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Maybe my last pizza of 2025.

Kept it simple this year. Turned out pretty good...I shorted the cooking time, but I'd pull it off a few minutes earlier for a bit more rare goodness. Wifey made some great sides. I need a sugar detox.... HS

Went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. Another Jewish friend joined, and a work colleague/friend who is Indian (and leans towards Buddhism). Was a fascinating 4.5 hours (!!) of conversation: religion, philosophy, jokes, and just good stories! Incredibly nice people!

Santa brought me a shiny new A7V and some Batis lenses after the old D810 stopped working recently. Nice to pick up a camera again.

Just finished my first beer and street tacos at

Celery

I may have over ordered. Goat Vindaloo Samosa's (2pc) Lamb tikka masala Lamb korma Butter chicken

Rack of lamb at the lake house tonight. Everything turned out perfect. Food coma, then pecan pie if I can fit it in.

colnago c50 with super record 11 and shamal ultra wheels. It’s officially the riders fault when I can’t go up hill or fast.

Merry Christmas I made the output board for D&G and tested it with +/-400V and 845 tubes. Seems to be working as there's 44v across the cathode resistor. I was planning on using +/-1250V but the C3M mosfet blew up on the circlotronps because 1n4007 diodes aren't rated for that voltage.

It won't last long but it is nice. Boxing day dusting.

I did Chinese takeout, as I do every year. It was delicious.

My existing direct-drive trainer had started to had multiple signal drop issues so Santa was kind enough to bring me:

... But her artistic mishap created an economic boon for Borja, a town of 5,000 inhabitants. Tourists flocked to see her efforts. Less than three years later, more than 150,000 visitors from Japan, Brazil, the United States and elsewhere had made a trip to Borja, paying one euro, about $1.20, to view her work under a protective clear cover. Local officials told The Times in 2014 that the tourism spike had stabilized the town’s restaurant industry and helped the area’s institutions. The nearby Museo de la Colegiata, which houses religious medieval art, experienced a rise in annual visits to 70,000, from 7,000. Vineyards in the region squabbled over the rights to put Mrs. Giménez’s Christ on their labels. In 2016, two Americans even staged an opera about the affair in the same church. Mrs. Giménez, once ridiculed, became a beloved figure, even handing out prizes for a competition of young artists who had painted their own “Ecce Homo” portraits. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/world/europe/spain-jesus-fresco-restoration-painter-gimenez-dead.html

Fall was pretty recent, it was also an eternity ago. I went out with a variety of different lenses, captured the colors and annoyed the local fauna. In 2009 I went to the MV alpaca farm with my (sainted, then-septuagenarian) mother on her birthday. I'm sure I posted a number of those shots at the time. I used the never good 75-300mm consumer zoom, and spent ages in Photoshop, masking, denoising and sharpening. I'm much more lazy less interested in such labor intensive editing these days. We went back to the farm for her birthday this year. I used the also not very good Tamron 28-300mm. So far I've only edited a few shots (see above). Llamas serve as guard animals at the alpaca farm. Gidget the kitty doesn't know or care about "color balance." Molly being characteristically unamused at the presence of humans. This is the only shot I've ever gotten of her where she was lit properly, in-focus and looking at me. Of course, she's glowering. Changes afoot as the Hathaway house. Again with the craptastic Tamron. I haven't used it that much, but it's a bit of a "bad penny" lens. The same taken with my radioactive 1970s Super Takumar 50mm F/1.4. It's crazy how pricey this lens has become. Mine it's not the most desirable version. The very rare first iteration, which proved too expensive to produce, is a collector's bauble at this point. My version isn't that rare, but copies of it have a nasty tendency to yellow (because radioactive.) My copy is bit yellow, but for now that means it has a permanent "warming filter" installed. That makes it ideal for fall colors. Same scene at twilight, taken with my beloved Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 Mark I. Honestly, in spite of all the lenses I own, I could shoot with a 50 the vast majority of the time and be happy. In the parlance of our times *laughs in Henri Cartier-Bresson.* Morning Glory Farm, or as it is known by the younger generation, "MoGlo" had quite a display of pumpkins. Even though I live in walking distance, I only managed to get there once. In my defense, this fall got ball-freezingly cold quickly. My OCD neighbor's yard, taken with the Takumar. It excels at golden hour shots. 17-40mm at the wide end. I used to love the super wide angle look, but a decade and a half of cameraphone photos have made me reverse that stance more or less completely. Now I greatly prefer the telescopic compression that happens at focal lengths greater than 100mm. Same idea with the nifty fifty. Taken at F/5, which is a little silly. In retrospect I should have committed one way or the other and either stopped down significantly or gone full retard at F/1.8. Tune in next time for more fat squirrels, Christmas lights and even some short lived snow. Spoiler alert: The EF 100-400mm is a goddamn bazooka is tiring as all fuck to handhold for any length of time.

Got to be honest, video makes me feel a certain kind of way.

We got an unexpected 3” overnight (that’s what she said) on top of the 4” earlier this week. First white Xmas in a good long time.

