Tjilpi

Australians All Let Us Rejoice.....

Have you heard of the Frenchman who has invented something along the lines of Esperanto? 

It is called Globish.

Basically, as we Orstrailians say - often - in our particular dialect of English, Globish comes down to a lexicon of around 600 English words with appropriate syntax and grammar applied. The French bloke reckons that Globish will make do for a reasonable conversation in any International Transit Lounge in any airport in the world.

Don't mistake me. I think he is onto a good idea - especially as I already know the 600 words.

He doesn't claim that Globish will work for an in-depth philosophical or religious conversation; but it will get you by, when undertaking basic communication task.

Where have I heard that word 'basic' before?

Today, as I continued my exploration into the future of the past, with regard to the developing and processing of 127 film, I discovered a distincly non-Globish word on a packet of a US made product: Kodak D-76 developer.  The word is 'entwickler'.  You should be able to discern [see] that on the photo above. I like the sound of entwiclker.  Said loudly, it thrusts from the tongue spittle laden.

Unfortunately for me, my daughter Julz, has taken my English-German/German-English dictionary with her to University so I am unable to determine the etymology of the word. I know I could Google it; but give a bloke a chance to tell his story.

When I turned the packet over, and looked at it closely, I discovered that there are 15 languages represented on the reverse side of the packet.  They are a bit small to photograph with my present equipment.  However, the list begins with EN for English and ends with AUS for Australian English. 

To me, that means that Kodak recognizes we Aussies use a distinct non-"English" dialect.

Viva la Revolution!! Long live the Republic!!

My first attempt to translate the above into Globish comes out as:

Going around in circles is good for living.  It is a good thing if the public lives and rules for a long time.

A Huge Leap Forward - or Backward?

Who would have thunk it?  I was thinking I would have to send my exposed Baby Brownie 127 film to Croatia to have it developed and printed; but all that has changed.

I found a special interest group on Yahoo's flickr who are into retro cameras and retro film.  I even found a group who are dedicated to exchanging tips and tricks on how to develop and process 127 film. 

After a few exchanges with one of the English members of the group I wandered out into my shed and swept the dust off the developing tank you see in the photo.  I bought the tank and reel in Oxford in 1981 and used it to develop black and white 35mm film in the unused darkroom of the Pathology Lab of the Horton General Hospital in Banbury.

I was convinced that the reel would only take 35mm film; but with a little encouragement from England I learned that I could separate the reel into two separate pieces and then put the reel back together, using its integrated bayonet fitting, and so set the reel to take 127 film.  There is printing on the bottom of the tank which indicates that the reel will take 35mm and 126 film.  There is no mention of 127.  I guess the manufacturers of the tank thought, in 1980 or so, that 127 film was dead and buried. 

Luckily they continued to make their reels in a way which allows 127 film to be loaded. How retro is that?

So, the next step for me is to learn to load the reel in daylight with some old 127 film.  Next I will have to practice loading the reel in a change bag or darkroom.

After that I'll load the Baby Brownie and at the same time look into the purchase of developing and processing chemicals, photographic paper and all kinds of other paraphernalia, as I begin a new era of exploration forward into the past.

What a Happy Boy!

I was recently shown by Hal of Ranch Ramblins how photos [pix, pics, piccies] which I may happen to publish on the web, have data attached to them in an EXIF file, which could easily expose my role as a CIA Operative to the public. 

As we all know, that could ruin a girls career prospects.  So, it's back to basics.

I've pulled my Baby Brownie from its hiding place. The first problem I had was to find film for it which would take pix with no digital Exif info attached. That problem is solved. The next problem I have is how to develop the negatives and then print them.  I've got some old B&W gear in the shed but I think I'm past doing that well - especially on a once off basis.

Today 4 rolls of 127 film arrived by airmail. The rolls were despatched from Texas.  You can see them in the photo above.  Each box has 4 sides, naturally, but each side has something different printed on it.  On one side there is information printed in English, and on the opposite side there is information printed in Croatian.

When I saw that I said, to myself, You beauty! 

You see, Margs youngest daughter [YD] has just landed herself a Croatian boyfriend.  YD was working on a cruise ship which sailed off the west coast of North America up to Alaska.  YDs job was to sell diamonds to the punters on board. His job was to be the Ships Engineer. Something clicked.

During her travels Marg is going to meet YD and the Croatian Engineer at his home in Croatia. 

I figure that if the Croatians produce 127 film there - they probably develop and print it too. And that should allow me to have some photos produced in the manner of those taken when I was very very young and dressed in girls clothes. [Vide the reference above.]

