More pointless filters

Ah, digital photography. How else would I be able to take a run-of-the-mill photograph and make it look as though it was taken with a cheap Soviet camera?

Maybe by using a cheap Soviet camera? Although I guess that they're made in China these days, aren't they.

Ok, to be honest the main reason this particular shot got run through the fake-lomo grinder is that I didn't like the way the spider web was hidden in the normal colour view. That led to playing with sepia and black and white, which didn't quite do it for me. That in turn led to excursions in saturation and other exciting effects which just made things worse, and that, eventually, led to the Lomo filter. And there it stayed, because by then things were getting silly.

For anyone who hasn't been a long-time devotee of the blather (and no, I don't honestly believe that the blather has devotees. I sniggered as I typed that), when I start to get bored with my photographs for whatever reason -- whether it's just that they're bad or boring or too many on the same subject or THINGS ARE STARTING TO LOOK TOO MUCH LIKE FALL sigh -- I start to play. I don't play with any aim in mind. I'm not looking for artistry or trying to make you see things differently (ok, maybe occasionally trying to make you see things differently); I'm just trying not to be bored.

Short attention span here, remember?

Ah well, be that as it may. I got too busy with a few other things this morning to think of a real blather, so this'll have to do. For anyone with a spare half hour on their hands (or brain, if your hands are the ones busy with other things) who wants to know one of the other things I was doing, I was revisiting this video (part two here; part three here). Nearly ten years old now, but still worth a watch. Especially when you consider that he would have no idea he'd be spending eight years as a cranky American doctor.

Ah, television. We could have intelligent and funny stuff like the links above, or we could have Real Housewives and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo (did I get that one right? Is there really a show called Here Comes Honey Boo Boo?). And we chose...?

Sigh.





I've been sighing a lot lately, it seems.

Probably means that there's a fair bit to sigh about.

Chapter 1631: Wherein Dee is mildly depressed

Only mildly, mind. It's just that it occurred to me as I was editing the photos I took in Dad's yard yesterday that they could best be classed as FALL photos.

Sigh. It's too soon.

You'll be seeing those shots in the coming days, but I can't face it yet. So... you're going to have to put up with a pointless photo of my rings instead, which I adulterated with filters to the point where it now looks like a particularly bad instagram shot.

Ah well. Ignore that. And ignore the guest appearance by my bare foot in the background as well.





You can't now, can you?

I got bored the other day when I was in bed trying to get past that cold (feeling much better now, thanks), so I had a bit of a five-year-old moment and decided to play dress-up with my motley assortment of accumulated rings. Why? I did say I was bored, right? Anyway, I occasionally refer to these things in blog posts when I wear them to work, so I figured that if anyone wanted a mental reference (and if so, why?) I'd post a picture to give the idea. Oh, and to avoid more bad at-work shots from the 3DS. You're welcome.

Aaaaanyway. Again. Here's the rundown of what you're seeing on my extremely unphotogenic hand:

Index: the infamous 80s silver cat ring, and the nail I mentioned the other day. See? I wasn't kidding about the nail.

Middle: My high school ring (the "stone"? Mother of pearl. I refused to pay money for a simulated birthstone when my birthstone isn't expensive in the first place), a signet ring that my parents gave me on my 16th birthday (the engraving is almost totally faded out now), my university ring (Green and gold, Quacumque vera... um, sorry. I was in the Mixed Chorus. I'm one of the comparative handful these days who knows the Cheer Song), my grandma's topaz (lots of November birthdays in my family), and a Black Hills Gold ring of the same grandma's that I imagine my uncle bought for her.

Ring (finger, that is): a pearl ring of my mother's (the pearl's so worn, though, that it'd have to be replaced if I ever wanted to wear it), two gold bands from my grandma (I'm pretty sure that one of them is her wedding ring, but I couldn't tell you which), my grandma's blue topaz (all the same grandma, yes. She had a few rings), and my mother's aquamarine that I've posted about before. I've been wearing it a fair bit. I kind of like it.

Pinkie: a tiny tiger's eye ring (I've had it since I was a kid. My brother had one too, if I remember right. I occasionally wear it on a chain these days), another Black Hills Gold ring (yes, same grandma), and, mostly hidden, the plain silver ring that I generally wear every day.

Isn't this exciting, boys and girls?

Of the rings, I'd say that maybe a third get worn on a regular or semi-regular basis, another... oh, maybe three get put on occasionally, and a couple come out on weird mood days. The rest? Drawer fodder.

Or blog fodder, I guess. I'll try to come up with something better tomorrow. Accompanied by a sigh fall photo, probably...

What do you have on your finger today, Dee?

A nail.

