I've been pretty quiet. This year has been, challenging.

The good news, I'm retiring at the end of this month. So my time has been spent wrapping up my work, dealing with the corporate HR department, Social Security, Medicare and myriads of others. If I knew retiring would be so much work I'd put it off a while longer. (Fuck no.)

The bad news, my younger sister recently died of complications due to cancer. Both she and I worked in cancer research fields, and no, the irony is not lost

She was a very private person who kept her affairs to herself. She had no other family, just me and my younger brother but many friends and co-conspiritors. She never made a will and left behind a tangled financial mess as well as a handful of racing horses and brood mares. So, we've trying to keep the horses fed and housed while taking care of the rest of her estate.

We've had one memorial service here in her home town and are planning two others. One for her interment in our family plot (yeah, my family has had its own cemetery plot since 1850's or so, it's almost full at this point.) A third memorial will be held at the training track at Belmont for all her co-workers and friends in New York. (In the future someone remind me to tell her story of The Bushman of Belmont.)

Needless to say, I've been busy and not feeling too sociable. Once my sisters estate has been settled and the animals properly housed in good situations I hope to settle into a quiet retirement. I have no idea what comes next but I hope it's not exciting.

A recent post by  Comus got me remembering some really old stuff.

Back in the late 1950's and early 1960's (Yeah, I'm that old) the MacArthur Theater in Washington DC would run Saturday Morning matinees. I saw a lot of cartoons and B&W movies there, most I would see later on TV, when Saturday morning cartoons were still a thing. Some of those shorts are probably forgotten forever, certainly by me anyway.

There was usually an hour or so of cartoons, Disney shorts, Looney Toons, Fleischer Studio Popeyes, and then an old Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movie or something similar, the movie was always black and white, I don't remember a single color movie there, just the cartoons were in color. Parents would drop their kids off in the morning and pick them up around noon or so when the matinee was over. Imagine that, parents just dropping off kids, most of whom were between 6 and 12 or so. There were usually some adults there, but for the most part it was kids, all glued to their seats because TV's were pretty small back then and seeing cartoons in color was a novelty and the screen of the Old MacArthur was huge.

Heck it wasn't until sometime in the 1970's that I noticed that 'The Wizard of Oz' was in color.

Just old guy rambling, beats yelling at clouds all day. Move along, nothing more to see here.

Every year the company I work for gives free flu vaccinations to anyone interested. This year I was told I need to reserve the 'high dose' variant because of my age.
Now I really feel old.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/123537271@N07/albums
If you are a fan of book covers, or design in general, check out this awesome collection on Flickr by user Ivan Checkov.

Yes, I got permission to go, yay!
The first FurTheMore was my first con and I only missed one since. Since there is a new venue I'm not sure if there is a space to do any wet plate shoots but I'm bringing my gear anyway. I'll be shooting wet plate Saturday, weather and venue permitting. Hope to see some of you there.

I’m thinking of opening up for a limited number of wet plate studio portraits for the next couple of weeks. If you’re in the DC/Baltimore area and are willing to come to my (primitive) studio for a portrait, contact me for details.

https://www.alextimmermans.com/portfolios/storytelling/

You owe yourself a look at his work.

On June 3rd it will have been 20 months since the fire. We are finally moving out of the apartment and into a new (smaller) house built on the lot where the old house stood.

Saturday was moving all the furniture (not much) and all the surviving stuff (over 120 boxes) out of storage and into the new house. Yesterday and today was like the Cargo Cult Christmas from hell. Opening boxes to find things like back scratchers, sharpies and fly swatters packed in with the good china and a few of my large format cameras, cutlery, pots pans and any other stuff that survived.

Tomorrow is all about sorting, saving and trashing.

We have to vacate the apartment by next Friday but the rental company is coming to remove the furnishings this Friday. The race is on. Internet will be cellular only in a few days and I’m not sure when we’re going to get hooked up in the near future.

The new house has a small space in the cellar I can use as a studio and darkroom, but it’s going to be a couple of months before I’ll have the time to gear back up.

The cats are going to be less than pleased.

He doesn’t actually work for Uber and you have to flag him down in person, but the price is right, $5.

