The month of August was NaBloPoMo's Tomorrow month and September will be NaBloPoMo's Beautiful month.
While I was not so great about about blogging daily about tomorrow or the future, I can post a photo of beauty or write on the beautiful daily for September.
September starts Fire Season, a season of dry, brown land. A season of heat and smog. A season of fire and destruction of the landscape. A season of which beauty can be wrenched from?
Mon 08.31.09 - That mushroom cloud is not a thunderhead, nor is it an atomic cloud, but is the singular cloud of the Station Fire as seen from the distance in Huntington Beach.
If anyone needs a really smart, bright, idea factory of a designer/developer and you have a job open in London or North Europe, please let me know.
Really. I don't deal with Southern California late summer / early autumn's well. Too. Damned. Hot.
My ideal temperatures are between -5-15C (25-60F). Please someone help me, I will trade you my spot in all too sunny & hot SoCal for your spot in London or the like.
97F in Tustin on Thursday. 95F at the 405 fwy & Seal Beach Blvd. 88F at the beach near my house. Yesterday and today similar. Also tomorrow.
((o.O))
Fri. 08.28.09 - Magnolia, aka Bird, aged 3.8 years old, decided yesterday that she was going to organize her first ever party on the behalf of her sister Grace's three month birthday party this evening. Magnolia and Tammy made cupcakes, Magnolia & Gracie were all dressed up, and Magnolia passed out Mardi Gras beads and other fun jewellery to all party attendees.
Upon arrival, I ran back to my apartment to get the Nikon D70s that Thomas lent me so that I could take photos. I had a fun time testing the D70s in a high ISO with no flash and a Nikkor 50mm 1.8F portrait lens. I am quite happy with the above photos.
All photos above were batch resized in Fireworks but no other processing as applied.
As a side note, Dan Callis and I are going to take over hosting the bi-month Seal Beach Salon along with poet Chris Davidson.
Wed 08.26.09 - A fun summer beach bonfire with the Channel Three folk and friends at Bolsa Chica State Beach.
This July, I participated in a three week trial of the Nokia N97 that included weekly Tangler chat meetings where we addressed various topic on and about the Nokia N97. During the time with the Nokia N97 trial device, I posted photos to this blog, tweeted about my in the moment rants/raves on the Nokia N97, posted a bit of video, and other wise left other bits of N97 commentary blowing about the winds of the internet.
Here is my official Nokia N97 Review and I am going to divide my review of the Nokia N97 into three parts plus and Aside section:
I. My Favorite Photos I took with the Nokia N97
II. A Real Life Story of the Nokia N97 and the iPhone 3GS, as it Went Down At the South Coast Plaza Apple Store and Who Won
III. The Things I Really like about the Nokia N97 and the Things I Really didn't like
IV. A Few Asides
I. My Favorite Photos I took with the Nokia N97
While I did find it awkward to take photos with a device as big as the Nokia N97, as my hands are very small, other than a few issues with clarity and farther than I expected focal range, now looking back at the nearly 400 photos I took in the nearly 3 weeks with the Nokia N97, I really do like most of the non-close up day photos. The Nokia N97 does a fine job as a 5 megapixel camera, as evinced in the photos above.
The above photos, other than being resized, have not been retouched or processed in any way.
II. A Real Life Story of the Nokia N97 and the iPhone 3GS, as it Went Down At the South Coast Plaza Apple Store and Who Won
Last summer, when my sister's cell phone was 2 years old, my Mom and I discussed the idea of getting her a new one for her birthday. This June I brought up the subject again, as my sister's mobile was nearing on 3 years old and we decided that we would get her a new mobile phone for her birthday on July 21st.
To be fair, I thought that I should give my sister Allison the option to see, touch, and test/try out as many new mobile phones as possible. My sister's major usages on her mobile are texting, Gmail, taking photos, and sending her photos Vox blog. With this in mind, I handed her my HTC Magic / Google G2 phone for her to try out the touchscreen only Android phone. She was polite but not very interested.
Then I took her to the South Coast Plaza Apple store mid-July to see what she thought of the new iPhone 3GS. I had the trial Nokia N97 with me as I wanted her to compare both phones side by side.
