Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

Been Scarce With Updates

You'd think that with the holidays I'd have more time for blogging on LJ/DW, and I have a number of things I need to blog about, but this year we once again traveled down to Greensboro NC to visit my mom. That's two days of driving down and two back, plus the days spent in G'boro. Plus the day we delayed after Christmas to allow Winter Storm Euclid to slide on south of us through Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia. That was a day delay well spent -- other than a couple of flakes we saw in the last hours of the drive home, and I do mean flakes, we had decent driving weather.

The New Semester and Such

Classes began on Monday the seventh. Once again teaching two classes -- PHYS-1070 Elementary Physics (for the 26th time) and PHYS-2050 University Physics I (for the 22nd time). About a hundred in the one and seventy-five in the other. In 1110 Rood, the "regular" Physics lecture hall, which has railings along the stairs, which are a big help. (grin)

It's funny how we get into routines and rhythms. Last two semesters I taught, I had classes at noon and 1pm. This time it's 10am and 1pm. (1) I have to get up earlier -- ugh. Haven't done a 6am wakeup every day in a couple of years, it takes some getting used to, especially since my "perfect" timing has me going to bed at 4am. (evil grin) (2) The last two semesters I'd finish my two classes and have my lunch about 2pm. So... why is it that my Pavlovian response to leaving my first class at 11am is that I'm hungry? And I can barely "make it" to noon before I get out my sandwich? We are such creatures of habit.

At least I now have a handicapped parking hangtag, so I don't have to walk from across most of the Lot 61 when I get in.

Gas Prices

Gas fell down to $3.18.9/gal for regular the other day. AND we had another grocery store 50¢/gal discount coupon, which miraculously Mrs. Dr. Phil was able to use to fill the Bravada with on Monday morning -- before gas shot up to $3.38.9/gal. For once the discount coupon didn't go to make up the price jump. (supreme evil grin)

I was looking at my blog entries from early 2012 last night and I was screaming NO-OOOOOO! as the gasoline pundits were predicting $4 and $5 gas by the summer. Saying such things aloud gives them carte blanche to go ahead and do it, don't you know? So today they said that we were unlikely to have $4 gasoline through about June. Don't worry, some excuse will come along to ruin the summer vacation driving season.

A Pleasant Review

Yesterday I had a few minutes before class to kill, so Googled myself looking for reviews of my stories. Found one from November by a Hungarian blogger named Bogi (Boglárka) Takács, for my story "End Run" on Giganotosaurus. I really enjoyed her review, because she "got it" in terms of what I am trying to do with my military SF stories.

I thought this would be one of those "we are trying to emulate Golden Age SF" stories which I find deathly boring, but it wasn't. Instead of the glorious space military yadda yadda, it was surprisingly slice-of-life, and the plot revolved around an engineering mishap. I found that so refreshing! Yes, things go wrong - sometimes in really mundane ways, but still with spectacular (and horrifying) results. Space SF either tries to be blandly perfect or absurdly gritty, it's always good to see a story that manages to present a more balanced and realistic future.

Imagine my surprise when Jim C. Hines mentioned Bogi Takács' blog in his updated Hugo Best Fan Writer nominations musings. And the World-SF blog also wrote today about looking beyond North American borders for the Hugo Best Fan Writer noms. I've added Takács to my Blogger reader.

It's a small world out there. Big, and small.

Dr. Phil

My Christmas Present

Last June I posted a couple of test pictures taken with the Nikon D1 and an infrared filter (DW). The Tiffen Wratten No. 87 Series VIII filter I used didn't actually have a proper adapter -- I had it jammed into a Nikon HR-1 rubber lens hood and screwed into the 52mm filter mount of a 24mm f2.8 AI-converted Nikkor. The second problem is that the IR cutoff filter mounted over the CCD sensor blocks most of the infrared light, so when you block the visible light, you get very long exposures and can't see anything through the viewfinder. Which makes using a tripod a pain, because you have to keep taking the IR filter on and off.

I had thoughts of buying an extra Nikon D1X body and shipping it to Lifepixel for conversion to fulltime IR photography. Wasn't going to happen immediately, because it would cost about $200 for a good camera plus about $300 for the conversion.

However, right around Christmas I was cruising eBay and found an incredibly clean looking Nikon D100 that had already had a 700nm IR conversion done. The last owner had bought it used and shot about 1500 pictures. He wondered who had done the conversion, because he felt that they had gone ahead and adjusted the autofocus for IR work, at least with the lenses he was using.

