The challenge this past week was Details. The Extra Challenge was to use a Macro Lens. I was able to do both this week.
I took several different photos this week. At the end of the day, I liked this one best.
Page 6 of 37
Arrival
My mother-in-law arrived to visit. Her plane was delayed quite a while due to not having a pilot certified to land on a shorter runway. The Jet Port in Portland is renovating its landing areas and close the longer runway overnight. Since her plane was scheduled to land after 11 p.m., it would be using the shorter runway. Apparently, the co-pilot was certified to land, but they needed both pilots to be certified. It took several hours for a crew to be identified and assigned. An 11 p.m. pick-up became a 4:30 a.m. pick-up.
Graduation
D2 has officially completed all the “graduation” stuff. She was willing to participate in the official commencement exercises, so we got to see her walk across the stage and get “hooded”. The trip was a nice time. My mother-in-law also was able to witness her graduating.
Workflows
I’ve begun working on truly implementing workflows for work. We have a WordPress set up, the appropriate plug-ins installed (Gravity Forms and Gravity Flow), as well as the mail system. I had to take a break to work on some video work (see below), but it is coming along.
MLTI Conference
We took about 45 kids to the MLTI conference this year. I met them up at the University of Maine since my house is between work and the University. It was a nice experience for the kids. The kids attended two sessions plus a closing experience. I was assigned six eighth-grade boys. They were great.
Video
I spent a full day and a bit time the next day editing a video for work. There was an important School Board Workshop. We use an OWLY to record the meeting. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really capture the slides being presented. So, I inserted the slides into the video. Thank you “Picture in Picture” within iMovie. This does take a good bit of work. Not the most exciting work, but important.
City Chicken
Rm and my mother-in-law made City Chicken (breaded chunks of pork and veal on a skewer) today. We invited a couple of friends over (who have never had City Chicken). This was the first time for Rm to make City Chicken.
As always with Rm’s cooking, the meal was fantastic. There was a crumble for dessert, with real homemade whipped cream brought by the guests. The company was great as well.
Charm
We took my mother-in-law for a trip on the Schooner Charm. Rm and I took her mom out on the Charm for an afternoon sail. The weather was sunny and beautiful. There was a hint of a breeze.
Rm was dazzling as always. Her mom was jacketed and hatted. Her mom said that she enjoyed the trip.
The Captain was entertaining. He relays the history of the schooner. It is easy to see that he enjoys doing this.
Dinner
For dinner, we walked down to Nautilus Seafood and Grill. They have a pretty wide menu, helpful given my mother-in-law’s taste, so we were all able to find a good dinner. It was also surprisingly affordable. I had the Fish and Chips, one of my favorites, while my lovely wife had a Haddock sandwich. My mother-in-law had the pulled pork sandwich. They also had burgers, other sandwiches, and lots of seafood options.
52 Frames
I’ve now completed 21 straight weeks of the 52 Frames Photo Challenge.
Well, given that I submitted my 19th consecutive 52Frames photo, and this is Weekly Review 10, I’m tracking at just about a “weekly” review every two weeks.
I’ve had a couple of interesting weeks though since my last posting.
Vacation
First and foremost, Rm and I took a bit of a vacation. This seems odd to me as it was always tough to take a vacation during the school year. New times.
Rm and I went to see Cabaret at the August Wilson Theater in New York. The show stars Eddie Redmayne (the Emcee), Gayle Rankin (Sally Bowles), Bebe Neurwith (Fraulein Schneider).
The audience was requested to come in early as there were experiences before the show. The doors opened and we were led along a lengthy walk. Partway through, we were handed a shot of cherry schnapps. This was to be consumed prior to entering.
The Before Show show featured several dancers and musicians. It was well done and entertaining.
Cabaret was really well done and entertaining. There is so much applicability to our times. The cast was wonderful, filled with lots of good performances.
I did note that not everyone “dresses” for the theater. The prevalence of baseball caps and jeans on gents as old as or older than me was interesting.
This was a wonderful evening.
