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| About I love trying out new things, especially when it comes to internet technology. I never really kept a journal, but it's something that I've always wanted to do. Now, everybody will get a chance to look inside my twisted, and somewhat-warped mind.
I've also subscribed to Audio Blog, so a few times a week, I'll leave actual voice blogs. Very cool!XML Newsfeed |
Saturday, August 30, 2003
More Scanning News (I'm sick, I know) I'm out of old albums, at least for a few days, so I decided to scan some of the late 80's vintage that I also borrowed from my mom. It wasn't the easiest thing in the world to accomplish, since most of the pictures fit EXACTLY into the sleeves in the album. Removing and replacing each picture consumed most of my archiving experience, so I decided to fight back. Hell with it! I WON'T remove the pictures anymore from the sleeves! This cut my scanning time by half, since all I had to do was remove the sleeves from the three-ring-binders, slap them on the platen, and scan away. When I was done with the sleeve, I put it back in the album and never had to think about it ever again. There is a downside to my "cost-save": quality. The quality of the picture strictly relies on the clarity of the plastic sheathing. Several pictures looked like they were dragged across 100-grit sandpaper. It troubles me somewhat, but at this point, I'm all about product yield. I also cut down on my "time-to-deliver" by utilizing the "batch" autoexposure and resize features built-in to ACDSee. I also cut out the sharpen filter. I figure the pictures are newer, and somewhat higher quality, so I could get away with it. I was mistaken. Believe it or not, some of the better "older" pictures actually held a higher resolution (if there is such a thing). Finally, right when I thought I was on a roll, I discovered that the three albums remaining were a cluster-f*ck from hell. Christmas '87 pictures? They were scattered aimlessly between three albums! Peter's birthday '89? Two albums. Arrrrrggggg! I don't know how my mother can live with herself knowing that three albums contain one event. There is no order. Entropy should not be allowed. Disorder should be a crime. Oh well. It's all fun. posted by Dino at 4:49 AM (permanent link) Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Affliction? I don't know what's wrong with my brain. I can't stop thinking about scanning more pictures! It's almost brainless work, and it's not like I have a quota to fill to get a salary. I don't know what's wrong with me! I have one more of the older albums to scan before I have to go back and refill. I also have four albums dating between Fall 1987 (my freshman year... boy, those are something else) and 1989. Perhaps I'll scan those next, but I'm a little reluctant, since there's way to many pictures in each album, plus they're all a cluster-f*ck of chronology. I'll see my parents on Sunday, so maybe I'll be able to refill with some post-1976 albums. Who knows? I wish I could archive for a living! posted by Dino at 9:46 AM (permanent link) Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Dino's Stomping Grounds: Current Events, Debates, Arguments,Pictures,Videos,Webcams,More! Very cool! The google toolbar has a button that will (semi) automatically post links to a site on my blog! That is definitely cool! P.S. I'm a scanning, and archiving fool! posted by Dino at 7:53 PM (permanent link) Monday, August 25, 2003
Double Action Mark Wilkins and I were supposed to go shooting on Saturday. One thing led to another, and we decided to postpone shooting until Sunday. Let me tell you something about shooting... unless you live in Houghton, or have a cottage somewhere where there are no people within a 100 mile radius, shooting outside is next to impossible. It's a terrible thing that two dudes can't get together and do a little target practice outside! We headed out in the early afternoon to 22 Mile and Gratiot. That was the only outdoor range that we both knew about. You could sight in your guns on targets that were 100 yards away. We both have shot there in the past, but we didn't remember exactly where it was. We were driving in circles aimlessly, "Was it 22 and Groesbeck? Was it 23 and Gratiot?" We finally pulled over to a gas station at 23 Mile and Gratiot. The people running that gas station had last names that ended in "aj", "ood", or "ji"... they had no idea where the shooting range was. They had no idea where anything was other than the closest tanning salon - combination pager/cellular store. Ummm... no thanks. We drove back down to 22 Mile and Groesbeck and pulling into that gas station. Only vehicle there was a 1978 Harley... had to be the owner! Wow. A confederate white dude. For sure he'll know where the shooting range is... and he did! Unfortunately, he informed us that it was closed down three years ago in order to build a strip