The ITypewriter! I just like this.

Go to the link below to see a video of this sweet piece of retro-tech in action

Citation: <http://www.austin-yang.com/index.php?/projects/iturntable/>. Accessed 8/18/2012

Pretty cool dog trick

Just one more thing I need

The only problem is that it doesn't crunch on the gravel with the big plastic wheel.

I don't know why I think this is so funny

From the movie I Remember Mama comes this quote:

"Mama, don't you want to be rich?"

 "I want to be rich like I would like to be 10 feet tall.  Its good for some things, bad for others."

That could go for a lot of things.

A "Letter of Note" from Mark Twain

Tuesday, 26 January 2010

You're an idiot of the 33rd degree

In November of 1905, an enraged Mark Twain sent this superb letter to J. H. Todd, a patent medicine salesman who had just attempted to sell bogus medicine to the author by way of a letter and leaflet delivered to his home. According to the literature Twain received (p1,p2,p3,p4), the 'medicine' in question - The Elixir of Life - could cure such ailments as meningitis (which had previously killed Twain's daughter in 1896) and diphtheria (which had also killed his 19-month-old son). Twain, himself of ill-health at the time and very recently widowed after his wife suffered heart failure, was understandably furious and dictated the following letter to his secretary, which he then signed.  

Source

Transcript

Nov. 20. 1905

J. H. Todd 
1212 Webster St.
San Francisco, Cal.

Dear Sir,

Your letter is an insoluble puzzle to me. The handwriting is good and exhibits considerable character, and there are even traces of intelligence in what you say, yet the letter and the accompanying advertisements profess to be the work of the same hand. The person who wrote the advertisements is without doubt the most ignorant person now alive on the planet; also without doubt he is an idiot, an idiot of the 33rd degree, and scion of an ancestral procession of idiots stretching back to the Missing Link. It puzzles me to make out how the same hand could have constructed your letter and your advertisements. Puzzles fret me, puzzles annoy me, puzzles exasperate me; and always, for a moment, they arouse in me an unkind state of mind toward the person who has puzzled me. A few moments from now my resentment will have faded and passed and I shall probably even be praying for you; but while there is yet time I hasten to wish that you may take a dose of your own poison by mistake, and enter swiftly into the damnation which you and all other patent medicine assassins have so remorselessly earned and do so richly deserve.

Adieu, adieu, adieu!

Mark Twain

Citation:Twain, Mark. From www.lettersofnote.com. <http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/01/youre-idiot-of-33rd-degree.html > Accessed 16 May 2011.

Suggestion

Go use the bathroom before watching this video, so that you don't wet yourself from laughing so hard.

In case you were wondering...

Citation: <http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTh0KNC82Q4ZT6b8jy1uN3FuRxt7TkX7PJc1zn9oi9hRbPJhcuThQ> Accessed 16 May 2011

A couple things I probably need

Citation: Image from <http://www.goodtimesmotoring.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/Graham_paige_rototiller_B1-6.283171038_std.jpg> Accessed 11 May, 2011.

Publishers threatened by "new" technology

The Doghouse

Samuel Johnson knows how to lay the smack down!

To the Right Honourable the Earl of Chesterfield

7 February 1755

My Lord

I have been lately informed, by the proprietor of The World, that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the public, were written by your Lordship.   To be so distinguished, is an honour, which, being very little accustomed to favours from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge.

When, Upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your Lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your address; and could not forbear to wish that I might boast myself Le vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre; - that I might obtain that regard for which I saw the world contending; but I found my attendance so little encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue it.  What I had once addressed your Lordship in public, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing which a retired and uncourtly scholar can possess.  I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.

Seven years, my Lord, have now past, since I waited in your outward rooms, or was repulsed from your door; during which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it, at last, to the verge of publication, without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favour.  Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a Patron before.

The shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks.

Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help?  The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it.  I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received, or to be unwilling that the Public should consider me as owing that to a Patron, which Providence has enabled me to do for my self.

Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any favourer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less; for I have been long wakened from that dream of hope, in which I once boasted myself with so much exultation, my Lord,

your Lordship’s most humble,

most obedient servant

SAM: JOHNSON

Citation: Johnson, Samuel. In Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings. Edited by Patrick Cruttwell. Penguin Books, 1968. Page 252-253.

Reorganizing the bookshelf

Nothing more needs to be said

Anything's possible

And this proves it...

Drinking coffee in space

No matter where you go...

Turbotax

It's probably time to get started on your taxes...here is some motivation for you from Rhett and Link

joke police

Let this be a warning to those of you who make bad jokes...especially puns (Patrick!) I'm thinking of joining the Joke Police - Pun Suppression Division!

I want that!

One of my problems (there are more than one) is that I have trouble leaving home without a book.  Or really, without more than one book. I am (embarrassingly) the kind of guy that always has multiple books going...which could mean I am a man with a wide variety of interests, or (surely not!) I am someone who has trouble sticking to one thing at a time.

Hmmm....

But anyway, 

In an effort to provide myself with a selection of books to choose from, even if I know darn well that I won't have time to read during the day, I usually have at least 

• a Touchstone or First Things magazine in my briefcase, and/or 
• a book tucked under my arm on my way out the door. 
• This, in addition to multiple articles I have printed and inserted into my Circa Notebook I always carry with me.  Not to mention practically 
• infinite access to reading material on my internet-enabled "smart" phone.  And, I confess that I stop by 
• the library several times a week.  Sometimes just to visit the Oxford English Dictionary in the Reference Section, and sometimes to scan for new titles in 
• the Friends of the Library Bookstore.

But I guess I want more options, so I am looking at some possibilities:

I guess the hard part is having to choose just one option...they all look good to me.

Citation: Images found by Google Image Searching "Portable Bookshelf"

Eric Metaxas

How have I missed this guy?  Eric Metaxas recently published a biography on Bonhoeffer.  I have only read one chapter (my friend Mike told me to read a few paragraphs, and I got sucked into the story, thought about "borrowing" the book "accidentally" but thought better of it...)

I came home and Googled "Eric Metaxas", and then wondered to myself, "How can anyone actually do everything that he has done in one lifetime?" I would think that it was impossible, except I am friends with Austin Boyd, who is startling productive himself: husband, father, author, CEO of a company, teacher, ...so I assume that Mr. Metaxas has a similar personality or capacity to focus.

This video is long...but at least listen to the first part...probably the cleverest introduction of a speaker that I have ever heard:

Eric Metaxas on "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy" from Socrates in the City on Vimeo.