Saturday, 16th July. The day began with a veritable downpour just as the weekend's Open Studios opened. Fortunately, there was no wind, so I could sit in the garage studio looking out as the heavens tried to deposit the rainfall accrued during the previous drought. Mrs Hullyer called at about 12 – we had both not had any visitors and we settled down for a quiet day.
The intention was sufficient to initiate a visitor. A hurried dash out to the arriving car with an umbrella to welcome them in. This was a lady with a mission, to buy my COS brochure image! From then on, a steady stream arrived making this the busiest day of the Open Studios for me. Cards flew of the shelves, a second photograph sold and there was a lot of interest and conversation.
Further highlights were visits by Mrs Lowry and another prospective author with whom I had already conversed on the telephone. This was followed by Mr McInroy from HBN and his partner, en-route to Cambridge. Mr McInroy is himself a photographer and graphic artist, so we happily discussed techniques.
Inbetween, I continued practicing my Chinese brush painting.
In the evening, the ideas about information for startup companies had crystalised into twelve areas, with a number of bullet points. First as a mindmap, and then as a LibreOffice writer document. The plain text headings appeared a bit stark and intimidating. I began designing illuminated capitals using Scribus and a selection from my photo collection.
Saturday 23 July 2011
On the Apprentice and Startups.
Friday 15th July. The success of a committee meeting appears to be inversely proportional to the number of people attending, and so we made good progress at looking forward for HBN. A message from the Radio station had been left on my mobile, to call back. It was an invitation to comment on the Monday after Sunday's much hyped final of The Apprentice, This is a television program where Lord Sugar whittles down a series of business candidates to the winner. This year, the prize is to be £250000 to fund the lucky recipient's new business venture. The interview topic would be around funding of startups.
Questions about start-ups can go in so many directions – so I have started compiling a checklist of what could be relevant.
Questions about start-ups can go in so many directions – so I have started compiling a checklist of what could be relevant.
Thursday 14 July 2011
Maidenhead and Prison Doors
The drive down to Maidenhead to visit Mr Dodsworth went without incident. We spent the day collating all the paperwork and planning the finalisation of the completed German project that we had been managing for the past year.
The return journey was enlivened by two small observations en route. The first was the witty graffiti across a bridge spanning the eastbound M25, stating “Give Peas a Chance”. The second was a silver van advertising doors. Not just any doors, secure doors and … Prison doors!
This evening, had much more success in assembling a panorama from the nine overlapping cylcloid fish scale stacks. I am hopeful that the ctenoid scale will be easier.
The return journey was enlivened by two small observations en route. The first was the witty graffiti across a bridge spanning the eastbound M25, stating “Give Peas a Chance”. The second was a silver van advertising doors. Not just any doors, secure doors and … Prison doors!
This evening, had much more success in assembling a panorama from the nine overlapping cylcloid fish scale stacks. I am hopeful that the ctenoid scale will be easier.
Wednesday 13 July 2011
Authors and unsuccessful panoramas
I had agreed to meet author Ms Lowry at the Country Park Cafe, however, with the upper rooms reserved and the cacophony of infants downstairs, we walked over the Jane Coston bridge to the St John's Innovation Centre cafe for our talks over a cup of tea. Ms Lowry's book is progressing well, with seven of ten potential chapters completed in first draft. Even just skimming through the work so far reveals an intense personal story with some of the most disturbing experiences that she had in her early life. Currently we are on track for publication in time for the Christmas market.
Yesterdays images of the fish scales were transferred to my PC and stacked in focus triplets before attempting a stitching of the images into a panorama. This evening I played for a couple of hours with the program Hugin Panorama Creator. At first try, I cannot get a quality alignment and I will have to try again.
The rest of the day was concerned with preparing for tomorrows meeting with Mr Dodsworth in Maidenhead, to round up the last German program. Part of this was renting the automobile for the trip, a small metallic blue Toyota Aygo. With its rounded curves, it has a friendly appearance and sufficient room behind the steering wheel for my long legs. The remainder of effort went to printing out support material. The World of Computers had a small printer by HP on offer for a mere £24 and I purchased one with a view to using it as an economical mobile accessory.