mall to houses stores that sell nokia cell phones, cell phone covers, and tanning salons. Go figure. We were bummed. We decided to head out to the Detroit Sportsman's Congress on Hamlin and Dequindre (or somewhere around there... towards Stoney Creek). Wow. What a cult. The only open shooting they had was trap and skeet. To shoot rifle or shotgun, you have to be a member. Membership costs $200/year, plus you owe 25 hrs of "service" per year. I'm not sure what the "service" consisted of, but I'm sure it was either picking up dead clay pigeons, pulling weeds, or cleaning up empty brass. Our only other outdoor option now was Bald Mountain Recreation Area located in Lapeer. No way was I driving all the way to Lapeer to find out that we couldn't shoot there, or that we owed somebody 25 hours of community service before we could shoot our iron. So with our tails between our legs, we decided to head south and shoot at the worst place in Michigan: Double Action! It's an indoor range with a max distance of 50 yards. It's just your run-of-the-mill gun store/shooting range, but it's run by the biggest assholes that live in Michigan. These guys are Michigan Militia, Nazi, skinhead, cop-wanna-be's, that think they have something to prove to their patrons. Talk about customer service? Not with Double Action. These guys are so cocky, conceited and full of themselves, by the time you're done looking around, you'll want to slap the taste out of at least two of the guys behind the counter. They treat you like THEY'RE doing you a favor. It's the only store in town, so they own that monopoly. Each of them also must have some inferiority complex, because everybody is holstered, with shoulder harnesses, ankle harnesses, with enough extra clips to start a revolution. When asked why they all pack iron, they're reply is, "...because we can." I'll bet each one of those pricks is BEGGING for an opportunity to pull their guns. You know what though? If I was going to rob that place, I'd put a bullet between the eyes of every employee that had a gun. I'm not sure if they're thinking straight. I was so happy to hear when that place got robbed a few years ago. A truck just drove head-first right through the front door. Too bad there weren't any employees behind it! Shit, the Houghton County Sheriff doesn't carry a gun when in the office. Why? When I asked him he replied, "Because if I don't carry a gun, I have a higher chance of not getting shot." Anyway, our Double Action visit wasn't AS bad as I portrayed above, YESTERDAY. But every single other time that I shot there, those bastards treated me like I was doing THEM a favor. I guess that's the price you pay for buying services that's a local monopoly. Needless to say, I finally got a chance to shoot my Ruger Mini-14 that I bought off of Mark about a year ago. What a beautiful piece of iron! Smooth action, reliable, with very little recoil. Only thing I didn't like was the short stock. But I'm short-n-stocky, so I didn't let it bother me too much. I wanted to rapid-fire that thing soooo bad, but they had a policy of one second between shots. I just wanted to unload my 30-round clip and see if the muzzle turned cherry red. I also shot my S&W 9mm... boy was I rusty! I was able to keep my shots pretty well grouped at 25 yards, but they don't call 9mm's spray-n-pray for nothing! And I also toyed around with my little NAA 22mag 6-shot deringer-type gun. It fits in the palm of my hand. The barrel is so short that there's very little rifling... some of my shots actually "keyholed" the target. I'd sure hate to catch a tumbling 22-mag hollowpoint coming at me. It was nice to get out and shoot my guns. I'm so glad that we got out. I just want to be able to do this, whenever I want, without having to spend $20 for two lanes for 30 minutes, being watched and harassed by Neo-Nazi, gun-toting militia with death-wishes. One last note... have you had to the change to see the new S&W 50-mag revolver? Damn!!!! posted by Dino at 1:42 PM (permanent link) Very Happy Childhood I finally completed scanning all our family pictures up to the time I existed as the "only-child". Those were awesome pictures! I'm soooo glad that my mother was a shutterbug. I guess that explains a little about my genetic sequencing. I'm actually glad I got that gene. I only wish she was a little bit more meticulous and organized in keeping the pictures in order. Oh well. Beggars can't be choosers. After reliving each and every picture taken of me between April 1969 and December 1973, I can honestly say that I was blessed with very loving parents which offered me an extremely happy childhood. I would not change one thing. Thank you, mom and dad, for bringing me into this world! The Consumption of Time as an Archivist This weekend was spent finishing up the archiving of pictures up to December 1973. It's very laborious. It's very time-consuming. The scanning process isn't that bad. I've