We tried out the iPhone 3GS with me, bizarrely, acting as the salesperson showing her all the features and pointing out how many considered each feature to be far superior to any other smart phone on the market. All the while, I had the Nokia N97 out and showed Allison how it compared to the iPhone - from the Nokia's physical qwerty keyboard to the iPhone's touchscreen, we tested out how each phone's camera would take the same shot, we tried the internet on both phones, we tried the GPS, etc etc etc.
At one point we had two Apple sales humans watching me with fascinated horror, not saying a word as they stared at the Nokia N97 in my hand and the iPhone in my sister's hand.
I was actually hoping Allison would choose the iPhone, as it is So Much Cheaper than the N97, but at the end of our 15 minutes of fondling the iPhone at the Apple store, I asked Allison,
"So, honestly, what do you think?"
Allison on the iPhone, "It is too light and plasticky. I don't like the touchscreen and I don't like the photos."
Me, "But what about the User Interface? The flicking bits? All the apps."
Allison just looked at me and said, "I guess I am a Nokia girl."
She put the iPhone back on its pad and started to walk out.
********
This really happened. I did not pitch the Nokia N97 to Allison, if anything I was very indifferent about it, as it is not necessarily the phone I would choose.
My sister is an example of a person who wants a smart phone but doesn't want an iPhone, hard as it is for many people to believe at least to many of the designers I know. Since she received her Nokia N97 for her birthday, she has been very happy with it. I have asked her several times how it is going and she continues to be very happy.
My sister's experience is a living example of Rita Khoury's thesis that the N97 is for the connected user not the power user. My sister loves texting, email and Facebook, as she has FB always on and connected as a widget on her Nokia N97.
But Ms. Jen, you ask, what do you really think of the Nokia N97?
Tue 08.25.09 - Waiting to make a left turn.
Since the United States has been so obsessed with free markets, democracy, and business competition, it is time that the health care systems gets a good dose of competition from these United States in the form of a public health care and insurance option for any citizen or legal resident of these said States.
Given all the hysteria from various corners and pressures from lobbyists, the various Congress Critters and Administration folks seem to have lost heart and have caved to a reform bill that is unpalatable by most.
Last week while having dinner with my mostly Republican family, a hue and cry went up about health care reform. I expected various members of the family to bash Obama's health care plan, which they did, but not for the reasons I expected. Several folks at once cried out, "What happened to the public option?"
After discussing all the various perspectives, everyone but my 89 year old Grandma agreed that the US needed a public health care option to be opened for all who wanted one. Two of my aunts agreed with me that the Irish way of public health care for all and extra private supplemental care for those who want to pay for it was an excellent way to go.
When I lived in Ireland, I purchased private supplemental health insurance from VH-1 for €10 a week, which at 2005 exchange rates worked out to be about $54 per month. This supplemental health insurance would give me a semi-private room if I ended up in a hospital plus other options for picking the doctor of my choice. Right now, I pay $297 per month to Kaiser Permanente for health care and I have no idea what my hospital coverage is if I would need it other than I have a $100/day co-pay.
I felt more confident in Ireland with the public health care and my supplemental healthcare than I do now with Kaiser. I am reluctant to go to Kaiser and in the last three years have only been 5 times in total, twice for my migraines, once for an ear ache, and twice for travel shots & booster vaccinations, otherwise I have avoided the Kaiser doctor like the plague. I have paid out of pocket to see an N.D. about my allergies & migraines, as Kaiser in SoCal does not cover ND's although they do in their Pacific Northwest territory.
I am willing to pay out of pocket to see a doctor that is willing to explore the real causes of my migraines as the ND was and the doctor at Kaiser was not. The Kaiser doctor did not want to listen to my ideas of what I thought my migraine triggers were, but instead after 2.5 minutes prescribed a $125 co-pay medication and shuffled me out of the office. This is a minor problem to have compared to the large minority of people who do not have any health coverage or are under insured.
Let's not even speak of all the small businesses that will never be started because folks are too afraid to lose their insurance if they leave their job to start a new business or the current small businesses who can't afford to hire more people because they want to provide insurance but can't afford it.
Tonight I decided that I would send emails, via their websites, to the President, my Congress Critter - Dana Rohrabacker (R-CA), and my two Senators' Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer (both D-CA). I tailored each letter to the political type human and here is an example of what was sent:
Dear Senator Feinstein,
I am writing as I am very concerned about the health care legislation that is currently going through Congress, as it does not have a public option. I am concerned that true reform is being squelched by the insurance company lobbyists.For a variety of reasons - humanitarian, reduce costs, increase competition, and others - we need to provide a public health care option along side of the private health insurance and health care systems currently in place.
