An NFT 42 Years in Development

Posted on April 25, 2022 by admin

Not too long ago, I found this poster tucked away in a corner of my house. The year had to have been 1980, considering that April 16 was a Wednesday that year. Not only do I not remember the event mentioned on the poster — a lecture at Vanderbilt — I don’t remember why I saved it in the first place.

So I decided to post it in the downstairs bathroom, which has been pending renovation for some years now. At 17 inches tall and 11 wide, it covers 187 square inches of bald and unconvincing wall.

I remember Oakley Ray, VU professor and text book author, but faintly. I audited one of his classes, attending maybe 10 times at most. I don’t know whether I went to the event or not, but I do remember one other thing from that week, something that stands out a lot darker in memory — a dark star of a memory from April 1980, seeing Eraserhead at a movie theater.

Simply put, that movie depicted a nightmare. That was my take on it 40+ years ago, and I don’t see any reason to revise it now. I emerged from the theater that night positive I never needed to see it again. I’ve stuck to that, too.

Never mind all that. I’ve created a bit of digital artwork that’s an NFT. Bidding starts at $100,000.

It Isn’t Buc-ee’s

Posted on April 21, 2022 by admin

In Pontiac, Illinois — out on I-55, not this part — stands Wally’s, a large gas station with a lot of other merchandise and clean restrooms.

Naturally, Buc-ee’s comes to mind, but Wally’s doesn’t seem to have a mascot, though cartoon animals are part of its billboard advertising. Mostly, Wally’s still stakes out its commercial presence in lettering, such as these in the acres-large parking lot.

You need a mascot, Wally. Something to go mano a mano with the Beaver.

Wally’s is that smallest of chains, one with only two links. The other Wally’s, which I didn’t know about till I looked it up, is in Fenton, Missouri. Just opened this year.

Another thing I looked up: Wally’s has 72 pumps, plus a handful of EV charging stations, at least in Pontiac. A normal-sized Buc-ee’s, such as the one on I-35 in New Braunfels, Texas, has 60 pumps, so they’re comparable. In the restrooms, Wally’s says it has 20 women’s stalls and 10 men’s stalls plus 11 urinals, while Buc-ee’s can accommodate 84 in its restrooms all together, though my source doesn’t differentiate them.

Just guessing, but I’d say in square footage, Buc-ee’s has the edge, and it certainly has a greater array of merch, even though Wally’s has a fair amount. On the plus column for Wally’s: a moose head. See ’em where you can.

But never mind those things. The reason to stop is gas prices about a low as at a discount warehouse store.

I decided to document the prices at Wally’s on Sunday as I bought some. Regular at standard gas stations were all still above $4/gallon that day, usually by 20 or 30 cents.

Rocky Glen Waterfall

Posted on April 20, 2022 by admin

When you see a sign like this, it’s good to follow it to the named destination. Especially if you already know something is there.

The last time we tried to visit Rocky Glen Waterfall was last summer. Apparently there’s swimming in the area, because when we got there, parking was scarce, but people in bathing suits were common.

I figured in April, particularly a cool April day, crowding wouldn’t be a problem, and it wasn’t. We arrived in the area in mid-afternoon Easter Saturday.

The waterfall, on Sawmill Creek, is part of Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve in DuPage County. One short trail goes to the waterfall, others snake around near the creek.

The waterfall. Niagara, it ain’t, but it is pleasant.

A nearby sign says that the falling-water feature was built by — of course it was — doughty members of the CCC. They were from a camp in the nearby Fullersburg Woods, V-1668, and its men quarried stone near the current site of the falls, and built other infrastructure along Sawmill Creek.

V for veterans. So not just doughty, but doughboys. That same camp did work at Fullersburg itself.

The creek just downstream from the falls, forming a pond-like spot. Rocky all right.

We followed a path downstream along the creek a quarter-mile or so. The view of the falls from some distance.

A short distance away, ruins of the CCC presence.

Our path doubled back to a short bluff overlooking Sawmill Creek where it makes a bend.

Look at that, I told my family. Besides the size, how is that different from that Instagram- famous river bend in Arizona? My family scoffed at the comparison, mildly, but I stand by it.

Summit Station

Posted on April 19, 2022 by admin

Easter Monday morning.

The rest of the day was as raw a spring day as I can remember, with the air moving around enough to give a good simulation of winter. Good thing a warming trend is poised to begin.

