Ecce Sigum

Tag: Russia

  • Links and Notes for the Week of January 28, 2018

    * Some words: Dialogue. Monologue. Analog. Dialect. Lecture. Lector.

    * After some years of using GoodReads, I am trying out LibraryThing as a way to catalog all of my books. I can’t say I prefer one to the other, but at first use the LibraryThing UI is easier for viewing large volumes of data. Thus I don’t need to build a custom app to do this for me. Plus plus, the LibraryThing Android App can scan barcodes, which VASTLY simplifies the cataloging process.

    * [UPDATE] After a week of using LibraryThing, I can say this: LT is very good as a cataloging system. It lacks some of the “friendliness” of GoodReads, but that is not a criticism. LT also makes sorting, filtering, and categorizing extremely easy. I think I will end up using both in parallel – GoodReads for the more public-facing view of all things literary in my life, and LibraryThing for the catalog of my personal library. LT will also be useful for outputting data for any custom apps I might build down the road.

    * I’ve been studying up on Baba Yaga and Russian history for a writing project. One of the odd bits of trivia I have uncovered is that there is a community of Old Believers in a tiny town in northern Minnesota. Old Believers — staroveri (старове́ры), formerly called raskolniki (раскольники), which has interesting connotations vis a vis Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment — have communities all over the world, with the primary U.S. populations being in Alaska, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. Funny, the way the pieces of a story come together.

  • Links and Notes for the Week of January 14, 2018

    * Back in September of 2016 I took the Amtrak from Grand Rapids to Vancouver via the Empire Builder route. It was a wonderful, contemplative, transcendent experience (blog posts pending). Based on that, and based on this article in the Calvert Journal, I now want to experience the Trans-Siberian Railway. It will also give me an excuse to dust off my Russian skills.

    * And speaking of that trip, while in transit, while not watching America roll by, I read Trysting by Emmanuelle Pagano. It is an absolutely beautiful book, recalling all of love and beauty and intimacy and trust and heartache and the million tiny moments that bind people together and pull them apart. I just came across a wonderful review by Lauren Goldberg in Music & Literature which does justice to the most compelling book I have read in years. On a related note, I think I will now buy a subscription to Music & Literature.

    * And speaking of Russian stuff, the Speak Russian Like Russians blog is both useful and fun.

    * In the world of fandom and literature, author Jim C. Hines (may his beard grow ever longer) has put together an excellent post detailing the long history of Jon del Arroz’s trolling and harassing behavior toward authors, fans and organizations in the larger community. The comments on the article are mostly erudite and informative, though a JdA supporter/GamerGater pulls an impressive amount of sea-lioning to no significant effect.

    * The 2018 State of the World conversation over at The Well has wrapped up. It, as well as the many previous conversations in the series, are well worth perusing over the upcoming weeks and months. A hearty thank you to Bruce Sterling, Jon Lebkowsky and all the other participants for opening this to the general public.

    * Dean Allen, creator of the content management/blogging system Textpattern, has passed away. Allen was one of the biggest influences in my early career as a web developer. I took his thoughts on design and typography to heart, though I was never a designer. His photo blog featuring his Weimaraner Oliver made me want to move to rural France. Allen, along with Eric Meyer and Jeffrey Zeldman, were huge influences as I began my career in web development.

  • More from Russia

    I just uploaded 24 more photos from my trip to Russia in 1994. Click the above photo to see the rest of the set.

    That’s me in the front row, in the trench coat and glasses.

  • More Russia Photos

    More photos posted from the Russia trip. the one above is of the ceiling in one of the cathedrals in Saint Petersburg. I will have to dig out my thirteen year old notebook to figure out which one it is.

  • Catching Up

    Prague, Czech Republic, 1994

    I just scanned, cropped, straightened and adjusted another fourteen photos from my 1994 trip to Russia. Eighteen down, about eighty to go.

    I also just finished updating the Crime Map. So far this year (that I know of) there have been eighteen murders. In 2006 there were 19 murders. We still have almost four months to go until the end of the year. With a little hard work, we can easily surpass last year. Our shareholders demand nothing less of us.

  • Prague, 1994

    This is a test photo to see how my scanner (which I am using for the first time) works. The photo is from a set I took back in the Spring of 1994, when I and a group of students from Grand Valley State University and Indiana University Bloomington, along with our professors, spent six weeks in Russia.

    This photo is from a tour of Prague on the way in.

    More photos as I figure out a simple system for scanning, cleaning, and uploading.

  • 59.941428, 30.352650

    In May of 1994 I spent a month in the Hotel Rus, drinking vodka and Georgian wine, taking dozens of photographs, and generally having the time of my life. It was here that I got into the habit of keeping a daily journal, something which I have kept doing, more or less, ever since. I still pull out the photos once in a while to remind myself of what it was like to be 25 in St Petersburg.

  • Lamb

    This afternoon Virginia and I went to Sami’s for gyros. After the initial feeding frenzy, in which I lost the tip of my pinky finger, we traded gyro stories. Actually, it was less a trade and more of her listening to me while she ate.

    I had my first gyro in Gorky Park in Moscow, in June of 1994. This was at the tail end of a six week class excursion to Russia, and the bunch of us were dirty, sleep-deprived, suffering from mild alcohol poisoning, and loving every minute of it.

    The day was overcast and spitting rain, and the park was mostly empty, except for the carnies. Boy, if you think American carnies are scary, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. We didn’t dare go on any of the rides; by Cedar Point standards they didn’t look like that much fun and we had a healthy distrust of Russian safety measures. The latrines were the most frightening experience of my life. They made my eyes water from a hundred yards UPWIND.

    Just off of a smaller path a ways away from the river two Azerbaijani gentlemen had a small kiosk set up with a home-made rotisserie grill thing and a small strongbox. On the rotisserie was a big hunk of sheep meat. After days of sparse sack lunches and shoe-leather stew, the site of so much fresh meat sent us into a slavering frenzy of waiting in line for the sheep to finish cooking. The twenty minutes felt like an eternity. Every movement of an Azerbaijani arm left a vapor trail and the glint of sunlight from gold teeth was blinding.

    Finally they were preparing my gyro. Several thin slices of lamb on pita bread, with a cucumber sause and fresh crushed parsley. To this day, I remember it as one of the best meals of my life.