Photo Journal Part 3: A Literal Walk Around the Block

 I literally walked around the block. 

Comment on what pictures you liked the best and give suggestions for what I should look for on my next walk. 

Photo Journal Part 2

    Leah and I went to Shanandoah for our Valentine's Day date. It was pretty cold but we saw geese! I'm hoping tp improve my photography skills and Leah was kind enough to go down by the river even in the cold so I hope you enjoy. Did I mention it was cold?

Goose!

 

A Photo Journal Part I: I Took A Walk

 Another New Year resolution for the year was to improve my photography skills. I have been able to get out and walk around town this past wednesday. Here are a few of the sites I saw. I hope you enjoy.

My adopted home

AI'll Be Back!

My routine is pretty simple, I wake up, read my Bible reading plan, and spend the next 20 minutes scrolling my Google article feed. If I have more time before I have to get ready to run off to work, I scroll my FB or X feeds. Eat breakfast and I am out the door.  On my lunch hour, I will text my wife while auto-correct messes up my jokes. I come home, eat dinner, put the kids to bed and then my wife and I discuss what to watch on the streaming services.  We frequently look at the suggestions based on previous watches before deciding to watch a movie we have already watched at some point during our marriage. I wake up and do it all over again. Algorithms are such a basic part of our lives we don't stop to think how often we depend on computers, to curate our news intake, finish our messages, or even to show us new options for entertainment.

To my limited understanding of the World of technology, AI is already in place in our lives.  So what is the fear about? I have heard everything from it is taking jobs, making people stupid, stealing our art, and will eventually send Arnold Schwarzenegger to kill Sarah Connor (auto correct also basically spelled Arnold Schwarzenegger for me). 

So what does any of this have to do with the world of history? What if AI could be used to sift through journals, document collections and books then produce a report with a list of sources that fit the criteria for the research question the historian was asking.  Then the historian could analyze and evaluate these sources, narrow in on answers and then do it again. You may ask, would this not put graduate assistants out of a job.  Depriving them of much needed research experience? Well, yes but what if this AI actually freed GAs to do something else, like work on their own research. Now there are two researchers sifting through reports and sources. I don't generally take the argument that AI will put us out of work too seriously. Humans are very adaptable. 

What about AI doing all the research for us and will make us all stupid. At this point from my understanding AI doesn't analyze information. It can evaluate under parameters that Humans set for it. But what about all the cheating that AI causes if a student is going to cheat with AI then maybe they were going to cheat without it. Point being, cheaters are going to cheat no matter the tools available. If AI is going to be used for cheating then AI could be used to catch cheating. An AI program could be outfitted with AI markers that can be spotted using AI grading tools. Teachers will figure it out. Again I am personally not worried about society degenerating because there is another tool to cheat on academic testing.  

As for AI taking over the world and sending a terminating robot to destroy the only hope of the future? Well only time will tell about that.

A New Year Resolution Part II: A 40 Book Challenge

 My second New Year’s resolution is to read 40 books. I have had a reading challenge every year for the last eight years. It is a bit like a game I play every year. I evaluate what I read the previous year, look at what my upcoming year looks like with work, vacations and so on and make my estimate of how many books I can finish in a year. This activity, or resolution, or goal however you would like to phrase it, has been very helpful to me. It has taught me how to plan for my year, it helps me see how short a year really is, and of course it helps me learn and keep up with topics that are important to me. I believe that reading is an excellent goal for anyone so here is my resolution plan and some advice for your own reading plan for the year. 

I count how many books I read throughout the year. It gives me a sense of accomplishment; It's essentially bragging how smart I am. I only count books that I have started after the new year has started and finished before the current year has ended. This includes hard copy books, eBooks, audiobooks and graphic novels. Whatever published work I read between January 1^st and December 31^st.  On average I read about 34 books a year. If I didn’t count audiobooks my count would be about 17 books.  

I try reading four books at any one time during the year. I call it my “rule of four.” I read a History/biography, a fiction, a Devotional/developmental book, and an audiobook. I have found myself falling behind when I try to focus on four books at once so I will switch gears and focus on one book at a time. The exception to my rule is December.  During December I finish whatever books I need, to accomplish my goal for the year.  If I have already achieved my goal, I will take a break until the New Year. This is in part because I’m a slow reader and don’t believe I will be able to finish certain books in a month. So instead of stressing myself out over Christmas, it can be stressful enough, I use December as a jumping off point for the New Year. I’ll read graphic novels, I’ll plan for the next year’s challenge and I’ll pick my reading plan.

