Friday Features: Dinosaurs

This is not written by AI. Any mistakes or misstatements of material fact are my own. I was recently asked to provide a statement of AI usage for a book chapter that I wrote on identity theft and cybercrime (the book should go to print this summer.)  Other than spelling and grammar tools in Google Docs, I used none. The editor seemed surprised by this. Maybe I will learn to use those tools, but I learned to write the old fashioned way. 

I am a dinosaur. I bought my first electronic typewriter when I was working on BA, a Panasonic with spell check and about a 20 page memory. I could edit and retype a chapter with the push of a button- what a huge step forward. I started law school just as online legal research was becoming the norm. I think I was the last class at the University of Louisville that had to master legal research in the print books, before being given access to the online databases. And I am glad I was trained that way, though I will never use Shepard's Citations again - ever! 

Computers have become a part of our daily lives in little more than 30 years, smartphones in less than 20 years.  There is more computing power in my phone, than NASA had to land men on the moon when I was growing up. It is not that the dinosaurs couldn't get the job done, but it took longer.  We can do so much more, so much faster today. I still believe that understanding the underlying process of research and writing, of capturing an image, makes a difference in how I use the tools to do it faster. In a way, I am the last of the bridge generation, between digital dinosaurs and digital natives. 

I struggled with this post. The Muses seem to have left on the grand adventure a few weeks ahead of me.  Inspiration has been hard to find. I had this post written, and left it to fester for a couple of days, and it hit me that the best part of it, was what was buried in the middle. I can hear a long ago editor shouting across the room, "don't bury the lead, put it first." I am so glad I learned from writers who knew how to write, even if it took 50 years for me to apply some of the lessons.  (Dave Snoffer, you made a difference in your far to few years.) 

The Thursday Ramble: Tourist Season

 There was a really tasteless joke in Miami 30 years ago that went something like this, "They say it is tourist season, yet they get so upset when one gets shot, not at all like deer season in New Jersey." 

I lived in Florida for almost 20 years, tourist season was a very real part of life. With Disney and the world of Worlds, there were actually several tourist seasons, Thanksgiving through New Years, snowbirds from November through March, spring breakers for a month around easter, and Brits broiling in the sun in summer (only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the Florida heat and humidity in July and August.) 

Washington DC has a couple of defininate tourist seasons.  Summer, starting in late May, though the end of August is family season. This crowd is filled with disheveled parents, bored children, most with sore feet in shoes that were stylish and not made for walking. You look at the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol building and think that is a nice 15 minute walk, not knowing it is over two-miles of hellscape. They think they can "see the Smithsonian" on Thursday before lunch, not realizing that the Smithsonian is eight museums in well over one-million square feet of space, and that does not include the National Gallery of Art - with two additional buildings or the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center out at Dulles with nearly 300,000 sq ft of aircraft and spacecraft displays. 

School group seasons, there are two - mid-October through mid-November, and March-April when masses of middle and high school groups from across the eastern half of the country descend on the city. These are marked by large numbers of clearly distracted students, trying to be cool and fit in, led by either overly concerned chaperons or chaperones who are clearly glad they got a free trip to DC and don't really care if the kid wander off never to be seen before the bus leaves to go back to Iowa. They travel in packs of about 35, the number of seats on a tour bus, and all try to squeeze into the same door of a subway car, out of fear that if they go in a different door, they won't go to the same place. 

Then there is Cherry Blossom season, also known as the season of disappointment. The Cherry Blossom festival is scheduled, the dates published, tours are booked, hotel prices are doubled about a year in advance, and the trees pay absolutely no attention to the schedule. Half the time the trees bloom two weeks before the festival and the trees are nice and green when the tourists arrive, about half the time, the trees bloom two weeks after the festival, leaving the tourists straining to see the pink buds and wondering what all of the hype is about. If the weather suddenly turns hot for three or four days, the trees may bloom, go into leaf and drop all of the blossoms - falling and drifting like snow, in three days. Maybe one in ten years, the peak bloom, matches the dates of the festival, the other nine out of ten years tourists wonder why they didn't book the Mardi Gras package instead, the parades always occur on the scheduled day (but seldom on time.) 

My World of Wonders: April 15, 2026

What have I been up to in the kitchen? I asked Sweet Bear what he wanted for dinner, and he shrugged his shoulders and said, "take out Chinese?" That was all I needed to hear. I had ramen noodles, chicken, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, mushrooms, and a couple of Asian sauces, I made chicken veggie stir-fry over noodles. A few minutes of careful knife work, and a few minutes of cooking. Cheddar and Onion spread, my favorite Tesco Express sandwich when I am in the UK is Cheddar and Onion, sadly no one here makes this, so I make my own. It is simply grated onion, cheddar, mayo and maybe a little salt. Roast Pork Tenderloin, cheddar mashed potatoes, and mix veggies.  Sloppy Joe's and potato salad. 

Where have I been this week? The pool, the gym, the gallery to update a wall tag, the community center for an Arts group meeting. Into DC to have dinner with an old friend of Sweet Bear's.  The farmers market. King Street in Old town Alexandria for a Sunday morning walk. The pharmacy and a walk along the river. 

