Hmm - an obsession about obsessions?
Maybe I need to find a formal way to categorize obsessions, so I can accurately refer to past ones and people will know what I am talking about - sort of like a library of Congress indexing system for obsessions.
Such a system would need to be able to group associated obsessions, sub-obsessions, and past revisions of current obsessions.
I'm sure such a thing would just be sooo helpful to people reading this blog - NOT!
Gee, I am a strange person, am I not?
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Monday, February 12, 2007
One obsession closed, but new ones soon to be born...
OK, the "market research for digtal SLR" obsession is now over with. And the winner is: the Nikon D80, with the Nikon 18-200mm VR (vibration reduction) lens.
The first part (the body) arrived Friday, and I understand that the lens arrived today, and is waiting for me at home.
Now we can start a few new related obsessions! Here they are:
OK, the "market research for digtal SLR" obsession is now over with. And the winner is: the Nikon D80, with the Nikon 18-200mm VR (vibration reduction) lens.
The first part (the body) arrived Friday, and I understand that the lens arrived today, and is waiting for me at home.
Now we can start a few new related obsessions! Here they are:
- Obsession 1 - understanding the camera and playing with it. Soon to begin.
- Obsession 2 - hard case for the SLR project: I have a "semi-soft" case, but that doesn't really help me pack the camera in a backpack or suitcase. So I need something stiff. I am looking into either making some sort of clamshell case, or a wooden box that can hold the new baby.
- Obsession 3 - digital workflow. OK, I'm going to try to defer this one for a while. For most of my photography, I expect to continue to use .jpg mode in the sRBG color space. However, sometimes I will use raw mode for fancy stuff. This raises more questions than it solves, however. Here are a few: do you use the sRGB or Adobe RGB color space? Do you always keep both the raw and final file (and is that .jpg or photoshop, or .tiff, or what? And what color space should THAT file be in?
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Brussels – impressions
Brussels calls itself the capital of Europe. Although I don’t know how accepted that claim is, it makes sense to me. I cannot separate out the residents from the visitors to the city (of which there are many), but there is a definite multi-national character about the place. While on the surface, it strongly resembles Paris in many ways (with everyone speaking French supporting this illusion), the sum total of the people make it different.
It is not pretentious; it is not a city with an attitude. Time seems to flow a bit faster than in Paris, with a less dreamy feeling to it. Things happen here. People come here for a reason, even it that reason is just to shop.
And shopping it has. Street after street of shopping, and food. Even in mid-winter the streets in the shopping district were swarming with people.
Ah yes, the people of the city. They are alive, they are enjoying themselves, and many times they seem to not worry about anything beyond the current moment. It felt, in the winter, like St. Petersburg felt in the summer – groups of teens and young women walking down the streets laughing, holding hands, giggling. Couples in love, both young and old, hanging onto each other, with timeless looks in their eyes. The future and the past.
The architecture in the city seems similar to Paris to my untrained eye, although the narrow, tall buildings with sharply peaked roofs seem more prevalent somehow. And there are the European parks that I have grown to love (they form the destinations of my walkabouts). There is a certain formality about the two I visited that I did not see in either Paris or St. Petersburg (although less formal than England). No, it is not that everything was geometrical. Indeed, I think they located their parks where there was interesting topology, favoring “bowls” that you could look down into. But even when looking wild, you get the impression the paths were crafted, designed and controlled. They seemed to be a bit more about design and luxury compared with utility, perhaps. Beautiful, however.
And then there was the food. We will start with the first food group, chocolate. Belgium is the capital of the chocolate world – I doubt many will dispute it. Never before have I seen more chocolate. Good stuff, and even affordable. And I should know – I researched the topic completely. Yumm.
Waffles. No crepes in this city, but waffles. I had one. Quite good, with chocolate and whipped cream. But I missed the romantic idea of crepes in Paris. And chocolate is tastier.
Beyond that, the stores and restaurants seemed to match those of Paris. You had your standard repeating sets of stores, and multi-ethnic restaurants – not only French, but Greek, Spanish, Indian, Italian, etc. The food I had was quite good, although I had a limited sample (save my one “big” dinner, which was great). The desserts were French standard – in other words, perfect.
