:: In a Small Dark Room ::

:: Tuesday, October 21, 2003 ::

Earlier post of Knowledge and Certainty: The Danger of Knowing for Sure (Jacob Bronowski)

:: Mez 18:49 [+] ::
...

uh-oh
bed nooz from elsewhere ... was trying to re-upload some photos to Chris' Memorial Site, where some of them are looking rather odd because of some sort of image error. Got message about me reaching the limit of the space available. They may have changed the amount available, since I haven't added very much to the site, and indeed deleted quite a bit of old stuff some weeks back. Will have to perhaps look at another area to store things in. The net is morphing into a much more commercialized place. I gloomily suspect that it'll go the way of so many other money-captured opportunities.

Computer back working, but as with every time it's changed or fixed, a whole bunch of stuff isn't working or needs a bunch of faffing about to get back into proper order.

:: Mez 14:19 [+] ::
...

Sorry for gap, but it will continue for a bit. Having computer disconnection situation. Also concentrating on getting some important non-world-problem-solving (but self-problems-solving I hope) stuff done which takes quite a bit of time & concentration I can't devote to this.
If this stuff gets fixed by the end of the year (or even sooner!), it'll be a huge load of stress off me.
Then I'll just have to find something different to worry about instead :)

:: Mez 18:20 [+] ::
...

Last Weekend (August 23/24) there was a Big Blow on over a lot of New South Wales & even down to Victoria. Some people's power was cut off for several days (I think by now it's mostly restored). Not that long after a major blackout in the USA & part of Canada next door, and also a power outage in London during an afternoon peak hour that caused a lot of disruption.
Some parts of Sydney Harbour saw a fair bit of destruction of moored boats. I deliberately caught a ferry from a different wharf to get to work so it would go past a few marinas that my usual ferry trip doesn't. Wanted to take photos if there were any spectacular images. Luckily (?) that section survived pretty well - a deeply sheltered inlet.
On the way, though, I did take a few general scenic shots and passed 5,000 images.

Also, while tidying, sorting, cleaning out the house of my late partner, I found a camera with film in it. Got it developed & printed. Includes pictures of some of our trips together. Will put a couple of the images up on Chris' Memorial Site when I can. It was his birthday a couple of weeks back.

:: Mez 04:09 [+] ::
...

As the old Chinese curse was said to wish, we're in interesting times. This tiny patch has undergone a few upheavals itself. Not as spectacular as the recent multi-city, two-country blackout in north-eastern North America.
The nice blogger support staff re-loaded (very Matrixspeak) an old copy of my Hello Cruel World template (good), but they loaded it into this blog instead (ungood in newspeak). Did create an interesting effect, since this "dark room" became quite light really.

Had to save the HCW template from here to my machine & then try to re-load the darkroom template from an original saved copy. First few times it didn't work, but now looks OK, except that it's the old darkroom template. The only major changes in the new one was experimentation with different colours, so no huge loss of time, effort, functions & beauty.

Old HCW template is, however, missing a lot of the extra features & stuff I'd added in. Am not sure whether to spend time bringing it back up, or whether to just work on the new template (which would no longer then be temporary new one). Hello Cruel World is still presently in the new style. They both have good parts, am hoping to preserve as much as possible of them.

:: Mez 16:28 [+] ::
...

Sigh. If 'tain't one thing, it's another.
Now have lost/deleted Hello Cruel World template after spending mucho time modifying it to my liking.
Naturally, I had a backup saved of the original unmodified version, but don't think there's one of the new improved one :(

I've substituted one of the NewBlogger templates temporarily, as without one at all, you can't publish any new posts.
So, if you're looking at Hello Cruel World , just admire the content ("personality"), rather than trying to be swept away by the colour & movement & general gorgeousness of the thing :)

:: Mez 03:20 [+] ::
...

Yay! Archiving now works! After trying many different things, was only able to get it to find the archive files by putting them in the same folder/directory as the main archive files (use different names to distinguish blogs). A pain. May mean the 'permalinks' (see earlier post) are working, since they can now find the files, so I've re-instituted them.

Number of digital images is now nearly 5,000. Apparently the digital cameras tend to wear out, especially the charge-coupled device (CCD) that captures the image. Unlike analogue film cameras, where ones over a hundred years old can still be working. Hoping this one holds out a fair bit longer, but you _do_ tend to take quite a few more images than when using film.
Trying to use rechargeable batteries, but they're lasting a very short time, and at the moment, I don't seem to e able to charge them back up enough to make the camera work, even at full charge. Am using newer types that aren't supposed to have that 'memory' effect the Nickel-Cadmium ones do, but that doesn't seem to make a difference.

