I snapped this during our vacation on Gotland this spring. Except for the crop and a little tweak of the colours I did no edits. Sometimes a little turbulence in the air is a good thing.
a blog about nothing
2010-10-28
Turbulence
I snapped this during our vacation on Gotland this spring. Except for the crop and a little tweak of the colours I did no edits. Sometimes a little turbulence in the air is a good thing.
2010-10-27
Significant figures
I have a problem with the tv show Biggest looser. They calculate the weight loss for the contestants as a percentage based on measurements in whole pounds. So a person that has gone from 310 to 305 pounds has lost 5 pounds => 5/310=1.61%. And then they use this number to eliminate people. It is just plain wrong to get a number with three significant figures from a division that contains a number with only one significant figure. The true answer to the above example should hence be 2%. They really ought to buy a more precise scale and learn some maths.
Shit
Another thing that happens in the woods bother me. It also involves stupid people like in my previous rant where someone destroyed my lens hood that I dropped, found and then left hanging on a tree in the same forest that inspired this little rant.
It is shit. Dog shit to be more precise. Having had dogs all the time growing up I am fairly familiar with the subject, but I find that I am a little bit undecided. I mean, if a dog shits on the streets you pick it up - no problem there. But if a dog shits on a path in the forest I do not really know. To just leave it for someone to step in is not acceptable. I think it is quite all-right to just push it out of the way with a stick so that no one would have to step in it, it will be gone pretty soon so no real harm is done. To pick it up with a plastic bag and throw it in the trash is also an option, but I must say that due to the extremely low density of dog poo trash cans out there in the woods I would be a bit hesitant to do that.
But there is a fourth option - to pick it up with a plastic bag and then throw the bag a few feet away from the path. It is just so fucking stupid. I mean I get annoyed of all littering, I have been so darn close to confront people that I see throw their crap on the streets like if it were their own personal trash can, my blood has boiled and I have wanted to just cut their fucking heads off with some choice words (I have only been held back by the fact that I live where I live and hence would most likely have been stabbed or the like by the perpetrator...), but to put something bio-degradable into a plastic bag and then throw it where everyone will see it for years to come is so darn stupid that I [now I am so worked up that I am hyperventilating, maybe this sentence ought to end soon so that I wont pass out] that I can not even begin to describe it.
It is shit. Dog shit to be more precise. Having had dogs all the time growing up I am fairly familiar with the subject, but I find that I am a little bit undecided. I mean, if a dog shits on the streets you pick it up - no problem there. But if a dog shits on a path in the forest I do not really know. To just leave it for someone to step in is not acceptable. I think it is quite all-right to just push it out of the way with a stick so that no one would have to step in it, it will be gone pretty soon so no real harm is done. To pick it up with a plastic bag and throw it in the trash is also an option, but I must say that due to the extremely low density of dog poo trash cans out there in the woods I would be a bit hesitant to do that.
But there is a fourth option - to pick it up with a plastic bag and then throw the bag a few feet away from the path. It is just so fucking stupid. I mean I get annoyed of all littering, I have been so darn close to confront people that I see throw their crap on the streets like if it were their own personal trash can, my blood has boiled and I have wanted to just cut their fucking heads off with some choice words (I have only been held back by the fact that I live where I live and hence would most likely have been stabbed or the like by the perpetrator...), but to put something bio-degradable into a plastic bag and then throw it where everyone will see it for years to come is so darn stupid that I [now I am so worked up that I am hyperventilating, maybe this sentence ought to end soon so that I wont pass out] that I can not even begin to describe it.
2010-10-19
Sheos
Attended a training camp this weekend. It was great fun, hard work and a cheep way to up-grade my shoes. I was one of the last people leaving and I could not find my own shoes anywhere. Instead there was a pair very similar to mine: same brand, almost the same model, half a size larger, and a lot less worn. I could see no other option than to adopt them and treat them like if they were my own.
2010-10-05
Being the fool
This Friday when I was picking the last of the mushrooms in the forest closest to me I found a lens hood. I was a bit amazed that it was very similar to one of mine. I thought it over and concluded that yes - it was similar, but it was definitely not mine. So I hung it on a tree next to the path close to where I found it and felt good about it, maybe the owner would find it and feel good about not having to spend a ridiculous amount of money for a little piece of plastic that is not a crucial part of the lens but still something that you want to have so that you can use it to its full extent.
I thought nothing of it during the weekend (during which I saw two elks) but come Monday my mind started to nag at me. I took a look around and of course I could not locate the lens hood that looked very much like the one I found in the woods. Fuck I thought, I am so stupid. Of course it was mine, the one I found. Of course, I mean, who else would walk around at that particular spot, with a lens similar to mine?