The days before were more pleasant. We were glad to have Ann come to visit for Easter. This time, rather than get a ride with someone she knows, she caught the train that runs between Bloomington-Normal and Chicago. Except I didn’t pick her up in Chicago, which would be at Union Station downtown. Rather, she got off someplace a little smaller.

That’s the station — just a step above a flag stop, looks like — at Summit, Illinois. A curious name for such a flat place, but in any case it’s Amtrak’s last stop before Chicago, and more accessible for suburbanites.

One more note: the Friday evening train was pretty much on time. That isn’t always the case with Amtrak, but when it is, I’m happy to say so.

A One-Way Submarine on a Special Underwater Mission

Posted on April 14, 2022 by admin

Best for Easter. Back to posting on April 19, in line with my conviction that Easter Monday should be acknowledged.

Comment sections, at least when it comes to important news stories or political issues, are known to be arenas of bantamweight intellects, to put it politely. So I’m always glad to find more astute comments now and then.

Such as commentary on a news video produced by CNN, “General explains significance of possible strike on Russian ship,” which was posted earlier today. It might not be wise to be too much an armchair general, but I don’t think you need to be a general to see it as a pretty big damn deal.

The ship is the Russian warship Moskva, which recently found a new home on the bottom of the Black Sea. Some choice comments:

The warship Moskva has not sunk it has simply been reclassified as a new type of one-way submarine and is on a special underwater mission. — RickTheClipper.

For me, claiming that ‘as a result of a fire, ammunitions detonated onboard Moskva cruiser’ is more embarrassing than admitting it was a Ukrainian missile hit because it would mean the Russian navy is run by clumsy, drunken sailors. — Almond Trees.

This is what happens when [a] country’s resources are embezzled and turned into super yachts and private jets. — Ian Home.

A wry, obscure joke:

It was, of course, a complete co-incidence that the ship went on fire. The fact that there is a war going on had nothing to do with it. I believe that. — PanglossDr.

There’s also a lot of good material for paraphrasing. Well, I’m pretty good at that, so here are some paraphrases. I haven’t made any effort to verify any of them. I’m just citing them as well-done comments, not as part of a news item.

In this war, the Ukrainians clearly understand the power of propaganda, says PCBacklash. They could have targeted any of a large number of Russian vessels in the Black Sea, but picked the flagship of the entire Black Sea Fleet.

Moskva had the best anti-air and anti-missile defense in the fleet, says Leprecon Zeleniy, with S-300 mid-range missiles. He adds that with the sinking of the flagship Moskva, all remaining Russian ships anywhere in Black Sea are now more vulnerable, since they all only have short range anti-air protection or none at all.

An Excellent Story for Earth Day, Mrs. Maisel

Posted on April 13, 2022 by admin

It’s about time, backyard croci.

Today was warm, cloudy and windy, until the clouds let go a lot of water, and then another -y adjective came into play, rainy. Tomorrow will be rainy, windy and chilly, and it won’t get warm again till after Easter, I hear.

Got an email pitch the other day, one of very many. There was a fair amount of verbiage to it, but the heart of the matter was this line: Are you interested in speaking to XY, a holistic health expert, about the sharp rise in the use of anti-anxiety drugs and why taking hemp extract is better for your health?

The short answer is, no. A longer answer would also be no. And I feel not a jot of anxiety about my decision.

And another pitch, at about the same time:

We think this is an excellent story for Earth Day that your audiences will love. The nationally acclaimed eco-feminist artist XX is celebrated as the real-life Marvelous Mrs. Maisel of the art world.

Is she now? Got into art one drunken night when she was on the outs with her husband? I know that show has won some Emmys, and I’m enjoying episodes of the recently dropped fourth season (once a week), but it’s still interesting that the publicist believed it would be a widely enough known reference to make such a statement, silly as it is.

Crossing the Bar

Posted on April 12, 2022 by admin

Warmish day, though I didn’t have a lot of time to spend out in it, other than walking the dog just before sunset. Windy but not especially cold then, but even better was the mid-day, when the sun came out and temps nearly hit 70 degrees F.

An editorial cartoon that assumed many, or at least some of its readers would know some Tennyson. Probably a reasonable assumption in 1945.

That came over the transom today in wandering around the online labyrinth. It is April 12, after all.