Yesterdays images of the fish scales were transferred to my PC and stacked in focus triplets before attempting a stitching of the images into a panorama. This evening I played for a couple of hours with the program Hugin Panorama Creator. At first try, I cannot get a quality alignment and I will have to try again.
The rest of the day was concerned with preparing for tomorrows meeting with Mr Dodsworth in Maidenhead, to round up the last German program. Part of this was renting the automobile for the trip, a small metallic blue Toyota Aygo. With its rounded curves, it has a friendly appearance and sufficient room behind the steering wheel for my long legs. The remainder of effort went to printing out support material. The World of Computers had a small printer by HP on offer for a mere £24 and I purchased one with a view to using it as an economical mobile accessory.
Tuesday 12 July 2011
Portraits, fish scales and Neptune's anniversary
I received an email from another German company, specialising in building conservation techniques, who had taken part in a previous delegation from NRW to Wimpole Hall and London. Information is being accummulated for a potential press article/release after their planned next visit to the UK. I responded with the suggestion that we meet up informally when I next venture to Germany in the coming week.
This afternoon, I uploaded the portrait photos of some of the Cambridge Open Studio visitors who came last weekend and made a selection for more detailed editing. There were four final pictures in all, representing a gentleman wearing a fez, two different mothers with their daughters and a father with two student daughters.
The editing was limited to optimising lighting and contrast. Then the colour saturation was carefully adjusted by increasing it slightly, altering the saturation balance to maintain a natural set of tones. I do not go in for heavy skin or other editing as would be done for a fashion model. I do remove the occasional skin spot (three in total) and in one instance, reduced the pimples on the brow of of one subjects.
Having saved the colour image, I would then convert the image into a grey-scale version, again optimising lighting and contrast for this particular medium. There is a particular beauty with grey-scale portraits, whether it is the impact of the face without the distraction of colour or the beautiful texture of wavy hair with one of the mothers.
This evening, I was acutely aware that I had been hanging onto a box by Mr Richardson from the Postal Microscopical Society that should be passed on, initially delayed by illness and the distraction of Open Studio preparation. I returned to view the slides again (having to change a 30 year old bulb when the existing one blew – the next time will require a new lighting system!).
I had seen this box probably over a decade ago and illustrated two fish scales enclosed. This time, I decided to photograph them. The first was a cycloid scale from a rainbow trout. The scale is generally ovoid with concentric rings leading to an almost central focus like the contour lines on a mountain. The second was a ctenoid scale from Dover sole. These are more rectangular with a quartered pattern. The two long sides again have contour lines. The front part of the scale that is exposed on the fish skin, is covered in rows of short spikes that elongate towards the edge of the scale. The remaining side has a series radial ribs, giving the contours traversing them a way characteristic.
Even at a mere 40 times magnification, the scales were larger than the field of view through the microscope and camera viewfinder. The trout scale was photographed in a series of three columns and three rows of overlapping photos, each location at three focal depths (edge of scale, halfway up scale and centre of scale – giving 27 pictures in total. The Sole scale was photographed in the same manner but only required two columns of three rows at three focal planes – 18 photos in total.
Stacking the focal planes and then aligning the rows and columns is a labour for another day.
The interesting anniversary today is that around the 12th July it will be the first year's anniverary of the discovery of Neptune by Johann Gottfried Galle, in neptunian years of course. Herr Galle first identified Neptune 164.79 Earth years ago in 1781. Ever since the ignominious departure of Pluto from the pantheon of planets by its derogation to planetoid, Neptune has been the eighth and outermost planet of our solar system. The Hubble space telescope took some “Anniversary pictures” of Neptune late in June, which can be seen here http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2011/19/image/a/.
This afternoon, I uploaded the portrait photos of some of the Cambridge Open Studio visitors who came last weekend and made a selection for more detailed editing. There were four final pictures in all, representing a gentleman wearing a fez, two different mothers with their daughters and a father with two student daughters.