Not only do all people within the borders of the US need access to affordable health care, but we need to keep costs down. A public option would increase competition and access.
Thank you,
Jenifer Hanen
Seal Beach, Calif.
Regardless of how your hopes and thoughts in the US health care debate, here below are some good blog posts to get one thinking, after you have done some thinking, please do write your Congress Critter:
Matt Haughey on The entrepreneurial case for national healthcare
BLDGBLOG on City of Fees and Services
William Blim of 3 Quarks Daily on Will Someone Rid Me of Private Health Insurance?
Adam Greenfield on On systems, and what they do
BLDGBLOG on City of Fees and Services: "Indeed, the bizarre irony for me throughout all of this has been that police officers, fire crews, and members of the military are all, to use this language very deliberately, the most socialized subsector of the U.S. economy. That is, they are paid through what many people would call "government hand-outs." On the other hand, it is these very social positions that are often held up - by these same critics - as triumphant examples of national service and personal heroism. Indeed, it is not entirely inaccurate to say that The Greatest Generation was a generation of near-total tax-funded employment.
If the recent health care debates are to be believed, doctors are not subject to this same sense of national appreciation; they are mysteriously yet fundamentally unlike the police, we are meant to believe, offering services that only private money can afford. But where is the line between private health (diabetes) and public safety (tuberculosis) - and when might this solidify into actual government infrastructure?"
Michael Blim on Will Someone Rid Me of Private Health Insurance? : "Once a mistake is made and a bill made up, the paper chase begins in earnest. It is then that one uncovers the fact that unlike in the Wizard of Oz, there is no one behind the curtain. The hospital in a show of dauntless efficiency sends me one bill for everything they do to me. It is a complete sham. There is no unified billing service at the hospital. Every service simply dumps its bills into a big computerized hopper in the Ethernet, and a sum with unintelligible notations is derived and duly sent to the patient. I call to ask each service if it recorded a co-pay non-payment. Recently I made the rounds among the services billing for the podiatrist, the orthoticist, the physical therapist, the surgeon, and the family doctor. Sometimes it's like bingo, and several of the services made claims for the "missing" $15 co-pay. Each service demanded documentation that I paid the co-pay, but even if one of the billing problems is resolved, the clearance never seems to stop the unified billing service from sending out another bill, this time with a dunning notice attached. One of the services refused to believe that I had not cheated them out of the $15 - this on a bill for a rotator cuff repair in which the hospital grossed thousands of dollars."
Mon 08.24.09 - Black cat watching Scruffy and Belle walking.
Adam Greenfield On systems, and what they do: "So from here [Helsinki], it would be easy to dismiss the "debate" on public healthcare unfolding in the United States right now as comedy in the
worst possible taste: the bad-faith flailing of an essentially unserious society, the civilizational equivalent of a Pauly Shore movie.
What serious polity - let alone would-be contender in the cutthroat
global market American policy has been so strongly dedicated to the
creation of over the last sixty years - would want to deny its citizens
and native industries every possible advantage? What kind of patriot
could possibly rest content with the notion that the poorest national
of, say, Trinidad and Tobago has better healthcare options than most Americans?"
"I began to wonder if iPhone ownership wasn't like marriage in the '50s,
everybody pretending they're happy with their spouses but secretly,
behind closed doors, feeling awful and taking pills in the basement." Amanda Fortini, My evil iPhone, Salon.com
I have only one thing to say. The butcher f*ck'd up.
Strict instructions to give me a whole uncured pork belly with skin on does not mean skinless, sliced uncured pre-bacon. Thus, the attempt to figure out what to do culinarily with uncured, sliced pre-bacon. So much for my wanting to make my own pancetta.
((o.O))
I am honestly getting wearied by all the wars being waged online in the name of gadgets, devices, and software.
You love the iPhone? Good for you.
You love your Google Android G1/G2? Excellent.
Love your Nokia Nseries or Eseries? Even Better.
Are you a die hard Wordpress fan? Fabulous.
Can't believe that any designer or developer worth their salt doesn't use Expression Engine? Hmmm... me neither, esp. since the EE folk throw a much better party at SXSW than the Automattic crew.
