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.

My new toy with some old accessories
A Nikon F5 on a light green table flanked by three lenses

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.

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.

A water heater with a brand new shiny brass cap over the formerly leaking drain valve

AI remains unprofitable, largely useless

There’s just one problem with this master plan: OpenAI doesn’t have the money to pay for it. For example, OpenAI is committing to pay Oracle $60 billion in capex investment annually for five years. For reference, Meta, one of the most valuable and profitable companies in the world, which brought in $164.5 billion in revenue in 2024 and ended the year with a free cash flow of $52.10 billion, plans to spend $72 billion in 2025 building data centers. OpenAI, on the other hand, is on pace to bring in $12.7 billion this year, expects to lose $9 billion, predicts its losses will swell to $47 billion by 2028, and doesn’t expect to break even until 2029. How can OpenAI plan to spend five times what it brought in?

The AI Ouroboros at The American Prospect

So if you’re trying to follow along, you have three companies. Nvidia makes computer chips. Oracle fleeces the federal government by making it impossible to move to cheaper, modern infrastructure provides cloud architecture. And OpenAI makes software that lies confidently makes software that lies confidently.

OpenAI has grand plans but no money. Oracle is desperately trying to modernize itself before people figure out it’s a dinosaur. Nvidia actually produces useful things. So OpenAI is going to pay Oracle to host their data centers so they can convert more scarce natural resources into false information. Oracle is buying tons of Nvidia chips. And Nvidia is pledging money to OpenAI to try and make all this happen.

Imagine you create three companies, A, B, and C. A pledges $100 billion to B. B pledges $100 billion to C. And C pledges $100 billion to A. No one has any actual money, but you now have three hundred billion dollar companies, and the stock market will manifest the value.

New film from Kodak

“To help meet the growing demand for film, Kodak is excited to announce the launch of two color-negative films, KODACOLOR 100 and KODACOLOR 200, in 135 format rolls,” Kodak said in an Instagram post. “For the first time in over a decade, Kodak will sell these films directly to distributors, in an effort to increase supply and help create greater stability in a market where prices have fluctuated.”

https://www.404media.co/kodak-is-selling-its-own-film-again-for-the-first-time-in-a-decade

Now, I wonder, did I accidentally sell my film cameras with my dad’s estate, or are they in a box somewhere in my house? I honestly don’t know. For a long time after I stopped using them (or shooting film at all), I kept my grandfather’s Konica, the camera I learned on, and my Nikon N70, the first SLR I purchased myself (woo Ritz Camera employee discount in 1998). But I do not know where they are NOW.

I have thought about buying a Nikon F5 – that was my dream camera back then, Nikon’s flagship, and WAY out of my price range as a poor college student. But now you can get a nice on for less than $500 on eBay. The question is whether I would actually use it, or just use my Canon mirrorless. Which I ALSO do not use nearly as much as I should.

Back to the article – in general I find discussions of which film to use kind of tedious. I shot a lot of Fuji back when I was shooting film, but that was largely because they had a deal with Ritz so it was cheaper than Kodak. I then told myself that Kodak color was too warm, which I probably made up so that I was making an artistic choice rather than a financial one. It would be fun to shoot a roll or two of Fuji Velvia, which is now about $1/frame, not including developing. I’d have to be really careful with it.

All that to say I don’t really care what film Kodak is packaging now – just the fact that they are expanding film production or even just upping marketing of film is good for people who shoot film or are considering it.

Lastly, the link is from 404 Media, of which I am a paid subscriber. They do good journalism (largely more important stuff than this piece).