WordPress process
I think that I’ve found the process for embedding my pictures (for now). Generally, I upload my pictures to Google Photos, free storage, and then use Labnol to create a link to the image. This is because Google Photos doesn’t allow embedding. Anyway, I create the link in Labnol. Then I use the direct link (not the embed) to add an image in WordPress. I also use the direct link to add the “Featured Image”. Next, add the Alt Text, always add appropriate alt text.
OBS Frustration
OBS is powerful. I need to learn more about it. Every once in a while, a frustration point arises though. The current frustration point is that the mouse pointer is misaligned with the location on the screen. This makes it frustratingly hard to resize anything as it is nearly impossible to click a handle. I’ve been doing some research, but no answers as of yet.
Google Filters
I just went to save Filter view of the spreadsheet in Google Sheets, and things have changed. Not for the better.
It used to be that Sheets had a disclosure triangle next to the filter icon. Any saved filters would be listed. Very handy. Now, not only are saved filters hidden in a Menu item, but even getting to where you can save a filter is under the Menu item as well.
Camera Backpack
I’ve picked up a new camera backpack. I went with something a little different. I’m not sure different is good here, but we’ll see. This one has two sections, a top that is like a traditional backpack, and a bottom that opens from the front. The idea is that all of the lenses go in the bottom section, nicely protected, while the camera and accessories go in the top. One problem is that the divider uses velcro to keep the division. This took a while to get to where if felt secure. I’m still a bit suspicious of it.
Interview Project
I got the opportunity to teach a couple of eighth-grade classes how to record and transcribe interviews. They will be interviewing someone who has immigrated to Maine. They won’t appreciate how much easier transcription is now, but I sure do.
Blogging
So, I’ve learned that the value of blogging is mostly very personal and limited. I’ve been extremely happy that I posted about something. In one case, I was looking for something really specific, doing the generic Google search, and found that the best write-up was by me.
So, I’ve learned to search my blog for questions that I have. In the process of doing so, I discovered a write-up on Being Quoted. This brought me a smile. Maybe I should randomly pull up a blog post in the future. Or, maybe I should find an application that randomly pulls up a quote from my blog for me.
Mother’s Day
Both kids were around for Mother’s Day. They made a wonderful breakfast of eggs benedict. There were also some plants planted.
The challenge for this week was “wide aperture”. I usually shoot with a pretty wide aperture, so this was a “normal” challenge for me. I kind of wanted to shoot an image with a variety of lenses to really learn about the differences, but I didn’t get the time.
I did get to think about it though. That is something that helps me. I do plan on taking an image (with the widest aperture) with a variety of lenses in the future.
In the meantime, my photo submission for this week is below.
Easter
We spent Easter afternoon with D1 and a friend of hers. Dinner was wonderful (mac and cheese and broccoli). A puzzle was completed and the Tiger game was on the projector. The Tigers are now 3-0 (all one-run games).
Teri Kanefield
The wonderful Teri Kanefield post the Ronna McDaniel Story. Teri is a national treasure. Read her stuff. She is logical and respectful. She has great examples and provides a balanced perspective.
Oh, Teri Kanefield also responded to a post of mine.
Likewise:
The Cleveland Newspaper had a nice write-up on why their coverage is what it is.
“We tell the truth, even when it offends some of the people who pay us for information.”
Snow
Even though we’ve had very little snow this winter, we got a bunch last week and are predicted to have more this week. So much for picking up the heat mats, getting the flowers out, installing the landscape lighting, etc.
VLOOKUP
I had a frustrating experience with a VLOOKUP use case this week. I had a spreadsheet and wanted to match up a couple of columns. So, I created two tabs for that information.
The two tabs from which I’m pulling from are labeled ML, and SN.
One worked,
=VLOOKUP(B2,SN!A2:F,4,FALSE)
one did not:
=VLOOKUP(B2,ML!A2:F,2,FALSE)
Since there really wasn’t that much information on the sheet and copy and pasted the information onto the first sheet. Then, I used:
=VLOOKUP(A2,$N$3:$O$8,2,FALSE)
Which worked fine and dandy. I still don’t know why the original didn’t work. This is why you always do a sanity check though. I didn’t get an error message, just no data was marked.
