Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

So after the 4pm panel, I took a seat next to the walkway to another tower. Fired up the Kindle and sent some emails. Saw a Facebook message from Al Bogdan saying he was at Penguicon. Alas, he hadn't kept up with my posts and didn't know I was coming. Too late now.

On the way out...

The Gaming Room was set up in the airy, bright lobby lounge. What a great idea. Almost made me wish I had time to find a game of Cards Against Humanity or something fun. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


One last, fond look at Penguicon -- or at least that Delorean. (grin) (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


And then into the sunshine and out on the open road. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

You can only be at one session at a time. And I wasn't doing the whole weekend this year. So I missed some things. Funny to think I was at a Linux/SF con and never made it to any Linux sessions, though I did get to a VR technology session and 1½ sessions on metallurgy.

One last comment. There were a couple of transgender and LGBTQ sessions, which alas conflicted with other things I wanted to see. But I felt like there was a welcoming atmosphere at Penguicon. I know, I know, don't judge books by covers and don't assume you know what others are experiencing. But at the two Penguicons I've been to, it's been a diverse crowd. Not just hackers and Linuxheads, not just the usual SF/F suspects -- there's a strong artistic bent, too, and a really wide range of people and dress and costumes. There was an older guy in a Tron suit -- lit up blue lines and everything. Older guy, someone's father, with a mustache. And another woman, who -- forgive me -- I swear was a cross-dressing man. What got me was that everyone was having a good time and no one cared.

Whether it's progress or not, I think it says something about 2014, the SF/F/Linux community and the unique annual madness that is Penguicon. Now if the 2015 con isn't during Grading Week...

Dr. Phil

One day of summer?

It's 84°F in Allendale at just before 5pm. Sunny. Hazy. A bit humid. And the last temp in the 80s for at least a week.

Shot a couple pictures on the way home from PT this afternoon. All the shots with the Nikon D100 and the 80-200mm f4.5-5.6D AF-NIKKOR. This isn't the legendary 80-200mm f4.5 Zoom-NIKKOR, but a lightweight, compact, modern auto focus cousin. Not as robust as the Iron Lady of zooms, but optically its equal. With the flyweight 28-80mm f3.3-5.6G AF-NIKKOR and the plastic bodied D100, it makes for a light camera bag. Good for carrying when you have two canes.

The best part -- the camera and short zoom were a Christmas present (eversomuch thanks, Joe!) and the long zoom cost about $18 on eBay. All are in perfect operating condition. I love eBay.


The flowering trees between the PT clinic and Burger King in Allendale are about to erupt, but for now they're just the promise of flowers. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Fence line between fields on the west side of 84th Avenue -- it always amuses me to have streets and avenues in farm country. Where I first grew up they were called Roads in the rural county. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Angled or head on view? You choose. The focus point on this shot is not the fence post, but the tumble of bramble same as the previous shot. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


This forsythia bush... it was planted the first spring we were here, almost twenty years ago. Hole. Peat moss. Stick of a bush. Water -- once or twice. It almost died a few years ago -- ten? -- then came back more lush. And the last five or so covered in brilliant yellow flowers. We keep thinking the crocuses planted around had died, but every now and then in early spring we'll see them. So much for neglect. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


The daffodils have even a harder and shorter history than the forsythia -- there used to be tulips and crocuses in this little bed, too. But the last few years only the daffodils have come up. These guys got pounded by heavy rain the other night but have perked up. I guess getting run over by the front tires of UPS trucks all winter is good for them. It's not like we do any work on them. Or even water them. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

More spring pictures from last week to come -- including cows!

Dr. Phil

Other than driving to work, which isn't trivial in my case, especially with THIS winter, the day trip to Southfield MI was my first long solo drive and my first con in over a year. Thing is, I have the typical-photographer's lament -- never any pictures of me -- so one goal I had was to publish a Proof of Life photo.