Oh, and one final thing – something completely unanticipated by me. Effective in January, 2007, Belgium has banned indoor smoking in all public buildings (except bars, I think). And I understand that the rest of Europe is following. This is the beginning of a new age indeed.
I wonder what’s next?
Brussels calls itself the capital of Europe. Although I don’t know how accepted that claim is, it makes sense to me. I cannot separate out the residents from the visitors to the city (of which there are many), but there is a definite multi-national character about the place. While on the surface, it strongly resembles Paris in many ways (with everyone speaking French supporting this illusion), the sum total of the people make it different.
It is not pretentious; it is not a city with an attitude. Time seems to flow a bit faster than in Paris, with a less dreamy feeling to it. Things happen here. People come here for a reason, even it that reason is just to shop.
And shopping it has. Street after street of shopping, and food. Even in mid-winter the streets in the shopping district were swarming with people.
Ah yes, the people of the city. They are alive, they are enjoying themselves, and many times they seem to not worry about anything beyond the current moment. It felt, in the winter, like St. Petersburg felt in the summer – groups of teens and young women walking down the streets laughing, holding hands, giggling. Couples in love, both young and old, hanging onto each other, with timeless looks in their eyes. The future and the past.
The architecture in the city seems similar to Paris to my untrained eye, although the narrow, tall buildings with sharply peaked roofs seem more prevalent somehow. And there are the European parks that I have grown to love (they form the destinations of my walkabouts). There is a certain formality about the two I visited that I did not see in either Paris or St. Petersburg (although less formal than England). No, it is not that everything was geometrical. Indeed, I think they located their parks where there was interesting topology, favoring “bowls” that you could look down into. But even when looking wild, you get the impression the paths were crafted, designed and controlled. They seemed to be a bit more about design and luxury compared with utility, perhaps. Beautiful, however.
And then there was the food. We will start with the first food group, chocolate. Belgium is the capital of the chocolate world – I doubt many will dispute it. Never before have I seen more chocolate. Good stuff, and even affordable. And I should know – I researched the topic completely. Yumm.
Waffles. No crepes in this city, but waffles. I had one. Quite good, with chocolate and whipped cream. But I missed the romantic idea of crepes in Paris. And chocolate is tastier.
Beyond that, the stores and restaurants seemed to match those of Paris. You had your standard repeating sets of stores, and multi-ethnic restaurants – not only French, but Greek, Spanish, Indian, Italian, etc. The food I had was quite good, although I had a limited sample (save my one “big” dinner, which was great). The desserts were French standard – in other words, perfect.
Oh, and one final thing – something completely unanticipated by me. Effective in January, 2007, Belgium has banned indoor smoking in all public buildings (except bars, I think). And I understand that the rest of Europe is following. This is the beginning of a new age indeed.
I wonder what’s next?
Friday, February 09, 2007
Brussels, Thursday
Return day. Due to being unable to find an ATM which dispenses less than 60 Euros, I wake up with 6 Euros in my pocket. A bit less than the EU 60 taxi fare to the airport, but I have another plan – this morning, under pressure to get to the airport, I am going to take my “Public transport in French” exam.
The plan goes like this – get on the trolley just outside my hotel, then transfer to the Metro (same fare, or at least I think), then transfer to the train station and figure out how to get to the airport.
Things got off to a bad start, as I had planned to use my credit card to buy my trolley ticket, but this did not work. So I spent my 1.50 to get a ticket. 4.50 left.
The trolley (which in this case was indistinguishable from the Metro – you got on underground and exited underground) and the transfer to the Metro went fine. And I managed to figure out the underground connecting tunnels to the train station (Gare Centrale). I bought my ticket (EU 2.50) to the airport, was proud of myself for finding the correct track, and although the train to the airport was delayed a bit (they run about every 20 minutes), all went well. Total time from hotel to airport was just under an hour – only about 10 minutes slower than the cab ride.
Airport check-in was uneventful once I found the Delta counter – no real map, you just walk around a huge terminal until you find the familiar symbol. And security was essentially identical to the US, although they don’t make you take off your shoes. From entering the terminal to being at my gate took about 15 minutes – there was no line at all in security.
