Tree's Random Thoughts

T10 Druid Set: Ewww

2010-04-15T06:40:00.001-04:00

The T10 Druid set is just mean looking: great for a bear or kitty, but for us healy types? Thorns and shoulders that looked like they were cut from Audrey II. Really?

Typographical woes

2010-04-12T18:03:00.002-04:00

I love nice typography. A book that is typeset with care is a joy to behold. Good typography takes skill (though tools like TeX help immensely) and bad typography often leaves me feeling like I've been punched in the gut, especially when the mistakes are intentional or due to obvious ignorance or ineptitude. Here are two examples which I came across recently.

The cover for Yoko Tawada's Facing the Bridge contains (to me) an ugly scar, can you see it? Here's the first word in the title, as it is written: FДCING. The designer is using the capital Cyrillic letter de as the letter A. Minor point? Sure. Stylistic license? I suppose so, but it just freaks me out.

The second typographic travesty is much worse. Hans Safrian's book Eichmann's Men is published by Cambridge University Press in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It is a scholarly work, and is overall laid out and typeset nicely. Polish names are printed with the correct letter forms and diacritics (e.g., Łódź). Unfortunately the typesetter obviously doesn't know German, because throughout you see such things as "Am Groβen Wansee". Do you see the problem? They used the Greek small letter beta β for the German ligature Eszett: Groβen vs. Großen. To make matters worse, some words such as Anschluß and Höß are correctly typeset. I really expected more from an academic publisher.

The Mabignogion and Middle Welsh

2009-11-03T17:09:00.008-05:00

A friend posted on FaceBook that she was reading about the origins of the Arthurian legends in Britain, which got me thinking about The Mabignogion, which in turn started me wondering about Middle Welsh, and given my obsessive personality (at least about things that don't matter much to real life) I started looking for references on this language. Given that you can readily find books still in print for Old Norse (cf. my previous obsession with the Icelandic sagas and my collection of Old Norse dictionaries and grammars) I figured that there must be similar material for Middle Welsh. Alas, this is not the case.

The Internet Archive has a scan of Strachan's An Introduction to Early Welsh, published in 1909. There's even an (uncorrected) OCR version. Paging through this in a PDF reader is a pain. Taking a cue from the Germanic Lexicon Project, I decided that I'm going to clean up the plain-text version of Strachan, and then generate a nicely typeset version for other people interested in the language. Since the book is long out of copyright, there really isn't an impediment to doing this.

To this end I've started what I'm calling Project Gwrhyr. Named for Gwrhyr Gwalstawd Ieithoedd (Gwrhyr Interpreter of Tongues) — a minor but pivotol character in the tale of Culhwch ac Olwen — the intent is to collect together electronic versions of Middle and Old Welsh grammars, lexica, and texts that are in the public domain and make them available in clean, machine and human readable forms.

There is a GitHub repository for the work, which will be populated soon. I will also be fleshing out the website with more information as time allows, though I suspect few people will be interested in this right now.

As far as working with Strachan goes, I'm torn. On the one hand I'd like to get the raw OCR text cleaned up as quickly as possible and from there go directly to working on a nice LaTeX version. On the other hand part of me feels that I should be more methodical about it, using TEI markup on the OCR text to get a faithful (!) representation of the original. I'm not sure what is best. The academic community is undoubtedly served best by the TEI version, but it is more work. If you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

T9 Druid Set: Vavavoom!

2009-10-26T20:04:00.003-04:00

The T9 Druid set is pretty racy, and Charlotta looks damn fine.

Charlotta steps into the Arena

2009-10-16T17:52:00.003-04:00

So one of my friends talked me into forming a 2v2 arena team. Yes, Charlotta is going to enter the arena and have her ass handed to her. I have one piece of PvP gear. The pwnage is going to be amazing.

Then again, I'm looking forward to it. Amicitia has been successful with the Faction Champions encounter in ToC, and the last few weeks I've survived the whole fight. On the one hand this has been great training but on the other the mobs in Faction Champions are controlled by a program (the fact they have rediculous mana and hit points offsets this a bit, but still.)

So I'm reading up on resto druid arena tactics and we'll see how it goes.

Converting FLAC to Apple Lossless

2009-10-15T14:49:00.004-04:00

I've found the ultimate tool for converting audio files between different formats: Stephen Booth's Max. I sometimes buy high-quality audio from HDtracks (e.g., ECM uses them) which is available in FLAC. Unfortunately iTunes doesn't handle FLAC, and previous converters just didn't do everything I want (like copying over metadata from the original file.) Max to the rescue: it trivially and quickly converts the FLAC to Apple Lossless (or a plethora of other formats), and brings the metadata along. Wonderful stuff.

