Category: BlAugust

August 15, 2024 / BlAugust

Unlimited- For Three Months

Amazon was kind enough to offer a three month trial of Kindle Unlimited. So I installed a few books to the Kindle for reading, because, I.Don’t.Have.Enough.To.Read.As.It.Is.

There are a few titles on the waiting list from my libraries but those will take weeks to deliver and borrow. Thankfully Kindle had them so immediately all of this paid off. Time to speed read the previous two books I borrowed. Zoom Zoom.

Also, how great is it that if there is a word I am not sure about, I can long press the screen and a dictionary will pop up with a definition. Love that feature. With a paper book has a word that needs defining, I’ll have to break out the paper dictionary, you know, like our ancestors did.

Another feature that doesn’t get enough credit is the Highlights and Notes options. When I highlight a word or passage, Kindle sends the meta data to my personal database for later reference. Don’t ask me how because I don’t want to explain all of the heavy scripting and API codes I needed to script to make all of that magic happen.

Above: Highlighted text on Kindle. Below: The same highlighted text sent to my personal database

August 14, 2024 / BlAugust

Damn.

My child starts her senior year of high school today.

Damn.

August 13, 2024 / BlAugust

Seal of Approval?

I am designing a stamp for later when I am able to mark up one of my books and send out on stationary to a pen pal. Not sure if I am happy with this proof or not.

August 12, 2024 / BlAugust

Write Out

We all know the benefits of regular exercise for our bodies—strengthening muscles, improving endurance, and boosting overall health. But what about our minds? Just like our bodies need a good workout to stay in shape, our minds crave daily activity to stay sharp and creative. That’s where “Write Out” comes in. Think of it as a mental workout, a daily exercise routine that strengthens your writing muscles, sharpens your thinking, and enhances your creativity. Whether you’re jotting down a few thoughts or crafting a full essay, each day you write is a step toward a healthier, more agile mind.

Writing, as in fitness, benefits from consistency. Even on days I don’t feel like it, I will get out to the gym and do it. Even on days I don’t feel like it, I’ll sit down and crank something out. Not every day, but enough to build habits.

A routine, without being a routine, can be challenging. This month, I committed to writing a post every day for thirty one days.

I feel a need, or have a desire to sit down and write on one of my short stories, or that pesky novel I’ve been stewing on for decades. Typing for 15-30 minutes a day should do it. Crap or no crap, it’ll get done. As Hemingway put it: “Write drunk, edit sober.”

Just as a daily workout builds a stronger body, “Writing Out” could be a path to a more resilient and creative mind. It’s not about perfection or waiting for inspiration to strike; it’s about showing up, putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), and committing to the process.

August 12, 2024 / BlAugust

Perseid Showers

4:50am EST:

I am awake in the middle of the night for a nature break and remembered there was supposed to be a celestial show in this morning.

The best time to view these meteor showers is between 8/11 and 8/12 before dawn and look to the northeast from my position down south.

So I laid down in a chaise lounge on the lanai and thankfully the sky was clear. I waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness and soaked in all the stars and planets. Okay, it’s time for the light show and I didn’t have to wait long because a few streaks of burning rock burned up in our atmosphere.

Okay, I am tired, but I’ll snap a photo of the glowing planets of Jupiter and Mars. Excuse the crude image. It’s early, my hands are shakily extended over my head and I had to do that for 5 seconds to get a decent exposure in low light.

I’ll be better prepared in December for the Geminids meteor showers. Back to bed for now knowing I caught yet another astronomical event and I am happy.

5:24am EST: Zzz

August 11, 2024 / BlAugust

The Wisdom of Solomon

“I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens.”

Ecclesiastes 1:13

August 10, 2024 / BlAugust

Soma

“People will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.”

— Aldous Huxley

Huxley’s words from 1932 are truer now than when he wrote it. His novel Brave New World deserves a re-read.

August 9, 2024 / BlAugust

Interesado

I have way too many interests and for some reason they just keep expanding. The bitch of it is, obviously, always, not enough time.

