Category: Family

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Film to Digital

As if I didn’t have enough hobbies/projects in my spare time…

Since a little after my Mom passed away, I had this idea of converting any and all Super 8mm film that I could find into digital video files.

The cost of offsite conversion concerned me, along with the idea of shipping these memories elsewhere.

After Dad passed away, I started looking into getting a home system to do this, but again, the price was a bit high.

Recently I checked pricing on these units again, they had dropped to an affordable price point, and decided to pick one up.

It seems to do the job well, having digitized about a dozen and a half 3-minute reels of film (at a rate of around 30 minutes per reel) and I’m pretty satisfied with the output.

For example: from about 45 years ago, Christmas 75.

Watching these films reminded me of another reason I didn’t convert them right away, it was still painful to see home movies of ones who have moved on, but age has made it a bit… less painful to watch.

It’s also fun to watch my niece, reacting to movies of her mother (my sister) as a baby.

Gotta say that’s it’s oddly satisfying and emotional to do this, seeing memories from over 40 years ago, and preserving them.

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Found

My sister Jen found a yellow fishnet bag with some old letters, a 50+ year-old Chinese Restaurant menu from Minnesota, and a set of negatives.

So I set up my little all-purpose media scanner thing and made pictures out of the negatives.

Behold!

I don’t think I’ve ever seen these pictures, in any form.

Oh, and here’s that Chinese Restaurant Menu:

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/end 2020

At work, having just finished a breakfast burrito from Philz.  Their ‘Gratitude’ holiday blend is pretty good, too.

This isn’t the worst year of my life, far from it.

But I think it’s the worst year of our collective lives.

Because we’ve been living with this shit together, but apart.

I hope to see many of you soon(tm), in person, again, soon(tm) being the type reserved for when updates to City of Heroes would come out.

I let out a primal scream for about 1/2 a block as I drove to work today.  That actually felt good.

But then I couldn’t find parking near the Chinese bakery to get pork buns, so I had to opt for the Philz breakfast burrito.

Anyways, just rambling this morning, not rumbling like it was around 5:42 am.  I sat there thinking that this was it, this is how 2020 was going to finally do us in.

But the rumbling stopped after a couple of seconds, it was more like a boop on da nose.

So cheers to you all, my friends and family and imaginary people on the other end of the internets, here’s to making it to the end of this crappy ass year and to the new beginnings of the upcoming year.

Not that I expect everything to change overnight, y’know.

It’s a symbolic thing.  You understand.

2021 = 2020 won?  No, fuck that.

It was never a game to begin with.

Welcome to life, mother fuckers.

Let’s ride.

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Bittersweet Sixteen

Hi, Mom.

It’s been 16 years since I held your hand and felt your last breath leave your body.

All things considered, I’m doing okay right now.

I had a hell month in August with a kidney stone.

I’m currently in the office, working on a couple of laptops and a desktop.

It’s been a crazy year.

There’s a guy that just arrived up there that you may want to say ‘Hi’ to, Chadwick Boseman.  Dad knows who he is.  He can tell you about him.

I just wanted to drop a note and tell you that I love you and miss you.

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Post-Game

I have no memory of this, but when I was really little, maybe even before I was born, my Dad would play chess in the company chess club.  He’d play on Friday nights, and according my Mom, when he’d get home, late, he’d still be down in the living room or dining room, setting up a chess set, and studying it, looking where he made a mistake that cost him a match.  I don’t know how long he would do that, couldn’t be more than an hour.  Or two.

Flash forward to now:

We played Dungeons and Dragons online last night, and the first thing I do when I get up this morning is futz around on Roll20 and DNDBeyond, looking at my newly leveled character and figuring out how to make spells work correctly from the online Roll20 character sheet.

I did that for about 2 hours before I realized what time it was, and took a shower.

Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, I guess.

* * *

I do like the online tools for D&D, but I miss face to face interaction.

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Update?

What a month, amirite?

Aside from working at the office every Tuesday, I’ve been working from home every weekday.  The Tuesdays feel the most ‘normal’ since I’m at the office, though it’s weird walking the floors wearing a mask, with hardly any employees around.

I’m not quite back to playing my sports replay projects regularly, though I have played a game here and there.

I’m doing my best in utilizing home delivery for necessities instead of going out shopping myself.

I dove into yet another new hobby, 3D printing, and so far I seem to be enjoying it, stumbling my way through frustrations and successes.

I got to see my sister and niece when I dropped off a gift for my sister’s birthday.  I had also seen them when I picked up some cookie dough from the now-defunct Specialties Café.

I really miss baseball.

A crewed commercial spacecraft launched from American soil for the first time, and a first for a crewed spacecraft since the last shuttle mission in 2011.  I cried tears of joy.

June is here.

Everyone stay safe until next time, okay?  Love you all.

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Duh

Got up this morning, showered, dressed, came back downstairs, found my niece playing on her phone.

me: Are you hungry?
Chloe: No.
me: C’mon, you haven’t eaten since last night.  I’ll be right back with something for breakfast.
Chloe: Okay.

I drive off to get pork buns.

Except… it’s Chinese New Year.

And all the Chinese restaurants are closed.

Whoops.

Next stop, Dunkin’ Donuts.