Talk about a frustrating two-thirds of a weekend (I count Friday night as part of my weekend).
All I Want To Do Is Copy My Data
I am trying to set a good example by backing up my data to external hard drives so that I can take somewhere “safe” in case there is a catastrophic event at my house. The premise seems simple enough
- Store all important data on a central network-accessible drive
- Periodically connect a USB hard drive
- Start a copy of all data (preferably only updated data) to this USB hard drive
- Take this USB hard drive to “safe harbor”
Unfortunately I keep getting errors mid-way through the copying process and thereby ruining the entire process. I am trying to figure out why this is happening before I have to blog about a loss of data.
Of Course If I Keep Shooting Poorly I Won’t Have Much To Lose
On Saturday night I did my first “professional” photography gig. It was a disaster. The gig was at Eddie’s Attic where David Ryan Harris was performing.
Having never heard of Harris (whose show turned out to be quite enjoyable) I figured that I could show up at the 7pm show and have the run of the room. Nope. The show was sold out and I had to fight my way around the room. Normally I’d not be able to fight for position, but as the “house photographer” I had little concern and moved about the room as best I could.
Even with my ability to get to the sweet spots for shots my shots are frustratingly horrible. Eddie’s Attic is a dark venue so I was counting on my new Nikon D300 and its “excellent performance at higher ISOs” to help me out. As added insurance I also packed my external flash (which I don’t like to use at concerts because I feel that it washes everything out). For most of the night I decided to go without the flash. Because of the dark surroundings I was forced to set my ISO at 1600 (which turned out still not to be good enough) and 3200 (yikes!) — both settings produced far more noise than I like. These high settings were required to avoid camera shake and motion blur even though I was using lenses that could shoot at f/2.8 (28-75mm) and f/1.8 (50mm).
I am going to try and save the evening’s work through post-processing. Getting it “right” in the camera is far more desirable.
Seeing my results I was pleased that I didn’t take Eddie’s Attic up on their offer for free food. I don’t expect to be asked to return for another gig.
On another note about Eddie’s Attic, rumor was flying around that John Mayer was going to be a “unannounced guest” at the late show Saturday night. I thought about sticking around to see, but decided that I didn’t want to. If anyone out there can either confirm or deny this rumor I’d like to know — just to see if I made the proper decision.
Twelve Days Of ITP Flickr Pics
Each day through Christmas I will be picking my favorite photo for each month of 2007.
Today: November
This was the present that Santa brought to me before tonight and was supposed to be my savior for situations like Saturday night. Maybe it’s not the camera’s fault….
You Pays Your Money, You Takes Your Chances
There are benefits to knowing the area in which you are hashing. Strategic maneuvers can be taken to miss parts of the trail thus making hashing easier. There is a flip side to this theory as well, however. Yesterday I experienced both.
The trail started about half of a mile from where I work. Once I saw the direction in which the hares were running I knew a few shortcuts to help me out. My theory proved to be correct as I came upon the beer stop without having to walk through the small tunnel and climb up the ladder which had water pouring over it.
With the confidence of my success I constructed a plan which I though was rock-solid. At the first check after the beer stop I headed for the culvert which led to more drainage pipes (exactly where I would go!) Unfortunately my plan was foiled by the call of “on-on” in the opposite direction. I trotted along paved roads heading toward the “swan lake with the cool little suspension bridge” (also where I would go!) but lost trail along the way. After spotting a creek and what I thought were marks I got into another tunnel which ended quickly but not quickly enough for me to not fall into a section which dropped me chest-deep in cold water. I realized I had made an error and backtracked to the last place I saw flour only to realize that I had the correct creek but the wrong direction. After navigating drainage pipes which took us under Perimeter Mall (!) I exited to find myself in the same goddamn culvert that I started toward earlier. Dangen!
I commend those clever bastard hares for creating a decent Black sheep experience in an urban area and was glad that my mental errors didn’t cause me to be DFL (although I was pretty close).
Remember Kids, “Tattoo” Rhymes With “Fuck You”
Considering me for an Amazing Race partner? You can stop right now. I’d consider shaving my head for the million dollars (really 500k before taxes) but there is no way in hell that I’d get a tattoo. Further I’d be incredibly pissed if I did and then found out that it wasn’t an elimination leg.
And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – blah, not only am I at work today I thin that I have something working on me. I hope that I am not sick tomorrow. Also I really wanted to take the step-aerobics class today that I was challenged to take so I could show of my former step-aerobics superiority.
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Husker Du — “Never Talking To You Again”
Website Of The Day – The Writers’ Guild of America strike is still happening and some actors have decided to bring it to light with Speechless Without Writers.
Exercise (b)Log – hashing, about 3 miles for me
Monthly Foot Mileage – 23.1 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work – My car
Monthly Marta Rides – 11
December Goals
1) Run no fewer than 50 miles
2) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
3) Read at least one book
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
Were you not around for the days of Follow For Now? Sort of a local Living Color in which David Ryan Harris played guitar? I have their cd, but they were a better live band.
I was around for Follow For Now, that is I recognize the name, but somehow missed the bandwagon.
Tunnel UNDER Perimeter Mall? Wow.. that should have been pretty cool.
Sorry the shoot didn’t go well. Once upon a time, I rented good lighting from Professional Photographers Supply over on the backside of 10th street. It was a remote that plugged into the camera that drove the strobes so you were running wirelessly. Got some good shots, but my subjects were fairly static- unlike a band that’s moving around.
And while I AM at work, I’m trying hard not to do any… but so far it isn’t working.
-FP
It actually was pretty cool knowing that we were going under Perimeter Mall (well, maybe just its parking lot)
What are you doing at work FP? I thought W(orst) gave all of you Feds the day off today?
The Fed “by law” cannot be closed more than 3 days in a row… the theory being to actually keep the economy running (what a concept!!). I think we are here as a mere technicallity, as we aren’t really doing much work.
-FP
And BTW, don’t confuse “The Fed” with the Gubment… we’re not. We’re Congressionally Chartered, (whatever the hell that means).
-FP
Good point. I usually lump all you people who eat up the incredibly high taxes that I pay together. 🙂
Shooting concerts is a drag. It’s not your fault, or the camera’s – it’s Eddie’s fault for not having enough lighting. BTW, the lighting at most venues in Atlanta is crap. I would say I got 1 good shot in 100 when I was doing it. Film was the absolute worst – at least with digital it’s free.
I agree that flash makes everything look like crap.
Re: The Amazing Race – I wouldn’t have minded getting the tattoo if a) I could pick it out — I mean, a stupid FF? What the hell?! At the very least, maybe an Amazing Race logo to commemorate the event, not just a dumb FF — and b), like you said, it had been an elimination round. Holy cow, I hadn’t even thought of that. Now that truly would have been annoying.
I, the viewer, am happy it was Non-Elimination, however. The two teams that came in last are my favorite two teams still in the race so I’m glad that neither had to go.
I agree with you about the two teams that I like the most. I really like Christina, but her dad annoys the heck out of me. Nate and Jennifer irk me (although I admit finding Jennifer attractive). Nicholas and Gramps are almost a non-factor.
The Fast Forward does give Nicholas and Old Man River the advantage of time in the next leg, even though it was a non-elimination round. Someone on another AR blog mentioned the Gothic “FF” tattoo looked a little bit too much like the Nazi “SS.” Nice.
I hate Nate and Jen.
I love the Goths…and when Kynt gets angry, he kinda sounds like someone’s WASPy grandma (“Stop this car! Stop right now, Vyxsin! You are incapable of operating this vehicle”)!!
TK and Rachel are boring.
Ronald says funny things.