Chip's Blog

My Experience With Deep Venous Thrombosis (DVT) [Part One]

2010-03-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

This is intended to be the first of several posts relating my current experience with DVT. I wrote most of this in the days right after my diagnosis. Rather than waiting until I can write the whole story, I decided to go ahead and post this much.

My first memory of the term "DVT" is on the referral form given to me by my doctor, requesting an ultrasound scan of my "lower left extremity". I didn't know what it meant but I knew that we were trying to find out why my left leg sometimes felt like I was wearing a rubber band above my knee. This had been going on for about four weeks. It was Tuesday, February 23 2010.

I'm less clear on the onset of this discomfort -- it must have been gradual -- but particularly recall the night at the end of January when I came home with pain in my left calf along with a "puffy" feeling, desperate to put my foot up. My wife Evelyn brought me blankets to elevate it and a hot pad to make it feel better. I called upon The Google and soon concluded that the most likely causes were dehydration or shin splints. There was a third possibility, but it was much less likely; I was happy to exclude it: a blood clot.

There followed four weeks of careful stretching, drinking more water, elevation when possible, and moderate gentle exercise. I also tried massaging the calf, but usually had to stop quickly. It seemed to discomfit my entire leg below the knee. The feeling was difficult to describe. Not a pain, but a funny sort of ache: if you can imagine a limb feeling faint then that's pretty close.

The acute discomfort I felt at the end of January did subside, but only to a vague ache. The calf felt stretched and my ankle was a little puffy. Sitting in certain cars began to be uncomfortable. And it wasn't getting any better.

I had to explain to my work colleagues why I wouldn't go jogging with them, and why I was putting my foot up more. "Shin splints" was a good explanation for a week or so, but after that at least one of them gave me that most basic of advice, "See a doctor."

Thursday February 18th I took a short flight from San Jose to San Diego and my discomfort increased. The return flight Saturday was a little better, but only because I sat in an exit row and could fully stretch out. I told myself that I'd see a doctor as soon as possible the next week.

Sure enough, come Monday I called my employer's in-house health clinic and took their next available appointment that Thursday. Using the clinic would minimize my time off work, and having endured this condition for weeks already, another few days didn't seem important.

But Tuesday morning I awoke in somewhat greater discomfort. Not only did my calf feel inflated and achy, but my hands felt puffy too. As I got in the car to drive to work I started to worry a little.

Among my friends are at least two who have had strokes. The results aren't pretty and even partial recovery takes a long time. I really didn't know enough to say whether my symptoms could lead to a stroke (they don't), but it reminded me that some of these conditions can be completely mitigated if caught early enough, and can be life-changing or fatal if not.

I started to worry a little more. Before I got on the main road I was calling my regular doctor.

His response was pretty impressive -- I left a message describing my symptoms and within five minutes his office called back and asked me to come in right away. They are on my way to work so I was there in about ten minutes.

This is where things could have gone awry with a less thorough doctor. My physical symptoms were not very impressive: no discoloration and only a small amount of swelling. He thought it was probably just a strain injury, but ordered tests to make sure: one of them was an ultrasound scan for DVT.

This is also where things could have gone awry with a less motivated patient. I had two weeks before my followup appointment and therefore could easily have waited to schedule my tests. But I didn't. As soon as I left the doctor's office I called the hospital vascular lab to schedule the ultrasound. I asked if they had something "today" and they fit me in.

The Ultrasound Test

Debbie, the attractive and friendly ultrasound technician, does DVT scans all the time.She joked about there being a "special on DVT scans" that day -- I guess she'd had a bunch of them. At the hands of an expert they are pretty fast, and mostly negative.

Trousers off, I couldn't help warming at her touch. But of course she is all business. Starting with the ultrasound probe at my crotch, she scanned down my left femural vein, explaining as she did that we were viewing a cross section. Most of us have seen neo-natal sonograms of unborn children. This test is similar, but also employs Doppler sonography to measure the velocity of blood moving through the vein.

It was looking fine until she got to my knee, where she immediately said, "Oh, there's a clot." All I could see on the ultrasound was a shadow, but Debbie showed how it was really an obstruction inside my vein. Besides measuring its size, she also employed the scanner to measure the degree of obstruction by squeezing the vein lower in my calf and checking the change in blood flow.

I guess most patients react with fear or horror, but my own reaction was relief: now I knew why my leg was bothering me. My doubt was replaced by certainty: there was no longer an unknown foe, but something that could be named and treated.

But I have to admit that I was surprised how quickly things moved from there. Debbie called my doctor and told him of her findings. They put me on the line: he wanted me to go to the emergency room where they would start treatment immediately with "blood thinners".

I was about to become a patient.

Introducing Time-Light-Distance: My New Photo Blog

2010-02-25T17:47:00.000-08:00

I've been keeping Chip's blog for a few years now and have been finding it increasingly enjoyable. But while it does reflect my diverse interests, the lack of any coherent theme must make it difficult to follow for anyone interested in a specific topic.

So lately, as I've been posting more about photography, I have been thinking about creating a separate, specialized blog as the new home for all my photo-related posts. I was still thinking about it when, a couple of weeks ago, Trey Ratcliff (StuckInCustoms.com) challenged his readers to consider trying out SmugMug. Well, I'd been thinking about that too.

So I decided to do both at the same time.

The result is my new blog and photo/video sharing site Time - Light - Distance. As much as possible I am trying to integrate SmugMug with Blogger to offer a better photo and video sharing experience, as well as providing a soapbox where I can discuss my work.

This isn't the end of Chip's Blog, but all my new photography and video posts will be going to TLD. Over time I also plan to migrate the older posts as well. For anyone who finds the things I'm doing in these areas helpful or interesting, I hope TLD will be easier to follow. For myself, I hope that the sharper focus will make a difference in the quality and quantity of my work.

Enhancing An Image Sequence With PhotoShop Filters

2010-02-13T16:16:00.000-08:00

I've been working on an article about incorporating PhotoShop filters into my time-lapse workflow, and decided to post this tutorial separately. Note that this requires the Extended versions of PhotoShop.

Two Things I Didn't Know About PhotoShop

I need efficient methods to enhance the images in my time-lapse projects. For some projects I want to use PhotoShop and the question is how best to apply it to a large number of images. PhotoShop provides automation, batch tools, and a scripting interface, so there are lots of ways to do this. But my first efforts suggested that it might be too slow.

As I investigated that further, I learned two new things about PhotoShop (Extended):

PhotoShop supports image sequences. I should be able to load a sequence into PS and apply powerful photographic filters such as Topaz to each frame automatically without additional scripting.
PhotoShop supports video. You can indeed set up filters and apply them to the entire video.

You need the Extended version of PhotoShop for either of these.

The rest of this article is a step-by-step guide to filtering each frame of an image sequence. I'll discuss the workflow considerations in a separate article.

Filtering an Image Sequence, Step-By-Step

I'm using Photoshop CS4 Extended on Windows Vista. The procedure is essentially the same on Mac.

1. Start PhotoShop and from the menu choose File::Open. Navigate to the folder containing your image sequence.

2. Select the first file in your sequence and select the "Image Sequence" button. Then click "Open".

3. Choose a frame rate -- I happen to be using 60 for this project -- and click "OK". PhotoShop takes about 10 seconds to open my 1,139 frame sample project.

4. I like to see the Animation Timeline, though it really isn't needed for what we're doing here. If you don't see it, click on the workspace dropdown at the top right and switch to the "Video" workspace.

5. In order to apply filters to all frames in the sequence, you need to first convert it to a "Smart Object". You can use the main menu Layer::Smart Objects::Convert to Smart Object, or just right click in the Layer panel and select "Convert to Smart Object".

6. Now apply your filter to the layer. In this example I'm using Topaz Adjust 3 from Topaz Labs.

7. Each filter will be different, so I won't go through the Topaz dialog here. By the way, Trey Ratcliff has a great review of Topaz Adjust on his blog, StuckInCustoms, and provides a discount code for purchase.

8. When you finish the filter dialog, PhotoShop works for a while and shows you the result on the selected frame. Notice the new "Smart Filters" section appearing in your layers panel.

9. Now we're going to save our sequence as a new set of images with the filtering applied. In the main menu choose "File::Export::Render Video". No, we are not actually going to render video, and yes, it is quite confusing.

10. You have many choices here. I'll explain each of the ones that we're going to use right now. The numbers in the screen shot are keyed to each item in the explanation.

Item 1: Location Name. This is where you will set the "prefix name" of your image sequence filenames. My screen shot is a bad example! The prefix name of "Untitled-1" results in an image sequence with names like Untitled-10001.jpg, Untitled-10002.jpg and so forth.
Item 2: Select Folder and Create New Subfolder. You have choices; I leave "Select Folder" set to my "project" folder and click "Create New Subfolder" so that all my images will go into a new subfolder. This is faster than using Select Folder to create a new folder.
Item 3: File Options. Select "Image Sequence", not "QuickTime Export". You are welcome to experiment for yourself, but I've had nothing but problems attempting to perform the filter rendering and video rendering in the same step.
Item 4: Details about the exported files. Keep the original image size ("Size: Document Size"), export "All frames" rather than a subset, and render them at same frame rate you started with ("Document Frame Rate").
Item 5: JPEG Settings. Click the "Settings" button to popup the JPEG Options dialog. Set the quality level however suits you -- if you check the "preview" box it will estimate the file size for you.

11. Click "OK" on the JPEG Options dialog and then click the "Render" button. After 10-20 seconds you should see an "Exporting Video" progress bar. Now find something else to do, because it is s-l-o-w. My machine, with these settings, will render at 12-13 frames per minute. For this example, the sequence consists of 1,139 frames and I expect it to take about 90 minutes.

You can also watch its progress by looking in the output directory and watching the files appear. I find this more soothing than the progress bar.

When PhotoShop is finished, you have a new image sequence that has been filtered. This result is the same as applying a batch operation to all the files, but in my experience it is much faster.

I'll be discussing this technique in the workflow article, coming soon.

Setting Up a Project at "Google Code"

2010-02-06T12:30:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I set up my seq-to-qt project at Google Code. Here's a short tutorial.

In the past few years Google has been promoting their own infrastructure vision for open source software projects. It's called "Project Hosting on Google Code".

For a long time now we've had SourceForge and it is still the leading home for open source software projects. SourceForge is a great resource -- why Google Code?

"Google Code" itself was born as a way to host Google's own APIs and open source projects -- Google's channel to the developer community. It made sense to implement a flexible infrastructure that others could use as well, hence "Project Hosting". Offering such a service is consistent with the company's other hosted services, like Sites and Blogger -- you can read their mission statement if you like.

Getting Started

Here's how to set up a new project using Project Hosting.

Open Google's "Getting Started" page. Keep it open in one browser tab or window so you can refer to it while performing the various actions in another window.
Visit "Create Project" and fill out the form shown at right. The most important thing is the project name -- you can change anything else later, including your choice of license and version control system.
Click the "Create project" button at the bottom.

You've now created your project at Google Code and you'll see your project's home page for the first time. The URL in this case is http://code.google.com/p/my-cool-project/

To change anything except the project name visit the "Administer" tab. That's also where you can set up your project to use tools like Google Analytics and Google Groups.

Posting Your Code

One of the first things you'll want to do is to actually post your source code and perhaps compiled binaries. Even if you're using a version control system (and you should), open source projects typically also post compressed archives -- bundles of files that a user can easily download. A common example would be a zip file.

Compressed archives are produced by many different programs. Some of the most well-known are WinZip (Windows), gzip (Unix/Linux) and Stuffit (Mac). Your operating system may even have the capability built-in, like Windows Vista (select files, right-click, "Send to:Compressed (zipped) Folder").

Let's step through this.

Create your archive. The name should be descriptive and include a date or version number, like "my-cool-project_2010-02-06.zip"
Click on your project "Downloads" tab. A page opens like the one below:
Click on "New download" to open the download dialog:
Enter a short summary of what's in your file, some labels that you think will help others find it, and use the "Choose File" button to pick the file on your computer. Finally click "Submit file".

Now your file is uploaded and appears in the list under the Downloads tab, where anyone can get it.

Next Steps

Open Source software development is not just about posting your code for all to use. It's about enabling communities of developer/users to share their improvements. Doing this successfully at any kind of scale requires a revision control system. So your next step is probably to set up your source code repository using either Mercurial or Subversion.

People who are interested in your project need to communicate, not just with you, but with each other. The "Google Groups" facility provides more features than a conventional mail list and can be linked automatically to your project page.

References

Google Code: Home base for Google APIs and developer relations.
Project Hosting on Google Code: A few links, but mostly just a splash screen.
Project Hosting on Google Code: "Getting Started". The good stuff.

seq_to_qt: Python Conversion of Still Image Sequences to QuickTime Movies on Windows

2010-02-01T09:59:00.000-08:00

Update: I've created a project for seq_to_qt at code.google.com. This makes it easier for me to manage updates to the code.

In several recent posts (1, 2, 3) I've discussed my progress toward automating the workflow of creating time-lapse movies from still image sequences on Windows. I used JScript+WSH for the original scripts because that's how the samples I started with were written. But I've now rewritten the system in Python and extended it to provide "seamless" automation from end to end of the QuickTime part of my process.

What It Does

seq_to_qt provides a set of functions that I am finding useful for automating my workflow in producing timelapse movies. My camera software saves images in separate folders for each day and numbers the images sequentially. That's where seq_to_qt enters the picture. I can give it a simple list of folders that need to processed and it will take care of everything else involved in generating a QuickTime movie for each sequence.

Key Benefits

Saves me time, errors, and drudgery. Fire it off once to handle multiple image sequences and leave for the day (or weekend).
Splits long image sequences into chunks, if necessary, so that QuickTime doesn't choke.
The sequence splitter itself is very general and could be used to divide any sequence of numbered files.
Flexible Python implementation is relatively easy to extend and modify.

Getting Started

Download and install Apple QuickTime. You will need to pay for the "Pro" license.
Download and install compatible versions of Python and PyWin32. I have tested seq_to_qt with Python 2.6.
Download my Python files seq_to_qt (links to download page at the project site) and put them in a convenient place.

Running The Scripts

Python is flexible and there are a lot of things you can do. But here is a simple way to get started.

My working folders are organized like this:

Project
    scripts  (this is where I put seq_to_qt and any others)
    seq1 (each set of image sequence files is in its own folder)
       XXX_0001.jpg  (numbered sequentially with a common prefix)
       XXX_0002.jpg
       ...
    seq2
    seq3
    ...

You don't have to set yours up the same way, but I thought it might help to see how I'm using it.

Create a "test" sequence with no more than about 200 frames. To do this, create a new folder in your Project folder and there copy the first 1-200 frames of your favorite sequence.
Make a copy of seq_batch_convert.py and edit it to provide the file paths for your image sequences. If you want to see how the chunk splitting works, set the chunk_size to something small, like 50.
Now run your script! From a command window, your command will look something like this:
c:\Python26\python scripts\seq_batch_convert.py
And if all goes well a QuickTime movie will be produced.

The output of the scripts is quite verbose, so you should get a good view into what is being done.

Future Work

I want to extend the automation tools to include image processing prior to movie production. Also, I may want to automate more of the production work that takes place in my video editor after the QuickTime portion is done.

References

Automating Conversion of Still Image Sequences to QuickTime Movies, Chip Chapin January 2010. Demonstrates JScript calling the QuickTime COM (Component Object Model) interface under the Windows Scripting Host (WSH) environment.
Splitting Still Image Sequences for use with QuickTime Movies, Chip Chapin January 2010. Describes JScript for dividing the image sequence files into chunks that QuickTime can handle more easily.
Automating QuickTime at the Command Line on Windows… XSIBlog article by Luc-Eric Rousseau, 2006. This excellent post got me started in this direction.
QuickTime for .NET and COM Developers by John Cromie (Elsevier 2006). The sample scripts in Chapter 8 were used by Rousseau in developing his script.
"Scripting the COM/ActiveX Control in QuickTime 7 for Windows", Apple Developer Connection (September 2005). This is the only official Apple documentation on this scripting interface that I have been able to find so far.
"Programmatic Export using QTControl", John Cromie comments in Apple quicktime-api mail list (October 2006).
QuickTime Overview, Mac OS X Reference Library. Apple's starting point for QuickTime developers.
Apple Technical Note 2120: QuickTime for Windows ActiveX/COM Frequently Asked Questions (May 2006), Rousseau mentions this FAQ in his code. It is an excellent source of examples in C# and VBScript using the host-based script interface.
"Using OLEView to Explore the QuickTime COM Interface", Chip Chapin January 2010.
Microsoft Windows OLEView. The link is for the Windows 2000 Resource Kit version. You can also get it as part of the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit.
"Exploiting Perl on Windows with OLE/COM" (PowerPoint) presentation by Roth Consulting provides an excellent overview of Component Object Model (COM) and how it can be used in scripting.
Official Python.org downloads.
Official SourceForge PyWin32 downloads.
Python Programming Language -- the official website (python.org).
Mark Hammond's Python for Windows Extensions (PythonWin/pywin32)
"Win32 How Do I?" by Tim Golden
SourceForge Python for Windows Extensions (newer PythonWin/pywin32).
Chapter 12 of Python Programming on Win32 by Mark Hammond and Andy Robinson (O'Reilly 2000).
Python and COM by David and Paul Boddie.
Pygments syntax highlighter.

Source Code

You can download a zip file of the seq_to_qt package. Or just copy and paste it from here.

seq_to_qt.py is the module that contains all the functionality, and is used by the other files. The other files are intended to be used as commands.
seq_batch_convert.py -- A simple command file used to enter your data and initiate the complete conversion. Copy this file and edit it with your own image sequence information, then run it.
qt_movie_from_stills.py -- If you wish, you can use this for the conversion of a single sequence, without splitting. I would normally use seq_batch_convert.py instead.
make_seq_chunks.py -- Does only the chunk splitting on a sequence, no conversion, and therefore no dependence on QuickTime.

Files have been syntax-highlighted using Pygments.

seq_to_qt.py

#! /usr/bin/env python
"""
Convert one or more still image sequences into QuickTime movies.

Author: Chip Chapin 
For More Info: http://cchapin.blogspot.com

You must have the PyWin32 COM interface installed,
see http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/

Acknowledgements:
  The QuickTime interface was originally written as a JScript+WSH
  script, which I based on a 2006 blog post by Luc-Eric Rousseau
  (XSIBlog http://www.xsi-blog.com/archives/103).  Rousseau's script
  was in turn based on sample code by John Cromie, author of the
  book "QuickTime for .NET and COM Developers" (Elsevier 2006,
  http://www.skylark.ie/qt4.net/samplecode.asp).

