SoHo Park.
My new printer is here, and it's fantastic.
📷
Fred, which is how I decided to name it (we’ll see if it sticks), is already proving to be a crucial part of my photography process I didn’t know I needed. Fortunately for me, good folks like Jack exist on Micro.blog to share their knowledge.
Jack helped me several times in the last couple of weeks. When I was stuck in my “funk” two weeks ago, he directed me toward the magnetic cables he uses. That, and getting around to organizing my photos, finally pulled me out of the mental mud I was in. The pictures below are from Maine, which you can see in the photos section on the blog:
Then I read his post about the Epson Printer, and I found the idea of printing my own photos exciting. It took me a couple of days to decide to buy it, and then Amazon teased me about the delivery for a day and a half. I was sitting on the stairs of the lobby of my building in the evening, waiting for the delivery guy to show up. I told myself I was worried because they’d just leave it in the lobby for thieves to grab (which unfortunately happens in my building more often than not), but looking back at it now, I understand there was more excitement in the printer than just that concern. Now that I see my photos on the wall, I think I get it.
The printer lets me see my photos around me as physical objects, a part of who I am and what I do. It puts my photography to a new level. It’s one thing to occasionally open Lightroom or Photoshop (or Darktable when I started out) and browse through your photos, nod with a smile, and move on. It’s something different to see them on a wall in front of you, greeting you every day. Sure, you can order prints, and I did. But sending photos to professional printing doesn’t happen as often as printing on your own: It took me two months to send three photos to print; it took me one night to print the same number at home.
Even more important is the trial and error, learning the process, and being a part of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jack feels the same way (probably to a higher degree) when he develops photos in a dark room. It’s probably an amazing feeling.
More changes over at the wiki; I wrote a CaptainLog about those. It’s good to keep the wiki updated, especially with such important personal information.
There have been a few staff changes within the team, but basically what we’re saying is starting January 1, 2024 we’ll try a different structure with smaller, more focused teams working on the core parts of Tumblr that people say they want improved.
I don’t know; they always say something like this, and then in a year or so, poof, it’s gone. I don’t currently use Tumblr, but I always liked what it is. In a way, it’s similar to Micro.blog.
After I added my website’s email to Outlook (which I have to use because of work), I started emailing people more often from my own domain. I just wrote a personal email to someone I had a very deep conversation with, and writing it from my own website’s domain just feels right.
The old and the new.
Jon Stewart’s Show on Apple Is Ending
Mr. Stewart told members of his staff on Thursday that potential show topics related to China and artificial intelligence were causing concern among Apple executives, a person with knowledge of the meeting said. As the 2024 presidential campaign begins to heat up, there was potential for further creative disagreements
Man, now I really want to watch this show: the fact that it’s too heated for Apple’s babysitting means he’s doing something right. Another nail in the coffin of objective journalism.
Added a new search to the blog, powered by Sven’s Search Space. Click the little magnifying glass 🔎 at the top bar to check it out. I also took the chance to change the order of pages and update the about page slightly.
I bought a new photo printer
I seem to be enjoying writing in my journal, and the arm pain is slowly fading. I posted some of my Maine photos, and I’d like to be able to have more of my photos around me on the walls. And then Jack (of course it’s Jack. It’s always Jack. I think I should have an “Ask Jack” section on my blog) talked about his photo printer, the only positive review of a printer I read in ages.
So this morning, after seeing Amazon has an additional $50 off for the printer, I caved in and bought the damn thing.
Writing Analog 📙
Shoved in the back of my bookcase behind a couple of forgotten books, covered by dust, was my latest hand-written journal I wrote. A black large-sized Moleskin (5x8.25), with a few notes sticking out in neon green and yellow, I parted ways with it on February 2nd, 2016, sometime after 06:30 AM: I always kept dates and times in my entries, along with page numbers.
I don’t recall if it was Typora or TiddlyWiki that replaced the written journal temporarily (I suspect the latter), but it was org-mode that became the full replacement in 2018. I still use org-mode every day, and I’m writing this post in it. Later, I will visit my projects in my org-mode agenda and write notes with timestamps. I would, as a habit sometimes goes, keep more personal notes in my daily journal org-mode entry a couple of times throughout the day.
Indeed, I use org-mode for many things. As I reunited with my old written journal yesterday, affectingly reading through my own scribbles and looking at the pictures I carefully cut and glued inside it, the notes, the sketches, I thought to myself I might be using org-mode might for too many things.
Even when fully engrossed with org-mode, I always felt pen-written notes are the most intimate kind. It’s the kind of record that is the most private, where there’s nothing between me and the pen: no code, no operating systems, no files. It is also - surprisingly - the longest-lasting form of note-taking. My oldest journal is over 20 years old, but my old digital notes are lost between several apps that came and went until I settled on Evernote, and these days I regret I did (before you jump - yes, I exported my notes from Evernote and they live in a somewhat messy org-mode form).
So I opened a page in my journal, and after almost 10 years of not writing in it, I wrote an entry ✍🏻. My handwriting was sluggish and slow, and my arm started to hurt almost as soon as I held the pen. I’m not used to handwriting notes anymore, but I want to change that.