Or 1-800-Lotta-Posts.
Yup, this is post #800. And since I’ve gone this far, I should at least see it to 910.
OK, I’m in a bit of a silly mood. Blame it on the big muckin’ storm rolling our way.
Anyway, 800 posts. It’s been 6 months since the last big round number, so it looks like I have slowed down some in my posting, but not a lot. Since then, there have been another 12,000 hits to this blog, and about 5,000 more downloads of the novel. I’ll have a final tally on the year after the 1st, but it looks like things have picked up a bit overall in 2009.
Have a Merry Christmas, everyone. Be safe if you have to travel. And try not to let the family drive you nuts.
Jim Downey
Filed under: 2nd Amendment, Civil Rights, Failure, Guns, Humor, Marketing, Music, RKBA, Society, Survival, Violence
When you get in trouble and you don’t know right from wrong,
give a little whistle!
Taking the old song lyrics to heart, if inverting the intent a bit, police in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park have come up with a cunning plan to thwart crime:
Oak Park crime: Police pass out whistles to help residents fight back
Jump in burglaries and robberies prompts giveaway
Thousands of Oak Park residents are being equipped with a simple device to help fight crime in the village.
Police are passing out whistles that they are urging citizens to blow if they are victims of or witnesses to a crime.
Officers distributed hundreds of the shiny whistles at two stations along the CTA’s Green Line in Oak Park on Friday and will be passing out more Wednesday along the Blue Line. Giveaways elsewhere are expected to take place in the weeks ahead.
“We think they are going to go quick,” said Oak Park Police Cmdr. Keenan Williams.
The village conducted a similar program in the 1980s, and Police Chief Rick Tanksley earlier this year suggested bringing it back after statistics showed that burglaries and robberies were on the rise.
I’m sure that criminals will now flee Oak Park, in the face of this devastating new crime-fighting tool. I mean, they might actually have their hearing damaged, should a brave citizen use their police-issued whistle. And based on previous experience, and the complete eradication of crime in Oak Park following the last time this tactic was used . . .
. . . wait, what’s that? You mean crime wasn’t eliminated in Oak Park by the whistles last time? Huh. Maybe that would explain why this brilliant program hasn’t been put into effect in cities around the country.
Then why do it? Well, here’s another small bit from the Tribune article:
The village had about 3,000 whistles delivered at a cost of about 50 cents each, he said. The cost was paid by Community Bank, whose logo is on the side of each whistle.
I mean, I hate to be cynical or anything, especially this time of year, but it sure seems like nothing but an advertising gimmick to me. One backed by the boys in blue. I wonder who in the city government got what kind of special favor for that little trick?
Now, in all honesty, I do actually carry a whistle with me. No kidding. But when it comes to wanting a defense against crime, I’d prefer one of my concealed-carry pistols.
Except, of course, that that isn’t allowed in Illinois. Hmm.
Jim Downey
(Cross posted to UTI.)
OK, that’s it. I give up. There really must be something to this “religion” thing. Because clearly, I am in HELL. That is the only explanation for such a video as this:
Jim Downey
(Via MeFi. Cross posted to UTI.)
Filed under: 2nd Amendment, Alzheimer's, Art, Ballistics, Guns, Humor, Music, Publishing, RKBA, University of Missouri, Writing stuff
“Hello. Can I speak with Karen?”
“Karen? Who are you calling?”
“Is this Legacy Art & BookWorks?”
*sigh* “Legacy Art & BookWorks closed over 5 years ago. Karen had moved almost four years before that. Your database is at least 9 years out of date.”
>laughter< "Oh, sorry . . . "
* * * * * * *
Yesterday morning I finished work on "November" – the 11th chapter of the care-giving book I have been working on, tentatively titled Her Final Year. The conceit is that the book is divided into the months of a year, which track the progression of the Alzheimer’s and our experience in caring. The bulk of the material for the book is drawn from my posts here (and from my co-author’s similar blog posts about his experience in caring for his mother-in-law), supplemented with emails that my wife and I sent the family and friends, discussing the day-to-day realities of what was happening.
Anyway, November is dealing with the end-of-life experience, those final months of what we went through (not the actual passing – that is appropriately enough the final chapter). So I’ve been going through and editing/tweaking material from two years ago, when we were in the deepest and most intense part of caring for Martha Sr. Just reading that stuff leaves an emotional impact, calling up echoes and ghosts.
* * * * * * *
“So, Jim, what do you do?”
We were at the big dinner for my wife’s High School reunion this past Saturday. I went as supportive spouse. Another spouse across the table was trying to make small talk. I already knew that he was an engineer – he and my wife have worked together professionally, and they had exhausted that material for discussion.
How to answer that? I am sometimes amused at the options.
“I’m a book & document conservator.” I like this answer.
“I’m sorry?”
“I repair rare books and documents. Mostly historical stuff.”
* * * * * * *
We got an invitation to an opening reception over at the University of Missouri, for a show of portraits which included work of a friend. It was a good excuse to get out of the house a bit.