Keybow2040
Still haven’t solved the Keybow2040 programming yet.
Tools
I did get a bit of time to work on cleaning up the shed and (starting) to organize the garage. I got the workbench cleaned off in the shed. I installed an overhead light (not correctly wired yet, but functional). I put up a board and mounted a couple of battery chargers in the garage. I still have lots of work to do to get things organized, but small steps were completed.
Audio Hijack
Audio Hijack has an update. I should know better than to run an update just before recording a show, but…
The update seems to have broken my workflow. After the update, only one side of the podcast recorded. I reached out to Rogue Amoeba, the developer of Audio Hijack, and got a very quick response. After two emails, the issue was solved. I’ll need to use a different workflow, but all should be good again.
Update, not all good again. I was able to record the podcast, but I had to record off of a different microphone. I’ll continue to doing troubleshooting until I figure out the exact issue. Rogue Amoeba is also asking for logs.
D2 visit
Pancakes
I made pancakes this morning. These came out flatter than usual, but still tasty,.
Yard Goats
D2 and I went to the Hartford Yard Goats game today. Prior to leaving, we found out that they will be playing one game as the Hartford Bouncing Pickles. The bouncing pickle is a pickle on a pogo stick.
Apparently, the Yard Goats went looking for old laws. They found one that stated that a pickle was only good if it bounces. Apparently, in 1948, there were arrests made because someone was selling pickles that didn’t bounce.
The park, Dunkin’ Park, is very nice. There is something about minor league baseball. The parks are small, and the teams work hard at including the fans. Like many other teams, the Yard Goats made things fun.
The game was a good game too. The Yard Goats ended up victorious, 7-4. We had a bit of light rain, sunshine, and clouds. Mostly, the weather was pretty comfortable.
*And, yes, I did buy a T-shirt with a Pickle on a pogo stick.
Podcast
Successfully recorded the podcast today. Still having issues with Audio Hijack, but I was able to figure out a way to record the show. Everything is posted and all good.
Travel
Traveling to D2, I listened to the first half of a Tiger’s Double Header. The first game was interesting until the 12th inning. Then things went really south.
52Frames
Completed my 52Frames Challenge for this week as well. The challenge was technology. Since I work in technology, I had figured that this would be an easy one. However, I wanted to do the Extra Challenge of a “cinematic” picture. I had to do some reviewing on what makes a picture cinematic. After some review, many of my original Technology thoughts didn’t line up with cinematic. So, then I thought that I’d take a picture of train tracks with the switching equipment. I did take some pictures of train switching lights, but decided the technology link was too weak. So, I took a picture of my laptop sitting on the deck railing at evening. This worked better for the cinematic features.
Thai Dinner
D2 and I went to small local Thai diner. This was the epitome of local diner. The service was, well, lacking. The food was good though. We even got a kick out of the TV running Roku and playing YouTube videos.
Taxes
I finished up taxes for me and my mother-in-law today. I had a bit of tough go with the pensions and how to code them. There are some things that just don’t make sense. Let’s say that your pension is a defined pension from a private company. Let’s also say that you are over 73 years old. Once you are over 73 years old, you have to take a required minimial distribution (RMD) from your 401K or IRA. However, a defined pension doesn’t have an RMD, you get the same amount from the day you retire. Yet, you have to mark whether or not the amount was RMD or not. Plus, you have to commit that you have taken your RMD. Researching that to make sure that things were right was less than fun.
Today was a great day to hunker down with a blanket and a book. That is, it was windy, rainy, and cold. Instead, I spent it finishing up taxes. I hear in other countries, this process is quick and easy.
