The PolyBlog

Stupid leg, stupid me

January 22 2021

For those who have read my blog before, you know that I’m relatively transparent about things in my life that are about me. I might hedge on stories that intersect with Andrea or Jacob, particularly where some things are not my story to tell, but on my side of life, I’m fairly open. I feel at times that it is part of my zeitgeist with respect to the blog. There’s no point having a blog of my experiences if I am sugar-coating part of it, or turning it into a “sunshine and rainbows”-type social media feed, where you only post photos and updates that reflect well on you.

So over the last couple of years, I’ve talked about my weight, some heart stuff, tests here and there, etc. But one thing I haven’t talked about, mostly as it wasn’t that significant, was a problem I have with my legs. Like many overweight and/or diabetic/pre-diabetic people, I can get swelling in my ankles and shins, extra pooling of water, and normally you can “dispel” the water by wearing compression socks. Exciting, sexy, squeeze the water out of your shins, stockings.

I have a couple of pair, and if/when things get bad with my legs, I can wear them for a few days or weeks, and things return to some semblance of normal. It’s not super comfortable, but it gets the job done.

But I also have a specific spot on my right shin that I bang regularly. I’ve banged it for years, all the way back to being a kid, and while lots of people have scars on their knees, I have a bunch where I scraped my shins. It’s a little bit gross, I admit, but when my legs swell, the scars tend to fill with a bit of water. Once in a while, I’ll break the tissue layer on something, the water will run out, it leaks for a day or two, it heals, it goes back to normal. Annoying, but not exactly serious.

Then about 3 months ago, I rapped my shin a good one. I seem to recall it being something simple like a laundry basket of clean clothes sitting near my bed. I walk from the bathroom to the bed in the dark, and if I forget that I put the basket there, I can easily catch the side of it on my shin as I pass by. I do, and I did, except this time? It took a very large chunk out of a big area, and it has taken a long time to heal. It bled initially, I didn’t even notice at the time other than it was stinging, and I ended up washing it all off in the morning. It leaked, no biggie. Except, as I said, it hasn’t healed.

Now, lots of older people in their 80s and 90s get these types of skin breaks that take time to heal, but young guys like me (as the nurse said earlier today hahaha) should heal faster. In the meantime, I was in a cycle of it being irritated, drying out, showering, getting irritated, drying out, etc. A few months ago, it was annoying me, and I put some anti-bacterial cream on it for a day or two with some bandages, kept it covered, seemed fine.

Until last weekend.

Last Saturday / Sunday, it started to get sore. And a few times this week it really suddenly “pinged”, like a sharp pain almost like someone stuck me with a pin. It was sore to the touch, started being redder, but then it would fade, all good for a bit. More worrisome, but not alarming. Until last night. What had been simply red and irritated suddenly looked all yellow, gooey, and gross, like it was infected. Plus it hurt like the Dickens (the devil, not the writer).

So I snapped a pic, asked Andrea to be equally grossed out and validate my concern that I was a gross, overweight slob who was probably now infected too, and reached out this morning to my normal doctor’s office to see if I could get an appointment.

Now, I need to step back a moment. My doctor is part of a larger “teaching clinic” so there is the supervising physician and several resident interns usually, and they are housed within a long-term care hospital, so the rules for visiting are a bit strict. I tried to have my eye looked at in the fall, when I had pink-eye which negates going pretty much anywhere, and didn’t get very far. I ended up just doing AppleTree who did tele-medicine for me. Honestly, most of the time it is easier to get into AppleTree after a couple of hours of waiting rather than my clinic’s several days to get in. One nice part for the main clinic was that it was close to work, so if I was going for a regular appointment, I could pop out and back during the day. Now? Not so convenient.

But the magic words are “I think it might be infected” and they managed after much juggling and texting between triage and the clinic to find me a spot this morning at 11:30. It was a crapfest of a day for my schedule at work, but 11:30 it was.

