Photo: Shoes

Shoes — hanging by a shoestring, from the power lines

A pair of shoes, dangling from a power line. This line sweeps down across the road rather than being level. I thought the shoes made a nice silhouette, though I wasn’t considering that at the time. The blue sky is quite visible in the original. In Adobe Camera Raw, I pushed the contrast slider all the way to the right, which made the image look like this. I didn’t have to white out the background at all, since it was the brightest part.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/1000, F4.5, 50mm, ISO100, 2008-07-10T19:31:07-04, 20080710-233107rxt

Download the high-res JPEG or download the source image.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.

Comptine d’un autre été: L’après-midi

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I’ve been playing the piano again recently. Found this song, Comptine d’un autre été: L’après-midi by a French composer, Yann Tiersen. It translates to “Nursery Rhyme of Another Summer: The Afternoon.” I wouldn’t have titled it that, but it’s an appealing melancholy song nonetheless.

The song is famous for appearing in the movie Amélie. I haven’t seen it, but it sounds interesting / thought-provoking.

It just took me two days to learn this, which is faster than normal. As soon as I abandoned the score and played it from memory, I was able to play much better because I could watch my hands instead of guessing or looking back and forth. That’s a step many musicians don’t reach, because they’ve been taught since childhood that you should not look at your hands and just read from the sheets. Phooey. It’s good to know how to read notes to learn new songs, but after practicing for days you should memorize every note. If it doesn’t happen, you’ve got a hard song so change that to weeks. Don’t try to memorize a song; if it doesn’t happen naturally play it more often, and if it still isn’t burned in your mind maybe you can’t memorize songs (!). Keep practicing always, as long as piano holds your interest.

The hard part is the arpeggios in the right hand, mainly because you have to balance them with the accompaniment in the left hand. The accompaniment is eighth notes and the arpeggios are sixteenths, so you have to play them twice as fast, alongside and synchronized. Your mind doesn’t like that and wants both hands to be moving at the same pace, but if you can disconnect your left brain from your fingers by spacing out, it becomes easy. Then polish it by regaining conscious control of your fingers but continuing with the rhythm. You’ll need this skill, particularly in ragtime.

My camera’s audio isn’t great, but you can download a higher-quality MP3 of my performance. Enjoy.

Photo: Heart

Heart — silver heart necklaces

Two silver hearts. These were necklaces in the display case at Target. Don’t forget your heart. It’s better to have two, because then if you lose one you still have a back-up.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/200, F3.2, 50mm, ISO100, 2008-06-29T18:34:21-04, 20080629-223421rxt

Download the high-res JPEG or download the source image.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.

The Library on Hold

If you follow my Twitter, you know I’ve been consumed with coding the OPAC for my public library these past seven days. Also, I pissed off greatly angered my Dad recently. I’m constantly negative / patronizing around him. It’s like a subconscious force. So much for trying to be personally developed.

The library is looking really great now; check out this search for example. I’m putting it on hold starting right now. I won’t work any more on it for one month. Hold me to that promise, okay?

The problem with it is that it’s not the best way for my to contribute to the world at the moment. The world starts at home, so it doesn’t matter how much you’re contributing if you’re leeching at home. I have some work to do.

I listened to a lot of back episodes from Uncontrolled Vocabulary. Fascinating talk show on librarianship. I didn’t know that people talked about things like taxonomy schemas and Library of Congress subject headings en masse.

I’m going to take and post some new photos. Maybe I’ll even write something. Or if I’m feeling lazy, I’ll take a photo and then write a short paragraph about it. It’s all good.

I wrote three posts on Daytona State College News a few days ago. That thing gets tons of search traffic. Must be because of it’s high ranking.

I’m counting… I have 18 days till the return to college. 10 days till birthday #17. I still have time to make some progress.

I replaced the $20/day plaque with one that says $1/day. That’s more reasonable. My online ventures are averaging 60 cents per day this month. It’s in reach, I say!

See y’all around. Actually, not around. Right here.