It was no ordinary day—September 26, 2009. It would’ve been just another wedding shoot, but fate wouldn’t let it that way. So I wrote about it, a year after.
More of the images in this photoset, but you’d want to read the story on our blog.
The few times you’d see Barbie here on my blog, it’s usually when I’ve got something new, like when I got LX3 Lex. Today’s no exception, though it’s not officially new but simply back from the broken gadget bin. Introducing, the Lensdaddy:
The Lensdaddy used to be a lowly Canon 50mm f/1.8 with no name, but with a storied past. It was the lone casualty in our brush with death back in Batanes 2008. Perhaps the poetic sacrifice to the god of the sea. Having lost the ability to focus and stop down its aperture, a result of seawater penetrating its mechanical and electronic innards, it was soon relegated and ignored. Briefly, it tried to be useful with the help of a reverse mount for macro use, but it was barely useful.
I’ve always had a strong liking for the Lensbaby and similar tilt–shift type lenses that Mimi & Karl (and Hana too) has unofficially (or is it officially?) banned me from playing with one in our wedding shoots. With the abundance of DIY tilt–shift tutorials available online, it’s a little surprising that it took this long for me to experiment with the broken 50mm. Even more surprising, no one else has played with the Canon 50mm plastic fantastic for a DIY tilt–shift project.
Basically, I broke all the electronic parts and retention tabs on the lens leaving just the very simple optical element and the outer plastic casing. Because the aperture mechanism was already broken on mine, I removed it as well. Unfortunately in this situation, f/1.8 is too shallow for tilt use, so I stopped down the lens to around f/2.8–3.5 using a round cardboard cutout. To keep the optical element from falling off and to keep the dust away from the camera’s sensor, I fashioned a tube from plastic bag and attached it to the outer case.
That’s it, my first prototype of the Lensdaddy.
Barbie’s no fan of being my stand–in model, or she’s doing a good job pretending not to like it. This time though, she’s perfect for testing the Lensdaddy. A good subject for a not–so–bad back–from–the–dead lens that I never thought could be useful again.
I think I’ll sneak in this single self–portrait.
It’s been a while since I’ve had a Five on Friday post, and maybe even longer is the last time I’ve posted a set of photos. And today’s a Friday. Obviously, it’s the perfect day to write a 5oF post with five sets of photos!
Let’s have a healthy mix of photos I should’ve already posted before, or photos that I’ve only shared on Facebook but not yet here.
UP is known for its sunflowers that bloom around April, so after a blogger–initiated activity inside the campus, we rushed to the University Avenue to have an impromptu photo session with our friends.
This was a dinner with the “Iskul Bocols,” officemate–friends from a company Hana and I used to work in.
These are from last year’s Pisay Homecoming, where we noticed that fewer batchmates attend each year as we all grow older.
Frame–grabs from Cliquebooth are perfect for polaroid treatments, as these photos taken from Katy’s Christening would prove.
Dinner anywhere occasionally turns into a photo session for me and Hana. This was in Tokyo Cafe in SM North EDSA, one of our favorites.
It’s more than obvious that I’ve taken a liking for Polaroid–style photos. For my instant fix, I’ve used Poladroid on the desktop. Recently, I’ve discovered an Android app called Vignette that does the same thing (and a lot more), but applies the effect right upon capture. Instant faux polaroids!
Now wouldn’t it be fun if I could upload more photosets frequently? This was fun. Let’s hope there’s more soon.
Exactly eight years ago, I wrote this weblog’s oldest entry. It was a short piece desperately trying to put some sense of purpose to my online presence—and I probably wrote it more for myself than my readers. 96 months later, I find myself asking the same unspoken questions: What am I exactly doing? It’s good I ran into what I told myself back then:
But now I end up thinking, how did I ever make my first webpage? What was my motivation? The answer was right in front of me. I just wrote it a few paragraphs ago. A personal site is your site. You build it to satisfy your desire, without much regard to the possibility that you may be the only entity looking at it. It surely would be nice to be famous like Jaemark’s Pancit Canton, but you can’t expect everyone to come rushing and praising you the day you launch your site. When you think about it, you can’t expect the same success if you aren’t even close to his high level of intelligence and gorgeousness. And makalaglag–panty amount of sex appeal. You just do your thing, and maybe the good things will come. In a few weeks, or a few months; maybe in a year. Or maybe that will never happen. Just make sure you please yourself, after all, it is your site.
Amusing that I used “site” to refer to my online presence. I’m not sure I’ve encountered the term “weblogs” then, and definitely not “blogs.” Even funnier, I think I’m still at it—I’m too full of myself that I still keep to my irregular blogging rhythm. I guess I’m happy with just the way things are for this site.