Off I go, they even had room in the parking lot for a change, pass through screening level 1 and then 2, and then arrive in the empty waiting room. As an aside, the screening person told me I could put a new mask (PPE-style) on over top of my existing mask, which seemed odd, but okay. Then as soon as I arrived in the clinic, one of the doctors immediately told me I had to take my regular mask off and just wear the PPE. Okay, I live to serve. Just tell me the correct rules, I’ll follow them! You’re the ones on the front line, I’ll do what you tell me.

Appointment was relatively fine. Sure, I know the horror stories out there. People whose infections don’t get under control, spread up the leg, cause lots of pain, huge risk of sepsis and even death, although far more likely to lose the leg than anything, if things go south. Or north as the case may be.

Anyway, mostly I was just pissed at myself. The reason I’m having this problem is that I haven’t taken advantage of the last 9m at home to really turn some health corners. I’ve held my ground, and made a bit of progress, but there are bigger gains on the horizon once I get there. This however is one of the types of complications that comes from NOT solving the problem earlier. 100% preventable. And if it expands, there’s only me to blame.

Fortunately, the infection hasn’t spread, it’s still local and not too extreme from the looks of it. Anti-biotics and some clean dressings should have me right as rain in a couple of weeks, hopefully. They are worried about the excess fluid in the legs, so I’ll have to revisit compression stockings, and they have custom ones that fit better apparently, which sounds oh, so wonderful.

I think the doctor thought I was over-reacting a bit until I showed him the photo from last night. He didn’t even think it was the same wound at first as I’ve cleaned it up and taken a shower this morning to clean it all out. I got high marks for wound care, at least.

I also took advantage of my visit to revisit my gaping hole in blood work to make sure my blood pressure and diabetes-related meds are working, and he was not as impressed that it has been so long since my last test. I was due last spring, just before the world collapsed, so he wants that done asap, and some other referrals related to the wound care (CCAC, etc.). A few things to put in place as soon as possible, and while not necessarily critically urgent, I’m trying to tick as many boxes as I can today. The day was already a crapshow anyway.

I won’t post actual photos of the leg, it’s pretty gross looking, and I’m having a bit of a self-esteem problem already today. Hopefully I can use that as a bit of a motivation for change, but I’ll settle for a short-term motivation to get the wound healed and try out some new compression socks.

Like I said in the title: stupid leg, stupid me. But at least it’s not irreversible and relatively easily treated to start. Fingers crossed.

Series premiere: Walker

January 22 2021

Back in the exciting times of the original show, “Walker: Texas Ranger”, you could tune in and see Chuck Norris as Cordell Walker, Texas Ranger, living the legend of Texas rangers everywhere. The story goes that a town asked for help from the Rangers for some upheaval in their town, and when the train arrived, there was only one Ranger. One riot, one Ranger. And each week, whatever happened and despite whatever help he had throughout the episode, Cordell usually ended up in a fight with multiple bad guys and used his martial arts to defeat, arrest, and book ’em. Occasionally, he lost his hat in the attack, but would always retrieve it. Lots of fight scenes, sometimes with shots of people flying here, there and everywhere either being thrown or diving great distances to tackle someone.

Plus, there was always the case of the week. Usually it took the form of someone seemingly innocent being either forced to be shady or just being shady, they’d get found out mostly by the smell test from Walker’s nose, and within 44 minutes, it was over. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

Meet a new Walker

While the original Walker had everything together, the new Walker’s life is a complete mess. In addition to having a dead wife, he’s also been MIA in his kid’s life for the last year. Now he’s back, but his two kids struggled without him, and he really doesn’t know how to be a father. Which isn’t a surprise, he didn’t know how to be a father before he left either. He was terrified of being alone with his family even, a backstory that made no sense with the wife he was with, but hey, whatever. She gets dead, he hides in undercover work, now the show starts.

While he is still supposed to be some cop superstar, you wouldn’t know it from the episode. The cop work is almost non-existent in Ep1, perhaps because they spend so much time introducing everyone around town including multiple family members, coworkers, some kid who was apparently undercover or knew something or whatever. It wasn’t even clear, but it was the big breakthrough in the 2 minute long case of the week.

