Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus. But His Name is Sony!

photog Camera Reviews, Current Events, OCF, Photography, Photography Reviews , , , , ,

At this point I considered attaching a video of the Hallelujah Chorus of Handel’s Messiah.  I had been waiting and hoping and praying that Sony would add focus bracketing to my Sony A7 IV camera by a firmware update but had more or less given up.

They did it!  Well, they made the update but I haven’t updated my camera yet.

But I watched the video below and did a quick jig around my house and am now calming down enough to type this post.

Ah hell, let’s add the Hallelujahs!

TomD replied:

Really!!??

I’ve been wanting focus bracketing for years! Years ago, FB was a relatively expensive windows or apple program and you had to shoot with the camera tethered to a computer. What a PIA.

I’m gonna update right now.

It can immediately help with a number of different types of shots I do. Aircraft in a museum for example. Museums are crowded with a constant problem of subject isolation. Far enough out to get the entire plane in the shot and there is a LOT of stuff competing for attention. Close enough with a wide angle and there is the depth of field problem.

photog replied:

I had to do two updates.  First I had to go from version 1.01 to 1.05.  Then 1.05 to 4.00.  But it worked.  I’ll load up the trial macro focus bracket soon.  It’s much easier than the damn tether.

As I Pondered Weak and Weary

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It’s getting close to midnight and I just got home a little while ago.  So, I’ll cudgel my brains for a few minutes and come up with an idea.  Napoleon Bonaparte is the author of the quote of the day (in fact I’ve got a solid month of them together).  And if we look at his era there are some things to think about.  Napoleon came into prominence because a great nation was reduced to chaos by a popular rebellion.  The existing regime foundered and the revolutionary conquerors were totally inept and allowed their movement to spin completely out of control and turn to anarchy.

Well, that’s not where we are now.  But there is a regime running our country that seems to be either unaware of or unconcerned by the impoverishing of the American middle class.  And so far, this regime has suffered essentially no ill effects from this policy.  Our elites and their lackeys are doing great.  Their material condition has never been better.  But I think they underestimate the changes that will occur if the Unted States become Brazil.  I think they assume that things like a stable currency and the personal safety of wealthy people can exist under the conditions they are fostering.  I think if they allow the devolution of the country to continue the way it is currently going that many of the advantages of the American system will quite simply disappear.

I was thinking about Friday’s quote of the day, “Anarchy is the stepping stone to absolute power.”  They are encouraging anarchy.  But they don’t have a way to insulate themselves from the results of anarchy, not in the last resort.  If we continue to slide toward lawlessness, places like Malibu and Martha’s Vineyard will just be places for organized gangs to swoop down on and pillage.  And what happens when the Mexican kidnapping gangs start snatching the children of millionaires and billionaires?  What if they snatch the grandchildren of George Soros?  Will his defund the police prosecutors turn around and beg the cops to go back to doing their jobs?  Well, even if they wanted to, once things slide too far, it would take draconian methods to fix things again.

And that’s where I was going with this discussion.  Basically, if the elites let things go too far, then the result will probably be a strong man.  He probably won’t be as brilliant a general as Napoleon.  But he will have to be quite ruthless.  How something like that ends up is usually not good.  When a democracy or a republic turns into a despotism it doesn’t typically go back again.  How all of that would go for us is not clear to me.  At this point I’m not particularly optimistic to say the least.  The rapid deterioration over the last twenty years has been so bad that I wouldn’t be surprised that a Harris presidency might be the catalyst that initiates the collapse.

Well, that’s a cheery thought here in the depths of the night.  But this is what happens when I have to work too late.  It encourages black moods.  Tomorrow will be better.  I have this whole weekend off before the two weeks of enslavement finally engulfs me on Monday.  Well, good night.

October Viewing – 6

photog Movie Reviews, Reviews, Science Fiction / Fantasy, SF&F Movie Reviews , , , , , , ,

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) – A Science Fiction-Fantasy Movie Review

First of all, I assume everyone knows the plot of Dracula, so there will be no spoiler alert.  I’ve been wanting to review this movie for a while because I read that it was pretty good.  Well, pretty good is in the eye of the beholder, I guess.

This movie is all over the place.  First off look at some of the cast members:

Gary Oldman as Count Dracula

Winona Ryder as Mina Harker

Anthony Hopkins as Professor Van Helsing

Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker

So, you can imagine the range of acting ability here.  Oldman and Hopkins do the best they can with the script and dialog but Reaves and Ryder … are Reaves and Ryder, so you can imagine.  Keanu is especially notable for his amazing 19th century British accent.  I keep expecting him to exclaim, “Whoa!”

