Tail end of Winter

Quiet runs to start the day off right- the soft snow and the quietness as people slowly emerge from slumber and head to work is really peaceful.
Beautiful scenery – really enjoying the serene time to myself before the day rolls out.
One of our local HK cafe style restaurants that we have been going to during the pandemic- its generally quiet in here and its nice to be in a mom and pop place; the Singapore noodles were ok.
Used a gift card to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse- I’m not a fan of steakhouses in general unless for celebration- I tend to know exactly what kind of steak I like and how to cook it, so it tends to be much much more than I would want to pay- the atmosphere is great though in a nice steak house- unfortunately you don’t get any of that with take out and this was no exception. It was fine but if I didn’t have a gift card I would not recommend this experience.
Setting up for my new office- really excited for this and really nervous. Its been about 3 months of self practice right now and lots of changes for me and leaving security blankets behind but it seems like its been worth it so far.
Ice festival on Whyte ave- it was great to have fam jam time with other families and enjoy some normalcy in some seriously odd and stressful years.
One of my favorite moments is to get into my clinical reading and enjoy a nice audiophile experience alongside with it. Sa5000 and Mate.
So I’m an idiot- I went to upgrade my CPU in my old old old aging desktop- think LGA 775 era in 2005; and I bent the motherboard pins. It was working fine as a computer, so this was totally infuriating to me- and that it was entirely my fault why it stopped working. I had gotten lazy and that broke it. It was time though- I had been thinking of upgrading my desktop for the last year- its sweet sweet chassis deserved so much more than on overclocked 2006 processor. I almost bought parts right away but I’ve actually settled into a really nice system with my Asus Zenbook Duo Pro and my old desktop monitors; given that I have a hexacore i7 and 2060 mobile GPU, its actually more than good enough; I’m thinking summer for a rebuild when video cards come down- I had a chance to pick up a 3070 but I …really don’t need that. My focus now is to replace my work station computer so there’s that too. My old desktop sits beside me as an empty husk now. Unfortunately I think the CPU cooler is done for- one of my favorite parts, the Zalman CNPS12x triple fan cooler does not support the larger CPU sizes of modern CPUs so I will have to say goodbye. In an era where everyone has all in one liquid cooling, this giant air cooler looks totally rad. But its probably time to go.
Hitting squats- I’m now comfortable doing a 3 plate press and going into paused near four plate press. I still think I don’t go low enough so I’m constantly watching other squatters. Feeling great about it though.
I had ramen, tacos, fries, and bubble tea all in one place; I think this place operates a bit like a ghost kitchen. None of these were very good except the bubble tea. It was sort known to me that a place that dabbles in such a wide range of cuisine likely would not do great….and I was right. Good catching up with S though.
Ice on Whyte – this Frank’s hot dog was realllllly forgettable. It certainly does not compare to the Culina on the Lake hot dog I recently had.
Nike Mountain Fly Low; this comes with the famed carbon fiber FlyPlate that is banned in some marathons for increasing speeds up to 5% or so. I don’t run competitively but I freaking love the tech and comfort in these shoes. So much so that I bought the OG with the GoreTex in them as well; they run great and work well for day to day comfort as well. And I really dig the purple mulberry colors. I’m slowly moving away from just AIR shoes now.
Mac shopping- Its time to let my old Sony VAIO all in one go- the constant freezes are doable for a personal computer use but not for work- I had debated a Mac mini because I wanted to get in on the M1 hype train and just plug it into the HDMI in on my L series, but an Air might also work out and give me a dual display set up. I’m also debating outright replacing the desktop with a iMac M1 in yellow. We will see. I had hoped for a second gen Air in yesterday’s Apple announcements but got nothing. The Mac Studio looks good, but too pricey for what I need it for. Considering that my Core 2 Quad built for Windows Vista all in one L series VAIO is struggling with Zoom sessions, its time to move on- thats sort of insane that I am using that for modern pandemic tele work, but it actually keeps up to a degree. I’ve settled on replacing it with an iMac M1 though. I think in yellow. I spent a long time looking at all the colors and the yellow one is the one to get for me.
I debated this one for awhile- the a77ii was Sony’s flagship APSC A mount camera (and still current though I doubt they sell any at MSRP anymore if any are even in stock); magnesium semi pro body, high speed AF – these were the selling points putting it up against the Canon 7d and Nikon D7xx series (maybe d500). In reality the translucent mirror tech was not as reliable as its Canon/Nikon competitors and you also lost a bit of light with the translucent mirror- its a shame because the ideas seemed to have an edge with always on AF vs losing AF when the mirror was flipped in a DSLR. At this point Sony was putting its money into mirrorless, so the writing was on the wall; even if the tech had potential, it never got the development it needed to really stand out. Its also somewhat funny, that it is an APSC body but its nearly the same weight and size as the a99ii. In crop mode, the a99ii has better AF coverage still vs the a77ii. As an A mount shooter though, it was too tempting when a decent copy popped up with a decent price. So far I have really enjoyed it with the Zeiss 16-80 and 16-50 f2.8 lenses; these lenses always seemed to be wanting a better body- my a55 was really too tiny and plasticky and the a700 was solid but aging with its old AF system. Compared to S’s Fujifilm Xt4 system though, its obvious that this is an older era of camera. But I’m happy about it. I also picked up a 55-300 lens to compliment these two other DT lenses so I have a good APSC A mount coverage of lenses. It surprisingly is fun to shoot with compared to the a99ii/70-300 G SSM II combo I tend to favor; maybe just cause its that much smaller and has that much more reach.
This came up- I wasn’t actively looking for FE stuff as my f4 zoom trio was pretty satisfactory in coverage; a 35mm f1.4 Zeiss FE had come up for a really decent sale recently, but I really couldn’t pull the trigger- with the new 35mm GM f1.4 being much much better rated, the old Zeiss version (which surprisingly really let down the Zeiss branding) was discounted quite a bit, so even a sale used version isn’t that big of a deal; more telling though is that I already have the 35mm f1.4 G SAL version which ….is also not well rated, so I would be getting two poorly rated 35mm lenses. However, this 50mm came up and I’ve been absolutely loving low light portraits with f1.4. The price was right- it was a used copy that a camera store staff member had bought and returned, so I got a near mint copy for less than half MSRP; although this one is not hot selling anymore with the 50mm GM f1.2 out now, it was well reviewed for sharpness, a much different result than the 35mm Zeiss f1.4. Its REALLY big though.
The FE Zeiss is surprisingly bigger and heavier than the A mount Zeiss – both being 50mm f1.4; while I had wanted to save up for the 50mm GM f1.2, the massive price difference between the hot selling GM and this pristine used Zeiss was too much; I’m giving up some light gathering ability and AF speed but the Zeiss is well reviewed for IQ. It handles like a brick though on the a7 mark I and I’m itching for a second FE body- at first I was toying the idea of an a7 IV to have A-mount backwards compatibility with my extensive A-mount library but I also kind of think if I’m going to use those lenses I’m going to use my a99 ii. So now I might just go for a cheaper body like an a7c instead given that I have a good range of f4 zooms and now a fast prime.