Alexander 6, V48.

T.G.I.T.
Thank God It's Thursday.
T.G.I.A.E.
Thank God It's April's End. Well, almost.

I'm almost there with my PC. Installed some of the most essential parts of it and some stuff remain that I might see to it later and gradually, whenever I need to use them. There are some data, however, that are not to be retrieved back again, forever.
Certain plans in my mind now. First, I'm going to check with HDR plugin for the web browser, and soon I might be able to embed HDR images (small ones of course) in here. Thanks to Blochi (Christian Bloch, the author of The HDRI Handbook: High Dynamic Range Imaging for Photographers and CG Artists +DVD). In his website, www.hdrlabs.com, I've asked the question and here you go:

Yeah, there's two methods coming to mind right now.

One is the ancient PTViewer, that's a HDR panoviewer with auto-exposure. I have some demos and a full tutorial write-up here: http://www.hdrlabs.com/tutorials/internet.html

The second one is newer, and is exactly what you describe: an image viewer with exposure slider: http://pfstools.sourceforge.net/hdrhtml.html
The visual interface needs a bit refinement for my taste, but its big advantage is that it works without Flash or ActiveX components or all that bogus. Just plain Javascript...

(actually, I'm pretty proud they used one image from our sIBL collection as demo piece )

And that was his reply. The first option seems a bit complicated for me though but I have to go through it again and again and see. It uses the FJPG format (compressed HDR) and, as Blochi says, it produces artifacts (seen in the tutorial he provided). The other choice seems better but it is an open source and I didn't try anything of it yet. I'm not sure my programming or my commandline skills are up to it, but it gives a nice result and it is exactly what I want to do: a slider to change EV and see the image consequently.

Also, lies in my head some ideas for creating a turntable to place objects and rotate them easily and coherently for Object QTVR. Like the usual QTVR which is based on a 360 panorama, Object QTVR is the same but let's say, you taking an image to the INSIDE instead of the outside. Such thing enables you to have a 3D object in your hand and probably ready to be used in games and so on, and all is based on a REAL object and not a 3D rendering! Along with this turntable I have to work more on my new little tripod. If you visit the HDR Labs website above, you will notice exactly the opposite of what I'm thinking of! Like 3 meters long tripod. I wonder how they operate the camera to make a panorama from that level! It's surely a hideous work, but I'm pretty sure that such views are just AWESOME.
As for my little fella, the little tripod, it might help on taking panoramas on low level despite the fact that the head is not steady and easily shaken probably. I didn't get the chance to test it with my camera just yet because of the PC problem that almost took most of my time now and then. I might have to use an extra screw to fit the thin screw of the little tripod to the wide hole of the camera body. Thinking about it now, I think I might do something in such a way to rotate the whole tripod without moving the head after tightening the camera to it.

On the "domestic" plane, I'm trying to be active on www.writing.com this time and trying hard to push myself further with my writings. Wish me luck!
The work is going on with the translieration and recently just trespassed the limit of line #2350. The end is near!

__________
1129. thus Alexander and Birbuár agreed to the conditions
1130. and after Khaznútím and his Khákaluts left the place
1131. he started to dig the ruins with Birbuár to get the body
1132. and searched for a decent place to be buried in
1133. then Birbuár asked Alexander not put a grave stone
1134. to avoid digging the grave again by the people of the village
1135. thus Alexander took care of the whole task
1136. because Birbuár could not touch his own body
1137. or else, the fires shall burn him deep within himself
1138. and all was done, under the light of three moons
1139. then when everything was done and the body is in rest
1140. Alexander looked back at Birbuár and this he said
1141. "shall you prove you are a wicked man again,
1142. I shall let your body out to the ground again by my hands,
1143. and now fulfill your promise and answer my questions"
1144. Birbuár smiled with a calm soul for Alexander and this he said
1145. "be sure O good king I will never be a wicked one now,
1146. tell me your questions and by God's will shall I answer"
1147. then Alexander started his questions as follows
1148. "who am I? where am I? what shall I do here?
1149. what is the secret that I am searching for?"
1150. and Birbuár raised his eyebrows and smiled
1151. and this he said: O good king, maybe I shall answer some,
1152. but verily your case is a difficult one to answer

Alexander 6, V47.

Please God, let this month be finished. Amen.
Still coping with many aspects in my life, starting with the car maintenance and ending with building my PC back again. I've brought up the PC back home but yet, so much to install, and for this reason I will keep on logging to the net and surf from the laptop until I see that everything is somehow back again to normal in my PC. Photoshop is still not installed nor Canon drivers. I spent most of the day yesterday going over the critical updates and fixing the browser and the essential plugins like QuickTime. I do miss working with my camera indeed, and that reminds me that I have to clean it soon. It's a regular check.
Car-wise, the car had been a subject of overheating yesterday and the problem was solved (temporarily) just by adding more water. Yet, I do think there is something wrong with the hoses or the radiator itself. I've been driving and keeping an eye on the scale and until now, everything seems O.K. although, at moments, the needle goes little bit above the half. That makes me suspecious a bit whether this is useful or not, and I might have to go on another visit to the garages. On the other hand, I've changed the wipers myself and, after doing them, I would suggest to everyone to just do it in a garage! My movements were those of a jerk today (and still). I can't walk straight or do anything right. I wonder why despite the fact I'm having a HAPPY life indeed! (... and please note the sarcasm).

Well, trying to push myself back to writing again, as I said before, and this time with a poem I made yesterday. I called Stranger Boy. As to why I called it this, or what is it about exactly, that's something I do like to consider as a secret. As for Alexander's story, there are no hits at the moment and no reviews. As for now, it is time to get to work with my transliteration...
__________
1105. thus Alexander kept silent for a moment
1106. and then he said to Khaznútím: what I am doing here?
1107. and Khaznútím replied: no orders arrived to me from Above,
1108. to tell you where to go and where to settle,
1109. and no knowledge lies in me, to tell the future,
1110. but I do wonder, how come a man like you in faith,
1111. accompanies a sinner like this wicked Shágí?
1112. thus Alexander answered: but this Shágí,
1113. he is regretting his deeds and sins,
1114. is it just and fair to keep him in custody and pain?
1115. and for eternal unrest to be with no solution to his case?
1116. I am verily sure in Heavens there is a way for everyone,
1117. to be forgiven in his life or after his death
1118. the Khaznútím then became silent for a moment
1119. and then this he said: your talk is of a noble man,
1120. yes, indeed what you are saying is true,
1121. and for you, and only for you,
1122. I shall spare this mortal from my servants,
1123. if he can prove that he is good after his death
1124. and then Alexander wondered about the last sentence
1125. and this he did ask the Khaznútím: and how this is to be done?
1126. and the Khaznútím answered: his body should be buried first,
1127. and I shall tell him my tasks later on,
1128. but, no help from you O Alexander, or else!

