No breakfast, burrito for lunch, drive-thru for dinner, late snack. That’s been my routine for months now and I’m thinking it’s time to hop back on the real food wagon. I find it difficult to eat well. Living alone most of the time doesn’t help. Cooking for one isn’t much fun, so I try finding ways to make it interesting. Gadgets usually work, so I ordered a fancy new juicer. I’m hoping the new toy, and a trip to the Farmers’ Market today, will dust off my interest in eating home and healthy.

Why a juicer? Mostly due to watching Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead. That, and my aversion to eating enough fruits and vegetables. The plan is to have juice for breakfast and instead of random snacks I tend to eat in the evening.

Let’s hope it doesn’t end up just being unused junk taking up space on the counter.

PersonalBrain (by TheBrain Technologies) is a wonderful, strange, interesting application that I’ve recently discovered and quickly found to be indispensable. That’s not entirely true, I’ve known about PersonalBrain for years. It was introduced in 1998 and has been steadily updated since and is currently at version 6. I just never gave it a shot. Why? Well, it’s a Java app for starters. We all hate those by default, right? It looks weird and uses terminology like “Plex” and “Thought” and always seemed like a gimmicky, clumsy version of other mind mapping software. I love me some mind mapping software, so after running into a recommendation or two recently I installed the trial and decided to give it a go.

When I say “give it a go” I mean it. I tend to go all in when testing new software. PersonalBrain was no exception. I started throwing everything into my “brain” and after a couple of weeks I began to understand how the app thinks. Once that happened, I stopped testing the software and starting using it. And once that happened, I bought it. Now I have a new best friend.

The thing that makes mind maps so useful is context. Same goes for the wonderful Map view in Tinderbox. So many of my favorite geeks spout on and on about how great plain text files are. Text files are pretty, lightweight, portable, and easy. But text files don’t offer context, and depending on what you’re trying to do, context is king. PersonalBrain is all about linking and displaying the relationships that result from all that linking. That’s what makes it great. I can throw hundreds or thousands of “thoughts” into my brain, link a few of each together, and what I get is a view into how I was thinking and a way to quickly find things based on context and complex relationships. My brain is only a couple of months old, but it’s growing quickly, as you can see from the statistics information.

It’s pretty cool. I expected a quirky mind mapping tool, but in a short time PersonalBrain has become my CRM, Project Management tool, and File Manager. Not for everyone maybe, but certainly worth a look.

Katie turns 12 today.

Shooting film is something that I’ve been doing for quite a while now. I own a half-dozen or more wonderful film cameras. I have scanners for digital display and a darkroom for making prints. It’s all very cool and interesting. There is something about shooting film that is magical and cannot be replaced by digital means. It’s also a pain in the ass and I’m running out of patience. Scanning 36 exposures of 35mm film is a horrible process that eats up an hour or two every time. That would be ok if the results I was getting were worth it. They’re not. On the other hand, I love the results I get from the medium format cameras. So let’s just say 35mm film is out, but 6x6 is in.

Now what? The answer, I’m almost ashamed to say, should maybe be digital. I’ve been thinking about what’s next for weeks. My first reflex told me that I wanted to replace my Leica M cameras with an M9. I owned the earlier M8 briefly but didn’t like the compromises it required (cropped sensor and IR issues.) The M9 is much more attractive, but at $7000 it would be a life-changing investment for me. Leica rangefinders have a fairly limited range, photographically speaking, and spending that kind of money on an M9 would mean I’d need to be limited by that range as well.

The question to ask is what kind of shooting do I do? Truth is, not much. That realization hurts a little, but there it is. I tinker, mostly. To a normal person, that would mean that any little point and shoot would be enough, but I’m not normal. What I want to shoot are portraits, some “street” and possibly some fine art things I haven’t even thought of yet. I also don’t want to give up medium format film - it’s just too great. And I don’t want to always wish I’d gotten a better camera.

I’m now thinking I’ll own 3 cameras.

Hasselblad 500C/M. I already own this camera, and a couple of terrific Zeiss lenses, film backs, prisms, and cases to go with it. The Hasselblad is a very frustrating camera to use at times, but I just love the results. Besides, it’s like a work of art and an engineering miracle all rolled into one even when it’s sitting on a shelf. I’m keeping it.

Nikon D700 There’s a reason everyone walks around with a big-ass DSLR all the time. They’re versatile, fast, and they do a great job. I keep selling my DSLRs because they’re uninteresting and I hate walking around looking like every other schmuck. But, the D700 is a terrific camera. I’ve owned the D300 and loved the autofocus and flash system. The D700 is full-frame, built very well, and does wonders in low light. It’s an obvious choice for just about any type of photography, and I should have one.

Fuji X100 For everything else, for just walking around, and for the serious cool of it, I want the X100. An APS-C sensor and a real optical viewfinder. Plus a retro cool look and feel that fits my tastes exactly. This will be the camera I carry with me everywhere, replacing the M4 I use now. Not the same, but not so different either.

So I’m covered. Medium format film, do-everything DSLR, and compact cameras. Sounds good to me.

UPDATE - November 24, 2011

I was close. The D700 is indeed an awesome camera. Auto ISO up to 3200 results in the cleanest available light photos I’ve ever seen. Really terrific.

The X100 never really captured me enough to try. Fixed lens point-and-shoot cameras make sense, but something with the image quality of the X100 begs for interchangeable lenses, so I purchased an Olympus E-P3 with viewfinder instead. Nice camera, and I can put all sorts of interesting lenses on it.

What I didn’t expect back in June was that I would enjoy the D700 but wish it took film. As much as I find film to be a pain in the ass, I still prefer it. So I went all out and bought an F6. It’s everything everyone said it would be. I love it.

UPDATE - December 24, 2011

Ok, I did end up buying an X100 and so far I’m glad I did. Now I need to decide whether or not to sell the E-P3. And so it goes.

[gallery link=”file” columns=”4”]

I’ve reluctantly decided to sell the beautiful M4 you see here. It’s been customized with M3-style levers and film advance, which look great. Everything works perfectly. With some wear around the back film door and strap lugs, I’d rate the condition as very good+. First $1000 takes it. Includes Leica strap and generic body cap. I’ll even throw in a couple rolls of HP5+.

(lens shown is not included)

You know what, screw it. I quit Tumblr a while back thinking that I should keep everything managed and posted under a single site. Then I spent 2 hours dicking with the Wordpress templates here to make it easier to share links. Well that’s exactly what Tumblr is for, so I fired it back up.

http://jackbaty.tumblr.com/. Follow me.

“Does reading great literature make you a better person? I’ve not seen much evidence for this common belief. Some of the best-read people I know are thoroughgoing jerks, and some of the kindest and noblest verge on the illiterate”

Moby’s kinduva Dick.

And there’s still no conclusive evidence that a phone with a higher SAR level poses a greater health risk – or any health risk at all – than a model that emits less radiation.

And yet the lead-in to the article on CNN was “Hello cell phone. Cancer calling.”

“I paid $17.99 for an app that has no preferences, forces one font and one color on me and doesn’t even show me spelling errors while I type! Yet, I am perfectly happy with my purchase.”

Me too!

Ed Oswald on Square:

“I’ve taken a look at the app and its kind of disappointing. First off there’s no barcode support at all, thus this is useless for just about any business outside of restaurants. There’s also no easy way to run end-of-day reports — something most bookkeepers will tell you that is necessary to make sure your books are straight. Businesses need point-of-sale systems to be fully functional, and Square isn’t.”

If he thinks this won’t improve quickly, I believe Mr. Oswald is going to be proven wrong.