Random Thoughts and Geekery

Extra photo from Seattle Day 2

Processing all the pictures I've taken in Seattle is tough since I have such affection for all of them. In the end they must be filtered, so I sift through them. First I mark out to "keepers" of the RAWs I take (most of the pictures I take are unprocessed). This gives me a high level guide on how much time to spend per photograph. Next I convert them from RAW to JPG format, taking the non-keepers from 16 MiB down to a much more manageable, archiveable 2.5 MB. The keepers then get the special attention, as they deserve the fine tuning to really make them pop.

An exception to this process is what I do for panoramas. For those each of the RAW images have to be processed in the same way and combined together, which I do in darktable and hugin respectively. Here's an example panorama using that process:

For this particular picture I'm happy to have spent the time processing all those respective images (there were five photos stitched together to make this one). Unfortunately you can't preview how the panos look beforehand, so what this does to my process is create a bunch of extra work. I need to get better at that by really appraising the vistas first instead of snapping away so much!

---

Seattle Day 2

I woke up on day number two at 6:30 AM local time, ready to rock and roll. I hung out in the den for a little bit, munching on some red licorice before we all went to the local gym for a workout. Everyone else in the family hit tennis balls at the gym while I ran slowly around them, stopping every once in a while to do some sit-ups.

After cleaning up, the three of us set out in the Jeep towards Cascades National Park. It was another strangely beautiful day, and I spent the trip looking at the moss that seemed to cover every single tree. We soon came upon snow-covered peaks and scenic farms, which were in direct contrast with the uber-green of the spring grass.

As we were driving we caught a glimpse of a man-made waterfall off to our left. Since it was blocked by a barricade, we pulled off the road for a closer look. What we found was amazing! This huge waterfall, its water loudly crashing to the ground, had absolutely no pool below it. It was as if the entire stream was being gobbled up by some unseen force below us. That was really impressive.

Continuing on, we circled all the way around the Diablo Lake area, taking in all the views from the pull-offs. The visibility was unbelievable and all of the water was crystal clear. To make things even better, there were hardly any visitors to the park at all! I think we saw two couples intermittently throughout the trip, but that was about it. By all means the day should have been wintry, but it felt like summer was making its first visit.

If I didn’t exhaust my camera on day #1, I exhausted it that day. It seemed every turn yielded a new and amazing vista worthy of a dozen shots. I can’t say how many I took that day, but it certainly wasn’t enough - that wouldn’t be possible. Diablo Lake is just stunning. I continually snapped pictures while walking around, and I recall finding a golf tee on a grassy rut on the other side of the fence!

On the way out of the park Bill got a little tired, so I got the chance to drive a stick-shift for the first time in about five years. After a quick turn around a local store’s parking lot I had the clutch down reasonably well and we were off. Not until about an hour and a half later did I switch back to the passenger seat, and that was only because we stopped at the grocery store.

One other thing I’ll note about the trip out of the park is the cut tree stumps just below the water line. Diablo Lake was created by the Diablo Dam as a part of the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project in the late 1920s. In the process of creating the dam lots of trees were cut, and the interesting thing is that they look like there were cut yesterday. The water just preserved the look so well, which was fascinating to see compared to the stumps that have been out of the water the entire time. By contrast those ones looked weathered and incredibly old (as you’d think they’d be).

I'll finish up this post with a whopper of a pano of Diablo Lake. Like I said...it's stunning!

---

Seattle - Day 1

For a couple of years now Tommy has mentioned that I should go out to Seattle with him sometime. His dad and stepmom live out there, making it a reasonable trip on the wallet. This year I finally took him up on his offer, and I'm pleased to report that I had a blast!

First of all let me state that Tommy has the remarkable ability to land himself at the end of every terminal in every airport we visited. No matter which direction we were flying and which airport we went to or from, I could be sure that our flight was somewhere near the end of the building. This happened on our entire trip out to Seattle as well as the entire trip back. It was uncanny, really. Odd.

We arrived in Seattle on a sunny, mid-60s day. Being close to downtown, his dad opted to head there first. He lives out in Arlington, over an hour away. We made a beeline to the REI, where we laughed at all the heavy items that we like to look at but would never carry with us on the trail. After deliberating between two cozy models, Tommy’s dad purchased an awesome 800-fill down sleeping bag for the camping trip we had planned later on in the week. It went well with the matching GoLite pack he’d already purchased earlier. On the way out a notice an interesting artifact about the building itself: the employees have placed what must be defective sleeping bags and coats up into the rafters in what I suppose an attempt to keep out the birds. It was pretty strange to see.

We walked a few blocks from REI into the main downtown area, where I bought a coffee from Starbucks store #1. We walked back through the market, looking at all of the flowers and the crowds of people. Just past the market we ducked down into an alley to see the famous (infamous?) bubble gum wall. Looking at all of the goo on the wall and smelling that distinct smell of aging spit is something I won’t soon forget. It was very cool to see though.

