Jeffrey E.F. Friedl's Blog, page 19

Poking Around Miyajima Island and its Daisho-in Temple

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Dark Room of Lanterns

Daisho-in Temple (大聖院、宮島)

Miyajima Island, near Hiroshima Japan

今回は二年毎の宮島旅行の写真。

Last week I caught a cold that absolutely lay waste to me... I think it was the worst cold I've ever gotten. I'm mostly recovered
now. Somewhere along the line I heard a friend was headed to Miyajima, and that reminded me that I've got plenty of photos I've not
yet posted, so while I recover, here are a few photos from a trip to Miyajima two years ago...

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View from the Hotel

Kinsuikan Hotel (錦水館、宮島)








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The Famous Torii Gate

of the Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社)

I've posted photos of the famous gate many times, including in:

Main Gate of the Itsukushima Shrine, at Night
Why I Shoot Raw: Recovering From Disasters
Miyajima at Low Tide
Itsukushima Shrine at Low Tide
The Richness of Miyajima’s Itsukushima Shrine at Dusk
Pre-Typhoon Low-Tide View of the Itsukushima Shrine Gate at Sunset

Those posts started over eight years ago; in comparing the early ones to the last one, I can see the
quality of my photographs improve. So I'm not sure what happened with the shots on this current post...

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In-Room Arrangement








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Five-Tiered Pagoda

Just above the main shrine

Hokoku Shrine (豊国神社)

Eight years ago I posted a bunch of views of this tower, here.

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Photo Ops










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Budding Photographer








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Below Water

The sign in the lower left is almost invisible at high tide








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Selfies

Most visitors to the island visit the main Itsukushima Shrine, but a short 15-minute walk off the beaten path brings you to a
wonderful gem of a temple...

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Back Streets








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Picking Weeds








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Path To the Entrance

Daisho-in Temple (大聖院)









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Prayer Wheels

The path to the entrance has what looks like “prayer wheels” similar to those in a different part of the same temple, seen and
explained here.

Once you get to the top of the stairs, you can continue forward into the temple, or look back to see the big pagoda and the rest
of the main part of the island behind you...

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Looking Back

Miyajima's Daisho-in Temple is built on a mountainside, with stairs going all over, and it's easy to miss
interesting parts. For example, the main path is seen heading up in this next photo...

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Main Path Right, Small Alcove Left

A quick glance at the alcove makes it appear entirely skipable, but if you venture into it, you're rewarded with a hidden
entrace to the cave-like room seen in this post's lead photo...

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“Cavern of Universal Illumination”

大聖院の遍照窟

Tripods seem to be allowed, but I didn't have one, so I had to make do.

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Nap Time

cute little statues were here and there








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Hall Entrance

Daishoin Temple's Maniden Hall (大聖院の摩尼殿)

This scene above was the title subject of “Finding a Rainy
25-Year-Old Memory on Miyajima Island” two years ago.

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Fell Asleep Studying








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Happy Gourd

Making my way back to the hotel, the tide was already going down at the main shrine...

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The Most Inland

part of the Itsukushima Shrine

Looking for a US-Based Phone Number for my Japanese iPhone

I'm looking for recommendations on getting a US phone number on
my Japanese cell phone, via VOIP. I currently have such a thing with
Skype, but their app and feature design are gratuitously stupid...
just amazingly dumb.

My needs are simple... I pay a fee to get a US-based phone number,
and when someone dials that number, it rings on an app on my iPhone. And using that same app, I can dial out. Voice messages a bonus.

I'd like to use Vonage's app (I've been a normal Vonage customer for
a decade), but it doesn't work with Japanese phones.

Recommendations?

30 Pounds of Microsoft Office

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30 Pounds of Software

Microsoft Office, Circa 1994

Going through some closets in our childhood home, my sister came across some software she
bought fresh out of college. It's a blast from the 22-years-ago past, when software came
with massive manuals.

In this case, the box weighs 30 pounds (14kg), and the manuals are 9" (23cm) wide.

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Floppies. 31 Floppies.









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“Disk Format: High Density (1.44 MB)”









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A Few Manuals

of very many









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“Micro Electronics”?

This was back when “Windows™” was just “Windows™” (it was a year or two before
“Windows 95™”). She paid about $500 for it, in 1994 dollars no less.

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Side of the Box








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Back








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Other Side

Feeding the Bluebirds

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It's My Worm

no, you can't have it

I've been feeding the birds at my folks' house while in town, and so would like to post
a few more photos beyond what I included in earlier posts
(here
and
here).

A lot of birds come by, but these photos are mostly bluebirds.

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Bluebirds Congregating

getting ready for a big breakfast








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First Come First Served








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Female

no blue on head, and less vibrant colors overall








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Male

blue head, richer colors








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Fuzzy

out of focus, but still a pretty shape









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Apprehensive

they're not used to the big camera








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Wooosh

retreating flap at the sound of the shutter sends the worm flying








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V








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Presentation








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Supersonic








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Waiting for More








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Out of Focus

but the shape is beautiful








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Drunk Landing








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Pounce








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Lady Bluebird and Downy Woodpecker








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Wing Detail

I missed focus on the eye, but I like the wing detail that resulted








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Kerfuffle

the early(-arriving) bird catches the worm








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Can't I Have One Too?