Are you Windows all the way? MacBook forever? Ubuntu for the win?
PHP partisan? Ruby on Rails raconteur? Django devotee?
Good for you. Good for your neighbor. And good for your perceived enemy.
First and foremost all of the above devices, software, dev frameworks, and operating systems are tools. They are tools to communicate, tools to create, tools to prototype, tools to view, tools to do business on and with, tools to publish, tools to build a system with, etc. etc. etc.
Depending on your usage, needs, culture, time frame, profession, and preference will determine which tool, device, software, operating system will be best for you. Maybe you have a try a few options to know which is best for you. Maybe you need time, maybe you need to discuss it with your friends online and in person. Maybe you need time to physically try the various options.
At the point where you have written or gotten excited about your new device/tool/software online is where the troll can come in.
For whatever reason, some folks want to go past a bit of teasing or a bit of good, honest debate with solid backup arguments to build their case; some folks want to troll. They want to mock, to drag a discussion or debate into a space that is no longer about sharing one's excitement or learning from each other and into a space that is about bullying or badgering the other person into the troll's point of view. A troll can and will argue beyond the point of normal communication and good manners to get their point across or lead the general discussion into a very fruitless place.
This is frustrating. Very frustrating. We have all been online long enough to know what is good manners and what is not. We all choose to use the tools we are using for a reason. If you want to convince a friend to try another tool, do it with persuasion, not with trolling.
It becomes even more frustrating when folks who are professionals in a field in and around technology become devotees to one product and are unwilling to explore the other options out there, esp. as the devices or software grows over time.
Recently, I had to unfollow a person that I liked on Twitter due to the fact that this person started many fights with anyone who was not an iPhone owner. This person chose to take any mention of any other mobile device as a time to point out the superiority of the iPhone, even when it was nonsensical and not on topic. The person would then pursue the argument with Direct Messages on Twitter that would attack one and one's choices.
Love your iPhone that much? Good. I am very glad for you.
I choose to use Nokia Nseries devices for their cameras and moblogging abilities. As of the date of writing this blog post, the iPhone's camera is not up to my standards. Sorry, but true. Please don't send me Direct Messages on Twitter harassing me about using an obviously inferior Nokia, it is uncool and unworthy of our friendship or even mutual respect professionally.
Next year or the year after that there will be another device(s) or tool(s) that will excite everyone's fancy. And just maybe it won't excite yours or mine or someone we know, but maybe it will.
In the meantime, let's all remember that these devices or software or systems are just tools, tools to accomplish what we want to do online or create with or communicate with. None of these tools are worth trolling for and thus breaking relationships over.
Instead let's use these tools to create and communicate with in a way that builds relationships, communities, systems, and applications. We can respectfully choose to disagree, we can also attempt to persuade others to our point of view, let's even debate, but let's not troll over tools.
Matt Haughey on The entrepreneurial case for national healthcare: "I don't see how someone could be strongly pro-business and not see an upside to extending the already existing national healthcare for seniors down to age zero. How many more Googles, Facebooks, and Twitters are we missing with the way things are?"
"I guess all Finnish summer sports were invented by drunk people." - Harri Kinnunen in the BBC's article on Finland's passion for crazy contests. Photos.
Sorry folks, I have meant every day this week to write up one of the five 'to do' blog posts that I want to write, posts on mobile, development, and online trolls, as well as the future thereof. But... the mighty but, I am on deadline for a client application and have had family dinners and the like, so I have been too stretched to also spend a few hours writing something of moderate quality. I have written a few drafts, unpublished, middling to bad quality, but no. No, I want to write coherent posts...
In the meantime, I leave you with photos taken of the dogs or whilst walking the dog(s).
Sat 08.15.09 - A triptych of photos of Paige Hernandez, Jackie Ojeda, and Nicole Harrington taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia D70s at Alex's Bar.
Sorry that I have been relatively silent here with the exception of photos, but life has been going full throttle with work related projects and then my Grandma had a small visit to the hospital yesterday.
This stressed me out. My Grandma is 89 and I know she won't live forever, but I would like it if she stuck around for a bit.
And then there is the four fricken' pesky forks of Python/GAE code that should work but don't. Tomorrow morning, I will start a very minimalist 5th fork to see if I can get the logic that lives in my head and in a paper flow chart to work.
