AMA

Once again it's time for the Ask Me Anything feature. I let my readers ask me anything at all, and I'll answer. Secret of the universe, who you should (or shouldn't) slip out for a quickie with, what to take in school, how to negotiate for a raise, best way to placate a cat, whatever. Herewith this year's AMA.

Regular reader Pete asks "Recently you indicated that you got an editing pad, a Wacom I believe. How is that working out? How is the learning curve? I would be interested in your experience and would you recommend it. Loved your image of the month."

Thanks for asking! You ought to get a prize for being first to ask, but unless you can somehow drop by to pick it up, I don't think that's going to work out so well. In consolation, I replied to Pete via email, and then tweaked before publishing this, so he wouldn't get bored and stop reading.

It was indeed a Wacom, the medium sized Intuos Pro. I can describe my experiences with it as before Catalina and after Catalina.

BC:

I installed the tablet when my OS was High Sierra. Installation was painless, and setting it up was straightforward. I tweaked it a bit as I used it. My thought was to be able to put aside the track pad and keyboard, and just use the tablet for editing. Alas, while I think it’s possible, I never got there. Lightroom offers many keyboard shortcuts that would involve several tablet pen clicks to accomplish and there’s only 6 buttons. To be fair, I may not have fully explored the set up options on the tablet, especially the little circle thingie. 

The best part about it was better control over using the brush tool. The pen offers finer controls via pressure than using the track pad, and using it seemed more natural and accurate than a finger on a track pad. There are 6 buttons to configure to keystrokes, and I set them up like this, from top to bottom:

 - R Crop, 

- Q spot removal, 

- K adjustment brush, 

- M grad filter (which I never used much and could probably reassign), 

- I before/after comparison which I never used much and could reassign, 

- and Export. 

There’s two buttons on the pen, which I used as dialog box ok, and undo.

There are lots of possible configuration to be done, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t get into all of it. My thinking was to start with the basics, and go from there. If I loved it I’d dive in and tweak and tune, and if I didn’t like it I wouldn’t use it. There is a bit of a learning curve and it’s some work to break old workflow habits.

What I specifically didn’t like about using it involved the sliders. For whatever reason I couldn’t seem to lift the pen straight up off the tablet. Usually it would jerk the slider over one direction or another, then I’d have to fix it. Perhaps this is just a learned thing, someone later suggested that if you deliberately move the pen off the slider at 90 degrees to the slider all is good. I would like to try this. You can rest your hand on the working surface of the tablet, and it knows to ignore that.

I used it most when I had many photos to edit. To some extent Lightroom is good with editing many photos at once. As a simple example, if you had shot many photos of people in outdoor lighting that stayed the same, and you could see that all were a little bit dark, you could increase the exposure for all of them at once. The tablet is good for going through many photos in a row making similar but not identical adjustments. From my reading and video watching, the tablet seems to be designed to work with Photoshop, and the user experience might be quite different. 

AC:

And then, (cue ominous music) I upgraded to Catalina. That itself was generally painless, to my surprise, except for the tablet. I could not get it to work. I upgraded drivers, I uninstalled and reinstalled, I futzed, I played, and yes, there was a lot of cursing. Eventually I set it aside, thinking give it a while, maybe another driver update, or potentially upgrading from Catalina to Big Sur and seeing what happens then. 

As an aside, the whole upgrade process gives me the willies. It starts with an understood system where everything works. Then something stops working, or you have to upgrade for some reason, and that generally drives a whole series of application upgrades and hope everything works after. Auto-updates are the worst. You go to bed and everything is fine. Wake up the next morning and try to do something, and the user interface has changed, or it wants you to sign in and go through a bunch of what's new screens, and meanwhile you're trying to do something under time pressure. And usually, the actual functionality hasn't changed, except probably for the worse. Like the dark screen modes and changing colours on me depending on the time of day. Some developer spent years on that, and someone should have defunded them with extreme prejudice the first time the idea was mentioned.

Maybe I’ll have another go at it (the tablet) once winter sets in here and there’s nothing else to do. It was useful enough that I’ll probably have another go at trying to make it work, but not so obviously useful that I’ll break down and cry if I can’t get it to work. I’ve already offered it as a giveaway on a photo group with no takers, and will try again if I can’t get it to work. I got it as a freebie from a buddy who didn’t like using it, with the proviso that I pass it along free if I didn’t like it.

My advice is to see if you can borrow one from a buddy, or find a place with a generous return policy, open the box carefully, and give it a try for your self. Keep in mind there are several different models of tablets, and a newer model might work where mine didn’t. One model might offer features that mine doesn't have.

Year end update.

So far I have not made another attempt to get it running, nor have I 'upgraded' this computer to Big Sur. In the meantime, Lightroom has updated their software to make the brush tool more useful, which in turn increases the usefulness of a pen and tablet tool. I'll probably make another attempt to make it work, but don't hold your breath.

I am also awaiting news of Apple releasing a new iMac with the new chip architecture. One with a big screen and an SD card slot, preferably on the side and not on the back. My thinking is that this computer is 6 years old now, and the original plan was to buy a new one and make this one the email and Linda browsing computer. Well, the old one seemed to be on the verge of crapping out (12 or 13 years old so it owed me nothing) and we didn't want to put off replacing it. However the new one wasn't really enough faster to make it worth all the migrating so we just bought it (knowing it would be obsolete even quicker than usual, but it's ok). Once the one I want comes out I'll let the initial excitement die down, and other people find the bugs, and Lightroom and other programs I use get upgraded, and Foundation releases all of season 2, then I'll buy, and try to install the tablet, and get the iTV trial, and binge Foundation all at once. How's that for a plan?

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From Michelle and Antje, 5 questions.

What is the scariest, happiest, most boring, most exciting thing you have ever experienced? 

Hmm. I had to let that percolate for a while.

Generally boring isn't a thing for me. I usually translate someone saying "I'm bored" as, "I'm too stupid to figure out how to entertain myself." Even at work, dealing with data scrubbing, I was thinking of better ways of doing it. Some movies and TV shows are really dull so I entertain myself by thinking, what's next, or, if I was the script writer, how could I make this better? Or, is it time to bail out and do something else?

Even swimming laps, which some people think is boring, I find entertaining. Just lately I've been thinking about technical swim stuff, and there's lots of that that needs tuning up. Sometimes I can not think about the swim at all, and think of a work thing, or a book thing, or write a blog, or ponder life options, and the swim takes care of itself. I'll wake up sooner or later and find I've done several Km. 

Going to the gym and lifting weights or doing core exercises, now that's boring. Which is why I don't do that. Yes, I know I should. 

There's times when I like to let my brain run in idle, and people might think I'm bored, just sitting there with a vacant expression on my face. But really my brain is drifting along, thinking whatever, while part of me is watching in a languid sort of way. There's times I've made connections, or remembered things I'd been trying to remember, or figured something out, and I'll wake up enough to make a quick note. 

I think it's important to do this periodically. We lead busy lives, always going from one thing to the next, never a moment to relax, and people wonder why they get stressed out and their face has all sorts of lines and wrinkles on it.

Scary. (Susi, scroll down to Happiest)

After the Heritage park bike crash when I realized how badly I was injured, and how it could have been much worse. For new readers, in 2008 (seems like last week!) I somehow crashed my bike at a slow run speed. I basically landed on my face and chest, with the bike helmet doing it's job. I cracked a bone in my arm, and did lots of damage to my front teeth. My dental team were amazing, and those teeth are still hanging in there. The little girl who helped still remembers. If you really want more details, find early September 2008 in my blog roll, and the titles should explain themselves.

Happiest

Crossing the finish line at IM Canada? Walking the beaches of New Zealand? Eating gelato in Venice?

Exciting.

A little over 92 KpH on a bicycle going doing Canmore hill into town, knowing there was a stoplight at the bottom. 

Tell us about a time when you were very very angry, nervous/anxious?

During my long period of not working in 2008 or 2009 I was starting to get anxious about not finding work again. Some space between work was all very well, but more than a year was a bit much. I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever work again, and I couldn't afford to retire. The nightmare of being a Walmart greeter was beginning to haunt my dreams. 

Fortunately it ended well with a contract at Talisman that got extended several times. Everything after that had the usual spaces  between contracts. After Penn West, I wasn't especially keen to find work, but it started finding me, which is sort of flattering. I think I've got the knack of hiding from oil and gas work now.

There's been the occasional spasm as I hit the button on an SQL query and realized what I asked for was not what I wanted, especially when an update query was involved. Some of the things that are easy to do are very difficult to undo.

How is your book coming along?

Well, you know. Ask any writer how their book is coming along, and the answer is usually a hollow laugh or a desperate look. At best. There is no stage at which books could be said to be doing well. The writing is fraught with procrastination. It gets edited forever, back and forth between editor(s) and author. 

