I weep

Going through the photos from this morning’s walk provided such excruciating splendor that I was forced to weep.  And even now the tears fall from my eyes as I continue perusing what marvelous wonders my new camera offers.

Oh, poppets, I can’t wait to share with you some of the breathtaking images I captured.

Until then, however, let me weep, let me cry upon this digital altar the very heart of me as I partake of what this new gadget can do.

Tomorrow’s walk

We expect a sunny day with mild temperatures tomorrow, one that starts just below freezing before climbing 30 degrees to our daytime high.

I intend to take full advantage of it.

You see, tomorrow will be the first day when I can take a walk with my new camera.  Thanks to the generosity of friends and family who gifted me with money, I’m now in possession of a marvelous piece of photographic equipment, not to mention the various accessories I ordered.  It’s all arrived, from the tripod to the lenses to the camera itself.

Yes, I’ve been playing with it.  You’ll probably see the fruits of that experimentation as soon as I get the photos downloaded.

But tomorrow. . .

Ah, yes, tomorrow.

As I’m often wont to do, I enjoy walks at the lake early in the morning when few others have invaded this urban paradise.  Sometimes it’s already busy; mostly, however, it’s an Eden unto itself, one made just for me and invaded by few other humans, at least when I go early.

I intend to experiment a great deal with the camera before other obligations take the remainder of the day.  I want to use the tripod, perhaps some or all of the lenses, and most especially the fantastic optical zoom this camera offers.

Much like I felt after migrating the blog to a new platform, this new camera has already invigorated my photographic tendencies.

As the S50 became more cantankerous, my desire to use it slowly diminished.  It’s not that I didn’t want to take pictures and it’s not that the camera is useless; it’s that I found the vast majority of the images to be completely unusable.  That in turn engendered a malaise when it came to snapping pictures.

Now, however, I’m excited about taking photos again, excited about the possibilities this new contraption offers.

So I can’t wait for tomorrow’s walk. . .

The coming camera calamity

In October 2003 I purchased my first digital camera, a Canon PowerShot S50 point-and-shoot model.  Since then I’ve taken 11,818 photos and 378 videos for a total of 22.6 GB of data.

More than 1,620 of those photos and 64 of those videos appeared in posts on this blog.

In the past few months, however, I have spoken of growing problems with this marvelous piece of equipment.  I’ve called it an “increasingly crippled camera” and have said it progressively “offers me nothing but headaches.”  While the tone appears to me overly harsh, the truth hidden within those words is irrefutable.

You see, my little Canon has been dropped multiple times, heated to excruciatingly high and cooled to chillingly low temperatures, soaked by rain and snow more times than I can count, suffered dramatic and abrupt swings in humidity levels, and used with a rough hand and serious intent.  Given all of that, it should have died many moons ago.

Yet it didn’t.  And it still hasn’t despite its newfound emotional problems.

Overall, the primary issue I have with it now is with the main control toggle.  It works fine side to side; not so much up and down.

In fact, scrolling down through the controls has become nearly impossible.  That function works a tiny fraction of the time.  When it does work, it’s hit and miss.

I usually have to scroll up through the controls to reach what I want, even if what I want is directly below where I already am.  This seemed a minor inconvenience for the first month or so, nothing more than a wee interruption when I’d forget I needed to go up instead of down.

But now. . .

Now, as you might expect, up grows closer to its downward brother in that it no longer works.  This makes changing ISO, lighting, speed, aperture value, and every other setting nearly impossible.  When the control sticks, it sticks with vehemence, and that leaves me having to take photographs using whatever settings the camera already has in its various modes.

Hence my recent comments about photos being less than presentable despite my efforts.

Nevertheless, this hiccup hasn’t dissuaded me from snapping images every chance I get.  I doubt anything could do that.

Besides, I can manipulate the pics in various pieces of software to make them agreeable.  I hate doing that, yes, but I also love taking pictures and would never give up sharing them unless I couldn’t take any more.  If modifying them digitally is the only way to make that happen, so be it.

But now a new hope appears on the horizon.

You might remember my wishful thinking in April regarding the Canon PowerShot S3 IS, a digital point-and-shoot camera with 12x optical zoom and a plethora of functions and abilities heretofore unheard of from my little S50, not to mention compatibility with various 35mm lenses and accessories that could be used to extend its functionality.  While still being a P&S, it offered a whole new world to my questing eye.

Due in no small part to my birthday happening in the same month as a litany of other celebrations, wishes truly can come true.  The days themselves are meaningless; the people who feel otherwise are what matter.

I’ve received in the last three weeks a handful of gift cards from various people, tokens of love either for the anniversary of my birth or some flavor of this season’s holiday celebrations.  When the running tally hit $1,000, I knew I had scored the photography jackpot. . .at least in my eyes.

With Visa, MC, and AmEx goodies in hand, I recently set out on a mission to satiate my photographic jones.

I now present to you my soon-to-arrive friend: the Canon PowerShot S5 IS digital camera, not to mention a tripod, more memory, additional lenses, plenty of batteries, and various accessories.

What I will say first goes without saying: I considered more than necessary the possibility of manipulating these gift cards so that I could use the majority of their balances to pay back money I owe.  Doing so would have been easy. . .all too easy, I’d say.

Looking at a $500 gift card from Farjad’s family in Lebanon, though, changed my mind about all that.

They lost two family members to the Israeli attacks on their country, and three others were seriously wounded.  How could they afford to send me anything?

Yes, I sent them money during that horrific event.  They needed help considering the circumstances.

