web log -- Richard Titus

September 1, 2010 Message in a bottle In general, webmasters are performing to an invisible audience located sometime, somewhere. Their messages, tossed into the virtual sea, float to the ends of the earth, final destination unknown and receipt unconfirmed. Its never known exactly who the viewers, if any, will be. The webhosting company does provide some indication via statistics, however, but they are very vague. Statistics include how many unique hits were made on the website, which pages were accessed, the times of day they were accessed, how many pages were viewed and IP addresses of the computers accessing the website. If you want to know something immediately about the human element browsing your site, you are, for the most part, out of luck. The closest statistic that represents any kind of human presence is probably the IP address. One can research the IP address on-line and determine the approximate town and country where that particular computer is located.

In regards to the IP addresses accessing
this site, one might say, this is where the
plot thickens.

The majority of the IP addresses that
access this website are located in China.
By this I mean, probably 80% of the hits
for this website are coming from internet
users in China.  What does that indicate?
I don't know.

I'm about to go through the IP addresses
and make a list of the cities from where
most of the hits come from.  Sounds
quite exciting doesn't it. (No, not really.)

I should have the results posted here
in a day or two.  Prepare for a brief 
overview of Chinese geography.  There
will be a quiz.

September 5, 2010 China syndrome IP addresses in China continue to access my website pages more than any other country.

Taking the top 20 IP addresses that
accessed the website last month, those
located in the Chinese cities listed below
accessed a total of 4097 webpages.

Beijing
Guangzhou
Hangzhou
Chengdu
Jinan
Shaoxing
Shenyang
Tianjin
Fuzhou
Dongguan
Xinjiang

Curiouser and curiouser.

Other notable website access occurred with IP's
in the Washington DC area.  Surveillance by 
government agencies is understandable,
however, due to my secret work with NASA.

September 7, 2010 The roving lion Last week I had a tour of the Children's Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ with Michael O'Loughlin, Capital Campaign Director. We were looking for a large flat wall. The many curved interior walls in the building's design create a nice, free- flowing visual environment, however, it was presenting a challenge. We were trying to find a spot that would readily accommodate the Lion's View painting whose width is eight feet. The curved walls make its placement a bit problematic but Michael still has some other options to explore and walls to measure.



The Lion is on the move once more.  It has
been offered to the Children's Hospital
which is interested in providing it with a
new permanent home.  The actual move
will probably occur before the end of the
month.

Stay tuned for details.

photo © 2010 Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital

October 22, 2010
Home at last

It took a little longer than expected but
The Lion's View finally made the trip to its new, permanent home at the Bristol-Myers Squibb Children's Hospital, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

On Friday, October 22, Michael O'Loughlin and I brought the painting up to the 5th floor of the Children's Hospital and hung it on the wall across from the nurse's station.

The painting consists of stretched canvas on a traditional, wooden frame (called a stretcher) so, even with a little wind gusting, it was fairly easy to manage from our delivery van and into the building.

I had remembered to bring along the necessary picture hanging

paraphernalia but had somehow neglected a tape measure to help us with positioning. The 5th floor staff came to our aid, however, and gave us some very accurate directions via the old, time-honored "eyeball" method. With their help, we quickly got the painting centered properly to the consensus and satisfaction of all present.

If you're not familiar with the history of this painting, it might be of interest to know that this is its 9th public display location since its completion in 2000.

It's gratifying to know that it's finally found a proper home in a warm, friendly, and professional environment where hopefully it will be enjoyed for some time to come.

Thanks to Michael O'Loughlin and the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Foundation for their interest and appreciation for this painting. It was a real pleasure to be able to provide it to the Children's Hospital. --RT

November 26, 2010
Poisoning the well

In September I mentioned a particular phenomenon whereby there was a disproportionate amount of hits on my website from internet users in China. I even asked my webhosting company to look into it but that was to no avail. There simply was no evidence as to why this was happening.

It's not hard to guess what the motivation behind this might be. I had never bothered to indicate origin or ownership on my images and had essentially implied carte blanche for usage of images. Actually, I don't mind that much if images are used, however, I do prefer to receive some kind of credit for them.

I began the process of digitally superimposing name and copyright on my website images and almost immediately daily visitors began to diminish. As of today, daily hits have dropped probably 75%. I'm speculating that it's not so cost effective to digitally remove my name and copyright pixel by pixel. Sorry, gang. I appreciate your visits but hopefully all of my pals in Guangzhou and Xinjiang will understand.

--RT

March 9, 2011
Back in the saddle
. . . sort of

If you're familiar with the
"Wind in the Willows,"
then you'll understand when I say that the past couple of years for us have been something of a "Mr Toad's Wild Ride." Extenuating circumstances have "coaxed" us to move twice and other matters have required our concerted attention along the way. For the most part, painting was put on hold. However, between the hub and bub, I did manage to do a few pencil drawings (Everything Else).

Now, finally, it's back to work on some unfinished pieces that have taken the long track to complete as they involved a lot of "on canvas" development.

Another long term project that is nearing completion is a short story. Actually, the text is nearing completion, illustrations will be added gradually. The story appears here.

Stay tuned.

--RT

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