Eraldo “Tony” C. Antonini January 1964 — January 2020
Category Archive: Personal
This post has photographs, but the main impetus is photography equipment. Reader beware, some might find it a long slog unless interested in the topic.
For them not interested in reading, you can see the photos in THIS<<link SmugMug Gallery.
For a SmugMug slideshow, click HERE<<link. When you click the link, it will open in a new window, and you have two options:
1) Manually scroll through the photos by clicking the “<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos.
2) There’s a PLAY/PAUSE button at the top-left of the screen with the transition set at about 5 seconds. Note: clicking the PLAY arrow will run a full-screen slideshow. You can then still use the”<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos (this will pause the slideshow).
If you want the full experience, keep reading.
I purchased the Nikon P900 in 2017 and for that year, it was my primary camera. Meaning, I took twice as many photos with the P900 than my then camera, the Nikon D7000, including using it almost exclusively on our 2017 Alaska cruise (which, I’m still documenting!), and wrote a lot about it.
For the next few years — until 2020 — I managed at least as many photos with the P900 as with the DSLR. And, I wrote about it (LINK). I especially revisited the issue of cameras at the beginning of 2019 when I was looking to make a change to my DSLR … and wrote about it …
So, yesterday I posted a quick observation about the state of comments on this blog (and maybe blogs in general, based on some of the feedback).
I might have come across as rueful of the situation, hence let me clarify a few things because I fear unintended consequences from that post . . .
Namely, I fear an increase in comments due to people (consciously or unconsciously) thinking I was pressuring them (consciously or unconsciously) to comment more often.
Well, let me set the record straight . . .
In yesterday’s post, I linked THIS<<link post and my sister AnnMarie mentioned how nice it was to see multiple comments. I went back and counted . . . there were 16 unique individuals leaving comments.
It’s something I’ve also noted as I occasionally go back and read old posts. Namely, there used to be more people leaving comments as late as four years ago than this year. To be clear, the slowdown started sometime in the last three years and it has now reached a point where I can expect comments from a maximum of two, maybe three people leaving a comment, and it’s the same two or three people.
Most of the readers who at one time I considered “regulars” are no more. I don’t mean they’ve died (although — sadly — a few have, and they are deeply missed). I mean they no longer seem active in the blogging community. Some have blogs that have gone dormant without explanation, and some indicated their focus and interests have shifted.
For them not interested in reading, you can see the photos in THIS<<link SmugMug Gallery.
For a SmugMug slideshow, click HERE<<link. When you click the link, it will open in a new window, and you have two options:
1) Manually scroll through the photos by clicking the “<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos.
2) There’s a PLAY/PAUSE button at the Top-left of the screen with the transition set at about 5 seconds. Note: clicking the PLAY arrow activates the option for a full-screen slideshow. You can then still use the”<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos (this will pause the slideshow).
If you want the full experience, keep reading.
Back in April, we had a memorial for Pops, Melisa’s dad (LINK). At the memorial, we had packets available for anyone who attended, and part of the contents were seed packets of Flanders Poppies and Forget-Me-Nots.
We planted ours and the Forget-Me-Nots have already appeared on the blog a few times (with bees on them). Today I’m showcasing the Flanders Poppies.
It’s late and I’m tired . . . and we’ve gone the whole day without Internet service.
Apparently, a contractor cut a fiberoptic cable . . . it must have been a pretty big cable for it to be out most of the night and all day . . . wait . . . I don’t think contractors work at night. I’m guessing Mediacom has got other issues and are blaming it on some hapless contractor.
I’d love to add phot or two, but the wonderful WordPress App is not showing me the Media Library. Rather, it shows the library as a bunch of blank files.
Indigenous is an interesting word. A dictionary definition (there are a few variations) goes as follows:
Produced, growing, living, or occurring natively or naturally in a particular region or environment.
But also:
Relating to the earliest known inhabitants of a place.
For the purpose of this post, I’ll talk about a combination of the two definitions and how they are purposefully mangled by idiots . . . er . . . non-thinking jer . . . er . . . well-meaning people.
And I’ll begin with Hawaiʻi.
Having lived in Hawaiʻi for a few years, I was struck by the sanctimonious attitude of many of the natives. Like most people everywhere, they have a certain image of themselves, are proud of their culture and customs, and walk around with a chip on their shoulder about being ‘invaded’ by who they call ‘haoles’.
They will tell you the term refers to ‘light skin’ or ‘visitor’, but just swap the ‘h’ and ‘a’ around and you get what I think they really mean.
You see, Hawaiʻians, like most people who don’t know history, claim possession to where they live by virtue of having lived there a long time and — like most people — are not happy when outsiders ‘invade’ the place. I’m sure most readers are familiar with various conflicts around the world — and here, too — based on claims about who has the right to live in this or that place.
