An interest meme
Okay. I guess the idea here is that I'll post this to my own journal. Thanks
tonytraductor!
A couple of caveats: A lot of the stuff in my interests are not things I know about but thinks I'm interested in learning about. Therefore, some of my interests are stuff I know very little about.
Comment on this entry and I'll choose seven interests from your list which I'd like you to explain.
He picked some hard ones...
1. chretien de troyes
I don't know much about this guy. Not yet. At least not filtered through several layers of other guys. It would seem that the badassest king of Britain (who is might be at least 50% fictional) was first (and maybe mostly) recorded by a Frenchman. Yes, he's the authority on Arthurian legend. So, if I want to turn a slight geekish tendency into real life academic study, he is where I'll have to turn. So, on my list of things to do before I die, ahead of bungee jumping off of the Golden Gate bridge but behind viewing Michel Angelo's David with my own eyes is reading Chretien de Troyes. I am not too far advanced on accomplishing that goal.
2. bsd (I know what it is, but am interested in learning more)
I don't either. This was my attempt at fishing for people who are interested in both Unix derivetives and Mac OS. In fairness. I tried to install BSD on one of my laptops and was immediately dissapointed. If you're into Linux, stick to Linux. I've also tried Sun Solaris, but I'm telling you, it's bare bones compared to a distro like Ubuntu. So, am in interested in BSD? Well, historically, if you're into open source software, you owe a lot to BSD, but as a funcitonal operating system, I'm afraid Linux has them beat hands down.
3. infrared photography (ditto)
Now, this one is interesting: I started on this back when I was a photography student over 15 years ago. I don't have any IR pictures that I'm particularly proud of, but taking more has been high on my to-do list lately. First off, most laymen confuse IR photography with thermal imaging. I don't know why. IR photography does not let you see at night, nor does it, strictly speaking, 'see' heat. Having said that, in the IR spectrum there is very little haze or glare or reflections; it can see through light clothing, and skin is slightly translucent so it can sometimes see blood vessels. Water, ice, sky, and nipples usually come out near black. It can also pick out dead or dying trees before they're visible to the naked eye and it can see paintings on canvas that have been painted over.
When I started out, IR was a serious PITA. The film had to be kept in an ice box, it had to be loaded and unloaded from the camera in a darkroom and it had a very short lifespan, especially in Sacramento CA. summers. It focussed slightly off the visual spectrum (it still does) and the filters were quite expensive. Furthermore, you couldn't really travel with it because airport X-Rays would fog it in the canister.
If I hadn't joined the Army, I'd be the king of IR photography now. When I joined, and subsequently boxed up my darkroom, I had learned the ropes of B&W infrared and was well on my way to discovering color infrared (which is a shifted infrared spectrum, very different from the photoshopped color IR you kids know today). Not a big deal nowadays, but then, it was a slide film (yay Vietnam conflict!) that was almost discontinued and the development process was totally discontinued. What was cool was that the formula for the development process was kind of abandoned into the public domain because Kodak still made the film but couldn't develop it. It was kind of the grand daddy of open source software. By writing to some obscure office in the Eastman Kodak Company, I was able to procure the chemical formulas for the process, I think, E-4... E-3? Anyhoo... It was excruciatingly complicated and involved at least 8 steps. I never got far enough to start procuring chemicals because I joined the army and had eating food on my mind. My darkroom went into boxes and etc. etc.
I've heard that Kodak developed a new color infrared film, but haven't looked into it any further.
Years later, I caved in to digital and discovered to my utter glee that most CCD's are at least slighlty sensitive to IR. Now, without modifications, your digicam can capture IR! But without modifications, this means long exposure times, and I don't have the funds to devote to hacking a digital camera to make it IR dedicated. Having said that, oh how life has gotten easier! I mean, in the old days, you couldn't even see the IR focus. Today, you can not only focus but with the proper camera and filters, get an IR image in less than 5 seconds and see the preview on your camera's LCD! Revolutionary!
So, now that it's become easy, I'm afraid it will become trite. Aside from a couple of ads, one from Toyota, i haven't seen a lot of noticeably IR images in the mainstream. It's on my to-do list to revive my experimentation in the digital age and who knows, I may yet be the king of IR photography! It's summer! pictures coming soon!
