A spin with the spinner

 Yesterday, August 19th, I returned to work after a summer of fitful rest. I didn't get much of anything done, I completed some additional training for teaching but did little in the way of writing or research. I just am not feeling well. 

When I returned yesterday for two classes, it was unreal. I arrived to an empty campus. I had never seen our campus this way on the first day of fall instruction. Usually the parking lot is crammed with cars, and there are plenty of students wandering the grounds. There are tables everywhere with people to provide information, and in general, there is a hubbub that is filled with excitement. This time, there were a few people, but only a few. It was almost empty as I made my way to my office.

Things are pretty much as I left them. I still have my 2020 calendar open to the month of March, when we were forced to go on leave and switch to virtual instruction. My posters are mostly there, one had fallen down. My things are much as I left them, although I think someone has been in there to use my (our) computer. 

I got there about 30 minutes before class and just fiddled with the computer before going off to begin. The class is very small, to all rights it should not have been allowed to continue. It has ten students, and I doubt I will be adding any more. It just felt unreal.

I did my best and blabbed and blabbed and blabbed, and soon, we were done. The annoying thing was, since I have to send a confirmation signal to my device before I can log into my computer, I was not able to get a signal on my cellphone to send the confirmation. It was a waste of time, and it let the others know that I had inferior cellphone service. So be it, I do not want to switch to an expensive plan.

Same for the next course, although that one had a slightly higher enrollment. I managed to get through that one, but I can tell, if I am forced to speak through a mask then I have to speak with more force, and my throat will be hurting if I keep it up. It is not as if I can remove my mask either and take a swig of water. Soon, everyone else would be doing that, then dispensing with masks. So, I made it through.

I cancelled my hours after and went back to the parking lot via the longer way. I had wanted to walk around but I just wasn't in the mood. I went to the central quad area and yes, almost no students, and the few that were there circulating seemed like lost ghosts. This is not a typical opening day. I just had to shake my head and move forward. 

I had taken my Holga camera with the intention of getting some photos and I forced myself to take them. I had to take four to finish off the roll I had in there. I took the usual photos of buildings and locations. I couldn't help thinking, even in an afternoon in deep winter, it is not as abandoned as it was today. And I am sure, sooner or later, we will start getting notices about possible Covid infections and will have to switch to virtual once again. With the bad news about Covid fatalities and the fact that the CDC has determined that the effectiveness of the vaccines wanes with time and we may need to take a booster shot in September, I do not want to risk myself either. I hate virtual mode but I also fear the alternative, so I will take the safety of virtual.

I got back to my car by about 5:45 p.m., and went and had a bad meal at a Mexican restaurant that I frequent. The food there doesn't taste the same either. Who knows? Maybe my taste buds have been affected, and that could be a bad sign too, because Covid is supposed to remove your sense of taste.

I got home at a little before 7 p.m. Traffic was not as bad as I thought it would be. The real challenge will be on Tuesday when I have to report by 8 a.m. I am not looking forward to that.

So, here are more Lomo Spinner 360 photos. I loaded some Arista 200 black and white film into the camera this morning and took it out on my morning walk. It was gloomy so I decided not to even try to go to Palm Springs. (I still want to go up the aerial tramway.) I just walked around the block. Since it was gloomy, I used the cloudy setting which supposedly opens up the aperture. How were my negatives? They were terrible. I think they are overexposed. Plus, I am not getting some light band that I didn't have with my first roll. I was hoping not to experience the problem that others complained about, but in this roll, it was evident.

I found out, if I want to remove myself from the center of the negatives in each frame, I have to point the camera and the aperture at myself then spin. This way, I still come out in the negative, but I am on the edge, where I can crop myself out in the photos. It was a good confirmation of what I hoped to achieve. However, with light bands, that dissuades me from using the camera.

Here are some images:

(Above, the canonical river channel shot.)

(Above, the railway shot.)

(Above, the "phantom pool", a nice pool area for a condominium complex that is almost never in use, so I refer to "phantom" bathers and call it a "phantom pool". It annoys the heck out of me to see something so nice, with beautiful, clear blue water and a nice pool area, and to see it never in use.)

(Another view of the river channel)

(Above, something or other.)

(Above, could it be? Another image of the river channel?)

(Above, an open area with trees next to the river channel. It had no trespassing signs, but the homeless people who camp out there pay no heed to the signs. If you get just a little closer to the trees you will see cloths and makeshift housing everywhere, as well as little. It is a small homeless village.)

(Above, a factory on the last leg of my walk)

(Above, a main artery of the city where cars pass by at highway speeds while us poor folk who are walking on the sidewalks a few feet away cower in fear.)

(Above, that same street with speedfreaks, but you can see a big building in the middle that is an animal hospital, and by the side of that building, what has long been a homeless area. They have graphitteed it and marked it out, although the police don't allow them to stay for long.)