bobmacliberty

Weekend happy hour with fresh mint Mojitos. Cheers!

I had to read more about this process since I wasn't familiar with it. Looks like this is not the first time that this process has been used, since other PMs have resigned in the past for various reasons. I also read that the 1922 Committee could possibly change the rules about how a new leader is determined. There will be a lot of interesting political maneuvering happening over the next few weeks!

I agree. The white flower is "blown out". There are a few ways to handle this. 1. Touch the screen to focus on the white part of the flower. This should expose the flower properly and maintain detail in the flower, but might cause the shadow areas to be dark and lose detail. 2. Use the High Dynamic Range (HDR) function. This will take a few different pictures in a row very quickly at different exposure settings (e.g. one so that the highlights are good, one so the mid-tones are good, and one so the shadows are good) and stitch the good parts together into a single photo. On your phone, HDR may turn on automatically when needed (and therefore might not have helped with that particular shot) or you may need manually activate it for specific scenes. 3. This is what I do. Shoot in RAW format. This saves all of the raw data from the sensor so that you can manually adjust the photo later. If you save a photo in .jpg format, the camera photo software will do a bunch of things to your picture to adjust exposure, color, sharpening, etc. to what it thinks is a pleasing result. I'd rather do it myself since the camera sometimes won't get it right, or I may want a more "creative" look than the camera's middle of the road approach. The 2 big downsides to this approach is that raw files take up more storage space and you need to spend time "playing" with the photo in software like Lightroom afterwards. Much easier to save in .jpg format and have the photo instantly available for sharing/posting.

When we lived in Cincinnati, we had a huge Halloween party every year. The first party we ever had (late 90s??) involved inviting people from various "circles" to the same party. Ladies (and husbands) from book club and Bunco, guys (and wives) from golf. Most in those circles didn't overlap. One couple got the start time wrong and showed up an hour early. We barely knew them. We were still racing around setting everything up, and they were extremely embarrassed. They offered to leave and come back an hour later but we told them to stay and help set up. They became some of our closest friends. They moved to Ponte Vedra Beach almost 10 years ago, about an hour from Amelia Island, and we still get together now at least monthly. I'd love to spend at least one week on a super yacht with a full crew waiting on me hand and foot. I need to find friends with a LOT more money. 😁

I have the same problem in my family. There's always a "good reason" why she's late. I've tried explaining how she can plan for these reasons by starting early, but that suggestion doesn't seem to want to take. Always reminds me of the "AIS" scene from Everybody Loves Raymond. Now that I'm retired, I'm trying to be less schedule driven and less stressed about time. It's a hard transition to make after so many years.

OB - You may already understand how the "exposure triangle" concept works in photography and are just asking how he executed this. If so, ignore the rest of this post. If not, there are several good websites/videos that explain the exposure triangle (balancing aperture, shutter speed, and ISO) and how to use it to photograph different types of scenes. Google it and you'll get a zillion results. Here's one that covers the basics: What Is Exposure? (A Beginner’s Guide) (photographylife.com) You'll even find a lot of sites on how to specifically photograph fireworks, which have their unique challenges. If you prefer a physical book that you can put on a shelf and refer to periodically, I highly recommend "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. It's less than $20. Here's the Amazon link. Note that most (all??) mobile phone cameras have a fixed aperture...the size of the opening in the lens that controls how much light is passed to the sensor. DSLR camera lenses typically have adjustable aperture opening sizes which are one leg of the exposure triangle. Since the aperture is fixed on phone cameras, you can only adjust the other two legs...shutter speed and ISO.

When you say that the price went down by $470, are you looking at the current refundable rate or just the generally posted rate, which is non-refundable? Refundable rates are typically higher than non-refundable rates. If you originally purchased a refundable rate, any price drop would need to be in comparison to the current refundable rate. It sounds like they are saying that the current non-refundable rate is $180 less than what you paid, so that is how much OBC you're entitled to.

Winner!

Handheld. Two hands on the phone and I'm a stickler for holding in landscape orientation. Elbows tucked against my side for stability. I'd just tilt up a bit when needed. I was actually able to watch most of the show live rather than through my phone screen while recording.

We had a great 4th of July event last night. Great food & drink, live music, and a fantastic fireworks show at the end. fourth.mp4

We watched the end of Stranger Things Season 4 last night. We really liked this season. Looks like there will be a season 5.

