Janney Furnace

Category: dribblings

 

months ago, maybe it was October, Laura called me up during the week and was all, “I have to go to some kind of Civil War thing in a neighboring county for to take pictures of a furnace or something. want to come along?”

i was all, “of course!”

when she came by to pick me up i was all, “what is this again?”

“i’m not sure. something called Janney Furnace.”

“and where is it?”

“Calhoun County.”

“and what is it?”

“a furnace. and a museum.”

“a furnace. does it still work?”

“i don’t know.”

“from the Civil War?”

“i’m guessing.”

“… what is it?”

***

(i honestly thought i had already blogged about this, but after searching i found that i had not. shame on me.)

when we got there we were all, “oh.”

i was not expecting it to be just right there next to the road like that. i guess i was thinking it was going to be this big metal industrial looking thing. i was a bit stunned to find it was sort of this big chimney.

you can walk up to it and inside it. here’s the main front opening:

you can see it’s circular on the inside. and on both sides there are two openings:


this on is on the right.


this one is on the left.

then the chimney part goes up and it’s awesomely circular.

what was this furnace for? well, i could tell you, or you could do what i did and read the sign.

there were a couple of big rock chunks by the entrance of the furnace. i’m not sure if it’s the “pig iron” that the sign mentions or if it’s just chunks of iron ore. i’m not a geologist.

next to the furnace is the Confederate Memorial. it’s a memorial to the soldiers from Calhoun County. It names both the ones who died in battle as well as the survivors. i did not get any good pictures of this. it is quite long.


unfortunate use of quotation marks.

and here’s Laura flirting shamelessly with Johnny Reb.

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3. 1776 by David McCullough

Category: 50 Books

3. 1776 by David McCullough

It’s called 1776 for a reason. This book is about the year 1776 and the Revolutionary War between the colonies and the British. And that’s it.

 I liked the book, but it wasn’t a great read for me right now as it expected the reader to know what was already going on at the time. I’ve been reading stuff about the Massachusetts’ Bay Colony, but I’ve not quite worked my way up to 1776. So I was a bit lost. I’ve heard that this book isn’t quite as comprehensive as some of his other stuff, but I haven’t read any of his other books (Truman or John Adams or the other 6,000 books he’s written.). So I have nothing to compare it to.

Like I say, if I had a better background in the Revolutionary War it would have been more enjoyable. Too bad for me, right now I’m more into the Puritans and then skipping over to the American Civil War (or more accurately, Abraham Lincoln. I just can’t get enough Lincoln.)

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conversation with the Wii Fit part III

Category: dribblings

when you start the wii fit for the first time it asks you to pick a “trainer”. i was hoping the choices were something like Mario, Luigi, and the Princess… but no. this game is serious. so the choices are basically Dude and Chick. the trainer is the cartoon that shows you how to do the excersises as well as talks non-stop about, “don’t forget to breathe!” and “count with me!” (only, when it says to count with them it’s always at the end of the excersise and they never start counting.)

i went with the chick trainer because, well, i don’t know. i just did.

so the other day i log on and the game starts up and… the Dude greets me and says, “hi. i’ll be filling in for your regular trainer today.”

“what? oh, hi. okay. …what?”

where did she… go?

family emergency? death in the family? car trouble? double coupons day at the supermarket?

was she off in someone else’s Wii helping them through the downward facing dog? IS THE WHORE TWO-TIMING ME?!

she was back the next day and didn’t apologize or anything for dumping me with Sir on Monday.

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2009 Fiddy

Category: 50 Books

i am so bummed that i didn’t read 50 books in 2009. i think i got to 43 or 44. so close! i know the reasons why i did not get to fifty:

sadly, facebook/bejeweled blitz was/is quite the time burglar.

i did four paintings in the last 4 months.

and let’s not forget the verbally abusive wii.

so now that it’s 2010 it’s time to start a new Fiddy. and i’m not sure what it is about January, but for some reason i am craving nonfiction, specifically American history. i’m trying to not go straight to the Abraham Lincoln books like i did last year. i thought this time i might get some Revolutionary War reading in (hello, McCullough’s 1776). i’ve just finished rereading (1.) Sarah Vowell’s The Wordy Shipmates because it is so informative on so many things about Puritan New England. Plus, i always seem to get something out of it, when she talks about the Puritans and how their legacy has formed the United States today.

2. Unfortunately, I’ve also just finished James Patterson’s second attempt at nonfiction, The Murder of King Tut.

Okay, first of all, how dare they sell this as nonfiction. it’s more like historical fiction. Second of all, every time he had Nefertiti or Ankhesenpaaten (or Ankhesenamun, if you prefer) (and if you didn’t hear Yosemite Sam yell, “Hossenfeffer!” when reading that name, then i don’t know you.) call the Pharaoh “Tut” i  kind of died a little bit inside. When i told my coworkers about this, they looked at me like i had grown horns on my head.

