Photographs of the Future

While traveling in China and Japan this past month with Jennifer, I took about 900 photos with the little Olympus Digital camera that John gave me. There was a little shop around the corner from the Cui’s in Shanghai that I tried out for printing 4 X 6 prints of the digital images. It is really amazing how good they are. I am so impressed that I don’t think that I will go back to film except for rare things. It is kind of a landmark for the world really. This is one of those apocalyptic moments where the obelisk is humming in the desert and the monkeys are waving clubs in the air. Something out of a Kubric movie would do it justice. The world is changing and no matter how traditional in basic philosophy I try to be nothing is going to hold back sweeping changes.

I remember reading a story about the Swiss watch industry back in the 1970′s or it may have been even earlier. That is something I will have to check. Anyway, the point of the story was about the decision of the Swiss watch makers to decline an offer to use the NEW quartz movement technology. They decided that this was not something that they were interested in doing because it took away their talent as movement makers and the whole idea was foreign to what they passionately did, namely design and manufacture fine mechanical watch movements. The result in the end was a total disintegration of the Swiss watch industry in favor of cheaper and cheaper quartz watch movements. By the turn of the century now the only Swiss movements being made are for very expensive gentry watches and almost a specialty item now. I don’t know what the percentages of money are currently but it has to be well over 90% of all money spent for watches worldwide is now for quartz movements. The Swiss watch industry is still there but nothing like it was before the introduction of the quartz watch movement. The Swiss watchmakers could have ridden the wave and maintained there dominance in the industry but for their prejudices which ended them up on the sidelines. This story is one that I will never forget. Will it change the way I make my own decisions about the world. Probably not but it is good information that in a rational and insightful moment may leak through to the brain. The future is upon us and we can succeed or be relegated to the dung heap of the dinosaurs if we can’t change fast enough with the times.

This brings me back to the digital images that I took. It has been several years now that this technology has been around but silly me, I have held to the belief that Film was god forever. Wrong again. Its a new world as the images I took with the little digital camera point out. Maybe its not too late to avoid the dung heap. More later.

Back in the Saddle again

Well here I am back to work and nothing really has changed. One thing is over for the time being is the JACHO survey here at UCLA. The report was a very good one and everyone in management is very pleased to express it mildly. Maybe this will justify their changes in structure with the Hunter group. The brick layers just know how to lay bricks. Should we expect anything other than that?

This past week since arriving back from China has been difficult physically. The time difference and the lack of sleep for 24 hours when traveling put the whammy on me. I am only now just getting back to feeling a little normal. Even so I woke up at 4:00 this morning and it is Saturday. I don’t have to leave for work for another hour or so. Isn’t that thrilling.