Trevor Ragan
Trevor was a really good presenter. He focuses on learning. His presentation revolves largely around three areas:
- Growth Mindset (which he gets correct)
- Stress Mindset
- Psychology Safety
He kept us engaged and learning for three hours. He’s not one of the flash over substance people. He talked a good bit about the nuances and gray areas of research and learning.
He has a free “audiobook” (hint: it’s really a podcast). I put the podcasts into a single file though, so now it is more like an audiobook.
He has a ton of YouTube and Podcast material available. I’ll be checking out some more of his stuff.
Eclipse
I got to a chance to be home for the eclipse. I had a pair of glasses ready to go.
My town was not in the totality. However, it was close. My town was listed as 97.6%. The eclipse was said to start at 14:18 EDT. The mid-eclipse was to be at 15:31.
I’m glad that I got to experience this. This was definitely something that is hard to fully explain. There was something very eerie, more so than words will convey.
This week was minimalism. I took a couple of pictures early in the week when we got some snow. I’m glad I did as the best picture that I got this week was one of those.
I did take some other pictures, a couple of them I like, but they didn’t meet the criteria as well. The other ones that I took were on a very overcast day. I like the way that they turned out, they just didn’t meet the challenge for this week.
Whew! I’m behind again. A busy couple of weeks.
No School
School was canceled due to snow, ice, and trees being down. We kept our power but had a good bit of ice. I ran the snowblower on Saturday to get everything cleared out. However, the snow turned to ice/rain/snow/sleet mix. Sunday morning I felt more like I was running a Zamboni than a snowblower. Fortunately, my neighbor plowed the end of the driveway for me.
The roads were good. Our town and the neighboring ones were good at staying on top of plowing the roads. Thus, grocery shopping was completed.
I used the day of working from home to get some work done.
Keybow 2040
I also spent a little bit of time working on programming the Pimaroni Keybow 2024. It’s a neat little device, but I don’t have tons of Python experience, so it’s proving, well, frustrating. I can get the basic programming to work, i.e. the keys enter numbers or letters and light up when depressed. However, I’m struggling with advanced coding to get a key to open a webpage. I don’t seem to be the only one as I’ve seen several posts asking the same question but no one posts the actual answer. Occasionally, they will say, ah, I got it. However, they don’t post the actual “it”.
So, I’ll keep on working on this as I get time. If you know CircuitPY and would like to shoot me some code on assigning a key to a website, gosh, I’d be appreciative.
Taxes
I’ve completed our taxes, which seems like it is harder than it should be. I’m no billionaire, so I pay taxes. Plus, I get to file in multiple states.
Make People Sad
Sometimes in my job, I have to tell people “no”. Sometimes, I have to tell people that they can’t use a “thing” that they like to use. I heard another Tech Director express this as sometimes my job is to “make people sad”. I laughed. That’s a great way of expressing this. It was also nice to hear that others have to do this as well.
This was part of the Cyber Storm event that I took part in. Cyber Storm is a preparation exercise to help schools prepare for cyber intrusions, network issues, cyber incidents, and more. The training was great. It was nice to know that others are dealing with some of the same issues.
Otter AI
I also shared a note about Otter.AI. Otter AI is a Zoom plug-in that records everything that is said and provides a transcript. It is especially popular for some Special Needs parents. Their pitch is that you never need to take notes. Think about this though. They are recording everything that is said during a meeting for a special needs situation. Think about the potentially private, personal information shared during those meetings.
Caulking
Not my favorite job, but once again this weekend I caulked. The thing is that the caulk removal and cleaning is a ton of work. The actual caulking is pretty quick. Nice clean caulk is now in place though.
52Frames
I scrolled through the 52Frames Photo Challenge. I tried to “like” a variety of photos (that I actually liked). My idea was to give some positive feedback. I know that I enjoy getting a notification that someone liked one of my photos, so I thought that I’d share that love a little bit.
I’ve continued to submit pictures to 52Frames. I’m enjoying the process and the satisfaction of meeting the submission guidelines. I’m generally posting those separately, so I won’t repeat them here.
Oh William!
