I’m continuing my series of posts that were originally on Facebook but that I want to preserve. You can see the series here.
Ten years ago, the cat sat on my laptop. She was mostly a good cat and spoiled me for future cats.
I can hear Pete saying that, even though he never spoke it out loud. Well, maybe he did at some point, I don’t know. I can also hear him saying you should wiggle your hands and feet BEFORE they hurt, which is excellent advice for long bike rides, or really anything else when you’ll be in the same position for a long period of time.
It’s been a while, so maybe I’m remembering wrong, but I thought I loved the smell of a roll of film, fresh out of the canister. And in particular, Fuji smelled better than Kodak. This might have been because Fuji had some deal with Ritz when I was working there so their film was cheap. And because it was sort of “our” film, we were very much Fuji fans. It generally had a bit of a cooler look to it than Kodak. And Kodak was the first to start putting awful 800 speed film in disposables without a flash and telling people that was ok for indoor shots (it wasn’t) and then they’d come in with these awful, grainy, underexposed shots and complain to ME that the prints didn’t look good.
Sometimes you could show them the negatives and tell them, “hey, there’s nothing THERE. I can’t print a picture from nothing”. But mostly they were just mad.
Anyway, the roll of Fuji 200 I got this morning didn’t have much of a smell, and I was disappointed. The F5 made a really satisfying noise when it grabbed the leader, though.
I am so pumped right now. Years ago, working at Ritz Camera in college, I dreamed of a Nikon F5. It was Nikon’s top of the line pro camera. It cost more than I could imagine ever affording. Ritz didn’t carry Leica or Hasselblad or any of the super high end cameras so this was the best I could get my head around. It was even worse because we had them in the store, just taunting me. It was so close I could touch it. I DID touch it, but I couldn’t take it home.
The other day one popped up on eBay listed as not working. There are a lot on eBay that are not working – I’ve been following for a while. The most common way they are broken is the battery holder no longer makes a connection. I figured I could take a chance – that’s something a bit of vinegar and a stiff brush can fix. And if I’m wrong and the battery holder is good but the camera isn’t, the battery holders are kinda rare and go for a nice amount themselves. Plus I could take the camera apart and that would be kinda fun (even though there’s next to no chance I’d get it back together again).
So it arrived yesterday and I popped in some batteries and THE CAMERA WORKS. It just works. I think the seller just had no idea what he was doing and didn’t bother finding someone who did.
A Nikon F5 on a light green table flanked by three lenses
Today I bought a roll of film. I’m not getting TOO excited about it because it still may not work properly – I can’t tell if the shutter is actually functioning properly beyond it SOUNDS right. I don’t even know how long it takes to get film processed these days, but I’m going to find out very soon!
The most important lesson for Democrats from Mamdani’s victory is this: abandon the decades-old practice of triangulating to win the center. Instead, grow the base with a positive, joyful vision for what government can do when it gives up on being shackled to a Republican base.
Congratulations to Zohran Mamdani on his win in NYC. The lesson here, which the Democratic party will surely refuse to learn, is that we the people do not want stupid centrist compromises. We want you to paint us a picture of the country we could have if we simply ignore the awful little racists and the fabulously wealthy who pretend to lean left in public.