Well, I'm back in the office, the box was opened, batteries loaded and I slapped a 28-80mm f3.5-5.6D AF Nikkor on the D100 and took a couple of pictures inside and out. If there was any question that this was an IR job, the fact that a black hat in sunshine in my office came out "white" pretty much convinced me. (grin)

Here's one of the outdoors shots with a quick-and-dirty hue and saturation adjustment -- the original photos, like the ones last June, start off looking dark red:

False color infrared picture on WMU campus looking north from Everett-Rood. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2013 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

For me, the D100 was a selling point. I've seen some D70 and D90 conversions for sale. But the D100 was (a) the consumer camera that was contemporary with the D1 series and has a similar 6MP CCD sensor and (b) was built on the same Nikon F80 film camera chassis that Kodak used for the DCS Pro SLR/n that I already have, so the camera was a known quantity. The unit also came with the MB-D100 battery pack, which adds a tray that can take a Li-ion battery (one NOT in common with the D1s) or AA's. Given that I am likely to use an infrared camera occasionally, not having to keep batteries charged is a plus. And I can use the same Compact Flash memory cards as my other Nikons.

So... more later when I have time -- and suitable weather -- to play.

Dr. Phil

Day Off Or Work Day?

WMU and most Michigan schools start classes tomorrow -- it's Labor Day. The year I worked at Hope College, a private Christian college, we were surprised that classes were held on Labor Day. We had West Michigan Whitecaps tickets -- Mrs. Dr. Phil went to the baseball game by herself. I think it had something to do with not supporting communism.

This past year I've been a member of a union -- the part-time instructors at WMU managed to organize and get a contract with very little trouble. We weren't expecting big changes, but for senior instructors like myself -- I've spent most of the last twenty years at WMU -- a few things have gotten easier. Hell, I don't have to stand in line with students and get a new temporary parking pass every semester, I have an annual hang tag now.

But there was a time when unions were a dangerous thing to start and work conditions and pay were brutal. 2012 isn't 1912 or even 1812. We have a good life or at least a potential for a good life.

My good friend Jim Wright has posted a thoughtful discussion on whether we're better off now than we were a hundred years ago. Jim doesn't pull punches.

We had a pleasant day -- recovering from WorldCon -- if you had a pleasant day, too, well done. There's a lot to be thankful for on Labor Day.

Dr. Phil

Tuesday 5 June 2012

We were scheduled to have the Transit of Venus at sunset on Tuesday. After the weather disaster of the solar eclipse (DW), it was nice to see a sunny forecast for Tuesday. Er... a partly cloudy forecast. Partly cloudy with a chance of rain in the evening. Finally, part cloudy. Ah, weather forecasting. (grin)

Driving in to K-zoo late on Tuesday morning was spectacular -- at least for the veritable parade of fluffy little clouds scooting across the sky with wispy whiteness in some of the bright blue interstitial areas. Not great for transit watching, perhaps, but that wasn't for hours. When I got to the office, I had the ersatz fisheye lens, so did some shots of the sky. Note that there is no way to attach any filters to the Sigma 12mm f8 Fish-eye, and one certainly can't put a polarizer on that huge domed front element, so I messed with the contrast and brightness to mimic some of the lovely sky I was seeing with my polarized sun glasses.


Noontime, East towards Rood Hall and Everett Tower. (Click on photo for larger.)


North. (Click on photo for larger.)


Northwest. (Click on photo for larger.)


Southwest. (Click on photo for larger.)

When I came out at five o'clock, it had changed somewhat, but still had me a bit worried. Now the transit was scheduled to start for West Michigan around 6pm, with sunset around 9pm, and Venus appears as just a small dot against the sun, so we're not going to see some dramatic eclipse type darkening. And I could take some light hazy clouds at sunset, too. Just not big ones.


Northwest at 5pm. The high white blob is the overexposed sun in cloud. (Click on photo for larger.)

On the way home, I ended up driving under a big dark cloud, but it cleared up a lot by 8pm. So I certainly got some dramatic cloud shots already -- next up was the sunset.

Dr. Phil

The Weather Breaks

After a week of temps that got into the 80s and nearly 90°F, the weather over the next week or so will have highs in the 60s and low 70s. Ah-hhh. And today we're to have some rain. That actually isn't bad. Last night driving home the traffic reports included several grass fires around Sparta. And the rain had another benefit -- the no-so-cold winter meant that my windshield was covered in bug glop. Now it's clean again. (grin)

But Then...

