In the world of firearms there’s the phenomenon of gun owners who buy so many guns they can’t possibly shoot them all enough to know where they’ll hit. That led Elmer Keith to quip “Beware of the man with one gun. He probably knows how to shoot it.” If Keith had been a city mouse watch nerd instead of a country mouse gun nut he might have said “Beware of the man with one watch. He probably knows what time it is.”

I care more about experience than money. I was at a party once where someone asked me about my work and she said I must make a lot of cash. When I said I give my photos away to the public, she looked at me like I was a fool. She derisively asked, “Why would anybody do that?” and I replied “What did you do last Tuesday?” She said that she came home from work late and watched Law & Order on her DVR. I said, “Last Tuesday I had a four-hour dinner with Augusten Burroughs, and then I photographed him. I didn’t make any money off of it, but it was a hell of a Tuesday night.” Then she smiled and got what I was about.

Minutes ago Bloomberg sent out a notice that things in Greece may be on the verge of the final collapse. From Bloomberg: “Anxious Greeks have withdrawn as much as 700 million euros ($893 million) from the nation’s banks since the inconclusive May 6 election, President Karolos Papoulias told party leaders yesterday, according to a transcript of the meeting posted on the presidency’s website today. Papoulias said he got the information from the head of the Bank of Greece, the central bank, George Provopoulos, according to the transcript.” While this was likely a negotiation talking point to facilitate the formation of the government, the reality as we now know is that there has been NO government formed, which now means that the bank run will only get worse. Needless to say, a Greek banking system which is now virtually shut out of any extrenal funding except for the ELA, where it has a few billions euros in access left, will be unable to deal with hundreds of millions in deposit outflows.

Zero Hedge – Majority Of Neo-Normal Greek Cops Vote Neo-Nazi:

In a somewhat stunning revelation, especially after our earlier note on the Golden Dawn leader’s ‘position’ on the issues of the day, GreekReporter notes via the news paper To Vima, that more than half of all police officers in Greece voted for pro-Nazi party Golden Dawn in the elections of May 6th. It’s not really for us to judge (well maybe it is) but when some polling stations report Golden Dawn receiving 19-24% of the votes, things are going from the dismal to the horrific (and potentially chaotic) very fast.

Click any picture to embiggen.

Cinemascope

If you’ve been itching for the distressed Instagram look spend some time with Cinemascope, 1960′s, or Orton-ish. Lomo-ish is the opposite, with intense colors plus a vignette.

If you like black and white, Holga-ish is an instant winner that never gets old. It converts the picture to B&W and applies a vignette. I did that, manually, to this picture of Charlie using Filtered B&W and Google’s new Vignette control, but I could have done it in one step with Holga-ish.

Posterize

I didn’t expect to like Posterize and I love it. It turns a picture into something that doesn’t look like a photograph. It would be perfect for cell phone pics, or for salvaging photos with good subjects but with bad lighting, poor focus, or other snafus.

Other Effects

There’s a fifth tab in Picasa for minor effects.

• Vignette is pretty much endlessly handy and is a welcome addition.
• Boost intensifies colors in a different and seemingly better way than the old Saturation control.
• Comic Book adds halftone-style dots around the edge of the photo.
• Pencil Sketch and Neon sound neat, but I haven’t been able to get good images out of them.
• Polaroid, Museum Matte and Border give you some options for dressing up the photo. Polaroid doesn’t have a text tool, but you can add text back on the first tab.

A skeuomorph  /ˈskjuːəmɔrf/ SKEW-ə-morf, or skeuomorphism (Greek: skeuos—vessel or tool, morphe—shape),^[1] is a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues to a structure that was necessary in the original.^[2] Skeuomorphs may be deliberately employed to make the new look comfortably old and familiar,^[3] such as copper cladding on zinc pennies or computer printed postage with a circular town name and cancellation lines.

An alternative definition is “an element of design or structure that serves little or no purpose in the artifact fashioned from the new material but was essential to the object made from the original material”.^[4] This definition is narrower in scope and ties skeuomorphs to changes in materials.

Historically, high-status items, such as metal tableware, were often recreated for the mass market using ceramics, which were a cheaper material. In certain cases, efforts were made to recreate the rivets in the metal originals by adding pellets of clay to the pottery version.

In the modern era, cheaper plastic items often attempt to mimic more expensive wooden and metal products though they are only skeuomorphic if new ornamentation references original functionality, such as molded screw heads in molded plastic items. Blue jeans have authentic-looking brass rivet caps covering the functional steel rivet beneath; digital cameras play a recorded audio clip of a conventional SLR camera mirror slap and shutter click. Such ornamentation is not necessarily non-functional: the camera shutter sound is used to indicate to subject and photographer when the taking of the picture is complete. However, the function could also be provided with a different sound or feature, yet very rarely is.

