NEW TOY

-Thursday night (August 23, 2007):

The Keed.

Old........

And so the Epson Expression 636 scanner (pictured at left) I’ve used for years drifts into the filmy past; replaced by a new Epson 10000XL scanner (also pictured).
The platen (scanning surface) on the old scanner was 12 x 8.5 inches.
The new scanner is 17.5 x 12 inches; almost big enough to scan an entire calendar-pik.
The scanner-upgrade was partially driven by OS-X. My old scanner is SCSSI (“skuzzy”), so it only works with Photoshop in Classic-mode; my old 5.5 (I had a SCSSI-card installed in my MAC when I bought it).
(I’ve always had to boot up in 9.2 to scan with the 636.)
Upgrading Photoshop to 7.0, which I’ve wanted to do ever since I’ve started using OS-X (I used 7.0 at Visual Studies Workshop; and it is much better), requires a USB-scanner, which the 636 ain’t and the 10000XL is.
I wanted to get a slightly smaller scanner, but it was PC only. 10000XL or puny.
So I sprung for the XL.
No more -a) merging two scans together with Photoshop, or -b) using the much smaller reprint in the preface page of every print that’s in the calendar. Using that increases the dot-matrix size of a scan — which ain’t as good as using the full-size print.
The 10000XL won’t grab all of a calendar-print, but all that matters (most). The 10000XL was the largest flat-bed scanner made — any larger would be a different technology.
I ain’t doin’ graphical arts. But I’d rather do a scan at full-size — it is better to work with.
And all I’m doing this for is the bluster-boy to flub a slam-dunk I.D. I showed him a Classic Car magazine with a Plymouth Duster on the cover, and he called it a Rambler, for crying out loud. (Oh, how the mighty have fallen.)

The Keed.

New........

I got the new scanner yesterday (Thursday, August 23, 2007) mainly because it wasn’t possible to mow lawn — the grass was wet from continual thunderstorms. I would also have liked to hit my old RTS uniform store to get a new belt. I’ve lost so much weight, my old belt is now too big.
But the uniform-store meant driving up Monroe Ave., which was a parking-lot.
So I skipped the uniform-store and just hit MAC-Shack.
I’ve seen comparable belts online at various web-sites; but why bother when I know I can get exactly what I want at the uniform-store, and thereby avoid returning something I can’t use. I already had to return a Levi-jacket to Macy’s and get another somewhere else. What a pain!

-Friday morning (August 24, 2007):
Who knows? Mowing lawn may be impossible. Looks and feels like rain.
First I have to crank this in and fly it, then call the plumber regarding a defective shower-faucet (probably a faucet replacement — the faucets are 17 years old), then check the weather-radar to see if I can mow lawn.
If I can’t, I have errands to run: Verizon, a shredder, and the belt if possible.
The YMCA got scotched by a doctor-appointment.

Visual Studies Workshop is a photo-imaging school in Rochester. They had a passel of MACs there, and I’ve taken courses there.

“The bluster-boy” is my all-knowing, blowhard brother-in-Boston, who noisily claims I know nothing at all about cars.

“RTS” is Regional Transit Service, the transit-bus operator in Rochester. I drove transit-bus for them for 16&1/2 years, and had to wear a uniform, which Transit bought. I no longer work for RTS, so any purchases at “the uniform-store” are paid by myself.