Wesley's Tool-Box

Today marks the return of The Toon-Box, the comic that ran for four years from August 23, 2005 to July 29, 2009 and went into hiatus for more than four years since. With Comic Life software that made the comic possible available on iOS for some time, all it needed was motivation to resurrect the comic.

So yes, now the comic is fully created on my iPhone, and uploaded to the server. No need work on my Mac, since the photos are already on the iPhone anyway. Enjoy!

Venus keeps coming closer to the Earth, and it's getting visually larger from here. But since it's in the inner orbit, the crescent is getting thinner as well. Take a look at how it looked like two weeks ago and four weeks ago to see what I mean. I'll be keeping track of the planet regularly as it keeps coming closer. It'll be closest to the Earth almost exactly six weeks from now (January 11, 2014).

Settings: Canon SX50 HS - 1200mm (2x enlarged) - ISO 80 - 1/250s - f/6.5
Filters: Baader M&S applied
Time: 2013-11-30 17:47 KST
Location: Suwon, Korea
17 photos stacked with RegiStax 6.1.0.8

As the summer and winter peak demands for electricity in Korea get precariously close to the available supply capability in the recent years, KPX has been operating a contingency plan situation room for power shortage. To sharpen the skills of the people who man the stations, routine emergency drills are carried out, like this one today.

Since I'm one of those people, I participated, practicing all the things that I need to do in each alert level. The fast pace of the exercise reminded me that being calm, prompt, and accurate was crucial. Winter will soon be upon us, but we're ready to deal with what it'll throw at us.

Extension of the Bundang Line in the Seoul metropolitan subway network will be complete in two days after a 5-year delay. This yellow-coloured line starts at Wangsimni station in the eastern Seoul and will extend to the south to Suwon station (currently 4 stations short at Mangpo station), while passing through Bundang district in Seongnam, which is where the name comes from.

Trouble is, this north-south line needs to be laid out horizontally on a super-wide line map pasted on top of the doors of the subway cars. Suwon station is already on Line 1, which is another line to go north-south, and this dark blue line is drawn from top right to bottom left. So the station sits at the bottom left corner of the map.

Meanwhile, Bundang line starts at around the middle and weaves towards bottom right on the maps installed in Seoul Metro (responsible for Lines 1 through 4) subway cars. In order for the line to meet up at Suwon station, it needs to make a sharp turn at the bottom and make a long run from right to left. Clearly, the map designer didn't think ahead, despite the plans for extension existing for a better part of a decade.

I thought this was a good time for the map to be overhauled. It already received several patches all over the place in the last couple of years. But no, Seoul Metro just put an incredibly long patch at the bottom of the map to connect Bundang line and Line 1, as you can see in the comparison picture. That's comically sad.