got that down to a science. Most of the time-consumption is spent pulling the pictures out of the albums (often four at a time), and attempting to logically put the pictures in order. I'd say I'm probably 60% effective. The second most time-consuming task is viewing each master scan, and deciding which filters to apply, and how much, then cropping (if necessary), and resizing the max dimension to 640 pixels. Most of the time, I "sharpen" 100% - 150%, then "auto-level". Some of the time, I "despeckle". And once in a while, I adjust exposure levels such as "saturation", "gamma", "contrast", "brightness", "black" and "white". That's what sucks the time out of me. But it's often necessary, since many of the pictures look like their ready for a landfill. :( Thank goodness for imaging software! :) Producer, Director, Editor So what else has been occupying me all weekend? I recently got addicted to a new software called MemoriesOnTV 2.0, which I downloaded from www.cnet.com. Very impressive! You should read my write-up about it on my bulletn board! The software is so awesome, I just can't stop using it! I want to create VCD's (hopefully pure DVD's really soon) that play in relatives' DVD players non-stop. Only problem is that VCD's aren't compatible with all DVD players, which I unfortunately found out this weekend while at my cousin's house! I'm learning new things about it as I use it, such as creating custom DVD menu pages, adding audio clips (i.e. music) to each picture directory or "chapter", and creating mpg's as well as image files (cue & bin). Unfortunately, after spending almost a whole day downloading background music suitable for "silent films", and deciding WHICH music clips were most apropos for each directory, the music did not play on my DVD player. I was severely bummed out! However, I did learn how to create mpgs, in addition to the default cue & bin image files. And as I'm writing in this blog, I'm encoding some of the mpg's so I can post them on the site for everybody's viewing pleasure! I know, I'm a freak. At least I'm a super-freak. :) So don't let all this encoding be in vain... take a few moments to see the fruits of my weekend labor. The videos will be available in my Video Archives in the 2003 directory (for now... I WAS going to slowly migrate all those videos into my Photo Archives... maybe not), as well as linked inside this post. I wish I won the lottery because I would do this full-time and not stop until every piece of media (pictures & videos) were digitized. But, I have to go to work to sustain this hobby, and any other thing that becomes my hobby as a result of my OCD flavor of the week. I NEVER can be idle. Never. I don't think I am capable of ever being "bored". posted by Dino at 2:05 AM (permanent link) Thursday, August 21, 2003
The Menagerie of Pictures I did pick up some albums from my mom's house last night. I have twelve of them now between 1968 to 1974 and 1985 to 1988. Even though I love scanning the old pictures, I figure I needed some newer content, especially my early college years. You'd think that scanning pictures is pretty brainless. Most of the time, the actual scanning doesn't require much thought, but the filtering and cropping after the fact takes a little time. This last batch was different. My mom has eight of the ancient albums (circa 1968 - 1974) with pictures all over the place. There was no chronological order. I just couldn't stomach having a picture of me on my 3rd birthday, then the next picture is one of me suckling on the teet. So I took all the pictures out of four of the albums (96+72+72+72) and spent two hours sorting them in the best order I could possibly muster. It was a nightmare, since many of the pictures had the time stamp cut off. I had to put on my private eye hat and pay attention to the clothes that my parents and I were wearing. And even with the timestamps and clothing grouping, I still had to make some "best-guesses" on the order of "batches" of pictures. Anyway, it makes me feel better that the pictures are in some sort of chronological order in my albums, as well as the physical albums. I couldn't have it any other way. The Mechanics of Scanning and Imaging The pictures in these albums are tiny... they measure only 3.5" X 3.5", and many of them are so faded, they're ready for a landfill. I'm amazed at how much information can still be found digitally on these pictures! I'm scanning them between 360 - 600 dpi, depending on if I'm doing a "zoom-n-crop". Almost all of the pictures are scanned at 360 dpi, which give me pictures that yield around 1200 X 1200 pixels. I'm also scanning with the "unsharp mask" feature checked, which is a mild sharpening filter that very lightly adjusts the contrast to make a picture appear clearer. For scanning, I basically place six pictures on the platen at once, do a "preview", then manually crop-n-scan each picture. After all the pictures are scanned, I