http://browse.deviantart.com/journals/?order=5&q=by%3Amjranum deviantART RSS for in:journals sort:time by:mjranum en-us Copyright 2013, deviantART.com Wed, 22 May 2013 18:49:35 PDT deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://st.deviantart.net/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/The-Dining-Philosophers-a-Problem-330263095 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/The-Dining-Philosophers-a-Problem-330263095 Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:48:55 PDT The Dining Philosophers - a Problem nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2012-2013 `mjranum http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/One-Reason-329831424 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/One-Reason-329831424 Sat, 29 Sep 2012 13:12:49 PDT One Reason... nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2012-2013 `mjranum
I used to attend a particular conference on an annual basis, and so I got to (casually) know the other "regulars" who also used to be there. Every year, more or less, I'd see the same group of people at the speakers' dinner, and we could catch up on the usual "what are you up to these days?" kind of stuff. One of the guys I used to see fairly often was a tall heavy-set fellow (some might call him "fat" or "obese") he'd always been tall, bearded, and big, to me. But one year, he showed up and he had lost a lot of weight. It took me a second to recognize him, and I said, "Hey, Rich! You look ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/The-Rolling-Blunder-OutBlundered-329082170 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/The-Rolling-Blunder-OutBlundered-329082170 Mon, 24 Sep 2012 21:11:29 PDT The Rolling Blunder - OutBlundered nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2012-2013 `mjranum
Final Push
Last year I published a journal entry about my project van (AKA "The Rolling Blunder") - an old Verizon phone company step-van that I got for not-a-whole-lot-of-money with the brilliant idea of turning it into a rolling darkroom/camper so I could take my wet-plate photography out onto the highway. My secret master plan was to run down to New Orleans, then hang a right across Texas and to California, taking wet-plate photos of vintage diners and laundromats (what, don't you like diners and laundromats?) eventually making the loop up across California then to Seattle, down across Oklahoma, toward home.

I ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Religion-Respect-and-Responsibility-A-Letter-318175852 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Religion-Respect-and-Responsibility-A-Letter-318175852 Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:23:04 PDT Religion, Respect, and Responsibility: A Letter... nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2012-2013 `mjranum by Marcus J. Ranum
July 29, 2012

A letter on religion, pornography, and business ethics written by an opinionated individual, inspired by a letter written by "two prominent public intellectuals - one a Christian, one a Muslim"  - sent to hotel industry executives last week. ( See: The Public Discourse )

I write to ask you to stop offering religious programming on your in-room televisions and hosting religious texts (such as the Gideon's bible) in your company's hotels. I make no proposal here to limit your legal freedom, nor do I threaten protests, boycotts, or anything ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Same-Sex-Marriage-and-other-stuff-309287881 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Same-Sex-Marriage-and-other-stuff-309287881 Tue, 19 Jun 2012 00:12:28 PDT Same-Sex Marriage (and other stuff) nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2012-2013 `mjranum First off, I need to issue a few disclaimers: I don't feel that I have any particular agenda in the conflict over same-sex marriage, above and beyond the normal agenda of any philosopher. That is to say, I'm concerned with reason and truth, but I don't stand to lose or benefit personally from how the issue is resolved - except in the sense that I may end up living in a society that is more or less fair after its resolution. In other words, I consider myself relatively impartial, though I am going to make these comments from (in a few cases) a deeply personal frame of reference.

Secularism and Homophobia
The first thing we ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/To-Drive-the-Chill-Away-II-282370758 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/To-Drive-the-Chill-Away-II-282370758 Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:31:58 PST To Drive the Chill Away... II nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2012-2013 `mjranum
Sweeping

This time I've put more effort into preparing my supports, and have included an overhead piece that will support a curved segment of fiberglass/vinyl board. Having ceiling tiles ruin my "looking up the gun barrel" stock has really annoyed me. It'll take a bit of extra paint and a lot of extra work but it'll be worth it.

(larger)
Here you can see the overhead panel(s) installed. Rather than use  4x8 sheet of 1/2" plywood fo ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/SOPA-Hypocrisy-Scandal-DMCA-and-Censorship-280592802 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/SOPA-Hypocrisy-Scandal-DMCA-and-Censorship-280592802 Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:39:32 PST SOPA, Hypocrisy, Scandal, DMCA, and Censorship nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2012-2013 `mjranum I've been disappointed to see the various responses to SOPA, especially the "DEVIATION CENSORED" images. They so completely miss the point that I can only assume the people posting them have absolutely no comprehension of what SOPA means, why it's a problem, and what they're actually protesting against.

