photography 2 Comments

Kodak Brownie Starmite

A couple of days ago, my cubemate James told me that he and his wife had found a couple of old cameras while they were cleaning their house. Since he knew I collect old cameras, he saved them both from the landfill and brought them in to work yesterday for me to check out. One was a simple late-70s / early-80s Instamatic 110 camera, which I dismissed as passé.

The second camera, though, piqued my interest.

It was a Kodak Brownie Starmite camera from the early 1960s (an “instamatic” of sorts itself, as it has no adjustable settings). I gladly took it off of James’s hands, and offered him five bucks for it, which he refused. I just so happened to have a roll of 127 film leftover in the freezer from testing the Brownie Bullet a couple of years back, so I brought the camera home, cleaned it off, and loaded it up, then brought it to work today to test it out during my lunchtime walk.

The research I did online said that the Starmite has an aperture of f/11 and a fixed focus at infinity. That basically means that I’m limited to sunny landscapes, so today’s overcast weather didn’t bode well. I went ahead and took the standard test shots, though: gazebo, telephone pole, path. I’ll take similar or identical pictures in a day or two, when it’s sunnier out, and we’ll see how the camera (and film) reacts to different levels of light.

Note to self: This time, when I’m done with the roll, I’m going to have individual prints made, rather than a contact/proof sheet. The proof sheet for the Brownie Bullet didn’t turn out so good. Maybe I’ll do some searching for a different place to process, too… but I’m not really dissatisfied with Main Photo. I’d just like to find someplace a little closer to the Midwest, for some quicker turnaround.

japan trip 2007 2 Comments

T-minus 28 days and counting

We bought luggage at TJ Maxx this past weekend: two large 29″ Dockers suitcases for about $60 apiece. We’re still contemplating whether to purchase a new carry-on or two, or just use our backpacks and shoulder bags as carry-on.

Since I expedited my passport, it arrived a couple of weeks ago. Aaron’s still waiting for his to show up, even though he applied for his much sooner than I did mine. As soon as his passport arrives, we’ll reserve our Ghibli Museum vouchers, since we need passport info to get those.

Due to an incredible stroke of luck, we managed to book a room at the Ryokan Asakusa Shigetsu during the Sanja Festival. The Shigetsu is practically across the street from the Sensoji Temple and Asakusa Shrine… well, OK, maybe a couple streets and a park away. At any rate, we’ll be in Asakusa, in the thick of things, during the Sanja Matsuri. Could be crazy. Will definitely be a new and fun experience.

I’ve completed the Pimsleur Japanese Short Course, all eight lessons, and am going to continue with Japanese I tomorrow. (From what I understand, the Short Course is basically the first eight lessons of Japanese I, so I’m starting with Lesson 8 tomorrow.) Vocab from JPod101 is starting to dovetail with Pimsleur, which tends to make my Pimsleur lessons feel less difficult… or less meaningful. When I already know all the new vocab except the word “lunch,” I tend to feel a little jipped, I guess.

I have the feeling I’m still going to either have to consult Aaron’s phrasebook or look up some words online before our departure. After I’m done here, I may take a few minutes to look up “water,” “menu,” and other daily vocabulary I might need. Honestly, though, I’m fully expecting not to need my meager Japanese skillz in Tokyo. I expect that the person at the front desk of the Tokyo Prince Hotel is going to greet us in English, rather than saying, “Tokyo Purinsu Hoteru e youkoso irashaimase!” So, I’m probably not going to have to remember about nimei being the honorific term for “two people,” or roppaku being the word for “six nights.” It might be polite of me to give it a shot, though, and I’m still not convinced that we won’t need my fantastic *scoff-scoff* Japanese skillz somewhere along the line.

I’m afraid I might try to get too fancy if I try to speak too much Japanese, as I’m basically doing the language version of learning to play piano from that crazy infomercial guy. I don’t know all the underlying grammar and structure; I’m learning phrases on the fly and picking up some structure along the way. The particles are still eluding me a bit, and there are words with similar meanings that confuse me. I’m afraid that if I try to put together new sentences with words I know, I’m going to fuck the grammar all up and end up sounding like… well, like a foreigner, I suppose. Go figure.

[Hmm. I’m a big word nerd. I just cleared up some of my confusion by reading the Wikipedia article on Japanese particles that I just linked to. Just tell me that “o” indicates a direct object, and it clears things right up. Wikipedia makes everything clearer…]

OK, off of the Japanese language rant.

At any rate, things are starting to come together. We’ll start being a little more methodical about planning the things we definitely don’t want to miss, and listing things in the same vicinity that we could squeeze in around the biggies. Like, Nakano Broadway is a must. The Ghibli Museum is a must. The Ramen Museum… OK, that’s really high up on the list. The Parasitological Museum is a free oddity that would be fun to check out, but is not necessarily a must-do. 😉

What’s the Japanese word for OMGEXCITED!!!111 ?

ruminations 2 Comments

Pushing My Own Buttons

I wish I knew how to motivate myself. As per usual, I have several different things I’d like to get done, but I’m not motivated enough to actually do them. I’m not sure if it’s a lack of sleep or a lack of exercise or what, but I’m just not feeling it tonight. Don’t want to work on any of my three web projects, or my laundry-list of household chores/projects, or write any one of a dozen possible blog essays in my head, or even exercise. Don’t even really want to play video games. Don’t want to do a damn thing.

This can’t be normal. Really.

food 2 Comments

Booze As Part Of A Balanced Diet

A couple weeks ago, I discovered this great site that has nutritional information for all kinds of alcoholic (and nonalcoholic) beverages. The website is drinksmixer.com, and it’s not just a good “nutritional” resource, but it also has the ever-helpful Cabinet feature. Tell it what you’ve got, both booze and “normal” beverages, and it tells you what you can make, either with only what you have or with one or two more ingredients.

I have come to an unfortunate conclusion, though. I dislike Applejack. It wasn’t very expensive, but I do wish I’d managed to sample it somewhere before procuring an entire bottle. After this, I’m not sure I’d be a fan of any kind of brandy, if apple brandy isn’t floating my boat. It’s just too damn strong; the first sip always takes my breath away. Yeah, maybe I’m a lightweight. I’m OK with that.

On the same night I bought my bottle of Applejack, though, I tried the Classic Irish Whiskey Flight at Claddagh Irish Pub. My original plan had been to sample some scotch, but the Irish whiskeys had more detailed descriptions in the drink menu, being that Claddagh is an Irish-style pub and all. So, I got three small shots of Irish whiskey, and I must say that the Jameson was my favorite of the three. The waiter made comment that a woman who likes Irish whiskey is a good catch, which amused both Aaron and myself.

I’m really not much of a drinker, and whenever I get to thinking about alcohol too much, it makes me feel like I’m some kind of lush. Which I know I’m not. Still, it’s weird to be thinking about what kind of alcohol I’d like to try, in the same way I’d think about different ethnic foods I’d like to try; especially knowing that I only really drink once every six months or so, and very rarely with the goal of “getting drunk.”

Yes, I have half a shot of the Applejack sitting here on my desk. And, yes, I’m going to finish it. Will I have anything else tonight? Probably not.