Finally got to see GHOSTBUSTERS 2016

And for the life of me, I can't figure out why there was so much antipathy in regards to it.

The script was a bit weak, but the acting was excellent. The FX didn't dominate the movie. Was it great? No, but it was very enjoyable.  I loved the tribute to Harold Ramis, and the cameos from some of the actors from the original movie.  I was well and truly entertained.

Again, no clue, other than pure piss-headedness, why this movie generated so much hatred towards one of the actors. She did a wonderful job.. they all did.

Yesterday, I got an email from U.S. Embassy in Perth

About return mailing of Absentee Ballots.  Oh hello!  I haven't even received mine yet, so I sent an email to the registrar in the state I am registered to vote in as to when I will be receiving it.

They aren't being mailed out until Sept 24th.  Whohuhwha?  Let's do a little math here.

Absentee ballots get mass mailed out Saturday September 24th.  Takes two to three weeks to get here. I get it filled out, and it will take another two to three weeks to get back there.

That is cutting it too fine, too close. What if the ballot doesn't get here, gets lost in the mail? 

I am going to suggest to them, that next Federal election, after the primaries are over send the absentee ballots out!  There are places to put in write in candidates.  Because waiting until the last week in September?  Oh hell no!

Another 6 Week Post-Op check up

Had to go back early because of the dressing springing a 'leak' from people poking, patting or pushing on it. (It's that cosmic rule, if any part of your body is hurt or injured, it becomes a magnet for being touched or poked)

It was 'fixed' on Tuesday, but had to go back today. Fun part! Dressing removed, wound cleaned of 'uses' solugel/intrasite gel, waited for Dr H to come take a peek.  It's still healing, but there was a bit more granulation than the doctors liked. *sigh*  Wound debrided, rinsed with sterile saline, gel daubed back into it, waterproof dressing reapplied.

Ok, wound is still about the size of an almond, but only 2mm deep now.  I am getting a bit rashy under the dressing, but I get that with all bandaging. Skin is a bit sensitive to the adhesive.  Don't care, told the nurse, I would rather deal with a bit of itch, than another dressing leakage.  Anyhow, I can't reach there to scratch. :D Go back in another week for another dressing change and assessment. 

I'm just waiting for the day we can 'allow' it to scab over and use a regular bandaid on it.

That was a surprising change

I like Capture One photo editing software. It's a great RAW editor, with a lot of tools.

However, it tended to be very slow and clunky, even with a high end computer.  The current version I had was 9.2.1.  There was update to 9.3, so I downloaded and installed it.

And I tried it out, and was pleasantly surprised to see that the masking tools was faster and not so 'draggy'.  Adjusting the sliders was immediate.  I don't know what they changed, but I was happy to see it working much faster than it had before.

Wound care, week 6, it sprung a leak!

Told nurse what happened, and what Wing did at home with what we had, then going to pharmacy, getting post op bandages, and 'patching it'.

I Lifted shirt and she chuckled "That's one leak that will never happen again!" (he had over done the bandaging but I sort of knew that)

So, she took em all off (wince ouch wince ouch) cleaned Instracite gel (cold cold cold sterile saline, make funny ouchie face). Doc H took a look, said it took no harm from the leak, and to just COAT the wound, not fill, with some more gel, put clear patch/bandage over it and come back Friday.

The Nurse stopped by Wing and told him if she ever needed another nurse, she would be calling on him, because he did that good of a job of patching the dressing. :D

Ever want to say "Next time you try to screw me, at least kiss me first."

I am selling a not quite 2yr old Lumix 100-300 lens, that is in mint condition, because I have Kipon EF to MFT adapter and now use my canon 70-300 L on my Olympus EM1. I might have used the lens 3 or 4 times, has $110 high end UV guaranteed no scratch filter.   I checked all the places that are selling this lens used, sometimes without the filters, and priced mine $50 less at $450.  For 'mates rates' I was willing to sell them as a package for $400

Yesterday, someone insultingly offered me $300, maybe $400 if I included a $170 scratch proof high end CPL filter and the $110 UV filter. 

Read post title for my opinion of that.

South Street Veterinarians are really great.

Last year, Trance went into total panic mode when we brought her into for physical and vaccinations.  So, to save her the panic, we scheduled to have the vets come out here for her.  They said "Well, we can do all the cats' exams at the same time."

They just left. Vaccinations given, exams given, Keito's blood drawn for testing.  Trance did panic a bit, but  no where near as much as she did at the Vets' office.  She settled down and just voiced her complaint.

Ziggy was her usual. Sat there there until done.  Healthy moggie.

Loki is a bit overweight, but that is because he keeps sneaking up behind the others and finishing what the left in their dishes, the oinker.

5 Weeks down.. about the same to go, I think

Had surgical wound checked by Dr A with Dr H in attendance. It's a bit redder than expected, and not quite as healed up as Dr A expected. Then I fessed up about someone grabbing me by the shoulder (yes, that one) then hugging me around it, and then Wing patting it dry twice (one would think after the first time I yelped, he wouldn't have done it again, right?)