First off, SOPA is not about censorship. Unfortunately, many of the opponents of SOPA decided to cast it as being about censorship in order to mobilize public opinion. Why did they do that? Unfortunately, they did that for two reasons: 1) they knew that without mobilizing mass support, the bill would go through and 2) they ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/To-Drive-the-Chill-Away-280155369 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/To-Drive-the-Chill-Away-280155369 Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:36:25 PST To Drive the Chill Away... nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2012-2013 `mjranum
I did my last shoot for the season with :iconbrittaniluv: last weekend, and now it's definitely too cold to have models running around the studio clad only in goose-bumps. Not that that's unattractive, but it's unnecessarily cruel. So I decided to get started on a project I've wanted to do for a while: renovating the studio.

Here you can see GWC studio as it appeared around noon ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Home-270715220 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Home-270715220 Thu, 24 Nov 2011 12:52:41 PST Home!! nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
I saw lots of stuff, snapped thousands of photos, and wrote a detailed trip journal each night (and sometimes paused during the day to sit down and write a bit...) about the whole experience. It'll help me cement everything in my memory to write it all down quickly before it fades.

Looking at lots and lots of wreckage made my mind start to go numb; there are levels and levels of detail and I kept trying to make sense of everything. It simply doesn't work. After a day or two, I found myself just walking around shaking my head mumbling, "no. no."

The ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Minor-Update-268805209 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Minor-Update-268805209 Sun, 13 Nov 2011 06:36:38 PST Minor Update nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
For any of you who are interested in the occasional leather-craft projects, bare plate ambrotypes, or boxed ambrotypes that I list on Ebay, you can now get email notifications by sending a message to
mailto:art-request@ranum.com?subject=subscribe&body=subscribe
I plan to list another plate soon and after that I hope to be doing a short run of boxed ambrotypes.

I'm doing a lot of travell ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/On-Ghosts-267274447 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/On-Ghosts-267274447 Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:30:30 PDT On Ghosts nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
The problem is that there really isn't a single simple place to dig in and get started. Why not? Because all of what we'd call "human knowledge" is connected; if you intend to explain one piece completely you'd eventually wind up trying to explain it all. That's why the 6-year-old child's tactic of asking "why?" is so successful and annoying.

kid: "why is the sky blue?"
mjr: "because of diffraction in the atmosphere."
kid: "why?"
mjr: "well it's got to do with how light's frequency changes when you bend its path."
kid: "why?"
mjr option 1: "don't ask me, g ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-Final-261004125 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-Final-261004125 Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:55:20 PDT A Place of Darkness - Final nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
Because my project van (and 10,000 other things!) are not finished. But the darkroom is done. I've already been working with it, and everything's functionally perfect, the only thing left to complete was the paint and now that's all finished. There's some touch-up I could do, but it will wait - I am sick of painting.

largerFinissimo!

I think the green floor was just the right touch. I may still make a curtain to go around the enlarger table (not that it would serve any purpose at all) and I will eventually paint the white standoffs on the bottom of the sink black, and a few other things lik ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-XV-260252407 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-XV-260252407 Sun, 25 Sep 2011 18:45:49 PDT A Place of Darkness - XV nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
After I got the electrics and water for the darkroom working, I cleaned everything up and was able to do a shoot using it (and everything was wonderful)    Every time I re-engage the project I can be pretty sure I'll get dust on things, and shavings on the floor, etc - and have to clean it up again. I had a shoot scheduled this weekend that had to cancel so that inspired me to try to push and finish the whole thing off.