Latest Update: 2010-01-31

TODO: Some sort of progress indicator during the initial rendering stage.
TODO: Better solution to the QT_PLAYER_DELAY hack.
"""
import datetime
import math
import os
import re
import shutil
import sys
import tempfile
import time
import win32com.client

CODEC_INFO_FILENAME = "C:\\qtMovieFromStillsCodecInfo.xml"
DEFAULT_CHUNK_FILES=7000
DEFAULT_FRAME_RATE = "60"

# HACK: Delay (sec) while the QuickTime player initializes.
QT_PLAYER_DELAY = 7.0

def abort(message=None):
    """Print error message and exit."""
    if message:
        print "ERROR: ", message
    sys.exit(1)

def usage(message=None):
    """Print usage message and exit."""
    if message:
        print message
    sys.exit(2)

def check_file_folder(fpath):
    """Returns true if the directory of fpath exists and is writable."""
    fdir = os.path.dirname(fpath)
    try:
        f = tempfile.TemporaryFile("w", dir=fdir)
    except OSError:
        return False
    f.close()
    return True

def file_exists(fpath):
    """Returns true if file fpath exists and is readable."""
    try:
        f = open(fpath, "r")
    except IOError:
        return False
    f.close()
    return True

def uniqueify(fpath):
    """Check to see if the file exists.  If so, uniqueify the filename."""
    upath = fpath
    count = 0
    while file_exists(upath):
        count = count + 1
        (root, ext) = os.path.splitext(fpath)
        upath = "%s-%02d%s" % (root, count, ext)
    if count:
        print "WARN: You already have a file '%s'" % fpath
        print "   Saving as '%s' instead." % upath
    return upath

def create_new_movie_from_images(sourcePath, frameRate, qtControl):
    """Create the movie from the still image sequence."""
    print "Creating new movie from still sequence '" + sourcePath + "'..."
    try:
        qtControl.CreateNewMovieFromImages(sourcePath,
                                           frameRate,
                                           True) # rate is in frames per second
    except:
        print "ERROR creating movie "
        #+ e.number +
        #           " (" + (e.number>>16 & 0x1FFF) +
        #           "-" + (e.number & 0xffff) + ")");
        #WScript.Echo(e.description);
        # TODO: Find more reliable error reporting.
        # The following doesn't work if the QTControl object is gone.
        print "QuickTime error " + qtControl.ErrorCode
        qte = qtControl.QuickTime.Error
        print "  " + qte.ErrorCode + ", " + qte.Description
        print "  " + qte.SourceReference
        raise

    qtMovie = qtControl.Movie;
    if not qtMovie:
        abort("No movie created (" + qtControl.ErrorCode + ")")
    duration = qtMovie.Duration;
    if (duration == 0):
        # This test isn't as helpful as I thought it would be.  I thought it
        # would catch the case where QT does not have a valid input file, but in
        # that case it seems to create a two-second empty movie 
        # (ie. duration = 20*framerate).
        abort("Movie has duration 0.")

    # Duration is the number of frames * 10.
    print "Created new movie, duration %d" % duration

def get_quicktime_exporter(qtControl):
    """Set up the QuickTime movie exporter."""
    qt = qtControl.QuickTime
    if (qt.Exporters.Count == 0):
        # Only add an exporter if needed.
        qt.Exporters.Add()
        print "Adding new Exporter."
    else:
        print "Using existing Exporter."
    qtExporter = qt.Exporters(1)
    if not qtExporter:
        abort("Unable to get Exporter.")
    qtExporter.TypeName = "QuickTime Movie"
    qtExporter.SetDataSource(qtControl.Movie)

    if file_exists(CODEC_INFO_FILENAME):
        print "Reading codec config from '" + CODEC_INFO_FILENAME + "'"
        CodecFileInfo = open(CODEC_INFO_FILENAME, "r")
        xmlCodecInfoText = CodecFileInfo.read()
        # Cause the exporter to be reconfigured.
        # http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2006/tn2120.html
        tempSettings = qtExporter.Settings
        tempSettings.XML = xmlCodecInfoText
        qtExporter.Settings = tempSettings
    else:
        # Use the Settings dialog box, then save the results.
        qtExporter.ShowSettingsDialog()
        xmlCodecInfoText = qtExporter.Settings.XML
        try:
            CodecFileInfo = open(CODEC_INFO_FILENAME, "w")
            CodecFileInfo.write(xmlCodecInfoText)
            CodecFileInfo.close()
        except IOError:
            print ("Warning: failed to save codec info to '" +
                   CODEC_INFO_FILENAME + "'")
            print "continuing ..."
    return qtExporter

def export_movie(qtExporter, destPath):
    """Export the movie."""
    print "Exporting ..."
    try:
        qtExporter.DestinationFileName = destPath
        qtExporter.ShowProgressDialog = True
        # Uncomment this line if you want the export dialog box to appear.
        # qtExporter.ShowExportDialog();
        qtExporter.BeginExport()  # This can take a l-o-n-g time.
        print "Exported to '%s'" % destPath
    except:
        print "ERROR exporting '%s'" % destPath
        #print "ERROR " + (e.number>>16 & 0x1FFF) +
        #      "-" + (e.number & 0xffff) + 
        #      " exporting '" + destPath + "'"
        #print e.description
        #WScript.Echo(JSON.stringify(e, null, 2));
        #qte = qt.Error;
        #print "QuickTime Error %d, %s" % (qte.ErrorCode, qte.Description)
        #WScript.Echo(JSON.stringify(qte, null, 2));
        raise

def qt_movie_from_stills(sourcePath, destPath, frameRate):
    """Create and export a QuickTime movie from a sequence of images."""
    # Launch QuickTime Player Application
    qtPlayerApp = win32com.client.Dispatch(
                    "QuickTimePlayerLib.QuickTimePlayerApp")
    time.sleep(QT_PLAYER_DELAY);  # Give it time to launch.
    if not qtPlayerApp:
        abort("Failed to launch QuickTime Player App.")

    # Get the QuickTime player and its associated controller.
    # NOTE: The script will abort here if the player hasn't had time
    # to initialize.  It should work if you run it again, or you can increase
    # QT_PLAYER_DELAY.
    qtPlayer = qtPlayerApp.Players(1);
    if not qtPlayer:
        abort("Failed to get QuickTime Player.");
    print "Got player '" + qtPlayer.Caption + "'"
    qtControl = qtPlayer.QTControl
    
    create_new_movie_from_images(sourcePath, frameRate, qtControl)
    qtExporter = get_quicktime_exporter(qtControl)
    export_movie(qtExporter, destPath)
    # Closing the player causes failures for subsequent invocations.
    # qtPlayer.Close();

def seq_file_list(a_seq_file):
    """Return the list of file names in the sequence."""
    # Extract the leading invariant part of the sequence filename.
    # For example, if the name is Fooo-0001.jpg, the invariant is "Fooo-".
    # Use non-greedy match so the numbers are kept out.
    (work_folder, sequence_proto) = os.path.split(a_seq_file)
    sm = re.match("(.*?)[0-9]+\.", sequence_proto)
    if not sm:
        usage(("'%s' doesn't look like the start of a sequence.\n"
              % sequence_proto) +
"Sequences consist of sequentially numbered file names like\n" +
"   Grog-001.jpg, Grog-002.jpg, Grog-...\n" +
"\n" +
"  sequenceExample -- Path to any file in the sequence.\n" +
"  maxSize -- Maximum number of sequence files to put in a folder.");
        
    # Construct a regexp for matching sequence file names.
    sq_name = sm.group(1)
    sq_re = re.compile("^" + sq_name + "[0-9]+\.");

    # Make a list of files that match the sq_re pattern.  "fnmatch" patterns
    # are not powerful enough to be reliable so we don't use glob.
    sq_files = []
    dir = os.listdir(work_folder)
    dir.sort()
    for f in dir:
      if sq_re.match(f):
        sq_files.append(f)
    return (sq_files, sq_name)

def split_file_list(a_seq_file, sq_files, sq_name, max_size):
    """Split the sequence files into successive split folders.
    Returns the list of split folder names.
    """
    work_folder = os.path.dirname(a_seq_file)

    sq_count = len(sq_files)
    num_splits = math.ceil(sq_count / max_size)
    print ("Splitting file sequence '%s' into %d parts."
           % (sq_name, num_splits))
    parent_folder = os.path.dirname(work_folder)
    file_count = 0
    next_file_in_split = 1
    current_split = 0
    splits = []
    for fname in sq_files:
        if (file_count == 0 or next_file_in_split > max_size):
            current_split = current_split + 1
            next_file_in_split = 1
            split_folder = os.path.join(parent_folder,
                                        ("%s-%d" % (work_folder, current_split)))
            print "New split folder '%s' (%d)" % (split_folder, file_count)
            try:
                os.mkdir(split_folder, 0755)
            except EnvironmentError as (errno, strerror):
                print "ERROR: Failed to create split directory '%s'" % split_folder
                print "[Error %d] %s" % (errno, strerror)
                abort()
            splits.append((split_folder, fname))
            
        # Move the file from work_folder to split_folder
        shutil.move(os.path.join(work_folder, fname),
                    os.path.join(split_folder, fname))
        file_count = file_count + 1
        next_file_in_split = next_file_in_split + 1

    print ("Split %d files in '%s' into %d folders."
           %(file_count, work_folder, current_split))
    return splits

def make_seq_chunks(a_seq_file, max_size):
    """Split a file sequence into folders of no more than max_size files each.
    Returns a list of (folder, starting_file) duples.

    Sequences have file names that end with a sequence number,
    like (Foo-001.jpg, Foo-002.jpg, ...).
    """
    (sq_files, sq_name) = seq_file_list(a_seq_file)
    sq_count = len(sq_files)
    print "Sequence '%s' contains %d members." % (a_seq_file, sq_count)    
    if sq_count <= max_size:
        print "No need to split."
        if (sq_count == 0):
            return []
        else:
            return [os.path.split(a_seq_file)]
    else:
        return split_file_list(a_seq_file, sq_files, sq_name, max_size)

def seq_name_from_filename(fname):
    """Extract the 'sequence name' from a representative filename."""
    sm = re.match("(.*?)[-_]?[0-9]+\.", os.path.basename(fname))
    if not sm:
        print ("'%s' doesn't look like the start of a sequence."
                  % fname)
        return None
    return sm.group(1)

def convert_sequences(base_dir, seqs,
                      frame_rate=DEFAULT_FRAME_RATE,
                      chunk_size=DEFAULT_CHUNK_FILES):
    """Generates QuickTime movies for a set of image sequences.

    base_dir: Full path to the common parent directory.
    seqs: List of duples describing image sequences.
        Each duple contains the FOLDER NAME of the sequence
        and the STARTING IMAGE file name: (folder, file)
        Names are unqualified, i.e. relative to their parent directories.
    frameRate: Numeric frame rate in frames per second.
    chunk_size: Maximum number of frames to be processed in
        a single movie.
    """
    for (sq_dir, sq_file) in seqs:
        src = "%s\\%s\\%s" % (base_dir, sq_dir, sq_file)
        if not file_exists(src):
            print "WARN: '%s' is not readable.  Skipping." % src
            continue
        # Possibly split the image sequence into chunks.
        splits = make_seq_chunks(src, chunk_size)
        # Iterate over the chunks.
        for (split_folder, split_file) in splits:
            sq_name = seq_name_from_filename(sq_file)
            if (sq_name):
                dst = ("%s\\%s_%s.mov" %
                       (base_dir, sq_name, os.path.basename(split_folder)))
                dst = uniqueify(dst)
                print time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %X  Converting:") 
                print ("    Folder %s\n    Start %s\n    Dest %s"
                       % (split_folder, split_file, dst))
                qt_movie_from_stills(src, dst, frame_rate)
                print time.strftime("Complete at %Y-%m-%d %X")

def main(argv):
    """Main Program"""
    usage("This is the seq_to_qt module.\n" +
          "For batch conversion, edit 'seq_batch_convert.py'.  It calls the functions here.")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main(sys.argv)

seq_batch_convert.py

#! /usr/bin/env python
"""
Convert a batch of image file sequences to QuickTime movies.

Edit this file and list your sequences below.

Author: Chip Chapin 
For More Info: http://cchapin.blogspot.com
"""
import seq_to_qt

DEFAULT_BASE_PATH = "L:\\Graphics\\Images\\SX110\\MTV-TL01"
DEFAULT_SEQUENCE_FILE = "MTV-TL01_0001.JPG"
DEFAULT_CHUNK_SIZE = 7000

def usage():
    print "Usage: seq_batch_convert.py "
    exit(2)
    
def main(argv):
    """Main Program"""
    # Step 1: Base directory.  This is the parent of your
    # sequence directories.
    base_path = DEFAULT_BASE_PATH
    
    # Step 2: List your image sequences.
    # Each sequence is a duple containing the
    # FOLDER NAME and the STARTING IMAGE of the sequence
    # Example:
    #sequences =  [("Test01-1", "MTV-TL01_0001.JPG"),
    #              ("Test01-2", "MTV-TL01_0076.JPG"),
    #              ("Test01-3", "MTV-TL01_0151.JPG")]
    sequences =  [("2009-12-15b", "MTV-TL01_7001.JPG"),
                  ("2009-12-19b", "MTV-TL01_7001.JPG"),
                  ("2009-12-22b", "MTV-TL01_7001.JPG"),
                  ("2009-12-23b", "MTV-TL01_7001.JPG"),
                  ("2009-12-24b", "MTV-TL01_7001.JPG")]

    # Step 3: How many frames per second should your movie run at?
    frame_rate = 60

    # Step 4: Movie chunk size-- how large a movie (how many frames)
    # can QuickTime process on your computer?  Try the default.
    # If QuickTime aborts during the export phase, make it smaller.
    #chunk_size = 75  # Low value for testing. Normally use DEFAULT_CHUNK_SIZE
    chunk_size = DEFAULT_CHUNK_SIZE
    
    # Now do the conversion.
    seq_to_qt.convert_sequences(base_path,
                                sequences,
                                frame_rate,
                                chunk_size)
    
if __name__ == "__main__":
    import sys
    main(sys.argv)

qt_movie_from_stills.py

#! /usr/bin/env python
"""
Create a QuickTime movie from a sequence of still images on Windows.

Usage: python qt_movie_from_stills.py sourcepath destpath [framerate]

Use FULLY-QUALIFIED Windows file paths. Relative paths don't work well
inside QuickTime -- it is likely to fail with no error report from QT.

You must have the PyWin32 COM interface installed,
see http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/

Author: Chip Chapin 
For More Info: http://cchapin.blogspot.com
Acknowledgements:
  I originally wrote this as a JScript+WSH script based on a post by
  Luc-Eric Rousseau (XSIBlog 2006, http://www.xsi-blog.com/archives/103).
  His was in turn based on sample code by John Cromie that accompanied
  his book "QuickTime for .NET and COM Developers"
  (Elsevier 2006, http://www.skylark.ie/qt4.net/samplecode.asp).

Last Update: 2010-01-31

TODO: Some sort of progress indicator during the initial rendering stage.
"""
import seq_to_qt
import os

def usage(message=None):
    """Print usage message and exit."""
    if message:
        print message
    print "Usage: qt_movie_from_stills.py sourcepath destpath [framerate]"
    print "Hint: Avoid relative paths, use fully-qualified Windows paths"
    print "(e.g. C:\\a\\b\\c.jpg)."
    sys.exit(2)

def main(argv):
    """Main Program"""
    if (len(argv) < 3):
        usage()
    sourcePath = argv[1]
    destPath = argv[2]
    if (len(argv) >= 4):
        frameRate = argv[3]
    else:
        frameRate = seq_to_qt.DEFAULT_FRAME_RATE
    print "FrameRate: " + frameRate

    if not seq_to_qt.file_exists(sourcePath):
        usage("Missing source file '" + sourcePath +"'")
    if seq_to_qt.file_exists(destPath):
        # .mov files take a long time to create.  Avoid
        # overwriting one by mistake.
        usage("Will not overwrite destination file '" + destPath + "'")
    if not seq_to_qt.check_file_folder(destPath):
        usage("Unusable destination file path '" + destPath +"'")
    seq_to_qt.qt_movie_from_stills(sourcePath, destPath, frameRate)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    import sys
    main(sys.argv)

make_seq_chunks.py

#! /usr/bin/env python
"""
Author: Chip Chapin 
Last Updated: 2010-01-31

Split a sequence of files into smaller chunks.
I use this for dividing still image sequences into pieces
that QuickTime can handle.

See http://cchapin.blogspot.com/
"""
import seq_to_qt
import os

def usage(message=None):
    """Print usage message and exit."""
    if message:
        print message
    print "Usage: make_seq_chunks.py sequenceFile maxSize"
    print (
"\nSequences have sequentially numbered file names like\n" +
"    Foo-001.jpg, Foo-002.jpg...\n" +
"sequenceFile -- Path to any file in the sequence.\n" +
"maxSize -- Maximum number of sequence files to put in a folder.");
    sys.exit(2)

def main(argv):
    """Main Program"""
    if (len(argv) != 3):
        usage("Expected two arguments")  
    a_seq_file = os.path.abspath(argv[1])
    max_size = float(argv[2])
    
    if not os.path.isfile(a_seq_file):
        usage("'%s' is not a file." % a_seq_file)
    seq_to_qt.make_seq_chunks(a_seq_file, max_size)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    import sys
    main(sys.argv)

Splitting Still Image Sequences for use with QuickTime Movies

2010-01-31T17:00:00.000-08:00

This is another piece of the automation for my current timelapse video project.
Update: I've rewritten all my scripts in Python and will post those soon.

In "Automating Conversion of Still Image Sequences to QuickTime Movies" I showed how to use a script (qtMovieFromStills.js) with QuickTime's COM interface to generate a movie from a sequence of still images. I pointed out that QuickTime has an upper limit on the size of the movie that can be generated this way and mentioned that I split up my image sequences to work around that problem. In this article I post a script splitFolders.js that manages the splitting automatically.

You can run this script to split your image sequences, then run qtMovieFromStills.js on each of the parts.

The last script was in JScript and ran inside MicroSoft's Windows Script Host (WSH) environment, largely because that was the example I started from. I use JavaScript a lot, but not previously for host scripts. But it was a reasonably good experience so for consistency I decided to stick with it -- I might choose to put them together into a single, larger program in the future.

splitFolders.js takes three arguments:

workFolder: Full path to the folder containing your image sequence.
sequenceName: Image sequences are expected to have names and sequence numbers, like "Foo-001", "Foo-002", ... In this example the sequenceName is "Foo" or "Foo-". My script infers "-" or "_" after the sequenceName, so you can enter just "Foo".
maxSize: The maximum number of still images that you want in a single QuickTime movie. So if you have 12,345 images and enter 5000 for maxSize, they will be split into three folders.

The split folders keep the name of your workFolder, with a number added like this: if your workFolder is called "Further", the newly created split folders are named "Further-1", "Further-2" and so forth. They are created with the same parent folder as your workFolder.

Here's an example. You have the following folder containing 12,345 images:

L:\Images\TL\Further\

The images have names like "FX-0001.JPG", "FX-0002.JPG" and so forth. The folder also contains some files that aren't part of the image sequence: resume.doc, shopping.txt.