I get that it is Ep 1, and there’s a lot to “introduce”. But you kind of need a cop show to include some actual casework. Meh.

Walker himself is played by Jared Petecki of Supernatural fame, and lots of people will line up to watch just cuz it’s him. Me? I’ve only made it through S1 of Supernatural and I don’t find him much of an actor. Strong and silent doesn’t go very far if you don’t have presence, and I didn’t see much in any of the scenes in Ep 1. What I kept thinking for most of the episode was how great it would be if it was Timothy Olyphant, if it was the U.S. Marshals, and if I had more episodes of Justified to watch. Olyphant was just as screwed up, but at least he had presence. Meh.

The supporting cast

Somebody is going to trim some budget really soon. The cast is HUGE.

Walker, sure. Obvious.

He has a partner? Check. Lindsey Morgan from The 100, looking WAY too small and too earnest to be a Texas Ranger badass. A Mexican American woman Ranger, sorry. And HE’s the one having problems at work. Uh huh.

He has a boss? Check. Coby Bell, formerly of The Gifted, and I didn’t mind him in it. His character bounced around a lot with the writer’s lack of direction, but he was fine then, and he seems comfortable here.

Let’s expand to his family. Father, mother, brother, son, daughter. I probably missed someone in there. And in Ep 1 alone, the writers made sure to give him a scene with ALL of them one on one. Why? I have no idea. But do we really need to meet all FIVE family members? Mitch Pileggi plays the dad, and I like him in just about anything, even if the character sucks. I liked him in X-Files obviously, but also Day Break (1 season), an episode of Cold Case, Stargate: Atlantis, an episode of Castle, and even Blue Bloods. Maybe Supergirl blew chunks, but hey, I like the guy in almost everything. So am I happy to see him here? Nope, he has nothing to do.

Molly Hagan plays the mom, and I confess, I love her. I do. I have ever since she was the voice of compassion on Herman’s Head way back in ’91. Over the years, I have liked her when she popped up on Star Trek shows, Early Edition, JAG, Monk, NCIS, Eli Stone, Cold Case, and Castle. I always do this mental dance, “What’s her name, and where did I see her last” before remembering Herman’s Head. So, sure, I’m glad she’s here, just like Mitch, but as far as I can tell, her role is to shout at the family or have deep meaningful discussions while she rewires a lamp or something. Yawn. Don’t get me wrong, I’m willing to watch her rewire a lamp any day and twice on Sunday. But it isn’t exactly great television.

Moving on, we come to the angry daughter. Violet Brinson plays Stella, but why they gave her a name, I don’t know, she could literally just be angry daughter for the whole episode. Her brother, Arlo, is played by Kale Culley and either of one may be master thespians, but we’ll never know based on the 45 seconds of screen time they have to be “angry daughter” and “anxious to please son”. And neither have anything to do with the cases. Why do I care?

Last but not least is the loving brother. The one who stepped in as substitute Dad while Walker was off undercover. He wants Walker to focus on being a dad and forget everything else. Why? Because he obviously had something to do with the wife’s death a year before, or at least knew something, and hasn’t said. It’s like he walked straight out of central casting as the brother who will turn out to have been between a rock and a hard place and knew whatever got the wife killed, but is REALLY sorry about it all. He’s played by Keegan Allen, and I hope he has something else for his character to do other than be a future “fifth business” reveal. His job, dun dun dun, is as an ADA, so we should theoretically be seeing a lot of him.

And I’m not done. Wait, there’s more. If you act now, we’ll throw in MORE supporting cast members who have nothing to do with Ep 1! We have the partner’s boyfriend (just to make it clear there’s no romance going on with his partner, that would be crazy, right?). Jeff Pierre is the actor and remember that name as you are going to see it in the credits. Maybe not on screen for longer than 30s, but you’ll see it. And there’s some chick at a bar that he knows played by Odette Annable, his dead wife (played by his real-world wife Genevieve Padalecki), and his daughter’s friend (Gabriela Flores). But wait, there’s more. I’m sure we’ll get to meet the kid who was afraid at a pottery store, the daughter’s teachers, maybe her dentist, who will no doubt turn out to be an old lover of Walker’s who’s in a bit of trouble that erupts just as his daughter is in for a cleaning. Holy crap, there are PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. Oh, wait, no they have farm animals, there should be room for a hot female vet to stare lovingly at the father while the kids get jealous.

