In Which I Discover...

That the local Walmart actually does pretty good photo printing.  They default to not changing your pictures, and the default paper is a Fujifilm one that's matte.  This means for the first time in like three years that I've finally gotten results I wanted.  This one came out really well:

The black and white treatment really did wonders for it.  The fact that they don't automatically color correct your images for you means that the pictures from the seminary actually represented the proper dynamic range.  I won't be able to pick up the pictures from the film until later, but it looks like Provia isn't very warm, and I think that it's likely not to be too contrasty.  This leads me to think that the roll I shot at the seminary is going to be a little ugh.

One thing that's quite annoying is that their digital scans really stink:  barely 1.5 megapixels.  I'm going to have to buy a micro lens to shoot the negatives and then convert them myself—which is ridiculous and also kind of awesome.  (At large / fine, I guess I can get them at 8MP, which should be plenty for 8x10 prints.  The 55 micro only gets 1:2, and I'm shooting with a 24mm sensor instead of 35mm anyway.)

Digikam has some nice features for working with photos, including a very intuitive straighten that I used to fix up this one:

Hawt.  The batch processing was also super helpful.

The weekend has been fairly productive.  I finally started constructing an "office" of sorts by moving Dad's old desk into the smaller bedroom, which turns the larger one into a real guest room.  It could use some more furniture (like a reading chair and a small desk for writing), but it'll do for when guests come to visit.

I also finally cleaned up a bit in my own room; while there remains a lot to do (I still have boxes left over from the move!), I'm more or less glad to have a cleaner bathroom and vacuumed floors.  Some trash left the garage under mysterious circumstances, the fridge is cleaner (thanks to L), my receipts are logged, a thank you note plus pictures is going out to L's grandmother, and I'm actually blogging.

The last is happening because L is on call and got one of the more annoying kind (like 30 minutes before she was done for the day).  She was out this morning for church, too, and missed a couple baby dedications for some friends.

Unfortunately OSU coughed up a game this week, but I suppose they were far more competitive than expected, and I can't complain about that.  We got some quality time in with the neighbors making some salsa and generally relaxing a bit while my sanity slowly unraveled.  A good thing L got tired and made us go home, otherwise I would have been exceptionally grumpy.  At least the Flyers are 2–0 to start the season.