Alexander 6, V46.

" Honey, I'm home!"
This is what my PC was saying to me yesterday. I got it back after upgrading my graphics card and formatting the main partition of the harddisk. I decided not to change anything with the theme, language settings, ..etc until I finish everything related to the windows update. Since the connections here in Kuwait suck big time for the third day by now, this is a process that will take a long time, and through that I will keep using my laptop at work and at home as well. I've lost some data that I cannot get back again, this is for sure. Gracefully, most of my RAW images are stored in an external harddisk. The problem now is, there is no escape from installing things back again. Even though I still have most of the softwares or games stored in another partition of the harddisk and not gone with the format (like Photoshop), yet, I have to install it again because it doesn't run without some certain adjustments to the system. This is going to be a LONG process.

Along with my PC, I bought myself a little tripod that is originally for use with webcams I believe. A little metallic one. It doesn't have much of a precise control but I'm thinking of using it with my camera later on, and hoping the screw would fit properly into my camera's body. This will help me out in capturing low level photos and also in case of panoramas and capturing the zenith with my fisheye. I'm thinking though if I can do something to catch a proper nadir with it, somehow. It is, though, hard to deal with the head since it has no scales and the knobs of controlling it are awkward somehow, but I'm hoping that it will bear the heavy weight of the camera itself and the lens! Unfortunately, I don't think I will proceed again with my camera work until I get my PC back to what it was before and install most of the softwares I've lost, specially the Canon softwares and drivers.

Meanwhile, since I'm a bit of an idle camera-wise, I've decided to work a bit further with my Alexander. Recently, I've uploaded the whole 6 chapters into Writing.com (I think I've posted that before) and I'm working on making more people read it. It has many spelling mistakes, typos and change of names (unintentionally)..etc, I'm sure. But I can't wait until I finish from my transliteration to do this. The PC's down time could be somehow a relief for me for some time for now to do other work. Not only work related to my writings, but also related to my car!

ğazúz. kil e-unasąím yún daądaąt calamim mabąúlún... xalá wáħád, vi-qaąuc mí him calam lú birún vi-birát. liMaz má aqvar ayħav? liMaz ayná matąúf? qumrát be-harrá, xalá juwwabún, li-zmén ga-yixwan ŧarká...

__________
1081. but Alexander raised the sword of Charnagút
1082. while Birbuár shouted: no! no good King!
1083. he will get mad at you, nothing escapes his wrath!
1084. then a strange flame appeared from no where
1085. in the middle of the field between the creatures
1086. the heat filled the place severely
1087. and the sweat of Alexander dripped like water
1088. then a voice came out of the flames
1089. "Alexander! you finally arrived!"
1090. thus Alexander replied: who is that?
1091. and the voice said from the flame as it was
1092. "I am the Khaznútím, the keepers of Hells, O Alexander"
1093. at that time, the knees of Birbuár started to shake severely
1094. and Alexander replied to the voice firmly
1095. "I never heard of your name O Khaznútím,
1096. who and what are you?"
1097. thus Khaznútím replied back with a laughter
1098. "yes verily you do not know anyone here,
1099. your name is written in the records of Heavens,
1100. the hero who comes from Caqobia and raise to Heaven,
1101. the king of the later times of Daynur,
1102. who rules over the Daynur and its tribes,
1103. who owns the Charnagút and the iron heart,
1104. the man of the bravery and faith"

Alexander 6, V45.

Well. Monday is here and I'm waiting for troubles as usual.
Picked up my PC to the workshop yesterday and not everything I wished for was present. The technician told me that programs that are designed for Windows XP 32-bit do not work in Windows 7 64-bit, while some people say the opposite (and some of them even tried it). To me, I'm really not in the mood for more risk about this, so I decided to leave it alone and just told the man to install the usual XP for me.
Meanwhile, I will continue to use this laptop for most of my surfing around the net in the mean time, while I fix and install and upgrade my system when I get to get my PC back home. The worst thing to do ever with a new (or formatted) PC, is to build it again like you used to have it. I hate this process so much.
I'm trying to have my fun with some games on the laptop, and been completely idle. Not exactly, but with some translation work for Alexander's story when I'm in the office. I've uploaded the text of Alexander's story (English version) into Writing.com, but it is not exposed yet to the public. I think I need to work more a bit on them until I can release it completely. But I can't say what I want to do with them since, fixing the grammar or the spelling is somehow impossible for me now to do!

The connection had been so !@#$%^%^%$^&%^%^. I can't watch a single clip on Youtube or any where. As they say, when troubles come, they come together, and I believe now that this is true indeed!

__________
1057. Alexander kept an eye on the moving stones
1058. and looked back at Birbuár and said: what is this?
1059. Birbuár then said with a low voice: I hope this is not what I think
1060. Alexander wondered for a moment and then he stepped forward
1061. and there out of a dark corner jumped a huge thing
1062. some creature with fangs and claws
1063. while the eyes lustered with green and red
1064. then Birbuár shouted: Khákalut! Khákalut!
1065. run! run O good king!
1066. but Alexander stood firmly and showed his Charnagút
1067. while the creatures gathered around him
1068. and they numbered between four and five
1069. while Birbuár took refuge behind Alexander
1070. and this he said to Alexander: we should run king,
1071. those things were eating my flesh and bones,
1072. O Birbuár what did you come to, O sinner!
1073. but Alexander said: calm down! what are these?
1074. and Birbuár replied: these are the Khákalut,
1075. they are the dogs of the Khaznútím,
1076. he who keeps the Hell and calls the sinners,
1077. he sends his dogs by night to eat the flesh
1078. to torture more and more those who sinned,
1079. and tonight it is my turn to suffer,
1080. Oh how awful is the feeling of pain!

Alexander 6, V44.

Another busy day to be. God, is this month is ever going to finish? Long weeks and many stuff been going here and there that just made my mind scattered.
In the coming posts, I think most of them will be blank without any images. Most of my photography plans are postponed as well because of my PC problem. Now, I'm here in this office working with two laptops; one I'm typing this from (mine), and the other is a work laptop that my boss asked me to check it for viruses. In a little while I'm going to get out of this place and go back home to pick my PC then head to the dirty roads and streets of Hawally, where the word "traffic" lost its meaning. It's the only place on Earth where the road moves and the cars are stand still!
The boredom that stroke me yesterday made me start out some game and do some fun tests on Facebook. I had an account there that I didn't care much for it before, but I guess with this clogged mind, I need to have to entertainment now and then. I've started an aquarium in a game called Happy Aquarium. Well, I always wished to have one for real but I think I can hardly take care of it daily with such a messy life, so here you go. Something to fullfil my desires, even though virtually.
Still trying to push myself further for more writing...