And nobody in any of the cast is really DOING anything for the entire episode.

Okay. Calm myself. It’s not like the original Walker was some master class in acting. They showed up, caught the bad guys, kicked some butt, spouted a few words like “drugs are bad” and cashed their cheques. I’m confident this group can do it too. Just as long as the writers remember that it’s a cop show at some point.

But that last part is the weak link. The show’s creator, Anna Fricke, notched her belt with shows like Everwood, Men in Trees, Being Human. I would love to be confident that the show will find its footing in action, not relationship angst. I just don’t see it being her go-to scene. Now, if she wants to write about him moving to Alaska to find himself after his wife dies, taking his two kids to live with him in a small town, I might be able to follow that one.

What the heck. It’s a coin toss for me for renewal. The brand is solid, and if they can do case-of-the-week FAST, the brand for Walker + the love for Patecki should be renewal gold. If they turn it into Everwood, Texas Style, me thinks no one will find it. Because the people showing up for Patecki and Walker are not looking for Everwood. I’ll go with Renewal, reluctantly. And I’ll watch for another episode or two to see if it goes ANYWHERE.

Series premiere: Mr. Mayor

January 19 2021

There’s a new comedy that started this month called Mr. Mayor. It’s about Michael J. Fox working for the city…errr, no wait, that was Spin City from 1996. Right, no this one stars Brandon Michael Hall as a hip-hop artist who runs for mayor as a publicity stunt…err, nope, that was The Mayor from 2017. Wait, which one is this again?

Mr. Mayor

Oh, right, THIS comedy about a mayor is about a rich business-type with a teenage daughter who doesn’t think he knows how to work, so he runs for Mayor to impress her. Uh-huh. The show opens with his first day on the job, having no clue what he’s doing. Gee, that sounds like the other ten shows about idiots becoming mayor, or finding new meaning as a councilperson, or blah blah blah.

So, let’s get to the good stuff. This one stars Ted Danson. Cheers. Becker. Curb Your Enthusiasm. The Good Place. Okay, maybe not all a laugh riot. So let’s go back. Remember Cheers? Okay, it’s kind of like Sam Malone was a rich business type but became mayor. Not as stupid but still a lovable goof. Yeah, okay, it’s not selling me either.

And I have to confess. Most of the time, I find Danson watchable but far from funny. He does a great reaction to impossible situations, the deer-in-the-headlights type double take, and you want to root for him, but the older he gets, the smarmier he starts to look like the playboy Sam Malone rather than the one who tries. Is he awesome? Nope. Watchable. So not an obvious “goodbye” but not an obvious “gotta watch” either.

The supporting cast

The supporting cast so far is made up of a rival, three worker bees and a daughter. Let’s start with the worker bees.

Vella Lovell plays his social media-savvy person who helped get him elected and is now repulsed by what she has done, but likes the health care coverage. The only thing I’ve seen her in before is Crazy Ex-GF, where I lasted most of an episode before bailing. She’s okay, but nothing to write home about. Her partner in crime is played by Michael Cabellon, the political assistant who will run the mayor’s day and advise him what’s next. I’ve seen him in a couple small parts in other shows, and he has a bit of presence, but his character hasn’t gelled yet to know what his role will turn out to be. Straight man? Funny one-line commentator? In-the-know disgusted looker? Who knows. Meh.

Bobby Mynihan plays the acting deputy comms director and the character is pretty much clueless about everything. He doesn’t care about the politics, just keeping the train running. For the acting though, I love the portrayal. Quirky without being over the top, more understated, and if the show were to last, could be a huge breakout position. I didn’t recognize him from Saturday Night Live as I haven’t watched in years, nor oddly enough, as the voice of Chet from Monsters Inc. Nor from the role of Me, Myself and I as the middle version, but I didn’t watch the show long enough to register anyone other than John Larroquette being terrible in it.

