High Dynamic Range

After working in and out of town, on weekdays and weekends, I finally had a day to relax and catch up on some projects of personal interest. What I have been thinking about is the photographic technique known as HDR, or High Dynamic Range. As I have only point-and-shoot experience, I realized this would be a bit of a reach with only one day to devote to it.

Well, the day proved to be the darkest and rainiest in recent memory, seriously hindering my enthusiasm, but I was able to finally get some results indoors...














The idea is to take several shots varying only the exposure, and then merging them together to reveal the intricacies lost in a single exposure. This would have been way above my skill and patience level, except for Adobe Photoshop (CS2), which has a one-click 'merge to HDR' feature.

I am using Tracy's LUMIX FZ10 as my compact doesn't have any manal settings.

Please stay tuned for some improved attempts, but for examples of what is possible, Flickr has a pool of pictures devoted to the style: http://www.flickr.com/groups/hdr/pool/

Photoshop Elements Experiments

I always wake up with great expectations (a great way to start the day, by the way) - "Today I'm going to go for a ride, organize my photos, clean the apartment, study Japanese, send off some packages, go shopping, cook a nice dinner, read this month's Atlantic, redesign our website...". As you may guess, maybe one of these things actually gets done.

Recently, Brian and I have been learning how to use Adobe Photoshop Elements, a powerful photo-editing tool, and today, Sunday, I spent some time experimenting in Elements - at least something got done between the three hours that I spent watching the National Geographic Channel!

Here is a photo of Larry that Brian made (and edited):





And here is one of mine:



This post was edited for drunken spelling errors:-)

TGIF

Sometimes time seems to go too fast, slipping through our fingers like cool water. Other times, we can't make time pass fast enough.

This week has been both long and fast - and busy. But it's Friday today, and we are working out of town and then spending tomorrow exploring a city bigger than Susono.

Partied Out!

No biking recently, for which I have several excuses: the cold mornings, running, and my riding partner being out of commission. I did a good run on Saturday – 5 k in 34.26 minutes, with an average heart rate of 162. Not bad, considering I hadn’t run in a while and that I was running hills. Although I undid the health benefits with at the house party we went to on Saturday night at our neighbor’s place, and the end of which I only vaguely remember. We were feeling unwell enough on Sunday, too, to be deterred from any kind of physical exertion!

Guys and Drinks:



Brian plays with Larry's new camera (a Lumix FZ30):

Not for the squeamish

Wow, the weekend is finally here, and again I don't know what to do with it... Usually we spend our time off outdoors, or at least out of the apartment, but I, at least, am in forced stay-home mode for a few weeks. The 'home theater' is one week old today, but we haven't watched more that 1 hour of TV in that time. I don't want to waste a sunny day sitting in front of the tube, so I'll post this from my pc by the window.

I stitched (pardon the pun) together my (self-taken) 'before and after' photos of my leg. I'm not generally squeamish, but I still fnd both of these images disturbing! Here goes:















Before the surgery it was supposed that the problem was mostly the vein and junction in my upper thigh, but during the procedure the GSV (greater saphenous vein) was examined and found to be 90% OK (although some unnecessary vein was tied off while they had that area open). So, the problem actually started at the knee, and the LSV (long saphenous vein) and junctions below there were removed in the three-hour procedure. I ended up with 7 wounds, one in the groin and the rest on my shin...

Instead of general anesthesia and a long stay, I had an epidural. The first try resulted in perfectly paralyzing my right leg, but only made my left one feel warm. I consented to another attempt under sodium pentathol, or some such relaxing shot in my shoulder, without the paperwork and signatures required for the first consent. The second shot in the spine worked immedately.

I remained awake for the procedure, which went a bit longer than expected and longer than the anesthesia, so the operation was completed with a few local anesthetic injections. Ouch.

At the end, as I was being readied for the trip back to my 'room', my surgeon excitedly brought me the veins he had removed, like a fistful of Twizzlers. I wish I'd had a camera for that...

Once in my tiny recovery cell, I realized that this wasn't going to be a hotel stay... I had exactly 3 feet by 6 feet of space (I'm 6'2), and although I had left my cellphone, digicam and MP3 player within inches of the bed, I couldn't reach anything in my still paralyzed and IV'd state. It was the longest night of my life, as the painkillers wore off and I became aware of the agonizing catheter and headache; I slept for about 15 minutes total, I think.

The nursing staff was composed of 4 complete angels, who soothed my whimpering while tending to a never-ending stream of real bedside emergencies from the long-staying patients.

In the morning I took a practice limp down the corridor, had a few more liters of saline, glucose and antibiotics pumped in, and then checked out. Hopefully I'll not need to return for anything like that again, but the experience was good and the results even better!

Blogaversary - One Year and Still Going Strong

Today marks the one year anniversary of Japanrider - The Blog! You've seen us buy our Rigs and sell our FSRs; you've seen some bad photos, and some good ones; you've been with us for the ups and downhillings.