The editing was limited to optimising lighting and contrast. Then the colour saturation was carefully adjusted by increasing it slightly, altering the saturation balance to maintain a natural set of tones. I do not go in for heavy skin or other editing as would be done for a fashion model. I do remove the occasional skin spot (three in total) and in one instance, reduced the pimples on the brow of of one subjects.
Having saved the colour image, I would then convert the image into a grey-scale version, again optimising lighting and contrast for this particular medium. There is a particular beauty with grey-scale portraits, whether it is the impact of the face without the distraction of colour or the beautiful texture of wavy hair with one of the mothers.
This evening, I was acutely aware that I had been hanging onto a box by Mr Richardson from the Postal Microscopical Society that should be passed on, initially delayed by illness and the distraction of Open Studio preparation. I returned to view the slides again (having to change a 30 year old bulb when the existing one blew – the next time will require a new lighting system!).
I had seen this box probably over a decade ago and illustrated two fish scales enclosed. This time, I decided to photograph them. The first was a cycloid scale from a rainbow trout. The scale is generally ovoid with concentric rings leading to an almost central focus like the contour lines on a mountain. The second was a ctenoid scale from Dover sole. These are more rectangular with a quartered pattern. The two long sides again have contour lines. The front part of the scale that is exposed on the fish skin, is covered in rows of short spikes that elongate towards the edge of the scale. The remaining side has a series radial ribs, giving the contours traversing them a way characteristic.
Even at a mere 40 times magnification, the scales were larger than the field of view through the microscope and camera viewfinder. The trout scale was photographed in a series of three columns and three rows of overlapping photos, each location at three focal depths (edge of scale, halfway up scale and centre of scale – giving 27 pictures in total. The Sole scale was photographed in the same manner but only required two columns of three rows at three focal planes – 18 photos in total.
Stacking the focal planes and then aligning the rows and columns is a labour for another day.
The interesting anniversary today is that around the 12th July it will be the first year's anniverary of the discovery of Neptune by Johann Gottfried Galle, in neptunian years of course. Herr Galle first identified Neptune 164.79 Earth years ago in 1781. Ever since the ignominious departure of Pluto from the pantheon of planets by its derogation to planetoid, Neptune has been the eighth and outermost planet of our solar system. The Hubble space telescope took some “Anniversary pictures” of Neptune late in June, which can be seen here http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2011/19/image/a/.
Monday 11 July 2011
Understanding sunflower seeds
Catch-up. Filtering 100+ e-mails. A quick comment on the COS blog. Booked a hire car for busines trip later in the week. The afternoon passed quickly – yet not sure how. Mr Straus had enquired whether he could drop by with his new partner in business and life, Ms J, and arrived for a coffee and conversation in the garden.
Most notable for me today was the late and repeated Imagine television program on the Chinese artists WeiWei. His childhood as a member of a “black” family (ostracised by the cultural revolution) and living underground. Rebellion and emigration to New York. Returning to China after the Tienanmen massacre and becoming part of the new avant garde. It gave me a much better understanding of the sunflower exhibition at the Tate Modern that I visited, and also left me feeling slightly cheated, that I had not been able to walk upon the seeds, touch them, feel them, bury in them as initial visitors had been able to. I could not touch or gaze closely at an individual seed in my hand. Because of safety concerns.
Now of course I could buy 100 on e-bay at £118, but the magic has gone.
Most notable for me today was the late and repeated Imagine television program on the Chinese artists WeiWei. His childhood as a member of a “black” family (ostracised by the cultural revolution) and living underground. Rebellion and emigration to New York. Returning to China after the Tienanmen massacre and becoming part of the new avant garde. It gave me a much better understanding of the sunflower exhibition at the Tate Modern that I visited, and also left me feeling slightly cheated, that I had not been able to walk upon the seeds, touch them, feel them, bury in them as initial visitors had been able to. I could not touch or gaze closely at an individual seed in my hand. Because of safety concerns.
Now of course I could buy 100 on e-bay at £118, but the magic has gone.