When it came time for my birthday, I can’t tell you how surprised I felt when I opened an envelope from them and found this marvelous gift.  How could I dare betray that love, that kinship, by asking for a refund so it could be spent on debt?

So many people do this with gifts, I know, especially Christmas gifts, and despite the fact that so many of us feel horribly insulted when that happens.  Now imagine a healthy present with open ends, one to be used as we see fit, and ask yourself how you’d feel if you found it had been traded in on the generosity of friends and creditors.

There are times when selfishness must be honored, when thinking of ourselves is paramount in the order of things.  This happened to be one such time.

Doha’s letter included with the gift card helped make it all clear to me.  While her English and my Arabic both have become rusty with time, below is a translation of part of that missive.

Mirvat and Hani would want you to have this.  Farjad too.  You mean much to this family.  You always have.  [. . .]

What [the money] you sent after the attacks helped much.  You can’t know what a blessed gift it was to see your letter and the help you offered.  [. . .]

Hassan believes he saw your affection through both eyes!  What a blessing!  You know he wept when we read your letter?  [. . .]

[We are] thankful Bash walks by himself now.  He[‘s] too heavy to carry!

He walks as [Mom] walked.  We joke with him that he’s slow.  He prefers [your recommendation that] we carry him at all times.  You made a monster!

[. . .]

We mostly weep for [Mirvat] and Hani.  What small weight we carry compared to theirs.

That’s why we send [you] this gift.  Hezb’Allah [has] been good to us [Maronites].  They hate Israel and we don’t.  They still help though, like you help.

Please [accept] this gift.  It comes from [all of] us.  [Mom] and Hani, Bash, Hassan, and me.  Your [birthday] matters.  Be blessed and enjoy the love of family.

I wept even as I read those words.  I wept more when I realized how much they had sacrificed to send me a birthday gift.

Only then did I determine what should be done with my unexpected allotment of wealth.  Already had I set aside funds to provide a respectable holiday season for The Kids.  What, though, had I set aside for myself?  Nothing.

The conglomeration of gift cards from various and sundry family and friends provided the answer to that shortcoming.

Soon, poppets, a new camera will arrive, one accompanied by many tidbits of tool and technology that will make it even more useful.

Did I cover the necessary accoutrements for making it compatible with my telescope?  Nope.  Doing so would have forced me to dip into my own funds.  I saw that as a betrayal, one even appropriate for those “friends” who felt it necessary to stab me in the back for dreaming, for wishing for what might be in another time and place.

All in due time, however.  All in due time. . .

As for my existing camera, it still remains a trusted friend.  Only if it fails me entirely will I give it up.  Until then, it has its uses, offers its imperfect functionality, and fits neatly in a small space.  There are times when new is good, but equally there are times when old is better.

Visiting the Griswolds

I stopped by to visit xocobra and LD after I left work Friday evening.  As is usual for that household this time of year, Christmas decorations had exploded all over the front yard.  Each year this extravaganza further competes with Las Vegas for the most lights on a single plot of land.  Still, if you’re going to do it, try to have fun, something xocobra and LD obviously have no trouble doing.  And this electrical black hole appears to have pushed several neighbors to join the fray in ever increasing amounts measured from year to year.

So here are some photos this particular grinch snapped the other night as I visited the Griswolds.  Thankfully, no one was electrocuted during the making of these pictures.

Christmas decorations at the house of xocobra and LD

A view up the walkway with LD standing on the porch
holding the youngest Griswold

Christmas decorations at the house of xocobra and LD

Looking to the left where a well-bosomed Abominable Snowman
waves while Santa looks on
(and I’m only just noticing the phallic innuendo created
by the lights on the far left)

Christmas decorations at the house of xocobra and LD

Looking to the right where a forlorn polar bear sits quietly
as a clueless Saint Nick scampers out from behind the bushes
(Now what do you suppose he was doing back there?)

Christmas decorations at the house of xocobra and LD

And a little further to the right is the entire sleigh scene,
which just happens to bellow forth Christmas carols

[let me share for those of you not in the know this little tidbit: I rib xocobra and LD about their Christmas lights every holiday season; this is nothing more than friendly jibes as the token gay man in the relationship trying to help those poor straight folks with their decorative skills; in previous years, the blow-up attendees of this Yuletide tragedy were strewn across the yard in what appeared to be wreckage from Kris Kringle’s sleigh was slain by severe turbulence; thankfully, this time around they find themselves neatly tucked against the house, thereby presenting a slightly less chaotic scene in lieu of a cleaner Christmas catastrophe brought to us by my favorite Griswolds!]

Problems and more problems

Yesterday several of my web servers experienced a significant network outage when the switch they’re connected to had a full blade go offline—permanently offline, that is.

Although the servers remained up and running, they couldn’t be reached until the network problem was resolved.  That didn’t take long.

However, the loss of network connectivity had another impact I had not foreseen and didn’t realize until this morning.

Because the database servers are utilized via the network, loss of connectivity at the right time caused some automatic maintenance functions to fail, and that in turn truncated some of the SQL tables.  Luckily, they were only the statistics tables which were bloated and unused, so I dropped them, ran maintenance on the rest of the tables, and am now checking functionality and data integrity.

All that said, you might have seen some bizarre things here in the last day.  I apologize for that as I was gone all day yesterday, toyed with it last night and thought I had fixed it, then got an e-mail from mArniAc this morning letting me know of a problem I hadn’t seen.  Hopefully everything is now back to normal and working properly.