It's a little less deep, but red, no sign of infection. Photo taken for comparison and to keep track of healing progress.  Again, not posting them as they might make those of a more delicate nature ill or faint.  Cleaned (much wincing and face making to not make noise) redressed with the gel, and with a stretchier waterproof bandage over it.  Go back in a week for re-examination.

Do you ever...

Do you ever want to hunt down whoever is answering your tech support question and smack em upside the head because they aren't actually reading what you put in the support request?

Summation: My Windows 7Pro 64bit desktop has the AverMedia H727 HDMI 3D card, and it has its own remote.  But the remote ONLY works with AverMedia Center. It doesn't work with Windows Media Center.

So, I bought the AverMedia A867R with remote that is advertised to work with Windows Media Center.  I follow the installation instructions, and all the remote will do is start WMC . I can't navigate through any of the menus, select anything.  I can only start it.  The remote works fine in AverMedia Player, but that software is a pain in the ass, counter intuitive and it doesn't play DVDs, whereas I can play DVDs via Windows Media Center.

I scour the internet, forums, FAQS to find any information as to why this isn't working. Tested Remote. Yup, works fine. Batteries; put new ones in. Uninstalled, rebooted, reinstalled, rebooted (repeat three times). No joy.

So, I send support request explaining everything above, almost word for word, and they are either hiring imbeciles, people with a vague grasp of English, or those who only know how to copy/paste... maybe all of the above. 

There be Whales!

Early this morning, Wing and I headed out for a #CanonCollective Event, Whale Watching on the Rottnest Express.

I ‘suited up’ with the padding the Doc gave me, got camera, lens, spare battery, wet weather coat just in case, and headed out.

Spotted Humpback Whales and the captain of the Rottnest Express, steered us slowly toward them, and we coasted to a stop.  Then I found out an interesting thing. I had zero problem with motion sickness on any boat, ever. However (and I'm sure you knew that was coming) it seems that staring through a view finder of a camera can and does cause acute nausea.  I made it to the lee of the boat, and 'fed the fishes'.  Crew mate brought me a bottle of water, and instead of drinking it, I rinsed off my lens which got hit by 'blow back'.

Brought inside, and one of the other crew mates told me that the nausea via viewfinder happens, and even to her when she uses binocular, but you won't know you're susceptible until it happens. 

Well, I wasn't going to let something as a bit of "Chunder Down Under" stop me.  So, after a drink of water, my stomach calmed down. I went back outside, took some photos. Nausea hit again, so I made it back to my table, grabbed the 'bag', hurked. Cleaned myself up again, got another drink of water, and went out again.  I repeated this a few times. :D  So, I am just a wee bit stubborn.

But I think it was worth it, yes?

 

Humpback Whale breaching, Perth in the background.

Breeching a bit closer

Tail Slapping.

Blow holes, and water sheeting off its back.

Flipper Flap!  almost like it was waving to us.

A Tail and Three Whales – one on the left did almost duck out before I got the photo.

Kept "Spy Hopping", but missed it peeking at us.

Well, good news and bad-ish news.

Wound has healed/filled in to depth of 6 to 8mm. Hole diameter still the same. It's been re bandaged, and I go back in a week.

Told Dr. A about up coming Whale watching, and how I needed to wear bra properly. Wound dressing has extra of a slightly stronger fabric bandage, waterproof layer and I have a pad to out under bra strap on the day to prevent chafing or rubbing.

I had $30 iTunes credit

So I decided to buy a movie, HD, of course.  Little did I know that I would be forced to play it in the iTunes video player. Oh well, fine, do what I have to do.

Then, I got this cute gem: if I wanted to play it full screen on my secondary monitor, it would blank out my primary monitor. Ooookay, so I tried playing it full screen on my primary monitor instead, only to find out that it would blank out the secondary monitor.  I checked every forum, every FAQ and this cute bullshit is a 'feature', to keep focus on my video playing. Really? Apple has never heard of 'multi-tasking'?

Can't play it in VLC or DiVX because you know... iTunes "Play Fair" DRMing (a misnomer if I ever read one). If I can play my iTunes music purchase in other players, why the hell should I be forced to use the cludgy crappy iTunes video player? I bought it, I should be able to play it with any program (VLC and Divx can handle non DRM mv4 files)

I looked around for solutions to this. Many of them are slow and cumbersome. Audials One will record the video while playing it in iTunes. BUT it keeps the programs on top of everything on Primary monitor, and you can't switch it to your secondary, it keeps reverting back to primary. So, I tried running it overnight, and of course it crashed.  :/  I checked other software brands, and just about all of them seemed to do the same thing. Record it while it played in iTunes, making your computer pretty much unusable until it was finished.

I managed to find one, TunesKit.  Unlike the others, it removes the DRM so you can play it in other players, rather than recording it live, and saves the result as an universal MP4 video.  I tried it, and it converted the first 5 minutes of the movie in about 5 seconds. I watched the result; crisp, clean, audio perfect.

I can now play the movie, FULL screen, on secondary monitor, without blanking out the primary.  And it's NOT for distribution, but for my personal use.