Friday, April 13, 2007
A few days after starting the last article that got picked up as a "Did You Know", I did a piece on Ankhhaf, a prince of the 4th dynasty. The inspiration came from the famous bust of him that I saw at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, several pictures of which I added to Wikimedia. He was a son of the Great Pyramid builder Khufu and likely oversaw the construction of the sphinx, depicting a likeness of his brother the pharaoh Khafre.
The article is mainly about the bust, which is a very striking object in person. When I was in the room where the early dynasty pieces from the Giza plateau, I had the distinct feeling that piece was changing expression. A closer look at it revealed the reason why: the mouth has been sculpted, either deliberately or not, so that the expression appears to be slightly different depending on one's orientation to it. A striking effect, and in the dim light of an enclosed mastaba who knows how this affect would have been enhanced by torchlight.
Anyways, I was able to pull together a short and relatively comprehensive article on the man and particularly his statuary bust, and someone noticed it and nominated it for another "Did You Know" piece. I only got word about it immediately prior to it being posted, otherwise I might have missed it.
It's a a nice "thank you" and to some degree an acknowledgment of the quality of the piece.
Labels: Ankhhaf, Boston, Did You Know, Museum of Fine Arts, Wikipedia
Thursday, April 05, 2007
The other day I started writing a new article on Wikipedia about reserve heads, those enigmatic sculptures from the time of the Pyramid builders. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, had several of them on display, and I managed to take pictures of all that they had, which I then uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.
Turns out that the "Did You Know?" section on Wikipedia is aimed at new articles created within the past five days, and someone spotted my article in the list and nominated it for inclusion. I got a notice today that it had been accepted, and appears as the top-most article reference (along with a picture of one of the heads) in today's DYK section.
Was rather chuffed to find in one of the articles I referenced from my personal library that very few published views exist of the heads other than face-on views -- I took at least a couple of shots of each head, (primarily in order to defeat glare from overhead lighting), and am happy if they end up proving useful to somebody.
It's not a Feature article, but it's still nice to get some sort of recognition.
Labels: Boston, Did You Know, Museum of Fine Arts, reserve heads, Wikipedia
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Traveling to Boston in order to present at another conference, this time JoAnn Hackos' "Content Management Strategies/DITA North America Conference 2007" which is being held at the The Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston. I am there to present "AMD's Experience Planning and Implementing a DITA CMS”, which is the same title as the presentation Graydon and I gave in Frankfurt, but which has evolved over subsequent presentations I have done in San Jose, Austin, and at a SIG group in Toronto. In the end what started out primarily as Graydon's talk has been morphed into something that's more to my speaking style and depth of knowledge, and is (I hope) tailored more to the broad spectrum of people who tend to come to these conferences, ranging from those who are investigating DITA to those who are already well under way in their own implementation who want to compare notes with others.
The flight to Boston was set to leave at 9am, so I ordered an airport taxi to pick me up from home at 6:45am. Got to the airport, used a ticket kiosk to get my ticket, and despite the crowds, breezed through U.S. Customs in next to no time. Settled down for about an hour before the boarding time at Gate 164 with a Starbucks drink at the latest Scientific American. We all boarded the small Embraer jet that seats two to a side, and luckily I managed to get a pair of seats all to myself. The flight in general was uneventful, save for it being the first time I have been in a plane that has taken off in thick fog – I counted one, two, three seconds once we took off into the air and nothing could be seen of the ground. When I was allowed to I happily donned my Bose noise-canceling headphones (a recent acquisition from my last trip to Austin) and listened to tunes on my iPod for the short, one hour flight.
Landed in Boston just over an hour later. Got into a somewhat rickety old cab that constantly beeped a warning signal for something along with a cabbie who was a crusty but friendly. After a $25 cab ride I was dropped off at the grand entrance of the Fairmont Copley Plaza, a luxury hotel that belongs to the same chain as the Royal York hotel back in Toronto. Past a pair of gilded lions and an empty dog house (that apparently houses the canine "ambassador" to the hotel) and inside to the reception desk, where I got the keys to my room. After getting my keys (the now ubiquitous plastic entry key card) I stopped and took in my surroundings: much gilding and mirrors, with a ceiling painted with a blue sky. Early 20th century fittings, a grand old clock standing in a corner, and ballrooms which truly earned the moniker of "Grand". Clearly an old, established hotel.
Got to my room on the fifth floor, which was equally grand: nice rich wood furnishings, washroom with marble tiling, and room for a single king size bed and a comfy chair in the corner. The desk that I am writing this on sports a hands-free phone, a quad of electrical outlets that pops up from the upper-right corner of the desk, and a Ethernet jack/cord for the Internet connection, which is not free, but at $13.95 Cdn is no more expensive than usual at the place that charge for access. Should make for a comfortable way to spend the next few days in Boston. Despite the supposedly luxury, the hotel was missing some things I have come to expect at other hotels, such as a pen and pad for writing notes on, and a simply flyer or two that could give me a free simple map of the city and what's on. The working safe was nice though.
Once I had settled in, I pulled up Google Maps on my laptop and figured out where the Boston Museum of Fine Arts was in comparison to where I was staying. It was just about a mile down Huntington Street, so I determined to walk there and take in the sights along the way.
Labels: Boston, cab, cabbie, DITA, Embraer, Fairmont Copley Plaza, flying
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