New TMAX 400 in HC-110

2009-05-17T22:28:00.003-04:00

I developed a roll of New TMAX-400 (400TMY-2) in HC-110 Dilution B today and the results were excellent. Here are the details:

Developer: 6.5 minutes; spindle agitation for the first 30 seconds, then inversion for 10 seconds every minute.
Stop: 1 minute; spindle agitation for the first 30 seconds.
Fix: 5 minutes in Ilford Rapid Fixer (1+4); spindle agitation for the first 30 seconds, then inversion for 10 seconds every minute.
Wash: Ilford method (5 + 10 + 20 + 20, then 1 minute gentle spindle agitation with PhotoFlo).

All done at 20ºC.

Music and Memories

2009-05-12T08:44:00.004-04:00

Music has an interesting way of triggering memories. The other day I was listening to Van Halen's album Diver Down on my iPod while riding the train into Boston, and I had a flashback to listening to the same album on my walkman circa 1985 while riding the school bus to my high school... it just struck me as strange. Me, looking out a window as the scenery goes by, separated by 24 years: first love, college, marriage, the death of a parent, kids... yet the music is the same.

This morning as I sat down at my computer to start work for the day (I telecommute on Tuesdays) I started listening to Paul Simon's Graceland, and again had a music-induced flashback: this time I'm in Germany in early 1987, Bochum, in a music store, buying a new copy of the Graceland cassette because I lost (or destroyed, or forgot, I cannot remember) the tape. I listened to that album over and over when I was there. And then that triggers memories of buying Nena albums you couldn't find here in the States: ?, Feuer und Flamme, and Eisbrecher. I remember being absolutely captivated by these, and would pour over the lyric sheets. And then this leads memories of Nicole Winter and her furtive wave as we left for the airport — what did that mean?

I have a habit of getting nostalgic, can you tell?

Yashica D

2009-05-11T19:46:00.003-04:00

On Friday I received a Yashica D 6x6 TLR that I bought on eBay. The seller's description said it was in good condition, but he wasn't a photographer so he wouldn't guarantee anything. It is an early model, having a Yashikor 80mm f/3.5 taking lens. Suffice it to say I'm very happy with it. While it has some external issues (the logo is missing from the viewing hood and a past owner's name is stuck to the lens board) the glass is absolutely pristine, and the focus is spot on. I took it for a walk on Saturday afternoon and ran a roll of Fomapan 200 though it, and the results are spectacular. Developed in HC-110 (Dilution H) the exposures are spot on and sharp as a tack. I have a feeling this little camera will be joining The Beast for hand-held work.

Efke 100 Processing

2009-05-02T11:54:00.003-04:00

Last night I developed the roll of Efke R100 I exposed up in Maine the other day. Efke B&W film is made by the Croatian company Fotokemika, using the ADOX process developed in the early 1950s and have a high silver content. The box does not include development times for developers other than Efke's own, though the web page for it gives the time for processing in D-76. There has been some discussion on photo.net about this film, but it's spread through numerous articles. Here's a summary of my experience processing this film. (All liquids were at 20ºC.)

The film was hard to load onto the reel compared to Fomapan or Tri-X. I was afraid that the negative would be creased, but fortunately it was not.
Water pre-soak for 1 minute. The water turned a really deep blue.
Developer: D-76 @ 1+0 for 9 minutes. 10 inversions followed by 5 inversions at the start of each minute. The Fotokemika site suggests 8 minutes, but I read on photo.net that you should add a minute if you pre-soak. I'm not sure if the extra time is really necessary or not, but there was a lot of discussion on the message boards about thin negatives at the stated times, and the extra time didn't seem to hurt (the negatives weren't overly dense.)
Stop: water, three rinses. The Fotokemika site stated that only very weak (i.e., 2% maximum acidity) stop baths be used, and recommended water only.
Fixer: Kodak Professional Hardening fixer for 7 minutes, 10 inversions followed by 5 inversions at the start of each minute.
Wash: fill, 5 inversions; fill, 10 inversions; fill, 20 inversions; fill, 20 inversions. Fill with a couple drops of PhotoFlo, mild swirling agitation.

The resulting negatives look excellent: not too dense, not too thin.

Portland Lighthouse Tour

2009-04-30T16:05:00.003-04:00

Heather and I drove up to Portland Maine yesterday to photograph a handful of the lighthouses the area. She wanted to give her new D90 a workout, and I brought along my RB67. The weather was perfect: clear skies, sunny, mid-60s, with a slight breeze.

