a crank's progress » The slush pile

Where you’ll find me

paul — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:14:18 +0000

Facebook was fun but I’m going back to posting here and letting these get published as Notes or updating through Twitter.

I would never have thought these guys were this funny together

paul — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 06:49:45 +0000

Dick Cavett and Eddie Murphy?

go get your own

paul — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 04:49:21 +0000

Want one?

retrospective, redux

paul — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 04:18:19 +0000

It occurred to me that I just crossed over 4,000 posts not too long ago. Here are some other milestones of the past few years.

Post number 100

Post number 1000
Post number 2000

Post number 3000

Post number 4000

Spiderman, eh?

paul — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 02:30:28 +0000

The one about the push-up bra was perhaps the easiest question to answer.

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man		80%
Hulk		75%
Superman		70%
Robin		60%
Batman		55%
Iron Man		50%
Supergirl		45%
The Flash		40%
Catwoman		35%
Green Lantern		35%
Wonder Woman		25%

You are intelligent, witty,
a bit geeky and have great
power and responsibility.

Click here to take the
“Which Superhero am I?” quiz…

Vote early, vote often

paul — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 07:50:23 +0000

I just dropped this in the submission queue at JPG Magazine for their 9-5 theme.

Thanks for the votes so far!

I need to look over the themes that they haven’t yet scheduled and keep them in mind: might see some stuff that will fit.

never met any of them.

paul — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 05:59:17 +0000

HowManyOfMe.com

There are:
271
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Though I did get some cranky email from someone who thought I had usurped his preferred gmail.com address. I told him to get over himself.

The only other one I know of is the guy who makes guitars. Never heard of this dude.

omnibus

paul — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 05:31:19 +0000

Applecare is money well-spent. My iBook returned today, with some components replaced (the work order details an “invester” which I take to mean an “inverter”). All seems to be well with it.
Between this repair and a new 30Gb drive last year, I have gotten my money’s worth from AppleCare and would not hesitate to buy it again on my next portable. It helps to have a Genius Bar so close (10 minutes away, with two others within a half-hour).

❦

drawing class has improved from the first week. this means I learned a lot. broken down to its essentials, drawing is a. making marks and b. deciding what marks to make and how. given my lousy fine motor skills (ever seen my handwriting?), this is suspect terrain. but it’s worth the effort to work through the decision-making process and the physical mark-making.

❦

camera-making goes slowly. I need to start over, it seems. The work I have done so far has been instructive but not good enough to use. So I take the lessons and apply them to the next iteration.

❦

some ebay auctions have gone my way, so I now have a lens and shutter for my 4×5 camera and a new tripod and geared head on its way. a friend who works for a government agency that deals with documenting historical landmarks suggested I could perhaps get some work if I can demonstrate some proficiency at large-format photography. All the incentive I need.

❦

some traffic came from Gruber’s dope-slap last week. I can’t help wishing he would turn his attention to a more meaningful problem. I’d like someone to work out how to create encrypted tunnels for http or email traffic without having to create a separate process as I do now. And if you haven’t seen them, check out the Other Feeds he provides for subscribers (I am not one, but happy to send readers his way).

camera building experience et al

paul — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 07:16:54 +0000

My 6×17 cm pinhole panorama camera is coming along. The film guides and internal baffles are glued and setting up. Cutting a circle on the drill press was hairier than I expected but a learning experience all the same. The chuck on these low-end Harbor Freight drill presses is their weak point, and it becomes very evident when using a circle cutter. I think I did get a circle out of it, nothing I can’t fix with some sanding. No pictures of the process, sorry. If I build another, I’ll document it.

Not sure why I chose this as my first building project but I’m committed now.

My recent foray into cyanotype printing is getting some good feedback at Flickr. So perhaps there is some more fun to be had with that. Gum-bichromate prints look really nice as well.

AppleStore selfportrait

paul — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 21:26:06 +0000

My iBook is off for repair so I took a lustful look at the new hardware on display. A refurbished MacBook can be had for what I paid for the iBook three years ago.

<*boggle*>

and the 2x3GHz DualCore Pro doesn’t bear looking at.