Figuring things out, hunting for treasure and eating pizza

July 10
Day 3

Hello, again. Thanks for checking out my blog. I will do my best to keep you informed and entertained with the goings on of a day in the life of a Historical Documents Restoration intern. Today I continued to work on the manuscripts from Georgia (the country, not  the state). I have no idea what they say but for the sake of all the work I put into making them easier to read I hope they aren't someone's shopping list or something. I am actually becoming faster using the ENVI software. I think it's one of those things where you do it a couple times and then the system just becomes ingrained in your head. I got through a whole two manuscripts so far today. The contrast between the undertext and the parchment is my main problem right now. Because the undertext is faint it is so close to the color of the parchment that changing the hue doesn't really help make it readable. I'm using Gimp to do all of the hue angle changes and contrast changes, which is difficult as I am used to using Photoshop. But by the end of the summer, I'll be able to use Gimp really well. Hopefully.
      The one thing about this research is it is kind of boring. Most of it is monotonous entering of numbers into the software and waiting for my computer to load. But seeing the undertext suddenly appear on the screen and knowing that I am the first person to see this writing in thousands of years is just amazing. I think its really cool that I am seeing the ink that someone thousands of years ago, halfway across the world used to write down their thoughts or a prayer or a recipe or whatever. Also, knowing that maybe these words that I just made readable could hold some sort of valuable information. Maybe I'll find a pirate's treasure map or a map to the Lonely Mountain. I am currently taking applications for a treasure hunting crew if I do happen to find such a document.
    Every week the Center for Imaging Science has a movie showing around lunch time on Wednesday. They show a couple of TED talks, which I love. I think it is a brilliant idea to provide the public with free access to experts like the TED talks do. If you haven't seen one check them out. There is also pizza, popcorn and soda provided at these movies, which was a nice plus. Yea, pizza. But seriously, TED talks, check them out!