I used the 140mm f/4.5C lens for the entire day. All but a couple of the shots were made on a tripod with the mirror locked up. I only brought the waist-level finder with me, though I wish I had thought to put the prism finder into my bag as well: the areas around the Portland Head Lighthouse are fenced in and it was impossible to use the WLF when the camera was raised above the fence. I used a Cokin 003 (Red) filter for most of the landscape shots where there was any significant sky, or a Cokin 001 (Yellow) if I didn't want the deeper sky. Only a couple times did I shoot filter free.

Our first stop was at Two Lights State Park where we spent an hour or so walking around and taking pictures of the western lighthouse and the really interesting rock formations on the shoreline. I used Fomapan Creative 200, taking five exposures. I made two shots of the waves crashing over the rocks east of the lighthouse, one at 1/2 second and the other at 1 second. Unfortunately I didn't read up on the reciprocity characteristics of the emulsion until a few minutes ago where I saw that exposures between 1s and 10s require a 3x lengthening of exposure, so I don't know how well the 1 second exposure will turn out. Note to self: when trying a new film read the data-sheet before going into the field.

From there we made our way up to the Portland Head Light, also on Cape Elizabeth. Built between 1787 and 1790 on the order of George Washington, it was first lit in January 1791. The current lighthouse is said to be the most photographed lighthouse in North America. The ocean was very calm, so the dramatic images of the sea crashing on the rocks underneath the light were an impossibility, and the fences around the cliffs were somewhat annoying, as I mentioned above. Heather found another vantage point that lacked the obstructions, but I didn't go over there myself: when we go back I'll definitely take advantage of it. I finished up the Fomapan here.

Our next stop was the Spring Point Ledge Light in South Portland. This is one of the cutest lighthouses I've seen, set out some 900 feet from the shore. Placed at the end of a dangerous ledge leading into Portland harbor, it was connected to land by a breakwater in 1951. You can see the lighthouse from Fort Preble, whose battlements look out at the entrance of the harbor. We were there when the lobster fleet was coming back to port, so we got some interesting pictures of the light itself as well as the surroundings. Here I switched over to Efke R100 (can you see a theme in my film choices for the day?), continuing to use the red filter for most of the shots.

From here we drove the half-mile to the Portland Breakwater Light (affectionately called the "Bug Light"). I wasn't too impressed with the Portland skyline, and it was hard to get a good angle on the little lighthouse without also capturing the ugly background. I ended up making only a couple of exposures of this structure, finishing up the roll with some portraits of Heather with her D90.

Tonight I'm going to develop these in D-76 and see what I get. Since I was using two new emulsions I'm not sure how they'll turn out, but I'm looking forward to the results.

Mixing chemicals in the darkroom

2009-04-28T16:14:00.000-04:00

There was a thread going on over at photo.net recently about the meaning of the notations for mixing chemicals. Specifically, if the instructions say to make a 1:3 dilution does that mean,

1 part chemical to 3 parts water (making 4 parts total), or
1 part chemical to 2 parts water (making 3 parts total), or
It doesn't matter, pick one and be consistent

Over the entire thread different people authoritatively claimed each of these, and it can be confusing.

It all comes down to notation.

The notation '1:3', as used by Kodak, means 1 part chemical added to 3 parts water, making 4 total parts. This clear by comparing the instructions on the bottle of HC-110 concentrate to the tables in Kodak Publication J-24: the bottle says to make Dilution A you use "1 part stock solution" and "3 parts water", while J-24 states that the "ratio of stock solution to water" is "1:3".

This notation is the source of people's confusion, because in Chemistry the notation '1:3' would mean 1 part out of 3 is the chemical, meaning we use 2 parts water to make 3 total parts.

Ilford uses '+' instead of ':' which makes things explicit. A dilution of 1+4 means one part chemical with 4 parts water for a total of 5 total parts. No confusion equals Win.

eBay can be a Good Thing™

2009-04-21T13:21:00.005-04:00

I just picked up a used Mamiya G3 lens hood for my RB67 from a camera store via eBay for only $85. The hood is in excellent+ condition and costs $559 new and $249 used from B&H... what a steal. :)

[Edit: of course the hood came without the screw-on adapter for the lens, so it is useless unless I shell out $70 to B&H for a replacement adapter.]

