Hey, so, it's been a while since I posted. I guess I just wanted to post and update. Let's see... what has happened since February 2020....
Family
Yeah, so, we're having a baby. If you didn't see that on other social media already. He's1 due at the end of July2.
Lockdown
As you and everyone else knows, the world has been in lockdown since March due to the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 causing COVID-19. My company sent us all on mandatory work-from-home on March 12th and I haven't been across the bridge into San Francisco since. Working from home is... tough. We have a house (unlike many of my workers who have apartments or even just single bedrooms), but it's still hard to get enough space that you can clearly delineate "work time" from "home time". Some parts are nice; I like being able to eat lunch in my backyard with Eva, and I like the fact that I haven't had a cold in two and a half months due to the lack of BART and the constant hand-washing. It's damned helpful that we bought a car when we did, both because public transit is basically gone now, and it's also really hard to buy a car right now.
The baby stuff is also incredibly stressful -- everything about preparing for a new child is a million times harder when the world is locked down. You can't go to any stores to buy clothing or supplies; it all has to be blind over the Internet. I can't go to my wife's OB appointments due to the strict contact procedures. And, of course, they still have no idea how this disease affects pregnant women or newborn children, so we're trying even harder than normal not to get infected.
I can't really write anything about this disease or lockdown that isn't said better by a million other people online, but my sympathies go out to all of those infected and affected. I wish that we had literally any other political leadership at this time, and I hope that we make it through anyway.
Rabbits
We had some sad news recently; one of our rabbits (Alot) was diagnosed with cancer in February and had her ear removed. Unfortunately, she developed a cough and then ended up going into severe stasis and passing away on May 24th. She was a good, brave rabbit and will be missed; she is survived by her bonded partner rabbit Mirabelle.
Hobbies
In preparation for having a new (and hopefully photogenic) baby and to entertain myself while locked in the house all day, I did buy a new camera recently. I decided that part of the reason I don't use my OM-D E-M5 enough is that it's pretty big and heavy with a lens on3 and I don't have it with me enough. As they say, the best camera is the one you have with you4. Anyhow, I got a Ricoh GR III after reading several hundred reviews of every high-quality pocketable camera, and for the few days I've had it, it's been absolutely fantastic. An APS-C sensors in a 250 gram package is completely insane, and I'd forgotten how much more light you get with that big of a sensor compared to the Micro Four Thirds sensor on my OM-D or the teensy sensor on my iPhone5. The Positive Film setting on the Ricoh in particular produces a delightful æsthetic. It also produces phenomenal RAW images which someone with time and skill could surely extract a ton out of; I have neither the time nor the skill so I mostly shoot JPEGs.
Stay safe out there, gentle readers.
Yes, it's a boy. The sonogram helpfully had arrows to point out where you can tell that it's a boy.
He'll have a good head start on all the lockdown babies getting born in January.
With my smallest non-potato quality lens, a 17mm prime, the OM-D weighs 588 grams and requires a rectangular prism of 8.57 deciliters. The new camera is 257 grams and 2.16 deciliters.
I've heard that maxim for at least 10 years but I cannot find out who said it first. Chase Jarvis wrote a book with that title, but the quote shows up in random places in Google from years before the book was written.
APS-C is 368 mm2; m43 is 225 mm2; the iPhone's 1/2.55" sensor is only 25 mm2.
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