New filters for iMovie
I’ve played with filters over the years but gather they’ve become far more popular in a social media world.
Wildlife: From the kitchen window
Barb took this shot from the kitchen window. Seems like all of the critters are coming closer to the house these days. Hattie and Riley go nuts until Barb lets them out. The deer bound away but not in a panic. We think they know where the “invisible fence” line is and the dogs don’t go beyond.
Day-tight Compartment
Journalist and novelist Molly Jong-Fast calls herself “a pandemic-shutdown champion.”
I sit in my apartment day after day, week after week, focused on getting through the next few hours and not allowing myself to worry too much about, or even think too much about, the future. For this superpower, I have to thank Alcoholics Anonymous.
An older fellow in one of her AA meetings used to say he lived “in a day-tight compartment.” He only concerned himself with the activities in the current 24 hours. Back in March the author had to quarantine for two weeks but didn’t think of it as two weeks:
I thought of it as one day and then another day and another. The two weeks passed, but the pandemic did not. So I continued to live “in a day-tight compartment.” I still do. Every night at 8 p.m., I attend my Zoom AA meeting. Every morning, I think, Today I won’t drink and Today I’ll stay home and not contract the coronavirus.
Ms. Jong-Fast says she’s as obsessed with getting back to normal as everyone else is…
“…but I try not to worry about when that will be possible. I’ll lose it if I think in terms of hanging on until there’s a vaccine. Some people may find it helpful to tell themselves, It’s not forever. It’s just a few months. In my experience, though, when there’s no firm deadline for the end of an ordeal—and no one really knows when the pandemic will end—it’s better to focus on getting through the day. Life isn’t lived two weeks from now, or two months from now. Life exists in the moment and nowhere else.”
She knows this winter will be “one of the hardest, saddest winters of (her) lifetime. We all know it.”
“But it’s not winter 2020; we don’t live in winter 2020 until we do. All any of us have is right now. The only time we can possibly occupy is this moment of this day, and today I can drink my coffee, not my vodka, try to get my teenagers to talk to me, and do the next right thing.”
The wrong things
“When I think of all the things I’ve worried about and been afraid of in my life—and now it’s plain that I’ve been scared of the wrong things.”
— Anathem
Bubbles
I’m sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon, my feet hanging over the rim. I’m facing the setting sun and the light is painting the canyon walls. Somewhere far below, out of site, someone or some thing is blowing soap bubbles and I’m watching them drift slowly up and out of sight. Sometimes the bubbles are few and far between, other times a continuous stream, too many to count. But they never seem to stop completely.
From a distance, they’re just empty soap bubbles but if I bring my attention to particular bubble, I see it is filled with people, places and things. A tiny world that I recognize. My world.
If I look closely enough and long enough, I’m drawn into the bubble. I’m no long sitting on the canyon rim but part of the story unfolding in the bubble. Unlike most of the bubbles I’ve observed, this one doesn’t pop or float away. The canyon and the other bubbles no longer exist or, perhaps, I am just unaware of them.
Eventually, this bubble bumps into another bubble and the two merge, as bubbles often do. Sometimes these new bubbles are filled with a future world, sometimes the past. The worlds can be wonderful or awful but they’re always completely “real.”
I can spend hours moving from bubble to bubble, having completely forgotten about the view from the canyon rim. Every bubble is small and fragile and can be popped with the slightest touch but, from within, it’s difficult to remember this. Or the Me sitting on the canyon rim.
Ah! There I am. I’m back, watching the bubbles. How long, I wonder, was I trapped inside these shiny little things, drifting up and out of the canyon? How much of the spectacular sunset did I miss?
AirPods vs. “cans”
Seems like only yesterday wearing a Blue Tooth earbud/mic made you the subject of derision. A techno-hipster intent on impressing everyone with his hands-free phone calls.
Fast-forward to the Apple AirPods, which also got you some snickers. A lot for snickers. But it turns out AirPods work pretty well and I started seeing them everywhere. The FedEx guy. The crew chief that oversaw our new roof. The guy that mows our yard (yeah, yeah).
The plague hits and Zoom becomes a generic term (“I was zooming all day”). And those TV “at home” interviews? Lots of AirPods. So many that when I see someone wear a big old set of cans I think, poor dweeb.
Like these two guys being interviewed by Bill Maher. I know, I know… superior audio quality!
iPhone 11
The battery on my iPhone XS wasn’t holding a charge (I’ve had it a couple of years) so I popped for an iPhone 11 and it arrived yesterday. It feels strange to all them phones given all the other things we do with them. Mine is a camera first and somewhere near the bottom of the list is PHONE.
Barb has had one for a while and the photos she has taken are beautiful so I was eager to play with this feature. My friend George spoke glowingly of the photos he had gotten with the latest iPhone’s Night Mode. If I understand correctly, the phone takes three photos and magically combines them to come up with the best image. The photos below were just “point and shoot” on my part. I’ll probably never get around to researching and fulling understanding (or using) the many features of my new camera/phone.
First photo above using this new feature, the second photo not.
I was in San Francisco attending MacWorld (first and last time) when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. I didn’t understand or appreciate what a big deal it would be. I didn’t get one that first year but broke down a year later. And have had one ever since.
Here are a couple of more photos from yesterday.
I keep telling myself the iPhone I have is good enough. More than good enough, and I don’t need the latest and greatest. But look at those photos!
For want of a nail…
The new roof is on and the crew did a nice job of cleaning up. They made a couple of sweeps with their big magnets, looking for stray nails. And they got most of them, but I did a sweep with my little magnet stick (just our chat driveway) and found some they missed. To be expected. And in fairness, a few of these were there before they did the roof.