Wolfgang Lonien – Thoughts during the breaks

November 12, 2019

A new desktop (and OS) at work

Yesterday I was some kind of productive at work – and during lunch break I even wiped my machine and installed the newly pushed OS which we should use starting January 1st 2020:

Linux@IBM desktop showing some private stuff

Of course I can’t show you any work-related things here, so I’ve made a screenshot of Firefox showing some private stuff on my new desktop which is now based upon RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) 7.7. This comes with a Gnome3 desktop by default, so at least it looks almost like my Debian at home (not as pretty of course 😛 ).

All in all, a pleasant experience with lots less woes than I expected. And yes, it should run smoothly because for Linux this is the officially supported environment at work.

So let’s see how it will work. For the moment, my concerns are (almost) gone, and I can work. Not missing too much until now.

As always, thanks for reading.

November 7, 2019

The Doctor’s singing…

… a Coldplay cover for charity, and is met by the band. So sweet:

Coldplay surprise Jodie Whittaker as she records Yellow for charity album | BBC Trailers

Here’s the full song. Good that they didn’t use too much autotune on her voice, it’s all done very subtle. Also good that she didn’t lose her accent which we all love (really, we’re watching the originals on ONE (German TV) just because of that):

Yellow by Jodie Whittaker

Go to the ‘tubes, and give her a few thumbs up if you like. It’s all for charity…

As always, thanks for reading, watching, and listening.

November 4, 2019

Doodlin’ – Joan Chamorro & Band

Here’s how to start a new week. Have fun.

2018 Doodlin’ JOAN CHAMORRO PRESENTA CARLA MOTIS & ÈLIA BASTIDA & ANDREA MOTIS

See their Bandcamp page for records if you like stuff like this.

So have a nice start into the week 🙂

November 3, 2019

Another “selfie” with the kit zoom

Took this one a few minutes ago:

7e3_b031656-self-portrait-bw-square — Self portrait, Moerfelden-Walldorf 2019

This was with the kit zoom at ~26mm and at f/5.6 using a studio strobe. Processed with Olympus Workspace, Silver Efex, and RawTherapee. Heavily cropped from 4:3 to 2:3, then to 1:1, still big enough for screens and for the web (over 2000pixels wide).

As always, thanks for viewing, and for reading.

November 3, 2019

Daily cat portrait

One of many photos of our cat, this time taken for my ‘month of the kit zoom’ series, with a focal length of 17mm at f/4. Out of camera jpg with no post processing whatsoever applied. ‘Muted’ camera profile.

7e3_b031635-tuna-ooc — Tuna the cat, Moerfelden-Walldorf 2019

Still my favourite model by far – she doesn’t pose, and nothing is in vain… 🙂

As always, thanks for viewing.

November 2, 2019November 2, 2019

Mixed tape by Bothen

One of the tracks/jams in Wikiloops on which I played last year was included in another album today, this time one of a drummer again:

Mixed tape by Bothen, on Wikiloops

I had uploaded my bass to the track at about the same time as Bothen did with his drums, so I offered to mix them together – and that gave an interesting 3/4 from me, with a 4/4 played over it by him (Arno’s template had this polyrhythm feeling anyway).

I also made a video of this track in my DAW, together with the settings for my bass, so in case you’re interested, it’s here:

Wikiloops Collaboration #153856: I miss you (already)

My own version got some remixes by others as well, so here’s the version from my own album:

As always, thanks for reading, viewing, and/or listening 🙂 And thanks again to Bothen for including me on your wonderful album – I feel very honoured! 🙂

November 2, 2019

Self portrait with bass

Olympus cameras have a cool feature which is WiFi – so you can not only put photos taken with your camera to your smartphone for fast distribution, you can also use that smartphone as a remote control (and display) for your camera. Which means that you can get shots without seeing through the viewfinder or on the rear display, and without being able to reach the shutter. Cool; this opens all sorts of possibilities (like for wildlife/birds for instance).

I just used that feature a few minutes ago to take a ‘selfie’ 😉

Cropped it to a 3:2 aspect ratio, and adjusted the curves just a bit. It’s not 100% sharp because I was only lit by my monitor, had the camera on f/4 at ISO200, so the resulting exposure time was 2 seconds…

7e3_b021633-self-portrait-with-bass — Self portrait with bass, Moerfelden-Walldorf 2019

You see me with my bass in front of my computer, and with Puccini’s ‘O mio babbino caro’ on the sheet in front of me. And yes, I’m learning to play that, so it’s no fake.

As always, thanks for viewing, and for reading.

November 2, 2019November 2, 2019

Month of the kit zoom

I have decided that this November should be my month of the kit zoom. Wanted to go a bit more to taking wide-angle photos, and although I have a very nice Panasonic Lumix 14mm/2.5 I’ll opt for the Olympus kit zoom instead which also offers other focal lengths up to 42mm – very convenient.

Of course it has maximum apertures of f/3.5 at the wide and f/5.6 at the long end, and November isn’t the brightest of all months, but I’ll see how I’ll get along. For inside, there’s always flash, right?

Here are some three shots (of my favourite model) using daylight only:

7e3_b021624-tuna — Tuna the cat, Moerfelden-Walldorf 2019

7e3_b021625-tuna — Tuna the cat, Moerfelden-Walldorf 2019

7e3_b021626-dust — Dust, Moerfelden-Walldorf 2019

First and last one are at 14mm (which is like 28mm on film), and the middle one at 42mm (like 84mm on film).

I’ll show you more after I took any. For now and as always, thanks for viewing, and for reading.

Update, in the evening:

Here are two more photos – or in fact it’s one photo taken with two different focal lengths (of the same kit zoom lens), 14mm and 35mm:

Notice how the cup seems to be kind of ‘flatter’ in the second photo, taken with the longer focal length? And how that flower vase seems to be coming closer to the cup as well? Well, you’ve just discovered the main characteristics of tele vs. wide angle perspectives, that’s the exact reasons for using one vs. the other.

Oh, and these two photos are the jpg files straight from my camera – no post-processing whatsoever.

Thanks again for viewing, and for reading.

October 30, 2019

Three versions of “No moon at all”

First of course the original version from 1947, by Doris Day:

Doris Day singing No Moon At All

You like good bass players? Here’s a killer version, and my best guess for the bassist (the album’s Wikipedia page lists three) would be Christian McBride. But that piano and Diana Krall’s contralto are very nice as well: