Journal of a Historical Polymath

6:14pm: Last night in C-Ville
Ok, since I have been told that my last message could be construed as slamming book dealers, please allow me to clarify.  I am poor (no shame there) - the cookbook is fairly priced, but way outside my personal means.  The books I did buy were considerably less expensive, and considerably less cool.  However, I think I can get the University to pay for the cook book.  The book dealers I actually do regular business with, who are the only ones I can speak to, have treated me, and the University, as fairly as I could ask.

I didn't make it through the final reception but I did stop by.  Although last night was the first 3 whole contiguous hours of Sleep I've gotten this week (the rest of the week I'm basically dosed).   I have to go meet a cab at 4.30.  So with any luck, my next posting will be from home.

8:54pm: One more day and a wake up.
Ok, one of you, who shall remain nameless, but is the chick with three nostrils moving up on the most viewed image on my Flickr page) has told Herself that I, like many fine wines, do not  always travel well, and have been being mopey.   Actually I appreciate it, although she might have gotten a clue from my regularly calling her :)    This is actually worse the more I don't feel well.  This week, I have felt like crap all week.  Last night was an improvement, in much the same was that grabbing a moving chainsaw is better than holding on to an exploding grenade.  I'm hoping that this evening, I will have taken enough (legal, over the counter) chemistry to at least let me sleep

So this evening, I was downtown for book dealers night (and may have found a 1823 recipe book from one of Lord Nelson's relatives).  I found some (considerably less expensive) cook books and she told me to spend money on myself.  So I did.

Some of you who have know me for a long time, I tend to viewing begging as a performance art.  And for a good show, I can be counted on to give up some coinage (although never twice on the same block).  This evening I ran across a homeless busker reading cards.  I was taught to read cards in a crazy old woman, and, although I no longer practice, I tend to view such folks with a trade interest.   And the guy was an excellent cold reader -- apparently I am strongly disciplined, extremely self confident, and am seriously analytical.  These were the easy ones that had he missed, I might have given him couple of bucks for a good performance.  And he proceeded to start getting to the hard ones (and for the record, I do take a great deal of pride in being a bitch to read past the obvious shit.  He did remind me that in many ways Herself is my emotional anchor, and I need to be nicer to her.  Oh and yes, there is some unidentified dread in the future but I can get past it  if I don't loose sight of the important things (he is after all a fortune teller - although he did lose some mental points for that since one should never tell a "bad" fortunate, since that can be a self fulfilling prophesy).  So, since he gave a professional level reading, I paid him in accordance to that, not as a beggar.  I would have gone as high as $40 but all I had was a $20.

So, Igot back to my room and the tradgedy became clear -- my internet connection has gone balls up, so it's back to an early night again,and not editing Wikipedia entries or other bad habits.

7:39pm: Interesting stuff today.

The field tgrips were all that they were advertised to be.  We got a behind the scenes trip through the Library of Virginia in Richmond - and they have stuff I would do horendously naughty things for (like their photographic reproduction unit.  They make what I do slightly better than using an etch-a-sketch.  Their conservation lab is a little larger than mine (or mine before we took in borders), but it's fully staffed.   In the afternoon, we went to VSU in Petersburg tp see what they have done.  My collections are twice as large but I have twice staff.  They do seem to be focusing more on digitization, and doing it well.  

Tomorrow it's back to Finding Aids...

5:56am: Interesting Class
This is being an interesting class, even with my being sick with an ear and throat thing. Two instructors, nine students. I'd be more concerned about how often I disagreed with the instructors if in fact they agreed with each other more...

Yesterday we went on an unpresidented tour of the UVa rare books and manuscript stacks. Very informative. This morning, we are taking a field trip down to Richmond and Petersburg to visit their departents.

9:47pm: Pictures

Move along unless pictures interest you.

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I have more pictures, but apparently my cell phone intimidates my laptop so they aren't talking to one another.

8:40pm: University of Virginia, Rare Book School

Ok, I have survived the first day and the first of the infamous wine and cheese receptions.  If I haven't mentioned these in the past, they are tricky.  I don't drink as much as this, and wine tears my stomach up.  And this goes on all week, more or less.  As it was, I had a fascinating chat with the nice man in charge that ended much better than last years did...  I also have now met one of my bookdealers - now if I can just get him to relax since I won't change dealers, even if he turns out to be a dolt -- he asn't screwed us and I can rely on him.

I'll be posting some pictures from my Flickr stream if I can get them uploaded.

