Category: General

Categories
General

Vivitar 135/3.5

Nice aperture blades Vivitar 135/2.8

I got this manual focus m42 screw-mount lens a little more than a year ago at Hampden Junque in Baltimore. Overall it’s a pretty nice lens. It’s compact, shorter than my Super Takumar 135/3.5 but a little fatter. It’s got lots of aperture blades so it produces the bubble-shaped bokeh blobs that I like. The 2.8 widest aperture is fairly fast for low-light shots and easier focusing, and it’s pretty sharp wide open. It even has a built-in sliding lens hood, much better than the screw-on hood on the Super Takumar.

Sadly, I don’t use it much because my 50/1.4 works well for me most of the time. So, the Vivitar 135 mostly gets used around the house to take candid pictures of cats.

Resting

Categories
General

2011 cherry blossoms

There are still a few blooming cherry trees out there – such as the huge one threatening our power and internet lines – but most of them are now done for the year. Oliver and I found plenty of blossoms down at the tidal basin in DC and over at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton. My favorite is probably the one of the path and benches – the blossoms look like a light dusting of snow.

Floating blossoms Washington Monument and blossoms Helicopter and blossoms Benches and blossoms More pink blossoms Pink blossoms Blossoms in the sun A few blossoms Bunch of blossoms

See you next year!

Categories
General

Cooper River Bridge Stroll

We had a lot of fun walking the Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston with Oliver last weekend. To give you some idea of our pace, a 90-year-old crossed the finish line a little before us.

On the bridge Bridge in sight Bridge supports Walkers on the bridge.

Categories
General

Borscht

image

bacon – 1 strip
1 onion
1 big carrot
1 big rib celery
2-ish pounds beef chuck
1 smallish cabbage
2 big beets
vinegar
salt and pepper

This makes a big, meaty pot of soup, so adjust the quantities to suit your tastes. Preheat your oven to 275 F. Dice up a strip of bacon and start sauteeing that in an oven-safe pot or casserole. Add the diced onion, celery, and carrot. Once those are soft, add the beef – I went with small cubes but big ones would make it more stew-like. Once the beef has browned a bit add the chopped cabbage and grated beets. Add enough water to almost cover the stuff in the pot and bring it all to a boil. Cover and place in the oven. Cook until the beef is tender, about 2 hours. Season as you like – I usually add some salt, pepper, and vinegar.

Categories
General

Hiding the admin bar

The admin bar in WP 3.1 is really cool, but what if you don’t want it? Individuals can remove it on their Profile pages, but there’s no admin option to remove it globally – unless you count the show_admin_bar filter. Here’s how to use that filter, for instance in your theme’s functions.php file:

add_filter( 'show_admin_bar', 'orgten_hide_admin_bar' );

function orgten_hide_admin_bar($showhide) {
$show_admin_bar = false;
return false;
}