I quickly got mine and Tages stuff together and rushed out of the apartment. During the quick trot I calculated (maybe estimated would be a better word for what I did) the odds of what would happen next; At first I thought that there would be a 50% chance that it would be where I left it, a 20% chance that it would be on the ground close-by but still intact, a 10% chance that it would be close-by but broken, and the rest that it would be gone forever.
The closer I came the chances of me finding it intact grew smaller and smaller. When I saw the tree and that it was not there I was not very surprised. I later found it some fifty meters away in the mud, broken into four pieces. I am quite amazed of how the mind works for some people. Why would you, if you find a thing in the woods, a thing that someone clearly has found already and put up in a place where the original owner would be able to find it, a thing that is clearly not crap, pick that thing up and destroy it? What do you gain from that? On the other hand, I can not really say that my own brain worked particularly well during this episode either.
I thought nothing of it during the weekend (during which I saw two elks) but come Monday my mind started to nag at me. I took a look around and of course I could not locate the lens hood that looked very much like the one I found in the woods. Fuck I thought, I am so stupid. Of course it was mine, the one I found. Of course, I mean, who else would walk around at that particular spot, with a lens similar to mine?
I quickly got mine and Tages stuff together and rushed out of the apartment. During the quick trot I calculated (maybe estimated would be a better word for what I did) the odds of what would happen next; At first I thought that there would be a 50% chance that it would be where I left it, a 20% chance that it would be on the ground close-by but still intact, a 10% chance that it would be close-by but broken, and the rest that it would be gone forever.
The closer I came the chances of me finding it intact grew smaller and smaller. When I saw the tree and that it was not there I was not very surprised. I later found it some fifty meters away in the mud, broken into four pieces. I am quite amazed of how the mind works for some people. Why would you, if you find a thing in the woods, a thing that someone clearly has found already and put up in a place where the original owner would be able to find it, a thing that is clearly not crap, pick that thing up and destroy it? What do you gain from that? On the other hand, I can not really say that my own brain worked particularly well during this episode either.
2010-09-29
Who the fuck?
Who was the bastard that designed the standard that controls how stuff you put into the usb port works? I mean, why in hell must it take an infinity of time for a memory stick/sd-card reader or whatever to be disconnected from the fucking computer? If I tell it to eject it should fucking disconnect immediately. I have no patience for that crap. (I am a little annoyed since this mornings failed attempt to get the ethernet card in one of my computers to work (the non working ethernet card is the reason for the non existence of photos on this here blog recently)).
2010-09-19
Aaaah
We are, just for fun, listening to all our records - in the order in which they stand in the shelf.
Up until today the low point was the Chopin record that was a combination of music and letters (read in French) to and from the composer. Who bought that we really do not know (but since K has a great memory and mine is more the shape of a Swiss cheese I suppose it was me at some confused point in my life).
Today we came to Mazarin by Per Gessle. I can not even begin to describe how much I loath it. My god, I want to puncture my eardrums with a spoon. We and our stupid projects.
Up until today the low point was the Chopin record that was a combination of music and letters (read in French) to and from the composer. Who bought that we really do not know (but since K has a great memory and mine is more the shape of a Swiss cheese I suppose it was me at some confused point in my life).
Today we came to Mazarin by Per Gessle. I can not even begin to describe how much I loath it. My god, I want to puncture my eardrums with a spoon. We and our stupid projects.
2010-09-15
Project
I decided during my stay at my parents house this summer that it would be a nice little project to scan all their old photos (or most of them anyway). Mostly it was so that I could get some photos of me when I was Tage's age for comparison, but why not do them all I thought. So I told my dad to bring them to me and now I have 25 cartridges with 40 slides each ( = 1000 slides) to process in my bookshelf. Scanning takes about a minute each so that could be done within 16.7 hours (if I really streamlined the operation) but that does not take into account the time it takes to remove dust, change frames on some of them etc etc etc. Then there is the post-production, cropping, making changes to the exposure, digitally remove some dust etc etc. But that is all fine, it is just manual labour and yes, it takes time and is kind of repetitive but I sort of like that.
