Tuesday, July 31, 2012

A Little Tidbit From the Archives…

Dear Friends,

Below is a little piece of work from ages ago, put on this digital mantlepiece for safe keeping. See if you can tell what it is about…


Hint! Think Greek ;-)

Res Ipsa Loquitor,

S

Sunday, July 22, 2012

The Crisis in America


Dear Friends,

There’s been a lot of talk, gnashing of teeth, sympathy expressed, and just plain foolishness spewed after the shootings in Colorado. I’d like to make a few points from my own perspective as clear as possible.

Hand guns and assault weapons are horribly imprecise weapons. Assault weapons, semi-automatic rifles of large caliber, make up for the deficiency in their accuracy by spewing a large number of lethal projectiles in a big hurry. Pistols are good for making hamburger out of human flesh at close range.


At long range, except in the hands of a well trained shooter with good vision, time on his hands and a clean shot at a well lit enemy; well? They are not reliable at hitting the intended target. This ain’t like it seems watching western movies.

I can tell you this most assuredly, as I have had the opportunity to train on hand guns. I’ve also had the stimulating experience of being fired upon. I am grateful that pistols make very poor weapons at any range aside from those circumstances found on a target field.  Else wise, I would not presently have a head on my shoulders to make this report.

In any case, the idea of arming ordinary citizens without real training, I mean REAL TRAINING as a deterrent to psychopathic criminals or even just plain thugs is absurd. First, a nut case who is intent on spraying a crowd with bullets, tear gas, and is wearing a flak jacket, helmet and a gas mask, is likely not afraid of seeing his corpse on the evening news. He’s wagering that he won’t be around to see that news and/or is so far gone that he really hasn’t thought things out all too well.

Second, letting loose more lead flying in a darkened theater full of panicked and wounded people is only likely to cause more carnage. Even in simple situations, a home burglary, a bored perimeter guard on duty at a Marine base in Guam, a kid trying out his new BB gun, whatever, four out of five gun shots are taken in accidents. It is seldom the intended target that gets the bullet. More often it is either the baby sleeping in the room next door or the terrified homeowner plugging his own foot.

So, let’s please get a grip. More weapons of carnage, good for nothing but making holes in people and most likely to kill the innocent, are not going to make anybody more safe. We can honor the spirit of the 2nd Amendment in such a way as we do the 4th (we do allow folks to have their car registration and driver’s licenses revoked) and stop this homicidal nonsense.

Oh, one last thing! This guy Holmes, this mutant freak, this damaged child managed to get thrown out of one gun shop while trying to buy weapons acting “weird and making monkey noises”, got thrown off a rifle range for the same sort of simian gesticulations and behaving like a “frightened animal” in the weeks before his attack. Nobody called the cops. No. The gun shop owner referred him to a web site to get his six thousand rounds of ammo. His neighbors watched him tote in enough explosives and grenades and weapons to blow up the entire building and kill hundreds of people. Nobody called the cops.

I’m no fan of the cops where it concerns my own ill behavior, but they are there for a reason. Next time you see a kid toting heavy weapons, an old guy taking a little kid into the shower, don’t keep quiet. Don’t call the guy’s boss, a football coach. Screw your head on and don’t wait for a neighbor to make the call. You are the neighbor or the friend or the coach. It will be less embarrassing to be wrong, if your judgement is not right, than see a little girl shot or another ten year old boy raped in the shower.

Res Ipsa Loquitor,

SCS


Tuesday, July 17, 2012

A Furthur Experiment?

Dear Friends,

Well, I'm still noodling about with Flying Meat's Acorn image editing toy with my Mac's iSight Camera. I'm getting a grip on the palette of filters and controls. I might actually know how to do something on purpose in the next few days, but I think that I'll take a break to do some writing. Hopefully my fingers, eyes and what constitutes my still existing cerebrum will retain what I've learned in this digital finger painting. Anyhow, I recommend Acorn to anybody who doesn't always need the full features of PhotoShop, and will be happy for a lightweight and easy to learn editor.


Res Ipsa Loquitor,

SCS

Monday, July 16, 2012

More Nonsense with Digital Photos…

Dear Friends,

I am slowly getting a grasp of this excellent, cheap piece of imaging software; Acorn from Flying Meat, a purveyor of excellent and cheap software… um, that is redundant and superfluous and hence required no repeating again over again. Whatever.

I am a big fan of "good-enuf" tech. In most situations a left-handed crowbar will solve whatever problem confronts you. When I have more time I'll tell you about getting my uncle Murray straightened out. We did not need any iPhone crapola and fancy pants waterproof bumpers. Just a crowbar that fit snug in my left dexter which is, to you lay people, sinister. Yeah, that's another story and another topic that entails some lexicography which you don't want… or so I am to presume.

Whatever. In playing around with various filters in this $50 piece of fine  digital junk in my juvenile way, using nothing but the crummy iSight camera on my new MacBook Air and that previously mentioned excellent and cheap software, I have created the following image to annoy my long suffering beloved, a fine art photographer of great repute who remarkably puts up with my infantile verbal and digital antics with or without photographs and pictures nor being redundant again once more again.

She took one look at this and sniffed and walked away all haughty-like, like she knows art when she sees it or makes it with her camera all filmy-like and okay, right, she has more talent in her pinky toe than I do in my whole skull. Whatever. I did manage to turn myself here into an alien feline without actually having to do the genetic transformation after getting probed by those aliens that keep landing in my back yard. I don't believe that they really have any lollipops on that ship and I am not going to follow those big eyed, big headed little silver bastards up that gang plank for an extraterrestrial enema.

Res Ipsa Loquitor,

SCS


Saturday, July 14, 2012

Some More Photographic Silliness…

Dear Friends,


In casting about for a cheap or free alternative to Photoshop I've had the chance to "finger paint" with a palette of tools. None on their own really fits the bill, but it's been fun to play with my Mac's FaceTime camera and various digital widgets. I'm still looking forward to Digimage's update to ColorIt. Yes, still waiting for that excellent, reasonably priced and bloatware free software to come to the latest OS X. Yes, I've played around with GIMP. It's excellent, free and overloaded with features that I don't need for my humble purposes.

SCS

© Solomon

Friday, July 13, 2012

Simple Toys for Simple Minds…

Dear Friends,

Finally got around to some goofiness with my MacBook Air's FaceTime camera and Photo Booth. Simple toys for simple minds…


Res Ipsa Loquitor,

SCS