Places to See #2

This week's passel o' links I found entertaining or of interest:

► The oldest recorded melody? I find this one particularly fascinating, even a bit spine tingling. If this is anything *close* to accurate, we're hearing music that fell on the ears of the ancients, eons ago.

► Interesting glimpses of New York diaries from all different time periods and very different personalities...as always, I'm intrigued by variances in handwriting and style.

► 10 words that need to die immediately. (They do, they do!)

► The Lamy Safari color of the year, 2012.

► Cats as fonts--cute. (Thanks to notagain at Manual Entry for this one...)

► Guitars in space!

► Speaking of guitar, wanna buy a guitar boat?

► How to make a duct tape rose. Well, *I* thought it was cool!

► And this round's "just because" entry, cat caught barking...

Places to See

I've been too busy to write a real post, so instead, here are a bunch of links to some interesting Internet places I've run across in recent travels:

1. Check out this fascinating gallery of pencil sharpeners!

2. The first portion of this video is hilarious for EDC adherants and fountain pen fanatics alike...the second part interesting to at least the fountain pen geeks.  I love this guy!  Thanks to Ravens March for bringing him to my attention.  He's a member of Fountain Pen Network, but I'd missed seeing his videos before.

3. Can you imagine just happening to find a letter by *Tolkien* in a random book?

4. Utterly gorgeous bookstores--just wow.

5. Couple links regarding a robot writing the Bible with fountain pen: I'm a little unsure how to feel about this demonstration of technology mixed with older writing techniques.  I mean...is it truly calligraphy if it's done with robots?  And yet...this is so cool to watch!

Article...

Video...

Note that it's a Lamy Safari.  Lamy Safaris for the win!

6. And just because...only on YouTube: a Saruman/Trololo guy mash-up (warning: brutal wizard fatality).





TGIF!

Not Dead Yet

Reason #1 I haven't been blogging: I've been obsessively practicing mandolin and learning new tunes.  Tunes I've learned since the beginning of November:


OK, I confess, I'd played Banish Misfortune before, but not memorized it, so maybe that one's a lie.  Still, not bad all told, if I do say so myself.  And most of them, I know well enough to play at the local Irish session, without toooo many stumbles.  However, the list of commonly played tunes they gave me when I first started attending is sixty tunes long, and it seems like people toss out new ones every week, so this list is a drop in the bucket.  I still have a lot of work cut out for me.  Fun work, though, for the most part, with the exception of Lark in the Morning Jig.  Don't ask me why, but I developed an instant antipathy for that tune.  Maybe I'm not as much of a morning person as I thought I was.  But I'll beat the Lark yet.

Reason #2 I haven't been blogging: I've been sucked down the e-reader rabbit hole.

Quite a number of family members have obtained Kindles over the past few months and all have been raving about them.  And these days, you can borrow library books on them, which knocks down one of the mental barriers I'd set up against them.  The selection of library e-books isn't great, but it's growing.  And Kindles have come down a lot in price.  A few years ago, they were what, $350?  Now, they're under a hundred. 

I got to play with my sister-in-law's new Kindle Touch for awhile over Christmas, and then when I was at Target on New Year's Eve, they had a returned one marked down to $69.  Plus I had a Target gift card.  Plus I am weak.  It came home with me.  Ended up having a bad USB cable, but my phone uses the same cable so I could charge it straight off, and Amazon customer service was happy to send a replacement for the original.  Good deal.

I have to say, I'm smitten.  There is much to be said for the ability to carry many, many large, heavy books in one bitty package, and the ability to request any classic (and a lot of other stuff) for free at the touch of a coupla buttons, without even getting off the couch.  Also, it's lighter and more comfortable to hold than a lot of big books, lays flat, and I can lazily turn pages with one hand whilst eating lunch or what have you.  I haven't bought much yet, aside from Mr. Speegle's short story collection, and Life of Pi, which I've been wanting to read for awhile and which I got for a dollar as one of the "special offers."  But I've gone through half a dozen library books with more in the queue, plus have a bunch of classics and out-of-print goodies waiting in the wings. (First up, some lighter reading: lotsa PG Wodehouse and a smattering of Mary Roberts Rinehart mysteries.)