__________
1033. then Alexander thought for a moment
1034. then this he said to Birbuár: and how can you help me?
1035. after I find your body and bury you your soul will not be here,
1036. and to the kingdom of Heavens you shall go
1037. and Birbuár answered: yes, indeed, but I still have things to tell you,
1038. things you might need to know before I leave this life here,
1039. my father Árúc was verily a wise man and one with knowledge,
1040. and he taught things before his death, but I was never good
1041. then Alexander said with a frowned face
1042. "this better be true, or else you shall never rest!"
1043. thus the two of them stayed in the old house
1044. until the night spread over the sky
1045. but there was no sun or one moon
1046. but several moons revolving in the heavens
1047. thus the light was enough to see the way
1048. and Alexander took the hand of Birbuár and went out
1049. then Birbuár walked slowly in the calm streets
1050. while dragging Alexander behind him by the hand
1051. until they reached a pile of stones on the ground
1052. and Birbuár stopped there and made a sigh
1053. and Birbuár said to himself: yes, I deserve it,
1054. we reached the place O good king,
1055. here lies my house, and my body just below that
1056. while a sudden move in the stones appeared

Alexander 6, V43.

A disastrous day. My PC went down and I can't turn it on again. I think it is mainly a corruption in the registry of the OS. Writing this from my laptop which I rarely turn on at home. I have to look after a good computer workshop, instead of the stupid one I used to go to...
I will try to consider this stop as a little vacation for myself... away from facing the monitor most of the time. Well, still I do have the laptop, but I wouldn't be able to do much with the laptop. It's not made for heavy tasks. As for now, my backup plans would be to get a new motherboard and install Windows 7 with maximum RAMs and a good graphics card suitable for working with Photoshop (and not gaming), while keeping my old hard disk with all its data as an external hard disk. I can put it in an external case. I'm sure it's going to be costly but well, my salary and a bonus were just put into my account this week. Easy comes, easy goes. As for now, I think I can't do much imaging, but only to be calm and post verses from Alexander's story... and writing poetry if I can have the inspiration!

__________
1009. then Birbuár urged Alexander to show his Charnagút
1010. but Alexander refused and said: something in me says no
1011. thus while the crowds were getting closer to them
1012. Alexander looked up into the sky and thought
1013. then suddenly he shouted with all his power
1014. "Oh! What is this!"
1015. while the people looked up to the sky above
1016. Alexander held the hand of Birbuár and ran
1017. they crossed the crowds in a hard way
1018. and everyone started to run after them
1019. while Birbuár guided Alexander through the roads
1020. the roads of the village was winding left and right
1021. and some of them were hanging in the air
1022. while Alexander ran and looked around him amazed
1023. and inside an old house with no door they got in
1024. waiting for the crowds of people to pass by and go away
1025. then Alexander faced Birbuár and said to him with anger
1026. "you are verily a wicked man Birbuár,
1027. how much wickedness you have done to others?
1028. and you wanted me to show my Charnagút there?
1029. in the face of innocent children?"
1030. and Birbuár stuttered in his speech and said
1031. "O good king, I was indeed a wicked man,
1032. but help me to end this suffering and I shall help you!"

Alexander 6, V43.

Alexander 6, V42.

Salary is here and my hand is itchy! I'm biting my fingers trying to save some now! With the volcano in Iceland and its effects on Europe, my thoughts are shaken further for the possibility of going to Ireland this year. Well, I still have some images to work on I guess!
Mentioning the images here, I just remembered that I had in my stock some images that I didn't process from Failaka. I thought I finished them all but I didn't. Some of them, well, not so good to my eyes but uploaded for fun in my Photobucket, and maybe one only will be uploaded to the stock to see if it is accepted, and ironically, it is the one that I had problems with the most. It is a small panorama for a hall or a guest room situated outside of the old abandoned house that I snapped its façade before:

The Old House...

The Guest Room

Such rooms or halls are usually kept separated from the main house and typically used for men gathering, or as Kuwaitis call it, Diwaniyah. I liked the ornaments and decorations in the ceiling and when I stiched this the first time I liked it because of stretching angle into the horizon making a sense of a wide room somehow. But I discovered many problems in stitching and mainly because the repetitive patterns, as I believe. Tried to minimize it to the best again and stitched but there were still errors that I had to fix in Photoshop later. Might not be obvious on a small scale but definetely would be in the original, which I'm planning to upload for the stock. The projection here is Rectangular, but it wouldn't make much difference if we used Vedutismo or Mercator as well. Other projections would give so much bulging effect making the room like a bubble and losing the parallel lines and the stretching tiles in the ceiling. The door at the end is for a small bathroom, while the whole next to it is used for the old-fashioned air-conditioners (with their noisy motor!). I liked those old stuff so much. The golden hue here is added, and say thanks to the HDR technique where I was able to manipulate light and colors as much as possible without much fuss or banding. There was though, as it seems, one problem done during the snapping process; my camera was probably tilted and not completely vertical, and hence I couldn't align the center point in equi-distances from left- and righ-sides in such a way that a straight line would pass through the tiles in the middle to the corner of the room. Moreover, I wish if I had a ladder or something to elevate my camera level more and approach the ceiling a bit closer than this. I think it would be a nice effect and gives more stretch to the tiles of the ceiling, and hence more illusion of space!

Along with this image, which unfortunately forgot to send it to friends in my previous email along with a collection of images, comes:

Red Fields

Ruins

The second image seems to be the ruins of the TV broadcast station. I know there used to be one on Failaka island. I might consider putting this to the stock as well, although, I'm not so optimistic about it for the blur involved. I think it is more caused by the noise reduction software.

Meanwhile, I took the chance to turn the old garden panorama from a cylindrical panorama to a complete spherical panorama, but unfotunately that didn't work. Apparently, more pictures were needed to cover up some holes around the zenith, because the image taken for the zenith did not cover all the proposed area. But that does not mean giving up hope completely, I would still be able, somehow, to encode into a spherical panorama by using the ratio 2:1, and by doing some tricks, dspite my belief that it won't as good as a unique full one. I already had hard time trying to stitch it again yesterday!

