A long goodbye

Howard Buford Recreation Area, May 28.

We’re in the middle of a long goodbye. If the current timeline holds, we’ll be moving to a new house in midsummer. We’ve lived in our present house for over 35 years, and there are many things we love about it, this property, and this neighborhood. But there are also many things that have grown stale for us, that are irritating and frustrating, that we flat out don’t like. We are eager for a fresh start, a new environment, a big challenge. The new house is different in almost every way from the one we live in now. It’s on a quieter street, in a quieter neighborhood. The house itself you could call “fancy” compared to our humble Craftsman bungalow. We’ll have to grow into its mid-century modern vibe for sure. This is not exactly the “downsizing” move we imagined back in March when we first started looking at properties, but it feels right for this stage in our lives. We can downsize later! And for this impending move, we have a big opportunity to jettison a lot of stuff that no longer serves us or “brings us joy.” So there will be a lightening of our load at least, almost automatically.

We are fortunate in that we don’t have to vacate our current house simultaneously to moving to the new house. We can take as long as we want, moving by carload for much of our stuff, rather than by moving van. We’ll need to get help for large items, of course, but I imagine maybe 2-3 weeks of moving boxes and smaller stuff, taking our time arranging and fitting into the new place. We'll also probably want to buy some new things, like rugs and furniture items. Then ultimately we’ll move the last of our stuff over, bring the cats, and start living at the new place. Then will be the job of selling the old house! We’re not going to do much fixing up here. In general, it’s a good house that we’ve done a lot for in terms of remodeling, re-roofing, major repairs, and such. But it’s got our 35 years of being well-lived-in, and the normal wear-and-tear that goes along with that span of occupied time. We’ll probably leave it to new owners to do things like paint and replace upstairs carpet, etc. In my imagination, we will sell it to people who are excited about getting a cool funky house in a cool funky neighborhood, with energy to put into the house and property to make it their own.

Real work

5th & Olive, June 7.

I’m still here. Not been blog-inspired for weeks. Radio Free Randoming almost daily, though. Got out for some street photography Saturday. The Panasonic Lumix GM1 + Lumix 12-32mm lens is my perfect street combo lately.

Sad news about the new-old-stock rackmount Stanton CD players I bought through eBay. One I returned for tray eject failures, and the other started having disc read failures. The seller refunded me for both units, paid for return shipping on the one, and told me to just keep the other. So: sad failures, but I’m not out any money at least.

During the recent heat we’ve mostly stayed hunkered down, and rolled out the portable A/C. Much cooler today and looking like non-extreme temps for the next couple weeks. We would like to hike today, but need to coordinate with our handywoman, who’s coming over to work on some house-spiffing projects.

We got another look last week at the inside of the house we’re aiming to buy, and we have heard positive news regarding probable price and seller’s vacating timeline. Well, they moved out months ago, but tons of their stuff is still there. Hopefully within a month they’ll be completely out and we’ll be able to get inspections done and seal the deal. Then the real work starts!

Giving over to broadcasting

Type-In at MECCA, May 24

What normally would be blogging time in the mornings I’ve been giving over to broadcasting on my fake pirate radio station, either from Studio A (upstairs in the Chamber of Randomness) or Studio B (downstairs in the Library). The former now has two new “Stanton C.402 2U Rackmount DJ CD/MP3 Player w/ Pitch Control & Seamless Loop” units—well, they were made in 2007, but they’re new in the sense that they were unopened, sealed from the factory: “new old stock” is the term, I believe. They’re very similar to the CD players in use at KWVA when I was a volunteer community DJ back in 2000-7. Other new gear: brand new webcams for both studios. Now my listeners can watch me in stunning 1080p video quality.

On Saturday I attended what I believe was the first public Type-In ever held in Eugene. The venue was a classroom in the rear of the MECCA shop across from 5th Street Public Market. When I got there, I was blown away, expecting only a small handful people. The room was crowded and I counted at least 14 typewriters in use. The enthusiasm and excitement were obvious and palpable. A young man named Zach was the organizer. I chatted with him for a bit and learned that he’s been “into” typewriters for only one year but has already collected 53 machines! His knowledge, repair savvy, and ability to explain typewriters to novices are very impressive! He wants to do more type-ins, and people were volunteering to help. Eugene may very well become the next urban center for The Typewriter Revolution! Big hat-tip to Zach!

What I feel in the Now

May 13, Howard Buford Recreation Area, near north parking lot.

Last night I finally finished the only library book I still had checked out: Bill Moody’s Sound of the Trumpet (1997). With that one, I’ve re-read all three of the Moodys I’d encountered and enjoyed over twenty years ago. Both Mrs. R and I read them, sparking our interest in Wardell Gray and Clifford Brown, and multiple CD purchases featuring those musicians. Looking at Moody’s bibliography, I discovered this morning that he continued to write Evan Horne mysteries well into the 2000s, so I have several more to read!

