Learning vs. Doing

As I wrote earlier, I have adopted LEARN as my word of the year.  One thing that I have noticed in the early going of my learning year is the push and pull between learning and doing.  As most people in this world I have a finite amount of free time.  In that free time I would like to learn some new stuff this year.  However, while I’m learning stuff, I’m not doing stuff.  Let me illustrate.  If I am learning about photography by reading some articles, I am not taking any pictures. 

I am finding that it is hard to get the time to not only learn the things I want to learn, but to put those things into practice and get to the point that I can use them.  Adding to the time crunch is the fact that I have multiple hobbies that are all relatively time intensive.  It has been quite a balancing act.  I want to learn lots about my new hobby photography.  I also want to learn some new techniques for my old hobby of painting minis (and gaming with them).

I should add a disclaimer that part of the time crunch is of my own making.  With the return of the NHL, I spend a decent amount of time watching the Blackhawks, during which I don’t learn a lot of new stuff, but it brings me a lot of pleasure (most of the time).  However, Jen has rediscovered the TV, so video games have not taken up much time.

I’ll try to keep you up to date on how the balancing act is going.  However, now I  must go and clean the house, as I am having a Super Bowl party in a few hours.  I expect to learn a lot about beer and it’s effects on human behaviour and biology.

More Stuff

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve doubled my camera stuff.  These two beauties arrived in the past two weeks. 

I ordered the lens when it was on sale for a great price over Christmas.  I spent all of my allowance and Christmas money.  So, now I’m poor, but happy.  Having so much more zoom is very handy.  I haven’t used the tripod yet, but I’m debating getting up tomorrow morning to see if I can snap a few sunrise shots (weather permitting).  I’d also like to try some moonlight shots with the massive full moon this weekend and all of the snow to reflect the light.  I have my wonderful wife to thank for that little gem.  It was on back order, but it made it before the end of the month.

Lets hope I can put them to good use.

Make a Light Box

My first lesson of the new year is how to make a light box.  Actually, this is not my lesson to give.  I exercised my Google Fu and came up with several articles that set out how to make a simple homemade light box. 

Some of you know that I am a closet nerd.  I have little plastic men that I paint and subsequently play with (in a game, not in my closet).  I put a lot of time and effort into painting the little blighters and then I go and take a crappy picture on my desk with a phone.  I decided to do something about this lamentable situation.  I looked into how some bloggers made their man dollies look so good in pictures.  The answer was a light box.  I looked online and found that you could bu

Technorati Tags: minis,photography,miniatures

y light boxes, but the price was pretty steep for the amount I was going to use it (I am not a prolific painter).  So I went the home made route.

This is what I came up with using only an old moving box, a utility knife and some white tissue paper.  I do think I will be switching from tissue to fabric, due to the fragility of the box right now.  The book was used to put my camera on.

This is what the pictures of my minis usually turn out like.

Now with the light box, they look much better.  I’m still fiddling with the settings, so the photos aren’t perfect, but they’ll get better.  I guess I have to paint some more toys to photograph.

If you want to make your own light box, I got my information from here and here.  You can also just Google it and there are many articles to choose from.

Learn

Technorati Tags: learning,New Year

Last year my wife inspired me to choose a word for the year.  It’s kind of like a a multifaceted New Year’s resolution.  Last year I made up my own word and went with positivity.  I think I did a pretty good job with my positivity last year.  By no means am I a wellspring of optimism, but I have tried and succeeded to avoid overly negative thoughts about people, events and the future.  I still need work and I have to keep the goal in my head to avoid relapses, but I’m on the right track.

That leads me to my word for this year.  I have chosen the word learn for 2013.  I have many things to learn in life.  If you think you have nothing left to learn then you have nothing left to live for (besides being a colossal fool).  I want to learn lots of things in relation to my profession, technology, photography and the world.  Some lessons will be large and some will be small.  I hope to share some of the things I learn here.  Maybe my dear readers will even learn a thing or two.

Remember Me?

It has been quite a while since I’ve visited this space.  There are many reasons.  I have a very challenging class this year and I generally come home exhausted and fall into some escapist activity for the remainder of the evening.  I have a bit of an on-again-off-again Skyrim addiction I’ve been dealing with, and I was simply not inspired.

Well, I’m back to take another kick at the can.  I don’t know what’s changed.  Maybe the new wireless keyboard my amazing wife got me for Christmas came with inspiration built in.  Regardless, I hope to give the five or so people who read this blog some entertainment over the next several months.

What I’m Using

Technorati Tags: music,songza,apps,websites

I just thought I’d write a post on a web service and app that I’ve been using quite a bit lately.  Songza is a music service that Jen introduced me to about a month ago.  I started with the app on my phone, but have been using the web service at Songza.com more lately.

Songza is a streaming service that doesn’t let you pick individual songs, instead it lets you pick from playlists that have been “handmade by an expert team of music critics, DJs, musicians, and musicologists.”  There seem to be hundreds of playlists encompassing almost every genre and most sub-genres within those.  Songza is an excellent way to discover new music that you may never have been exposed to otherwise.  Playlists are mostly organized by genre or mood.  For example, right now I am listening to Harvest Moon, which is described as the “perfect soundtrack of warm, acoustic songs handpicked for enjoying crisp autumn air, fall foliage, and hot apple cider.”  It is as advertised.

The most interesting feature of this service is the Music Concierge button.  If you click on this button, you are asked if you want to find the perfect music for the time of day it is (e.g., Monday Afternoon) or you can choose your own day and time.  When you press go, you are presented with several options to choose from.

When you pick what type of activity you want your music for you will get a further option of several genre/mood options to fit your choice.

 

Choose again and you get a list of three playlists to choose from.  If none of these appeal to you, you can go back a screen and try another option.

Of course, you can just browse the lists of playlists that are most popular or all of them.  I have been pretty pleased with the music I have been listening to via Songza.  I find that I use this service more than I listen to my own music taking up GB of space on my hard drive.

I do have questions as to how this service will be monetized.  Will they eventually charge a monthly fee like Rdio, or will users be subjected to commercials?  It will be interesting to see.  Personally, I would probably pay a fee for this service.  For those of you who know me, I’m pretty frugal, so this is a ringing endorsement.

Finally, I also use the CBC Music Service, but I find that more useful if I already know exactly what I want to listen too.  I feel much more adventurous on Songza.

I hope you’ll go give it a try.

The Zealots Come Out

The iPhone 5 was released to the public this past week.  Have we become desensitized to the crowds of barely sane fanboys camping out and begging Apple to take their money.  It doesn’t matter whether the product is off the charts or a small improvement over the last iteration.

The iPhone 5 looks like, well all the other iPhones, just stretched a bit.  I’ve been reading a lot about how Apple isn’t innovative anymore, only cautiously making small improvements over previous versions of a product.  I read a very interesting article on the problem of being Number 1 in the Globe and Mail.  You can check it out here.  The long and short is that Apple had nothing to lose before, but now it has to think about stockholders and protecting its’ market share.  Very interesting stuff.

Contrary to popular belief, I don’t hate Apple.  I do find the Apple phenomenon a very interesting psychological study in fanaticism and mob like behaviour though.  I can’t remember a company making products that sell for so much money and having so many people be so eager to buy them sight unseen simply because of who makes it.  The other part of the puzzle is people buying expensive goods because other people they know have one.  “Why did you choose an iPhone?” “Because that’s what everyone is using.”  Fascinating stuff.

Technorati Tags: apple,fanatics,iPhone 5