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I read an interesting article on the internets this weekend written by The History Girl. She did a piece on an archaeological excavation of an historic smokehouse in Middletown Township, New Jersey. It is only about 15 miles from me on The King’s Highway. I don’t think the King of England himself ever made it over when New Jersey was a colony, but they sure named plenty of highways after him.
“According to The History Girl,” I told Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring, “This smokehouse is built into the side of a hill on the grounds of the Taylor-Butler Orchard Home. I think I’m calling a mission to visit the site.”
The next morning, Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring and I woke up Little Texas Aggie Bear very early. Of course, it was difficult to wake him up, as it was with all bears. It’s in their nature.
“Get up!” Aggie Ring yelled at the little bear. “We’ve got magic to do. I’ll make a thermos of hot tea!”
Decades of serving in the Regular Army taught Aggie Ring to always take an inventory of his equipment before heading out on a dangerous mission. Aggie Ring called out the checklist for me.
“Let’s see…” said Aggie Ring. “I’ll call out the name of the equipment and you verify.”
“Official looking photographer’s safety vest to throw off the police if we have to break and enter an historic site?”
“Check!” I replied.
“Little Aggie Bear to distract law enforcement or county employees if the vest doesn’t work.”
“Check”
“Compass?”
“Check”
“Camera tripod?”
“Check”
“Toilet paper?”
“Check”
“Collapsable light reflector?”
“Check”
“Camera tripod?”
“Check”
“Bottled water”
“Check”
“Camera, extra batteries, and lenses appropriate for the mission?”
“Check”
Aggie Ring turned to me and announced. “I think we’re good. Time to hit the beach.”
We drove the 25 km up the Garden State Parkway to the historic site. Luckily, the historic home was closed on Mondays and there was no one there to interfere with Aggie Ring’s evil plan. Texas Aggie Ring and I sent Little Texas Aggie Bear on a one-bear patrol ahead of us to make sure the area of interest was secure and to set up perimeter security.
“Don’t crap in the woods!” Aggie Ring yelled at Little Texas Aggie Bear as he was bear crawling towards the general location of the historical smokehouse. The History Girl said in her article that it was “North” of the homestead. That compass on the iPhone came in handy.
After about 10 minutes, Aggie Ring and I didn’t hear any gunfire so we decided it was safe to proceed. Shortly after we entered the heavily wooded area, I mentioned to Aggie Ring, “This reminds me of parts of Central Texas. It’s a damn good thing I’m one of those lucky people not allergic to Poison Ivy, Poison Ivy, Late at night while you're sleepin' poison Ivy comes a'creepin'
Arou-ou-ou-ou-ou-ound”
Aggie Ring and I continued on a North heading being careful not to step on any twigs or branches so as not to give our position away to the enemy.
Eventually, we heard, “Psssst.” It was Little Texas Aggie Bear. He had located the historic homestead smokehouse built into the side of a small hill. “I don’t think anyone is around or saw us.” he whispered.
For an historic smokehouse, it was fairly impressive. According to The History Girl, it was built here into a small hillside circa 1850. There aren’t many of those left these days. The County Historical Association recently received a grant from the 1772 Foundation and the New Jersey Historic Trust to restore the smokehouse to its former smokin’ glory.
A few days earlier, Dr. Richard Velt, a Professor of Anthropology who is also the Chair of the Department of History at nearby Monmouth University conducted some test digs to verify that the foundation of the smokehouse was stable. Texas Aggie Ring looked up Dr. Velt on the internets. “Oh bother.” sighed Texas Aggie Ring. “He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He probably eats Philly scrapple. Still, I suppose that’s better than Trenton, NJ pork roll.”
According to the article on the internets, the foundation is stable and the Dr. Velt also discovered that there was once an underground ice house nearby where they’d store ice cut into blocks from the nearby river to have during the miserable hot summer months to make mint juleps. “Underground ice house?” asked Texas Aggie Ring. “That would be a most excellent location for my Secret Underground Lair which I could use to takeover the world.”
“Where’s the Stargate?” asked Little Texas Aggie Bear.
“Silly bear.” I chided him. “The Stargate is on the other side of the homestead. You can’t have smoke from a smokehouse blowing into a Stargate and onto another planet. That’s just plain rude and one doesn’t want uninvited aliens coming back through the Stargate expecting to be fed.”
Texas Aggie Ring and I put our two Texas A&M Engineering degrees to work and gave the historic smokehouse a good looking over. We took a sensible 100+ photos to document our dangerous mission. The structure itself appeared to be in fairly good shape considering that it most likely hasn’t been used in well over a century.
Aggie Ring said to me. “Well, the lower half of the smokehouse below the roofline appears to be in fine condition. The bricks are going to need to be repointed, of course. The roof is going to need to be totally replaced and a brickmason is going to have to conduct some serious repair along the top of the structure.”
