Times can come when 10x zoom capability is quite handy on a smartphone. That would be the case with the Featured Image, which was captured day-before-yesterday using Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. Vitals: f/3.4, ISO 32, 1/250 sec, (synthetic) 230mm (digital and optical zoom); 12:12 p.m. PST.
The photo is surprisingly sharp, considering use of hardware capability combined with software magic (what else would you call it) to simulate the zoom range. Please feel free to pixel peep this one.
What exactly does the kid study? “Possessions 101?” “Exorcism Survival?” “Advanced Haunting?” “Geometry of Poltergeists?” “Multiplication of Spiritual Influences?” “Intermediate Demonology?” Does Honor Roll mean the student must be bad to be good? I can understand parents being proud of their do-gooders in Heaven. But Hell? Breakout your goth gear and tattoos.
Today, I happened upon the bumper sticker while walking along Louisiana Street in my San Diego neighborhood of University Heights. The Featured Image comes from Galaxy S25 Ultra, hours after Samsung announced successor S26 Ultra. Preorders can be placed now for the official launch on March 11, 2025.
Signs like the one in the Featured Image are sporadically appearing on lawns across my San Diego neighborhood of University Heights. “Don’t poke the bear” at one time applied to Soviet Russia, which if provoked too aggressively could respond by unleashing nuclear weapons.
There’s an appropriateness to its use to describe Communist California. Governor Gavin Newsom, who has aspirations about being the Democrats’ 2028 Presidential candidate, has gone wild with his response to policies advocated by the Donald Trump White House.
My wife and I don’t go to San Diego Zoo as much as we should. Our current membership expires in April, and I can’t guarantee that we would renew. Perhaps more negligent, I have a trove of unpublished photos from numerous visits that really should be shared with you.
Let’s start with one, and surely no additional identification is necessary, eh? I used Nikon Zf and NIKKOR Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens to capture the Featured Image on Sept. 27, 2025. Vitals: f/6.3, ISO 400, 1/320 sec, 200mm; 3:51 p.m. PDT. Composed as shot.
You choose. Is it the law of unintended consequences or some adult’s backhanded commentary? Take a long, hard look at the Featured Image—enlarge it! That is a skeleton selling Girl Scout Cookies.
One purposeful or unintended interpretation: The Girl Scouts are dead. Several scandals have tarnished the image, as have accusations against the cookies. For sure, someone could argue that Girl Scouts is dead to what it was.
San Diego County is wet again as would be typical for this time of year. The unseasonably dry, pleasant weather disappeared this week. As recently as February 9, the high temperature in my neighborhood of University Heights reached 28 degrees Celsius (82 Fahrenheit). Today: 14 C (58 F). Some sun early day surrendered to torrential rainfall by mid-afternoon.
The turnaround caused hardship for one of my neighbors, who rang the doorbell around 3:30 p.m. PST. He asked for a ride to his car, which spun out of control on the slick asphalt into a ditch. He expected a tow truck in about 45 minutes (yeah AAA). What perplexed me: Why wasn’t he with the vehicle? Meaning: How did he get home?
A simple photo marks a moment captured and forgotten: April 28, 2025. I walked East on Monroe Street in University Heights, approaching Park Blvd. Something about the bicycle and protruding powder blue helmet caused me to turnabout as I passed and consider a quick shot.
The Featured Image comes from Nikon Zf and NIKKOR Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens, which I carried that afternoon. Vitals: f/5.3, ISO 100, 1/1000 sec, 43mm; 4:33 p.m. PDT. This particular lens is a favorite for walkabouts. It’s just fast enough and makes convenient shooting intimate closeups from a distance.
Duh. Usually when I shoot with the camera, I also capture with the smartphone so there is GPS location information. Guess who neglected to maintain that practice on April 12, 2025. With so much time passed, I don’t recall where the Featured Image was made. Location is unknown.
These two, nicknamed Besties, are the one-hundred-forty-seventh and -eighth felines found behind door or window. The portrait comes from Nikon Zf and NIKKOR Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens. Vitals: f/7.1, ISO 100, 1/640 sec, 200mm; 2:55 p.m. PDT.
Some people are superstitious about Friday the 13th; they see an unlucky day. I juxtapose them, by regarding it the luckiest day of the year. Two-thousand-twenty-six is the harbinger of good fortune: Three, count them, three Friday the 13ths—one in March and another in November.
That’s one of the ways I see the world. For years my personal motto was “Why not?” It’s the question to ask whenever someone stops because of perceived barrier. For example, “I can’t go to school today”. Well, why not?
What’s a good cure for clutter? Bokeh! Tortoiseshell Cali sits on my lap in a quickie portrait made yesterday using Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. In the blurred background is my makeshift workspace, with Casabelle Mail Center as a desk alongside six-tier bookcase. I purchased the Casabelle from the now defunct Pier 1 Imports in early 2016. Our daughter may visit soon, compelling self-eviction from my home office for her. The new space is messy, and I am relieved you can make out only the kitty. She is quite the lap cat, and demanding about it, too.
I first encountered Cali on June 4, 2014, shortly after moving our daughter into a house she rented with other coeds nearby San Diego State University. Overnight, Cali would squeeze through an open sliding door and crawl into Molly’s bed. The tortie’s ownership would be disputed over the summer months that followed, and she somehow came to belong to our daughter.
Flashback to May 2, 2025. My wife and I are walking along Texas Street, between El Cajon and Meade, in our San Diego neighborhood of University Heights. I see a lid for a product for which I am unfamiliar. Ah, hum. Ice Cream for Bears? Is that because of honey used to sweeten rather than cane sugar or high fructose corn syrup?
The company touts the natural sourcing of ingredients, such as milk from grass-fed cows and honey to sweeten. From a complex sugar perspective, honey isn’t as unhealthy as refined sugar.
The Featured Image is an opportunity to shake up the flow of posts with something odd, if not disturbing. The head hangs over a fence along Mission Avenue in San Diego neighborhood University Heights. The photo is from Aug. 10, 2025, but the thing is still there—leering down on people who happen to look up as they walk by,
During any other Winter season, the thang might have been compromised by constant, heavy rains. But this part of California is experiencing unseasonably pleasant weather of warm days with low humidity. Today’s high, for example, was 28 degrees Celsius (82 Fahrenheit) and breezy.