Jeff Carlson (.Thought)

Hectic, but Calming

Belly, 37 Weeks
Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson

Where to begin? My life has been dual-focused lately: either working on getting a book done, or preparing for baby. I want to take a month off from work when the baby arrives, but to do that I need to throw myself into this book project so it's not hanging over my head when I'm dealing with (more) sleep deprivation, diapers, and the Whole Thing.

I've been fortunate in the past that if a project slips behind schedule, it's possible to renegotiate the deadline. (The lesson I've learned over the years: you can work around slippage, but make sure you tell your editor/publisher/boss/whomever early. Communication goes a long way.) With Roo (our temporary name for the baby), the deadline is going to be whenever the baby decides it's time to arrive. Baby's not going to wait just because I need to wrap up a chapter.

We're in the stage where labor could start at any time, so I'm simultaneously freaked-out, waiting on pins and needles, busy as hell, and yet starting to get oddly calm. The notion of being an active father, versus a theoretical father, is seeping through my brain. Am I completely ready? Hell no. But that seems to be the default mode from here on out anyway.

This could be my last blog-surface until I have a chance to report on baby news. Until then, I've got work to do!

Accessing My Home Music Library with Simplify Media

When Apple first added the capability to share an iTunes library with other iTunes users on the network, my friend David Blatner loved the fact that he could sit on his porch at home with his laptop and stream music located on his computer at work. The Internet is just a big network, after all. At the time, I didn't really care because all the music I needed was already on my laptop.

Unfortunately, Apple locked down the Internet sharing aspect in a subsequent release, so now you can only share over a local network. That's what I do at home: my entire music library lives on an external hard drive connected to my old PowerBook G4, and I carry a (still large) subset of it on my MacBook Pro.

Recently I was introduced to Simplify Media, a utility for Mac OS X or Windows that opens a connection between two machines, no matter where they are connected to the Internet, and enables you to stream music within iTunes (or Winamp). You set up a free account with Simplify Media and run their software on each computer you want to make accessible. Specify your music folder, log in, and forget.

When you launch iTunes with Simplify Media running, your machines show up in the Share category of iTunes' left column. Click one and you'll see your library as if it were loaded onto your computer's hard drive.

Now, when I get a hankering to hear a specific song or artist that isn't on my MacBook Pro, I can tap into the big library at home. It is almost time to start listening to holiday music, which I hate to add to my computer and then remove in January to make room for other music.

Chocolate Typographic Goodness

This appeals to me on so many levels that I can barely stand it: http://typolade.de/ .

Amazon Ad Wording

From what I understand (and after watching my niece for a few hours over the weekend), you just have to wait a while to find out what was in baby.

Even More Autumn

I'm utterly swamped with deadlines and home renovation, but I snuck some photos of autumn leaves near where I parked at the office today. (Click to view the larger version)

I Love Autumn

Sunrise 09-Oct-07
Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson

Caffeine Nap

I need to try this soon:

Scientists say that a successful midday nap depends on two things: timing and (no kidding) caffeine consumption. Experiments performed at Loughborough University in the UK showed that the sleep-deprived need only a cup of coffee and 15 minutes of shut-eye to feel amazingly refreshed.

coffee?
Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson

(From Wired, via Lifehacker)

Sputnik at 50

Great article by Vladimir Isachenkov about the origins of Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the Earth. Turns out that the whole thing was an improvised fluke (with exceedingly far-reaching implications):

But 50 years later, it emerges that the momentous launch was far from being part of a well-planned strategy to demonstrate communist superiority over the West. Instead, the first artificial satellite in space was a spur-of-the-moment gamble driven by the dream of one scientist, whose team scrounged a rocket, slapped together a satellite and persuaded a dubious Kremlin to open the space age.

And that winking light that crowds around the globe gathered to watch in the night sky? Not Sputnik at all, as it turns out, but just the second stage of its booster rocket, according to Boris Chertok, one of the founders of the Soviet space program.

Helvetica Coffee Mug

Love love love love love this:

(Found via the excellent swiss miss)

Hobbies

This short film is great: all about the frustration that hobbies can bring. (Better quality QuickTime version here, but it might not stay at that URL, so I've linked to the YouTube version below.)

Coffee Drinks Illustrated

This is a great, simple-to-understand diagram of popular coffee drinks: Coffee Drinks Illustrated. Click to view the whole thing.

This would make a great poster.

Moo.com Stickers!

This is so very cool. Moo.com, the company that offers small business cards and postcards that you create with your own photos, has just started offering stickers. I have nieces and nephews who are crazy about stickers. A book of 90 costs $10 (plus shipping, but that's free during July), which is no doubt pricey for stickers in general. But these contain whatever images you want.

Qwest Is My Hero Today

More specifically, Wayne B. from Qwest is my hero today.

For my Internet access at home, I use Speakeasy as my DSL provider. They've consistently been great, and I've had occasion to test them. Although I subscribe to their 768 kbps data plan, they've needed to throttle back my account in order to keep a persistent connection. It wasn't ideal, but it worked. Finally, though, it just seemed like my Internet at home was getting slower, or I was just getting impatient. (Writing about the Apple TV was especially painful when waiting waiting waiting to download movies and TV shows to test.)

So, I finally resolved to call Speakeasy and see what could be done, and if necessary, consider alternatives such as cable (which would likely mean Comcast, ew). A tech there had me connect my DSL modem directly into the phone box at the side of the house, which showed no speed bottleneck. Hooray! But that meant the problem was in my house's internal wiring. Boo.

