Musings

I spent way too much money (maybe; depends on how you assess these things) and got fancy high-tech specs—both the frames and the lenses have options I’d not dreamed of when I began wearing glasses…. The frames even came with an authentication card!

Here’s the kicker: they weigh 0.30 ounces/8.5 grams!

Hint hint: note the similarity of this pair of eyes with the ones in the blog-header photo (behind the word “musings”)….

Geeezo, look at them eyebrows!

Posted at 4:20 PM | 3 Comments »

The other night I tried some flash shots, and given that the only flash unit was standard-issue, right on the camera body, the lighting was, mostly, just plain odd. This was among the “better” of the collection….

I give you this picture because the weather is pretty darned odd so far. Cracking thunder and rain overnight. No rain now, but overcast, windy, and…warm! Spooky warm.

Posted at 10:39 AM | 2 Comments »

If I could zip through the vegetable aisle in a vehicle with two steering wheels, I’d probably enjoy it more!

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Impossible engineering?

Back to last night’s game—this is a crucial part of the 3D broadcast process; these are the screens the truck-guys watched to make sure the left-eye and right-eye pictures “came together” (not a technical term) properly. They watched those grey pictures on the left like hawks. Those projections highlighted whether the dual pictures were in registration (my term, maybe theirs too, I dunno) or not. Remember, most of the cameras were right down on the field, and the field was HOT! Tough conditions, we thought…but the guy in charge of the cameras said they’d done 3D shoots in India, Australia, so this was, well, not the worst yet.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on 3D camera picture-perfect

Remember a 3D camera is really two cameras, stuck together with the lens distance carefully calibrated. This gear is ungainly more than it is heavy, I was told by a camera-dude. Still, I’m very glad I didn’t wear it!

And, here’s the picture on a 3D monitor, playing in 3D—the view without glasses to “fix” the image and make it 3D!

The 3D team got all the glitches taken care of by game time, and we heard ooohs! and aaahs! for the graphics (and the pictures, uh-huh), and even laudatory comments from an assortment of big-wigs, we were told!!!

Posted at 10:22 PM | 1 Comment »

In our leetle world today, the focus has been on 3D. But not HBA 3D like this!

HBA = health and beauty aids, in Meijer parlance

Posted at 9:53 PM | 1 Comment »

I have been looking at ancient stadiums (actually, I prefer to pluralize it as stadia) recently, but today I looked at a REEEELY big REEL one. Toasty day, bright sun. And the playing surface was hot, hot, hot, did I say: HOT!

I think part of the reason they use the fake turf is that keeping the grass alive in the exaggerated heat of this focal-bowl must be nearly impossible. A few rows of what looked like sycamores in the sea of asphalt that surround the stadium (general parking: $50, no lie) had assorted leafless limbs and generally looked on the brink of their demise.

The closeup is from a few extra chunks of lifeless sod stacked on a pallet on the edge of the parking lot; some pieces even had white “stripes.”

Posted at 7:04 PM | Comments Off on Is this for real?

3D HD TV: screen and specs. And, yes, the picture looks terrible because the specs are on the table and not the camera.

Even if you aren’t a letter-writer, consider writing one to protest this: the Ivanpah Solar Generating System. The deadline is 2 September, so hop to it.

It’s in the desert. The project area is 3582-acres—plus “adjacent habitat”—which is not quantified!

Perhaps that is enough to get you writing!

In another place in the “Presiding Member’s Proposed Decision” (CEC-800-2010-004 PMPD; dated August 2010), the authors note that the area’s the storm water flows would be affected over a 13,900–acre area—natural sheet water flows come across the project area in California west of Las Vegas.

Plus the finished project will have three towers almost 500-feet high (scattered, not clustered). Can be seen pretty much forever in this flat area!

I know many people think the desert is “empty” land, but it isn’t. Just because you don’t see lush trees doesn’t mean that it is “waste land.” Actually, imagine trees there, if you have to, and then think about why they aren’t considering putting this solar system (haha) right smack in wasted land in cities—right by the users, after all—and on land that’s essentially been abandoned. C’mon.

After all, Las Vegas is a few miles away, and grids of roads have already been dozed into the desert there, without the development that speculators had planned. Perfect place for this; these are the people (well, and Southern Californians) that are putting the energy demand load on the system; they should be looking at the consequences of their air conditioning, etc.

IMHO.

Don’t get me started about the Cultural Resources section—which endows construction workers with the responsibility for identifying archaeological resources they may uncover. Hah!

Read the critical document here, or download it from the California Energy Commission here (it’s 9.7 megabytes). Chris Clarke summarizes the reasons for you to write a letter. Even if you don’t live in Arnold’s state.

Like me.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Your turn to write

Once upon a time, there was a holographic pig. He lived an empty life, but he was very reflective.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on (I guess) you had to be there

More from yesterday’s pool visit….

I did something I’ve never done before today: I saw some 3D TV, that is, 3D HD TV. Woooooohoooooooo!

Posted at 6:58 PM | Comments Off on 3D, many ways