Category: OCF

04MAY2022 – OCF Update – A Week on Twitter

photog Current Events, OCF

So I’ve been “tweeting” for about a week now.  I think I begin to get the attraction.  I think it’s the ease of putting an idea in front of a large audience very quickly and easily.  And also the speed with which you can see results.  Seconds after I put up a photo it’s been clicked on.  The downside is that there’s so rarely much feedback.

Another facet of the experience is seeing people you know or you’ve heard of putting up their thoughts.  Maybe you even interact with one of these well-known characters.  There is an attraction to that.

So the experiment continues.  Elon Musk hasn’t invited me over to share my thoughts on improving Twitter yet but I’m sure he will in a day or so.

Improving My Mind

photog Book Reviews, OCF, Reviews , , ,

Watching Joe Biden turn into a mumbling moron with stuffed artichokes for brains has reminded me that for us older folks it’s use it or lose it.  So, I’ve initiated a cultural renaissance right here in Dunwich.  I’ve got three very different reading projects going on.  They are:

 

  1. Northmen: The Viking Saga, AD 793-1241, by John Haywood
  2. The Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Oriented Deliberation in View of the Dogmatic Problem of Hereditary Sin, by Søren Kierkegaard
  3. The Bounty Trilogy: The Complete Series: Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea & Pitcairn’s Island, by James Norman Hall (Author), Charles Nordhoff (Author)

The Kierkegaard book on “Anxiety” is the most questionable project.  I took some courses in philosophy as an undergraduate and found them to be highly annoying.  They seem to spend so much time and effort splitting hairs that by the end, all of the audience has walked away in boredom.  And they employ so much specialized jargon that the notes for the vocabulary sometimes outweighs the text itself.  But I want to give this guy the benefit of the doubt.  He claims he wants to make philosophy more about what we need to do as human beings and less about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.  I figure the least I can do is slog through the argument.

The Bounty trilogy is just a book I’ve always meant to read and now have finally gotten around to.  And so far, it’s a good one.  I’m finding that the 1930’s Charles Laughton movie is pretty close to the text.  It’s an exciting adventure story that has the added advantage of having actually happened.  It is a fictionalized account but it is based on the documents left by the protagonists and by their descendants.  Other than the myriad of parts of a sailing ship that I don’t know the names of the book is a fast read.  I’ll have a review of this when I finish.

The Northmen book is something I’ve been interested in learning more about for a while.  I was writing a sci-fi/ fantasy story that used Valhalla as a plot element and I just kept running into aspects of Norse mythology and history that I wasn’t up on.  This book looked to be a way to fill in some gaps and also provide me with some information I’ve always been interested in.  The Scandinavians had a very large impact on several different aspects of European and by extension world history.  I feel like I should know a lot more about their origins before I start introducing them and their culture into my stories.  I’ve just gotten started with the book but already I’ve learned a bit about the origins of the Goths, Burgundians and Vandals that I didn’t already know.

As I said yesterday, our whole lives shouldn’t be railing against the progs.  As the ZMan says, a negative identity does not provide a basis for a viable society.  We must pursue the actions and goals that have intrinsic value.  If we are claiming that the Left is trying to destroy our way of life by denying us the opportunity to do things that we value then shouldn’t we be doing everything we can to do these things?  Otherwise, it’s all just cant and posturing.

So, stretch your mind and learn something new.  Then figure a way to make some of it relevant to your life.

02APR2022 – OCF Update – A Nice Quiet Day

photog OCF

This morning’s post was kind of depressing.  Talking about the awful situation we’re in is always grim.  But today was a beautiful day.  Chilly for sure, but bright sunlight and reasonable breeze.

Camera Girl and I took our morning walk in the woods.  She was a little feistier than usual but being a man of even temper and enlightened disposition I resisted the impulse to cut a switch and administer a husbandly correction as is my right by biblical pronouncement.  But it was a close thing.  Instead I gave her a lecture on the mistakes of allowing women to vote, wear shoes, learn how to read or talk back to their fathers and husbands.  She was sullenly silent but I’m pretty sure I got through to her.

