Month: August 2012

New 10mp Toy!

When recently the good people at Photojojo emailed me to say they were taking orders for the new Polaroid Z2300 camera you know I had to click that link.

I have owned Polaroid cameras dating back to the 1970’s and I still have most of the camera bodies. The Impossible Project still makes Polaroid film, but it’s Impossibly Expensive.

This new camera is 10mps in a big blocky case. But aren’t Polaroids always a little big and bulky? The camera comes with a printer on board that prints 2×3 size photos on zero ink Zink paper.

A few years back Polaroid was supposed to release something similar and I wanted it then, but it never really made it to market.

So I was wary but took a gamble this time and placed a pre-order.

I was rewarded for my patience.

I’m still playing with it but here’s a couple first shots (this is the first camera I’ve owned that the first photos out of it weren’t of The Feline).

These are macro shots of my handwriting using the new Polaroid on the macro setting along with a Easy-Macro cell phone lens together.

It sort of looks like glyphs.








Pretty damn cool!

More to come!!



Photos Copyright 2012 Karen Fayeth, taken with a Polaroid Z2300.



Liveblogging The Event

Time for the boringest live blog in history.

I bring to you, Live Blogging Jury Duty.


Wednesday, 6:13pm: According to the notice sent to me by the Superior Court of my home county, I am to log into their website today, enter my group number and learn my fate.

The last two times I was called for jury duty, I logged in and was told my services would not be needed.

Can I make it a three-peat?


Wednesday, 6:14pm: Ok, I’m logged in. Number entered. Ready to go. Ok. Well. It’s not good news. But it’s not bad news either.

I am on something called “telephone stand by”. So, upshot is that I don’t have to report at 8:30am. The downside is I still might have to dance with Lady Justice later in the day.

I have to check the website again tomorrow between 11:15am and 11:45am.

How is checking a website considered “telephone standby”?

So even though this thing is not over, it’s possible I can still dodge the bullet (pun absolutely, totally not kinda sorta intended).


Wednesday, 6:18pm: Mmm. Kale dip from Trader Joes. Have ya’ll tried this stuff? Deeelicious.

Should I drink some wine tonight or should I be clear headed for the morning in case I have be a jury of someone’s peers?


Wednesday, 9:36pm: *yawn*


Thursday, 5:23am: It’s almost 5:30am. My alarm clock is set for 7:30am. Why in the hell am I awake?

Oh. Right, this isn’t related to jury duty.

File this under “Live Blogging my Insomnia.”


Thursday, 10:46am: Ok, about a half hour until next check in. Weirdly, I kind of want to be called in so I can step out of the office today. A change of scenery would do me some good.

Yeah, that probably means I’ll get waived off. If you want it, you don’t get it. You don’t want it, you get it.

Fate is a fickle bitch.


Thursday, 11:17am: Ok, here I am, back on the Superior Court website.

I’m kind of nervous!

Here we goooo!

“Your appearance is not required. Please note that you are now excused and will be eligible to serve again in 12 months.”


Oh, uh.

Well ok.

Three-peat! Sort of a hollow victory, I suppose.

Onward to a regular ol’ work day.


Thursday, 11:29am: Hmm. I wonder what the special is today in the cafeteria.


Thus ends the most uneventful liveblog in the history of liveblogging.

Thanks for following along.









Image found at Change of Address.org.

Rebel, Rebel

Baby did a bad, bad thing (with the assistance of butterfingers and gravity).




Apparently in a battle to the death, asphalt beats Gorilla Glass.

Good to know.

I suppose it could be said the timing is right since the new iPhone is due out soon. This is the perfect excuse to buy a new one.

Except.

Upon viewing my scarred device in a meeting, the IT team felt bad for me. One apps development guy said “Hey, I have an idea. You could do some testing for me.”

And he put a new phone in my hand.

The timing couldn’t have been more odd.



I guess in the wake of a $1 billion dollar verdict, going from an iPhone to a Samsung is about the most subversive thing I can do here in the Silicon Valley.

“Rebel, rebel, you’ve torn your dress….”