BTW, in case I haven't mentioned it, the University of Virginia grounds (never call it a campus) is HUGE.  The Student body isn't all that large (larger than Tulsa's but not too bad.  But the physical space is gargantuan.

10:09pm: Charlottesville
Well, I made it to Charlottesville, and have a dorm room on the truly gorgeous University of Virginia campus. My room is a nifty late 19th century interpretation of 18th century architecture. And, in an amusing replayof last year, I can't get the laptop to hook up to the Internet. When I get it worked out, I'll post pictures.

Right now, the laptop is alternating between the most recent Eagles album and the Clash.

6:15pm: Oh, and...
My cellphone, which I am posting from, has res t itself to the changed time zone. Is this normal for cellphones?

6:08pm: Atlanta
I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I truly, deeply, sincerely despise travelling. I've done my share of it; more than some and considerably less than others. I'm comfortable with it, but I doubt I'll ever love it.

In many ways, flying in to and out from Tulsa is the worst, since with a packed small jet, you're heavy enough to wallow helplessly and lose maneuverability, and too small to ignore the crosswinds.

Atlanta is a nice enough airport, but I like the architectural nicities at O'Hare in Chicago.

Right now I'm eavesdropping on the Delta staff as the are delaying another flight.

1:03am: The Dark Knight
Ok, I just got back from seeing The Dark Knight in the IMax. Let's get the major spoilers out of the way - it's got the Joker and Batman, and a bunch of other people too. There, you've been spoiled -- oh, and the Joker is Batman's father - or was that a different movie. Anyway, my conclusion was that it wasn't violent enough. On the other hand, I thought The Unforgiven and Saving Private Ryan could have been more brutal. Keeping that in mind, it's a fairly violent and brutal movie. I have no problem accepting that the characters as portrayed are utterly bugfuck crazy. The writing was very good, and the plot was difficult for me to predict (something that doesn't happen often). The acting was generally excellent (and while Ledger's performance probably does deserve an Oscar nomination, it wasn't worth dying for). I'm still not seriously enthusiastic about Bale as Batman, he's good enough to pull it off fairly well (and is very good as Bruce Wayne). Maggie Gyllenhaal was an interesting choice to replace Katie Holmes as Rachael, a character with no parallel in the comics, but she does ok.  Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent was a better (as in closer to the comics) choice than, say Billy Dee Williams - and in many ways they get the character and his motivations a LOT closer to the comics than I've seen elsewhere.  The special effects are *very*good, and some were absolutely fantastic.  It was interesting to hear the reactions from the audience since it was clear who was unfamiliar with the Batman comics, and who was.

All in all, it was a better movie than the movie it's a sequel to, and that one wasn't bad.

Someday, though, I'd like to see a movie version of the comic get The Voice right.  It should be as cold and quiet as an icy wind across your grave and twice as scary.  Batman should be as scary as the Joker, and have that presence that says 'I don't care who you are, I will hurt you if you do anything I don't like.'   The Clint Eastwood tough guy rasp is probably about as close as reality can come, but I'd like to see it anyway.  Of course, I also miss the giant penny... Oh, before I forget, we also had the trailer from The Watchmen. I still don't know how they are going to get the whole miniseries in a single movie, but trailer images looked right, including the scene of Dr Manhattan's Martian construct.

6:11pm: Seriously crabby mood

Someday I want to find out why travel just makes me seriously cranky.  Work doesn't help, of course.  I am leaving tomorrow for Virginia, and this past week I have been up to various orifices in work related reptiles.  Aside from the rest of the weirdnesses earlier in the week, pretty much everyone on the planet has decided that they want to want to give/sell/trade/donate/bequeath their family's valuable papers/documents/photos/artifacts (most of which are, in fact, valuable) right now.  Therefore I have gotten virtually nothing done this week, and why I am still in the office at 6.15 pm, when the rest of the University has been closed since noon, and not at home packing and preparing to go see The Dark Knight.  Right now, I'm contemplating rooting for the tormented psychopath in the non-black costume.

To top it off, of course, my guts have decided to go on strike.

Pfeh.

12:40pm: This is just weird. Not wrong, just weird...

Your result for The Steampunk Archetype Test...

The Aetherist Bodger

36 Swashbuckling Engineer, 8 Crazy Clockwork Tinkerer, 47 Charming Noble, 17 Roguish Pirate, 8 Mechanical Fian and 67 Aetherist Bodger!

Take The Steampunk Archetype Test at HelloQuizzy

10:29pm: Question about local flora
This stuff is growing up all over the construction site around the library. Anyone have any idea what it is? I think it's a local, well, not a grass, but some sort of plains flora - my co-workers have informed that it's "weeds".