An Urban Ruin Explorer

Posted on April 11, 2022 by admin

Almost a warm day. Certainly not a cold one, which felt like a relief. I didn’t have as much time outside as I wanted, though we had a good dog walk at dusk and I spent time after dark on the deck, drinking tea. Much cooler by then, but no wind at all. With a coat and cap, not bad for half an hour.

Just discovered Chris Luckhardt. A talented photographer and videographer with a specialty in urban ruins. At least, that’s my estimation of him after watching his video about looking around the abandoned City Methodist Church in Gary, Indiana. Quite a wander. I plan to watch some more of his work.

Trepidation would probably keep me from going to exactly the sort of places he goes, but I understand the impulse. A healthy sense of exploration that involves the near as much as the far.

Doesn’t Play Well With Other Dogs

Posted on April 10, 2022 by admin

It’s been nine years now since the dog joined us. Not sure how many dog years that’s supposed to be, or whether that concept has any real meaning, but in any case she’s gone from young dog (though not a pup) to old dog. Yet she still has considerable pep.

Not long ago I found a picture of her I didn’t remember taking. Not a surprise, since there are a lot of pics of her.

That’s from the spring of 2015. That year our town opened up a dog park, the sort of place where you can unleash your animal and let it wander around and interact with other animals. That’s where she was in the image, along with another dog. You had to buy an annual membership, after which the park district would send you an electronic gizmo to open the dog park gate.

So we were charter members. And yet this is the first time I’ve ever mentioned it. We visited a few times, and soon discovered that our dog liked roaming around the place well enough: the trails, the grass, the shore of the water feature. But what I really think she wanted was the place to herself. Or at least, her and us. Other dogs, not so much.

Of course, we’d been warned. One of the things noted in the paperwork from the animal rescue org was that it would be better if we didn’t get any more dogs. Which we never have. But we figured there would be more than enough room at a dog park.

No. She’s never attacked another dog. She has, however, snarled at a fair number, since in the close presence of other dogs, she can be a mite prickly. I don’t remember for sure, but it’s more than likely that right after I took that shot pictured above — which looks so cute and all — she snarled and maybe barked at the other dog, and we had to pull her away. You never know how another dog is going to react, and a dog fight represents a potential knot of problems I do not need.

So we let the membership lapse. Just one of those things. We’ve still as fond of her as you should be of your dog. Member-of-the-family fond, though not to be mistaken for being a person. “Fur baby” is a term I’ll never use except to ridicule it.

Thursday Grab Bag

Posted on April 7, 2022 by admin

Sluggish progress toward spring here. But some progress. Plants in a nearby park.

The croci in my own yard have been very slow this year — no blooms even now. I don’t keep an exact track every year, but that seems a couple of weeks late. Some years, I remember seeing their very first green sprouts at the end of February. And of course, croci don’t mind a little snow.

On a bench in the same park. What is that thing?

A Soofa sign. The company web site says it makes electronics for advertising or as part of “smart city” communications. This doesn’t look like that, and it also looks inactive. Since I’d never noticed it before, it could be that it isn’t operational yet.

Or is it? According to a park district web site I couldn’t access fully — but could see a bit of, from my Google search — you can charge devices there. Solar-powered, and the top does resemble a solar panel. Wonder how much juice it has these many cloudy days.

The latest snack food to enter the house: Calbee brand Takoyaki Ball-flavored corn snacks. Though Calbee is Japanese, not a product of Japan, but rather Thailand, where ingredients and labor are no doubt cheaper.

No octopus, which is the main ingredient of actual takoyaki, is listed among the ingredients. Still, it’s flavored to taste like takoyaki, which it does, though the simulation isn’t quite spot-on. A little too sweet, Yuriko said, and I agree. Sweetened for North American tastes? Just how many North Americans are going to buy takoyaki-flavored snacks? But not bad.

Calbee, incidentally, began as a candy company in postwar Japan (1949) and acquired its name in the mid-50s, a portmanteau of “Calcium” and “Vitamin B1.” Soon the company found its way into crispy snack foods, especially wheat crackers. I suppose that was something of a novelty in Japan at the time, compared with rice crackers, which go way back. Calbee’s early confections caught on, and so the food technologists there have been working hard to make new varieties of snacks since then.

I see that the fifth season of Better Call Saul has appeared on Netflix. That’s good. I’ll watch it. Once a week or so, that is. That’s how new TV should be, according to Leviticus, I think, though it doesn’t apply to shows that might have been watched every day after school.

Been There, Seen That

By Dees Stribling