« September 2007 | Main | November 2007 »

October 31, 2007

Early Sampling.

It's been a busy, strange week here at Lockardugan Central, so we decided to have some drinks and dip into the Halloween candy reservoir last night to, uh, test it for quality. It's funny how Dark Chocolate Twix make everything so much better so quickly. Jen just came back home with a pile of decorations for the house, so we're going to close the studio early to get the house ready for the kids this evening.

Addendum: The photo above was taken hand-held in exceptionally low light, on manual settings. I've made a breakthrough with the D70 since I got the new lens, and suddenly everything makes more sense. I've been shooting everything manually since the Oyster Festival, and now the F-stop/shutter speed combinations are drilled into my head in a way that I could not learn on film cameras. I've also learned to use the ISO settings to my advantage, and I'll be getting into the intricacies of metering next.

Posted on October 31, 2007 1:24 PM | link to this entry

October 27, 2007

Red boots

Jen and I needed to get out of the house this afternoon, so we checked out the Elkridge Flea Market on Rt. 1. After navigating a highly chaotic parking lot, we found the pickings to be slim, unless as a shopper you're interested in cowboy boots, secondhand tools, kung-fu DVD's, or cellphone holsters. As a slice-of-life destination, it's hard to beat, however.

Posted on October 27, 2007 10:32 PM | link to this entry

October 26, 2007

Scientific Poll.

Alright, for the four readers of this here weblog, a question: Should I (providing it's still available) buy this $900 project Vespa? I could spend the winter disassembling it, have the metal sandblasted, and get the chrome refinished while I learn how to rebuild the motor. If your answer is yes, what color should it be?

Come on, internets, give me a sign.

Posted on October 26, 2007 9:52 AM | link to this entry | Comments (8)

October 24, 2007

Economics Lesson.

Jen and I belong to a gym in a suburb of Baltimore that's generally a bit higher on the income scale than other areas. We like the gym because it's low-key and quiet during the hours we usually get there, it's not a meat market, and the atmosphere is one of healthy workouts, not Mr. Olympiad pose-off contests. One of the reasons for this is the high percentage of older members—the area is also full of retiree communities—and the other reason is that it's a dual health and rehabilitation facility. However, this skew to the older, more conservative demographic makes it interesting to overhear certain conversations in the locker room (and it's not hard to overhear when most of the participants are deaf).

This morning I was listening to a conversation that had me grinding my teeth for a half an hour afterwards. Two men were discussing our current governor's plan to deal with a 1.7 billion shortfall in the state budget. I'm going to paraphrase here.

Guy #1: O'Malley's going to tax us right out of the state. Did you hear?
Guy #2: Yeah.
Guy #1: Raise the gasoline tax by $.50. Tax health clubs.
Guy #2: Tax all the services.
Guy #1: And then, just wait until Hilary gets in there. It's all going to hell then.
Guy #2: We won't be able to make enough money to survive with all the taxes.
Guy #1: I like those bumper stickers that say, 'Don't blame me, I voted for Erlich.'
Guy #2: (laughs)
Guy #1: ....
Guy #2: I don't know...did you see how much the war is going to cost us? I like Bush, but they're spending too much money. That's not the conservative way.
Guy #1: Well, I'm waiting for Iraq to start paying us back. They've got a ton of oil.
Guy #2: They don't have that much oil.
Guy #1: THey have more oil than they know what to do with.

At this point, I found it hard not to stick my liberal pinko ass into the conversation, so I took a shower. but what I wanted to point out was:

They need to pay us back? Let's break this down for a minute, buddy. Imagine, if you will, that America actually still produced or built something that the rest of the world wanted, like, say, steel. Now let's say the great country of Spain bombed the shit out of us one day, then shipped in a million troops and set up camps all over the place, and then set their sights on getting us to start producing steel again to pay them back for bombing us?

What part of that scenario is hard to understand? We don't own that oil, but we act like we do. A certain percentage of our population apparently feels entitled to it. And that same percentage takes umbrage at the idea of higher gas taxes to pay for social services. Unbelievable.

Posted on October 24, 2007 10:39 AM | link to this entry

October 22, 2007

St. Mary's County Oyster Festival 2007

This weekend, Jen's family threw a surprise birthday/retirement celebration for her father. His children made him wear a crown to his birthday dinner, but he owned it as if it was his birthright, and we taught him all the proper gang signs to throw when he wears his bling in public.

Sunday's events were centered around the Oyster Festival, which has become something of a family tradition, and an event Jen and I look forward to every year.

