The Curmudgeonly Professor

The Tour of the Alpine Poppy Field is About Over: Photos of the Day June 12 2009

Tulips from Thanksgiving Point are Winding Down: Photos of the Day June 11 2009

                                    

                                       

                                           

A Day in the Life of the Curmudgeonly Professor

Many (two or three people, at least) have inquired about how I spend my time in retirement, what I do to pass the time.  To fill this void, the Curmudgeonly Professor provides the following recap of his day thus far.  The times are approximate in some instances, the information is authentic.

1. 5:30 a.m. wake up with stuffy nose.  Try half dozen home remedies.
2. 5:35 a.m. retrieve two Salt Lake newspapers and USA Today from front porch.
3. 5:37 a.m. check obits in SL papers to see if still alive.
4. 5:45 a.m. Learn the following from USA Today

• Michael Moore is taking on Wall Street in latest film effort.
• Letterman tops Conan in ratings.  Could have told you.
• Miss California canned.
• 70% of adults said stayed same or got better looking as aged.  (who's to say?)
• Endure huge picture of Phil Jackson in sports section and learn he is complicated individual.
• Some think recession turnaround coming in September
• Chrysler sold to Fiat.  What a deal.
• 28% of Republicans are non-drinkers.
• The Roswell NM public library held pirate puppet show for kids.
• plus a bunch of bad stuff, like the Holocaust shooting.  Sad, sad, sad.

1. 6:00 a.m. fix one-egg omelet slathered in Costco peach-mango salsa.
2. 6:09 a.m. finish USA Today Crossword Puzzle.  piece of cake.
3. 6:20 clean up kitchen
4. 6:45 turn on computers.  check Twitter.  Still 35 followers.  Check Facebook.  Still 28 friends. Make pithy remarks on both.
5. 7:00 a.m. check blogs.  Little traffic activity during night.  Begin daily posts.
6. 9:00 a.m. time for nap.
7. 10-12: a.m. Waste rest of morning
8. 12:00 noon.  go upstairs.  TV not working.  Call Direct TV.  Waste 30 minutes on automated calling labyrinth.  Finally get live body.  TV on in two minutes.  By then Matlock rerun half over.
9. 1:00 p.m. daily torrential downpour with hail.

You can see my days are exciting, full of fun things and entertaining diversions.  Only difference between now and when still teaching is I don't have to go up to school to try and figure out what topic I'm supposed to be lecturing on today.  I usually began with a sports analysis.  Some days are more exciting than others.  I'll fill you in when I come to one of those.  Meanwhile, this boring recital will have to do.

Post Number 1500 on the Curmudgeonly Professor: Some Thoughts after a Year and a Half of Blogging

Blow the trumpet!  Run up the flag!  The Curmudgeonly Professor is now posting blog post number 1500!  So here are a few observations after a year and a half of blogging.  First, I would say that most of my friends and colleagues are still astonished when I tell them that I am a blogger.  Many have no idea what that means or what is involved.  An amazing number of people are still computer illiterates.  I must admit that the term "blogging" sounded like a silly and stupid word when I first heard it a couple of years ago.  Now I am a totally converted blogger and spend much of my time on one aspect or another of the blogging pastime.

My page view count remains remarkably stable, running around an average of 80-100 page views per day, with an occasional spike, one to 600, another to 963.  How does a spike to 963 happen?  Is someone playing a game with a clicker that just multiplies the count?  I am gradually generating more visits from different places around the US and from around the world.  So far, I haven't had any repulsive or obnoxious comments, mostly because I have chosen not to blog on politics, which is my first passion.  People tend to get their dander up whenever they see something that isn't part of their built-in levels of accumulated knowledge and wisdom.

The current revolution in social networking through Facebook and Twitter, especially, may moderate the way that we blog in the future.  Twitter is a concept that hasn't even begun to develop, the idea of 140 character mini-blogs that can link to anything in the world being such an ingenious idea that I'm certain even the inventors of Twitter couldn't even foresee how their creation would blossom and expand throughout the world.

I feel that my efforts in blogging were somewhat worthwhile for no other reason in that at least a couple dozen other blogs were spawned from my original blog, including blogs from people who swore, rather huffily I might add, in some instances, that they wouldn't be caught dead blogging.  Now some are eating their words, forgetting their earlier revulsion, and are blogging merrily away.  If blogging were an MLM, I could be rich now, with my new Lexus parked in the driveway and my swimming pool out behind.

I think my main fascination with blogging, Facebook, Twittering, et. al, is with learning about the communications revolution and how the future of information flow is moving on a fast moving upward stream that is beginning to leave our conventional ways of exchanging information as neanderthal relics.  And this shift is occurring so rapidly and so dramatically that today's inventory of what is happening will seem antiquated by tomorrow.  I may be an old geezer, but I am intrigued enough by communication technology that I want to be a part of what is happening, in some limited and entertaining way, much as I want to keep reading every new book I have time to read and learning every new thing I have time to learn.

