Francis Theodore Catte
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fcatte.bsky.social
Francis Theodore Catte
@fcatte.bsky.social
83 followers 32 following 1.3K posts
Unstuck from time; divorced from the ticking of the clock. An entity fueled by empathy for the hopeless & spite for the wicked.

https://tacobelllabs.net/@fcatte
https://cohost.org/franktcatte - rest in peace eggbug
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fcatte.bsky.social
this is from my first test roll of arista 400 I put through mine. the very long test roll... 48 shots is a slog lmao.
a tall, skinny watertower on thin spindly legs, viewed through the riveted steel lattice frame of an old railroad bridge. the sky is a uniform off-white , and the few trees visible are leaf-less.
January 31, 2025 at 6:21 AM
fcatte.bsky.social
it does work just fine, however, even with LED bulbs, which is especially remarkable as the latest this could've possibly been made was almost a century ago. 😬
January 18, 2025 at 7:57 PM
fcatte.bsky.social
swimming myself upstream, I guess.
a porcelain and brass Wirt 'Dim-A-Lite' lamp dimmer, designed to screw into a standard medium-base Edison socket, with two string tassles hanging down to allow adjusting the rheostat inside, laid out on a glass tabletop surface.
January 12, 2025 at 12:55 AM
fcatte.bsky.social
anyway yes I did just get this beautiful hobnail hurricane lamp with a swiveling cast iron wall bracket for $8.99
an intricate art nouveau-style cast iron wall sconce, slightly rusted, with a hobnail shade and clear glass chimney, laying on top of a bunch of priority mailer boxes used as a photo backdrop.
January 6, 2025 at 6:10 AM
fcatte.bsky.social
I'm paid to make management mad by exposing them to the reality that the company's material possessions are all old and broken
white text on a black background, reading: "poorly explain what you do for a job."
December 31, 2024 at 3:32 AM
fcatte.bsky.social
not really an apt metaphorical comparison when both subjects (myself & the below automobile) are moreso the eponymous dorian grey rather than the picture of
a grainy black&white film quarter-angle photo of the front right side of my 1989 SAAB 900 Turbo hatchback coupe, parked in our driveway on a rainy fall day, with part of our front porch and the two houses across the street visible in the foreground and background (respectively).
December 25, 2024 at 11:21 PM
fcatte.bsky.social
people talking about bicycles got me dreaming of spring
a black&white film photo of my Gary Fisher Marlin 26" mountain bike leaning on its stand in some grass, against a brightly lit wall of woodland. both frame-mounted bottle holders are occupied, and there's a plastic crate with a lunchbox crammed inside bungie-corded to the rear rack.
December 24, 2024 at 11:36 PM
fcatte.bsky.social
given said thermostat is a 1930's Minneapolis Honeywell 'Acratherm' doing otherwise would hurt my soul
a tall, thin 'Art Deco' style thermostat painted a metallic beige, with the setpoint selection knob sticking out of the top, and a mercury bulb thermometer in a scale along the center front, mounted on a black wall next to a white doorframe vertical.
December 23, 2024 at 10:53 PM
fcatte.bsky.social
extra fun when you realize it was coming from around the vicinity of this grave monument:
a carved limestone grave monument of a winged female angle, hands loosely clasped above her navel, looking downward toward the grave, the underneath of both eyes streaked with black mildew growth.
December 14, 2024 at 8:53 PM
fcatte.bsky.social
on a long enough timeline those weird super cheap, super wide-angle 35mm cameras will become cool.
my left hand holding a very yellow cheap plastic 35mm 'PANORAMA' camera from the early 1990's against the backdrop of our yellow kitchen cabinets, vintage floral-patterned vinyl runner rug, and black wood floor.
December 14, 2024 at 12:35 AM
fcatte.bsky.social
it's БелОМО Агат-18К time
my left hand holding a БелОМО Агат-18К, a compact black plastic 35mm half-frame film camera made in Soviet-era Belarus sometime in 1985 or 1986, its lanyard cord wrapped around itself, over my crossed legs.
December 13, 2024 at 5:46 PM
fcatte.bsky.social
adapter adapting an adapter to an adapter to an adapter
an mSATA SSD, mounted in an mSATA to 2.4" SATA adapter caddy, which is mounted in a 2.5" to slimline ODD adapter caddy, plugged into a slimline SATA to SATA adapter cable, inside an HP DL320e 1U server.
November 27, 2024 at 6:16 PM
fcatte.bsky.social
just need the 4xSFF chassis 🙃
two HP Proloant DL320e G8 v2 2xLFF chassis stacked atop each other, with a removable power supply with a sliver of an SSD sitting atop it visible, 4xSFF drive trays loaded with SSDs, and a cardboard box with a removable powersupply enablement kit. to the left is an open Thinkpad with several stickers affixed to its lid.