I took a few photos of Little Texas Aggie Bear and Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring sitting upon the wall of the smokehouse strictly for historical purposes. As usual, Aggie Ring taunted the little bear by telling him, “You do know it is still legal to hunt bear in New Jersey during the hunting season. It is quite possible that besides beef and pork, the family who once owned this homestead smoked bear meat.”
Little Texas Aggie Bear let out a yelp and ran towards the car. I’ve never seen a bear so small move so quickly.
Now that the show is over, and we have jointly exercised our constitutional rights, we would like to leave you with one very important thought. Sometime in the future, you may have the opportunity to serve as a juror in a censorship case or a so-called obscenity case. It would be wise to remember that the same people who would stop you from listening to Boards Of Canada may be back next year to complain about a book, or even a TV program. If you can be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you can be told what to say or think. Defend your constitutionally protected rights. No one else will do it for you. Thank you.
Note that on their album Bocmaxima, "listening to Boards of Canada" was originally "watching an adult film."
This original version was sampled from end credits on a pornographic film. But this warning on censorship applies to all mediums.
Photo of girl by Carolyn Tiry www.flickr.com/photos/40284811@N03/3992988737/in/photolis...
Click here youtu.be/sa6tQm5suf4 to hear full track
Click here for original version youtu.be/WhAOFIEJR0k
Click here songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858511725/ for full lyrics & meanings
My 365 art project, where I create a year’s worth [yep, 365] of digital collages, with indie songs as my subject.
National Gallery of Art , Washington DC, USA
The Thinker (French: Le Penseur) is a bronze sculpture by Auguste Rodin, usually placed on a stone pedestal. The work shows a nude male figure of over life-size sitting on a rock with his chin resting on one hand as though deep in thought, and is often used as an image to represent philosophy. There are about 28 full size castings, in which the figure is about 186 centimetres (73 in) high, though not all were made during Rodin's lifetime and under his supervision, as well as various other versions, several in plaster, studies, and posthumous castings, in a range of sizes. Rodin first conceived the figure as part of another work in 1880, but the first of the familiar monumental bronze castings did not appear until 1904.
For my video: youtu.be/Z-iHAsZCO6w
Everyone should think green a bit more often. Go on, think green. Check out this Green Hairstreak and think green.
At Denbies I watched this female egg laying, then pausing to rest, then egg laying again. Back in May.
#71440, d
I recently got myself a Retrospective 10. Head out to my blog for more photos.
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Nikon D7000 + Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8ED
1/50 sec at f/5.6, ISO 1600
10 December 2011
I think I've uploaded this before. This is a bookshelf in my office.
I tagged this guy up. On the left are a couple of foam tigers from my old college, Towson Univerisy.
Moving counter clockwise from there is a hand carved wooden turtle that I got in Maui whilst on my honeymoon. I think of it as a good luck charm. My wife got something that looked like a tiki-god or something.
Next is a 1-up from Super Mario Brothers. It is a tin candy container. I believe I picked it up at a Toys 'R Us.
The little army sitting next to it are snorks. They were in my mother-in-law's basement. She said she didn't believe they were her daughter's, but perhaps she picked them up from her days of working at the local grade school. I'm wondering if they perhaps came from McDonald's Happy meals, or the like? In any case, they're likely from the era that the cartoon was on the air, 1984-1988.
Above them is an in-the-box Spike Spiegel figurine from the anime "cowboy bebop", one of my all-time favorites. I prefer to keep it in the box for display purposes, not because I think it somehow retains a higher value.
Next we have Boo from the Megatokyo webcomic. I've been following this webcomic for the last... 8 years? Maybe longer. It wasn't too long after I got out of high school that I discovered it, and I graduated in 1999. Wow, hadn't realized it had been that long.
And finally we have a domo-kun plushie. I picked this guy up, along with a domo-kun 'piggy bank' for my sister, at Otakon '02 or '03 I think.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
The Thinker (le penseur) by Auguste Rodin
Bronze
H. 180 cm ; W. 98 cm ; D. 145 cm
Cast made by Fonderie Alexis Rudier in 1904. Transfered to the musée Rodin in 1922.
When conceived in 1880 in its original size (approx. 70 cm) as the crowning element of The Gates of Hell, seated on the tympanum, The Thinker was entitled The Poet. He represented Dante, author of the Divine Comedy which had inspired The Gates, leaning forward to observe the circles of Hell, while meditating on his work.
The Thinker was therefore initially both a being with a tortured body, almost a damned soul, and a free-thinking man, determined to transcend his suffering through poetry. The pose of this figure owes much to Carpeaux’s Ugolino (1861) and to the seated portrait of Lorenzo de’ Medici carved by Michelangelo (1526-31).
