OpenAI

First test of chat.openai.com.  

PS: Explain why soccer is better than American football

There are many reasons why some people might prefer soccer to American football, and these reasons are largely a matter of personal preference. Here are a few potential arguments for why soccer might be considered "better" than American football:

Continuous play: One of the main differences between soccer and American football is that soccer is played continuously, with only a few breaks for substitutions and injuries. This can make the game feel more fast-paced and exciting to some people.

Fewer stoppages: Because there are fewer breaks in the action, soccer games tend to be shorter than American football games. This can make it easier for fans to follow the game, as they don't have to wait as long for the action to resume.

Simplicity: Some people might prefer soccer because it is a relatively simple game, with only a few basic rules to understand. American football, on the other hand, can be more complex and difficult to follow for those who are not familiar with the sport.

Worldwide popularity: Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, with a global following that dwarfs that of American football. This means that there are more opportunities to watch and play the sport, and that the best players in the world are typically more well-known and celebrated than their American football counterparts.

Again, these are just a few potential reasons why someone might prefer soccer to American football, and there are many other factors that could sway someone's opinion in either direction. Ultimately, the choice between these two sports is a matter of personal preference.

SUPERB.

The English patient without the plums

 

Fall colours are trying hard to say things are fine

But my poor toes remain a pain of mine

Herding cats and Tetris priorities at work

Air Canada lounge access doesn’t feel much of a perk

Unfinished thoughts and loose ends plague my sleep

Overthinking everything, can’t stop going deep

Canine concerns stress us more than him

It doesn’t help when the mornings are so dim

Gaps feel longer between highlights

But less arguments and fights

Too much of many media joys

Equals no good reason for new toys

Getting words out on the page

Triggered by turning a new age

A quicker way to post

I've got quite quite a backlog of movie reviews and other random ramblings I want to get onto this blog, but I find the blogger.com interface slows down my workflow. So lookie here - this post was created by simply sending an email to a special blogger account. It says I can add images easily too - how's this quickie?

The Queen and The Monarchy

First, I was greatly saddened eleven days ago when I heard her majesty Queen Elizabeth II had died.  I had a fondness for her and saw her as a symbol of my great homeland.  

I saw her in person just once when I was a boy in England.  I recall the public event at Coventry’s railway station but don’t remember what she looked like on that day.  My mother recalls she wore a green outfit and her complexion and smile were beautiful.

Clearly, Britain has an ancient history filled with horrid times - but it is also my home and I am proud to call myself an Englishman. A lot of that history was tied to past kings and queens, but I believe our Queen was different, modern and kind.  I truly believe that she embraced her role and did serve our nation with exceptional fortitude.  I thank her for all she has done for Britain in her 70 years reign as Queen.  

There is no doubt that the pomp and ceremony is rare in today’s common world.  But I like it.  It connects me to history.   

And for now, as it has been for my entire life, I am a royalist. I respect the monarchy, King Charles III and will gladly sing God Save the King when the England football take the field in Qatar and when other less important national moments occur.  I have been impressed by what I’ve heard from the King in recent days - a stately grace with which he immediately steps into his new role, but with a modern, perhaps more relaxed nature - I guess he’s had a lot of time to prepare himself for this time.  I feel he’ll be a good King and appears that he is already being warmly accepted, and maybe over time, even loved by Britons and the royalist public of the Commonwealth.

Only one of my work colleagues initially mentioned the Queen’s death and offered his condolences.  He admits he wasn’t certain of my standing, but he took a chance and I thanked him for his words and recognizing the magnitude of the Queen’s death.  For similar reasons I have not brought up the Queen’s death in my work meetings.   I did not want to hear any negative comments or possibly, cruel jokes at this sad time.  A few days after her death a second colleague offered his kind condolences and another person in the meeting with a little less ceremony suggested that her long life should be celebrated - I have to agree.

Although I have very faint memories of my grandmother, the feeling I have for the late Queen is almost like losing a dear grandmother.  Her monarchy could be seen as the imagined matriarchy of our family.  England represents family to me and I will miss The Queen.  

