Wetpixel.com and Infrared Digital

Eric Cheng (http://www.echeng.com/photo/infrared/faq/) has an excellent website on how to modify one’s regular digital camera to take infrared pictures using filters. There are also more daring methods, which include removing the hot mirror filter from one’s digital camera (http://www.echeng.com/photo/infrared/wooten/).

Eric Cheng also has some awesome dive trip photos (http://www.echeng.com/photo/uw/).

Practical Casting

Someone told me he’s been making a homemade furnace for metal casting. I find that so much more interesting than the cross stitching that one of my other friends is doing. That’s always the case with me. I should have been a boy, but then, Matt wouldn’t have cared to date me.

For a reference in casting one’s own jewelry:

Practical Casting (Jewelry Crafts) by Tim McCreight

Like, I’ll ever have time for that.

Webcrawlers and Other Vultures of the Internet

I love how easily people put personal information on the Internet. It is so easy to find out information about virtually anyone and anything, based on their browsing habits, their websites, and their chosen nomers.

That’s why if I ever put personal information on the web, I am always sure that it’s something I don’t mind that others know. The older I get, the more secrets I am entrusted to keep. It’s a pain in the butt, but it’s also my job.

So I find it funny when people ask me to post my pictures online. Who are they, that they have the luxury of total non-privacy? I am no celebrity, nor do I ever want to be one.

This website is strictly for my own bookmarking and personal use.

If others want to be the subjects of Internet scrutiny, that’s their prerogative. I strongly value my privacy.

Can you say Too Much Information?

When Is It Socially Acceptable?

I‘ll admit, when Matt told me he was in law school, I almost didn’t want to date him.

When I was in medical school, lawyers were the butt of jokes all the time. I even levied a few at my colleagues, who were dual-degree MD-JDs. (Even MD-MBAs don’t get the flack that those poor masochists do.) And of course, all my MD-PhD colleagues viewed themselves as purists devoted soley to science. Everyone’s a martyr.

So, I am glad when I hear people tell me they’re going to medical school, graduate school, or law school. I know that there are still pockets of the country where people who strive to do something difficult are admired.

It’s a labor of love to keep trying. And I know you’re prepared for the flack that results from people who are too cynical (and impatient) to achieve a dream.

Resplendent Mango’s Rum Balls

Faculty Satire: Crossing a line?

“[W]hy don’t you go on a killing spree? you can take out fifteen or sixteen republicans before they gun you down.”

I rarely get offended by people calling me names. As a minority in multiple ways, I am used to it. What I do not tolerate, however, is people threatening my life.

To me, the intent to physically hinder means the difference between racism and mere opinion.

And I am doubly glad that Rothfuss is not a physician who daily has to save the lives of people with whom one does not agree.

Sailing Off the Hook — Chris Kleinfelter

Sailing Off the Hook Morning light trembles in the Curve of the mainsail. The vessel strains against the anchor, Ready to sail away with it, Wresting it from the firm hold Of creek-bottom clay. Here is the time tested struggle, Departing from a place where serenity Is a force that stops clocks in the Headlong plunge toward the future. Leaving this peaceful anchorage, Where night-birds screamed of love, Between the watery still nesses, And swans dropped in to share breakfast, Requires a quiet exit. No engine’s noise must be allowed To break the spell of silence Woven by the gift of tranquility, Generously bestowed on wayward travelers. Shout no command; but speak In the low voice of worshipers, Step lightly on the deck, Unfurling the sails slowly, Like raising the flag, With dignity and respect, Forsaking the ease of modern ways, Practice the age old mariners art. Creep silently down the aisle Of natures silent cathedral With the wake following behind, Murmuring its benediction. Sailing off the hook is The best way to start a new day, Moving across broad waters Where fortune rides on the swell As time whispers in the rigging. Chris Kleinfelter http://users.nbn.net/~chrisk/spring.htm

Don’t Make “Assumptions”

Every month, I get this medical newsletter from a prestigious medical society. This month, they included a new section:

For some reason, one Dr. Gilbert Liu is holding a “workshop” in order to teach doctors about “ethnic-specific versus pan-Asian dimensions of Asian American identity, highlighting the roles and contributions of Asian Americans in the United States.” One of the goals of this workshop is to promote “social justice.”

First of all, I have never met Dr. Liu. So there is no way he can examine my “ethnic-specific versus pan-Asian dimensions.”