Lox Scramble Ratatouille @ https://www.oceanviewonfourth.com/

Thank you everyone. Had a nice one with my wife in our summer(winter)cottage. Now I’m preparing for Boxing Day +6. Birthday of both our children and one grandchild. Happy New Year everyone!

Artisan hand crafted whipped cream And Tiramisu

Ravel's Bolero in 8-Bit Merry Christmas, everyone! and some Christmas carols from The Petersens: Remember Sershen&Zaritskaya?

Cats, squirrels and other critters will have to wait. Let's talk about using an unnecessarily shallow depth of field. Last night it was cold AF, especially by Vineyard standards. In spite of that, I picked one of my new lenses, bundled up and went downtown. Zero points for guessing which one I chose. As I have said repeatedly, the list of things that have encountered in my life that lived up to the hype were (in no order): Citizen Kane, Ardbeg Uigeadail, Biosphere's Substrata, Tapatio hot sauce and the Canon EF 85mm F/1.2L (II). I last shot with the 85L in 2009, when it was a relatively new lens. Also, when I was a young, spry man in his 30s who had no problem lugging around a glass boat anchor + camera body for hours on end. The 85L is so comically fat, it changes the entire shooting experience. The balance of the camera feels different. Every shot takes just a bit more effort. I actually find it easier to hold things steady for longer exposures than with some lighter lenses. Of course, the depth of field is (to use the technical term) non-fucking-existent. I'm not old. You're old. (This joke works a lot better on places that aren't Head-Case.) Shot wide-open because I can. Downtown EDG's Christmas decorations (which are so famous, people come from all over the world for the "Christmas in Edgartown" first lighting.) TBH this is not a terribly compelling shot. It does look a bit like a still from a movie. Same idea, reflected off a truck. There's no real artistry to the wafer thin DoF, but it looks neat. It actually takes a fair amount of work (and some luck) to use such a shallow plane of focus effectively. I actually really like these two. The ornaments are sufficiently in focus, and the background is a warm cozy dream. The way I describe the 85L's handling of OOF highlight is that it paints them. It looks like a less cloying version of a Hallmark card. That's about it from an hour's walk. My hit rate was abysmal. Not terrible surprising, as I was shooting in Program mode with auto ISO. The 5D kept the 85 at max aperture and 1/80th shutter speed, while it adjusted auto ISO on the fly. Most of the Christmas lights are LED, and strobe at 60Hz. This effect is noticeable to the naked eye and super obvious in photos. I have two shots of the same doorway where one strand is out and then other. It looks comically bad. Also, while the 85L's shallow DoF is amusing, it's not reliably useful. It turns out that having more than a paper sheet's worth of a frame in-focus is good idea. Who knew? If it's not so ball freezingly cold, I'm going to back out and shoot more lights. I won't lug the 85 again. 35 years ago I dislocated my left shoulder and it never healed correctly. It was in absolute agony by the end of last night. If I'm smart, I'll take my OG 50mm F/1.8 (arguably the best lens I own for actually taking photos and not dicking around.) The 17-40mm is also a great walkaround lens. Modern bodies have sufficient high ISO performance that it's F/4 aperture is not a problem. I also have a strong notion to make use of the 135 F/2L. It's not as over the top as the 85L (what is, this side of Leica?) but its optical qualities are legendary.

Hoping for a much better 2026 than its predecessor.

Hope you've had a great birthday Joachim! Cheers!

It's those Blue LED eyes, right?

It tasted shockingly like the apple pie. 😜

Chilaquilas for Xmas lunch.

Thank you everyone! Chill day with the in-laws. Whisky, apple pie and a rumored cake later. Hope everyone is having a Merry Midsommar!

Upgrading a Silicon Graphics Indigo2: Going farther back - the new Commodore 64 Ultra:

ah .. Christmas... 4k!

Ironically (?) on the day that Al was supposed to have Detroit-style pizza, that's what I made for dinner.

Wishing you a great birthday and many sequels to come! Cheers!

I don't know why anyone, other than the hardest core of audiophiles, would want any headphones with a wire anymore. So no specific recommendation (except that the B&Ws are overpriced for what they are, but you probably assumed that already) but a recommendation to look at Bluetooth phones.

You didn't list a pricepoint, but considering that she's not an audiophile I'm imagining the budget will be on the lower side? One of the guys at work owns these and they're impressive given the cost.

Happy AI Birthday, Ric.

No... it is not shit and fart...!! thank you very much... Now try to unhear that.

Because of this song every year will be a little 2017.

Have a great birthday Ken! Cheers!

You know, there's a Chris Rea fireplace "visualizer"...but it's Christmas music, so I, personally, will pass. I would love an ambient/IDM fireplace, though... Ah...close enough...

When it is cold and wet outside, Zwift is just the best. Also, good news. @MexicanDragon will be joining the HC-Zwifters soon!

A breakfast almost worthy of a Grehaem. Venison snausage and bacon hiding in the periphery. I would also like to note that this is what happens when you give the humble potato to the French. 🫣

In case y'all don't think I'm eating (enough) (Round a friend's)