What I do have a problem with however is sorting. I am kind of meticulous when it comes to my photos. I have them nicely sorted in the order in which they were shot. I like the time-line, that they form a record of events. It probably has to do with my poor memory. To have your photos sorted like that is of course not ideal. For one thing, it makes it impossible to put them into an album (if you don't put all of them in there), and you can't sort all your photos of your dog in one place (cause then you disturb the time-line), and you can't really show your photos to someone (because then you must show all of them)... (all of this applies to the analog photos of course, the digital ones is far easier to handle (I highly recommend using a photo managing/editing software like Lightroom, Aperture, blueMarine or picasa to keep your photos organized)). But as you might have guessed, the gene that makes you inclined to keep anal order among your photos must have skipped a generation. Photos of the X-mas 1981 pops up in numerous cartridges. Winter is mixed with summer, spring and autumn. A young version of my mother pops up in the middle of a moose hunt in 1985. Dogs that did not exist at the same time seems to be playing together. These cartridges must be my fathers version of Monica's closet. I feel that I must bring order to this chaos but I do not know how.
What I do have a problem with however is sorting. I am kind of meticulous when it comes to my photos. I have them nicely sorted in the order in which they were shot. I like the time-line, that they form a record of events. It probably has to do with my poor memory. To have your photos sorted like that is of course not ideal. For one thing, it makes it impossible to put them into an album (if you don't put all of them in there), and you can't sort all your photos of your dog in one place (cause then you disturb the time-line), and you can't really show your photos to someone (because then you must show all of them)... (all of this applies to the analog photos of course, the digital ones is far easier to handle (I highly recommend using a photo managing/editing software like Lightroom, Aperture, blueMarine or picasa to keep your photos organized)). But as you might have guessed, the gene that makes you inclined to keep anal order among your photos must have skipped a generation. Photos of the X-mas 1981 pops up in numerous cartridges. Winter is mixed with summer, spring and autumn. A young version of my mother pops up in the middle of a moose hunt in 1985. Dogs that did not exist at the same time seems to be playing together. These cartridges must be my fathers version of Monica's closet. I feel that I must bring order to this chaos but I do not know how.
2010-09-09
Schroms
This week me and Tage have spent more than an hour each day in the forest looking for mushrooms. Except for today we have gone to the smallish forest a couple of hundred meters from here. This one: (We live in the house under 'Earth')
View Larger Map
Since the forest is so close to the town, in fact it is in the town, it is a very popular recreational area. A lot of people move around there and even if not everyone looks for mushrooms I always see people who do just that, but even so, I have had no problem at all finding around 4 litres every day (Chanterelle, Funnel Chanterelle and Trumpet of death (cool name!) mostly). Today I thought I would change it up a bit and take a bike trip a bit further away, to go where not so many other people have gone before. Compared to just getting the stroller and going into the woods it was quite a bit harder. I am not very used to biking around with a little kid on the back of the bike, and getting on and off is a bit tricky... I also had to carry him almost everywhere we went. So, lets have a quick quiz: how much do you think I found today?
View Larger Map
Since the forest is so close to the town, in fact it is in the town, it is a very popular recreational area. A lot of people move around there and even if not everyone looks for mushrooms I always see people who do just that, but even so, I have had no problem at all finding around 4 litres every day (Chanterelle, Funnel Chanterelle and Trumpet of death (cool name!) mostly). Today I thought I would change it up a bit and take a bike trip a bit further away, to go where not so many other people have gone before. Compared to just getting the stroller and going into the woods it was quite a bit harder. I am not very used to biking around with a little kid on the back of the bike, and getting on and off is a bit tricky... I also had to carry him almost everywhere we went. So, lets have a quick quiz: how much do you think I found today?
2010-09-06
In April
Some time in April or thereabout I borrowed two books at the local library on the art of using flashes whilst photographing. It was an active choice, I went to the library just for that cause. I have a good flash and I do not know really how to use it to get good results, instead I fool around and use the trial and error method (which works to some degree but - really, come on...). So I have actually meant to read, no, to really study these books.
Since then I have re-borrowed them three times, two of the times after the loan already had gone over the limit (so now I own the library some money), even if the library has sent me a mail a couple of days before saying that 'hey, its time to return/re-borrow the books'.
One of the books I have used as a lap-top stand when I have the computer in the bed. The other I actually opened and read several pages in, up to the section of the omni-bounce. It stated that - 'you really got to have an omni-box'. I do not have an omni-box. And yes I could buy one (and I will, once I am in a town that has a decent camera store), but since I do not have one I felt a little like a looser, I mean come on, I did not even realize when I bought the flash that I of course should have bought an omni-box too. Anyhow, after I had read the section of the 'must have' omni-box I kind of lost interest in the books (no, not really lost interest, I have felt stupid, lazy and like a looser every time I have seen them) and they have just been laying around here since. Until yesterday when I returned them to the library after I had received an email from them saying 'please return the books now you dickwad, we both know it, you will never read them so why not let someone else get a chance? come on now, what do you say?'. This was several days ago, so now I own them even more money. Some times I mess these little things up for no bloody reason what so ever and let me tell you, It really sucks to do that.