Catching up

2009-04-19T17:50:00.004-04:00

Well, we're moved into our house in Newburyport and it is absolutely wonderful. We still have lots of boxes around, and getting the girls to unpack their rooms is an exercise in frustration, but we'll get there. We've fallen completely in love with the community: we're one mile from downtown (the girls walk there and back almost every day after school) and three miles from our favorite beach on Plum Island. Pookah absolutely loves running on the sand and playing with all the other dogs — I don't know what she'll do come May 15 when dogs are no longer allowed. She will be so sad.

I still haven't found a darkroom here though, which is making me sad. I keep looking at enlargers on eBay and have been tempted to grab one, but I've contained myself: I have no idea where I would set it up. Nevertheless, I could probably get what I needed to print up to 6x7cm for under $200, and for a little bit more could probably get one that would let me print 4x5in as well. But I could also contact print the 4x5 so it isn't a huge deal, I guess. I ordered a box of TMax 100 4x5 and want to take my pinhole camera out to the beach and down town later this week.

I've decided to write my own app for my iTouch that will by my ultimate photographic calculator. I have a couple already (DOFMaster and PhotoCalc) that work pretty well, but there are some things I don't like about them. I also have some special things I want to automate, like bellows factor and extension tube corrections for my RB67, exposure calculations for large f-stops (my pinhole is f/176 at 50mm), and corrections for filter factors. Someday I will be able to do these all in my head, but until then... I've also considered expanding it to include a little photographic notebook that would make it easy to record details of a photography session. Anyway, I've wanted to write an iPhone app for a while, and this seems like it would fit the bill: simple UI and something I'm interested in.

On the WoW front Charlotta is raiding 10- and 25-man in Ulduar with Amicitia. The fights are fun, and a lot more challenging than anything in Naxxramas.

That's it for now.

Packing...

2009-03-19T15:48:00.003-04:00

We're moving at the end of the month and are in mad packing mode. It's amazing how much crap you can accumulate in just five years: I'm doing hard thinking about what is going to come with us and what is just going in the dumpster. Time for a new start. I'm trying to be ruthless: "Oh look, a paper on Persian transliteration that I haven't touched in three-and-a-half years, I should keep that." No! Into the recycling pile you go. Similarly I'm listing a pile of books on Amazon.com in the hopes that someone will buy them. Mostly novels I've read that I didn't like enough to read again, and don't feel like packing. Of course I know I'll end up bringing them anyway, but at least they will be segregated into the "ready to ship" box instead. And who knows, perhaps I'll get someone to buy some over the next couple of weeks.

I hate moving. I hate packing. Heather and I have very different ways of doing it, which are slightly at odds with one another. I'm a bit more slow and methodical, she's more "get 'ir done!" I'm trying to be better: it's daunting looking at a house and trying to find where to start. I guess there really isn't a starting point: you just pick a spot and start, chipping away as you go and throwing out what you can.

Anyway... I should get back to what I was doing.

WoW 3.1 PTR

2009-02-25T10:45:00.003-05:00

I've copied Charlotta over to the WoW 3.1 PTR, and am downloading (and patching, and downloading...) the client now. The changes for tree Druids are minimal so far, but given the number of changes to the other classes I suspect we will see more. Similarly the current patch notes don't show a lot of love from Inscriptionists, but other sources I've read indicate that we will see some love there as well. I'll be tracking what happens as we go and writing up my thoughts and observations.

First prints: not bad

2009-02-19T20:13:00.003-05:00

I got to see my first B&W prints last night: I'll try to get my scanner hooked up so I can put them online. I'm really happy with the Cave Canum picture, though I don't know if that is because I took it and am biased or that it is actually a good image. I'll post on Flickr or Photo.net and see what people say. I suppose people will hate it.

I had the darkroom to myself last night: only one other person showed up for class, and she just developed a roll of film. I made four prints from the roll I shot in a hurry and developed a couple of weeks ago. I'm pretty pleased with these too: we'll see how well they turn out once they're dry.

Malygos (25) Defeated

2009-02-18T14:40:00.004-05:00

Last night Amicitia defeated Malygos in a 25-man raid! Granted, we had one person left alive when the beast died, and then he died, but hey, we killed it! Pretty spectacular all-in-all: we've now defeated all heroic content in Wrath of the Lich King and are moving on to working on Sartharion with drakes and other achievements in Naxx.

After killing Malygos we headed over to Naxx and cleared three wings. Yay Amicitia!