My usual photographer, 2004 Clarion and 2008 WOTF friend Al Bogdan, wasn't around. Turned out later he WAS at Penguicon, but he apparently didn't bother to read my blog saying I was planning to come and I'd asked if he was. And we never spotted each other. Thwarted.

So before I left the Cory Doctorow reading, I asked the guy nearest to me if he'd mind taking my picture.


It's always tough to hand a camera off to a random stranger and hope the settings and automation can handle it. I've mentioned the harsh lighting conditions and there were ceiling spot lights over my row and I was all the way up to 1/100th of a second, so you have this wide dynamic range, an early professional DSLR ramped up two stops beyond the highest normal ISO setting. The result clearly shows Dr. Phil, but it's a little harsh. I tried to tilt up the hat so as to not mask my eyes, but I couldn't NOT have a hat on at a con! Back in the day of wet photography, I'd be masking and dodging -- I'm not trying to do that in Ulead PhotoImpact. (grin) (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

One thing I didn't see in either the lovely main program or the compact session and grid schedules was any mention of hotel WiFi. I had thought of powering up haiku on Friday, our Verizon pay-as-you-go credit card sized 3G hot spot, but decided against it. And I couldn't remember if the Westin Southfield's website had said free WiFi or not. And of course, checking the webpage was out... (grin)

I'd thrown the Kindle Fire HD into my messenger bag, leaving it in airplane mode. So in between morning sessions, I'd turned on the WiFi, selected the Westin site -- and the signal indicator still had an X in it. Must be a paid WiFi. Sigh.

So after Cory's reading and wresting with the stiff spring on the door to the restroom with two handicapped stalls -- I am learning SO much about how "good" ADA compliance is -- I decided to stop by Ops and ask about the WiFi situation. Nick at Ops was super on top of things.

If I hadn't been on the WiFi settings screen, I might have realized that the hotel just had the usual sort of Terms of Use gateway page. Just hadn't been out in public with the Kindle much. (grin)


Nick went for the dramatic pose and up tight on him at 24mm (35mm FX equivalent), the wide angle made for a decent image. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

I had two more questions for Nick. Do you always wear a suit? Yes. I wasn't trying to insult him, but at most cons I've been to, someone in a neat suit coat works for the hotel -- it was very chic and professional in appearance. Second, is that a Burning Man lapel pin? YES.

Turns out Nick runs the Burning Man Post Office. Come the end of August, you can send mail to Burning Man at ZIP+4 Code 89412-0149. Really. How cool is that? I promised to send him a postcard.

Anyway, armed with new information, I sought lunch. Now when I came in I passed a bar set up in the front walkway connecting the lobby with the first floor conference rooms. At 1:15pm it was getting busy. A small sheet in front of one unit said it was a Bar and Grille, then listed a few items like hot dogs. With prices in Tickets.

Now I can understand that in the chaos of uneven demand loads, not handling money is clever, especially considering how dirty money is. But folks, if you're going to charge tickets, you need to make it obvious where you're going to BUY tickets. And in the crush of people, navigating with the wide body 777 of walkers, I couldn't see said money exchange point, nor any signs directing me to same and I wasn't going to randomly wander.

Next up -- I did see a kiosk with a sign proclaiming they served Starbucks coffee and Boar's Head Meat sandwiches. Now we're talking. The sign out front said a roast beef sandwich with avocado was $4.95 or so. Great. Except on Saturday they weren't doing sandwich service. I guess they were being smart, by not competing with the grille right outside the door. But would it hurt to put up a sign saying No Sandwich Service today? Hell, for all I know, maybe the person behind the counter who said no sandwiches today sold Tickets. (evil-grin)

So, third attempt at lunch -- the hotel restaurant. Now there were signs pointing out that Gaming and Paint-and-Take, or something like that, had swapped space and the latter was now in the restaurant. Hopefully that was just PART of the restaurant. (hungry-grin) Anyway, the restaurant was open and it was pretty slammed. And here I was with a walker and wanting a table for one.