The thing is, at one time, no one lived on those islands. Then Polynesians came, liked it, and settled there (LINK). Later, Tahitians came, liked it, and settled there. By ‘settled’, I mean conquered the Polynesians (LINK). You know the rest; Europeans came and also settled there, and so on.
One reason we left Colorado were the fires. We experienced two major fires (Waldo Canyon and Black Forest). […]
We friended few people during our short stay in Hawaiʻi, and one was Pat. Yesterday we got the […]
For them not interested in reading, you can see the photos in THIS<<link SmugMug Gallery.
For a SmugMug slideshow, click HERE<<link. When you click the link, it will open in a new window, and you have two options:
1) Manually scroll through the photos by clicking the “<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos.
2) There’s a PLAY/PAUSE button at the bottom-left of the screen with the transition set at about 5 seconds. Note: clicking the PLAY arrow will run a full-screen slideshow. You can then still use the”<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos (this will pause the slideshow).
If you want the full experience, keep reading.
As stated in the last post, I’m sharing Note 20 Ultra photos. Most, like the above, have been processed with Lightroom CC. Most, unlike the above, are photos of flowers from the garden centers of places like Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Wal-Mart. The above photo was taken with the camera set at 10x as I was sitting in my car in a parking lot across the street from that establishment. That’s one of the photos they had on their facade, and yes, it’s an automotive supplies place
As usual, clicking on single images will open a larger version of the image in a new tab or window.
For them not interested in reading, you can see the photos in THIS<<link SmugMug Gallery.
For a SmugMug slideshow, click HERE<<link. When you click the link, it will open in a new window, and you have two options:
1) Manually scroll through the photos by clicking the “<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos.
2) There’s a PLAY/PAUSE button at the bottom-left of the screen with the transition set at about 5 seconds. Note: clicking the PLAY arrow will run a full-screen slideshow. You can then still use the”<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos (this will pause the slideshow).
If you want the full experience, keep reading.
The photos in this quick series of posts have all been taken with the Note 20 this May, lightly processed in Lightroom (see what I did there?), and output for this blog post.
I’ve not been very active either writing or reading blogs . . . here’s a bit about why.
First — sadly — Lawrence S. Ford passed away in mid-March (Lawrence Ford Obituary). He was Melisa’s dad and he passed away from complications from an unavoidable surgery. He was 96, and had been declining in health for a number of months before.
Aside from being with him for his last few days, Melisa and her siblings were — and still are — involved in finalizing his affairs after his passing.
We held a memorial in early April, for which I made one of the boards recounting parts of his early life and the parts of his life he shared with us.
A conversation between my sister and diem3 had me remember the photos I snapped of my mother’s cross-stitch projects.
I should clarify . . . in Part 1<<link, I identified her work as needlepoint, but it’s cross-stitch. I corrected that in Part 2<<link, but I repeat it here.
OK, cross-stitch . . . here’s a description (LINK) and here’s a bit of history (LINK) and some stitches (LINK).
The last cross-stitch post had mostly Christmas related projects . . . . not this time . . .
Again, it might be helpful to step back from the screen to appreciate the picture. Up close, you can see the stitches.
A conversation between my sister and diem3 had me remember the photos I snapped of my mother’s cross-stitch projects.
I should clarify . . . in Part 1, I identified her work as needlepoint, but it’s cross-stitch.
OK, cross-stitch . . . here’s a description (LINK) and here’s a bit of history (LINK) and some stitches (LINK).
The pieces I’m posting today are all Christmas related . . . and because I’m pressed for time, I’ll keep my brilliant commentary to a minimum (or completely absent).
Some of these have greetings in Italian; “Auguri” means Greetings . . . whereas Anguria means Watermelon. I know, it’s not relevant, but I wanted to put that out there for them who might be interested.
A conversation between my sister and diem3 had me remember the photos I snapped of my mother’s needlepoint cross-stitch projects.
I should clarify . . . photos of a small number of my mother’s needlepoint cross-stitch projects. So, here I am, finally posting the photos I took last September (and a few from 2017).
It’s worth noting just how much has happened in the past eleven months. The world has actually changed, and not for the better. On a personal note, we suffered the passing of my brother early in the year, something that still sucker-punches me.
I mention all this to underscore the importance — physical, mental, and emotional — of having a hobby or interest that offers an escape from the increasing bleakness of the human condition.
Hmm . . . all that seems a downer of an introduction. Let me recover . . . by telling a joke I recently read on a friend’s timeline (Facebook):
“I want to die in my sleep like my grandfather did. Not screaming in terror like the passengers in his car.”
OK, needlepoint cross-stitch . . . here’s a description (LINK) and here’s a bit of history (LINK) and some stitches (LINK).
And away we go!
Most of the ones I’m sharing are holiday-themed works, but not all.
Disperser Tracks 