4. rx400h
The rx400h is the only 'Toyota' hybrid on the market that would easily accommodate my family of five. The thing is, it cannot accommodate my pocketbook. At last look, I think they run over 60K Euros. If I had the money to blow, I'd probably buy one thereby attaining the rank of ultimate green-yuppie. In fairness, I'm waiting for something else to come out. I don't need a 4x4, tend to dislike the show-off factor of Lexus, and the rx400h still gets pretty dismal gas mileage for a hybrid; it's a little horsepower hungry like SUV's tend to be. It's starting to look like the rising fuel costs combined with America's automobile addiction is turning out new alternatives at a good clip. Maybe by the time I need to change cars, a diesel hybrid or even fuel cell minivan will be on the market! Let's hope. I hope it's a Toyota though, I'm pretty loyal to Toyota.
5. tridentine rite
First of all, if you're Catholic, all masses are technically the same. None can be any better than any other as long as they're celebrated in the right way. Having said that, I discovered the Tridentine Rite about four years ago. In a nutshell, it's the Catholic mass as celebrated between roughly the 10th century (maybe earlier) and the early 1960's. Famous people who prefer the Old Mass include Mel Gibson although I'm afraid he may accidentally give its followers a bad name. Like most of the great reforms that took place in the 1960's, the 'New Mass' was something of a catastrophe but most Catholics from my generation have never known anything else. I won't bore you with the history, suffice to say that I prefer the old Mass, in Latin; the Tridentine Mass. I view the priests of the Fraternity of Saint Peter (who are just about the only priests who are officially authorized by the Vatican to perform the old mass) as the Special Forces of Catholic Church; the elite, the best of the best. Every one I've met is a world-class theologian and philosopher as well as being a devoted man of the cloth. I don't want to get too verbose here, but you may ask, especially if you're not Catholic, why.
Well, it's hard to put my finger on it and express it in a succint way, but I'll try. You see, I'm a convert to Catholicism. I was raised in a church that defines weird and abandoned it relatively young. What attracted me to the Catholic church in the first place is even more present in the Old Mass. Let's say that the New Mass, what most people condider the Catholic Mass and the Mass that I'll have to go back to if I move to a place where the Fraternity of Saint Peter has not set up shop, feel like 'Catholic Lite' to me. Personally I refer to it as "the guitar Mass" or "the hippy Mass". Anway, if I had the time and the inclination, I could write pages about my journey to being a devotee to the Tridentine Rite. I've actually toyed with the idea of writing a book about it. All I can really say is, if you're curious, and especially if you're Catholic, go to a Tridentine Mass. You're likely not to understand much since it's almost all in Latin. It takes about a year and a good Missel to really catch on. If you're Catholic, you'll probably understand much of what's going on because the format of the Mass is mostly unchanged. If you're like me, you might end up getting hooked. If not, oh well. I'm the kind of spiritual person who feels that if you've found a path that works for you, more power to you! And, to paraphrase Mark Vonnegut for the n'th time, let's all help each other get through this, whatever it is.
6. santons
Santons are little clay figurines that are typical of the South of France. My favorites are Escoffier but there are several well known fabricators out there. Here again is something that's been on my to-do list for literally years. I've been intending to create a web page devoted to Santons and have even toyed with the idea of opening an online store (although a couple already exist). This is a funny one because it all begins with the Nativity Scene. Well, some people collect them because they're cute. I dare say that their business would probably langish a bit if they had to rely on a purely Christian clientelle. As for the Christians, I can hear some of the Christians I grew up with screaming "Idolatry!" every time I think about them. This is kind of a purely American reaction and I think lucklily, even in America, these people are a little bit on the lunatic fringe. I imagine the veins exploding in their foreheads with sadistic glee, I do.
It's a combination of things and it's hard to be brief. Some say it all began in Italy when Nativity scenes were living displays. At some point, the tradition of the living Nativity Scene migrated to the South of France (it's still a relatively well preserved tradition) and someone got the idea of making clay figurines for the Nativity Scene. What eventually happened was, not only did the Christ Child, Mary, Joseph, the Maggi, the Ox and the Donkey get immortalized in clay, so did the spectators, all in period garb. So, what you have is the holy family, circa 25 BC, surrounded by French Provencial country people, circa... who knows.... 1600 maybe? I think it's a marvelous, albeit metaphorical way to celebrate the nativity because it depicts the arrival of Christ in the every day lives of real people. Besies, it conjures up wonderful memories of my brief sejours in the 'midi' and they are aesthetically very pleasant.