Fortunately, I've had Qwest's line-checking service on my bill for months and months, so this was time to put it into effect. I set up an appointment (a block between 1 pm and 5 pm today).

You won't believe this, but Wayne showed up at 1:00. Maybe it was 12:55. (Our house is hard to find based on its street number, so most people get lost.) After touring the house and locating the phone jacks, the problem became pretty apparent: old wiring was interfering with the signal. The solution was to isolate the main portions (DSL, phone, and security system) using a new little switchbox so that everything worked just fine but kept the DSL line separated. Not only did this approach improve the DSL speed, it's all now much cleaner. I'm sure that if another Qwest person needs to access our phone box, it will be a hundred times easier to grok what's going on.

All the while, I shadowed Wayne as he explained everything. Not to the point where I can go out and reconnect or reconfigure things, but enough that I have a rough topology of what's going where. If Wayne ever tires of working in the field (which I doubt), he's the guy who should be instructing the next-generation techs coming up.

So, thank you Wayne, thank you Dustin at Speakeasy, and by extension high marks today to both Qwest and Speakeasy.

Behind the Scenes of Cool Sprint Ad

At the movie theater the other night, I saw a really cool ad for Sprint. What appear to be lots of people with flashlights draw all sorts of images, from flowers to giant fish to picture frames and more, all animated using stop-motion photography so that the flashlight beams meld together to create the shapes. You can view the ad here:

Well, it turns out that what you see is exactly what it is. The effects aren't computer-generated; they were created over a period of four nights by people with flashlights. The making-of video is really cool:

How to Purchase My Photos

Speaking of photos, the last post - plus a query from a friend - prompted me to point out that you can now purchase some of my photos, as either prints or fully framed. I wrote an article last year about printing photos for the Seattle Times (see the blog post here), and one of the companies I looked at was Seattle-based ImageKind. I set up a store for testing and then largely forgot about it as I moved on to other projects.

I've now added a few more photos to it, thanks to a recent deal between ImageKind and Flickr that makes it easy to have prints made of your photographs. The print quality is excellent, and the prices seem reasonable considering that you're getting custom framing done and shipped to you. Plus, they offer a "no questions asked" return policy if you don't like the end result.

And if you do purchase one, email me and let me know how it turned out!

More Local Photo Exposure

  Eagle Grid 
  Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson.

Metroblogging Seattle featured my photo Eagle Grid on their site today.

Seattle loves me.

Okay, two Seattle blogs love me.

All right, two Seattle blogs have liked a couple of my photos that I posted at their Flickr groups.

Still.

In other photo news, I shot hundreds of pictures at the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival on Thursday. I posted a handful that I picked out quickly, but I haven't had a chance to really go through them all. It's the usual: lots of so-so, several really bad, and a few good photos in the bunch.

And in other news news, I'm on an insane deadline right now, not as far along as I'd like, so I expect to sleep little this week.

My Apple TV Review at Seattle Times

Instead of a regular Practical Mac column this week, I reviewed the Apple TV: Computer, television learning to get along.

Despite my few reservations, the Apple TV is compelling because Apple has done the living room right. The quality of the experience stands out the most, supported by the overall polish and attention to detail ranging from the easy navigation to the drifting photo screensaver that kicks into gear to prevent screen burn-in on plasma displays.

Another Photo Featured on a Seattle Blog

  Dew 
  Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson.

Metroblogging Seattle featured my photo "Dew" on their site Thursday as visual accompaniment to a blog post.

Metroblogging Seattle is one of a few Seattle-specific sites I track via an RSS news reader (I use NetNewsWire for Mac). As with Seattlest—where one of my photos appeared a couple of weeks ago—the site created a Flickr group where locals can post photos for the blog's readers to view. By posting you agree that the blog can use them for editorial purposes, which seems to be a nice trade-off: the blog gets a ready supply of photography for free, and the photographers get a bit of exposure and the capability to brag like I'm doing here.

New: Photoshop Elements 5 VQS!

Okay, this is a bit belated, but I've been busy. My last big deadline in January was a bit of a departure for me: a book about a Windows program. Toward the end of last year, my editor at Peachpit Press asked if I'd be interested in updating an existing book. The original author wasn't able to do the update due to other commitments, and since I didn't have a big project on my plate at the time, I said yes.

The result is Photoshop Elements 5: Visual QuickStart Guide, now on sale at Amazon.com for just $14.95. From the blurb:

Newly updated to cover Photoshop Elements 5, it details the hottest new features: new advanced color and lighting controls, new customizable layouts, Flash-based web photo galleries, the new Flipbook feature, which lets you string together a series of still photos to create an eye-catching and fun flipbook, and the ability to download and edit photos directly from your mobile phone or handheld device. Both beginning and advanced users will find what they need here--in straightforward language and with readily accessible examples.

I credit Craig Hoeschen for making my job much easier. In addition to performing an update polish of everything throughout, my main contributions were to rearrange the material to better match Adobe's new focus in Elements toward being a photo organizer and less as "Photoshop Lite" (though they didn't rip out any of the features).

Newborn Hair

  Newborn Hair 
  Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson.

Congratulations to our friends Agen and Parie, who now have a third person living in their house!

Espressomap

Oooooh: espressomap is a simple site that uses Google Maps to identify excellent espresso venues in North America. Type your zip code to find out what's near you!

