RIP Grandma June

Corrie's Grandma June, originally June Harrison, of the Texas-panhandle Harrisons, then June Dolman, then June Chase, has passed on to the great beyond. She was energetic and spry in her final days, keeping a Facebook presence close to the end. Here she is on Corrie's 30th birthday party dinner:

Here's to hoping you're enjoying your voyage, Grandma June.

She was a Rosie during WWII, living in Morro Bay. She was also the person who bought at auction the first copy of my handmade book The Big Weirdness. There was also lots of stuff in between, but I'm not the June Harrison scholar. I surely did enjoy my brief time with her, and tonight we leave on a driving odyssey that will take us back to Austin, and then to Odessa.

Posting among all the various blogs will be light for the rest of the week.

Post 900!

This marks the 900th post on this, the original Caliboyinbrooklyn weblog. I did some calculations on the totality of my other posts, from my usual stable of of blogs, as well as some that probably nobody knows about (like, does anyone known that I keep a tumblr account?)(there're only two posts over on it, but still...) and my final tally of posted posts including this one: 1447.

2009 was in Brooklyn;
2010 was in Texas;
2011 was my 20/month reserve, and is mostly California, but there's definitely some Texas there;
2012 was all California and the explosion of the Caliboy Network;
2013, and we'll see how it shapes up, seeing as how today is my book signing for Robot Crickets.

I haven't really been screaming about my first published book on, well, any of my blogs, really. That could be a fault...

Earlier today, while preparing for this specific post, I started to look up information on 1447, like maybe, did anything cool happen that year, or were there any cool facts about the integer. Then I realized that I had to get the hell out and get my last rounds of preparations done. That consisted of a handful of face-to-face friendly reminders that tonight was the night, and that the other small-business owners were going to be there.

Gathering local small business owners was a task I set for an ulterior motive for the signing, so maybe interest might peak a little higher, and that ultimately I'm comfortable in a role of community facilitator. I found that by telling the small business owners I talked to that the other owners were being supportive and showing interest, that I turned that conjecture into fact. It was a cool and mostly successful social experiment.

In the year 1447, Vladimir Dracul II, prince of Wallachia, a (mostly mad Magyar) leader best known as the inspiration for Dracula, was assassinated. So that's something...

Here's something else:

Thanks to my readers and supporters throughout the aether and on more solid ground.

Load Bearing Pen

Recently I've been having some issues with my little lappy. The recharging connection has been acting up, and as I fly solo without the charger plugged in (which I always knew was a bad idea) the battery is holding less and less charge. So, I've found a way to keep the juice flowing:

Yup, that's a load bearing pen. It keeps constant pressure on the recharging connector. It's one of the few ways I'm currently able to keep at it. Which is alright, really. I'm resourceful.

But I have taken a look at the Raspberry Pi. Have any of you guys seen this?

The Raspberry Pi is a $25 board that is, basically, a computer. There are two USB ports, an Ethernet port, a port for power and an HDMI port. There's also a spot to plug in an operating memory chip like a Scandisk. And that's all folks.

If I knew Linux better (um, at all?), I already would've bought one. Here's a link for their website if anyone would like more information.

The Pope's Quitting?

My first reaction was: which establishment still needs a book signing poster?

Really. I never really realized how important the Pope still is. Obviously not to me. I don't live in Mexico or any other Latin American Catholic zones, or in the African countries being pulled in the divergent directions of Islam and Catholicism.

When the Polish Pope died I was living in San Luis Obispo and working at a greasy spoon, and I was taken aback by how much attention the story got. When you live your life in the way we do, Popes dying don't register so much, and then the surprise takes over.

Same thing here. Guy's retiring? Okay...does the Bike Stand on Broadway need a poster (Yes. Delivered today.)?

I'm more interested in the fact that this is the first time since 1415 (almost six-hundred years!) that a Pope is retiring. Is it because of the molestation scandals? They'll never say, but it's almost good to see the buck stopping for a change.

I remember a comedian once talking about Ratzinger, the current German Pope, and saying something like, "People are upset the Pope's a Nazi? The Nazi's got nothing on the Catholics, man. They should be like, 'Yo, we gots ourselves a Pope, son!'" The idea being that the Catholics have wreaked more havoc than the Nazis is (probably) atrocious to Catholics, but the facts speak for themselves.

NOT LETTING YOUR MIDDLE MANAGEMENT TAKE WIVES OR LOVERS IS INHERENTLY A BAD IDEA, AND WILL RESULT IN ATROCITIES BEYOND COMPREHENSION.

