Who Needs Instagram!

I can just post pictures here.

This is a photo from last Thursday evening. It was a makeshift screening of two short films. The first was written and directed by the young woman standing.

It’s rare you get to see someone enjoy one of their best moments. She had filmed this thing last October following all the Covid safety protocols. It had been screened in the spring via Zoom.

But this night was the first time she’d been able to see it with a group of people and watch them experience it for the first time. Most of us didn’t even know what we were about to see because it was a late addition to the lineup.

She was so happy to watch people react in all the right ways at all the right times and you could tell this was going to be a treasured memory for her.

Dragon Con 2021 Wrap-Up

It happened! It was different! It was fun! And the weather was unusually mild.

Wakanda forever!

I’ve been attending Atlanta’s own Dragon Con on and off since the mid ‘90s. Since she was twelve, my daughter has accompanied me and we had a blast. Last year we had tickets, but because of a worldwide pandemic, it was all virtual.

The con was gracious enough to allow us to use the tickets this year if we chose to attend. To attend in person you had to have a vaccine card or proof of recent negative test and wear a mask indoors. If you were unable to attend they also had the virtual stuff again.

I decided to risk it and was happy to see the masks being well embraced. This being a con where many people dress up, some even made the masks part of their costumes.

Alas, my daughter is off at college so I had to forfeit her ticket. It’s fine. I sent her many photos and bought her some things she’ll enjoy. I was okay with her not being there until the Georgia Philharmonic concert on Saturday evening.

Yes, the Georgia Philharmonic performs at Dragon Con every year! They are an amazing volunteer orchestra who seem to thrive on performing a varied selection of television and movie themes for us and it’s always a hit.

I was all good until about halfway through their performance of the Jurassic Park theme. In the latter half of that piece there is a wistful piano solo which my daughter often performed at home while practicing.

I began to experience emotions.

This piece was immediately followed by John Powell’s magnificent How to Train Your Dragon theme, another of my daughter’s favorites.

Reader, I may have teared up a bit. But it wasn’t all from sadness! It was also pride. Yes I was missing her but I was joyful that we’d gotten to share these concerts before, that she had enjoyed playing this music and was now majoring in music at a fine university! Oh the feels did happen.

Linda and Bob Belcher and their great masks.

Anyway, here’s hoping you enjoyed your Labor Day weekend as well.

Can We Just Get Testing Certified?

Every time there’s a standardized test we have to all sit through a long bullet pointy droning overview of all the rules and regulations. It is not fun for anyone, teachers or administrators alike. And the worst part is that, except for a few minor details, most of these tests and rules are the same. But to cover our butts, we have to do it every. single. time.

So here’s my idea: We all go through one District Approved, one hour, detailed and painful testing meeting. We sign our life away and in return receive a Testing Certificate. We swear to read all instructions exactly as written and adhere to all security measures, yadda yadda. Then for each specific test, we only need to see a short thing on what is different for this particular test. Like, “only blue scratch paper on Tuesday and chopsticks can only be used after the slime mold portion.”

If we make minor mistakes, then after the third strike we’d have to go back for re-training. And that might be a good incentive for teachers to double check things so they don’t have to endure the 1998-style reading the bullet point presentation! “I need to make sure I lock that door and secure that testing bin so I don’t have to do that training nonsense again!”

What do you think? Should I float this idea up the chain of testing command? Or are there laws regarding testing I’m not thinking of? Or have you fallen asleep at the mention of standardized testing and just need someone to remind to to wipe the drool off your chin? Thanks!

When Everything Changed

Apparently I can’t read or talk

I saw an interesting request on NPR’s website about photos taken just before and after the pandemic hit. I submitted some photos.

Later, I received this in an email: “Your response was a clear standout among the thousands of submissions we received for our “Normal” 2020 + Pandemic Photo callout.”

Yesterday I was interviewed. I’m pretty sure they won’t use it or will only use highly edited bits because, as the title mentioned, apparently I can’t read or talk like a normal human.

I was asked to read the captions I had written. I had written them! But I listened to the recording and it sounds like I’m translating it from a foreign language in my head while squinting at a blurry text. Then I was asked to relay what I saw in the photos again in my own words “in a pithy way.” I was most definitely not pity!

“I’m sorry,” I told the nice interviewer, “that was not pithy.” He said, “That’s okay, we have editors.” I imagined an overworked editor with headphones shaking his head and muttering.

Ah, well. It should be an interesting piece when in comes out next week, despite my babbling contribution.

Here are the photos I sent and the captions I wrote:

It’s a not great photo of my daughter playing cello in her high school orchestra on 3/9. I was distracted because my wife didn’t attend. She accompanied my father to the emergency room. He died on the 11th of what we now expect was COVID.

My daughter introducing our dog to her high school zoom class back when that seemed like a novel thing. Our district had already been turning inclement weather days into “digital learning days” so our transition during lockdown was a bit smoother than some, but it’s been hard for us as educators and for students like my daughter who is graduating soon after more than a year of school from the house.