The first photo shows me and Mum when I was 7 months dressed in a dress!  The second shows my rolly polly self behind my elder skinny brother. 

When we were kids all I had to do to win a fight was to sit on him!

There is nothing like a 4cm x 6.5cm contact print produced by a Kodak Baby Brownie. You can see from the photos how instant happiness is produced by the simplest of cameras.

I hope the Croatian connection works.  If not, like the Little Red Hen, I'll have to do it myself.

It's been a year....

  It's been a year since my sister Robin phoned me about 8 am on 14 March 2006 to tell me that Dad had died. 

I had spoken to him by phone just three days before; and he told me quite lucidly that he didn't think he could carry on much longer.  I knew the electrical circuitry in his heart was malfunctioning and willed silently and selfishly that he would stay around at least until my birthday.  It was coming up on 24 March and Dad would have phoned and we would have had, possibly, a last laugh together.

Dad had begun to whittle down the things in his life many years before he died.  I received a wall full of books about 10 years ago.  The shoddy photo above, taken with an APS camera in July 2001, shows Dad giving my son Hugh a fishing rod which Dad had assembled himself from bare bone parts.

Today I am wearing one of Dad's old watches.   It is a 1968 Omega Dynamic - the model was the first of its kind  - powered by gravity and the movement of ones body.  It was "aerodynamically" designed to fit in the groove between the radius and the ulna near the wrist.  You can't let it sit still too long or else it stops. I started it up again yesterday simply by putting it on my wrist and moving around. 

Dad never stopped until last year.  He was always gardening, reading, writing, thinking, listening to music, tinkering or entertaining himself and others.  He was playing Suduko the night before he died in his sleep at 87.

It's been a year....

Detective Work

I know Pablo and I share an interest in Sherlock Holmes. I devoured the short stories when I was in 8th Grade. 

Later, when studying logic, I realized that Sherlock never used deduction - it was inference which he relied upon - to solve his cases.

Hal and I have been wondering if it might be possible to find RoundRock using the clues which Pablo tantalizingly leaves behind.

I thought it would take me a whole weekend of sleuthing work to find Round Rock. It took 3 hours.

Fortunately, Pablo has a search engine built into RoundRockJournal and I was able to use that to go over clues he has left in the past - in fact I went right back to the beginning when he mentioned the meteorite impact of some 340 million years ago; one result of which, it is thought, was the creation of Pablo's Round Rocks.

There is more information on the meteorite impact site here

http://geosciences.missouristate.edu/geonews/MSUgeosciencefactsheet01.pdf

and here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weaubleau-Osceola_structure

Pablo had mentioned that Round Rock was within the shock wave area formed by the meteorite impact. 

Using that information [which is illustrated in the links above] my detective work was simply a matter of looking for Lake Marguerite within that area. Pablo had already published a Google shot of it on RRJ. I realized that most Lakes in the area show up in brown so I surfed for brown objects within forested areas inside the Weaubleau-Osceola impact site. It took some perseverence but I finally found what I was looking for.

One can see Lake Marguerite, at Round Rock, centered in the image above. 

To the west of Round Rock one can see a light green open meadow. There is a barely visible track which runs across it from west to east leading to Round Rock.  It was on that track that Pablo was recently spattered with mud.

I have removed the Latitude and Longitude information from the Google Image above, as I am sure that Pablo would prefer it that way.  If you want to find Round Rock you'll have to find it yourself. I've given you enough clues.

But, don't you think that seeing that green meadow puts us all in the picture a little better? I can see, standing in the middle of the meadowed area, Pablo, grinning at the chicanery of life.

Ulike Sherlock, who would have taken a snort of cocaine upon solving such a case, I think I'll make a cup of tea.

Places of Interest

Now that Kim has moved to Las Vegas for the climate we have more than a few things in common! 

Desert conditions, waste disposal etc. 

I've put in a high view of Alice Springs, from Google Earth, on the left.

It seems that in Las Vegas they call the square dark collection centres at the bottom left of my image "Wetlands".  Here in The Alice they are called Sewerage Ponds.  Either way they attract birdlife.

I am also including a shot of what we locals call The Space Base but which is officially known as The Joint Defence Facility - Pine Gap.  I'm surprised to find it on Google Earth, but if you take a close look there is some kind of mask over the image.  Pine Gap, as it is known to most Australians, has been a cause celebre on many occasions.  Demonstrations outside the gates. Christians for Peace jumping the perimeter. Stories of Nuclear Weapons stored in Underground Silos.  The list goes on.

However, the Australian and US Citizens who work out there have some really good connections to excellent listening and watching satellite devices in the sky. 

