My lovely wife Jo has been busy planting in our backyard. There are a lot of blossoms, but two of the prettiest by far are our pok choy (Chinese cabbage) and sweet pea plants.
The pok choy’s beautiful yellow flowers:
The sweet pea, which smells amazing but is not overpowering:
Interestingly, both of these were taken with the Olympus M.Zuiko 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 lens. For a kit lens it is one damn capable and vastly underrated tool, especially considering it is weather sealed when used on the E-M5.
Last weekend I noticed two types of bees were all over a tree next to our house.
Only one kind of bee is pictured here, the other I poorly focused on. I need to practice more.
Both of these were shot with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 and the Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 R lens. For such an inexpensive lens the M.40-150 is giving really great results. I’m glad I got it for my starter kit.
I recently picked up the Panasonic Lumix 12.5mm f/12 3D G Lens for a very great price from the Micro Four Thirds User Group. Being a slow lens (f12, eek!) it needs a lot of light to get a good capture. It is fortunate that I live in Oakland, California where we are provided many sunny days by nature. You’ll need red-cyan 3D glasses to see these images properly. Click through for the full size and full effect.
California Poppies we’ve planted in the backyard:
An avocado sapling grown from a pit (I particularly love the yard in the background on this one):
Listen closely folks and you can hear yours truly on Episode 33 of the Ruining It For Everyone podcast. I had a great time talking with Christopher and Maggie. If you dare listen you can hear me bloviate for two hours on subjects like working at visual effects studios, MTV’s Liquid Television (R.I.P.), photography, and much, much more.
Jo and I went to the Asian Art Museum today to see the Terracotta Warriors Exhibit. It was amazing to see the figures and other pieces from the period. The Asian Art Museum has a wonderful collection that we went through a lot of, but not all of it (we have to leave something for another time).
After that we went to the San Francisco City Hall and kissed under the small dome where we got married four years ago tomorrow. It was cute.
I took a bunch of pictures that you can see at my Asian Art Museum & Terracotta Warriors or SF City Hall Flickr sets. Below are a few of my favorites of the day.
Taken by my lovely wife, Jo Boston.
At Madefire we recently expanded our build system to generate all of our release and beta builds (in addition to constantly building against new checkins).
I wrote a blog post, Keeping Sane With A Build System, about it over at the Madefire Engineering Blog.
It’s been a big three weeks for me lately.
Let’s rewind a little, I left my job at ngmoco about a month and a half ago. I didn’t have a plan other than to clear my head and work on what I wanted to work on. So far it’s been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
A couple of months before I left I attended a story night at a local startup called Madefire. Madefire were working on a new digital comics reading experience. It was like nothing I’d ever seen and I wanted in. I kept working and after quitting my job I went to another story night. Not too long after I agreed to do some contract iOS work at Madefire, sort of a trial run to see if I fit with the team. That would have been impossible to do if I still had a full time job, but honestly it was the best for both parties.
I’m excited to announce that I have joined the team at Madefire full time now. Even better news is the iPad app is out! Go and get it on the App Store!
I’m excited for the future and I’m happy I’ve found a great place to work and contribute.
Chris Parker said the following in a Twitter conversation today
Good enough is the enemy of better.
It’s a perfect extension of the Voltaire quote. I know I’ve been guilty of doing “good enough” at times. It’s shameful. This quote should be repeated daily for maximum effect. Here, have it again…
Good enough is the enemy of better.
Let it go to your head, you’ll be a better person in whatever you do.
Well said Mr. Bradbury.