Alright, so let’s talk about the approach to the Dracula story.  Apparently, by the movie’s name, director Francis Ford Coppola intended for this film to be seen as adhering, to some extent, more closely to Stoker’s novel than most other versions.  I read the novel many, many years ago but from what I remember there were no nekkid vampire women sexing up Jonathan Harker at Castle Dracula.  And, granted, unlike many other versions of the story, the end of this movie does take place where and how it occurred in the book, but Coppola added Mina Harker into the climax to close out her romance with Dracula.  That’s not Stoker.  Also, the movie starts off in the 15th century with Vlad the Impaler renouncing God because his wife (who is also played by Ryder) committed suicide and therefore she cannot go to heaven.  And because of all this, we are supposed to see Dracula as a sympathetic character and at the end he gets this redemption scene where instead of looking like this decrepit bat-like thing he turns back into young and relatively handsome Vlad and dies the beautiful death (well, he still gets his head chopped off but he does get a nice moment).  So, Bram Stoker’s Dracula?  Some yes and a lot no.

The special effects are pretty good for 1992.  And the sets and costumes look like they cost a bundle.  I didn’t hate the whole movie.  I rather enjoyed most of Hopkins’ Van Helsing and a lot of Oldman’s spoken part was well done.  I think what I objected to was Ryder’s absurdly emotional scenes with Dracula.  I guess we’re supposed to imagine that the Mina Harker character must have some kind of psychic link to Vlad’s dead wife and this compels her to fall hopelessly in love with the undead and mostly repulsive looking creature that has very recently murdered her best friend, Lucy.

So, let’s say there is some kind of twisted logic to this take.  But since this is framed as a Christian legend, complete with crucifixes and holy water are we supposed to add in an un-Christian example of reincarnation?  And somehow God is going to forgive Vlad for four centuries of murdering people because Winona Ryder loves him?  I could be wrong but I don’t think that’s how it works.  Someone named Vlad the Impaler is going to need a much stronger advocate than that when he gets to the Pearly Gates.

Alright, I’ll put all my quibbles aside.  What’s the verdict?  Well, since this is a Dracula movie then as a Dracula movie it provides blood and gore, a castle with frightened Transylvanian peasants nearby, a vampire that can turn into bats, wolves and mist and is attractive to female victims and a final scene with a stake and even a decapitation.  So, successful, I guess.  But Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder?  That’s not helping.

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

photog Current Events, Life in Dunwich, OCF, photog's Corner, Science Fiction / Fantasy

Well, the horror is upon me.  I got home tonight around 9pm and hadn’t had dinner yet so my whole schedule is a mess.  And this will be the way of it for the next three weeks.  I’ve gotten ahead on the daily photos and quotes which is good.  But my brain is groggy and I haven’t had a chance to go over much of the news and even if I had there doesn’t appear to be anything interesting to discuss.  I mean do we want to talk about Kamala Harris?  Why?  Has she suddenly raised her IQ to 80?  Did she accidentally get injected with Sodium Pentothal and started telling the truth?  Did she catch her husband diddling the nanny again and asked for a new First Gentleman?  And even if all three of these things had happened would anyone care?  I know I wouldn’t.  I find Kamala so profoundly stupid that it’s hard to listen to her anymore.  I need a break of at least a few days.

I was considering watching and reviewing Coppola’s Dracula tonight but I’m afraid I’d fall asleep in the middle.

So, what the hell do I write about tonight?

How about a little wishful thinking about the future?  Let’s assume the worst occurs in November.  Harris is installed in the White House and doubles down on invasion and Bidenomics.  After eighteen months in office inflation reaches an annual rate of 150% and the cities are so crime-ridden and filthy that even Democrat voters revolt.  Armed insurrection becomes widespread and Harris resigns and Walz agrees to make Trump his Vice President and then resigns in his favor.  Trump declares martial law and implements a laundry list of executive orders to drain the swamp and clean up the country.  By the end of Trump’s term in 2028 J D Vance is extremely popular and landslides to victory with majorities in both houses of Congress.  After another eight years of conservative rule the United States has eliminated the deficit and is on track to pay off the debt within a decade or so.  The energy problem has been fixed with multiple robust sources and the United States is able to concentrate on raising the standard of living for all its citizens to heights never imagined.  All of the Bill of Rights are restored to their original forms and affirmative action and DEI are just bad memories of a failed social movement that did no one any long term good.

And finally, SpaceX finally sends a manned mission to Mars and they discover that the Martians have been hiding below the surface all along trying to decide if they wanted to meet up with us or not.  They make friends with Musk and allow him to build his asteroid mining base on Mars and shortly afterward he finds a fifty-mile-long gold nugget somewhere near Jupiter and becomes the first quadrillionaire.  Shortly afterward he begins building his ring world project and all intelligent life leaves Earth to the Democrats and other invertebrates.

There that’s better.  Now I better get some sleep.  It’s going to be a long three weeks.