Both Sides of Valentine's Day

I've run across two Valentine's Day sweets today, hitting both ends of the V-Day spectrum:

Ags tells me I need to go Cupcake Royale for the Deathcake Royale, a death-by-chocolate cupcake "made with Theo's organically grown, dark Madagascar & Venezuelan single origin chocolates, Stumptown's bold Sumatra coffee beans, and a chocolaty cupcake love so intense, this chocolate concoction just might be illegal."

And for those who aren't as enamored of the holiday, but still love candy, Karen points to Bittersweets, which, "(l)ike the ubiquitous candy 'conversation' hearts... are made of flavored, chalky-tasting sugar and sport a message on their face. But unlike other candy hearts, ours are stamped with bitter musings and mockeries perfectly suited to the dejected spirits of those who will spend the holiday alone, or wishing they were."

Top 10 Flickr Hacks

I'm a big fan of the photo-sharing site Flickr, where you can view my latest pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffcarlson/. Flickr has an open API, which means developers can create their own applications that tie into the Flickr service. One example is FlickrExport, which I use to upload photos directly from iPhoto to my Flickr stream. On the Thomas Hawk Digital Connection blog, Thomas lists his Top 10 Hacks on Flickr, which are all very cool.

Truth and Meaning in WSJ Article

My friend Glenn made a PDF of the Wall Street Journal article in which I appear ("Now on DVD: Holiday Cards"), so I was able to read it even though I'm not a WSJ subscriber. It's an amusing overview of people who are sending DVDs with a bit of information on how to do it.

What I find interesting is how the writer, Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, took some factual information and spun it in a way that isn't quite true. When I was driving downtown this morning and my wife was reading the article out loud (I had only printed it out), we both got a chuckle from the second paragraph (emphasis mine):

Jeff Carlson, 36, a freelance graphic designer in Seattle, burned his own holiday DVD two years ago. "We wanted to do something really snazzy and different that would let whoever's receiving it spend a little bit more time with what we sent, rather than skimming a letter and throwing it away," he explains.

But he estimates that he spent five hours picking photos and shooting fresh video footage, another 20 hours editing the videos, and about six hours burning the 20 discs he sent to family and friends. All for a five-minute DVD, which cost him $100 to produce. He hasn't made another holiday DVD since.

Although technically correct, that last sentence makes it sound like the experience put me off from ever making a holiday DVD again. The truth is that last year we were out of the country at the end of the year, and this year I've been swamped with work. And, also, because we took a big vacation last year, we haven't done much this year that would be interesting enough to put into a DVD.

I'm not upset about the wording. One of the things I wanted to convey was that it isn't a quick and easy project (although I thought it would be; see the TidBITS article I wrote about the experience). But in one sentence Tan neatly summarized that idea while also implying motives that aren't accurate.

The moral of the story? I'm in the freakin' Wall Street Journal!

iTunes Smart Playlist Adventure

I almost always listen to music via iTunes while I'm working, but I do find myself gravitating to the handful of recent albums purchased. At some point I created a Smart Playlist that shows me music that hasn't played during the past year. It's a nice eclectic mix of tunes, with 121 items covering 9 hours. It's what I turn to when I need to unshackle my brain a bit. Here's what's currently on deck:

"Sub Oslo Vs. Bookshelf Speakers," Sub Oslo
"Hush, Hush, Hush," Paula Cole
"It Could Be Sweet," Portishead
"Seven Days," Sting
"Of Thee I Sing (Alternate Take)," Stan Getz
"Distance Between," Mark Thibideau
"Coming In To Land," Badly Drawn Boy
"Gone!," The Cure
"Your Song," Ewan McGregor
"Philadelphia Freedom," Elton John

And here's the Smart Playlist that makes it happen. (In iTunes, choose New Smart Playlist from the File menu, or Option-click the plus-sign button in the lower-left corner.) It tells iTunes to grab songs not played in the last year, and excludes podcasts, movies, and radio stations (kind does not contain "stream"). I may see if I can power through the entire nine hours over the next few days, and see how many other songs come up on the one-year mark.

I Finally Made CARS

No, not the Pixar movie. I'm "quoted" in an article at Crazy Apple Rumors Site:

According to a report by Radar Online, Apple has decided to drop Justin Long, the actor who plays the Mac in the “I’m a Mac” ad campaign.

The news left the Macintosh community stunned.

It then left it in denial.

And then angry.

And finally itchy.

“Well, this is just great,” said TidBITS managing editor Jeff Carlson. “Now how am I supposed to anthropomorphize my Mac? Apple has left its entire user base in the lurch.”

Sighing heavily, Carlson said “Well… I guess I could just go back to thinking of it as Jennifer Connolly. There wasn’t anything wrong with that, if you know what I mean.”

Espresso Machine from Bomb Shells

Okay, enough about me and my progress on conquering all media. Let's get back to the important stuff: coffee! Specifically, a man in Ethiopia who converts old weapon shells into espresso machines: "From weapons of war to great coffee". I love this on so many levels that my head is spinning (or maybe that's from the doppio I polished off a few minutes ago).

But Mr Azmeraw says it can be difficult to convince people to buy because of the mortar shell.

"These shells have all been used. We all need peace and we don't want war but once these shells have been used, we should use our skills to do something with them.

"Sometimes I think about the fact they were used for war but I want to change them to do something good. They could be a symbol of war but I am doing something good out of the bad."

(Spotted at boingboing.net.)