Sunday 10 July 2011
Open Studio, day 2
The (garage) door to my open studio opened slightly ahead of time and I was able to bask in the morning sun for a while before the first visitors arrived. Today was a busier day, though there was a quiet period from about 1pm to 3pm.
Again, there were one or two familiar faces, however many new visitors appeared too, a significant proportion coming specifically to my exhibition. However, many commented on the benefit of having two studios open at the same time, close to one another, and that this was also a major deciding factor. Several independent groups came from St Ives. The furthest origin was from New Zealand, a couple visiting and accompanying their mother who lives in the county.
I was delighted that one young man had seen the invitation to come wearing headgear and be photographed, outlined on my Cambridge Open Studios website entry. He had brought a Fez – I forgot to ask if this was in response to the Dr Who episode featuring one – and wore it unselfconsciously and confidently for the photograph.
A number of parents with mature progeny were also willing to be photographed, mainly mothers and daughters, but I was pleased to also have a father and his two daughters.
The latter had arrived just 10 minutes before the planned close of the studio and it transpired that I was the last visit of a busy day. The two daughters were still college students. Yet they still had such a lively interest and curiosity, that our conversations continued to well after 18:30. It was so refreshing and rewarding, as usually it is the parents that are more vocal, with the youths being more tongue tied.
All in all, there were 57 visitors over the weekend, 19 on Saturday and 38 today. There was lively interest and discussion of the subjects portrayed, however, as in previous years, purchases were on low value items such as postcards. People are also taking the student notes and polarisation info sheet, many of them not students.
The last days of an era are in progress. The last ever space shuttle mission blasted off for space on Friday and docked with the international space station today.
Again, there were one or two familiar faces, however many new visitors appeared too, a significant proportion coming specifically to my exhibition. However, many commented on the benefit of having two studios open at the same time, close to one another, and that this was also a major deciding factor. Several independent groups came from St Ives. The furthest origin was from New Zealand, a couple visiting and accompanying their mother who lives in the county.
I was delighted that one young man had seen the invitation to come wearing headgear and be photographed, outlined on my Cambridge Open Studios website entry. He had brought a Fez – I forgot to ask if this was in response to the Dr Who episode featuring one – and wore it unselfconsciously and confidently for the photograph.
A number of parents with mature progeny were also willing to be photographed, mainly mothers and daughters, but I was pleased to also have a father and his two daughters.
The latter had arrived just 10 minutes before the planned close of the studio and it transpired that I was the last visit of a busy day. The two daughters were still college students. Yet they still had such a lively interest and curiosity, that our conversations continued to well after 18:30. It was so refreshing and rewarding, as usually it is the parents that are more vocal, with the youths being more tongue tied.
All in all, there were 57 visitors over the weekend, 19 on Saturday and 38 today. There was lively interest and discussion of the subjects portrayed, however, as in previous years, purchases were on low value items such as postcards. People are also taking the student notes and polarisation info sheet, many of them not students.
The last days of an era are in progress. The last ever space shuttle mission blasted off for space on Friday and docked with the international space station today.
Saturday 9 July 2011
The first day of my Cambridge Open Studio for 2011
I had probably not got to sleep before 4 AM in the morning and was therefore less than enthusiastic about the inadvertent sounding of the alarm clock at 7 AM. I managed to sleep for another hour or two before reluctantly clambering out of bed and getting ready for the first of my two Cambridge Open Studio weekend days.
The very first task before the studios opened at 11 AM was to assist Mr Cooper in setting up flags at the end of all road and further along the road towards the main route through Milton, to ensure that visitors could easily find both my studio and that of Mrs Cooper who was exhibiting under her artistic name of Alison Hullyer. We met and chatted with some other villagers on the way, gaining some juicy nuggets of gossip on yet another conflict within a village organisation.
Then it was back to direct our gazebo, under which I intended to sit and paint whilst waiting for visitors to appear. My studio was not only clearly marked with the Cambridge Open Studios flag but also with the banner that Mr Burt of Jamy Ltd had prepared for me a couple of years ago for when I was on the plinth. Walking down to the end of our close, I ascertained that anyone walking past and looking in that direction could not fail to miss the fact that there were two studios open along Hall End.