I pointed out a free table for two in the middle along an angled wall to the step-up level, with enough open space that me and my walker could be reasonably out of the way. From the posted menu outside, I already knew what I wanted -- the cheeseburger, no onions, Coke and fries with sea salt. Not cheap, but comfortable and out of the lobby chaos.

Opened up the Kindle Fire HD to send Mrs. Dr. Phil an email saying I'd arrived safely and all. Decided to send a Proof of Life photo from the Kindle:

This is where the previously posted picture of Dr. Phil and the antennaed hostess come in -- shot on my Kindle Fire HD.
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

And by the time lunch was done, it was time to scurry off to the 2pm session.

The restaurant staff was slammed and cheerful, and the food was great. I left them a nice tip. Always want to encourage the con hotel. (satisfied-grin)

Dr. Phil

And as promised... some pictures.

So, Saturday I drove across the width of Michigan to get to Penguicon 12 for a day. Just over three hours there and just under three hours back -- I gassed in the morning at "the usual" gas station, BP in Portland at Exit 77 on I-96. For some reason, i.e. I don't know Detroit as well as I'd like, I keep thinking Southfield should be on the south side, by Dearborn or Detroit Metro Airport. Instead, it's an easy drive, I-96 to I-696 to M-10 to 10 Mile Road. The last time I was on the M-10, it was all bombed out. Now it's beautiful, new concrete. Smooth and 70 mph. That's a relief since they're usuing M-10 as a detour around a major section of I-96 they're ripping apart and rebuilding this summer.

Off the highway, cross over, make a funky pair of RIGHT turns around a triangular intersection to make a LEFT turn, and we're there.

The Westin Southfield was the con hotel. I could see it nestled between some tall buildings. The handicapped spots directly by the main entrance were full, but from the Google satellite view, I knew there were more a little further on. No problem -- except there wasn't a great ramp to get the walker up the curb.

How did I know I was at the right hotel? Easy, there's a familiar stainless steel silhouette parked out front...

Ernie Cline's Ghostbusters Back to the Future Delorean. I think there's some Buckaroo Bonzai thrown in there, too. Ernie is the author of Ready Player One. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

I eventually sent Mrs. Dr. Phil an email, as I sat down to lunch. So I decided to include a picture. It's easy to snap yourself with the Kindle Fire HD and upload to Gmail. Just as I was about to snap the picture, there was a flash of light purple behind me. The restaurant's hostess had fuzzy antennae -- I called her back and she happily joined my picture.


I am always amused that the screen can flash bright white for a flash in dim lighting. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

And the lighting WAS dim. The Westin Southfield was the darkest, most unevenly lit con hotel I've ever been in. I normally shoot the Nikon D1H with the 24-120mm f3.5-5.6G VR AF-NIKKOR at ISO 1600 in B&W mode at cons. The results are grainy, but in a way that looks like the old 35mm 1600 ASA Kodak 2475 High Speed Recording Film. But that wasn't enough. I had to boost two more stops to the HI-2 custom setting -- reminds me of the UO Unsafe Optimization setting on the FTN FORTRAN compiler for the CDC-6600 back at Northwestern -- which makes horrible color photos. Thankfully, I'm shooting black & white, and so ISO 6400 can be made to work.


Cory Doctorow waiting for his computer to boot before his noon reading. Shot wide open at 120mm f5.6 (180mm FX equivalent) and STILL I could only get 1/25th of a second shutter speed. Thankfully the D1H is stable and heavy, and the Nikon VR Vibration Reduction is pretty amazing. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

And then it was time to go home.

Backed down to ISO 200. Cline drives his Delorean all over -- note the Texas plates. I asked him if it was an original or one of the "new" ones built from leftover parts. It's an original. How does it drive? Surprisingly well. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

On the way in, the rains were pretty much gone -- 2 or 3 times I had to put the delay wipers on the lowest setting, and I had to use the washer a couple of times since the rain wasn't heavy enough to wash off the dust from newly plowed fields.

Westbound it was windy and in the 50s, but the big puffy clouds blocked the bright sun most of the time. Clear roads, little traffic.

