Dave Nelson

Terry Pratchett is my favorite writer and Discworld is my favorite fictional universe. I find the Discworld novels to be incredibly fun reads and the Young Adult Tiffany Aching series is no exception. The main body of Discworld novels are targeted at adults while Tiffany Aching books are in the same universe they are targeted at YA readers and I believe they really hit the mark.

There are three Tiffany Aching novels and A Hat Full of Sky is the second in the series. I really enjoy all three books, but this is my favorite of the three, it includes insight into more characters of Discworld and adds a lot to the history of the universe.

In A Hat Full of Sky Tiffany is pursued by a great and ancient danger and the Wee Free Men along with Granny Weatherwax step in to help Tiffany in their own special ways.

From the Author’s web site:

The boldest heroine ever to confront the Forces of Darkness with a frying pan is back. Tiffany Aching, incipient witch and cheese maker extraordinaire is off to begin her apprenticeship in magic. She leaves behind her the green, familiar hills of her home and the blue, tattooed faces of her allies, the sword-wielding, six-inch-high Nac Mac Feegle. But something is following Tiffany …

I bought this book from a bookstore in 2007 and have read it multiple times.

I would rate this book a 9 out of 10 and highly recommend it to anyone who like humorous fiction although I would recommend reading Wee Free Men first.

• Terry Pratchett YA books
• A Hat Full of Sky on Amazon
• Wee Free Men at Amazon

Baby Eli Myers Nelson was born at 9:12 this morning. He is 4.9 lbs and 18.75 inches.

The ignite event at the Georgia Aquarium was a great success. We learned about super babies, how to build a hackintosh, rapid brainstorming, and how to keep a happy septic tank among other things.

Eighteen were given 5 minutes to present there ideas using 15 slides that automatically forward every 15 seconds. It makes for quick presentations that can leave the presenter breathless.

I have been watching ignite presentations on the interwebs and really enjoy them. The opportunity to see an event in person was a real treat.

• ignite videos at igniteshow.com
• ignite at O’Reilly
• ignite Atlanta Meetup group

We had a great time at Lynnette Howard’s fundraiser this weekend. Javier Lopez spent a lot of time conversing with fans, answering questions, signing baseballs, and hanging out. It was such a beautiful day with a cool breeze and blue skies. Check out the photos.

This weekend in Norcross, come meet baseball great Javier Lopez and candidate for Gwinnett County Commissioner District 2 Lynette Howard for a fundraiser cookout.

Everyone is welcome to come out and have a great time, there will be food, a silent auction, and a lot of family fun.

When: Saturday April 17th, 11:00am – 2:00pm
Where: The horse farm at
4685 S Berkeley Lake Rd, Norcross, GA 30071
How Much: $10 per person

Check out Lynette’s election web site at http://electlynette.com/ and read up on Javier at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javy_L%C3%B3pez.

Here is a picture of our baby boy who is growing bigger every day. The launch date is August 22nd.

We had a doctors apppointment this morning and have been told that we are having a baby boy. Pictures and such coming soon!

The Gallery is at http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2009/.
Here are some quick highlights

• Shatner & Nimoy on Friday
• Costume Contest on Friday Night
• Parade on Saturday Morning
• Adam Savage of Mythbusters
• Dawn Costume Contest on Saturday
• Nimoy & Shatner on Sunday
• Masquerade on Sunday
• Arc Attack on Sunday

Here are some cool searches

• Battlestar Galactica
• Draco Malfoy, AKA Tom Felton of Harry Potter
• Felicia Day (includes other Buffy guests)
• Terry Gilliam

Over the next couple of weeks I am going to write about the software I have found for the Mac OS to make my transition from the world of Windows complete.

I am finally comfortable spending all of my computer time inside of the Mac OS. I still have WindowsXP in Bootcamp for playing games on Steam, and a couple virtual machines using VMWare and Parallels for the occasional Microsoft Outlook need or using Garmin Mapsource to upload maps and waypoints to my GPS, but I rarely miss Windows or proprietary applications that only run on Windows.

First up is BBEdit.

BBEdit

Price: $125
Web Site: http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/

The only real negative thing I can say about BBEdit is the price, $125 for a text editor just seems excessive. UltraEdit, which is still my favorite text editor is only $49.95, but on the Mac OS BBEdit is hands down the best text editor available in my opinion. I tried all of the free solutions and most of the payed solutions that have trials available and they all fall well short of BBEdit.

On Thursday April 9th I participated in a “Painting with Light Workshop” at Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, GA. Judith Pishnery of Pisconeri Studio & Workshops brought us together for a night of photography and learning.

We began the night around 7pm filling out releases and donning nametags on the porch of the visitor’s center. After an introduction by Judith and some words from the cemetery staff we were left to wander the cemetery to get acquainted and take some pre-nightfall photos.

Around 8:30 Judith gave a presentation explaining how to paint with light. Although I had done some small experiments with a handheld speedlight and have written my name in the air with a flashlight before I had never “painted with light” to create a “real” photograph and I was looking forward to giving it a try.

Right away I learned that using a camera flash handheld really doesn’t put out as much light as I thought it did. Multiple flashes, 5 or 6, produced very little extra light even though each flash felt blindingly bright to me. A 6-volt camping flashlight slowly passed over a subject produces a much brighter image than a flash.

I was also surprised by the results of a small but very bright LED flashlight, which to my eyes appears very bright even if it is on the blue side of the spectrum, but to the camera’s sensor it was very dim indeed. The camping flashlight with its old-school style bulb was brighter and whiter than either LED flashlight I tried.

My best results were with using the 6-volt lantern panning it slowly first horizontally and then vertically to ensure total coverage of the subject(s) while the camera’s shutter was held open in bulb mode for as short as 20 seconds and as long as 3 minutes. Then in Lightroom I did some quick tweaking only spending some real effort on two of the photos to knock down some distracting lights.

This workshop was a lot of fun and I look forward to using what I learned in the future.

Links:

• My Painting with Light Workshop Photo Gallery
• Oakland Cemetery – Night Shoot Flickr Group
• Pisconeri Studio & Workshops