I would like to go on a week's vacation to a relaxation spa with no internet connection.
((o.O))
Sat 08.15.09 - A diptych of photos of Alex and Paige Hernandez taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia D70s at Alex's Bar.
Photos taken by Ms. Jen at Alex's Bar on Sat. Aug. 15, 2009 with her Nokia N95.
Photos taken on June 22, 2009 at Carl Zeiss AG by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N86.
The above photo essay is the last bits of Carl Zeiss Lens Factory content I wanted to post, as my videos that I took were not up to scratch. No worries, as every time I go back through my photos, I have more questions that I need to research about Zeiss that leads me deeper into Camera Lens Lust (or Lens Envy).
I would love to get a Distagon lens for my Nikon FM3a film SLF and it looks like Zeiss is working on some nice lenses for the Nikon F mount, which would work both on my SLR and the borrowed Nikon D70s from Thomas. Lens drool.
Best of all, today's find on the Zeiss website was the 'Camera Lens News', a set of articles on lenses and photography. I subscribed.
And the above photo of Stefanos wearing the Cinemizer glasses gave me a good giggle again. All the virtual reality style headsets always make me have a bit of a giggle. While I did not put them on to watch a video from a Nokia Nseries device, the others reported that it was a good to great video experience.
I will now return to drooling over a dream Distagon. ;o)
More on the Carl Zeiss Lens Factory Tour adventure and Nokia N86 (which has a Zeiss Tessar lens):
Carl Zeiss Lens Factory Tour
The Nokia N86 - Review and Photos
Dan Rubin's Spectacular Hasselblad
The Nokia N86: Phil Campbell's Off-the-Cuff Review of Video Features
The Nokia N86: Dotsisx and Ms. Jen Weigh In
Photos Moblogged from the Tour
The Carl Zeiss Factory Tour, Before Departure
Om Malik in yesterday's post, The Evolution of Blogging, concludes with the argument that those of us who are lifestreaming on our blogs rather than Facebook, because we want to be our own 'digital repository' or as I have called it the last few years "Own Your Own Stuff", will need to have our blogging software evolve to handle more real-time streaming.
"Millions of Facebook users will have no reason to use any other service for the foreseeable future. And even when they decide to leave, they'll realize they can't, for they'll have stored their photos and videos into the service, which has no visible way of exporting such data. It's the ultimate lock-in: control consumers' data and you control everything.For others -- whom I would loosely define as "power users" -- today's blogging software and services are the best option for becoming a repository of our digital creations, because they are more open, more extensible and at the end of the day, give us more control "
Malik mentions Posterous, Tumblr, and WordPress's P2 theme as blogging platforms that are moving towards evolving blogging, but he does not mention Movable Type's Motion. As someone who is serious about owning her own digital repository, I haven't gotten on board with Posterous or Tumblr as they are both hosted and ultimately are yet another space on the web where my stuff gets atomized. I am planning on exploring the possibilities of Movable Type's Motion soon, when I have some time. ;o)
On another note, Fast Company has a great magazine cover article on Nokia Rocks the World: The Phone King's Plan to Redefine Its Business, of which they start with a great few paragraphs:
"The gathering in the courtyard dining room at the Greenwich Hotel in Tribeca has the feel of a meeting between the Mafia's dwindling five families and an emerging Balkan gang looking to join forces. Instead of bookmakers, drug smugglers, and racketeers, the endangered species assembled are music executives from the industry's remaining major labels, including Warner and Universal Music, and an agent from the Beatles' Apple Corps.Despite the general tension typical of an industry in free fall, there is a reunion vibe and everyone greets one another warmly over cocktails, throwing out a bit of cocksure swagger to project the notion that they can still deliver a hit. Still, nobody in attendance would deny that the days of record companies making a killing in the music industry are over.
The hosts for the evening are Nokia's 43-year-old executive vice president of entertainment and communities, Tero Ojanperä, and Eurythmics founder and Nokia consultant, Dave Stewart. The two make for an odd pairing: Stewart with his quintessential British rock-'n'-roll-ness and Ojanperä with his Finnish-savant electrical-engineer-ness. But tuning in closely to Ojanperä's precise, inflected words, it's hard to elude his magnetism, a cross between Andy Warhol mystic and James Bond villain."