I did read Oh William! by Elizabeth Stroud. I enjoyed it very much. I document my books read under the Hobbies tab. I probably should redo that as it is currently an HTML table.
This week’s Photo Challenge is Symmetrical Composition. It was a nice exercise to look for symmetry around me. Thus, I enjoyed this challenge. I took a few “backup” pictures with my phone during the week.
However, I visited the park across from the State House (capital building of Maine). I went there as I noticed the nice symmetry of the trees lining the path.
What struck me was the benches. I get a sense of longing, of waiting from the benches.
My second choice was a similar picture of a couple walking. This one ALMOST did it for me.
I think that if the dog wasn’t in the picture blocking the bench, it may have been the choice. I like the balance of the couple walking, both with black coats and jeans. Interestingly to me, the focus of the picture is completely different.
Did I make the correct choice?
I’ve previously posted about a volunteer form that I created. Apparently, there was an issue with the form, so I had to take a look.
Basically, there is a form that collects volunteers and the days that they will be volunteering. This all goes into a spreadsheet.
The spreadsheet is set up to allow for a printable sheet by each day. The day is picked in a cell that uses Data Validation. Previously, I had the data validation pulling from a range of dates. However, this meant that the dates weren’t in any real order. So, I thought about it and added a column to pull all of the dates from the range into a single column. This was done via the UNIQUE and FLATTEN commands. Thus,
=UNIQUE(FLATTEN(VDates))
was entered. This is great as it identifies UNIQUE dates, thus no duplicates, and FLATTENS the various cells into one column. (The range of cells has been named “VDates” via the Data | Named ranges menu selection. Thus M2:W is named “VDates”).
This is great, except that the dates are not SORTed. So, in the next column, I simply created a formula to sort them (
=SORT(Y2:Y,1,FALSE)).
The formula reaches into the previous column (Y), is only going to create 1 column, and FALSE is for is_ascending – i.e. this will be in reverse chronological order).
Now, the Date cell uses Data Validation that pulls from that one column. Everything is fixed and running fine.
Click to add tags…
Jason Isbell
We enjoyed the wonderful Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit live in concert this week. He is always good. If you get a chance, go see him.
The opener wasn’t our favorite. The concert did start on time, though the wait between the opener finishing and Jason Isbell starting was a little longer than I thought.
CBG
We ended up at CBG for dinner before the concert. It’s a nice little “dive bar”. I had a smash burger that was very satisfying.
Sam Spade Ending
Rm and I watched the rebooted Sam Spade. We enjoyed most of the show except for the ending. The show seemed to be more reflective of old-time shows. Clive Owen is wonderful. The whole show is beautifully filmed.
Ah, but the ending. Lots can be forgiven in a show. But the ending of this one was inexcusable.
Steak and Martini’s
Sometimes the very best dinners are at home. We had some wonderful steaks, with roasted potatoes, and carrots.
Plus, we hadn’t had martini’s in a while, so….
Perfect pairing.
52Frames
I have kept my 52Frames streak alive. This week was on intentional camera movement (ICM). Although this isn’t my usual photography jam, I did enjoy the process and learning with this one. I want to experiment a little bit more in the future.
Faucet Switch
Also had the opportunity to help my daughter switch out a faucet. Having the right tools can be crucial. Sometimes, it is helpful if something is installed badly. In this case, the sink wasn’t actually attached to anything (other than pipes), so we were able to flip it over and get everything accomplished.
Bezzle
I finished reading The Bezzle by Cory Doctorow. The book is very much in line with Cory’s thoughts and focus of late. This is the second book in a series on Martin Hench, Forensic Accountant. It has a different style and feel than the first Martin Hench book (Red Team Blues). I enjoyed both books.
Blogrolls
I also wrote up a quick post about Blogrolls. I based this off of a post by Ben Werd. As a follow-up, I heard from the outstanding Alan Levine.
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Troy Patterson
Middle School Matters; Troy Patterson Consulting
troy@troypatterson.me
+1832-378-7697
Moodle, Education, Open-Source
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