Sounds drifting over from the playing fields at the other end of the village reminded us of the fact that we were competing against the Milton village fair. I had a scant four visitors before lunchtime. However things picked up during the afternoon and by the end of the day, 19 people had visited my studio, meeting the expected average based on prior experience.
Seated under the gazebo, I took the time to practice my Chinese brush painting. The lack of practice over the past few weeks showed and it took some time to get back into the flow. The gradually improving sketches that were done were added to the special board within the exhibition as examples of practice work.
Now that the first day was over, this Sunday and the following weekend would be less stressful as the familiarity of the open studio set in.
The evening was spent reformatting my now old Asus EeePC and installing the new Natty Narwhal version of Ubuntu. This resulted in a more compact use of storage space and gave me more space for my own files on the little netbook, should I so wish.
Good news by text from Mrs Ekblom – she had returned home and was recuperating after a successful operation.
The very first task before the studios opened at 11 AM was to assist Mr Cooper in setting up flags at the end of all road and further along the road towards the main route through Milton, to ensure that visitors could easily find both my studio and that of Mrs Cooper who was exhibiting under her artistic name of Alison Hullyer. We met and chatted with some other villagers on the way, gaining some juicy nuggets of gossip on yet another conflict within a village organisation.
Then it was back to direct our gazebo, under which I intended to sit and paint whilst waiting for visitors to appear. My studio was not only clearly marked with the Cambridge Open Studios flag but also with the banner that Mr Burt of Jamy Ltd had prepared for me a couple of years ago for when I was on the plinth. Walking down to the end of our close, I ascertained that anyone walking past and looking in that direction could not fail to miss the fact that there were two studios open along Hall End.
Sounds drifting over from the playing fields at the other end of the village reminded us of the fact that we were competing against the Milton village fair. I had a scant four visitors before lunchtime. However things picked up during the afternoon and by the end of the day, 19 people had visited my studio, meeting the expected average based on prior experience.
Seated under the gazebo, I took the time to practice my Chinese brush painting. The lack of practice over the past few weeks showed and it took some time to get back into the flow. The gradually improving sketches that were done were added to the special board within the exhibition as examples of practice work.
Now that the first day was over, this Sunday and the following weekend would be less stressful as the familiarity of the open studio set in.
The evening was spent reformatting my now old Asus EeePC and installing the new Natty Narwhal version of Ubuntu. This resulted in a more compact use of storage space and gave me more space for my own files on the little netbook, should I so wish.
Good news by text from Mrs Ekblom – she had returned home and was recuperating after a successful operation.
Processors, masks and micro beads
Friday - Today was the last day, for the final preparations before the Cambridge Open Studios tomorrow. All the written material that had been generated yesterday needed to be printed out and the pile of written material accumulated on my desk.
This delayed somewhat my departure for the meeting of the Huntingdonshire Business Network, for which I usually permitted at least an hour's travelling time due to the unpredictability of the A 14. It was therefore with considerable surprise that I found myself arriving in Huntingdon on time despite having departed a mere 25 min beforehand. Today's meeting was more of a conversazione, with a number of members having been away on holiday and we just generally catching up on the news. I had also taken along by stereo microscope so that Mr Howell could view the sound sample that he had brought back for me from the Greek island. It also afforded an opportunity to show the other members the lack of detail in the course reproduction of a fake one pound coin.
Progressing onto Mr Beal in Over, the usual Tutor cloud meeting had been deferred due to family circumstances preventing the ladies from attending. However Mr Beal's eyes lit up when I informed him of the presence of a microscope in the car. Mr Beal was battling with the difficult technical issue. For some time now Mr Beal had been purchasing laptops on eBay and repairing them. One of the issues was to reapply sold to the microchips that formed the core of the laptops processor.
In theory the principle was extremely simple. A mask would be oriented over the processor and minute beads of solder would be filled into the mask and then adhered to the processor itself. The practical reality however was a completely different issue. The mask had to be aligned to within the fraction of a millimetre, and also had to be a set height above the processor, so that a single solder bead would fall through the aperture.