Today, on the day of her funeral, I signed the book of condolence at Toronto’s City Hall.  I wrote - You will be missed dearly by the people of Britain, Canada and The Commonwealth. On behalf of my English family, thank you, you are what makes England beautiful.  

I'm a wide angle kind of guy

I gravitate to taking photos with a focal length (cropped sensor) from super wide (10mm) to 18mm.  I know because I checked (in Lightroom) and I wanted it to be wide.     

The world is a big place and I like to take it all in (portraits of people and isolated action may be an exception).  

The new lens I have me eye on is the latest Fujinon 18mm f1.4. The focal range should optically reduce the shallow depth of field effects of such a wide aperture and closing down a few stops to its ideal sweet spot may strike a magical balance of speed (light) and a pleasing depth of field.   What does it say about my view of the world where I’m drawn to a wide field of view but also have a feeling that a more focused subject may be valuable?

I often feel I’m somewhat of a polymath and feel torn trying to decide my favourite style of photography or even giving preference to a specific domain where I feel I contribute the most.   

I wrote these words:

Drawn to the world that is wide

Less corner places to hide

more to see in the city frame

Even glimpses of an old flame

big-time performance stages

tempting blank white pages

All that it could contain

Way beyond memory lane

A soft focal point of thought

Specialization of some sort

Something new emerges over there

Even more tempting things to share

Pivot to the next wide urban shot

Seems this story repeats quite a lot

Landscapes require more depth of field

Fuzzy Patterns becoming less congealed 

To form a representation of life

A Polymath understanding its strife

And then put them in a video:

Photographer’s frivolous fillings

My new camera bag is arriving tomorrow.  I’m excited.  I like organizing stuff and I have a lot of camera gear.  I’m constantly having to move bits and pieces from one bag to another and often discover I’ve forgotten something when I’m “on location”.  On the weekend trip shoot at the Beaches I forgot my audio adaptor for my action camera.  I once had everything organized, ready to go for a week away and I forgot my entire camera bag - well that’s another problem.

I like to research purchases and I spent way too much time shopping for a new camera bag.  I won’t list all the options here and I’m not going to talk about the bag I’ve decided on just yet.  But I thought I should organize my thoughts first it terms of what will go in the bag.  Yes, it should be quite a bit bigger than my current bag, but I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to fit everything in it.  And if I did, it would be very heavy and impractical for my local photo excursions.

First and the simplest decision - the camera(s) - the Fuji XT-4 and the DJI Osmo Action

Lenses - how many?  The 50-150mm is the best lens I have and the biggest, it belongs in the bag, but it may be removed if I’m really aiming to travel light and/or when I know exactly what I’m going to be shooting.  The 18-55mm kit lens and the 10-20mm super wide are my urban and landscape go-to lenses.  The 35mm is superb and compact, but it’s usually on my older XT-1 for walking around the neighbourhood.  A maybe.  The 56mm is great but I don’t use it that often.  I purchased it more for portraits, but it would be interesting to see how I’d use it in the field.  A maybe.  The fisheye lens?  It’s a Nikon mount and I have the Nikon-Fuji adapter on it, so it’s not that small.  But it’s fun and would definitely be a nice option to have more readily available.  I’ll give it a spot in the new bag.

Accessories: I have three filters, two variable neutral density (ND) for video work (another thing I forgot on the weekend) and a soft glow that I keep forgetting about.  I have two Smallrig cages and a Smallrig grip that I’m not certain about.  The one cage for the XT-4 is quite large and specific for video work.  It’s maybe and it would be a good test of the size of the bag as it’s a weird shape.  The Smallrig grip is usually on the XT-4 so that stays and the other cage is for the action camera for vlogging which I hope to do more of - so, yes.  There is the 2x Fuji lens adapter  - small but not a biggy to leave behind.  There’s also the close-up tubes - mostly for home project - so I can leave them out.  The Rode microphone - yes, but the lavalier mic and extra long audio cable maybe not.    The DJI iPhone gimbal - hmm, I havent’ used it in a while, so probably not, especially since I added the DJI action camera to the kit.  Cleaners and the puffer go in.  Extra SD cards go in.  Let’s not forget the Peak Design camera strap (I often do).  The flash and and LED light panel I’ll leave out unless a portrait session is planned - which may be the case this weekend when I visit my parents to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.  