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Chickadee Torpedo








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Hey, Gimme!









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Banking Maneuver









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“Fuzzybutt”

My niece Jena's (of Uzu review fame) word for “Chickadee”









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Undercarriage









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M'Lady








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Mmmmmm, Tasty









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I See You My Pretty








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Angelesque








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Eagle Impersonation








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Mom's Favorite

I would delete this out-of-focus shot, but Mom really likes it

The Frustrating Fallacy of “Next Day Air”

Ordering something online from a US retailer last Friday, for domestic
delivery. I was given the option to pay $20 for “Next Day Air”. When I
selected that option, the expected delivery date was updated to.... Tuesday,
four days hence.

Folks in America know nothing other than this shady date math... an order placed on Friday doesn't get processed or shipped
until Monday, so “next day” isn't until Tuesday, but it drives me crazy. In Japan, when you order something for the next day, it arrives
The Next Day.

For example, in Japan, “Amazon Prime” is “free next-day delivery”. If you order something on Saturday night, you'll get it on Sunday. Sometimes
you get things the same day... I've ordered something Sunday morning and had
it delivered that evening. This is what I'm used to, so the American-style
fake “next day” stuff is difficult to stomach. First World Problems, I guess.

Of course, my product didn't arrive yesterday as promised.

I got an email early on Monday from the shipper (Karma
Mobility) that my package had shipped, but tracking didn't actually show
up on the UPS site until 8pm that night, when it was “Order Processed; Ready for UPS”.
That, I assume, was too late to make that evening's flight from California out east,
which I further assume was why early on Tuesday morning UPS updated the
status with the deliciously-vague “Due to operating conditions, your package may be delayed.”
The next 17 hours went by without an update, until yesterday evening the package did
make the flight out east, a day late, and so now they're suggesting that I'll
get it today.

It seems apparent that it's the shipper's fault for missing the promised
delivery date, so I sent them a note last night asking them to refund my $20.
We'll see. Sigh.

Snowy Ohio Morning, Take 2 (Part 2)

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View From Across the Lake

similar to that seen in “Basics of Life: A Bit of Real Appreciation”

This post is a continuation of “Snowy Ohio Morning, Take 2”,
of photos around my folks' place after a snowstorm. After 49½ years at the same place, it's probably the last winter they'll be here,
so I thought I'd memorialize the place with some more photos, mostly for my siblings' and my own memory...

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Cattails

I loved to break them apart when I was a kid, because,

you know, that's what little boys do








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Dad's Backhoe

I still remember coming home from elementary school one day to find it in
the driveway. He bought it when adding on to our house, but he still uses it
40 years later to clear snow from the driveway.

We all wished he would have painted “Tonka” onto the main arm.

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Snow-Laden Chain

from the backhoe








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Layered Evergreen

it looks like it could be the dress of a Disney princess








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Bouffant Gown









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Colorful

all the photos on this page are full-color renditions

of an almost-colorless world








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Frosty Swamp








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Cook Road

runs behind our property









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Tracks









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Snowbelt Residents' Lament

in the frozen land where mammoth snowplows top the food chain,

mailboxes are easy prey









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Frigid Wilderness








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Old Fence








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The Lake








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Dad's Running Path









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“Plants”

for “Peter from Wales”

Peter Barnes has left lovely
comments on my blog for the better part of a decade, usually signing his name
as “Peter from Wales”. His very first
comment, in February 2007, about some flower or other I had happened to post a photo of
really made an impact. Back then I had few readers and received few comments, so
his lovely comment made me feel great, and gave me the idea that if I were to include more
flora on my blog, I'd get more lovely comments. It's that one comment more than any
other thing that opened my photographic eyes, because once I started actively
looking for pretty flowers to shoot, I started seeing beauty and interest everywhere.

Thank you Peter.

In a recent email to my Mom about moss or birds or something, he joked that my blog had more
cycling than plants recently, so when I went out after the snow storm, I made sure to take
something “planty” just for Peter.

The Fix for Missing Apps After an iPhone Restore from Backup

Another issue I discovered with my iPhone today, besides the problem of it
not alerting to a new watchOS
version, is that restoring an iPhone from a backup with iTunes requires a
lot of temporary disk space, and if you don't have enough, the restore
operation will partially fail, silently leaving the phone with some apps (and
their data) missing.

If you notice, as I did today because most of my apps were missing, you can
clear out disk space and re-run the restore.

The first time I encountered this kind of problem was a few months ago when
restoring Anthony's phone. At the time I didn't know what caused the apps to go
missing, and he was crushed to lose almost all his data.

At least now I know how to prevent it in the first place.

A Fix for Apple Watch Apps Not Showing Up

This post is for the search engines, about how I remedied an issue with my
Apple Watch, for folks who might have the same issues.

