Monthly Archives: July 2005

A Few Good Links

July 30, 2005
It’s been a while since I last dumped a bunch of links on me olde blogge, so I thought now would be a good time to share. Here are a few things I’ve come across…
Posted in miscellany | 6 Comments

What That’s Called

July 27, 2005
Sara had just sat down with Ben and Lucy. The wedding was about to begin–an informal yet elegant evening ceremony on the beach of Lake Michigan. Ben leaned a bit closer to Sara and pointed out toward the horizon…
Posted in family | 5 Comments

Recovering the Photographs

July 24, 2005
On Thursday night my family and I attended a beautiful wedding on the beach of Lake Michigan. The bride was a former student of mine, our kids’ babysitter, and a dear friend, so I was especially anxious about being entrusted with the role of “official” photographer. I wanted to make sure that the bride and groom had a photographic record of the event that at least approximated what they remembered. The night before the wedding I recharged the digital camera’s battery and packed a film camera and an extra set of batteries, just in case something disastrous happened. I unloaded all the photos from the 6GB Hitachi microdrive and set it carefully back into the camera. Two 256MB CF cards would serve as backup. I felt pretty confident that everything would go smoothly. The beach setting was gorgeous, and the bride and groom and all the attendants and families were gracious as I took some formal shots before the ceremony. Other than a few drops of rain, everything went off without a hitch–unless you count the one involving the bride and groom. The reception, too, was lovely, even during the 30 minutes or so of rain when the guests scrambled back to the cottage for cover. But then something strange happened…
Posted in photography | 6 Comments

SuperDay

July 17, 2005
Yesterday the neighbor boy two doors down turned 5, so his parents threw him a little birthday party–just a small, low-key gathering of friends and family to wish him well. Ha! Really it was a total blowout, a superhero extravaganza. I must say that the things a few of us neighbors agreed to do for this party would be much too embarrassing for me to mention–if I had any shame left at all. But I don’t, so here’s a picture of three middle-aged Super Neighbors flying down the makeshift zip line across the backyard…
Posted in friends and neighbors | 5 Comments

America’s Most Thwarted Home Video

July 14, 2005
The other day I read an interesting entry on JD Lasica’s weblog Darknet, in which Lasica describes his attempt to put together a home movie “just for showing off to family or friends.” The problems he faced were not technical, but legal, as he wanted to splice into his project a few seconds of video from a handful of movies. He could have simply inserted the clips without any fuss, and nobody who cared would have been the wiser, but Lasica, who wrote a book about the “personal media revolution,” decided to play the game according to the rules of the media oligopoly. He sent formal requests to the seven major studios that own the movies. Now, who in their right mind would have a problem with someone wanting to use a few seconds of film footage for a home movie? Apparently the movie studios would. Here is how things shook out…
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Hacking Google Maps

July 7, 2005
Ever since Google released their Maps site, people have been creating “mashups,” overlaying all sorts of data on the U.S. map or parts of it. Last month CNN ran a story about these Google Maps tinkerers, and the weblog “Google Maps Mania” announces new mashups as they appear on the web. The best of the new sites tap into the flexibility and power of Google Maps to allow visitors to click and drag around an area and zoom in and out of any location. Here are a few of my favorites…
Posted in technology | 8 Comments

Take a Stanza – Musee des Beaux Arts

July 1, 2005
It’s time once again for the monthly stanza. This one appears at the end of a poem by W. H. Auden, one of the great 20th century poets. Some of you may remember the Auden poem that the Scottish chap read for his dead friend in Four Weddings and a Funeral. This is a different poem…
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