The View from Pike Place Market Seattle, Washington • June 14, 2025 Nikon Z6 • NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S f/4 @ 24mm • 1/2000s • ISO 100

On the second day of our two-day trip to Washington state, Jenni and I planned on a leisurely trip back home. We had planned a few stops.

( tl;dr: Jenni and I Visit Seattle, Washington )

Should we tell her that DSLRs are passé? Ayumu Niikura CITY the Animation, Episode 1

I used to start every anime season with an orderly sampling of every new show – and begin the evaluation of which shows I’ll follow through the season. I no longer have the time nor patience, and my schedule is highly stressed this month. At the moment I’m just randomly viewing shows, looking for quick decisions. Orderly, this is not.

However, there are some continuing series that I will definitely be watching. Most will fall into my Time Permitting list. Later on, I’ll figure out my mandatories. I don’t even have to sample the shows. So I’m seeding the Time Permitting list with:

Dan Da Dan S2 (Thu)
Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus (Sat)
New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (Wed)(Amazon Prime)
My Dress-Up Darling S2 (Sat)
I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince... S2 (Wed)
The Rising of the Shield Hero S4 (Wed)

Special note for CITY the Animation. KyoAni is one of my favorite studios, and Sakuga Blog has done stellar work in doing a deep dive with CITY the Animation Production Notes 01. As always, their stuff is worth reading.

( New Shows I’ve Sampled, Below This Cut )

I’ve been too busy to do my final writeup for the Spring Anime Season. Sorry!

Bonus: Looking ahead – New Trailer for Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End S2

The Berry Patch Portland Farmers Market • PSU Campus Portland, Oregon • July 5, 2025 Nikon Z8 • NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.8 S f/2 @ 85mm • 1/750s • ISO 100

I’m trying to do too many things at once. And then I look up and the year is half over. I keep task lists – but tasks get deferred or ignored because I can’t possibly do everything.

One of the items that kept sliding down my task list was to go into Portland and photograph the Farmers Market and the Saturday Market. This wasn’t just because I like to do this every year – it was also because I needed to learn how to use my new Nikon Z8 in the field. The Z8 is very complicated. I needed to be able to shoot very quickly at OCF. And then, all of a sudden, OCF is next week!

A last second mad dash is all that’s left.

( Nikon Z8 Photography, Below This Cut )

Library / Kitchen Floor Plan, Proposed Extracted from my requirements / vision proposal

At the start of 2025 I vowed to finally restart the home library remodel that got put on hold when the pandemic began in 2020. The interior designer I had selected had moved from Portland to California, and I basically had to start over.

Instead of describing everything in detail, I’m simply listing the chronology of events. Excluded is all the email correspondence I’ve had with my designer, Hannah Lichtenthaler at Allison Smith Design. Also, for now, I’m skipping over all the design decisions. In short, here’s how I got to where we are today:

Library Remodel, Chronology of Events

Last Tuesday evening I prepared to bake bread for the Wednesday gathering, and I discovered that I had not evenly divided the dough in half, and the half batch of dough remaining was much smaller than it should be. I baked the bread anyway, but the loaf was too small. I happened to weigh the first loaf, and it was 21 oz. The second loaf was only 11 oz. If I had divided the dough evenly, I would have had one pound loaves.

Anyway, this wouldn’t do. So I made another batch of dough, let it rise, and then refrigerated the dough. I had to get up very early Wednesday to prepare the loaf, bake the bread, and make sure it cooled for three hours before our lunch. I forgot to weigh the loaf, but this time when I divided the dough, I bisected the dough in bowl with a bread knife – so it definitely was evenly divided.

The dough was a little bit wetter/stickier than the previous batch, and I probably needed to let the loaf rise longer and bake longer. Instead, I used the same times I did for loaf #2, and loaf #3 didn’t rise as much as it should have in the oven. I guess it was OK, though, as my friends liked the bread very much.

The event was an annual gathering of old co-workers. Kris was my boss, who hired me, and Bill was my teammate. We were joined by Bill’s partner, Anita. We noted that I started at the company in 1986 – a little shy of 39 years ago. It’s sort of amazing that we’ve known each other for that long – and that we stay in contact. Kris was one of my favorite bosses, though, so I’d be sad if we didn’t stay in touch. Bill and Anita hosted a fine lunch in their home, and we all had a delightful conversation. I’m glad we were able to meet up.

Framed Madoka Ukiyo-e After Materials Upgrade

I’ve been having custom picture framing done since the 1990s, when I began collecting and occasionally displaying anime cels.

( My History of Frame Shops Below This Cut )

( A New Project Below This Cut )

The new art piece has to be compatible with the Ukiyo-e Madoka, so I brought the framed Madoka Ukiyo-e in so that the framer could see nuances in the Akihabara Premium frame. Tony said it was a good thing that I did as the photos I showed were insufficient.

As we had wrapped up discussion, Tony noted that the framed Madoka had a plexiglas front. I tapped the clear panel, and, yes, it was plastic. I hadn’t even noticed. (I don’t normally touch glass in frames.) I asked if he could replace the plexiglas with Museum Glass. He said, sure, no problem. I don’t remember what led us to do this, but Tony then removed the back panel – and we both were surprised to find a thick block of styrofoam. That’s bad, commented Tony. He didn’t have to tell me twice. This was not archival quality work. Tony offered to add an acid-free foam core sheet behind the print to protect the print. He wrote up a ticket for the glass and the foam core – and it came to $117. Cheap yet important protection. This was a no brainer.

At 11:00 am the next day (Friday) I got a call from Tony saying the work was done and that I could pick up Madoka. Awesome! In less than a day my Ukiyo-e framed print received a pro archival upgrade. At the store, Tony said that with the new glass and the foam core, the original styrofoam block no longer fit. He had extra foam core that he used to pad the thickness, and we scrapped the styrofoam. I said I’d pay extra, but he waved me off.

Madoka is now back home on the wall. The Museum Glass is super clear (and more importantly, UV resistant). This is now truly an Ultimate Madoka!