Knuckledragger

My D200 is now over 20 years old, and while it shows its age, it still works. The 300 F/4 I keep permanently attached to it is from 1987, but it has aged like a fine wine. I use the combination to catch the local wildlife, usually without leaving my house. The "lawn crew." This is from September, and the Hathaway house has now seen major renovations. More on that later. An osprey looking for lunch. The corner of the mower shed is a prime squirrel snack bar. "I have an acorn, and you don't!" *honk* *honk* Canada geese don't actually like the pond that much, because it's surrounded by trees. They prefer Sweetened Water Pond, across the street. Even though it's a much smaller pond, it's open and they find id easier to access. With that said, the geese will sometimes slum it and land in Jernegan pond. The ducks are slightly more frequent in their appearances, but they too prefer the more open pond. A great blue heron taking off the moment he caught sight of me. Herons do NOT like humans. *gobble* Survived another thanksgiving. I took a bunch of photos of this fatso, but I've only one I've edited so far. Tune in next time for fall colors, antique lenses, and irritated kitties.

Lukewarm take: None of them will be missed.

RIP Steve Cropper, best known for a great many things, not the least of which was being an MG and Blues Brother.

Oh. Shit. There's someone on island selling off their EF lens collection: 24-70mm F/2.8 II (very functional but not super interesting zoom) 100mm F/2.8L Macro (expensive new, unfamiliar to me) 135mm F/2L (niche, but exceptional) 100-400mm F/4.5-5.6 II (bird annoyer tele-zoom) 85mm F/1.2L II (Gojira) BRB, selling off some antiques.

I've been off the air for nearly 3 years at this point. So today I did the logical thing and pay Native Instruments to upgrade from Traktor Pro 3 to 4. So far the experience has been absolute misery. Their install app wants to contact every tracking site in the known universe and has taken ...45 minutes to download what purports to be a 500MB install.

A while back, I bought a lot of camera gear because I wanted one specific piece. The lot was cheaper than the item on its own, because eBay. Included in the pile of gear was a Tamron "vacation lens" (all-in-wonder, not good at anything) 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD A010. Yes, that's its name. I was not expecting much with the Tamron and it's barely delivered even on that meager promise. With that said, I did have some fun with it. This past September, I took the 5D IV and Tamron for a walk around downtown EDG. This New Beetle is parked in front of this shop all summer. 78mm @ F/9, 1/200. Old Beetle! It made genuine air cooled noises, and belched out noxious exhaust fumes. 87mm @ F/8, 1/200. The main drag, which is one way, because it was built for horses. 70mm @ F/8, 1/200. Zoomed in on the same, 179mm @ F/7.1, 1/250. Main St. never meant to hold a Wagoneer. A rather famous boat, with Chappy in the background. 28mm @ F/10, 1/320. Speaking of famous, the Dolphin returns to harbor. 71mm @ F/10 1/320. Both On Time ferries, 109mm @ F/9, 1/320. A Series III on Kelly St. That's a pet pickup truck I see in the summer behind it. 195mm @ F/7.1, 1/200. The line for the On Time, Daggett St. 97mm @ F/8, 1/160. Mose St. is two way, and has parking. It's even less suited for Wagoneers. 97mm @ F/8, 1/200. The Connaught House, now just another goddamn rental. 109mm @ F/8, 1/250. North Water St. 179mm @ F/7.1, 1/250. A cute MG and absolutely garbage bokeh. 223mm @ F/7.1, 1/320. South Water St, which I have callously ignored for 20 years now. 87mm @ F/8, 1/200. September is still vacation for some. 43,mm @ F/8, 1/250. The Tamron is not a very good lens. It covers a large focal range and not well. I had to work over many of the above pretty thoroughly to get decent results. I also had a bunch of shots that were not really worth the effort to salvage. Tune in next time for Vineyard wildlife and some seasonal colors.

I, ahem, like to sing sea shanties, so I cheerfully pay for Proton VPN. Don't let the UK government back you into a corner!

Jimmy Cliff was an absolute legend. I saw The Harder They Come on VHS in the 1980s when I was entirely too young for such things. It left a lasting impact on me.

Look at this moldering (or in this case, mouldering) old geezers. L to R: Some UK psytrance DJ named Liquid Ross that I cannot pretend to care about, Dr. Alex Patterson AKA Mr. The Orb and some Irish ginger who is simultaneously the most most important figure and biggest bell-end in all of IDM AKA Richard Dinklage James the Aphex Twinkie himself.

A slightly different kind of speaker porn. In the early 90s I was prone to spacing out and doodling in class, in stead of doing what I was supposed to be doing. This pattern explains a lot about ...everything that has followed since. A month or so ago I was going through some of the myriad of paperwork that made it with me from the mainland. In it I found a really old school notebook. Most of it was fantastically uninteresting (I have not cared about the Sumerians for 35 years and counting) but I did find one page that had some amusing doodles on it: We've got a couple cars, an attempt at a Roland TB-303 Bassline, what might be a Marshall half stack and ...two attempts at one very iconic speaker design. That's a Legacy Audio Whisper. I was one of the cool kids, I tell you.

"I inherited my late father-in-law's system and need some guidance." says a redditor. The system: Some father-in-law. I married the wrong woman. "Knuckles, you're not married." That's besides the point!

DO want.

RIP Stone Roses bassist Gary 'Mani' Mounfield. I did love me some SR in the 90s. They an amazing fusion of madchester, shoegaze and post acid house weirdness.

RIP Todd Snider, the situation surrounding his death is a bit murky and pretty awful. He was ill and had been violently assaulted recently.

Remember when I mentioned 19th century railroad bridges a few months ago? A part of my re-visiting of photos I took in 2010, I ran a few shots I took of the Chester Arches and water below through modern software. Luminar 4 is a fine tool if one wrangles it properly. I'm still not much enamored by Luminar Neo. Watch out for that train! Tune in next time for a walk around town with a not very good Tamron superzoom "vacation" lens.

RIP Cleto Escobedo III, of "Cleto and the Cletones" fame.

Wake up babe, the GabeCube just dropped.

Y'all remember Plants vs. Zombies (2009). One of the most beloved video games ...ever. It had a couple sequels that were nothing like it, and at least one "F2P" online version IIRC. Well, apparently EA shat out a "remaster" last month called Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted and it's a half baked, buggy AI-upscaled mess. Now that's a damn shame.

We are so thoroughly doomed as a species.

Dick Cheney croaked. Remember when he was the most evil man in America?

For the bargain hunters out there.

Brief update on this issue: To securely wipe an HDD, it's necessary to do one pass with Disk Utility first, then make use of the Terminal command. This is because Terminal itself can't unmount a disk. Also, in possibly related news I have a stack of six HDDs to donate to the local second hand shop.