TechIntersect

It is difficult to live where I do and not be reminded from time to time of the 1918 Willa Cather classic, “My Ántonia”. Today was one such day. As I drove to work through the gently rolling prairie hills of north central Kansas, I saw mile after mile of this:

All those fall afternoons were the same, but I never got used to them. As far as we could see, the miles of copper-red grass were drenched in sunlight that was stronger and fiercer than at any other time of the day. The blond cornfields were red gold, the haystacks turned rosy and threw long shadows. The whole prairie was like the bush that burned with fire and was not consumed. That hour always had the exultation of victory, of triumphant ending, like a hero’s death—heroes who died young and gloriously. It was a sudden transfiguration, a lifting-up of day.

-Willa Cather, “My Ántonia” 1918

Ninety-one years after this was written, you can still see the copper-red grass in the fall, although the prairie has long since been carved up into little plots. This year, my awareness of the land in which I live has been heightened greatly thanks in no small part to the book “PrairieErth: A Deep Map” by William Least Heat-Moon. Published a decade ago, I only first heard of it this year, thanks to an online friend Ira Socol who is fascinated with its unique approach to research.

I highly recommend both of these books, especially if you love the prairie. My Ántonia can be downloaded for free on Project Gutenberg. PrairieErth is still available on Amazon.com.

I’ve been noticing over the past several years some really rad pumpkin designs around Halloween. My suspicion is with the onset of digital photography coupled with manipulation software, it is becoming easier for the average person to put a fairly complex design on a pumpkin.

In my Visual Literacy class, we’ve spent a fair amount of time studying all of the basic design elements such as value, shape, space, line, composition, etc. We have done a number of value studies, vector drawings and image manipulations. I began to wonder after looking at the cool pumpkin designs floating around the Internet if 1) I could create my own design from an image, and 2) if it would make a good assignment for my students to try.

I found an image from Sendak’s “Where The Wild Things Are” book. I manipulated it in Photoshop, increasing the contrast so I basically had two values, black & white. I experimented with a number of ways of achieving this, the Threshold adjustment seemed to work fairly well. But my pattern was ultimately developed in Illustrator using the pen tool.

It looked something like this:

In the process of creating this pattern, I realized that I had experienced this type of design before when I worked in a screenprinting shop. Whenever we would print a light color on a dark fabric, I found that I had to think in reverse by creating a negative of what I wanted the final result to be. Since the light of the candle in the pumpkin would shine through the cut areas, I needed my highlight areas to be the shapes I drew, and leave the dark areas as whitespace. It was a great exercise in negative/positive space.

After completing my design on the computer, I printed it, and taped it on my pumpkin. I use a sharp pointy thing to poke holes through the pattern into the pumpkin so I could see where my cut lines would be. Then I carved out the cut areas according to the pattern. One thing I didn’t do so well was consider the complexity of carving in the pumpkin. I put too many fine details in, and often didn’t leave enough pumpkin flesh between my cut areas in my design to make a solid structure, so I had to improvise when doing the actual carving.

One thing we discussed in class was the possibility for a middle value as well as a black and a high key value in this design. In pumpkin carving, some have discovered that removing the skin, but not cutting all of the way through the flesh, you can achieve a middle value as well. (Some examples are shown here.)

Now I’m not the best pumpkin carver in the world. In fact, I’ve never done anything much more complex that the traditional triangle eyes, and toothless grin of a regular old jack-o-lantern, but I really wanted to test my design skills. After transferring my design to the pumpkin, I carefully carved it out and here is my result:

And here is what my pumpkin looks like all lit up:

What do you think?

I’d say this is a keeper assignment. I can’t wait to see what my students come up with for their designs, and if they will have the patience to actually carve it out.

Now that I have sort of figured this out, next year I suppose I will have to try a design with a middle value as well.

Happy Halloween!

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been two weeks since Grandpa & I left on on our adventure to the USA nation’s capitol. He and I took a trip to Washington D.C. sponsored by Central Prairie Honor Flights. All WWII veterans travel at no cost to them. If you think this is a worthy cause, why not consider making a donation to help keep the movement alive? If you know a WWII veteran who has not made the trip, don’t delay… apply to get their name on the list right away! If they are physically able to travel at all, they need to do this!

Last week I wrote about getting to DC and our first day in the area. In this post I will give a little detail about what we did during our only full day in Washington.

We had an early Reveille on the day of our tour. Breakfast was served at 6am and the bus departed around 7:30. We arrived at the WWII memorial shortly after 8 am and we were among the first visitors there. We spent a great deal of time posing for a group shot. My camera couldn’t fit them all in, so this picture is a composite of four photos that I stitched together with photoshop.

I figured the Kansas marker would be a popular spot so we hurried over to the north end of the memorial & took a picture there first.