What have I been reading? Big Bad Wool, a novel about very wise sheep. I have four books loaded on my Kindle for travel reading. Amazon informed me this week, my Kindle is so old, that they are discontinuing technical support for it this spring. I have used this one for over ten years. A few years ago, I was worried that it was failing and I bought a replacement, but decided to keep using the old one as long as it worked. It still works, but sometime later this spring I won't be able to download new books to it. And I am okay with that. I have far and away gotten my money's worth out of it.  When I am home, I read mostly print books, I use the Kindle when I travel, I can carry a months worth of books in less space and weight than one book. I find the screen on my phone too small to read much on. My IPad is an antique - but it does what I need. I expect that Apple will drop it from support in the next year or so. 

Who have a talked to this week? My Sweet Bear, Erica, Eric, Warren, Paul, Marcel, Susan. 

What is special about this post? For a couple of months, I have been writing posts, scheduling them ahead of time, to assure coverage while we are away on a Grand Adventure, and to allow myself a digital detox. While I may do a little editing and updating over the next 5 weeks, this is the last post that I need to write between now in May 21. 

Travel Tuesday: Spring Time At Mount Vernon

 

Monday Mood: Random Beauty and Sadness

A week ago I went into DC to wander the National Gallery of Art for a couple of hours. It was a great day for a walk, bright, clear, cool but not cold. A beautiful day. At each end of the main floor at the National Gallery there are salons, areas a couple of steps down, with a high ceiling, plants and at various times in history fountains. A photographer and a couple of assistants were directing this young lady as I entered the space.  I captured half a dozen or so images. Looking at them, this is far and away my favorite. Her looking down, just works. 

The encounter was entirely random, unplanned, and so so beauty filled. 

Slow down and observe, 

Look up and look around, 

Sometimes the greatest beauty appears randomly. 

Sadness: A dear neighbor died Friday morning.  I met Larry a year or so ago, he was the partner of the sweet bear that leads the Saturday morning water aerobics classes.  He was a local native, born and raised in Maryland, he had served in the military (Navy as a recall) then had a long career as an accountant for the department of defense. He has adult children in the area and was looking forward to the birth of a grandchild later this spring.  He was kind of quiet, with a strong sense of humor. He and Giuseppe were so happy together.  They had been regulars at our monthly LGBT community gatherings, hosting at their condo a coupe of times. (Movie night featuring "The Bird Cage" one evening.) I knew he had been unwell, bouncing from test to test, and specialist to specialist over the last few months.  The last I had heard he was in the hospital, trying to make arrangements to come home. His death was not a surprise, when I saw the email, I had that sinking feeling. And yet it brings great sadness.  It takes a while to move from the sadness of loss, to fondness at having known him.  

Hold your friends close, 

Give them a big hug while you can, 

Life is short, embrace and enjoy everyday you can. 

 

Sunday Five: Flowers and Bees

1: What is the first flower to bloom in spring where you live? 

2: Is there a flower that reminds you of funerals?

3: What is your favorite flower? 

4: When was the last time you had fresh flowers in your home? 

5:  What is blooming where you are today? 

My Answers: 

1: What is the first flower to bloom in spring where you live?  Crocuses, I missed bulb flowers when I lived in Florida, there is not enough of a cold season for them to bloom a second year. 

2: Is there a flower that reminds you of funerals? Red Roses, what my grandmother ordered for my grandfather's funeral. 

3: What is your favorite flower? Dandelion, my father kept bees, and the Dandelion bloom was the first honey flow of spring for the bees. 

4: When was the last time you had fresh flowers in your home? Today, we almost always do. 

5:  What is blooming where you are today? Trees, bulb flowers, 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post: Magic Moments in Creating

 I remember vividly the first time I got into the zone, the creative flow, the magic moment when the creative process just simply works.  

As a teenager I spent hundreds of hours printing thousands of black and white photographs - the old fashioned way on light sensitive silver gelatin papers. Photographic printing is an art form. From selecting the negative, cleaning it, putting it in the enlarger (a special projector device), setting up the chemistry, selecting the paper, focusing, setting aperture and exposure time. Variations in all of these and changes in temperature or humidity, all impact the work. Sometimes no matter what I did, nothing turned out well. Most of the time, the work was acceptable, but a struggle. Then there was the first time everything worked, every print was good, and if I made adjustments and made a second print it was even better.  I pulled out negatives that I had struggled with in the past and nailed a perfect print on the first try. It was a magic feeling, I didn't want it to end. I worked late into the evening, until my father came knocking on the door telling me it was past time I washed things up and went to bed. 

Maybe half a dozen times, in as many years, I hit that zone, the flow, the magic moment in printing photographs. 

I have hit the same zone a handful to times when painting with acrylics, when everything just flowed. A couple of my best paintings were done in a single session. 

It also happens sometimes when I am writing. I write half a dozen short articles a year for the American Bar Association Senior Lawyers Division Voice of Experience Journal. Some of them are written in a flurry, a single setting when the thoughts and words seem to just magically flow. 

Those are wonderful moments in creativity. I have not found a formula for creating the conditions that cause them to happen, the moments just happen. But they only happen when I am creating, often sitting down to just grind it out. Not expecting anything special, and then the magic happens. And it feels absolutely wonderful. 

Seek your magic moments.