Just did our regular beach walk. The beach is getting crowded early. beach.mp4

I'm definitely still interested. I will happily view all of the pictures that you want to post...especially Greece. I'm still mad about missing our big Italy/Greek Isles trip in 2020 and will need to live vicariously through others until we can reschedule.

Bon Voyage!

It's too bad that Durgin Park closed. Fun experience.

In Kentucky, it's y'all. Unless the waitress is talking to more than one person, in which case it's the plural version...all y'all.

I'm still not used to being called honey or darlin' by someone who've I've never met before. Even weirder when I'm sitting next to my wife. But I've learned that it's all part of the southern charm. I'd much rather have that than a northern waitress who snarls and practically throws things at you.

I introduced several out of town friends to Skyline chili over the years when lived there. I'd guess it was about 75% loved it, 25% hated it. Not much in between.

Being the master of a ship is probably like being a leader in any other role and involves multiple different skill sets. To be a good leader, you need some degree of mastery over the technical skills in your area of leadership. You don't need to be a master yourself since you will have people working for you who (hopefully) have the needed mastery. You do need to have some degree of knowledge to properly understand and appreciate your team, and know if they're trying to BS you. You need to set the right environment, tone, and direction for your team. Any leadership skills that you think of on a land role are almost certainly the same on a ship, although every leadership role will have its own unique "twists" that are specific to that role. A ship's master probably also has to have good "corporate political" skills...dealing with upper management people back at headquarters. I once had a boss who said that he and I were like the captain and the executive officer on a Navy ship. The captain dealt with Washington DC while the XO actually ran the ship. He was the captain in the scenario dealing with/buffering upper management and I was the XO taking care of day to day needs without worrying about upper management. I appreciate what Kate has achieved as a woman. There's no reason that a woman can't have the same level of technical knowledge as a man. But for her to effectively lead down AND lead up, she'll almost certainly run into people who don't like a woman being in the role, and be able to lead through that. She's probably had to deal with that in both her staff below her and her management people above her. I've never met her and won't judge her based on limited interactions with others. Maybe she was just having a bad day when Dani "met" her. Maybe she wasn't feeling well. Who knows?. As I said earlier though, what concerns me is how her team handled the wire incident. That's a direct reflection of her leadership. Again, it may be an isolated incident so I won't judge her (too much).

Chocolate is sometimes part of the chili recipe, as is cinnamon. People in many other parts of the country (like Texas) would probably laugh at calling it chili. It's based on a stew that greek immigrants made in the early 1900s so it's more watery than a typical chili. You dumped all of the ingredients, including the broken up ground beef, into a pot of water and bring to a boil. They called it chili so that it would sell better in the US. Serving it over spaghetti was just a cheap way to put more food on the plate.

I'm pissed off just reading about it.

It's Cincinnati style chili. The basic order is a 3-way...a plate of spaghetti with chili and then topped by a lot of cheese. Three ingredients. You can make it a 4-way by adding either onions or kidney beans. You make it a 5-way by adding both the onions and the beans. I don't want the onions on mine so I order a 4-way with beans...aka 4-way bean. You can now order like a local at Skyline. I thought I read that the Carnival fight was because the 3-way happened without the significant other(s), who later found out. If they had just gone with a 5-way and included the SOs, the fight could have been avoided. I'm told there are charter cruises that specialize in that.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I said earlier that a golfing buddy of mine was on the same cruise as you and I was interested in comparing your experience to his. Sounds like you both had a similar experience. He was not at all impressed with the cruise and specifically mentioned the food. Something happened with his wife to the point that she said "never again am I cruising with Celebrity". I didn't ask for the details. This is very disappointing to hear...especially how they handled the wire in your food. The fact that this incident did not reach the F&B Manager suggests that there is a larger problem. Staff should be able to immediately report any significant incidents. If they don't, they are likely either afraid of what might happen, or they think it's a waste of time and the senior manager will not listen. Kate needs to get that under control right away. I hope she's more than just a social media "face" for Celebrity.

I love this picture. She looks like she's planning something evil. 😈

Other than my daughters, this is what I miss most about Cincinnati. My standard order was a coney with everything and a 4-way bean. Definitely a lot of food and DEFINITELY not very healthy.