Then we moved to the center of the memorial and enjoyed the view.

Grandpa was in the Pacific so we headed over to the south end to see the Pacific battles. Grandpa was wounded on Biak, New Guinea, so he posed for a picture near the New Guinea marker.

All of my four years of sea duty were served in the Pacific as well so grandpa & I posed together near the MacArthur quotation made on the USS Missouri at the WWII surrender.

My other grandpa, Claude Rickley, served in Europe during WWII. He traveled with us to the memorial in spirit. I made a photograph of his picture & burial flag at the Battle of the Bulge, where he fought. I wish he could have gone with us, he would have loved this trip. I miss him.

After the WWII memorial, we visited the haunting Korean War memorial. Grandpa commented that the statues of the soldiers were quite real to life, down to the smallest detail. Even the carbine rifles looked like the one he carried.

Next was the unforgettable Lincoln memorial. So much history in this place, and what do my kids think of when I came home with this picture? Of course it was Night at the Museum, Battle of the Smithsonian.

The Vietnam memorial is also unforgettable. So many names, so many young men lost.

After our tour of the National Mall, we had time for a museum tour before lunch. We chose the Smithsonian Air & Space museum. Our other choice was the Holocaust museum. Grandpa had no interest in seeing that. He’s witnessed enough tragedy in his lifetime.

I was glad we went to the Smithsonian, because we saw the Apollo 11 command module.

The original Wright Flyer, the world’s first aircraft.

And an honest to goodness moon rock. I wanted badly to touch it, but it is encased in plastic.

Afterwards, we ate lunch and headed for the Iwo Jima memorial.

And the tomb of the unknown soldier.

Finally, we returned to the WWII memorial for one last look. It is quite beautiful at night, well worth a second stop. There was a moving memorial service to remember those who sacrificed everything for our freedom.

Afterwards, we were visited briefly by Kansas representatives Jerry Moran and Lynn Jenkins. They arrived late and we were freezing by then so they had to visit with us on our tour busses.

It was a long day, but unforgettable for as long as I live. We slept well that night I can assure you. We were fortunate to have an afternoon flight home the next day so we were able to take our time getting on the bus to the airport. It was a long trip home. We drove from Dulles Airport Hilton to the Baltimore Airport. Flew from there to Kansas City. Drove from there three hours to Clifton, KS. As we drew near to our home, we saw this sunset just outside of Clay Center, KS. Probably the most amazing sunset I have ever seen.

They say that we remember an experience by it’s high point and by it’s ending. You can bet with this kind of ending, we will have nothing but fond memories of our trip to Washington DC in the Fall of 2009.

A week ago, my grandpa & I embarked on a journey we will both remember for the rest of our lives; a WWII veterans honor flight to tour the WWII Memorial in Washington D.C. Over the next several posts, I will recount some highlights of our trip, and hopefully share some tips for people reading this who might be considering taking the same trip themselves.

We live three hours from the Kansas City airport, so we left the day before and stayed at the Airport Marriott, because we could leave our car there instead of in long-term parking. We later learned the Sleep Inn has the same service. We could have saved a bit if we’d have known that. We arrived Sunday afternoon, flew out Monday morning, took our D.C. tour on Tuesday, then flew home on Wednesday.

This is Grandpa and me just before we left Clifton, KS.

Flying

Grandpa didn’t believe me when I told him about airport security. “Surely they wouldn’t suspect an old man like me,” he quipped. Even I was surprised the level at which they suspected him.

Here’s a travel tip for those traveling with WWII veterans: have them go through security while seated in a wheel chair. My grandpa doesn’t walk too well, but he walked through security. His titanium knees set the metal detector off and the TSA made him stand while waiting unattended for several minutes. In retrospect, he should have just went through in the wheelchair. He couldn’t pass the metal detector anyway, why not have them use the wand on him while seated?

In this photo, the TSA inspector accused Granddad of carrying a pocket knife. “I don’t have a pocket knife,” he said. “Well you have something metal here in your pocket.” After a few moments of this sort of back and forth, it occurred to grandpa what the problem was.

I have a piece of grenade shrapnel in my leg, but I’m not going to take that out for you.

With that explanation, he was allowed to proceed.

Getting through security was a major hassle and probably the worst part of the trip. Elderly vets flying on Southwest Airlines need to arrive at least an hour early and get through security as quickly as possible. Since Southwest has no assigned seating, you want to be sure to be among the first to board. We were not, and had to entreat upon the goodwill of a kind passenger toward the front of the plane to let us sit together. The aisle and window seats were full 20 rows back and only middle seats were available, until a nice lady saw our predicament and let us have her seat. An early arrival and boarding would have spared us a small hassle. The weather was beautiful the whole trip, and our flight went without a hitch.

