July 2019

Time.

At the beginning of next month Earl and I will have lived here in Chicago for two years. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long as it feels like it was only yesterday when we moved here.

As an “all things connected geek”, I had an old school clock system wired through the old house back in Upstate New York. When we moved we decided not to do the same here in our condo; the old clocks were loud when they advanced each minute and as we aged we didn’t find as much whimsy in the experience of having these antique timepieces on the wall. I donated several of the clocks to the historical society in my hometown, I gave others to friends and family. I thought about converting the remaining clocks to quartz mechanisms, but I’d rather have clocks that are perfectly in sync with the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) because I’m precise like that.

Enter our atomic clocks.

I’m on the search for clocks that have a “retro” look to them, and the first of the clocks was installed last night. Made by La Crosse Technology, the clock synchronized itself while we were sleeping last night. It’s keeping perfect time and it shows accurate time to the second.

I am a happy geek.

Realness.

From one of her final live performances, here’s Donna Summer singing “MacArthur Park” live. Real instruments. Real vocals from the backup singers. And a breathtaking performance from Donna.

This is why I hate today’s pop performers and their over reliance on AutoTune.

Disconnect.

I am unlinking entry notifications from Twitter. I’ve been struggling with Twitter and their practices lately. I’m not a fan of the part time CEO Jack Dorsey, their monitoring and content control practices are arbitrary at best, and the platform has moved from a dumpster fire to a democracy destroying machine where the only goal is revenue. The old Topix forums were more sane than this travesty.

I encourage folks to follow via RSS or other aggregation services if so inclined.

Cool Cat.

Truman likes to look at a random spot high on the wall or on my head when he’s relaxing next to me on the couch.

Yesterday he was a terror, shredding the curtains. Today he is chilled out.

Storms.

http://blog.jpnearl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/img_3600.mov

I chased some storms on Saturday. I was downstate around Pontiac and Kankakee and found some dark clouds, strong winds, and moderate downpours. At one time it was dark enough to resemble early evening.

One of the things I love about living in Illinois is that out on the prairie it’s easy to see storms in the distance.

I was able to drive around this rain shower in the photo above and come at it from the backside. It was just a bunch of rain.

This last picture is the cell that’s in the video at the beginning of this post as it approach the rest area on I-55 south of Pontiac.

When I’m on the ground I do enjoy Mother Nature’s “punch”.

Technology?

This is 21st century technology in an American automobile that has built in cell connectivity. These steps follow three activation prompts and 45 minutes of upload time from a dongle.

45 minutes of sitting in a vehicle with the battery discharging but the car is not allowed to be started during that time.

Shore Leave.

This Voyager era captain has an older Shore Leave uniform.

J.P. out.

Energy.

Words can not describe how much I love the energy of this Fleetwood Mac performance of “Rhiannon”. Raw. Honest. Moving. Ethereal.

Filmed at a rehearsal in 1976.

Old School.

I am delighted to see items marked in an old school way. These young whippersnappers though think they need to use the “FOR” mark, which would actually be used in a 2 FOR 99 scenario.

I’d probably do the same thing, though. It’s geeky cool.