It's a bit odd-looking at this stage; the temptation is to wait until it's all done, but I kind of like the time where you can see the partial transformation most clearly. That's when the paint ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-XIV-257607401 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-XIV-257607401 Fri, 09 Sep 2011 18:08:30 PDT A Place of Darkness - XIV nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
How many times have you had a project day become a death-march unexpectedly? I was finishing up the wiring for the darkroom lights and I noticed a quiet tap - tap - tap sound. "Self, that sounds like dripping water," I told myself. Oh, boy, right again! I had these little flow-meters inline in the temporary plumbing to the darkroom sink, and one of them had cracked. It was rated for 100+PSI and had managed to break under 30PSI. I thought I'd just patch it out with a connector but then I realized I didn't have much else going on, so - why not just re-do the plumbing? After all, I was going to have to depressurize and drain ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-XIII-256806699 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-XIII-256806699 Sun, 04 Sep 2011 19:32:12 PDT A Place of Darkness - XIII nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
Usually, for a project like this, I spend a lot of time thinking things over before I get stuck into it. That's because I've discovered the hard way that my subconscious often comes up with pretty elegant solutions to p ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/The-Rolling-Blunder-2-246480458 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/The-Rolling-Blunder-2-246480458 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 17:45:51 PDT The Rolling Blunder -2 nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
It's been pretty hot up here in north central middle of noplace, so I've been a bit reluctant to crawl around in a parking lot under a sun-smouldering-hot van. Every operation pretty much seems to require it, unfortunately. Since all the components need to be shock-mounted and vibration-proof that means a lot of drilling holes, positioning bolts, and tightening them.

(bigger)(battery box and pumps)

I finally completed the mounting for the battery box, battery, and filling pump. Inside the battery box is a 40# trolling motor deep cycle battery and a bunch of vibration-damping padding. Did you know that batteries we ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/The-Rolling-Blunder-242824045 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/The-Rolling-Blunder-242824045 Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:17:16 PDT The Rolling Blunder -- nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
A couple of months ago, I sold my 1966 Land Rover safari wagon to a co-worker. He promised me he'd take care of it and I promised myself I'd do something interesting with the money. I had the idea that maybe I'd go to the truck salvage dealer down the road and see if he had a little commercial van - you know, one of those chevy utility cars with the sliding side door? - that I could turn into a wet-plate darkbox on wheels.

When I got there, he had just pulled out this:
(bigger)(Side View)

Well, I won't say it was love at first sight (that was my previous ex-wife, I've learned not to do that any more) but it was se ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-XII-227398970 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-XII-227398970 Thu, 14 Jul 2011 21:24:58 PDT A Place of Darkness - XII nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
Well, it's now July and the water is finally available, and in my studio. This is a big deal for me, after 6 years of telling people "make sure you, uh, you know 'do your business' at the truck stop before you come out..."  Within an hour of turning the water on at the street, I was buying PEX tubing and knocking holes in the ceiling to run a 1/2" pipe to - the toilet. My second run was to the darkroom, to hook up both sinks - one of which leaked. So it goes. By the next day, I had everything shipshape and working, then moved all my wet-plate gear from the other room into the now-functioning sinks! (a ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Interview-w-Me-220088808 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Interview-w-Me-220088808 Sun, 20 Mar 2011 15:27:13 PDT Interview w/Me... nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
In the meantime, there's an interview with me on zillionarts.com

I haven't been doing much photography lately because the tail end of winter was hella cold and we got a huge dump of snow and ice. But suddenly it's all clear and the studio is tolerable again. (Rinsing plates with 33-degree water is ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-XI-221246690 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-XI-221246690 Fri, 04 Feb 2011 21:41:03 PST A Place of Darkness - XI nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
Lately, I haven't made a lot of progress. Mostly, because we had a string of nasty weather and it was unpleasantly cold over at the studio. I spent my time at home working, drinking tea, and reading Hannah Arendt.

Today, I re-mounted the door of the darkroom, which I had removed to make it possible to fit the sinks. After that, I stripped the facing from the door-frame; I'll replace the facing with some fake rivet-plate. I've been mentally designing the door design (which is getting way ahead of myself, but it was something I could do at home where it's warm!) and did a sketch:

Another sloppy sketch!

Since the door just ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-X-221525818 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-X-221525818 Mon, 24 Jan 2011 18:56:56 PST A Place of Darkness - X nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
Today I went over and spent some time looking at the layout of the darkroom and thinking about the cabinets some more. I realized that I don't really need a lot of counter space, and I really wanted something strikingly different-looking for that end of the room.

Enter Plan C!

Forgive my shitty art skills, please! (larger)

This is a pretty poor rendering of how the final version should look. I realized that I was just stuck on the idea of having some red velvet curtains - and that I wasn't going to be happy unless I figured out some way to work them in correctly. Having curtains around the enlarger seemed like a great way to make i ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-IX-221566228 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-IX-221566228 Sun, 23 Jan 2011 10:17:04 PST A Place of Darkness - IX nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
Now I am faced with a major decision: positioning the cabinets and constructing the countertop. I have a fair amount of space to work with but I need to think how to arrange everything so it will work well as a darkroom, look cool, and have good speaker placement for the audio gear - in that order.