November 26, 2024 at 6:44 PM
fcatte.bsky.social
POV: you work for a railroad and just pulled your hivis hoodie out of the wash
a section of the right-hand front of a neon green hi-vis hoodie with reflective safety stripes, covered in black splotchy stains, held up to the camera.
November 24, 2024 at 4:35 PM
fcatte.bsky.social
the RS15 NEO project is now just waiting on a batch of resistors to come in 😊
a bare square circuit board labeled 'RS15 NEO' clipped into a plastic case, the interior of which has an embossed 'UP' arrow, viewed upside-down, sat on a battered bench top.
November 22, 2024 at 8:23 PM
fcatte.bsky.social
cool and normal climate behavior for around here (basically no rain for two months ending with a forecasted five day deluge):
a graph of a sensor named 'Oregon Scientific PCR800 Rain Accumulation' from Home Assistant, with an X-axis of millimeters from 85 to 100, and a Y-axis of dates from November 1st to November 21st. from November 1st to 20th, the rain total was only 3mm, but on the 21st the line goes up almost vertically toward to 100mm and the right edge of the graph.
November 21, 2024 at 4:56 PM
fcatte.bsky.social
mailman can confirm: porch gone
Latest Update We could not access the delivery location to deliver your package at 12:42 pm on November 18, 2024 in [REDACTED]. We will redeliver on the next delivery day. No action needed.
November 18, 2024 at 6:49 PM
fcatte.bsky.social
tfw you can't buy something anymore, but found a forum post explaining what's inside and you know just enough about designing your own PCBs.
the rear side render of a circuit board, showing not much more than the two mounting holes on the top corners, and silkscreen text for a connector, along with: "A1 1-OFF 2-ON [sic] A2 1-OFF 2-ON A3 1-ON 2-OFF A4 1-ON 2-ON" and my mastodon handle. the front side render of a circuit board, labeled "RS15 NEO". there's a SOIC-8 chip (U1), three 0805 resistors (R1-R3), a 4 pin connector (J1), and a DIP switch block (SW1) unfortunately rendered as a chip package.
November 14, 2024 at 6:45 PM
fcatte.bsky.social
repost with a banger picture of you
a photo of me wearing all black, wielding a shovel full of snow, the sleeves on my hoodie rolled up, clearing our shared asphalt driveway after a winter storm. to my left is a 1989 SAAB 900, half cleared of the snow.
November 12, 2024 at 4:18 AM
fcatte.bsky.social
we may heal from trauma, but the scars will always show a glimpse of who we were before, etc., etc.,
the top left corner of an Apple Keyboard II, viewed quarter-angle toward the ADB port, with the top case removed and flipped upside down, resting on the keys. one of the catches molded into the plastic of the bottom case has clearly cracked and been glued back together.
November 4, 2024 at 5:03 PM
fcatte.bsky.social
"I AM THE RESVRRECTION"
Kodak Gold 200
Kodak No.2 Folding Cartridge Hawk-Eye
Oakwood Cemetery
October 15, 2022
A fall scene photo of a grave plot monument, a carved door frame with a brass cast depiction of a hooded Jesus Christ pointing their right hand toward the heavens, and holding a loaf of Roman-style bread in their left. Just above the brilliantly green grass, in the foot of the monument, is inscribed 'I AM THE RESVRRECTION'.
November 3, 2024 at 7:35 PM
fcatte.bsky.social
"What It Means To Be A Woman"
Kodak Gold 200
Kodak No.2 Folding Cartridge Hawk-Eye
Forest Park Cemetery
October 19, 2024
A film scan of a fall forest scene, with a quarter-angle grave plot monument taking up a majority of the frame. The monument depicts a female figured angel, wings outstretched against a rough-hewn cross, the angel disfigured and rendered headless by vandals long-past, a column of sunlight breaking through the treecover to illuminate the chest and vacant shoulders. There's a triangular light leak on the bottom right of the frame, almost level with the concrete plinth the monument sits upon, a hallmark of the camera it was shot on, and a thorn in my side.
November 3, 2024 at 3:25 AM
fcatte.bsky.social
used the first seven or so of the 48 in a graveyard, the gothic photographer's favorite subject of choice.
my hand holding the BelOMO, its lens and shutter cap removed, up against the blurry background of a fall colored graveyard, prominently featuring a monumental winged angle on a cross.
October 26, 2024 at 8:39 PM
fcatte.bsky.social
it's BelOMO Агат-18K time again
a BelOMO Агат-18K 35mm half frame camera built in 1988 in Soviet Belarus, held up above a car dashboard with the nose of a blurry SAAB classic 900 in the background.
October 26, 2024 at 7:35 PM
fcatte.bsky.social
last two wheels have their tires mounted, and are roughly balanced. now to have lunch before installing them...
two 16" three-spoke SAAB 'Carlsson Aero' wheels stacked atop each other, leaning against a wood pile with the stack of old tires they once wore behind them. they're both shod with brand new Goodyear Assurance tires, and the outer one is sporting some nasty curb rash.
October 24, 2024 at 3:40 PM