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I found myself reading a couple of episode synopses of an extremely popular TV show on Wikipedia just now. It reinforces knowledge that I already had; the humor of a lot of popular culture video entertainment totally misses its mark with me. I think I'd just be left shaking my head and wondering why these people are being so damned stupid and not just *talking* to each other.

With that, I'm going to bike out to Big!Lots to look for some Tupperware-esque containers and a small toolbox to put my screwdrivers and things in so they're not lost in the big toolbox.

(no subject)

As part of my own recognition of Fathers Day, here's a picture from a trip I took with my dad to the Illinois Railroad Museum in 2008. We're posing in front of a 1944-built Milwaukee Road 4-8-4 locomotive. A pretty thing, but she wasn't around terribly long before dieselization of the railroads really took off.

I love road trips with my family and people I care about, and I'm really glad I got to do this one with my dad. I'm hoping we can do another one near the end of the summer.

I love you Dad.


Dad and I at the Illinois Railroad Museum

Copyright Stormdog 2008

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And a thought from one of my friends for my other friends for whom Fathers Day can be an uncomfortable time. You deserve acknowledgment.

"For those of us with dads who skipped out, dads who checked out,and who are the people we are today in spite of and not because of our paternal DNA - you're awesome. Don't let society tell you what you have to feel on any particular day."

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I'm doing more research today for the independent study I'm doing this summer. Did I mention that? I'm researching the history of the land that I'll be digging/working on during archaeological field school. That's pretty neat!

I've found a bunch of cool stuff. Today, I saved copies of the original surveyors' field notes from when he was surveying and marking off the township and range lines in the area in question. His name was Joshua Hathaway, and he was walking all over southeastern Wisconsin (among other places) in 1835 and making notes about what he found. That must have been a sometimes really interesting, if often repetitive and boring, job. And I'm grateful; though it's not as legible as might be hoped for, his hand-writing is a lot better than *some* 19th century scrawls that I've tried to interpret.

There's an archival collection of papers related to him that I want to request from Madison. Of course, since field school is starting and the archives aren't open on the weekends, I'm basically going to be unable to go through any archival sources for the next month. Good thing there's so much online and at local public libraries!

(I also just finally attached the rear LED light to my bicycle since I'm going to be relying on it so much this coming week. Its really nice to have a little box with all my little hand tools in it. Why didn't I do that years ago?)

(no subject)

I got on my unicycle for the first time this year today and managed to relearn most of what I'd forgotten pretty quickly! Instead of four hours of continuously falling off before making any progress, it only took me fifteen minutes or so, and soon I was pedaling down to the end of the driveway and a few houses down the street.

My brother was kind enough to hang out with me and shoot a bunch of photos of my practicing. While I was going to use a shot that showed me actually on the unicycle, the lighting on this one is so pretty that I decided to use it for my daily picture. It goes to show how important light is to photography.

But I'll post some more from this set too. I make some really goofy faces while riding this thing!


Unicycling - Pic-a-day 16 June 2013

Copyright 2013 (My brother is the copyright holder of this image)

Unicycling!

Another picture from the unicycling practice I did today. This one is fairly typical of all the goofy faces and poses I contort myself into while trying not to fall off of this thing.

The fact that I didn't use an action shot like this as my picture-of-the-day shot shows how important light is to making a picture really neat. The action is cool, but the light is wonderful.


Unicycling!

Copyright 2013 (My brother is the copyright holder of this image)

(no subject)

One more for Fathers' Day.

This is a picture I took of my grandfather on a trip he and I took to see the Forevertron, a colossal scrap metal sculpture in south-central Wisconsin.

I knew that, as a life-long metalworker (he was a farrier), he'd appreciate the place. We took a road trip out there, just he and I, and got to talk, travel, and see the strange beauty of one of my favorite man-made environments.

Happy Fathers' Day, Grandpa. I miss you.


Grandpa at the Forevertron

Copyright Stormdog 2010