The end of the room is 12-foot 6-inches, which is a bit of a problem because the pre-made countertop segments they sell at the builder's supply are 12-foot. So I think I will simply get a few pieces of plywood and construct my own countertop - it's pretty easy - you just put angle-brackets on the walls to support the edg ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-VIII-221599013 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-VIII-221599013 Fri, 21 Jan 2011 20:29:12 PST A Place of Darkness - VIII nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
I'm past the hardest part of the project, now - I'd guess about 1/3 of the way complete: the sinks are in! It was a lot of fiddly detail-work but the most important part of the project is no place to cut corners. To get all the water connections right, I needed to fabricate pretty much everything, custom, from scratch. It required many more trips to the hardware store than I wanted to make - a total of about 10 trips over 3 days. I kept needing one little specific piece or another - if I'd been smarter and lazier I'd have gotten a whole lot more than I needed, kept the reciept, and then returned all the leftovers for ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-VII-221792747 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-VII-221792747 Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:00:47 PST A Place of Darkness - VII nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
Yesterday when I got home, I checked my email and had the notification from UPS that the Rejuvenations' lamp had been delivered. So this morning when I got up I made a beeline to go collect it - sure enough - one large box marked "fragile" was waiting for me in the shed where the UPS guy leaves things.

(larger) Now That's A Darkroom Light!

It's pretty simple to install a light fixture, compared to lots of the other projects I've done, but I went slowly because the glass globes are apparently made of pure money. They're beautiful. It's perfect. I put low-power CFL bulbs in them so that the room will be suitably ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-VI-221838758 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-VI-221838758 Mon, 10 Jan 2011 17:04:07 PST A Place of Darkness - VI nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
Paint is amazing. It hides so many ills! Perhaps we should all paint ourselves...

(larger) Now that's some boilerplate!

I had forgotten how incredibly unpleasant it is to paint cinder-block, even when it's already sealed and primed. You have to work the roller/brush into every crack and nook. The darkroom is pretty small but it took me nearly 4 hours to do half of it, and it sucked up almost 1/2 gallon of paint.

When I've got the sinks and cabinets in, I'll go back over with a silver dry-brushing to give it some metallic highlights.

Meanwhile,I started thinking about the floor. I checked on one-piece vinyl sheet, but none of the v ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-V-221856502 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-V-221856502 Sun, 09 Jan 2011 19:58:12 PST A Place of Darkness - V nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
It's been snowing up here, so my weekend plans (which were a photo-shoot and time spent cleaning up afterwards, and varnishing plates) got rearranged. With sudden spare time, I've been working on the darkroom.

(larger) Torquemada's Darkroom

The darkroom I'm building out is the former girls' bathroom of my schoolhouse. The boy's bathroom? What happened to that?  Well, in 2007 I suddenly found myself single again, and spent most of that summer sitting on my porch drinking Jack Daniel's and listening to Johhny Cash with my dogs. Eventually I needed to pull myself out of the tailspin (because, frankly, tailspins are boring) and ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Divertimento-on-Sexual-Obsessions-221888979 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Divertimento-on-Sexual-Obsessions-221888979 Sat, 08 Jan 2011 12:15:22 PST A Divertimento on Sexual Obsessions nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
I still sometimes see the term "pervert" used on DA; it's a funny word and I don't think the people using it really understand what they're talking about. Frequently, it's in a comment such as "...I hope I don't sound perverted if I say 'she sure has a nice backside'"  Why do I say they don't understand the word? Because liking is a perfectly normal response to a nice backside and "perversion" implies abnormal behavior. Worse than abnormal, in fact - it implies a moral dimension to the behavior.

Playing online dictionary wars is something I want to avoid, but here's a definition of "perversion" from Merriam-Webster ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-IV-221965444 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-IV-221965444 Tue, 04 Jan 2011 18:25:20 PST A Place of Darkness - IV nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
In my previous entry, I was coping with the frustration of having some of my panels peel off the wall where I had glued them. Rather than lose my mind and start throwing things, I quit for the day - after going to the hardware store and getting a tube of a different kind of glue. I re-glued the panel that had come down and left.