Trying to push myself as much as I can to work my brain again with poetry, here comes a second one I made after long period of silence, and I called it, Let Be. It is a little dedication to someone. I'm trying to follow some of the known rhythm patterns here instead of my old way of writing anonymously with different rhymes and patterns, and I try even to equalize the number of syllables in each line. That is such a hard job indeed and I do work with 2 or 3 dictionaries sometimes to find thesaurus and appropriate words and rhyming. The last one mentioned here follows the Alfred Dorn Sonnet rhyme. Although I don't know much of the history of such pattern or when or how to use it, but it all comes in one easy freeware that helped me a lot before: Verse Perfect. It has many useful things for a poet or a song writer. Rhyming patterns, suggestions for rhyming words, synonyms, antonyms, syllables count, and many other things that I've never used, yet! Please say thanks to Bryant McGill for such a beautiful software, freeware! Please make sure no youngsters beside you when you view his page :)

Reviewing now my conlang Ayvarith, and probably there were some evolutions going behind my back! There are some short vowels placement in verbs that did change by time and how I say them. This gives me an idea if what is happening now is a minimized version of the real language evolution. They say in Europe specifically, Danish and Norwegian are the most evolutionary and mostly changing languages. It feels awkward now as I intend to re-build my homepage, and such changes might require either more revisions, or re-building the already existing HTML pages, at least the grammar page (which is not an easy one to do really). Trespassing the limits of 2100 lines now in Alexander's story so, the build of the new homepage is coming closer.

__________
985. Alexander looked to his left and saw a child
986. the child stepped back then he started to shout
987. "Shágí! Shágí! Help!"
988. it was but merely few moments when all people gathered
989. some with daggers and some with sticks
990. and some of them carried stones and came up
991. and all of them surrounded poor Alexander and his friend
992. then Birbuár whispered to Alexander: oh! I told you!
993. let us get out of here now! no need for pains!
994. but Alexander sulked and his eyes went fierce
995. and he faced the people and shouted at them
996. "O people of Táhús, is this how you host a stranger?"
997. then a man showed from the crowds and was holding a hammer
998. "a stranger with a Shágí? and what Shágí? Birbuár!"
999. thus Alexander whispered to Birbuár and said
1000. "verily he knows you, do you know him as well?"
1001. and Birbuár whispered with his head down to the ground
1002. "yes, this is a smith of our village, Shdáyur,
1003. I tried to trick his daughter and cursed his mother before"
1004. and Alexander raised his eyebrows and said with a surprise
1005. "you were indeed a cursed man then my friend!,
1006. no wonder they want you out of this village then!"
1007. and people started to get closer to Alexander and his friend
1008. and the circle was getting smaller and smaller

Alexander 6, V41.

Welcome to Kuwait, where everys possible and impossible in the same time! I just discovered a new equation that I might go over and study it for my M.Sc. thesis. "Student Allowance" means, also, "Employee Reward". Yes. After having some amount of money in my bank account days before the actual date for my salary, I went on trying to investigate about the source of such money. If the money is not reported and, well, not rightfully awarded in the first place, some legal consequences might follow as why I did not report it. Hence, I had to go over and investigate the source. I spent most of my day yesteday (after fixing some stuff in the car) calling the beloved admins, but none answered except of one who advised me to go and ask someone else. Thus, today, I decided to go myself to their offices and ask and found out that this money is actually the employees' annual reward but the bank enlists the amount under the name "Student Allowance". Perfect.
Away from the fuss of the admins and back to my world where everything is not as pretty as it appears! I spent most of my day yesterday struggling with my RAMs limitations and eventually I had to compromise more so I minimized the panorama I talked about yesterday more than before. I was ablem finally, to tone-map it but eventually, more problems occured as well.
The black area in the bottom is supposed to be filled with sand (since I didn't take a good nadir point). But then I changed my mind for filling it up with a texture that might not look the same as the original, and thus I decided to make a water reflection effect. There are many tutorials on doing this effect but maybe the most realistic one I could get was this beautiful one here. As a consequence of the previous tutorial, I've discovered as well that some effects in Photoshop do not work even in 8-bit, if the ratios of the image are not adequate enough to do so. I had a problem with the displacement filter because it goes disabled whenever I stretched the 2 sides of the reflection layer to 400%. So I lowered this down to 200%. Everything went fine but then again I had the RAMs problem again and again but I managed to lower down the values till I got it right. Although I didn't like the strength of the effect (I would liked it to be more than this) but well, I have no choice here at all. Anyway, I made my QTVR later on with PTGui, and made 2 versions; small and big. And here you go:

I called it "A Walk on The Moon"

It looks though like you are standing in a wet spot or a lake while taking this photo! The difference here is that, it is completely 360 panorama where you can look at any direction. The horizon is fixed properly and not like my first trial with a cylindrical form of QTVR, when it was bulged up making the viewer like peeking from a fisheye lens! I think I can see now that the proper ratio for a good spherical panorama would be 2:1 (WxH), or in other words, the width must be twice the height. This consideration might enable me to make some tricks on less fortunate panoramas and try to make them, somehow, spherical ones. Like my house cylindrical panorama before!


This panorama though, might suffer from the lack of zenith more than a nadir. I remember I've took a shot for the zenith, but I did not align it because I couldn't realize how to do it back then, and hence, the regular cylindrical panorama was enough for me! Some plans are still in my head concerning the Gamma Lab here that I might consider re-shooting it, but this time, the shoot must be in HDR and I shall try to make it into QTVR. Somehow, this is a plan for the future and not now. I have stuff to do other than this currently.

Gamma Lab, CRER

As for now, I need to work more on my transliteration and book reading that I left for long time now! But finally I retained some thoughts and wrote something yesterday and published it on writing.com already. I called it, Father.

__________

961. Alexander held the hand of Birbuár firmly
962. and asked him to come in with him
963. but Birbuár refused to go in and stepped back
964. and this he said: they did not like me when I was alive,
965. and now who is going to respect me when I am a Shágí?
966. I will cause you more troubles if I went with you
967. but Alexander replied: I will not go inside,
968. and I will never help you with your body,
969. until you come with me into your own village
970. and tell me by the way, what is your village's name?
971. and Birbuár replied: its name is Táhús,
972. and there to the north of it lies the Táhús river,
973. it is the river I wanted you to do things with it before,
974. but if it is a must to go with you as you requested,
975. then I ask from you to protect me from the people
976. and Alexander asked: and where does your body lie?
977. is it still under the ruins of your house?
978. then Birbuár made a long sigh and said: yes
979. then the two of them took careful steps
980. and both of them got inside the village from the gate
981. they looked left and right but people were busy
982. some of them in the markets and some were craftsmen
983. they walked beside the walls of the buildings
984. when suddenly a small stone struck the head of Alexander

Alexander 6, V40.

Well, here I am. The first day of work after the accident (and not the vacation). Yesterday was sort of an idle day. After the accident I called my work place to send a letter requesting an extension for my leave for 2 more days. By luck, Monday was the day of some seminar about nuclear power and I was almost sure that I would be invited to it and pushed to attend, but I was not there luckily! Somehow, my mood is not for socializing at the moment.
Too much work awaits me here. The spare car I have (my sister's old one) needs some work. Oil change, balance for the tires and other stuff. I'm planning to do this today. Add to that, I have to ask and investigate about some weird amount of money that got into my bank account. It's not a salary, but entitled as some "Student Allowance", and yet, I'm not a student at all! The amount was almost 75% of my own salary. Spending such money can be troublesome indeed if it is not mine and got into my account by mistake. The money was added to my bank account on 14th of April, the day I went to Failaka last week, and hence I didn't pay much attention to my mobile and the messages in it. There was a message already about putting that up in my account!