The flight back was boring – the plane delayed on the runway for 2 hours for de-icing, and frantic run through JFK airport to catch my connecting flight, but otherwise normal stuff.
Return day. Due to being unable to find an ATM which dispenses less than 60 Euros, I wake up with 6 Euros in my pocket. A bit less than the EU 60 taxi fare to the airport, but I have another plan – this morning, under pressure to get to the airport, I am going to take my “Public transport in French” exam.
The plan goes like this – get on the trolley just outside my hotel, then transfer to the Metro (same fare, or at least I think), then transfer to the train station and figure out how to get to the airport.
Things got off to a bad start, as I had planned to use my credit card to buy my trolley ticket, but this did not work. So I spent my 1.50 to get a ticket. 4.50 left.
The trolley (which in this case was indistinguishable from the Metro – you got on underground and exited underground) and the transfer to the Metro went fine. And I managed to figure out the underground connecting tunnels to the train station (Gare Centrale). I bought my ticket (EU 2.50) to the airport, was proud of myself for finding the correct track, and although the train to the airport was delayed a bit (they run about every 20 minutes), all went well. Total time from hotel to airport was just under an hour – only about 10 minutes slower than the cab ride.
Airport check-in was uneventful once I found the Delta counter – no real map, you just walk around a huge terminal until you find the familiar symbol. And security was essentially identical to the US, although they don’t make you take off your shoes. From entering the terminal to being at my gate took about 15 minutes – there was no line at all in security.
The flight back was boring – the plane delayed on the runway for 2 hours for de-icing, and frantic run through JFK airport to catch my connecting flight, but otherwise normal stuff.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Brussels, Wednesday
Nothing special for this day. We got out early at 1 pm (government only meeting in the afternoon), and I went on another 3 hours walkabout. This time I bought some things, and ate some tasty sorbet. I then did some work in my room, and ate Greek (or sort of Greek / French) – a steak like thing with a cream sauce and lots of mushrooms. Then I came back, packed, chatted with Nina, and did some more work.
The plan was to start to reset my body clock by not going to bed until 2:30 am. This didn’t work, as I was then unable to sleep much, until maybe 5:30 am. My alarm went off two hours later.
Nothing special for this day. We got out early at 1 pm (government only meeting in the afternoon), and I went on another 3 hours walkabout. This time I bought some things, and ate some tasty sorbet. I then did some work in my room, and ate Greek (or sort of Greek / French) – a steak like thing with a cream sauce and lots of mushrooms. Then I came back, packed, chatted with Nina, and did some more work.
The plan was to start to reset my body clock by not going to bed until 2:30 am. This didn’t work, as I was then unable to sleep much, until maybe 5:30 am. My alarm went off two hours later.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Brussels, Tuesday
Tuesday was entirely a work day, and I had no time for myself. We took a cab to the NATO headquarters, and wait in the cold for about 30 minutes waiting for an escort – somehow our security paperwork did not get processed, and we did not have a pass.
Once inside, the conference center (where all the working group work is held) was very new, very impressive and huge. Our room was moderately sized (probably 9 x 14 meters), with a large oval table in the middle, and chairs around the outside. The table had one seat per country (actually 2 for the US, for some reason) (with official looking tags in English and French), and a microphone and headset for every seat (complete with little red lights to indicate who is speaking). This is where the delegation’s primary representative sits and talks. The seats on the outside had headsets only. There was a large windowed area that would normally hold French and English translators (the windows were labeled), but none were present nor needed, as everyone spoke wonderful English with multicolored accents.
The meeting itself was uneventful and not particularly exciting, so I will skip the details.
I got back to my room at 5:45, slept for 30 minutes, chatted a bit with home, and then went to social event number one – beer (I drank wine…) at the Royal Lion. This went until 8 pm, and then was followed by a (god, I wish I knew), four course dinner at “The Belgium Mussel” – which ran until 11:30 pm. Tasty food – champagne, something rather like shrimp scampi for an appetizer, a “fish trio” for the main course, chocolate mousse for desert, and more red wine than I will own up to. I stumbled my way back to my hotel – a rather typical French experience, all told. For some reason when I remember Paris, I remember always feeling this way after meals.