The wonderfully clever French writer Yvan Audouard wrote a play called "Le Pastorale des Santons de Provence" which is so cute it makes your head want to explode. It depicts the Navity as though it occured in the South of France; or, as though the Provence and Bethlehem are one and the same. Again, I hear a lot of American Christians freaking out, but I think that an adult has to have a serious problem to not be able to separate symbolism from substance to such a degree. I want to publish a translation to the internet but there are two things holding me back. The first is copyright, the second is that a lot will be lost in translation because it's full of southern 'patois' and slang and cultural stereotypes. For example, the Miller is the laziest person in Bethlehem, the Fishmonger the least honest, etc. etc.
7. mtb
MTB is an approved acronym for Mountain Bike or Mountain Biking. It's about the only exercise I get anymore. I don't take it seriously enough, but I want to.
It's kind of prophetic in a way. As a child, I probably witnessed the invention of Mountain Bikes. The guy who owned the shop next to my dad's was an early devotee and a dealer for Mountain Goat brand bikes. I fell in love with them, obsessed, prayed, and fantasized about one day owning one but we were poor. I eventually abandoned the idea, discovered automobiles, and very regretfully mostly forgot about bikes for over 20 years. Better late than never I guess...
I re-discovered it about 3 years ago. Now we have suspension forks! Dr. Friend a.k.a. the president of our MTB 'club' has enrolled us in a 'raid' for the 9th of July. I was a little disappointed to learn that 'raid' has nothing to do with sacking the English coast and subsequent rape, pillage, and plunder. Rather, a 'raid' is a quasi-race / rally of mountain bike enthusiasts. I think there are prizes for the first finishers but I'm not worried about that. Actually, considering that it's 55 kilometers over terrain that I have not yet seen, I'll be happy to finish at all. It will be, however, my first real Mountain Bike race. Wish me luck!
tonytraductor!
A couple of caveats: A lot of the stuff in my interests are not things I know about but thinks I'm interested in learning about. Therefore, some of my interests are stuff I know very little about.
Comment on this entry and I'll choose seven interests from your list which I'd like you to explain.
He picked some hard ones...
1. chretien de troyes
I don't know much about this guy. Not yet. At least not filtered through several layers of other guys. It would seem that the badassest king of Britain (who is might be at least 50% fictional) was first (and maybe mostly) recorded by a Frenchman. Yes, he's the authority on Arthurian legend. So, if I want to turn a slight geekish tendency into real life academic study, he is where I'll have to turn. So, on my list of things to do before I die, ahead of bungee jumping off of the Golden Gate bridge but behind viewing Michel Angelo's David with my own eyes is reading Chretien de Troyes. I am not too far advanced on accomplishing that goal.
2. bsd (I know what it is, but am interested in learning more)
I don't either. This was my attempt at fishing for people who are interested in both Unix derivetives and Mac OS. In fairness. I tried to install BSD on one of my laptops and was immediately dissapointed. If you're into Linux, stick to Linux. I've also tried Sun Solaris, but I'm telling you, it's bare bones compared to a distro like Ubuntu. So, am in interested in BSD? Well, historically, if you're into open source software, you owe a lot to BSD, but as a funcitonal operating system, I'm afraid Linux has them beat hands down.
3. infrared photography (ditto)
Now, this one is interesting: I started on this back when I was a photography student over 15 years ago. I don't have any IR pictures that I'm particularly proud of, but taking more has been high on my to-do list lately. First off, most laymen confuse IR photography with thermal imaging. I don't know why. IR photography does not let you see at night, nor does it, strictly speaking, 'see' heat. Having said that, in the IR spectrum there is very little haze or glare or reflections; it can see through light clothing, and skin is slightly translucent so it can sometimes see blood vessels. Water, ice, sky, and nipples usually come out near black. It can also pick out dead or dying trees before they're visible to the naked eye and it can see paintings on canvas that have been painted over.