Altho' I'm a little sloppy with other backups, I'm making sure that very soon after downloading from the camera to the computer, I burn the images to a CD. So many people who lost their homes & belongings in the bushfires tried to save their photos. Building up a fair collection now. The size of the archive now does make it tricky to select ones for uploading to web (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it).

:: Mez 01:45 [+] ::
...

OK. Yuh.
It's looking for the right file now, but I think it's looking in the wrong place. I told it where to look in the "Settings" section of the "editing your blog". I made sure using the separate FTP program that the directories/folders and files were there in the right place.
So, what is the problem!?! Sigh. There are rather more important things I should be doing - even if it's just knitting up a square for the cold & poor.

:: Mez 01:03 [+] ::
...

"That trick never works!"
Well, done some tweaking on Archive part of Main Template. Am hopeful.

Happy Birthday to Christopher
He would have been 50 years old on August 3rd.

There is nothing. There is no God and no universe, there is only empty space, and in it a lost and homeless and wandering and companionless and indestructible Thought. And I am that thought.
And God, and the Universe, and Time, and Life, and Death, and Joy and Sorrow and Pain only a grotesque and brutal dream, evolved from the frantic imagination of that same Thought.
     Mark Twain (after his wife's death) - letter to Joseph Twichell

Archive that, mate.

:: Mez 00:56 [+] ::
...

Looks like archiving is still problematical. Will have to investigate. Not right now, tho'.

:: Mez 13:27 [+] ::
...

There are some quite lovely pictures in these. I have one in the Autumn Gallery and one in The Big Wet, other photo galleries on the www.smh.com.au site.

Winter Wonderland
SMH Readers' photos of winter, not just in Sydney, but around the State of New South Wales
www.smh.com.au/photogallery/2003/07/28/1059244543291.html

Winter's Tale
A gallery of images from The Sydney Morning Herald's award-winning photographers.
smh.com.au/photogallery/2003/07/18/1058035193595.html

:: Mez 13:39 [+] ::
...

There are now two of my photos on the Sydney Morning Herald website, as well as parts of my writing appearing in Margo Kingston's Webdiary & some of my letters in their Letters to the Editor page.

A Sydney Morning Herald (www.smh.com.au) readers' gallery of photos of Sydney in a heavy rainstorm
Harris Street, Ultimo (Sydney) in Rain

A Sydney Morning Herald (www.smh.com.au) readers' gallery of photos of Sydney in Autumn
Bats in the Sydney Domain

Details of non-photographic, writing-type bits are on The Rambling Blog (Hello Cruel World)

:: Mez 20:55 [+] ::
...

Whew, this is going to take a lotta work. But, as important, it will take up a bunch of space too. Might have to put different sections on different servers. The theory of hyperlinking will, of course, mean that it shouldn't really make any difference.

Wondering if it's more efficient to work through one theme over all the different directories over time, or to work through chronologically sorting & adding different images to each theme as I come to it. Anyway; bedtime.

:: Mez 03:18 [+] ::
...

You may be able to see a [link] or a [+] at the end of each post. This is supposed to be a way for you to link to a specific entry in the blog, rather than just link across to the blog as a whole, then have to search for a particular piece you wanted. You shouldn't be able to see them at the moment, so this message may be unnecessary.
[Note: this is of course making the rather large assumption that you would actually wish to put a link to this. Stranger things have happened.]

This linking is not working properly at present. I suspect it may be because of the problems with the archive files, since the posts are identified by their place in the archives. Because of this, I've tried to hide the links until they do work again, to save people the annoyance of trying to using them & getting errors.

:: Mez 03:02 [+] ::
...

These look nice but links don't work properly -- probably because of earlier problems with complete non-appearence of archives. Think we may have to wait for the effluxion of time to accumulate new ones. But for now, you can see all the entries back to the beginning in November 2002 just by scrolling down this main page. By the time the earlier entries drop off the bottom of the page, there should be a working archive link to them. Thinking positive here.

If it looks like the site is working properly now, I might be able to start working again on getting the pix online. There are now over 3,750, so culling will be a fair job. They are stored in chronological order to make backing up & tracking down images simpler, but for display I want to sort into several themes & series in different directories before I then shrink/optimize them for web display & put the sets into separate pages. Well, that's the plan. Will see how it goes.
The world, after all, is a poorer place without being able to experience My Art <g>.

:: Mez 03:04 [+] ::
...

Well, we'll see how the jury-rigged running repairs go.
Hold on, it's gunna be a bumpy night.

:: Mez 01:54 [+] ::
...

Good ol' blogger says it can't find my files. Think I'll have to scrub up & go in 'live'. Does this make me like Neo in The Matrix?

