Crumbs, concrete bus seats that move by thought power, and now this —

This is one of my photos:

I can’t specifically remember taking this but I’m sure it was the South Bank of the Thames in London in 2008.

Now, just 20 mins ago, I was browsing a review of a camera  (you can’t have too many cameras…) and I saw this as one of the sample images:

Aaaaaarrrrgh, I thought. Have I accidentally included a reviewer’s image as my own?  It’s in my book about to be sent off for printing.  That would be very bad.

But no, mine is distinct.  It is just a coincidence. This is obviously a popular place on the river bank.  Here’s another pair  — here’s mine:

And here’s the reviewer’s:

Mine are much better of course.  That’s why I’ve included them in my new book.

Actually, they are not the same phone boxes, but … the two images have similarities.

So how about that?  Another coincidence, and just at the right time.

     Peace, man.    Yudhie's restaurant, Bali  December 2010  © Peter Croft 2014

Wow, what an interesting, action packed day. It was a lot better day than Monday.

First, a heartfelt thanks to all the people who’ve wished me happy birthday.  It’s nice to be remembered.

Today was the day for my MRI and meeting with the gastric surgeon, and it all happened.  I was up at 3am for a widdle and couldn’t go back to sleep, when I suddenly realised I hadn’t updated or printed my weight graph for the surgeon.  Up I got and one thing led to another and I didn’t go back to bed.

I got to the bus stop at five to six am and a guy I’d briefly spoken to on Monday was there again (of course).  But amazingly, the concrete bench seat that had been 50m away from the bus stop on Monday, and that I’d joked about to him as being a bit useless, was right there at the stop!  It had been moved where we wanted it since Monday!  What is this, thought power?

We chatted a bit and he said he works as a financial investigator, a financial fraud accountant. Wow. I wish we’d had a chance to talk more — I’m intrigued.

This time the bus/train/bus to the Mount Medical Centre was smooth as silk.  I got there dead on 7:15am, but they kept me waiting until 7:40am anyway.  Sigh.

The MRI of my upper spine and shoulders was uneventful.  It took about 20 mins and wasn’t as enjoyable as the one in West Perth last year, not as musical.  The WP one was full of rhythms, syncopations, beats …  it was like a Steve Reich performance.  This one was just lots of loud hums and clunks.  Nothing to report – it’s only precautionary. If the orthopaedic surgeon finds any problem when looking at the scan, he’ll contact me but I don’t have any appointment.

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Then I had time for a quick toasted sandwich and coffee for breakfast in the building next door, and off to the surgeon’s rooms.  He was late.  Coming from his home in Waikiki, he was stuck in traffic.  I hope he appreciates that it happens to us all next time I’m late.

While I waited, we all (two other couples) started talking, and it turned out that one from both couples had just had the sleeve operation done, a couple of weeks ago.  How is it?  Fine, no problems they said.  In on Monday, out on Wednesday, no pain, no difficulties.  You just have to get used to a strictly controlled liquid diet for the first 6 – 8 weeks.  Anything you consume must fit through a straw – thin soup, custard, yoghurt, egg nogs, pureed veges (baby food packs), V8 vegetable juice and so on.  Nothing fizzy or carbonated.  Definitely no beer.

After that 6-8 week period, as long as there are no problems, you can eat anything you feel like, within reason.  No big steaks or Hungry Jacks – the food has to be capable of being put in a blender and reduced. You don’t have to do that — it’s just a measure of the food’s … toughness?  Bulk, actually.

He arrived then and I was first in. We had a good discussion about sleeve or Roux en Y procedure – look up Gastric Bypass on Wikipedia.  One fixes type II diabetes within days but is a slightly more difficult procedure with slightly increased long term risks of bleeds and leaks.  The sleeve still fixes diabetes, but it takes longer, up to a year. It depends more on the weight loss.  But it’s a less risky operation and has better long term results.  OK, sleeve it is, then.

However, he has to take my gastric band out first, as it’s too difficult to combine the two operations. The band will have caused scar tissue around the top of the stomach and that has to settle down for a while.  I’m having a colonoscopy on 24 March, so the band removal is scheduled for Wed 2 April.  Nett cost to me after rebates – $1,500.  $3,000 to put it in, $1500 to remove it. Oh well  🙂

That pushes the sleeve operation back to mid year.  Bugger.  I want to start seriously losing weight before our high school 50th reunion in October.  Looks like I’ll have to take the Optifast much more seriously.