Now, let's talk a bit about the procedures for logging into my bank account:
1. Go to website (Not mentioning it here).
2. Click Login.
3. A new window opens and you put the ATM card number, and click Login.
4. A secret question is asked (???).
5. If the answer is right, a small thumbnail of some picture shows up with a button to proceed.
6. Now, put your password and log in (???????).

Can someone please explain to me what is going on here?

For the current time, I've been having troubles with one of the panoramas here. I must restart the PC just to do tone-mapping for this one, and I really got issues with restarting my PC. Ah! It's a case of honor! However, I did a tone-map for a smaller version:

The problem is, I wanted to make this out as a 360 spherical panorama and encode it with QuickTime for 3D viewing as in the place itself. The nadir (bottom point) was not a good shot so I canceled it out, and for this, I got a black space after the stitching process (and it was such a huge image, around ~14,000x7,000). I cropped the black space below and tone-mapped the rest. After encoding it for QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR), the image was bulged from the bottom like if the viewer was always looking into the sky with a fisheye lens! Hence I recognized that for a spherical panorama, you must have quite a constant proportions for width and height (and also when you tone-map with Photomatix, you must check the 360 image button to equalize the tone between the left and right side of the image). From this moment, my problems started and I couldn't tone-map the other (original) version and even after minimizing it down to 10,000 x 5,000. I don't want to minimize it more than this to keep it large somehow. As for the black space, I think it might be fixed somehow since it is all a texture of sand, hopefully. The first step is just to tone-map it!

I discovered some profiles of some people on Photobucket who had been to Failaka and I think they were mostly archaeologists. It was nice, but I didn't imagine some people do wear bikinis on the shores in this land. The law is applied only for us natives but not for foreigners? Other people have more freedom in our lands more than we do ourselves. Yet, no one respect us in the outside. Well, not all, but you can check the news and the procedures taken against muslim women for wearing simply a head cover as an example.

My transliteration process is still on hold. I need to figure out the car problems and finish them. My mind is so busy that I can't concentrate on the transliteration right now, but I'm hoping with me being back to the office, that I would do more since I stopped idle the passing week. Remembering that also reminds me of the book that I MUST read as well!
_________
937. then Alexander continued his speech to Birbuár
938. "all what I would ask from you is to answer a question,
939. and to guide me through these lands that I do not know"
940. and then Birbuár answered with no hesitation
941. "O good king yes I will with no doubt, just let me rest!"
942. then Alexander noticed something he never noticed before
943. and he asked Birbuár: how come you speak Caqobian?
944. did you not say that you never heard of such names before?
945. then Birbuár answered and was amazed like Alexander
946. "but O king, I am asking myself how you speak Ayvar?"
947. and the two of them were amazed for what is happening
948. verily both of them spoke different tongues
949. and yet both of them understood each other perfectly
950. and Alexander said to himself: what weird world is this?
951. then he dedicated the speech to Birbuár and said
952. "come and let us see how to bury your body,
953. guide me through these lands and tell me where to go"
954. and Birbuár got up from his rock and held the hand of Alexander
955. and it was two or three steps only on the ground
956. while Alexander saw everything passing so fast
957. so fast that he could not open his eyes at all
958. and when the hero felt the ground is not moving
959. he opened his eyes slowly to see what happened
960. so he found himself standing at the gates of the village

Alexander 6, V39.

It's a nice thing when you plan to get back to work after some vacation, and you start out the day with an accident in the very early morning.
I don't want to start complaining about my luck, anyway I don't think I will be able to post some of the images I did for today, thus I will post this now, in the early hours of the morning. Well, I might add a picture of my damaged car. The real pain now is the paper work and going here and there. This is the real pain of accidents, not the accident itself. I have to finish everything or most of the things today, so I can go to work tomorrow at least. I'm already signing for a casual leave for today.
__________

913. then Alexander gazed with a strange look
914. and this he asked: a Shágí? what is that?
915. then Birbuár replied: it is a tortured soul,
916. not to rest for eternity or to die peacefully,
917. it is something between living and dying
918. it is a pain in every moment that passes
919. thus Alexander said and wondered
920. "you mean to say you are not a living?"
921. and Birbuár replied: not at all, and not dead as well,
922. I left my skin and flesh long time ago,
923. and here  I am wandering in these lands,
924. because after I killed the poor man,
925. my house collapsed over my head,
926. and the people of my village did not bury me,
927. and I cannot touch it or bury it,
928. oh I just cannot imagine the pains if I tried that,
929. but it is indeed what I deserve for hurting others,
930. and this is what I deserve for my wickedness
931. after this talk from Birbuár, Alexander thought for a moment
932. and then he said to Birbuár: if I helped you to bury yourself,
933. would that help you to rest in peace forever?
934. and Birbuár made a big smile on his face
935. and this he said: and I shall be your slave
936. but Alexander laughed and said: a dead slave?

Alexander 6, V38.

Another busy day and here I am posting this in the evening instead of the midday as usual! Well, I think I've solved my plants problems completely now by stuffing the holes with wood glue. So far so good. I'm waiting for the glue to dry out compeltely and then I'm going to water them and see!

Spent the other portion of the day working on some of the images I got from Failaka so far. Planning to send them over to stock sites, but frankly speaking, I'm not so optimistic they will get accepted anyway, since some of them are blurry and I had to spend some hard time with sharpening them.

On the queue still some of the other panoramas that would need some work. A fast inspection revelaed that some control points problem (the usual) are there. Anyway, here you go with some of the images taken yesterday. All tone-mapped with Photomatix and some of them (well only one) were fixed with PTLens to remove the fisheye distortion from them. I wonder how much is it to get a fullframe camera?

The image befor the last is actually taken again. It is the path leading into and out of the old chalette complex in Failaka. Imagine now if I was to take a picture of that if this island was inhabited like before? Phew!

This time, however, the image is taken for HDR panorama (mainly 4 shots with my fisheye lens). The projection here is called "vedutismo". A quick glance at the help file in PTGui, it says that such projection type is mainly to be used with panoramas that got straight lines (I think vertical lines mainly), and hence I used it here and helped a bit on stretching the clouds making some moving effect (up right) and stretching the panorama a little bit in the middle point making a narrow horizon point. Mercator projection also had almost the same look, but the trees were so much tilted.

The old picture. Made into HDR in a dusty weather, and with manual tone-mapping back then.

I shall leave you now to get some work done before I go out having some chinese food! Yummy Yummy!