:: Mez 21:14 [+] ::
...

The Hello Cruel World main blog has disappeared, (The Dark Side is Taking Over!) but you can still reach the archives - once you find a place to reach the archives from. :(

:: Mez 19:08 [+] ::
...

Vaulting ambition has overleapt, by the looks of it.

I can't see the 'main' blog on this site "Hello Cruel World".

If you are looking for the Hello Cruel World entries part of Vandaljewels, try the link below, and once you are there you can connect to other parts using the other dated archive links
Removed: Didna werk
I will have to go in & raise a bit of dust to fix up the problems. Times like this I miss my old platoon, they'd provide some covering fire while I move up on the flank. <ptang!>

:: Mez 18:50 [+] ::
...

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away"

We are now in New Blogger

:: Mez 23:06 [+] ::
...

The number of my digital photos is now above 3,000, so will need to do at least some pruning. Would also like to arrange them in some order for 'publication' here.

At the moment they are kept in simple chronological/numerical order, divided into dated directories, with some sorted into topical subdirectories underneath, eg texture, trees, Sydney Harbour, Pyrmont, the countryside, etc.

The total includes a small number of 'movies' made with the camera -- less than twenty -- but don't know if anyone would be interested in seeing these.

:: Mez 14:31 [+] ::
...

Hey. Looks like computer is back working again [I should say that quietly in case "they" hear.]. I tried quite hard to break it, & succeeded for a while, but goldurnit, mah very good friend 'A' slapped it around a bit, then threatened to slap me around a bit if I fiddled with it again (in lieu of superglueing the case shut).
Let's see how it goes.
Hmmmm. Google, hey???

:: Mez 20:27 [+] ::
...

Meanwhile, Not Very Good Thing is happening -- might just be in steps towards Wonderful New Miracle Computer. Am "upgrading". Actually, friend is getting gorgeous new hot-damn! hard-core, hubba, hubba type computers (Why do they all start with 'h'? Do you think it's something to do with gasps or excited exhalations?). Friend's ... umm ... , well, another friend is getting his motherboard, groovy graphics card, etc., and I am getting the other friend's hardware, plus some new kit from recent computer markets. Most of it is sort of working.
Except.
The drive with all the photos on it (and all my stored writings, etc.).
But DON'T PANIC.
There are a few backups (as mentioned). Also, drive itself shouldn't be damaged, just getting it all set up & recognised. (Remember, cars & TVs were probably (almost) as bad as this in their earlier days.)

:: Mez 23:24 [+] ::
...

Nasty things happening with computer, including the classic "cup of tea spills over keyboard" incident. Am taking my digital pix on CompactFlash card into photo place to get them put onto CD, in case Really Bad Thing happens with computer. Also copying CDs & leaving them in different places as 'off-site backup'. Sigh.

At least a few things happening elsewhere in life. (And some good rain!)

:: Mez 21:25 [+] ::
...

Well, January 2003 looks like something of a repeat of the bushfires around Christmas 2001. Horrible destruction & fearful scenes in Canberra.
Map 1; Map 2
Over 400 homes lost in one area in one day (& 4 dead people). Every year in Australia we lose about 4,000 homes & 200 lives to non-bush fires.
That's 10% of the annual property loss & 2% of the annual lives lost in one day (less than 0.3% of a year).

Lord knows how many lifestock & wildlife.

The historic & still currently well-used Mount Stromlo Observatory & its workshop where we were building our contribution to the Very Large Telescope.
Links: astsun.astro.virginia.edu/ ~rjp0i/ mso/; skytonight.com/ news/ 3307161.html?page=1&c=y (update at skytonight.com/ news/ 3307536.html?page=1&c=y)

Meanwhile people are blaming the bush & those who care for it, after firstly cutting off resources to properly manage it, & allowing builders to put houses with no defences right in amongst it. Why are so many people so instinctively, thoughtlessly, destructively vicious?

So many people weeping over the loss of their prized life memorials: certificates, keepsakes, family photos. I have been saving my digital photos onto CDs, and want to store them outside the home. Will also have to work on getting some of the older things uploaded. With luck they won't evanesce away in a company breakdown.

No photos yet. But am working on updating 'treebark' with new stuff & adding some other -- happier -- pix soon.

:: Mez 20:05 [+] ::
...

Keep on holding on. Will get there. Am starting back to work after a long illness, & trying to fit lotzastuff in. Energy level still not great. Brain as well as body also slowed down.
Year 2002 has been pretty wretched. Signs not too good for 2003, but there's always hope...

:: Mez 23:23 [+] ::
...