The article both gives a good overview of Nokia's efforts to both woo the music industry and their recent forays into applications and services, as well as giving a few fun tweaks at the "Finnish-savant electrical-engineer-ness" meets "Baltic Mafia". Blessings on the Finns, I <3 the lot of them!
James (@whatleydude) significantly ups the ante for the rest of us, particularly those of us with a fear of heights, on extending the photo and video capabilities of the Nokia N86.
Really extending how one can video one's self. I do believe that Nokia should be including bungee tested wrist straps in all of the Nokia N86 boxes.
Mark Cuban on The Most Patriot Thing You Can Do : "Bust your ass and get rich. Make a boatload of money. Pay your taxes. Lots of taxes. Hire
people. Train people. Pay people. Spend money on rent, equipment,
services. Pay more taxes. When you make a shitload of money. Do something positive with it. If you are smart enough to make it, you will be smart enough to know where
to put it to work."
Hi... I have dropped the ball a bit this week on the NaBloPoMo challenge. Right now it is a bit hard to think about Tomorrow / Future when the Present is intruding quite forcefully into life now with large patches of the Past floating on by.
As a wrote the other day, my Grandpa Bill West passed away on Monday, and the few days preceding as well as the days since have been filled with family, talking, feeling overwhelmed, tears, and dreams of yellow zombies.
Hopefully, I will have more cogent thoughts for y'all a bit later in the week.
William (Bill) West has departed for the Great Fishing Lake.
May the air be sparking, may the wind sigh lovingly through the pines and spruces, may the big trout be biting, and may there be a golf course close by.
On May 28th of this year, after the Google I/O conference, I got to SFO a wee bit early and picked up a book at the bookstore in the airport that I had put on my wishlist at Amazon a few months earlier. The book was "Incredible Good Fortune, New Poems" by Ursula K. Le Guin.
I love Ursula Le Guin, she is a writer who is up there in the Holy Septinity of Writers in my book of reading love along with Madeline L'Engle, JRR Tolkein, Charles de Lint, Anne Dillard, C.S. Lewis, and Dave Hickey. I even more love it when authors cross genre and write in a form that is not their usual fare.
I particularly love it when a fiction writer or a very thoughtful nature writer takes time to write poems. Almost all of my Holy Septinity of Writers has published a book or two or three of poetry or has embedded poetry & verse in their fiction, with the possible exception of Dave Hickey. Then again, Hickey is not a fiction writer but one of the preminent cultural critics in the the US in the last 30 years and writes hysterically funny and pointed pieces on art & rock'n'roll. As for Hickey, I just wish he would publish more often.
All this being said, I took Le Guin's "Incredible Good Fortune, New Poems" with me today down to the Grandparent's place so that I could read some poems while we waited. About 5 or so pm, everyone left except me, Grandma, and Bill. The Aunts Dana & Anne went back to Anne's house, Mom & Allison went to go get Mom's bag and sleeping bag as Mom has overnight duty tonight. I stayed to hang out with Bill and Grandma, even though Bill wasn't so chatty to say the least.
I know I briefly explained the situation here, but Bill, age 93, went to the hospital last Monday for dehydration and a blood sugar level of 850. While he was there, it was determined that he was at the end of the road and soon to be off to the Great Fishing Lake. Bill did not want to die at the hospital, but in his own tempur-pedic bed at home under Hospice Care. After much to do, he was transported back from the hospital to home yesterday morning.
Ever since, the various family members have been waiting in vigil, both to honor Bill and support Grandma. Bill last spoke on Wednesday, and as of early yesterday afternoon, while appearing to be asleep he could hear folks talking to him, but as of yesterday later afternoon he has been a coma.
Most of what we have been doing is sitting in his room and talking to him. Letting him know that it is ok to go. This is important, as in a family full of folk born between April 20 and May 12th (Taurus people, a pack of stubborn bulls), Bill has been one of our best and most stubborn, faithful, and loyal constituents.
After all the folk left late this afternoon, I went into Bill's room with the book of Le Guin's poetry and started to read poems to him. Bill West grew up in Washington State, and taught Forestry and was the Forestry Department Chair at University of Oregon in Corvalis for his career. Bill has had a deep and abiding love of the forest, lakes, and nature of the Pacific Northwest. Le Guin has lived in Portland for many years and more than a few of the poems in the book are about the Northwest as well as about aging and dying.
