Category: photog’s Corner

Here you will find the stuff that shouldn’t be mixed in the other categories but interest me. caveat emptor.

The Hat of Death

photog Current Events, Life in Dunwich, OCF, photog's Corner , ,

Here at the Compound we have a species of deer fly that is specific to Dunwich.  They are known to transmit lycanthropy and a horrible syndrome known locally as Biden Brain which afflicts almost twenty percent of the population.

Because of this I have adopted a form of passive aggressive self defense, the sticky hat.

The wonderful thing about the hat is the waves of schadenfreude that envelope you when the flies are stuck on the glue but keep flapping their wings trying to escape.  The feeling of revenge is very sweet indeed.  Currently I have eight deer fly and some random black flies and mosquitoes.

I like to think as I walk around with the hat on that the flies recognize a cousin or a brother and experience horror and murderous anger and that that is what drives them to join their brethren on the Hat of Death.  Notice the bits of vegetation on the hat.  These occur when I stupidly walk under low hanging tree branches.  Eventually the glue stops working and I break out a new strip and start the fun all over again.

Culture Future Shock

photog Current Events, Life in Dunwich, OCF, photog's Corner , , , ,

Today I had to bring my car into the local Dunwich auto shop for some routine maintenance.  I dutifully signed my name to the work invoice without pricing and shuffled over to the waiting area with its free coffee station, now coffee-less because of COVID and the free popcorn which is likewise sans popcorn.

They’ve got a hi-def 80-inch tv that plays millennium talk shows endlessly so I knew to bring a book to read and sit in one of the chairs facing away from the screen.  But unfortunately, it was a technical book that required pretty serious concentration to follow the thread of the argument and what I found was the tv was horribly distracting.  I could hear these three voices jabbering and crooning at each other in a patois that I assume was hip-hop speak.  I tried my best to tune it out but the tv was blaring at 80 decibels and these three bozos were shouting at the top of their lungs as if what they were saying was some life and death matter.

Finally, I gave up trying to read and I figured I’d just vegetate and that way the tv wouldn’t be such a nuisance.  But I couldn’t do that either.  Now I couldn’t even distract myself with the hopeless task of reading the book.  Now I couldn’t help hearing their moronic conversation.  And the true stupidity of what they were saying hit home.  They were a popular culture review program.  They were reviewing things like some kind of hip-hop award ceremony and the associated red carpet activity.

The descriptions were hard to understand because it was larded with words that, though English, were being used in senses that you could not find in a dictionary.  Although maybe I’m wrong.  Maybe the urban dictionary was invented for these meanings.  As an example, they were describing the probably pornographic outfit and “dancing” that one female rapper was wearing at the afterparty and they were full of approbation for this sight and they kept saying that she was “always giving.”  And I couldn’t quite imagine what “giving” referred to.  I think it involved not covering up her primary and secondary sex organs but I wasn’t completely sure.

I did understand what twerking was.  That detail was something that Miley Cyrus explained back in 2016 when she was campaigning for Hillary Clinton.  Now it appears to be as routine a part of hip-hop activity as to be the equivalent of saying hello.  Anyway, the awfulness of the discussion never got better.  And I found that I was becoming increasingly aggravated by listening to these cretins.  So, I got up and turned around to see who these people were and who was watching this crap on the screen.

The three “hosts” were somewhat young.  There was a black woman, a Latina and a gay black man dressed in spandex with a bow in his hair.  Then I looked at the audience.  There were four guys between the ages of about forty and sixty.  And they were sitting there with glazed over expressions.  I read my audience and acted.  I went over to the side of the flat screen and hit the power button.  The screen went black and the voices ended.  All four men looked up at me surprised.  But then one guy smiled and said “Thank you.”

I got back to my seat and started to read my book.  But I half expected someone to turn the tv back on and was resigned to waiting outside in the hot noon time sun just to avoid listening to any more of that drivel.  But it never came back on.  And I couldn’t concentrate on my book.  I was thinking about the putrid level our culture has reached.  And it wasn’t even just the perversity of the subject matter.  It was the abysmal level of the discussion.  These people weren’t just vapid.  They were clearly morons.  Communicating with them would be like trying to discuss politics or morality with a cow or a horse.  Absurd.

I sometimes feel that the Dissident Right exaggerates the falling off of intelligence in the new America.  After all, the baby boomers had their weird and moronic cultural moments when they were young.  No one could claim that watching “The Monkees” was an intellectual pursuit.  But this is different.  This is the victory of stupidity.  This is the mainstreaming of dimwit chic.

