You're at: https://57296.neocities.org/index.html
(last worked on: August 18th, 2024)
About these pages
3D (stereo): A celebration and how-to of 3-D imaging --print pair formats with apt versos in particular.
A better abacus: Heaven fore fend imposing changes upon what our fingers know how to use (the QWERTY keyboard, the standard piano keyboard, the 1+4 abacus, or the 2+5) --but: let's consider giving newbies a break from chains of the past.
A better mouse trap: Life --all life, is such a struggle, --at last exhausted and defeated. Let's catch these little guys, but let them live another day.
Amateur Telescope Making: Paying attention to and thinking about a spot in the night sky --perhaps with a modest telescope --alone or in co-operation with others --is certainly enjoyable and might even yield original results. Considering investment, convenience, and optimizing free time, The ideal amateur instrument has long been and remains a longer focus, 6 inch aperture Newtonian --used in one's own "back yard". Here's how (I did it).
Ancient Egypt: New archaeological discoveries and fresh eyes examinations of old ones are up-ending pre-history.
Astronomy: (Amateur Telescope Making again.)
Bathtubs (killer bathtubs!): Gotta rethink this bathing business. Tubs are the damndest things for old folks. Expensive, slow fill, slow drain, trapped inside "walk-ins" are a poor solution --and showers just don't get it.
Beans!: This page now includes a few thoughts and deeds about "Diet". :-)
Bikes-n-Trikes: Why is it easier to walk a bike up a hill? Why can't we be more like Holland?
Bird feeder: Our feeder goes a long way toward solving the problems of predator birds, cats and hungry squirrels.
Body Mass Index: Somewhat like the "wind chill index" and daylight saving time, BMI got authoritatively foisted on us and we're culturally stuck on it. Even though it's illogical, it might make some sense if it's assumed that our bodies, tall and short, are supported by about the same operating system/s.
(cheap old) Books and Movies: They're out there now --so scoop 'em up!
Bread: More yet to come on this old page.
Bubbles --giant: This page drew more (nice) responses than all of the others combined.
Camera comments: F/stops, depth of field, pixel counts --and such.
The Candidates (Iowa, 2020): Ernie Rairdin's knack for capturing the definitive portrait.
Celestial Vault (astronomy): (Amateur Telescope Making again.)
Chromebooks: Get one of these $200 laptops for email and to safely ply the web. Use an old off-line PC for your applications/projects and print-outs.
Clothes dryer alternative: I got very little traction on this cheap innovation, but the appliance industry is doing well with $1000-plus versions.
Clouds: Past cultures have based religious practices and their timing on the Sun, Moon, planets and stars --but the biggest, by turns the most beautiful and terrifying things in and from the sky are clouds. Why, then, are they so politically and religiously neutral?
Coffee: Just use a quarter cup of Folgers "medium roast", good well water ("EartH2O" here) in a Mr. Coffee, plenty of sugar and milk. You'll be okay.
Coasters: This web page is about a trivial "First World" concern.
Computers: (See the Chromebooks page.)
Cook stoves/Ranges: They're either the second, or THE most dangerous feature of the home --especially if run with gas.
Daylight Saving Time: DST has been a societal intelligence test. So far, we've failed it (except for AZ and HI).
Dentistry: Update: it's been 2 years with no teeth and I'm doing fine, but I wish Subway would dice their onions
Desktop printers: It wouldn't fully install off-line onto an XP-3 o/s computer, but I had to tell the world how happy I've been with my Brother J985DW. (Am now upgraded to a Vista o/s and got a full install --with OCR scanning.)
Digital camera comments: F/stops, depth of field, pixel counts --and such.
Dog & cat fleas: Buying flea medicine is like paying rent for your own dog. They charge the same for big dogs as little ones, so yes: I'm carefully measuring out big doses into small doses --but you've got to do it right: a needle-less syringe, latex gloves, a good cap and locker for the unused remainder. If you have kids or dementia adults in the house, I see no way to keep them clear of a freshly treated dog for 24 yours, so Capstar seems the only option. (Again: I'm breaking tablets for large dogs into small portions --using a pill bisector, then storing the unused portion with desiccant in a small bottle.)
Dogson-2 Telescope: This link goes to a sub-page under Amateur Telescope Making (which see above).
Egypt: New archaeological discoveries and fresh eyes examinations of old ones are up-ending pre-history.
Energy alternatives: Community subscribed solar panel and windmill farms to the rescue! (Perhaps bladeless wind "mills".)
Extreme sports: Draining the shallow end of the gene pool.
Ezekiel's UFO: This brave journalist kept his head up and reported what he saw. (I doubt that we've been so visited, but it makes a great story.)
Fleas: See Dog & cat fleas (above).
Flip Phone: How to check and add minutes --despite knowing nothing.
Geiger counters: See Radiation (below).
Giant bubbles: See Bubbles --giant (above).
Granny-D: The Coos Bay artist.
Health insurance: At 78 years of age, "Medicare Advantage" is far more affordable than traditional Medicare plus "Medigap" (re: that 20% hole).
Hot car interiors: How many dead kids and pets does it take --to mandate cars that automatically self-ventilate (or at least blow the horn)!
Invention: Make your nice thing and give it away. I think the average guy is better off buying lottery tickets --than investing in a patent.
