Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.
Today’s Charleston Help-Portrait event was cold and rainy and probably not nearly as busy as expected. Like last year, we had four portrait stations set up with a computer and photo editor for each one (I was one of the photo editors again this year). Unlike last year, we had a big tent all to ourselves, so there was a lot more room to move around. The rain also didn’t wait until we finished, so the first part of the morning was chilly and damp. The rain eventually stopped, but it didn’t really warm up all that much. We also didn’t do any printing onsite this year either, which made things considerably less chaotic.
Despite the weather there were still a lot of people that came by to have their portraits taken. There were 48 groups at my station, and the one next to me did around 40. Not sure how many the other two did, but I’m guessing probably about the same. That means there were probably between 150-180 groups that came through so over 300 people had their portraits taken.
Thoughts on this year.
Tethering camera to laptop is definitely the way to go. It was planned for this year, but the cables didn’t arrive in time. I was able to work tethered, but the others needed to swap cards. DIYPhotoBits worked very well on my PC to retrieve images from the camera.
With the number of people that came through, giving each group a unique number was very helpful for identifying which photos belonged to each group. Using folders named by number and name helped keep things organized.
I thought I might be able to view and adjust/crop the photos after they were taken, but that turned out to be not very practical at the rate people were coming through. We were able to let people see their portrait on the laptop after they were taken, but all of the processing and cropping is going to happen afterwards.
Next time get a tent with solid white roof. Ours had yellow and white stripes, which made for some odd lighting.
I’m not sure how busy the rest of the Convoy of Hope event was, but it sounded like there were a lot of people, although not as many as planned. Still an immensely rewarding event. Thanks to Rhea and Chris for making it all happen! Can’t wait to do it again!
Heading into the end of the first year of cell phone ownership. Finally starting to remember the phone number for it, mostly from asking other people what it is.
Android 2.1 has been running on the phone for just over a month now. I’ve done three factory resets on the phone since the upgrade trying to get it to work properly. Contemplating a fourth. Android 2.1 is a pig on the Cliq. Slow, laggy and sucks battery like you wouldn’t believe.
There are a few other things that I’m finding particularly annoying.
Bringing up the contact list can take up to a minute. It takes 2-3 minutes to bring up a contact once I tap on it from the contact list. I know, I timed it.
If I want to edit the contact, it takes another 2-3 minutes to open up the edit screen. Timed that too.
W.T.H.?
When people call me, the only way they can hear me is if I use the speaker phone. This could actually be a hardware issue, because I was having the same problem with Android 1.5. Since I don’t get many calls or make many calls anyway, this has only been a minor annoyance.
I’m halfway tempted to give up on the Cliq and go for another phone, even though I did pay the full price on it.
The irony is that I actually think it’s a reasonably decent device as long as I don’t use it as a cell phone.
I think Wild Wing Cafe changed their Braveheart sauce. It’s that or all the other times I ordered the Braveheart wings, they brought me something else.
Whenever I go, I almost always get the Habanero Hot or Braveheart wings. The server always asks me if I’m sure that’s what I want. They’re spicy, but I never thought they were as hot as they sounded.
Today the Braveheart wings came with a very different sauce than I remembered from previous visits. A decidedly heavier coating of sauce, with a lot more visible pepper. Before I always found the Braveheart sauce more vinegary but today the sauce smelled and tasted a lot like another very spicy seasoning I love to use: Walkerswood Jerk Seasoning (if you like jerk seasoning, I think this is the best one). Don’t know if that’s what was on the wings, but it definitely tasted like it and had the distinctive taste and burn of scotch bonnets.
Up until today, I considered the Blazin’ wings at Buffalo Wild Wings the hottest I’ve found in Charleston so far (at least since Necter closed). After today I think that title might have to go to the Braveheart wings at the Market St Wild Wing Cafe location.
Wild Wing Cafe does have an Island Jerk sauce on the menu. That today’s Braveheart sauce was so different than what I remember from previous visits makes me wonder. Is it a new version of the Braveheart sauce? Did they run out or not have any on hand and just combined the Habanero + Island Jerk sauces for my order? Does each location have their own version of Braveheart sauce? Was I really getting Braveheart sauce with my previous orders?
Now I have to go back and try more Bravehearts. I’ll have to try the other two locations too. Before I confer the Hottest Wings title I need to make sure my next orders of Braveheart wings comes with the same sauce.
Charleston hot wing aficionados, help me out here. What has your experience been with the Braveheart wings at Wild Wing? Was today an anomaly? New? Routine?
Got my flight and car rental booked for my trip home for the holidays. It will be my first trip back home since my high school reunion trip a few years ago.
It will be good to get back home. Hopefully nothing messes up my flights this time.