Aikido Winter Camp 2013

For the past few years, some of the women that train with Wing have asked me to come on down, so this year, I did.

Stopped and took some photo on the way down.

Foggy Mooing Morning



Hey, Why the long faces? :)




The last of the morning fog.



You know it's a bit chilly out when you're in the rec center, and when you exhale, you breath is visible. Poor Wing... his toes were blue.

Got some great photos. Two great ones, but subject is a bit rough. One of the uke, during a demonstration of technique got injured. I have photo of when she screamed in pain, and when she grabbed her leg at the knee when she hit the tatami. You can clearly see she's in a lot of pain.

Hope to get up early enough tomorrow to get some photos of the local area.

Putting the Kenko 1.4x extender to use

"Supermoon" May 25 2013 with a little cloud cover - Canon 5DMkIII, Kenko Pro 300 DGX 1.4x, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM. Hand held. Not too shabby.




With a bit of cloud cover.

Day started off too damned early

I dreamt I overslept and woke up at 4am, and just could not get back to sleep. So, I stayed up and did some photo sorting, and CF/SD Card clearing. Waiting for Wing to get up as I wanted to get a few things done today before he had do to the gradings at the dojo.

I also did a bit of research on a Kenko 1.4x extension for the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM Lens. Canon makes it and a 2x, but you lose the autofocus on the 5DmkIII with them if you look through the viewfinder, but you do keep it if you use Live View. Now, if I was shooting a stationary subject, the loss of autofocus is no biggie. However, since I photograph birds, and the autofocus on moving animals is not only necessary, but vital. My eyesight isn't good enough to use manual focus (I know, I've got the blurry images to prove it), and using Live View with a heavy lens/extender and holding it out in front of you to focus? Again, I've got the blurry images to show why that isn't such a great alternative.

There is a way to rig the Canon 1.4x (a small piece of sticky tape over the first 3 contacts) that will return some autofocus function, but it's woefully slow and can hunt if light isn't bright enough. Again, not ideal.

I stumbled upon the right search phrase, and followed the links to reviews of the Kenko Pro 300 DGX 1.4x. After reading just about all of them for almost 2 hours, ignoring the posts from people saying 'just get an 800mm prime" or "Just get yourself a 600mm" (yeah,right, do you know anyone who wants to buy a kidney while you're at it?) I decided to ask about them at Camera Electronic. I was heading there to get a small filter pouch I could clip to a belt loop, so it wouldn't be going out of my way.

I had checked the prices on Amazon, eBay etc etc, so knew what I would be willing to spend to not have to wait a few weeks for it to arrive. I told Gavin what lens, what camera body, and he set it up to let me give it a test drive at the store. Not only did it retain focus, but it focused significantly faster than the rigged Canon 1.4x, it was able to do so in lower lighting. Asked the price.. was told how much. I said uhh no, what can you do for me. Well, I got it for $40 more than I would have spent on eBay, but I didn't have to wait, I knew it was in good working order, and brought it home.

Turning a 400mm into a 600mm comes in very handy when stalking birds.



The problem with the Canon MkIII 1.4x and 2x extenders could be fixed with a firmware update. I got this from tech, not from forums. So, question remains, why did Canon hobble the capabilities of their MkIII extenders?

This was the first SciFi book I ever read

I read this when I was a kid, and I guess you could say this book started me off on speculative fiction, science fiction, and fantasy books. (No, not bodice ripper fantasies) I managed to find a copy of it via ABE Books (different cove, though), ordered it, and have been reading it again. It has been mumblty mumble years since I've read it. I found it just as entertaining now as I did then.

That was a bit odd

I just got a phone call, from someone purporting to want to know if I was teaching dance classes. I politely said no, that since accident/surgery we no longer teach, and that I was surprised that this number was still out there as someone to call about said classes.

Caller then said she got the number from our website. (Uhh, no you didn't, but I didn't say that). I told her that the website was there for informational purposes only, and has been for a few years. She once again said she got the number from our website. I checked.. not only is email mostly disabled (with exceptions for advise on sewing), there are no phone numbers on it.

Also, yes... it's been a few years, but I still recognize your voice, you silly twit. Still haven't grown up to be an adult?

Dear Republican Party

Dear Republicans; I type this out in hopes to appeal to the last iota of humanity in you. Now is not the time for you to strong arm a president that doesn't fit what you deem a proper president should be (white, rich, republican), by holding the people of Oklahoma in need of disaster relief hostage. Don't you *dare* hold back federal aid, or even threaten to. I know you're so anally partisan that this will be difficult, but don't do it.