So two balls and then a base hit.

Enter the daughter played by Kyla Kennedy. I was surprised you actually got to see the daughter at school, running for Class President, even if only briefly. Maybe she’ll actually have a role other than original catalyst, and she does have a couple of good straight scenes. I saw her briefly in Speechless, but it’s on my binge list and haven’t got back to it. I’d give her a nod for his one, didn’t suck.

And then we come to the other heavy hitter…Drum roll please….Holly Hunter. When I saw that Holly Hunter was in the show as a political rival who tried to run and didn’t make it on to the ballot, and now is running around as a councilwoman with a chip on her shoulder, I thought, “Well, that’s a bonus.”

Raising Arizona? Meh. Broadcast News? Wow. The Firm? Okay. The Incredibles? I like her voice for the mom, Elastigirl. And then there’s Saving Grace. Unusual. Riveting. Amazing performance throughout.

And then there’s Mr. Mayor. Crickets. I don’t want to sling mud, she’s not horrendous or anything, she’s still Holly Hunter and she knows how to act, but beyond that? There’s nothing about her to love.

The greater crime

So I have Ted being watchable, Holly being okay, the daughter decent, the two staffers meh and one possible breakout performance. Not screaming “watch me”, right?

And yet, I could forgive all of that for one small requirement, particularly in the aftermath of 2020. Make me laugh.

I don’t want much. I’ll settle for some softballs. A titter here, a titter there? Is that too much to ask for?

Apparently, it is. It says the show was created by Tina Fey with the idea of a spin-off from 30 Rock before being retooled as a whole new show, and maybe it would have worked the other way, but it doesn’t work here. TV Grim Reaper checks the stats and it would be foolish to bet against his predictions or Ted Danson. Reaper says “likely renewal” so far? I say, “No chance”. I’d cancel before EP10. I’m so far out, I can’t even see LA from where I am.

Series premiere: Call Me Kat

January 19 2021

I’ve mentioned previously that I like to try out new shows every fall, almost like a fantasy sports league for TV shows. I have my favorites that return, but I try just about everything and review it. An episode of this, an episode of that, sometimes I find magic. Most of the time I don’t. But this past year has been a dumpster fire for TV shows, along with everything else. So I didn’t really track new shows. I gave Connecting a try for about 5 minutes, which is about how long it lasted before being cancelled too.

Call Her Kat

But in passing the other day, I saw a reference to the fact that Mayim Bialik had a new show, which I had not seen mentioned or advertised previously. So I gave it a go tonight. For those of you who saw her on Big Bang Theory, you likely saw an episode or two where she was fantasizing out loud, acting like a princess or queen, with a tiara as a running joke. Well, think of that with about 30 minutes per fantasy.

Let me back up a second. The show starts with her explaining what the show’s premise is. No, I’m serious. She looks at the camera, says she bought a café and gave it a cat theme, hence “Call Me Kat” as the name of the show, and she plays a 39-year-old single girl trying to make it through life. It is supposedly a comedy.

But is filmed with a narrator track that is literally Mayim turning to the camera to explain what she’s thinking. Like Herman’s Head without the head, it is relentless. She has a conversation with a would-be boyfriend, and it is 2 lines by her, 1 line by him, narration by her about what she’s thinking, 1 line of response by her, laugh, more narration. The show is shot like a play, with all the actors coming out at the end of the episode and waving.

In a year that included Connecting, I am hard-pressed to say which is a stupider premise. There is ZERO rhythm to the show because it STOPS EVERY 10 SECONDS to explain what is going on. Except I’M ALREADY WATCHING, I know what’s going on. I feel like I’m watching with closed captioning on. Or you know those people who have to explain jokes that everyone already gets? Yeah, 30 minutes of THAT. OMG.

