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posted: November 30th, 2015 |
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This page begins (and ends) with November 22nd and a bicycle trip to Musashino and Nogawa Parks and then a trip to Jindai Botanical Garden. We had so much rain this month that every weekend was pretty miserable and it was impossible to do very much. Due to the lack of any decent weather we were not even able to make it out to Mitake and see the amazingly beautiful Famous Ginkgo Tree with the Red Maples. Click on any thumbnail to begin.
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| Begin November 22nd |
As the header says, we only made it out to search for autumn colors one time this month, and even then it was a 100% cloudy day, so we just went to our local Musashino and Nogawa Parks. The three shots of Susuki Grass (Miscanthus sinensis) in this row were taken in Musashino Park. Each shot is increasingly zoomed in.
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At one place the Dogwood Trees were filled with beautiful red berries, and at this point there were nearly as many on the ground as there were in the trees so I took a photo of the ones on the ground and it came out better than the photos I took of the ones in the trees. Then we found a few autumn colors in the Maple Trees, but there had not even been a frost yet, so the colors were scarce. As you can see in the center photo in this row, more than one-half of the leaves on this tree were still green.
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Zooming in specifically to the branches which had red leaves was the only way to get any decent shots at all. This was the most disappointing autumn color trip to here which we've ever made - blame it on global warming!
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Here are two more shots which show some red leaves and then one shot of a Ginkgo Tree and its yellow colors.
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In this row are two more red leaf shots.
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That's Kazuya walking along the Nogawa (= No River (in Japanese) = Field River (in English) and then a close-up shot of a red branch.
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After we finished up in Musashino Park we bicycled through Nogawa Park, but the colors were so scarce there that we didn't even stop. We went to our favorite Ramen Shop - the Oguni Ramen Shop - and ate ramen for lunch and then continued on to Jindai Botanical Garden. The Chrysanthemum Displays were still out, but they've been out since early November, so they were getting pretty ugly looking. These were two of the best looking displays.
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We walked through the Maple Garden, but there was nothing to speak of at all for autumn colors, we didn't even take one photo in the Maple Garden. We went over to the small pond to check on the usually gold/red colors of the Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) (Left) and Metasequoia (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) (Right). As you can see in the first photo in this row - the Bald Cypress needles had reached their peak of color and were falling to the ground, but the Metasequoia needles were still green. The second and third photos in this row were taken on November 26, 2010 and are shown here so that you can get some idea of what we expected to see on this visit here. Again, I'll blame it on global warming.
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| End November 22nd, End November 2015's Photos, Begin 100 Mountains Series Book Cover History |
There is so very little to show you this month, and it was such a generally boring month that I had too much time on my hands and was reading too much. I learned how important a "blurb" is on the back cover of a book. One of my "book forum" readers offered this for me to consider using as a blurb on Volume 1 of the 100 Famous Mountains Series. "Not everyone summits mountains and not everyone can capture the experience with stunning photographs. Daniel and Kazuya have done just that! Join them in Japan and view through their camera's eye several of Japan's treasured landmarks. They've captured Mt. Asahidake, the highest peak in Daisetsuzan National Park in unique photos. Get an up close look at the scenery on Mt. Kurodake, Mt. Hokkaidake, Mt. Hakuundake, Mt. Hokuchindake, Mt. Nakadake, and Mt. Mamiyadake. No matter where you are in the world you'll savor a one-of-a-kind chairside adventure. You're sure to find a favorite from their sixty-three photographs and enjoy reading their accompanying informative comments on each of their climbs." I revised it a bit and used it. If you visit the Publications Page and click on the details page for the 100 Famous Mountains Volume 1 you can learn what I revised it to. Anyway, the two collages in this row contrast the very first covers of the 100 Famous Mountains Series of Books with the present covers of the 8 x 10 inch (20.3 x 25.4 cm) Paperback Editions. If you inspect each of the covers, you'll undoubtedly notice that all of the blurbs are quite similar. This project consumed many hours. I also solicited opinions about whether the covers should be black with white text or vice-versa. Most people said white text on black. Oh, this is the 4th cover for this series!
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Here are the original and latest covers for the 6.14 x 9.21 inch (15.6 x 23.4 cm) Hardcover Editions. The Hardcover Editions have only gone through three covers - the original and 2 revisions. In fact, on this date, not all of the Hardcover Editions have been approved for distribution - Volumes 10 and 13 are still being processed by the printer. Once they are processed then I have to either approve or disapprove them. I just disapproved Volume 10 due to a typo on the spine and then I uploaded a new PDF - It's fortunate that I noticed it yesterday, before I approved it.
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The two images in this row are animated GIFs and show the evolutionary history of the Paperback Editions of Volumes 1 and 7 of the 100 Famous Mountains Series. The first cover had quite small title text. It was not until I saw the thumbnail images on Amazon that I realized that title text has to be big so that it is readable in a thumbnail image. My 1st revision (2nd cover), therefore had larger text for everything. The 2nd revision (3rd cover) had what's referred to as an "Outer Glow" on some of the text. Then, the present cover - the 3rd revision - has some photos replaced and/or their position adjusted, has the blurb and in addition, the logo has been moved to the rear cover (one book forum member said that the author names on the front, very close to the logo is redundant.)
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The first image here shows the evolutionary history of the Paperback Edition of Volume 13 of the 100 Famous Mountains Series. The second image shows the evolutionary history of the Hardcover Edition of Volume 1 of the 100 Famous Mountains Series. The Hardcover Editions have only gone through 3 covers - the original and 2 revisions.
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The two images in this row show the evolutionary history of the Hardcover Editions of Volumes 7 and 13 of the 100 Famous Mountains Series. Maybe you noticed that the tiny D over K logo has been incorporated into the spine of these Hardcover Editions on the present covers. You might notice the difference in the "blackness" of the most recent cover. The printing company for hardcovers is not the same as the one for paperbacks. The hardcover printer requires that the PDF's of the covers be submitted as CMYK with a maximum of 240% ink coverage. That's tricky!
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The first image here shows the method I finally figured out for letting people know what cover they are getting. See the very tiny "Cover Rev. 2" below the ISBN? Maybe it won't even actually be readable without a magnifying lens, I don't know. Unfortunately I did not think of this unobtrusive method until after the latest covers for ALL of the Paperback Editions were completed, uploaded and approved. I only came up with this idea for the the final 4 volumes of the Hardcover Editions! The 2nd image shows the D over K logo on the spine of the Hardcover Editions. Only the final 3 volumes of the Paperback Editions are thick enough to have spine text, and I did not want to use spine text on only 3 out of 13 volumes.
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| End Book Cover History, Begin Miscellaneous Links |
Here are links to separate web pages - all of them will open in a new window (or new tab). The first link shows some photos of our DVD Collection, an AVI Movie of our Home Theater System and 9 photos of our Sharp Aquos TV. The 2nd link shows our entire DVD collection in DVD Profiler (if you're asking yourself what might be good to rent for the weekend). The DVD's will be sorted by date purchased. You can click on the "Title" Column to sort that way if you desire. The 3rd link shows our entire DVD collection in php DVD Profiler, which is much more sophisticated than the plain vanilla DVD Profiler just above it. The 4th link takes you to a set of pages which show you the FRONT cover-art of our entire DVD collection.
