framed within.

Yes, these are only more loosely windows, but they came out rather well.

Here you go. Proper windows. A bit overdone in post, but it doesn't look too terribly bad.

Day 3 (262): 27th of August
Transitory adj. 1. Not lasting, enduring, permanent, or eternal. 2. Lasting only a short time; brief; short-lived; temporary.
Some things are best left in a transitory state. Other things are sadly brief or temporary. Still more hardly make it out of the intellectual and into the realm of the actual. When one lives an unsettled, ever-shifting life, one comes to terms with the transitory aspects of the universe, but one is still acutely aware of those things one wishes to pin down just a tiny bit longer. This is yet another window. A funny one, and one that I see every day.

Day 4 (263): 28th of August
Obstreperous adj. Noisy or rough, esp in resisting restraint or control.
As often as I've been accused of being stroppy, the term has been taken in as part of the essence of Rodeo. Thankfully, while stroppy is a colloquialism based on the word of today, it does not mean precisely the same thing. I may indeed resist restraint or control, and am bloody-minded about most things, but I don't always do so roughly or noisily. In fact, such resistance and bloody-mindedness generally manifests in the opposite manner. What is not quiet, but is also not rough, is Indy. She finally got her long overdue ride. It hurt the old spine a tiny bit, but it was worth it. She was grateful as well. 

Can't you just see the contented smile on her face? It's just there.

Day 5 (264): 29th of August
Degust t.v. To taste or savor appreciatively.
Just the thing to do in Dublin. Be it the food or the booze or the environs, one can appreciate every bit of the place. This being a first ever trip to Ireland, it has made an impact. Somehow every time I travel to places like the UK and Ireland, I just feel at home. Like returning to the Mothership. Must be all the Celtic and Gaelic blood.

Dublin is a lovely place. Did I say that already?

This guy is pretty great. He is outside Trinity College. What a gorgeous set of buildings.

Day 6 (265): 30th of August
Prescience n. foreknowledge of events; divine omniscience; human anticipation of the course of events. How good of you, Dear Internet. You have offered up the perfect word for today (maybe for the week). There are so many times we think we know how something will pan out. Some of those times, we turn out to be correct - such as those times when the athletic team we support wins the game we've come a long way to see (despite it not being a team we may normally care about... sports are just fun).

Other times things just don't pan out as planned and / or expected and / or hoped. If only one had true prescience, one might be able to avoid the more disastrous moments in life. Those are the times meant to be avoided; experiencing them doesn't help anything or build character or teach us lessons (most have been learned already).

If only the behaviour of friends and perfect strangers could be predicted. At least some of the time. The rest can be left up to chance. That keeps it a little interesting.

Day 7 (266): 31st of August
Pulchritudinous adj. physically beautiful; comely.
Another perfect word from the Internet of Good Choices (as opposed to the Other One). Weather went all pulchritudinous today; it was downright warm and nary a cloud in the sky. Lovely weather always helps to set one's mind and mood a bit more to rights. Doesn't really heal bumps and bruises (that's why they made ice), but it can help make them not such a distraction. Night People may rather suck, but Day People and Fall Weather certainly do not.

Probably should have not gone and made Saint Patrick's Cathedral monochrome, as it loses the impact of the really blue sky, but I like it better this way.

The garden by the cathedral was even nicer. I love little details like these.

This little guy certainly agreed. He was the focus of attention for about ten minutes. Amazing how therapeutic staring at a little bee can be.

At least I didn't have to change months in the middle of the week. So there's something.