Archive for September, 2009
But I can’t juggle
Of late the hubs and I have been trying to do everything at once. Weaning our son, and encouraging him to sleep in his own bed. Both of us have been crazy busy with our jobs. We have been searching for a new home to rent. I have been attempting to get in better shape so as to be able to keep up with a baby boy and keep my health in check to the best of my abilities. We keep trying to keep our home clean, which seems to only last for a moment after cleaning. Trying to really take the time to catch up with each other and making sure both of us are really getting the down time that we need. It simply has been crazy.
Now we are recovering from a long weekend of attempting to do all of it, and do it well. My son is finally sleeping for a good stretch. It is peaceful in my home right now.
I just saw a LOVELY home that I want to live in but it is simply too small for our needs. The home we looked at last night is simply bigger than we need. I am so bummed that we can’t make the charming little place work. Did I mention that my husband is chomping at the bit when it comes to the larger home? *sigh*
I am just trying to figure out how to make everything fit in our lives and make sure nothing is being neglected. To be a good woman, a good wife, a good mother, a good daughter, a good sister…it is a hell of a lot to juggle. I am learning but dear lord, every time I think I have everything under control something new pops up. I can’t wait till the home search is done.
The Weaning
Yep, here I go talking about boobies again.
I am currently awake at the wondrous hour of 3am because my beautiful precious son is awake and has nursing needs but I announced that I am done breastfeeding my son and want a break. I explained to my ever loving husband that Thursday night will be the last time our son will nurse because I just can’t handle the draining of my energy and the lack of sleep, I just couldn’t do it anymore.
So as we make it through our first night attempting wean him completely we slowly worked out a plan. Bottle of warm cows milk and Sprout while keeping me hiding in our living room until I am texted that is safe to return. This our second round, which to be honest is a surprise. I didn’t expect to get any sleep and I was able to get a whole four hours so far.
I must admit, part of me was really hoping that the hubs would do this wake up so it was a little smoother of a transition but I reacted like usual and woke up enough to cuddle in hopes that is all my son wanted. My attempts were futile and he kept trying to find my breast so as to latch on for a wee hour morning snack. Finally I sucked it up and kissed our son good bye and ran down stairs to start warming up some milk for his next bottle. The crying ensued and I felt like the 45 seconds were the longest EVER. Then I came back to a fumbling husband trying to soothe our toddler in the dark, not only was he awake to help me but he even was standing and rocking our baby boy.
I am now downstairs listening to my son randomly share his disappointment that I didn’t just join him and offer my breast. I am not sure if the powers of Sprout have been used just yet but my son doesn’t sound interested in any of this kicking the habit of the ta-tas.
I love you little man, but this is for the best for us all. Momma just can’t do the breast-feeding anymore. Momma needs her rest and would love to be done with your stage of nursing.
Hacking the RadioPopper JrX
Posted by RyanG in Photography, Worklogs on September 17, 2009
Okay I know what you’re thinking, and no I didn’t figure out how to turn a basic reciever into a studio receiver, but sadly, I’m simply not that cool. What I did do however was open the boxes for my two new RadioPopper JrX Studio receivers, put batteries in them, test them (oohh pretty), then instantly void their warranties. Why you ask? Because I can. Also because there were just a couple design choices which weren’t convenient for me so I wanted to tweak them to fit my workflow and needs a little better.
So, as part of my aforementioned shopping spree I decided it was time to upgrade my wireless triggering system. I was previously using the “Cactus v2s” triggers, which worked reasonably well but had limited range and reliability in spite of the fact that I performed hacks on those as well. My choice for a replacement is the JrX system from RadioPopper. In my case, one transmitter, and two Studio receivers. The studio receiver allows you to control the output of up to three groups of the White Lightning or AlienBees studio strobes and/or TTL Nikon or Canon speedlights (with yet to be released RPCubes). This works well for me because I have some old and new Nikon flashes with TTL, and when I step up to studio strobes, I’ll likely choose White Lightning and/or AlienBees.
So now to the nitty gritty stuff. Just like on my old Cactus triggers, I really wanted a nice way to mount or hang these triggers on a light stand. When I modded my Cactus triggers, I went a little crazy and bought 100 lanyards so I had plenty to spare. Sadly the receiver didn’t have any built in place to mount one, so I went searching for an appropriate place. I finally decided on putting it just below the data port which (if you’re looking at it from the front) is on the left side of the trigger. There is space there to drill two small 3/32 holes pretty close together to thread the lanyard through.
