Visibly different, part 31


I have to confess that I started writing this a few weeks back, and then sat on it to hit the 20th anniversary (more or less) of this image, since it was taken sometime in August, 2002. I’d only been living in Florida for a few weeks then, and on wandering along the ocean in Indialantic, I found a starfish washed up on the sand, missing two arms. It was the first I’d read more

Exactly as scheduled

Since today is Thin Out The Blog Folder Day, I have several images that I was saving just to have something to post for the holiday, because normally, there are no excess images in there – I’m remarkably efficient in my writing, and if I prepare an image for the blog, you know damn well it will be uploaded without delay. So let’s see what I chose, months read more

Can I take your plate, or are you still working on July?

It’s time for the month-end abstract so, hurry up.


This month we have a grab shot as I was wandering around the neighborhood pond waiting to see if the beavers were going to show. Looking towards the setting sun, this spider web was backlit brilliantly and I had the long lens affixed, so I fired off a couple of frames hoping to nail the focus tightly enough. This frame not read more

The whip of guilt

July has been a slow posting month, for several reasons – the heat, mostly, and getting deeply involved in video editing. But I’ve also just – not felt like posting. Perhaps it’s good that I didn’t, because the mood might have come through and you wouldn’t have the scintillating content that you normally do.

But I’m getting over all that, so let’s see read more

You gotta be kidding me

When I started video editing, I went through several different programs trying to find one that worked reasonably well – twice, actually, because I began on a Windows system before switching to Linux and having to do it all over again. All of them had issues of some kind, but Kdenlive had the fewest, and the rendering options read more

Not bad, for a smutphone


It’s no secret that I am not a fan of smutphone cameras (or any other part of them for that matter) – they’re generally substandard and of course have too few controls. Though I admit that I haven’t tried any of the ridiculously expensive smutphones, because I have sense – I can’t fathom spending more, way more, on a freaking phone than read more

Can’t keep up

It started just two nights ago. After the rains, I could hear a few Copes grey treefrogs (Hyla chrysoscelis) calling nearby, including one that had to be in the backyard. I was checking on other things, so it took me just a couple of minutes to get to the approximate location, and by that time, she’d achieved her goal.


Seen here in the residual water atop one of the rainbarrels, read more

It’s overcast and rainy, so no showers

Got a glimpse of a star the other night, but other than that, it’s not the time to be trying to view a meteor shower, much less three of them. I’m not sure why I even post about them anymore.

Worse, it’s still hot as hell during the day – the rain comes in the evenings, but even then it doesn’t really cool anything off, the largest part of the reason why there have been read more

Showers predicted, if it’s clear

There are two meteor showers peaking soon, the Delta Aquarids and the Alpha Capricornids, though both are taking place as you read this and have been for several days now – they tend to spread out a bit. Notably, the moon will be new on the 28th and is plenty dark now unless you’re up at like 4 AM, even then being a mere crescent, so provided the skies are clear in your area, the moon read more

Visibly different, part 30

We’re gonna jump the gun a little here and not post this on Tuesday as normal, because I’ve been putting this together over a period of weeks and don’t want to delay it even a couple more days. So let’s see what our opening image is.


This dates from 1991 and is a negative of course, not too long after having moved to North Carolina. I discovered, quite by read more

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