I am not known for disciplining my personal time and interests, in favor of allowing my free spirit to come and go as it does.

Apparently the need for using a calendar to organize could be of some use.

Right now my intake is overloading my throughput. I am consuming more than I am creating. Need to find a balance here.

August 8, 2024 / BlAugust

You’ve Got Mail

Lately, I have been keen on sending out handwritten letters to loved ones after relocating to Coral del Cabo. It is a way to make correspondence personal and meaningful. I enjoy it.

Well, to my surprise, I received a postcard from Cuba sent from my significant other three months ago to the day that she visited and sent the card.

In the past I have received post from my friends in the Dominican Republic and the Netherlands. They were full of love and encouragement. Sadly, and to my shame, I have not kept it up over the years.

This gets rectified immediately, because I would be thrilled to have long-term pen pals to reach out to and share life with again. Eventually I will re-acquire personalized stationary.

Electronic mail is rare to receive but no less welcome. If interested in either digital or analog correspondence, you can first reach out via e-mail by clicking here: hello@

August 7, 2024 / BlAugust

TIL 30

Things I Learned In 2024 Week 30:

Hoopla– want to stream audiobooks, or movies? Read books and magazines? A perfect companion courtesy of your local library. I was able to find obscure movie titles to stream when everywhere else failed or charged $$ for such as: Metropolis (finally!), Hundreds of Beavers, Nosferatu (finally!) so far. All were silent movies and in the public domain but other streamers wanted a minimum of $6 to rent. Nope!

More frequency illusion, or Rabbits, was a re-occurring theme from the Metropolis movie:

Kleon had the same theme in one of his newsletters last week but it was regarding art. In that if you want to create good art, you need a combination of head, heart and hands.

Rosetta Stone– another service courtesy of the local library. The renowned language learning program is available. I need to polish up my Spanish and maybe take up Italian. They are similar so it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch.

Hemingway– As if I didn’t have enough to consume lately, I’ve rented a 3-disc video series on E.H. By Ken Burns, as well as downloaded a few of E.H.’s novels courtesy of Gutenberg Press. Thank goodness I opted to get the larger memory chip for my Kindle.

Classical music– Masses, litanies, vespers, psalms, oratorios, cantatas, requiems, operas, concertos, sonata, symphony, string quartets, chamber music, Masonic, divertimentos, serenade, dances, marches, etc etc. Why do the composers have “k” or “v” in their music titles? 173dA? Okay, sure. I’ve always enjoyed classical but never understood the details. Too much to learn and I regret never have taken a class on music theory or appreciation. I am rectifying this now, slowly.

Reading– Adding to my infinite tower of books to devour will be a study of Dante’s Inferno. That’ll take a year, easily. Throw in some Don Quixote, mix it with Hunter S. Thompson as well as C.S. Lewis and Tolkien. Then, read up on how well those last two worked and inspired each other for their fantasies from Middle Earth and Narnia.

August 6, 2024 / BlAugust

Metasyntactic Variables

August 5, 2024 / BlAugust

Drinks Are On Me

I’d like to experiment with a new, unique cocktail as soon as possible. We have a nice bar area in the dining room that needs to be filled. Okay, let’s try this:

Blue Dolphin Cocktail

Ingredients:

1.5 oz Blue Curacao
1 oz Vodka
1 oz Coconut Cream
2 oz Pineapple Juice
Ice
Pineapple slice or a cherry for garnish

If vodka doesn’t work out, maybe substitute with clear rum.

