(no subject)

The weather forecasters seem bent on another heat wave, but, like last week, the high pressure system seems to never materialize. This morning the marine layer blankets the bay; the Mt Hamilton camera confirms the clear skies above the layer. (Overcast 600 ft says the weather service.) It's not burnt off yet.

I've looked through my photos from the trip and find that the ones that involve Christine and i are the ones i like. I wonder what some processing with Photoshop would do. I struggled with the overcast skies blowing out the white end, but stopping down leaves an image of silhouettes. Sometimes it seemed OK to have the flat white sky: it is when the sky had some detail that blowing out the white did seem to create a distracting effect.

I'm still in sour grapes space about failing hard disks, and worried about the life time of this lap top, and wondering what the right purchase is. I feel like i'm suddenly spending money left and right and more expense for hardware discourages me.

I did spend a great deal of time on my GPS data. Ah yes: i was going to come up with a color palette based on the photo colors.

Off to be distracted by Mt Lassen some more....

Postscript: We went to see The September Issue last night and so i was distracted by the NY Times Style section's collection of fashion week photograph. The documentary was both interesting and entertaining, but i am reminded by how schizophrenic "fashion" makes me feel: the aesthetics of the fantasy intrigue me, the issues around standards of "beauty" drive my indignation.

(no subject)

I bought a refurbished Apple Mac Book Pro today, and a terabyte and a half of storage. I'm a bit boggled by it, and it's a burden to Christine for me to continue dithering long after her intervention session where she sat me down and we discussed needs.

My laptop isn't dead yet, so it's hard to say i *need* the laptop, but
a) when it does die it will be a crisis as i still provide my own machine for work
b) the refurb deal was nice and time-limited
c) this way Mandrake can be taken to the Apple Store and left in their hands to repair the possibly wonky USB ports, the definitely wonky trackpad click button, and anything else before the warranty expires (when? soon?)

Much of the storage is simply insurance.

Now i need to pick out another medieval medicinal plant with a nice, rich folklore around it, ideally something with a couple common names. Mandrake was a fun.

Suggestions welcomed!