My reading plan is deciding on which historical subjects read “broadly” and which to read “deeply“.  To read broadly means that I’m interested in a subject but don’t want to write a book or paper on it. To read deeply is two steps below researching for a book.  The past eight years of reading challenges and goals has taught me that I’m not going to remember everything I read.  Which means I must read strategically therefore my “broadly” and “deeply” classifiers. An example of a “deeply” goal is, I want to know why people study history.  If I were to write a book that would be the book I would want to write. To answer my question I focus on reading historiography and history methodology.  An example of a “broadly” goal is that I want to get a big picture of history.  I read global, world, and regional histories.  Last year I listened to Christendom by Peter Heather, a regional history that dealt with Christianity in Europe during the middle ages, and Empire of the Steppes by Kenneth Harl, a world history of the Eurasian Steppes from the classical period through the late middle ages.  I can't remember everything in these books but I can make connections through global history, how one civilization flows into the next.  

This year my “deeply” history subjects include American Pop culture (my buddy and I are planning to relaunch the Popstorian podcast this year).  I plan to read deeply into Japanese history, I’m reading a couple of books by John W. Dower. In the “broadly” side of things I want to learn about India, so I plan to read John Keay’s book India: A History.  One book on Indian history will not make me an expert but hopefully give me a “broad” understanding of the subject. The same could be said for Britain which is the other region that I have a book picked out for. Having two categories for history books allows me to have some fun throughout the year and it not be research all the time. These reading plans help to answer my questions. I also read fiction mostly to break up the study of history.  I read whatever I think would enjoy from murder mysteries to Westerns to fantasy to rom coms. 

 My strategy for fiction this year is simply a stress reliever. I have my first book picked out, Abominable by Dan Simmons. It has been on my to-read list for a LONG time. My philosophy for fiction books is that they should be fun reads. I’m not planning to read a lot of classic lit this year.

I also plan to be more active in reading developmental books. I call this category devotional/developmental for books to help me learn other aspects of my life. Such as understanding the Bible or theology, or learning a practical skill. My first will be Blogging for Dummies by Amy Lupold Bair. It is one of my New Year Resolutions to improve my blog so it makes sense to read a book to achieve that goal. 

My audiobooks are a catch all category, some fiction, some nonfiction.  I listen to whatever I find at my public library or on the app, Libby. Different libraries have different services such as Hoopla but whatever the app they are great resources to find audiobooks. My only strategy for audiobooks is to find a book that I’m interested in. Fiction or nonfiction, I listen on my work commute, running errands or while performing chores around the house.  It helps with my above stated goals to “broadly read of world history and destress throughout the year. It also serves as a nice treat while accomplishing some of the less than pleasant necessities of life, like doing the dishes.    

I enjoy reading, perhaps I enjoy planning to read more.  Having a plan in place doesn’t mean that I actually will read 40 books or have a broad understanding of Indian history, but having a plan in place has definitely helped me in the last eight years. This New Year resolution has helped me to plan for the year, kept me focused on history and it reminds me to take advantage of the time we have. A year goes by very fast, I try to accomplish what I can during that time, it will be December 31^st again soon.

Here are some books that I mentioned above that plan to read in the coming year.

Historiography:

Cohen, Richard. Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2022.

Regional histories:

Dower, John W. Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II. New York: Norton the New Press, 1999.

Fraser, Rebecca. The Story of Britain: From the Romans to the Present: A Narrative History. New York: WW Norton & Company, Inc., 2003.

Keay, John. India: A History. New York: Grove Press, 2000.

Fiction:

Simmons, Dan. The Abominable. New York: Little Brown and Company, 2013.

Development:

Bair, Amy Lupold. Blogging for Dummies 6^th Edition. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2016.

Here is the link for more information about the Libby App.

help.libbyapp.com 

A New Year Resolution: The Bible in a Year

This past year I made a new year resolution to read the entire Bible in a year. Well, mission accomplished I did it! Now for some take aways. 

To start, I used the Youversion Bible app it has different reading plans to choose from and it kept track of the days that I read, which was very helpful. After reading through a book of the bible I would post it on Facebook. This gave me a sense of celebration and was encouraging when my friends would send a like or comment. Facebook also has a memory feature. For years to come my posts will pop up again encouraging me to read the Bible in the future, at least however long Facebook has that memory feature. I found that if I was consistent about the time of day i read it was easier to remember to read everyday. For example, I made it a habit to read the Bible first thing after I woke up. It was hard to do sometimes.  I felt like i didn't get that much out of it but i reminded myself that the plan was to continue reading the Bible throughout the year and the following year. If I missed reading in the morning than I would read smaller chuncks throughout the day.