While remaining in place on the monumental Gates of Hell, The Thinker was exhibited individually in 1888 and thus became an independent work.
Enlarged in 1904, its colossal version proved even more popular: this image of a man lost in thought, but whose powerful body suggests a great capacity for action, has became one of the most celebrated sculptures ever known. Numerous casts exist worldwide, including the one now in the gardens of the Musée Rodin, a gift to the City of Paris installed outside the Panthéon in 1906, and another in the gardens of Rodin’s house in Meudon, on the tomb of the sculptor and his wife.
www.musee-rodin.fr/en/collections/sculptures/thinker
The Musée Rodin in Paris, France, is a museum that was opened in 1919 in the Hôtel Biron and surrounding grounds. It displays works by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin.
While living in the Villa des Brillants (in Meudon, suburb of Paris), Rodin used the Hôtel Biron as his workshop from 1908, and subsequently donated his entire collection of sculptures (along with paintings by Vincent van Gogh and Pierre-Auguste Renoir that he had acquired) to the French State on the condition that they turn the building into a museum dedicated to his works.
The Musée Rodin contains most of Rodin's significant creations, including The Thinker, The Kiss, Monument to Victor Hugo, The Burghers of Calais, La Cathedrale, Monument to Balzac, Study for the Naked Muse, without Arms and The Gates of Hell. Many of his sculptures are displayed in the museum's extensive garden.
The museum is one of the most accessible museums in Paris. The gardens around the museum building contain many of the famous sculptures in natural settings.
Behind the museum building is a small lake and casual restaurant.
The Musée Rodin collections are very diverse, as Rodin used to collect besides being an artist, some paintings by Monet, Renoir and Van Gogh which were in Rodin's personal collections are also presented. The museum has also a room dedicated to works of Camille Claudel.
Wikipedia
Think Tank Photo makes one awesome laptop case for the times when you want to pack your essentials and head over to the local coffee shop, client meeting, or on the plane.
Read my full review of the updated Think Tank Photo Artificial Intelligence 15 V3.0 on my blog – blog.soskiphoto.com/2012/06/review-think-tank-photo-artif...
ANSH pink scavenger4
They’re redoing this little strip mall to aa com date new stories and businesses and refurbish ones that are there already. Am guessing that hrdrants are low on the to-do it’s
There are things to learn in every activity if you do the activity in a way that you wouldn't normally do it. For instance, writing with your right hand wouldn't normally teach you very much but writing with your left hand, after a bit of practice, would yield ambidexterity!
In much the same way, I want this picture of me cooking naked to be about learning and thinking differently. At first I was very uncomfortable with the idea. I did not want to be seen naked in a more public area of the house. Compromise: wear an apron. Good. But what if somebody sees me?! Concentrate on cooking! In the end, this activity was more enjoyable for me because there was an added twist. Like dying your hair blond or like trying a new type of drink. But there is also something to be gained when pushing your limits beyond your comfort zone. Like skydiving, like going to school in a different country, or like taking an art course with sexually explicit material...or just by cooking naked. This is my idea of pushing my limits, and learning from it.
Growing up in a family of atheists and science geeks and then becoming one myself I decided to get this tattooed on me to signify not only a little heritage but my personal question to always be thinking and asking...
I think this was actually a post-woof face, (she wanted me to throw a toy!) still it sort of looks like Rosie was smiling for the camera :) She was very cute, very expressive and very polite too - carefully and very deliberately sharing stick and ball throwing duties between all three of us humans, gazing up at the chosen person expectantly, so they couldn't ignore the hint! Most BCs I've met are much less considerate - they pick the "best" thrower and target them exclusively, unceremoniously firing the slower/less efficient throwers - Barney for example knows I'm often a bit slow to throw a toy (too busy taking photos!), so if we're out with my friend Natalie, he dumps me and presents her with toys instead - she's much quicker off the mark!! Yes, it was nice to meet a collie who has manners :)
I think she might have been a little happier if it had been just me who'd come to visit her... After all she could utilise an extra human companion as a ball thrower, whereas Barney was simply competition! They got on fine but there was a bit complaining from both when the other dog reached the toy first and on a number of occasions they practically ran each other over - to their mutual horror... Having said that, in some ways (when they weren't annoying each other!), they made a good team - Rosie won't swim but Barney will and Barney rarely retrieves sticks properly but Rosie not only retrieves them, she finds them too. So when sticks were chucked in deeper parts of the river, Barney would swim out and fetch it back to the shallower region near the bank, where he'd promptly lose interest and drop it. At that point, Rosie, who'd been watching on the sidelines, would wade out, search around for it and bring it back to us to throw again!
"Weg mit den Fremdwörtern! Denke deutsch! Rede deutsch! Schreibe deutsch! Sei stolz darauf, daß du ein Deutscher bist!"