No, not a fingernail... although I'll admit that I have that too. I meant a nail, as in goes with hammer. A squared-off handmade nail that's been formed into a ring by a blacksmith. It came from one of those recreationist historical village places. Can't remember which one now. I've had the thing since I was a kid.

Why am I wearing it today?

No idea. Seemed like a good idea at the time, I suppose.

If you can't already tell by the return of the random jewellery nonsense, I've got nothing today. I even tried to have something, but I can always tell when it's going to be too forced to be bothered with.

Sooo... I won't bother.

We'll try this again tomorrow. Or the next day, since my tomorrow might be a little busy.

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Edited to add that I just read on our Twitter feed (what? We follow lots of news via Twitter here at work. It's part of my job to have Twitter up and running) that Neil Armstrong has died. Wow. That's going to be a sad thing to a lot of people. And the fact that he was 82 makes me feel kind of weird. The Apollo program really was a long time ago.

Shouldn't we have been living on the moon by now? Or at least have scientists working there?

Sigh.

Can you hear the hamster wheel turning?

Before I start this particular, two things. One, I was a little snippy yesterday, wasn't I? Ah well. Two, I'm currently remembering why I don't wear bracelets to work. Being left-handed, I tend to wear bracelets (on the extremely rare days when I wear bracelets at all) on my left wrist because my watch is generally on the right. That makes mouse pads murder on watch straps, but I can live with that. Wearing a bracelet on my left wrist, though, means that it is constantly dragging against everything. It's extremely annoying.

And I nearly got a snake caught in it just now. Long story, but just remember that my workplace is weird.

Anyway. Speaking of my weird workplace, this post has officially been delayed for an hour now since I started typing. Work stuff -- and pleasant enough work stuff -- but it sort of takes the steam out of my rant. Let me just say, then, that I think that my ancient cell phone (or at least its battery) is finally on its way out. Went to plug it in last night and got an "invalid battery" warning (sort of makes you think that the battery's in hospital, that). Unplugging it and then plugging it in again got the charger working, but when I turned the phone on this morning it said invalid battery again. It was fine when I shut it off and tried again, but you have to know that this doesn't bode well. New phone time.

The problem? The reason I have such and old phone (besides the fact that it's worked well for a lot of years) is that I let my cell provider's contract run out a few years ago. I'm still with the same company; just no contract. It's been nice. Now, though, I need to make the should I stay or should I go? decision. Changing providers could probably get me a better deal, especially as a newcomer. On the other hand, starting a new contract with my current provider would give me a new phone and save me whatever hassle comes with trying to move my number to a new company. Is it a hassle, these days? Anyone out there know? I know there were problems with that at first, but maybe things have smoothed out a bit?

I guess I'll find out soon enough, one way or the other. The battery did take on a full charge once it decided it could charge, so I know I've got a few days on this. Guess I better start shopping...

NO, I DO NOT FEEL BETTER

Just saying.

Ok, so maybe I'm a little ticked off at the moment because I took a few days off from the world to try to get this cold to move along a little faster, and it most patently hasn't worked.

That's not fair, is it? Rest, fluids... my butt. Colds just last as long as they're going to last, and I don't think that it matters a single bit what you try to do about them.

And yes, I'm sounding like a five-year-old. I don't care. I've given up on trying to coddle my cold, and I'm giving up on the non-whinge policy about it as well.

Um, anyway.

I should probably explain that along with the whole cold thing I'm also in the middle of putting together our quarterly newsletter here at work (well, of course for work. I certainly wouldn't do it as a hobby), and it always puts me a bit on edge. Hard to get submissions in; hard to motivate myself to do the editing. Every quarter, yes.

I guess what I'm saying is that you should probably be expecting this to turn into the pointless complaining blog rather than the pointless blather blog for at least a couple of days.

Hey, at least I'm warning you, right?

Personally, I think that was very kind of me.



*cough*

Pointless photo and very few words of the day:

Yeah, still not feeling great. Or talkative, I guess.

Still, the pumpkin flowers are nice, don't you think?

Pointless photo and lack of whinge of the day:

It's a crab spider with its prey.

And I haven't whinged yet, you'll notice.

I do want to explain the lack of words you're probably going to be seeing here for the next little while, though. Without whinging.

Is it fair, do you think, to be away from work for the better part of a week, and then -- just as you're ready to get back in the swing of things -- to come down with a cold?

That wasn't a whinge.

It was a question.

Yeah, feeling kind of cruddy at the moment, so don't be surprised if all you get on the blog for a day or several are pictures. All the pointless with none of the blather? Actually sounds kind of good to me.

Let's give it a try, then.



AND THIS WAS NOT A WHINGE.