You enter the following command in the Windows shell:

cscript splitFolders.js L:\Images\TL\Further FX 5000

It crunches along for a while, and when it finishes, here's what you'll find:

L:\Images\TL\Further
Now contains only the files that were not part of the image sequence: resume.doc and shopping.txt.
L:\Images\TL\Further-1
Contains FX-0001.JPG through FX-5000.JPG
L:\Images\TL\Further-2
Contains FX-5001.JPG through FX-10000.JPG
L:\Images\TL\Further-3
Contains FX-10001.JPG through FX-12345.JPG

Here's the script. Copy and paste it into an editor, then save it as splitFolders.js on your computer. Do be cautious: it's moving your precious images around and I always like to have a backup copy before doing this kind of thing. If you're really worried, edit the script to use "CopyFile" instead of "MoveFile". Or comment out the "MoveFile" and just run it to see what it will do.

// WSH JScript
// Author: Chip Chapin <cchapin@gmail.com>
// Last Updated: 2010-01-30

// Split an image sequence into smaller chunks to faciliate processing
// by QuickTime. See http://cchapin.blogspot.com/

function usage(s) {
  WScript.Echo(s);
  WScript.Echo("usage: splitFolders.js workFolder sequenceName maxSize");
  WScript.Echo(
"  workFolder -- Full path to folder containing the image sequence.\n" +
"  sequenceName -- Sequences have file names like Foo-001, Foo-002 ...\n" +
"      In this case the sequenceName would be 'Foo' or 'Foo-'.\n" +
"      (Dash and underscore are ignored at the end of the sequenceName)\n" +
"  maxSize -- Maximum number of sequence files to put in a folder.");
  WScript.Quit();
}

// Get script arguments
if (WScript.Arguments.Length != 3) {
  usage("Expected three arguments");
}
var workFolderName = WScript.Arguments(0);
var sequenceName = WScript.Arguments(1);
var maxSize = WScript.Arguments(2);

var fso =  WScript.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");

if (!fso.FolderExists(workFolderName)) {
  usage("Invalid folder path '" + workFolderName + "'");
}
var workFolder = fso.GetFolder(workFolderName);

// Make a list of files that match the sequenceName pattern.
var sequenceFiles = [];
var sequencePattern = RegExp().compile(sequenceName + "[-_]?[0-9]+\.", "i");
var files = new Enumerator(workFolder.Files);
while (!files.atEnd()) {
  var f = files.item();
  if (f.Name.match(sequencePattern)) {
    sequenceFiles.push(f);
  }
  files.moveNext();
}
WScript.Echo("Folder '" + workFolder.Path +
             "' contains " + sequenceFiles.length +
             " images in sequence '" + sequenceName + "'.");
if (sequenceFiles.length == 0) {
  WScript.Quit();
}
if (sequenceFiles.length <= maxSize) {
  WScript.Echo("No need to split.");
  WScript.Quit();
}

// Iterate over the sequence files in the base folder, moving them
// to successive split folders.
var numSplits = Math.ceil(sequenceFiles.length / maxSize);
WScript.Echo("Splitting image sequence '" + sequenceName +
             "' into " + numSplits + " parts.");
var baseFolderName = fso.GetBaseName(workFolderName);
var nextFileInSplit = 1;
var currentSplit = 0;
var files = new Enumerator(workFolder.Files);
for (var fileCount = 0; fileCount < sequenceFiles.length; fileCount++) {
  if (fileCount == 0 || nextFileInSplit > maxSize) {
    currentSplit++;
    nextFileInSplit = 1;
    var splitFolder = workFolder.ParentFolder.Path + "\\" +
                      baseFolderName + "-" + currentSplit;
    WScript.Echo("New split folder '" + splitFolder + "' (" + fileCount + ")");
    fso.CreateFolder(splitFolder);
  }
  var f = sequenceFiles[fileCount];
  // Move a file from workFolder to splitFolder
  WScript.Echo(f.Name + " to " + splitFolder);
  fso.MoveFile(f.Path, splitFolder + "\\" + f.Name);
  nextFileInSplit++;
}

WScript.Echo("Split " + fileCount +
             " files in '" + workFolder +
             "' into " + currentSplit + " folders.");

// End.

References

"Automating Conversion of Still Image Sequences to QuickTime Movies", Chip Chapin January 2010.
"Windows Script Host" (WSH) Microsoft MSDN.
JScript (Windows Script Technologies) Microsoft MSDN. Essential reference for the JavaScript dialect used in WSH.

Automating Conversion of Still Image Sequences to QuickTime Movies

2010-01-30T19:10:00.000-08:00

For my current timelapse video project, I collect over 12,000 images almost every day, and need to automate the processing as much as possible. In my notes on the first video, Mountain View Rainstorm, I explained why I chose to create a QuickTime movie from the still image sequence before video editing, and in this article I explore how to automate the QuickTime movie production from the stills.

I thought this article would be short and simple, but it raised many questions ... "You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes." -- The Matrix 1999.

Try Built-In Automation First

QuickTime Pro already provides a very convenient way to make a movie from a sequence of stills. If you're only doing this operation occasionally, you don't need to automate it further. Simply open QuickTime and use the "Open Image Sequence" command. When it asks you to open a file: give it the first file in your sequence. For example, if my files are named "MTV_0001" to "MTV_12345", I specify "MTV_0001".

The "Open A File" dialog is also where you specify the framerate of your movie.

Yes, your files must be numbered. If you're trying to make a movie out of "red.jpg", "orange.jpg", "yellow.jpg" etc. it won't work. Fix the names.

For most of us that's all we need. Thanks for stopping by!

Scripting QuickTime Operations

A Google search for "quicktime automate" leads very quickly Luc-Eric Rousseau's 2006 XSIBlog post Automating QuickTime at the Command Line on Windows in which he provides a script to do almost exactly what I want. Hooray! But there were a few tricks involved in making it work the way I wanted -- truthfully it took me several days -- and in the process I learned more about QuickTime, its COM interface, and the "Windows Script Host" (WSH) facility.

Using qtMovieFromStills.js

My adaptation of Rousseau's script is called qtMovieFromStills.js. Like his, it is written in JScript and runs from a Windows command shell using WSH. Here's how to use the script:

Copy qtMovieFromStills.js from the bottom of this post, paste it into an editor (e.g. Notepad) and save it somewhere convenient -- I keep a "scripts" folder inside my project folder.
Open a command window and run it using WSH, i.e. with the cscript command.
qtMovieFromStills has two required and one optional argument:
1. Windows file path to the first image in the sequence.
  E.g. "L:\Images\2010-01-19\MTV_0001.jpg"
2. Windows file path to the desired output file.
  E.g. "L:\Images\MTV_2010-01-19.mov"
3. Optionally, specify the framerate in frames-per-second. E.g. "60". It defaults to 30. A list of supported frame rates appears in the QuickTime "Open A File" dialog.
So, your shell command looks something like this.

cscript qtMovieFromStills.js L:\Images\01-19\MTV_0001.jpg L:\Images\MV01-19.mov 60

Difficulties

The first problem I ran into turned out to be very simple: I was using relative file paths in the arguments passed to QuickTime and this does not work well. Apparently the QuickTime components do not recognize your current working directory, nor did the script provide useful error messages. You must provide full paths (Like "C:\bletch\srcfile.jpg") rather than relative paths to the source and dest files.

The second problem is that the QuickTime export operation will fail beyond a certain number of frames. And once again there is no useful error message. The exact number depends on your machine resources -- on my larger machine the export was successful with 9,000 frames but failed with 12,000. On my laptop it fails for 7,000 frames. The workaround is to split them into two (or more) folders and generate separate movies.

The original script had little error detection and reporting. I've added a lot more, but it doesn't yet work as well as I would like.

Automating the Conversion Process

Entering the script command itself is not easier than using the QuickTime GUI. Where it pays off is in running it repeatedly over a batch of folders or automatically as part of a more general workflow automation.

Here's a little bash shell script I use with Cygwin to process a series of directories. Note how the Windows-style paths must be escaped to the bash shell.

frameRate=60
basedir="L:\\Graphics\\Images\\SX110\\MTV-TL01"

dirs="2009-12-09 2009-12-10 2009-12-11 2009-12-12 2009-12-14"

script="$basedir\\scripts\\qtMovieFromStills.js"
for d in $dirs; do
  date 
  echo $d
  src="$basedir\\$d\\MTV-TL01_0001.JPG"
  dst="$basedir\\MTV-TL01_$d.mov"
  cscript $script $src $dst $frameRate
done

Internals of qtMovieFromStills.js

If you just want to use the script, you can stop reading here.

At this point, most of the script is error checking and reporting, and unraveling the QuickTime object hierarchy. The essentials are in only two lines.

qtControl.CreateNewMovieFromImages(sourcePath, frameRate, true);

This function does essentially what the QuickTime GUI does: makes a movie out of an image sequence.

qtExporter.BeginExport();

The Exporter takes QuickTime's internal representation of your movie and renders it to a file. This takes the most time.

The one other piece that's worth some explanation is the way the script saves your export codec settings for reuse. They are saved as an opaque blob of binary data in the XML file:

C:\qtMovieFromStillsCodecInfo.xml

Whenever you want to change the settings, just delete the file. Details on how this works are discussed by Cromie in a post to the quicktime-api mail list, as well as by Rousseau in his blog post.

References

Automating QuickTime at the Command Line on Windows… XSIBlog article by Luc-Eric Rousseau, 2006. This excellent post got me started in this direction.
QuickTime for .NET and COM Developers by John Cromie (Elsevier 2006). The sample scripts in Chapter 8 were used by Rousseau in developing his script.
"Scripting the COM/ActiveX Control in QuickTime 7 for Windows", Apple Developer Connection (2005-09-12). This is the only official Apple documentation on this scripting interface that I have been able to find so far. It refers to the "JavaScript Scripting Guide for QuickTime" but the current version of that document does not include the host-based scripting.
"Programmatic Export using QTControl", John Cromie comments in Apple quicktime-api mail list (October 2006).
QuickTime 7 for Windows Update Guide. This "legacy" Apple document proved quite elusive! I finally found a link to it from the collected listing of "What's New in QuickTime". Unfortunately, it still doesn't have what we want. It says "Note: The API for controlling the QuickTime ActiveX browser plug-in using JavaScript can be found here." However the link is bad!
"Windows Script Host" (WSH) Microsoft MSDN.
JScript (Windows Script Technologies) Microsoft MSDN. Essential reference for the JavaScript dialect used in WSH.
QuickTime Overview, Mac OS X Reference Library. Apple's starting point for QuickTime developers.
JavaScript Scripting Guide for QuickTime, Apple Mac OS X Reference Library. Not as useful for our purposes as it sounds -- the current (2008) version of this document is about controlling a QuickTime plugin within a browser, not host-based scripting. The document itself says in its Introduction "If you want to develop Windows desktop applications or server-side scripts on the Windows OS using JavaScript and QuickTime, see QuickTime 7 for Windows Update Guide." However, when I finally found that document I discovered that the JavaScript scripting section was not there.
Apple Technical Note 2120: QuickTime for Windows ActiveX/COM Frequently Asked Questions (2006-05), Rousseau mentions this FAQ in his code. It is an excellent source of examples in C# and VBScript using the host-based script interface.
"Using OLEView to Explore the QuickTime COM Interface", Chip Chapin January 2010.
Microsoft Windows OLEView. The link is for the Windows 2000 Resource Kit version. You can also get it as part of the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit.
"Exploiting Perl on Windows with OLE/COM" (PowerPoint) presentation by Roth Consulting provides an excellent overview of Component Object Model (COM) and how it relates to WSH scripting.

Source Code: qtMovieFromStills.js

Copy the code and paste it into an editor. Save it as qtMovieFromStills.js.

// Windows Script Host JScript
// Create a QuickTime movie from a sequence of still images.
// Run from the command line on Windows using WSH:
//   cscript qtMovieFromStills.js sourcepath destpath [framerate]
//
// Authors:
//   Chip Chapin <cchapin@gmail.com> has extended a script by 
//   by Luc-Eric Rousseau (XSIBlog 2006, http://www.xsi-blog.com/archives/103)
//   which was in turn based on sample code by John Cromie that
//   accompanied his book "QuickTime for .NET and COM Developers"
//   (Elsevier 2006, http://www.skylark.ie/qt4.net/samplecode.asp).
//
//   My changes provide
//     -- Additional error checking/reporting of various kinds.
//     -- The script can be run in a loop without crashing.
//     -- Verbose progress reporting.

// Last Update: 2010-01-30

// Be sure to use FULLY-QUALIFIED Windows file paths, even from Cygwin.
// Relative paths don't work, and there is no error report from QT.
// TODO: can we get a progress bar during the initial rendering stage?

/*
 * Check existence of the parent folder of a file path.
 * @param {fso} fso
 * @param {string} fname
 * @return {boolean}
 */
function CheckFileFolder(fso, fname) {
  s = fso.GetParentFolderName(fname);
  return(fso.FolderExists(s));
}


// Get script arguments
if (WScript.Arguments.Length >= 2) {
  sourcePath = WScript.Arguments(0);
  destPath = WScript.Arguments(1);
  if (WScript.Arguments.Length >= 3) {
    frameRate = WScript.Arguments(2);
  } else {
    frameRate = 30;
  }
  WScript.Echo("FrameRate: " + frameRate);
} else {
  WScript.Echo("not enough parameters");
  WScript.Quit();
}

var fso =  WScript.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
if (!fso.FileExists(sourcePath)) {
  WScript.Echo("Missing source file '" + sourcePath +"'");
  WScript.Quit();
}
if (!CheckFileFolder(fso, destPath)) {
  WScript.Echo("Bad destination file path '" + destPath +"'");
  WScript.Quit();
}

// Launch QuickTime Player Application
var qtPlayerApp = WScript.CreateObject("QuickTimePlayerLib.QuickTimePlayerApp");
WScript.Sleep(8000);  // Give it time to launch.

if (!qtPlayerApp) {
  WScript.Echo("ERROR Failed to launch QuickTime Player App.");
  WScript.Quit();
}

// Get the QuickTime player and its associated controller.
var qtPlayer = qtPlayerApp.Players(1);
if (qtPlayer == null) {
  WScript.Echo("ERROR Failed to get QuickTime Player.");
  WScript.Quit();
}
WScript.Echo("Got player '" + qtPlayer.Caption + "'");
var qtControl = qtPlayer.QTControl;

// Now create the movie.
WScript.Echo("Creating new movie from stills at '" + sourcePath + "'...");
try {
  qtControl.CreateNewMovieFromImages(sourcePath,
                                     frameRate,
                                     true ); // rate is in frames per second
}
catch (e) {
  WScript.Echo("ERROR creating movie: " + e.number +
               " (" + (e.number>>16 & 0x1FFF) +
               "-" + (e.number & 0xffff) + ")");
  WScript.Echo(e.description);
  // TODO: Find more reliable error reporting.
  // The following doesn't work if the QTControl object is gone.
  WScript.Echo("QuickTime error " + qtControl.ErrorCode);
  var qte = qtControl.QuickTime.Error;
  WScript.Echo("  " + qte.ErrorCode + ", " + qte.Description);
  WScript.Echo("  " + qte.SourceReference);
  WScript.Quit();
}

var qtMovie = qtControl.Movie;
if (!qtMovie) {
  WScript.Echo("ERROR: No movie created (" + qtControl.ErrorCode + ")");
  WScript.Quit();
}
var duration = qtMovie.Duration;
if (duration == 0) {
  // This test isn't as helpful as I thought it would be.  I thought it
  // would catch the case where QT does not have a valid input file, but in
  // that case it seems to create a two-second empty movie 
  // (ie. duration = 20*framerate).
  WScript.Echo("ERROR: Movie has duration 0.");
  WScript.Quit();
}
// Duration appears to be the number of frames * 10.
WScript.Echo("Created new movie, duration " + duration);

// Set up the exporter.
var qt = qtPlayer.QTControl.QuickTime;
if (qt.Exporters.Count == 0) {
  // Only add an exporter if needed.
  qt.Exporters.Add();
  WScript.Echo("Adding new Exporter.");
} else {
  WScript.Echo("Using existing Exporter.");
}
var qtExporter = qt.Exporters(1);
if (!qtExporter) {
  WScript.Echo("ERROR: Unable to get Exporter.");
  WScript.Quit();
}
qtExporter.TypeName = "QuickTime Movie";
qtExporter.SetDataSource( qtMovie );

// Configure the exporter.
var CodecInfoFileName = "C:\\qtMovieFromStillsCodecInfo.xml";
var CodecFileInfo;
if (fso.FileExists(CodecInfoFileName)) {
  WScript.Echo("Reading codec config from '" + CodecInfoFileName + "'");
  CodecFileInfo =  fso.OpenTextFile( CodecInfoFileName );
}
if (CodecFileInfo) {
  var xmlCodecInfoText = CodecFileInfo.ReadAll();
  // cause the exporter to be reconfigured
  // http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2006/tn2120.html
  var tempSettings = qtExporter.Settings;
  tempSettings.XML = xmlCodecInfoText;
  qtExporter.Settings = tempSettings;
} else {
  qtExporter.ShowSettingsDialog();
  var xmlCodecInfoText = qtExporter.Settings.XML;
  CodecFileInfo = fso.CreateTextFile( CodecInfoFileName );
  if (CodecFileInfo) {
    CodecFileInfo.WriteLine(xmlCodecInfoText);
    CodecFileInfo.Close();
  } else {
    WScript.Echo("Warning: failed to save codec info to '"
                 + CodecInfoFileName + "'");
    WScript.Echo("continuing ...");
  }
}

// Export the movie.
WScript.Echo("Exporting ...");
try {
  qtExporter.DestinationFileName = destPath;
  qtExporter.ShowProgressDialog = true;
  // Uncomment this line if you want the export dialog box to appear.
  // qtExporter.ShowExportDialog();
  qtExporter.BeginExport();
  WScript.Echo("Exported to '" + destPath + "'");
}
catch (e) {
  WScript.Echo("ERROR " + (e.number>>16 & 0x1FFF) +
               "-" + (e.number & 0xffff) + 
               " exporting '" + destPath + "'");
  WScript.Echo(e.description);
  // JSON object only available in WSH 5.8+
  // WScript.Echo(JSON.stringify(e, null, 2));
  var qte = qt.Error;
  WScript.Echo("QuickTime Error " + qte.ErrorCode + ", " + qte.Description);
  //WScript.Echo(JSON.stringify(qte, null, 2));
}

// Close the player?
// Note: closing the player results in failures for subsequent invocations.
//qtPlayer.Close();

// End.

Using OLEView to Explore the QuickTime COM Interface

2010-01-30T12:46:00.000-08:00

I'm currently working on some automation for my timelapse video project. As part of that effort I needed to explore the Windows scripting interface to QuickTime. Here is a quick look at one of the tools I learned.

The QuickTime COM interface is poorly documented, but Rousseau mentioned the cool trick of using MicroSoft's OLEView tool to explore. I had never used it before, so here is a quick walk-through.

