Derrick put together a crew for a stealth mission over in Del Mar. I ordered a ball mount dive light from Amazon to help address the challenge of focusing at night. Frustratingly, I ran into the same issue that I experienced with some cables for my media room buildout, they simply sent me the wrong item and right label.


So I went to a local dive store and picked up a Light and Motion GoBe 500. It even came with an interchangeable red bulb to allow for a light hue that's both good for focus and easy on the eyes. As usual, I semi-snooted the flash to prevent it from blowing out the water directly in front of me.


The waves were pretty small, but it was clean and I could stand in waist-deep water for most of it.


Focus was still a challenge, but this setup is the best so far. The biggest difference may have been switching from single to continuous focus to minimize focus time for steadily-approaching objects. Glowsticks were still an important way to find my subjects in the viewfinder; I think live view would make a huge difference.


Underestimating the DS-51's power, I ran 500 ISO and had to dial down from TTL to manual -2 on the spot. Unable to easily change ISO in the darkness, I mostly shot at 1/160 or 1/200 but briefly used 1/10 and got some of that red glow. Dragging the shutter might have helped make these shots pop a bit more.


As usual, distance makes all the difference in the world for framing and flash power. I think this setup is ready for slave flash setup. Where's Jon?


I finally put together an small portfolio of surf shots.

Chris
		Missed cyclists and scuba divers		Derrick
		Also swimmers and casual beach goers
		Most well wishers. And anyone who came from over a mile away
	Fishermen
		And those skim boarders at Bird Rock

Halloween was more or less canceled this year, but since there was a crazy pirate ship setup nearby Jes and I threw together a janky Team Zissou costume (sans glock) and took a lap of the neighborhood.



Election day is nigh.


And we're setting record infection rates across the country. I've suddenly regretted ever patronizing The Celt. At least we got their Giant Guiness.


Ted and Chrissy stopped in Irvine on their road trip, so Jes and I went up to continue our Pandemic Legacy S2 campaign. We squeaked out a win - which I guess is the only kind of win in Pandemic.


Ted did story time about his run-in with brushfires. The very next day...

Source.

... Silverado fire in Irvine. Very sus.

Back on the subject of Pandemic Legacy, season zero is on its way!


I got back into volatility when potus contracted covid. It didn't go too crazy, so I decided to hold through the election, selling a few covered calls along the way.


Last week saw a pretty big jump with the resurgence of the 'rona, but I'm definitely willing to roll the dice that next week and month will have more ups and downs. I'm heavy in to bonds anyway, this is just for funsies.


To add to my compendium of basic options trading: GEX and DIX. These are (I think) proprietary, unofficial indices of 'dark pool' money which I understand to be one way that people with deep pockets make secret illuminati trades in order to not moon or drill to price of a security mid-trade. Or something.

Dark pools are private exchanges for trading securities that are not accessible by the investing public. Also known as "dark pools of liquidity," the name of these exchanges is a reference to their complete lack of transparency. Dark pools came about primarily to facilitate block trading by institutional investors who did not wish to impact the markets with their large orders and obtain adverse prices for their trades.

Source.

• Gridiron: top PF but 4-3, having lost three by an average of six points. Thanks to a monster Dalvin Cook performance, this one is locked up barring a 60-point scoring correction.
• Taco: also 4-3 with league-best PF. I've had some off days, but am still salty about that 0.24-point loss to Derrick. With no players left, it looks like I'm going to manage a win over Lee.
• Siren: this league never saw me coming. On the backs of Mahomes and Dalvin, I'm up 26 with just my TB defense against his Darius Slayton.

Somehow Cincy decided it could beat the Titans and ended my survivor bid with a mere three opponents remaining.

Week	d'san andreas da bears - Medieval Gridiron -	Covid-20 - Password is Taco -	Dominicas - Siren -
1	Danville Isotopes 110.8 - 72.5 W (1-0)	Black Cat Cowboys 155.66 - 78.36 W (1-0)	TeamNeverSkipLegDay 136.24 - 107.50 W (1-0)
2	Screaming Goat Battering Rams 119.9 - 105.9 W (2-0)	[Random UTF characters resembling an EQ] 115.50 - 115.74 L (1-1)	Dem' Arby's Boyz 94.28 - 102.02 L (1-1)
3	Nogales Chicle 106.5 - 117.8 L (2-1)	Circle the Wagons 100.42 - 90.02 W (2-1)	JoeExotic'sPrisonOil 127.90 - 69.70 W (2-1)
4	Britons Longbowmen 122.9 - 105.1 W (3-1)	Staying at Mahomes 123.28 - 72.90 W (3-1)	Daaaaaaaang 138.10 - 108.00 W (3-1)
5	Toronto Tanto 105.0 - 108.2 L (3-2)	Robocop's Posse 111.32 - 134.26 L (3-2)	Alpha Males 86.20 - 76.12 W (4-1)
6	Only Those Who Stand 108.2 - 66.7 W (4-2)	KickAssGreenNinja 65.10 - 84.02 L (3-3)	SlideCode #Jab 71.60 - 53.32 W (5-1)
7	San Francisco Seduction 121.7 - 126.4 L (4-3)	Ma ma ma my Corona 118.22 - 84.20 W (4-3)	G's Unit 109.20 - 92.46 W (6-1)
8	LA Boiling Hot Tar 116.2 - 59.4 W* (5-3)	Kamaravirus 118.24 - 109.94 W* (5-3)	WeaponX 106.14 - 79.80 W* (7-1)

Rob bought some camera gear.