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Then it was out onto the street at about 10:30am and I walked back to the Esplanade train station. Google Earth tells me it’s 1.1Km.  I did it OK, a bit weary but not too bad, much better than Monday.

I debated walking up to Hay Street but didn’t feel up to it and decided to do what I’ve always been meaning to do  —  I took the train south instead of north.  To Mandurah.

To be honest, it’s dead boring.  There’s nothing to see except dry bushland and the backs of  businesses.  It took about 30 mins and when we got there, I just bought a sandwich, iced coffee and the paper and sat waiting for the 20 mins for the reverse journey.  The very nice station staff tried to persuade me to take the bus into Mandurah but I was too tired today — another time.

So we set off at midday back to Clarkson, one end of the line to the other.  This is all on one fare, btw.  If you don’t clock your card off at Mandurah, it doesn’t know you went all the way south before going north again to Clarkson.  The total cost was about $3 I think, at Seniors’ Card discount.  Parking fees alone would have been much more than that.

The return journey was also dead boring.  It was relieved by a phone call from a good mate wishing me Happy Birthday on the train! The seat got very hard, I was falling asleep … it took 85 mins all up, getting to Clarkson at 1:25pm.  This time I got the right bus, to drop me nearly opposite my place on Marmion Ave.  I’ve had a 90 min snooze and now I’m OK again.

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This morning I had a much better look at the freeway congestion. The choke points are definitely where the side entry roads join the main flow – people can’t merge without braking. It’s Joondalup, Whitfords, Hepburn Ave and so on.  Once you get past those, the flow into the city opens up and everyone can keep moving. Near Karrinyup, Leederville and the Polly Pipe, it’s clear and open.

How to fix it?  Merging is like a zipper – each link must make way for the next at the exact spacing.  So if we could work out a way to space the cars on the freeway with gaps to allow the equally spaced cars on the entry ramps, they’d be able to merge easily.

How to do it?  Difficult.  If we had cars controlled by electronic sensors in the road, then each car could be spaced in a controlled way and two streams merged together like a zip.  It might come, but not for some time.  I don’t have an answer —  I’m thinking about it.  Steel barriers occur to me …

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PhotoBook number six (Veni Vidi Pici Vol III) is ready to send off to the printers now.  Bloody hell, talk about proof reading.  I have been over and over that book and still I found errors this morning — small spelling slip ups, mistakes in the information I’d written, slight changes in wording needed even at this late stage.  I think I’ll have to go over it one more time before I send it off.  Luckily this one is pre-paid so no price shocks this time.  The discounted cost was $46 per 40 page copy, and I order two copies.

So that’s three of those done, and I’ve pre-paid two more so I’ve got two more projects started.  I need to get back to my Memoirs.  There’s a long way to go with that. I’m only up to early Bruce Rock so far.  This will be published as a pdf as it will be quite a long book.  It’s been an eventful life and I have many, many photos and a long, deep memory.

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Sirens, helicopters …  there must be a fire nearby.  I can’t see it but the chopper is right over me.  Can’t smell any smoke.

Trigg Island, December 2010  Pentax K-5  ISO200

Woo hoo.  I came as near to exhaustion as I think I’ve ever come yesterday, near to collapse.

I have to have an MRI scan (just routine) tomorrow, Wednesday, at 7:20am at the Mount Medical Centre in Mount’s Bay Rd in Perth.  Knowing how difficult freeway traffic might be and how hard it is to park there, I decided to take bus and train.

So yesterday I did a trial run, just to see that the timing would be OK but also to get into the city this way without the car for a nice day’s city browsing.

Up at 4:45am (I woke before the 5am alarm) for a quick shower and small brekky, then walk 250m to the bus stop on Marmion Ave for the 6:02am bus to Clarkson.  No problems.  Immediate train from Clarkson station, which is the northern end of the line, so plenty of seating.  Very nice, smooth, quiet ride to the city.  The train arrived at the Esplanade station at 6:58am as promised.