8:30pm: Truly weird day...
Is anyone else having a truly, remarkably, strange day? I've just had two major things fall into my lap (one personal, one professional) -- both of them are really potentially good.

OTOH, I got to visit a new place today...


This is the McFarlin Mansion, here in Tulsa. Built by the same family that built our library.

6:32pm: Recent stuff
This has been a stressy week, not as stressy as some, but still and all, more than I like. The work drama is still going on, but the end is in sight.

I went out today and gave a presentation for the local genealogy library about the genealogically relevant materials in the TU library. For those of you that have never seen me working, Herself snuck in and grabbed a picture:



I just got the first pics back from the new folding brownie and they don't all suck. I'll put those below the cut.

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8:19pm: Well that's odd...

Your result for Which Chess Piece are You Test?...

The Queen's Rook

Take Which Chess Piece are You Test? at HelloQuizzy

7:22pm: Weird question...
Not long ago, I posted a picture of rhiannonredwulf, and it is now #3 on my most popular views, with 327 views (#1 is a shot of a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere, which I can explain if you want.  It's moved up from #5 since last week.

Why?

It's a tragically flawed shot (aside from the bad angle causing her to rise pilewise from the base, and leave too much sky above, there's a scratch on the negative giving her a third nostril).  Yes, she's a cute model, but the other shot I have of her, which is technically better, has only 8 views.

I'm not posting the link since I don't want to artificially screw up the stats.

11:36pm: This past week(end)
It's been an ok weekend. We had Friday off for the 4th, and so had plenty of rest time. This was good since both Herself and I were pretty much exhausted. None of my pictures from the fireworks displays worked out, so I got a couple of ok sunset images, and that was all. This weekend I was supposed to go out and take pictures of the Senior Godkid, but what with one communications cock-up after another, that didn't actually pan out. I'll have to see if I can get some time with her this week, since I think she was wanting some new pics of herself for next weekend.

Some of the "I can't talk about it" work stuff should clear up early this week. I am hoping that this will start to release me from some of this free-floating anxiety that's been sapping my energy and concentration.

I did go to the TU-Gilcrease ceremonies on the 1st, and that went extremely well I thought. I actually got some good pictures of the festivities and somehow have managed to mislay them. I'm hoping they are on my work computer. I am still very optimistic about that partnership, at least in the long term. I'm sure there will be the requisite short term things that tend to crop up in trying to mesh two different corporate cultures, but I doubt there will be nothing insurmountable.

The new cameras seem to be functional. I'll have to take the Taisei Kōki K.K. Westomat35 in to the repair shop and see how much it will cost to clean it. I think that the rewind release button is just gummed up with 50 years of sludge and dirt. I have found out that even though I can't find any documentation on the Westomat35 (although I can find some on the super35, it was made by the same company, and looks very similar to the Kalimar A, which has a lot of stuff on the web about it.

I have caught up on scanning and uploading the majority of the historical photos I have taken over the last several years to my Flickr pages. I should be able to stick mostly to pictures I am taking as I am taking them.

I will have to keep working on remembering to post, since I have run into two more of you all who apparently read this mess.

And in late breaking news, the air conditioner here at home is failing this evening. So I'll have to remember to call into the apartment office in the morning.

2:34pm: Taisei Kōki K.K. Westomat35 test pics

10:17pm: Dude, this is way past my bed time...

Tibardi, dead to the world.

7:22pm: I am turning into a total camera geek.
I was at a local antique store today and bought two new cameras. When I say "new" of course, I mean new to me.



The first is a Westomat35. a 35mm from about 1955ish (I think, I can't find a lot if information about it). I believe it was made by the same company that later produced the Super Westomat 35, which based on the pics I can find on line, is clearly a different camera. The company was Taisei Kōki K.K. (which split out of Fuji Kōgaku after the war, which makes it sort of a great uncle to the modern Fuji cameras, and of course the Fuji film I am currently running through it). The rewind release button is jammed, but once I finish checking to see if the light seals and lenses are still good, I'll take it apart and see if I can clean out whatever's gumming it up. This cost me $9.50, with the leather carrying case.

The second camera is a Kodak No.2 Folding Autographic Brownie (autographic because you can open up the back and write on the paper mounting the film what each shot is of). I'll be testing it tomorrow. BTW, the brass plates are really cool:



SO, at this moment I have 8 cameras.