Second of all, for someone who is telling people not to make “assumptions,” he is pretty presumptious.

I would hope that doctors’ continued medical education is helpful for all cultures, not just those of “Asian-Americans.” People can make all sorts of assumptions about anyone based on race, whether they’re white, Asian, black, or anywhere in between. I personally don’t care! I just hope that if one has chosen to be a physician, one gives them the best health care one can offer, regardless of one’s patients’ cultures.

I expect my patients to teach me about their individual cultures. I don’t expect to get that information from a “workshop.”

One of my good friends made waffles with me one morning, and he spread peanut butter and maple syrup on them. I had never heard of such a thing, and I told him so. He said, “Americans all eat waffles this way.” I said, “I grew up here, and I have never heard of eating waffles with peanut butter and syrup.” But I tried it, and I liked it!

Later, he told his mom about my American waffle cultural knowledge deficit. And his mom told him, “Well, we’re the only family in San Marcos that does that, that I know of.”

Culture is very specific.

You can’t know till you ask.

Infrared Dreams

Last night I got to chat with an old friend, who told me he is taking pictures again. (He stopped for a while as he was finishing up his degree in Minnesota.)

He’s back on his infrared kick, only this time he’s going digital. I knew there were digital cameras out there that could do infrared. I just didn’t think they were made available (and affordable!) to the public.

I love infrared photography (when it’s done well).

A lot of people are under some kind of misconception that infrared photography means one is capturing images of body heat. While some electromagnetic waves in the infrared range *are* given off as body heat, most “infrared photography” as it is generally known only captures near-infrared in the wavelengths of approximately 700 to 1200 nm. That doesn’t mean though that you don’t get some pretty cool effects from portraits with infrared. Skin tends to be a little more translucent and blemishes often disappear entirely. However, veins are also more easily visible, especially in limbs, making some women look like they have varicose veins, when they don’t really.

Trees and grass turn white. Skies become darker while clouds stand out sharply. Pictures of water have varying results, depending on the cloud cover, which means that sailing pictures can turn out pretty awesome, or really muddy.

Dreams of a Future Season
by Chris Maher
http://www.infrareddreams.com

Bovine Nirvana
by Lindsay Garrett
http://www.onedoor.com/lindsay/images/index.html

A reference for infrared photography:

http://www.atsf.co.uk/ilight/tech/thermal.html

Adam and Cris and Their “Basket Case” Project

I love these guys’ ambition — to purchase a run-down sailing cruiser and completely overhaul it to their specifications. I am in total agreement that if you are the one doing the overhaul yourself, you learn your boat backwards and forwards. So, I have to admire this pair of diehards.

As for those who mock what they are doing, Adam is right when he says,

Because it bears repeating:

Blessings

There was a guy who mowed my lawn back in Illinois. I always thought he was a nice guy, but Matt thought he was a little strange.

Perhaps so, but I never thought so myself, until one day, he came over to mow the lawn, and he started talking about all the things going wrong at his other job, until he had whipped himself into quite a frenzy there on the sidewalk.

Then he did something kinda odd.

He stopped yelling, and started chanting under his breath, “Serenity, now. . . serenity, now. . .” while walking away to get the weed whacker.

And, then I kind of wondered if Matt was right.

I still think he’s a nice guy though.

Anyway, I chant to myself too sometimes. Mostly I ask God for Strength. I don’t think I’ve ever asked Him for material things. Mostly intangibles. The material stuff, I know will come in time. So it always seemed silly to me to ask a Spiritual Being for anything other than things of a spiritual nature.

I love Julia Cameron’s writings.

The Universe Gifts Me with Courage in All Things I cherish my own courage. I salute myself for the brave action I undertake in my life. I focus with clarity and appreciation on the choices I have made which have required courage and self-determination. I applaud myself for my strength and my daring. Rather than belittle myself for my fears, I choose to honor myself for the bravery with which I have often walked through my fears. I count back in specific ways and enumerate for myself examples of my own courage: the new friendship I have undertaken, the steadiness I have shown in a difficult job, the honesty I have displayed in opening a difficult conversation. I honor myself for my bigheartedness in the face of challenges from which I could have — but did not — shrunk back. My courage brings blessings to my life. My courage blesses the lives of others. Blessings by Julia Cameron

To me, there’s no worse fate than being brainwashed to fear being alive.