Today, I went back over and assessed the situation and, sure enough, the panel had come down again. What was happening was that the glue was curing onto the wall and the panel, but then breaking apart between them. Sure enough, it was too cold, and the glue had been freezing and failing to cure ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-III-222018824 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-III-222018824 Sun, 02 Jan 2011 12:56:33 PST A Place of Darkness - III nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
I had a buddy who always used to say "projects are a good way of keeping your frustration level high."  Today, I went over to start cutting the overlap pieces and installing "rivets" but first I thought I'd clean up from yesterday. I started by peeling the tape off the wall panels. Or tried to. The first panel, I tugged the tape, and it came off the wall - with the panel.

Apparently "locktite adhesive - bonds wood, concrete, drywall, and wallboard" doesn't stick to, uh, wallboard. It's nicely stuck to the concrete, all right, but it peels right off the panel. ARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!

Instead of trying to figure out what to do right ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-II-222051650 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-II-222051650 Sat, 01 Jan 2011 17:58:32 PST A Place of Darkness - II nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2011-2013 `mjranum
I have a tendency to wait until I'm good and ready before attacking a project, which often means things get delayed while I think and plan and collect parts, then I suddenly explode into a flurry of activity. It's probably not the most efficient way to do things but it's worked for me for nearly half a century so I think I am not likely to change.

J-channel glued to walls (larger)

The first step in making the walls look like boilerplate was to glue j-channel around the walls 3 feet off the floor. I'm going to leave the lower 3 feet of the walls bare because they'll mostly be hidden by cabinets and sinks anyway; I'll just pa ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-I-223261504 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Place-of-Darkness-I-223261504 Wed, 03 Nov 2010 20:00:06 PDT A Place of Darkness - I nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2010-2013 `mjranum In 2006, I went looking for a place to turn into a photography studio. The house I live in is a classical 1800's farmhouse without a lot of storage space or work room, and I didn't want to destroy its lines with an addition. So I started looking for a store-front that I could rent in Philipsburg or Clearfield - I thought it would be easy since both are economically depressed with largely vacant mercantile areas. Unfortunately, the property owners are holding out for when things turn around (they have probably been holding out for the turn around since World War II ended) - prices are surprisingly high and negotiating a lease turne ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Going-in-Another-Direction-224735692 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Going-in-Another-Direction-224735692 Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:54:38 PDT Going in Another Direction nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2010-2013 `mjranum
largerThe last breath of summer

I've been a bit unsatisfied with digital photography, mostly because I miss the old darkroom that I had back in Maryland. I miss the sound of running water, and the smell of fixer on my fingers. Mostly, though, I miss the hands on feeling that you don't get with digital photography. Printing digitally consists of making sure the paper feeds correctly into the printer, and clicking 'OK'. I'm not saying it's better or worse; it's just that I associate photography and art-making with crafts, manual cleverness, building stuff, making things - messing with stuff.

A year ago, a friend of mine s ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/In-his-great-hallway-225594388 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/In-his-great-hallway-225594388 Sun, 04 Jul 2010 08:37:13 PDT In his great hallway... nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2010-2013 `mjranum
   John Carter, Warlord of Barsoo ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Bit-of-An-Experiment-226000880 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Bit-of-An-Experiment-226000880 Sat, 12 Jun 2010 16:49:48 PDT A Bit of An Experiment nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2010-2013 `mjranum
A few minutes of research convinced me of the error of my ways, but a bit more reflection made me realize that it was a g ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Hear-This-Olympic-Committee-226287974 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Hear-This-Olympic-Committee-226287974 Thu, 27 May 2010 21:58:52 PDT Hear This, Olympic Committee nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2010-2013 `mjranum
A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine sent me a link to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gGpAriVywY
the US Pole Dance Championships. It's incredible.

I bet some of those olympic-level gymnasts could work the hell out of a pole. In fact, that might make me watch the olympics for at least a few seconds. Heck, why not olympic couples pole dancing? Or pole dancing with the stars?

Here's what's funny about all this stuff - it's all sexual display. No, silly, not the curling I mean the dancing. Have you ever noticed how, every year, the outfits on the figure skat ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/My-work-on-display-at-Guggenheim-Museum-NYC-226642276 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/My-work-on-display-at-Guggenheim-Museum-NYC-226642276 Thu, 06 May 2010 18:55:23 PDT My work on display at Guggenheim Museum, NYC nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2010-2013 `mjranum
But his stuff didn't live up to his claims - to put it very mildly. His work was medium/experienced beginner level at best. Then, one day he made a posting in one of the forums about a model being late for his "$250,000 shoot" and complaining about how much it annoyed his client. So I started asking questions, mostly because something seemed a bit weird about a client tagging him with a quarter million-dollar contract. It didn't make ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-minor-blasphemy-226879037 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-minor-blasphemy-226879037 Thu, 22 Apr 2010 07:08:10 PDT A minor blasphemy nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2010-2013 `mjranum
So, here you go:

I've posted stuff here in the past that was deliberately blasphemous, occasionally, and I think it's an important function of artistic expression that we not tolerate anyone attempting to tell us what we can ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/BMI-227932640 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/BMI-227932640 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:58:31 PST BMI nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2010-2013 `mjranum
I know you're probably thinking "What does Marcus care about Body-Mass Index?" And, to tell you the truth, I don't care much about it, except for how did it become so important to so many people and where did it come from? I've always been fascinated by scientific thinking, and its evil opposite twin - pseudo-science - and it occurs to me that telling you the tale of BMI might amuse you, while also giving me a chance to talk a little bit about science, intellectual honesty, and how failure to think critically about problems can result in bizzare social distortions.

Leucippus and Anaxagoras

In the ea ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Morals-3-of-3-228318951 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Morals-3-of-3-228318951 Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:18:39 PST Morals (3 of 3) nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2010-2013 `mjranum
In this, the final installment of my series on "morals", I'm going to explore the question of whether or not we can build "moral" systems rationally. In the first installment ( http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/28515625/ ) we looked at whether or not "morals" could practically be said to come from god or the supernatural - my conclusion is that it's highly unlikely. I may do a future journal entry that's a kind of thought-experiment exploring what we could conclude if we did believe in "morals" delivered from a god; it's not pretty. In my second entry on the topic ( http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/29976579/ ), ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Morals-2-of-3-228504881 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Morals-2-of-3-228504881 Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:28:15 PST Morals (2 of 3) nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2010-2013 `mjranum
"Morality" refers to a set of beliefs, or a code of conduct, governing what is right and wrong. In this set of journal entries, I'll be examining whether or not the notion even makes enough sense to be worth talking about. Like many topics in philosophy, the question of "morals" is obscured by a pretty thick smoke-screen of argument by vigorous assertion, people pronouncing how they think things ought to be as if it were objective fact, and ideology. If we're going to treat "morals" as if they are something real, we need to be able to ground them in something that gives them universality - otherwise they're sim ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Extended-Interview-on-Northwest-Florida-Arts-Ass-n-228969571 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Extended-Interview-on-Northwest-Florida-Arts-Ass-n-228969571 Sat, 02 Jan 2010 13:16:40 PST Extended Interview on Northwest Florida Arts Ass'n nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2010-2013 `mjranum http://www.nwflaa.com/2009/12/30/artist-interview-marcus-j-ranum/ ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Senior-WTF-229163773 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Senior-WTF-229163773 Thu, 24 Dec 2009 11:37:14 PST Senior WTF? nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2009-2013 `mjranum
What does being a "senior member" entail? Will I get a pimp ring that I can wear, which everyone will have to bow down and kiss? Do I get a big hat? Or, maybe, a root password? I'm sure I'll find out, eventually, if it matters.

I'll continue churning out stock. I'll continue bashing DA and anyone else who supports censorship of any type in any form. I'll continue making fun of religion. I'll continue with the nihilist philosophy. I'll continue pos ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Morals-1-of-3-229689254 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Morals-1-of-3-229689254 Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:13:10 PST Morals (1 of 3) nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2009-2013 `mjranum
In this set of journal entries I am going to discuss "morals" and where they might come from. In this section, I will introduce and destroy the notion that morals come from god. Next, I will examine the question of whether morals come from nature or natural laws and some of the consequences of that view. Then, in the final section, we'll consider the problem of arriving at morals through reason or the will of the group. Let me be clear about my agenda: my purpose in doing this is to undermine any confidence you may have in "morality." What you replace it with is up to yo ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Sexual-Displays-and-Adaptation-229793968 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Sexual-Displays-and-Adaptation-229793968 Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:13:07 PST Sexual Displays and Adaptation nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2009-2013 `mjranum
The US Supreme Court has struggled over and over again with the topic, and, today, gigantic amounts of money are being expended in having The Department of Justice write and defend laws controllin ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Pornography-230325587 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Pornography-230325587 Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:34:03 PDT Pornography nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2009-2013 `mjranum
What is "pornography?" I think I've seen a thousand threads on DeviantArt and ModelMayhem purporting to resolve the "art VS porn" discussion and, after reading many of them, I'm just as unenlightened as when I started. One might ask, as many have, "who cares?" but the obvious answer is that we're dealing with value-laden words and the people who are using them care - and care deeply. If the words "art" and "pornography" were interchangeable then we'd probably just call everything "art": it's shorter.

