Category Archives: Friends

MiPhone

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Dave Morris took the plunge and writes an excellent review of  his new iPhone:

“How many phones do you have, and am I too late?” It was 5:55 pm, a full FIVE MINUTES before the doors opened. He gave me this little wink that was simultaneously geeky and cocky… and one of those dorky tongue clicks. The only thing missing was the finger-as-pistol “Shooter McGee” motion. He fished around in his pocket. This was his moment to shine!

“Here ya go.” He handed me a voucher that guaranteed me the right to purchase a phone. A little quiver passed through my body… much the same feeling as when you find out your application for auto financing has been approved.”

“Do you know who I am?”

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The woman smiled, waiting patiently. My mind is frantically processing data, running through thousands of images and names. I bullshit for time…

"Hey, I almost didn’t recognize you! Man, how long has it been?"

But people can always tell.

"You have no idea who I am, do you?"

(Click!)

"Debbie! Debbie Elting!"

Debbie and I attended Southeast Missouri State University in the late 60’s. Worked on college plays together, partied together. Haven’t seen each other in 30 years. Turns out we’ve been going to the same dentist all these years. She drives down to Cape from St. Louis, I drive down from Jefferson City. The staff thought it would be nice to arrange a surprise reunion and scheduled our check-up’s on the same day.

The next time a woman I don’t recognize asks, "Do you know who I am?, I’m going to say –without hesitation– "You’re Jennifer Anniston. What are you doing here?"

New scanner

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Scanner
Dave Winer bought a new scanner recently. He didn’t say much about it… just that it had arrived. My scanner was two or three years old, so –with hardly a thought– I clicked the link (to Amazon) Dave provided and purchased the same scanner.

I had a high level of confidence that Dave knows more about scanners than I do and I couldn’t go wrong following his lead. And I was right.

The CanoScan is fast and produces sharp scans. My favorite feature, however, is the software that enables me to scan four or five photos at once and wind up with individual files. I hate to think of the hours I spent chopping out individual images in Photoshop. And I’m sure I’ll discover many more wonderful features.

I’m sure Canon spends millions in marketing and advertising. But none of those efforts could ever be as effective (for me) as knowing it’s the scanner Dave Winer is using. I have no way of knowing, but I’ll bet he didn’t get a nickel (or a free scanner) from Canon for mentioning their product on his blog. I guess my point has something to do with blogs and trust.

I’ve made a couple of imaging purchases in the last week or two. As I scan more (old) prints and take more digital photos, I need to be sure these images are as good as I can (practically) make them.

Let’s say I took 1,000 photos over the next two years and they weren’t quite as good as they might have been. There’s no way to fix that. I can’t re-take those photos.

At the same time, I’m willing to accept far less than "perfect" images. That’s where Henry works and lives. I make some practical trade-offs.

But the scanning is going much faster now and iPhoto makes it easier to tweak the images and get them on flickr.

The Basement Diaries Redux

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L-R: Richard Peck, Jim Bob Green, John Robison, Charlie Peck (seated), Jane Marshall, Joe Browning (seated), Lynn Strickland

I’m committed to the do-over for The Basement Diaries but I’m quickly discovering it’s going to take a lot longer than I anticipated. I keep discovering pages that had fallen behind the digital chest of drawers. I’m starting with just recreating all of the pages and getting them linked. I don’t want to think about re-scanning hundreds of photos. This is the signature image for The Basement Diaries. Everyone has a snapshot like this, that captured a time and place.

Next summer will be the 40th anniversary of “the basement summer,” so I’ll have to have the site back up before then. Which means even less blog time for smays.com.

Best vet blog

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A good blog is: personal, informative, timely, passionate, focused… and, yes, I do have an example in mind. Following excerpt is from yesterday post on Your Pet’s Best Friend:

“When we welcome a new client to our practice, part of the process is a questionnaire about their pet’s health history and environment. The last question is: “Do you consider your pet to be a member of the family?” and most people answer “Yes”. The human-animal bond is very strong. It’s very common for people to say that the pet is like a child to them. Cat-lovers often say that the cat owns them, rather than the other way around. Certainly many (most?) of us consider our pets as companions, as opposed to property. Thus it would seem that referring to ourselves as the “guardians” of our pets is just a nice way of saying how we really feel. [Trade Secret: the real key question is “Where does your pet sleep?”]”

If you come across what you believe is a better vet blog, send me the link.

Another one bites the Mac

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Learfield pal David Brazeal has looted his son’s college fund to buy himself a new MacBook Pro. He’ll be Mac-dazed for bit, unlearning the thousand things you need to know to make a PC go, but we’ll try to keep up with his progress here.

On the off chance my own Mac experience contributed to David’s high dive into the Mac pool, I’ve added him to the Mac Gallery.

Donkey Basketball

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“This 12 to 10 score is amazingly high when you consider that you have to be mounted to shoot and the donkey is usually moving, so you’re hanging on with one hand and both catching and shooting with the other. That’s not to mention that the gym in the old armory is so loud that you can’t hear yourself think. If you’d like a simulation, stick your head and a boombox (turned up loud) into a 55-gallon drum.  Have two friends beat upon it savagely with baseball bats. To add essence of Donkeyball, add a scoop of horse-manure to the drum. (And they say there’s nothing to do in this town.)”

Read the rest of Dr. Mobley’s hilarious account. Makes a boy homesick.

Henry Domke hanging up his stethoscope

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I have posted frequently about my friend (and personal physician) Henry Domke. I learned this morning (by email and blog post) that he has decided to leave medicine and do art full time.

He cut back his medical practice some years ago to devote more time to his art but this announcement will be a shocker (I suspect) to his patients and the local medical community.

Just as Dodge City wasn’t the same without Doc Adams, Jeff City will miss Old Doc Domke.

Sometimes a Poloroid is better

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Izabella SchereenLike all regulars at the Coffee Zone, I’ve been anticipating the arrival of Izabella Schereen Yanis (6 pounds, 11 ounces), the newest addition to the Yanis Family. We hope and assume Taisir used something other than his Treo to capture the first images.