There comes a time when your smarmy grins, smirks, condescension has to stop, and now would be a great time. But, should you choose to try to hold the families of Oklahoma hostage for your damned agendas, the ones that placate your bribers errr donors and lobbyists, there will be hell to pay.

Also, remember this; Texas, Oklahoma were many of your constituents live. If you dare to stab them in the back in order to just once again score points against a not white, not rich, not republican President, there will be consequences and hell to pay. True, many of you are 'safe' until 2014, but when your asses are turfed, and then you to go look for speaking engagements, or dare I say REAL jobs (seeing you haven't done a lick of work in over 4 years, unless you're trying to count trying to repeal The Affordable Care Act for the 37th time 'work'), that's when I will hope it bites you on your over paid, over bribed asses.

Let's see who blinks first. (I already have three other sites bookmarked so won't be me)

The first time I got a rather crushed parcel from you, I chalked it up to poor shipping and handling, or maybe because of your having to inspect the goods. I've gotten three shipments from your service in crushed boxes, two of which the goods were damaged.

I blamed Amazon for the last one, which arrived in pretty bad condition, crushed, packing padding deflated, the books inside damaged. Amazon sent me a replacement of one of the books. The box and book arrived in PERFECT condition. No dings, no dents, no crushing, book in pristine condition, the box looking as if it just came off the show room floor. This leads me to believe your handling of the incoming parcels is way less than adequate. And it's not a matter of them having to be opened to inspect the contents. It's major mishandling, flat out carelessness on the part of the person handling it.

I have another parcel headed to my box, there. If this one arrives to me in a similarly damaged state, I will be looking for an alternate drop mail service.

Guess I found one of the reasons that laptop was 'retired'

After much looking around and trying to get my old Toshiba to access the internet (aka the iinet Dial up number was busy each time I tried) I decided to transfer the files I wanted to keep by using Zip Disks and parallel port Zip drive.

Booted up the Toshiba with the zip drive attached. Had no problem accessing the drive, formatting a disk, and copying the files over. Powered down the Toshiba, and brought out Acerbeast. Installed the zip drive drivers, rebooted. That's when the 'fun' started. First, I kept getting "You must format the disk". Dafuq, it was already formatted. Ok, bow to the inevitable and formatted the disk, only to get "Windows could not complete the format". Grrrr. Ok fine. Shut down Acerbeast, set up Toshiba. Formatted a disc. Powered down.

Fire up Acerbeast again. Tried to access disc. Got Drive is inaccessible, followed by an I/O error message. *sigh* Go through troubleshooting steps. No newer driver available, so uninstalled the driver in case it got corrupted. Reinstalled it, and rebooted. Popped the formatted zip disk in: got "You must format disk" message, again. Tried to format the disc". Repeat the I/O error after a reboot.

Fuq it. I tried. I tried to do it on the cheap. Albeit a slightly more time consuming method, but I tried. So, getting a USB powered Zip drive to copy the files over to my desktop. I found one on Amazon, not very expensive (less expensive that eBay or local) and using my US drop mail to have it sent to me.

Because of Adobe's idiocy of mandatory subscription only

I've been in contact with the makers of Nik software. All of the older versions of their plugins work with other than Adobe products, but only 2 of the new versions of them work with other than Adobe products.

With Adobe going to mandatory subscription if you want up to date, rather than a upgrade from one version to another, I (and others) have been looking into alternatives to Adobe Photoshop. One of the front runners is Corel PaintShop Pro X5. All of Nik plugins version 1 work with Corel. Only Define v2, and Color Efex Pro 3 (which has been superseded by v4 now) work with Corel.



Unless they are locked into a Microsoft style contract (your software can only work with OUR programs, and no one elses') it would behoove Nik to make it compatible with more than just Adobe Photoshop/one photo editing program.

Some Macro Photography

Wing brought us up to Hyde Park to do some macro photography. I brought my extension rings so I could get some really up close images.










Over all, quite pleased with the results. Next time, I will bring a monopod for a bit fewer bungles. The slightest movement by me would end up with an out of focus image.

Mother's Day.. for me

It started out with Loki doing his rounds in an attempt to get us up before the sun rose. I pulled the blankets up and snuggled down instead, making Wing get up to let the purrkids out. I managed to snooze for a while longer. Alan let them back in, and fed them. Even though Loki had been fed, he felt it was time for me to get up.. NOW!. Bowing to the inevitable, I got up.

