So the first couple weeks with my Dingoo, I was messing with the native firmware, doing some hacks and coming up with a nice theme/skin for it, that sort of thing. I knew you could run Linux on there but I was sort of avoiding it, trying to just stick to the native firmware.

Then I started looking for a game, to take the place of Star Trek: Tactical Assault on the DS. Something that I could pick up and play for 5 or 10 minutes then leave, something that had challenging fly-around-and-shoot-stuff combat, but didn’t have a huge backstory or a long story-mode. (Yeah I know ST:TA has that, but I never play it, I just use Skirmish mode. I get a ship, the computer gets a ship, and we slug it out.)

So after a bunch of trial and error, it boiled down to an oldie-but-goodie: Star Control 2. Or rather, the modern opensource remake, Ur-Quan Masters. Yeah, long drawn-out story mode. Skip that: Super Melee mode. I get 14 ships. The computer gets 14 ships. We slug it out. Brilliant. The only catch? It’s not available for native firmware, only Dingux – that’s what they call Linux on the Dingoo.

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Happy pagan fertility festival weekend!

As with every weekend, long or otherwise, I start out by making a list of things I need to accomplish. Long weekends are nice because that extra day really helps, it maens there’s more nap-time in between the chores.

This morning as I’m writing out my list, I find myself looking at it… Clean this, wash that, tidy this, clean that…

Chores. Just boring chores. I thought, I should add something fun to the list. You know, make sure I remember to do something fun this weekend. What fun thing would I like to do?

…

I sit here, thinking for a while. I can’t think of anything.

Ok, now I think, well just for the heck of it, what if I didn’t have any chores to do? What if I hired a maid or something, had someone else to take care of every last little ‘necessary’ thing. What if I could do absolutely anything at all this weekend? What would I do? What do I want to do?

…

I can’t think of anything. Big or small, I can’t think of anything I want to do for fun.

That must mean something. What, though?

What does it mean?

The Holga camera. Plastic body, plastic shutter, plastic lens, plastic button. Plastic fantastic. A camera so basic that it comes with a roll of electrical tape, incase you need to seal off light-leaks. So basic, it is categorized as a toy. Yet it was designed to take professional format 120 roll film. The same medium-format film that the pros are loading into their Hasselblads and Rolleis.

The plastic lens is known for soft / fuzzy focus. The shutter is not connected to the film advance, so you can take multiple exposures – intentionally or by mistake. Focusing is achieved through luck and guesswork. The shutter has just one speed. The aperture alleges to have two settings (sunny and cloudy) but I’ve taken it apart and find that there’s really just one setting. I’ve covered up the viewfinder so I won’t accidentally use it – it doesn’t seem to have any purpose really.

This is not a camera to do serious shooting with. This is not a camera you fiddle and tinker with to get every shot just perfect. This is a camera you snap away with, whatever catches your eye, try and remember to wind it, or don’t, or don’t let it bother you. Try and remember to focus, or not. Really, just try and remember to have fun.

Here’s some frames from my first roll – as usual, just shot around the house & backyard. At least two of the double-exposures were accidental, at least one was intentional, and I can’t remember any details more than that.

The photos were taken using a roll of B&W Lomography film, ISO 100. The Lomographic Society won’t say where the film comes from, who makes it, etc. so nobody knows what the correct processing chemistry is. I processed it in Kodak T-Max because that is what I use for everything.

I think I gave it 7 minutes but next time I’ll try 6 minutes.

I remember back in high school, I think it was grade 10, when the science teacher banned me from doing experiments. Whomever I was partnered with, got to play with the chemicals and I had to take the notes. It seemed terribly unfair, although it probably saved the school some money and agravation.

Though I maintain to this day that it wasn’t my fault — the textbooks simply should not ask “What do you think will happen if you…?” unless it’s something they realize you might try. After all, it’s science! Empirical data beats speculation hands-down. Why wonder what might happen, when you have the vial in your hand and the beaker on the desk? Just find out!

But I digress.

Having recently got my hands on some chemicals for developing black and white film, and having some colour film laying around, I decided I wanted to find out just how ‘well’ the two would mix. I’ve read that you can process colour negs with b&w chemicals, but I’ve also read that it’s tricky and takes a lot of trial and error to make it go.

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Some of my friends and family have expressed surprise that I am getting so much enjoyment from my aquarium, and specifically from a couple snails and some fish. Without over-analyzing things, I figured I’d put a bit of thought into how to explain why I find them to be a compelling passtime.

Panoramic view of my 23 gallon aquarium.

For one thing, I’ve always found moving water to be relaxing. Just the sound of it, the sense of it in the air. I read somewhere that moving water ionizes the air, which is why it feels so fresh after it rains, and why it feels so good around a waterfall.

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Dropping everything to leave the office at 3:00pm on a Friday afternoon, while announcing to your co-workers:

I must leave you now. I’m needed on my home planet.