__________
889. Alexander looked down with a sad face
890. because the memories of his father raced in his mind
891. then he raised his head and asked Birbuár
892. "so Birbuár, I told you my story, it is your turn"
893. and Birbuár started his talk with a long sigh
894. "O king, my story is a long one with pains and agony"
895. then Alexander said: and I am here to listen,
896. for I am lost in this land and know nothing
897. thus Birbuár started to tell his story
898. "O good king, I was once a human like any other,
899. oh how wicked I was and how devilish I was,
900. no parents did I respect not a relative as well,
901. no one would feel calm in my presence,
902. I was the mighty one in all of my village,
903. until one time a wise man said to me,
904. do not walk with pride on the lands,
905. verily this body will vanish to the grave,
906. and your name shall be accompanied with shame,
907. and amid my arrogance I taught him a hard lesson,
908. until the poor man died between my hands,
909. thus when he was dead I still could hear his voice,
910. it was ringing in my ears like he did not die,
911. and this he said to me and made me quiver,
912. a Shágí you will become and forever"

Alexander 6, V37.

Well Well. One busy day I presume. I shall call this day, the day of Panoramas. I've taken lot of short panoramas either vertically or horizontally and most of them were with my fisheye lens. Too bad it doesn't have a zooming capability, as I am working with the images now, seems some of them are going to be small with big portion of the sky showing on. All of that, in Failaka island.
The sea is great. Can be full of wrath, but generous after all. Some of the panoramas I did today were not really exactly to be called a panorama, but rather I loved to include more portions of the sky in the image and hence, I prefered to take them on parts vertically to add a bit more of the sky. The weather was weird though, shiny and cloudy in the same time! And while we were approaching Failaka port, the Salmiyah city port on the main land was still obvious. Such view I've never seen before. The two do not appear in the same time usually.

As luck has it, I was able to view the shores of Miskan island from Failaka's northern shores. Also, there was this abandoned center for seafaring activities which, supposedly as stated on sign posts, would provide a pick-up to Miskan island. Yet, the place was abandoned and no one was there, despite the relatively apparently-new yachts or boats over there. I could see 2 long towers from where I stood... too bad I didn't snap it with my camera! Bad me! I wonder if they were lighthouses as I always thought, or some "chimneys" of some factory over there? Could be? I don't know. Everything is possible after the statement of this man in Silsan, in which he said going there is restricted by now! It was foggy, I could see that. Like some blackish or greyish smoke hovering around the two towers for some reason, and that's why I thought they were chimneys of some sort or an exhaust of some factory and not lighthouses. This view kind of revived the hope in me of visiting this island one day, and I was already looking for someone to ask about going there in Failaka island itself, but no luck.
Not only Miskan was visible, but also the lands of Auhah (عوهة) island was visible before arriving at Failaka's port. I don't know really why they translate it as "Auhah" since we say it as "Oohah" usually, but anyway this is how it is spelled and you check it yourself on Wikipedia.

In the beginning, I played a little prank on myself, again. I got shocked to see the schedule time in the time table for the ferry travels to be delayed more than I thought it was. It said the ferry would leave at 9:00 and come back at 3:00 afternoon, and frankly I wouldn't like to stay there till 3:00 by myself. Yet the date of today, 14th, was on Thursday. I really doubted myself "did I miss counting my days because of this little vacation of mine?". After all I discovered it is all because I was looking at the time table of January 2010 and not this month! Not the first time I do this really.

I was planning to take an inner panorama of that old mesh-holed building, which I think was some governmental place, but I changed my mind later and thought of taking a panorama of the outer area. Moving people there with their four-wheeled banshi all around really frustrated me. I could hard even park there and take the panorama from the outside.

The ruined building from the outside.

What seems to be an ex-electricity housing, in the periphery of the ruined

building and includes in the to-be panorama project.

This said, I'm looking forward now to have some sort of a software to fix my fisheye distortion for real now. The PTGui software, for stitching panoramas, usually takes care of such distortions, but I can't tell it does them as well for single images however. Thus, I'm looking for some software or plug-in to do so. Photoshop does it as well, but it sounds a bit tiresome in Photoshop, and maybe I would get more precise tools out of the framework of Photoshop. I wish if there is any program that would fix a straight line by specifying 2 dots marking the beginning and the ending of a proposed straight line in the image. Maybe there is one, I can't tell really.
Talking about a plug-in, I received a response from HDRsoft people about my suggestion for a web plug-in to view HDR images, and here I quote it for you:

Dear TJ,

Thank you for your interest in Photomatix and for suggesting an HDR plug-in for web browsers.

The closest thing to a plug-in for  displaying HDR images in browser that we know of is webHDR:
http://luminance.londonmet.ac.uk/webhdr/

It might also be worthwhile having a look at Christan Bloch's 'HDRI Labs' website for such software:
http://www.hdrlabs.com/

Regarding Photomatix, we don't have any plans to develop a web browser plug-in to display HDR images at the moment.


Kind regards,

Andreas
Photomatix Support Team
www.hdrsoft.com

This is nice so far. I'm still checking the website as I am writing this (and I'm doing all of that after getting back from that tiresome ferry trip). I don't feel like concentrating on anything so I might leave it for later. In a quick glance over the webpage, there are some freeware included, but I can't tell which one is to be used as a plug-in to view HDR in the web browser, if any. I guess I'm going to ask Blochi for this! Blochi in case you didn't know is Christian Bloch, the author of this magnificent book:

As for now... I should take a rest and work on batch-processing my bracketed images and put them into OpenEXR format for heavy use later. I leave you now with Alexander's story, verse 37.

__________
865. when the stranger calmed down he gazed upon Alexander
866. and Alexander smiled back at him and put down Charnagút
867. then Alexander began the speech again with the stranger
868. "tell me O friend, what is your name?"
869. and the thing said: my name is Birbuár, son of Árúc
870. then Alexander asked: you know this sword? why were you scared?
871. the strange thing then stuttered and said: of course I do,
872. it is the Charnagút, the sword of the great Ayvar king,
873. it is the torture of the sinners and the sign of kings,
874. thus now I believe you are indeed a king,
875. please forgive my impoliteness master
876. then Alexander said: I am not your master,
877. but I am happy to be your friend in this world,
878. I was a king in my world before, but not anymore,
879. tell me O Birbuár, where am I and what is this world?
880. thus Birbuár said: yes I shall answer your questions,
881. but if you do not know already, how come you are an Ayvar?
882. and Alexander replied: I am not an Ayvar, but a stranger here
883. and Birbuár had a weird look upon his face and eyes
884. and this he said to Alexander: but how you got the Charnagút?
885. and Alexander replied back: it is a gift from my father Pilippánút,
886. but I do not know how he got it or made it,
887. but this sword helped me a lot to come here,
888. and discover the truth one by one

Alexander 6, V36.