Well, I did get to see something of the world today.  But it wasn’t good.

16JUN2022 – Dunwich Complainer – Campaign Season

photog Life in Dunwich, photog's Corner , ,

I attended the Dunwich Republican Town Committee (DRTC) meeting last night and it was all aflutter with excitement about prospects for electoral victory.  Enormous dissatisfaction with taxation and economic hardship along with blatant partisan power grabs by the Democrats both locally and at the state level had convinced many of the committee members that this was the moment when the tide would turn and Dunwich would be delivered from the Democrats and a new order would prevail.

Needless to say, I sat in the back benches and kept quiet.  The report to the committee on elections stressed that victory would be assured if we could just get our candidates through the approval process this week.  All that was needed was the Selectman Interview and the fee payment.  The committee responded with hearty applause and the candidates were welcomed to the floor to say a few words.  These four men were new to the community but enthusiastic about taking their places as selectmen and guiding Dunwich to a new day.  Their spokesman displayed their application paperwork with attached checks and more applause broke out.  This further enthused the spokesman and he went on to say that the interview was scheduled to take place at this meeting and the interviewer would be the First Selectman.  The spokesman read from a card and had some difficulty with the First Selectman’s name, “Cuh Thu Luh or something?  Must be Samoan I guess.”

Silence descended on the crowd and I shrank even lower in my seat and edged over to the emergency exit.  At that moment First Selectman Cthulhu squeezed his bulk through the bulging auditorium double doors and ponderously plodded up to the dais.  Without a word he snatched up the application forms from the candidate spokesman in one hand and with his other arm he funneled the candidates into his mouth and noisily chewed, crunched, mumbled and swallowed the screaming men down his voracious gullet.  After one fairly loud and malodorous belch he turned around and plodded back out of the auditorium.  As he reached the doors his booming voice was heard to say, “I’ll have these checks deposited in the Dunwich Rainy-Day Fund later today.”  This latter reference was slightly insulting.  The Rainy-Day Fund was the First Selectman’s euphemism for his whiskey allowance account.

The rest of the meeting was slightly more subdued.  It was agreed by one and all, that electoral gains were probably not in the cards for 2022 but that the steering committee would go to work immediately drafting a strongly worded rebuke against the First Selectman for interfering in the internal affairs of the DRTC.  It was also unanimously decided not to publicly distribute this rebuke but maintain it as an attachment to the meeting minutes and password protect it.  After smelling salts and sedatives had been distributed to the women members and some of the less stalwart men a motion was passed to concentrate all of the committee’s time and energy to making the Labor Day Jamboree the best goldarned jamboree the town had ever had.  It was also agreed unanimously that future meeting would be held in a venue that lacked double doors.

07JUN2022 – At Play in the Fields of the Lord

photog Current Events, Life in Dunwich, photog's Corner

Today was a day to get some stuff done out in the yard.  I had to do some measurements to figure out some volume and pH control problems for the pool.  Where’s that slide-rule?  Then I had some ultra-glamorous weeding to do, followed by fertilizer application.  I had to replace some components on the hoses I use for watering the gardens and I had to disassemble the lawn mower to find out why it was smoking.  Stupid mice.

But while I was doing that stuff, I checked on the elecampane (Inula) I planted in the spring.  It’s finally starting to actually grow.  About time!  I checked out the barn swallow nest and followed the parents darting back and forth and spotting from a tree for insects and keeping an eye on the nest.  Probably still on the lookout for that stupid blue bird pair from last month.

I went and looked at the sequoias and metasequoias and marveled at the growth they’ve put on since I planted them.  I spotted the first garter snake in two years.  After they were mysteriously absent the whole of last year one popped its head out of the day lilies and shot back in after seeing me.  I’m glad they’ve returned.  Otherwise, the frogs and toads might get too uppity.  I noted that the wolfsbane was doing better in one location than the other.  Maybe I should move it.

I turned over a muck bucket full of weeds near Camera Girl’s mulch pile and a couple of field mice or voles skittered away.  There are a lot of mice around this year.  That has me thinking of a new project.  I’m thinking of buying some black rat snakes and breed a few clutches of eggs a year and release the hatchlings around the yard, especially in the rock wall.  I think they’d improve the rodent ratio around here.  A big black rat snake can get over seven feet long and not only could eat plenty of mice but chipmunks and squirrels would be on the menu too.  Raising the rat snakes would take up time for cleaning and feeding the buggers but if I could establish a population, it would be well worth the effort.

