Monthly Archives: October 2013

An Autumn hike

Posted on by The Old Wolf

I’m out of shape.

Old_Wolf_Cry

It’s been over three years since I was approaching marathon distance on my hikes in the Uintahs – life took a couple of hairpin turns for me and that put a bit of a kink in that goal, but lately I’ve been doing more walking and it’s my intention to get back into the habit.

Yesterday I took a walk up the side of the hill toward Mollie’s Nipple (the green ball below) which I attained in July of 2011 via a different, longer route (up the back ridge); I only made it up the side about 1,000 feet before my energy ran out, but it was a good climb just the same.

walk

3.48 miles

Followed the canal until I found a place to cross and headed up the face of the hill. By the time I got up there, the sun had crested the mountains and the slope up to the next level was warm and bathed in sunlight, so I stuck around a while enjoying the warmth before heading back down. Next time I go this route I think I’ll go up the shoulder instead of the face, it may be a bit easier.

Some shots from the  trek:

IMAG2780

The Payson temple framed by wildflowers.

184440_1000

Comparison shot of the temple location taken in July of 2011

IMAG2787

Skeletons. A fire came over the ridge in 2008 and threatened homes in the valley; there are still reminders everywhere. It will take decades for the mountain to recover.

IMAG2788

A patch of color

IMAG2790

A sage field

IMAG2789

Another kind of skeleton

 IMAG2778

Sunrise over Spring Lake

It’s sad in a way to see the summer coming to an end, but Autumn in Utah can be a beautiful season.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Rome: La Vespa

Posted on by The Old Wolf

SHORPY_02794u

 

July 1955. “Rome, Italy. Coverage focuses primarily on people, places and historical monuments.” From photos by Philip Harrington for the Look magazine article “Can Catholics Separate Church and State?”

Found at Shorpy.

Joe Vespa

 

My father on a Vespa in Calabria around 1939. These little scooters were ubiquitous in Italy.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Rutland, Vermont: ca. 1905

Posted on by The Old Wolf

SHORPY_4a18772a

Center Street in Rutland. Notice the eatery on the right: “U Want a Lunch:” prescient spelling.
8×10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co.

The trees are barren and coats are being worn; it’s cold, but there’s no way of telling just what season we’re seeing here. But it’s a charming picture; I love old photographs like this.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Dear web developers: Don’t do this

Posted on by The Old Wolf

I often grab bits of text from news websites and other places of interest to quote at this blog. I always give credit to the source if it’s known, so this fairly recent development gets under my skin. Many websites now append a bit of text to anything that’s copied, like this:

“Frozen in time: The occupants of this abandoned farm house are long gone, but their belongings remain; from the paintings hanging on the walls to the neatly made bed”

Read more: [Some URL here]
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

See that blue stuff up there? I didn’t request it. I’m just going to delete it. It’s annoying, something along the lines of blinking text, forced social logins, popup ads, and back-button disable.

Weeaboos

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Do as I say, not as I do

Posted on by The Old Wolf

I’ve mentioned this before,[1] but today I happened across a great example of what not to do on a website, right after telling your readers that it’s nasty.

Irony

 

MarketingProfs apparently don’t take their own advice. If you’re a web developer, don’t do this. I’ll leave your website in about 0.67 seconds.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

[1] Be sure to read the followup to this article as well.

Doc Rat: Silly and Serious

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Earlier I wrote about Wapsi Square by Paul Taylor; today I’d like to share another webcomic which has long delighted me, to wit, Doc Rat by Jenner.

Jenner (a pseudonym) is a real-live physician from down under, and he works his professional experience into a long-running – 7 years now – story about Doctor Rat and his practice. Recently he tossed out a contest in which he asked his fans to write him about why they enjoyed the strip; today in the mail I received a wonderful bit of treasure, one of his original strips, having been selected as one of his five winners.

DocRat original art

For me, this is a Big Deal. I love supporting the artists whose work I enjoy, directly or indirectly, and to have a bit of their handiwork on my wall is like icing on the cake. I’m very grateful to Doc Jenner for his kindness, which included a warm and personal letter.

