A Bloy and his Blog

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Did you see the lunar eclipse last night? I stepped out of my place about every 15 minutes or so to watch the show. When I was out there I wondered how many other people throughout the ages watched the moon darken with awe, as I was doing. Watching the Earth’s shadow slowly make its way across the lunar surface, I could understand how ancient peoples might start freaking out during such an event. I was also reminded of “Sister Moon,” the title song from Sting’s excellent album, …Nothing Like The Sun (who actually lifted that line from Shakespeare’s My Mistress’ Eyes sonnet).

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the Sun.
My hunger for her explains everything I’ve done.
To howl at the moon the whole night through,
And they really don’t care if I do.
I’d go out of my mind, but for you.

I didn’t have enough ambition to mess around with my camera and tripod during last night’s -5 F temperatures, but you can see images of the eclipse from SpaceWeather.com.

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

I don’t even know if I can enjoy the sham election, now that I know who’s going to win.

I came across this list of obsolete skills. Reading it just makes me feel old. Some of the more ancient skills I possess:

• Adjusting a television’s vertical and horizontal holds
• Adjusting the levels for recording to audio tape
• Balancing the tone-arm on a turntable
• Changing the C120 film cartridge in an Instamatic camera (yes, I had one)
• Editing audio tape with a razor blade and splicing block (video tape too!)
• Entering “freeware” programs from a magazine
• Gopher (in the early days of the internet)
• Loading data from a cassette tape (my first computer, an Atari 800 had a tape drive)
• Punching a hole in the shell of a single-sided 5.25″ floppy disc to make it double-sided (I even owned a special hole-punch for this)
• Rewinding an audio cassette using a Bic pen
• Ripping the little holes off the sides of the computer paper
• Setting a baud rate, parity and stop-bits
• Setting up a modem using AT commands
• Switching to high beams by stomping a button on the floor
• Using a flash cube (on my Instamatic camera, of course)

All now useless bits of information, just taking up brain cells…

Despite the continuing below-normal temperatures, I needed to connect with the outdoors today. Late this afternoon, I visited a frozen Lake Monona.

read the rest of: Frozen Monona

My favorite reads are those that let me escape. Whether I am bored in a waiting room, worried about something, or just trying to clear my head so I can sleep, books that can transport my mind to another place are worth their weight in gold. The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild by Craig Childs is a wonderful example of such a book.

In The Animal Dialogues, the author vividly describes various encounters he has had with wildlife. The book is set up so each species has its own chapter: Bear, Coyote, Rainbow Trout, etc. Within each chapter are a few stories about different encounters with that species. And “stories” is an appropriate word to use here. The author’s vivid descriptions of these encounters read like a novel. Here’s an example from the chapter “Bear”:

read the rest of: The Animal Dialogues by Craig Childs

You can shed tears that she is gone, or you can smile because she lived.

You can close your eyes and pray that she’ll come back, or you can open your eyes and see all that she has left.

Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her, or you can be full of the love you shared.

You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday, or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.

You can remember her and only that she’s gone, or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.

You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back, or you can do what she’d want:

Smile, open your eyes, love and live on.

     - anonymous, some attribute it to Charles Henry Brent.

read the rest of: Allegra “Lee” Bloy 1929-2008

I recently discovered an outstanding resource at T.U.B.E.: The Ultimate Bootleg Experience. Featuring both live and studio recordings (outtakes, rarities, etc.), T.U.B.E. is veritable goldmine. Some of the more interesting things I found there include:

• Joe Strummer - Solos, Soundtracks, & Rarities
• Van Morrison - Gypsy Soul (Studio Demos)
• Peter Tosh - Equal Rights Demos 1977
• Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - 1969-08-26 - Los Angeles
  (the earliest completely recorded CSNY concert)
• Talking Heads - CBS Demos (1975)
• U2 - Pulled The Covers (1979-2006)

The one minor downside of T.U.B.E. is the slightly complicated downloading process.

read the rest of: The Ultimate Bootleg Experience

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One of the long term projects I’ve been involved with at work was quietly unveiled this week, the Edgewood History Collection.

The project is a collaboration between myself and several other members of the library staff. My responsibility involved designing and developing the collection’s Home and About pages, as well as the page templates for the digital collection management software (the pages that actually display the items in the collection). The software we’re using is a hosted version of ContentDM.

Some of the things in the Edgewood History Collection I found interesting include:

read the rest of: The Edgewood History Collection