Authors on the celebrity circuit

So, after I appeared in the Seattle Times yesterday, I got an email from my father who points out that my officemate Kim Ricketts appears in today's edition: "Authors on the celebrity circuit". The article is about the types of literary events that she puts on, where an author comes to town and speaks to private groups at Starbucks or Microsoft (like the Al Gore event last week). Naturally, that's countered with the notion that somehow these events are going to put traditional bookstores out of business. Third Place Books manager Robert Sindelar takes that role, saying:

But Sindelar insists that a large part of his business is attracting people like Winters, who might not otherwise make their way to a bookstore after work. "If we can get them to our parking lot just once — that's the hard part — then we can give them the experience of being in a bookstore, which they're not going to get anywhere else," he says. A high-profile author like Albom is the best way to lure those "unlikely bookstore people" into his store.

I love a good bookstore as much as the next person, but one problem is that "the experience of being in a bookstore" often varies considerably. Will the staff be responsive or surly? If I'm listening to an author, will I be able to hear him over the sound of the people milling around but not part of the event? Will I have a place to sit down?

The problem I see with this dichotomy is that booksellers seem stuck in the mindset that everything is against them, that every new approach to selling books is an intentional jab at closing bookstores. Rather than making an effort to advance with the times and do something innovative to sell books, they retreat into a defensive posture, claim that everyone is out to get them, and moan that people just don't appreciate the "bookstore experience."

Well, times change, and you need to change with them. If you want big-ticket authors to take the time out of their book tours to come to your venue, make it worthwhile for the author, and make it worthwhile for the reader. Unfortunately, Sindelar doesn't appear to get it:

But Sindelar insists that, when it comes to buying and selling books, "There's a philosophical issue to consider: Is there a substitute for walking in to a bookstore? Is there a substitute for experiencing the physical book, browsing a few titles, rubbing shoulders with other book lovers, picking up books by authors you wouldn't have heard of?"

"I don't know," he says. "But I hope not."

Yes, there are lots of alternatives, and people are taking advantage of them. If I know I want to buy a certain book, it's often easier (and cheaper) to order it from Amazon. Sindelar paints a nice picture of the bookstore experience, but it's a romantic notion that fewer people have the opportunity to experience. The fact that he doesn't appear to know about the alternatives, even in a philosophical sense, tells me that he's not willing to accept the present and future.

Al Gore at Starbucks HQ

Smiling Al Gore
Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson.

I broke away from the office for a few hours Tuesday afternoon to catch an appearance by former Vice President Al Gore at Starbucks headquarters. He was in town to give his Keynote (not PowerPoint; I know, Mac geek) presentation on global warming the night before, and made a book-signing visit to talk to Starbucks.

Like millions of other people, I'd love to see him run for President. The man who spoke today was amusing and inspiring, the closest I've seen to a Jeb Bartlett (the fictional president from the West Wing) in real life, with the experience and intelligence to back it up.

What I found surprising, however, wasn't the man—it was the crowd. After his talk and a rich, but short, Q&A session, he proceeded to sign more than 600 books over the course of the next hour. So, understand that things moved at a brisk clip. However, some people barely reacted to the fact that he was sitting less than a foot away. They shoved cameras in his face to get pictures (my shots were taken from across the room with my camera's decent zoom); one woman put a fake yellow bird on his shoulder before taking a picture; and several people mugged with cameras, without even acknowledging his presence.

Gore was extremely accommodating and gracious, and I can't help but marvel that this is what it's like for him every time he does a public event.

Making a Model

This has been linked quite a bit in the past week, but I want to add my own extra bit. Go watch this short (<1 minute) video that demonstrates a beautiful but normal woman at a photo shoot being made up (in real life and in Photoshop) for a billboard ad.

Then, go check out my friend Jennifer's organization About-Face to learn more about what it means to be beautiful.

My Inner 7th Grader

My inner 7th grader read this Seattlest post and let out a big obnoxious laugh (you have to follow the link on that page).

Sometimes that inner 7th grader just needs to get out.

Distraction

This cartoon neatly summarizes what my life has been like the last couple of weeks with lots of article deadlines (via BoingBoing, via Cyrus).

Are You Somebody?

Long essay by Tara Ison about dating an unnamed relatively famous actor in LA: "Are you Somebody?" Very much worth the read.

His is an awkward level of fame. A mid-level, ambiguous, tenuous degree of famousness, dependent on whether or not you’ve seen his recurring guest spot on a hit network legal drama, the late-night cable showing of the cult film he burst on the scene with thirty years ago, the recent movie by an obscure German director that played at your local art house for two weeks and won him obscure critical acclaim, the repeat of the sci-fi blockbuster from two summers ago on TNT, in which he was fourth-billed. He’s familiar as a longtime close friend whom you’d spot instantly in a crowd but whose face you’ve stopped studying or even really noticing, until there’s a shift, suddenly, and that familiar face is shown in a new role or new light and you realize your friend has aged a bit, or looks entirely different with that hair cut, or is revealing by that unfamiliar expression an aspect of character you’ve never before seen, and you’re startled by the wave of affection and closeness and comfort you feel on seeing him all over again, anew.

Bourdain in Beirut

Chef and author Anthony Bourdain got caught in Beirut when Israel attacked, which he writes about at Salon: "Watching Beirut die."

From where I'm sitting, poolside, I can see the airport burning -- the last of the jet fuel cooking off like a dying can of sterno. There's a large, black plume of smoke coming from the south of the city -- just over the rise, where the most recent airstrikes have been targeting the Shiite neighborhoods and what are, presumably, Hezbollah-associated structures.

He's definitely a foul-mouthed, no-holds-barred kind of guy (read this excellent account of a recent dinner appearance he made in Seattle), but I forget that he happens to be a damn good writer, too. (Go read Kitchen Confidential if you haven't already.)

