Things Happened

6FPS V3#5 - Photography and More
A Newsletter by Chuq Von Rospach
May 10, 2021

Welcome to the new issue of 6FPS.

Since the last issue of 6FPS, things have happened. Those include:

  • Both Laurie and I have now finished both Moderna jabs and the two weeks to full effectiveness. We are vaccinated.

    • That said, I am still feeling really unsure and uncomfortable about walking into groups of people I don't know well (and unsure and somewhat less uncomfortable doing so with those I do know). I am still masking when I'm going inside a building, and will for the forseeable future.

  • As I noted last time, we finalized the sale of the house down south, and started gearing up for the search up in Washington. Since then:

    • I found a good agent team to help us with the search

    • found a house we really liked; which we then found out was about to have an offer made on it, so we decided not to try to push an offer on it since we were just starting

    • Found two more houses we reallly liked, and had both go to offer pending in a day or so -- it's that kind of market right now for the house style we're looking for.

    • Started talking to companies about getting pre-qualified for a loan.

    • Finding out the house we'd stopped looking at never did get the promised offer.

    • Got in a car and drove to Washington.

    • Reviewed the house.

    • Finalized the pre-qualification

    • Made and offer -- and had it accepted.

    • Drove home from Washington -- I drove up Saturday, overnighting in Yreka. I drove home Wednesday, deciding to make the full run home (13+ hours; in general, I do not recommend). Slept a lot.

    • Signed a lot of papers.

As I write this, I've been home three days since that trip and finally feeling like I have a brain again, but... we also seem to have a house, and barring any unexpected complications, we will get title and a mortgage payment June 1.

Live has been a bit of a blur.

Note: I said last issue I'd try to get new wallpapers out this issue. Buying a house kind of made that impossible, but I haven't forgotten. I'll release a new set as soon as I can, or when I need an excuse to go hide from all of the other chaos going on that is called "buying a house and moving".

The house is officially in Silverdale, about 15 minutes from the downtown waterfront and most of the shopping; maybe 30 minutes from Poulsbo. As I stepped out of my car to inspect the place, a Red-Breasted Nuthatch started bellowing nearby. The house is on about 2 acres of mostly pine woodlands, although there's some birch in there as well. There's a second parcel next to it that's also around 2 acres that we've agreed to buy at a later date, so when this is all done, we'll be on a little less than 5 acres surrounded by trees. The house is incredibly well maintained and in great shape, and we're now figuring out where stuff goes.

Now, of course, all we have to go is get moved (and even more fun: get the cats and bird moved). And get homeowners insurance, and set up the electricity and trash, and organize getting this house on the market (already in progress; if you have a hankering for an Eichler home about 4 miles from Apple's spaceship, drop me a note) and, um, god, I don't know how many more details we'll need to wrangle.

But we're moving to Washington, and in a couple of months or so, we'll be living in Kitsap County.

Things are incredibly busy right now, although somehow, this weekend, I seem to have absolutely nothing in my inbox I need to wrangle, so I'm getting this issue out during the lull. Monday I expect it'll pick up again.

I will note that I may or may not find time to get to 6FPS during this; if I skip an issue, please accept an apology in advance. Once we're through the worst of the crazy I'll push one out if I miss on of the next deadlines.

But it's happening.

New Features of 6FPS

I've started a couple of things this issue that I've been planning for a while:

  • Recommendations: I used to write a lot of reviews on my blog, but over the years, that's stopped for various reasons (I have opinions here, and intend to write about this, but not this month; but... soonish). I've decided to add a new feature unique to 6FPS called Recommendations, where I'm going to write some short notes on things that have caught my eye that I think you might find interesting. Not full reviews, but enough info about whatever it is to give you some idea of whether it'll interest you, too. This month has one item, Mary Robinette Kowal's Relentless Moon. Not everything that will show up here will be books, but all of these recommendations will be only found here in 6FPS.

  • Photo Wednesday/Feathery Friday: I've long wanted to do more than just post one picture every issue of 6FPs, but I wasn't sure what I wanted it to look like. What I've done is started a new series of posts on the blog: Every Wednesday I'm posting a landscape or other non-bird photo, and every friday I'm posting a bird photo. Those will be collected here, and you can click on them to go and look at the story I'm writing for each of the posted pictures...

And with that, on with the show!

What's New from Chuq?

First Look: Fujifilm XF 70-300 F4-5.6

So, Fujifilm released a new X mount lens, the 70-300 F4.5-5.6. It clearly is intended to replace the aging and merely-okay 55-200, giving some extra reach. It looked like a good lens for birding work -- not as much reach as the 100-400 but much smaller and lighter -- so I grabbed a copy and I've been taking it out to see what I think.

I'll do a full review later, but my initial results have been quite positive. Fast and accurate autofocus, nice, sharp images, and very light and easy to hand hold.

More later, but while you're writing for my writeup, DP Review has a nice overview of this new lens. I think it's a winner.

For Your Consideration

Photography

Health and Fitness

Science and Technology

Interesting Stuff

Recomendations

Books

  • The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal: my audio book for the Washington trip was a book I've been meaning to get to, which was book three of Kowal's Lady Astronaut series. If you haven't started this series (book 1 is The Calculating Stars and book 2 is The Fated Sky). This is an alternate history story where in the 50's a meteor hits the earth and wipes out a large part of the eastern seaboard of the US -- and might well be an extinction event for humanity. It follows the story of the people chosen to be astronauts in an attempt to establish self-sustaining colonies in space to give humanity an outpost and chance of survival if the earth does become uninhabitable. Kowal's ability to create very real, complicated characters and use that to drive the story forward is amazing. Relentless Moon is, I think, the best damned book I've read in years, period. And -- I strongly suggest the audible audio version, read by Kowal. As good as the book is, the performance she gives in the reading is even better.

See you Soon!

And with that, I'll see you in 2021 with the next issue. I'd love feedback on this, what you like, what you want more of, what you want less of. And if you have something interesting you think I might want to talk about, please pass it along. Until then, take care, and have fun.

Chuq (chuqui@mac.com)

About 6FPS and Chuq

6FPS (Six Frames Per Second) is a newsletter of interesting things and commentary from Chuq Von Rospach (chuqui@mac.com).

Coming out monthly on the 2nd Monday of the month, I will place in your inbox a few things I hope will inform and delight you. There is too much mediocre, forgettable stuff attacking your eyeballs every day you're online; this is my little way to help you cut through the noise to some interesting things you might otherwise not find.

Some links in this newsletter may point to products at Amazon; these are affiliate links and if you use them to buy a product, I get a small cut of the sale. This doesn't make me rich, but it does help pay my web site bills. If you use the link to buy something, thank you. If you prefer not to, that's perfectly okay, also.

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