SponderPoints

Simon Ponder: Haikus, Thoughts, Lomography and Games with a dash of ADD

Thoughts

One Hour Photo App

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One Hour Photo is one of my favorite photo apps on the iPhone. The best part about this app is that the interface is super simplified, and you focus on shooting photos and not chimping, as the photos won’t be available to view for one hour.

Chimping is something you see a lot with digital cameras, it is the act of looking at the back of the camera immediately after taking a shot to make certain you got the shot.

One Hour Photo blocks you from doing this. You take the shot and it goes into developing mode. You can see your photo after one hour as elapsed, in B&W.

Here is an example:

Neat right?

I usually pull out the app and snap a few quick photos and then an hour later I am excited to see what I shot again as the app sends a notification that the photos you took are ready. It sends them to your photo album after you launch the app.

If you have taken photos less than an hour after the first photo you take, it will tell you how long till the next batch are available to view.

Its simple and clean and a joy to use.

What photo apps do you like to use?

Hope

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Today’s challenge in the Every Day Inspiration blogging course is to use a one-word prompt to write a blog post for the day. Holy cow that is tough, especially the selection of words they gave and then choose one. They also have this really interesting blog post about a prompt box. Which is really funny as it reminds me of an old photo project I did with friends where we drew a term out of a hat and then had a week to shoot it. 

Anyway the word I chose is Hope.

Hope is an interesting thing. You can feel it, it can surprise you, or you can be crushed by it.

We can be filled with hope.

Hope is something you want. Not for today, but for tomorrow.

Here are some things I am hopeful for:

  • That I will pay down some of my debt
  • That I will pass all of my required tests
  • That I will get back into doing the things I loved like photography and camping

Hope is a lot like luck. It is great to have, but you kind of have to work for it and work on it.

Fortunately, the things I am hopeful for I can easily work on. I can study in my free time, and listen to tutorials. I can pick up a shift at a small store and use that money to pay off some of the things I need to pay off.

I can pick up a camera, find a free weekend and just get lost in the woods.

Nothing is truly without hope, you just have to figure out the path to it.

I also hope I can continue to maintain the writing schedule that I have set myself up for.

Ending out 2018 is going to be busy as hell and the start of 2019 is going to be pretty turbulent as I make some pretty radical life changes. I am hopeful, for the changes.

I am also terrified beyond beliefe.

It is going to be excellent.

Thing’s I like

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I am taking the Everyday Inspiration WordPress blogging course and day 2 is to make a list post. Today’s topic is “thing’s I like.” I have never really looked at the daily posts resource page till today, but it was cool to see this list of things liked.

It is kind of the inspiration for my own list.

Lets jump right into it. Things I like:

  1. Hiking
  2. Photography
  3. Peanut butter and banana toast (with honey)
  4. Mexican Food
  5. Kayaking
  6. Floating the river on a hot summer day
  7. My cat Boots
  8. Twitter
  9. Dogs and cats and any other pets that I run across in the world
  10. getting lost in new places
  11. Wurstfest
  12. Fiesta
  13. The Gulf of Mexico
  14. BBQ – All kinds
  15. A bowl of chili on a cold day
  16. Rockport, TX
  17. Comic Book Conventions
  18. Science Fiction and Fantasy Books
  19. Dinosaurs
  20. NASA and the whole going to space thing
  21. Cheese
  22. Long aimless walks
  23. Accomplishing goals
  24. marking things off the todo list
  25. Robots
  26. The State Fair of Texas
  27. A freshly sharpened pencil –  particularly the smell
  28. A lazy Sunday napping in a hammock
  29. Spicy food
  30. Dr. Pepper (I need to learn to not like this one so much.)
  31. Waterfalls
  32. The smell of salt in the air
  33. Santa

I am sure there are more things I like, but this is a pretty long list so far. Heck, since I have started writing the conclusion to this post, I have added more to the list.

It is ridiculous, and awesome. The email had three other prompts for lists that I think I will use in the future.

Fitness Tracker – in search of

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I love the idea of a fitness tracker. The first one I purchased for myself was the Fitbit flex and it was really good. After a while I got a Misfit shine for free from my health insurance, and I would wear them both.

I enjoy hitting my step goal every day and it was nice having a device that would track that for me. Especially since my health insurance would give me a $1 a day into my Amazon account as a reward.

Which is great.

After some time I graduated from the Fitbit/Misfit to the Apple Watch 2. This was and is my favorite fitness tracker. It tracked my activity, I set goals and would complete the months and the little animation it does when you hit your goals was the coolest thing in the world.

Due to tragic circumstances, the Apple Watch died. It is dead, it won’t charge at all.