Value-laden words are the material from which propaganda is made; they are used to label things ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/9-11-230777369 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/9-11-230777369 Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:26:18 PDT 9/11 nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2009-2013 `mjranum the ashes of faiths
flutter like the feathers
dropped by a concrete
phoenix ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Porn-and-Political-Control-232127864 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Porn-and-Political-Control-232127864 Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:59:37 PDT Porn and Political Control nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2009-2013 `mjranum
"Hmmmm..., what about Marx/Lenin/Confucius is anti-porn?" I asked one of my friends. Neither of us had any good ideas; at least followers of the abrahamic religions can fall back on the notion that the supreme all-powerful being that created us doesn't like to see us running around naked (for his own mysterious reasons). But, really, if you're ideologically Marxist/Leninist, pornography may simply be a new opiate for the masses; it serves government's agenda more than not.

But the ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Photography-Tutorials-in-my-Stock-Account-233118699 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Photography-Tutorials-in-my-Stock-Account-233118699 Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:36:37 PDT Photography Tutorials in my Stock Account nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2009-2013 `mjranum
It is here:
:thumb118589322:

The "shoot stock" tutorial has a number of illustrations of the kind of set-ups I use for lighting, as well as pictures of my studio.

Today I posted another tutorial on "photographic lighting". It's a workthrough of experiments with lights ranging my my expensive pro studio flash pack to some $55 light heads I bought on Ebay. In it, I try to demonstrate the way I like to think about photography; a synthesis of intuitive play and methodical trial-and-error by varying a single parameter.

It is here:
:thumb118703072: ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Keeping-the-World-Safe-For-Kids-From-Kids-Urrr-233303686 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Keeping-the-World-Safe-For-Kids-From-Kids-Urrr-233303686 Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:57:42 PDT Keeping the World Safe For Kids - From Kids. Urrr. nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2009-2013 `mjranum "NJ girl, 14, arrested after posting nude pics

By BETH DeFALCO – 18 hours ago

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A 14-year-old New Jersey girl has been accused of child pornography after posting nearly 30 explicit nude pictures of herself on MySpace.com — charges that could force her to register as a sex offender if convicted.

The case comes as prosecutors nationwide pursue child pornography cases resulting from kids sending nude photos to one another over cell phones and e-mail. Legal experts, though, could not recall another case of a child porn charge resulting from a teen's posting to a social networking site.

MySpace wo ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Quick-Look-At-2257a-233309333 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-Quick-Look-At-2257a-233309333 Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:52:28 PDT A Quick Look At 2257a nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2009-2013 `mjranum
Anarchism For Beginners

If you follow my journals, you've probably already caught onto the idea that I'm pretty derisive of the whole concept of dividing media into

"mature content" or "(immature) content"
"good media" and "bad media"
"porn" and "art"

Whatever you want to call it, the idea is to define categories into which different types of media are going to fall. I suppose, if it's just irrelevant then nobody needs to worry about it - but plenty of people want to use those categories to tr ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-victory-for-mindless-violence-233745084 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-victory-for-mindless-violence-233745084 Sat, 21 Feb 2009 18:31:20 PST A victory for mindless violence! nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2009-2013 `mjranum
A California game law was struck down as unconstitutional, after an appeals court upheld a previous ruling. The law in question was AB1179, which was signed into law by Governator Schwartznegger in 2005.

(Arnie wages war against violent video games)

Please sit down and appreciate the irony: AB1179 required warning labels and sales restrictions on violent video games.  Got that?  The beefy steroid-gobbling, gun-toting, robotic clown who made his reputation in such peaceful movies as "Termina ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Content-to-Filter-234121511 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Content-to-Filter-234121511 Mon, 26 Jan 2009 12:42:04 PST Content to Filter? nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2009-2013 `mjranum
We currently live in a world where content filtering is permanently enabled. And we all, including me, consider it a good thing. What we don't agree upon, of course, is how good our content filtering should be. Allow me to explain.