then review the pictures via ACDSee, and determine what type of filtering is required. Almost all of the pictures get hit with the "sharpen" filter between 100% - 150%. "Sharpening" usually makes the picture appear grainy, so sometimes I apply the "despeckle" filter. I haven't been using that filter too much, since it's probably just the opposite of "sharpen". Then, I apply the "auto-level" filter, which to me, is a miracle of digital imaging. It really brings out the colors and adjusts the picture to what it "should" look like. Since most of the pictures have suffered from 30+ years of aging and fading, I apply a slight increase of "saturation" to make the picture look a little more vibrant. I don't do it all the time. Finally, I then resize the picture so the maximum pixel dimension is 640 pixels and then "auto-level" one last time. I also keep the master pics that were scanned at 1200 X 1200, just in case I ever want to make prints (which will probably be never). I think I need medication for my OCD. I wish I was this excited about work. posted by Dino at 12:04 PM (permanent link) Wednesday, August 20, 2003
Ancient Photos Uh oh... I picked up about ten more albums from my parents' house... stay tuned. I'm obsessed. posted by Dino at 10:04 PM (permanent link) Blackout 2003 I didn't even find it significant enough to talk about the electrical blackout that hit the eastern states from New York to Michigan last Thursday. The complete blackout started for me on Thursday, August 14, 2003 at 4:00 p.m. I actually watched my interior house lights turn dim and stay dim for about a minute. I then heard all my computer battery backup units fire up and beep uncontrollably. I actually thought it was only going to last for a few minutes, so I didn't run to the computers to power them down. But after about ten minutes, I figured I'd better power them down and turn off the units to conserve AC in case I needed it for some heroic IT mission. Power never did get restored for me until Friday, August 15 at 3:00 p.m. Thursday night, however, was surreal. Streets were blanketed with darkness and an eerie quietness. No computer. No TV. No phone. I couldn't get ahold of Danielle. My cell phone didn't work, and I couldn't contact Danielle's house, since 90% of the population now uses cordless phones that NEED power to work. I did not have an analog phone! [Note to self: get one!] I was worried. I wanted to drive over to her house, but Sterling Heights issued a 9:00 p.m. curfew, and advised travelling only for emergency reasons. Detroit issued a 10:00 p.m. curfew. I guess Sterling Heights is higher risk than Detroit. Go figure. Furthermore, I'm weird. In some ways, I'm anti-authority and anti-establishment. I feel every rule should be broken. However, when it comes to traffic ordinances, civil regulations, and government policies, I'm a poster-child for righteousness and "clean-living, friend... clean-living". I just did not want to be on the streets if I did not have to. Plus, I felt a little 'wild-west' walking around my house and yard with my S&W 9mm holstered to my belt. I was protecting my homestead, and it felt good. It felt right. The Mars Irony You wanna know the most ironic thing? August 14, 15, and 16 were days that Mars would pass by the Earth, closer than it has been in 60,000 years. Do you know what that means? No human being to ever walk this planet has seen Mars this close! Being stuck in a metropolis SUCKS for star-gazing. For most of us city-dwellers, the night sky only shows us its brightest objects. Damn. All the lights were out. I saw the damn Milky Way from my backyard! I don't think anybody living in Sterling Heights or the surrounding suburbs has had the opportunity to actually SEE what's in the sky at night for over 50 years! It was quite an experience for me... The only thing that wasn't perfect for star-gazing was the moon. It was out in full force. posted by Dino at 12:12 AM (permanent link) Tuesday, August 19, 2003
More Scanning? I must be a few neurons short of a "nerve net", which is the term scientists give to a typical insect brain. What's wrong with me? I finished scanning all the pictures I have in my posession... or did I? Nope. I had two more albums from 1950 and 1966, which were on loan to me from my mother. I forgot about them since they were securely stored in my filing cabinet for future scanning. My OCD kicked in: Lo and behold, two more photo albums are now archived permanently with www.dinofilias.com. Immortality? Something must be wrong with my brain because the only thing I can think about is when I'll be able to go to my mom's house to pick up a few more albums to digitally archive. You think I'm bad? She has a whole room that is wall-to-wall bookshelves that are packed with photo albums from 1966 - 2003. It now appears to me that I have a life-long project ahead of me: picture archiving for our future offspring. If I only have one