On the loot front Charlotta did pretty well:

Spaulders of Catatonia from Malygos. These are currently best-in-slot for Tree Druids, given the current gems available. I'm not throwing out my T7.5 though because once epic gems come out it may be possible to take one step back and two forward.
Chains of Adoration from Anub'Rekhan. This replaces the neck that I had from heroic badges: an upgrade that I probably shouldn't have spent the DKP for, but what the hell.
Idol of Awakening from Gothik. I swap between this and Idol of Lush Moss depending on what my healing task is.

I'm psyched that the shoulders dropped. It was a tough decision giving up the 4-piece T7 bonus I had, but when it comes down to it I don't use Nourish all that much, and we'll be farming Naxx for a while so there's a chance I'll be able to get the T7.5 headpiece.

Land 450

2009-02-16T14:16:00.007-05:00

While cleaning up I found smallish leatherette hard case with "Polaroid" in the top right corner. I opened it up to find a Polaroid Land 450 camera! Five or six years ago I got really into alternative photographic processes after taking a course on Polaroid transfer at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, and went on a bit of an eBay bender getting various Land cameras: an SX-70 and, evidently, a Land 450.

Unfortunately Polaroid has stopped making the film (called "Type 100") used by the 450. However, Fuji continues to make it and the reviews I've read say that it is superior in many ways to the older Polaroid versions. The mappings go something like this:

Polaroid 664 = Fuji FP-100B (ISO 100, B&W)
Polaroid 667 = Fuji FP-3000B (ISO 3000, B&W)
Polaroid 690 = Fuji FP-100C (ISO 100, Color)

Hopefully Fuji will continue to make these films for years to come. I need to track down the batteries used by the exposure meter and order up some film from B&H, and then I'll be all set. I can't wait to play with it.

Firefox: Open "Search Engine" results in their own tab

2009-02-12T18:04:00.004-05:00

I like the Search Engines functionality in Firefox, but was annoyed that the results were opened in the current tab. Fortunately there is a setting to open the results in a new tab:

Go to the URL about:config
Find the option browser.search.openintab
Toggle the value to true by double-clicking on it

You're done.

Priest(ess) Diaries #1

2009-02-12T14:25:00.005-05:00

I started playing my level 15 Draenei Priest (Anqaa) for a change of pace from Charlotta. And no, I am not going Holy: it's pew pew all the way. Of course I have no idea how to play a Priest: she's remarkably squishy. Right now I have all points in the Shadow tree, which seems to make sense while levelling anyway, but I plan to stay there. If anyone actually reads this, and has suggestions on Priest levelling, I'd love to tap your knowledge. I'm going to blog my experiences here while I level, or until I get bored and just go back to playing Char exclusively.

On the Char front, I'm really close to having enough gold to buy my Mammoth. I can't wait.

Printing Success

2009-02-12T10:48:00.002-05:00

I made two prints last night from B&W 35mm negatives from my trip to Amsterdam back in 2001. We couldn't find the 6x7 carrier so I'm glad I brought the other frames. The prints are still at WAM on the drying rack, so I haven't scanned them yet, but I'm really happy. Rose could not believe I hadn't done darkroom work before when she saw the first one. The second is pretty good, but the sky is way under exposed, so next week I'm going to try my hand at burning in sky and see how it goes. I'll reread Ansel Adams's The Print this week to prepare. After spending this time in the darkroom I can see how you get addicted to it: watching the image emerge on the paper after it's been in the developer is magical.

Printing tonight

2009-02-11T17:05:00.002-05:00

We're going to print tonight in my photography class. I found some 35mm negatives from my trip to Amsterdam back in early 2001 which I'm going to bring along in case we can't find a carrier for the 6x7 negatives I developed last week (or if those end up being unprintable.) Actually I may try printing the Amsterdam pictures regardless, since they include images from what looks like the Anne Frank Huis.

I have a roll of 120 I took with the Holga that I'm going to bring along to develop as well, since I'm interested in how these will look. I've been practicing getting 120 film onto the Patterson reel, and I think I have a way that will work for me. Of course we'll see how I do in the black room.

Patchwerk: Healing the MT Solo

2009-02-11T14:56:00.005-05:00

Last night in Naxx 25 I was assigned (with another tree) to heal the (Paladin) MT on the Patchwerk fight. Unfortunately my partner DC'd right after the pull, which left me by myself. As it turns out, I was able to keep him alive, and didn't run out of mana in the process.

I had 3,339 HPS over the three and a half minute fight, with only 13% overheal. I healed for a total of 587K. The healing rotation consisted of:

A full stack of Lifeblooms for the entirety of the fight. This represented the majority of the healing done in the fight.
I kept Regrowth active for the whole fight, making sure it was always ticking.
Similarly I made sure Rejuvenation was always active. All my HoTs were ticking.
I cast Nourish 12 times during the fight, which resulted in my highest overheal numbers (35%) but the average 6K heal was worth it.
I used Swiftmend five times: I'm glyphed so that I don't waste the HoT when casting it, so I should probably have used it more.