We found a decent looking brewery for a snack and (of course) a brew before heading to Arlington. We got a fantastic cheese plate and excellent ambers to match. The music was classic rock, so I felt good on the opposite side of the country.

Back at Bill’s house I got the chance to meet Kim (his wife) and their two lovely sons: a huge Newfoundland named Oggie and a super-happy lab named Raymond. I tossed sticks in the back yard with both of them for a little bit before we all got back on the road to get some dinner and to watch the sunset on the Western end of Whidbey Island. We first stopped at the grocery store and Subway to get a six pack beer and dinner, respectively. The sub sandwiches were normal, but the six pack of beer packed a punch - Tommy found some local brew that was around 8% alcohol. Surprisingly it still tasted great! We did have a scare that it wasn’t twist-top, so we scoured the store for bottle openers only to find that they were twist-tops after all. Crisis averted!

Once on the beach we settled in and joked back and forth about how I couldn’t finish the super-strong beer as fast as Tommy could. I walked up and down the gravel, taking picture after picture of the awesome scenery. It was an especially clear night and we were directly in between the two big parks we’d be seeing in the coming days: Olympic and Cascades.

Before leaving I grabbed an intact oyster shell to bring to Layla back home. I figured she’d like something so simple and beautiful.

---

Baltimore Aquarium

Yesterday we went to the Baltimore Aquarium with my parents. What a fantastic trip! We started off the day at about 7AM, packing everyone into the Ford at 8AM and scooting off as fast as we could towards I-95. The Aquarium has a slot-based approach to tickets, and each slot lasts for about 30 minutes. Our slot was for 9:30, which meant we had just over an hour to get there from Sterling. Given the rush we stopped at Dunkin Donuts - a guilty pleasure - for some flatbread and sugary coffee.

We arrived just in time and went inside, where Layla was super excited to see all the fish in their front-lobby tank. It reminded me of what the Bass Pro Shops in Hampton has in their store, with all of the natural habitat replicated to fit a modern interior. Past this area you come to a wide-open area where they have some sharks and stingrays in a giant ground floor tank. Layla was wide-eyed and mesmorized, repeating all of the words we told her in her best drone voice: "ray," "shark"!

Making our way up the escalators (which were awesome, given the building is rather small horizontally but huge vertically) we saw her favorite thing of the day: a huge green sea turtle we hadn't seen down below. It cruised around the area with only one front fin, which told us it was probably a rescue. They began to feed it lettuce and Layla told us the play by play! She even said "turtle eating leaf," which made our jaws drop. On this second floor we also saw a "Nemo" fish (clownfish), a Nautilus, and an octopus.

Going up a floor we went into the rainforest area, which was super humid for what we were wearing. We didn't see too many animals there, which was a bit disappointing. The one bird we did see had a piercing "fox call" that made us want to leave immediately. We did see an orange monkey and a sloth way up in the treetop, though. We moved on pretty quickly because we were so uncomfortable.

Once you reach the top of the building, you start making your way down through other various tanks and exhibits. I really enjoyed seeing the sand tiger sharks during that part. They'd slowly glide by, showing off their teeth like they were proud of them. Kristin was weirded out by one of the sharks that looked like it was staring her down.

Lunch time came about and we went out to the Hard Rock Cafe. All the memorabilia there is so awesome - Eddie Vedder's guitar case, Elvis' robe and grammy nomination letter, Keith Richards' guitar, and many more things. Even though we had to wait for about 45 minutes for lunch to arrive, the food was great. Plus, they have LCDs everywhere playing music videos, so I was at least entertained. Layla was dead tired by this time, though, and she fell asleep in Pa's lap until the food arrived.

We went home and Nanny's job was to keep Layla awake for the car ride. The technique worked and we were all rewarded with a much-needed nap! It was a good capstone to a day well spent.

---

Surprised by a Sentence

As time has gone on I think I've grown accustomed to the leaps and bounds by which Layla grows weekly. Every once in a while, though, she'll really drop a stunner that leaves me reeling, bringing me back down to earth with just how much she's progressing. Just last night as I was getting her ready for bed, she looked up at me and matter-of-factly said "I want to see the video with the rhino with the horn." We'd been watching some Youtube videos of rhinos that she'd really enjoyed, and I'd been talking to her about the horns on top of their nose. For most of the night she'd say one or two words about the videos, but nothing like the complete sentence that came out later.

She's just shy of 23 months old today, and I find it totally jaw-dropping that she'd come up with a sentence of that complexity this early. I guess it reaffirms my belief that she knows full-well how to speak in her mind - she's just working on how to get it out! I'll certainly continue to speak to her in full sentences. From the looks of things soon enough she'll be responding in kind!

---

Next Page »