So far, my favorite line from the whole book is from the first poem called "The Old Lady", which starts with "I have dreed my dree, I have wooed my wyrd." Or in rough translation of the Scots and older forms of English, " I have endured my hardship, I have wooed my Fate (or The Fates)." I read the poem to my brother yesterday, and he who does not like poetry was intrigued.
I figured that reading Le Guin to Bill would be appropriate, not just for the thematic poems that would be relevant to his life, but also for this one:
Nine Lines, August 9The gold of evening is closing,
drawing in, tightening.
The light is losing. It is
a little frightening
how fast August goes.
Others have noticed this.
The cat on his concealed switchblade toes
comes by, and what he says
is silent, but enlightening.
The gold of the evening is closing and while Bill may spend his last hours silent in words, he has dreed his dree, and wooed his wyrd.
Sun 08.09.09 - The Vigil, Day 2.
Ok, so looking into the very near future, all plans this weekend may be completely disrupted - please forgive me ahead of time.
The family storm clouds are gathering and Bill may be taking off for the Great Fishing Lake. He is 93 and his bio systems appear to be on fail.
Whether Bill makes a recovery or passes on, I would like to say ahead of time, Bill West - you have been the best possible step-grandpa that anyone could dream up over the last 36 years. Our whole family has been blessed by you being in it.
Photos taken by Ms. Jen with a Nikon D70s
Thurs 08.06.09 - Last Saturday, I asked Thomas Bertling if he had an extra digital camera that I could borrow for a month or so. Thomas had a Nikon D70s camera body that he uses occasionally for strobe work and won't be using this upcoming month, thus he was willing to loan it to me if I could supply the lenses, usb cable, and compact flash card.
Luckily for me 4GB CF cards are cheap on Amazon and my Nokia N95 usb cable works great with the Nikon D70s, so the only hurdle was the lenses. My Nikon FM3a film camera's lenses have the same mount but both are manual only and don't work with the D70s's auto-focus nor with the light meter. For the first day or two, I tried to guestimate the settings but the photos were coming out a bit blurry and dark, except in bright sun.
After some doing this week, I was able to obtain an auto-focus Nikkor 50mm 1.8 lens for the time being. Today was my first afternoon that I had the time to set it all up, read the manual, and then go out for a small neighborhood photowalk. The above photos are my favorites from the 46 I shot this evening.
I like the Nikon D70s. I like switching between manual and auto-focus. I like coming home and seeing the results quickly. I still, other than resizing, don't like to do any 'processing' in Photoshop. With two of the above photos, I attempted to fiddle with curves, levels, and color, but decided that I preferred the original file to the processed one.
I realized that there are whole slews and herds of photographers out there who prefer and are happiest when they are processing images in Photoshop, but I am not one of them. I prefer the act of shooting, which is why I have so tenaciously stuck to camera phone photography for so long. In my month long test of using the Nikon D70s, I want to expand my options in the act of shooting, but will be shooting in JPG rather than RAW, so that I don't have to worry about doing something I don't enjoy which is processing images in Photoshop.
Watch this space and my Flickr stream for the results of this month long experiment. Big thanks to Thomas for the loaner camera body.
Thurs 08.06.09 - The Callis' are currently awash in home grown tomatoes, as evinced by Bird's Tomato Stand. I suggested last week that we make some homemade tomato sauce with a bunch of the tomatoes and then can / preserve it for later use.
Today, Bird, Tammy and I made a big pot of tomato sauce, simmered it for over 4 hours, and then this evening I canned them. Right now the jars of tomato sauce are in the hot water boil/bath to process them.
This is a first run to see if the experiment is successful, if so, then next week when more tomatoes ripen we will can a second batch of homemade tomato sauce.
All of the above photos taken by a Carl Zeiss Photographer on Mon. 06.22.09 at the Carl Zeiss Optics Facilities in Aalen, Germany.
If you were wondering why the all the Future or upcoming events style posts here on Black Phoebe :: Ms. Jen for the last few days, well I am participating in NaBloPoMo's August "Tomorrow" challenge, which one is allowed to interpret as any future related thing/idea.
Expect more future oriented posts as the month wends on... You can laugh if I prove to be a poor futurist.
