Blogging

My wife is a potter and belongs to a co-op of artists who work together to maintain a gallery where their work can be displayed and offered to the public.  I have mentioned to her that they might want to include a writer, a blogger, a poet or other types of artists who put words together.  I enjoyed the book "Civilization" by Kenneth Clark which gave me a good idea of the shock people experienced when what I call "modern" art appeared. When we visited the Tate art Gallery in London, I learned they had had a show of art about people's reaction to various modern art works.  That show was called "A Child of Six Could Do It". Babies put words and word-like sounds together.  There are many word arts and I feel that by some definitions, all of us who speak or write are artists using whatever language we know to create little works of art daily.

Charging

I began teaching graduate students right during the beginning of the computer age.  I think the US is more into the AI and the smartphone stage now.  I just searched for the percentage of US adults that have only a smartphone and no other digital devices.  Because of my poor hearing and advice from my audiologist, I bought a smartphone but I rarely use it.  It is terrible for creating documents, including blog posts.  The keyboard is much too small.  An external keyboard connected to an inexpensive computer such as an Asus is much easier to use.  I make fewer mistakes with a slightly bigger layout than on my smartphone.

The last few days, I have seen an ad explaining how I can lessen the number and size of power strips with multiple cords connected to them.  The ad classifies such nests as "eyesores".  I admit that charging this and that makes for complex arrangements of chords and little lights.  Having adopted the idea of charging devices to only 60 to 80% of their capacity makes for more charging around the house.  I am urging the adoption of a new, pro-charging aesthetic.

My friend died

It happens more often as I age.  A good friend, a wise and knowledgeable man, died.   Each time, of course, I am reminded of mortality, of the fact that life, including mine, can be long and glorious but is temporary.  Quite often, thinking about life, I get the urge to be extra-alert to beauty and love, to not waste a crumb of the many pleasures and beauties. 

Ebooks from Amazon

I have been using Amazon's ebooks since 2008.  To me, the large selection and the nearly 0 weight of ebooks makes them superior to paper pages.  I admit that webpages these days are chockful of distractions, interruptions, and irrelevancies.  But I can still get a book in electronic form in, say, two minutes.  I can learn of a book, read about it, buy it and be reading it in a total of five minutes, much faster than driving to the library and back.  Of course, if you are a dealer in precious old books, you may not want to deal in ebooks.  You can read an Amazon ebook that you have online at read.amazon.com.  On the main Amazon website, one of the dropdown menus under "Account and lists" has a choice of "Content Library' which lists the ebooks you have purchased access to.  The additional Kindle Unlimited deal allows many books to be "borrowed" for Unlimited Time and the deal includes many up-to-date magazine issues.

There are other ins and outs to ebooks that you can get to know as you use them.

Clock-watching

I seem to be more aware of what the clock says than many people.  My wife recently mentioned that I am a clockwatcher. It is true that I am usually aware of the time of day.  I don't like not knowing the time and I look at my wrist watch or the clock in the room often.  I seem to be convinced that it is almost time for the next thing on my schedule.  I have to watch myself or I will arrive too early.  I am a fan of the website "time.gov".

George Washington birthday

Growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, Feb. 22 was always a holiday.  It is George Washington's birthday and we always had no school that day.  Sometimes, Boy Scout troop 30 had an overnight trip walking the Appalachian Trail that day, depending on how the holiday fell in the week.

A previous blog post tells how the Eagle patrol managed to spill supper into the coals and ashes.  (Blog post for 2/22/2023)

As time goes by, we get new presidents added to the list and it becomes inconvenient to try to celebrate for each one.  Not to mention our Justices, Speakers of the House, leaders of the Senate, administrators of government departments.  And what about state governments, and city managers?

2/3 of winter over

In a month, a short one, too, it will be spring.  Actually, not only a short month but the first "day of spring" is on March 20, not the 21st.  Not only that but the equinox is early in the day.  All to the good.

Back from an overnight

We rode a bus to Chicago overnight with UWSP's Adventure Tours.  We saw "The Outsiders" and toured the extensive underground system of walkways that people can use to get to major stores and offices without being in winter weather.  Lynn predicted it might be more walking than we could manage.  What?  Pooh!  

She was quite right, as usual.  Guess which one of us got exhausted to the point of staggering?  She wants me to include the tour of the Museum of Science and Industry so I am.  I ended up staggering along, looking evidently as though I might die.  I haven't.  We are both slowly recovering, even more fully grasping that we are genuinely elderly.

Blog pause

Don't expect a blog post for the next two days.  I am going to be too busy.  Read some of my older posts, write a letter to a good relative, start your own blog, read that book you have been meaning to get to.

Presidents Day

I am a fan of Alexandra Meeks Banner, a woman often listed as writer of CNN Five Things AM.  She has a way of explaining what happened fully, succinctly and respectfully. She wrote this morning that

Depending on the state, it may be known as Presidents' Day, President's Day or Presidents Day — a subtle shift in apostrophe placement that has fueled decades of debate.

I take the simple plural without really knowing what my state is doing.

Despite having read that and liking it consciously, I went to the bank today.  Guess what I found.  The place was closed!  Because it is Presidents Day!