This is about twenty minutes into the drive, so it's probably I-96 not I-696. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

I had no troubles driving and it felt good. Heck, I didn't even put on the radio all day. I am so glad I made it to Penguicon this year, even if it wasn't even for a whole day.

More anon...

Dr. Phil

We Gather Together In U.P.-like Snowfall...

For the last couple of years the local Michigan Tech alumni have gathered on a Sunday in January when Marie Catrib's opens special for us and we eat and eat amongst friends. Sunday 26 January 2014 was our day. Alas, seven months ago Marie passed (DW), but her son continues the tradition, for which we are all grateful.

I made our reservations early, because they asked for the numbers to be limited to the available seating in the main room -- last year we were at one of several tables in the deli counter area.

Steady bands of lake effect snow were falling when we got up. Overnight there had been numerous slideoffs and crashes through the area, and the roads were still slippery. Still, it looked like we'd get a break in the new snow and the winds for a couple of hours, and I figured we'd make it.

It was 6°F in Allendale as we drove east -- up to 12°F on the way home -- and as I expected, there'd been plowing and scraping of the roads so the church crowds could go to/fro. Most of the way I kept it to 40 mph or less. At Warner and 68th I started braking early, but before the part they'd sanded, so the stopping didn't start out so good. And one part of M-45 was a little squirrely. Plus the idiot who refused to comprehend the Yield part of Merge onto I-196 and I had to bail into the fortunately clear left lane so he didn't plow into me.

Warner and M-45 were both plowed fully wide. And going through Standale, I commented that this was the first time in years that the snowbanks along the road were higher than the Bravada window sills. Not quite the U.P., but closer than usual -- and just the other day there were no snow banks.

The side streets in Grand Rapids were choked with chewed up deep snow, but things weren't bad on the routes I took. This was the first outing with my new Dunham Winslow (New Balance) shoes in 10½ 6E and their more aggressive tread did well in the snowy parking lot.

Marie's!

Last year I shot the event with the infrared D100R (DW). This year, I also had a brand-new-to-me Nikon D100 Christmas present, but this one is of the more normal ROYGBIV visible light persuasion.


Class of 2003 and 1963, I believe, at our table. Geophysics and EE. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Seven month old Liam and his really cool folding high chair. Sort of like a camp stool. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Far side of the dining room. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Sorry, ate the first round before I thought to take a picture. The pasty looking thing behind the most excellent cinnamon roll is a date-filled Finnish cookie. We also had two kinds of roasted potatoes and quiche, with and without meat, other lovely savories, a Finnish pancake, sort of like a thick flan with strawberry preserves, and thin slices of lox rolled up with cream cheese, capers and onion. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


The near side of the room. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


I believe this is Marie's son. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Just part of the spread. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

Naturally, it is only now that I realize I didn't hand the camera to someone else to get our picture. (grin) Typical photographer.

Lovely, lovely event. Still haven't won a new hat in the raffle. Of course, the Alumni Office didn't send any hats, though three people will be a little warmer with two scarves and some gloves.

One Small Nit

Twice I tried to get the emcee to pause a moment for Marie, the first time he didn't hear me, though many of the alums murmured their assent. The second time he said in an aside, "That was last year." Maybe he meant they acknowledged her passing at another West Michigan Michigan Tech Alum event -- I was in the hospital. And maybe I misremembered that I had posted the news here while I was in the hospital.

I didn't push it, and dammit, now I am annoyed with myself. Yes, Marie Catrib died last year, but this was the first alumni Sunday brunch without her and they did open up again for us. So I think it would've been nice.

Still, the food and camaraderie were lovely, and ever the wonderful hostess Marie couldn't have wanted a better memorial.

Dr. Phil

All Last Week

Heavy rains. I feel like I may squish through the carpeting and have mushrooms pop up between my toes -- though today (Tuesday) it was dry and mostly sunny during the day. By Friday, it was reported that Lake Michigan rose two inches. The whole lake.


Showing area of 5"+ of rain -- centered on Allendale. Okay, so it wasn't our imagination.