When I finished outside, I read through the news articles.  Same old, same old.  When Camera Girl got back from the supermarket, she said it’s not so super anymore.  In fact it was depressing.  The half empty shelves were stocked with food almost too expensive to buy.  I commiserated with her and told her that hopefully this situation will get the Democrats fired sooner than later.  She said some very uncharitable things about Dementia Joe and I chuckled.

So today is a day for getting stuff done outside.  Not very good for writing on the blog.  Later on I have to find the next author for the Quotation of the Day.  I think Mr. Hobbes has had enough days for his say.  Who will be the next H?  Tomorrow I’ll write something mordant and wise about our political situation.  Today I’ll enjoy a June day with sunshine and warm weather.  I could do worse.

A Great Victory for the Muse of Home Repair

photog Life in Dunwich, photog's Corner ,

Forsaking my usual patron deity, the great goddess Atrophia, I made a burnt offering of 2X4s and a mitre box at the altar of  Δόμος Επίδοσις, The Muse of Home Improvement.  The smoke was propitious.  An eagle flew from left to right across the sky and dropped a 3/8″ hex head socket at my feet which I took as a sign from Zeus that all was well.  Filling my chariot with lag bolts, drill bits, pry bars, extension cords, two throwing spears and a two-ply bull-hide shield I thundered onto the plain of battle prepared to perform mighty deeds of valor.

My enemies fled before the baleful fire that flashed from my eyes.  I grabbed my weapons, jumped from the chariot and attacked on the run.  Within an hour I was victorious.  All my enemies were vanquished and I raised a trophy of the spoils of war.  Epic bards and rhapsodes will sing the praises of this day for millennia to come. Go pound sand, Achilles.

Translation:

That fence post support worked like a charm.  The post is straight and solid as a rock.  And the steel should last long after I’m mulch in the ground.  But there was no parade.  No hecatombs  burned in my honor.  Sometimes it barely pays to be a demi-god.

Summer All in a Day

photog Current Events, Life in Dunwich, photog's Corner ,

Someone here in Dunwich flipped the Winter/Summer switch and now instead of shivering under a mountain of blankets at night I’m throwing off the sheet and turning on the ceiling fan.  Well, that’s as it should be.  Summer is brief and anything in the eighties is okay by me.

Camera Girl and I have been planting vegetables and a few flowers.  But today I finally ordered some thornless red raspberry plants for her.  She is a thrifty woman which I guess I should be grateful for but sometimes it paralyzes her if prices outrage her internal value measuring mechanism.  Somehow, she thinks people shouldn’t charge money for plants.  When this hesitancy goes on for too long, I step in and buy whichever choice I think she’d like to have the most.  Otherwise, she’d end up missing the season and be unhappy which would go against my internal value measuring mechanism.

Currently I’m studying the vagaries of lag bolt, pilot hole diameter as it relates to the designation of hard vs. soft wood.  I have been collecting the hardware I need for the latest battle in the war on decay.  Current my side is losing.  If the rain holds off tomorrow, I will venture out with sledge hammer, drill, hex driver and steely determination to set the world straight again.  Or at least several fence posts.

I consider this foray a proof of concept.  If successful, this will pave the way for a permanent solution to my fence problems.  If it fails, I must contemplate drastic measures involving steel posts and concrete which would be expensive and extremely time consuming.  But, ever the optimist, I refuse to even consider the possibility of defeat.

Camera Girl has been spotting critters around the yard.  She and the hounds have cornered some frogs and toads.  And yesterday she spotted a snake in her garden.  Her description was puzzling.  It was about a foot long and relatively thin but she said it was solid yellow.

We had a complete lack of garter snakes in the yard last year which was highly unusual.  I theorized that a warming event in the middle of the winter might have awakened the garter snakes and caused them to fail to survive the subsequent cold snap that followed.  Anyway, Camera Girl’s description sounded like an extremely unusual color and pattern for a garter.  I speculated that it was some kind of aberrantly light phase of the brown snake of which we have a generous number here.  I claimed skepticism of her description but she reminded me that I’m color blind so I deferred to her chromatic superiority.  I will search out this strange creature at some point.