It doesn't replace real books by any means.  There are still an awful lot of things not available for Kindle, for one thing, and I'm still likely to drag home large stacks of cheap used books, which isn't an option for e-books.  Still, I'm seriously pleased with the little thing.

Anyhow, between reading and music, I've barely had time for things like, oh, bathing, let alone blogging.  What did I miss?  Are we there yet?

Too Much

Some reflections, partially drawn from my recent brief blog hiatus (the virtual type-in dragged me back...;)

Midweek Update Just To Update

The suffocation/choking picture I was talking about is this one...somehow he's become sort of our mascot.

Poetical Forecasting

Gotta love it when the human element manages to shine through despite technology.  My Forecastfox Weather extension in Firefox tells me tonight is going to be "Cold with a star-studded sky."

I'm guessing no weather-modeling computer thingamabob spit out that particular line.  Makes me smile.

Modern Convenience Revisited

Remember this?  Well...that was pretty much my weekend.  Ugh.  I finally got rid of my giant old tube TV, which made scary popping and sparking noises the last few times I turned it on, starting in about July.  Incidentally, it steadfastly refused to do so when I finally found someone to help me take it to be recycled, and he (the guy taking it away) asked me to demonstrate what was wrong...so now I'm all worried I got rid of it for nothing.  But it took me several months to get someone to help me, and every time I'd dared try it in the meantime, it was making That Noise...so hopefully I did right.  But in any case, the good behavior at the last moment adds fuel to the fire with regards to the obsessive thinking I've been enduring.

I'm getting a tax refund this year, so I was hoping to use that (with a little extra) to buy a very basic new TV, mostly just for DVDs and maybe streaming a few things from the computer.  But gee-willikers TVs are complicated these days!  Not only are there apparently about ten times as many brands as there used to be, but they come in way more sizes and price ranges, not to mention have more detailed specs than the average computer: refresh rates, sizes, resolutions, upscaling stuff to let them display regular older TV content (something like that), internet capability,  and all sorts of other whatsits.  And every single model has at least some people claiming it ruined their life and the customer service people of TV Company X kicked their dog and insulted their mother when they tried to ask for help.  It's a scary world out there.  And I'm now crippled by the fact that I have enough knowledge to be completely bewildered.  Yay me!

I really hate on-line research.  There's never one right answer.  And for big ticket items, I hate the responsibility of choosing one single option.  *sigh*  As a friend used to put it, I want an angel with a flaming pie to swoop down to tell me what to do.  And when it comes to guidance in consumer electronics, I don't think the heavens are really gonna spare me a flaming pie.

Yes, but can he do Ron Mingo?

This is very strange, but I couldn't stop watching, nonetheless.

The History of the Typewriter, Recited by Michael Winslow

And, for reference, our old friend Ron Mingo, courtesy of Mike Clemens and Click Thing. Just in time for NaNoWriMo!

Paperback Throwdown

Something just a little out of my usual realm today: a journey through some paperback cover art.

I kinda sorta collect old mysteries, particularly Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Rex Stout, and a small handful of others, plus a few sci-fi books here and there. Most of these books are paperbacks, because a) I'm cheap, and b) they tend to be far more common than hardback editions. Paperbacks aren't as durable, of course, *but* they do have one bonus feature: while hard cover volumes tend to have long ago lost any dust cover and thus their original artwork, paperbacks can't ditch the original cover, for better or worse. They're stuck with their original artwork, cheesy or lurid or bizarre as it may be.

Old sci-fi paperbacks in particular are known for being...odd. There are many with strange, brightly colored covers, often with motifs that seem to have no real connection to the actual story. Heinlein covers tend to be especially odd, in my experience. This particular one is tame compared with the last library book of his I checked out. Woo-hoo for pink sea-dragons!


Then there's C.S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength. I've read this book practically every other year since high school, and I still couldn't tell you what the cover is supposed to be about. I mean...what's with the painting of what is apparently bouncing orange balls and bolts of flying black lightning? No clue.