Due to the submillimetre size of the solder beads, these were very prone to picking up a static electrical charge that would cause some adjacent pairs of beads to club together. The beads were held onto the processor after having been applied by virtue of thin smear of adhesive. We found that during the heating process, conviction occurred in the liquefied film of the adhesive, resulting in small ridges of liquid that moved the beads across the processor, again causing clumping. We spent a good two hours establishing the facts and practising adjusting the settings to minimise all the complications.
This left a scant 15 min for Mr Beal to inform me of the changes to my website that he had undertaken and how I might myself and new articles and corrections to the same.
Returning back home, my mind was still on the next days open studio. A number of the visitors from previous open Studios have been students who wish to know more about the motivation and background and technicalities of photography through the microscope and how this could be presented in an artistic manner. I thought that I could therefore prepare a short description of the process in advance that the students could take with them, providing them with suitable information for their school projects and minimising the post open studio work that might come my way. The writing and printing off of 10 copies took until late into the evening.
The anticipation of the next days opening of the studio also delayed my getting to sleep.
This delayed somewhat my departure for the meeting of the Huntingdonshire Business Network, for which I usually permitted at least an hour's travelling time due to the unpredictability of the A 14. It was therefore with considerable surprise that I found myself arriving in Huntingdon on time despite having departed a mere 25 min beforehand. Today's meeting was more of a conversazione, with a number of members having been away on holiday and we just generally catching up on the news. I had also taken along by stereo microscope so that Mr Howell could view the sound sample that he had brought back for me from the Greek island. It also afforded an opportunity to show the other members the lack of detail in the course reproduction of a fake one pound coin.
Progressing onto Mr Beal in Over, the usual Tutor cloud meeting had been deferred due to family circumstances preventing the ladies from attending. However Mr Beal's eyes lit up when I informed him of the presence of a microscope in the car. Mr Beal was battling with the difficult technical issue. For some time now Mr Beal had been purchasing laptops on eBay and repairing them. One of the issues was to reapply sold to the microchips that formed the core of the laptops processor.
In theory the principle was extremely simple. A mask would be oriented over the processor and minute beads of solder would be filled into the mask and then adhered to the processor itself. The practical reality however was a completely different issue. The mask had to be aligned to within the fraction of a millimetre, and also had to be a set height above the processor, so that a single solder bead would fall through the aperture.
Due to the submillimetre size of the solder beads, these were very prone to picking up a static electrical charge that would cause some adjacent pairs of beads to club together. The beads were held onto the processor after having been applied by virtue of thin smear of adhesive. We found that during the heating process, conviction occurred in the liquefied film of the adhesive, resulting in small ridges of liquid that moved the beads across the processor, again causing clumping. We spent a good two hours establishing the facts and practising adjusting the settings to minimise all the complications.
This left a scant 15 min for Mr Beal to inform me of the changes to my website that he had undertaken and how I might myself and new articles and corrections to the same.
Returning back home, my mind was still on the next days open studio. A number of the visitors from previous open Studios have been students who wish to know more about the motivation and background and technicalities of photography through the microscope and how this could be presented in an artistic manner. I thought that I could therefore prepare a short description of the process in advance that the students could take with them, providing them with suitable information for their school projects and minimising the post open studio work that might come my way. The writing and printing off of 10 copies took until late into the evening.
The anticipation of the next days opening of the studio also delayed my getting to sleep.
Thursday 7 July 2011
Dictating v Typing, and the patience of spiders
I was effectively chained to the computer and laptop today, producing labels and other written material for the weekend's Open Studio. Trivial items that still take up a considerable amount of time. However, from this point on, any additions will be icing in the cake.
The activity was enlivened by the use of a new speech recognition software bundled with an earlier purchase, Dragon 11. It is so reminiscent of futuristic fantasies, that when you speak , the words miraculously appear on the screen – with the odd correction or two. I did note that it is still easier for me to coherently type text than to dictate it. I am inclined to believe that this is due to different paths of the brain being used in verbal delivery as opposed to physical typing, though I cannot immediately find a suitable reference. No doubt increased practice will speed up the flow of dictation.