Photos Copyright 2012, Karen Fayeth, and subject to the Creative Commons license in the right column of this page. Photo of iPhone taken with a Samsung GalaxySIII and the onboard camera app. Photo of the Samsung taken with a busted iPhone4s and the Camera+ app.



The Weekend – In Visuals

My weekend, told in a few words with iPhone photos to illustrate.

On Friday, The Good Man and I did an early dash away from work and drove up to Napa.




We checked into our B&B and went outside to sit on their peaceful back patio to decompress after a crazy week. And to partake of the B&B’s delicious French press coffee.

Only, we weren’t alone.




This creature doesn’t belong to the B&B. No one is really sure where it came from. Creepy Stalker Chicken seemed to think we were going to feed her. She was especially targeted The Good Man who is used to being shaken down for kibble by The Feline. Apparently we were unable to escape hungry domesticated animals for the weekend.

Which kind of made us hungry. After a fantastic (non-poultry) dinner and a good night’s sleep, we headed out the next day to do what it is most people do while visiting Napa.





A lot.

Oh, and at one winery, we still weren’t alone.





Apparently Creepy Stalker Chickens were the weekend theme. This one was wearing chicken pants.

But no matter. There was still this…





And then more





And a WHOLE lot more





“Heeeeeey, schhhicken, scccchhhhicken, ssssssshicken…”

Then on Saturday night, we headed out to take in some live music at The Uptown Theater. An acoustic Roseanne Cash show (with Shawn Mullins as the opening act).




It was *awesome*.

We slept good that night. Had a kick butt breakfast.

Then sadly it was Sunday and time to head back home.





With a whoooole lotta wine in the trunk of the car.





It’s medicinal. Really.




All photos Copyright 2010 or 2012, Karen Fayeth, and subject to the Creative Commons license in the far right column of this page. All taken with an iPhone 4s and the Camera+ up, except for the Golden Gate Bridge photo which was taken with the QuadCamera app.


Hitting Close to Home

I can’t abide people who are rude to waiters or assistants. — Tim Gunn, via Twitter

On the off chance you aren’t familiar with Tim Gunn, his main job is to mentor contestants on the television show Project Runway. He is also Chief Creative Officer with Liz Claiborne.

He’s a very stylish man and holds high standards in both manners and dress.

I am quite a huge fan of Mr. Gunn and enjoy watching both his style and compassion as he helps over-stressed designers through the rigors of competition.

The show Project Runway is quite inspiring to me, creatively, and so it was with little hesitation that I began following Mr. Gunn on Twitter as soon as he began tweeting.

Last week was a bit of a drag at work, and Mr. Gunn’s words were timely.

Part of my job is to oversee folks who provide end user support to employees of our company.

Help desk support is, truly, a thankless job.

As I told the Boss of my Boss last week, “People don’t email us just to say hi.”

No, people email us to dump big piles of vitriol and venom on my extraordinarily hard working and talented team.

My employees always fix the problem, and they do it quickly and with grace, but my goodness how demotivating it is to all of us to be constantly hammered with rude words and shouting.

When someone pings us, outlines their problem and asks for guidance, then great.

When someone fills an email with everything they think is wrong with my program, the company and the world, it’s brutal. Once or twice is easy to ignore. Over time, it builds up, like soot in a chimney.

I have to keep an eye on my team because burn out is a real possibility hovering over us all. It’s a management problem in any support organization.

I was feeling a little low, worried about my folks, and then I saw that simple powerful quote from Mr. Gunn.

I can’t abide by it either. If only I might add “help desk personnel” to the sentiment.

Glad to know that there are others in the world that believe it’s wrong to treat support folks of any stripe with bad manners. I’m hoping there are more who believe it’s wrong than believe it’s right.

Ok, lament over. Sometimes it feels good to vent off a little steam. Important to ease the pressure a bit so I can dive back in and be polite in the face of overt rudeness.

Here we go!

*sigh*



Boss of my Boss had much the same sentiment for me.




Image found all over the internet in various forms. If this one is yours, let me know and I’ll take it down or add attribution at your request.