Mysteries seem to do different things by decade and depending on the publisher's whims at that point in time. There is a whole series of Nero Wolfe books with cover art that could *all* be titled "Still Life With a Gun". Usually a revolver, but not always. They liked to mix things up, those cover artists of old.


My favorite in this series: revolver plus chocolate. Nice.


There's another whole series of Nero Wolfe books with gobs of fake blood as a major component of every single cover picture. Apparently there was a special on red paint that decade. Or something.


Many of the older Agatha Christie covers go along with the classic Still Life With a Gun motif, though in painting form rather than photography. And no, I cannot explain the GIGANTIC syringe and watch and revolver on Appointment with Death's cover. Or maybe they aren't gigantic, in which case that's a very tiny maze and skeleton and gate and trees. I tried to figure it out, but it just gave me a headache.


Revolver and dagger and jooolry. And burning candle. All carefully balanced without falling over. And without setting the house on fire.


Because of the cover art, I sometimes end up with two copies of the exact same book. This is partly because it means I can't remember if I already own a given book, since they look completely different, and partly because it's just fun to compare. For example, here's an old copy of Agatha Christie's Ordeal by Innocence. It's very worn, but if you look closely, you can make out the sort of 1930s style car, the woman's elegant hair style.


And, for contrast, another edition. Can you guess which decade this is from? (Nice hairdo, huh?)


And then there is this little gem, one glimpse of which is sure to make a teetotaler of even the hardest drinking guest.


A closeup of the scary cover thing. Isn't she lovely?


I'll finish off with a Dashiell Hammett cover, which I love just for its complete over-the-top-ness.


It's like an old movie trailer in one image: "Guns! Girls! Fast cars! Kidnapping! MURDER!!!"

What I did on summer vacation

Went to the Mt. St. Helens Bluegrass Festival in Toledo, WA. I learned a new tune--or at least, how to play it on guitar: Rickett's Hornpipe. Also got to hear some great local and semi-local bands, plus one of the greatest female vocalists in bluegrass today: Dale Ann Bradley. Her band is awesome, too, especially her current mandolin player, Chris Harris. That young man is going places.

Drank many, many cups of coffee, many of them at Mud Bay Coffee. I'm still mourning being on the other side of town, though in all other ways my move was a good thing. It was nice revisiting some, and I have plenty of their coffee beans on hand for at home.

Also had way too much junk food and such: a Dairy Queen Blizzard, chips and dip, my first hamburger and fries in a long while. And got my first ever Papa Murphy's pizza. I didn't have a working oven in the last place, so I couldn't have baked one until recently. I got The Cowboy: Italian sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, black olives, cheese. Good stuff, though next time I want more vegetables. There will be a next time. Mmmm....pizza.

Drank about a glass and a half of wine, all told. A real party girl, I am.

Went on a couple nice long walks with thedog. I love my trail...

Read an average of a book a day. Mmmm....books. I also spent an afternoon at the library, and much time at Goodwills looking through the book section, among other things. I pretty much hit every thrift store within easy driving distance. My wild and crazy fun is not your average wild and crazy fun.

Speaking of books, I blew a Border's 33% off coupon on Connie Willis' Blackout, which I just read but want to read again before All Clear comes out, and I don't feel like getting back into the waiting game with the library hold queue, since I can't predict when I'll actually get a book that way. Now it's mine--all mine! Bwahahah....

Wrote a lot in my journal, and bits and pieces of stories. I didn't do as much writing as I intended, honestly. It's the sitting down and starting that's the hardest part. I did, however, in the last few days, finally get my writing space organized and continued working on some short stories I had set aside.

(I also reorganized my bookshelves, and at the moment I actually have more shelf space than books. This must be remedied ASAP.)

I went to The Tea Lady (awesome store, by the way, and highly recommended for anyone who even vaguely likes tea) and got some nice orange cinnamon spice tea, and the package of blueberry rooibos I've been coveting. It smells sooo good, that blueberry tea! Good stuff, too. It's a nice evening beverage, whilst reading a book. No caffeine.

