Month: February 2005

Categories
Photography

New Camera

The cell phone I’ve had for over four years finally gave up the ghost this week. And since I’ve had it so long, Sprint provided a 150.00 rebate on a new phone, which would be enough to cover the cost of the lowest end model.

But there were so many phones with so many options. All are color now, and full of games, and options such as an FM radio, voice recorders, and of course cameras. Some provide for song download and play, as well as new backdrops. You can even watch television. I kept coming back to one that recorded videos and took relatively decent photographs. But I had a camera, I told myself, I don’t need another. I also don’t need to take video. And if I want to watch TV, I can stay home.

In the end, though, I couldn’t resist getting the lowest cost phone that had a camera. I’ve seen too many people ‘moblog’ and I wanted to give it a try. Zoë was kind enough to pose for my first moblogged photo. The quality isn’t very good, but it was fun to take a photo and send it immediately from my phone and have it appear at Flickr. The possibilities are endless. Imagine the short stories you can weave around a cell phone and a person’s last photos?

I know that this is all old stuff for most of you, but it was a kick for me.

Categories
outdoors

False Spring

I haven’t been able to get out for a walk for the last few days, with cold and rainy weather, and too much work that needs to get done by Friday. I did have a nice walk last Saturday — nothing difficult or complicated, but a nice four mile walk over an easy path with enough hillwork to feel good about myself.

At the end, walking back to my car, I spotted a bit of color in the mud to the side — my first crocus, and here it was only the first week of February. A day later, sleet fell and the ground froze, and false Spring gives way to the reality that winter still exists, and with this comes both anticipation and restlessness. We’ve had a winter of cold and being indoors and now we’re ready to be out and doing. Well, except for those further south, who are just finishing their summer and getting ready to bed down into fall, and their own winter cocooning; but I don’t think it really gets that cold, even in winter, so they get only a ‘tsk’ from me, rather than a ‘poor babies’.

That crocus was rather impressive, as it pushed its small head out of the mud and muck, surrounded by faint sickly green-gold winter grass. You have to admire any living thing that takes a risk now rather than wait and wait and wait until the moment is right; even if it did freeze its petals off and is now a dried brown former husk of itself. Still there is magic in being someone’s first crocus of the year, so even if it did shuffle its way off this mortal coil, I’m sure it’s being appreciated in some flower afterlife. It’s going would be better than being a hot house rose stuffed in with eleven others, all cloned identically through careful genetic manipulation, roots rudely sawed off, trying to drink water laced with chemicals–just so some guy can score points with some girl, or some girl score points with some guy. Chocolates are better, and roses should be imperfect but smell really good.

I think I’ll head out for another walk today, just to see if the little purple crocus made it, and the false Spring gave way to true.

Categories
Weblogging

WordPress 1.5 interview

This is one I missed. Craig from Nuclear Moose–great header graphic, BTW–did an interview with Matt Mullenweg and Ryan Boren about the upcoming candidate release of WordPress 1.5.

It would seem that rel=nofollow has been implemented by default in WP 1.5, so I’ll be posting instructions on how to remove this for those who aren’t interested. But of all the responses I’ve read to this new attribute, I like Ryan’s the best:

Hot stove. Hot stove. Don’t touch.

But then, I also liked what Craig had to say about nofollow. If you haven’t read Craig’s weblog before, I would suggest you spend some time there. He’s a kick-in-the-butt Canadian with a sense of humor, and that’s a goodly combination.