I’ll probably have the small gorilla pod strapped to the side and find room for the folding selfie stick for the action camera in side somewhere.  There are a also few action camera mounts and one for iPhone that always come in handy.

Now there are other important accessories in a smaller Peak Design gadget bag, so the question is - do I move the important bits (e.g. extra batteries) into the new bag and do I put the whole gadget bag in the newer bag.  We’ll see.

Don’t worry, I don’t think I want to do a What’s in my bag Vlog, but this kind of gave me a game plan for tomorrow.  Happy shooting folks.

Burnt Time

First, I have to thank Alex Kilbee for some “timely” advice about finding photographic inspiration from everyday things around the house.  A part of his recent video (https://youtu.be/UTeeptpaRNc) talks about combining two subjects for even greater affect.  We had guests for dinner last night and I was asked if I could make a fire.  This morning, there are a few logs remaining in the fireplace that didn’t completely burn.  The idea to contrast the logs with a very different object came to mind and a few neurons fired in the right order and I grabbed my stainless steel ESQ Movado timepiece from my bedroom.  I thought the colour tones would be similar but the hard, glossy, man-made textures would provide a strong contrast to the organic burnt bark and ash.

I have photographed some of my favourite things in the past.  The idea is for photographic appreciation of some of the wonderful things I own in a way that may help suppress the desire to always wish for more.

I bought this watch from a local jewelry store for my 50th birthday.  The design of the watch is a little unusual as it only has the numbers 1 thru 6 on its face.  So the way I see it and explain that detail to those interested, is that I no longer count the years after 50! 

So, what about the title?  One of my common sayings is Today is a New Day (https://youtu.be/S0Quv_jVkY0) - we can’t change the past, so there’s little value in worrying about it.  Sure, we can learn from the past, but I like to approach each day afresh.  So, in one way, we can consider the past burnt out.  That being said, I put a lot of effort into recording events with photography and film and really enjoy remembering past experiences.  

And lastly, today marks 10 years at work selling Voltage Data Privacy & Protection solutions.  The company has gone through 3 different acquisitions and mergers, but I’m happy to be part of the Voltage family and contributing to its global success.

The photo wasn’t difficult to capture, although I did change lenses three times before settling on my 18-55mm f2.8-4 with my Fuji XT-4.  I didn’t go to the trouble of adding any artificial light, but I wanted a sharp image without high ISO, so I used my tripod and shot it with a delayed shutter.  I did take another shot with a little wider aperture to have a fast shutter speed and freeze the small second had a little better, but it left parts of the face out of focus.  so this final shot is f7.1 with a shutter speed of 1.3sec.  It didn’t require a lot of editing and I kept with the Fuji Pro Neg Std film simulation of the jpeg rather than working with the raw version. 

I considered a tighter, portrait orientation, but I prefer this version with the separation of the other log in the background.  I think there’s a sense of time being on the edge, a few millimeters away from being lost to the past.

Early morning coincidence - archival

I’m up very early on a Sunday morning.  I had some things bumbling to the surface of my sleep and decided to get up.  I’m on my iPad and reviewing some notes on my video [project] workflow.  Any part of any good workflow (or in my professional world - data management lifecycle) is archival.  When we are finished with something, we should archive it, not just get rid of it or “bin it” as the say in England, but remove it from your main workspace, declutter it, saving something valuable in a safe place.

We started watching a movie last night and I wanted to check out some details on IMDB so I opened the app and the splash page / open banner on IMDB is a trailer for a new Netflix movie called Archive 81.  I watched the trailer - looks good and scary.

Good morning.  Now back to what I was working on.

(Quick follow on.  Like many coincidences, the rabbit hole can keep going.  I noticed an actor in the IMDB listing for The Greatest Showman (the movie we were watching last night) and he looked like an actor I saw in the trailer for Archive 81.  But I was wrong, the supporting actor in the the trailer was Martin Donavan.  And he also was in Tenet.  And guess what, as we were browsing some TV last night, we watched a small scene from Tenet and talked a little about it.  A little six degrees of Kevin Bacon this morning, bacon…)