Weekly book post

Writer, MD. Short fiction and nonfiction written by MDs. The nonfiction pieces had interesting information about medical training

Mounting Fears by Stuart Woods. More fun escapist reading. To show how silly it is, one vice president with cancer, next vice president with two babes on the side, Al Qaida steals nuclear missiles from Pakistan, and an assassin bumps off presidential opponents, all in 200 pages.

Very Washington DC by Diana Gessler. Fun little book full of DC history, culture, and trivia. Just in case Jeopardy asks.

The Information by James Gleick. History and theories about information technologies. I learned a lot about the process of thinking, development of communication, cryptography, how mathematicians affected biochemistry. It was pretty dense reading but quite readable. I can highly recommend it.

Venus and Jupiter are all right tonight

A quick reminder that Venus, Jupiter, and the crescent moon should be presenting a lovely triangle tonight. I hope the weather is clear where you are so you can see it. It's clear but very breezy in DC today. I'm hopeful of getting a peek.

PhotoShop World 2012 was a blast

This was the first time they held it in DC. I went to three terrific classes on Photoshop, emphasizing layers and selections. I also learned about a new-to-me program called Lightroom, which is essentially a database program to organize digital photos. It's been expanded to do some adjustments as well. I have over 2300 digital images on my laptop (actually it might be closer to 2500) so this is really appealing to me.

The best class may have been the one on DSLR Filmmaking. They broke down the process, discussed narrative structure, and then went into the tools. A lot of what they said applied to any kind of storytelling.

I sepnt a few hours helping with registration one day and being a "booth babe" on another. I got to meet a lot of the attendees and instructors that way. Win-win for all.

I don't do a lot of manipulation of the images I post here, but these classes really opened my eyes to the possibilities.

Also, I'll never believe a photograph again. :)