The other thing which bothered me about the receivers was the special battery that was required. Now, to the credit of RadioPopper, they chose a battery which is common enough that there is a market of rechargeable versions (the CR123A). And, even better David over at Strobist has done the hard work of finding a good package and strategy for keeping charged batteries in your gear. There’s a hitch though. The rechargeables will slowly discharge on the shelf or in my camera bag. I’m an amateur/hobbiest, and as such I only break out strobes and wireless triggers maybe once or twice a week. Chances are I’d have to replace the batteries just about every time I pulled my triggers out for use! Okay, so that’s an exaggeration, but stick with me for the punchline there are other reasons the battery RadioPopper chose doesn’t quite work for me.
Enter my second mod. Just like the one on the Cactus triggers, I replaced the proprietary 3v battery with a pair of good old fashioned AA cells so I can use some of my standard NiMH rechargeable batteries. Now, I know what you’re thinking, that I complained about the self discharge of the LiFeP04 battery and here I am replacing it with an even faster self discharging NiMH rechargeable? Well, yes, and for a few good reasons. First, I have a pretty good stock of rechargeable AA’s and chargers, and I have enough devices that run on them that I can be pretty confident I’ll have a charged up set ready for me when I’m shooting. There is also the excellent Eneloop NiMH battery which has a self discharge rate so low that you can consider it non existent for all practical uses. And lastly, in a pinch, I can find a crappy set of AA’s just about anywhere, and their superior mAh (usually 2000 or greater for an average rechargable AA, vs 750 mAh for the CR123A rechargeable) means they’ll last longer during use, and have more capacity to self discharge giving me a bigger time buffer for storage. In the end, it’s compelling enough for me to make the switch.
So there you have it, my two simple mods which make these great triggers just that much more user friendly for me. You can see a few more pictures of the mods in my Flickr photostream. All of those photos were taken with a Nikon SB24 which was triggered by a Radiopopper JrX receiver which was already modded, in case you were wondering if it worked. 
Now to wait impatiently for the RPCubes so I can control all my Nikon strobes!
You get what you pay for, or less!
Posted by RyanG in Photography, Reviews on September 13, 2009
So you likely know that I recently dropped and broke my Nikon SB600 flash. Disappointed as I was about this, I was already thinking of how I’d replace it. My searches for Nikon compatible flashes had always included these apparently super affordable Phoenix flashes. Now, of course, I was always very suspicious of these for a couple of reasons. First, in all the auctions and other sites selling these I never saw information indicating if this had ANY manual control, and there was never a picture of the rear panel of the unit! Second, there weren’t really any reviews of it online. I found a few, but usually it was on something like Amazon where it was fairly apparent that those reviewing were (at best) uninformed users who wouldn’t know the difference between a “good” flash and a bad one.
In spite of those facts though, I convinced myself that spending $80 to find out if the thing is any good couldn’t hurt, right? Wrong! The thing got shipped reasonably quickly to me from the eBay seller, and upon opening it up it seemed like it had some potential. Yes, it was kinda cheapy plastic and felt light, but that is what I expected for something so inexpensive. The real dissappoinment came when I put it on my camera, and snapped a few shots. You can see the results here. Needless to say this thing, even when doing full power pops, can’t provide enough light to expose a shot properly. This, in spite of the fact that it’s a big, imposing looking flash. They did a lot to try to make it look like an SB800, hinting that it might actually have some decent performance.
So now, to answer some questions I had about it. This is strictly intended for use with iTTL. The back panel just contains a couple switches, one to turn it on, and one to switch “modes, and a guide for ISO/zoom/distance that this flash supposedly covers. The switch to change between “BL” and “STD” has absolutely no influence on the poor performance. Using a Cactus v2s to pop it seems to do only a very low power pop and the flash does not seem to recharge afterward.
The zoom is manual which is to be expected, and goes from 28mm to 85mm. When I zoomed it in to 85mm, and fired it I noticed some artifacts from the lens/diffuser which were distracting see here.
My plan was to use it along with a Nikon SC-28 iTTL cable to simulate the way I was using my Nikon SB600 when shooting butterflies on the fateful day that I broke it. I figured that I would lose some convenience having to go with a cable, and zoom the flash manually. I didn’t anticipate that the thing wouldn’t have enough power to expose a frame properly! So if you’re wondering if this thing is any good, and maybe thinking you’re willing to give up a little performance and convenience for a STEAL of a flash, think again. You do, sadly, get what you pay for.
For what I did actually do to replace my Nikon SB600, stay tuned. I went on a bit of an ill advised shopping spree, and have some exciting stuff headed my way!
