So with the passport issue going nowhere fast. we went to Representative Lynn Woolsey's office and told them what was up. They got right on it, and within a few days got everything straightened out -- daughter has a passport on the way! Just wanted to pass on the info the Woolsey's people really know what they're doing. Thanks, guys!

I just love it when a company goes the extra step to make it's customers happy. I recently had the chance to see two such instances of this happening.

First, there's [Stone Mills Company][1]. I was looking for some enlarger bits and pieces, and found what I needed at their site. Unfortunately, one of the things I needed was twice the price of another website. I told Stone Mills "I'll order everything but that one thing", and they asked me "Is it the price?"

I didn't want to jerk them around, so I told them the story. They asked me what I'd pay them for it. Read more

So my wife and I have been working for months, trying to get our daughter a passport. The Department of Homeland Security won't let her have one, though. We have a birth certificate. Not good enough.

Ok, how about school records? Not good enough. Government loan for college? Not good enough. Drivers license? Not good enough. Registered to vote? Not good enough.

No, what Homeland Security wants, the one piece of documentation that will allow them to issue a passport to my daughter because it proves better than any other document is...a baptismal record. Read more

I asked around about my negative issue (see the previous post), and got some good pointers at [APUG][1]. I tried them out and here's what happened. Read more

So I finally developed my first negatives since high school, some 18 years ago. I have three different developers: pyrocat-HD, rodinal (or at least [Photographer's Formulary][1] paraminophenol), and some D-76 (well, close...Lauder Chemical formula 76). Wanting to run before I could crawl, I'd decided to do some stand development with the pyrocat and the rodinal. I grabbed three exposed rolls of Promax 400 35mm, some cheap no-name film I wanted ot practice on, two from my Canon and one from my wife's cheapo point-n-shoot, and developed them. Read more