Post a good thing that happened in your life today

[Rebecca Ore]

Luis's Huawei phone died within my grace period.  $40 to put a new battery in, so I handed him $20 and he added in his own $20, and yay, it was the battery.  He had lost or had stolen or had a different phone die, so was using his wife's phone with his chip in it.  I wanted to sell off the Huawei and get a phone with more memory, so we're both good (Christmas money from my family).

 

Three plants aren't doing well or died, so we'll replace them   I may try ginger in a pot again. 

[wiskerke]

4 hours ago, Gervais Montacute said:

Bought a new camera today. First one in 10 or 12 years. Arrives tomorrow.

 

Haha, bought an old camera today.

I know, I already had a Sinar. But this one is much nicer.

 

wim

 

[Betty LaRue]

I’ve watched a California Bald Eagle nest for two years on YouTube. The pair of eagles named Jackie (female) and Shadow (male) are followed by two cameras, one on the nest & another covers the trees they often perch in by the lake. It is nesting season & has been fun watching them build up the nest with new sticks, mate on the lakeside trees & other behavior.

This evening Jackie laid her first egg. She usually lays two, with the second coming 3 days after the first. She is the main incubator, but Shadow loves to incubate & does funny things to get her off the eggs so he can incubate.

He brings sticks & puts them on her back. She finally gets so annoyed that she gets up, cedes the eggs to Shadow, & flies away for a short stint. it’s so funny.

He also brings fish to the nest, especially after the hatch. Jackie brings fish too, but Shadow is the main provider. Once a fish is on the nest, Jackie rules the pantry & does most of the feeding. It’s special to watch a parent with a wingspan of 6 feet tear off a minuscule piece of fish and feed it to a tiny bobbleheaded chick.
There should be a hatch a couple of days into March.

I actually had my iPad with the nest cam streaming and sat beside my desktop Mac while I worked on pictures today so I wouldn’t miss out on egg laying.

Yes, I love nature and birds.

I discovered this nest while I was in rehab after my back surgery. I was in tremendous pain at the time & being ill-treated by the staff who didn’t seem much interested in my survival, and I was fading fast. it was the near fatal anemia they knew about but did nothing for including informing me what was wrong. Three weeks of it. My sister demanded the test results & my family had to bring me iron pills, then get me the heck out of there within a few days.  
But while I was there, discovering the eagle nest & watching the eagles just as a chick hatched took me outside of myself, my pain, my feeling of doom, & gave me joy.
I still feel that joy when I watch them.

Edited January 26 by Betty LaRue

[Steve Hyde]

1 hour ago, Betty LaRue said:

I’ve watched a California Bald Eagle nest for two years on YouTube. The pair of eagles named Jackie (female) and Shadow (male) are followed by two cameras, one on the nest & another covers the trees they often perch in by the lake. It is nesting season & has been fun watching them build up the nest with new sticks, mate on the lakeside trees & other behavior.

 Here’s a bird/Grey Parrot related story you might like Betty, if you haven’t already seen it 🙂

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/23/travel/lincolnshire-wildlife-park-potty-mouthed-parrots-intl-scli-scn-gbr/index.html

 

 

Edited January 26 by Steve Hyde

[Ed Rooney]

8 hours ago, wiskerke said:

 

Haha, bought an old camera today.

I know, I already had a Sinar. But this one is much nicer.

 

wim

 

 

I had one of those a long time ago. Also had an 8/10 Deardorff.  I am a minimalist now. 

[spacecadet]

10 hours ago, wiskerke said:

 

Haha, bought an old camera today.

I know, I already had a Sinar. But this one is much nicer.

 

wim

 

I used them at college and dreamed about them for years afterward. Looks like I let the brochures go.

I still have my one 5x4 tranny though.

Edited January 26 by spacecadet

[Betty LaRue]

7 hours ago, Steve Hyde said:

 Here’s a bird/Grey Parrot related story you might like Betty, if you haven’t already seen it 🙂

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/23/travel/lincolnshire-wildlife-park-potty-mouthed-parrots-intl-scli-scn-gbr/index.html

 

 

That’s funny. I have that exact parrot, her name is Echo. And yes, African Grays are very intelligent. When she’s out on her stand & I pass by, she’ll hold out her foot & say, “wanna go with me?” Lol. So I’ll plop her on my shoulder.

