About a week and a half ago I made the journey from Maine out to Cape Cod, where the International Fund for Animal Welfare presented me with one of their Animal Action Awards for 2012, which recognized my writing about endangered species, climate change, wildlife trafficking and related issues. The award is quite the honor -- especially since IFAW does phenomenal work themselves.
I didn't get to see as much of the Cape as I wanted -- we had rain, fog and storms pretty much the whole time -- but I did get to quickly visit a local wildlife preserve (in between cloudbursts), the Edward Gorey House Museum (which wasn't officially open, but the curator gave me a personal tour), and a shopping mall (I needed some Tums after too many on-the-road meals).
But I wasn't making the trip for sightseeing purposes. The real value came in the people I met: the other honorees and the great staff at IFAW. I left Cape Cod feeling energized and ready to keep covering the stories I am passionate about.
So much of what we do as writers or artists goes out into the great silent void. You rarely hear if your work has made an impact. I am glad to know that my writing has made a difference.
The IFAW just posted this short video from the awards ceremony. Check it out:
Friday, June 1, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
5 ways you can tell I'm 'from away'
Even though I have now lived in this corner of Maine for a little over five years, I will always be considered a "person from away" -- not because I don't have a Maine accent, but because my great-grandparents weren't born here.
But if you didn't hear me speak or have access to my pedigree, there are several other ways you can tell I'm not originally from here pretty darn quickly:
1. I don't pull out the shorts as soon as it hits 50 degrees. Heck, it's 55 today and I'm wearing long pants and a sweater. I feel no shame in this, only cold. I don't mind the cold, I just respect it. And keep it at least a few millimeters away from my skin.
2. You won't find me doing my banking at 7am. A lot of people here start their workdays pretty damned early. It isn't always their choice, but in general, folks are up with or before the sun. Me? I like the daytime, sure, but nothing is getting me out of bed before 7:15. (8 if I'm lucky.)
3. I don't have a camp. Mainers are awesome about going back to nature on the weekend, and most of people I know have cabins or whatever somewhere off the beaten track. That's fantastic, but I can barely keep up with one domicile, let alone two. Plus, there's a lot of good TV on during the weekend.
4. My wardrobe includes nothing from Columbia Sportswear, Carhartt or LL Bean. Again, this is pretty much because I'm not an outdoorsman, but it's also because I'm usually too cheap to buy this stuff. (Yes, I'm even more frugal than your average Mainer.) Although, having said this, I just got the new Bean catalog and some of the stuff looks pretty darn nice. Hmm...
5. And finally, I don't like lobster. I know lobster fishing is one of the primary economies of coastal Maine, but I can't stand the taste of those little red buggers. Give me a nice piece of chicken any day.
But if you didn't hear me speak or have access to my pedigree, there are several other ways you can tell I'm not originally from here pretty darn quickly:
1. I don't pull out the shorts as soon as it hits 50 degrees. Heck, it's 55 today and I'm wearing long pants and a sweater. I feel no shame in this, only cold. I don't mind the cold, I just respect it. And keep it at least a few millimeters away from my skin.
2. You won't find me doing my banking at 7am. A lot of people here start their workdays pretty damned early. It isn't always their choice, but in general, folks are up with or before the sun. Me? I like the daytime, sure, but nothing is getting me out of bed before 7:15. (8 if I'm lucky.)
3. I don't have a camp. Mainers are awesome about going back to nature on the weekend, and most of people I know have cabins or whatever somewhere off the beaten track. That's fantastic, but I can barely keep up with one domicile, let alone two. Plus, there's a lot of good TV on during the weekend.
4. My wardrobe includes nothing from Columbia Sportswear, Carhartt or LL Bean. Again, this is pretty much because I'm not an outdoorsman, but it's also because I'm usually too cheap to buy this stuff. (Yes, I'm even more frugal than your average Mainer.) Although, having said this, I just got the new Bean catalog and some of the stuff looks pretty darn nice. Hmm...
5. And finally, I don't like lobster. I know lobster fishing is one of the primary economies of coastal Maine, but I can't stand the taste of those little red buggers. Give me a nice piece of chicken any day.
Monday, March 26, 2012
New cartoonage!
Because I do not update this blog nearly often enough (shameshameshameshame), I have neglected my authorial duty to inform you all that there are new Platt cartoons out there in the universe!