There were lots of folks out fishing from the shore and on boats on the pond and on the lake.  There was some kind of public service sign asking fishermen to catch and release the stocked trout.  Well, this seemed kind of silly.  Sure, some people do this.  But the people who want to eat fish are going to keep them.  After all, they’ve paid their license fee and go through all the hoops needed to have the tackle and bait and drive to the lake and maybe own a boat and all that entails.  And then they have to read how the fish are filled with lead and mercury and probably viruses only known to Lord Fauci.  But then they still have to be harangued by tree-huggers because they want a fish dinner.

When I saw a guy throwing a pretty small fish into his bucket I gave him the OK sign and a conspiratorial smile.  He looked perplexed and maybe slightly annoyed.  Well some people are slow.  On the walk back to the car I opined at considerable length about this fishing do-goodery to Camera Girl.  She didn’t seem to hear me.  Probably some hearing loss going on there.

So today was a good day to take care of some annoying paperwork that needs doing.  And I planted some seeds in an indoor planting tray contraption.  We watched a tv show (an episode of Amazon’s Jack Ryan series) and listened to some music.  All in all a quiet but satisfying day.  And not once did I worry about that moron in Washington and the awful stuff he’s working on.  I took care of my own life and enjoyed the beautiful world that God gave us all day.

There’s plenty of time to fret and bellyache about the pod people next week.  For now I’m living large and enjoying the good life.  Have a good Saturday night.

25MAR2022 – OCF Update

photog My Fiction, OCF, photog's Corner

Today was a fiction writing day, or rather reading day.  I’ve reached the 25% mark on the book and so I reread the thing to see if it was any good.  Surprisingly, I thought it was very good.  I would read it!  Of course 25% is just a beginning so there’s plenty of stuff to figure out and more characters to introduce but the story is defined and the feel of the book has been established.  And the ending is coming into sharper focus.  I think I’ve decided to end this first book with a definitive bang.  It means I will have upped the ante in a really big way but I think it’s the way to go.

I figured 25% was the correct point to make sure the book wasn’t terrible.  But it also tells me I’ll have to pick up the pace.  In fact one of my friends said I need to declare a finish date and stick to that.  That seemed harsh to me which means it’s probably true.  I just checked the start date of the document and I’ve been working on this thing for six months!  So I need to pick up the pace for sure.  My goal is to finish the first draft by June 30th.  That only three months but I feel I have to push myself.  That’s about 6,000 words a week which is a good amount but not impossible.  But what it does require is at least two days a week devoted just to writing.  So discipline will need to be instilled.  Unfortunately that is my weak suit.  Well growth is painful.

Other than that today, it’s been a pretty nice day here and we went for a walk in the woods.  Camera Girl found a dead mouse near the front porch and told me how bad she felt seeing it.  I reminded her that she’s terrified of mice and that the mouse’s family is out there eating her bird seeds that fall to the ground below her feeders and living in my tool shed.  This made her shudder and she walked away greatly conflicted.  Women suffer from emotional thinking which speaks well of their sentiments but serve them poorly when it comes to taking practical steps to deal with the world.  If I didn’t put my foot down we’d have racoons, opossums, foxes and deer lvivng on the porch and the animal food bill would break me.

I haven’t seen any interesting news today.  Just the same blah, blah, blah.  I’m sure Biden will say many stupid and incoherent things in Europe this week and Putin will be blamed for almost everything since original sin reached humanity but I haven’t detected anything new going on.  When I see something good I’ll put something out.  Till then enjoy the weekend.