I might be nearing a hiatus point for a couple obsessions. Yesterday I kept score of the 44th straight San Francisco Giants game this season. Also, I’ve broadcasted multi-hour transmissions of Radio Free Random 12 of the last 13 days—and nearly daily going back to the middle of March. That’s a lot of daily hours sunk into baseball and radio DJing! I’m starting to miss other hobbies, like producing music/sound art and doing street photography, as well as playing with my typewriters. I can’t predict where my randomness will go. I can only report what I feel in the Now. And Now it feels like a shift may be coming.

Vast angle of view

Ridgeline trail between Fox Hollow & Willamette, May 9. (Lumix GX-85 w/14-140mm zoom.)

It’s 22:22, 24-hour notation. 10:22 p.m. colloquially here in the U.S. Not my normal blogging time. I was planning to write an entry this morning, and planning not to do any radio today. But instead, the RFR urge bit me and I succumbed, and neglected the blog. However, here I am!

We had a nice week of mellow celebrations: our legal marriage anniversary (38th!), my birthday, our “big wedding” anniversary (2 days after our legal hitching, in our backyard), and Mother’s Day. 

My 2025 birthday gadget has been great: a Leica 9mm f/1.7 ultra wide angle lens. Very bright and sharp, with a lovely and vast angle of view. I’ve only shot around the house and out in the yard with it; still waiting for an opportunity to test it out in public. I want to do interesting things with it, not just basic landscapes, so probably downtown and university architecture, and maybe I’ll try street photography at Saturday Market or something. We’ll see.

The 9mm has been living on my new GM1. It doesn’t overwhelm the tiny camera body like many micro four thirds lenses tend to. I actually quite like the combo. The lens is light and has a diameter not significantly exceeding that of the GM1’s lens mount, so my fingers aren’t crowded.

It’s been a coolish day, raining off and on, interspersed with some periods of sun peeking through clouds. We stayed inside and enjoyed our gas fireplace with the kitties.

Radio Free Random: I’ve been playing with two different setups over the last few days. One) is “Studio B” which is a basic mixer + 2020 MacBook + CD player + microphone to a streaming computer (Windows 10 running OBS Studio) that sends the signal to Mixcloud over the internet. I use the Mac for playing tracks, chatting in the Mixcloud chatbox, and googling. Two) is “Studio X” which is my new MacBook running everything, no added gear—just music streaming software for playing tracks, an app called Blackhole routing audio internally to OBS which streams out to Mixcloud over wifi, and a browser for chatting and googling. I use the MacBook’s built-in microphone for voiceoves, which works okay but is a bit echoey and picks up ambient sounds in the house. I have to tell Mrs. Random “Okay, I’m doing a voiceover in 20 seconds” so she doesn’t think I’m talking to her and so that she doesn’t suddenly start talking to me. It works out.

New webcam view for Radio Free Random (Studio B)

What’s new is the addition of webcams, which my audience has been gently clamoring for. I guess seeing the DJ while he works is alluring in some way. They like the feeling of connection that a live visual adds. For Studio B, I purchased a new webcam last week, and for Studio X I use the MacBook’s built-in webcam. Now I have to make sure my hair is combed, I’m shaved, there’s nothing caught in my teeth, and I’m reasonably dressed—at least from the waist up.

Here are a couple shots with the new 9mm lens….

Today in front of our house. It just parked there for five minutes and then left.

Our "monster rose" in a far back corner of our backyard. That fence on the left is 8 feet tall.

We have our reasons

Wild roses at Suzanne Arlie Park, May 4.

“AI hallucinations”... “AI sycophancy” (from recent headlines)... well, let me add AI laziness, AI hubris, AI sloppiness, AI inaccuracy. Etc. From extensive personal experience with both ChatGPT and Grok, I can verify that all of these exist, and all are significant problems for people trying to use AI chatbots in good faith. I unsubscribed from X Premium—which I’d paid for only to use Grok3—after less than a month because all of the referenced issues were ruining my experience. It came down to this: I don’t trust Grok. I’m not totally in the “Fuck AI” camp, but that attitude garners a lot of my sympathy.

It’s Monday morning, almost 6 a.m., and I want to get on the air, but my RFR transmitter/streaming computer is crunching through updates. So I decided to blog.

We’ve joined the philistines: the Randoms have acquired a weed wacker. What’s next, a fucking leaf blower? A power mower? Well, we have our reasons, but we’re not particularly proud of them. We do still have our boutique craft acoustic push lawnmower, and we’ll only use the “string trimmer” on weedy areas that have gotten too out of control to manage by pulling and scything. But it feels like a slippery slope toward conventional noisy yard care threatens just over the horizon. Nooooo!!!

Timeline

From a recent hike at Wild Iris Ridge city park.

It has apparently seeped deep into our consciousnesses. Mrs. R is doing a lot of new-house decorating and garden planning in her head, and this morning the last dream fragment I remembered was that we had two U-Hauls loaded and ready to go, even though we had not yet taken possession of anything. I think our “higher selves” are getting us ready for a big move, one way or another. And the one we want is still looming, moving slowly from possibility to probability—even as we keep looking on Redfin and Zillow. So many uglies and yikes out there—so many neighborhoods and street names we don’t want. It might be a very interesting summer, depending on how this timeline develops.

