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| Personal Ramblings of Michael Angelo |
2/1/2010
This is a slide show, created in Adobe Lightroom2, showing images taken at the Cape May Point New Jersey wild life refuge.
Link: Swans You have to use the back button to return here. 10/13/2009
I didn’t invent this but want to keep a record of it for myself. Lightroom 2 seems to have a bug where it can’t attach more than one file to a mail message. In searching for a solution I found a post with a link to a MapiMailer written by SBSutherland here http://www.sbsutherland.com/downloads.aspx
It works and I’m happy to move on. The program adds itself to the Lightroom’s Export Post-processing options list of actions. I installed it and it works just fine. 10/11/2009
I first installed Lightroom 2 about 4 months ago and it wasn’t long before I started having issues with the Lightroom database software. Lightroom is a ‘non-destructive’ editing package; meaning, all edits are stored in a database. If you edit an image outside of Lightroom, say for instance, using Photoshop 7, then your Photoshop edits cause the file to be modified when saved. Consequently, Lightroom doesn’t know about the changes made by other editing programs and their lies the problem.
I have Lightroom installed on my main workstation, but when I transfer images from my Nikon D60 camera, I save them to my primary workstation, and also send a backup copy to my File server. I also have a second computer with Lightroom installed and sometimes edit files on the primary PC using this second PC. Not realizing how Lightroom stored changes, it became a mystery to me how the same image can look completely different when viewed from two different workstations. After learning how Lightroom stores changes, I decided to move my image files and the Lightroom database to an external USB hard drive; thusly I can plug the external drive into any computer that has Lightroom 2 installed and see the edited versions of my images on any computer because the Lightroom database moves with the USB Drive.
Its almost yr 2010 and my current primary workstation, a Dell Dimension 4300 I purchased back in 2003, was still going strong until Adobe Light room 2 came along.
First, after installing Adobe Photoshop C4, my Dells’ performance was still tolerable, however, after installing Light Room my main squeeze turned into a lemon.
Shortly after shopping for my next ‘be all things’ computer soon brought the realization that building my next dream computer was going to be expensive. The lowest price I could build an adequate ‘Photoshop’ workstation for was $1400. Not a bad price considering my first attempt on Dell.com resulted in a $3400 workstation. Well, for me, spending $1400 right now isn’t an easy decision and being the procrastinator I am, I needed an interim solution.
Acer-One to the rescue
As it turns out my little Acer Aspire-One, or, my “Minnie-Me” is quite a bit faster than my Dell Dimension 4300. The Dimension and Acer both have 1.60 MHz processors, but the Acer has 2 GB RAM compared to the Dimension’s 1 GB RAM. This extra memory must be the major contributor to the Acer being 3-4 times faster in rendering images. But there was one huge problem; the Acer Screen is just to small to take serious when it comes to actually using Photoshop CS4 and Light Room 2.
Acer to the rescue: The Acer has an Intel Atom Processor and the Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator Driver for Mobile that supports duel monitors with resolutions up to 1680 X 1680 Resolution. My Dell 22’’ monitor’s native resolution is 1680X1050; so I connected the Dell 2208WFP Flat panel Monitor to the Acer’s external VGA port and to my surprise it looked great. The Aspire-One can display an extended desktop or mirrored video, both with independent video resolutions.
Also: if you don't have A1ctl for the Acer Aspire Computer then go here http://nodadev.wordpress.com/pc-projects/a1ctl/ and get it. This small applet fixes the realy stupid 1024X600 screen resolution issue this notebook has. By using a1ctl you can run Quickbooks, Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2. Without it you can't. NO BRAINER!
Lightroom 2 Image Storage
The image storage solution I’ve come up with is another surprise. Apparently, the Acer can access my Seagate 500 GB external drive as fast, or faster than, it’s internal hard drive. Makes no sense to me, but none the less, using an external hard drive for Lightroom’s images and database makes a lot of sense. 10/10/2009After realizing it’s been 2 years since I began taking xanax I decided it was time to see what life would be like without it. The short of it is; life is the same. The longer story is simply one of dependency. I may have been less bothered by my Tinnitus, but it probably wasn’t actually treating the Tinnitus. Xanax does reduced the stress caused by Tinnitus and other life related issues and so may indirectly alleviate Tinnitus symptoms. Over the past 2 years there were periods of time I was convinced Xanax had completely eliminated my Tinnitus but that relieve was short lived. Tinnitus seems to come back, or I should say, only leaves me for 1 or 2 days at the most. Quitting Xanax wasn’t very hard to do once I became aware of what the withdraw symptoms were. I know I shouldn’t have just cold turkey quit taking xanax, but that’s how I do things. I quit smoking cigarettes the same way; just stopped. With the Xanax, I didn’t notice any symptoms for about 4-5 days, then I started feeling like crap all the time. It took about 2-3 weeks before all the bad withdraw symptoms went away. Initially, I just felt like I had the flu; unless I ate food. So eating was good. After the first week, I started to feel fatigued all the time; I mean drop dead tired. I could hardly get up the energy to walk or get up out of my chair. I even stopped doing my favorite activity, playing Golf, because I was too tired to swing a club. It’s funny, but when I called my Doctor to ask what might help relieve my suffering, he insisted I start taking xanax again and then wean myself off over a 2 month period. Screw that! Anything that fucks you up this much just has to be beaten. It’s been about 6 weeks now and I feel completely recovered. Oh yea, and my tinnitus is ringing loud and clear; all day long and all night too. Sucks to be me. There’s only one thing to do. Keep moving forward! 9/7/2009As much as Xanax has provided stress relief from my Tinnitus, it does not reduce the noise I hear. So after taking Xanax for 2 years, Ive decided to stop. Warning, don't try this at home kids; I stopped cold turkey and just felt like crap for 10 days. I'll never try that again. Fortunately, I've managed through that ordeal and am now sleeping without the aid of Lunesta or any other night time sleeping aid; well almost. The Crickets are in season and their chirping song does almost cancel out my Tinnitus, so I open my windows, turn on a couple of fans and listen to the Crickets. It works well and I've been actually getting 5-6 hours sleep each night.