Download oleview.exe if you don't already have it (see References section).
Open a command shell and run oleview.exe. It opens a window titled "OLE/COM Object Viewer".
Open the "Type Libraries" tab (it's near the bottom). You'll be interested in everything that starts with "Apple QuickTime" as well as "QtMovExporter".
For example, double-click on "Apple QuickTime Player Library 1.0" to open the IDL viewer. Look in the IDL panel and find the declaration "library QuickTimePlayerLib". Now realize that this library is what a script refers to in a line such as "WScript.CreateObject("QuickTimePlayerLib.QuickTimePlayerApp")".
Expand the "dispinterface" tabs for IQuickTimePlayerApp, IQuickTimePlayers, and IQuickTimePlayer. Compare the listed methods with the ones used in our script.
Notice that the IQuickTimePlayer.QTControl method returns an "IQTControl" object. It's not defined in QuickTimePlayerLib. Close the IDL viewer window and return to the main OLE view window. Double-click "Apple QuickTime Control 2.0" to view its interface and observe that it defines IQTControl.

This is a great way of checking the interface of any COM object.

References

I have lots more QuickTime references that will appear in an upcoming post about the automation itself.

Automating QuickTime at the Command Line on Windows… XSIBlog article by Luc-Eric Rousseau, 2006. This excellent post got me started in this direction.
Microsoft Windows OLEView. The link is for the Windows 2000 Resource Kit version. You can also get it as part of the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit.
"Exploiting Perl on Windows with OLE/COM" (PowerPoint) presentation by Roth Consulting provides an excellent overview of Component Object Model (COM) and how it relates to WSH scripting.

Timelapse Video: Mountain View Rainstorm 2009-01-19

2010-01-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

Updated with more technical details.

My current office in Mountain View is on the 4th floor and has a wonderful view, even better than the previous building. One never knows how long these blessings will endure, and I've been itching to do some long-term timelapse out the window. Finally, starting in December, I got something going and have been capturing the view out my window almost every day.

Today I'm posting the first video from the project. I chose January 19th because of its interesting weather. I hope you enjoy it.

Hint: Click the "full screen" button on the viewer. This is the widescreen version of the video. I have also posted a copy with the original 4:3 aspect ratio.

Technical Notes

For a long-term timelapse project it is essential to use a camera that supports remote capture. I wanted to dedicate a good quality point-and-shoot camera to it rather than my usual practice of using a DSLR -- the mirror/shutter action is way too loud.

At first I thought I could use my Canon SD1100IS, but surprisingly it doesn't do remote capture. Turns out Canon has been phasing this feature out of their point-and-shoot cameras and I would have to go back to an older model. I finally purchased a used Canon SX110 on eBay (the newer SX120 won't work).

Processing

There are 8,723 individual still images, each of them 1600x1200 JPEG (4:3 aspect ratio) taken every 3 seconds over 8 hours, 25 minutes. The main considerations for processing them into a video are (a) how long a video do we want and (b) what aspect ratio will we present it at.

How Long?

Typical American video runs at 30 frames per second ("29.970"), the NTSC standard TV frame rate. At 30 fps our 8,723 images will run for 291 seconds, or 4:51. That's too long -- I think the video needs to run in around two minutes or else people will get bored. There are a variety of ways to speed things up, depending on your editing tools and your quality goals. I'll say a little more about this below.

What Aspect Ratio?

The original images are 4:3, which is fine for standard video but problematic for HD. Normal HD videos are 16:9. An HD-quality 4:3 video will look fine in, say, Quicktime but on YouTube it will have black bars on the sides.

The version shown above is 16:9. I originally posted the 4:3 version to YouTube but quickly decided it would look better in 16:9.

If I want to get rid of the black bars my alternatives are either to crop or to stretch. In this case I don't want to crop -- there's nothing in the frame I want to lose. On the other hand, the nature of the scene is such that I thought such stretching may not be noticeable.

Preserving Quality

One aspect of preserving quality is to avoid losing information during processing. There are two things that can easily get lost: you can lose frames and you can lose pixels.

Pixels -- It would be very natural to convert the 1600x1200 images into a 1440x1080 HD video stream, preserving the aspect ratio. But if you now decide to stretch it to 1920x1080 HD, you will have lost information in the horizontal dimension. So if that's a consideration it's better to keep the 1600x1200 format for as long as possible (even though it will slow your processing). Then you can resample this full-resolution video into whatever you want.

Frames -- Video editors slow to a crawl when manipulating 8,000 still images and the solution is to prerender them to video. In one version of this video I rendered them at 30fps, giving me a 4:50 video clip. Then I set my editor to playback at 2x normal speed. I thought that would be fine since all the frames are still there, but that's not how it works. Doubling the playback speed works by throwing away half the frames. Most of the time you don't notice, but when one slows the playback velocity during editing the video gets choppy. The solution, at least with my editor, is to prerender at 60fps so I can defer the decision on when to drop frames.

Pre-Render with QuickTime

My video editor (Sony Vegas) is quite capable of importing still image sequences, but doesn't handle more than a thousand of them very well. I've found that it's much faster and way more convenient to use Apple QuickTime (Pro) to prerender the images into a full-resolution video. Then just add the video as a track in the editor.

Hints:

You must buy QuickTime Pro. The free version won't do this.
From the File menu click "Open Image Sequence". Then select just the first frame of your sequence. It will automatically load the rest.
Be sure to select "60 frames per second".

Editing With Sony Vegas

Besides prerendering with QuickTime, there are a other things that took me some trial and error to figure out in the editing process with Sony Vegas. If you want to do a widescreen (stretched) video:

Set your project properties to 1920x1080 and 60 (59.9...) fps.
After you add the QT video to a track, set its properties and uncheck "Maintain aspect ratio". This allows the 4:3 camera frame to stretch to fill the 16:9 HD frame.

Rendering the Results

I'm no expert on rendering but these are the best settings I've found so far to render a reasonably sized file that is usable both on YouTube and on the computer. I used the Sony AVC codec with a custom template I call "YouTube 1920x1080". I started with the default settings and made these changes:

Video rendering quality: Best
Frame size: "High definition (1920x1080)"
Frame rate: 29.970 (NTSC)
Pixel aspect ratio: 1.0
Video Bit rate (bps): 4,000,000 (i.e. 4 Mbps)
Audio sample rate: 44,100 (all my source material is sampled at 44.1)

The result is an MP4 file of about 80 MBytes that works fine as an upload for YouTube HD and also looks good on my computer.

How about you? Leave a comment, let me know what you've been doing to create Time-Lapse videos from still photos.

HP MediaSmart Server/MediaCollector: Making Custom Paths Work

2010-01-18T17:20:00.000-08:00

This post applies to HP MediaSmart Server models EX490 and EX495 with HP software version 3.0.14.33083 8/11/2009.

The HP MediaSmart Server includes a tool called the Media Collector which scans your computers and copies media files onto the server. When you add a client (i.e. a computer) to the Media Collector configuration, it offers you the opportunity to specify custom paths to search. This is important for those of us who don't keep all our files under our home directory (folder).

Unfortunately the UI to specify a custom path is badly broken for many users at this time. On my system, if I'm persistent I can add a top-level path (e.g. "L:\") but can only rarely get even one level below that.

In this post I explain how to workaround the problem by manually editing the Media Collector configuration database. This technique is for advanced computer users. While I've tried to explain it thoroughly, it assumes that you have at least basic familiarity with such concepts as SQL databases and editing XML. I wish it were simpler, but it isn't ...

1. Log into your MediaSmart Server system using Remote Desktop Connection (RDC).

Hint: Find RDC under All Programs::Accessories.
Your MediaSmart Server is running a version of Windows called Windows Home Server (WHS) and is normally accessed through the WHS Console application. But to do what you need here, you need access to the full system.

NOTE: All remaining steps take place on the WHS system.

2. Open Explorer and locate the database folder used by the HP MediaSmart Server.

You can find it somewhere under "D:\folders" -- on my system it is "D:\folders\{2D2552D3-5884-4D18-9608-DC65BB76026A}" -- just look for the file "mssdb.db".

3. Open a command window and cd to the database folder.

...> cd D:\folders\{2D2552D3-5884-4D18-9608-DC65BB76026A} ...> d:

4. Now fire up the SQLite shell on the MSS database. Fortunately HP left one around for us to use, otherwise you could download it from sqlite.org.

...> "C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\HP MediaSmart Server\sqlite3.exe" mssdb.db

Useful SQLite References:

5. Explore the database a little.

sqlite> .tables McClient McConfig McFileEntry McMediaType McClientVersion McDuplicates McFileEntryRequest McRequestNumber

The McConfig table is the one we want. Take a look at its schema:

sqlite> .schema McConfig CREATE TABLE [McConfig]( [Target] [nvarchar] PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL, [ConfigXml] [Text] NOT NULL);

This shows us that the table has two fields: "Target" and "ConfigXml". Now let's see how they are used. The following command displays the contents of all records in the table:

sqlite> select * from McConfig;

Note for the excessively curious: the full schemas for mssdb are found in its creation script,
C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\HP MediaSmart Server\scripts\mssdb.sql

6. To make things simpler, you can look at just the configuration data for a single client. In this example the client is named "superfortress":

sqlite> select ConfigXml from McConfig where target = "superfortress";

Here's an example of what you might see:

<?xml version="1.0"?><MSS_MC_ClientConfig><Version>3.0.1</Version> <ClientName>superfortress</ClientName><MediaRecord><MediaType>Photo</MediaType>< IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled><SourceLoc>Home</SourceLoc></MediaRecord><MediaRecord> <MediaType>PhotoVideo</MediaType><IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled><SourceLoc>Home</Sou rceLoc></MediaRecord><MediaRecord><MediaType>Music</MediaType><IsEnabled>true</I sEnabled><SourceLoc>Home+iTunes+WMP</SourceLoc></MediaRecord><MediaRecord><Media Type>AlbumArt</MediaType><IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled><SourceLoc>Home</SourceLoc>< /MediaRecord><MediaRecord><MediaType>Playlist</MediaType><IsEnabled>true</IsEnab led><SourceLoc>Home+iTunes+WMP</SourceLoc></MediaRecord><MediaRecord><MediaType> Video</MediaType><IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled><SourceLoc>Home</SourceLoc></MediaRe cord></MSS_MC_ClientConfig>

As you can see, the configuration data is stored as XML text. It's hard to read this way -- here it is pretty-printed (well, it was pretty until Blogger banished the indenting):

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<MSS_MC_ClientConfig>
<Version>3.0.1</Version>
<ClientName>superfortress</ClientName>
<MediaRecord>
<MediaType>Photo</MediaType>
<IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled>
<SourceLoc>Home</SourceLoc>
</MediaRecord>
<MediaRecord>
<MediaType>PhotoVideo</MediaType>
<IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled>
<SourceLoc>Home</SourceLoc>
</MediaRecord>
<MediaRecord>
<MediaType>Music</MediaType>
<IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled>
<SourceLoc>Home+iTunes+WMP</SourceLoc>
</MediaRecord>
<MediaRecord>
<MediaType>AlbumArt</MediaType>
<IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled>
<SourceLoc>Home</SourceLoc>
</MediaRecord>
<MediaRecord>
<MediaType>Playlist</MediaType>
<IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled>
<SourceLoc>Home+iTunes+WMP</SourceLoc>
</MediaRecord>
<MediaRecord>
<MediaType>Video</MediaType>
<IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled>
<SourceLoc>Home</SourceLoc>
</MediaRecord>
</MSS_MC_ClientConfig>

That is a very basic configuration with no custom paths. Since I can add partial custom paths using Console tool, I checked it again after adding as much of a custom path as I could. Now we can observe how the custom paths are represented.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<MSS_MC_ClientConfig>
<Version>3.0.1</Version>
<ClientName>superfortress</ClientName>
<MediaRecord>
<MediaType>Photo</MediaType>
<IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled>
<SourceLoc>Home</SourceLoc>
</MediaRecord>
<MediaRecord>
<MediaType>PhotoVideo</MediaType>
<IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled>
<SourceLoc>Home</SourceLoc>
</MediaRecord>
<MediaRecord>
<MediaType>Music</MediaType>
<IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled>
<SourceLoc>Home+iTunes+WMP+Custom</SourceLoc>
<CustomLoc>L:\</CustomLoc>
</MediaRecord>
<MediaRecord>
<MediaType>AlbumArt</MediaType>
<IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled>
<SourceLoc>Home</SourceLoc>
</MediaRecord>
<MediaRecord>
<MediaType>Playlist</MediaType>
<IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled>
<SourceLoc>Home+iTunes+WMP+Custom</SourceLoc>
<CustomLoc>L:\</CustomLoc>
</MediaRecord>
<MediaRecord>
<MediaType>Video</MediaType>
<IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled>
<SourceLoc>Home</SourceLoc>
</MediaRecord>
</MSS_MC_ClientConfig>

We're going to edit the CustomLoc elements in the XML and make them point where we want.

7. Use the Administrative Tools:Services panel to stop the HPMediaSmartService (HPmssService.exe process).

If you don't stop the HPMediaSmartService, it may lock the database at inconvenient times.

8. Save a copy of your "mssdb.db" file. This will make it easy to start over if you need to.

9. In order to edit the existing XML configuration for your client you can copy and paste it into WordPad or NotePad, but you'll have to edit out the spurious newlines. Or you can use the ".output" command in SQLite to redirect to a file first.

I recommend using .output and just saving to a file -- I lost 30 minutes finding out I had accidentally deleted a "<" character while merging lines. I recommend you not try to pretty print it or break the lines for readability -- you should be editing a single block of text with no line breaks, same as what it was.

10. Edit the XML and update the database. In this example I edited it by changing the custom location to "L:\Audio\My Music\" (in two places). Your basic SQL command is this:

REPLACE INTO McConfig VALUES ('your client name', 'blob of xml');

You'll be inserting the name of your own client of course. We use single-quotes because there are double-quotes in the XML.

Hint: Construct the whole SQL command in the editor so you can just paste the whole thing into SQLite.
Note: Despite what you may see here, there should be no line breaks in the whole block of XML text.

sqlite>  REPLACE INTO McConfig VALUES ("superfortress",
'<?xml version="1.0"?><MSS_MC_ClientConfig><Version>3.0.1</Version><ClientName
>superfortress</ClientName><MediaRecord><MediaType>Photo</M
ediaType><IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled><SourceLoc>Home</SourceL
oc></MediaRecord><MediaRecord><MediaType>PhotoVideo</MediaTy
pe><IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled><SourceLoc>Home</SourceLoc>
</MediaRecord><MediaRecord><MediaType>Music</M
ediaType><IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled><SourceLoc>Home+iTunes+WMP+C
ustom</SourceLoc>
<CustomLoc>L:\Audio\My Music\</CustomLoc>
</MediaRecord><MediaRecord><MediaType>AlbumArt</MediaType>
<IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled><SourceLoc>Home</SourceLoc></Me
diaRecord><MediaRecord><MediaType>Playlist</Media
Type><IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled><SourceLoc>Home+iTunes+WMP+Cust
om</SourceLoc>
<CustomLoc>L:\Audio\My Music\</CustomLoc>
</MediaRecord><MediaRecord><MediaType>Video</MediaType><Is
Enabled>true</IsEnabled><SourceLoc>Home</SourceLoc></MediaRe
cord></MSS_MC_ClientConfig>');

Before moving on, check to see that your changes were accepted. This probably isn't necessary, but it will help you feel that you have accomplished something.

sqlite> SELECT * FROM McConfig WHERE target = "superfortress";

11. Sorry, but you're not done yet. You may have noticed that your client configuration also appears in the record for target=%Global% record, so we need to repeat steps 6-10 for that record. Here's what to do:
(a) Capture the existing XML for target="%Global%". Your command is similar to step 6:

sqlite> select ConfigXml from McConfig where target = "%Global%";

Use .output or Copy/Paste to capture the XML and edit the CustomLoc elements.

(b) Edit and update the %Global% entry. Your command is similar to step 10:

sqlite> REPLACE INTO McConfig VALUES ("%Global%", 'blob of XML');

sqlite> SELECT * FROM McConfig WHERE target = "%Global%";

12. Now restart the HPMediaSmartService and check for errors.

Check the Event Viewer:Application log. If you made a mistake in the XML it will be reported there. (Hint: the Event Viewer is found under All Programs::Administrative Tools).

Use the WHS console to check the HP Media Collector status and configuration. You should see your new custom paths show up in the client configuration.

Good luck!

New Blueberry Packing Video

2009-08-30T23:33:00.001-07:00

As promised, I've put together a short (2 minute) video from the stills and clips I took May 31 out at the farm. It's now available on YouTube.

Technical Notes

I've used a combination of stills taken with my Canon 400D (Rebel XTi) and VGA video clips from my Canon PowerShot 1100 IS. The pacing is driven entirely by the music, "Puffin' Billy" by British composer Edward White (1910-1994), perhaps better known to two generations of Americans as the theme song to Captain Kangaroo.

I originally planned to do the video over clips from an interview I did on the site with farm manager Chip Salmon. But this version pretty much produced itself once I had the music.

Still images were processed in Adobe Lightroom 2. The video was put together using Sony Vegas 8.

afterimage

2009-08-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

Afterimage, a novel by Helen Humphreys.

This surprising book fell into my hands recently. I knew nothing of what to expect from it. At first I simply enjoyed the author's exquisite, economical phrasing, and the canonical setting: Annie Phelan, a poor young woman in service to Eldon and Isabelle Dashell at their Victorian country house around 1870.

But soon I found that this book is aimed at my heart. I'm touched and moved by the exploration of 19th century photography, of what it means to pose and photograph another person, and to be posed.

Later I'm with Eldon as he traces outlines of distant places through the maps and journals of explorers, yearning to suffer ice in his boots with lost Franklin.

Even the distance between Eldon and Isabelle touches me in its way. And always the language, the right words, spare and beautiful.

Some quotes ...

Light

The light flooding through the glass roof softens the whole scene. Annie feels almost as if she could cup her hands around it and contain it safely there, the gentle push of heart against her fingers. Beat, it doesn't beat, it drops, falls to earth, slowly, like a word after it's been said.

Dearly beloved.
(p.17)

The afternoon light is beautiful now. It slants into the glasshouse, all current and moving lines. The air swims with light. That is half of the image, thinks Isabelle... Light. The rest is shape and shadow. Intent.
(p.18)

Isabelle takes Annie's arm. "Art is like a light," she says. She almost says like love. "Isn't it? Always burning with the same brightness, no matter how long we've been gone from the room."
(p.80)

Maps

To create a map of the world is to include everything known to human existence. ... It is to go through the evidence and make a case for the world appearing a particular way.
(p.41)

Distance. Position. How to find your way back when where you are depends on where everything else is. Here we are. Here is everything else. A compass of the human body -- head as North, feet South, right arm East, left arm West. North as up. The top of the page. Up more important than down. Look up. Stars, the dark night sky screening eternity.

