That's done

[howeird]

Inspector showed up around 10:30, and signed off on the aircon permit in about 15 minutes. I went to the PO and stood in line for way too long for a Wednesday at 11, only one clerk on duty when I got there and everyone in line had a dozen packages which needed postage, insurance, customs forms and a note from their doctor. Picked up my package at 11:30 or maybe later.

Got it home, plenty of time to open it up, take a few shots from the camera, hook up the GPS and take a shot with that. It's basically the same as my current camera, except for the resolution in raw mode, which is about 3x. And it has some controls in more accessible places. But it uses different batteries and a non-standard USB connection. Two big things, it's lighter, and it has a lighter "kick" when the mirror flips up.

Made a snack-like lunch, ate it out on the porch, then took myself to the office.

Not much to do, but we got a bombshell email message. Boss' boss is coming back (he left a few months ago to be VP at a startup down the street). They have made him in charge of my group again, but they have also taken him out from under the guy from Corporate and given him the title. This is Good News.

There was an Atheists' meetup I was signed up to attend at 7, but when I re-read the blurb on it, changed my mind. Two reasons.
- Traffic between work and there is a PIA until the diamond lanes become open to all at 7
- The speaker is a Humanist^®. The blurb sounds like he thinks Atheism is a religion, and he has built a hierarchy featuring himself at the top. This I don't need, and cannot support. He is all about being Moral™. Gag me.

So I went home, took a nap, read the first few pages of the new camera's manual looking for clues as to what is different between the D800E in my hands and the D800 which is slightly less expensive but seems to have the same specs. Nothing. The manual covers both, but nowhere does it says "except for the D800" or "only in the D800E". So I went online and was shown that it isn't a features thing, it's a quality thing. The E takes slightly sharper photos. But I can see the difference, so it's more than slightly for those of us who are more than snapshooters.

Made a potpouri dinner. I had three fish sticks, which went into the oven, five ravioli, which sat on the side as I sliced two sausages and dumped them into a pot of water on the stove, added a cup of elbow macaroni as that boiled, and when that was done, put the now cooked fish sticks on a plate, and slotted spooned the boiled stuff onto the empty part of the plate, and covered it all with American Singles, margarine pats, one piece of string cheese and Parmesan. It was yummy. Domino thought so too, as I ate it while watching TMZ. but when I gave her some she licked off the cheese and walked away.

I have my trip booked for next week. I went with Ventura. After looking at all the options, spending a week on the beach seemed like the best way to use 5 days of vacation without flying. Coast Starlight from San Jose to Santa Barbara, then the Pacific Surfliner to Ventura. Staying at one of my favorite chain motels across the freeway from the pier (there's a pedestrian overpass 2 blocks from the motel).  It's all daylight both ways, if the windows aren't too dirty or rained on, I'll give the new camera a workout. I've never been to Ventura, so there will probably be a lot of walking and photography.

Plans for tomorrow:
10:16 am earthquake drill. WTF? Our big one was on the 17th, at 5 pm. 1989.
11 am automation meeting. One of the team is doing a technology transfer, but apparently the delays which are sending me on vacation will put a dent in that.
Thursday Night Football. Maybe

Comments

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Nope. Atheism isn't a religion any more than an empty parking space is a car. As far as "humanists," having lived among humans for some time now, I just don't see that working. And finally, ethics and morality are two different things, and I prefer ethics. Morality is highly overrated.