Tuesday was entirely a work day, and I had no time for myself. We took a cab to the NATO headquarters, and wait in the cold for about 30 minutes waiting for an escort – somehow our security paperwork did not get processed, and we did not have a pass.
Once inside, the conference center (where all the working group work is held) was very new, very impressive and huge. Our room was moderately sized (probably 9 x 14 meters), with a large oval table in the middle, and chairs around the outside. The table had one seat per country (actually 2 for the US, for some reason) (with official looking tags in English and French), and a microphone and headset for every seat (complete with little red lights to indicate who is speaking). This is where the delegation’s primary representative sits and talks. The seats on the outside had headsets only. There was a large windowed area that would normally hold French and English translators (the windows were labeled), but none were present nor needed, as everyone spoke wonderful English with multicolored accents.
The meeting itself was uneventful and not particularly exciting, so I will skip the details.
I got back to my room at 5:45, slept for 30 minutes, chatted a bit with home, and then went to social event number one – beer (I drank wine…) at the Royal Lion. This went until 8 pm, and then was followed by a (god, I wish I knew), four course dinner at “The Belgium Mussel” – which ran until 11:30 pm. Tasty food – champagne, something rather like shrimp scampi for an appetizer, a “fish trio” for the main course, chocolate mousse for desert, and more red wine than I will own up to. I stumbled my way back to my hotel – a rather typical French experience, all told. For some reason when I remember Paris, I remember always feeling this way after meals.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Brussels, Monday
The flight over was uneventful, although I managed to get virtually no sleep on the plane – a bit unusual for me. When I got to the airport, I originally intended to take a cab (after all, I’m not paying), but the queue for the taxis was very long. So I decided to chance a train. I bought a ticket, and got on. I didn’t really have a plan, and didn’t know the stops. But I figured that once anywhere near Brussels, finding a cab would be easier, etc.
I had three choices – Gare Nord, Gare Centrale, or Gare something else. I chose Centrale, which proved to be the correct choice. Once there, I wandered around outside, looked at the maps, and tried to find my hotel. No luck (it didn’t help that I was looking for “A”, which proved to be the first initial of the real street name). So in the end I got in a cab, and for EU 8 he took me to my hotel.
Once settled (very nice room, no complaints at all), I went on a walkabout. These work the same in any city I am in. I find a map, take a camera and set off on foot. I don’t worry about where I am going, don’t even keep track. When I get tired, I find a metro or trolley stop and assume I can work it out.
Once I got oriented, this worked pretty well. Brussels is quite tourist friendly, with a big map on most major intersections. So I wander, occasionally look at a map for parks, then wander off that way. I stopped for “lunch”, otherwise known as a patisserie, and had a tasty piece of rather French looking cake. Four hours (and probably 15+ km on foot), I take the metro back. This got me much of the way, but I hadn’t figured out the trolley system yet, so I had a final 1.5 km walk to my hotel.
Here are some pictures, taken during Monday's walkabout:
First, this was very near my Hotel:
I liked the roofline in this picture. When I took it at first, I didn't notice the little white figure at the left - a clear talkoff on Mannekin Pis, a famous statue in Brussels (and several other places):
The following was a rather fancy indoor shopping mall. Reminds me of GUM in Moscow, and the Eaton center in Toronto:
I found a really bright shop window absolutely glowing in the late afternoon sun:
I took so many "typical street scenes", and won't bore you with them all. Here are a couple:
I like European city parks. Each city has its own character. Here is a wonderful, if not particularly wild park downtown:
Ending back new my hotel, at the main square again:
The flight over was uneventful, although I managed to get virtually no sleep on the plane – a bit unusual for me. When I got to the airport, I originally intended to take a cab (after all, I’m not paying), but the queue for the taxis was very long. So I decided to chance a train. I bought a ticket, and got on. I didn’t really have a plan, and didn’t know the stops. But I figured that once anywhere near Brussels, finding a cab would be easier, etc.
I had three choices – Gare Nord, Gare Centrale, or Gare something else. I chose Centrale, which proved to be the correct choice. Once there, I wandered around outside, looked at the maps, and tried to find my hotel. No luck (it didn’t help that I was looking for “A”, which proved to be the first initial of the real street name). So in the end I got in a cab, and for EU 8 he took me to my hotel.