This is where you are. This is what it looks like. Never mind that you don't have to recognize anything. Trust me.
(p.43)

It is a dangerous thing, making a map. If there is a pure curiosity, an authentic urge for discovery and knowledge, why is it that every map seems a precursor to some form of exploitation? Settlement or battle? When the cartographer stands on a high place and draws lines radiating out like spokes, like th erays of the sun, how can he not believe that here, where he stands, is the center of the world?
...
Eldon sits at the pivot point of an imaginary compass and wonders how straight it is in human beings, how direct, this line between discovery and conquest. The bearings of the compass. Th e compass of the heart.
(p.195)

The Future

"That is the difference between your world and mine," Annie says. "Yours can expand. Mine shrinks." ... What is there to look forward to? The future is more of the same. No the future is less and the same.
(p.81)

"But it's ending," Eldon says. "I fear it is all ending."
"What is?"
"Journeys. Maps. The getting there. Isabelle is right: The future is the photograph. And a photograph is always a destination, not concerned with getting there but being there." ... "A photograph," he says, "is always about arrival."
(p.106)

Eldon runs his fingers gently around the coastline of County Clare. How can a physical self be entrusted to the distant, shifting fathoms of the sky and to a time honed so fine that it cannot be sensed or felt? Perhaps knowing where you are is less a science than an act of faith.
(p.107)

Summer

All around Isabelle the garden opens its arms to the last traces of summer. I'm here! I'm here! Heat is a wish in the bones of all living things, a wish ached out through the skin. Isabelle stops walking. The flowers around her are open lenses, wide, wide open. It is the time of the year -- the moment even -- when the garden is most fully alive. It is the moment right next to the one where everything begins to die.

Isabelle stretches her arms out, reaching with her fingers up toward the sun. It is as if she is the darkened window of the negative, the one through which the sun must pour to make the shape of her, to let her live. (p.127)

Posing

It's funny, thinks Annie, watching Cook adjust her bonnet for the umpteenth time, but what we think makes us more who we are sometimes makes us less. (p.146)

[Isabelle] doesn't like it when Annie is annoyed with her. Can't she see that Isabelle needs to do these things to get the proper perspective to create? "Can't you just give yourself over to the work of art?" she says.

"I am the work of art," Says Annie. (p.216)

Here, in the studio, this place where they've been the most intimate, in front of the camera, Isabelle will let Annie be anyone escept herself. Annie has existed for Isabelle not as who she is but only as who Isabelle wanted her to be at a particular moment. ... Isabelle Dashell has looked hard at Annie Phelan and has never once seen her at all. (p.238)

Photography

Isabelle had felt only anxiety as she plunged the plate into the developing bath. At that moment the image was truly gone. She cannot make it stay. She has to let it go back into darkness, and then she has to believe it will return. It takes so much strength from her to believe this.

Now, in the glasshouse, it is here again, the image. Isabelle has pulled it back to her, from the mouth of darkness. It swims under the light, limpid, the dull color of blood seen through water. (p.128)

The line is full of photographs. ... Each photograph slightly lighter or darker than the one beside it. Every one the same and different. They stutter toward the blank eye of light. They stutter toward the closed fist of darkness. Each one is a word said a different way, the emphasis in a different place. (p.129)

It is the perfect photograph, and she has missed it.

This is what she has always feared. That she will not be able, no matter how she wills it or orchestrates it, to create an image as pure and true as this. That what she does is not really about life, about living. It is about holding on to something long after it has already left.

Life grief. Like hope.

Life is the unexpected generosity of a kiss.

It is the falling moment. Unrecorded.
(p.240)

Blueberry Packing 2009

2009-08-22T12:08:00.000-07:00

Augusta Bixler Farms has been in our family since around 1880. It's located in California's San Joaquin Delta between Stockton and Tracy. Major crops include wine grapes, walnuts, alfalfa, tomatoes and blueberries.

Blueberries are our newest crop, and we'll soon have about 100 acres. As our production volumes have grown in the last couple of years we decided it was time to run our own packing line instead of paying someone else to pack them for us. Our farm manager, Chip Salmon, built a pair of new insulated steel buildings and this year we're off and running.

On May 31 I went out to the farm at the height of blueberry packing in our new shed and took pictures. I've finally finished sorting them and have put them up on Picasa for your enjoyment. There are both still pictures and video clips. Here are just a few of them.

At some point I expect to put together another YouTube video, like the one of last year's harvest (only better).

In case you have trouble with the links above, the still pictures are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/chapin.chip/ABFBlueberryPacking2009Part1Stills#

and the videos are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/chapin.chip/ABFBlueberryPacking2009Part2Video#

Chip

New Photos: Shoreline, San Jose Jazz Festival

2009-08-17T08:38:00.000-07:00

Almost a year since I last posted here. Time to change that, starting with links to my latest photos.

Yes, more pictures have been posted to my Picasa page! These are all taken using my new Canon T1i (a.k.a. 500D), which is just a newer version of my old camera. There are two versions, using the "sRGB" and "Adobe RGB" color gamuts. View whichever set looks better on your monitor. Links to the individual albums are below, along with some samples.

Shoreline Park

A week ago Friday after work I visited Shoreline Park. Most of these are HDR "High Dynamic Range" images, created by combining three separate shots taken at different exposures.

Shoreline Park: Adobe RGB / sRGB

2009 San Jose Jazz Festival

Then I met Katie and Josh (my oldest daughter and her husband) in downtown San Jose for the first night of the Jazz Festival. There are some cute pictures of both of 'em -- the colors are weird because it was taken at night by the light of the mercury vapor lamps outdoors at the Fairmont Grill.

Katie and Josh: Adobe RGB / sRGB
SJ Jazz Festival Part 1: Adobe RGB / sRGB

Then on Sunday I went back to the Jazz Festival, this time with Evelyn:

SJ Jazz Festival Part 2: Adobe RGB / sRGB
SJ Jazz Festival Part 3: Adobe RGB / sRGB

Love,
Chip

Osho: "Courage" Part 11 - When the New Knocks On Your Door, Open It!

2008-09-15T00:24:00.000-07:00

Continuing my notes on Osho's bookCourage: The Joy of Living Dangerously. In Part 10, we finished the lengthy first chapter, "What Is Courage?"

In the preceding 50 pages Osho has spoken at length on the question “What is courage?” He (or his editors) now follow that grand, sprawling chapter with these short 11 pages, focused like a laser beam on the single thought that

The new is a messenger from God, the new is a message from God... Listen to the new, go with the new.

That this requires courage is because of our natural caution, our natural affinity to rest in the known, familiar, the old. And why not? Osho warns us repeatedly, “One never knows where you will end with the new.”, “The new will bring difficulties.” And cautions us that, “To be new one needs to become disidentified with the ego."

But the old is a great trap, a veritable La Brea Tarpit of dinosaur hopes and dreams.

The old is familiar but miserable… Nobody can ever be satisfied with the old because whatsoever it is, you have known it. Once known it has become repetitive; once known it has become boring, monotonous.

And yet one does not easily escape the old because

You are enclosed in your past. You are almost in a kind of grave. You have become insensitive. Because of your cowardliness you have lost your sensitivity.

In contrast, we have the new.

To be sensitive means the new will be felt – and the thrill of the new, and the passion for the new and the adventure will arise and you will start moving into the unknown, not knowing where you are going.

The new, the messenger from God, is a risk, a threat to our very existence. No wonder we fear it and "hide in the old"! And yet it is our hope for transformation, resurrection and bliss. We must embrace the new, become new in order to grow. This is why "extraordinary courage is needed."

The new is so precious because it "comes from the beyond, … from God … from existence." And because it is our ticket out of misery.

Sure, it's not all smooth roads and gentle breezes: “Sometimes the new leads you into some ditch, still it is worth it, because only through errors one learns, and only through difficulties one grows.”

And the new offers transformation: “If you reject it you remain a stone, closed and dead. If you receive it you become a flower.”

Newness Dance (April Nunes)

Receiving the New

And how does one receive the new? I would have thought that it would be a simple matter of acting upon the opportunity. That may be so, but Osho qualifies it further and says one should “act without will or direction or impulse from your past… One has to start in a state of not knowing” and, in the innocent wonder of a child, explore the infinite possibilities.

Why is this necessary? Because “whatsoever you do will be of the old.” Contaminated as it were (this reminds me of Original Sin). In contrast, rather than "doing", Osho believes it possible to act in the moment without guidance from our past, acting meditatively, spontaneously, being decisive in the moment like an impulsive child!

Suddenly you will see you are each moment new. The old no more lingers, the old no more hangs around you like a cloud. You are like a dewdrop, fresh and young.

Osho proceeds now to one his most difficult points, that we should be free from “psychological memory.”

Memory is a dead thing. Memory is not truth and cannot ever be, because truth is always alive, truth is life; memory is a persistence of that which is no more. It is living in a ghost world, but it contains us, it is our prison. In fact it is us. Memory creates the knot, the complex called “I”, the ego.

Personally I cherish my memories, so it is hard to understand or accept what he means. Yes, these memories can indeed be a prison, but I don’t believe they have to be. Memories help bind together couples, families, societies.

His chief point here is that the “I”, the ego, is the center of fear. And the “I” is the reason why we don’t “accept the new with joy,” because it will mean its death. And why is that? Because “you are not the ego.” I am not the “I”.

Once you have seen that the ego is your past memory and nothing else, that you are not your memory, that memory is just like a biocomputer, that it is a machine, a mechanism, utilitarian, [then you can see that] you are consciousness, not memory. Memory is a content in consciousness. You are consciousness itself.

So the ego is just a mechanism, our tool. “Use it but don’t be used by it… And it is just such letting go, just that death of the ego, that makes a man alive. To die in the ego is to be born into being.”

Accept Your Responsibility

So take up your courage and reject the casual, comfortable misery that you think is your home. Any coward can be miserable, says Osho. People love to be unhappy! But in the exercise of your courage you may find bliss.

And what of your misery and unhappiness? “Nobody is holding you there; it is you who has decided to remain in that prison of misery.” That means you must accept responsibility and stop blaming others. “If you are making yourself miserable, something can be done immediately.” It is within your power to change it.

A man really becomes a man when he accepts total responsibility – he is responsible for whatsoever he is. This is the first courage, the greatest courage… to divorce misery.

Therefore

In spite of the fear, go with the new, and your life will become richer and richer and you will be able one day to release your imprisoned splendor.

A glorious hope! A beautiful vision. Is there any among us who does not want to release his or her "imprisoned splendor"?

FelonSpy Terms of Use

2008-09-05T15:52:00.001-07:00

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2008-09-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

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Osho: "Courage" Part 10 - The Way of Innocence

2008-08-21T12:55:00.000-07:00

These are my notes covering "The Way of Innocence", the final section of the first chapter, "What Is Courage?" of Osho's bookCourage: The Joy of Living Dangerously.

I had a lot of difficulty summarizing this part of the book. In part I found this section difficult and challenging to grasp. But it also seemed somewhat contradictory with earlier sections. And I have strongly conflicting feelings about some of it.

Clinging to a Corpse

The real question is not of courage, the real question is that the known is the dead, and the unknown is the living. Clinging to the known is clinging to a corpse. ... everything you know is of the past, it is already gone. It is part of a graveyard. Do you want to be in a grave, or do you want to be alive?

Thus he continues a theme from earlier in the book: to be truly alive we must venture constantly into the unknown. But while in earlier pages he has extolled experience and knowledge as essential precursors to trust, Osho here seems to condemn them.

Whatever you know, accumulate -- information, knowledge, experience -- the moment you have explored them you are finished with them. Now carrying those empty worlds, that dead load, is crushing your life, burdening your life, preventing you from entering into a living rejoicing being.

But Osho must not actually be condemning "information, knowledge, experience." Rather I think he means for us to use them then let go. So for example, I get hungry and need to eat, then I eat a sandwich, using it to satisfy my requirement. Afterward the nutrients have been absorbed and are no longer recognizable as food, they are part of me. But what's left over is just shit and we dispose of it as far away from us as possible.

Innocence: No Past, Only Future

The man of understanding dies every moment to the past and is reborn again to the future. His present is always a transformation, a rebirth, a resurrection. It is not a question of courage at all... It is a question of clarity, of being clear about what is what.

Thus is the Way of Innocence introduced. In Osho's view Innocence subsumes courage because "There is no need to have courage if you are innocent." And we are all born innocent, but lose it through the corruption of our "past".

I love history, the stories of mankind's turbulent, beautiful, and too-often blood-soaked journey. To me it is a story with an arc -- there is progress and change. Yet Osho apparently considers history as being of less than no value, because it not only offers nothing new, but it extends its corrosive influence upon our childlike innocence.

The past corrupts because it gives you memories, experiences, expectations... They may help you to succeed in the world, but in your innermost being you will be a failure.

In part, Osho is treading familiar ground here, the well-known (but poorly practiced) notion that excessive devotion to the material life will starve our spiritual prospects.

You can take from this world only that which you have brought in. ... In this whole world what can you gain? What can you take away with you? ... All that you possessed was not yours; the very idea of possession was wrong.

And he relates the long parable of the chakravartin, an emperor who achieves total world domination, an unprecedented feat. But only to learn when he dies that he is but the latest in an endless chain of chakravartins. And thus his life's accomplishments become meaningless in his eyes.

Of course I do accept the idea that we can take nothing out of the world. In fact, I think St. Paul said it better:

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
-- 1 Timothy 6:6-10, New International Version

But, Solomonic rumblings to the contrary ("All is vanity") notwithstanding, the Judeo-Christian world view does not leap from this rejection of the material to suggest that history is meaningless! And even if I no longer accept that we are participants in God's plan until Jesus returns to launch the millenial kingdom, I still believe we are part of a grand story that gives meaning to our lives.

Know Who You Are

Without possessions, success, fame -- who are you?

Of course this question is nothing new, I've been hearing it in variations since my teenage years. But that makes it no less a valid and important question. To a significant degree I've devoted myself to providing an answer. I agree with Osho that

The first and foremost thing is to know who I am.

But in revisiting this question he points out that the inevitable creep of materialism in our lives results in our assumption of a false identity, the identity defined by our role and possessions in life. At one time I would have accepted this. But now I would say that such an identity is not false, it is simply incomplete. We are much more than that. And more significantly, we are capable of much more than that.

So Osho proceeds down the line that says we have traded the one thing that we truly have -- our innocence, our integrity, our self-respect --for empty possessions that leave our souls still panting.

About 2500 years ago the prophet Isaiah spoke to the same yearning:

Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
-- Isaiah 55: 2, New International Version

Of course Isaiah and Osho would differ over the answer. Isaiah's great theme is to call on the people of Israel to repent and turn again to Jehovah God. In contrast, Osho calls on us to empty our minds because

Mind is the cause of all unpeace, all restlessness. Peace is when there is no mind.

But a stone is mindless and has perfect peace. I do not aspire to be like a stone.

Trust In The Unknown

Osho concludes the chapter "What Is Courage?" by reminding us to always "trust in the unknown" because the biggest threat to our peace is our mind, the "accumulated known", and "the unknown cannot be the mind."

And thus we come back to courage. Because we must gather courage to move into the unknown, to take the unfamiliar path, often the more difficult path. To deal with the known requires no courage, but

The moment you cross the boundary of the known, fear arises, because now you will be ignorant, now you will not know what to do... mistakes can be committed; you can go astray.

And mistakes are dangerous. We are right to fear them, Osho never suggests otherwise. But this fear imprisons us in the realm of the known, and such prison is, in his view, death.

Life can only be lived dangerously -- there is no other way to live it. It is only through danger that life attains to maturity, growth. One needs to be an adventurer.

And hence the imperative need for courage in order to live.

Not all of Osho's teachings make sense to me. I suppose one could argue that they are unfamiliar and therefore require courage to accept. But that would lead to the silly conclusion of accepting all unfamiliar teachings, and that would make no sense at all.

But the main thrust of this book rings true to me: a life lived entirely in familiar comfort is diminished. Not "dead" -- I will not devalue the many good souls who live this way -- but less than what it could be. And men and women make history when they attempt the new and unfamiliar, not when they choose the safety of the known.

Osho: "Courage" Part 9 - Belief, Doubt and Trust

2008-08-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

Continuing the section "The Way of Trust" in the first chapter of Osho's bookCourage: The Joy of Living Dangerously.

People... have been taught to believe, they have not been taught to know... Never believe. If you cannot trust it is better to doubt.

Osho's view of religion is that for most people it is an empty set of hand-me-down false beliefs, by which he means something quite superficial, in which they have no real confidence. This was not, however, my own experience in many years as a practicing Christian. In fact I am doubtful whether it applies to any but the most superficial religionists, even if they happen to be in the majority. So many people are willing to die for their faith, even if false, that I think they must have great trust, great confidence.

Nevertheless, this is really just a distraction from the main thrust of Osho's argument. He wants us to know by our own experience and thus have confidence in what we know.

Trust has become a belief, not an experience... All beliefs are borrowed; others have given them to you, they are not your flowerings... Trust is personal; belief is social.

So as a first step he advocates the replacement of hand-me-down "belief" with doubt, not because doubt is in itself a good place to be -- on the contrary it is a "nightmare" of division and indecisiveness. But this unstable state will motivate us to go beyond it, to press on, to experience, to know.

And unless you know, you cannot be liberated. Knowledge liberates, only knowing liberates.

So Osho's essential point here is that simply trying to cultivate "trust" for it's own sake is what supports empty religious beliefs. Instead:

Discover trust within yourself, don't cultivate it. Go deeper into your being, to the very source of your being, and discover it... How can you trust anybody or anything if you don't trust yourself?

Osho wants to prepare us for a great journey of discovery. For this we will need courage, and that courage must be supported by a certain amount of trust. And that trust must begin with ourselves. Emphasizing these things, he returns to the topics of intelligence and heart.

Intelligence is intellect in tune with your heart.
The heart knows how to trust.
The intellect knows how to seek and search.

Using a parable of two beggers, one blind and one legless, who cooperate to escape a fire, Osho makes the point that

Alone your intellect is blind. It.. can move fast but because it is blind it cannot choose the right direction in which to go.

But we also have our heart. The heart "which sees, which feels, but which has no legs." Thus they must work together, our intellect under the direction of our heart.

In the hands of the heart the intellect becomes intelligent. It is a ... total transformation of energy. Then the person does not become an intellectual, he simply becomes wise.

Osho is endearing in many ways, and one is his bias toward action and experience. Wisdom is not an end in itself, but a tool to guide us in life's great adventure. And with greater confidence in our own capabilities, we gain the courage necessary to step up and step out.

Selah

2008-08-11T11:23:00.001-07:00

Selah -- Pause, crescendo, or musical interlude.

For a number of years, mostly in my 20's, I followed a rigorous Bible reading schedule. It was one I had devised myself, and included a feature gleaned from someone's observation that there are 31 chapters of Proverbs -- perfect for reading one chapter a day and thus re-reading all of Proverbs every month. He also observed that there are 150 Psalms, thus reading 5 a day would get through all of them in a month. God must have intended it so! I followed this practice with religious zeal for a number of years.

