Tom – Page 119 – Random Connections

Port Wentworth Friday Nights

April 9, 2011 Tom 2 Comments

For these lowcountry kayaking trips I often come down on Friday night so that I don’t have to get up so early on Saturday. Wherever I am I like to find some place quirky and local for dinner, and this trip was no exception.

I checked at the front desk of the motel on I-95, and was informed that there were two good restaurants just up the street. I scooted round the corner to the first, Silverado’s.

The van, radio station banner, and balloons should have alerted me to trouble. I walked in the door and was greeted by a plume of smoke, and a boozy greeting from a woman with stringy hair and fewer teeth than I have.

Well, howdy, you sharp-dressed man, and welcome to Silverado’s! Have a seat on this here bar stool and buy me a drink!

No, thank you. I had just driven all the way down straight from the office, and my slacks and white shirt stood out from the jeans and cowboy boots. I glanced around. Even if I had wanted to stay, none of the sparse tables between the pool tables and dance floor were available.

I guess the sign advertising Lingerie Lunch today should have also tipped me off. I’d already missed it, and the smoke was more than I could bear, so I left. I was after quirky, not hazardous.

Jury Duty

April 8, 2011 Tom 3 Comments

Miscellaneous

A couple of weeks ago this nice little letter from Paul Wickenseimer, Clerk of Court for Greenville County, arrived in my mailbox…

Yep, a jury summons. I was to start my round of civic duty April 4. I just completed it, and it was an interesting, yet unfulfilling experience.

Cool 3D Tools

April 6, 2011 Tom No Comments

Photography

I’ve discovered a treasure trove of 3D tools. Japanese developer Muttyan has put together HUGE collection of applications for viewing and creating stereoscopic images and videos. These include side-by-side stereographs as well as anaglyphs using a variety of color and polarizing schemes.

Online since 2003, the site design looks like it’s stuck in the 1990’s, but the content is current and comprehensive, and that’s what matters.

I first stumbled onto the site looking for a way to create 3D views of Google Earth. I had wondered if there was a way to create an off-set image that could be converted to anaglyphs. I found Muttyan’s Stereo Google Earth page, and started exploring.

This page uses two instances of the Google Earth plugin to present side-by-side images of chosen locations. I started with an overhead screen capture, such as this one of downtown Greenville…

Greenville Historical Aerial Imagery

April 5, 2011 Tom 3 Comments

History and Genealogy, Internet, Local

Sometime last week the Greenville Cageliner had an article about a new website from the Greenville County GIS Office (http://gis.greenvillesc.gov/historicalimagery/). The website features historical aerial photography imagery as a map, similar to Google Earth. Images are available for 1955, 1965, 1979, 1989, 1997, and 2009, and cover the downtown area, along with a bit of the county. Also included is the Sanford Insurance Map of the city from 1920.

I could spend a HUGE amount of time exploring the site. Looking at how the city has changed over the decades has been fascinating, and somewhat depressing. The patterns of urban sprawl are quite clear at a distance, and it can be sad to look back on landmarks that are no longer there. On the other hand, there have been some marked improvements in areas such as along the banks of the Reedy River, and these images show that very clearly.

I started with the area around the old Furman campus. I had never really understood the location of the old bell tower in relation to the rest of the campus, but this imagery makes it very clear. (Click on the images for a larger view.)

Eight Years of Blogging

April 4, 2011 Tom 1 Comment

Miscellaneous

Today marks the eighth year I’ve been blogging in some fashion or other. I never thought I’d keep at it for so long, but here were are in 2011 and I’m still writing. In 2003 blogs were fairly rare, and most people had never even heard the term. I had seen a couple of blogs, … Read More “Eight Years of Blogging” »

A Tuesday Sparklberry Paddle

March 31, 2011 Tom 3 Comments

Paddling

This week is my spring break, and despite the fact that I still needed to go into the office and work a couple of days, and despite the fact that two days of my break would be taken up with dental surgery, I was determined to do some paddling. Dwight was in the same frame of mind, so we had arranged to meet Tuesday morning and take a trip down to Sparkleberry Swamp and test our navigation skills. It turned out to be a fantastic trip, with lots of wildlife and some a amazing wilderness isolation.

Sunday and Monday had been rainy and stormy, and it looked like Tuesday was going to tbe the only day with decent weather. It was cloudy in Greenville when I started out, but when I picked up Dwight in Columbia, and when we got on down toward the swamp, it looked like it the weather gods were going to smile on us. Although it was chilly, we had perfect weather the entire day.