“What are you talking about?” they asked.

“I just don’t think the ancient Egyptians would have called him Tut.”

“why not?”

“what? nicknames? for a pharaoh?”

“well, you weren’t there. maybe they did call him that.”

“no way. besides, to them, since he was pharaoh that also meant he was a god. so i gotta think a nickname or shortening of a name is out.”

“You’re a nerd.”

“Also, Tutankhamun is way shorter to say that how his named is spelled out.”

“what do you mean?”

“i dunno, his name written out is like, Feather Grass Bowl Bird Staff Weed Thingy Water or something.”

“dork.”

“i’m just saying. “Tut” is a 19th/20th century thing.”

“What do you expect, it’s James Patterson.”

“Yes, and he’s selling this as nonfiction. It’s bullshit is what it is.”

“Jaimie, only you care about this.”

“No! I don’t believe that. I bet there are others out there, like me, who are horrified by this.”

They called me nerd again and we moved on to other topics.

Even when he attempts nonfiction, boy still uses the two page chapters. Hate.

Another part of the awfulness of this book is James Patterson himself. He’s a character in it too. In it he writes about how he wanted to write a book and solve the murder of Tutankhamun. He acts like he worked hard on the book all, “be true to the research” blah blah blah, but he admits that he didn’t do any of the research, it’s the other guy, Martin Dugard, who travels around and gathers the research, because apparently James can’t be bothered. He’s too busy having other people write his fiction books for him, and he needs to be there to rake in the dough.

At one point in the story, Patterson let’s the reader know that he’s an awesome writer because he mentions that his publisher always takes his calls. When he tells the publisher that he wants to do a book about solving King Tut’s murder the publisher’s response is something like, “you had me at King Tut.” Basically it’s Patterson tooting his own horn, and not only did it interrupt the story he was telling, it also made him look like a pompous ass.

As far as research goes, who knows? There were no quotations, footnotes, bibliography, index, NOTHING. The whole production seemed sloppy and rushed and only because it’s James Patterson’s name on the cover would anyone have published it.

If he would have just stuck to a This a Fictionalization of What Possibly Could Have Gone Down, it would have worked. He can tell a story. It’s the nonfiction part that fails AS WELL AS the “solving” of the murder. I won’t spoil the ending, although I should, because it was such a cop out answer it borderlined on insulting. No, I take that back. It was insulting.

What a crock of shit. I’m giving up on James Patterson. No mas. I know I’ve sworn him off before, but this time i’m for real.

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Happy New Year

Category: dribblings

may your happy new year be filled with such amazing calmness as this:

they are sufficiently worn out from all the sniffing and running.

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a conversation with the Wii Fit part II

Category: Uncategorized

“please step on the board.”

step.

“oof.”

“hey. don’t be like that.”

“one at a time please.”

“shit. Vaudeville called, they want their fat joke back.”

“you’ve gain a whole pound since yesterday.”

“sue me for eating dinner.”

“do you eat your dinners late? that’s a bad habit.”

“i work till 7:30, twit.”

“you should eat at least three hours before going to bed.”

“and you should get a job, ass.”

“wanna do hula hoops?”

“…”

“…”

“yes.”

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a conversation i had with the Wii Fit this morning.

Category: dribblings

“how tall are you?”

click click “i’m about this tall.”

“calculating…. wow, you’re fat.”

“wha- well, yeah, just… just watch your tone, robot.”

“let’s do some activities so you won’t be such a fat fatty.”

“tone. as in, watch it.”

“pick a trainer… good pick…. she’ll show you the execises, fatso.”

“all right, look. that’s uncalled for.”

“let’s balance.”

“fine.”

“wow, you suck at balancing. maybe if you weren’t such a fucking fatty, you could do this.”

“why don’t you shut your talk hole you goddamnjapaneseouterspacerobot.”

“fatty.”

“don’t judge me! you don’t even know me!”

“you wanna do some hula hoops?”

“not with you, you nazi robot piece of shit.”

“come on, you know you wanna.”

“okay fine.”

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mom and dad’s present

Category: dribblings

i can finally post the pictures! mom loved it. i can’t remember what size it is. it’s something like 32″ x 40″ maybe? it’s bigger than the other ones i’ve done.

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dioxazine purple haze

Category: dribblings

since i obviously didn’t take the original, nor steal it from a (willing) friend, let’s just call this one an exercise.

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Christmastime

Category: dribblings

i finally get some days off and i’m sick? this blows. it’s some kind of stomach thing.

lucky for us, Laura played in photoshop lst week and made these hilarious pics of my bro. it’s funny to see this picture of justin because he doesn’t really look like that anymore. he’s got a beard and looks like an allman brother or something. but laura said the picture was too good to pass up. plus, justin is such a Twilight fan.

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