So onward to post number 2000 in a few months, when we will hold a major celebration.  Viewer loyalty and comments are always enormously appreciated, as some occasional pat on the back is needed just to convince myself that all of my efforts are really for nought.  But then, B.B. (before blogging), all my photos were dumped on my hard drive, with an audience of one or two.  Now there are hundreds, and that is worth something.  Continued comments, critiques, suggestions, likes and dislikes, are welcome.  And if you start up your own blog, let me know.

Photos of any Plant that Blooms: Photos of the Day June 11 2009

 

 

Do You Really Want to Become a Photo Blogger?

Admittedly, one can become a photoblogger with a throwaway cheapo camera and a minimal computer with internet.  But if you're going to take photo blogging seriously, life gets a bit more complicated than that.  I took about 150 photos on my Sony alpha during my afternoon walk a couple of days ago.  I spent an hour on the walk.  I spent three hours editing the photos and deleting the poor ones.  Then it takes anywhere from ten or fifteen minutes to a half hour to post a photo series on a blog.

Moreover, photo blogging for real isn't a cheap pastime.  The Curmudgeonly Professor isn't that great at the photoblogging game, but he tries hard, and he's learning and trying to do better.  When I started the Curmudgeonly Professor blog, I had no intention of turning it into, primarily, a photo blog.  I just started writing whines, sarcastic and snide attacks, and advice for the misguided and wrongheaded, and stuck on a few photos here and there.  Gradually, the photos began to swamp the guides to shopping with one's wife and shopping at Costco and WalMart.

I started a few years ago, when digital cameras first came out (I've told this story before) with a Kodak 2MP camera I had no idea how to use that my kids gave me for retirement from BYU.  Cost about $500.  Learned how to use it, and then I was hooked.  Moved up to Nikon CoolPix 4MP, $400.  Then to Canon Rebel XT, queen of the picks then, 6 MP for about $700.  Then to Canon Power Shot  8MP 16x for maybe $300.  Then to Sony Alpha, 10MP, (what I wanted was Canon 50D) for $800.  Total $2700.  Now to computers.  I had a clunker Dell that cost me originally about $2000, moved up to a Mac Power Book with limit of 100G hard drive, medieval by today's standards, for $2400.  Needing more storage and not trusting Mac, bought HP with 400 G for $1700.  Total, $6100.  Now software.  Photoshop CS4, a cool $700.  QuickMats4, $230.  Other miscellaneous over past several years, $1000.  Round that off to $2000.  Three external hard drives, $600.  We're not even including monthly DSL, photo paper, ink, stuff like that.  Not to mention the hundreds of hours spent editing, learning software, yelling at computers, and other related tasks.  Round that all of to, give or take, $12,000.

Now it's true that we spent $5000 or so on one tour, that our new furnance and air conditioner will probably cost $8000, for comparison.  It's also true that the 12G got spent over eight or nine years, so average that out and the total isn't quite so frightening.  I'm not into hunting, fishing, RVs, guns, restoring old John Deere tractors, or taking a new tour to some adventurous place every few days.  My photoblogging has kept me out of harm's way (harm's way is when I spend too much time around my wife and she lovingly suggests, i.e., orders, that I go down to the cellar and work on my photos and blog).  For the price of a "fifth-wheel" and a monster pickup to haul it around with, I could spend $100K easy, so being a mere photoblogger makes me look like a stingy piker.

Some people charge money for their photo prints.  At the last art show in St. George, photo artists were selling 8x10s and 11x14s for anywhere from $20 to $40 or more.  That total sounds like a lot, but have a heart, selling a few prints for two or three hundred dollars, which probably cost a third or a fourth of that to make, isn't going to do much besides provide lunch money for a hot dog and can of Coke (decaf, of course).

And, yet, on the other hand.  I don't know what I would do if I hadn't launched and stumbled on to this pastime of searching for and photographing flowers, sorting out and editing the photos, and posting them on my blog.  I've never really done anything creative before, though I marveled at my dad who made hundreds and hundreds of inlaid marquetry pictures throughout his life, and now appreciate the thrill of creativity that he experienced all of his life.  I even now have a greater appreciation for my creative quilting sisters, for my creative craftsman brother, and even for my niece who makes gorgeous jewelry, and who told me that she does it because it is a joy to feel the inspiration of creativity.  So now, after taking thousands and thousands of photos, I'm still learning, still trying to reach a higher level.  I've posted some outstanding photos, many run-of-the mill photos, and some egregious ones.  The highest compliment anyone could pay me is if you would start your own flower photo blog and send me your link so I can follow it.  We might as well plaster the world with pictures of flowers.  Can you think of anything better to do?  So get to it.

Pink Geranium: Photo of the Day June 10 2009

We're Still Touring the Poppy Field at Alpine: Photos of the Day June 10 2009

 

  

More Wild Poppies from Lambert Farm in Alpine UT: Photos of the Day June 9 2009

 

Flowers in the Neighborhood Just Before the Rain: Photos of the Day June 9 2009

                                                  

Twitter is Likely to Become a Major Force in Networking and Communication

For many, or perhaps most of us, Twittering and Tweeting sounded like cutesy jokes and inane electronic chatter.  Get over it.  You might as well deal with Twitter.  For a major feature on Twittering and its growing influence in the communications world, go here to this Time Magazine feature article.  You might as well join in.  Curiosity and incentives to keep learning communication methods let me to Twitter.  Now I am a convert.  Tweet tweet to you.  Have a nice day.