Entrepreneurism is Not for the Lazy.  Or So They Say.

photog Current Events, OCF ,

And what a shame for me!  As many who visit here know I am the self-professed, “Laziest Man on the Right.”  I enjoy nothing as much as procrastinating and enjoying life.  Of course, I prefer to think of myself as, “The Most Interesting Man in the World,” but I don’t have his killer fake Spanish accent.  Boy, that was a great advertising campaign.

But of late I have been doing a lot of research and laying the groundwork for a vast commercial undertaking.  Not since the early days of Kramerica Industries has the world seen such poorly planned and shamefully misdirected effort from someone who ostensibly is trying to get something done.

All at the same time, I’m starting a limited liability company (LLC), re-opening my PayPal account, assembling and post-processing my first group of high-resolution photo files, working on my first novel, assembling a fine art photography book and for reasons known only to PayPal buying the cheapest mobile phone plan in the world.  The last item has to do with the fact that PayPal no longer allows individuals to have a PayPal account without a cell phone.  Apparently Big Brother truly does live in Silicon Valley.

As noted, the efficiency of these efforts has been abysmal.  I have to redo each step at least three times because of my ignorance or poor preparation.  The people I contact, even the AI I interfaces with which I interact, seem to be straining not to yell at me to stop bothering them and just give up.  And being the empathetic fellow I am, I tend to agree with them.  And because of my ineptitude all of this effort should be doomed to massive failure and soul-searing disappointment.

And yet, I am heartily enthused and invigorated by the whole confusing mess.  Slowly and painfully, I’m learning the things I need to know to carry out the program.  As soon as I can get the phone thing resolved and the PayPal account up and running, I can load the photos on the commercial website.  And once the LLC is official, I can start paying the government taxes on whatever paltry profits I manage to pull in.

And this is only the beginning.  I hope to follow up on my first novel with the rest of a science fiction series and other writings of various types and lengths.  I have the often-mentioned unbridled enthusiasm and unjustified optimism.  Most people I have confided in about my mad dreams have warned me that I have literally zero chance of success in my endeavors.  They say that statistically it’s an incredible longshot.

I am undeterred.  For I have always been inexplicably lucky.  Not just a little lucky but almost eerily lucky.  Over the course of a fairly long life, I have almost invariably been unreasonably lucky just when I needed it the most.  Even when something bad happens to me something or someone unexpected always shows up and sets things right.  I’ve led a charmed existence.

So that’s what I’m betting on, that my luck will hold out again.  Deep down I know that one day fate will even up the score.  I assume it’ll be something horrendously unlikely or even preternatural.  I’m expecting a meteor strike or a lightning bolt to rub me out.  But when it comes, I’ll face that day whistling a happy tune.  I’ve had the luck that ten men could expect while expending almost no effort at all.  I sometimes wonder what I might have accomplished if I had added hard work to luck but probably it would have mucked things up completely.

So, here’s to the future and just a little more luck.

Winter Returns to Dunwich, Again!

photog Current Events, OCF

There’s something ironic about the weather around here.  My snowblower is broken, my snow shovel is broken and now my sense of humor is broken too.  The forecast said “scattered light snow showers leaving less than a dusting of snow.”  I went out with my broken shovel and cleared the driveway and by the time I finished it the snow had recovered the ground even deeper.

Man, I hate this place.  I took some pictures of daffodil sprouts pushing through the mud three days ago.  I made plans to go to a car show this Sunday.  And now this crap.

Sure, I know this is probably the last real snow of the season and next week it’ll be in the sixties but this place sucks.  It’s probably the reason the people here are so weird.  The weather has left its mark on the soul of the inhabitants.  They’re scarred by the perverse, malignant foibles of the climate here.

Alright, I got that out of my system.  So this isn’t going to be that big a deal.  I’ll go out again tomorrow morning and shovel it away with my broken shovel and before you know it this will just be a dim memory receding behind me.

There!  All better.  So I really enjoyed making fun of Dementia Joe in that last post.  I think I’ll do more of that.  He really deserves it and there are plenty of other dimwits in his administration that deserve to get their 15 minutes of fame too.