Of course I got the scare of my life when I couldn’t renew my domain name from the clutches of a negligent failure of a domain reseller, only to find salvation in seemingly not too dramatic support emails with the parent registrar.
Moments like that make you evaluate your weblog’s meaning. I contemplated on other options I could take once I lose rebelpixel.com. Should I get friends in the SEO community to grab the expired domain for me? Should I just go for the .ph version? Would a non–existent twitter presence be better instead? Or could I just use tumblr and reblog everything that’s not mine?
Or could I simply fade into the darkness of the unwired world?
None of it had to happen though—I got my solution before I could sell the drama. I’m still rebelpixel.com.
As a blogger, I’ve asked many questions that some I’d rather not answer today. How can people blog everyday while keeping a day job? How can others go to more than one blog event a day and still keep his sanity? How can some bloggers write more posts than you can literally read in a day? How can others pretend to be who they’re not?
Like I’ve told you, there are questions I’d rather not address. And there’s just one I’d rather talk about.
Why is this blog exactly as it is, mostly sporadic with occasional usefulness, mostly just blabbering with isolated moments of relevance?
I’m still as uncertain as I was eight years ago. But I think I just like it as it is. Happy with all its quirks and idiosyncrasies.
Welcome to rebelpixel.com, and thanks for dropping by.
Some things just don’t feel important enough until they’re gone. Or almost gone.
Recently, I wrote about how I just might lose my domain rebelpixel.com if not for some sort of a miracle. Thankfully, they do happen without much fanfare, sometimes.
I followed Jepoy’s advice suggesting that I get in touch with mydomain.com, the administrator for DotRegistrar, for whom Cheaper than Cheap Domains used to resell domains for. There is also a similar discussion that details this solution, another victim of ctcd.com’s negligence.
It took some time for mydomain.com to address my queries and I felt I was really losing the domain. After a while, I decided to resend my support request but this time using the email address in rebelpixel.com’s whois record. It worked. I finally had someone’s response with the verification details they needed. Finally last Saturday night, I renewed my rebelpixel.com.
Thoughts of alternative domains, TLDs and 301 redirects haunted me for several weeks and I’m just glad I didn’t have to do any of them. It would’ve have been a mess, socially and financially. Though I still believe in small local web companies and startups, be aware of their background and service history. A little digging would help, before you actually need desperate help.
Exactly two months from now, I will be losing control of the domain rebelpixel.com. Come September 29, it will expire into oblivion and likely morph into a world of spammy landing pages, as what typically happens to aged, linked, and moderately authoritative domains.
Unless miracles do happen.
My whois record tells me that I’ve owned rebelpixel.com since 2003, but I’ve registered (and lost) the domain once before that. But in 2003, I used what was then a promising local company that handles domain registrations: Cheaper Than Cheap Domains. They were a valid reseller, and back then they were the only option I knew that accepted payments through bank deposits. It was pleasantly convenient for people with no credit cards, like me.
Everything was smooth sailing until the horror that surprised me more than a month ago. The company has basically gone AWOL, with their contact numbers not working along with their email support. I was planning to transfer the domain to another registrar, but their administration tool doesn’t work. Desperate, I also tried renewing through their credit card payment facility, but it doesn’t work too.
Just today, the domain cheaperthancheapdomains.com, their other URI for their business, has expired. The other domain, ctcd.com, still works. But it’s now impossible to even login to their administation tool since it uses the longer domain name. Obviously, this tells me they’ve fucked up. Big time.
And now I honestly don’t know what to do. Help. Please.
Today marks our 35th month together. 😀
The view from the top of Mount Samat in historic Bataan, on the 12th of June 2010, Independence Day.
This will likely be a long list on unrelated thoughts, so sit back. Enjoy the ride and the mess of a blog post.
Now please pardon this mess. I still have work to do.
You are exactly where your father should’ve been three decades ago — and you should always remember that. In the past few weeks, I’m sure all forms of political ass–kissing has come your way. Some may expect that you owe them a favor for supporting your spectacular rise to the presidency, but please be reminded that ultimately, you are accountable only to the Filipino people.
I’ve been irregularly writing a series called “Five on Friday” where I list down five things relevant to any story I find noteworthy, and this I’ve done for quite some time now. Today I’ll write about five pressing concerns that I think will make or break your presidency, so please consider them if possible.
I do not claim to have thought of these five things as most important; many of them have been explained by friends who passionately care about the country. I just happen to be just like them — I love the Philippines that I just couldn’t let you fail.
We just all know that the Filipino is worth dying for.
Hello. I’m Markku and this is rebelpixel.com, my weblog. More about me?