• Decorative stone features of Greek temples such as mutules, guttae, and modillions derived from true structural/functional features of the early wooden temples
• Ornamental pylons framing modern bridges, such as the twin 89 metre pylons at each end of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. They do not support anything, and are there only to frame the structure itself and make it look more like a traditional bridge.
• An early pottery butter churn, at the Jaffa Museum, shaped rather like an American football, imitating the shape of its predecessors, which were made of hide.
• Injection-molded plastic sandals that replicate woven strips of leather, or elaborate lacing on velcro-secured shoes
• Artificial film grain added to digitally-shot movies to give a softer, more expensive effect and the expected “shimmer” of the grain pattern between successive frames
• Various spoke patterns in automobile hubcaps and wheels resembling earlier wheel construction (wooden spokes or wire spokes)
• Fake woodgrain printing on modern items actually made of plastic, formica, or pressboard
• Non-structural brick or stone cladding on concrete block or steel frame buildings. Brick and stone are used as a veneer intended to recall the structural stability and longevity of masonry buildings
• Ornamental stitching in plastic items that used to be made of leather or vinyl and actually stitched together, but are now either glued together or made as a single piece
• Tiny, non-functional handles on small maple syrup jugs
• Cigarettes with the paper around the cigarette filter printed to look like a cork filter [So that's why so many cigarettes look like that. LJ]

So some of the rationale behind skeuomorphs is probably user-centric. It’s what people expect, or it makes easier to recognize. I suspect part of the rationale is designer-centric. Not many designers can start from a completely blank slate. Skeuomorphs give them a starting point.
Previous WOTD – Beer and Skittles

The state budget shortfall in California has increased dramatically in the last six months, forcing state officials to assemble a series of new spending cuts that are likely to mean further reductions to schools, health care and other social programs already battered by nearly five years of budget retrenchment, state officials announced on Saturday.

Governor Jerry Moonbeam Brown thinks he can fix this using California’s all-purpose solution of raising taxes:

And he urged viewers to back an initiative he is putting on the November ballot that would increase sales taxes by 0.25 percent and impose an income tax surcharge on wealthy Californians to try to stave off more cuts.

Me, I’m thinking California is already on the right-hand side of the Laffer Curve. If they’re not, then I guess no one is, considering that California has the highest sales tax and highest personal income tax bracket of any state in the nation. Yet Brown thinks Californians will voluntarily vote themselves more taxes. Shine on, Moonbeam, shine on.

California will never get their budget under control until they reign in their ungodly pension costs.

Previously – Stockton, California Shuffling Towards Bankruptcy

As MSNBC.com’s Bill Dedman notes, Goldberg’s claim to have been a “nominee” rests not on the fact that he was judged as a runner-up by the Pulitzer Committee—he most certainly was not, at all, ever—but on the fact that his bosses twice put his name on a little form and mailed it to the Pulitzer folks along with a $50 fee. For $100, you can be a Two-Time Pulitzer Nominee just like Jonah Goldberg!

Note to self: write a fart joke. Give someone 50 bucks. Have them nominate it for a Pulitzer Prize. Go around telling people about your Pulitzer-nominated fart joke.

Hat tip to Michael Silence.

This was a first year German class. It was filled with freshman liberal arts students who were chipping away at their general requirements. The first day of class the TA asked for a show of hands. How many people had declared their majors? How many were undeclared?

The TA explained the reality of how undeclared liberal arts majors often wound up picking their degrees. They’d spend a few years taking the required classes in English, foreign language, social studies, and natural sciences. They’d explore a few other fields to test the waters. It was OK – they could use those classes towards the required number of elective credits. The college of liberal arts wanted you to be widely read.

Then at some point the undeclared major would want to get college over with. Sometimes it was because of financial pressure. The scholarship was running out, mom and dad were tired of paying tuition, or the student loans were becoming nightmarish. Other times it was because of the non-stop pace of study or the grind of taking classes by day, studying at night, and working a job on the weekend. Sooner or later even the professional students want out.

When students are good and ready to be done with college they often sit down and take a long, hard look at the the credit hours they’ve accumulated. Then they choose the major that will get their butts out the door the quickest. Got a bunch of anthropology credits? Eureka. The next thing they know with no intention of ever majoring in anthropology or working as an anthropologist they find themselves clutching an anthropology diploma.

The takeaway, I suppose, is to be mindful of what classes you select and to not spend too long choosing your major.

P.S. I’d also recommend the Strong Personality Inventory. I took it at the career counseling center in college. I scored high in artistic and investigative (science), decided I probably couldn’t make a career in the arts and decided to major in science.