Oysters fried and raw were sampled, to varying degrees of approval.

Happy birthtirement, Mr. Lockard!

Posted on October 22, 2007 10:43 AM | link to this entry | Comments (3)

October 19, 2007

Full Plate.

As if I didn't have enough work this fall, I've also gotten back to my illustration after ~~abandoning~~ pausing it for a couple of months. The kick in the pants I needed was an email I got from the Directory of Illustration, informing me that the book I've been paying off since April will be shipping sometime in November, which got me both excited and panicked at the same time. I don't have a whole lot of new work to show besides the stuff I published in the book (the Alphabet Project is great, but I need to show a lot of editorial work if I want any jobs) so I'm on a crash schedule for the rest of this month to crank out some new work. I've got about ten non-AP pieces ready, with two more concepts waiting in the wings, so I think I'm on track to have fifteen ready by November 1.

Part of the new assignment is to do an illustration for each of Naomi Wolf's 10 Steps to Fascism, a subject I've been mulling over for the last couple of months. Finding the article was a gift. The first idea came to me in a burst of inspiration, and the next two appeared pretty quickly (even if I'm having a hard time making one of them work correctly). The goal here is to have at least three solid ideas for each new assignment by the end of the year—it's a matter of training the brain to think conceptually again, which is a lot like learning how to write with your non-dominant hand.

I also installed a fresh copy of Movable Type 4.0 on my portfolio site, and I'm going to revamp things around there a bit to make that new weblog a more integral part of the site—I'll use it for showcasing work in progress, illustration subjects and websites, and general art subjects that don't fit here. That should be enough to keep me busy for a while: writing here, there, as well as developing websites and (hopefully) illustrating professionally again. yikes!

Pretty ambitious, huh? I may not have the whole thing up and running by 1 November, but I intend to have something new to share that Thursday. Keep your eyes open and your fingers crossed for me.

Posted on October 19, 2007 4:25 PM | link to this entry

October 16, 2007

Money Shuffling.

In the last couple of weeks, we've had a bunch of people in to look at the house in order to estimate some repair costs. As with everything else, it's all more expensive than I was hoping for. But I knew my hopes were completely unreasonable, so the prices are actually pretty good considering the amount of work to be done.

The first thing I wanted to check out were the basement windows, which offer as much security as a sheet of saran wrap, and half the thermal protection. And, of course, they aren't standard size, so every replacement needs to be custom made. I had a guy give us quotes for four vinyl windows around the perimeter of the basement, and while each one is pretty cheap, the total price adds up quickly. While he was here, we had him estimate the cost of replacements for the dining room windows as well, and it turns out they are much cheaper than I'd feared, but still expensive in the grand scheme of things.

Secondly, I had a strange little man come in to estimate repair and cleaning of the gutters on the south side of the house, which are about half a story too high for me to reach. (Also, the main power and phone lines run off the back side of the house, making three-story ladderwork very dangerous). This guy reminded me of a nervous ferret on valium—jacked up but super-mellow at the same time; I could hear his record playing at 45rpm but the words coming out of his mouth were at 33. Again, the price was higher than I'd hoped, but when I broke it down, it seemed reasonable. My next step is to have a larger company come out and price out total replacement of my existing gutter with a single-piece covered dripless version, because I got kind of a hinky vibe from ferret-man, and I wasn't all that impressed with his gutter guard choice.

Meanwhile, the driver's window in the Jeep decided to go down but not come back up last weekend on the way back from the airshow. Dreading the worst, I pulled the panel off the door and dug around in the guts to diagnose the problem: It wasn't the window motor, and it wasn't the mechanical linkage; it was the worm screw that connects the motor to the linkage. More specifically, it was a $.50 piece of plastic that keeps the worm screw in place to provide consistent upwards pressure. Calling around last week, I was quoted $500 for parts and labor, which was about what I figured. If I had more time to fool with it, and another couple of weeks of warm weather, I'd buy a used part and attempt the repair myself—I've spent some time cutting my skin on the innards of door panels before—but this is one I'm going to have to suck up and pay for, I think.

I have dreams of getting this basic stuff accomplished, but it seems like every time I get the cash together to tackle something, another need comes along and knocks it right back out of the realm of possibility. The most annoying part is that I'm in repair limbo: I could do all of this stuff—I've replaced windows, cleaned gutters, and repaired window assemblies—but I don't have the time to do it, yet I don't have the money to hire it out.