The beginning of relatively a nice day. Nice in my terms that is. It was raining in the morning with thunders. The weather is not cold anyway and more like a tropical one. I feel idle today despite my plans for working with my plants again (trying to glue the holes below to stop leaking). I feel like I do need another week of vacation.

Not much photography for today unfortunately, though I made one experiment yesterday to see for myself if I can, virtually, turn the light on and off. I took 3 shots of one light bulb (within a crystal ball) when the light was on and then again 3 shots when the light was off. I'm still working on some experiments on these 2 sequences and checking for myself what can I do with them. I might consider uploading some of the tone-mapped versions because the crystal ball looks awesome when tone-mapped with some cool hue added to the hot light color. Nothing done yet and I didn't upload anything.
In the meantine, I'm looking for more information about the "camera response curve" and how to make it for use in HDR applications. So far so good. They say as long you are shooting in RAW format then you wouldn't need this curve, and on the other hand, Photoshop (and Photomatix as well I believe) do create such response curve automatically when you work on HDR brackets. The idea of the response curve is to map out how the sensor of your camera deal with light and how does it respond to luminosity in return. It helps with HDR make-up. I'm not sure yet but it seems to be more dedicated process toward the lesser formats of 8-bit resolution.
Meanwhile, I sent an email to the creators of Photomatix, suggesting to them to build a sort of a web browser plug-in to view HDR images in the web browser. I'm not sure if such plug-in does exist already but my search online was in vain. Could not find anything. The idea for the time being is to, at least, display an image with a slider in the control bar (just like how the QTVR window is in previous posts here) where this slider changes the exposure value to the positive or the negative. I hope it is considered seriously, in case we don't have such thing available on the web yet.

I shall leave you now with Alexander 6, verse 36, while I go and watch some funny clips and think about my coming work. I might be leaving to Failaka island tomorrow, I'm not sure yet. It all depends on the weather conditions. Hence, I might not be able to do anything with the blog by tomorrow. The jouney in that ferry is tiresome really... and costs some money too!

__________
841. Alexander did not imagine such power exists
842. and said to the stranger with a weak voice
843. "what is the matter? did I say something bad?"
844. and the stranger answered: you said many bad things now,
845. by what permission you called me a friend?
846. and how you do not know what I am talking about?
847. thus Alexander replied with a weak voice
848. "I said friend because I do not know your name,
849. and there is no trick in my story if you believe"
850. thus the stranger calmed down and put Alexander down
851. and this he said to Alexander: you said you are a king,
852. thus I shall give you a chance to prove it to me,
853. I never heard of kings in Uhir Daynur,
854. but to be fair I shall ask you for your proof
855. and Alexander looked around him and thought
856. he lost his crown in his journeys on the lands
857. thus he thought of the Charnagút as a proof
858. although he did not know if this will work
859. thus he showed the Charnagút to the stranger
860. and the stranger shouted with amazement
861. "Charnagút! Charnagút! stay away!"
862. but Alexander did not understand yet what is wrong
863. and he said: clam down O friend, I will not hurt you at all
864. and the breath of the stranger slowed down gradually

Alexander 6, V35.

Another tiresome day in my "vacation" here. Well, I took it in the first place to do these things I believe. Worked on the plants little bit but still leaking a bit. I wonder now if I really should just take them off.
As my first time, I tried something new to me yesterday when I tried to take a vertical image for a corridor in my house. Typically this should be done with the tripod going from 0 degrees (horizon) to 180 degrees (horizon on the back), but my tripod was not that flexible and hence I had to do it on two parts and then fuss around with the images. I made it on 2 sequences with 90 degrees for each over 5 angles stops. I'm still not satisfied with my results when stitching but well, things are getting a bit better, I hope. So many broken lines. Beside that, I made two versions already by exchanging the places of the sequences relatively. I wonder if that was to be possible with a one long shot vertically from 0 to 180 degrees? The hard part of them now is fixing the errors and eventually tone-map them. Photomatix started to give me some errors because of memory shortage... typical. I found out myself naming the sequences A and B, and eventually I named the pictures ABBA and BAAB. Maybe you know ABBA already, but BAAB, well, I don't know if there is a band by this name. However, "BAB" means "door" in Arabic.

ABBA             BAAB

Of course the broken lines aren't fixed yet or anything. This work might be done after I take my nap.
Thinking of doing my transliteration work for Alexander's story on my bed was a sort of a bad idea since I tended to nap more than work actually. I have to keep in my mind to work sitting down! I've been advancing beyond line #2000, and the finish line is close, but when, I don't know. Then, what then?
__________
817. the strange thing sat down on a rock and gazed upon Alexander
818. and this he said: I think I have the time to have some entertainment,
819. so what is your story O stranger, and make it fast
820. thus Alexander started to tell the whole story
821. since the day he left Caqobia until he came down to this
822. but the strange thing looked bored and did not like Alexander
823. thus Alexander thought of something else to say
824. so he said: if it was for your plants, maybe I can do something?
825. and the stranger replied: something like what?
826. and Alexander said: anything to do to pay you back
827. thus the strange thing thought for a moment
828. and then this he said to Alexander
829. "if you can collect the seeds of this plant,
830. and spread it to the side of the river Táhus,
831. and then call upon the Shanúgá to eat the new seeds,
832. until then I might forgive you eating my plants"
833. and Alexander stood amazed for this talk
834. for he did not know a thing about all of this
835. thus he said to the stranger: O friend, what is all of this?
836. verily I did not know a thing of what you have mentioned
837. but the stranger got furious and raised from the rock
838. and he grabbed Alexander from his neck
839. and Alexander was hardly breathing
840. and the stranger left him off the ground with one hand

Alexander 6, V34.

One more day in my vacation! Well, a one-week vacation and I'm exhausting myself working out around the house doing stuff, and probably right after this I would be going to fix the plants in my room. It was an exhaustive day yesterday when I worked on cleaning my room (yeah, right... cleaning?). However, I spent the morning roaming around in the traffic rush with people going to their work places or some others been there just for some breakfast... It was a cool feeling really. You see everyone busy in the rush and trying to speed up and come over other drivers so much that you'd think it is some arcade game, while you calmly drive because simply, nothing matters to you for now. Well, except of the fact I've been back to my bed for sleeping instead of my lazyboy, and that made my back sore for real.
After grabbing something for breakfast I drove to some company headquarter named Silsan (weird name really even for an Arabic speaker I tell you...).I was greatly disappointed actually when the guy told me that they don't go to Miskan island, because it is prohibited for the time being. Why? I don't know really. I asked him if it is turned now to some military post or something like that, but he didn't give a clear answer. Well, one wish now flew into thin air I guess. I might take this little vacation of mine to go on to Failaka island again, with my car of course and spend something around 37KD just for few hours there.