Then the walking started. It took 5 mins just to reach the bus port, looking for the 350 bus I’d been told about by Transperth on the phone.  The Blue CAT used to go along Mount’s Bay Rd but no more.  I was assured this bus would be easy.

But I couldn’t find any 350 service or any other suitable one.  The info office is closed at that hour, so I thought I’d walk to the Med Centre, about 500m, I thought.

It was twice that, 1Km.  But it was quite nice at that hour and I made it just on 7:20am.  I found the radiology clinic just to make sure I don’t get lost tomorrow.  There was plenty of vacant parking at that hour, by the way.

Then I started walking back to the city.  I’d noticed a bus earlier, but didn’t see one this time so I just kept walking. Increasingly tired, though.  I stopped and sat for a while, but it didn’t help much.  I walked on, up Mill Street, a moderate slope, and had to stop there too. The feelings of fatigue just didn’t go away.

It rained!  Such a fine morning, yet here were these big drops, enough to seek shelter, and to wet the seats I wanted to sit on.

So I reached Hay St near Boffins, just about dropping.  Bought paper and had a Subway breakfast sitting out on the pavement, very nice.  I thought that might help recovery, but no. I was feeling woozy and my vision was being affected.  I wanted to go on, to browse the shops, but I just couldn’t, so I set off back to the Esplanade bus/train station.

Phew!  By this time I was dragging my feet with fatigue, needing to stop every 100m or so.  Going through my mind was the phrase, “I can’t go on. I’ll go on” that I’d read a few days ago. Keep going, keep going, you’ll get there. Shuffling, almost.

But I got to the Transperth office and found it’s a 950 bus, so that’s sorted for tomorrow.  Then another 5 min walk, with a rest stop, to the train station.  Drooping, I had to sit down.  The train was fine and I reached Clarkson and got a bus straight away.  But it was a 483 which stops 800m away from my house.

That 800m was a big task.  I was shuffling by now, so tired I just wanted to lie down in the street. I finally reached my house but knew I wouldn’t be able to get up the front steps, so had to go through the garage and back door.

After some water and dropping everything, I hit the bed and slept for 3 1/2 hours!  I have never been so exhausted before. It’s a combination of a BMI of 41, blood sugars averaging 14 and not enough walking recently.  I measured it out last night using Google Earth.  I walked a total of about 4Km!  You’d think I would have lost some weight?  No, I’ve bloody well gained 0.4Kg this morning.  Dammit.

At least I know tomorrow will be easier as I’ll catch the 950 bus from the bus port to the Mount, so won’t have that 2Km walk there and back.  I expected to feel incredibly sore this morning, but not so.  Phew.

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The MRI scan is just to make sure there’s no narrowing of the spinal openings at the top of my spine after the shoulder trouble I had late last year.

At 9am in the same Medical Centre, I have my preliminary consultation with the gastric surgeon to talk gastric sleeve or whatever.  I need more info on which type to have and what the restrictions will be afterwards.  I’m sure he’s going to tell me I will need to lose 5-10Kg before he’ll operate, so I’ve started the 5:2 diet, using Optifast for the two “fasting” days each week.  It’s quite hard to stick to it and yesterday was a bad day to be doing it, so I didn’t try.

But first I have to have a colonoscopy, as there would be no point having 90% of my stomach removed if I had a bowel problem.  The earliest for that is 24 March, so I wait.  The proctologist is quite concerned about my blood thinning and anti coagulation medications, so I’ll have to stop them a week before and rely on aspirin.  That’s OK with me.

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Sitting on the train yesterday, I could see the traffic on the freeway and even at 6:15am it was pretty congested, a sea of brake lights and stopped cars.  But it seemed congested for no reason.  There was no crash or road work, so why was the flow actually stopped in places?!

I think it’s the inability of drivers to merge properly as traffic enters the freeway.  I read years ago that in fluid dynamics, if two fluid streams (cf streams of cars) are merged, either the velocity must increase, or the pipe diameter must increase to maintain the same flow rate.  Since neither can happen in dense freeway traffic, congestion is inevitable but some drivers slow and brake too much. This has a multiplier effect. It only takes one driver to brake too hard and soon all the cars are bunched up and slowing to the point of stopping.  Yet a kilometre down the road, the traffic has opened up and is free flowing again.

