Super B(ow)logging Books

Here are some books that I've read in the last few years that were notable. Read one, or read them all!

Every Day is for the Thief
Teju Cole

A bittersweet homecoming to Nigeria for the narrator, who reconnects with people from his past, and is frustrated by the ubiquitous local corruption.   

The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World
A.J. Jacobs

I'm not quite done with this book, but it's a winner. The author wants to become smarter, so he buys a complete, printed edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and reads every word. He shares some of the fun facts that he learns along the way, and shares the times that he attempts to inject his knowledge into everyday social situations. Can he one-up his brainy family members, and impress his coworkers?   

Good Clean Fun: Misadventures in Sawdust at Offerman Woodshop
Nick Offerman

You may know Offerman from the dry-humored characters he plays on TV shows, but he is also a first-class woodworker. He introduces you to his woodshop and his fellow craftspeople therein. His explanation of wood and woodworking tools is terrific. He's as good a writer as he is a comedic actor.

Going Into Town: A Love Letter to New York

Roz Chast

If you read New Yorker magazine, you know Roz Chast. In this book, she's written a guide to New York which is approachable and fun. She gives helpful information about finding streets and does it with her inimitable drawing style. She also wrote Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, a book about her experiences with her aging parents. I read it after dad was already in assisted living, and it made me realize that what we went through with dad was very common. 

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never do Again: Essays and Arguments
David Foster Wallace

The essays in this book are well-written, and he has some pretty interesting essays about tennis, but the best by far is the one about his experience on a cruise ship (which was supposedly fun).

Fake Love Letters, Forged Telegrams, and Prison Escape Maps: Designing Graphic Props for Filmmaking
Annie Atkins

This is a fun book about the props you see in movies, but often don't really see. Stacks of papers on a desk, or a letter, or money, or tickets. The author explains how they're made, and how they take their job very seriously. 

Photoshop Restoration & Retouching
Katrin Eismann

Not a book you'd probably take to the beach, but a wonderful step-by-step description of using Photoshop to repair and restore digital images of your old photos. Most of the techniques I used to restore dad's military pictures I learned from this book.  

Goliath
Tom Gauld

I mentioned this book on my blog a long time ago, but it's worth mentioning again. My advice is to find all the Tom Gauld books at your library or bookstore, and take them home. His cartoons about books are the best. 

Sleeping Giants
Sylvain Neuvel

A science fiction novel about a very unusual weapon. It's a bit gory in places, but if this weapon was actually found, the story would probably play out in the way the book outlines. 

Through the Looking Glass with Squirrel Garbage and Nachos

 

At first glance, this looks like some archeological artifact from an ancient culture, but it's just something a squirrel left behind. It's about 7/8" long.

It's always time for nachos...

Who is it? 

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