What is clear -- as far as we're concerned -- from all sources is that there is no official, announced plan. No real advice, or information, or public exit strategy or timetable. The news clip of President Bush, chawing open-mouthed on a buttered roll, then grabbing at another while Tony Blair tries to get him to focus on Lebanon -- plays over and over on the TV, crushing our spirits and dampening all hope with every glassy-eyed mouthful. He seems intent on enjoying his food; Lebanon a tiny, annoying blip on an otherwise blank screen. I can't tell you how depressing that innocuous bit of footage is to watch. That one, innocent, momentary preoccupation with a roll has a devastating effect on us that is out of all proportion. We're looking for signs. And this, sadly, is all we have.

Go read the whole thing.

Patron Saints of Graphic Design

Designer W. Lynn Garrett has identified the six Patron Saints of Graphic Design, with beautiful accompanying artwork (which you can purchase). No surprise, Saint Anxieté ("Martyr, Patron of Impossible Deadlines & Foamy Coffee") is one of my favorites:

This thirteenth-century domestic servant worked for two generations of the wealthy Asap family, who were often annoyed by her.... Deeply in love with the Duke of Starbucks, Anxieté was tragically martyred at the age of 45 when trampled by a herd of cattle while chasing after the King of Fedex to hand him a package. Heartbroken by her death, the Duke put her relics on display in his small coffee shop where they were said to make people extremely stressed out & had to be subsequently removed. Her Latin name means "She who ought to take up yoga."

My Dog Is Smarter

My friend Mark created this bumper sticker ("My Dog Is Smarter Than Your President") on his own printer a while back, and I encouraged him to make a real bumper-sticker out of it. Now, thanks to the wonders of Café Press, you can buy one ($4), plus T-shirts with variations like "My Lab is Smarter..." and "My Cat is Smarter...".

(Keep in mind that this design can last for years and years, since it's not necessarily tied to any particular president.)

Order yours today, and help him retire early!

Best Scathing British Article

Tonight I worship at the writerly feet of the Guardian UK's Marina Hyde, who writes about US football (soccer) fans at the World Cup in "Over-excited, overweight, and over here". Here's just the beginning:

Is there a more appealing chant in world football - or indeed world warfare - than "USA! USA! USA!"? The very battle cry of the War on Losing, it somehow manages to distil that nation's fabled sense of self-awareness into a simple message: "Help is on its way. Look busy!"

Read the whole thing. It's a hoot.

Fremont Solstice Parade 2006

After running some errands this morning, Kim and I grabbed some breakfast at The Dish, an always-busy Fremont eatery. Today was the first day of the Fremont Fair, so there were a lot of people about. But it wasn't until we saw our first naked cyclist that we realized the Solstice Parade was today, not Sunday. So, we walked down to the start of the parade route and caught it there. Alas, I had only the crappy digital camera built into my Treo 650, so all of the shots I took weren't very good. Instead, search for "solstice" tags at Flickr to see a ton of pictures (6,647 at last count) taken by all the photographers that were there:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=solstice&m=tags

Endless Photomosaics

The next time I get really, really drunk, I'm going here.

My Photo Is in a Gallery!

Glory Hole, Lake Berryessa
Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson.

A couple of months ago, my pro photographer friend Laurence Chen encouraged me to submit this photo to the Environmental Photography Invitational, a photo contest open to residents of the Pacific Northwest. To my great surprise and delight, it was selected as a winning photo! It didn't garner a named award (such as Best in Category or Honorable Mention), but it was one of 106 chosen out of a field of about 2,000.

The print is now hanging at the new Art Wolfe Gallery in downtown Seattle (1944 1st Ave South, past the stadiums and near the absurdly giant Krispy Kreme). It's on display from May 20 to June 30, 2006, alongside a lot of really good photography—I'm honored to be in good company.

I'm slightly giddy that I can add "award-winning photographer" to my list of accomplishments, mostly because it's not something I expected to be. I also learned this week that of the winning entries, my photo is also going to be featured in a photo spread in the summer issue of PhotoMedia Magazine. So I'm also now a "published photographer."

At tonight's opening reception for the winners, I have to admit that there was a tingly moment when it sunk in that there, hanging right there, was a photo that I shot. And my wife overhead someone comment, "That image really sucks you in" and compliment it. It was a nice feeling.

I'll stop now so that my head doesn't inflate any further and pop. But if you're in Seattle and want to see some good photography, stop by the Art Wolfe Gallery.

My Officemate Kim in the NYTimes

My officemate Kim Ricketts is featured in a big New York Times article today: Authors Meet Fans Far From Bookstores, at Company Events. Kim puts together author events, public and private, where writers on book tours give readings and talks. I've been to a few, and it's a great way to touch base with your favorite author. I'm a little disappointed that the article frames Kim's model as corporations versus bookstores, when it seems to me that getting authors in front of more readers is good for everyone. Still, check it out. We're awfully proud of our office buddy.

Original Unaltered SW Trilogy on DVD

You know you're going to buy this. Or rather, I know I will, because I'm of a certain age that grew up on the original Star Wars trilogy: This September: Original Unaltered Trilogy on DVD :

In response to overwhelming demand, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will release attractively priced individual two-disc releases of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Each release includes the 2004 digitally remastered version of the movie and, as bonus material, the theatrical edition of the film. That means you'll be able to enjoy Star Wars as it first appeared in 1977, Empire in 1980, and Jedi in 1983.

