The Haze Lifts

The antibiotics are starting to kick in. I'm finally starting to feel better...

Still Sick

It's official. I've been sick the entire holiday weekend. And I have just one question. With all the advances in medicine, why does NyQuil still have to taste so bad?

HP 9180 Initial Trials

To fine tune my printer settings in Aperture, I decided to run a few trials. Even with a completely calibrated system, the prints never quite match the monitor. But I'm getting awfully close...

I'll try to keep these tests simple. Since this printer is the geared to towards the prosumer, I theoretically shouldn't need to get buried with the all the possible settings so as to loose the fun of print making. Before picking up the printer, I would order my prints at my local Ritz. The results were ok but maybe a touch too dark. But making my own prints almost makes me feel like an artist - a real print maker. If only the printer emitted the appropriate chemicals typical in a darkroom.

For the test, I chose this photo. My little friend Jack is my favorite model, he just goes on about his business letting me shoot away with no complaints or dirty looks. The image was shot in JPG format & the Adobe RGB 1998 color space. I'm using HP Advanced Gloss Paper and my monitor was calibrated with a Huey device. Here are the scenarios:

1) For whatever reason I had dialed up the gamma in Aperture's print dialog to 1.30. With the gamma at 1.3, the appropriate color profile selected for the paper, and black point compensation on, I noticed the prints fair but seemed a little washed out, kind like a sun glare coating the entire image. I also noticed a bit of color shifting in greens (trees) and blues (sky) when I proofed the image on screen.

2) I dialed back the gamma to 1.10. The difference was surprising. The washed out look was gone, almost like I made a saturation adjustment. The entire print was much richer and color accurate.

3) Just to be daring, I set the gamma to 1.0 for maybe a slightly better print. Things got just a touch richer. Deciding between 1.0 and 1.10 was tough. For this image, 1.0 might be the winner. But I went back to my Aperture preset and split the difference to 1.05. The color shifts seemed to correct themselves. Before this tweak I was trying to boost the saturation for the colors that faded under the 1.3 setting. But with a dialed down gamma things looked fine.

4) As a final test, I tried using the system managed settings in Aperture. As I understand it, this setting bypasses the color profiles and is supposed to serve as a very entry level setting (or if no profile is available). Well it turns out all this color management stuff isn't a bunch of marketing fluff. The result with a system managed setting gave me a very dark and muddy print - yuck. I'm sticking to the profiles when available! Now if only I'd have run this test prior to wasting two 8.5 x 11 sheets. Oddly though, the on screen proof looked pretty good, a little more vivid perhaps. But the print was terrible - way too dark.

The next couple prints run with 1.05 gamma and proper paper profile were great! The only problem I noticed was that somehow the image is getting cropped. I'm not sure if it's Aperture or the HP software. My shots typically fill the frame, so some important edges might be clipped. I'll have to try a print through CS3 - that might help narrow down the problem.

Happy Black Friday

We had an enjoyable Thanksgiving with friends here in Florida. Sadly, Keith, Betsy, and my favorite little model Jack will be relocating to Seattle. Bonnie and I wish them all the best!

The food was filling and there's plenty left of Bonnie's pumpkin pies and cranberries - all the food I really need for a few days. For as much as I complain about the Florida weather, it's been quite nice the last few weeks. The windows are open, humidity has faded, and the sun is comfortably warm. I just wish this little bug that I caught would've spared me for the holiday. Being sick on a holiday weekend (a 4 day holiday weekend) sucks.

Now as I finish my breakfast, I'm pondering the idea of venturing out to the stores. There's nothing I particularly need to buy today, but seeing the holiday sights is always a treat. The only store I make a point of avoiding is Best Buy - it's just not worth it. You'd think they're giving away cash by those crazy lines. And only the sale items are a good deal, the rest of the store is usually overpriced, loud, obnoxious, and the sales associates typically know far less about whatever I'm considering buying.

I was amazed to hear the number of stores opening at 4am this morning. And there were rumors that some outlet malls were opening at midnight? Since that's technically earliest a store could open on Friday, I wonder how long it'll take before stores open Thanksgiving evening.

Martial Arts

For the past several weeks I've been taking a self defense class at my local YMCA. It's a good class with a practical focus. The instructor's motto is "Better to be tried by 12 than carried by 6." Think about that for a moment... Aggressive thinking, yes, but I guess that's kind of the point. We're learning basic blocks, punches, kicks, and many pressure point type maneuvers, which if done properly, can be lethal.

While the class is fun, I've been thinking about stepping it up a notch. Or maybe I've just been watching too much Human Weapon on The History Channel. My instructor recommended Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. As luck would have it, there's a studio in town.

The other option, as a friend pointed out, is a concealed carry permit. But where's the fun in that?

War Photography

We just watched a stunning documentary about the war photographer James Nachtwey. His work is incredibly moving - check it out!

Health Plans

I know my way around a 401(k). ROTH IRAs are a piece of cake to me. Thanks to several good books, NPR, and Vanguard, investing is not something even remotely threatening to me. But health insurance is something I know absolutely nothing about. It's made unnecessarily complicated for a variety of reasons. And when it's needed most for catastrophic problems, us middle class are screwed.

Tomorrow I have a simple eye exam. It probably won't take more than 30 minutes. But I spent at least that much time trying to figure out what exactly my vision plan covers and if my selected doctor is in the network. It turns out my coverage offers a whopping $5 for eye exams. The benefits for prescription lenses and frames are a little more generous. Luckily it turns out I was able to use Bonnie's plan (a rarity now that most working spouses must use their own coverage exclusively). So I'm pretty sure, thanks to VSP, my exam should be covered.

But 4 phone calls and 30 minutes of my time for a silly eye exam is ridiculous. Thankfully we're in good health as I sympathize with those who have more complex medical questions.

Supposedly, this country has the best health care available in the world. But it's only available if you have the cash and or time to battle the system. Hopefully Hillary's plan will point us in the right direction.

Smash and Grab

Bonnie woke me about 5am the day after Halloween to inform me that her car window had been smashed and her iPod was gone. Yes, we were burgled! We called the police and Progressive to make a claim. Of course, rain started to fall so we had to quickly swap cars around in the garage. Progressive was actually quite useless at that hour. Bonnie was told someone would call her back around 10 am. The police officer on the other hand, was as helpful as he could be. Most cops have a lousy reputation for a reason, but this guy was quite pleasant. Bonnie and I joked about making him dust the car for prints. But he actually offered to do so. Although we agreed that the benefits would not be worth inking up the interior.

Her iPod was the one recent purchase that I hadn't archived a copy of the receipt. So we feared that finding the serial number would be futile. But I discovered there is a way to extract the last iPod synced to iTunes. With the serial number in hand, I gave the police another call to add it to the report. We were advised that if the careless vandal decided to pawn off the device, it might be flagged. We'll see.

No claim was made since the cost to replace the window was under the deductible. Bonnie picked up a new iPod last night. We tried to have the window replaced today, but it wasn't quite the right size. Luckily, the technician was able to rig the window shut. So it's all sealed up now. We'll have to wait until Monday for a window of the right size.

in talking to the neighbors, Bonnie discovered that we weren't the only victims. At least 2 other cars in the vicinity were also hit. Apparently, this kind of activity is all too common, regardless of the neighborhood. Gated communities appear just as likely to be hit, according to her coworkers. Gotta love Florida...

Sure, it could've been a lot worse. But I'm starting to understand the reasoning behind a concealed carry permit...

Next year, we're boycotting Halloween.