We were surprised to see not just dampness along the edge of the basement, but actually puddles. Worst "flooding" in fifteen years. Towels and a fan blowing for several days now. Despite the nice day today, the soaking rains last night plus the saturation levels have kept up the damp. Dammit, it was almost dry this morning! (Click on photo for larger.)
©2013 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Thursday, the lake is forming in the neighbor's front yard. While we have some water standing amongst our pines, they pulled their trees and tried to make a lawn without raising the ground. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2013 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


The lake on Saturday. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2013 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Another view. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2013 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


While driving around on Saturday, I missed photographing the dad and his two boys further down the road -- the boys were young, but had knee high rubber boots and were stomping and wading through their lake. (grin) (Click on photo for larger.)
©2013 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

More to come.

Dr. Phil

Of Cabbages and Kings

Last Sunday, back on the 10th and the last day of Spring Break, we made my family's sweet cabbage soup. Cabbage salad later in the week. Then this Sunday is St. Patrick's Day, so Mrs. Dr. Phil made her boiled dinner. Later in the week we'll turn some of the corned beef into Reuben sandwiches with sauerkraut.

The only cabbage we're missing is some decent kimchee -- and if we went out to an Asian grocery, we could add that in the mix, too. (grin)

Serious yum.


Boiled cabbage, potatoes and corned beef. With Coleman's Mustard, horseradish sauce and ground horseradish. And the amazing Guiness brownies. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2013 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

The Merge of Spring and Winter

We still have most of the pine trees that once made these several properties a Christmas tree farm of sorts. The neighbors on either side cut down their trees to make lawns. Alas, the neighbors to the east I don't think did anything to build up the ground and so right now from the property line to their driveway is a vast lake. We get a little flooding in amongst the trees.


That's not mostly snow, but the white is a reflection off the water. This shot is from Tuesday, the neighbor's yard in the background is all water now. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2013 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

Oh, and the Kliban cat with the basketball? It's NCAA Selection Day for the big dance. March Madness, baby...

Dr. Phil

Pretty Much A Miss

If it seems that all I am blogging about is the weather, it is because my long commute dominates my weekday life. Friday afternoon and all day Saturday we were in a Winter Weather Advisory and in the middle of the lake effect snow patterns -- up to a foot. By the time I got home on Friday, the snow falling outside the garage looked to be in layers -- each layer at a different distance was falling slowly at a different angle. Neat. While there were times we were in heavy horizontal snow on Saturday, the sun came out and the snows stopped. The persistent lake effect snow bands were just south of us. The region got anywhere from 0.4" to 16" of snow -- we only got a couple of inches of light very dry snow.

But... even though every time I mention the weather someone else is really getting clobbered, the real problem around here has been the ice. And here my classes are getting a real lesson in coefficients of friction.

Saturday the temps were in the upper 20s, but dropped overnight. By midnight is was down to 9°F. 1°F at 2am. 0°F by 3am until at least 7am. Then the warm up. 16°F at 10am and 26°F Sunday afternoon. The winds and the sun dried the roads in Allendale. Pale blue skies and pale clouds that looks airbrushed with no hard edges up until about 4pm.


This shed is in the middle of the asparagus fields near 68th Avenue. When I saw it at 3:50pm, there was blue sky and you could really see the two snowmobile tracks splitting around the shed. Alas, I should ALWAYS listen to my inner artistic demon and turned around right then and there. After I did my errands at Walgreens, I came out to gray skies which ruined the look. The lack of sun cut the edges of the tracks and the darkening skies dropped the shutter speeds. Though I did shut off the engine to shoot this shot, at 300mm (450mm effective focal length in DX), the shutter speed wasn't high enough to kill the motion shake as I wanted. Still... a nice composition. But it could've been much cooler. (grin) (Click on photo for larger.)
©2013 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

Even with the above kvetching, I am consistently amazed at what I can pull out of that first generation pro sensor in the Nikon D1.