I do t have the original caption for this one. But this was from early June. We were sending our exchange student home to Spain. We were worried about him traveling but at that time the pandemic was about equally bad here and in Spain. he made it home safely and we remain in touch.

My photography continues

Not dead, just switched things up a bit. To make myself really learn about my camera and just to take more pictures in general I’ve changed my Instagram. Now I post a photo a day over there. I try to take photos every day but I’m not going to stress myself out on that one. I will just try to get out more and take more photos when I can and post the best ones on Insta. When I can’t I’ll dig back and use an earlier photo. To make it more about the whole photo and not just a square, I’m using an app called Whitagram to give it wide, white framing in the posts.

Sometimes I label them, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I throw in a hashtag, usually I don’t. It’s really just for me. I want to see what I can get out of doing this for a year, then looking back and pulling out the best of those. If I like enough of them I’ll probably make my own photobooks. Might make for an interesting project. We shall see.

In the meantime, follow me on Instagram @library_jim if you care to. Comments, even critical ones are appreciated as I fumble my way through learning the basics of photography.

This of course means less silly photos of things like my dogs. Maybe I’ll post that kind of stuff up in the stories.

I’ve also deleted the Twitter app off my phone and unfollowed a bunch of accounts. I still check it but I was kind of doing it constantly and I didn’t like that. I can still check Twitter occasionally on my iPad or a laptop but the barriers those entail mean I won’t have it in front of my eyeballs unless I consciously choose to, as opposed to mindlessly scrolling.

In other news, my daughter was accepted to 7 of the 8 schools she applied to! She narrowed it down to two very different ones for a time then finally knew the best fit for her which will be Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX. It’s where My Lovely Bride went but I don’t think that influenced her decision. It’s just the right size and type of school for her. So that’s something we’re all excited and nervous about and looking forward to. It’s so nice to have something to look forward to again!

How about you? What hobbies are you pursuing? Has the pandemic changed that in any way? How is your social media/newsgathering diet? Any restrictions you give yourself? Let me know in the comments!

When I got it back

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They both got groomed the next day, sorry. 30 September

I got the camera back on the last day of September, after having to send it off to Nikon’s NY repair place. I don’t know what was wrong with it. Some firmware thing. Whatever. It came back and right in time too because we had a fall break coming up and I was looking forward to finally using the camera for one of its intended purposes: senior portraits.

Small, colorful friend

My camera (just over two months old at this point) had to go into the shop, so I re-discovered the one most of us carry around in our pockets. They are actually quite useful, and especially great for capturing these small, delightful moments in life.

Guys Who Read list for 2021

Here is the final book list for our Guys Who Read book club for 2021:

January: The Stranger by Camus

February: Rome’s Last Citizen by Goodman & Soni

March: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Richardson

April: The Tradition by Brown

May: The Killer Angels by Shaara

June: Orange World and other stories by Russell

July: Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Knisley

August: How Long ’til Black Future Month by Jemisin

September: The Birth of Loud by Port

October: Wow, no thank you. by Irby

November: The Black God’s Dreams by Clark

December: Daytripper by Moon

The complete list is linked in the About section at the bottom of the blog. We met last evening to pick books for the upcoming year and to discuss Martha Wells’ delightful Murderbot Diaries which we all enjoyed immensely. If a movie or series is ever made they thought a good director would be James Cameron or Ridley Scott but they are wrong. Clearly Katheryn Bigelow or Bryce Dallas Howard would be better choices if you’ve seen they’re directing work. Zero Dark Thirty? The Hurt Locker? The Mandalorian? Yeah, buddy! But it’s a good list and I look forward to reading and discussing with the Guys in whatever format those discussions take.

Bad things about meeting via video conferencing: Tech issues and glitches. (And odd angles. There is a Guy who points his phone up his nostrils?) No good side conversations. No fun joking with the waiter. Being on a video call after doing it more than you’d like for work. Missing the Guys who don’t participate. Annoying Zoom backgrounds.

Good tings about meeting via video conferencing: I can hear everyone speak! (I have hearing issues and often miss comments from the far end of the table.) Guys out of town can still join! It’s easier to invite guests! (The German-American woman who joined us for the discussion of Krug’s Belonging was an amazing experience.) Fun Zoom backgrounds.

Have you read any of the books on the list? Are you planning to? Read along with us and let me know what you think about any of them. I’m hoping we can convince Jericho Brown to join us in April. (We’ve actually had authors join us on at least four occasions, which is cool. (Those are noted on the list in the link.)

Learning to be digital

8 September 2020

There were so many “hangouts” and “zooms” and “meets” and such at the beginning of the school year that I tried all kinds of different setups and cameras and mics and screens, it was just crazy. I also re-arranged my office so the background of all these video conferences were uncluttered and boring. But to the right of my desk? Never look there…