what's up?

bigger isn't always necessarily better

my better half bought himself a couple of new gigantor computer screens. Actually just some tv screens, that with a little hacking are now working as computer screens.

yesterday, he decided that i needed bigger screens to work on. nothing wrong with my current screens. threw in a better graphics card he had sitting around as well.

he was being nice. cleaned off the desk i work on, polished the wood desktop, dusted off all the fans and guts of my computer, and spent several hours figuring out why the new screens weren’t working properly with my computer. updated the drivers, wiggled wires, did some research online. needless to say, i was unable to use my computer yesterday evening.

this morning he told me that he had figured it out. he had two screens for me. one is ok, one is better. the better one is incompatible with my graphics card he installed. now he is online looking for a better card for his computer, and then i would get that hand-me down that he knows worked with these monitors.

so currently, i am working with the one big screen that does work, but not at it’s optimal resolution, but at least it isn’t flickering. i’m not as tall as my better half either, so this is probably the maximum size screen i’d use here, as i can’t adjust my chair any higher to find that sweet spot on the screen and not be straining my neck to view it.

the vibrancy and color are more muted on this screen versus my old one as well, so i have to calibrate my eyes for editing on this monitor.

this olds from chicano park is the first one i’ve fiddled with on this screen. what do you think? too dark, too light? sort of think too much shadow on the wheel and on the door. i’d rework it, but i’d rather start another car.

empty unit

better half realized that i was going to attempt to keep moving boxes, even with my gimp arm, so yesterday he took the time to help me. i know he had a list of other things he needed to do this weekend, while his sister is in town to help with his mom, so i really appreciated his help.

his help basically ended up being moving most everything that was left. which was a good thing, since mostly the rest of the boxes were full of books, and then there was my old desk.

all i did was repack some boxes of monster toys into big plastic bins—i really liked collecting the monsters for a few years. only found one damaged thing...the heat had melted an old rubber alligator's arm onto a model of a skull. ok, i was a weird kid. oh, and i also swept the floor, when we finished up just before storage closing time.

so that's done. just need to spend time repacking cardboard boxed stuff into plastic bins, and there should be enough room for whatever my kid's bringing down here. now if i can only talk her into selling her snakes and tarantulas, everything would be great.

better half went out for a 'boy's night out' the other night. for him, those usually consist of driving to fry's and just wandering the aisles looking at stuff, usually until they tell him they are closing. he's just happy to be out of the house, i guess, and that's his thing, like women go shopping to unwind thing.

this time, he went out to guitar center. he's been looking for a particular guitar, and their website said they had one in stock.

he got there, and of course, it's not there, or otherwise sold. so he started fiddling around with some other guitars.

said he was sitting there playing, when he realized there was someone standing entirely too close behind him. he said that as he turns around, he realizes it's the sales person, and notices that—in his words—she's really beautiful. at the same time, as he's mentally noting this, his wedding ring flies off his finger onto the floor.

as he quickly reaches to pick it up, his response was, "don't read too much into that!"

he said the girl basically just went, "what?" in such a tone that ruined the illusion, heading right into valley girl territory. just a kid, not too quick witted, and didn't get the joke. probably hadn't even noticed it fall.

he's lost a little weight, so his ring falls off sometimes. he found it funny.

lil blue oldsmobile from the blessing of the cars in san gabriel last year. kinda like the old cars with the eye-like headlights hanging off the sides, looking sleepy with those overhanging bits like eyelashes.

get out from behind

still feel like i've been smacked by a baseball bat in the face, but don't look as much as if i did today. seriously thinking of going to legg lake and seeing what's up. >>update: went to legg lake, scoped out all different lots, both sides of freeway--no good times being had. too tired to drive over to lincoln park, so my weekend is done before it begun. shoulda gone out yesterday. 😞<<

wondering if my arms will work, and let me pull my bag and carry the tripod from one end to the other, and have the energy to make it back to the car. seriously. wtf is wrong with me?

i'm supposed to take a portrait of an exec at work this week, and i'm outta practice on taking any type of picture.

but the sun is soooo bright in my eyes, and it's hard to focus with sun glasses on. at least the weather is perfect.

lately, i've gone uptown about once a day or so, to get lunch or dinner, but mostly to scope out any old cars that may be parked there. if i can't get to a show, i go look for any that may come to me. there are the usual few, belonging to people who work uptown, and then there are always classic cars and harleys that drive through daily. shoot em with my phone, and post on instagram...better than nothing.

saw a poster yesterday for the annual dia de los muertos show uptown. last year was more car show than art show. hoping for the same this year. at least it's down the street and i can go home if i don't feel good.

i've shot this car before. friendly father and son usually go along with it, but didn't see them this day, at the uptown show. it's an unusual car, and i can't recall seeing another one like it, so i always take a shot of it when i see it. such a nice back end.

made in the shade

1959 oldsmobile ninety-eight

been a couple of years since i've seen this one. it was at the last whittier uptown show, i've seen pictures of it, but i had to get out of town that day, and didn't get far enough down the street it was on when i rushed through the show.

find this car, you find a dad and his very friendly, well spoken kid. didn't see the dad at first, but the kid walked right over and asked if i remembered him, which i did. don't run into too many kids that straight forward, so he's memorable.

saw the dad sitting with the kid in the corner, by the car, as we were on our way out, so we waved.