Parrot that talk enjoy drama. Swear words are usually said with feeling, & the parrots pick up on that. Mine is very clean mouthed. I rehomed my husband’s Gray after he died because he was so bonded with my husband that he gave me stitches-worthy bites. He was the most talented talker.

One day when I was attempting to put his bowl of freshly-steamed vegetables in his cage, I bumped the bowl, knocked it from my hand and the contents went all over the floor. I said, “Well….sh**” with all the feeling it deserved. Once, mind you. A week later, Bogie said it. I never said it again & he dropped it from his vocabulary, thankfully.

Echo is a refined little lady & her beak would fall off before she uttered a swear word.🤭😉

[Rebecca Ore]

15 hours ago, wiskerke said:

 

Haha, bought an old camera today.

I know, I already had a Sinar. But this one is much nicer.

 

wim

 

 

Better than a geared moves Sinar?   I played with one in a camera store (I realize I camera-geek a bit too much) and felt want.  My view camera in Philadelphia was an old Calumet.

[DDoug]

I received income from another license of 16mm footage I shot when I was a kid who was more often stoned than not.

As I said in a previous post, coming of age in the mid-sixties was a kick in the pants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TnyOKI5BSM

 

P.S., sold the old Bolex soon afterward, deciding that I was a still photographer and this movie stuff wasn’t for me.

As with any other windfall, the bit of cash bought me some new gear.

[NYCat]

1 hour ago, DDoug said:

I received income from another license of 16mm footage I shot when I was a kid who was more often stoned than not.

As I said in a previous post, coming of age in the mid-sixties was a kick in the pants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TnyOKI5BSM

 

P.S., sold the old Bolex soon afterward, deciding that I was a still photographer and this movie stuff wasn’t for me.

As with any other windfall, the bit of cash bought me some new gear.

 

Thanks for that. I enjoyed it. Reminded me what photography can do in recording the times.

 

Paulette

[Allan Bell]

2 hours ago, DDoug said:

I received income from another license of 16mm footage I shot when I was a kid who was more often stoned than not.

As I said in a previous post, coming of age in the mid-sixties was a kick in the pants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TnyOKI5BSM

 

P.S., sold the old Bolex soon afterward, deciding that I was a still photographer and this movie stuff wasn’t for me.

As with any other windfall, the bit of cash bought me some new gear.

 

I remember when I bought a new 8mm film camera the first thing I did with it was to ask mum to come into the garden and pose for me???????

 

That was when I realised I had done the wrong thing as I should have filmed her coming into the garden from the house. Still a stills photographer.

 

Allan

 

[wiskerke]

9 hours ago, Rebecca Ore said:

 

Better than a geared moves Sinar?   I played with one in a camera store (I realize I camera-geek a bit too much) and felt want.  My view camera in Philadelphia was an old Calumet.

This is a P1, which is geared. My old F1 was not geared at all and much lighter. F is for Field. Or at least the Swiss version of it. Later I had a C which is Combined: an old P rear and an F front bearer. It has the drawbacks of both.

Now I'm going all geared. Basically because I don't really use it for actual photography. Though it may come in handy in the odd project. And for some exploration.

Here's a short video of someone using a P3 to scan LF slides.

I already had a 5x7 back and will building my own 8x10 one from parts that have some Sinar fittings, but a rigid rear frame of unknown make. So there's a challenge for some winter evenings.

I briefly had an 8x10 Sinar C before.

I know the Calumet and even handled one in the US once. The Cambo works the same with a beefier rail. Cambo and Calumet used to represent each other. It actually fits my way of using the view camera better: unscrew all planes and adjust while looking at the screen. If everything is more or less in focus and sits where it should, screw everything down and start adjusting till all important parts are in focus. And then usually close the lens 2 stops more, just in case.

Not so with the Sinar: there is no such thing as unscrew. Now it's not such a big difference anymore, but it was when I started out.

The gears btw are all plastic or nylon and are very easy to break. So never let anyone near your Sinar, because they won't know that it should be unlocked and how to do that.