Yes, my Plattitudes webcomic has been relaunched, appearing here on this very same Blogger doohickey. I'm posting a new cartoon every Monday and a rerun cartoon (often re-scanned or otherwise reworked) every Wednesday. If things go well enough, I'll move to two new 'toons every week.
Right now, I have enough new cartoons in the hopper to run through mid-May. Tons and tons more await in the sketchbook, so I have enough material to last for at least a year. Assuming my drawing hand holds out, that is.
But that's the future. For now, you can read my new Plattitudes cartoons...
Yes, my Plattitudes webcomic has been relaunched, appearing here on this very same Blogger doohickey. I'm posting a new cartoon every Monday and a rerun cartoon (often re-scanned or otherwise reworked) every Wednesday. If things go well enough, I'll move to two new 'toons every week.
Right now, I have enough new cartoons in the hopper to run through mid-May. Tons and tons more await in the sketchbook, so I have enough material to last for at least a year. Assuming my drawing hand holds out, that is.
But that's the future. For now, you can read my new Plattitudes cartoons...
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
A tale of three scanners
I've been on a scanning kick lately, converting my thousands of film photos to digital files. It's definitely time to do it: even though I've taken extremely good care of my printed photos, some of them are starting to degrade, especially the really old Kodak Instamatic pics I took in my youth way back in the late 70s.
But getting all of these photos into digital form isn't the easiest task. I've tried it three ways, and all have their plusses and minuses.
My main scanning attempt has been just slapping my printed photos down on my scanner and digitizing them a few at a time. This works pretty well, but it's a slow, laborious process. Scanning at 600 dpi takes several minutes per photo. After that -- since I want the best picture possible -- I spend another 5-15 minutes per photo in Photoshop, removing dust, physical imperfections, etc.
This works, but it's not perfect. Scanning a printed photo is like scanning any piece of paper -- every little imperfection shows up, especially at such high resolution. And of course, it take a hell of a lot of time.
It also costs nothing, so there you go.
But time, as always, is an issue, and I wanted a way to speed things up a bit. A friend of mine recently talked about taking a pile of photos to Target and using the Kodak Rapid Scanner there. This cool device has a sheet feeder that accepts about 20 photos at a time. It scans them pretty darn quickly -- 150 photos took about 45 minutes, maybe less -- and the only cost was minimal: $9.99 to burn all of the photos onto a CD-ROM.
Fast and inexpensive. What could go wrong?
Oh yeah, the scans look like crap. The colors came out faded and distorted and each image is marred by streaks and other electronic noise. Beyond that, the resolution isn't all that great. So this ended up being a terrible, terrible option.
Here's an example of one of the Rapid Scan images:
My third option was, by far, the best, but also the priciest. I have always kept my negatives, so I wondered what it would like to have them scanned directly. I shipped about 200 negs to a company called ScanCafe, which charged (at a sale price) 22 cents per image plus shipping and a few other fees.
The results were astounding. ScanCafe color corrected each scan and the photos look absolutely fantastic. In many cases, they look significantly better than the original, printed photos sitting in my albums.
Here's that same image, as scanned from the negative by ScanCafe.
Granted, this is not the best photo I've ever taken, but it's only one that I scanned through both services, so it's a pretty good comparison.
Again, ScanCafe is not the perfect solution -- it's pricey and it takes a very, very long time. I think it took at least six weeks to get my images back. If I remember correctly, they ship everything overseas for scanning, which isn't ideal. But however they did it, they produced incredible results.
Right now, I'm back to scanning more of my photos by hand, but I'm concentrating on more of the old Kodak Instant images and any pics for which I do not have negatives. I'll definitely try ScanCafe again, as soon as I can scrape up the cash.
What about you? How are you getting your old images into the computer age?
But getting all of these photos into digital form isn't the easiest task. I've tried it three ways, and all have their plusses and minuses.
My main scanning attempt has been just slapping my printed photos down on my scanner and digitizing them a few at a time. This works pretty well, but it's a slow, laborious process. Scanning at 600 dpi takes several minutes per photo. After that -- since I want the best picture possible -- I spend another 5-15 minutes per photo in Photoshop, removing dust, physical imperfections, etc.
This works, but it's not perfect. Scanning a printed photo is like scanning any piece of paper -- every little imperfection shows up, especially at such high resolution. And of course, it take a hell of a lot of time.
It also costs nothing, so there you go.
