red ass sock monkey

From September 2012:

With a prompt from Taz Tally on lynda dot com I created this file to check the printers I use to find their value range. If you retouch images and try to print them, you might find that regardless of your Photoshop skills, the images always seem to print dark or blow out highlights. Printing the TIFF that’s linked to this web image will show you where your light grays are dropping their spots and blowing out and where the spots are filling in to make black. You can set your curves or levels to span that range when you print to that specific printer and get better results.

In our office we have four primary printers: Rider 2 and Rider 3 are the same make and model color printers, while Rider 1 is grayscale. RiderPlot is a color wide format printer. Of the four, the plotter has the widest value gamut. What that means is that the plotter will have more detail in the darks and lights of an image. The plotter is followed closely by Rider 1, a grayscale printer that shows dots, but also spans a decent gamut. Our two clor printers generally do a very good job, but images from them will tend to have darks that fill in and lights that blow out compared to the same images printed on the plotter.

If you’re curious, grab the TIFF linked to the web image and print it to your own printer.

Another use might be getting a sense of your monitor’s range. The light swatches are on white and the dark swatches on black. If you can’t discern the separating line between two swatches that’s the point where your monitor turns things to black. Or white on the light side. On my large display, I can just make out the separated between 96% and 97%, and on the light side, between 2% and 3%. I’d be curious what the Dell displays do with the image.

I think I ran this right after we were told to put a framed copy of the “principles” on the wall. Or maybe I’m confused. Not that confusion is necessarily a bad thing…

From November 2010 when our small reading group wrote reaction papers to readings in the New Media Reader. The last reading was a chapter from Scott McCloud’s classic, Understanding Comics and it was in comic format. My response, obviously, needed to be in the same comic format, so I stepped directly into Scott’s work to have a private word with him. I cracked me up, anyway…

From June 2008 in direct response to activities in the office I posted this. There’s a popular power phrase that goes something like, “Do it and apologize later.” I take issue with it: it makes your apologies meaningless, and says you don’t stand up for what you believe. Do it. Explain why; and let others do the same. I thought a fun send up of a popular Dr. Seuss story would be a harmless, enjoyable way to discuss the idea. My poem revisits The Butter Battle Book in a parody of Seuss’s poetic verse and illustration style.

It was the first day of summer,
ten hours past spring…
and VanItch let me know a most wonderful thing.

There was going to be a wedding, a Zook cook’s dream.
and I was the cook, and I set the theme.
I’d pick the berries, I’d whip the cream.
The general’s daughter was wedding
a Zook Back Room Boy.
and the entire Zook nation
was filed-brimming with joy.

What would I cook for them I pondered all day
till very late I checked recipes, vexed with dismay.
All were good, but only one said, “Hooray!”
I’d serve the national dish;
Fruggle… simple… no clutter.
I’d serve homemade bread
all slathered with butter!

But what I knew best of the Boys from the Back Room
those who would stand, sit and eat right up next to the groom
is they took pride in each piece of their Zooky costume.
Each would eat his bread
with gloves on their hands;
then mingle with guests
filling social demands.

If the bread that they ate was served butter side down
as is the custom all over Zook farm, and Zook town,
each guest that night would leave with a frown.
The Boys in the Backroom
each eating a piece
wouldn’t notice their gloves
had been covered with grease.

Each hand that they shook, each dance partner’s dress
would pick up the grease and carry the mess.
The guests would leave, that night, in distress.
I knew what I’d do
for each boy and man.
It may cost my job, but
I’d come up with a plan.

I’d take each bread slice and put butter on top.
The Boys in the Backroom would see every drop
They’d shake and they’d dance with no need to stop!
But here is the question,
here is the test.
What would you do,
what do you think would be best?

Make it butter side up, apologizing later for the “gaffe”?
Or serve it up, and explain how it’s in their behalf?
Or do nothing at all, like the rest of the staff?
I know what I’d do,
what I think is right-
but what would you do
on this wedding night?

(This is currently running as a comment on my regular blog)

Sadly, my old blog will be going away. As the university transitions from MovableType to WordPress, everything gets dismantled. The files won’t even function as web pages. What to do? Let go, I guess. There are a few posts there that I enjoyed, though. So over the next few weeks, I’ll try to move some of my favorites to a spot here. In May of 2009, at a time when I found Lessig’s remix message to be misguided, I did a very short children’s fable as an artistic statement. Each word is taken from Lessig’s book Remix, so it’s a remix of Remix with the original context and page number of each word appearing on mouseover. I tried to make Lessig’s original context add meaning to my use of the word. Satisfying for me, but sadly, the entire thing fell flat.

nce upon a time, in a place far, far away, dreams could come true. If you lived your life—not just as if what you’d dreamed could be believed—but as though there had never been a doubt about the new reality, that reality was yours.

And so Mouse got out of bed. In his sleep, he had become a musician. Mouse found a match box. He took a string and he took a stick, and he began to play.

In each of the notes he played, mouse heard a perfectly performed statement full of extraordinary emotion. Mouse’s life changed. Moments took on new meaning as each was felt deeply and experienced fully. Mouse was a creator.

Mouse took his new instrument and went out for a walk. In the gardens he found other mice playing guitar. They let Mouse join their group.

“Studiedlong?” they asked.

“It’s my life,” said Mouse, and he began to play.

An artist may struggle to be understood. Understanding itself can be an art; not everyone will succeed or even try. Mouse stopped playing and opened his eyes. Everyone was gone.

“There is no joy in that bunch,” thought Mouse. He closed his eyes and played.

He played, and eventually someone else was drawn to his music.

“Yo, I have a match box just like yours!” she said.

“Enjoy'” whispered Mouse.

This fable is remixed from the text of Lawrence Lessig’s CC licensed Remix:Making art and commerce thrive in the hybrid economy. My thanks to Larry for sharing his creative, expressive vocabulary. To find the words in their original, and often dually appropriate, prose arrangement please refer to the title attribute pop-up for each.