Six minutes after sighting Chunk—9:30 a.m. PST on Nov. 15, 2017—I spotted another feline, in a window, along Polk Avenue, near Georgia Street. The black and white earns nickname Curious, for the posture captured in […]
The Cats of University Heights: Chunk
When dissatisfied with a kitty portrait, I typically will wait for another shooting opportunity. Exceptions are often like today’s Featured Image: Unlikely future sighting—as must be presumed from the doorway locale. This is not an animal I expect to see prowling the street, despite the food dish down the alleyway, where a black cat ate but skittered away before I could capture the moment. That’s about as much outdoors to be expected.
No offense intended towards the owner—and as caretaker of a fat ginger, none would be—this cat is the first chubby tortoiseshell that I have ever seen. Torties tend to be lean (and even mean). The furball watched me go by from a residence nearby Florida and Howard Avenue, which approach the outer edge of the neighborhood where it meets adjacent Hillcrest.
The Boulevard Mural
Four days ago, my wife dropped me off at the doctor’s office for a strep test. Following several days of sore throat, I started having night sweats and then swollen lymph glands (in my neck). […]
‘Be a Good Person’
At long last, the philosophical debate about the definition for good versus evil is over. What a relief! We now have a definition that rises above this post’s sarcasm (ah, yes, another kind of evil). […]
Neko Poses
I couldn’t resist. Last night I close cropped in on Neko, from an original photo captured earlier in the day and posted to flaunt our apartment’s living room windows. The Featured Image that you see […]
Look at This!
One of our new apartment’s major benefits is the wrap-round corner windows that look out onto the street. I have arranged Katris blocks to make a catwalk beneath for Cali (right) and Neko to look out—and, oh, do they. The view is human-pleasing, too, but more for its expansiveness than the sights.
The Featured Image, captured at 1:21 p.m. PST today using Leica Q, shows the anxious kitties looking out at squirrels. One of them scurries up the tree that is a couple meters from the glass, then typically stays still in the branches. Poor Cali goes absolutely nuts, when he does. She runs from room to room looking out; there are street-facing windows above the bathroom and also my office desk.
The Cats of University Heights: Tink
Happy Caturday! Please welcome the second feline portrait captured using iPhone X. Maven was the first. I chose the Featured Image for composition and artistic value; the furball is actually beyond the field of focus. Vitals: f/2.4, ISO 16, 1/60 sec, .97 ev, 6mm; 10:37 a.m. PST.
Meet Tink, whom I encountered yesterday on Meade between Cleveland and Maryland, outside a house diagonally across from Pee-Pee‘s place. I wonder if Tink is new to the neighborhood, as the residence is along one of my regular walking routes.
Artifacts: MacBook Air
In late December 2014, I commanded: “Writers, Own Your Content“, because if you don’t it may some day be gone. They say the Internet never forgets. Oh, but it does, as I so bitterly learned—you shouldn’t need to repeat my mistakes; heed my advice.
For today’s remembrance, I wanted to link to an amazing Apple Store customer service story from 2008. Turns out, it’s gone. I didn’t post to my personal site as I had thought but to the long defunct Apple Watch blog, which Ziff Davis Enterprise evaporated not long following my layoff about a year later. The detailed experiential account was priceless. Now the content is worthless. This should never happen to you.
The Cats of University Heights: Maeven
Drumroll, please. We present the first portrait in this series shot with iPhone X, which went on sale just four days ago. This morning, as I walked down Monroe past Park Blvd. towards Texas Street, a faint furball tickled my periphery at Georgia. About halfway down to Mission, the kitty sat motionless, transfixed, in the middle of the sidewalk. I could hear birds beckoning in the distance.
I crept up slowly, smartphone snapping away, just in case he bolted. Rather, the cat turned and approached—and would hardly let me get away, for the amount of attention he demanded. He kneaded the sidewalk with his ginormous paws as I petted him.
The Cats of University Heights: Johnny
The series exits from hiatus, during which my family changed residences in the neighborhood. It’s catchup time! We resume with a Coon-like beauty who reminds me of our long-lost Kuma. But the nose, and his distinctive scar, are missing. I nickname the pretty feline Season, for no particular reason.
We encountered each other, from a distance, on Oct. 11, 2017, as I walked from Park Blvd. The cat traipsed up a hill as I approached but stopped long enough for 10 fast portraits shot with iPhone 7 Plus. The Featured Image is a close-crop, meant to give illusion of being in the wild. Vitals: f/2.8, ISO 20, 1/1030 sec, 6.6mm; 11:34 a.m. PDT.
iPhone X: A First Impression
I may have been unlucky scoring a San Diego Comic-Con 2018 pass during Early Registration, but the previous day Verizon Wireless processed my iPhone X order for delivery on launch day—November 3rd. Now that was […]
What’s the Story, Morning Glory?
Park Blvd. divides University Heights East and West—for reasons that make no sense to me. This San Diego community is about 12,000 people living in an area around 1.132 square miles. My hometown, Caribou, Maine, is residence to a little less than 8,000 folks in a city spanning 79.3 miles. Oh, Hell, I fuss. But you get the point?
Yesterday, as I walked West to East, down Monroe Ave. towards our recently rented apartment, a beautiful cluster of morning glories demanded that I stop with iPhone 7 Plus and honor them with a portrait. I shot the Featured Image—an auto-generated HDR composite—at 12:13 p.m. PDT. Vitals: f/1.8, ISO 20, 1/474 sec, 3.99mm.