Anyway, been working on some images taken last Thursday, and the panorama I did take that day turned out to be, not that good, but I might work on it somehow to make something good out of it. Meanwhile, I've worked on 2 images, and got 3 versions out of one of them... well, just for fun actually:

Done by Photomatix without any editing. As you can see the hose is still there.

More colored version after editing in Photoshop. Not many people liked this version though!

Cloning in HDR stage and blending a cold hue then tone-mapping by Photomatix.

Trying to make a mysterious blend here with something of "aliens" or "visitors" effect.

And something totally different. Trying to make a night view from the morning by adding a cool hue.

Tried to fix the distortion here but I couldn't, so I left it out like that.

Maybe these two images were the best I did take from the seaside back in Thursday. Now I have to think of organizing my time a bit and work on my friend's report and on my transliteration. I will try this time to double work on the transliteration process and work out more than 2 verses a day. Would that work with my mood? I can't tell till I try...

One song I really liked for some long time ago (I think back in 2003), and still trying to get the lyrics for this song. It's in Breton and sang by Denez Prigent in a rap style, but the song itself is a folk song and as I read some where, it is sang by group of farmers when they work in the fields. The song itself dates back to the time before the introduction of christianity into France. The song's title is "Ar Rannoú" which means The Series (of numbers). In general, the idea of the song is a druid talking to a child (probably his own?) and the conversation is turned into a song about numbers and their significance in the Breton culture. Interesting really, but unfortunately I couldn't get a translation at all, either in French or English. I couldn't get the lyrics in Breton even! Just thought of sharing it with you here, and hope you like it...

__________
793. the thing was flaming with fire and ugly
794. its face could not be known from his back
795. and with thunder-like voice he shouted at Alexander
796. "who gave you a permission to eat my plants O low one?"
797. but Alexander was taken by the surprise and terror
798. and he started to stutter trying to answer the stranger
799. but with some trials he was able to speak to the stranger
800. "I am sorry, but I am a stranger from these lands" he said
801. and then a weird sound was out from the creature
802. like if he was wondering about what Alexander said
803. thus the thing said: a stranger in Uhir Daynur?
804. I never knew someone would get in or out of this,
805. unless by a grave into the ground in Uhir Daynur
806. then Alexander tried to identify himself to the stranger
807. thus he said: I am Alexander, the son of Pilippánút,
808. I am the king of Caqobia and Geltan,
809. and the king of Zimúrá and Bulughman
810. but the stranger was humming in a weird way
811. and this he said to Alexander: what are you talking about?
812. who is king and who are those people?
813. are you trying to deceive me O low one?
814. and Alexander went silent and did not know what to say
815. but then he thought of something and said to the stranger
816. "is there a chance to tell you my story so you will pardon me?"

Alexander 6, V33.

Well well, the first day of my leave and it was a hard-working day. I went on shopping to get presents for my nieces, and got me a new sandal instead of the piece of leather I used to wear. I tihnk it was a sandal 10 years ago or something (literally). I took some time also going around to some yachts marinas to ask about probably tours to Miskan island, but I couldn't find anything. I have to see for myself in another time. They say you can go to Failaka island first and then from there, you can sail to Miskan. I have to ask further. I don't want to shoot into the dark.

Before all of that of course I went to have a breakfast in Burger King, and I wonder now if they do have a restaurant by this time. All the breakfast meals were removed and replaced by one and only one meal; egg and cheese. Sorry, but I think I can do this at home can't I? So I went on with my own way like that with no breakfast, till I got me some french bread and turkey breast with some energy drink, which later on, I needed it heavily. But after leaving BK, I've noticed how the wind was hard and the sun was tearing the way amid the clouds. There were those things as well. I don't know what's their purpose, but well, I think they are supposed to give some shade for the beach dwellers. I decided (and luckily the camera was with me) to work on a scene a bit if I can. It had been some time since I worked on a scene. Most of the time, I was going on and on with panorama stuff. I shot trying to include the sun as well, I tried the fisheye lens in a single shot as well just for fun. Finally, since the panorama trials are in my blood, I went on doing a fast rhythm photography with my fisheye lens. It was just plane rectangular panorama, no up and down and no angles or anything.

After arriving home I worked on pumping something I got for my niece. I think called "baby gym" to keep her in. All parts needed pumping and so, I did the manual pumping all the way. I feel the muscles reaching my tongue now. Then, to the images. Of course, I couldn't let go of catching some HDR sequences here, specially that the sun is in the scene and it might be a good idea to control the light later on. I'm intending to upload some of these images on Canstockphoto, but not yet. There is a lot of work in cloning involved. The cloning part is so hard because of the trash thrown on the sand every where on the beach. Yes, we have clean people.

Primary Version

The image above was done in a haste for putting up in this blog. More to come but I'm not sure I'm going to upload here as well.
Now back to my QTVR games. Just before I go to bed yesterday (which was earlier really and sounded like a regular day!), but I had a thought of playing around with that Aughnanure Castle panorama. The Autodesk stitcher hanged on while loading the large panorama, but went OK doing the small one. However, I worked on doing both later on with PTGui and I've just found out that option to make the panorama cylindrical and not completely spherical. All what you have to do is fix the "tilt" angle. This will maybe require more than one trial, and it all depends on the height of the panorama in hands. As for Aughnanure Castle panorama, it was enough to have -21 to 21 degrees of tilt to view the vertical distance completely.




As for now I have to think of regulating and fixing my time somehow to work on Alexander's story transliteration. I don't sit idle regarding this specifically for one week until Sunday 18th.
I leave you now for verse 33 from Alexander VI. I really need to nap a bit.shoppinh
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769. after the gate was sealed behind Alexander on the other side
770. nothing appeared to Alexander behind him except of lands
771. like nothing was behind him or above him
772. like it was not night time just a while ago
773. Alexander stood up and gazed around him
774. but nothing he saw but mountains and hills and some green lands
775. while some rivers flew to the right and left
776. he kept on walking for no obvious destination
777. and he gazed into the sky above him for many times
778. but he did not find a sun, although it was a day
779. and he felt the gentle heat of the air breeze without a sun
780. then he saw some plants on the ground and he felt hungry
781. but he was afraid that such food is not suitable to eat
782. but then he saw a strange bird falls down from heaven
783. it was a bird he never saw like it on Earth
784. thus this bird came down and picked the fruit of the plant
785. and stayed away to eat them peacefully
786. thus Alexander knew that such plant is not poisonous
787. and he began to eat from it like he never had food before
788. and the taste of the fruit was never something he felt before
789. but suddenly he saw a large shade covering the ground
790. and he wondered how come there is no sun but a shade is here?
791. and he gazed to his back and saw a huge creature
792. something was staring at him with furious eyes