Stand in awe, and sin not: Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah
-- Psalms 4:4

My New American Standard Bible had lots of annotations, and the one I remember most is the explanation of Selah, a mysterious word that appears in many of the Psalms. According to these scholars, in a public recitation of the Psalms the selah denotes an intended "pause, crescendo or musical interlude."

I don't read the Bible much anymore, but its words have had a lasting influence on me.
They pop up at the oddest times. I can remember years ago, my wife quietly talking to me during the sermon, whereupon I responded, "Let the women keep silent in church." (1 Cor 14:34) To my then-surprise, she did not appreciate this scholarly rebuke.

Lately I've been feeling a little bad about not having updated my blog in a week. It's not that I've run out of things to say, just that I didn't feel the same urgency to say them.

And then this morning it came to me. Selah. A pause, crescendo or musical interlude.

I've paused, to take stock, look around, and reflect on what's been said.

A crescendo of events in my personal life has taken place.

And a musical interlude is often a welcome alternative to speech.

Selah.

The Kin of Ata

2008-08-04T01:00:00.000-07:00

Several months ago I read The Kin of Ata Are Waiting For Youby Dorothy Bryant. It's a beautiful book and it launched me reading much more of her excellent work.

I collected a series of quotes from the book and decided to post them here.

You Always Come Down

"... you always come down, no matter how high you've been; ... it's a law of gravity of the soul."

-- p. 25

Creation

The day came when a piece of the sun fell to the ocean. It fell and floated on the ocean. It separated itself into earth and water and plants and animals. It was no longer sun, but each of its parts was a part of the sun and a sign of the sun. And all parts, earth and water and plants and animals, were content in their division, content in their expression of the sun, content to be a single part multiplying itself under the light of the sun, striving and being, as a sign of the sun but never true sun, lost to the form of the true sun.

Until the single multiple signs formed the human part. And the human part of the sun was not content. The human part suffered because within it was the knowledge of the fall from the sun and the yearning to return.

It knew and it did not know. It suffered and yearned. It suffered and yearned for what it did not know. And out of its suffering and yearning grew the cry of the people, yearning to know the way back to the sun.

-- p. 64

Donagdeo

Donagdeo: not productive of good, valuable, or enlightening dreams. Opposite of nagdeo.

"Each person find for himself what is donagdeo. To force anyone to do or not to do something is also donagdeo. Nothing is forbidden. Nothing is taboo. But I listen to Salvatore because he is usually right."

-- p 67, 68

"We made love again..."

We made love again, more slowly this time. I had meant to give her great pleasure, but I began to fumble nervously like a boy, to feel foolish and stupid. It was her steady eyes on me, her total and open acceptance of me, her quiet pleasuring in my touch of her ...

-- p. 110

"We must dance the dance"

"Of course, the movements have meanings behind them. If we were sure of the meanings, we would not need the dance. There is a great danger in trying to interpret the dance in words. Words get between us and the dance and the meaning behind the dance -- just one more thing between us and the meaning. One must dance the dance and go through it to the meaning."

-- pp 117-118.

Song for the Ceremony of Light

Already far from Home
Far from the source of life
We have strayed further
To the deepest dark.

Now turn, turn, turn
We now turn back
Turn, turn, turn
Back to the light of life.

Rejoice in the darkest night
Dark night brings deep dreams
The farther we go
The closer to our Home

So turn, turn, turn
We now turn back
Turn, turn, turn
Back to the light of life.

-- p. 126

"All are correct"

"How many versions of that story are there?" I asked Salvatore.
"Many," he answered. "Every dream has many, many versions. ... There is no correct version. All are correct, all are changing."
...
"If one of them is true, then another cannot be."
"They are all true. And they are all untrue, as words are always untrue. Words are not dreams. Dreams are not reality. They are only dreams."
"Then what is the reality?"

-- pp.164, 168

The Noblest Effort

Wasn't all art impossible? Art was an attempt to capture the real, to pin it down, to keep it still, so that we can understand. It is impossible. But it is the noblest effort.

-- p.164

Words - Laughter - Silence

We stopped talking and laughed again. Laughter was better than words; silence better than both.

-- p.202

"And then there was light"

There was an instant of silence ...

And then there was light. Indescribably warm, glowing light. Light was everywhere. It shone on everything, through and into everything; it came out of everything, out of everyone. It was like a fire that does not consume, but not like a fire, like . . . like nothing else, nothing else was like it. But all things were full of it. The faces around the table, the table itself, the walls, the windows, everything was alive, everything lived in and through the light.

And I too. I too. From the center of my being the light broke in waves, in orgasmic waves, outward to the extremities of my body, every cell of my body melting together in the waves of light that flowed outward from my center, and over me from the very air around me, from everything. I breathed it into me and it poured out of me, sweeping through me like a million orgasms. I was full and whole. I was part of the light and of all the other things that shone in and with the light. All were one. And whole.

...
I have not spoken since then.

-- pp.217-18

Osho: "Courage" Part 8 - The Way of Trust

2008-08-03T11:49:00.001-07:00

Continuing my series on Osho's bookCourage: The Joy of Living Dangerously with "The Way of Trust", a section in the first chapter, "What Is Courage?".

Trust is the Greatest Intelligence

Osho argues that fear and insecurity give rise to doubt, being the opposite of trust. And that we are afraid because we lack confidence in our own intelligence. If we believed in our own intelligence then we would not be afraid of being "cheated". Personally, I would be more afraid of failure than of being cheated, but the principle appears to be the same.

Trust needs great intelligence, courage, integrity. It needs a great heart to go into it. If you don't have enough intelligence, you protect yourself through doubt.

A cynic could point out that these assertions are self-serving for a teacher: if you doubt his words it shows you lack intelligence! But the real truth at the heart of his teaching is that we must learn to believe in ourselves, to trust ourselves and our own judgment. And armed with this confidence, we must finally have the courage to act.

If you have intelligence you are ready to go into the unknown because you know that even if the whole known world disappears and you are left in the unknown, you will be able to settle there.

I still find it somewhat awkward to be discussing this in terms of intelligence. So it is useful to remember that Osho has previously said

Intelligence is aliveness, it is spontaneity. It is openness, it is vulnerability. It is impartiality, it is the courage to function without conclusions.

and he has very carefully distinguished this intelligence from "intellect". Thus armed with our confident, wide-eyed spontaneity we can approach one of his most important statements:

Don't try to understand life. Live it! Don't try to understand love. Move into love. Then you will know -- and that knowing will come out of your experiencing.

When I was a teenager, I recall thinking deeply about the meaning of life. For several years, as I became self-aware, I struggled trying to figure it out. Until one day I delved deeply inside myself, seeking and seeking for the answer, only to discover that there was no solution to this "problem" because life is not a problem to be solved.

For nearly 40 years now I have tried to live by this principle. So when I read Osho's next words, I felt that I had come home:

Life is not a problem... It is a mystery to be lived, loved, experienced.

Osho suggests that it is because we are afraid that our restless, fearful minds try to solve the problem of life. In fear we require explanations -- an explanation is a map, and a map gives a feeling of familiarity to the unknown.

But life is like that, and no map is possible because life goes on changing. Every moment it is now. There is nothing old under the sun... Only change is permanent... Life is not stagnant... It is not measurable, it is an unmeasurable mystery. Don't ask for explanations.

When one can look at life "without questions", and plunge ahead with courage and fearlessness, Osho calls it "maturity of mind". I think in this he is insisting that our intelligence should be sufficient in a given situation to simply act without a long analysis.

As I look inside myself, there are certainly more than enough occasions on which I have stood aside from events, watching them and wondering about them, when I could have been a participant. In every case, lurking at the core is fear. What if instead I had been bold, trusting in my ability to navigate the unknown?

Fortunately, I have those memories as well -- times when I've stood forth and sailed into uncharted spaces. Not without bangs and bruises, but the rewards have been great.

Osho: "Courage" Part 7 - Truth vs. Science

2008-08-02T22:27:00.001-07:00

Continuing my series on Osho's bookCourage: The Joy of Living Dangerously. This post continues to address "The Way of Intelligence" in the first chapter.

Truth is an Experience

In the preceding section Osho discussed the imperative "to be, not to think" -- to know in a religious way rather than through science. Only through religiousness can one "penetrate to the heart of reality." Thus he continues

Truth is an experience, not a belief. Truth never comes by studying about it; truth has to be encountered.

In this statement Osho continues to dismiss the value of reason and science as tools to understand reality. This is because he believes the important features of reality are beyond the "known". To begin to know in this previously unknown domain requires the experience of it.

The person who studies about love is like the person who studies about the Himalayas by looking at the map of the mountains. The map is not the mountain! ... The mountain is in front of you, but your eyes are full of maps.

This of course is true. But maps are valuable tools for rendering a large amount of knowledge, and are at their most useful in giving guidance when journeying into the unknown. Unless of course they are speculative and inaccurate. Every religion offers us "maps" to eternity.

Even the progress of science is most often hampered by the scientist's inability to see past his or her pre-conceptions, the pre-judged conclusions that may be wrong and must be overturned:

The prejudiced eye is blind, the heart full of conclusions is dead.

As discussed previously, Osho wants us to function with active, alert intelligence rather than living according to a set of pre-drawn "conclusions" that constrain our discovery of the world.

Too many a priori assumptions and your intelligence .. becomes dull. Dull intelligence is what is called intellect... Intellect is a corpse... To be alive is a totally different matter.

Science Is Factual, Mystery is Existential

Science means being definite about facts, and thus prevents one from "feeling the mysterious." This is because

The more definite you are, the more the mystery evaporates... Science is the murder of mystery.

Osho goes on to describe science as the "dimension of the mind" and I believe he feels he is proving thus that the mind is inadequate to know the mysterious. But if "the mysterious" is defined as "that which cannot be known by the mind," then he is simply stating a tautology.

As a tautology it is no less true, just less profound, and possibly unprovable.

So we are left with this assertion: there are mysteries of existence which cannot be touched by science and reason. He has previously called this truth. But if something is intrinsically unknowable, what of it? Why should we then take any notice of it, since it is inescapably unnoticeable?

Meditation: the Dimension of the Mysterious

Osho now introduces, I believe for the first time in this book, the idea of meditation, as yet unexplained. Meditation is offered as a tool, a pathway by which one can explore the otherwise unknowable "dimension of the miraculous, the mysterious."

Meditation makes everything undefined... takes you into the unknown, the uncharted... takes you slowly, slowly into a kind of dissolution where the observer and the observed become one.

Osho contrasts this dissolution/participation with the strict observation required by science. Yet science is not our only tool for knowing the world with our minds. We use science to form conclusions and those conclusions are tested. This is a kind of objective truth that is proven. But once we use science to design and construct, say, an airplane or a boat, then we can openly enjoy its use with no more thought to the science behind it. We can feel and experience it, reveling in it, and how can one argue that this is not using our minds?

In other words, one uses the map to plan and navigate. But one does not drive or hike by looking at the map, nor would anyone want to, it would be silly and dangerous.

Osho's argument is that use of the mind = science, science requires detachment, detachment leads to cold indifference and "indifference kills mystery." Therefore use of the mind kills mystery and one must therefore "open a new door in your being" through meditation.

I think his deprecation of science and the mind seems ill-placed and annoying. His effort would be better spent perhaps in supporting his concept of the unknowable mysteriousness, and why it embodies truth.

On the other hand, I find his teaching is much more compelling when he is less negative and more rational:

Looking at the flower, become the flower, dance around the flower, sing a song. The wind is cool and crisp, the sun is warm, and the flower is in its prime. The flower is dancing in the wind... Participate with it! Drop indifference, objectivity, detachment... Become a little more fluid, more melting, more merging. Let the flower speak to your heart... enter your being. Invite him -- he is a guest! And then you will have some taste of mystery.

Now I can get my mind behind that!

Osho: "Courage" Part 6 - The Way of Intelligence

2008-08-01T09:25:00.000-07:00

Continuing my series on Osho's bookCourage: The Joy of Living Dangerously. In this part we begin to examine the section, "The Way of Intelligence".

Intelligence is aliveness, it is spontaneity. It is openness, it is vulnerability. It is impartiality, it is the courage to function without conclusions.

Functioning Without Conclusions

Osho's meaning is not immediately clear without remembering that he has just finished urging us to abandon "ready-made answers" and think with originality (see previous post, "Listen To Your Heart"). So he is equating these "ready-made answers" with conclusions: decisions and determinations based on analyses that we have already made. To function within our conclusions is to live within the safety and security of the known.

In opposition, Osho proposes that we function in innocence. But what could he mean? Clearly he does not mean that we should act as if we have never learned anything:

One may go astray, but that is how one arrives. Going many, many times astray, one learns how not to go astray... Knowing what is error, one comes closer and closer to what is truth. It is an individual exploration; you cannot depend on others' conclusions.

So it is all about learning for yourself. But here we have a very broad statement. It seems certain that he does not mean, "Jump off a cliff to test for yourself whether it is dangerous." Or see for yourself how fast you can drive the mountain road before your car leaves the highway.

And does he then mean that it's ok to depend on our own conclusions, just not the conclusions of others? I think not, because our own conclusions are apt to be overly general, or perhaps mistaken or obsolete. They too should be re-examined or refined.

I hope he returns to this topic, because to "function in innocence" still seems to me hopelessly vague.

Born as a No-Mind

If you were born as a no-mind, then the mind is just a social product. It is nothing natural, it is cultivated.

Do you agree with Osho that our minds are imposed upon us by family and society? My four children are each quite different. Yes, they do share much "mind" that is of course a product of their upbringing. But they also think for themselves, have their own experiences and have drawn their own conclusions. Even from the day they were born they had their own unique personalities. Is that not part of the mind?

Existence precedes thinking. So existence is not a state of mind, it is a state beyond. To be, not to think, is the way to know the fundamental.

Ironically, for a section titled "The Way of Intelligence" Osho is advocating that we adopt a "nonthinking approach", a religious approach in order to know "the fundamental." That's because

Thinking can think only about the known -- it can chew the already chewed. Thinking can never be original... At the most, thinking can imagine new combinations, but it cannot know the unknown... So thinking goes in a circle, goes on knowing the known again and again and again.

In contrast, "religiousness" is a superior way to know because

It drops all that hinders, it unblocks you; you start flowing into life. You don't think that you are separate, looking. You don't think that you are a watcher, aloof, distant. You meet, mingle and merge into reality.

And that is Osho's central objective,

To come upon reality originally, radically, to come upon reality without any mediator -- to come upon reality as if you are the first person to exist -- that is liberating. The very newness of it liberates.

Indeed!

Osho: "Courage" Part 5 - Listen to Your Heart

2008-07-30T09:38:00.000-07:00

Part 5 of my series summarizing and commenting upon Osho's bookCourage: The Joy of Living Dangerously.

Osho writes:

Don't listen to the scriptures -- listen to your own heart... Listen very attentively, very consciously, and you will never be wrong ... you will never be divided ... you will start moving in the right direction without ever thinking of what is right and what is wrong.

Not surprisingly, this contrasts sharply with the Judeo-Christian view:

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
-- Jeremiah 17:9

Yes, the contrast is so clear: in the religions I know, the heart is not to be trusted, it is a source of error. In its native wickedness, tainted by original sin, it seeks to lure us into falsehood and ruin. Therefore we have Scriptures to which we must adhere, rightly interpreted by prophets, priests, prelates and padres.

And it's easy to cite examples of sociopaths and megalomaniacs, the Genghis Khans, Hitlers and Mansons of the world who "listened to their heart". But one could also cite many who have listened to the Scriptures and caused equal destruction.

Don't follow rules imposed from the outside. No imposed rule can ever be right -- because rules are invented by people who want to rule you.

Osho argues that Jesus and Mohammed did not give rules to the world but rather they gave their love. Only after they were gone did their followers codify rules of conduct -- Scriptures -- in order to have something to follow. In his view this makes us imitators.

"Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ."
-- St. Paul (1 Corinthians 11:1)

Never be an imitator, be always original.
-- Osho

So once again, the contrast is razor sharp. Many people think of America as basically a Christian nation. Yet in this respect Osho's teaching seems perhaps more truly American than even the Bible:

You are not in any way less than anybody else. Respect yourself, respect your own inner voice and follow it.

It's important to understand that Osho is not suggesting our hearts will always lead us "to the right." He argues that it will lead us generally in the right direction, even if along the way we stumble, wander astray and knock on some wrong doors. And this is why courage is so important: these wanderings are real dangers. And because of that we must be always alert, always prepared to recognize what is wrong so that we can leave it. Moving on toward the right.

This is a central problem with most of us:

People have been taught never to do anything wrong, and then they become so hesitant, so fearful, so frightened of doing wrong, that they become stuck.

Afraid of making a mistake, we become like rocks, devoid of movement. Osho urges us to have the courage to make mistakes, even "as many mistakes as possible" but not frivolously, moving purposefully. "Don't commit the same mistake again."

Thus we grow. "It is part of your freedom to go astray." Sure. "It is part of your dignity to go even against God." Well that's intense. "This is how you will start having a spine."

To go against God? I believe Osho's point is that we may think we know "what God wants", but he doesn't believe we can really know that. "The thing that is right today may be wrong tomorrow." To rail thus against moral absolutes invites a battery of counter-arguments, but let's keep moving.

"That which is harmonious with existence is right." So there is some absolute after all, if dangerously vague. But here again is his essential point:

You will have to be very alert each moment, because it has to be decided each moment afresh. you cannot depend on ready-made answers for what is right and what is wrong. ... Life goes on changing continuously ... Life moves so fast ... It is not a stagnant pool, it is a Ganges, it goes on flowing... So one thing may be right this moment and may not be right the next... The only possible thing is to make people so aware that they themselves can decide how to respond to a changing life.

Each moment is a surprise and no ready-made answer is ever applicable.

Challenging? Most certainly. But how literally can we take this view? At the core of "learning" is to take lessons from one experience and apply them to subsequent experience. The fire is hot, it will burn you. This does not change, and a ready-made answer is both useful and sensible.

Osho: "Courage" Part 4 - To Be True

2008-07-29T09:20:00.000-07:00

My series on Osho's bookCourage: The Joy of Living Dangerously continues. I am still in the first chapter, "What Is Courage?"

Everybody in the world wants to be true ...

So what stops us? Recent events in my own Real Life bear heavily on the question of falsehood. In fact, these circumstances are the main reason I started reading Courage. On the one hand, I was not being honest about my thoughts and feelings. And later, when my actions began to better reflect my thoughts and feelings, I wasn't honest about my actions.

Why are you afraid? What can the world do to you?

My biggest fear has not been what the world will do to me or think of me. My biggest fear has been the certain knowledge that my "truth" would hurt others.

My responsibility is toward my heart, not toward anybody else in the world.

Many would disagree. Most of us have been raised to shoulder our responsibilities toward others and bear them stoically through our lives, even to the grave. Perhaps such self-sacrifice creates stronger families, communities and nations. Perhaps the denial of self is healthy, making us stronger and more righteous. Perhaps it honors God.

Your responsibility is only toward your own being. Don't go against it, because going against it is committing suicide, is destroying yourself.

