onfocus

great idea. (of any day.)

Someone recently asked for the first time if I sell enlargements of my photos. I don't have a process in place to do that, so it would be nice if a service took care of that (and site integration) for me. Why would I send people to a site like ofoto when they make all of the money from selling the print?

24 Hour Party People was good. Like Dogtown and Z-Boys, it's an interesting look at a subculture that eventually became absorbed into mass culture. (Though this film is not a documentary like Dogtown.) It's interesting to see what choices people make when big interests move in to take advantage of a new cultural movement. Tony Wilson (early promoter of bands like Joy Division/New Order and Happy Mondays) solved this big business dilemma for himself by never signing contracts with his bands. To paraphrase from the film, he prevented himself from ever facing having "sold out" by never having anything. The film is a bit confused and hard to follow at times, but it seems like Manchester in those days was as well. The style was fun, though, and it was constantly breaking the 4th wall as the character Tony narrates the action from within the film.

And now I can't get this out of my head.

What I really need my computer to do is monitor my emotional level and then enable/disable features as appropriate. I'd like to see this dialog box: "I'm sorry, you can't post to your weblog right now because you're at emotion level 6. Please try again later once you have successfully chilled out. Contact your system administrator if you feel you've reached this message in error."

"Warning: You're now at level 7. Breathe."

Or, "I'm sorry, you're much too happy to open Excel. Try back later."

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skp and I made a quick trip to Yosemite this weekend and I was amazed at what a difference a few months makes. I was just there in June, and it feels like a completely different park; different colors, different smells, and a different enjoyment. The waterfalls have almost completely dried up. There is no Yosemite Falls right now, and the Merced River has slowed from a raging torrent to a glassy calm.


Lower Yosemite Falls in Spring


Lower Yosemite "Falls" in Summer

The grasses are all long with lots of yellow, orange, and brown. The air is dusty and dry. It's a complete change from the springtime park that is practically bursting at the seams with water and life. This summertime Yosemite is less fantastic, but more peaceful.



We spent all day today walking around the giant sequoias of Mariposa Grove. They are simply incredible—not only for their size, but their time. They live for thousands of years. Being around them forces me to think about time and the environment in a different way.


Mariposa Grove Museum

I have a camping trip planned there in a month or so, and I hope it'll be enough time from now that I'll get to see yet another side of Yosemite.

found in the referrer grab bag.

Hey, I know those people. (photo by Teddy—don't believe his lies.)

Remember the pepper plant I posted about a while ago? Most of the peppers are now bright red. One is drying nicely, and the others should follow soon. (for those keeping score at home.)

I added a random photo to the side of this weblog under also. Click the photo to see a larger version. If it belongs to a gallery, it points to that photo within the gallery. If not, it shows the larger file. The photo changes every so often.

This last weekend was a big decision-making weekend filled with planning and strategery. It feels good to make progress.

The Wiltshire News wrote a very nice article about snapGallery called Snappy way to share photos.

The one criticism the article mentions is that snapGallery won't create thumbnails of photos. That's true, and I haven't found a way to do it without completely changing what snapGallery is. I could write it as a Visual Basic application and include the thumbnail option, but that would take away its simplicity. The fact that it is a script written in text rather than compiled code means that it's very flexible and customizable. Plus there's nothing to install. (It also means people who aren't hard core programmers can send in their modified versions to share with others.) If there's a way to resize images via WSH, I haven't found it yet. I hope I can find the answer because I agree with the article and everyone who has written in suggesting it, that would be a great feature.