What’s the answer?  Longer merging lanes?  Merging lane redesign?

No, I think it’s driver training, to leave greater gaps between cars so that side traffic can merge into those gaps and there’s far less need to brake.  I make it a rule to leave at least 30-50m in front of me for that reason, and not to brake unless absolutely necessary, but I constantly find cars want to fill that gap and reduce my spacing.  Sigh.  Making Perth drivers see sense will never happen.

I've been preparing photos for my books, and these ones leapt
out at me after being ignored for many years.
This was the original from 2000 at the Sydney Olympics.
I was on the ferry at night, trying and failing
to hold the camera steady on the harbour. That's the
bright moon on the right.  © Peter Croft 2000, 2014

This is an effect called Glass.
 It's a bit kitsch, but I like it.

Different base image, effect called Oil.

Daub effect.

This effect is called Explode.

A similar photo, the Sydney skyline I think, with effect applied.

Scotland.  Done with a program called
Dynamic Auto Painter (I bought a paid copy.)

America's Cup, Fremantle 1986 - Rottnest on horizon.

Van Gogh?  Rape seed paddock near York, WA

This is not real art, but I know what I like.  All images © Peter Croft 2014

5:01am

Up at 5am this morning, before dawn. Very erratic sleep these days – up every 2hrs for a whizz, can’t get back to sleep.  Anyway I opened the front door for a look at the day and saw that, very bright!

It’s just above the sun, which hadn’t risen yet.  It’s not a star because it has a disc shape and doesn’t twinkle, so it must be a planet.

5:08am

5:13am

I suspect it’s Jupiter as it’s so big and it’s not the red of Mars.  I’ll check it out on-line at one of my favourite (checked daily) sites, http://www.universetoday.com  Recommended.

UPDATE:  nope, it’s just good old Venus.  I usually think of it as the Evening Star, but it’s near the Sun so it’s there in the morning too.

Credit – Universe Today, created using Starry Night Education software.
Easy.

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I’ve just read the news item about 15min cold showers being as good exercise as an hour of walking.  That should work for me – I have a coldie every morning from the beginning of November to the end of March every year. Saves the power/gas bills!  But the problem is, you have to be shivering.  That’s how you get the exercise.  No shivering here I’m afraid, not until winter.  I’ll try to keep going in winter.  It’s OK once you get under.

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I have to be at the Mount Medical Centre at 9am next Wednesday for a specialist appointment.  I thought that was bad enough, the problem of how to get there and park in peak hour.

Then I realised I also need a spine MRI in the same building.  I phoned for an appointment on the same day since I’m going to be there anyway.

Yes, Mr Croft, how about 7:20?  What, in the morning?!  Yes, or we could do it in the evening.

OK,  0720am it is.  So now I’m planning a bus/train/CAT bus trip for next Wednesday.  I’ll do a trial run tomorrow, I hope.  Certainly getting up early isn’t a problem these days.

Bottom left:  RAW,  top left:  camera’s jpeg,  right:  my working of the RAW file. See more below.

I’ve been asked what RAW means in digital cameras.  It’s the raw data as read out from the pixel sites on the camera’s sensor, all 16 million strings of 1’s and 0’s.  Good cameras allocate 12 – 16 bits per pixel, so 12 x 16 million bits is a lot of data, usually around 25MB to 30MB.

The lower left photo above is the RAW file with no processing in camera.  Flat, dull, not quite sharp, low saturation, and with some lens defects as well.

All digital cameras do in-camera processing (in the instant after you take the shot) to give you a jpeg file as well.  I nearly tossed this shot, ignored it – until now, five years later!

Here’s the RAW again:

Next below is the camera’s jpeg:

And here’s my rework this morning:

I’m rather pleased with that.  It goes into Volume III of my Veni Vidi Pici series, in production now.  Volume II should be back from the printers this week.  Churning ’em out.

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Yesterday a friend forwarded one of those viral emails to me, one that purports to solve all Australia’s problem with one simple idea.  At face value, it sounded a bit good, but at the end it degenerated into one of those rants against politicians.  “Cut down on pollies perks”, their allowances, take away their government credit cards etc etc.  Make them use their own.