If they got rid of the constant narration, or at least made it Doogie Howser-style diary or Sex In The City writing entries, you could live with it. Something to set the scene, something to end the Ep? I don’t know. I thought she was okay as Blossom and I loved her on BBT. But she’s almost unwatchable here. Like every five seconds, she’s nudging in the ribs to say, “Get it? Get it?”.

The supporting cast

The rest of the cast is a bit one-dimensional, but I’ve only seen 3 EPs (and will only ever see 3 EPs!), maybe they’ll grow in the future, but I doubt it. Her mother is played by Swoosie Kurtz (Pushing Daisies, Sisters), and while I have seen her in a few things where I didn’t mind her over-the-top acting (Pushing Daisies, Sisters), my favorite scene from her of all time is an outtake from Liar, Liar with Jim Carrey (as part of a yelling match in court, she calls him an over-actor!). Here? Meh.

Leslie Jordan is fun to watch in limited duration, and he is playing virtually the same character he did in The Cool Kids (the Vicki Lawrence show) — a bit of a smarter version of Woody or Coach from Cheers, but with similar lines. Leslie works in the café with Randi, played by Kyla Pratt. She’s young, innocent but brash, black with some attitude and can be the young female to guide Kat in the world of dating. In the right show (and she’s been in a LOT of shows over the years), she might actually even shine.

The other major cast member is Cheyenne Jackson as the would-be boyfriend who is an old friend that Kat used to have a crush on, they’re hanging out, but he’s hung up on a French girl who makes fantasy appearances to talk to Kat in her monologues. But I have no idea if he’s any good because literally he says one line and then immediately the narration jumps on his downbeat to intrude. He seems down-to-earth, a good guy, etc., and I suspect she’s destined to long for him for the life of the show.

The bottom line

And that show life would likely be 8-10 episodes in a normal year, and that would be generous. I have NO idea the longevity in a COVID season. It’s on Fox though, and TV Grim Reaper is predicting likely renewal. Sorry, Mayim, I’m out. I hope I’m wrong and the show goes on for years, but I won’t be watching. My prediction is officially cancellation.

Figuring out my FULL workflow for my photo gallery

January 11 2021

I mentioned in my posts about my goals for 2021 that I want to do a fair amount of work on my photo gallery (Setting goals for 2021 – Part 5: Computers, Website, Blogging, Writing, Media and Photos). But in order to do that, one of the things that is a challenge is ensuring that each gallery (say, a given month of a year) is set up consistently each and every time. That’s not a “small” step of consistency, but one that starts from the very beginning. So let’s talk about the different stages of the workflow.

Stage 1. Taking the photos

My photo gallery is made up of photos that come to me from multiple sources, and I need to be able to tell them apart for the purposes of managing. I can manipulate the filenames after the fact, but it would be easier (as my friend Matt suggested) if the filenames themselves were a bit more process-friendly. So let’s look at what those FNs would look like:

Andrea’s iPhone –> IMGxxxx – YYYYMMDD – AH
Paul’s iPhone –> IMGxxxx – YYYYMMDD – PS
Jacob’s iPhone –> IMGxxxx – YYYYMMDD – JH
DSLR –> IMGxxxx – YYYYMMDD – DSLR
Point and Shoot –> IMGxxxx – YYYYMMDD – SC (* for small camera)
Screen grab –> IMGxxxx – YYYYMMDD – SCR
Tablet –> IMGxxxx – YYYYMMDD – TAB

Now, some of those can be assigned at time of capture, while others will have to be assigned at time of file transfer. Depends on the original tool. So the workflow bifurcates after this step, but the step here is the same:

Take the picture

Stage 2. Managing the photos – Pre-processing and pre-sorting

Managing the photos is initially quite easy. I have to copy them from the device to the same folder on my PC, and I do it in four stages depending on the imaging source (copy to the hard drive, copy to the sorting folder, simple sort, and convert videos).

For Andrea’s iPhone and the Point and Shoot camera, the photos get transferred to her desktop and then copied onto a USB thumb drive.

