| Call me Ahab |
[28 Jan 2010|04:34pm] |
|
Shot the whale. Now time for much processing. And an introduction. I'll have to write an introduction.
|
|
| When? |
[14 Dec 2009|12:58pm] |
Which will fall out of general usage first, paper books or paper money?
Which will happen first, a human walking on mars or fusion power plants?
|
|
| toasty |
[10 Nov 2009|03:15pm] |
|
Lacking of a cat in the lap, nothing beats a laptop processing photos to keep the early winter chill at bay.
|
|
| yay lens! |
[02 Nov 2009|04:21pm] |
Some day I will recover from this cold...
Remember, when you're using a laser cutter and it's just making fat swaths of char across your plywood, turning up the power will only damage the lens even more. The filthy children here have no appreciation for precision machinery. Fortunately with my own lens I can use the machine without interruption.
|
|
| all these darn kids here |
[24 Sep 2009|02:43am] |
I just realized that the last time I used AutoCAD was 15 or more years ago. Back then you had to pay extra for the math co-processor. Didn't actually design anything with it though it made for a fine drawing program.
Remember, if you're printing from Illustrator to a ULS lasercutter, the lines have to be 0.1 pt and the document color mode must be RGB.
|
|
| Little boxes on the hillside / Little boxes made of brutalism |
[16 Sep 2009|09:16pm] |
In their efforts to hide the shameful ugliness of the building, the architects installed motion activated light switches which necessitate that you stand on occasion and flap about as you curse their poor design skills.
If I had my own portable aluminum smelting plant, I would totally set it up in the studio space to extract my money's worth from this lumbering bureaucracy.
|
|
| I need a bigger shovel |
[27 Aug 2009|07:55pm] |
The key card to my studio space on campus now works. Everything else is proving to be a complete waste of time. I just want to use the equipment and be left in peace.
At least I have the rest of my book to print in the meanwhile. Two typos were found in the bibliography but I haven't printed that sheet yet and only need to get the negative re-made.
|
|
| Where's my shovel? |
[26 Aug 2009|10:47am] |
|
Fall semester has started and I get to wade through the bureaucracy some more.
|
|
| Laser Cutter |
[11 Aug 2009|10:39am] |
So the answer is... Yes, I should buy a laser cutter, but the used one I found is not that one. I need to save my pennies and get an even better new one which would be slightly larger but much more capable of fine, precise cutting for text. This sort of detail which is a standard part of the graphics arts world doesn't seem to be quite as easy to find using this sort of manufacturing / prototyping equipment. All of these machines can cut legible text but what I need is fine printing. Detail enough so you can tell the difference between arial and Helvetica, where serifs are sharp and curves are smooth.
While I was down in the south bay, I took a look at the tech shop and what they have to offer. It seems like a pretty nice place and a reasonable price for what they offer. Unfortunately the two lasercutters they have are very popular and are only available 2 hours per person per day (more if there's no one scheduled after you). So it wouldn't really work for my book project - especially when the commute there is factored in.
|
|
| apples |
[31 Jul 2009|11:46am] |
|
First apple of the year... Lightly golden on the top, green on the bottom, tiny specks of brown in the yellow. Crisp and light in flavor, slightly sweeter in the upper half. Very little scent to it.
|
|
|
[14 Jul 2009|12:23am] |
I think there is a kabocha which sprouted amongst the pumpkins from the compost under the apple tree.
Fall semester is going to start way too soon.
The whale book is languishing but the medium seems appropriate for a minimally-fine edition.
I need to send emails and postcards which I'll eventually get around to getting to eventually.
|
|
| the whale |
[25 Jun 2009|09:26am] |
The whole point of the new Moby Dick book isn't to be just another edition. There are already enough and they are all very nicely done. There is the original edition, the Lakeside Press Rockwell Kent edition, the Arion Press Bary Moser Edition, the UC trade edition of the previous, countless pulp paperbacks and their kin--the naugahyde-bound-with-imitation-gilt-edges tome, and digital-project-gutenburg-this -is-the-future-of-publishing variants. There is no need for a new edition of this book. That's why my new edition of the book is more a statistical deconstruction of the thing listing the frequency of all words and phrases in the book.