Turns out Alan fixed the coffee, to which I was very grateful for. That's when things went askew. I have no real idea, other than neither one of them knew the right way to do it, I ended up making french toast, with real maple syrup for breakfast for everyone. I think I will try for it to be done the other way around next year. ;)

Now, I'm waiting for Wing to finish getting ready (so much for women taking the longest to get ready, yes?) because we are going to go do some macro photography. I think he's been itching to do some, and I wanted to do more with the macro extension rings than things close to home.

So, Happy Mother's Day to all Mommies, Gran'Mas etc etc.

Creative Cloud, oh HELL no!

Seeing as CS6 is barely one year old, and has some serious issues that Adobe hasn't even tried fixing, I feel their "Creative Cloud" is their way of avoiding fixing those issues.

They're offering it at $9.99 a month for Photoshop for the first year. So, ok, $120 for the first year.

Then $240 a year for the next 2 years as it goes up $19.99 would be $480.

NORMALLY, Photoshop isn't upgraded every year. Look how long it took Adobe to go from CS3, to CS4 to CS5 then to CS6. Over 12 years. Tell me how paying $300 for CS3, $300 For CS4 upgrade, then $300 for CS5E upgrade, and then $300 for CS6E, $1200 total, over 12 years is more expensive than Creative Cloud, or that Creative Cloud is a cost effective product. with a straight face, I mean. Creative Cloud: $240 x 12. $4800 vs $1200. And that's only if Adobe doesn't increase the 'subscription rates'.

Creative Suite Web premium = $1500 (approx.). Upgrade after 2 years = $375. Upgrade again 2 years later = $375

So, after 4 years = $2250 and after 6 years = S2625

CC suite = $50 per month (for now) : After 4 years (4x$600) $2400 (already more expensive), and after 6 years (5x$600) $3000 (even more expensive), and after 12 years (12x600) $7200. Again, tell me with a straight face how Creative Cloud is the better option for the customer.

And not that I condone software piracy, bets some hacker/cracker will figure out a way to circumvent the subscription aspect?

Third time's a charm"

Yesterday, two books I ordered from Amazon, the ones that cost less to have shipped to my US address, then shipped to me, than shipped directly from Amazon. *sigh* I opened the box, which was in perfect shape, to find the two books with a cardboard back with the shrink wrap around it. Yes, the box was a bit too big, but hey that's typical.

What isn't typical is that both books were dropped before they were packed.

This one was definitely dropped. I worked at WaldenBooks long enough to know what a dropped hard cover book looks like. And it was dropped prior to being shrink wrapped as the wrapping was perfectly conformed to it.




The damage on the orange book could be shelf wear damage.



What did Amazon do? Offer me 45% refund on the LEAST damaged book. Hullo? Hell no, if you're going to offer a refund, you do so on the item that was damaged the worst.

Dear AusPost

Just a little hint: if you have to fold/spindle/damage a postal package to get it into the letterbox, it might behoove you to take 10 seconds to come up the driveway, and knock on my front door, which I will answer in 15 seconds, maybe 30.

Luckily for you, Postie, the book inside the parcel wasn't damaged (as far as I can tell) but it looks like the "Private and Confidential" parcel is a bit chewed up on the bottom and top. Mostly from your cramming it into a too small letterbox, up against the lock of it. If it's too badly mangled to maintain professionalism, Wing will be contacting you, and chances are someone is going to need iron underwear after the ass chewing he politely gives them.

Have a nice day.

I had an allergic reaction to adhesive on bandage

And got one helluva rash where I had the bandage covering a small, yet healing wound not quite under the arm. Nothing I did would relieve the rash other than temporarily. Unaffected skin touching it just made it worse.

It turns out my not tossing out my old dance gear, especially my dance tops (choli) came in handy. The close fitting on the arm, and more importantly, on the torso, preventing rash from getting irritated by skin touching skin where the rash is. Wore one under my jammies last night, and have another one on now. Ever so much better.

Finally got some much needed rain

It varied from a down pour to showers, but it did rain most of the day. It made both Loki and Ziggy a bit clingy. Keito, the old man, decided to sleep through it all.

During one of the breaks in the weather, I went outside armed with camera, lens with polarizer on it, hoping to photograph a rainbow. Instead I found raindrops.

Two Down, One to Go

When the Lord of The Rings collector DVD sets came out, I refused to pay the overinflated prices. I waited. Patience can be a virtue, and in my case, a money saving scheme.



Minas Tirith set is still in transit. and then all three will grace the shelf.