Soggy out

Rainy days are becoming rarer as we get deeper into spring, but we’ve got one today, or at least this morning. It rained on and off through the night, and it’s soggy out there right now. I can see Betty on the front porch table with soaked back fur. Fleur’s sensibly in front of the fire, and Griffey is on the bed. Mrs. Random has Farm later this morning, and I have a catsitting job before that. There’s a baseball game on at 1:05, Giants vs. Rockies in San Francisco, so there’s a good indoor entertainment option for the middle of the day. I suppose I might get out for some street photography at some point for a bit, maybe with one of the weather-sealed cameras. And/or I might get on the air and broadcast some tunes to the internet. There are also letters I could write. And much puttering that could be done. Meanwhile, here are a couple recent nighttime flash photos starring our lovely front hedge:

Hegemonically monotonous

I did get out today (Thursday, May 1) and did walk downtown with my Lumix GM1 + 12-32mm lens, and I got a good batch of (what I consider) decent shots. Back at home I worked on a few in Lightroom. Everything with me is on a photo-by-photo basis, I guess you could say. I’m don’t feel like I have a consistent “style” or “look.”

I crop a lot, recomposing the original and/or changing the aspect ratio (4x3 to 3x2 or 5x4 or 16x9 or whatever). I also feel like some images look better in black & white, which can involve a) simply desaturating all the color out, and b) playing with the color sliders, which lets me make each color darker or lighter.

Adjusting the color sliders for a monochrome image (in Lightroom) has practical uses as well as creative ones; e.g., green and red look very similar when converted to grayscale, so making one lighter and one darker helps give the brain useful information about an image (red flowers vs. green leaves… you often want them to look different). Black & white film photographers can achieve similar results using color filters on their lenses, but that’s a subject I know next to nothing about.

I also sometimes like to saturate and exaggerate colors (hues, tints, tones) and play with contrast in different ways while processing photos in Lightroom. But just as often I like to leave images looking “natural.” It just depends on the photo and how it hits me. (Note: I have my cameras set to shoot RAW image files—not JPGs—and that gives me great leeway in adjusting all aspects of my photographs.)

So much for “developing” my photos in Lightroom. Now, on to a mini rant of sorts…. 

Today my prime destination was the May Day anti-Trump/Musk/Etc protest at the Park Blocks (8th & Oak) in downtown Eugene. To be honest, I didn’t get any good shots of protesters. Or, more accurately, I didn’t like the shots I got of protesters. To be quite blunt, they bored me. Weird, huh. The cops, reflections and shadows, a street performer I walked past, a burned out house, and a trashed old storefront were more interesting to me.

Why do I find protests boring? Maybe for me they are played out. They don’t excite me. Eugene has a big Old Left and 1960s Hippie vibe, which has perpetuated itself for decades into younger generations, and I personally don’t find it photogenic in general anymore. Certain isolated scenes, people, or situations might grab me, sure, but I didn’t feel grabbed today.

I felt much better about my shots at Saturday Market a couple weeks ago, possibly because there was a better mix of energies, purposes, and perspectives: protesters, booth vendors, shoppers, God Squaders, cops, bystanders, and people walking through on their way somewhere else. The energy was more interesting, and I found lots of scenes to photograph.

Today’s protest (a bunch of people with signs lined up along the street occasionally chanting or shouting slogans, with cars honking back in support) just felt hegemonically monotonous and boringly linear. So, there you go: my lukewarm take on today downtown. I hope you enjoy the following images from my May Day walkabout.

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Official senior citizenship

Happy May! It’s my birthday month, when I attain official senior citizenship (by some measures, anyway). My Medicare kicks in, I’ll garner Honored Rider status with Lane Transit District (free bus rides!), and will acquire a new birthday gadget. The latter has been ordered: it’s a 9mm f/1.7 ultra-wide-angle lens for my micro four thirds format cameras. I think it will be a fun lens, with a wider angle-of-view than any lens I’ve ever used before, in any format or system.

Speaking of photography, my friend Blake and I took a photowalk in and around downtown Springfield yesterday afternoon. Selections from my shots will follow this post’s prose. I went for a little extra creativity in the Lightroom processing phase with some of the images.

Today is looking to be very warm and sunny, and—it being May Day—there are several public events scheduled here and there (downtown, at the university, etc.), including protests and strikes. I’m planning to try to get into the thick of it with a camera or two and see what I can snap. I had tons of fun a couple weeks ago photographing downtown at Saturday Market—which featured protesters, marketeers, and God-Squaders all packed into a small area. So I’m betting today will be jolly good as well.

I’ve found an excellent new (to me) YouTube channel to binge, featuring interviews with film photographers as well as philosophical rants and idea pieces by the channel owner, Willem Verbeeck.

And now, a few of yesterday’s Springfield photowalk pictures…. 

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