Yeah, yeah, it's yet another way that Lucas can milk cash out of the series, but c'mon. Han shot first! Really, all that needs to be said.

Seattle 911 Events Map

This is cool: Seattle emergency events map, a live Google map of Seattle that shows locations of emergency calls in Seattle. The creator wrote it in February "after watching a building burn across the water from my office today."

Apple Just Saved Me $1000

The public beta of Boot Camp has been out for a day now, and for the most part I've viewed it as an interesting development, but nothing that impacts me directly. I'm still using an aluminum PowerBook G4/1.25 GHz as my main machine, so I don't even have an Intel-powered Mac to test Boot Camp on. But looking ahead, I realized that Apple not only saved me probably $1000, it also took that thousand bucks away from Dell or some other PC manufacturer.

Currently, I own a Dell Inspiron 5100 hulk of a laptop that I bought refurbished for $800 a few years ago. Although I don't use it much, it's good to have for testing or accessing stupid Web sites that simply don't work on the Mac. I chose a laptop because it's portable, but compared to my lithe PowerBook, the Inspiron is like a fat tank. Still, it works fine. But later this year, it's likely I'll be working on a project where I'll need a Windows PC, and I don't know if the specs on the Inspiron will be up to the task.

I assumed that I'd need to buy a new PC, but thanks to Boot Camp, I can instead spring for a new MacBook Pro (which might be updated by the time I need it) plus a copy of Microsoft Windows and have both environments with me on the same portable. I'll be buying one new laptop instead of two.

It will be interesting to see if PC manufacturers respond to Boot Camp. Sure, right now they're going to say, "We've been doing Windows PCs for years, and we can do them cheaper than Apple." But I'll bet we'll see more effort being put into better industrial design as they realize that a new competitor has climbed into their market space.

Because It Makes Me Smile

Bob Ross Cult, celebrating artist Bob Ross, whose relentlessly positive television show not only amazed me with his painting ability, but often relaxed me with his soothing voice. He passed away in 1995, but you can still watch The Joy of Painting on dozens of public television stations.

Plastic over Bits

I've fallen hard for the instant-gratification of buying music from the iTunes Music Store. A few days ago I noticed that José González was in the catalog; his song "Heartbeats" is featured in the Sony Bravia commercial that I blogged about in October on my iMovie Visual QuickStart Guide blog. I decided to buy the album Veneer, but kept getting errors saying that the item no longer existed in the catalog–even though it continued to show up, and I could play the song samples. After trying six or seven times, I gave up.

This morning, I walked half a block from my office and bought the disc from Sonic Boom Records, a great local music store. Unfortunately, with tax and all it was about $17, versus the $11 or so if I had managed to buy it from the iTMS. But, since Apple couldn't provide what I wanted, I took my business elsewhere. Since it's a store in my neighborhood and isn't a huge conglomerate, I didn't feel too bad about the price.

Bah Hummer

A number of indie bands are turning down money from Hummer, which wants to license their songs in commercials: Bah Hummer.

"My standard line is you guys will play a hundred million gigs before you see this amount of money," Hysen said. "Usually they come back with, 'We'll do anything BUT Hummer.'"

Right on. Though I have to grudgingly admit that I like the Hummer ads. They're done by Lance Jensen at Modernista, which the article points out was responsible for using Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" in one of my favorite commercials.

But there's a difference between liking the creativity of their ad company, and liking the nature-destroying vehicles.

Which Sci-Fi Crew?

Via Karen, I learned that I would fit right in with the crew of Serenity (though I admit to slightly handicapping my answers to see if I could get on board):

You scored as Serenity (Firefly). You like to live your own way and don't enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you. Serenity (Firefly) 88% Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) 69% Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) 69% Moya (Farscape) 63% Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) 63% SG-1 (Stargate) 50% FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files) 50% Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) 50% Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) 44% Enterprise D (Star Trek) 38% Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) 38% Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) 31% Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com

Happy Valentine's Day

Kim picks a flower
Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson.

I'd like to say that I try not to get into this commercial Hallmark holiday, but I'm too much of a sappy romantic. I'd spend a lot of time as a kid in grade school working on my valentine's day box, and get all hopeful when the pretty girls put valentines in it (yes, everyone got a valentine from everyone else, but maybe - just maybe - the card from Sheila meant more than just polite participation).

This year Kim and I celebrated early by seeing the Dudley Manlove Quartet at the Triple Door, which was a blast. It made up for a valentine's day a few years ago when we were going to see DMQ after a nice dinner at the Acorn Eatery near our house. The dinner was great, a five-course holiday affair with wine pairings - which is what did us in. Although we shared one order of the wine, they brought wine for each course. By the end of the dinner, we were blissfully hammered, and there was no way we could drive downtown; taking a cab seemed potentially hazardous, even.

So tonight I'm going to make some homemade butternut squash soup, light some candles, and enjoy a romantic evening at home with my sweetie.

Serenity

Kim and I saw one of our most-anticipated movies on Friday: Serenity, the big-screen version (or BDM - Big Damn Movie, for those familiar with it) of Joss Whedon's television show Firefly.

Honestly, I loved it. It puts the last three Star Wars movies to shame, because it dares to have a good script with good actors. I plan on seeing it again this weekend with a friend who didn't see it opening night.

And if you've seen it, one of the surprises at the end did catch me off guard, but I think the drama and consequences are stronger for it. That's all I'm gonna say.