I get a bit tired of this kind of talk.  I happen to support parliamentarians.  If the job is so easy and lucrative, let the critics step forward. 

• To be selected, you’ll have to go through years of party membership, then a gruelling preselection process;
• You will lose your entire private life if elected;
• You will work 18 hour days seven days a week; 
• You’ll have assistants in your office but the phone will never stop ringing at home or your mobile; 
• You will be exhausted by all the travel;
• You’ll be exhausted by 14-16 hour house sittings;
• You’ll have to sit through endless boring meetings;
• You’ll have to give endless meaningless speeches;
• You’ll have the media hounds examining every word you say or print looking for slip-ups; 
• Your financial affairs will be gone over, looking for gotchas;
• Your marital affairs will be exposed looking for any other affairs; 
• Your entire life history will be exposed, looking for any dirt at any stage; 
• You’ll be pressured to favour special interest groups, and undermined if you don’t;
• etc etc

Roll up, roll up ladies and gentlemen, easy money, free credit cards, free travel!

As far as I’m concerned, they earn every cent. If it’s easy money, why don’t the critics step up?

I’m not saying the sender endorsed all these slurs, he doesn’t, just that I get tired of people who compose this stuff.  I’m a great admirer of many politicians and former politicians.  It’s a tough job!

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I’m trying to psych myself up for the drastic gastric.  The list of dietary changes needed is daunting, as is the list of dietary mineral and vitamin supplements needed due to lack of food absorption.  But if I can drop all my other medications as the kilos drop off, it balances out, I suppose. It’s scary.  But I feel so bad at the moment that it seems as if it can’t be worse.  I’m in danger from too high blood sugar which is not responding to medication.  It’s making me feel so tired and lacking in energy and strength.

My food bills should go down markedly (although they’re pretty low already) and since I’m already saving about $25 per week on dog food, plus I’m saving a big weekly bill for beer, I’ll have a lot more pocket money to spend on cameras!  Heh heh.

US Dept of Energy

Bloody hell!@%*#  The bombs and missiles just keep incoming.

I was told a few days ago that no, I can’t borrow a friend’s camera because I might damage it!  I’d told him in an email that there is a big special on this camera at Amazon and I want to have a look and feel and try out of his.  Obviously Amazon specials are brief so my look and feel of his camera would be even more brief.  But no, “we’ve made a policy of not lending our stuff because we’ve had damage in the past. I hope you won’t take offence.” 

Of course I take offence!  Of course I take offence!  All he had to do was say, gee we’re using it at the moment, I’ll bring it along to the cafe but I need it for our article.  He is too stupid to think of a tactful refusal.

This is yet another of the insults and bombs that are being thrown at me in recent years.  Is this paranoia?  NO!  I don’t in any way think people are plotting against me or are out to get me, but bloody hell, they may as well be.  They are just bunglers.

Dog spare me from people who do things because they think they have to help me, but don’t talk to me first or ask permission.  I don’t interfere in other people’s lives!

I found out a few days ago that there is actually no time limit for prosecution of offenses in tax matters, any liability goes on forever, not the seven years that I thought.  I stayed silent when I had strong suspicions of irregularities.  I had to stay silent because of a kinship and also because I knew that if I took my concerns to the limit, the results would have been catastrophic.  The kin would have been ruined!  I had to keep quiet.

I had a plan to resolve things, but another stupid person stepped in behind my back and “fixed the problem”.  When I found out, I said NOOO!  But too late.

The result is that I’m now left with a lifelong fear of investigation by the tax people.  I can’t live with this, and having tried very hard to resolve it, I’m left with no option but to go the legal route.

Even if no offences have been committed (and I can’t believe anyone could be so blind as to think so), any investigation is going to be traumatic!  I’m not going to allow myself to be caught up when I’ve tried for 16 months to warn and resolve it.  So be it.

With the September atrocity, the gross breach of my privacy without warning or permission, I am suffering actual physical harm.  My health has taken a bad turn for the worse.  Thank you very much.

“Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them.”

The former doesn’t work.  I’ll take the latter.