Appearance
Posted by MarlenaG in Personal Expressions on September 11, 2009
Appearance, it is a topic that comes up regularly. We all wish it wasn’t what we are judged by but it is. My question, or rant, is why does everyone need to fit in a box?
I am of mixed decent. I am short and curvy, my hair style is a big afro, my skin is of olive tone. To be honest I think I am cute. I always have been told by friends, family and strangers that I am attractive. I was raised not to put too much emphasis on how I look, it could be taken away in a second. I was raised to search out the secret person of the heart. I have learned that I am a pretty strong woman. I’m the kind of lady you want on your side instead of against you. I love strongly and I am one eager to laugh at life.
My little sister
I know that I don’t fit in a ‘typical’ box, especially where I live. I am the minority here. I have been having conversations with my sister on the regular over appearance, mostly because we are different looking. My sister is an adorable petite young woman. She is an incredibly strong, intelligent, witty young lady. We differ over how we like to look. I love my curves while she is in toned and ready to run. My sister can do make up like nobodies business, I am talking art worthy techniques. While I am feeling very made up with powder, mascara and chapstick. I rarely flat iron my hair, it is really hard to find someone I trust to do that professionally in town and it is hard to make that time to straighten out all of my hair. My sister will flat iron her hair, maybe put in some clip in extensions and look absolutely FANTASTIC. We are just different but in this town we both stick out majorly.
Me
I married a big blond white man, I married him because he is an incredible, incredible man. This has added to my, I don’t fit in to ‘typical box’. Then I went and had his baby, and he looks like a lot like my husband, a lot. This continued to point out how I am different. Personally I like the fact that we are a multicultural home. I love that we love each other for our differences.
I don’t know much else as my mother is a Latina and my father is African American, having more than one culture in a household is normal to me. What I don’t get is why people feel the need to point out that I am different. Why they need to question if my child is my own. Why they need to ask if I was adopted because my mother is light and doesn’t obviously look African American. Honestly, if you look at my mother and I closely we look a lot alike. If you take a good look at my son and I, we look a lot alike. Hell, if you look closely at my husband and I you would see we have similar facial features. But you have to be able to look past the color of our skin.
I was taught to look beyond color, and I am proud of it, just a shame not everyone else was taught to do the same. Try to take some time and open your eyes, we are a whole lot more alike than you may think.
My mom & Quincy
Loss
I have been playing on a baby board since before my precious baby boy was conceived. I have gotten to know quite a few women on these boards over the past three years, as much as you can get to know someone on a board on the internet. Over the past few months I have read about pregnancy losses, from a chemical pregnancies to still births and after reading every single one I am left just heartbroken.
Generally after reading about another e-friend loosing a child that they hoped for I close my laptop and focus on my son. Generally when I do this I either get kisses or pushed away as I have interrupted some of his quality play time that he enjoys doing alone. He seems perfectly happy in his own little world knowing that mom or dad are close and ready to give him our full attention when he needs it.
Now as I read about yet another e-friend loosing her child late in her pregnancy, I am starting to just wonder why I am so selfish. Why am I so focused on having another child? Why is that the ongoing monologue going on in my mind? I am so worried about giving my precious, beautiful baby boy a sibling. Shouldn’t I simply happy, with the blessing that I have been bestowed by having him and leave it at one child?
Sigh. Kinda makes me want to drop my over analyzing, what if’s of having another child and just enjoy the child that I have been fortunate to have.
To those women that I have read and posted to in their sad time after losing that child that they had hoped to have for so long: You amaze me in your strength. I hope nothing but the best for you and your families, and (((((Hugs))))).
Like a flash in the pan
Posted by RyanG in Photography on September 7, 2009
Welp, my Nikon SB600, which I’ve had for about a year and a half now has officially been declared dead. After dropping it yesterday it simply wouldn’t turn on anymore. I popped it open today hoping to discover what went wrong, after getting it pretty well apart, I noticed this.
Apparently the drop cracked the casing the F100 p3D (whatever that is) on the board. I did a bit of research and apparently permanent damage to the SB600 is fairly common after very minor drops, and in some cases they fail completely without any obvious trauma. I’m considering trying to identify and replace this part, but it’s a surface mount component, and I’ve never successfully soldered one of those. Anyone out there know what this thing is?
Even if I can repair it, I’m gonna go ahead and replace it. At the moment, I don’t want another SB600 after reading too many similar cases of failure, I don’t want to spend ~$300 for something that’s likely to get broken again quite easily. I’d like something that does TTL since that’s a big part of the reason I liked the SB600. I’m going to have to go with a TTL cord instead of using CLS for situations like yesterday where I was using it handheld, but it’s a small price to pay. The flash(es) I’m considering are around the $100 neighborhood and even if I were to break one of those, I can justify replacing one of those. More on that when I figure it out.
