January 2, 2020

"Oh! I'm just seeing I left my fingershadow in the frame! I needed a New Year's resolution, and I'm resolving to keep my fingers out of the frame — literally and metaphorically...."

I wrote on Facebook on December 30, after I posted one of my sunrise photos and then noticed the telltale shadow in the upper right corner.

Yesterday, the first day of the new year, I took some photos, including this:



I think that's a magnificent smashing of a New Year's resolution. That's why I'm showing it to you.

ADDED: It's very clear when the literal resolution is broken, much harder to see the metaphorical smashing.

50 comments:

rehajm said...

Heh. with authority no doubt...

Mr. Forward said...

New Years Day Selfie Bust. Time stamped no less. Welcome to 2020.

Amadeus 48 said...

A-ha! You appear to drive a car with a stick and a clutch. True? Are you an enthusiast (as my friend Phil says about me)?

A 2005 Saab with a stick shift is a hard habit to break.

Temujin said...

So little time, so many resolutions to set aside.

chuck said...

You were framed.

Fernandinande said...

Your camera also has resolutions.

Ralph L said...

New resolution: keep your thigh out of the corner of the photo.

Paco Wové said...

I made a resolution to not post off-topic commentary, which I am breaking now by asking if Althouse was aware that U. Wisconsin has drawn the disapproving eye of the New York Times because of all the white people in a homecoming video.

Darrell said...

Althouse. Always giving us the finger.

rhhardin said...

It looks like robot sexting to me.

mockturtle said...

WSJ article re Ghosn's escape from Japan contains this denial from a Lebanese official: “The Lebanese government had nothing to do with his escape,” Mr. Jreissati said. “We have no idea at all about the circumstances of his departure.” LOL!

Ann Althouse said...

"I made a resolution to not post off-topic commentary, which I am breaking now by asking if Althouse was aware that U. Wisconsin has drawn the disapproving eye of the New York Times because of all the white people in a homecoming video."

Yeah, but the flashing loop of video felt sickening to me. I skimmed the article and it just didn't seem to add anything to what I already knew about the video and probably blogged at the time. Did the NYT put that on New Year's because of the Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowl was bad enough!

Iman said...

One of my resolutions is to turn away from anything that is linked to the NYT. And God save manual trannies! Looks like a VW/Audi product to me.

tcrosse said...

Mit der Fingerschatten kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens

Whirred Whacks said...

Happy New Year, Ann!

My adverbs are: happily, decisively

Heartless Aztec said...

Love me some manual trannies. Back in the olden days with three on the tree my girlfriend(s) could/would just slide over on any sort of hard right turn - no seatbelts - and then all kinda' fun things would present themselves rolling down some empty two lane blacktop. Fingers would just be the start of it. Polaroids were a bit pricey for my blood back then but nobody was was much into taking pictures of that sort of thing anyways so digits in shot framing wasn't really a problem.

Howard said...

WW: Live the question mark ? Avatar. If you visualize the white as negative space, it looks like a crane with dragon wings

Howard said...

Where do you find Manual trannies these days? Puerto Rico?

Rusty said...

Howard said...
"Where do you find Manual trannies these days? Puerto Rico?"
Here ya go, soy boi
https://www.automobilemag.com/news/2020-new-car-truck-suv-manual-transmission/

traditionalguy said...

While the rest of us fight to keep resolutions about our diets and trash talk, The Professor wrestles with keeping her fingers out of edge of her Iphone aperture. Hardly seems fair.

Nonapod said...

One thing I hate is showing certain people a picture on my phone. I hate handing my phone over to them because for some reason they touch the screen and screw up its current state. It's like they temporarily forget that touchscreens are a thing and grab the phone like you would any other flat object that is handed to you.

Yancey Ward said...

As usual, I had planned to resolve to stop procrastinating, but I put it off until next New Year's.

Yancey Ward said...

Nonapod,

I have the exact opposite problem- I fight and fight to keep people from handing me their phones so I can see whatever crap that they want to show me. I always end up losing.

Amadeus 48 said...

Manual trannies forever! Every parking attendant in Chicago knows how to drive them. Those folks are doing the work that Americans won’t do, or something.

Amadeus 48 said...

Howard—are you wet about everything? It’s a new decade (kinda). The whole world lies before us. Go make something of yourself! This is the land of opportunity and opportunity is knocking on your door.

Have you considered Arizona real estate? Or Florida? Or a cozy little ranch house in Alkali Springs, NM?