The horror show really kicks in if a publisher buys it. The actual publication process takes forever what with more editing, decisions about the cover, paper quality and many other things. They want a product that is easy to categorize and describe, just like the last best seller, and yet totally fresh and unique, regardless of the story you are actually telling.

Then the nightmare starts for the writer. Nowadays they expect the writer to be a publicist, travel agent, book seller, and whatever else they can rope the poor sod into. Think of it. Us writers are poor meek inoffensive creatures that just want to be left alone to write, or pretend to write. Getting out into the real world and having to deal with crass business people, and (gasp!) fans, is very hard on us. It only gets worse if you self-publish. Then the author is doing everything. At that point they might call themselves a writer, but in fact they are doing everything but write. 

After all that, the worst part is seeing your book in print and noticing spelling or grammar errors, or a plot hole, or somewhere the printer screwed up, and every reader will think the writer is an idiot. You might like to think a second edition will fix it, but it isn't likely. Even if there is such an edition, and even if you made notes to remind yourself of what needed to be fixed, the very process of fixing the errors will introduce other errors, which will only be noticed after the book is in print. The cycle starts again.

Remind me, why am I writing a book? Oh, to amuse myself. That's right. When someone thinks I'm crazy because I hear voices in my head, I can say, no, I'm a writer working with my characters.

In my worlds, the fundamental story hasn't changed much. There are some additional bits swirling around, but they haven't been written down yet. My main character had taken a bit of a vacation, but is wanting to get back into action again. Once she tells me what she's been up to, I'll have a better idea of what to write.

Will you ever offer photo calendar by Keith Cartmell for sale?

Maybe. I've thought if it a few times, but there are complications. Like selecting the 12 images. Are they the best 12 overall, best 12 that year, best 12 within seasons, is there an overall theme, and hardest of all, is figuring out how many calendars to print? After all, how many people have paper calendars anymore? Do you? We have one for 2022 hanging on the fridge, but we didn't last year because during COVID all the days are the same. Maybe we won't need a 2022 version, but it has photos of New Zealand.

The other calendar arrived as junk mail yesterday (as I write this). It's an 8.5x11 or so book calendar with each facing page taking up a whole month. Each day square is not quite 2 in inches square, leaving space to take notes summarizing fitness activities, and other important reminders. Why? Because the phone calendar doesn't roll backwards very well, and it's like Apple makes the calendar forget things in the past. So if you want to roll back to the last eye appointment, for example, you're going to be disappointed. I've learned that you need to put the last date in the notes of the contact app. 

I'm thinking that a photo book is a more likely production than a calendar. Then again, sometimes my thinking is a notoriously unreliable process.

What is your favourite season and why?

I think the 4th season, where John Noble shows up as Mycroft Holmes.

Wait, maybe you mean weather. Hmmm. Warm and sunny, but not too hot, and not too much UV. Here that means summer and fall, I guess. In most parts of New Zealand that's year round. Even the warm part is relative, sunny in the winter can be really nice as well. In Calgary, some winter days can be T shirt weather. 

There's usually something to enjoy in all seasons, at least some of the time. But there are days when one can be forgiven for pulling the covers over your head and staying in bed. Those are the days when being retired is especially good.

From James, What question should I ask of you?

As it turns out, James is one of the people that does not need advice from me.  So an advice-y question is out.  I've decided that in fact, James asks, Who is the most famous person that knows you?

This is a fun one. Most of the time people would name drop someone famous that they "know". But the reverse is much more interesting. Famous is a bit of a slippery concept so we'll start there. Famous, celebrity, and well known are related ideas, but not necessarily the same thing. Neil Armstrong (first man on the moon) was certainly famous, and most people would know of him, but was evidently far from being a celebrity. Neil Gaiman tells an 'imposter syndrome' story where he met Neil Armstrong at an event, and Armstrong said 'what am I doing here, I just went where they told me to go.'

Then there is the field involved. A person might be well known, even famous within a field, and yet be an unknown outside of that field. I myself was quite well known in a field that James and I shared for a number of years. Now, of course, I'm a nobody because I haven't been active there for many years. 

Then there is the knows part. Knows how well? I'm going to assume they would have to know me well enough that it's plausible they could contact me to go out for coffee or lunch, or if I let them know I was in their city, to make time for coffee or lunch. 