For example it is possible to listen in to Cell Phone calls in other countries.

I thought I should let Pablo know about this.

Somewhere in Kansas City

I know I said I wouldn't publish a map; but a satellite image is a different thing.

Isn't Google Earth wonderful? 

I was messing around with it this morning.

I take Wednesday mornings off for a little R&R and to tidy up my life. 

This morning I have to get the Land Rover Re-registered out at the Motor Vehicle Registry [MVR].  Seeing it is over 10 years old; it is now regarded as an old car and has to have a vehicle inspection done every year.  I don't mind that and always take it to the MVR, rather than to a private concern to have it checked.  I want to know if something is wrong.  I've got to get that done before 2pm when I start work. Having looked at the patient list yesterday afternoon, I know todays session is going to be a doozy.

I was trying to distract myself from thinking about this afternoon by playing around with one of my favourite projects: The Pursuit of the Elusive Pablo.

On Google Earth I found an image of somewhere in Kansas City which has wiggly streets.

It is nothing like the straight line layout of the Old East Side although it is a design used in some of the newer developments in Alice Springs. 

There is something very skeletal about the image which appeals to the anatomist in me. However, I couldn't dissect it much beyond the resolution you see above; except I did get to a point where I could see that the north side of one of the streets had recently been resurfaced.

I guess they are going to do the south side and then the middle. Or maybe that has already been completed.

The Google Earth image of my place is at least a year old.  A playground was built in the park behind my house about a year ago and yet it does not appear on the image when you fly in to have a look at 5 Burke Street.

Suburban Names

I've been polishing up my Spycraft Skills.  I've been searching for the real Pablo for about two years now. He likes his privacy but  I reckon I have finally found him.  I know all about not having privacy - especially when junkies drive or walk up to my front door every now and then.  My distinctive town car with its BEDO licence plate is easily found, especially as its rear end is visible from the street when it is parked under my car port.  I live at the circle in the middle of the map above.  You can see I live on a T-junction and cars often stop there to give way.  Each time I hear a car stop I think: Oh, no, it's another junkie.  So I can easily understand why Pablo likes to remain behind a veil of anonynimity.  But I can't resist letting you know that I have found a similar map which shows where Pablo lives!! Pablo gave the game away by mentioning the suburb in which he lives in Kansas City and I was able to put two and two together.  I've sent him a hint that the chase is over!

Alice Springs does not have suburbs.  Even though we are a town of around 28,000 there is only one Post Code for the whole place - 0870; or 0871 if one happens to have a Post Office Box.

Real Estate Agents uses local names for various pretty distinct areas in Alice Springs.  For example I live in "The Old East Side".  I used to live in "Gillen".  Nearby to me is "The New East Side". "The Old Race Course Area" is to the north.

There was a move recently to divide Alice Springs up into suburbs, each with their own Post Code.  The Mayor pointed out that if that happened people would no longer have Alice Springs included in their address.  Should we have suburbs, my new address would turn out to be: Greg Winterflood, 5 Burke St, Old East Side, NT 087x.

Many people who live in Alice Springs find that there is a certain glamour [not quite the right word; but it will do for the moment] about living in Alice Springs.  Where is the glamour in saying that you live in Gillen or in The Old East Side? Well "The Old East Side" does sound a little interesting - and it is - but it could be in New York, or anywhere else.

So, for Alice Springs, the suburb idea has been dropped.  It is not for those of us who like to be known as living in The Alice.

As If...

As if [EXIF] I would continue using a camera that can be interrogated by anybody in the world.

I've resorted to using the camera I took my first photograph with, when I was all of 8 years of age.

Break into that Hal!

By the way, does anybody know of a source of 127 B&W Film. I've searched; but could not find?

Retired Cold War Spy.

A Little Gamble...

  I'm not sure if regular readers will know the name Kerry Packer.  Kerry was a competitor of "our" Rupert Murdoch who was originally Australian, but is now a US Citizen. Rupert owns Fox News and lots of other stuff.  We're not sure how we feel about him.

Anyway, Kerry was worth around $5 billion when he died and was regarded as the richest Australian; but that is probably because Rupert emigrated for business reasons.

There is a story about Kerry.  Kerry liked to gamble.  He was a bit rambunctious.

One night he attracted the attention of the Owner of a Casino somewhere in the US because he was lashing out lots of money and winning.

The Owner approached Kerry and asked if his money was genuine.

Of course it is, said Kerry.

How much have you got? asked the Owner.

Enough, said Kerry. How much is this Casino worth?

Around $79 million, said the Owner.

I'll toss you for it, said Kerry.