Goofing off on a Saturday Afternoon

[PerpetualNoob]

A few weeks ago, I was, well, whining, about my camera. I've had it for at least two years, and never figured out how to get it into macro mode. I went online and downloaded the manual from Fuji, which was totally not helpful at all. They listed a five step button sequence, but didn't bother to list anywhere which button was A, B, etc. I finally decided I was never going to figure it out, and gave up.

I just now discovered it, totally by accident. It's only one button, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the procedure in the manual. Now I can actually take some decent close-ups of cigars, or whatever else I want! Here's the one I took, just to see how it would turn out. It's cropped, and I boosted the brightness a tiny bit, but at least it's in focus, which is a definite improvement. The range is roughly 12 inches.

You can learn to be good at something, but you'll never learn how to be lucky. If you feel like berating me for being a tedious wanker, now would be as good a time as you'll ever have.

[guy g]

I too have not gotten good pics. I am going to try and figure my wife's camara out. NIce pic!

[PerpetualNoob]

I am way happier about this minor victory, than it truly deserves, but for me it was an unusually productive day, especially for a Saturday. I not only accidentally figured out the macro mode, but I even got off my dead ass and signed up for a photobucket account, and copied my favorite photo editor from my 'main' PC, which I haven't used in months, to my laptop, both of which I had been putting off for months, just out of sheer sloth.

Not only can I finally show off my purchases, but I have other things I've wanted to take pictures of but never been able to do. There have been occasions at work when I wanted photos for procedures, but the only ones I was able to get were too horrible to be even moderately useful. It's such a small thing, but it has just opened up a whole world of things I have wanted to do.

[Emjaysmash]

Hurry! someone copy off his fingerprints! We can take his identity!
In all seriousness, great pic. I'm glad you found what you needed after two years of searching! Have fun taking more!!

[PerpetualNoob]

I'll save you a little trouble. I was in the USAF, so the Feds got my junk in their computers, somewhere. The alligator skin effect is purely seasonal, though. I can use the best hand cremes ever made, and it makes them better, but only until the next time I wash my hands. They feel like sandpaper.

I've been doing this 6 months on/ 6 months off thing for 21 years now, and the older I get, the worse it gets. It's not very cigar friendly, either. The RH in the house has been sitting right around 15% for weeks now.

[PaleRider]

A wanker you are not my friend. Entertaining as hell, yes! Isn't independent living great!

[Cigary]

It's those little things in life that get our attention. Some weekends are so much more productive when it comes to me as a challenge instead of something that is a "have to do" thing. I have enough of those TTD list but it's those things that bother the crap out of me that will get my attention like you listed. Walk away proud that you conquered this,,have a cigar to celebrate and call it a day.

Originally Posted by PerpetualNoob

I am way happier about this minor victory, than it truly deserves, but for me it was an unusually productive day, especially for a Saturday. I not only accidentally figured out the macro mode, but I even got off my dead ass and signed up for a photobucket account, and copied my favorite photo editor from my 'main' PC, which I haven't used in months, to my laptop, both of which I had been putting off for months, just out of sheer sloth.

Not only can I finally show off my purchases, but I have other things I've wanted to take pictures of but never been able to do. There have been occasions at work when I wanted photos for procedures, but the only ones I was able to get were too horrible to be even moderately useful. It's such a small thing, but it has just opened up a whole world of things I have wanted to do.

[PerpetualNoob]

Originally Posted by Cigary

It's those little things in life that get our attention. Some weekends are so much more productive when it comes to me as a challenge instead of something that is a "have to do" thing. I have enough of those TTD list but it's those things that bother the crap out of me that will get my attention like you listed. Walk away proud that you conquered this,,have a cigar to celebrate and call it a day.

Here's another typical story. About 18 months ago, I decided it was high time to replace the lights on my carport. I had been looking at Home Despot, and thought I had found a good candidate. Since it was supposed to be a short term thing, and it was Summer, I just clipped the wires on the first one and stuffed them back behind the metal plate it was mounted on, which also rendered the other one non-functional. After I started looking at it, I figured out that I didn't have the slightest idea how I was going to get the new ones mounted up there. They don't make anything remotely like the original ones. Oh, the outer 3/4 inch of both metal plates were stuccoed over after they were put in, so I had the additional joy of chipping that away with a hammer and cold chisel, while trying to make sure I didn't bust out any big chunks of it, or make the hole any larger than it had to be.

After 18 months of not having any light, I went ahead and connected the wires together, so I would at least have one working, and started drilling, cutting, and filing on the first mounting plate, until I got it rigged up to mount the new one, but it has been sub-zero ever since, and I haven't felt like being outside any time I don't absolutely have to. The new light has been sitting right here in front of me on the coffee table for the last two or three weeks. At least I finally have the one light working, so I don't trip over stuff on my way out to the truck, and I got to use the grill, just once, without a flashlight.

Assuming it ever warms up again, I'll be able to get the one light up in about 30 minutes, and now that I know how to do it, I'll be able to get the other one rigged up in a couple of hours.

