Wanderings

Anything you dream is fiction,
and anything you accomplish is science,
the whole history of mankind is nothing but science fiction.
- Ray Bradbury
May 29th, 2013

Firespotting! Interesting Ideas, Every Day!

I’ve been reading Firespotting pretty regularly for the last few weeks. The idea is ideas. You read the ideas and rate them. If you have an idea that you’d like someone to develop, you put it on the list. Good ideas bubble to the top and bad ones fall off the bottom. There is also a time factor so that ideas are constantly new.

The ideas are mostly technical rather than practical. Some are silly, some are impossible, some are diabolically clever. I look every day for an idea that I can implement, or an inspiration for a better idea.

Right now there is a problem that not enough people are adding new ideas and rating ideas. I think if this ever took off in a big way, people like me would be mining it regularly for the next big thing.

Firespotting! Interesting Ideas, Every Day! | New Links.






May 16th, 2013

Job interview in the city

I leave at about 10:30 this morning for a 1PM interview in midtown Manhattan.

 






May 16th, 2013

Chicks Arrived

6:47am the post office called to tell us that our new chicks had arrived from Ohio. They were a day late. I went down and got them. The chicks were cold and lethargic.

I put them under the heat lamp. two could not stand on their own and I started giving them water with honey and vitamins. The sugar shot woke them up. The temperature is about 90 in their box, now, and they are cheeping away.

Here is a picture of one.






May 13th, 2013

Richard Powers Original Painting

Richard Powers painted many of the Science Fiction covers in the late 1950s and early 1960s. I have always admired his work.

I would love to own this painting.

Spring Sale Richard Powers Original Surreal Painting “A Break in The Clouds” | eBay.
powers1






May 11th, 2013

Happy Mother’s Day

Here’s Mom and the doll she entered into this year’s DAR craft contest.






May 7th, 2013

Ray Harryhausen died today

The man was absolute genius. I remember watching The 7th Voyage of Sinbad when I was 7 years old – probably the first movie that I was allowed to go to by myself. I was absolutely blown away.

The Man Responsible For All of Your Favorite Monsters, Ray Harryhausen, 1920-2013 | Tor.com.






May 4th, 2013

Making Light: North Country Computing

North Country Computing Terms (a little dated now):

  1. Log On: Making the wood stove hotter
  2. Log Off: Don’t add any more wood
  3. Monitor: Keeping an eye on the wood
  4. Download: Getting the wood off the truck
  5. Megahertz: When you’re not careful getting the firewood
  6. Floppy Disk: What you get from trying to carry too much wood
  7. Ram: That thing that splits the wood
  8. Hard Drive: Getting home in the winter time in the snow
  9. Prompt: What the mail isn’t in the winter time
  10. Windows: What you shut when it’s cold outside
  11. Screen: What you shut when it’s black fly season
  12. Byte: What those dang black flies do
  13. Chip: Munchies for the TV
  14. Microchip: What’s in the bottom of the munchies bag
  15. Modem: What you did to the hay fields
  16. Keyboard: Where you hang the keys
  17. Software: Those dang plastic forks and knives
  18. Mouse: What eats the grain in the barn
  19. Mainframe: What holds up the barn roof
  20. Port: Fancy wine
  21. Random Access Memory: When you can’t remember what you paid for the rifle, when your wife asks.

via Making Light: North Country Computing.






May 2nd, 2013

Gruff Behind Bars

Gruff, the stray cat that lives in our basement, was injured in a fight. His leg was terrible damaged and very infected. The vet thought that he might have even lost the leg if it had not been treated in time.

We have never brought old Gruff to the vet before. He did not try  to kill anybody, even though he has tried to kill me. In the last few years he has calmed down quite a bit and has become pretty snuggly.

He fights with our cats and marks his territory so he can’t be allowed to wander the house. The wound is stitched and has a drain for the infection so he can’t go outside. We compromise by letting him stay in an old dog cage we bought at garage sale. Needless to say he doesn’t like it and I don’t know how we will handle his bathroom issues.

For now he sits in the box and glares at us. I think, though that he likes being in the living room with the people and the other cats. He is rather handsome.