Dr. Phil

No, Prudent

While the rest of the nation is watching the northeast as two storms merge to form Snurricane Nemo and New York to Boston is supposed to "get it", the northern part of Nemo came through Michigan last night.

The irony is that yesterday, Thursday, was the first morning commute in some three weeks that I was able to drive at full posted speeds the entire way. Roads clear. It was sunny in Kalamazoo. In Grand Rapids, though, the afternoon was already picking up half a foot or more of wet heavy snow. This wasn't the dry lake effect snows we've been getting. It was near freezing and there was a lot of water content, making for slushy, slidey road conditions, plus bands of freezing rain.

K-zoo was in the 3-5" snowfall range. Our house was just south of the one-foot plus range. Our neighbor plowed our driveway twice by 10pm -- probably a good move on his part since the heavy wet snow would be tough for his little plow to work on in large scale.

But even while the sun was shining in my office yesterday afternoon, I advised my department chair that it was possible I wouldn't be driving in today. I was expecting a very long commute and on Fridays we just do a quiz in class. So I arranged to have people cover the quizzes and emailed PDFs of the quizzes to the office last night.

I was right, of course. Traffic cameras showed slow driving. I've already pushed past 2½ hours on the drive in just this week due to icy conditions. Why drive in, risking life-limb-vehicle, just to be late to a quiz and give another?

Of course the sun came out this morning and it looked all white and pretty. But I know I made the right choice.

Pictures Or It Didn't Happen


The back deck was completely clear before Thursday afternoon. And because it was warm enough, I was able to open the sliding screen door and shoot. It may not look so bad now, but the roads early this morning were coated with a thick slurry of shit. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2013 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


This morning, the snow cap on top of the heat pump was at least a foot high. With the temps in the upper 20s and bright sunshine, it had been whittled down to 6-9" by 1pm. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2013 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Rather impressed myself with getting the Nikon D1 to deal with the overblown snow highlights, even while shooting through a window screen. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2013 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Icicles forming quickly from the roof melt. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2013 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

Dr. Phil

Whatta Meal!

Just over 29 years ago we moved up to Laurium in Michigan's U.P. Yes, we moved to the Lake Superior snow belt in January. And yes, it was -10°F and they had to use a front end loader to carve out a parking space on the front lawn of the house we rented. We were at Michigan Tech from 1984-1991. At some point a woman named Marie opened a Middle Eastern deli in downtown Houghton and a Tech legend was born.

After we moved down to West Michigan, we heard that there was an amazing new place to eat at Lake and Diamond in Grand Rapids -- and it was Marie Catrib's. For the last couple of years the local Michigan Tech alumni have gathered on a Sunday in January when Marie opens her place special for us and we eat and eat amongst friends.

Today was that day.

Best new dish? There was a black bean and banana in a filo dough empanada. And a bread pudding with almonds. Savory muffins with sausage and cheese, or spinach and feta. And... and... and...

Families, friends... an alum who was signed up to Tech by his dad while he was on Midway in WWII... Thank goodness that the weather was suitable for driving!

A Different View

I grabbed a camera, but I wanted to take snow pictures with my new infrared converted Nikon D100. And what could be geekier than IR pictures at a Tech alum event?


Used onboard flash to shoot Mrs. Dr. Phil. Eyes are a little creepy. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2013 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


We were seated over at the deli counter section, just three tables, but a lot of room -- and quiet. Here's the people at the next table. One of the couples overlapped with our time at MTU. Gentleman at the right and I had a discussion about near versus far infrared (past 1000nm), which the CCD doesn't really cover. On the other hand, I don't have to cool the camera in liquid nitrogen either. (double-exposure-grin) (Click on photo for larger.)
©2013 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


The main seating area. I hoped to win a new Tech hat in the raffle, but alas, we struck out. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2013 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


On the way out, I shot my driveway -- base exposure was a little off. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2013 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Much better exposure of some piled up snow in the near infrared. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2013 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

Still playing with the type of false color -- or even just drained of color to black & white -- that I like.

Dr. Phil