But time, as always, is an issue, and I wanted a way to speed things up a bit. A friend of mine recently talked about taking a pile of photos to Target and using the Kodak Rapid Scanner there. This cool device has a sheet feeder that accepts about 20 photos at a time. It scans them pretty darn quickly -- 150 photos took about 45 minutes, maybe less -- and the only cost was minimal: $9.99 to burn all of the photos onto a CD-ROM.
Fast and inexpensive. What could go wrong?
Oh yeah, the scans look like crap. The colors came out faded and distorted and each image is marred by streaks and other electronic noise. Beyond that, the resolution isn't all that great. So this ended up being a terrible, terrible option.
Here's an example of one of the Rapid Scan images:
My third option was, by far, the best, but also the priciest. I have always kept my negatives, so I wondered what it would like to have them scanned directly. I shipped about 200 negs to a company called ScanCafe, which charged (at a sale price) 22 cents per image plus shipping and a few other fees.
The results were astounding. ScanCafe color corrected each scan and the photos look absolutely fantastic. In many cases, they look significantly better than the original, printed photos sitting in my albums.
Here's that same image, as scanned from the negative by ScanCafe.
Granted, this is not the best photo I've ever taken, but it's only one that I scanned through both services, so it's a pretty good comparison.
Again, ScanCafe is not the perfect solution -- it's pricey and it takes a very, very long time. I think it took at least six weeks to get my images back. If I remember correctly, they ship everything overseas for scanning, which isn't ideal. But however they did it, they produced incredible results.
Right now, I'm back to scanning more of my photos by hand, but I'm concentrating on more of the old Kodak Instant images and any pics for which I do not have negatives. I'll definitely try ScanCafe again, as soon as I can scrape up the cash.
What about you? How are you getting your old images into the computer age?
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
7 creative updates
1. My poem "Necropsy" appears in the new issue (#115) of the venerable Space and Time Magazine. It doesn't seem to be for sale on their site yet, but here's the cover:
2. Another new poem, "Manscaping," appears in the latest issue (#15) of the sf/fantasy poetry zine, Illumen.
(Both of those poems were sold years ago. Writing is definitely a game of delayed gratification.)
3. I'm posting semi-frequent new sketches and mini-paintings over at the Platt Arts blog. Here's one of my favorites:
4. If you're interested in my journalism (and you should be), I post weekly link compendiums over on the Platt Article Library blog.
(I should probably roll all of these blogs into one, but I think they'll stay the way they are for now. Follow them all!)
5. I'm kinda working on some fiction again. I got a very encouraging rewrite request from a very good editorial team, so I'm thinking about how I can take that story to the next level. It's going to require digging deep into the dark parts of my brain to really make this story sing, so wish me luck.
6. I'm almost done with my next mini-comic. The interiors are all done, so all I need to do now is come up with a title and a cover. And then find a place to print the darn thing (not an easy task in semi-rural Maine). No rush -- I plan to have it ready for the next MECAF in May 2012. I also have probably 75% to 90% of another mini-comic written, and hope to start drawing it soon, again with a six-month completion goal.
7. I'm trying to come up with my creative goals for 2012. So far, I only have one: be creative. I may or may not get more specific than that.
2. Another new poem, "Manscaping," appears in the latest issue (#15) of the sf/fantasy poetry zine, Illumen.
(Both of those poems were sold years ago. Writing is definitely a game of delayed gratification.)
3. I'm posting semi-frequent new sketches and mini-paintings over at the Platt Arts blog. Here's one of my favorites:
4. If you're interested in my journalism (and you should be), I post weekly link compendiums over on the Platt Article Library blog.
(I should probably roll all of these blogs into one, but I think they'll stay the way they are for now. Follow them all!)
5. I'm kinda working on some fiction again. I got a very encouraging rewrite request from a very good editorial team, so I'm thinking about how I can take that story to the next level. It's going to require digging deep into the dark parts of my brain to really make this story sing, so wish me luck.
6. I'm almost done with my next mini-comic. The interiors are all done, so all I need to do now is come up with a title and a cover. And then find a place to print the darn thing (not an easy task in semi-rural Maine). No rush -- I plan to have it ready for the next MECAF in May 2012. I also have probably 75% to 90% of another mini-comic written, and hope to start drawing it soon, again with a six-month completion goal.
7. I'm trying to come up with my creative goals for 2012. So far, I only have one: be creative. I may or may not get more specific than that.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
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