Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

So much energy to start the day, so much to do, so little of it done before I ran out of steam and fell over. Then I got up after resting, got started on a few more things, and fell over again. Hate my body ; hate this heat & humidity. (Cool front did arrive just before dusk; welcome change, but not quite enough ... still much better than nothing.) See how much I get caught up tomorrow. Might happen, right? (Read this paragraph less as whining and more as reminding myself that I really [expletive]ing need to learn how to pace myself and how much I can expect to get done in a day.)

This paragraph is ... well, not whining so much as grumbling. Managed to spill soda on my bed (and a pair of pumps and the floor) forty five minutes ago. Was taking my meds (including migraine drugs) and getting ready to fall over, and suddenly had to dash around for paper towels and start a load of laundry and pull out a clean bottom sheet. Bleah. My own carelessness. Could blame it on the migraine aura, but dammit, I should know to move that much more carefully/slowly when I'm feeling like that. Feh.

More of a whine but about something not really important ... or rather, something I'm not so worked up about, but felt like saying, "Aww, doggone it," aloud: I'm still mostly experimenting with the box camera (Agfa B-2 Cadet, from 1939) I borrowed from anniemal, finding out just what I can and can't do with it, but it's still a bit frustrating to look at a print from Baitcon and realize I had perfect composition for conveying one aspect of the party, reasonable (that is, printable) exposure, and was a little too close for that tiny, fixed-focus lens, so everyone's a little blurry. Argh! Near miss. (And the roll of Ilford Delta 3200 I had the lab push to 6400 came out blank except for the index-card shot at the start. Well, not really blank, but too thin to print. *pout* And the roll of 220 film (Fuji NPZ) that I'd bought by mistake and shot anyhow as an experiment (with foil taped over the little frame-number window) did work, but not very many usable frames -- the too-close shot was on that roll, and one roll of 120 that I shot in really bright light had little red spots from the frame-number window. Oops. At one lab, a tech commented that it looks like I'm getting some chromatic abberation from the lens. So no poster-sized enlargements from that camera, huh...) I'm also still having some trouble keeping the horizon level with the box camera, and not doing well framing moving subjects with it (still confused by the reversed viewfinder). I'm looking forward to knowing the camera well enough to start using it for real shooting instead of "experiments". That large negative (58mm x 81mm -- actually it's even more fun with slide film!) is sooo tempting, y'know? (I want a Pentax 67II so badly... But that plus a finder and a lens costs more than I've ever paid for a car. Unless I get amazingly lucky on eBay someday.) (Okay, I really want a P67II and a 4x5 or 8x10 view camera, but for different projects.)

Most of my film goes into the freezer to wait until I have some spare money with which to get it deveoped. I'm scraping money out of my grocery budget to get the 120 film from the box camera developed just 'cause I need the feedback while I'm learning the camera. (Yeah, it's simple to operate; I'm finding out what it's good at and how to compensate for its limitations.)

Little bright spots to the day: At one photo lab I got to spent a while chatting with the hottie who works there about email programs, worms/virii, security, etc. I wonder whether she realizes she's "the photo lab hottie". (I'm pretty sure she doesn't read this journal. If she does, my next trip to that lab might be a little awkward.) I always enjoy talking to her, and as a bonus, when I'm talking to her she's in my field of view. (Hey, I'm human and I have functioning eyes. Pleasant stimulus is, well, pleasant. I'm not supposed to pretend otherwise, am I? Not that I read more into it than that.) Hmm. Come to think of it, if she weren't interesting to talk to, I'd probably get tired of looking at her after a while no matter how cute she is. She was wearing a really nifty skirt today. Bright colours that suit her.

... And thinking of cool skirts, on a whim I got a roll of slide film developed 'cause slide film, despite being more expensive to buy, is relatively cheap to get developed. When I shot the second half of it, I'd forgotten it was slide film, so I shot it under fluorescent light and the colours are wonky, but I got some good shots of one of the Thrir Venstri Foetr musicians dancing and twirling in a skirt that moved in really cool ways. Including a shot with her hair flying from a spin.

... And thinking of pleasant visual stimuli, the same batch of slides includes a few shots of anniemal that I'm not sure whether she'll like, but which certainly please me to look at.

Now if only I could get the 100-200 rolls of colour negative film in the freezer developed. *sigh* Eventually...

Okay, time to stop typing and either do something productive or [bleep]ing give in to how tired I am and crash so I might get more stuff done tomorrow.