The strip fluctuates between gag-a-day format (often involving some horrid pun or other):

a ligator

Groan…

Four Black Skulls

“Four black skulls” – I love that…

Anal Fissure

I concur

ProstateExam

Every time

20110210

Drug marketing is given no quarter

and extended arcs dealing with the life and challenges of Doctor Rat, his friends, associates, and patients:

Doc Rat 20090213

Many of these stories are out-and-out tearjerkers; well-written, current, and relevant to events and issues of the day. I even used one to communicate my feelings to my then-intended and now-wife:

Doc Rat - Courtship

With seven years of daily strips behind him, there are over 1800 Doc Rat strips to enjoy; the link I provided above is to the start of the series. Jenner’s website is undergoing an upgrade, and his developer has run into a few difficulties, so the site is a bit slow at the moment; fortunately for devotees, there are 10 Books available for purchase, with both Australian and USA prices.

docrat-books

There are thousands of webcomics available, but given time restrictions one has to be selective. This is one of a handful that I look forward to on a daily basis, and I recommend it without hesitation.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

“He who saves one life saves the world entire.”

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Nicholas_Winton_in_Prague

On the eve of World War II, Sir Nicholas Winton organized the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children from German-occupied Czechoslovakia. While Sir Nicholas gives credit to many others who helped in the rescue effort and endured even greater dangers than he, the UK press dubbed him the “British Schindler.” There is no question that his efforts were pivotal in the saving of many lives.

In 1988, the BBC aired an episode of “That’s Life,” a program that fluctuated between humorous pieces and deadly serious issues. The clip below features Sir Nicholas and an entire audience of people who, directly or indirectly, owed their lives to him.

Hankies at the ready!

The Old Wolf has *snif* spoken.

The title of this post, by the way, is a quote from “Schindler’s List.” It was derived from the Talmud:  “Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.”

-Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:9; Babylonian Talmud Tractate Sanhedrin 37a

Behind the “Do Not Enter” Signs

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Dutch photographer Niki Feijen specializes in urban exploration; capturing boarded-up buildings and decaying farm houses. His images reveal furniture and clothes that remain in decaying homes where owners have long since departed.

article-2316987-198AAFE9000005DC-376_964x639

Layers of blankets remain on the bed in the empty farmhouse, which is still surrounded by crosses and statues of Jesus belonging to its former owner

article-2316987-198AAE66000005DC-624_964x634

Frozen in time: The occupants of this abandoned farm house are long gone, but their belongings remain; from the paintings hanging on the walls to the neatly made bed.

For more such haunting images and further information, visit MailOnline, or Niki Feijen’s own website.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

All the beer; all the coffee

Posted on by The Old Wolf

The folks over at Pop Chart Lab have been busy. They do impressive work; here are two of their infographics which delineate just about everything you would need to know in order to become an impressive beer snob or a really skilled barista. These infographics are large – click for a full-size version.

Beer

 

All the beers, and the kinds of glasses they are served in.

Coffee

 

Master this, and Starbucks is your oyster.

A blogger over at Fast Company related,

[The] coffee Chart lays out the entire coffee ecosystem, outlining how various methods of production, including the French press, Kyoto dripper, and Neapolitan flip, among others, are used to create coffees, cortados, cappuccinos, and more. Coffee devotees can use the graphic as a way to announce their allegiance to the coffee bean in all its manifestations. For newcomers, it’s a chance to discover that it’s not actually called a “cafe olé.”

Creating the taxonomy was not without its difficulties. “We had to make a judgment call on how to classify the output of the Moka Pot and the Aeropress,” a PopChartLab team member told me. “It’s not quite standard brewed coffee, but we wouldn’t dare call it espresso, so we coined a term for it: fauxpresso.” And while it is, indeed, compendious, there is one notable omission. “I think we got just about every major coffee brewer in here except for K-cups,” he says, “because screw K-cups.”

One of my Aussie mates has been busy with a virtual beer tour around the world (originally in 80 beers, but as of this writing up to 129); I’d love to take that tour with him, as well as sample every possible type of coffee concoction, if it weren’t for the fact that I drink neither beer nor coffee.

But all this is ruddy interesting.

The Old Wolf has spoken.