Went to Shipwreck Beads and got stuff to make more earrings. That store...it's hard to even convey it in words. It's enormous, and there's nothing like being able to actually handle the beads, hold colors together for comparison. The hardest part of visiting is narrowing down what one wants to buy.

Got Avatar from Redbox and watched it. This is the first time I've turned on the TV since I switched off cable back in June, and it took me awhile to get everything going. I spent quite awhile searching for the remote before remembering that the all-in-one was Comcast's. Duh.

The movie itself? Hm. I'd heard it called Disney's Pocahantas in space, and I think that's pretty close to the mark. The story is pretty cliched. You've got the native princess who sticks up for one of the invaders even though he starts off as a misunderstanding, boorish lout. You've got the eeeevil, greedy invaders (updated by Hollywood into representatives of the military and the corporate world) who see the natives as subhuman and expendable and just want them gone so they can steal their property. Etc. That said, it's a very pretty movie. The animation and real footage are almost seamlessly combined, more so than anything I've ever seen before, and the planet (Pandora) is gorgeous.

All in all, I rolled my eyes a number of times, but still enjoyed it.

I didn't end up going anywhere very far or very out of the norm. It's not really something to do alone, I guess. It's one of the biggest problems with being perpetually single, especially if your friends and family all have families of their own. If they do think to invite you when they go on vacation, you're a third wheel, not really sure what to do with yourself, but most vacation fun stuff is really meant for couples and families, especially in the realm of the cheap and free. And yes, I am left feeling a little wistful. It's inevitable, I suppose. Another year, when I'm not so broke, I want to go back home, to visit Dad and hang out with my sister and visit my old haunts and break more out of my day to day.

But for what it was, it was a very successful vacation.

Vacation anticipation and request for movie recommendations

I have a ginormous book of sudoku puzzles and a box of pencils, I have pens and ink and notebooks, guitar and mandolin and music books at hand, stacks of books to read (both edifying and purely entertaining), trails to walk and a bike to ride, the daily Mass schedule, fresh fruit available nearby, a freshly roasted bag o' coffee and the half-and-half to go with it, various and sundry teas, and a bottle of wine.

And I have next week off.

I'm not doing much if any traveling and have no set-in-stone plans, which is what I wanted out of this little vacation/retreat. I may get up early and go to the coffee house to hunker down and work on transcribing my '08 NaNo, which I'm *still* not done. I may sleep in some mornings and then meander down the trail with a notebook and pen, maybe even pack a lunch and a book to read at a good stopping point, and make a day of it. I may just lounge around with a book and the sudoku puzzles and a cat in my lap. And I'm thinking about going to see a movie in the theater for the first time since the last Indiana Jones movie. Anyone have any current recommendations?

In addition to all of the above, I get to go to a little bluegrass festival on Saturday and hang out playing music with friends, plus hear some great bands and performers. Life is awful good.

Sharpie's Mad Science Experiment

Apropos of nothing except my recent obsession with pencils....

Sharpie just released an interesting chimera of a writing instrument: the Sharpie Liquid Pencil. In theory, it writes like a pen, erases like a pencil, but after a day or so, becomes permanent and non-erasable. Permanent like a Sharpie, they say, which makes me wonder. In my experience, Sharpie writing changes color, fades, or otherwise acts in less than permanent ways after a few years (or months, if exposed in any way.

It's an interesting concept, and one that I expect will set a trend, but I'm skeptical. And I'm not sure I see the point. As a commenter on one of the blog posts I skimmed on the subject said,

You know what else is permanent, like a Sharpie, but still erasable? A pencil. Just don't erase it.

Good point. ;-)

I go through phases when I worry about the longevity of my writing, even though it's not of much consequence, and most of it isn't anything I want anyone to read but me. I've had some bad experience with certain fountain pen inks utterly vanishing after a few years: cheap blue ink on cheap paper. At the time I was young and foolish and had no idea inks could just disappear like that without a trace in less than decades. Now I'm older and wiser and a little paranoid. At one point I was worried about using pencil in notebooks I wanted to keep around for awhile, just because it's erasable. But I got to thinking...*unless* it's erased, pencil is more permanent than pretty much anything, and the chances of my notebooks experiencing heat or humidity are a lot higher than the chances of a stranger armed with a Pink Pearl breaking in while I'm out and going to town on my old journals. I'm probably safe to use pencil.