When I started out, IR was a serious PITA. The film had to be kept in an ice box, it had to be loaded and unloaded from the camera in a darkroom and it had a very short lifespan, especially in Sacramento CA. summers. It focussed slightly off the visual spectrum (it still does) and the filters were quite expensive. Furthermore, you couldn't really travel with it because airport X-Rays would fog it in the canister.
If I hadn't joined the Army, I'd be the king of IR photography now. When I joined, and subsequently boxed up my darkroom, I had learned the ropes of B&W infrared and was well on my way to discovering color infrared (which is a shifted infrared spectrum, very different from the photoshopped color IR you kids know today). Not a big deal nowadays, but then, it was a slide film (yay Vietnam conflict!) that was almost discontinued and the development process was totally discontinued. What was cool was that the formula for the development process was kind of abandoned into the public domain because Kodak still made the film but couldn't develop it. It was kind of the grand daddy of open source software. By writing to some obscure office in the Eastman Kodak Company, I was able to procure the chemical formulas for the process, I think, E-4... E-3? Anyhoo... It was excruciatingly complicated and involved at least 8 steps. I never got far enough to start procuring chemicals because I joined the army and had eating food on my mind. My darkroom went into boxes and etc. etc.
I've heard that Kodak developed a new color infrared film, but haven't looked into it any further.
Years later, I caved in to digital and discovered to my utter glee that most CCD's are at least slighlty sensitive to IR. Now, without modifications, your digicam can capture IR! But without modifications, this means long exposure times, and I don't have the funds to devote to hacking a digital camera to make it IR dedicated. Having said that, oh how life has gotten easier! I mean, in the old days, you couldn't even see the IR focus. Today, you can not only focus but with the proper camera and filters, get an IR image in less than 5 seconds and see the preview on your camera's LCD! Revolutionary!
So, now that it's become easy, I'm afraid it will become trite. Aside from a couple of ads, one from Toyota, i haven't seen a lot of noticeably IR images in the mainstream. It's on my to-do list to revive my experimentation in the digital age and who knows, I may yet be the king of IR photography! It's summer! pictures coming soon!
4. rx400h
The rx400h is the only 'Toyota' hybrid on the market that would easily accommodate my family of five. The thing is, it cannot accommodate my pocketbook. At last look, I think they run over 60K Euros. If I had the money to blow, I'd probably buy one thereby attaining the rank of ultimate green-yuppie. In fairness, I'm waiting for something else to come out. I don't need a 4x4, tend to dislike the show-off factor of Lexus, and the rx400h still gets pretty dismal gas mileage for a hybrid; it's a little horsepower hungry like SUV's tend to be. It's starting to look like the rising fuel costs combined with America's automobile addiction is turning out new alternatives at a good clip. Maybe by the time I need to change cars, a diesel hybrid or even fuel cell minivan will be on the market! Let's hope. I hope it's a Toyota though, I'm pretty loyal to Toyota.
5. tridentine rite
First of all, if you're Catholic, all masses are technically the same. None can be any better than any other as long as they're celebrated in the right way. Having said that, I discovered the Tridentine Rite about four years ago. In a nutshell, it's the Catholic mass as celebrated between roughly the 10th century (maybe earlier) and the early 1960's. Famous people who prefer the Old Mass include Mel Gibson although I'm afraid he may accidentally give its followers a bad name. Like most of the great reforms that took place in the 1960's, the 'New Mass' was something of a catastrophe but most Catholics from my generation have never known anything else. I won't bore you with the history, suffice to say that I prefer the old Mass, in Latin; the Tridentine Mass. I view the priests of the Fraternity of Saint Peter (who are just about the only priests who are officially authorized by the Vatican to perform the old mass) as the Special Forces of Catholic Church; the elite, the best of the best. Every one I've met is a world-class theologian and philosopher as well as being a devoted man of the cloth. I don't want to get too verbose here, but you may ask, especially if you're not Catholic, why.