Food

Bring yourself some snacks! This tip is probably more for the guardians than the veterans, but both can benefit. By the time we arrived at the Baltimore airport and wound our way through the terminal to the hospitality room, I was famished.

We were fed not long after our arrival, but a candy bar or some snack mix or something would have been great while we waited. There are times on the tour bus when a little pick-me-up is in order as well. I brought along extra fruit from breakfast on our actual tour day.

You want to be sure to drink plenty of water and have it always available to drink on the bus as you tour. There was a time or two when we ran out, and I got really thirsty from pushing that wheel chair around all over the place. You do want the elderly veterans to ride the wheel chairs as much as possible. On our trip we had two vets wind up in the emergency room. One became dehydrated because he didn’t drink enough water, and the other fell over and injured herself because she tried to walk back to the hotel after a long day of touring, instead of accepting a ride in a wheel chair. Even very able-bodied vets should take a break and ride on occasion throughout the day.

Udvar-Hazy Center

We toured this branch of the National Air and Space Museum after our arrival in Washington. I knew that grandpa was tired, and this tour was optional, so I asked him if he wanted to see it. He said we didn’t come all of this way to go sit in a hotel, so we went. And were we glad we did. We saw amazing, historic aircraft. I remembered my Navy days with displays of the F-14 Tomcat, F/A-18 Hornet and A-6 Intruder. I told Grandpa that I’ll never forget the A-6’s nearly blowing my ears out as they flew in and out of Cubi Point in Subic. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a louder aircraft.

The plane Grandpa was most moved by was of course the “Enola Gay” which he says is the plane that saved his life. Regardless of what your thoughts might be on the morality of dropping atomic weapons on Japan, if you were faced with being in the first wave of invasion forces into Japan as was my grand dad, you were happy to see the war brought to a speedy conclusion by whatever means necessary. He is convinced that he would not have survived if the invasion would have happened. Grandpa wrote to his mother in October 1945 regarding the day the war ended,

It was the happiest day of my life.

I was surprised to see another famous plane in this museum that I immediately recognized. Steve Fossett’s Global Flyer flew the first solo flight around the world, and he did it from none other than Salina, Kansas. Several K-State at Salina students were directly involved in that mission, and our entire campus was saddened to learn of Fossett’s death in 2007. However, it was nice to see the famous aircraft once again.

After an hour or so of touring the Udvar-Hazy museum, we went on to the hotel to get ready for the evening banquet.

Banquet

There were some 170 people at our banquet including veterans and guardians, all from Kansas. I’m told another group of similar size came later in the week. I think it is really great what Central Prairie Honor Flights has done to put this all together. Every veteran flew for free, and for a $500 donation I was able to accompany my grandfather. I doubt that amount fully covered my expenses, so I’m grateful to everyone who is donating to this worthwhile project.

The food at the banquet was wonderful, the Hilton staff gracious, and Dan Curtis’ family is extremely talented, providing us quality entertainment. His wife & daughters have beautiful singing voices, and we all had fun singing the service fight songs. It was a really long day, but we enjoyed it and looked forward to the next day of tours and remembering fallen heroes.

I’m getting excited because tomorrow, Grandpa & I are heading to Kansas City on the first leg of our veterans Honor Flight. It’s been a long wait, we applied to go last summer, but at long last our day has arrived.

I’ve been loading pictures on to my iTouch so we can talk & discuss. I scanned in Grandpa’s WWII photo album a few years ago, but we’ve never really discussed them in much detail. He and I served in the same part of the world, but some 40 years apart. Grandpa served in New Guinea, the southern Philippines, and occupied Japan. I spent a great deal of time in Japan and in the Philippines during my Navy service, and one of the highlights of my time over there was my visit to the Manila American Cemetary. It wasn’t a place I would have thought to visit on my own, but Grandpa wrote to me and told me if I ever got the chance, he would appreciate my visiting the grave of his fallen comrade buried there. Fortunately, I once did have the chance to go, and was honored to bring home photographs of his friend’s marker for him.

The pictures at the top of this post were made when we were both around 20 years old, Grandpa had his portrait made in Japan after the war had ended, and my portrait was made at my recruit training graduation in Great Lakes, IL. I thought it would be interesting to put them together to see how much I resemble my granddad.

We are both really looking forward to this trip. My connection to Grandpa while I was serving in the Pacific made me pay more attention to historic places I saw such as Corregidor and Nagasaki. I have always been proud of him and I know he was proud of me as well. Now we are going to see the WWII memorial together for what will be an unforgettable trip!

Saw this on a co-worker’s Facebook page. Thought I’d share it here as it is worth spending 1:51 minutes of your life looking at. I found the animation & videography compelling, and the poem’s not bad either!