tim merritt [dot] net

More romanticism about Paris from the New York Times.

Paris at night has the irrational power to trigger the imaginations of even ordinary folks. There are always Parisians who leave open the window shutters of their living rooms, allowing passersby to peek inside. The often high ceilings and tall windows offer glimpses of crystal chandeliers and fanciful moldings and projections about the lives of the inhabitants. What are they serving for dinner? And do they sleep in canopied beds?

So the real secret to Paris’s beauty at night can be described in one word: light.

In some cities, lampposts are designed to light only the sidewalks and streets, so that surrounding buildings recede into darkness. In much of Paris, however, streetlights are attached to the sides of buildings, highlighting the curves and angles of the structures themselves.

Much like an ordinary-looking woman who turns beautiful in candlelight, unremarkable buildings in Paris glow. Architectural details that are lost by day suddenly proclaim themselves.

We’ll just have to stay up and walk everywhere all the time. Okay by me.

With the D50, I’m trying to figure out the color space settings, and it looks as though I need to do things differently if I’m going to print and if I’m going to the web. Sensible… but a clear explanation (or more precisely, choosing a search query that reveals a clear explanation) has been hard to come by. This article – Color spaces and you – seems a good start.

Nice find, this: Language Courses from the U.S. Foreign Service, including text and audio files free for the download; apparently in the public domain, having been produced with American taxpayer dollars.

Spiritual Cinema Circle

For the Spirituality In Our Daily Lives class, we’re viewing and discussing short films from the Spiritual Cinema Circle, a subscription service that sends a DVD with four movies on it – shorts and features, comedies, dramas, documentaries. I haven’t yet watched more than a few of the shorts, looking for some that would work in the class.

The film for October 1 is Celamy (2005) by Julie Anne Meerschwam, a lovely 18-minute film about a five-year-old girl who, after her mother dies, finds her way with the help of her best friend. Some discussion at the Theology and Film blog, but caution, if you don’t want spoilers. Added Saturday, Sept 30.

So far, we’ve watched and discussed these films—

• Sweetheart, (2003) by Australian filmmaker Matthew Saville. Its tagline: “A mother. A son. A phone call.” Read Matthew Saville’s Wikipedia entry, and an interview with Saville) at Sleepybrain, a Melbourne-based blog about modern culture.
• In God We Trust (2000), by Jason Reitman, director of the justly praised 2005 satire Thank You for Smoking. A young actor, a quarter, a truck, and an all too brief chance to find out what matters in life.
• Spin (2005), by Jamin Winans: “Two Turntables and a Time Machine,” leads us to consider the consequences of our choices, and the unlikely places where we might find grace.

  The group has really responded well to these films – especially Sweetheart. I don’t know if it’s available anywhere else. It’s worth seeking out.

  [Update: added information about Spin on Sunday Sept 24.]

According to DSL Reports, this is how fast our internet connection is, at least for the moment:

dslreports.com speed test result on 2006-09-13 19:50:02 EST: 5706 / 194
Your download speed : 5706 kbps or 713.3 KB/sec.
That is 1.3% worse than an average user on your ISP

Your upload speed : 194 kbps or 24.2 KB/sec.
That is 51.5% worse than an average user on your ISP

Not bad, really. Glad I don’t do a lot of uploading, I suppose.

Westerns, Noirs, and Sci-Fi, Oh My! | MetaFilter

I hate the title of this thread on Metafilter, but it links to three lists from Chicago Reader’s Jonathan Rosenbaum at DVDBeaver.

The Greening of Downtown Atlanta – New York Times

News about a development project here.

Seems we may be going to Paris in March of next year. Oh my. There will definitely be more on this to come.