My current favorite thing, after the clunk sound the F5 makes when you take a picture, is about two fingers of sour cherry juice in a pint glass, then fill it with soda water. So refreshing.
Photography problems
I wandered around DC with the F5 today. Ran into two problems. First, it’s been so long that I’ve been shooting digital with essentially unlimited “film”, I’m having to relearn the balance between “scared to shoot anything” and “oh let me take that shot 15 times in case one is good”. I found myself struggling to take anything.
I did get a few I’m happy with on my phone.
I love how they even painted the gas meters.
Anyway, the other problem I’m having is being intimidated by other people around when I’m taking a photo. I’m just constantly worrying about what other people will think or do and I end up walking past a shot I should have taken. It’s something I need to work on.
The Joy of Teaching Children to Speak
When my older daughter was little, I amused myself by telling her that squirrels were actually called tree rats. Other people, probably including her mother, told her the truth. But there was a brief but glorious time when she would always refer to them as “squirrats”, and I think this may be one of the best parts of being a parent.
No cats on laptops
I’m continuing my series of posts that were originally on Facebook but that I want to preserve. You can see the series here.
Ten years ago, the cat sat on my laptop. She was mostly a good cat and spoiled me for future cats.
I can hear Pete saying that, even though he never spoke it out loud. Well, maybe he did at some point, I don’t know. I can also hear him saying you should wiggle your hands and feet BEFORE they hurt, which is excellent advice for long bike rides, or really anything else when you’ll be in the same position for a long period of time.
The smell of a brand new roll of film
It’s been a while, so maybe I’m remembering wrong, but I thought I loved the smell of a roll of film, fresh out of the canister. And in particular, Fuji smelled better than Kodak. This might have been because Fuji had some deal with Ritz when I was working there so their film was cheap. And because it was sort of “our” film, we were very much Fuji fans. It generally had a bit of a cooler look to it than Kodak. And Kodak was the first to start putting awful 800 speed film in disposables without a flash and telling people that was ok for indoor shots (it wasn’t) and then they’d come in with these awful, grainy, underexposed shots and complain to ME that the prints didn’t look good.
Sometimes you could show them the negatives and tell them, “hey, there’s nothing THERE. I can’t print a picture from nothing”. But mostly they were just mad.
Anyway, the roll of Fuji 200 I got this morning didn’t have much of a smell, and I was disappointed. The F5 made a really satisfying noise when it grabbed the leader, though.
Something I’ve wanted this entire century
I am so pumped right now. Years ago, working at Ritz Camera in college, I dreamed of a Nikon F5. It was Nikon’s top of the line pro camera. It cost more than I could imagine ever affording. Ritz didn’t carry Leica or Hasselblad or any of the super high end cameras so this was the best I could get my head around. It was even worse because we had them in the store, just taunting me. It was so close I could touch it. I DID touch it, but I couldn’t take it home.
The other day one popped up on eBay listed as not working. There are a lot on eBay that are not working – I’ve been following for a while. The most common way they are broken is the battery holder no longer makes a connection. I figured I could take a chance – that’s something a bit of vinegar and a stiff brush can fix. And if I’m wrong and the battery holder is good but the camera isn’t, the battery holders are kinda rare and go for a nice amount themselves. Plus I could take the camera apart and that would be kinda fun (even though there’s next to no chance I’d get it back together again).
So it arrived yesterday and I popped in some batteries and THE CAMERA WORKS. It just works. I think the seller just had no idea what he was doing and didn’t bother finding someone who did.
Today I bought a roll of film. I’m not getting TOO excited about it because it still may not work properly – I can’t tell if the shutter is actually functioning properly beyond it SOUNDS right. I don’t even know how long it takes to get film processed these days, but I’m going to find out very soon!
A “Joyful Vision for What Government Can Do”
The most important lesson for Democrats from Mamdani’s victory is this: abandon the decades-old practice of triangulating to win the center. Instead, grow the base with a positive, joyful vision for what government can do when it gives up on being shackled to a Republican base.
Congratulations to Zohran Mamdani on his win in NYC. The lesson here, which the Democratic party will surely refuse to learn, is that we the people do not want stupid centrist compromises. We want you to paint us a picture of the country we could have if we simply ignore the awful little racists and the fabulously wealthy who pretend to lean left in public.
Who is Loretta?
Years ago, I started getting emails addressed to Loretta Renaut. Mostly political junk, but from both extremes – the far left and far right. Occasionally I got stuff that looked legitimate, and once something that had a link that I clicked and it took me to some personal information about a Loretta Renaut who lived in Florida. I assumed that she had a similar email to mine and sometimes typed a “j” instead of the “l” and I just had Gmail send anything containing “Loretta” to spam.
I mostly forgot about it except when I was briefly reminded when poking around my spam folder or the rare email that actually made it through.
Then this morning I got the below… to my WORK email.
Hello Loretta
Sharing a quick example : for a 120‑unit garden‑style complex, our study identified significant reclassification into 5/7/15‑year property and captured bonus depreciation (40% in 2025, scheduled). Net result: substantial first‑year deductions and stronger after‑tax cash flow.
Property details matter—construction style, renovations, and placed-in service timing change the outcome.
Get a no-cost estimate specific to your property—just share the address and in-service date to begin.
Would you be available for a quick 10-minute walkthrough?
Thanks and talk soon,
Michael Higgins
CSS Specialist
Gryphon Lending
Powered by Compound Capital Connections, LLC
P.S. To opt out, just reply “No thanks.”
It’s clearly spam, the name on the email is not the person who signed it. It’s plausibly mistargeted – if you find me with a keyword search, this isn’t a crazy route to try. But my work email doesn’t have my last name in it. HOW DID LORETTA FIND ME?
I’m scared.
My hands are unclean
This one weird COVID tic that still remains is that I feel that my hands are horribly dirty after going to the grocery store. I don’t wash them like I did in March 2020 but I didn’t usually wash them at all after shopping in February 2020. Not a bad thing, I suppose
Not discounts, exactly
People ask me a lot if I get discounts on work from contractors I use all the time, and I generally tell them I don’t get discounts, I get better service. Today it was more like a discount. Leaking water heater so I called Aspen Hill Plumbing (I use them and Stevens Plumbing most often and honestly the main reason I chose Aspen Hill over Stevens is because Aspen Hill is good over email and Stevens I have to call). It was clear what was wrong – the drain valve was leaking.
So he told me, “You need a cap on the valve. I can write up a $210 service call…” And he paused.
“Or I can go to the hardware store and probably get one for five bucks.” I finished for him, and he nodded. So I did, and he’s going to write up an estimate for fixing the heater vent so it’s up to code, which 1) will be way more than $5 or even $210 and 2) I can’t do myself.