Well, it's hard to put my finger on it and express it in a succint way, but I'll try. You see, I'm a convert to Catholicism. I was raised in a church that defines weird and abandoned it relatively young. What attracted me to the Catholic church in the first place is even more present in the Old Mass. Let's say that the New Mass, what most people condider the Catholic Mass and the Mass that I'll have to go back to if I move to a place where the Fraternity of Saint Peter has not set up shop, feel like 'Catholic Lite' to me. Personally I refer to it as "the guitar Mass" or "the hippy Mass". Anway, if I had the time and the inclination, I could write pages about my journey to being a devotee to the Tridentine Rite. I've actually toyed with the idea of writing a book about it. All I can really say is, if you're curious, and especially if you're Catholic, go to a Tridentine Mass. You're likely not to understand much since it's almost all in Latin. It takes about a year and a good Missel to really catch on. If you're Catholic, you'll probably understand much of what's going on because the format of the Mass is mostly unchanged. If you're like me, you might end up getting hooked. If not, oh well. I'm the kind of spiritual person who feels that if you've found a path that works for you, more power to you! And, to paraphrase Mark Vonnegut for the n'th time, let's all help each other get through this, whatever it is.
6. santons
Santons are little clay figurines that are typical of the South of France. My favorites are Escoffier but there are several well known fabricators out there. Here again is something that's been on my to-do list for literally years. I've been intending to create a web page devoted to Santons and have even toyed with the idea of opening an online store (although a couple already exist). This is a funny one because it all begins with the Nativity Scene. Well, some people collect them because they're cute. I dare say that their business would probably langish a bit if they had to rely on a purely Christian clientelle. As for the Christians, I can hear some of the Christians I grew up with screaming "Idolatry!" every time I think about them. This is kind of a purely American reaction and I think lucklily, even in America, these people are a little bit on the lunatic fringe. I imagine the veins exploding in their foreheads with sadistic glee, I do.
It's a combination of things and it's hard to be brief. Some say it all began in Italy when Nativity scenes were living displays. At some point, the tradition of the living Nativity Scene migrated to the South of France (it's still a relatively well preserved tradition) and someone got the idea of making clay figurines for the Nativity Scene. What eventually happened was, not only did the Christ Child, Mary, Joseph, the Maggi, the Ox and the Donkey get immortalized in clay, so did the spectators, all in period garb. So, what you have is the holy family, circa 25 BC, surrounded by French Provencial country people, circa... who knows.... 1600 maybe? I think it's a marvelous, albeit metaphorical way to celebrate the nativity because it depicts the arrival of Christ in the every day lives of real people. Besies, it conjures up wonderful memories of my brief sejours in the 'midi' and they are aesthetically very pleasant.
The wonderfully clever French writer Yvan Audouard wrote a play called "Le Pastorale des Santons de Provence" which is so cute it makes your head want to explode. It depicts the Navity as though it occured in the South of France; or, as though the Provence and Bethlehem are one and the same. Again, I hear a lot of American Christians freaking out, but I think that an adult has to have a serious problem to not be able to separate symbolism from substance to such a degree. I want to publish a translation to the internet but there are two things holding me back. The first is copyright, the second is that a lot will be lost in translation because it's full of southern 'patois' and slang and cultural stereotypes. For example, the Miller is the laziest person in Bethlehem, the Fishmonger the least honest, etc. etc.
7. mtb
MTB is an approved acronym for Mountain Bike or Mountain Biking. It's about the only exercise I get anymore. I don't take it seriously enough, but I want to.
It's kind of prophetic in a way. As a child, I probably witnessed the invention of Mountain Bikes. The guy who owned the shop next to my dad's was an early devotee and a dealer for Mountain Goat brand bikes. I fell in love with them, obsessed, prayed, and fantasized about one day owning one but we were poor. I eventually abandoned the idea, discovered automobiles, and very regretfully mostly forgot about bikes for over 20 years. Better late than never I guess...
I re-discovered it about 3 years ago. Now we have suspension forks! Dr. Friend a.k.a. the president of our MTB 'club' has enrolled us in a 'raid' for the 9th of July. I was a little disappointed to learn that 'raid' has nothing to do with sacking the English coast and subsequent rape, pillage, and plunder. Rather, a 'raid' is a quasi-race / rally of mountain bike enthusiasts. I think there are prizes for the first finishers but I'm not worried about that. Actually, considering that it's 55 kilometers over terrain that I have not yet seen, I'll be happy to finish at all. It will be, however, my first real Mountain Bike race. Wish me luck!