Football Playoff Special Edition - Go Sports Team!

 

Dad didn't talk much about his service, but I remember his saying he'd finished first in his class in Engineer School in Eta Jima, Japan. 

NFL Prognostication

Going into today’s game, the L.A. Rams are 13-5. If they beat the Tampa Bay Bucs, they’ll be in the conference final. Matthew Stafford is finally getting the season he’s waited for. On the other hand, never bet against Tom Brady, no matter how old he gets. My prediction: The Rams' Aaron Donald  sacks Tom Brady with a clean hit, Brady is injured, and Matthew Stafford is traded to the Bucs at halftime, leading them to a win and an eventual Super Bowl title, while Aaron Donald and the rest of the Rams wonder what the heck just happened.

Fun Stuff

Atlas Obscura has a fun website that celebrates unique and unusual locations all over the globe. Here’s their list of such sites in Michigan. Time for a road trip! 

My dad had a Smothers Brothers album with this song on it, which I thought was hilarious. The lead-up to the song is brilliant. Interestingly, it looks to me like Shel Silverstein wrote it, but it's hard to tell for sure.

Porch Sittin'

1976, on the porch at S. Grinnell St.

At the time this picture was taken, it’s unlikely my brother had ever played soccer (no kids in Jackson really did back then), and I had not seen the 1976 Dino De Laurentis remake of “King Kong”. I still haven’t seen it. I think it was about a large ape who sets out from his homeland, seeking adventure with his tiny human wife while he pursues a career in New York City real estate.

This picture was created by taking a photo of a negative and using Photoshop to, er, un-negative the image into what's above. There was some damage to the negative which is visible on my forehead. My very crude setup for taking pictures of negatives was OK for a few frames, but it was slow. If I were to want to scan a lot of negatives, I'd buy a device like this instead of doing it with a camera.

After taking the photo of the negative (resting on a piece of glass with a desk lamp behind it), and cropping it. 

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Somebody Get This Guy A Shirt

 

Me at a PET computer, about age 10

In the picture above, I am posing at the computer, and not doing anything useful. This is the Commodore PET computer that lived on a desk in our dining room, then later on a desk in the basement. It had a cassette drive for storage, and later models accepted floppy disks. 

Dad wrote some programs on the PET in BASIC, and computer magazines back in that time had long code listings that you could type into your own computer at home, which he also did. I learned a little BASIC on the PET using a book Dad wrote, but didn't get very good at it until I took a programming class in high school. 

Dad had at least one more later version of the PET, one that had a larger keyboard and a cassette drive that was plugged into the back. This led to more computers in the house, such as a Tandy 1000, an IBM PC clone first sold in 1984. That computer followed me to college and I used it until about 1992. My printer in college was a Gorilla Banana dot-matrix model. 

What's on the Screen?

Dad had a little sign up on the wall above the computer, a shorter version of which I believe is showing on the screen in the picture above. It was a pseudo-German warning to those who might fiddle with the computer instead of taking it seriously. This whimsical prose was easy to find online - it has been enshrined on the "Blinkenlights" Wikipedia page. 

ACHTUNG!

ALLES TURISTEN UND NONTEKNISCHEN LOOKENSPEEPERS!

DAS KOMPUTERMASCHINE IST NICHT FÜR DER GEFINGERPOKEN UND MITTENGRABEN! ODERWISE IST EASY TO SCHNAPPEN DER SPRINGENWERK, BLOWENFUSEN UND POPPENCORKEN MIT SPITZENSPARKEN.

IST NICHT FÜR GEWERKEN BEI DUMMKOPFEN. DER RUBBERNECKEN SIGHTSEEREN KEEPEN DAS COTTONPICKEN HÄNDER IN DAS POCKETS MUSS.

ZO RELAXEN UND WATSCHEN DER BLINKENLICHTEN.

Lillie Park South - December 4, 2021

Some leaves just keep hanging on...

I like the bark on this tree, I don't know what kind it is.

I really hope that birds aren't responsible for the damage to this birdhouse. If they are, then I need to start walking in a park where the birds are more mellow.

A nice fall water scene in the early morning light.

A smaller pond with some waterfowl and some nice trees. 

You can still find some color out there!

I am post number 8! I am post number 8! I am post number 8! Who the heck are you?

This picture didn't turn out the way I wanted it to, but it's pretty good in its own right, so here it stays.

There were many of these little branch/vine wreaths all along the paths at the park. This was near one of the path entrances. I have another shot where you can see my shadow, which I would submit as evidence if my shadow needed an alibi for Saturday, December 4. 

More Flat Things Turned Into a Circle

 

Circuit board in a tube?

Using the "tiny planet" idea, here's a part of a circuit board that has been spun around. I like to imagine the pointy ends of the components in this image could all shoot a laser at once and produce a Death Star-like ray of destruction. Or toast a marshmallow. 

Where the Geese are Going

 

Source: https://twistedsifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/basically-december-138.jpg

A Lot of Links

I have been saving up a lot of links lately, here they are. 

A really neat weather map. Change the settings and see how much there is to show. 

Here's a meditative game. Stack the rocks on top of each other - click and drag the rocks with your mouse, then drop them into place. 

A "pie" that looks awfully familiar. Call 911 to give them a heads up, and dig in!

More Boats? Really?

For some reason, I keep blogging about boats. I like them, and at the same time, it's entirely possible I'll never own so much as a kayak. 

Yacht 1. Sweet!

Yacht 2 which is not a yacht that exists, but if it were manufactured, it would have zero emissions, which is great because you wouldn't pollute the air as you run over dolphins and whales. Boom! Biff! Comes with long-handled nets for collecting plumes of floating ocean plastic.

A sub, which we can all agree would be a lot more fun than floating on top of the water in luxury, although there is the downside of meeting your maker if you spring a leak or forget to close the hatch or a yacht runs over you.  

Get Yer Free Hug! 

Source: https://twistedsifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/november-rain-147.jpg

Camera Walk: Rest In Peace, Dad

 

The morning after dad's service I went for a walk in a wooded area just outside town. I hadn't been on a camera walk in a long time. The last time was when I found the green heron strutting around on the bridge at a different park. 

It's not the greatest time for outdoor photography in Michigan - most of the fall colors are gone now, or they're attached to the leaves on the ground. Some green foliage is still around, and it might stay green all winter - those plants forget to change, or no one told them they were supposed to. 

There had been a light snow the night before my walk, and the water on the ground had a very thin layer of ice, as did the small ponds. My hands got cold but it felt good, and breathing the outdoor air after spending so much time indoors in the prior weeks was refreshing. 

Football Saturday Roundup

Read This Book

Many people know about Bletchley Park and Alan Turing, but did you know about the United States' similar successes in codebreaking during WWII? 

This book about a female codebreaker, Elizebeth Friedman, is well-written and exciting. Her husband is also a codebreaker for the US government, and as you might expect from the time, he usually receives recognition, while his equally-capable wife remains in the shadows.

Miscellaneous Links and Information

Pickles tells us about being happy,

Follow Anthony Bourdain through a day at his New York restaurant - a classic from New Yorker magazine.

I need to try this punctuation map on my whole blog someday...

Does your country have a wizard? Why not?