What makes it good is what happens to Loki right after that. I’m also a fan of Cap’s “Hulk – Smash.”

To install the new front sight tap out the old one. The instructions say to use a brass punch and hammer. I don’t own a brass punch, so I used a steel punch I had handy and covered it with two small pieces of duct tape to keep from scratching up the old sight. A half dozen taps pushed out the factory front sight.

The new front sight didn’t want to go in. I used a file to lightly file down the leading edge of the new sight using about as much pressure as you’d use to file your nails. One stroke didn’t do it – it still wouldn’t quite go in. After the second stroke of the file I was able to get the front sight into the dovetail. I only took a tiny, tiny amount of material off to make it fit. After the front sight was in I used the supplied set screw and hex head wrench to screw it into place so it wouldn’t come loose.

The factory 10/22 rear sight is located on the barrel. The Tech-Sight rear ditto is on the very rear of the receiver. That adds about eight inches to the sight radius, which helps a bit with accuracy.

I’ll insert a disclaimer here and say that I expect some controversy over the numbers. For instance, you can easily price compare a hybrid and non-hybrid versions of some of the cars, such as the Civic, Camry, Escape, etc. But how do you compare a Prius to another, non-hybrid Toyota to establish the price difference and payback time? There isn’t an exact model that matches the Prius in every way. That can throw a big monkey wrench into the payback figures.

At present fuel prices I’m not sure any car on the list with a payback period beyond about 5 years makes economic sense for an average driver who puts 12,000 miles a year on the odometer.

Toyota’s  hybrid drive is good stuff. The technology is proven and the price is right. A 1.8 year payback is darned reasonable, and that’s without any government incentives.

I hadn’t heard about Lincoln’s hybrid system, but they even outdid the Prius.

The Jetta TDI shows what a modern diesel can do.

ME: That’s gonna leave a mark.
TAM: That’ll buff right out.
ME: The driver may not notice it now, but he’s really gonna feel it in the morning.
TAM: A good mechanic could have it running again in a couple of hours.
ME: I don’t think we’re getting the deposit back on our rental car.
TAM: No, it’s cool; I got the rental insurance. It turns an economy car into a recreational vehicle.

P.S. Is LuckyGunner doing the Memorial Day machinegun shoot again this year?

My Worst Fear As a Mother-to-Be? A Burning Cross on Our Front Lawn

Right now, IÂ’m four months pregnant with a biracial baby, and I live in the South. In a small town.

My husband, Fred, and I … moved to Knoxville, Tenn., last September before I was knocked up, and I have to admit that I had my reservations (read: visions of burning crosses and white-hooded men protesting our union) while we were packing up the moving truck…

Right, because everyone knows that Southerners have prejudiced notions and hateful, bigoted opinions about certain groups of people. Keep pointing that finger in the mirror, lady.

This one – the Seiko SKX779K AKA the Black Monster.

Automatic movement. ISO dive rated to 200m with a screwdown crown at 4 o’clock. Stainless bracelet with a diver’s extension. 120 click unidirectional bezel. Badass, stupidly overbuilt stainless steel construction with a high polish. Crazy strong glow in the dark lume. Funky chunky design with a thicker bezel and a smaller face that doesn’t owe jack to Rolex or Omega. All at a price that makes the old boys at the yacht club drop their monocles into their champagne glasses.

It should be here this weekend. Review and links after I’ve worn it a while.

FWIW, this generation is being discontinued. The new Monsters are coming out some time between now and Q4 with a new face and a new movement that supports hacking and hand-winding. From the small, fuzzy pics that have been leaked I think I actually like the new face better, but I wanted the watch right now. Besides, Seiko may use the model as an excuse to raise the price and I can always flip this one. Meanwhile I’ve got a whole summer to enjoy this thing.

Or heck, if I like this I can keep it and buy one of the new ones in another color, like an Orange Monster or a Snow Monster or one of the these variations if I can squeeze one out of Southeast Asia.

Before then I’m going to play around with some different bands and straps. This watch looks like a whole bunch of fun.

Previously – What does the water resistance rating on watches mean?

Lilia Luciano, a Miami-based NBC News correspondent, is no longer working for the network, TVNewser has learned.

Luciano last reported for NBC News March 31. Until that point, she had been reporting mainly on the Trayvon Martin story. Sources tell TVNewser Luciano’s dismissal came after an investigation which also led to the firing of a seasoned NBC News producer over a similar, misleading edit. In a story for the “Today” show on March 20, Luciano used part of the George Zimmerman 911 call in which an entire phrase (italicized below) was taken from a later part of the conversation:

Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good or on drugs or something. He’s got his hand in his waistband. And he’s a black male.
Dispatcher: Are you following him?
Zimmerman: Yeah.
Dispatcher: Okay, we don’t need you to do that.