I wonder what cut the horse gets.

https://boingboing.net/2018/08/08/michigan-man-offers-amish-ub.html

I just paid off my mortgage. No more mortgage payments, I own a burned out shell.
But hey, it’s my burned out shell.

It’s been 7 months since we were displaced by the house fire. There has not been a lot of movement since then. The house has been gutted and inspected and it was determined that it is not possible to rebuild. The insurance company has listed it in the major loss category. We have a bid on the complete demolition and the building from the foundation up but we are waiting for the insurance company approval.

The stress is starting to effect my health. Apartment living is not for me. I end up mopping about and just sitting.

Storage fees are getting to be a problem. So we are consolidating all the stuff stored by various companies into a single larger and cheaper facility. Unfortunately the only time we can do it is the same weekend as Furthemore.

I have been at every Furthemore since the first and this will be the first i’ve had to miss. So you guys have fun.

In the same vein, I’m not going to be able to go to Anthrocon either. Time and disposable income are a bit tight.

I do intend on spending some time at FAU this year. It’s as close to me as FTM but in August I should have more free time.

So, that’s the update. As my Slavic ancestors would say: the situation is fatal but not serious.

Thank you everyone for your support, concern and offers of assistance.

We have secured an apartment and will be moving in sometime Monday. No internet until next Friday at the earliest so my phone will have to do. This will be the easiest move since I was in the Navy where all my belongings fit in a single duffle.

My employer has been very understanding and since I am owed over 260 hours of paid vacation I'm not hurting for time or income.

The clean up continues and once in awhile small treasures surface. On Thursday I moved some junk and found the Bronze Star that my wife's father earned in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. Both the medal and the original citation survived intact.

I also found one box of my 5x7 large format negatives intact. Small treasures …

Very tired, and much more needs to be done, but we are making progress.

Again, thanks for you support and offers, they are much appreciated.

We had a house fire early this morning, still assessing the damage but my home is uninhabitable. We were able to rescue the cats, some of our clothes and thats about it.

Alive and as well as can be expected. I'll post more when I get a chance.

 tsa-la-gi was kind enough to post an 'unboxing' of his plate from Anthrocon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI_RUUoiZuM

First, a big thank you to everyone who showed up to my panel on Saturday.

Anthrocon, as usual, was if not anything else, entertaining.

Rolled into Pittsburgh Thursday afternoon, endured the line that never seemed to move at preregistration.

I got up early on Friday to get my wet plate gear set up at the DLCC. I had a great time of it, almost every plate was a keeper, only two fails (Sorry Origami).

Saturday was my terrible awful day. My panel was at 9 AM so I had to get moving early. I was out of the room with all my gear by 7:30. Pushed my overloaded cart the three and a half blocks from the Renaissance to the Westin and promptly overturned the cart when one of the wheels got trapped in a grate.

Of the hundreds of things that could go wrong at that point there was only one thing that was unrecoverable, yep, damn you Murphy. My bottle of collodion was the only thing that broke. It takes a week to make a new batch so my wet plating was over for the rest of the weekend.

I muddled through the panel as best I could, returned my gear to the hotel and decided to just be a tourist the rest of the con.

This was the first time I actually got to go to a couple of panels, wander the Dealers Den and visit the Art Show. So, not a complete loss. Still I really enjoy the photography and am sorry I didn't get more plates in this year.

Maybe next year.

9am to 10am Saturday July 1
Anthrocon programming has accepted my Wet Plate panel again this year. Only one slight draw back, they have me in the Westin Fayette room. Now, I don't mind a little air conditioning but I'm assuming that there is no natural light in there so a demo is going to be, interesting.

I can mitigate the chance of spills and I have lights that will work. The problem is the lights are heavy and bulky, the Speedotron 4803 unit weighs in at over 40lbs.

This will take some thought.

I had my first car accident in over twenty years today.
No injuries and only minor damage, but the air bag blew. Those things hurt! I have a huge bruise on my right hand where the plastic cover smacked it. The irony is that I just got a recall in the mail to have the airbags replaced.

Another expense I do not need.

I don't do this much, I actually don't do this at all but if you haven't seen any of  titrarnium work you should.