Other things of note:

Living Seed went into effect 13 times, averaging 2057. WWS didn't give any overheal statistics on this, so I'm assuming it didn't. My Regrowth crit 75% of the time so this was worth having.
My Forethought Talisman proc'd 14 times, averaging 1040 HP per tick.

I was actually surprised that the tank made it through alive. I can't remember if I had to Innervate myself on the fight or not, but I don't think I did.

Malygos (10) Defeated

2009-02-07T10:21:00.003-05:00

Last night we one-shotted Malygos on a ten-man raid, which was pretty exciting after the numerous attempts at the 25 on Thursday night. Versailles led the raid, and had us use the same tactics on Phase 3 of the fight that we attempted to use Thursday: staying grouped together tightly, moving as a unit out of the sparks, and starting in front and slightly above Maly's head. Worked like a charm. Grats to Saif for winning the Reigns of the Blue Drake. The trick will be whether or not we can get 21 other players to do the same thing next week.

Afterwards we headed off to the Obsidian Sanctum to work on 10-man Sartharion with drakes. We started trying to keep 3 up, but eventually we just burned out (haha) after two and a half hours and killed them off before smacking the big guy around. As with Malygos we were practicing and experimenting with tactics that would make sense in the 25-man version: it will not be easy. With even one drake up healing is particularly difficult with just two healers: I now understand why some recommend using the Glyph of Lifebloom to get that additional 1-second tick, since I found myself running back and forth on the island keeping HoTs up on the two tanks, and if we got a lava wave in then I would be out of range of at least one of them while I got to a safe spot. That extra second may have helped. Given I can make all the Druid major glyphs now I may reglyph for particular fights.

1st Roll Developed

2009-02-05T15:13:00.006-05:00

Last night I developed my first roll of 120 film. Unfortunately it takes about 4 hours for the film to dry and I didn't have a chance to see the negs before I left class, so I have no idea how the images are, but I'm really excited to see.

As it turns out I ended up buying the wrong film: I bought TMAX 400 when we were supposed to use Tri-X 400. Indeed, the handout from Rose explicitly stated to use Tri-X and not TMAX. Somehow I got them mixed up. The upshot is that I had to ask my wife to run out and get me a couple of rolls of Tri-X and I had to make new exposures in a hurry when I got home from work. So... the shots are boring, but I figure that's fine since if the roll got ruined in development it wouldn't matter (as much).

This weekend I'm going to do a couple more rolls, and practice getting the film onto the spool in the dark: I had some problem with that.

EVE Online

2009-02-03T19:56:00.003-05:00

I signed up for a 14-day trial of EVE Online today. I'm not sure I really need another MMORPG to consume my time, but it looks really cool. Unfortunately I haven't had time to do much more than create my first character, and we're raiding tonight in WoW so I think things will have to wait. However, I did enter the world and was pretty blown-away by the graphics.

Another Good Night for Amicitia

2009-01-30T11:37:00.004-05:00

Last night we finished 25-man Heroic Naxxramas, and still had time to do Sartharion with 1 drake up. The latter fight was one of the most enjoyable I've healed in a long time.

The Farming Inscriptionista

2009-01-29T12:47:00.008-05:00

Once you've leveled Inscription to 435 or so there really isn't much you can do to get up to 450 except make Darkmoon Cards, and these are expensive: 6x Snowfall Ink, 3x Eternal Life, and 3x Ink of the Sea. Before the 3.0.8 patch the Snowfall Ink was especially expensive, since the pigment it is made from is a rare drop from Northrend herbs. Now you can buy it for 10 Ink of the Sea, which is still a bit pricey but still cheaper than the AH. The Eternal Life was not cheap either, so the up-front cost of making these cards was steep, and it was (and is) a crap-shoot as to which kind of card you would get (one of 32!)

Once you've made a few cards though you could get lucky in the AH or (shudder) Trade Chat. Some of the Nobles and Prisms cards sell for anywhere in the 1200 - 2500 gold range, though the Chaos and Undead cards for a couple hundred if you're fortunate. Still, I made myself a Prisms Deck which I will be turning in for an Illusion card when the Faire arrives next week. And I have a few of each card in the bank, saving for guildies or to sell. But they are still expensive.