When I got to work, I discovered a sign between the two elevators saying that they were both out of order. In a six-story office building. Fortunately, my office is on the second floor. Unfortunately, this leg nerve makes stairs a pain. So since I had my rolling cart from the parking lot, I rolled back across the way into Rood Hall and to the back where Rood's huge but slow service elevator lurked. One of our middle-aged custodians was in the elevator -- she looked beat. She'd already hiked up and back to the 6th floor of Everett once already. Unfortunately, Rood is only three stories above ground, so the Rood service elevator can only get you up to Three.

And I made a nice little discovery for future reference. There's a Unisex bathroom on the first floor of Rood, so I was able to do that and have my little cart with me inside, instead of having to wait until I made it all the way back to Everett.

Eventually when I went to class, I found the big lecture hall to be hot and humid and no airflow. I figured the system realized that it was cooler out and figured we didn't need no stinkin' air conditioning.

At two, after my second class, I was in a bathroom on the first floor of Everett before tackling the stairs, when the lights went out. From a conversation I heard from the hallway, they'd cut out the lighting circuits to reduce the load. And the AC had been shut off all day. An electrical connection between Rood and Everett had been the original problem which took out the elevators and now they were shutting off systems and putting Everett on an emergency backup generator. Hence still being able to type and get an Internet connection.

I thought I heard maintenance people in the hallway about half an hour ago discussing elevators, so maybe by the time I need to get out of here, I won't have to do things the complicated way. (emergency-backup-detoured-grin)

Dr. Phil

Friday 2 March 2012

While the rest of the world embraces the Friday workday, I shall be at home. You see, at Western Michigan University, it's Spirit Day. Originally a day off for Homecoming, a few years ago Spirit Day was moved from Fall to Spring (i.e. Winter) Semester in order to load balance the holidays. And they tacked it on to the Friday before Spring Break.

So... Western's students get to celebrate their school spirit by, uh, leaving campus?

Still scratching my head over this one. But after I send Mrs. Dr. Phil off to work, I'll probably go back to bed and catch up on the sleep I've lost with exams this week.

Dr. Phil

Primary Day In Michigan

There are bluish skies overhead and sun. No appreciable reason for Michigan voters not to go to the polls today. Obviously, there's a lot of national interest in the Michigan Republican Presidential Primary, especially as Mitt Romney claims to be a native son. But actually, there's a Democratic Presidential Primary as well. There are news stories that some Democratic nitwit is trying to organize Democrats into voting in the Republican primary, to influence the opposition, but like herding cats, there are different arguments as to who they should support. Mostly there are attempts to throw it for Santorum, given how close the polls have been and to embarrass Romney. Give it a rest, folks. Don't mess with other people's primaries. There's enough election shenanigans as it is, and stooping to crapping on your neighbor's lawn isn't very becoming.

I noticed that at Allendale's polling place, there was a Free Coffee station set up by the YES For Allendale people -- the only issue on the ballot that wasn't the primary. Yes, the YES people were more than 100 feet away from any of the church's doors. They looked to be having a good time standing around in the coolish sun and serving coffee to a couple of folks. Should've taken a picture, but I wanted to make it in to the office as soon as I could.

My political forecast of the day? I think Barack Obama will take the Democratic primary. (grin) All other bets are off. (double-think-grin)

Exam 2 Part One

There's a fine line during the morning hours between being able to get a parking spot in WMU Lot 61 and finding nothing. Today there was nothing. When I finally got a spot, it was at the far end of the lot -- the longest I've had to walk since I injured my leg nerve. Sigh.

My PHYS-1070 Elementary Physics class had their second exam today. I'd sent PDFs on to the department secretary late last night, so the copies were already waiting for me. I have to say, that though I am worried about a number of people, I was also pleased with the questions that some students brought to me and the fact that they can do this stuff, even if they don't think they can. Results should be interesting.

Even better, I think I had nearly everyone here, so there won't be too many makeups.

Exam 2 Part Two

My PHYS-1000 How Things Work class is supposed to have their second exam tomorrow at noon. There will be an exam written. The PDF will be sent to the department. Whether it gets copied, or whether I get in, or whether anyone will be there to proctor the exam, or anyone gets in to take it -- I can't say at this point. We've a major ice storm coming in, starting sometime after 10pm tonight and running all day Wednesday. The commute will either just be wet, a wet mess, a wet and slippery mess, or an OMG WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE sort of road conditions.

Expect all the schools to be closed. Whether it's bad in Kalamazoo and Western "We Claim We Never Close Even Though We Do" Michigan University closes, I can't say. If Western does close, then we won't have the second exam before Spring Break -- which means it won't be a part of the Mid-Term grading. Oh well. And if the exam IS given, I don't know how many people will need makeups.

For all that today went well, tomorrow could be really stupid.

Sigh.