A Book to Read: Alan Bennett's "The Clothes They Stood Up In and The Lady in the Van"

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I can't remember how I came upon this curious but memorable little book.  Alan Bennett is a renowned British writer and playwright who wrote "The Madness of King George" and a variety of other plays, some for television, and screenplays.  This book is a composite of Bennett's first foray into fiction, "The Clothes They Stood Up In" and a true story, written in part from diaries he kept over the 15 plus years that "The Lady in the Van" kept her van in Bennett's yard.

The reviews expressed far more praise and exuberance for these two stories than I felt upon reading them, but I think much of that had to do with the fact that I have not read much British humor.  Nonetheless, I was glad I read the stories, because they both taught some lessons about possessions and the "things" we own and treasure, although the stories were tinged with sadness.

In "Clothes," Rosemary and Maurice Ransome return from the opera to find their home "burgled" clean:  nary a thing left.  Gone were the supper casserole, the stove, the toilet paper, the furniture, the rugs--everything taken.  The story that follows is a story about the role material possessions play in our lives, and about how Rosemary and Maurice set out to rebuild their possessions and their lives from scratch.  Rosemary becomes a shopper; Maurice is pleased that the insurance will pay for a better stereo set than he had before to indulge his passion for Mozart.  To tell you what happened after this "burgling" would be to ruin your fun in reading the story.

In the second story (The Lady in the Van), Bennett recounts the true story of an eccentric woman whom he allowed to park her van in his front yard for nearly 20 years, an accommodation that perhaps few others would have allowed.  You can smell the interior of the van when you enter it, so perceptive and descriptive is Bennett's writing.  How Bennett endured Miss Shepherd's mean spirit and nasty disposition all those years is a lesson in compassion and humanity.

Both stories prompt readers to contemplate the value and usefulness of their own possessions, and to evaluate the importance of material things in our lives.  I did not find the stories as funny as the reviewers promised, but I did find the characterizations and the narratives memorable, endowed with many life lessons.

A Wonderful Book to Help You Take Better Photos with an Inexpensive Camera

                                                          

I loved Nick Kelsh's book "How to Photograph Your Life: Capturing Everyday Moments with Your Camera and Your Heart" (New York: Stewart, Tabori, and Chang). Copies are available through Amazon from affiliate booksellers, and possibly from other booksellers.l

The two features, in particular, that make this book a great book and an indispensable guide for novice photographers of every day life are (1) Kelsh takes all of his exemplary photos with a point-and-shoot camera, just to prove you don't need fancy equipment to take outstanding photos, and (2) the author runs typical amateur photos or snapshots parallel with his own outstanding photos. Just comparing examples of typical photos with examples of what the photo could have been provides great lessons, even without reading the brief, abundantly clear, text.

I recognized myself in many of the horrible examples of photos taken when we pointed a cheap camera at people, making them look into direct sunlight, forcing them to smile, and commanding them to hold still. Kelsh's simple rules, such as moving in closer, either by zooming or moving physically closer; taking many photos, and not locating subjects in dead center, will improve many memorable but horrible photos. We didn't know any better! Nobody told us these things, as we were improvising in our youth to preserve photos of our families and the scenes that were precious to us.

I've adopted several of Kelsh's bits of advice that have made many of my photos better to begin with. I used to ignore cloudy and overcast days; now I relish them. I used to take photos in noonlight glare because I thought I needed the light; now I aim for early morning or late afternoon. Readers will cringe when they see certain photos, such as the photo at p. 24 of a typical dinner group, taken with flash that washes away faces and hides half of the participants. In contrast, stand on a chair, look down on the group, and, amazingly, you have an outstanding photo of everyone, clear as a bell. Kelsh tells you to move the horizon to the top third of the photo in landscapes, a mistake I have traditionally made glaringly obvious here, since I always aimed the horizon for the middle or lower third of the photo.

By studying Kelsh's contrasting photos, following a few simple rules, and taking a few minutes to learn about and focus on light, paying attention to the emotions of children and adults, and being a bit more adventurous, you can turn your humdrum and oh-so-predictable snapshot album photos into truly memorable images. And you don't need an expensive camera to accomplish this feat. From my own economists vantage point, remember that the marginal (extra) cost of taking an extra photo, or a dozen extra photos, is zero. All you have to do is save the one or two truly memorable photos and delete the rest. I highly recommend Kelsh's book.

Oh My Gosh, 911 Page Views by 5:30 a.m.!

I'm well aware of the fact that many of you have thousands of page views per day as a matter of course, but 911 page views by 5:30 a.m. is a big deal for the Curmudgeonly Professor.  Are there really enough people out there who have time to spend looking at flowers to run up 911 page views?  It took a year and a half to get this far, and I may never hit the jackpot again.  However, I am enjoying the fun for a day.

Peppermint Tulips and a Flowering Tree from Thanksgiving Point: Photos of the Day June 9 2009