Experiments with Stereo Photography

March 27, 2011 Tom No Comments

Photography

Since I had been working some much with old stereographs and converting them into 3D anaglyphs, I wanted to try my own stereographs. My first attempts were OK, but not great. I was attempting to use one camera to create two images, but the results were often unpredictable.

I did learn a a trick with this process, though. Fairly decent results can be obtained by first putting your weight on your right foot and snapping a shot, then shifting your weight to your left foot and shooting. That gives just about the right amount of separation for a good stereo image.

Unfortunately, this process has some drawbacks. First, it’s awkward if you want to get a shot that’s not easily taken from a standing position, say, a low show of flowers or a still life. Also, it won’t work if there is any movement. You need some way to snap two images simultaneously.

I did come up with a way to do just that. I found a couple of VERY cheap cameras online. My only criteria was that the cameras had to have at least 3 megapixels, have a tripod mount, and have a self-timer. My solution was the Global Point Trekker camera, which cost me a little over $10 through Amazon.com (ignore the $34 price on their home website.)

A Collection of Stereographs

March 25, 2011 Tom No Comments

History and Genealogy, Photography

I finally got my hands on an actual set of antique stereograph cards. This is a collection of 32 cards by the H. C. White Company, and includes scenes from Havana, Cuba, Manila in the Philippines, several other interesting locations. There are also some humorous staged scenes included in the lot. These are all polychrome color cards, and have the copyright date of 1905 on them. I found some of the subject matter fascinating. This shot of the beach at Atlantic City is a far cry from today’s image of Jersey Shore…

If you look closely at the individual in the foreground, you’ll see that it’s a man and not a woman. He’s just wearing a weird yellow hat.

The Teacherage

March 22, 2011 Tom No Comments

History and Genealogy

Rules for Teachers €” 1915

1. You will not marry during the term of your contract.
2. You are not to keep company with men.
3. You must be home between the hours of 8 PM and 6 AM
unless at a school function.
4. You may not loiter downtown in any of the ice cream
stores.
5. You may not travel beyond the city limits unless you
have permission of the chairman of the chairman of the
school board.
6. You may not ride in carriages or automobiles with any
man except your father or brother.
7. You may not smoke cigarettes.
8. You may not dress in bright colors.
9. You may under no circumstances dye your hair.
10. You must wear at least 2 petticoats.
11. Your dresses may not be any shorter than 2 inches above
the ankles.
12. To keep the classroom neat and clean you must sweep the
floor once a day, scrub the floor with hot soapy water
once a week, clean the blackboards once a day and start
the fire at 7 AM to have the school warm by 8 AM when
the scholars arrive.

This list of rules for teachers has long since been proved apocryphal by Snopes.com. It’s one of those things of dubious veracity which get passed around via e-mail, or printed on pseudo-parchment paper and sold at Cracker Barrel for an exorbitant amount. It’s always pulled out to illustrate how you-may-think-it’s-bad-now-but-look-how-bad-it-was-back-then. (Although, it seems some politicians would have public teachers go back to those days.)

Even though the list is fake, there is more than a grain of truth to it, and I’ve even found some photographic evidence. I was browsing through the South Carolina Online Archives, specifically, through the old school insurance photographs, and I came upon a term I’d not heard before – teacherage. Similar to the word “parsonage”, it was a house or lodgings provided for teachers, most often unmarried females.

A Super Moon Weekend

March 20, 2011 Tom 2 Comments

Miscellaneous

It’s been a busy week, and I haven’t had much time for blogging. I’ve got a few projects underway, and I hope to write about those shortly. In the meantime, here’s a quick weekend update…

Friday night:

One of Laura’s friends from grad school at UC Riverside has a goal – to visit every state in the United States. Carolyn had two left on her list, Idaho and South Carolina. Her friend from Germany, Christian, has accompanied her on this quest, so she met him in Charleston, toured there for a day, then headed to Greenville for a visit with Laura.

We picked up Carolyn and Christian and headed down to River Place. We knew that there was a TEDx event at the Peace Center, and that evening there was supposed to be something called the Greenville Xperience in the amphitheater, so we wanted to get parked early. We wandered around the Falls Park area, walking over the Liberty Bridge and enjoying a warm spring evening, as did half of Greenville, it seems.

At one point I spotted to kayakers launching above the falls, and I knew what was about to happen. I took off at a run with my camera, but was not in time to see the first boat go over the falls. I did, however, catch the second one.

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