I would be lying if I said I’ve been too busy to write for the past couple months. This is the first time I’ve been motivated enough to actually write, so I’m throwing in May and June stuff.

Kamerafoto #

After a bit of a slump, I’m mostly back to every day camera carry, which has been nice. A couple months back I got a Peak Design Slide Lite strap, and it’s made every day carry a lot more comfortable. Is it worth $60? If a camera strap can be worth $60 dollars, this is definitely the one, but I’m not convinced that a strap can be worth that. I’m also upset that I bought it a couple months before they released everything in a tan color. I’m stuck here with boring grey :(.

I’ve also got a PD bag. I got a good price on the smaller of their sling bags through their marketplace, which is a cool thing for a brand to offer, and I think shows that they really believe their products are meant to last, which is cool, and good for planet! Peak Design people, if you’re reading this, stop making stuff for cars!

The sling bag is perfect. The back handle thing on it holds a U-lock perfectly, and with my 35mm prime on the camera, I can throw a canned drink where I’d normally have another lens—I read a piece in the latest issue of Calling in Sick arguing that Dr Pepper is the perfect end-of-ride anti-bonk food. All my other camera doodads, plus some Wera wrenches, fit in there too.

I’ve been shooting 95% through my $60 33mm prime from 7Artisans. I love it. I’ve become pretty good at zone focusing, and having a fixed focal length is really nice and makes me zoom with my body. I’ve ditched lens caps after reading How to Leica like a noob who shoots Leica from Harper Reed in favor of shooting through an always-on UV filter, which has little effect on image quality, and means that I never have to think about a lens cap. They’re about $8, so breaking one is far from the end of the world, or even the shooting session. Reed’s post is great, and has a bunch of other valuable little points.

I’ve got this little cage/grip thing on the camera. I took the non-grip side off, which helps the camera keep a slimmer profile. I’m liking it so far. The X-T30 is too small for my unfortunately-large hands otherwise.

Cartography #

I’ve been thinking a lot about cartography and map making. I used to make a lot of transit diagram maps, but I’ve since mostly lost interest in that. Now I want to make real, geographic maps. Possibly even as a career. It seems like I’ll need to learn GIS, which I’ll learn in university in the next couple years, and drafting (still not quite sure what this is).

I’m going to attempt to self-teach myself QGIS, in hopes that I can satiate my thirst for cartographic creation until I learn how to do like the pros. I’ve found very little online about how modern maps are actually made.

I believe catalyst to this was a cartographer coming into Scenic Routes. He sold us some of his Marin trails and San Francisco Walking maps. They’re really cool, I think we’re selling them for like $8. I wish I had asked him how he made them, but I didn’t, and we didn’t get any contact info from him.

I have ideas of how one would make a map like that, but I’m not at all confident in them:

1. Survey the subject of the map (how does one survey?)
2. Compile data
3. Use GIS software to plot the data
4. Style that GIS map

I bought a student license more than a year ago for a year of ArcGIS, but lost motivation and got busy with school and other things, and never really learnt much. I’m hoping this time will be different.

I’m not confident this is how it works, or is the best way, and I don’t really know how to do any of those things to begin with. I’m hoping learning QGIS will help me establish some known unknowns. My dream is to make beautiful maps like this one of Ottawa. I also want to learn how to programmatically generate maps. I want to make beautiful and legible geographic bus maps, I want to make maps like Andrew Lynch’s track maps. If you have any tips, or any knowledge, or cool maps, send them to me (email on about)! I want to make maps as a useful tool and as an art.

Dogs! #

My partner and I set out down to Belmont to do some dog and house sitting for a friend of theirs. We got to watch perfect angel Timmy for a couple days.

Timmy is a corgi-mix I suspect. He’s 12 or 13, very sweet, and not very trusting. I spent the first day working on earning his trust, and the second day he let me pet him! He likes to be loved, he just doesn’t quite know how to let it happen. Same Timmy, same.

While Timmy-sitting, we popped by our Berkeley friends’ lil birthday party. I got to meet the people my partner grew up around!

Cooking happened.

Pasta was made

Bernie (named after the senator) was met. Bernie lives in Berkeley with his people, and was found while canvasing for my friend Cecilia Lunaparra’s (victorious) campaign for Berkeley city council.

Music, death #

At the beginning of the month, I pulled the plug on my Apple Music subscription. My music library is now made up of things that I own. It feels good. I feel myself developing more meaningful relationships with the music I listen to as a result.

Casandra Jenkins is coming to San Francisco right after I move to New York City, and my heart is broken. Somebody on Bandcamp described her music as “better than therapy.” An Overview on Phenomenal Nature was the sound track to grieving Hansel at the shop. We’re coming up on a year without Hansel, and I still cry at least once a week. I hope someday to write about how special of a person they are. I love you Hansel.

This website #

My old blog had a bunch of sections, and I’m not sure that that’s the best way to do it. So for now, this only has one section: posts. I’ve been working on this for the past couple of days. The theme is a little more me, and it’ll hopefully help me write longer-ish form stuff more.

Extra photos #

While writing this I listened to And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow by Weyes Blood, and The Loneliest Time by Carly Rae Jepsen.