Kitchen Range: See Cook stoves/Ranges (above).
Medicare & Wellness: This is "Health insurance" again (see above).
Music: Oh my: what is music about? I think we're only nibbling at the edges. Is the answer "ineffable"?
Noise: A "soundscape" in Nature can be both loud and feel buoyantly pleasant. A relatively quiet dripping faucet or a sniffing nose can be maddening. There's not much to be done about noise sources in our culture (save in a few gated communities with good "CC&Rs"), so for those of us sensitive to noise, sound proofing, noise canceling headphones, minus 38dB ear stopples and head gear --can go a long way toward preserving one's sanity.
Oat bread: Our bread recipe is so special that it deserves a web page of its own
Paywalls: Furshlugginer paywalls --!
PO Boxes: Raising prices on PO Boxes is a false economy --for the USPS.
PODcasts and radio: The only rational way to listen is to weave program content in and out of our busy, interrupted, on-the-go lives via PODcasts. Commercials are tolerable that way, since we can listen to the one's that interest us --or simply jump/fast-forward ahead.
Printers: See "Desktop printers" (above).
Radiation: This has been a 10 year effort --to keep track of and archive the local background radiation count --initiated by the melt-downs and detonations in Fukushima. I've turned up nothing that looks suspicious, although something might be extractable from all my data. These be penetrating, gamma-like rays (photons) and maybe muons --or their secondaries. I suppose most of it is cosmic in origin, but I really don't know what I'm tallying here.
Ralph: This little rabbit is helping us to become fully human.
Rock tumbling: A simple little rock tumbler, some grit (not nearly as much as directed), a handful of hard rocks --and you have a gem factory!
Sand pipers: Ah: "The Ascent of the Lark", and "The Lark Ascending" --I was privileged to witness the inspiration, but while watching sanderlings --and inspiring it was! "The time" came and hundreds of them took flight --circling ever upward until they disappeared into the clouds. Oh my: magic.
Save Ralph: This little rabbit is helping us to become fully human.
Scrabble: The game of Scrabble (Hasbro's DeluxeWheeled version): how to fix its problems.
Slugs: One of those everyday miracles that most of us just pass by or ruefully clean up after --again: magic!
Small Is Beautiful: I hope I'm doing this theme some justice --through my many attempts on these web pages.
Sports: Several of my e-friends would like to have an automatic turn-off or station change feature that can recognize the word "sports".
Stereography: I made my first stereograph in 1958: an 8x10 inch print pair in a homemade Wheatstone viewer. Ever since, stereography has been my favorite medium for illustrating, expressing and disciplining my thoughts. (More)
Technocracy: Do we have only two choices: walk forward into a technocracy (a managed society) --or walk backward into a technocracy? "Resistance is futile"? Might we at least carve out small pools of relative simplicity? Did all the contributors to the "Minutes of the Lead Pencil Club" succumb?
The 2-way book: Here's an heirloomish way that ink-on-paper books might yet beat the Devil (and per "Technocracy", above).
Travel: Yet another private carve-out: stay home! Do nothing! (Well: how about at least slowing down some?)
TV antenna: Perpetual reception problems here --and Oregon Public Broadcasting seemed to be politely gas lighting me about it. (We refuse to pay long green for a cable subscription.)
The uniform keyboard piano: This, for both myself, and for the history of music, is a long story. Like several subjects on this list (DST, bladeless wind power, the 2-way book, the new abacus) the UKB is (at least nominally) politically/religiously neutral at the outset, so it might make a good study of our natural resistance to change. (To be clear, I think all change is inherently evil with heavy social costs --however much it might be needed, or even essential.)
UFOs: See Ezekiel's UFO (above).
Ventilating car interiors: See Hot car interiors (above).
Weather: This page is mostly about the "wind chill" back story --and morbidly cold Minnesota winters (arghhh!).
Words-2: This one's a biggy (for me, anyway).
Your weight at the North Pole: Probably, this one's simply beyond my ken, but that's my point: things don't add up (for me, anyway).
Some attractions of these "view cards" are simply due
to their being stereoscopic, with a fascinating play of perspective, an
ethereal feeling of having a presence elsewhere. There are fetching
subtleties as well: a graceful balance between a moment of life on the
front of the card and its interpretation on the verso --a felt connection
with the subject and the stereographer.
With its power, reach, and an inherent poetry, the
mixed medium of the stereograph is an art and literature form to contend
with: one worthy of both lighthearted and serious practice.
With these strengths, view cards do well as a humble
witness to life. Simply match appealing images with well edited thoughts
on worthwhile subjects. The medium itself carries my ordinary efforts
with its engaging illusion and recognition of life. Each card completion
becomes a self-documented cultural artifact, registration for a visual
delight or a bit of history --another portal to the vastness of life.
As life rushes by, new images and mental abstractions
of old ones quickly displace the few visual experiences we even try to
focus on --like the press of so many curiosity seekers gathering to the
scene of a happening. But in the view card's stillness, we can find
the personal time to clearly see and "take in" --perhaps a detail made
visible only through stereography, the seeming reality of a scene otherwise
lost to living eyes, --a face: still fresh and earnest in the warm light
of a distant summer.
Craig
...Craig