Getting back on subject, I'm not sure what target audience these Sharpie things are really best suited for. I like pencils, I like pens...but both in one doesn't necessarily sound like the best of both worlds to me. That isn't to say I wouldn't try one if someone at work shows up with one or something...or I may buy one just because I'm curious.

Getting back off subject, here's a link to another random blog I stumbled across in my meanderings:
Notebook stories

Makes me feel like this whole notebook accumulation thing is normal and even applaudable. I like that in a website. A fun time-waster, for sure.

Also been hanging out here and here.

Just another day in the life of a nerd...

NPR ANNOUNCER: During the housing bubble, investors threw money at real estate as if it was Monopoly money. This is an apt metaphor--

ME, INTERRUPTING: That's not a metaphor, you knucklehead. It's a simile!

*change station to "Mozart at Eight" on Classical King FM*

Visual Typewriter

I don't recall anyone posting this before. Has everyone seen this?

I'm not sure whether to laugh, cry, or cheer. Or all of the above.

"All that's missing is the smell of ink"? I'm thinking...it's a bit more than that.

Sentimental Journey to a Musical Office

About halfway through my childhood, we got a TV and a VCR. We didn't pick up any broadcast channels except for PBS every once in a very great while, were too far out for cable and too...er...frugal for satellite, so VHS tapes were all we ever really watched. My dad had a tendency to periodically pick up bunches of budget movies--the sort that used to go on sale for fifty cents or a buck brand new. These days, budget movies seem to generally be recent films which didn't do well in theaters (and which should have been allowed to die quietly), but back then they were mostly old black and white movies and TV shows, copied to poor quality long play tapes without any restoration, and typically with lousy sound and picture quality. We saw shaky versions of old Tom Mix serials, the original Flash Gordon, old and mostly forgotten musicals like Born to Dance and Pot o' Gold, all sorts of James Cagney movies and Kirk Douglas movies and Bette Davis movies and Charles Boyer movies and...well, you get the idea.

One of our favorite tapes was a rather hacked together documentary about Ernie Kovacs' TV show, mostly highlights from the show: favorite skits and shorts. We eventually wore that sucker out, and for years I've thought back fondly on the bits and pieces, wishing I could revisit. For some reason, it never occurred to me to check YouTube.

Last night we were looking for a stapler, and my sister pulled out the pencil sharpener I have yet to find a home for and started whistling "Sentimental Journey." I knew exactly what she meant...I can't use a pencil sharpener without the same thing running through my head. We got to talking about that old tape and ended up on YouTube...lo and behold, you can find all *sorts* of Ernie Kovacs material on the web! This particular short is an old favorite, and (in my humble opinion), a must for those of us who love old office equipment, typewriters and otherwise.

Birthday redux typecast

The one musical artist I did discover this weekend was actually by means of the Alphasmart Flickr group: Gordon Bok was mentioned by one of the frequent posters, and I looked him up out of curiosity. I like what little I've found. Actually, he also got played in my Pandora mix, somewhere in the realm of Stan Rogers. He's a Mainer with a great slightly-rough-around-the-edges baritone voice who sings everything from sea shanties to ballads to original songs. I'll be looking deeper into his music.

Ah, and now we're back to Silly Wizard. I <3 Andy M. Stewart. *sigh*

Everybody's doing it: 25 things

These things go around Facebook and the blogosphere every so often, and usually I just ignore them. But now I see even some of my fellow typecasters are jumping on the bandwagon. So...why not? Here ya go: 25 completely random facts about me. Try to stay awake.

1. I'm the oldest of eight: five boys, three girls. I waited ten years (and four brothers) for my first sister. Two of my brothers are married, and I now have four nieces and a nephew.

2. I grew up in Vermont (and still consider it home), but I was born in Portland, Oregon. One of the few things I remember about Portland is the ash from the Mt. St. Helens eruption. We moved to Vermont when I was three.