A small item of natural history has been residing patiently in its web on one of my office windows. The specimen is probably a common garden spider, Araneus diadematus, a well known orb weaving spider with a distinctive white cross on it's abdomen. Set up for over a week and tolerated by Mrs T, albeit reluctantly upon my request, It seemed to be in a region particularly devoid of prey.
Today this changed as an irritating slender bodied house fly entered the office, evading capture and eventually hiding in the paperwork by the window. Five minutes later, I looked to the window and saw a triumphant spider dealing with its already wrapped package of a meal with the same body length as itself!
The activity was enlivened by the use of a new speech recognition software bundled with an earlier purchase, Dragon 11. It is so reminiscent of futuristic fantasies, that when you speak , the words miraculously appear on the screen – with the odd correction or two. I did note that it is still easier for me to coherently type text than to dictate it. I am inclined to believe that this is due to different paths of the brain being used in verbal delivery as opposed to physical typing, though I cannot immediately find a suitable reference. No doubt increased practice will speed up the flow of dictation.
A small item of natural history has been residing patiently in its web on one of my office windows. The specimen is probably a common garden spider, Araneus diadematus, a well known orb weaving spider with a distinctive white cross on it's abdomen. Set up for over a week and tolerated by Mrs T, albeit reluctantly upon my request, It seemed to be in a region particularly devoid of prey.
Today this changed as an irritating slender bodied house fly entered the office, evading capture and eventually hiding in the paperwork by the window. Five minutes later, I looked to the window and saw a triumphant spider dealing with its already wrapped package of a meal with the same body length as itself!
Wednesday 6 July 2011
Hanging pictures for my Open Studio
Most of the day was devoted to my Open Studio preparations. The framed pictures needed to have cord attached ready for hanging. I purchased some fresh white emulsion and polyfiller and then spent an hour in the garage sanding and then filling the holes from previous years exhibitions in the display boards affixed to the walls.
Miss T then valiantly donned protective garb and tackled the re-coating of all the mounting boards with the white emulsion over a couple of hours.
With temperatures in the mid twenties Centigrade, the emulsion dried extremely rapidly, so we progressed to planning the hanging of the chosen collection. Having established a suitable arrangement, we then took another couple of hours to carefully align and hang the pictures.
The slow progress in hanging is due to the need to ensure that there is an underlying structure to the pattern of the pictures, most commonly, ensuing that pictures in a row across a wall all share the same height from the floor at their top side. This gives a clean line to the eye. Second rows and the attention paid to alignment of columns is also critical.
The evening was spent entertainingly at the Huntingdonshire Speakers meeting of our Toastmasters International Club.
The day still left me drained as my body apparently continued to be in recovery from the weekend's illness.
Miss T then valiantly donned protective garb and tackled the re-coating of all the mounting boards with the white emulsion over a couple of hours.
With temperatures in the mid twenties Centigrade, the emulsion dried extremely rapidly, so we progressed to planning the hanging of the chosen collection. Having established a suitable arrangement, we then took another couple of hours to carefully align and hang the pictures.
The slow progress in hanging is due to the need to ensure that there is an underlying structure to the pattern of the pictures, most commonly, ensuing that pictures in a row across a wall all share the same height from the floor at their top side. This gives a clean line to the eye. Second rows and the attention paid to alignment of columns is also critical.
The evening was spent entertainingly at the Huntingdonshire Speakers meeting of our Toastmasters International Club.
The day still left me drained as my body apparently continued to be in recovery from the weekend's illness.
From OCR to Open Studios
Tuesday was a day of catchup. There was an enquiry about a possible translation to be done, based on a PDF containing a news item about Green Ventures in Potsdam. It provided an opportunity to test out the new Omnipage 18 OCR software to convert the article into text.