CD Baby's Excellent Copywriting

I'm a writer, so it pleases me to no end when someone's words bring a smile to my face. I ordered a CD from CD Baby and received the following email informing me that the CD has shipped:

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved 'Bon Voyage!' to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Friday, August 19th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as 'Customer of the Year'. We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Brilliant.

The Digital Student at NYTimes

Here's an interesting special feature at the New York Times: The Digital Student. All sorts of information about equipping your college student.

"When I went off to school, what you went off with was your clothes and a car," said Myle Walsh, an importer in Midway, Utah, whose son, Makena, will be entering the University of Utah in Salt Lake City this fall. Now, she says, students and parents have to consider a computer, cellphone and all manner of other tech gear. "It's really kind of scary," she said.

When I went to college, the newest advance was having a telephone in every room, rather than three shared phones per floor in the dorms. I arrived with my Commodore 64 and hulking dot-matrix printer. I bought a Mac Classic II my sophomore year, which was much better and more compact: I had a case I could load it in, throw it over my shoulder, then ride my bike across campus to the newspaper office for a late night of production. That was portable computing at the time. If only I could go back and have a PowerBook, my life would have been much easier.

I'm envious of today's college students, with their iPods, laptops (honestly, I can't imagine a good reason to take a desktop computer to college, except for the cost savings, but even then you're shackled to your room), PDAs, and other gadgets. Perhaps that's why I'm a freelance writer of technology: I'm still basically living the college life, now updated.

Powering Through the Tour

Mark McClusky at Wired has an interesting article about how pro cyclist Floyd Landis measured his power output during the just-concluded Tour de France (where he placed ninth overall): Powering Through the Tour.

On his way to a ninth-place finish, Landis spent nearly four hours of the Tour at a power output level of more than 500 watts -- that's a flat-out sprint to most recreational riders, who can only generate that sort of power for seconds at a time. For professionals, it's the ability to ride at this nearly superhuman level that separates champions from the rest of the pack.

I'm going to be riding a lot more in the future: my officemates and I just signed a lease for new digs (here are some pictures) in Fremont, which is about a 4 mile ride from my house. Problem is, at least for now, it's all uphill on the way home; it takes about 15 minutes to get there, and about 40 minutes to return. And I'm not in very good shape. But I'm sure that will change as I haul my butt up 8th Ave. several times per week!

I'm an Uncle!

Please welcome Emma Victoria Johnson to the world, as of 11:40 this morning. 9 pounds, 1 ounce, everyone healthy.

eSCENE Temporary Home

[Update: I was mistaken. www.escene.org wasn't working due to a configuration glitch, not because Glenn turned off the server. The site works now as it did. But the following rambling memories still apply.]

Several years ago, just as the Web was starting up, I started an online literary magazine (ezine) called eSCENE, which served as an online equivalent to Best American Short Stories. I asked for other ezine editors to submit the top 10 percent of the stories they published during the year; I contacted the authors asking permission to review the stories; and then, with the help of a guest editor and assistant editor, we published the best. I released three volumes of eSCENE, which I'm enormously proud of.

Pretty soon after, I started my life as a freelance writer and editor, and suddenly found myself without a lot of free time. Especially in the early days, I was working absurdly long hours to just to stay afloat. Unfortunately, one side effect was that I couldn't keep up with eSCENE, and so the 1997 edition is the last one published.

For the last several years, eSCENE has been hosted on a server here in my office, owned by my friend Glenn Fleishman. However, he's been dismantling his servers in favor of external hosting solutions (and the desire to no longer babysit servers), which means that currently eSCENE doesn't exist at its URL, www.escene.org. I'm in the process of getting the domain transferred from Network Solutions to easyDNS, but since it's a dot-org, it takes a bit more work.

So, for the time being, eSCENE can now be found at http://www.necoffee.com/escene/welcome.html. If you like short fiction, I encourage you to go read the stories (and check out the then-cutting-edge Web design!). Someday I want to resurrect eSCENE, but that time isn't here yet.

Great Cause, Great Customer Service

This month I'm going to pay off two credit cards (yay!!!), so I'm making sure that any recurring charges to those cards are being moved off to my one remaining card. One of those charges is a monthly donation to a great local charity: Feed Washington provides food for hungry children in Washington state. As founder Eirik Olsen puts it:

Childhood hunger is an ongoing, recurring problem which, we feel, requires and deserves an ongoing and recurring solution. Also, the motivational and inspirational components of a recurring donation strategy must not be underestimated. With this strategy, Feed Washington will never have a bad month; we will always add to our monthly total, and will therefore always be moving a step closer to our goal of ending childhood hunger!

The donation system in place isn't sophisticated enough to let me change my credit card, so I sent an email to Eirik asking how best to make the transition. His reply arrived a few minutes later (keep in mind that I'm writing this at about midnight), telling me that he cancelled my previous credit card number, and asking me to either go to the Web site and make a new donation, or just call him at his home phone number. Now that's customer service!

But what I like the most about Eirik's approach is that he currently pays all of the credit card transaction fees out of his own pocket -- that way, all of the donated money goes toward feeding kids. I doubled my donation. If you want to consider donating, see Feed Washington's Donation Page. (And yes, for those of you who are starting to prepare for April 15, it's a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible organization.)

