How much cloth does one need to wrap a naked lady? I'm photographing a friend tomorrow who will be strategically wrapped in some amount of white cloth. I could just buy one yard to really make a statement, but I punted and bought way more than we could possibly use. And thankfully, the lady at the fabric store didn't quiz me on my project.

- mike lee - baltimore

My daughter and I are in bed playing with snap-to-activate glow sticks. I can't help but to start speaking between heavy breaths... "Give up your mother's milk... join me on the dark side and drink Diet Coke... I AM YOUR FATHER!"

- mike lee - baltimore

Laying in bed watching the news on TV. It's going to be a cloudy rainy day today.

One half hour to go before the blog-a-thon.

- mike lee -

...at the start of Project Blog 2004. Jumping in the shower.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

Going to start loading camera and lighting gear in the car now.

Note that hiptop Nation timestamps with Pacific time and I'm in Eastern in Baltimore, so add three hours when you are noting my times.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

The car's loaded, said goodbye to the fam and making sure my Sidekick gets a drink of power as I pull out.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

...on Rt. 40 west just outside of the Baltimore City line.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

Getting the tour of her rennovations...

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

We're going to start taking pictures outside and hope it doesn't rain. I'm going string an extension cord from the house to set up electronic studio flash on the patio at the edge of the woods.

And we're checking out photo examples wardrobe items.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

Interesting to say the least: Janet brought a giant sword to use as a prop in some of our set-ups...

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

It's gettin' a little windy but we'll make it work.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

...everything is coming together well in the shoot. Janet looks awesome, and my photo gear isn't acting up for a change. There's a good breeze that's pushing Janet's skirt around nicely.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

I'm hanging out for a few minutes while Janet changes into another outfit. The wind has been pushing my umbrella and light stands around so I have to constantly reset them. Fortunately I have them anchored a bit in heavy wooden lawn chairs.

OK, she's back and we've got a great tree root as a background...

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

We're really working hard to figure out how this giant sword would fit into our scene.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

One of our sword compositions.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

Blocking out scenes to do inside the house now.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

Setting up our backdrop...

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

...for another set of photos.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

Leveraging the good light...

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

...and nothing else. Almost forgot to post!

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

...where to put the rose petals?

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

...with the photo shoot. Backing up the second batch of images to my laptop. We got some great images.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

...only 4 hours longer than we thought!

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

...and heading out of this old house.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

Making a run through the drive thru at McDonalds on my way home because I haven't eaten all day.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

While I was out, my wife and her sisters put a fresh coat of paint on the handrail in front of the house. Pretty!

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

Dinner time for baby.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

This baby is *still* eating.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

How 'bout that duck towel?

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

Gearing up with necessary provisions for night blogging: sugar free Red Bull, beef jerky, OJ, pistachios and my iPod mini.

Oy, I'm only an hour past half way.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

I picked up a WorkForce Rechargeable Spotlight with one million candle power for $5.43 at Home Depot last weekend to use as a portable light for my Sidekick camera. Tonight's baby feeding photos were done in normal incandescent room light, and the Sidekick camera does a miserable job under those conditions (as do most phonecams). The baby bath photos and night blogging supplies were augmented by bounce light from the spotlight and look very good. The light runs on a rechargable lead acid battery. Next--maybe even tonight--I'll see how well it works for lighting things outdoors.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

Things are quiet now with baby and mom asleep. I'll handle the 1am-ish baby alarm, and also be up at 6:30am to pick up baby for morning cuddle 'n carry.

I'm going to spend some time on my PowerBook now editing today's photos in iView.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

Well baby Cianna is asleep in our bed, but mommy is still up reading a book. Note in the photo that Cianna's left hand is holding on to mommy's night shirt, and baby's left leg is draped over mommy's leg. This baby is shrewdly keeping tabs on mommy in case she gets out of bed. Our next ritual is transferring baby to her crib where she will scream bloody murder for a few minutes before falling asleep.

Note on previous post: The link was to http//www.iview-multimedia.com.

mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

OK, one more time: The broken link in the last two posts is to the web site of my photo organizing software of choice, iView MediaPro 2.5. The product is pricey at $199, but it's packed with useful features. I've been using and upgrading the Mac version for a while, and recently the company released its first Windows version.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

My wife said, "as long as you're up all night, here's another load of laundry."