After the debacle of the Polish MiG fighters I wonder what new brilliance will hatch out of the State Department.  Hearing about the bioweapons labs that they sponsored in the Ukraine I wouldn’t be surprised if smallpox reappears in our lives.  There really isn’t any limit to the imbecility that rises out of our government.  But as someone recently commented, the American people are getting what they voted for.  The only question remaining is have they had enough?

28FEB2022 – OCF Update – February 28th, That Unusual Day

photog Current Events, OCF , , , ,

 

February 28th must have a complex.  It’s the only day that doesn’t know from year to year whether it will be followed by February or March.  But you say to yourself, “Why doesn’t it just consult the calendar?”  Don’t be ridiculous.  Days of the year don’t have calendars or even hands to turn pages.  Ridiculous.

I’ve always resented the fact that they add an extra day to February.  No one wants more days in February.  If you want to add a day add it to August.  Every school child in the world would bow down and worship you for postponing September an extra day.

But here we are, a Non-Leap Year, March waiting in the wings and even the COVID maniacs in New England facing up to the obvious that everyone hates them and they’ll have to give up the mask madness.  I found a classic car event in mid-March and I’m already looking forward to getting some good shots for the site.  Ah spring is in the air.

So, I looked at the news today; Ukraine, SOTU, KBJ, Ukraine, SOTU, KBJ, Ukraine, SOTU, KBJ as far as the eye could see.  Well, I need a break from this stuff.

So today I introduced Princess Sack of Potatoes to the mysteries of the visible electromagnetic spectrum.  I intended to get her a nice high quality glass prism for the class but Camera Girl explained to me that pre-school children and glass aren’t a good mix.  So, I bought some plastic prisms and we had to make do with some pretty sorry looking spectrums.  But it did the trick.  She was very interested in trying to make the colors herself.

I began a lecture on the wave/particle duality of the photon and was preparing to discuss the quantum aspects when she dropped the prism on the floor and walked away to play hide and seek with Camera Girl.  Well, I’m sure Isaac Newton didn’t really hit his scientific stride until at least four so there may still be time.

Today was another bright, sunny but cold day.  I decided to take a walk around the property in my tee shirt just to assert my dominance over the decrepit winter season.  After the first seven minutes it seemed less and less of a good idea so I beat a slow, dignified retreat back to the comfort of central heating.  But a defiant pose was struck.  A tone was established in my relationship to 2022.  I definitely have the upper hand.  From here on in I reestablish my direct control over the whole of my domain.

What this actually means is pretty soon I won’t have any meaningful excuse for not doing the outdoor repairs and other chores that I neglected back in November.  But that’s acceptable.  This will be a normal year.  No COVID crap delaying implementation of normal activities.  Even that supply chain nonsense is fading in the rear-view mirror.  Sure, everything will be twice as expensive; lumber, hardware, paint.  But do-it-yourself is an inherently frugal strategy.  Even in my mechanical ineptitude I foresee great progress on the Master Punchlist that every homeowner maintains (if only in his heart).

So welcome March, that changeable and blustery month with its St. Patrick’s Day (Camera Girl’s birthday) tradition of Corned Beef and Cabbage and, despite the inevitable New England Nor’easter snow storms, the beginning of garden work.   This year I hope to add a vegetable garden closer to the house.  All this carrying around of hoses seems very inefficient and possibly if the garden is closer to the house the rabbits and the other varmints might leave us some of the produce.

The calendar doesn’t reflect it.  Nor does the six inches of snow on the grass but in my heart, spring has sprung!

25FEB2022 – OCF Update – Weekly Installment of Snow Removal

photog Current Events, OCF

 

4 – 8 inches of snow projected.  Probably 4 inches on the ground already.  And the obligatory freezing rain at the end to provide the literal icing on the cake.  Blah, blah, blah, I hate snow.  Blah, blah, blah, I hate New England.