child, grandchild, great-grandchild, or great-great-grandchild that cares, I'll be happy. I wish my ancestors kept records and history like I'm doing. Other than continuing half of my DNA through human reproduction, this is my stab at immortality. Come to think of it, I think I'd like to freeze 100% of my DNA for some future cloning experiment. I wonder if memories can be passed down genetically? The would be REALLY cool if I could be cloned in a few centuries and have my current memories downloaded into my organic brain. If I exist today, and my brain is a physical organ using electro-chemical processes to retain a PHYSICAL memory, theoretically it IS possible to reproduce memory. So much for divinity and soul-searching by our resident theists... posted by Dino at 11:46 PM (permanent link) Wednesday, August 13, 2003
I'm Finally Done! Guess what? I'm completely DONE scanning each and every picture I have in my possession! I am a case study for someone studying Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Damn! I'll be uploading the pics tonight, as well as posting to my photo archives forum. Shit! I don't know what to do with myself anymore! The ONLY thing that I still own that still needs to be digitized are three 8mm tapes from Greece when Peter and I went there in 1993. After that, perhaps I'll start scanning my Creative Writing Journals from Junior High School and High School and other nostalgic memorabilia. Nostalgic memorabilia? Isn't all memorabilia nostalgic? I crack myself up! posted by Dino at 11:58 PM (permanent link) Home Improvement Projects Sometimes home improvement projects are fun. Most of the time, they're a pain in the ass: I either break something worse than it was, my hands aren't small enough to fit into a tiny area, it takes ten times as long as originally anticipated, or I don't have the right tools to do the job. Today, I was able to put 1.5 projects behind me: the leaky kitchen sink and the leaky basement toilet. The toilet was a no-brainer. I was actually impressed at how fast I was able to complete it. All it needed was a new flapper. I almost bought the entire internal guts, but I opted to try just the flapper first. It worked. It's a minor victory. The kitchen sink is another issue! Do I need to remind everybody of the carpenter ants? Those little demons tortured me for over a year: coming and going whenever they felt like it. Orkin did a little ethnic cleansing for me and it only cost me around $400. I know now why those wood-devourers wanted to ruin me: they are attracted to rotting wood! Rotting wood? I have rotting wood in my house? Yup. Rotting. My kitchen sink is/was a sieve. It has been leaking for years. I even remember seeing the leaking coming into the basement. I never knew where it came from. I always assumed it was the dishwasher. Now I know. My family room that sits adjacent to my kitchen was an add-on. It actually sits on a slab. Those black demons probably got inside the house from under the slab since somehow they could smell the dry-rotting wood. Well, after years of leaking slowly, the elbow trap finally opened up for me causing all the dishwasher water and sink water to just go through my kitchen floor and into the basement. Under my sink is so water-logged and dry-rotted that there's not a straight piece of wood to put my cleaning supplies. I'm terrified to see what the flooring underneath the linoleum looks like. I actually think that the dishwasher might fall through into the basement any time now. Behold, I bought a plastic J-elbow today, as I attempted to be Joe Plumber. It wasn't an easy job. Is it ever? I could barely fit underneath the sink to get to the elbow, and most of the pipes underneath only allowed me about an inch movement with a pipe wrench. The old elbow was so gone, that it actually just broke off. Oh my gosh... the stench was awful! I know now why I'm not a plumber. I couldn't hack the smell and the nasty grime. Anyway, after about an hour of trying to get the old pipe and nuts off, I finally got the plastic J-pipe to install. Can you believe that it actually lined up perfectly!? I was amazed! I guess they make those things standard. It's logical, which surprises me. After wrestling another 30 minutes of trying to tighten down the shit-end (the end going into the sewers), I tested for leaks. It leaked. Surprised? For some reason, I didn't expect anything else. They say to only tighten plastic pipes by hand. Shit, this thing had another two turns left in it and I couldn't do it by hand (it was in the worst position possible to allow for hand tightening). I finally got the fucker tightened as much as I could without busting my wrists, and I did another leak test. Voila! No leaks. So I left the water on for about five minutes to see if I was actually leak-free. I wasn't. It leaked, but water wasn't coming from the elbow. Fuck! Where else would it be coming from!? I had to contort my body to