Album

(Nighttime office buildings always make me think of Edward Hopper's paintings.)

Eucalyptus Eye
(see anything elephantine about this image?)

Winter Afternoon

The Calm Before The Storm

January in San Francisco

Cable car and Alcatraz

Golden Gate Bridge from Baker Beach

Apartments in Pacific Heights


Tourists and Coit Tower

These photographs were taken some years ago
with my Nikon Coolpix 950 digital camera,
which at the time was considered state-of-the-art.
You can tell that these 2-megapixel digital images,
while still usable for the web,
leave something to be desired in the way of detail.

Morning Drive

It's spring, and the trees are in leaf, and the plum blossoms are out.
Today is my wife's birthday.
Happy birthday, sweetheart.

Morning Thought

A day without email is like tacho without balichão.
Or Astaire without Rogers.

So here's this thing about posting in a blog - you can put all sorts of things in it. If someone can read it, fine. If not, also fine.

That Was A Week

Cease forthwith to wonder whither or whence I have been this past week, for verily I am disposed to apprise my readers of the circumstances thereof, anon. By dint of some commitments, which we had long foreseen, to the many whom we count as close acquaintances, as well as the few whose acquaintance we had lately had the opportunity, not to say, the pleasure, to make, our days had been fully engaged, in several widely separated localities, in activities which were at once pleasant (for the company of the aforementioned acquaintances) and a trifle irksome (for the long drives that unhappily had to be undertaken during the morning and evening rush hours).

We attended lectures conducted by visitors from out of town that were of particular interest to those in the audience who had not previously been exposed to the subject matter. But also to those who had been there and done that, there were gems of information that could be added to their store of knowledge, to be saved for future use.

There were meals in a variety of venues, some rather good. But in the main I can do no better than to affirm that the time spent on all the various activities over the past week can be classified as being worthwhile. Yes, the early wake-ups and late nights had taken a bit of a toll on us, but we now have a relatively uncluttered week in which to recover.

More Views of the City

Telegraph Hill and North Beach

Columbus looks over the Bay

Downtown San Francisco

More downtown and North Beach

Russian Hill skyline

Please click on the images to enlarge

Santorini, Greece

Click on the image to enlarge

Y'know?

I was watching a cable news channel today. This channel is known to be right-leaning, though it portrays itself as being politically neutral, or to use the phrase that recurs in its corporate slogan, as being 'fair and balanced'. It is also notable for its attractive female commentators, many of whom, incidentally, happen to be blondes.

The blonde host (hostess? anchoress?) of the program was interviewing her guest and asking a series of questions. At the start of each question, and sprinkled generously throughout the remainder of her conversation, was a "you know?", which has become so common that most listeners nowadays don't even realize that it is there. It has become almost inaudible, like the 'ums' or 'uhs' people use to buy time between thoughts they are trying to find the right words to express.

Maybe it's just me (maybe it's just I?), but all those 'you knows' make the hairs stand on the base of my skull. It's almost like the shiver you might feel when a fingernail is dragged across a blackboard. (Remember Robert Shaw as Quint in the movie 'Jaws' when he wanted to get the people's attention in the schoolhouse?)

Grecian Summer

Dead Bird

Stiff it lay

outside my door

as if flung there

by the wind.

Stiff its claws,

tail feathers spread

like a badminton shuttle.

Short its life,

made shorter still

by the false sky

reflected

in a picture window.

Workspace

This is a picture of the iMac computer that I use to edit my home videos. It's about four years old, is easy to use, but it could do with a memory upgrade.

This is a picture of my cluttered desk.

Both pictures were taken with a small Sony camcorder on its removable memory stick. The quality is okay, but not quite up to that of a stand-alone digital camera.

Heavy Baby

This optical marvel is not, as you might think at first glance, one of those machines used by your ophthalmologist when you go for an eye exam. It is an old 16mm movie camera, made in Austria by Eumig, and weighing almost as much as a newborn baby.

I bought this some time ago on eBay, and though it is about fifty years old, it still runs like new. It has a prime lens, and two supplementary lenses that are so marvellously engineered that when you rotate one of them to fit over the prime lens, the corresponding viewing lens will also move over the prime viewfinder. It has a built-in light meter, which also appears to be accurate, and a clockwork motor that, though not exactly quiet when in operation, is strong and dependable. No batteries at all. With the exception of the leather trim, the entire machine is made of metal and glass, which is what accounts for its weight.

Handling this baby requires strong arms and dexterous, non-arthritic fingers. For those whose vision might be less than 20-20, the eyepiece of the viewfinder has a very accurate dioptic adjustment.

I have heard that you can still get 16mm film these days, though at an astronomical price.