And we’re back.  Sorry about the obligatory “winter in New England” rant.  But it’s in my contract so blah, blah, blah.

Well, next week starts March.  The days are definitely getting longer and life is speeding up here at the Compound.  I purchased the (hopefully) last gas can’s worth of fuel for the snow blower.  I’m more than halfway through the latest (for me) Galaxy’s Edge novel and it’s good.  Wish I could say as much for my novel.  I have to face it.  Running a blog takes up most of my free time and that means writing is the loser.  I’ll have to figure something out.

I’ve been looking at a couple of options for selling photos and photo books.  It looks like it should be relatively easy to set up and I’ll include links on the site.  Doing some advance research for the July trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons.  I’ll definitely have to pare down the list of photo equipment I planned to bring.  But there’s plenty of time to do that.

It’s remarkable to watch Dementia Joe become an even bigger loser every day.  The only true thing Barry Obama ever said was that no one should ever underestimate Biden’s ability to foul things up.  It truly is his super power.  But it’s not a mystery.  He’s just a lazy idiot.  Lying about things that fool stupid people at the expense of the good of the United States has always been his go to plan.  And when you’re just a crooked senator or the Vice President it wasn’t that critical.  But when you’re pretending to be the President of the United States it kind of is.

I think the general feeling across the country on both sides is, “How is this guy going to keep this up for almost three more years?”  That’s a really long time.  Will there be anything left of the country by then?  I guess we’ll find out.

The mask mandate is retreating at top speed now.  Only the school requirements are still there and that is one of the most aggravating ones because of the illogic of masking the least vulnerable.  It highlights how beholden the Democrat Party is to the teachers’ unions.  Good.  That will continue to alienate parents in the run up to the November elections.

The Ukraine debacle will really hurt the economy once we have $6/gal gas to deal with.  That might actually tip us into a recession.  Stagflation right from the dictionary definition.  Well, they say Americans are too fat.  This will give us all a chance to go on an involuntary diet.  Oatmeal for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I’m curious to see how Trump’s social media experiment goes.  It will take a while to know if there’s something solid there.  The initial excitement will have to wear off first.  After all, I’ve never been completely sure what Twitter actually does that’s useful.  Amazon’s business model and Google’s ads I understand.  Guess we’ll find out.

So at some point I’ll disappear for a few hours to move the white stuff.  If anything  interesting shows up I’ll opine.  Enjoy the rest of the morning.

 

 

19FEB2022 – OCF Update – Weather Weirdness Continues

photog Current Events, OCF ,

 

We go from having a couple of feet of snow on the ground to nothing.  In the last three days we’ve had sixty mile an hour wind, heavy rain, sixty five degree temperatures, five degree temperatures and now snow.  All we need is frogs falling from the sky to complete the list.  Ah, whatever.  Camera Girl brought home some Chinese food for lunch after her sojourn to the empty but expensive grocery stores.  And I never look gift chop suey in the mouth.

I’ve gotten so used to high winds that I didn’t do anything in preparation and, sure enough, disaster struck.  Well, not disaster.  My barbecue grill blew off the deck and got busted up a bit.  It’ll need some straightening up but it should still get the job done.  Oh well.

So, February 19th, almost the end of the month!  Sure, March is still winter where I live but the days are getting longer and you start getting that itch to look for signs of spring.  Crocuses, daffodils, tulips.  None of those are anywhere near appearing.  But other things are happening.  New birds are starting to appear.  The turkeys have been on the move and the pond has thawed completely.  Soon frogs and salamanders will be heading for vernal ponds to breed.

So, even as the snow whips by my window I am thinking of grass and flowers.  And without the stupid mask nonsense spring and summer will be the free time they ae supposed to be.  Barbecues and soon even opening the swimming pool and the grandkids coming over to swim and even a baseball catch.  All really good things.