So I wait with the other Millions for a miracle cure. 7/26/2009
After a year of constant hissing, still no relief. I have tried every vitamin known to relieve ringing in the ears and nothing helps. The only relief I get is from taking XANAX around 7pm in the evening. That time of day is when it is hardest to deal with the noise. Early morning, 5:30am when I wake up the T is loud, but as soon as I get up and start my day the T doesn’t seem to be that bad. Keeping busy is a requirement. I’ve noticed that being overly hungry seems to elevate the Tinnitus. Exercising late in the evening is bad too. It’s July and soon the Crickets will start their night time song. I use to hate crickets, now I love them. The noise of the Crickets is almost a perfect mask of the sound I hear in my head. Contrary to popular belief, I have Tinnitus in both ears. The right ear usually is very low in volume and the left ear is the most constant. My anxiety level seems to be the highest when the right ear gets louder than the left.
If you’ve discovered any relief for your tinnitus, please write me. I’m willing to try just about anything. 5/19/2009Strange. Seems to be most persistent when I’m the least able to do much about it. What I usually do is play golf, or work in the yard, or service my customers; but when it gets late at night, the ‘T’ comes in loud and clear. So here it is 11pm and all I can think of doing is Drink Sothern Comfort, shine my shoes, and blog while listening to Jazz. I listen to WRTI NJ. Good station for Jazz. Having a hard time with this tiny ACER keyboard. My fingers are just too big. I need to get an external keyboard for typing at any length. I have to keep my fingers grouped close together or I mess up on every 4th word or so. My pinky, it sure knows where the backspace is. I’ve got some Good pinky action. Played golf today and yesterday and I’m supper tired. I walk the course and carry my bag. I don’t include all 14 clubs though; working up to that; but hell, I’m 62 and walking 3 miles with a 30 pound bag over my shoulders; can’t knock that. I’m getting stronger every week. I started carrying my bag about 3 months ago and remember how after 1 round, I couldn’t play the next day because my knees and shoulders were very sore; but now I can walk 2 days in a row and after 2 days rest am ready to walk again. The Tinnitus almost never bothers me when on the golf course. My personal observations indicate Tinnitis is worst when I’m tired and hungry; or very stressed. 4/25/2009
The box from a closet labeled simply with a date and the word “TRUTH”. Now their is a time capsule if I ever saw one.
 The date was 1982-1988 and the truth found in that box was I had strayed off the path for almost 20 years. The box contained letters I had written back in a time when I was simply awestruck by a book I read in 1979, written by Fred Picker, titled “the Zone 6 Workshop”, and how that book began a revolution in how I perceived photography as a means of expressing myself. Have you ever run across something you’ve written in the distant past, read it, and come to realize just how much you’ve changed since. For me, my own words led me back to my true path.
The camera is the brush that paints what my minds eye sees. In 1979 I came to realize that only through mastery of the tool could I express to others the effect a scene had on me; or if not a feeling, then to replicate how my eye saw the scene. To me, Ansel Adams was about the pure representation of what laid before him and his lens. But I came to realize no two people see any subject the same way. A scene evokes an emotion and that is what we wish to express to others through the creation of prints that don’t just replicate the image, but express the emotional effect a scene had on me. That’s Art! That’s the Truth I rediscovered in a dusty box filled with letters and notes made by my other self. I must confess, it was an emotional moment; sad, yet grateful to have not gone to the grave with my song still in me. It’s not too late; it’s just later than it should have been.
Michael Angelo Jr. 4/13/2009
I call my new Acer-One Laptop Mini-Me. It’s job is to take all the load of my other computers and roll everything up into one simple small machine.
Notice the small blue decal on the larger laptop. That’s my FAA Tech Center Patch. I use to work for the Gov. It was great. Play with tech equipment and new software all day, hang with my tech buddies, drink coffee, and play golf in the afternoon… I miss working for the Gov. If you can get a Fed job, do it. Best job ever. Sure beats working for a living. |
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