Once settled (very nice room, no complaints at all), I went on a walkabout. These work the same in any city I am in. I find a map, take a camera and set off on foot. I don’t worry about where I am going, don’t even keep track. When I get tired, I find a metro or trolley stop and assume I can work it out.
Once I got oriented, this worked pretty well. Brussels is quite tourist friendly, with a big map on most major intersections. So I wander, occasionally look at a map for parks, then wander off that way. I stopped for “lunch”, otherwise known as a patisserie, and had a tasty piece of rather French looking cake. Four hours (and probably 15+ km on foot), I take the metro back. This got me much of the way, but I hadn’t figured out the trolley system yet, so I had a final 1.5 km walk to my hotel.
Here are some pictures, taken during Monday's walkabout:
First, this was very near my Hotel:
I liked the roofline in this picture. When I took it at first, I didn't notice the little white figure at the left - a clear talkoff on Mannekin Pis, a famous statue in Brussels (and several other places):
The following was a rather fancy indoor shopping mall. Reminds me of GUM in Moscow, and the Eaton center in Toronto:
I found a really bright shop window absolutely glowing in the late afternoon sun:
I took so many "typical street scenes", and won't bore you with them all. Here are a couple:
I like European city parks. Each city has its own character. Here is a wonderful, if not particularly wild park downtown:
Ending back new my hotel, at the main square again:
Monday, February 05, 2007
Traveling again, but this to Brussels
Well, I’m sitting on a plane and it’s freezing. I’m covered in as many blankets as I can find, and wondering why the plane doesn’t seem to have any temperature control. At least in the cabin I’m sitting in, there seem to be only two temperatures – darn cold (my guess is about 15 degrees, or beyond balmy (perhaps 30 degrees). One requires a jacket, and the other makes me regret wearing a long sleeve shirt. It stays one particular way, until someone complains, then it flips the other way. Strange.
I didn’t even know about this trip two weeks ago, but here I am, heading to Brussels, Belgium. A small adventure for Chuck. I am going to attend a NATO working group meeting on software-defined radios, which are a bit of a specialty of mine. Previously this was a government-only working group trying to determine what NATO should be doing in this area. They are now to the point or needing to involve industry, since we are the ones who actually not only make software-defined radios, but as a result also understand the technology the best. As a result, I am one of a group of four US delegates to this meeting.
I am comfortable in the overall subject area that I am going to cover, but far from comfortable with the political arena of the NATO working group. When I look at past attendance lists, I recognize very few people (OK, a couple from France). So this meeting I am going to lay low, listen, take notes, and try not to talk too much.
As I am writing this, I have awoken from my “nap” during the “night” on the plane. They fed me a bagel for breakfast (Delta airlines is NOT Air France, that is for sure!), and just turned off the cabin lights. We are flying into the sun, and I can see that we are over land – England, I would guess. The local Belgium time (according to my watch) is 7:49 am, but the sun is still far from rising. I can see an even glow on the horizon, and since we are flying more than one time zone per hour, I expect that I will be able to see a complete transition from darkness to sunrise in “faster than real time”. In fact, as I have written this paragraph, I can start to see what I think are clouds taking form, rather than just patchy lights from the land far below.
I don’t feel very tired at the moment, which is a bit strange, since it is just before 2 am local time – about the time I went to bed on Friday night two days ago. I will arrive in Brussels at 9 am Monday morning, and plan to take Monday to wander the streets with a camera and stop in all the pastry shops I can find J.
I now see a sea of clouds below. At 7:56, the world is. Grey blue clouds against a darker blue sky, with shades of orange and yellow on the horizon. I am on the “north” side of the airplane – when I look through the cabin out the windows on the other side, things look considerably brighter in the southeast.
Six hours, six time zones. I will now be offset 2 hours from St. Pete time, and 6 from home. It reminds me of traveling the other way, when a non-stop flight from Moscow to JFK can arrive before it departs.
Strange world, this.