fit under the sink even more than I already was to find this leak. You know what else leaks? The faucet leaks! Fuck! So after all that work, I still have a leaky kitchen sink, and continuing dry-rotting of my kitchen floor. I guess it's time to gut the kitchen. I'm terrified to find what the floor looks like. Who knows, I might find some queen carpenter ants taking a hiatus (I hope the hell not), or a floor that's ready to cave in. I don't even have the fortitude to start a home improvement project like this! Shit, I want to sell this house before Danielle and I get married. And we're getting married in May. At least I'll have that to look forward to. The Future of Audio Blogger I've been thinking about ending my audio blog subscription with Blogger. I don't even use it anymore. It was a nice novelty while it lasted. For some reason, I'm not too keen on leaving audio commentary about life when I'm not at the computer. When I'm bored enough to send an audio blog, I'm usually driving. And, if anybody else has ever owned a Jeep, talking on a cell phone while driving is next to impossible: 1) It's too damn loud to even think out loud, and 2) My Jeep is a manual, has a lift kit and huge tires... driving requires two hands and full attention to the road. So, if I ever get around to it, I'm going to post my last 12 audio blogs to I don't cancel without using what I've already paid for. It's only three bucks, so it's not like I'm going to break the bank, even if I cancelled right now. But there's something about throwing money away, even though it's only three bucks. Shit, I throw that out in bottles once a month. I don't know what's wrong with me. The Future of Free Blogger Right now, I'm typing this blog using Blogger's servers. I log into their site, type my blog, hit submit, and then the Blogger servers write a file to my webserver. It kinda defeats the purpose of having your own dedicated server. Why not just load an application on my server, and avoid going through a third-party server? Peter pointed me out to an application called Movable Type. It's a free application that resides on your own server. From my initial review of the application, it looks pretty promising. It even has a feature built-in that will pull blogs from other applications like Blogger. My only problem is that it took me a long time to dial-in my template. I think my Blogger template integrates seamlessly into my website. I hope that creating a template is just as easy in Movable Type. It would be nice if my current template could be migrated without extra work. I'm still a firm believer of the saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!", so I'm not ready to jump on the Movable Type bandwagon just yet. To get up close with the app, click here: http://dinofilias.com/type/ posted by Dino at 9:29 PM (permanent link) Thursday, August 07, 2003
Back to the Grind It's been a full week-and-a-half since our two week long escapades in Greece. Boy I sure miss that country. Now, here I sit, behind a desk for eight hours trying to make my vacation memories last as long as possible. How do I do this? I just keep looking at the pictures and videos in order to try to "burn" the experiences into "long term" memory instead using my often-crashing, short-term memory banks. It sure is a drag to be back to the same ol' thing. But do I miss Greece, or do I just miss "vacationing"? At one point my motto was "I work to live and live to go on vacations." To me, vacationing just touches on the concept of perceived freedom... do what you want, eat when you're hungry, drink when you're thirsty, sleep when you're tired... nobody to answer to (ummm... maybe), no annoying phone calls, "no squish of the wet shoe (an old Aruba commericial)"... basically pure lack of responsibility. Too bad it's just for a few weeks per year. Grand Theft Auto To get me through the vacation depression disorder as well as the nicotine detox, I have been playing Grand Theft Auto Vice City. It's a virtual world where you live as an utter hoodlum, selling drugs, ice cream, controlling gangs, killing people, owning the road, running over pedestrians, killing cops, jacking cars, flying helicopters, and smashing up everything in sight. It's a fun, mindless game that allows me to live vicariously as the ultimate hoodlum. I love this game. I'm playing it more now than Warcraft III, which I am yet to complete the single player missions. More Vacations And right when you think that all vacations are over, I now want more! I still have seven days of vacation left! Danielle and I are talking about flying out to Seattle to visit the rest of the Pensule clan (which, by the way, is ironic because we have met more relatives from our families in the last month than we have for almost four years). And I still want to do a scuba vacation during Thanksgiving. I DEMAND a scuba vacation this Thanksgiving! posted by Dino at 2:14 PM (permanent link) |