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Book of Days
December 2020 M T W T F S S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Off the Air
Nov 12, ’10
9:14 AM
“Off the Air” is partly concept art for another project, partly the product of nostalgia for the work of Chris Foss (particularly the work featured in the Terran Trade Authority books).
The Palace Of Badminton
Jul 15, ’09
7:57 PM
When one is larking around with ideas, the ideas sometimes take their own route to completion.
In my senior year of high school, I played badminton practically every morning before classes. My playing partner was one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever known. I couldn’t hope to equal him at math or science or language (though we were close at the latter). At badminton, however, we were perfectly matched.
Naturally, this meant we had to destroy each other.
We explored various methods — beginning with increasing the speed of return, the height of the net, the number of birdies in play — and escalating into a kind of Calvinball of baroque and convoluted rules which borrowed liberally from soccer and ping pong.
Such a development between skilled, competitive players is inevitable and, once experienced, ruinously addictive. To every pursuit which follows in life, one brings an insatiable desire for the worthy opponent — the singular being who will force you to get better.
Find that person and go start a happy feud.
Skies And Curves
May 19, ’09
8:30 AM
As regular readers are probably aware, I’ve been exploring the rational limits of in-car photography lately (1, 2, 3).
The images above were all shot in that way — this time, however, using the diminutive Leica D-Lux 4/Panasonic LX3 instead of the larger, more difficult to maneuver Canon 20d.
For a small point and shoot, the D-Lux 4/LX3 is surprisingly adept at spontaneous photography of this type. Like an old-school rangefinder, the aperture, shutter speed, and focus may all be pre-configured. After that — as always — it’s all about luck and speed.
Upon Two Seas
May 6, ’09
1:50 PM
ZRS-5 takes on provisions and fuel from an unidentified Lapwing-class destroyer as an F9C flies past.
Provisioning operations of this type were inherently dangerous due to the tendency of large airships to ‘weathervane’ with the wind. This could be offset to some degree by deploying tethered, sinkable sea anchors around the periphery of the ship prior to beginning resupply operations or anchoring the ship’s nose to a masted barge.