Posted on October 16, 2007 11:03 PM | link to this entry

October 13, 2007

Warplanes

Taken at the Collings Foundation fly-in, Westminster, MD. Find more here.

Posted on October 13, 2007 6:34 PM | link to this entry | Comments (3)

October 12, 2007

Carry-On Luggage: the Camera Edition

We're driving north on Saturday with Jen's father to check out the Collings Foundation fly-in, where there will be three 1940's era bombers parked for the public to see. I've been wanting to do this since I found out they were touring years ago, and I plan to stay as long as I can, bring as many cameras as I can carry, and spend as much time as possible in each plane.

In preparation, I bought an inexpensive but valuable tool for my D70: a F/1.8 50mm Nikkor lens. I've read several articles in the last couple of weeks touting its power and simplicity and when I put it on the Nikon I was transported back to my first weeks of photo class, using a Minolta with an identical lens: the view is the same and the camera weighs the same (maybe a little lighter, actually). Using it to snap some basic photos, I remembered how much more it made me work back then—in order to frame the photo correctly, the photographer is forced to move, making the process that much more intimate and engaged. In the short time I used it, it made me think harder about how I wanted the photo to look and where I needed to be instead of simply zooming in to compose. I spent a lot of time habitually tugging on the focus ring trying to get closer...oh, right.

The other great feature of this lens is manual exposure setting. Most of the kit lenses shipped with new DSLRs are auto-exposure only, which means a whole measure of lighting control is lost. Both of my current lenses are auto-exposure, unfortunately. This one takes me back to the basics, which I've forgotten completely, so I cracked Jen's copy of Horenstein's Black and White Photography: A Basic Manual this morning and started reading up on my basic camera theory.

What's funny is how boring I thought depth-of-field exercises were at the time (and how expensive they proved to be) but how fascinated I am about getting the theory down today. I'd like to get to the point where I can shoot manually without stopping to remember if F/1.2 is wide open or closed down, but I think that's probably a long way off. (Tom Baird, I hope you read this someday and reconsider the low grades you gave me in theory class.)

I'm also going to take my through-the-viewfinder rig and hope that the event staff doesn't think I'm shooting lasers at them or something. I've been perfecting my setup for that rig for a while now, to the point where it has a preset on my Canon and shoots with excellent results about 90% of the time. The only thing I wish I had for it now is a macro lens for the Nikon so I could get larger-quality originals; I'm at the limit of what I can do with the pairing of the Canon on the rig, and I'd like to be able to expand the possibilities. All in good time.

Posted on October 12, 2007 12:35 PM | link to this entry

October 11, 2007

Swamp Ghost.

In old historical plane news, The Swamp Ghost, a B-17E sitting in a marsh in Papua New Guinea since 1942, is in the middle of a legal dispute between the PNG government and the American businessman who claims the salvage rights. In the 1960's, the U.S. Government relinquished all rights to any crashed or abandoned military equipment, excluding underwater wrecks, placing this airframe into a curious limbo. Other wrecks have been "salvaged" from PNG and restored to flying status, but for some reason the removal of this particular B-17 got people upset.

I've seen pictures of this plane before in its original location, but wasn't aware it's been moved—it's sitting on a dock, disassembled, awaiting the resolution of the legal dispute. From what I can tell, PNG isn't letting it leave, and most likely it will stay there (unless they ship it to the states for a restoration, which I doubt they have money for).

In any case, stay tuned for more airplane pictures this weekend...details to come.

Posted on October 11, 2007 11:57 AM | link to this entry | Comments (1)

October 10, 2007

Bulge

I had to stop into the Apple Store to have them look at my MBP— it recently started shutting itself off after one or two minutes' battery usage. The Genius looked it over, verified I had the correct firmware (apparently there was an update that fixed random shutdowns), and then pulled the battery out...to find a good-sized bulge along the bottom. WHOA. Without another word, he said, "OK, we'll get you a new one," and when he couldn't find one in the back (internally identified as a "part") he walked out to the store, pulled one off the shelf (identified as "stock"), opened the box, slapped it in, and bid me farewell with a smile.

God, I love proper customer service.

Posted on October 10, 2007 10:41 AM | link to this entry

October 8, 2007

Back On The Air.

The mail may not be running today, but the UPS guy dropped off a box this morning at 8:30 that contained our new DSL router, which means we're back online! It took Jen several hours to coax me out from under the stairs, where I'd been growing out my beard, eating by campfire, and carving crude stick figures into the walls with a chunk of rock, but I'm feeling much better now.