As an inscriptionist I don't have a lot to do now that most people have their glyphs. Really all that is left for me is to make these cards. So now it's about finding the best way to get the materials. And the place to go is the Sholazar Basin. Last night I spent 60 minutes flying around and lazily picking herbs. Here's what I ended up with:

61 Crystallized Life (equals 6 Eternal Life)
90 Adder's Tongue
21 Tiger Lilly
50 Goldclover
31 Deadnettle
3 Frost Lotus
Around 11 gold in gray/green drops from mobs encountered while picking.

Adder's Tongue is the absolute best herb to pick for inscriptionistas: it's abundant in the Basin and has an excellent yield of Icy Pigment (when compared to other herbs — they all have a pretty low rate.) From those 190 herbs (38 mills) I received:

106 Azure Pigment (equals 53 Ink of the Sea)
12 Icy Pigment (equals 6 Snowfall Ink)

One hour's work gave me the mats for a single Darkmoon card (Four of Prisms) and most of the mats for another. Additionally Frost Lotus sells well, or I can save them to give to my local Elixir Master to make flasks for raids.

Was this an hour well spent? Lets look at the current AH prices (rounded, based on an average of the first few lowest values for stacks of 20) for what I picked:

6 Eternal Life: 150G
90 Adder's Tongue: 225G
20 Tiger Lily: 25G
50 Goldclover: 88G
30 Deadnettle: 45G

By spending that hour in the Basin I gathered over 533G worth of materials, enough to make a card that I can probably sell for 1000G or so. (Though it should be said that I wouldn't bother buying anything but Adder's Tongue in the AH, so to get the equivalent 190 herbs I would have spent upwards of 475G just on herbs.)

Also, for what it's worth, the Basin is also a great place to farm Chilled Meat for your Dalaran cooking daily. And Rhino Meat has been selling well lately too since more and more people are making feasts for their raids. There are lots of Rhino (and Mammoth) in the Basin. Gather 'em up and AOE 'em down. And Profit.

MBCR and reliability

2009-01-29T09:19:00.002-05:00

This morning my usual train was cancelled, and the next one (1 hour later) was already posted with a delay of 20-30 minutes. At that point it just isn't worth waiting around only to get into Boston at 11AM, so I came home and will work remotely for the day. I'm fortunate that I can do this, and that my manager is cool about it.

The MBTA introduced free WIFI on my line a while back, though only in a couple of carriages on each train. Because of the train delays, the company gave me a laptop to use on the train with the wireless connection. This has worked for me exactly once in the last two months, and then only for 1/3 of the ride. All the other times the train has lacked a care with a wireless router or the car had a router, but it didn't work. I don't know if I'm alone in this lack of networking love, but it is very frustrating.

No Developing This Week

2009-01-28T20:24:00.005-05:00

Because of the snow, rain, and ice we had last night and throughout today the evening classes at the Worcester Art Museum were cancelled. I'm pretty bummed, I was really looking forward to developing my shots from the other day. But now I get to shoot a couple more rolls: I already have some ideas. Stay tuned.

The Atrocity Archives

2009-01-28T11:38:00.005-05:00

This morning I finished Charles Stross's book The Atrocity Archives, a very enjoyable amalgam of science fiction, horror, and spy-thriller. Imagine a world where advanced mathematics, computer science, and magic (in the Lovecraftian sense) are intertwined, but only a handful of people know about the latter component. These people are employed by the Government (whether they want to be or not) in organizations more secret than the NSA.

The protagonist of the story, Bob Howard, is a computer geek with a penchant for the occult, who wants to get out of IT support and into field operations for "The Laundry". And his wish comes true. For the programmers out there the book is a rife with jokes and references to our arcana. To me they seemed a little forced, as if they were thrown in because Stross wanted to show that he was one of "us". Certainly they were less subtle than the references that had me laughing out loud all through Rick Cook's Wizardry series (which are criminally out of print!) The story is fast paced, the characters are fun and well developed, and there is a enough alternate history (the Ahnenerbe-SS summoning demons from unknown worlds!) and science to keep you interested. And for those who like that kind of thing, there is a love story too. Suffice it to say Bob saves the world. Now go read it: you won't be disappointed.

In the acknowledgments Stross says, "Three authors in particular made it possible for me to imagine this book, and I salute you, H. P. Lovecraft, Neal Stephenson, and Len Deighton." This is absolutely true, as I could see the influence of each of these authors in The Atrocity Archives: Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, Deighton's SS-GB, and any number of Lovecraft's stories came to mind while reading this (though it should be said that Lovecraft's world is taken as read in Stross's.)