The complexities included the need to OCR and recognise German text, The fact that the layout of the article included images and text in both fields and columns, plus the start of the article itself began in a column half way down the page and ended with a column at the top, plus additional separate text fields set within the columns; all this made it a challenging opportunity to learn very rapidly how to use the software to positive effect. In the end, the translation was not actually commissioned but I am now much better prepared for similar future challenges.
Yet another interpersonal conflict has arisen, in which I have been involved as an intermediary. Fortunately, fast action and bringing different parties to talk to each other appears to have actually ameliorated a potentially venomous situation.
Today’s news was still full of the impending humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa, where 10 million people are being displaced by drought. Save the Children has initiated a campaign which I condone and support.
Dr Maunders dropped by early evening with the prints prepared of my photographs by Mrs Maunders And Miss T assisted in getting these framed and added to the stock of pictures to be displayed at my Cambridge Open Studio this weekend.
The complexities included the need to OCR and recognise German text, The fact that the layout of the article included images and text in both fields and columns, plus the start of the article itself began in a column half way down the page and ended with a column at the top, plus additional separate text fields set within the columns; all this made it a challenging opportunity to learn very rapidly how to use the software to positive effect. In the end, the translation was not actually commissioned but I am now much better prepared for similar future challenges.
Yet another interpersonal conflict has arisen, in which I have been involved as an intermediary. Fortunately, fast action and bringing different parties to talk to each other appears to have actually ameliorated a potentially venomous situation.
Today’s news was still full of the impending humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa, where 10 million people are being displaced by drought. Save the Children has initiated a campaign which I condone and support.
Dr Maunders dropped by early evening with the prints prepared of my photographs by Mrs Maunders And Miss T assisted in getting these framed and added to the stock of pictures to be displayed at my Cambridge Open Studio this weekend.
Monday 4 July 2011
An alternative weekend
Recovering from a weekend hell, beginning with a headache rising to a crescendo during the transition from Saturday to Sunday. This then transformed itself into nauseous headache with the delightful accompaniment of the onset of vomiting at regular intervals throughout the rest of Sunday. Finally, Monday morning, respite from the more immediate manifestation gradually returned and the daring consumption of a cracker or two, perhaps even with diluted juice, was suffered without consequences. Now, I can actually drink a cup of tea again. A return to normality is gratefully anticipated for tomorrow.
Friday 1 July 2011
Networking workshop, sand, parasites and a Pet Shop Boys ballet
Miss T suffered an incompetent interviewer today and, as a distraction, accompanied me to the Huntingdonshire Business Network, where I presented the workshop on effective networking. The preparation and effort put in was rewarded by the involvement of the audience, whose contributions enriched the event.
Mr Howell had returned from his holidays on the Greek Islands with a sample of sand, a delightful gift for a microscopist. The sample glittered with the presence of mica and I am sure that there are some foraminifera present too amongst the minerals.
The promise of further microscopical samples came unexpectedly during the later Tutorcloud meeting, when Ms Heeneman declared that she had some zoological slides from her biological days, including a variety of parasites. I look forward to sharing viewing of them with her.
Stayed up overlate tonight to watch the ballet “The Most Incredible Thing”, devised in collaboration with Pet Shop boys and Saddlers Wells. A delight of contemporary dance, interpreting a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale that had its origins in his disillusionment with the increasing militarisation of Germany during the Franco-Prussian War. The same tale was published in rebellion during WWII in Denmark.
Mr Howell had returned from his holidays on the Greek Islands with a sample of sand, a delightful gift for a microscopist. The sample glittered with the presence of mica and I am sure that there are some foraminifera present too amongst the minerals.
The promise of further microscopical samples came unexpectedly during the later Tutorcloud meeting, when Ms Heeneman declared that she had some zoological slides from her biological days, including a variety of parasites. I look forward to sharing viewing of them with her.
Stayed up overlate tonight to watch the ballet “The Most Incredible Thing”, devised in collaboration with Pet Shop boys and Saddlers Wells. A delight of contemporary dance, interpreting a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale that had its origins in his disillusionment with the increasing militarisation of Germany during the Franco-Prussian War. The same tale was published in rebellion during WWII in Denmark.
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