Since then I have re-borrowed them three times, two of the times after the loan already had gone over the limit (so now I own the library some money), even if the library has sent me a mail a couple of days before saying that 'hey, its time to return/re-borrow the books'.
One of the books I have used as a lap-top stand when I have the computer in the bed. The other I actually opened and read several pages in, up to the section of the omni-bounce. It stated that - 'you really got to have an omni-box'. I do not have an omni-box. And yes I could buy one (and I will, once I am in a town that has a decent camera store), but since I do not have one I felt a little like a looser, I mean come on, I did not even realize when I bought the flash that I of course should have bought an omni-box too. Anyhow, after I had read the section of the 'must have' omni-box I kind of lost interest in the books (no, not really lost interest, I have felt stupid, lazy and like a looser every time I have seen them) and they have just been laying around here since. Until yesterday when I returned them to the library after I had received an email from them saying 'please return the books now you dickwad, we both know it, you will never read them so why not let someone else get a chance? come on now, what do you say?'. This was several days ago, so now I own them even more money. Some times I mess these little things up for no bloody reason what so ever and let me tell you, It really sucks to do that.
2010-08-25
Soup #46
#46 Rural bean and vegetable soup. A rather nice soup with a couple of different types of beans (should have been kidney beans, pinto beans and black eyed peas but I could not find pinto beans in any of the multitude of stores that I went to yesterday so I skipped them and increased the amount of kidney beans instead), some mushrooms (should have been dried porchino and button mushrooms, but I thought I would swap the dried porchino for fresh ones from the forest, so I took Tage on a stroll today and could of course not find any of the ones that I had seen on our last jogg. But I did find plenty of chanterells so I used them instead. At the same time I learned what Tage hates more than accompanying me on photography strolls...) The soup also contained some chopped shallots and some mini pasta. So, friend of order asks, where the heck did the vegetables go? I have no idea. Anyhow - I liked it.
(By the way, do not worry, I have not forgotten soups #39 to #45. You will hear about them soon, I promise.)
(By the way, do not worry, I have not forgotten soups #39 to #45. You will hear about them soon, I promise.)
2010-07-12
Naah
Den som är det mindsta intresserad av fotboll skulle säkert tycka det var roligt att nått av lagen i den högre ligan spelar mot mallorca på arenan tvärs över gatan. För mig är det bara ett störande moment när jag försöker kolla på simpsons... Min behållning av matchen som gick på tv igår var den rätt så snygga sparken som nån i det orangea laget fick in i bröstet på en i det svarta laget, råkade zappa förbi precis när dom visade reprisen. I min värld så var det helt klart en poänggivande spark (iof så använder vi inte dojor med dobbar på i dojon).
2010-07-10
Blog ideas
People and their cars
'Tack för att du gör mig hel' lappen jag hittade på gatan
Soups (5 of them)
Original people
My obsession with lists and order
Sandboxes, and my obsession with order in said boxes
Why do I only have the energy to search out the lowest price on some specific items and not all. And why is it that I can go to extremes to buy those items at the cheapest place and just ignore the other items?
Photos, cameras, camera gear, money, phones, stuff...
Yea, as you can see, I have a lot of ideas, but the creative side of me is in a state of rest at the moment. But one day I will bounce back and once again be a source of your daily procrastination routine...
'Tack för att du gör mig hel' lappen jag hittade på gatan
Soups (5 of them)
Original people
My obsession with lists and order
Sandboxes, and my obsession with order in said boxes
Why do I only have the energy to search out the lowest price on some specific items and not all. And why is it that I can go to extremes to buy those items at the cheapest place and just ignore the other items?
Photos, cameras, camera gear, money, phones, stuff...
Yea, as you can see, I have a lot of ideas, but the creative side of me is in a state of rest at the moment. But one day I will bounce back and once again be a source of your daily procrastination routine...
2010-07-01
Some things really get me going
Most of the time I think that I do not react especially hard on things. But some things really get me going. Pan flute Indians are one of those things. I just can not stand them. In this town they occupy the same place on the main street every summer and today was the first time that I encountered them this year. I was walking along and just caught a tone floating in the air and my brain directly came to attention. A few steps later I was certain and I stooped dead right there. I caught a glimpse of a feather and turned the stroller around and went in a circular motion around them with a couple of blocks in between. It is just what I need, another reason to not walk down to the centre of the town. (Ok, this was not one of my best rants ever, but it is the best I can produce under these conditions..)
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