So here we go - aiming for another year of riding in Japan; well - Brian will start riding again when his leg allows (his painful varicose veins were removed about a week ago - see yesterday's post). In the meantime, stay tuned for more pedestrian updates!

Slow Lane?

Hello devoted readers!

Many folks may be wondering why 'Japanrider' hasn't been posting about crisp rides or other two-wheeled adventure lately. Well, I surveyed the year and decided that the coldest winter months might be the right time to attend to the increasingly bothersome vein in my leg. I had a doctor refer me to a surgeon in Tokyo, and after a few trips to meet and check the particulars, I scheduled myself for surgery.

Because Tokyo is far from my home and I seemed healthy enough otherwise, the doctor worked out a plan to reduce the procedure and hospital stay from 5-7 days to just one day (surgery) and an overnight, with 'check-out' after breakfast. It seemed like a great plan, and in the end it worked out just right, although it took some wrangling with the incredulous hospital staff and some easing up on the pain medication. (Ouch.)

Last Tuesday I went in, and Wednesday around noon I left, after most of the medicines had worn off. (I don't remember the trip home, but somehow I managed two subways, a train, a bullet train and finally a taxi. I then ate and slept until Friday.)

Since then I've had to keep my left leg elevated, and reduce walking or standing as much as possible. I won't be able to 'exercise' for a few weeks, which I'm sure includes biking (um, I ride a single-speed) and lifting weights; hopefully spring weather will arrive as I'm able to get out again, with a minimum of teasing!

I do have before and after pictures of my leg, but I'm not sure anyone wants to see that much detail, so for now I'll post a 'recovery mode' picture, featuring our newly refurbished home theater:

My Valentine

Japan, too, celebrates Valentine's Day on February 14th - but here the tradition is for women to give chocolate to men; she then gets to receive chocolate on White Day (March 14th). This is widely accepted as being the creation of candy makers, but is rather a fun tradition just the same.

Tonight, I gave Brian a little box of Godiva chocolates and a bottle of wine. Naturally, I got to eat some of the chocolate, and the wine we'll share another evening!

In the picture, you can see that Brian has one leg up on the coffee table - this leg will be the subject of a later blog to be posted by Brian Himself!

ふごうかくーFailed!

The results of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test are in - and I'm out! I didn't pass the level 2 exam that I took in December, which is about what I expected.

How does this help me, you ask? Well, now I know where I rank and the areas I have to work on. Basically, my listening is pretty good (a pass, even), but my reading and grammar barely even ranked. I'm even a bit too embarassed to tell you my exact score - but I'm back to studying and think I'll have a chance when I sit the test again in December!

I So Get This...

(from Dilbert, Feb. 2nd, 2006).

I AM a Randian!

TGIF:-)

Pics from Gotemba

Well, I'm back. A few days working out of town was good; my evenings were quiet, solitary - and that was good. I think everyone needs some time to simply be. And I have to say, I rather liked the strange looks I got eating dinner alone at a nice Italian restaurant :-)

Anyway - I finally had some time to download and upload some photos from last weekend, so here are just two of the photos taken by Brian and by me last Sunday.

We stopped at a heretofore unknown park in Gotemba - probably better visited in spring, as its main attraction was supposed to be birds! But we got to do a little winter cave-exploring. Here is Brian's photo, taken with a Lumix DMC-FZ10:




Though the natural wildlife had likely flown south for the winter, the park did have one lonely caged bird. Taken with a Nikon D50:

Worst Driving

After a pretty low-key weekend that included some mountain driving and picture taking (pics coming soon!), I drove back to Shimada city on Monday morning. While driving along the Tomei expressway, I had the misfortune of once again seeing some examples of supremely bad driving - trucks tailgaiting each other to a dangerous degree; sports cars weaving in and out of the lanes, desperate to get to where they were going; a guy somehow managing to smoke AND talk on his cell phone and a woman putting on her lipstick - all while speeding along at 120 km/h.

Setsubun

Yesterday, February 3rd, was setsubun.

Setsubun is not a national holiday, but it is a "festival" day that marks a seasonal transition - namely, the coming of spring; and spring can bring with it many demons! And so on setsubun, people (especially kids - it's become more of a kid festival nowadays), throw beans around their house while shouting "Oni wa soto, Fuku wa uchi" (Demons out! Good luck in!). After throwing the beans (which chase out the evil spirits) you are supposed to pick up and eat the number of beans that reflects your age.

We didn't throw beans or try to chase out the demons - but we still hope that this year will bring good luck and happiness.


But...um...maybe we should have thrown the beans - just in case:-)

Another Earthquake...

According the news, there was a 5.1 magnitude earthquake below Chiba (near Tokyo) last night. There were no injuries or damage, but local trains out of Yokohama and Tokyo stopped for a while. I didn't feel the quake and was completely unaffected - we live pretty far from Tokyo, and I'm even futher away than usual, on business here in Shimada.

However, I do hate to be reminded that "Japan sits atop four tectonic plates and is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries"; You'd think the newspapers would get tired of mentioning that bit!