Paul Snively said...

My New Year's Resolution is 1920 x 1080.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

My parents often took photos of their own thumbs.

rehajm said...

Real drivers prefer Doppelkupplungsgetriebe.

tcrosse said...

Ow! My Fahrvergnügen!

Ralph L said...

Looks like a VW/Audi product to me.

Althouse flashed her TT at us.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

this year, we've vowed to take more close-ups of our fingers.

...It opens up a whole new whorl! And the prints are for sale!

Clyde said...

Digital photography.

Amadeus 48 said...

Famous English Car and Driver cover: Show Us Your TTs!

minnesota farm guy said...

OT, but this looks like a cafe'. On the day that the IG's report was issued someone(or someones) here pointed out that it was statically impossible - or close to it - to make 17 errors all in the same direction - the odds for were infinitesimal. I thought it a simple, but irrefutable, piece of analysis. Someone else has finally caught on after a couple of weeks -from the Federalist: "its statistically impossible for the fbi's spygate errors to all be mistakes"

Ann Althouse said...

Some readers may remember when I blogged the wrecking of my VW Beetle ("Li'l Greenie") and subsequently acquired a new Audi TT. That was 15 years ago. I'd replace it if I could find something I wanted more. In fact, we have another car, a 2018 SUV, but I don't like driving it — too big. I like small. And I like the stick shift. Like the way it looks too.

Freeman Hunt said...

"One thing I hate is showing certain people a picture on my phone."

What you described, plus the people who start scrolling through the pictures. No. Pope slap.

johns said...

Rusty, thank you for the link to the list of cars available with a manual. It's not as bad as I thought. I was in the market for a car two years ago, and given my budget I was looking at a BMW or Acura coming off lease. I liked the Acura ILX best, and got the latest model to offer a manual, which was 2015. Now the BMW 3-series doesn't even have it available. And even though my used Acura is pretty modest, valets in LA often compliment me on the stick shift.

Bill Peschel said...

Althouse: I didn't have an Audi, but I loved my Ford Festiva. Red, small, 43mpg, and a stickshift. It felt so small that I thought I could put it in my pocket after I parked.

Then some teens fleeing the cops crashed a stop sign and T-boned it. No broken bones, but the car was totaled.

I miss it still.

Bill Peschel said...

Don't know why I posted that. I guess I like saying "me too" that wasn't #metoo.

Howard said...

Absolutely soaking Amadeus 48.

Howard said...

The last stick I drove was a GT3 RS. The scuderia spider 16M shifts better, however.

Ralph L said...

My older brother has had nothing but manuals since the used Chevy van he bought in 1981. It had a three on the tree that would get stuck in first if you didn't downshift through second, as he discovered the hard way after a tollbooth in NJ. I don't know why driving that crate for seven years without power steering appealed to him enough to buy more manuals. His wife of 31 years has them, too. The sharp turn and steep hill at the bottom of their street is tricky enough with an automatic in nice weather.

Heartless Aztec said...

The stick shift is THE BEST anti- theft device around. Zoomers don't know how to use them.

jim said...

You'll have to pry the stick shift (2000 A6) from my cold dead hand.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

forget the TT, Double A. How 'bout this:

2020 VW T-Roc Convertible Is The Golf Cabriolet For The Crossover Era

https://www.carscoops.com/2019/01/2020-vw-t-roc-convertible-golf-cabriolet-crossover-era/

Rusty said...

Johns
My oldest daughters 2006 Honda 2000 turbo. maybe they were all turbos. IDK, but it was a pocket rocket. Now she has an Infinity G36(?) twin turbo with the paddle shifters. Not the same as six on the floor. I learned to drive a stick @13 when all there was to drive was a Farmall trackter.

Amadeus 48 said...

Well, it is time for this to come around again.

WARNING: you can't unsee this.

Yes! it's the Pelosi GTxi SS/RT Sport Edition from 2012. It's bangin'!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAqPMJFaEdY

Maillard Reactionary said...

You're being followed by a finger shadow, finger shadow, finger shadow.

mockturtle said...

I didn't own an automatic transmission automobile until 1998. Got a Chevy Blazer and wondered why I ever wanted a stick shift.

effinayright said...

Wifey and I both loved our stick shift cars, but we have to commute through Boston's tunnels, where repeated stop-and-go is the norm anytime two hours BEFORE/AFTER rush hour.

I've often wondered how modern clutches stand up to that.

Anyone got stories?