So, I’m mostly enjoying the Summer of Dopey Joe.  Despite suffering through the annoyance of dealing with unreliable appliances from China and shortages of spare parts due to the “supply chain breakdown” I am still mostly cheerful.  Of course, if rolling blackouts become the outrage of the month in August that would tick me off.  But it would also give us a shot at winning some of the New England states in November.  And that would be an especially sweet cherry on top of the schadenfreude parfait.  There are hints of congressional and senate seats that might flip.  These would be transitory gains.  New England is permanently blue.  The people live at the center of the Cathedral.  But if just for a moment, as some sort of involuntary reflex, they vote for a Republican it would be a barometer of the depths of incompetence of the Biden Administration and a harbinger of disaster for the Democrats in 2024.

And that’s something I always want to celebrate.  Now where is that sunscreen?

Huzzah!!!! I’m a Gosh Darned Capitalist at Last.

photog Current Events, photog's Corner, Photography, Reviews

I finally figured out how to sell stuff at Fine Arts America and I’ve added the link to that button at top that says “Stuff to Buy.”

All this stuff is a pain in the neck but I guess it’s the first step to becoming fabulously wealthy.

Here’s a copy of the link if you’d like to go to my page there and heckle me.

https://fineartamerica.com/art/pho+tog?searchType=artistname

 

Anxiety as an Indicator of Engagement in Life

photog On-Line Article Reviews, photog's Corner, Reviews ,

A very old friend sent me this link.  My family is almost defined by its perpetual state of angst.  So the relevance of this video to my perspective was immediately apparent to me.  But I think it may be interesting to a large cross-section of people in our modern angst-filled world.  Basically Kierkegaard’s theory was that anxiety was a necessary part of life and the way to ensure that it didn’t destroy one’s ability to function was to focus on pursuits that were passionately important so that this passion would sustain someone to the completion of his objectives.

15APR2022 – OCF Update – Good Friday All Around

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Life is good today.  It rained hard last night and now it’s a bright sunny day.  Now that’s the way to arrange the weather!  My thanks to the Man Upstairs for this indulgence.

A beautiful day for a walk in the woods.  A good telecon with a business consultant.  Useful actionable advice.  Progress on all fronts of the business effort.  No new roadblocks appearing.  Domestic tranquility continues.  Plans for the summer Yellowstone trip coalescing nicely  Some books and movies to finish up for reviews. Projects around the house and yard coming along fine.  What can I say?  Life is good today.

Of course, in the larger world, that sleazy dopey wrecker in the White House continues to dismantle the United States of America with alarming speed.  The economy continues to shake itself to pieces with costs soaring into the stratosphere and staple supplies disappearing from store shelves on a random basis.  Disorder stalks the metropolitan areas and international relations are becoming strained even among supposed allies.

But today is Good Friday.  For Christians a time to reflect on the things that are most important in life.  Most fundamentally, on our families and friends.  Jesus spoke mostly of love.  Right now it is paramount that we love and protect those we care about.  Protect them from the coming storms.

But right at this moment we can also share some happy moments with them.  Sunday we’re getting together at the house of one of my daughters.  All of my grandchildren will be there and all but one of my children.  We’ll eat way too much fattening food and I hope we’ll have a chance to throw a baseball around.  But the forecast isn’t promising.  Cold and wet is the forecast.

But that matters not at all.  We’ll talk about what the kids are up to and applaud their sports victories and condole the losses.  We’ll talk about upcoming college admission.  We’ll talk about vacation plans and trips on the new boat that’s in the driveway.  and there will be talk about dinosaurs with my youngest grandson who is a connoisseur of all things saurian.

And I know Camera Girl is going to bake a ricotta cheesecake for the holiday and that is one of my favorites.  And even though I’ve switched from coffee to tea this year I will indulge in some good coffee for the occasion.  And I intend to revel in the chaos of five grandchildren playing (and fighting) all around me.  And I intend to participate in the games of whatever variety they choose.  Last time we got together they had me try out an virtual reality contraption called an Occulus.  I bought this for them a couple of years ago and I was surprised at just how realistic the illusion it produces is.

It’s funny how these holidays provide so much continuity in our lives.  It’s comforting to have these rituals to ground us and those we love in a familiar pattern.  And for me Easter is a pivotal point in the year.  Long New England winters finally release the landscape around Easter and people can go outside and breath a little fresh air.  It’s the beginning of outdoor life.

Everyone enjoy the day especially those who are religious.  And get a little air and sun if it’s around.