'Get rid of the foreign words! Think German! Speak German! Write in German! Be proud to be a German!'
A nationialist postcard of the Austrian Deutscher Schulverein. Mailed as Austrian Feldpost in 1916.
I don't think it will have bus enthusiasts stampeding to their local Wilkinsons store but I find these little HTI Leyland Titan buses rather charming. They are a copy of a copy of a copy! LOL. A London based firm called Feva sold souvenir models using a very similar casting to this one which in turn is a copy of the Realtoy which is a copy of the original 1981 Matchbox Leyland Titan!! The real vehicle ended production in 1984 with a very poor sales record so its amazing toy manufacturers in 2014 still model their toy buses on them. Part of a 2 vehicle set. Mint and boxed.
I think it will be a while before I go out to this spot again. It's a great spot, every time I've gone, 2-3x, there's always been other "Train people" there. That's not the issue. The way the tracks are laid out, if I want to be able to flick graff on all of the tracks, not facing the sun, it's going to be a lot of running.
I don't know how many of you follow me and also bench, but if you do, you'll understand that there's great spots, there's good spots, and then there's dificult spots. All of them can have lots of action, but some spots are WAY better than others for getting flicks. This is one of those spots where it's super chill, other train people there, but getting flicks of graff is difficult for me. We get a lot of stackers, and if shooting with the sun, the tracks are progressively lower.... Hard to explain, but this is a great spot, just not easy. I'll visit again in the coming months and see if I can get it to work for me, but as it is right now, I like to go there, I don't like to get flicks there.
Fun Story: I drove down in-between the tracks today for the first time. Everything was fine. Most people stop to watch the trains from the access road above. Probably 25ft. higher and 50ft. from the closest track. Whatever.
I'm there for maybe an hour at this point, lots of cars and trucks coming and going. One stops, some small SUV thing. Father/Son. Son about 12-14yrs. I'm about 40 yards away, but down the hill from them, and I can clearly hear everything they are talking about. Father seems very supportive of the son's interest in trains. Cool ! First train (for them) starts down the tracks and I hear a train whistle, but it's not from a train, it's from the kid. He's got one of those wooden train whistles and he starts blowing it when he sees the train.
Gave me a smile. I could clearly her the kid talking about the UP, and then the BNSF, etc etc.. Kid seemed to know his stuff. We had one NS train come through and he spotted it from a mile away. The kid filmed every train that came through while they were there, and the father was telling him something about his intro's on YouTube, so I'm sure he's a YouTuber. I really wanted to go up and talk to them before they left and see if they were from around here or not. If not, I have some fun spots they might want to check, but they left before I could.
Getting ready to leave after only a couple hours and I can see there's some graff on one of the small train bridges. Decided to check it out before leaving. F-ing cool spot. Lots of writer's monikers, and quite a few larger pieces. Had a lot of fun trudging through the weeds, and the small stream to catch some flicks of all the goodies under and around the bridges. If I go back there, it will be to check out the bridge graff.
As always, Had fun, and saw some cool pieces.
Thanks to all of the writers. Stay safe out there, both writers, and fellow benchers.
To see my freight graffiti videos click here: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOdGrtyTsyWVhLVHkwY0_-iu8P...
I'm assuming that this huge horse is a clydesdale, right where it should be about 100m from the river clyde, it was taller than me anyway, and I'm 6"3. We agreed on exchanging a photo for a peppermint and everyone was happy.
Taken with a Helios 44m-4 wide open
Have you ever thought about
What you are going to leave for your children?
Hefty bank balance….
Luxurious cars and houses…
Polluted AIR
Polluted WATER…
And a polluted ENVIRONMENT
Have you ever thought about GLOBAL WARMING?
Why are we behaving like chumps?
Why are we destroying our own planet?
Do we really love our FAMILY?
I know,
You have no time….
You are very BUSY…
But PLEASE, THINK ONCE
COULD OUR PROGENY FORGIVE US??????
ASCIi Westside Meeting (Arizona Society for Computer Information, inc.), 6/3/2006
- Location: Word of Life Lutheran Church, Surprise, Arizona, USA
- Available Original Size: 1728 x 1152
- File Format: .PNG
Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM
Focal Length: 70mm
Exposure Program: Auto
Exposure: 1/10 at f/4.0
ISO: 100
Flash disabled
I had just gotten my first high quality lens, and had to try it out. Did not want to disrupt the meeting by using a flash. The room was illuminated by sunlight. Hand held, no IS (image stabilization).
Hank is one of the nicest and hard-working people you'll ever meet. He's very active in ASCIi, as well as the Phoenix PC Users Group, ready to take on whatever needs to be done. Hank is the ASCIi Treasurer, Webmaster and Newsletter Distributor.
Nice shirt!