Takayuki Fukatsu Improved My Weekend

This weekend we went to Indy and took Veda to the zoo for the first time ever. Penny had a hunch the little one would like animals, since Veda laughed hysterically at her Aunt Lauren's horse-sized dog, and this hunch was proven correct. We all had a great time watching the lemurs, and the donkeys, and the Scottish Highland Cow, and especially the goats. (They were very nice and let Veda pet them, even when she tried to poke their weird rectangle-oval eyes out.)

We also got to go out for Thai food, which was a risk for Mom and Katie, since neither was sure they'd like it. Fortunately, the dishes we ordered were indisputably tasty. After that we got to head over to a party - a bona fide party, with adults and everything - and catch up with friends we've known since the dawn of time.

Unfortunately, my sister was there (well, that part's not unfortunate), but she roped me into a game of Beer Pong (I know, I know) in which we got skunked by the opposing team. That meant we had to drink all the beer on our side (some of which had been seasoned with ping-pong-ball residue, mmm) and that I ended up with a headache the following morning, because I am old.

Still, that next morning we got to have lunch with some friends we've known only since the Precambrian Era, not quite the dawn of time, and enjoy delicious waffles. So that was fun.

And then we drove our waffle-stuffed, headachy selves back up to Winona Lake, pausing outside Roann, Indiana when we noticed Penny's sister Brittany sitting next to a river. This was not something you ordinarily expect to see on that particular stretch of road, so we turned around, pulled over and discovered that Britt and the rest of the family had been kayaking that morning, and were just now getting ready to have lunch at a nearby diner. So we did that too.

Then we met back up at Penny's mom's house for a little while, during which time Veda barfed on Penny's arm and I tried to keep our niece Gianna from jumping into a fountain. Good times.

But all throughout, I got to play with my latest favorite toy, which is the QuadCamera application for the iPhone. Whoo man. The iPhone doesn't have a particularly great camera, really -- not much better than any other cell phone, I don't believe, and actually worse than several. But it has that most prized and essential feature, which almost all other cameras lack, which is that you have it with you most of the time.

So this application, conceived by Mr. Takayuki Fukatsu, effectively makes the iPhone's mediocre camera *fun-ly* mediocre, much like my beloved Holga, and takes a series of photos in rapid succession, which are then conjoined in a fun, mosaic-looking collage that actually resembles some Holga shots.

It made me look at everything a little differently, which is just about all you could ask of a camera (especially a phone-camera application that cost less than a cup of coffee), and it made an already great weekend even more enjoyable.

Thanks, Takayuki.