;o)
Samsung's Pixon series of camera phones is moving rapidly towards the future of mobile phones, and not because of their addition of 8 and 12 megapixel sensors, but because of the whole package of a device that adds the features of a phone with mobile internet, email, touchscreen, a physical zoom on the camera, and a camera that is the most like a compact digital camera of any camera phone to date.
What I am most impressed by is that Samsung is not resting on their laurels of 5 megapixel phones but pushing the cameras on the Pixon towards the point where the device is a competitive compact digital camera with a phone & internet connection & touchscreen user interaction. The Samsung Pixon 12 has a physical zoom, a Xenon flash, a 12 megapixel sensor, a range of ISO, touchscreen 'manual' focus, and a range of programmed modes, as well as user programmed modes. The Samsung Pixon 12 M8910 is a digital camera and a phone that I am would be more than willing to pay $600 for unlocked.
Elgar at Mobile-review.com gives a very thorough review of the Samsung Pixon 12 Megapixel camera phone. Go read his review and see the comparison photos.
On a note to end the day, as far as Ghosts of Gothic Past go, Matt Edgar whimisically blogs on the comparison between Mobile usage and Victorian Gothic tenants as espoused by John Ruskin: Mobile Gothic: a flight of fancy.
Mon 08.03.09 - Also, two sets of Mom and Baby dolphins were seen frolicking in the waves.
The most exciting news for the day is that Android is stepping up the mobile game with the addition of 1 gig CPU speeds coming soon, which means that Nokia can't continue to claim that 434 mhz is good enough for the flagship Nokia N97.
Nokia it is time to step up your game, both in CPU/RAM speeds and in terms of the camera on your devices. The other manufacturers are gaining both in terms of handsets & brand/market share.
By cameras, I was quite disappointed to read in two separate spaces that Nokia does not intend on engaging and competing in the compact digital camera space, but intends on keeping somewhat on top of the camera phone game. Only flaw in this plan is that Samsung, Sony-Ericsson, and others are starting to converge on the compact digital camera with a sim chip & data connection space.
In my opinion as a photographer and a person who buys & recommends camera phones to others, it behooves Nokia and others to work towards making a camera phone that can completely replace a compact digital camera in terms of optics (physical zoom), flash, sensor, and software. I and most other folks don't want to carry 2 or 3 devices, but one.
If Samsung & Sony are doing it, Nokia can to and do it better if they put a bit of will behind the effort.
Conversation about the Nokia N97 at Tuttle Club LA from Ms. Jen was filmed/captured with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95 camera phone.
Fri 07.31.09 - While at Tuttle Club LA, I (Ms. Jen) interviewed Jeb Brilliant (abrilliantblog.com/) and Al Pavangkanan (twitter.com/alpavangkanan) on what they both thought of the new Nokia N97 flagship touchscreen smart phone.
Al was an early adopter and pre-ordered his Nokia N97, both Ms. Jen & Jeb Brilliant recently participated in a three week trial with a Nokia N97 from WOM World.
I think the big question in all of our minds is and discussed in this video - What is the Future of the Nokia N97? Given that Nokia has released a 'flagship' device that much of the firmware and software is in transition, should the Nokia N97 have been released at the end of June, or should Nokia have waited a couple of more months and released the N97 when it was more "ready"? Will the Nokia N97 be the phone that we hope it will be in a few months?
Sat 08.01.09 - Tanya and Paul Bonaventure held a lovely Art Night at their house this evening with paintings, photography, sculpture, dance, poetry and song all performed or executed by attendees of the party.
One of the most delightful part is when Deborah Rosen (choreographer), Laine Proctor (singer/spoken word), and three dancers did a preview piece of the show that they will be performing at the end of the month. They performed the preview in Tanya and Paul's driveway after 9pm on a warm evening, which was very appropriate to the song/dance/music. It was very lovely and I am looking forward to seeing the whole of 'Say The Body is Like This Lamp' and 'S.O.S./ Sleeping on Snow' on August 21st & 22nd.
Information on the Dance:
'Say The Body is Like This Lamp' | 'S.O.S./ Sleeping on Snow'
Dances by Alyson Boell and Deborah Rosen
August 21 & 22, 2009
8pm
at the Diavolo Theatre
616 Moulton Street, Los Angeles
Tickets:Brown Paper Tickets or 800-838-3006
alybababoell@hotmail.com