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

I'm documenting our eight-month-old baby's sleep position, which is always on her stomach in recent months. She's been asleep for over an hour now. Let's see how it goes tonight.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

I'm green with envy.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

Once in a while, I like to flip open the keyboard on my PowerBook Titanium (867) to marvel at the engineering inside. It's a silvery landscape of highly dense microprocessors surrounded by metal support structures and heat sinks. The innards look like they should go deeper, but the bottom of the PowerBook is less than 1/2" thick. These abstract photos here only begin to capture the complex insides. I blog them here mainly as a reminder to reshoot in high resolution.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

My wife has been storing digital photos on her Tungsten T3 for a few months now and whips the device out instead of a paper photo album.

Since retiring my Pocket PC and switching to a Palm Zire 72, I've been doing the digital photo album thing myself with a utility called Resco Viewer. With a 256mb SD card, I can store thousands of reduced resolution versions of my photos. It's a great way to show off my photography portfolio too.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

I've been checking in on Mie Kennedy's blog Kokochi ("a warm and comfortable place"), and Heidi Schallberg's me, my life + infrastructure. Both are blogging wirelessly from a phonecam-enabled device. Mie uses a Nokia 7610 cell phone, and Heidi has a Danger Sidekick/Hiptop like mine.

They're hanging in there it seems as we enter the toughest hours of the marathon. Mie is documenting things around her house and Heidi seems to have a second wind.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

I was just reviewing an edited set of photos I took during the Simplicity workshop I attended a little over two weeks ago at the MIT Media Lab. Student teams were challenged to stay up as late as necessary in one night to develop a creative new alternative for e-mail. All of the team projects were fascinating, but I personally thought the Play-Doh printer shown here gave the best demo. In just one all nighter, this team built an e-mail gateway that would convert ASCII text into codes that would drive a group of solenoids to imprint dot matrix characters on extruded strips of Play-Doh. It must be nice to be a young student and have the energy to be brilliant without any sleep.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

Posting a couple happy pictures that have been sitting un-blogged in my Sidekick's camera gallery.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

Cianna is sleeping well tonight. She didn't have her 1-ish wake-up, so she might just sleep through the night until around 6am. Woo hoo. The sleep I'm not getting has gone to her.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

Like some of the other blog-a-thoners, I'm fading hard just sitting at home in front of my computer. Since the baby is sleeping well, I'm going to go out and visit some all night destinations. Riding around in the car and making some stops should help me knock out the next couple hours of posts.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

Hey Rick, thanks for cheering me on, and giving my second blog post to complete for this hour. Now I'm good until a little after 5am eastern.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

I'm waiting for an omlette at the Papermoon Diner on 25th Street. This is probably Baltimore's wackiest 24 hour diner. The interior is entrusted with toys and found objects. It's a good place for a marathon blogger to come for a second wind.

Whoa, the omlette is here already--the cook whipped it out in like 4 minutes.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

Blue purple morning light is creeping across the sky while I fill my gas tank and clean out the car.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

Absolutely nothing going here at the Inner Harbor except the seagull squawking at me from atop the light post to my left.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

New this year at the Inner Harbor: 1) Addition to the Maryland Science Center 2) Visitor's Center. Next year: 3) Addition to the National Aquarium.

Three posts, 90 minutes 'til SLEEP.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

The Science Center's tensegrity sculpture and me (lower right) reflected in a window of the Dinosaur Mysteries exhibit.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

Getting ready for the change of sleep shifts.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

Good day. Good night.

- mike lee - blogging every half hour for 24 hours for project blog 2004

I took a 4 hour nap, which restored me enough to go out to a late lunch with the family.

I survived 24 hours, 48 blog posts though, but I was seriously dragging the last hour. And in the wee hours I ran out of things I wanted to blog about, and went wirelessly into the night to continue. Walking around the Inner Harbor gave me my last few posts, but really made me ready for sleep.

That a photoshoot ended up being on the same day was a plus as I essentially documented the major things I currently do to pull off a photo shoot on location.

Thanks to all my sponsors:

• Amy (Greber I presume)
• Beth Mazur
• Dawn Sweeney's personal donation
• Eve Simon
• Heidi Schallberg
• Janet Ocheltree
• John Maeda
• Laura McCabe
• Mark Carpenter
• Several Anonymous (co-workers and family I think)

If you still want to pledge something, there's still time until later on Monday to enter sponsorships at the project site. curiousLee raised $435.00 so far for the Alzheimer's Association! It's appropriate in a way that we used a tool that promotes persistence in memory to raise money for an organization that fights transience, or memory loss.

Cheers to the Project Blog team for pulling this volunteer effort together and for building the tracking system from scratch.

And I appreciate all those on hiptop Nation, especially Rick and Kale, and the readers and friends of my blog curiousLee.

I'm going to archive all my Project Blog posts from here on a page on curiousLee in the next few days.

Nitey,

- mike lee - baltimore