For Jacob’s iPhone, the photos get transferred to his laptop and then copied onto a USB thumb drive.

For my iPhone, the DSLR, and the tablet, all the files are synched onto my desktop into a Synching folder.

Any files that are not already renamed properly can be renamed at this stage.

For the final step, all eight original sources are then moved into a sorting folder where I sort them by month and day or event into relevant folders. Since lots of shots are grouped together, I create a file folder structure such as:

YYYY / MM-Month (general folder as the upper level folder)

YYYY / MM-Month / DD (Event title) like “14 Kayaking at MEP’s” or “29 Birthday party”

YYYY / MM-Month / Extras as a folder for ones not being used in the gallery (often mistakes or just not meant for public, like a photo taken in a store of something I want to buy)

YYYY / MMb – Special – Special event for the month (#1) like a party, trip, etc. where a large number of photos warrant their own gallery

YYYY / MMb – Special – Special event for the month (#2) like a party, trip, etc. where a large number of photos warrant their own gallery

YYYY / MMz – Blog posts for photos that I’m going to eventually upload to the website to include in various blog posts but are generally not interesting enough on their own to include in “general photos”.

For the first level of sorting, I move everything into the relevant folders. It may mean, for example, that I have a folder for a big trip that has photos from multiple sources in it, and in fact, I usually do have at least 2 sources for various daily events.

For the second level of sorting, I convert all MOV format videos into MP4 format (suitable for the web) and move all old videos into the EXTRAs sub-folder.

Copy from the device to the hard drive
Copy from hard drive (potentially via USB flash drive) to the sorting folder and rename any if necessary.
Do a simple sort by event and dates
Convert videos to MP4

Stage 3. Managing the photos – Advanced sort in Mylio

I use Mylio as my image manager, and I do four steps in Mylio.

First and foremost, I import all the images from the sorting folder including the directories I created. When they arrive in Mylio, they are in a sorting folder too. I basically go through and move the quality images I want to use for each event into the MONTHLY folder (such as 2021 / 01 January). Extras that I’m not using, such as the secondary or tertiary photos of a group of ducks, I move into the EXTRAS folder. I also do a quality sort on the videos, special events, and folders of photos I intend to use for my blog posts.

In some cases, I may decide to edit a video or photo to make it suitable for sharing, in which case I make a copy and edit the copy rather than the original. I usually do this in another program beyond Mylio and then reimport the edited version.

Once I have a set of photos and videos for a given month (for instance, 2021 / 01 January), I run facial recognition on the “good” photos (there are too many photos to worry about doing the Extras too) and I let the computer do most of the work to group them and guesstimate who is in the photo. After the first few hundred of a given year are posted, the rest of the guesses are usually pretty accurate on the first attempt. I then add metadata to the files. This includes a name and description for the photo (identical as it is used differently in WordPress), something short, and some keyword tagging that includes year, city, event, and any people in the photo who were tagged in the Key Words. Finally, I save all the metadata to the image file.

Finally, now that the photos are all sorted, named and tagged, I move it from a sorting folder into my full folder structure for the Panda Photo Gallery in Mylio which generally has the structure of FAMILY / YEAR / MONTH.

Import images into Mylio sorting area
Do advanced quality and photo selection, filing the rest in EXTRAS.
(Optional) Edit any photos or videos that require tweaking
Facial recognition
Add metadata (name, description, tags/keywords)
Save metadata to image file
Move from sorting folder into a full folder structure

Stage 4. Uploading to WordPress

Up until this point, most of the file management stuff is just simply a good process / workflow for keeping my photos organized and filtered for quality. Now I look at the parts of getting it on the website.

Initially, I create a page to hold the gallery (while this could be done later, it saves a step in the gallery creation process) and assign it a name such as 2021/01 January, and insert two default items — a blank photo gallery and a blank video gallery. I save the page, but leave it in edit mode.