better half has spent the day rearranging furniture for his mom, in preparation for bringing the xmas tree in from the garage. the annual xmas blitz. i believe the theme this year is elves, so the tree will be smothered in lights and the elf on the shelf times one-thousand.

heard about the klique show at lincoln park, but wasn't on our calendar, and we had other stuff to get done. kind of a bummer.

i've been out a couple of times today, but only to get some lunch and go to the market—making banana bread and needed walnuts for my mother-in-law's loaf made with splenda vs the good stuff—more a walnut bread with some bananas, i call it her prison loaf. she really likes walnuts.

bee

1950 oldsmobile

i made it out to ruby's for the first time this season, this weekend as well. happened to have friday afternoon off for a change, so waited to see if my better half to get home, to see if he wanted to join me.

dude needs to get his air conditioning fixed in his car. after his hellish drive home, with the trapped heat of the day and warm wind blowing in through the windows, he was in no mood to go back out. completely understandable. i hate friday evening traffic more than anything—well only slightly more than evening traffic any other day of the week.

anyway, it was about as expected, a month into the season. there were cars. just not a lot of what i like to shoot. there were a few of the old regulars, and a few old regulars, that were not there...hopefully, just because they didn't go that evening, but you never know...

i'd heard the first couple shows of the season had been jammed with cars i'd love, but i just couldn't work them into my schedule. now this thin showing i was experiencing was no suprise to me, and it was fine. i'm still kicking the tires on these new camera bodies, making sure they are working well enough.

in the few lanes of cars, were some cars i'd never seen before, so i started with them. this bright yellow olds, is one of those. well, i just don't see too many oldsmobiles, actually, and i don't recall seeing one of this model.

curiousity brought out one of the owners...the lady of the couple, of course...to ask about my photography. she was delightful, and we had a quick chat. told her i'd post a picture, so here you go.

as she walked away, she brushed a bee off the hood. i hadn't noticed it before, but there it is on the hood in the picture. i'd have shot a close up of it, but too late, it was gone.

sick

1936 oldsmobile

ugh. perfect weekend overcast, lots of car shows running today, and here i sit, coughing up a lung. oh well.

better half took his mom out to downtown disney. don't have passes anymore, but it has been a long time for a disney fan to be away, and she wanted to go shopping. probably better to keep her away from me. lol.

i'm hungry, so i'll probably put on a jacket and zombie walk uptown to find something to eat. don't feel like calling dominos or cooking whatever might be in the fridge or pantry.

feels better to sit up rather than lay down, so i'll probably type up notes from my classes or work on some more pictures. take a wild guess what i'll probably do...killing time until game of thrones is on...

this pic has been sitting here for a while, so i'll just post it now, then get back to the whittier car show shots.

chicano park show, barrio logan. should they just call it the pachuco car club show? the last few years, they seem to line up all of their cars down this side of the street. it's their hood. they can.

stalking

i mentioned a car i was looking for in a prior post, that i saw after breakfast, but had to go uptown several times to find it. took a while, went the other way down the street; had to take a few breaks from the heat, but i finally found it.

isn't always the way it is, the thing you want is always in the last place you look, or you find it when you aren't even looking for it at all. here was this olds, parked way up the street, by itself. aside from being a funky purple color, it was the tail lights that caught my eye in the first place.

when we had seen it earlier, all the cameras were packed in the bag, not tripod ready. so we whipped out the newer, smaller cameras and shot some hand-held brackets. i got the shot of the dad and the kid waiting to move out of staging.

the kid seemed really nice and polite. he's just at that age, where he's happy to hang out with his dad all day looking at cars, and still polite to others. i hope he stays that way. i really do.

when i shot it later in the day, a bunch of kids kept getting in the shot, looking inside the car. turns out they were checking out the speedometer. they thought that since it said one-twenty or more, that that is how fast it can go. there was one boy in particular, that was overly enthusiastic about it. then he wanted to push the shutter button on my camera too. uh. no thanks. he was so hyped up, i figured he'd manage to knock the tripod over too.

eighty-eight

there's a number of "interesting" definitions for the term "eighty-eight." i'm not really referring to any of them here; just the innocent model number for this car.

nice, round back-end here. duke's car. always get a hug from the old guy.

pulled it up on an old computer. this is from last year. haven't seen it in a while. wonder if it's still rollin'? guess i'd have to go over to buena park to check it out.

back porch

talk about hauling ass...could almost build a house for your mother-in-law out back...almost. or at least hold a tailgate party...the whole party.

found this out at garden grove. rarely go there, cause i'm usually disappointed by the turnout. but there are usually at least one or two worth shooting at any show. the whole car was pretty interesting, but baby got back, so i'm posting it here.

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as for my foot, not broken. but it does have some sort of strained tendon; enough that the doc had to pop me in the foot with cortisone. yippee ki yay. and i have to wear this lovely boot thing for i don't know how long yet, to help it heal. not exactly the lace up kind of boots my better half might have envisioned for me...

so, he probably will do his best to keep me from going to too many shows in the near future. and definitely will be a while before i do a lot of low angles. at least without him around to help me get back up. so over-protective, but i guess that's a good thing, right?

and to top that off, i got a cold, but not a cold, that i've been fighting all weekend. finally went to the doctor to check that it wasn't turning into bronchitis or pneumonia. they thought it best to give me some sort of antibiotic, just in case. probably to keep me from coughing up a lung or two, and to spare my co-workers' eardrums.