 On the more spiritual side of things, I kept coming to the thought "give us our daily bread"(Matt 6:11) throughout the year. This may not be exactly what this scripture is talking about but I was able to hear God's word everyday. Sometimes I didn't understand or remember as much as i should have.  There were some  mornings I could barely keep my eyes open long enough to read. I believe that even if I didn't catch everything I was reading. The act of reading became a discipline that if I just kept reading God would show me what I needed for the day. So don't get discouraged if you fall a sleep or don't remember much of that days reading. After all you don't stop eating breakfast if you can't remember what cereal you ate. I also hope it was encouraging for my Facebook friends to see the regular posts about my journey through the Bible. There were always a group who liked the posts and even encouraging comments along the way. Thanks to everyone who did that. There were 2 people who asked what Bible reading plan I was using so hopefully I was an encouragement to them.

This year my plan is to read the Bible through again. I would like to try to read it in Chronological order. I'm a History nerd so I think that will be interesting. In what ever order you read the Bible, I do hope you read the Bible this year there is a lot of good stuff in there. Happy New Year. #read2024 #BibleinaYear #landmarks 

Double Feature: Have Yourself a Dark Little Christmas

I watched two of my favorite Christmas movies this year and I realized they are both a little darker than your typical classic Christmas movie. These two dark comedies are as charming as Miracle on 34^th Street or Its Wonderful Life but deal with more the macabre themes. From conmen and mobsters to murderers and crooks here is a double feature to give yourself a dark little Christmas.

 

Lemon Drop Kid (1951)

Bob Hope stars as the titular “Lemon Drop Kid” a conman who touts horses.  He touts the wrong horse to the mob boss Moose Moran’s girlfriend. Now the Kid has to pay back the money by Christmas Day or he's "going to find his head in his stocking." To keep from being killed for Christmas he cons “old dolls” into staying at his “Old Folks Home” so he can raise the money through donations. Then run off with all that that money. The film contains three musical numbers including Bob Hope’s rendition of Silver Bells. The question is can a musical be a "dark comedy?" Watch the film, it is Bob Hope so how dark can it be? 

 

We're No Angels (1955)

One of my favorite films of all time. Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, and Aldo Ray are three escaped convicts from the infamous prison Devil’s Island.  

The film is light hearted in a lot of ways, while also dealing with the idea who should be in prison who shouldn't be. The three convicts boast of their exploits, Bogart’s character is said to be "the Michelangelo” of forgery. He goes on to boast that his only regret is "getting caught." While his two colleagues joke of the murders they committed. Joan Bennett's character Madame Ducotel says she envies the convicts of their "courage" and even imagines ways to kill her cousin. She says "that's as far as it would ever go just a thought in the back of her mind." Then there is Paul and Cousin Andre played by John Baer and Basil Rathbone respectively. Cousin Andre descends on the scene bullying relatives and convicts alike. His nephew Paul’s greed shows through as he burns his uncle’s will and claims his entire fortune.  The whole cast of characters show different degrees of humanity’s faults. As Bogart’s character observes, “I think everyone on this island is innocent except me.”

 

A slight Historical/geographical note, the story takes place in the colony French Guiana on the north eastern coast of South America. In the movie it is implied, if not actually stated, that the convicts are trying to get off an island while hiding out in Cayenne the capital of French Guiana. There are three islands off the coast of French Guiana, Devil’s Island, of course, Royale Island and St. Joseph’s Island and all have prison facilities on them. Cayenne is on the mainland which also includes prison facilities. It is a slight historical inaccuracy that they are trying to get off of Devil’s Island since the actual Devils Island is only roughly a mile across with no cities but this is understandable since the entire prison complex is known as “Devil’s Island.” The last prisoners left Devils Island in 1953, two years before the film was released.

 

To be fair, these are probably more "grey" than "black" on the dark comedy scale both deal with criminal characters that do “the right thing” in the end. They are two holiday classics that are fun and should get more love than they do.

Kanter, Stefan. Tough Without a Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife.New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011.

"Britanica." accessed 12-17-2023. https://www.britannica.com/place/Iles-du-Salut.