February is going to be one busy month – crazier than any I can remember in the past with a combination of business travel and vacation. This week (we will call it week 1), I am in Europe. I get back near midnight on Thursday. The next week I spend at work. Then Nina’s winter break begins that Friday (end of “week two”). On week three, we plan to travel to San Diego for a week vacation. Week 3. We return the following Monday. Gwendolyn and Nina return home, and I remain in San Diego for several more days to attend a meeting there, returning on Thursday – week 4. When I get back it will be March. And sometime in early March I need to go visit my Mom Busy, busy.
The sea of clouds is a light lavender now. It is day, although the sun has yet to rise. We are now over the English Channel – a long way to swim indeed. Next we pass just north of Lille, France, and soon to our destination.
The last time I was in Europe it was to Russia – the time before, Paris. And Russia before that. And Russia this summer. Perhaps not as much variety as possible, but wonderful visits. Every trip is different. Our life is very rich indeed!
Well, I’m sitting on a plane and it’s freezing. I’m covered in as many blankets as I can find, and wondering why the plane doesn’t seem to have any temperature control. At least in the cabin I’m sitting in, there seem to be only two temperatures – darn cold (my guess is about 15 degrees, or beyond balmy (perhaps 30 degrees). One requires a jacket, and the other makes me regret wearing a long sleeve shirt. It stays one particular way, until someone complains, then it flips the other way. Strange.
I didn’t even know about this trip two weeks ago, but here I am, heading to Brussels, Belgium. A small adventure for Chuck. I am going to attend a NATO working group meeting on software-defined radios, which are a bit of a specialty of mine. Previously this was a government-only working group trying to determine what NATO should be doing in this area. They are now to the point or needing to involve industry, since we are the ones who actually not only make software-defined radios, but as a result also understand the technology the best. As a result, I am one of a group of four US delegates to this meeting.
I am comfortable in the overall subject area that I am going to cover, but far from comfortable with the political arena of the NATO working group. When I look at past attendance lists, I recognize very few people (OK, a couple from France). So this meeting I am going to lay low, listen, take notes, and try not to talk too much.
As I am writing this, I have awoken from my “nap” during the “night” on the plane. They fed me a bagel for breakfast (Delta airlines is NOT Air France, that is for sure!), and just turned off the cabin lights. We are flying into the sun, and I can see that we are over land – England, I would guess. The local Belgium time (according to my watch) is 7:49 am, but the sun is still far from rising. I can see an even glow on the horizon, and since we are flying more than one time zone per hour, I expect that I will be able to see a complete transition from darkness to sunrise in “faster than real time”. In fact, as I have written this paragraph, I can start to see what I think are clouds taking form, rather than just patchy lights from the land far below.
I don’t feel very tired at the moment, which is a bit strange, since it is just before 2 am local time – about the time I went to bed on Friday night two days ago. I will arrive in Brussels at 9 am Monday morning, and plan to take Monday to wander the streets with a camera and stop in all the pastry shops I can find J.
I now see a sea of clouds below. At 7:56, the world is. Grey blue clouds against a darker blue sky, with shades of orange and yellow on the horizon. I am on the “north” side of the airplane – when I look through the cabin out the windows on the other side, things look considerably brighter in the southeast.
Six hours, six time zones. I will now be offset 2 hours from St. Pete time, and 6 from home. It reminds me of traveling the other way, when a non-stop flight from Moscow to JFK can arrive before it departs.
Strange world, this.
February is going to be one busy month – crazier than any I can remember in the past with a combination of business travel and vacation. This week (we will call it week 1), I am in Europe. I get back near midnight on Thursday. The next week I spend at work. Then Nina’s winter break begins that Friday (end of “week two”). On week three, we plan to travel to San Diego for a week vacation. Week 3. We return the following Monday. Gwendolyn and Nina return home, and I remain in San Diego for several more days to attend a meeting there, returning on Thursday – week 4. When I get back it will be March. And sometime in early March I need to go visit my Mom Busy, busy.
The sea of clouds is a light lavender now. It is day, although the sun has yet to rise. We are now over the English Channel – a long way to swim indeed. Next we pass just north of Lille, France, and soon to our destination.
The last time I was in Europe it was to Russia – the time before, Paris. And Russia before that. And Russia this summer. Perhaps not as much variety as possible, but wonderful visits. Every trip is different. Our life is very rich indeed!
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