Take Control of Recording with GarageBand

I mentioned that I was editing three Take Control ebooks, and now the third has just hit: Jeff Tolbert's Take Control of Recording with GarageBand. I'm not a musician (though I've recently started to take up the guitar), but I can see how someone with desire and $10 can make professional-sounding recordings using GarageBand and some relatively inexpensive gear. This ebook is as much about recording sound as it is about recording it in GarageBand; Jeff gives great advice on microphone placement and buying a preamp, for example, while also detailing the steps required to record the audio from your electric guitar's pickup. From the ebook's Web page:

Want to record music with GarageBand? This ebook explains how to use GarageBand to create musical compositions with vocals, drums, guitars, MIDI keyboards, even the kitchen sink! Seattle musician Jeff Tolbert shares his GarageBand know-how and years of recording experience to help you get the most out of your existing gear or purchase new equipment that fits your budget and style. You'll find real-world recording studio techniques, learn how to use a microphone, and discover how to apply effects like a pro. Clear steps and plenty of practical advice help you plan a recording session, record with Software Instruments or Real Instruments, and rerecord if you make a mistake. Two example songs demonstrate many of the techniques discussed. Bonus! Linked-in audio lets you listen to examples while you read about them. Remember us when you're famous!

Note that you if you don't own Jeff's first GarageBand title, Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand, you can save $2.50 when you buy both.

Now, I get some sleep.

Take Control of Buying a Digital Camera

A couple weeks ago, I praised caffeine because I was consuming so much espresso while simultaneously editing three Take Control ebooks. I'm happy to say that I've been able to get some sleep this last week (which is a change -- at one point I slept 8 hours, not consecutively, over a 72 hour period).

The fruits of that labor? On Friday we published Take Control of Buying a Digital Camera, by professional photographer (and now author) Laurence Chen. Although I've purchased a few digital cameras, I learned a lot editing this $5 title. For example, the photography specifications that used to make my eyes glaze over (especially the millimeter measurements of lenses and their zoom capacities) are now comprehensible! Larry reveals that buying a digital camera is a process, not a wild accumulation of marketing bullets. Here's the blurb about this excellent ebook:

Overwhelmed by choices when purchasing a digital camera? Turn to professional photographer Larry Chen for the practical advice you need to sort through the hundreds of digital cameras for sale.

Rather than bury you with arcane technical details or a myriad camera models, Larry first steps you through a process designed to help you determine how much you want to spend, what sort of pictures you're likely to take, and what aspects of using a camera are important to you. With that grounding, you're ready to learn about the different camera features, separated by those that are actually important and those that merely fill up feature checklists. The ebook even contains a camera comparison worksheet you can fill in while shopping. Additional sections give you pointers on how to read camera reviews (plus a list of the best review sites!), advice about evaluating picture quality, suggestions of where to buy your camera, the lowdown on accessories you might want, and tips on working with photos on your computer.

Includes a coupon worth $5 off any order at Small Dog Electronics, making this ebook free if you buy your camera from Small Dog!

Lunar Eclipse Video

Tonight was a total lunar eclipse, which won't happen again until 2007. Uncharacteristically, the Seattle sky was completely clear, so I was able to point my video camera out the window and tape the eclipse. I used iStopMotion to take a snapshot every 15 seconds. As you'll be able to see, I had to move the camera frequently to keep the moon in frame (the other option was to be totally zoomed out to catch the full arc, but then the moon would have been an even smaller blip on the screen). Perhaps when I have some free time I'll edit the images so that the frame is centered on the moon itself. Until then, enjoy! (Click the image below for 150K QuickTime movie; click here for a larger 360K version.)

Mount St. Helens Eruption Movies

We Seattleites have been keeping an eye on our sister Mount St. Helens as she lets off some steam. I'm not worried about a massive eruption, but it's still pretty cool to see nature at work on a large scale.

Now, you can see the volcano cam images as movies! (The enormous fly that appears in the October 4 video is hilarious, a Mothra-sized harbinger of the venting.) Boom!

Jeff

Thirty-Two

A nice little pick-me-up today: I went to buy some new clothes and had to go down a size in jeans to a 32. Last year I lost 30 pounds thanks to diet (Weight Watchers Online, i.e., "Forget Atkins, Just East Sensibly and Control Your Portions") and exercise (riding my bike to work), and went from a size 36 waist to, now, a 32. It feels good. My only complaint is that the weight didn't all come off my middle, which still needs work. Maybe in several months I'll be posting about 30?

Benjamin Warner Fleishman

My friend and officemate Glenn Fleishman is now a dad! Please welcome Benjamin Warner Fleishman to the world. (Click for larger images.)

  

Updated: Glenn has posted more pictures, including one of yours truly demonstrating the proper Boppie technique to the new parents.

Working at Seattle Public Library

I'm spending the morning in downtown Seattle, so I've claimed a desk at the new Seattle Public Library, designed by Rem Koolhaas. It's a great structure, even if it's a little out of place downtown - but that makes it more appealing to me, frankly. I'm on the top floor, and this is the view from my desk. It's nice and quiet, there's a handy power socket here built into the table, and free Wi-Fi flows throughout. If you're visiting Seattle, stop in and take a look around; it's invigorating. (And for a fun touch, you can buy a t-shirt that says, "I read in a Koolhaas." Makes me grin every time.) For more pictures from the grand opening, see Glenn's collection.

Cool Lightning Photo

Marc Laidlaw has a photo from the same lightning storm that I watched, only his is better than my video: he snapped his picture just as a bolt of lightning struck a tree in his yard! Great picture.

Late-Night Lightshow

I was about to go to bed late last night when the living room briefly filled with white light. Although the weather has been incredible, a thunderstorm rolled in and treated us to a late-night lightning storm. This is fairly rare in Seattle, so I grabbed my video camera and sat outside on the deck to watch. Here are some highlights. (Click to view QuickTime movie, 144K)