The most common word is 'the.' Followed by ten or so similarly boring words and then you get to 'whale' and so onwards it goes... Perhaps it's more a different way to see the work by looking at the words and phrases which cropped up more often.
It's also a grand excuse to have a go at using print-on-demand to make artist's books. This really seems to be the natural evolution of the cheap offset printing which started the ball rolling with Ed Ruscha's books of photos.
work to be done:
write an introduction
add a table of contents
change the running heads
print the letterpress dustjackets
|
|
| corn is in season |
[26 May 2009|11:08am] |
First ears in from over the hill. It was overcast and they were still cold at the farmers' market. Sugar in the corn turns to starch as it heats up under the sun. Boiled 6 for dinner.
Mango shortcake with whipped cream is good.
Everyone is well.
Videogames, even simple ones, have enough history and a large enough corpus to be storytelling in their own right. Especially good when assumptions about basic gameplay are challenged.
Riding a tandem uphill is harder than riding a tandem downhill.
|
|
| Shared Studio Space |
[20 Apr 2009|12:59pm] |
Soo... The students are at it again and have broken the laser cutter. This is nothing new. Standard operating procedure for them is to break the laser cutter. But now they've gone and really broken the laser cutter. Usually they just forget to clean soot off the lens and it gets pitted and damages the coatings on it, making for a poorly focused beam. This makes fine typography impossible. Serifs are supposed to be crisp and sharp instead of blurry, rounded blobs surrounded by scorch marks. Fortunately it is easy enough to buy one's own personal lens to be kept clean and clear. All is well. When they expand their reach and start breaking other parts of the cutter, it's harder to buy personal spares. I'd love to have my own laser cutting machine - Who wouldn't? - but I don't have the budget for that.
Today in the lab the laser cutter is down, with many signs saying, broken! do not use! There is a golf ball sized crater of ash and slag in the bed of the cutter, the mirror has been pitted and burnt black, the lens now has a big white cataract where the laser partially melted it, and I wouldn't be surprised if they have to replace the whole moving head assembly. The bit of plastic they were failing to cut is there resting on the machine. It looks like they had at it with a blowtorch instead of the precision cutting tool they should know how to use and care for.
The signs posted say help is on the way. But I have papers to write which I have been neglecting for too long. I'm not the best scholar or writer.
No laser cutting until next month. More pressing things to work on anyway.
|
|
| wheee |
[05 Apr 2009|02:30pm] |
So I was out, returning from the print shop on my bike. I was somewhat idly wondering if I could still make it up the hills here so I decided to bike up to Grizzly Peak. Fortunately I had no backpack nor panniers weighing me down.
I made it to the top, which is good. But I could be in better shape. It is springtime, so much good biking weather ahead.
The best part of making it to the top is the ride down.
No matter what you ride, bombing down Claremont is hella sweet.
|
|
|
[12 Mar 2009|11:11pm] |
The trees outside the shop have leaves and flowers.
The pear tree is just about to bud.
The apple tree is still just a stick in the ground.
The laser cutter is brilliant but overused by all the other students.
The Anglo-Hibernian illustrated manuscript books are interesting.
There is too information in the book itself, independent of content.
Poor Thoreau has been languishing.
The citrus trees have yellow leaves and need minerals of some sort.
Strawberries really aren't in season yet.
|
|
| lasers! |
[20 Feb 2009|12:47pm] |
not really evil. not much of a genius, but I do have lasers!
The Architecture dept. has 2 laser cutting machines I now have access to. The big one has a 24" x 48" bed which will fit a full sheet of Zerkall Nideggen paper quite nicely... The paper does smell a bit toasty after cutting, though.
Time to make a book without ink.
|
|
| mmm tasty |
[01 Feb 2009|10:14pm] |
First green garlic of the year.
Caramelized it and added to twice baked potatoes with minced pork shank and cheeses.
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
bembo's journal