Had to get that off my chest.

Birthday Apple

A box arrived a few days before Corrie's birthday. It was about the size of a shoe-box, and said "Contains Apples from Washington" in small letters along one edge.

Why is she ordering apples was my first thought. Turned out it was a gift from her mom, a gourmet apple encased in other topnotch ingredients. Just look at the size:

As per the instructions, when you decide you can't look at it anymore and need to dig in, you have to remove it from the fridge and let it warm up. It takes 45 minutes for it to reach room temperature. I cut it in half; one reason was to take a picture, another was t just make it easier to handle.

The apple itself was a fresh and delicious granny smith, crisp and juicy and one of the better tasting granny smiths I've had in a while. You can see it below covered in rich caramel, then dipped in cashews, and then covered in a (not thick enough) layer of dark chocolate:

There's never enough dark chocolate, is there?

After the cut in the previous picture, we returned the apple-half with the stick to the fridge and cut the other half itself into half. Next, to one of the quarters, I popped out the core and sliced the apple into triangular slices. This suited the enterprise well, as in there was enough apple flesh to keep each mouthful juicy and not too caramel-y. Gooey caramel is generally not my thing, but this was pretty damn good.

It took a few sessions to finish off the first half. The second half waited a few days until the Super Bowl Sunday, when we had Vic over. The three of us polished off the other half in similar fashion, but again, it wasn't all consumed in one sitting.

UPDATE: The apple is from Mrs. Prindable's, an online retailer set in Washington State. If you're curious, check out MrsPrindables.com.

"Andromeda Strain", CGI, Guns, and "Justified"

A few days ago Corrie and I watched The Andromeda Strain on our streaming Netflix. I found it a while ago and had it in the instant queue for a hot minute. I liked it, mostly, but pacing was not quite the strong point of the film. The realism I did enjoy. They stuck to a mostly "this is how this could play out" Wire-like scenario, which I appreciate.

I was impressed as well with what I thought were their (albeit crude) rudimentary computer graphics. later on (as in---just now) I learned that while they look like rudimentary graphics, they were in fact not CG, but a pretty cool effect created by Doug Trumball, the effects man from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the son of Don Trumball, the effects man from The Wizard of Oz. Good job little Douggie.

There were two moments in the movie that made me take a double take. At two separate times officials came to get doctors/scientists and both times they were accompanied by military guys. Both times the messenger reported that there were "men outside, and they have guns." It was mentioned twice that guys with guns were outside, the emphasis on the gun aspect. It struck me that in 1971 it would be big news if men with guns showed up, and I guess that it could be true today. If armed cops came by your house you might get a little peeved, or anxious, or happy, considering the circumstances.

When the second messenger mentioned the guns I chuckled, remembering a scene in "Justified", a Timothy Olyphant vehicle on FX. Olyphant plays basically the same character he played in Deadwood, the HBO show about the territory town of the same name. That character, Seth Bullock, and the character from "Justified", Raylan Givens, are both run of the mill cowboy lawmen who are possibly the angriest humans ever, and prone to bursts of violence. Bullock might have been more dangerous, but Givens is set in contemporary Kentucky, which is one of the main conceits of the show. I'll have more to say about that--how a cowboy-era lawman fares in the modern world (the basis of the show)--later, but one scene was what I referenced right after that chuckle.

The second messenger mentions "they have guns", I laughed, and said, "Wow. Didn't we just see Raylan hiding beneath that window sill and then shoot that guy trying to climb in the bottom of his face, blowing the top of his head square off?"

"Justified" is on cable television, but it's still commercial television. It's got to be the most violent thing ever put on commercial TV, but I never watched "24". The desensitization of the public is complete in only 40 years.

I enjoy "Justified", but...the violence...I mean, the character Chris Partlow in The Wire is violent sum-bitch, but his acts of violence, however numerous, exist in his context maybe better than Raylan, but maybe that's the point, right? The anachronisms at the heart of the show...

Happy Birthday Corrie!

Yesterday we watched the big football game. Leap years are kinda cool to birthday's before 2/29. This year, of course, is not a leap year, but last year was. Corrie's birthday last year was a Saturday, and we spent it at some Mayan ruins in Honduras. The Super Bowl was the next day. 

This year her birthday's on a Monday, and the Super Bowl was yesterday.

Here's to many more baby!

Yoga at the beach, a few sunny Sundays ago