More videos:  Sinar P2;  Sinar F.

I still regret I long ago had to sell my olive drab Speed.

 

wim

[Bryan]

New technology has crept into our local supermarket. Now they have a camera above the scales where you weigh veg. It correctly identified our purchase of broccoli and printed out a label to scan. I should have taken a photo !  The problem with all of this self scanning is that when you visit a store without it, the queuing at the checkouts has become more of a bind. 

[NYCat]

The self-service here at my drugstore has NOWHERE to set things down. I think a MAN without a purse designed it. One of the machines hates me. When it tells me to put my bag in the bagging spot it freezes up if I do so. It also tells me to scan my ExtraCare card even after I have done it at the beginning of the painful process of trying to find the QR codes on the items. It nags me all the way through the process in a woman's very superior voice. I'll wait for a clerk even if there is a line.

 

Paulette

[Michael Ventura]

1 hour ago, NYCat said:

The self-service here at my drugstore has NOWHERE to set things down. I think a MAN without a purse designed it. One of the machines hates me. When it tells me to put my bag in the bagging spot it freezes up if I do so. It also tells me to scan my ExtraCare card even after I have done it at the beginning of the painful process of trying to find the QR codes on the items. It nags me all the way through the process in a woman's very superior voice. I'll wait for a clerk even if there is a line.

 

Paulette

 

Yes, it seems rare for me to get through a self service kiosk without an issue that requires a clerk to come and help.

[Ed Rooney]

 

I read something the other day that said the shops are going back to assistant checkouts because they've had an increase in shoplifting with self-service. 

[Phil]

22 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

I read something the other day that said the shops are going back to assistant checkouts because they've had an increase in shoplifting with self-service. 

 

Yep -

 

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240111-it-hasnt-delivered-the-spectacular-failure-of-self-checkout-technology

[Michael Ventura]

1 hour ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

I read something the other day that said the shops are going back to assistant checkouts because they've had an increase in shoplifting with self-service. 

 

I heard a comedian, the other day, say that he was stopped at the door, after self check-out, and clerk reviewed his receipt and saw that he didn't scan an item and the shopper said, "Yeah, that's my payment for doing your job!"

[Michael Ventura]

This is a bit of a good thing/bad thing post.  A few days ago my daughter told me that she is moving out and getting rental house with another nurse and the nurse's brother.  For many reasons this is good for her and me but I sure will miss having her here, even if our schedules are almost opposite.  I will also miss her cat.  We have grown close....but not sure I will be quick to get another one to fill that void.  She was on her own before, during the height of Covid, and then with me for the last two years.  The house they are getting is about 20 mins away so not too far.  But as she gets close to 30 yr old, it is good for her to be more on her own. 

[spacecadet]

12 minutes ago, Michael Ventura said:

We have grown close....but not sure I will be quick to get another one to fill that void. 

Daughter or cat😀

[Michael Ventura]

5 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

Daughter or cat😀

 

Ha! Either one! 😅

[NYCat]

3 hours ago, Michael Ventura said:

 

I heard a comedian, the other day, say that he was stopped at the door, after self check-out, and clerk reviewed his receipt and saw that he didn't scan an item and the shopper said, "Yeah, that's my payment for doing your job!"

 

I get the point but I have thought there are no doubt fewer clerks when they don't do check-out and people are losing jobs.

 

Paulette

[Michael Ventura]

1 hour ago, NYCat said:

 

I get the point but I have thought there are no doubt fewer clerks when they don't do check-out and people are losing jobs.

 

Paulette

 

Absolutely.  My main grocery store, which is always busy, may only have 3-4 check-outs open with human staff, at any given time, with many more lanes dark.  So they basically force you to use the self check-out, if you want to be outta there in a reasonable time.   I am definitely not advocating theft.

[Ed Rooney]

 

Grab the guy! He pocked a jar of peanut butter.

 

But . . . that's Elvis.

 

I queue for assisted checkout at my new M&S. I love their Food shop and it's less than a 10-minute walk away. 

 

Edited January 28 by Ed Rooney

[NYCat]

Assisted checkout for the scanning disabled. Count me in.

 

Paulette