As another digression, I like watching some of the extras on DVDs. The making of, blooper reels, that sort of thing. Everybody involves always gushes about the process and working with each other, and where they don't I suspect they did it for the pay, or more likely it might be a case of 'if you can't say something nice come sit next to me, oops, I mean, don't say anything at all.' There are a number of people that I met at work, and in spite of that we've become friends. COVID has put a bit of a cramp on that, but hopefully that will end soon. I sometimes imagine what it's like for celebrity movie stars. I'm quite sure I'd hate that life, but still, how many people are on the list that Brad Pitt/George Clooney/Dwayne Johnson/Margot Robbie/Daniel Craig/(pick your favourite star) consults when they want to go for a beer with a buddy and does not, NOT want to talk work. I learned from an Adam Savage (Mythbusters) video that Gary Oldman (probably one of your favourite movies) does wet plate photography, and it's not beyond reason that someone I know, knows someone that is a photo buddy of Gary.

So let me say that there is nobody really truly famous that knows me that well, unless someone has achieved such a status recently and me being unaware. But there are some people well known in certain circles. So, some names. James knows who Hilary Powers is, or he did. She was quite well known and I dare say famous in the field he and I shared.  Neil Zeller is well known in photographic circles, and could probably be considered famous in those circles. Jeff de Boer is a very well known jeweller artist here in Calgary. If you've ever seen mouse armour, you've seen his work. We don't have the closest connection now, but we were buddies while he was in high school or just out of it, and I did an informal photo shoot with him a couple years ago.

XXXX asks Latest TV binge? Thoughts on shows that jump the shark, or get cancelled early.

Our last binge is The Good Place, starring Kristen Bell (of Veronica Mars) and Ted Danson (Cheers). 4 seasons, 50 episodes, neat concept, good writing. It's billed as a comedy, but it's not funny in a ha-ha sitcom sort of way, it's more witty and clever dialogue and interesting situations. It's a full story, no cliff hangers at the end, and no possibility of more. 

During COVID some of you know we chowed down on Grey's Anatomy, and quite liked it. Every now and then we rolled our eyes at the situation, but we accepted they were going for good drama, and constant story line twists. But it got old, and we bailed out near the end of season 15. Eventually they went too far with a story, well over the line of plausible, and long past believable. One of the main characters, who would have to be really smart to be the general surgeon that she is, does something unbelievably stupid. Not on the spur of the moment or by accident, but on purpose. Boom. That was it for us. Jumped the shark.

Just as a GA side note, I was a huge fan of the "adulterous bitch" but we haven't got around to watching her spin off show. I also became a big fan of Lexie, and thought she got the short end of the stick too often. It was fun picking out the guest stars and trying to remember where we'd seen them.

As another side note, I'm not at all a fan of teen drama. Not even slightly. High school sucked for me in a huge way, and I have very little interest in shows that feature high school in any context. Which is why I don't like comic book superhero movies; essentially all the people involved are mentally teenagers. I sometimes suspect that all the people involved making those movies are still teenagers in some ways, trying to prove to other teenagers that they are cool. Bah, humbug!

What I'd like to see more of is smart people struggling with a problem of some kind, making the best decisions based on the information available, and things going wrong, and them coping. No Dues Ex Machina stuff. Smart people have differences of course, but I get tired of people shouting at one another to make their point. Usually by the time guns are presented as the solution to a problem, I've tuned out.

I've often thought that the prude system of classifying movies that we currently use is badly flawed. Somehow it's PG to show a group of people making an intricate plan to do some criminal action, with all sorts of other criminal actions along the way, and probably involving people shooting one another. Someone drops an F bomb 3 times, or a woman shows her boobs, or two characters have steamy sex, and it's restricted. Maybe the system should revolve around crime. Show a gun being used in a crime or someone getting shot, and it's an X. Showing violent crime would be adult. Yes, there are details to be worked out.

It's just killed me that some shows get cancelled. The Sarah Conner Chronicles was a big favourite for me and I'd love to see more of it. Summer Glau and Lena Heady, plus Garret Dillahunt, what's not to like? Firefly got screwed by the networks and lots of people want to see more. We devoured The O.A., and want more of it. Badly want more. 

Alas, there is a time and season for all things, and once a show is cancelled it's gone. There is sometimes a brief window for fan protests to reverse that decision, but it's small, and sometimes what comes after isn't the same. Dead like Me the TV show was fun and quirky, but the movie a couple years later was dreadful, and all involved are probably ashamed of themselves. 

Last question. So how's IOTY selection going?

I'm down to 4. I think.