A very unique style and different look, thinking pieces. It may not be for everyone but I like work that challenges.

I'm hosting a panel on Tin Types at AC - http://anthrocon2016.sched.org/event/70YP/tin-type-photography) this year. It's Saturday, July 2 9:00am - 10:00am. So if you're interested and you can shake off your hangover I'd be glad see you there.

A companion outline for the panel is available on my Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B4arJ6EA3nSjQ1NnMC1tZHd2Y1U

You can download the outline even if you're not going to the panel, feel free.

This Friday and Saturday I will be doing tintypes at FurTheMore.
You can check my gallery for examples.

I'll be posting on my twitter feed (@velantianqx) with info on exactly where and when I am shooting.

There is no charge, but, if it's a really great plate, I keep it and I may have you sign a model release so that I can use the plate in future shows, otherwise the plate is yours.

If I keep a plate I will give you a chance to sit for another one.

At minimum it takes five minutes to make a plate, then it has to wash for at least another 10 minutes.  It has to dry and then be varnished (so it does not get all scratched up by normal handling)  You don't have to wait around while all that happens, I'll be around until Sunday afternoon so you'll have time to pick it up later.

My tintype photography at FurTheMore has always been a bit cursed.
The first year I brought the wrong lens (too slow) and my plate holder was giving me fits.
Last year I had chemistry problems.
This year it looks like the weather will be crap.

<sigh/> 

Gertrude Käsebier: Portraits of Native Americans who performed in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West-1898

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/03/30/portraits-native-americans-performed-buffalo-bills-wild-west-1898/

Looks like some great examples of early dry plate.

... before the kindle, before the nook, even before e-ink there was the ETI2, aka Ebookwise 1150, aka REB1100

I'm in a bout of cleanup and tossing, something best done when there is nothing else to do. In one of my boxes was an old e-book reader. A Gemstar ETI2. This was one of the early e-book readers.

* Weight - 18 ounces (0.51 kg)
* Size - 5.0” x 7.5” x 1.5” (12.7 x 19.1 x 3.8 cm)
* Memory - 4MB RAM; 8MB internal Flash for program and content storage; expanded content storage on SmartMedia™ Memory Cards, up to 128MB
* CPU - Cirrus Logic ARM-7
* Battery - Rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery
* Screen - Back-lit 5.5” diagonal 4-bit grayscale LCD touch screen; half-VGA resolution (with 104 ppi it means the screen is 3.1" wide x 4.6" tall for a diagonal of 5.5")
* Internal v.34 33.6Kbps modem! and USB(1)

The charger was there so I plugged it in and let it sit while I tossed some more stuff in the trash and moved other stuff around.

Wonder of wonders the thing still works.

As crude as it is, the ergonomics of this thing far surpasses anything I currently have. It fits in my hand beautifully and the buttons (yes, buttons) are artfully placed just where they are needed. I spent 45 minutes reading some Conan Doyle and lost all track of time until Trike the cat came up to remind me it's time for his dinner.

I may not toss this one.

If you're going to FC  SterlingSilver is going to be doing tintypes.
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7311152/

Pass the word and check it out.

In January 1996 during an ice storm, a cold, hungry and a perfectly miserable kitten showed up at our house. After being fed and sheltered for the evening she was ready to go on her way but we cat napped her, put her in a box and took her to the vet.

She was never cold or hungry again.

Today we took her to the vet for the last time.

"Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."

Milestone birthdays, some you dread, some you don't and some are well, very personal.

My fathers side of the family has been in this country a long time. Like salmon they left home when they were young then returned to the part of the country where they were born to raise their own families. It is this peculiar tendency that makes our family burial plot an interesting place. For one thing, it's getting a bit crowded, and for another, there is a mathematical anomaly that is on my mind quite a bit.

The number of years between birth and death all add up to the same number, 59.

There are a few exceptions, one uncle didn't make it past 35, but he was crushed by a train. Another is an empty grave with just a marker. He died in Andersonville prison during the Civil War, family lore holds that he was eaten by some of the other prisoners. The rest, well 59.

Mayflies.

Saturday is my 59th birthday. I intend on having a good year if it kills me.