Then, working by folder (such as 2021 / 01 January), I create a new GALLERY called 2021-01 January in WordPress. This opens an upload area, and using Mylio as my initial interface, I upload all of the good PHOTOS for that month/event. Since I already populated the metadata fields, the upload puts everything into the WordPress fields for me. This completes the step of uploading all the PHOTOs. I can then edit the GALLERY description to describe the various events in the monthly folder (copying the description for later use, like a descriptive table of contents), add the link to the page created above (the step that I saved allows me to do this now), and add the GALLERY to the appropriate ALBUM (such as the year, 2021).

Then it is time to upload Videos, if any. These have to be done in the Media Library, and using Media Library Assistant, I save them to a separate sub-folder usually called YYYY-MM. Now that all the files are uploaded, it’s time to go back and edit the page I created earlier.

Each Gallery page has six components to edit:

The Page name, if it needs to be tweaked from the standard page name (usually YYYY-MM for months but could be YYYY-MM Special – Trip to Mexico);
A manual breadcrumb that I’ve created to allow the viewer to go one level higher easily;
A description of the gallery (same as what was already entered in the Gallery Page, just pasted here);
The blank gallery block to choose which gallery I want to show, and to change the order of photos if needed;
The names / description of any videos that need to be linked; and,
Linking to the videos themselves.

Finally, everything is saved and the page is previewed to make sure everything works, and the page is published. The link is then shared to FB along with the gallery description.

Create a page and edit the page name, add a blank photo gallery block and a blank video gallery block, and save in draft mode;
Create the new gallery, upload all the photos, edit the gallery for gallery description (and copy for later) and link to the page created above;
Add the GALLERY to the right ALBUM;
Upload videos and sort into sub-folder;
Go back and edit the page for page name, manual breadcrumb, paste the description, choose a gallery in the blank gallery block, edit the names / descriptions of the videos, and link to the videos themselves;
Save and preview/test, then publish;
Share link with FB.

Stage 5. Backups and further usage

Mylio automatically does a backup of all photos to a secondary location, and long-term, I want that to upload to the cloud too. Later, I do a separate backup of all my files to off-site storage.

At the end of the year, I also take all the “GOOD” photos and put them on a USB thumb drive for Andrea to weed and use to make a Photobook. Once she’s done, I save the final photos back to another folder labelled PHOTOBOOK. If there are any really good ones for the year, we also use them in Calendars, New Year’s letters, metal prints, and an e-frame.

Backup to secondary location/vault;
Backup with all files to offsite location;
Create a small subset each year for Andrea to use for photobooks, calendars, New Year’s letter, metal prints, and e-frame;
Copy subset back to a folder called PHOTOBOOKS.

And then, finally, I’m done. Whew. So let’s look at that workflow all together so I don’t miss anything each time. I’m also going to copy it into a PowerPoint print-out so I don’t lose it. Nineteen steps that I have to do consistently every time or something gets messed up.

Take the picture
Copy from the device to the hard drive
Copy from hard drive (potentially via USB flash drive) to the sorting folder and rename any if necessary.
Do a simple sort by event and dates
Convert videos to MP4
Import images into Mylio sorting area
Do advanced quality and photo selection, filing the rest in EXTRAS.
(Optional) Edit any photos or videos that require tweaking
Facial recognition
Add metadata (name, description, tags/keywords)
Save metadata to image file
Move from sorting folder into a full folder structure
Create a page and edit the page name, add a blank photo gallery block and a blank video gallery block, and save in draft mode;
Create the new gallery, upload all the photos, edit the gallery for gallery description (and copy for later) and link to the page created above;
Add the GALLERY to the right ALBUM;
Upload videos and sort into sub-folder;
Go back and edit the page for page name, manual breadcrumb, paste the description, choose a gallery in the blank gallery block, edit the names / descriptions of the videos, and link to the videos themselves;
Save and preview/test, then publish;
Share link with FB.
Backup to secondary location/vault;
Backup with all files to offsite location;
Create a small subset each year for Andrea to use for photobooks, calendars, New Year’s letter, metal prints, and e-frame;
Copy subset back to a folder called PHOTOBOOKS.