It's a good thing, because I was beginning to get real sick of the food at the Panera.

Posted on October 8, 2007 1:18 PM | link to this entry | Comments (3)

October 5, 2007

We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties.

I'm sitting in a Panera (thank GOD for you, Panera) with all the other laptop warriors wishing I had a pair of headphones to drown out the sound of a bleached blonde selling a Ponzi pitch to a frumpy middle-aged couple. Seriously, when anybody shows you the pyramid diagram and gives you the subscription shpiel, big fireworks should explode over your head spelling out the word SCAM. Or, maybe SUCKER.

So far, it's Big Monopoly Carriers 2, Bill 0. Our DSL modem, a Westel unit stamped with a Bell Atlantic logo that dates back to the early days of DSL service at my old house circa 1998, finally crapped out yesterday at 3PM. A half-hour of dropped calls, one conversation with a perky CSR in Bangalore, and $39.99 later, we'll have a new modem in 6-8 business days. I think one of the reasons they shipped customer service overseas is that it becomes painfully evident the person on the phone can't do anything to speed up the process, even when threatened with cancellation of service. I'm tempted to call the cable company to see how long it would take to get someone out to install a cable modem, but I'd bet it would be about the same.

Speaking of Comcast, they sent a tech guy out to a consulting client of mine to hook up a new cable modem with digital voice. When faced with an Airport Express, he balked, loaded some kind of proprietary Comcast setting on her laptop to get it online, then cleared out. My client's Airport Express won't pick up a DHCP address from the modem, nor will my laptop, and I'm stumped. All efforts to renew the address from the command line met with the same result. Even sharing the connection wirelessly from her laptop did not work, which tells me something's funky with Comcast. But, then, is that really a surprise?

The bottom line is that my email connectivity will be spotty for the next week or so while the new modem gets shipped by donkey from Tasmania.

Posted on October 5, 2007 10:40 AM | link to this entry

October 1, 2007

The Punch List.

Jen and I have an agreement that covers any work undertaken in the house. I'm not allowed to start up any major new projects without first finishing all the niggling little things left to do on the rooms we've started, and she lets me keep breathing. Because of the schizophrenic order in which we've worked on the place (and my own obsessive-compulsive behavior), every room needs that extra push to get it over the hill so that we might actually call it "done". We have a page in a notebook called the Punch List, and it details stuff like touchup paint, cutting little bits of wood, fixing holes, and other room-specific stuff that takes lots of time to do for little immediate impact.

This weekend I decided to take a whack at the list and see how much of it I could knock out before Sunday evening. First up was toe molding, that essential, expensive little strip of wood that goes at the base of the kickplate around the perimeter of the room, and which keeps uneven 80-year-old flooring gaps hidden and cold drafts away from naked toes. This stuff is $.59 a foot, which sounds cheap, but gets expensive when there are two 12'x'12 rooms to be fitted out. It's also a pain in the ass to install when there's furniture in the way. Having the miter saw all the way down in the basement means careful measurements and allowances for dyslexia and stupidity must also be made. I usually wear running shoes for this, because I average about 50 flights of stairs before the job is complete.

Paint touch-ups take three seconds, but the process of running to the basement, washing and drying the brush, and returning to the same floor to touch up a different color all take much longer. Wash, rinse, repeat. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Next up was the closet door in the Blue room, which has never closed properly since we've been in this house. I've always meant to get to it, but never have. The doorjamb is as crooked as a politician, a victim of drunken carpentry practiced as the moldings were installed in 1925, so I popped the hinges off and trimmed the top of the door with a circular saw. That process took all of fifteen minutes, but locating, installing, and adjusting an original striker plate so that the door would close took a half-hour.

As I was ~~swearing at~~ adjusting the plate, I looked around and thought about the work that the Doctor did in this house, and how all of it was absolute shit. Not one thing in this house was done professionally, competently, or with any concern for the future; things like the "electrical work" in the living room come to mind, where his handimen wrapped two crumbling live wires with inches of electrical tape, stuffed the switchbox with newspaper, and then plastered over it. Or the hallway "plumbing repair", which involved a handmade rubber gasket and a plaster wall patched with cement. I could also go on for hours about the stuff that was ignored—separating plaster, substandard insulation, cheap replacement windows, nonexistant water drainage, etc., etc.

At first this thought made me mad. But then I realized the house got exactly what it needed when we moved in, and I felt better that we're taking the time to go through and undo as much of the damage as possible. I just wish we were independently wealthy so we could hurry the process up a few years.