That's just how I roll, Brother. Story of my life. I just blame it on buying a 40-year-old house, where everything is pretty much either obsolete, or violates a building code. Even if I use the Home Improvement rule of "double everything", it still takes twice as long, and twice as much money as I thought. If I double my estimates twice to compensate, it still takes twice as much. I'm also pretty bad about over-engineering things, because they're always such a pain in the keister, I want to make sure I, personally, never, ever have to do them again.

I swear, if I ever meet the guy who built this place, I'm going to taser him right in the goolies. Everything was designed and built as if it was never going to need to be repaired or replaced. If I ever win a lottery, the first thing I'm going to do is pay off the Wells Fargo bastards, then knock this thing down with a bulldozer, and build a new one in its place out of Legos and Lincoln Logs. Need to move in a new sectional sofa? Just snap the front wall off and drive the damned thing in on a Bobcat loader!

[PaleRider]

Bless you my brother, bless you!

[Cigary]

Oh man,,,we must be brothers from another mother. I have so many stories about stuff just like this I swear I'd have to take a xanax to settle down from the shot memories it would invoke.

Just when you think you are doing a good thing by fixing something I always remember the old adage,,,,,"No good deed goes unpunished",,,considering a tattoo with that sentiment but am afraid something will really go bad with that idea.

Originally Posted by PerpetualNoob

Here's another typical story. About 18 months ago, I decided it was high time to replace the lights on my carport. I had been looking at Home Despot, and thought I had found a good candidate. Since it was supposed to be a short term thing, and it was Summer, I just clipped the wires on the first one and stuffed them back behind the metal plate it was mounted on, which also rendered the other one non-functional. After I started looking at it, I figured out that I didn't have the slightest idea how I was going to get the new ones mounted up there. They don't make anything remotely like the original ones. Oh, the outer 3/4 inch of both metal plates were stuccoed over after they were put in, so I had the additional joy of chipping that away with a hammer and cold chisel, while trying to make sure I didn't bust out any big chunks of it, or make the hole any larger than it had to be.

After 18 months of not having any light, I went ahead and connected the wires together, so I would at least have one working, and started drilling, cutting, and filing on the first mounting plate, until I got it rigged up to mount the new one, but it has been sub-zero ever since, and I haven't felt like being outside any time I don't absolutely have to. The new light has been sitting right here in front of me on the coffee table for the last two or three weeks. At least I finally have the one light working, so I don't trip over stuff on my way out to the truck, and I got to use the grill, just once, without a flashlight.

Assuming it ever warms up again, I'll be able to get the one light up in about 30 minutes, and now that I know how to do it, I'll be able to get the other one rigged up in a couple of hours.

That's just how I roll, Brother. Story of my life. I just blame it on buying a 40-year-old house, where everything is pretty much either obsolete, or violates a building code. Even if I use the Home Improvement rule of "double everything", it still takes twice as long, and twice as much money as I thought. If I double my estimates twice to compensate, it still takes twice as much. I'm also pretty bad about over-engineering things, because they're always such a pain in the keister, I want to make sure I, personally, never, ever have to do them again.

I swear, if I ever meet the guy who built this place, I'm going to taser him right in the goolies. Everything was designed and built as if it was never going to need to be repaired or replaced. If I ever win a lottery, the first thing I'm going to do is pay off the Wells Fargo bastards, then knock this thing down with a bulldozer, and build a new one in its place out of Legos and Lincoln Logs. Need to move in a new sectional sofa? Just snap the front wall off and drive the damned thing in on a Bobcat loader!

[PerpetualNoob]

Originally Posted by Cigary

Oh man,,,we must be brothers from another mother. I have so many stories about stuff just like this I swear I'd have to take a xanax to settle down from the shot memories it would invoke.

Just when you think you are doing a good thing by fixing something I always remember the old adage,,,,,"No good deed goes unpunished",,,considering a tattoo with that sentiment but am afraid something will really go bad with that idea.

I do truly feel your pain. Took me two weeks to replace my worn out garbage disposal. Why? The sink was rotting out, the pipes were all wrong. Wound up replacing the sink, faucet, all the pipes, and the feeder hoses. Then, the hole for the old sink is just big enough that the fastener clips for the new one got nothing to grip onto, so I gotta cobble together a whole complex thing to make that work. It never ends. If it was all I had to do, it might not be quite so bad, but factor in a 40-50 workweek, plus all the other things you have to do, the last thing you feel like doing at the end of a long day is spend another four or five hours working on plumbing.

Every single project winds up snow-balling into five or six other things that I have to fix/replace/redesign, just so I can fix the thing I started out to fix in the first place. Home Despot never has what I actually want, so I end up buying six things to make make something to do what the one thing was designed to do. Even when they do have it, I don't know what I'm doing, so I have to first make two trips to buy the wrong thing, before I finally make a third trip to get the thing I should have gotten in the first place. It's exhausting and maddening. It. Never. Ends.