And what of my responsibilities toward my family? Toward my community? How dare I put my own happiness ahead of another's?

Just living is not always living. Look at your life. Can you call it a blessing? Can you call it a gift, a present of existence? Would you like this life to be given to you again and again?

Thus we come around once again to the "pursuit of happiness". Embedded in the foundation of the American State, do we dare admit to ourselves that we have no idea what it means? Or have our aspirations become the helpless pursuit of Duty?

Masaru Emoto Postscript

2008-07-26T07:53:00.000-07:00

Back in February I posted a short critique of Masaru Emoto's The Hidden Messages In Water. Since then I had mostly forgotten about it, but today I noticed a BBC news item:

Could Water Really Have a Memory?

The idea that water "remembers" what it has been in contact with is part of the essential theory behind homeopathy, a health theory popular in the 1800s that has enjoyed a resurgence in the 1970s. The "scientist" Dr. Masaru Emoto is a homeopathic doctor and its dogma apparently directs his work.

This BBC article was interesting because it assesses the impact of a 1988 paper by French scientist Jacques Benveniste in which he claimed to have proven this memory effect. The paper appeared in the respected journal Nature, though not without some disclaimers.

Benveniste had started with a substance that caused an allergic reaction, he diluted it over and over again until there was nothing left except water, and then he observed that the pure water still managed to trigger an allergic reaction when it was added to living cells.

Unfortunately for homeopathy supporters, and for Benveniste himself, investigators were not able to reproduce his results. Furthermore, a careful review of the practices in his laboratory found that his lab workers had been "subconsciously selective" in their interpretation of the raw data, reporting that "We believe that experimental data have been uncritically assessed and their imperfections inadequately reported."

This accusation of biased lab work echoes some of the major objections that have been leveled against Emoto's results.

My Thoughts

People will believe what they want to believe. Many are mistrustful of the scientific or medical or religious establishments. Rejecting established authority, we may fall under the thrall of charismatic teachers. Grasping desperately at straws of new hope, we embrace a variety of ideas that, in the harsh light of critical inspection, seem silly.

But then how many times have "silly" ideas been the source of some new advance? From Galileo to Einstein to Page and Brin, our readiness to think "outside the box" is one of man's greatest strengths.

The hard part is being willing to let go of outdated, disproven ideas and move on.

Osho: "Courage" Part 3 - The Way of the Heart

2008-07-23T09:04:00.000-07:00

This is a continuation of my summary of Osho's bookCourage: The Joy of Living Dangerously. I'm still in the chapter "What Is Courage?" -- these notes are from the section "The Way of the Heart".

Osho takes special note that the English word courage comes from a Latin root meaning heart. "So to be courageous means to live with the heart" and "The way of the heart is the way of courage," a path of insecurity, propelling oneself into the unknown.

Since Osho makes much of the English etymology of courage, it's interesting to consider other, non-Latin, languages. The Wikipedia article on "courage" includes the following:

The Tao Te Ching states that courage is derived from love ("慈 loving 故 causes 能 ability 勇 brave") and explains: "One of courage, with audacity, will kill. One of courage, but gentle,, spares life. From these two kinds of courage arise harm and benefit."

While there is no specific mention of "heart" there, I think the connection with loving and bravery amounts to the same thing. We are after all speaking of "heart" in its metaphorical sense.

The Heart Is a Gambler

Courage is to move on dangerous paths... A person who is alive, really alive, vitally alive will always move into the unknown... The heart is always ready to take the risk, the heart is a gambler.

This he contrasts with those "weaklings" who "live with the head":

Afraid, they create a security of logic around themselves. Fearful, they close every window and door -- with theology, concepts, words, theories -- and inside those closed doors and windows, they hide... The head is businessman.

The Future

In our heads we reason and "calculate", weighing risks, not meaning, filled only with what we have known. "It is the past, the dead, that which has gone." Osho argues that "The heart is noncalculating" and can proceed by love and trust as it embraces the unknown.

Head thinks about the past; heart dreams about the future.

The future has yet a possibility ... The past has no possibility, it has been used. You have already moved away from it -- it is exhausted, it is a dead thing, it is like a grave. The future is like a seed.

Questions

Freedom from the past may seem appealing, but I think in some sense man's ability to hold onto his past is essential to his humanity. I don't just mean to learn from it, I mean even allowing it to shape our identities. For example, what about the commitments we have made? To follow the heart into freedom is certainly appealing, but I've found that the most meaningful actions in my life have been those which required a long-term commitment.

But I can see that we easily cling too much to the past. What to keep and what to let go of?

Osho: "Courage" Part 2 - What Is Courage?

2008-07-22T08:56:00.000-07:00

This is Part 2 of my summary of Osho's bookCourage: The Joy of Living Dangerously.

Courage means going into the unknown in spite of all the fears... The coward listens to his fears and follows them, and the courageous person puts them aside and goes ahead... He knows the fears, the fears are there.

Accept the Challenge of the Unknown

A central theme in Osho's view is that courage is a quality of action. Consider an opportunity that is accompanied by danger and risk: fear is normal. One man will be guided by his fears and turns away. Another moves ahead despite his fears. This is courage.

When you go into the uncharted sea, like Columbus did, there is fear, immense fear, because one never knows what is going to happen. You are leaving the shore of safety. You were perfectly okay, in a way; only one thing was missing -- adventure. Going into the unknown gives you a thrill. The heart starts pulsating again; again you are alive, fully alive. Every fiber of your being is alive because you have accepted the challenge of the unknown.

To accept the challenge of the unknown, in spite of all fears, is courage... If you go on accepting the challenge again and again, slowly those fears disappear.

Why Seek Courage?

Osho reminds us that courage affords us the opportunity to experience the joy and ecstasy of the unknown. And that this very action makes us stronger, more intelligent, and gives one "a certain integrity".

"The Tao of Courage"

There is a section of this chapter in which he tells two stories to illustrate that courage does not imply being tough and unyielding, but rather that "the way of Lao Tzu" is to bend with the wind. This is a difficult thought. So for example, should one be yielding in the face of evil rather than confront and resist? But of course most of life is not about confronting, say, Nazis and Stalinists.

The second story goes on to suggest that we should be observers, witnesses of our own bodies. As witnesses to our own stories, detached, we can remove ourselves from the slavery of fear.

It is your fear that makes you a slave ... in fact it is your fear that forces you to make others slaves before they can try to make a slave out of you. A man who is fearless is neither afraid of anybody nor makes anybody afraid of him.

This detachment from my own life, doesn't that imply simply that I would be refusing to feel?

Much that I don't understand, but I can begin to imagine that instead of just being the actor in my life's story, I could stand a little aside and be the author or director. A good story has jeopardy, adventure, romance and conflict, and the actor may need some prodding to take the harder roads.

Recovering an Invalid WAV File

2008-07-22T00:24:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I was using my newish Edirol R-09HR to record a gig (Almaden Auto Festival). I had it in a shock mount on a mic stand, which worked fine for more than 3 hours. But towards the end, a bunch of little kids were dancing nearby and, you guessed it, one of them finally hit the stand and knocked it over.

After the song ended, I jumped down from the stage to inspect the situation. This recorder writes to an SD card. It has no moving parts so I didn't expect any damage, and in fact I figured it would still be recording. Nope, the power was off. But no apparent damage to the recorder so I quickly started it up again and set it to record the last bit of our set while I jumped back on stage.

Later at home, I downloaded the files and opened them all in Sound Forge -- all but one of them. Uh-oh, the 1.5GB file containing the entire set for The Iconics was invalid. Yikes!

Eventually, as one does, I turned to Google and searched for something like [invalid wav file]. In due course this led me to some forum posts that suggested using Audacity's "Import Raw Data" function. Hooray! I'm saved!

Had been meaning to try out Audacity, so I had no hesitancy about downloading. It started right up, I found "Import Raw Data" under the "Project" menu and clicked. As expected, an options window opened. I knew my format was 24-bit, 44.1kHz stereo WAV, and I thought that would be enough. Wrong. There are also a bunch of options for big-endian, little-endian.

I won't bore the reader with details of how I spent the next hour or so. Suffice to say I tried every one of the endian options, combined with several different data formats, and never did get more than noise. I even tried doing a raw import of a file that I knew was good. Still no dice.

Finally I had an idea. I knew that the WAV files had headers, and that the raw import would treat them as if they were sound data, but I hadn't considered that the header could be throwing off the alignment of the data.

Think of it this way: 24-bit stereo requires six bytes for each sample (3 bytes per channel). The importer will start chewing up bytes in groups of six starting at the beginning of the file. If the header is a size that is not a multiple of six, then by the time the importer gets to the real data, it will be out of alignment and won't interpret the bytes correctly.

I Googled my way to a nice description of Microsoft WAVE format found at Stanford's CCRMA.

The answer is right in front of me now, but by then it's 2am and my brain is toast -- bedtime for bonzo.

The next morning I can attack it freshly. First of all, I decide to dump the beginning of the damaged file and compare it to an undamaged file, and to the fields described in the diagram.

Here's the dump of an undamaged file using the Cygwin unix command "od -N 128 -x -c". Note that od writes the offsets (the first column) in octal.

0000000 4952 4646 7e24 0d68 4157 4556 6d66 2074
R I F F $ ~ h \r W A V E f m t
0000020 0010 0000 0001 0002 ac44 0000 0998 0004
020 \0 \0 \0 001 \0 002 \0 D 254 \0 \0 230 \t 004 \0
0000040 0006 0018 6164 6174 7e00 0d68 3925 b500
006 \0 030 \0 d a t a \0 ~ h \r % 9 \0 265
0000060 ffc8 3159 1000 ffe9 16f7 7b00 fffe 0793
310 377 Y 1 \0 020 351 377 367 026 \0 { 376 377 223 \a
0000100 6b00 0012 ef9b 50ff 002a cc71 acff 0040
\0 k 022 \0 233 357 377 P * \0 q 314 377 254 @ \0
...

Now here's a dump of the damaged file:

0000000 4952 4646 0000 0000 4157 4556 6d66 2074
R I F F \0 \0 \0 \0 W A V E f m t
0000020 0010 0000 0001 0002 ac44 0000 0998 0004
020 \0 \0 \0 001 \0 002 \0 D 254 \0 \0 230 \t 004 \0
0000040 0006 0018 6164 6174 0000 0000 340a ed00
006 \0 030 \0 d a t a \0 \0 \0 \0 \n 4 \0 355
0000060 0048 3878 7d00 004b 3aaf 7b00 004f 3be8
H \0 x 8 \0 } K \0 257 : \0 { O \0 350 ;
0000100 7800 0051 3d29 e100 0054 4083 9200 0057
\0 x Q \0 ) = \0 341 T \0 203 @ \0 222 W \0
...

Some observations:

The damaged file obviously has an intact WAVE header.
Comparison with the chart confirms that the the actual data begins at offset 44 decimal (40 octal == 32 decimal. Count from there).
In the damaged file, the "Subchunk2 Size" is zero. This makes perfect sense, since that could only be written when the file was completed, and the power was shut off before that could be done.

Now we can fix our problem by setting the "Start offset" for Audacity's raw import to 44.

That's it! It worked fine.

Osho: "Courage" Part 1 - Foreword

2008-07-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

I finished reading Osho's bookCourage: The Joy of Living Dangerously a couple of weeks ago and have started collecting a few notes. For the most part I really loved this short (200 pp) book and hope that I can capture the essential points and a few quotes without simply echoing the entire text.

The Joy of Living Dangerously

"Courage" is subtitled "The Joy of Living Dangerously", and that pretty much captures Osho's primary theme: courage is not "bravery" but a willingness to embrace danger.

His Foreword to this beautiful, and sometimes infuriating, book begins,

I am not here to give you dogma -- a dogma makes one certain.
I am not here to give you any promise for the future. Any promise for the future makes one secure.
I am here simply to make you alert and aware -- that is, to be here now, with all the insecurity that life is, with all the uncertainty that life is, with all the danger that life is.

Nothing is Secure, Nothing Is Certain

I would like to make you more insecure, more uncertain ... When there is more insecurity and more danger, the only way to respond to it is by awareness. ... In fact, only idiots feel secure. A really alive man will always feel insecure. What security can there be? ... Life is an unpredictable mystery.

A Christian, especially a Protestant, should disagree: "Our security is in Christ and in the promises of God" one might say. But Osho squarely attacks this view.

If God knows what is going to happen the next moment, then life is just a dead, mechanical process. Then there is no freedom ... Then there is no possibility to grow or not to grow ... Then there is no glory, no grandeur. Then you are just robots.

Of course anyone who has thought seriously about pre-destination from a believer's perspective will reject that simplistic view. And one weakness of Osho's book is his use of convenient strawman representations of the various world religions. As I once thought of it, pre-destination is, in effect, a separate dimension to reality, a dimension outside of time where God, the artist, God the painter of the picture, God the creator surely knows the end from the beginning because He/She/It sees the entire landscape, the entire timeline, the whole map revealed. Thus our glory and grandeur is intact, despite a Being who knows the end.

Yet Osho is not attacking God's foreknowledge without reason. Central to his argument is the all-important conclusion: "Nothing is secure... nothing is certain." I appreciate the fact that he does not mince words: a Christian can be completely secure in his or her faith, yet Osho will argue that this security actually saps one's courage to explore life's "unpredictable mystery". And what about scientific certainty? Of that we shall see ...

"A man is not yet a man if he is afraid of freedom."

But why is this so important to a discussion of courage? Why does Osho claim that, "A secure life will be worse than death"? Because he wants us to taste the rawness of life's uncertainties and surprises: "That is its beauty! .. When you say you are certain ... you have committed suicide" because you have abandoned the essential freedom of human life."

But "freedom creates fear" and mankind has always sought instead a warm, fearless certainty. Science has helped, but chiefly man has embraced or invented philosophy and religion to create certainty where none exists. Osho warns that "Knowledge will make you certain" and religious knowledge makes us certain about things that we really cannot know. And this certainty kills our freedom.

Arguing that the very nature of life is uncertain, Osho demands that an intelligent man, therefore, must always remain uncertain, alert to the ever-changing flow of life, ready to respond with his whole heart, participating in life as a continuous surprise.

Don't call it uncertainty -- call it wonder. Don't call it insecurity -- call it freedom.

Promoting Your Local Business On Google - Part II: Intro to AdWords

2008-06-24T09:52:00.001-07:00

As I said in Part I, the most important thing you can do for business costs nothing: set up your Google search listing using the Google Local Business Center.

But once you've done that, the next thing is to advertise. Yes, this will cost you money, but not as much as you might think, and you are in complete control of your budget. A reasonable campaign for a local business could cost as little as $20-40 a month.

To get started, you'll need to add the Google AdWords service to your Google account. Start here: http://adwords.google.com. Just use the same Google account you used in Part I with the Local Business Center.

New users of the AdWords service get a chance to choose between the Starter Edition and Standard Edition.

I have not yet used the Starter Edition, so we'll be talking about the Standard Edition here. Click the button next to Standard Edition and then Continue.

As a new user, you're treated to the "Sign-Up Wizard" to create your first Google Ad.

Click the "Create your first campaign" button. In the Google AdWords system, each campaign is a collection of "ad groups". An ad group consists of a single ad, and possibly variations on it.

The next wizard screen is the first step of "targeting" your ads to the audience you want. Targeting is the key to any effective ad campaign -- the success of Google AdWords is largely due to the superior targeting it offers over yesterday's media like newspapers, magazines, radio and TV.

This page lets you choose your target language and geographic area (location). Language is presumably an easy choice. But for a local business we need to pay very close attention to the location targeting. Click on "Change targeting" and let's get started.

Location Targeting

A click on "Change targeting" opens a large pop-up panel "Target customers by location":

The system selects an initial region for you based on where you appear to be located. For example, if Google thinks you're located in the USA, you'll see the entire United States selected.

For a truly "local" business this never what you want. If you're a plumber in San Jose, California, why waste money advertising to people looking for a plumber in New Jersey? Location targeting allows you to specify the particular area of interest.

To begin with, enter the name of the city where you are located, for example, "San Jose", then click the "Find" button.

The map displays rectangle "bounding box" around the selected city.

How Location Targeting Is Used

I think it's helpful to understand how Google is going to use your location targeting information.
It's really used in two somewhat different ways.

In business searches for a location, such as [plumbers near san jose], either as a regular Google web search, or on Google Maps, and
In "viewport" searches on Google Maps. This where a customer is looking at, say, San Jose on the map and then enters the query [plumbers].

Let's get back to the "Target customers by location box". Take a closer look at the selection box that appears on the screen:

I want to point out a couple of things here.

Nothing is selected yet. Even though San Jose shows on the map and is highlighted in the list above, it's not really selected until the checkbox is checked.

The list is a hierarchy of geo-political entities. For example, click on "San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose" to display the next larger area:

You can also point on the map to pick regions. In the image below you can see a small "X" where I've clicked on the location of Mountain View, and another popup list of the enclosing geo-political entities.

Finally, below is a screen shot after selecting several cities in the Bay Area. Notice that the box at the lower left lists the regions you have selected.

Now click "Done" to close the location targeting popup and return to the targeting wizard. Click "Continue" to advance to the "Create an ad" window.

Creating Your Ad

... under construction ...

Promoting Your Local Business on Google - Part I: The Local Business Center

2008-06-22T18:49:00.000-07:00

Most people think it costs money to promote your business on Google. Well, advertising on Google does cost money, but not as much as people think. And the most important ways to promote your business don't cost anything at all.

Your Google Business Listing

Google has a service called the "Local Business Center" where you can set up what amounts to a Google Yellow Pages listing. The best part is that this service is 100% free.

Example: [Chiropractor near Soquel CA]

In these Google Maps search results you can see a mix of "organic" business listings and what appears to be a single Local Business Center listing. Guess what one is from the LBC?

You're right if you guessed, "Dr. Z's MindBody Shop". It's the only one on the page with a picture and it's got more descriptive text.

How To Create a Local Business Center Listing

To create your own Google Local Business listing, you first need a free Google Account. If you already use GMail or other Google services, you have an account already. Otherwise, to create a Google Account visit https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount.

Now start by visiting the Local Business Center at http://www.google.com/local/add.
If you aren't already logged in using your Google Account, you'll need to do that now.

You'll probably be greeted by a form that says "Enter your business information below." Like this one:

Go ahead and fill out the form, with your basic information and click "Next". The following screen allows you to either "claim" an existing listing or enter a new listing.

Google may have obtained an existing listing for your business from some other source. You should "claim" that listing if there is one. Otherwise add your new own listing.

After that, Google asks if you want to enter some additional info about your listing. It includes

Business Categories
Hours of Operation
Payment Options
Photos
Videos
Additional Details, where you can add things like "Parking Available: yes"

The most important things here are the Categories and a Photo.

Submit your info. You may have to correct some bits before Google will accept it. For example, I had entry for "Return Policy" that said "ALL SALES FINAL". Google objected to the "excessive capitalization" until I changed it to "all sales final".