Speaking Of Stupid

Gas prices shot up 25 cents a gallon or so last week and another twenty cents yesterday. Up to $3.85.9/gal for regular this morning. Current rise is still being attributed to fear and no real changes in the marketplace. More or less. Still people talking about five dollar gas this summer -- and four dollars by Easter.

Reminds me that I should get gas in Wayland on the way home, so that I don't have to take time to get it in the morning...

Sigh.

Dr. Phil

Today Is Blue

But much of January has been overcast. I've wanted a nice blue sky to test the Nikon D1. I know that the first generation CCD sensor tends towards blowing out the highlights. But really, we've had a lot of pictures of gray, gray, gray --like Friday (DW):


Yup. Gray. (Click on photo for larger.)

Even on nice days, we kept getting sunny with monochromatic non-blue skies (DW):


The Amazing Monochromatic Winter Color Scene -- Supersized For Your Enjoyment (Click on photo for larger.)

It's not as if there wasn't any sun, but:


Bright bland sky + backlit = overblown highlights. Just as predicted on the Nikon D1. (Click on photo for larger.)

and


Wan blue sky -- gold late afternoon light is nice, but not what I wanted. (Click on photo for larger.)

So Wednesday we actually got the sun and clear blue sky I could test as I left the office at 5pm:


(Click on photo for larger.)

And the next day:


Thursday, it was still sunny and blue skies. No, this isn't some sort of fisheye shot...


... it's actually the reflection off the Blazer's back window. Chevy had to do some work the other day and they washed it for once. Couldn't miss that great expanse of gleaming glass. (Click on photo for larger.)

So blue skies work. Check off another test.

Dr. Phil

The Snow Arrived

It wasn't the largest snowfall we've ever gotten, not by a long shot. And pretty much it looked at 7am like it did at around 2:30am, so it didn't snow ALL night at our house. But it was fluffy and wet -- and a good 6-8" sitting on top of a freezing slushy/ice mix.

Backing out of the garage into the turnaround, I tried not to make too tight a turn, but then had to stop and pull forward and make the turn again. Except I wasn't really going anywhere. This was in 4WD, mind. It took a bit of maneuvering back and forth, but eventually I pulled back uphill onto what would be the concrete pad if it wasn't buried and tried again, this time without too much trouble.

The next hurdle was getting out of the driveway. It looked like the tire tracks from Mrs. Dr. Phil's Bravada stopped at the ridge of plow shit, so I guess she didn't have too much trouble. I had to back up and make a (slow) run at it in order to get out. Took 84th Avenue, rather than go on to 68th -- not quite a mistake, but very lumpy and it hadn't been plowed in a long time, so it was only 1½ lanes wide. Fortunately the big truck coming my way turned before I had to drive into the snowy shoulder and the oncoming school bus was in a section that was nearly 2 lanes wide. No problems.

M-45 into Allendale was very rough and uneven, perhaps 25mph in the country, but in town they'd used a lot more salt. The freeways were in good shape. Yeah, there was a questionable thin glaze of salted water, slush and ice, but between 4WD and a slightly more modest 60mph speed that everyone was comfortable, not too bad.

Eventually I made it to Kalamazoo, which was in fog and snow. Campus parking lot hadn't had extensive plowing, as per usual. But I got here. Yay. Running time was about 2½ hours to drive 67 miles, but that included filling the gas tank and a 20 minute bathroom break in Wayland. Still, the normal run, including such stops, is under 1½ hours.

So is this the new norm for this winter? Or the anomaly? We'll see...

Dr. Phil

Sabbatical 1.36 Report -- December 2011

In the last month since I reported on my sabbatical progress (DW), I managed just 10 submissions. All told I made 112 submissions since the 29th of July. 1 sale (DW) to the Rocket Science anthology. Plus an Honorable Mention and a Silver Honorable Mention (DW) from Writers of the Future.

I had five new stories to add to my Invenstory in 2011 -- three of them during my sabbatical. Though that's not a record for new stories, but it is a huge record for total new submissions. I even added fourteen new markets to the mix.

Did I accomplish my goals for not quite half a year? We-elllll, no. Not really. But there were a lot of extenuating circumstances -- things that I could take the time to deal with without leaving either students or job in the lurch. I came up with a new workflow for getting stories out. I'm going to call this a win.

And you know? I may be teaching two classes this winter, but I manage to find time to write. And I have a lot of notes for new stories and I have that new novel to work on.

It's 2012 and I already have three new submissions. And no new rejections. Not bad considering how many editors and slush readers were working over the holidays. (grin) Can't sell if don't submit. (double-grin)

Dr. Phil