We human animals are social creatures, and live within the unescapable context of the societies in which we are raised, for better or worse; and when it comes to artwork, our notions of beautiful and appropriate are largely governed by the time and place in ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-victory-for-filth-234192639 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/A-victory-for-filth-234192639 Thu, 22 Jan 2009 08:51:29 PST A victory for filth! nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2009-2013 `mjranum
The reason they did that was because they knew that if they actually heard the case, they'd be establishing more precedents reinforcing Free Speech. (OMG! Stop! Stop! Don't reinforce the already vast body of case law upholding the 1st Amendment!) So, while the ignominous defeat of COPA sounds like a victory - and it was - the forces of prudery and government control of our lives managed to limp from the battlefield. They'll be back, for sure.

Before a ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Mature-WTF-235795039 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Mature-WTF-235795039 Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:41:16 PDT Mature WTF? nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2008-2013 `mjranum
I am utterly, totally, thorougly sick and tired of people who seem to think that the world should be free of anything that offends them. In case anyone hadn't noticed, it's impossible to live your life in this world without something annoying you; it's either going to be a jackhammer breaking cement at 7:00am, or chewing gum on a sidewalk, or a couple of pixels of nipple-JPEG on a thumbnail that you had to click and look at closely to verify that those might be nipple-pixels before clicking on the "report deviation" button.

So, I've decided that, from ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Beginning-with-Models-236012990 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Beginning-with-Models-236012990 Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:48:52 PDT Beginning with Models nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2008-2013 `mjranum
With his permission, I'm making my answer to him public:

It's the old "your portfolio is not good, I only want to shoot with  photographers that are impressive" catch-22 situation!!!  Everyone who works with human subjects has been there at some time or another ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Using-my-Finished-Artworks-and-or-Stock-236411172 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Using-my-Finished-Artworks-and-or-Stock-236411172 Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:43:54 PDT Using my Finished Artworks and/or Stock nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2008-2013 `mjranum
The images in :iconmjranum-stock: are stock images and are available under a different and much more liberal set of rules (here: http://mjranum-stock.deviantart.com/journal/12259531/ )

I do not mind if you wish to use one of my finished artworks as inspiration, reference, or the butt of jokes - as long as you're creating whatever it is you're doing without altering my hard work. If your work is heavily derived or based on mine, I expect you to show courtesy and give me appropriate credit. If one of my photos inspires you to do a sketch, I am genuinely flattered.
]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Interviews-236584440 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Interviews-236584440 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:28:09 PDT Interviews!! nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2008-2013 `mjranum Interview with Marcus Ranum by :iconprincess-of-shadows: http://news.deviantart.com/article/53025/

and over here:
Interview with mjranum by :iconhelewidis: http://news.deviantart.com/article/53035/

(and in case you're curious, an old interview with me from Louco Por Photographia in 2004): http://www.ranum.com/fun/lens_work/papers/interview-louco-1

I seem to be pretty consistent in my opinions and approach. I guess that means I'm not a real artist, just a pornographer. :D

And some less pleasant news...

I've had to take my online gallery on ranum.com http://gallery.ranum.com down. I was using an old piece of image ga ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Advice-to-a-Photographer-236618564 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Advice-to-a-Photographer-236618564 Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:55:02 PDT Advice to a Photographer nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2008-2013 `mjranum
So I got this email...
...asking for advice. Advice? About what?

And he replied:
Advice as to finding the best subjects to use,
equipment, paper, and just some things you wish you had known when you first started out.

Honestly, I wanted to blow the whole thing off, until I thought about the "things you wish ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Gallery-Show-237015402 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/Gallery-Show-237015402 Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:25:51 PDT Gallery Show nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2008-2013 `mjranum Art-n-Soul Studios
516 West Hamilton Street
Allentown, PA

I'll be displaying 4 prints from my "women on pedestals" set, alongside works by Ken Volpe, Scott Nichol, Bill Earle, and Billy Monday.

Anyone who shows up and looks at my stuff and says "this is just Porn" will get a big hug.

Take this one in a lifetime chance to see me pretending to be an artist, drinking wine with my pinky sticking out and eating little cheese cubes on sticks!! ]]> http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/The-Nihilist-Burns-Out-237830711 http://mjranum.deviantart.com/journal/The-Nihilist-Burns-Out-237830711 Sat, 29 Mar 2008 21:20:08 PDT The Nihilist Burns Out nonadult journals/personal mjranum http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/j/mjranum.png?2 Copyright 2008-2013 `mjranum
Let's see... This goes here. Ahhh, left/right audio, projector. Plug it in, pour some Jack Daniels, hit a couple of "on" buttons and the screen clears. Set-up, more button-mashing, and I take a big slug of Ja ]]>