Now you'll get a page asking you to validate your listing, and giving you two choices:

By Phone
By Postcard

By postcard takes weeks -- you really want to do the phone validation.

When you click "Finish", you get the phone validation screen:

If you're at your phone, go ahead and click "Call Me Now". In a few seconds your phone will ring and you can enter whatever code number they've given you.

Here's what the screen looks like while it's calling you:

And here's what it looks like after you've successfully entered your 4-digit code:

That's really all it takes. In the past, it may have taken several weeks for these listings to appear, but now it may appear in our index in less than a day.

Video Photo Montage: Carmel Sunset

2008-06-09T00:38:00.000-07:00

Besides all the timelapse photos I took in Carmel in April, I also had about 75 shots from the beautiful sunset Evelyn and I enjoyed at dinner. Like the baseball pics, the question then is what to do with them.

Traditionally, one picks out the 2 or 3 best ones. That's fine, but it's not going to capture the experience. So I decided several weeks ago to try making a video.

This is my third attempt. The first two efforts were simple rapid-fire image sequences. This can work (most of my baseball video is done that way), but the problem here is that the images are all framed differently, and a third of them are vertical. They just made me dizzy.

So... I decided to individually zoom and position each frame. This is way too much work, but after a while I got much better at it.

The most important lesson I learned is to use the horizon to fix the vertical position AND use the sun to fix the horizontal position whenever possible. This creates a much more natural look.

I also found a few different ways of dropping in the vertical frames without disturbing the flow.

The Procedure

My basic procedure to first manipulate the still images.

Throw away bad ones.
Adjust color and exposure. For a sequence like this, the images have to be consistent, and need to get gradually darker through the sequence.
Straighten. I normally try to avoid straightening, but unstraightened horizons look terrible in a sequence.

Then, save them in reduced size in a separate directory. In this case the originals are 8 megapixel 3264 x 2448. They will be going to 640 x 480 video. I saved them as larger 1200 x 900 to give room for zooming. Next time I would give myself even more room and use 1632 x 1224 (i.e. exactly 1/4 the original).

If I wanted to use them as an actual image sequence (like the baseball game) I would use Canon Digital Photo Professional to rename and resequence them. In this case I didn't need that and I just used Google's Picasa to resize them.

Next I imported the images into Sony Vegas Pro, not as a single sequence but as individual stills. Vegas then allows you to put all of them on the time line as a still sequence -- the frame duration is setable in the Edit preferences. The default of 3 seconds seemed like forever, so I changed it to one second. But I wound up back at 3 seconds before I was through.

Introducing Chip-o-Vision

2008-06-03T15:46:00.001-07:00

Last week I went to a baseball game in Oakland with Evelyn and Elizabeth and watched the A's get whupped by the Toronto Blue Jays. I took lots of pictures, and then didn't know what to do with them all. Decided to experiment with presenting them on video:

Cinnimon Haze Videos

2008-05-27T13:33:00.000-07:00

Way back in 1966 at Earl Warren Junior High School in Solana Beach, some friends and I started a rock band, eventually known as "Cinnimon Haze". We managed to hang together in some form or other through most of our teenage years then went our separate ways.

In 2000 we started the process of hooking up again with each other, and the next year we actually played for a couple of parties.

With help from my wife Evelyn we captured a pretty decent video of the band performing at a party October 24, 2004. Originally released only as a private DVD for band members, I've just finished uploading the separate tracks to YouTube for the whole world to enjoy. Check out the whole gig, or just a selection of favorites at my YouTube channel (http://youtube.com/user/cchapin53).

Here are some of my favorites:

Gambia Videos

2008-05-16T12:16:00.000-07:00

I've finished uploading all my Gambia videos to YouTube.

Best way to watch them is with my Gambia playlist.

Of particular interest are the Darsalami dancing video, and The Pump (also in Darsalami).

Quotes from Woman on the Edge of Time

2008-05-12T00:27:00.000-07:00

"But you say you respect difference."
"Different strengths we respect. Not weakness. What is the use in not actively engaging life? It passes anyhow."
p. 175

Jackrabbit speaks to Connie before leaving on military service:
"Risk, danger . . . we don't find them evil," Jackrabbit said slowly. "... I don't want to be ignorant. The creature inside a shell is a soft slug, like a worm. Who should protect me? ... Who'll stand between me and death, me and sickness, me and drowning? I must serve the talent that uses me, the energy that flows through me, but I mustn't make others serve me. Don't you see the difference?"
p. 262

Luciente speaks of her "sweet friend" Jackrabbit:
"[Jackrabbit] made me able to be . . . careless. Silly.
... Gradually I felt that loosening gave me energy. Jackrabbit was water, I could float. Jackrabbit was wine, making me tipsy and glad of the moment. We were always laughing. We never stopped flirting. [Jackrabbit] was full of grace. [Jackrabbit] made me want to know things that on my own I would never have grazed."
p.307

My personal favorite quote:
We can only know what we can truly imagine. Finally what we see comes from ourselves.
p.322

Woman on the Edge of Time

2008-05-11T23:39:00.000-07:00

Finished reading my second Marge Piercy novel today, and wanted to jot down a few thoughts. I found Woman on the Edge of Time to be a surprising story on many levels.

It's the story of Connie Ramos, a woman who finds that she has the ability to project her mind through time to the future with the help of Luciente, a similarly gifted woman of the year 2137.

Or, it's the story of Consuela Ramos, a poor Hispanic woman who has been oppressed her entire life. By family, by men, by society, by institutional health care.

Or, it's the story of an egalitarian utopia where sexism has been eliminated along with masculine/feminine pronouns. Children are born in the laboratory so the biomechanics of reproduction are no longer a factor. Babies are shared among three male and female "mothers", but also raised by the community as a whole. Production is balanced with a view toward sustainability and all the people share the fruits of their labor. Sounds good, eh, comrade!

And in fact it is all these stories.

Initially I found the book interesting but a tough read. There was a lot of detail that struck me as rather dry, and my first reaction to the social issues was that it had a very 1970s feel (Woman on the Edge of Time was published in 1976). And the book is slow paced.

But by about halfway through I found that it felt less dry to me, and by then it no longer struck me as dated. Piercy definitely succeeds in contrasting two worlds: the institutionalized, mechanized world of over-consumption in which we lived 30 years ago, and still live today. And a utopian vision of equality and personal achievement, where woman's unique role in reproduction has been eliminated, removing the last barrier to equal participation with men.

Piercy draws her utopia with a fine point. Details include men who nurse children, as well as women. Polyamoury among both men and women. Conflict resolution, both personal and between elements of society, and even military service. It's all there.

Even more detailed is her description of life for an institutional mental patient. Painfully drab, dull, dehumanizing and lacking in freedom.

The conditions are painful and dreary, but the pace gradually accelerates throughout the second half of the book until finally I could hardly put it down.

In the end, I found Woman on the Edge of Time insightful and deeply affecting. Certainly not dated, it is perhaps even more relevant today than it was 30 years ago.

I'll give some quotes in a separate post.

Between this and the last Piercy I had enjoyed an excellent Sheri S. Tepper book -- hope to write about that one later.

Note: A much more competent review by Michelle Erica Green can be found here at Green Man Review.

Gambia Photos

2008-05-11T22:12:00.000-07:00

The group of us who visited the Gambia have created a single Picasa account and put all our photos there. Check out: http://picasaweb.google.com/nakangadef. Most of these are at the default Picasa resolution of 1600 max pixels in any dimension.

My photos are also available in highest resolution (up to 10 megapixels) on my own Picasa account here: http://picasaweb.google.com/chapin.chip. Since there are almost 150 albums in my account, here's a table of contents for just the Gambia photos:

Album #0: Houston

Album #1: Lisbon

Album #2: Dakar

Album #3: Dakar to the Gambia

Album #4: Barra

Album #5: Gambia River Ferry

Album #6: Kairaba Hotel

Album #6a: Flowers at Kairaba

Album #7: Bakau

Album #8: Brikama

Album #9: Darsalami

Album #10: Peace Corps

Album #11: Serrekunda Market

Album #12: Sheraton Hotel

Album #13: Homeward

Besides that, I've been slowly putting up the video clips on my YouTube account here: http://youtube.com/user/cchapin53.

He, She and It

2008-05-01T12:54:00.000-07:00

Just finished my first Marge Piercy book. I had the pleasure of reading this while away on vacation, so there was as much time as I wanted to read at length.

Brief comments...
... I enjoyed the use of the parallel narrative, with a story set in 16th century Prague taking place at the same time as the primary, 21st century story. After a while, though, I confess that it became a little tedious, with the one story foreshadowing events in the other a little too predictably.

... The future world is well worked-out, though on relatively conventional eco-apocalyptic lines. The first chapter includes a ton of back-story, almost as if she wanted to get it out of the way in hurry, or that it started as an outline for the whole book. I think it would have been more fun to have let it be inferred and revealed slowly.

... Elements of the general milieu remind me heavily of Starhawk's Fifth Sacred Thing (another recommended by the same friend). Not just the post-apocalyptic world, but more importantly the role of the grandmotherly liberated wise woman. You also have Greenish/mystical good guys vs. the Republican/rationalist-Christian bad guys.

... In my opinion the story bogged down toward the end. Possibly this is my male bias speaking -- the narrative not only becomes much more overtly feminist toward the end, but also spends a great deal of time refining the nuances of the various relationships, then painstakingly resolving each and every one of them.

Some quotes ...

My problem is that my despair dyes everything a sullen gray. I have always viewed despair as sinful self-indulgence; perhaps I truly believe that relinquishing hope is the inevitable result of sitting still. If I do not keep moving, if I do not have projects and the heady clamor of problems to be solved, I will subside into a state of near-fatal clarity in which I will begin to doubt the value of everything I normally do. The result is a personal ice age in which I lie embedded in my own glacier that is burying the landscape I usually love but to which I am now as indifferent as the ice I have exuded. (p.158)

Information plus theology plus political bias is how we sculpt our view of reality. (p.194)

Being entertained is not the same as being happy. (p.246)

Gambia: Wednesday March 19

2008-03-20T03:43:00.000-07:00

Charlie and I had the day to ourselves, since our companions are up country at Farafina (sp?) until Thursday some time. Our adventure of the day was a trip to the Serrakunda (sp?) market.

We took a taxi to the market (D75) rather than trying to get there by short hops at D5 apiece. It was a good idea, because once you get close to the market area things are pretty chaotic. Within a minute of being let out, a local man named Ibrahim had attached himself to us as our new best friend and wouldn't go away. He was quite insistent, and we gradually just got used to him rather than try to make a scene.

The good news is that he did indeed show us parts of the market that otherwise we wouldn't have known about, or would not have found. He also "helped" in negotiations to buy things, which probably means they quadrupled the price before starting, so that he could get his cut after we negotiated downward.

Our first purchase was two silver rings that Charlie bought, D700 for both (about US$35). We bought them from the maker, who sized and polished them right there for us. Originally they asked D700 each.

Later I bought some batik sheets that I liked a lot. Originally the vendor was asking for D700 -- I got the first one for D350 and the second one for D325. I'm told that these women dye the sheets themselves, but I'm not sure I believe that. The market is a great place to buy batik, with a huge selection. Again, I really don't know what the price would be for locals, but I'm sure it's much less. Our "guide" is certainly getting a hefty commission, which he's basically extorting from the vendors.

I bought a silver necklace from a Mauritanian vendor. Then I asked if there was some place that sold drums. Our "guide" said sure and took us to a little stand hidden deep inside one of the markets, where there were two little tourist drums. I said no, and that should have been the end of it, but one of his assistants rushed off to get a few more drums for our consideration. He returned a few minutes later with three nice djemba's. D1800 for the larger one, or D2000 with a fitted bag. About US$100. I didn't like the setup -- we weren't able to actually see the selection, just the ones they had brought us. But I liked the idea of getting a nice drum and being finished with it.

Negotiation wasn't very effective in terms of price. Finally I agreed to D1800 for the drum and bag together. I asked around later, and I think that's about double the going rate. Oh well. I guess I haven't told the story of the D1000 bottle of gin yet.

Part of the transaction involved exchanged US$100 bill for Dolassis, and this was easily taken care of with a vendor two stalls away. In fact I got the best rate of the trip: D19 to the dollar.

Afterwards, Ibrahim led us back to the street without incident. I knew he'd want some money and thought I'd give him 100-200 Dolassis (even though he must have made a killing on all the commissions). Well he asked for 500 (US$25). I didn't have much Dolassis left anyway so gave him a 5 Euro note (about US$7.50). I'm sure this was still excessive, but it avoided any problems. he seemed happy, I don't think he knew the exchange rate.

Ibrahim was going to take us to where we could get taxis, but I wanted to call it a day, so I flagged down a passing one. Instead of D75 to get back to the hotel it cost us D100, because Ibrahim & co. demanded a D25 commission from the driver. The driver told us afterward that they told him to charge D200, and give them 100, but he wouldn't do it.

Back to the hotel through back streets of Serrakunda, which was great. Passed one djemba factory, which is when the driver told me I could get my djemba for D800-1000. Well, it could have been worse, and it saved time, and it would cost much more in the USA of course.

In the evening we took a taxi about 10km to the new Sheraton hotel, that one of Doug's Gambian friends had been describing. It really is magnificent, but it's pretty isolated. We had drinks in the outdoor bar overlooking the pool and the beach, then dinner in the adjacent restaurant while a local band played on a stage in the middle of the pool. It was windy but nice.

Gambia, Monday March 17

2008-03-18T12:09:00.000-07:00

Sainey ____ picked us up in a van at about 2 or 3 in the afternoon and took us down to _____ to meet part of his family. We stayed for about 30 minutes and met everyone, and had some cold orange juice. Originally I thought that was all we were doing, but afterwards we continued on to his home village of Darislami, which is right on the southern border with Senegal, to meet the rest of his family.

When we arrived at the family compound the kids were doing some great drumming on empty fuel containers while one boy, dressed as the devil, danced around. This is part of the ritual for the Moslem holiday _____. No, they weren't doing it to impress us, this is just what they happened to be doing when we arrived.

A highlight was when Evan got up and danced with them!

Another highlight was the delicious meal they served us -- roasted chicken, eggplant and cabbage served on seasoned rice. Yummy.

Later they showed us around part of the village, including the community well (installed by Catholic Relief Services) and the health center. Built by a German agency, it includes a solar power system.

After a while we had to go. Back into the van for a slow trip up the rutted dirt road until we finally hit the pavement near _____.

Back at the hotel around 7pm we decided it was cocktail hour and broke out the gin and tonic. Ice, however, required two separate calls to room service, and we had lost half our drinkers by that time. Evan, Charlie and I tried to fill the gap.

Gambia, Tuesday March 18

2008-03-18T11:55:00.000-07:00

Today we visited the University of Gambia and spoke for an hour to about 40 CS students. Topics were mostly related to Google web search, Google Maps and Google Earth.

Later we visited the Peace Corps office and met with two of the directors. Recall that Doug had been a Peace Corps volunteer here for two years and so he still knows a lot of people. We spent about an hour with Rodney ____ discussing all kinds of development questions. After lunch we met with Yassue (sp?) _____ mostly just to say hello.

Afterwards, at about 4pm, Charlie and I said goodbye to the others and took a taxi back to the hotel. They are heading up-country to _________ for two nights. We decided to hold the fort here at our five-star hotel. Yeah, it's tough ...

Walls and Roofs

2008-03-17T07:13:00.000-07:00

In this part of Africa rural people live in compounds -- a walled area containing several living structures. Historically the walls and huts are made of grass, and we still saw many of these. But bricks or cement blocks are also used extensively.

Driving south from Dakar towards the Gambia we passed a lot of brick compounds that were completely empty and devoid of any habitation. Just the brick walls surrounding the space. We also saw many concrete huts that were roofless. In fact, in some areas it seemed as if all the huts were roofless and abandoned.

I don't know the reasons for this, but one thing struck me: it's much easier to put up a wall than a roof. A wall lasts, a roof blows away. A wall's weight rests upon itself. The wall depends upon itself. The roof must depend upon the wall. The roof is suspended in the air. The roof must be light -- a wall can be heavy.

And is there a useful metaphor here? Yes! I'm sure of it.

Gambia: Arriving in Banjul

2008-03-17T06:55:00.000-07:00

Sunday Morning

The call to prayer starts echoing from the nearby mosque some time before 6am and lasts around 15 minutes. Charlie is still asleep, but I'm up, prowling around by the light of my penlight. In the corridor outside our room, a young man is asleep wrapped in a blanket, across the door to the outside. The others begin to stir a little after 6 and by 6:30 we're out the door in the rapidly growing predawn light.

We walk quickly down to the ferry carrying our bags. The streets are empty at first, except for a pig and the odd dog, but we see more people as we get closer to the landing. A small crowd is formed at the gate to the ferry pier and a security officer seems to be letting in a few people at a time. It appears to us that the gate is closed because the ferry is not yet ready for boarding, but we are wrong.

A young man inevitably asks to help us. He says we need to buy tickets but the line at the ticket office is too long. He offers to buy the tickets for us. This sounds like a scam, but after Doug checks out the ticket line, we agree. The young man asks for no money in advance, but goes off and returns with six tickets, for which we pay the normal rate. He then explains that we have to crowd up to the gate and hold our tickets in the air so that the security officer will let us in, otherwise we will miss the ferry.

Indeed, his advice is correct. The odd thing about this gate is that each time it is opened, as many people cram through as possible, with no sign of a ticket. But the guard sees our white faces with tickets held high, and in we go along with about 20 other people who press in from every direction.

Then down the long pier to the ferry. Some people are running past us, and I begin to worry that we're late, even though it is not yet 7am. But we make it on board.

The ferry ramp is oily and I worry about slipping as we climb up. Once on deck, we step carefully to avoid the pools of oily water. There are enclosed passenger areas on each side of the vehicles, but we opt to climb the ladders to the open upper deck. No sooner are we there than the ramp is raised and the ferry departs.

The trip across the Gambia River is windy but the air is warm and it is pleasant enough. It takes about 30-45 minutes, with the sun low in the eastern clouds.

On arrival at the landing in Banjul we grab a couple of taxis (really, they grab you -- it takes getting used to) for the trip to the "Senegambia" district about 20 minutes south of the city of Banjul. This is an upscale tourist district and our destination is the five-star Kairaba Hotel, originally built by a former President of Gambia, and now owned by a Kuwaiti hotel magnate.

The taxis are not allowed inside. But as soon as we walk past the security guard at the entrance gate it is a different world. Perfectly clean. Quiet. Immaculately maintained.

The staff greets us like long-lost relatives. Doug had called them, first on Friday to let them know that we would be a day late, and then Saturday night when it became clear that we could not get across the river. They are so happy to see us after all this. It is early, about 8:30am, so our rooms are not yet ready, but they promise to arrange something so we can clean up. While we are waiting they invite us to sit in the lobby and someone serves us cold juice.

Within a few minutes we escorted to beautiful modern rooms. Time to cleanup, then breakfast. Ahhhh.