3. I spent four and a half years in the Air Force, mostly overseas in Germany (and a temporary duty assignment in Italy).

4. I didn't get my driver's license until I got out of the military. I was 23. Until then, I begged and borrowed rides, or rode my bike.

5. Ironically, the year I put the most miles on my bike was after I didn't hafta. Two years ago I rode the 25 mile round trip to work most days during the summer--there's a bike lane or path most of the way to work. This past year, I chickened out due to contruction along the route and increased traffic. Miss the ride, though.

6. I've written fiction and poetry and kept a journal off and on since...well...before I could even write. I don't know what if anything I'll ever do with any of that, but it's fun.

7. I play guitar, mando, and tenor-banjo-tuned-like-octave-mando. I'm still an advanced beginner on pretty much all of the above, but I have fun with it. I've played out a bit, though not since I've been in Washington.

8. I have too many pets: a devious and demanding Siamese cat named Tamino who plays fetch, a stupid but very sweet Himalayan/Siamese cross named Halvah Mom gave me one day out of the blue, a Lab/Border mix named Cisco who is basically what you'd get if Tigger was ever reincarnated as a dog, and two betta fish (Julian and Finnegan), one at work and one at home.

9. The vehicle I owned longest so far was a '97 Mercury Villager minivan. I had it for about five years, from late 2002 until early last year. It was about as uncool as a vehicle can get for a single gal. It was a blackhole for coolness. But it got us to lots of gigs and jams and fun trips, and it got me across country from Vermont to Colorado and Colorado to Washington, and I'll always have a soft spot for the thing.

10. I am a natural blonde. Very natural. So natural sometimes I scare myself.

11. I have a fascination for old writing technology, like fountain pens and manual typewriters. Ditto paper. And typefaces. And calligraphy.

12. I like to get up early and go to "my" coffee house (Mud Bay Coffee Roasters) to read and write while before work. I love that place, and the coffee. Given the opportunity, I'm afraid I'd end up the morning person/coffee equivalent of a barfly....

13. I really struggle with brevity when writing.

14. There are very few foods I don't like. Canned peas used to make me gag, and I think I'll pass on the smoked oysters. Other than that...can you pass me that plate?

15. I'm a Catholic.

16. I fairly frequently have nightmares where I wake myself up screaming. Then I try to figure out how I could fit that sequence into a story....

17. For my confirmation name I picked Mary Bernard, for St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

18. I use one eye for distance and the other for close-up.

19. I was homeschooled for six years: most of elementary school and part of high school.

20. I'm apt to strike out if people startle me. I don't do haunted houses anymore....

21. I usually read at least a book a week. Sometimes it's closer to a book a day. I try to keep some balance between the real literature and the brain candy.

22. I had my appendix removed when I was 13.

23. I had pulled pork barbecue for dinner. Or supper, if you prefer.

24. I once managed to kill a cactus plant by not watering it enough. This takes talent. Or something.

25. I saw "Tosca" at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

I so love stories like this...

At 100 years old, he's found a tiny musical destiny

Sounds like quite the character.

Also makes me feel quite young with with years of potential ahead of me. I like that.

Playing the building

This is mondo cool.

I don't really care much for the Talking Heads. In fact, they're one of the few artists / groups my favorite radio station plays that make me start groping for the dial the instant I hear one of their lead-ins. (The exception to the rule is "Psycho Killer," which I crank and sing along with...not sure what that says about me...) I like David Byrne's solo efforts even less.

But this is very, very cool. You remember how, as a little kid, you'd wander around tapping various household items with a pencil or drumstick to see what tone you got from it? Everybody did that, right? This takes that to a whole new level. As Neo would say, "Whoa!"

Pyelem G Vudhaus??

Apparently there are now some pretty fanatical Russian Wodehouse fans.

Natalya Trauberg sounds like an amazing woman:

That there is a Wodehouse fellowship at all, though, is largely thanks to Natalya Trauberg. A self-taught English speaker, the 79-year-old former dissident risked transportation to the gulags under Stalin for translating the theological works of C S Lewis and G K Chesterton in samizdat.

Can you imagine the sort of stories she could tell? Fascinating.