A Family Visit

I visited my brother Art and his wife Jeanne in New Jersey a couple weeks back. After that, Art and I came north so we could attend a music festival in Northampton. It's been fun. I had some success with photography, too, both in NJ and here. While in NJ, we came across a roadside diner that was closed and starting to fall apart. We photographed that and what was really nice was the amazing shiny metal siding reflecting a sunset. You can see other images here.

On the way north, we opted to visit one of the NJ coastal areas for a seafood lunch. That was at Pleasant Point where there's a boardwalk/beach. I did photograph that and came away with a nice pano.

Finally, the city of Northampton also provided surprises. The music was amazing and we discovered many artists that we'll certainly look out for in the future. Here's Chatham Rabbits, for example - the first act we saw at the Iron Horse.

But the interesting thing is we also found ourselves in the middle of a political rally on Sunday and it was attended by one of our US Senators (Markey). His speech was inspiring.

I Finally Got It

There have been, in the last few weeks and months, some a-ha moments I've experienced. One happened yesterday. The others had to do with Calculus and Physics. But yesterday's was particularly satisfying. You see, there was a problem posted somewhere a long time ago and it was eventually answered by Marilyn vos Savant. Now, Marilyn is a genius with and IQ, apparently, higher than that of Einstein. (I don't know how they measure such things but lets just say she is special).

The puzzle she solved was the Monte Hall Door Problem where there are three doors and behind one is a big prize. The other two have bogus prizes. You're asked to pick a door but aren't shown what's behind it. Then, Monte reveals a remaining door that has one of the bogus prizes. He offers you a chance to stick with your first choice or switch.

Marilyn says you should always switch. Most people balk at that saying that it's a 50-50 choice at that point and switching doesn't increase your odds...so why switch.

She was right, though. It's been proven through computer simulations and Myth Busters did a piece on it.

I never understood her logic until yesterday. I don't know why it clicked for me. I'm certainly not as Hi-Q as her, but maybe in my older brain, some synapse dislodged enough to make room for understanding.

 The other A-HA's had to do with understanding differential calculus, and whether photons really are both waves and particles. There's that and I like to look at funny YouTube videos.

Thing-A-Day 2025 And Other Thoughts For The New Year

Thing-A-Day Lives, a website that my son-in-law, Patrick, started. He based this on the original Thing-A-Day, which ceased years ago. It was a great idea that continues - for February and for each day, you post something artistic and/or original and/or clever. Patrick sets a theme for the month. I don't; not as clever, am I, so I resort to serendipity.

It's time to start moving my A$$ as I've been lethargic for the last-half of 2024. It's getting warm enough to start walking. Yesterday, I saw my nephew, who was visiting us, walking up and down the long driveway. I should start with that. It's also time to start moving my A$$ photographically. I've been lazy about this, leaving most of my photography to my smartphone's camera. I need to organize my cameras and lenses and start using them in a more serious way. I've been watching some excellent YouTube videos about a couple British photographers who do single or multiple day trips to the highlands and lakes regions of the UK and beyond. They are very entertaining and inspiring and I need to feed off of their stories and make my own...just not a YouTube channel as I'm not sure I have the smarts for that.

Bags, bags, and more bags. I recently acquired some more camera bags - all preowned - with which to sort and store my gear. I have a spot in the garage for many of them, hopefully filled with not-too-expensive gear. The cameras and lenses would need to be inside where they're better protected. Right now, everything is on the floor of my media room and it's messy. So, I have to address that. So, maybe as I do, I'll grab a bag and go out for a walk or drive and photograph something.

I'm thinking of starting a monthly or bi-weekly Photo Chat online session where interested photographers can participate. The idea would be to just chat about things, show off images and gear, and tell stories about photo treks. I've had an idea to do this before but never got it going. Now maybe it's a good thing to try.

Van Camping And Photography

I've been following a couple photographers on YouTube lately: Thomas Heaton and Henry Turner. Both are landscape specialists and both work in England. They are similar in that they travel around in vans that have been converted into campers specifically for photographers. I also know Scott Erb and Donna Dufault who travel the US in their own camper van. The only time I ever did anything like that was when I rented an larger camper vehicle and headed up to Acadia for a week-long visit with my brother and a couple friends. It was an adventure but we had room to sleep four. These folks have smaller vans and so creature comfort is a bit more difficult to manage.

Heaton and Turner have similar styles in their YouTube offerings. Both are professional landscape photographers and both have weekly YouTube podcasts...

Football, when it doesn't matter, can still hurt

Yesterday, the Pats played well enough to win against the top level Bills. The result affects the Pats' draft position going into the new season. Had they lost, they'd have had first pick. Who doesn't want that.. As they won, they drop to fourth. That hurts.

I can't help wonder if the Bills did that intentionally. It sure seemed so, giving up in the fourth quarter, not being at all competitive. If you aren't familiar with this situation, many top teams rest their good players, saving them for the playoff round that's about to start. That actually makes sense. But, teams are supposed to be competitive throughout the season, and that includes the last game. Yesterday, the Bills - not so much.

I occurs to me that this is a good time for a rules change. How about this. Whatever complement of players you chose for your last half must be the same players that play the first half of the first playoff game.

That sounds fair and competitive to me.

FWIW - congrats the the Pats for playing hard, if only for pride. Had they also not been competitive, maybe they'd lose as everyone expected, and maybe they'd have that first round draft. If only...

2024 - My Year In Review

• January - meh
• February - meh
• March - meh
• April - meh
• May - meh
• June - meh
• July - meh
• August - meh
• September - meh
• October - meh
• November - WTF!!!
• December - no really, WTF!!!

My GE-7

 A had posted earlier that, having played in a large venue and having had problems with amplification, I needed to do something. I offered some alternatives which all cost money. Quite frankly, I'm not that good a guitarist to deserve something like this. So, I looked at what I had and how might I improve my situation.

As it turns out, I already have a Boss Equalizer GE-7 foot pedal...

...which I bought so long ago I can't remember how. I don't know if it was a new purchase or something from Craig's List. It looks new but that could just mean the previous owner took great care of it.

I do remember I'd bought it because I was having trouble with my acoustic guitar using its internal piezo pickup. I wanted something to fix the way it sounded - to make it more guitar-like. I could have bought a device specifically designed for this for a couple hundred, but I probably opted for the GE-7 used for far less thinking it would do the job.

So, yesterday, I decided to test my setup to see if I could better understand how this pedal will work with my guitar and its magnetic pickup. As it turns out, I have a ZZYZX guitar cable that my friend Mark Lammi got me one year for Christmas (well over a dozen years ago). It's a weird two channel cable with lots of different magnetic heads and one in particular was designed for plugging into the USB port of a computer...for recording. Perfect.

I hooked this all up, connected to an audio editing program, and started playing and messing around. It turns out, the GE-7 is a fantastic booster that, had I had it for the gig last week, would likely have resolved any issues. I could have used it off for strumming and on for leads.

Now I know.