The Digital, 2 Mavicas (X-7A, and X-700), 2 number 2 box Brownies (technically I have 3 box brownies, but one is a piece of junk I've been harvesting for parts), the new folding Brownie, the Westomat, and the POS on my cell phone.

12:44am:

Which famous photographer are you? Henri Cartier-Bresson: Known for street photography and photojournalism "We are passive onlookers in a world that moves perpetually. Our only moment of creation is that 1/125th of a second when the shutter clicks, the signal is given, and motion is stopped..."

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

8:03pm: Hancock

So, we just got back from seeing Hancock, a movie about a failure of a superhero.  First, let me say, I did enjoy it.  Herself was less enthralled, but it does pass the Spock's Brain test.  The actors are excellent, the effects are generally good.  Unfortunately, it is a tragically flawed story - let me see if I can give an example; the movie erratically switches back and forth between real world physics and comic book physics with no warning or consistency.  This is metaphor for much of the rest of the plot as well, skipping between one sort of movie and another.   And of course there is the plot twist halfway through that really they should issue seatbelts for, and the plot doesn't really recover well from it.  There are plot holes you can fly though, but it doesn't ruin the movie.  It just turns a potentially really good flick into an adequate one.

2:01pm: Some days, my brain is just wrong...
So, I'm going through a book dealer's catalog that I just  got in the mail, and I was delighted to find some books about Biggles.  Unfortunately, as I was going through the titles, my brain went to a bad place, and it just kept on getting worse...

Biggles takes it rough.
Biggles sorts it out.
Biggles and the noble lord.
Biggles sees too much.
Biggles and the dark intruder.
Biggles in the underworld.
Biggles gets his men.
and my favorite
Biggles and the poor rich boy. 

While I'm not really interested in reading it, I find the thought of  Biggles/Richie Rich slash to be ... evilly amusing.

8:40am: Butterick Pattern B5233
So I come into work this morning and am in a really truly deeply bad mood (mostly dealing with lack of sleep, and a trivial but annoying disagreement first thing this morning), and of course, for the first time in months, they have the f***ing concrete drills running - just when the first class we have been able to seduce back into the building is scheduled to show up.  So I warn the staff and let them know it's nothing to do with them, and sit down to read my email.

The top of the list, after trimming out the massive amount of spam (and remember, I don't even notice the spam until it exceeds 30 messages a day) is a letter from a costumer with the perfect legitimate question of:  "Butterick has come out with period shoe patterns; how is it for authenticity?  http://www.butterick.com/item/B5233.htm?tab=costumes&page=1"  The person was very polite.

I'm not sure I came up with the best answer:

Have you ever seen Fort Apache?  In that, Henry Fonda's character asks Victor McLaglen's character to judge some so-called "whiskey", and his response was "Well, sir, it's better than no whiskey at all."  These shoes are kind of like that whiskey.  They aren't actually accurate, but they are a vast improvement over not making any shoes at all (except for the one's with fringe which are totally inappropriate for the Middle Ages).

A. is ultimately based on an engraving in Violet le Duc, although they probably got it from Herbert Norris's Patterns of Fashion. 

B & C are both vaguely based on examples found at Hedeby and York.  D & G are both based (somewhat loosely) on medieval examples.  However, since I have no idea what the pattern actually says about materials, I'm guessing they are suggesting fabric uppers, which is inaccurate for these designs.  And the line drawings make the sole attachments look like a moccasin design, which is also inaccurate.

Still, they are better than no shoes at all.

Upon re-reading the little bit on the web page, it does call for synthetic leather, which may be better than cloth, but only slightly.

Unfortunately, this morning, I can't tell if my attempts at being humorous were that, or just being snotty. 

Let me be clear, from an accuracy perspective, these suck – if we define “suck” to mean the last 8 years of US foreign and economic policies.  However, depending on what a person is intending, they are better than nothing at all.  If they want to do SCA or Rennfaire in them, they are adequate.  If they want them for hard-core re-enacting, I personally will bludgeon them to death with sarcasm and humiliation.

[As an aside, if anyone DOES want to use them for SCA or RF – do yourself a favor and buy real vegetable tanned leather – the synthetic shit doesn’t breath and these will be miserable to wear for any length of time.] 

The problem is that accurate shoes for the Middle Ages are still hard to come across.  I have seen a few folks doing some really good work, but even in their cases they are hampered by the difficulties in getting some of the most accurate materials.  There are more places that are turning out adequate repros than there were ten years ago.  Unfortunately, there also more places turning out poorly-crafted insults to medieval shoemakers than there were ten years ago.

But for most purposes, even the insults are better than tennis shoes.