German layer camera

".. this car makes an average driver feel like a good driver, a good driver feel like a professional and a professional feel like God."
- Car and Driver review of the Porsche 928S

I am very partial to german cars, having owned 6 over the years. German cars feel like theyre built up to a single-minded principle of solidly functional capability. The well-built ones feel solid, smooth and unflappable, no matter the conditions.

And when you push 'em, they invariably put a shit-eating grin on your face.

A 'shit-eating grin' is defined as when an experience is so good that you involuntarily start grinning like an idiot.

This Fuji S602z feels like a german car. :-D

It feels like a camera should. Solid, well-weighted, balanced and capable. It has a professional feel.

It is no surprise that professional photographers in Europe quickly picked up on this and started using it as such. So much so, that Fuji, with only slight modifications, came out with an extremely popular professional version that is still in demand, even tho it has since been replaced.

Last night, I went through a comprehensive 100 page manual to learn all the feaures of this thing. It has a LOT of features, but none of them feel superfluous. And as I went through the different modes and features, I started grinning like an idiot.

This morning, I went downtown to see if I could capture some of the shots I had in mind when I came to San Francisco.

Nailed 'em, first shot each time.

Yeah, this was worth the wait.

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I named the predecessor to this camera "Stella", from the book and movie "How Stella Got Her Groove Back".

The name just fit when I stopped struggling with the camera and then everything just fell into place.

This one, I dont know yet.

It's coming.

Ipod Central

Ipod Central, originally uploaded by Itinerant.

Sweet

These days I take things one step at a time, good or bad. One day at a time.

Some days are better than others.

Today wasnt so bad.

It started at me running late at midnight, running into LeGirl on the 16th Street BART platform. Strange and bittersweet, but not so bad.

Then I got home and was greeted by a package from SBC. Even better, it plugged in without much of a hiccup and started working.
Working much faster than I thought it would.

JPennant: I have DSL
JPennant: Dee Ess Ell
JPennant: Dee Ess Ell
JPennant: :-D
JPennant: My life is better
JPennant: The air is cleaner
Mamahell: haha
JPennant: ahh, sweet

After futzing with that all morning, I headed out to a staff meeting, but on the way, I hadda pick up something.

5 minutes later I walked outta the camera store with a package Ive been waiting nearly 2 years for.

I hadda read the effing manual just to figure out how to put the strap on, but .. man.. its sweeter than I thought it'd be,

I walked home, grabbing a meal and a boxed lunch from Paswam's Pakistani restaurant for tonight's shift.

Tonight, I read the dense hundred page manual so I can use Stella's replacement properly,

My boss told me to go get some sleep for my shift at midnight.

I got about an hour's worth.

Thats ok, I'll get some sleep tomorrow.

Im enjoying today.

Rain on New Years

Rain on New Years, originally uploaded by Itinerant.

Today the sun came out for the first time since Christmas Eve.

Or more accurately, it did not rain for the first time here since Christmas Eve.

2am @ Cable Car Pizza on Valencia

2am @ Cable Car Pizza on Valencia, originally uploaded by Itinerant.

This is a test

Rain break

Rain puddle on Valencia Street, originally uploaded by Itinerant.

Im jumping off the bridge cuz of george and cecily.

Lets see how it works out.

The weather, its a-changing

After work yesterday, I was walking home down a wet, windy and cold Nob Hill-y Hyde Street, smelling that sweet clear air after a storm.

And in one of those minor epiphanies, I realized that the trees were green, becoming green. And when i looked at a sapling, I saw flowers starting to bloom.

Spring is here.

Every time I think the trees are horribly wrong here in the Bay Area, the weather proves them right.

By february, it might be cold and clammy and foggy - but the trees wont care, they'll have things to do. It'll be perfume-y and the buds will be ablooming.

And so it goes.
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One of my favorite movies is 'Youve Got Mail', and its not because I worked for AOL, although it did make me appreciate it more, because I was in the mode of communication thats central to the movie.

No, I like it because it gets very better every time I see it. It might seem like a lightweight, throwaway type of flick, but the people who made it are very very good at what they do.

Ive been picking up a couple of DVD's recently, and I saw this movie in the bargain video bin at Walgreens, so I picked it up.

One reason I like it, is because its a very Manhattan type of movie. In fact, its a very Upper West Side kind of flick, and having lived there, I appreciate the setting.

(The Upper West Side of Manhattan is defined roughly as the area West of Central Park from 59th Street to 110th Street with it main thoroughfare being the North-South stretch of Broadway. As the movie rarely leaves that milleu, some people rarely leave the UWS. They dont have to.)

Another thing I appreciate in the movie, and its a subtle thing, is the weather - as the story transitions from fall to winter to spring.

Good stuff.
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$225??? *girlish squeal*

Two more days.

On a related subject, I only took one picture yesterday.

That means, to date, Ive taken a grand total of 556 images since December 31st.

Whee.

Cant wait for the sun.

I didnt know how good I was having it.

For the past 2 years, Ive had it easy, relatively speaking.

Few bills, few rquirements, little contact with organisations providing services for money.

Hell, didnt really have a mailing address.

Now, in the last two months, Ive been inundated with paperwork, so much so that I need to have a filing system.

And joy, I didnt have to deal with banks, utilities etcetra etcetera.

My life was not spent on hold.

Fast forward to now.. Ive got papers in piles spread across my desk and Ive got to deal with..

DSL Customer Service Clerk

".. and the due date for this order was... oh.. today. Im sorry sir, your order was lost and hung up in the system."
"Why?"
"Dont know."

I think I actually growled then.

This was after a week of waiting for a DSL modem to arrive in the mail.

And if I hadnt called and been transferred between Tabitha, Gwen, Nancy, back to Gwen, called back when their offices opened back to Gwen who transferred me to Jeff, who was now expressing surprise that my order had inexplicably disappeared.

No trace that there was ever an order placed for DSL.

Im surprised I stayed as calm as I did.

Well, having worked in customer support myself, I had a bit of sympathy for how large, monopolistic telecommuniation companies work, and why this happened (someone didnt understand the code and shunted my order for someone else - preferably in another ofice in another state- to deal with) but I didnt let that blind me to the fact that they werent giving me any satisfaction, so I politely stayed on the line and made sure that the order was found, finessed and rammed through by someone who had the AUTHORITY to make changes.

And I always take names and locations now.

Kate said recently that one of the big differences between me now and when she first met me was that now Im less likely to take shit from people.

Absolutely right. I'd rather choose the shit that I have to eat.

An apology

From a letter I just wrote:

Ok, sorry I didnt reply sooner. Both laptops are acting
up and Im still getting adjusted to being on the
graveyard shift while trying to get things done during
the day. Which means Im doing stuff on the mac when I
get home and am actually awake..

So, likewise, I havent updated because (see above).