Of living insects, and dying electronics
Posted by RyanG in Photography, Quincy on September 6, 2009
We finally took Quincy to our local Museum of Natural History for the Butterflies Alive! exhibit. It’s been open for months now, and is ending September 21st. They’ve been doing this for years, and my wife and I have never visited. It was actually extraordinarily enjoyable, and I got some pretty nice photos, if I do say so myself. You can check them out on Flickr.
The whole thing was pretty cool. They had this very large screened in area with blowers and double doors at both the entrance and exit. This was of course to prevent any butterflies from escaping. Once inside, they had lots of plants and a great garden feel. Of course, Quincy was more interested in the many fountains than in the actual butterflies which we were there to see! Go figure!
Not long after we arrived a group of women and girls arrived together, and a bit of a commotion ensued. Apparently one of the butterflies had decided that the womans hair was an excellent place to disguise itself! I got a couple shots, but my instinct to kneel when shooting Q or the butterflies got the better of me, I should have gotten a more arial angle! Really, there is a butterfly on top of her head, just click the picture to see it bigger.
Once we left the butterfly exhibit Q was pretty much done, and he made that very apparent. We did manage to grab a few shots of him in some of the gratuituous cutouts though. Unfortunately, after we got those shots, I dropped the flash I’d been using handheld to illuminate my shots. It wasn’t a very long fall, I lost my grip of it from about hip height (maybe 3ft tops) and even slowed it’s decent by gently “catching” it with my foot, kinda like a hackie sac stall, before it hit the ground. No parts flew off, there were no cracks, overall it seemed rather uneventful. Imagine my surprise when the thing wouldn’t turn on anymore! Evidently, this is a resonably common problem with the Nikon SB-600, as a quick google search revealed several accounts of people having this problem even without having dropped it. I think I may be dismantling the thing and taking a look soon. Meanwhile I’ve only got a single light which I can only use in manual mode with my camera. 
If all else fails, I suppose I’ll be hitting up an authorized service center.
All said, it was a very enjoyable day. For this face, it’s worth it!
The X is dead.. Long live the X!!
Well, it’s finally done. Today I hauled the last bit of the Explorer to the junk yard. By this point, all that was left was really the front suspension, the frame, and the shell of the body. It was not a straight forward experience though, lemme tell you the story.
As you can likely tell from the picture the vehicle was pretty much completely stripped. The rear axle was also removed, since I have a couple potential buyers for that. So, I have only the front wheels to roll it on. Fortunately, a member of the Explorer Forum came out last weekend and grabbed a few items I had left which were going to be difficult to ship, and brought me a second spare tire, so the front end is rolling on two spares rather than my nice Cobra Replica wheels, which I also have a couple buyers lined up for.
So the question is, how do you move a vehicle that only has wheels on one end? The easiest answer was to get a two wheel car dolly to stand-in as the rear axle. Easy, right? Well it would have been, if there had been any for rent in town! I started the search yesterday, and called every rental place in town. None of them had the tow dolly I need. So, after hours of searching and coping with my own disappointment that I wasn’t going to be able to finish this project on schedule, I sucked it up and made an online reservation with U-Haul. Now, the fine print says that they’ll make good on the online reservation no matter what. So I figured they’d haul one in from nearby or perhaps magically produce one from their bat-cave warehouse. But, it was not to be only moments later I received a call from the reservation office. They informed me the equipment I needed was in Santa Maria, some 70ish miles away. I hymned and hawed for a while, but finally agreed to go pick it up from Santa Maria, and drop it off here.
So today it began, I headed out at 11:30AM since my reservation was at 1PM to pick up the tow dolly. It was my day to watch Quincy, so of course he came with me. The drive out was uneventful, made it in just under an hour, and didn’t even get stopped for speeding! Things went smoothly picking up the tow dolly, and I was off in only a few minutes.
So, first things first. It’s time for Quincy and I to eat, or it ain’t gonna be a pretty drive home. 
We don’t have Del Taco at home, so whenever I can I seek them out and patronize them. Quincy was absolutely STOKED to sit in a booster seat, and he ate like a champ (sweet!). After a quick lunch, we were on out way home.
The drive home was equally uneventful, but much slower. I just set the cruise at 60MPH and pointed us south. The drive home took more like 1.5 hours, but I didn’t want to find out what happened when/if I exceeded the comfortable speed of the empty trailer.