An interesting show, pairing up historical portraits with more modern work by notable artists. It was good to see our friend and his wife, some other artists that we know.
But I spent most of the time there talking with others about how much they missed my art gallery. It’s been five years, but still everyone wants to talk about how great it was, how much of a shame it was that we had to close it.
* * * * * * *
“So, where do you go shooting?” I asked the engineer, after he had mentioned that he and his son had been out that morning.
“Green Valley.”
“Nice range.”
“You shoot?”
“Yeah, a bit.” I looked up with a smile. It’s always fun to see how guys will react to this. The more macho types will sometime use it as a cue to start talking about their big, powerful guns, or bragging in some other way. But I figured this engineer would be more subtle. “Handguns, mostly, for me.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I do a fair amount of that, too. Even reload.”
Reloading is a measure of a fairly serious shooter, and someone who has the patience and attention to detail necessary. I nodded. “Yeah, me too.”
His eyebrows went up a bit. I took a business card out of my jacket pocket, flipped it over and wrote down a url on the back. I passed it across the table to him. “You might be interested in this.”
“Ballistics by the inch dot com, huh?”
I smiled, explained.
* * * * * * *
“This is James Downey.”
“Um, is this Legacy Bookbindery?”
“Same thing. What can I help you with?”
“I wasn’t sure this number was any good. I got it out of a magazine article from 1993. Do you still do book conservation?”
“I do indeed. What can I help you with?”
* * * * * * *
Last night I finished the revisions for Chapter 11 of Communion of Dreams. Trimmed another 1,449 words from the text, bringing the total I have edited out in this rewrite to over 17,500. It still takes a lot of attention to get through it, but from here on there will be fewer actual sections/passages trimmed out.
* * * * * * *
He flipped over the card before he put it in his pocket. “Communion of Dreams?”
“Yeah, a novel I wrote.”
“Published?”
“Well, not yet – not conventionally, though I have a publisher interested. But over 19,000 people have downloaded it.”
He looked at me.
I shrugged. “I’ve led an odd life.”
* * * * * * *
Jim Downey
*With apologies to Ian and the gang.
Filed under: Art, Humor, Music, Predictions, Science Fiction, Star Trek, YouTube
I had occasion to be poking around on YouTube this morning, looking at some vids of William Shatner. And I came across this odd little item:
OK, now think – how would you explain what this was, and why it was funny/interesting/artistic, to someone in the 1960s when Star Trek was first being broadcast? Hell, I’ve grown up with the culture and I can barely understand it myself.
This is why it is so incredibly difficult to make any intelligent predictions about what sorts of art/music will evolve in the future, and why just about every time I have seen someone attempt to do so in SF it either seems entirely contrived or just absurd.
And if we can’t do this with something as relatively self-contained as art over 40 years, what does that say about making predictions about larger aspects of society over even longer time frames?
Jim Downey
Filed under: BoingBoing, Music, Predictions, Science, Science Fiction, tech, YouTube
. . . are almost endless:
Bare is a conductive ink that is applied directly onto the skin allowing the creation of custom electronic circuitry. This innovative material allows users to interact with electronics through gesture, movement, and touch. Bare can be applied with a brush, stamp or spray and is non-toxic and temporary. Application areas include dance, music, computer interfaces, communication and medical devices. Bare is an intuitive and non-invasive technology which will allow users to bridge the gap between electronics and the body.
Here’s one application:
Another step towards the tech from Communion, though I didn’t use it in quite that, um, way.
Jim Downey
Via BB.
Who hasn’t dreamed of a chicken that can shoot lasers out of its eyes? I mean, really?
OK, for those who wonder what the vid is before watching it, from the source:
The Chickening is a video game about a chicken who shoots lasers. Out of his eyes. Flying pizza shot out of evil cat heads from Paris, France, Uranus have invaded Earth and transformed the President of The United States of Mexico, Robot Abraham Lincoln, into a piece of broccoli. From the center of the earth the Pentagon desperately dispatches their best agent: Agent 69-420 aka The Chickening. His mission: Destroy Everything and Save the Broccoli!
SAVE THE BROCCOLI!
Jim Downey
(OK, now I need some serious drugs to calm down from that . . .) (Oh, and: Via MeFi.)
I don’t think I’ve mentioned it here previously, but I’m a big fan of the Talking Heads. Have been since college. Yeah, I know, I’m getting old.
And while I can’t embed it here, you should go watch this video of Road to Nowhere.
But it isn’t by the Talking Heads.
It’s by a bunch of old folks. People even older than me. Who had a movie made about them that you should also watch. This one. Seriously. Put it on your NetFlix queue.
And have a box of tissues handy when you watch it.
Jim Downey
I’m sick with a nasty lower GI thing, which might explain why I think this is hilarious:
**GAH! F***ing YouTube pulled it, and I can’t get the Hulu version to patch. Go HERE to see it.**
Anyone who remembers Bill’s other spoken-word stuff will recognize this for the genius that it is.
Jim Downey
(Via Balloon Juice. Cross posted to UTI.)
Communion Of Dreams 