A Good Night in Naxxramas

2009-01-28T01:15:00.004-05:00

Amicitia had a great night in Naxxramas tonight:

We cleared the Arachnid, Plague, and Military Quarters; 3/4 of the Construct Quarter.
In clearing the Arachnid Quarter we got the Heroic: Arachnophobia achievement.
Charlotta made out like a bandit, getting her 25-man T7 shoulders and a sweet staff upgrade, Damnation (which I have been coveting for a long time.)

The raid wiped just twice, once on trash (when two of the healers were off getting their new shoulders, ahem) and once on The Four Horsemen. Otherwise all the bosses were one-shotted. Kudos to all, and a special shout out to Quartal for the weapon enchant! Thanks friend.

B&W Homework 1

2009-01-27T15:18:00.007-05:00

I am taking a course in black & white photography at the Worcester Art Museum with Rose LeBeau. While ostensibly an introduction to B&W, the class centers around being in the darkroom and printing, which is the reason I signed up: I have always wanted to do my own developing, and this is a great opportunity to get introduced to it.

Our first class met last Wednesday. There are six people signed up, most of whom have experience with manual cameras. Rose said that this was the first "introductory" group she's had that had more experienced people in it (though the level of experience of course varies quite a bit.) I'm the only one with a medium format camera, which I suppose comes off as a bit pretentious but it is what I want to use and she is OK with me using it (though finding a negative carrier for the enlargers may be a challenge.) If it becomes a problem I can switch to my Nikon FG or the Bessa R, but I really want the bigger negatives.

During our first meeting we went over the curriculum and toured the darkroom facility at the Museum (which is very big). Then Rose went over the features of the manual camera and the terminology needed for B&W work. We got out about 90 minutes early, with the assignment to shoot a roll of film for this week's class, where we will learn to develop the negatives.

This afternoon Heather helped me to setup a couple of still-life scenes next to a window, so I could shoot with natural light. I'm using a Mamiya RB67 Pro S with a 140mm macro lens, mounted on a tripod. Spot metering was done with a Sekonic L-508 Flash Master on the 1° setting.

We are required to use Kodak TMAX 400 for the class: I get 10 shots per 120 roll. We came up with two scenes: one using a stone carving with some shells, and the other using some Nantucket lightship baskets and a couple of my briar and Meerschaum pipes. This is the first time I've used the 140mm macro lens so I have no idea how the images will turn out. I metered on the shadows, and used a pretty small aperture (f/22 or f/32). I used mirror lockup with the cable release attached to the shutter. The process for each frame was:

Compose the scene and focus on the area where I wanted maximum sharpness. I stopped-down the lens to check the DoF (though this was hard because at such small apertures the image on the ground glass was very faint.) For this shoot I used the waste level finder exclusively, which was doable because the camera was only about 40" or so off the floor.
Meter the shadows and dial in the appropriate shutter speed for the aperture I set. Recheck the composition and focus in the view finder.
Write down the shutter speed and aperture used for the frame.
Release the mirror.
Stand away from the tripod and trip the shutter with the cable release.
Recock the shutter.
Advance the film.

This really exemplifies why I like using the old manual camera. You have to be very methodical and deliberate in what you do. The process is very tactile: the camera is big, heavy, and noisy. You cannot rush or the images have no hope of turning out.

There are some things I didn't do as well as I would have liked: this is the first time I was doing macro work with a bellows focusing system, which generally requires exposure compensation to account for the increased focal lengths. I didn't do this in most of the shots, mainly because I didn't have my cheat sheet for reading the gauges on the lens and body. My hope is that the latitude on the TMAX will be such that it won't matter too much, but we shall see when the negatives are developed tomorrow night. I also did not use any filtration for this shoot (though I just ordered a Cokin P holder and a set of red, green, and yellow filters). On the one hand this may affect the quality of the pictures, but on the other it was probably good I didn't have to account for filter factors in the exposure calculations: I need more practice with that.

I also need to improve my note taking: I only recorded the aperture/shutter-speed settings that I used for each frame, but I didn't record what the meter reading was. I think it is important to have both, so I can have the data with me when looking at the negatives.

Now I wait until tomorrow night to see how the negatives turn out. I'm pretty excited.

A New Start

2009-01-27T11:17:00.000-05:00

Sigh... sometimes I am an idiot.

My beloved Power Mac G5 went to meet its maker a week or two ago. I pulled the disks and put them in external enclosures, and was able to get our home directories and what not. But what I forgot to do was grab the MySQL database containing the content of my old WordPress blog. So here I am, starting a new blog with new content.