Got home about 3:40PM and the fun was not yet over. I had to get the trailer under the X, and get it all strapped down. That was a bit of an adventure. Quincy was done with his car seat, so I had to manage him while I jacked up the X and worked to get the trailer under it. Kinda wished I had another arm right about then. After some struggling, I got the trailer under the X, and strapped it down with a couple chains, and a pair of nylon straps.
Off to the junkyard at last! I pulled into Steel-Head at about a quarter to five. Cutting it close! I’d called them yesterday to warn them that this thing is really stripped, and they assured me they’d be happy to take it. After they saw it though, they were more than a little surprised at just how stripped the vehicle was! The guy helping me said “Seriously, you did better than my guys do”. This makes me happy. I love hearing that a project I’ve taken on has been accomplished at least as well as “the pros”. 
The downside of course, is that they realized there wasn’t anything they could sell, which they assumed there would be. As such, I had to pay them to take it which I fortunately anticipated.
After agreeing on the price, the forklift came out, and I started unstrapping the truck. It had shifted slightly in transit, and one of the chains, which I’d looped over a crossmember and hooked to itself, was completely bound up. I tried tugging, pushing the truck, everything I could think of. I was probably at this for about five minutes, battling in vain while the forklift driver waited. Then it struck me, I’ll have the forklift driver push down on the truck, compressing the suspension, and giving me the slack I needed! I emerged from under the vehicle and took two steps toward the forklift driver when he said “You want me to push it down?”. It’s like he read my mind! In reality, he was probably watching me, laughing, knowing what needed to happen and just waiting for me to realize it. Whatever the case, our scheme worked, and the X was free moments later! The picture to the left is the last one of the X. I learned later, as I was leaving, that the forklift driver was sitting there waiting for me to pull out of the driveway, I was in his way! You can almost sense the X’s despair, as though it’s standing before the executioner hoping for a last minute phonecall of repreive. No such luck this time!
I have to say, there are some mixed emotions. This is the first real “nice” vehicle I ever owned. The first vehicle I ever financed and paid off. The vehicle that my wife and I brought out first baby home in. The first vehicle I customized to this extent. Lots of firsts. But, it’s time to move on. It’s been almost exactly five months since my wifes accident, and neighbors were starting to ask questions, and I was growing weary of seeing it in the car port. Now that it’s gone, it’s time to move on to bigger and better things. Namely the Caddy. I’ll always have a place in my heart for the X, but I don’t think I’m going to miss it terribly.
Here’s to you X, you’ve given me and my family lots of good times. You’ve treated us well, and in the worst case scenario you kept one of my most precious possesions safe by sacrificing yourself. X, rest in peace.
My TMI Post
Warning: This post may be a bit, um, private or sensitive but it must be said.
Time and time again I see the commercials for Viagra and Levitra and they have their spokesmen saying, puzzled that one medical condition or another has effected their performance in the bedroom.
EVERY SINGLE TIME I yell at the television questioning if that is for real. I mean really? You didn’t know that things that effect your blood flow to your entire body would effect your erectile function. For serious!!???
Mkay, I have no medical education. I only have the education taking care of my grandfather after heart attacks and open heart surgery. The education that life as a dental assistant gives you. Which by no means gives me the medical authority of anything. And yet I know that diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure can effect erectile function. I realize in turn that the medication to help with these conditions also can effect erectile function. WHY ON GOD’s GREEN EARTH DON’T MOST OF OUR SOCIETY NOT KNOW THIS TOO???!!!???
You need blood to flow to this body part to be able to function to do blank. Why wouldn’t cholesterol which slowly clogs blood vessels effect this function? Why wouldn’t high blood pressure effect this function? Why wouldn’t diabetes which effects so many other aspects of your ability to function not effect erectile function? I wish instead of using these medications men took the time to take care of themselves to do the best to prevent these issues to the best of their ability.
Too much to ask, I know. I hear more and more that men are dying from preventable illnesses. If only they had gone to a doctor and had taken action when a health concern was in the warning or beginning stages. Yet so many fight it every step of the way. They are too busy. They are able to ‘man up’ through what ever ailment they are coping with. Sigh. Yet if they can’t get it up they run to their doctor and ask for a pill.
Not often do you hear about a man who can’t get it up and they demand that their physician to do a battery of tests to make sure everything is ok. Make sure that this isn’t a precursor to another, bigger, possibly more serious health concern.
What am I getting at? Guys if you take care of yourself. If you see a doctor regularly and bring up you concerns that you may have quickly, maybe you won’t need the mighty blue pill. Maybe you will be healthy enough for sex and be able to enjoy a great deal of other aspects of life.
Common sense people, please use it.
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