Cutty Shark

Ingredients:

Cutty Sark scotch whiskey
amaretto
ice

Cutty Shark Highball

Ingredients:

Cutty Sark scotch whiskey
sparkling water
lemon juice
Ice
Lemon wedge for garnish

Palm Tree Cocktail

Ingredients:

White Rum
Coconut Rum
Pineapple Juice
Orange Juice
Blue Curacao
Splash of Grenadine
Ice
Lime wedges around rim for the palms

August 4, 2024 / BlAugust

Three P’s

For digital documents you want to keep for a long time, I suggest the Three P’s:

Plain text
PDFs
Printouts

While in college in the mid 1990’s, and prior to purchasing my first computer, I utilized a word processor. Think manual typewriter but with a 3.5″ floppy disk for storage. I wish I had known enough to preserve all of my writings. The floppy disks were formatted for the word processor but not the computer. It wiped everything off the disk to make room for the Windows formatting. The lesson here is to preserve your work and prepare by future-proofing formats. It was a hard learned lesson. All of my personal writing, studies and papers gone.

I was reminded of all of this when I read about how Hemingway’s early notes and the beginning of a novel disappeared. His wife had gathered his works and left Paris by train to Switzerland to meet him and a publisher and somehow, the suitcase went missing from the train platform and they were devastated.

My loss was due to ignorance and in no way as significant as Hemingway’s loss. But the pain was there.

My revamped workflow process is:

Write and edit drafts in Ulysses (saved to cloud, backed up onto my file server)
Publish from Ulysses to my website (saved to cloud)
Copy/Paste to my own database in plain text format (cloud, file server)
Migrate all of my work into the database in plain text, organize.
Print to .pdf by year (saved to cloud and file server)
Print to paper by year (saved to a dedicated yearly file folder or binder)

Interesting enough, while walking through the library’s “read and return” section, the word “Hemingway” ended up in my peripheral vision.

Rabbits and Frequency Illusion!

I usually don’t give them a glance but the paper spine was attractive. The fiction novel title is “The Hemingway Thief” and how the aforementioned luggage was lost. I haven’t read it yet, but it seems to be a good yarn with a few secrets and twists. Looking forward to reading it as soon as possible.

August 3, 2024 / BlAugust

Bookmarked

I’ve found a palm frond that fell after some heavy winds today and plan to clean it up then whittle it down into a palm tree bookmark with an engraving.

Sure, I can buy a bookmark or stick a note in between the pages, but this will palm will stay with me longer.

August 2, 2024 / BlAugust

On Hemingway

When I was in college, I had an opportunity to take a break from the stress of a new marriage and my studies. My step-father swung by my home on the way up to his lake cabin for the weekend and asked me to come along. I was hesitant at first, but my wife insisted. I am grateful for the invitation and the encouragement on both their parts.

It was a literal breath of fresh air, in that I could escape my stresses and enjoy a relaxing, distraction-free weekend. While there, I perused the bookshelf and came across a vintage copy of “For Whom The Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway. After a few hours of reading, I think I was ready to finally go to sleep. But I didn’t sleep on the instant appreciation for where I was and what I had just read. Until the weekend was up and it was back to reality. And burrowed, in the back of my brain, was the spirit of Hemingway.

Not too many people can experience what he had experienced or live his lifestyle, but that doesn’t stop me from aspiring to. Years after that weekend at the lake cabin, I picked up a copy of “The Sun Also Rises” and that long forgotten spirit of Hemingway was renewed and inspired me again after it was read.

So, I’ve decided to do a deep study into the man and his influence when I set myself up to my digital typewriter. Hell, I want my old mechanical typewriter back just for the romance and nostalgia.

While living and working in Cuba, he set himself up in a fine home that was called Finca Vigia, or “Lookout Farm.” While doing research, I came across the letterhead of his stationary and thought to myself, I will have the same for myself as soon as possible. I used to have personalized stationary, complete with a custom seal press that read “From the Library of Chris Denbow.” Damn, why did I lose that? Why did I sell or trade off my entire library?

So, from henceforth until I leave this place, I am designating my new home in Florida as Coral del Cabo (Spanish). Eventually, the stationary will be printed and used. I have decided that while text and FaceTime are beneficial, nothing beats a handwritten or typed letter in the mail.

I could go on all night about the details and influences that Hemingway offers, but, as I finish my three fingers of Cutty Sark, I realize it is late. Perhaps I will dream about those short stories and unwritten novels and once again call on E.H. For inspiration.

— CJD from Coral del Cabo