TL;DR version: if
watch-enhanced apps are not even showing up in the iPhone “Apple Watch” app,
check in that app to make sure that you have the latest watchOS version.

I stopped by the Apple Store in Akron Ohio the other day to have my
iPhone's camera replaced because its stabilization had started to go crazy. As they fixed it for free under warranty, I lazily watched the in-store video
advertisements and impulsively decided to buy an Apple Watch.

Since its release I've had absolutely no interest in getting an Apple
Watch, and I don't even think they look very good (my taste in watches is more
simple, classic, as evidenced
here). But my mother recently had a stroke that left her paralyzed on the
left side — the reason for my extended visit to The States — and
thought that maybe an Apple Watch, with its Siri voice commands, might be a
useful tool for her in the future. So, I bought one to test with.

After my iPhone was fixed, Apple staff helped me pair it with my
newly-purchased Apple Watch and do some basic setup. It was all fast and easy,
and I was out the door without any of the angst and dismay of my previous
visit.

The Problem: some Apple Watch Apps Just Don't Show Up

The iPhone includes a built-in “Apple
Watch” app that contains a
list of all of your watch-enhanced phone apps. For example, the
Facebook Messenger phone app includes a component
for the watch so that you can receive message notifications on the watch.
It's within this “Apple Watch” phone app
that you configure which apps you actually do want to appear on your
watch.

The problem I ran into is that some watch-enhanced apps simply didn't show
up in the “Apple Watch”
phone app. For example, Facebook's “Messenger” app did not
show up.

Searching on the intertubes brought no end of talk about problems with apps
not showing up on the watch itself, but nothing about my problem, about apps not even showing up
in the phone “Apple Watch” app's list.

I had the latest versions of OSX and iTunes, and no amount of resets and full restores solved anything.

The problem, it turns out after many red herrings, is that the watch's
software (watchOS) was old at version 1, and nothing
alerted me to the fact that the watch I just bought
didn't include the major watchOS version 2 update
released four months ago. I'd
have thought that somewhere along the line — Apple Staff helping
me set it up the watch, iOS, iTunes, the watch itself, etc. — would have
let me know that there was an update available.

As it was, with the old software, any phone app that targeted the new watch version would simply be
invisible to the watch and the phone's “Apple Watch” app.

Inside the “Apple Watch” app on my phone, I went to “General > Software Update”
(which had no notification icon). It did a check and lo and behold there was indeed
an update. I launched it, and an hour later the phone displayed... drum-roll please...
“watchOS 1.0.1 / Your software is up to date.”

Uh, I was supposed to have been installing watch0S 2.1.

It turns out that even though the phone was done doing the update, the watch itself
wasn't quite done. A while later I could confirm that indeed the watch was at watchOS 2.1.

Now, all the watch-enabled apps do appear in the phone's “Apple Watch” app list. Woo-hoo!

Snowy Ohio Morning, Take 2

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Just A Few Days Ago

the lake behind my folks' place in Rootstown Ohio
Desktop-Background Versions

1280×800  ·  1680×1050  ·  1920×1200  ·  2560×1600  ·  2880×1800

Today was a gorgeous warm sunny day, with temperatures in the mid 60s (~18°C) and a warm breeze.
T-Shirt weather. It's difficult to believe that just a few days ago we had lots of snow and temperatures approaching -10°F (-23°C).

A week ago I posted “Snowy Frigid Ohio Morning”, with lots of snow pictures. A few days later a storm brought a bunch more snow, and I went out early for some more pictures,
from which I posted “A Warmer Version of That “Warm” House Photo”.
This post has some more shots from after that second storm.

Early before sunrise, the light filtering through the clouds is decidedly
blue/purple because it's lit only by the sky, which is very deep blue at that
hour, and so the initial photos reflect that...

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First Photo of the Morning








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Once the sun comes up, the direct sunlight on top of the clouds filters through as a more true white,
so for the rest of the photos I set the white balance to appropriately.

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Stark








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Party Time








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Heavy

every branch, down to the smallest twig, has its own deep layer of snow








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Another Front-of-the-House Shot








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Ugh!








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Double-Ugh!

To be continued...

A Warmer Version of That “Warm” House Photo

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Warmer

compared to this shot

In “Snowy Frigid Ohio
Morning” a few days ago, I posted a photo of the back of the house that I grew up in and that my folks have lived in for 49½ years. I captioned
it “Warm”, but commented that I had hoped
for more orange spill from the incandescent lighting inside.

I hadn't gotten what I wanted because I was too late in the morning, where ambient light from the pre-dawn sky was already
bright enough to overpower the house lights.

So I tried again this morning. We had quite a bit of snow last night, and
I happened to get up early enough (and as a bonus it was much warmer than
the previous time).
The result above is more what
I was looking for.

The earlier time also benefited the result with a deeper blue light filtering in through the clouds, providing more contrast to
the orange of the incandescent lights.

This same technique applies to photographing buildings or Christmas lights (or cherry-blossom lightups or campfires or airplanes,
etc.) in the morning or evening... photos taken at dawn or dusk can be much more compelling than those taken when the sky is
completely dark or bright.