I am not on the search for a new fitness tracker. I want the Apple Watch again, however owing to some plans at the moment, the Apple Watch remains outside my grip. I have been doing some research and it looks like the market is flooded with cheap fitness trackers/smart watches, but none of these seem to be any good.

Ideally I would live with the Misfit again for a few months while I save up my money to get the Watch again.

But I don’t know. What Fitness tracker do you use?

Month in Haiku’s — November, 2018

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I may have mentioned this before, but I started a little journaling project for November that required me to write a daily Haiku to sort of sum up the day. It was an interesting challenge, and one I am excited to bring into December and the New Year. 

It was good to sit and self reflect at the end of each night on what I had done that day, how I felt about it and then jot it down as 3 simple lines. It was a bit of a struggle to get them to fit the structure of 5/7/5. But I think they all work.

November 1st, 2018

Cold weather is here
Chilled people head to their task
Awaiting warm days again

November 2nd, 2018

Early morning rally
Run for bus supplies after
Uber for freedom

November 3, 2018

Adoption Event
Puppies and Kitties for cuddles
Two dogs Adopted

November 4, 2018

Fresh cut lawn followed
By Coffee shop for reflection
And self discovery.

November 5, 2018

Early rise today
Cleared out my todo list fast
Met with my future

November 6, 2018

Up to get the vote
Downtown in the foggy fall air
Cat cuddles at night

November 7, 2018

Warm sun starts the day
Walk for Pokémon at lunch
Parents house for sup.

November 8, 2018

Change of work venue
Bad news in the mail today
Thunderstorms bring sleep

November 9, 2018

Work from the bosses
Cleared out my agenda fast
Long stroll in brisk air

November 10, 2018

Chilly morning walk in woods
Wonderful pets adopted
Wurstfest for dinner

November 11, 2018

Visit with close friend Ariel
Cut the lawn in cold misty air
Walk to hatch pokemon.

November 12, 2018

Freezing morning air.
Aced the agenda with Client.
Found warmth with heaters.

November 13, 2018

Lazy morning lay
Freezing walk to the office
Slow evening work

November 14, 2018

First day of Training
Headed home cold air
Tamale dinner

November 15, 2018

Long lunch walk to focus
Design client website then
Dinner with my parents

November 16, 2018

Training at GameStop
Sold many games and systems then
Visit with the devil dogs

November 17, 2018

Doggy playtime
And adoption. Devil dogs
Care after walking

November 18, 2018

Crimes of Grindlewald
Excellent movie, then kitty
Play at friendsgiving

November 19, 2018

Start of Holiday
Work quickly turns to a trickle
Work is for next week

November 20, 2018

Head to the office
Chilly air blasts from cold front
Late night chinese food

November 21, 2018

Last day before break
Submit work to contract team
Cold walk through downtown

November 22, 2018

Thanksgiving day fun
Shopping for deals afterward
Exercise after

November 23, 2018
Black Friday shopping
Worked a surprise shift at store
Then home for cuddles

November 24, 2018

Visited Parents
Laundry and picked up new chair
Evening shift work.

November 25, 2018

Hung Christmas decor
Clean and repaired around home
Hunted Pokémon

November 26, 2018

Slept in this morning
Courthouse visits while walking
Bike Repairs After

November 27, 2018

Visited with friends
Creating documents for work
Lazy time with the cat

November 28, 2018

Smoke-free for one year
Celebrate no Tobacco
Moonpie and Long walk

November 29, 2018

Awake with phone call
Forgot computer charge
GameStop shift to close

November 30, 2018

Pickup new puppies
Burritos and dog supplies
Photobooth side gig

Now that this is over, it is time to start December.

Count the Santas, a tiny Bitsy Game

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I love the Bisty Game engine. And have been wanting to make a game with the Bitsy for a while now. 

Today, I have finally made my first little game with the Bitsy game engine. It is called “Count the Santas” and you can play it on Itch.io.

I have a variety of Bitsy projects I have abandon or accidentally deleted, so it was nice to actually finish one. I got the idea to work on this while explaining to a friend why I have a collection of Santa Clause statues that I bring out every Christmas. 

I guess this is a weird thing that I have a collection of Santas, because this is not the first person to ever ask me about this. But honestly, I love them and they are the gift I look forward to every Christmas, as my mother is the one who buys them.

I guess it is weird for a Bachelor to have a collection of Christmas decorations.

I don’t care, they look nice and bring me joy.

Anyway, this was different than my other game which I made with twine. The really frustrating thing was accepting when my visuals were good enough because of the severe limitations of the Bitsy game editor. I am actually proud of how the visuals ended up and the little bit of animation that is included. A few items have conditional dialogue attached to them, depending on if you selected certain items or not.

Santa Collection
My Collection of Santas

As you can see I have a large collection of Santas, and I look forward to adding many more as the years continue. Cat for Scale.