Book disappointment

 I had high hopes for this one.

Nothing much to see here. Move along. Move along. Lots of flabby writing to say little that is new. I seriously wonder if he was getting paid by the word, or assembled lots of smaller articles without an editing pass. The whole thing is just under 500 pages, with footnotes and index taking up 100 of that. 

The money shot is on page 401, and I skipped a lot of pages getting there. You get these slightly paraphrased nuggets of wisdom.

Do meaningful work, whatever that means to you. Don't retire to sit and watch TV.

Look forward to the coming days and make plans.

Regular exercise.

Maintain an active social circle, especially with younger people.

Regular doctor visits.

Don't think of yourself as old. (Most days, myself, I think I'm in my mid 30's.)

Keep your brain working with new things. 

Oh, and a couple from me, go with the peer reviewed science, not anecdote or charlatans trying to sell vitamin supplements or a fad diet. Eat a wide variety of foods, and probably less meat than you eat now.

There, how hard is that? See you at my 100th birthday party. 

And this one is just out and out a waste of time. All he did was show some photos, and explain the exact steps he used, as in, move this slider to x, and tweak the tone curve this way. Nothing about why it was done that way. To my taste all the photos look over baked. 

Of the Day

Driftwood

I love it when the driftwood has other things on it. Often it's stones, which can make for an interesting contrast in texture. As a reminder, these are as found. In some cases the stone is pounded into the wood by forces beyond human abilities, and other times it's clear I came along shortly after someone had fun with the stones. 

Peony

Lily, but first a sunrise serendipity from 2106.

Film

I felt kind of sad going through this old school. Built in 1930, it was probably planned during the late 20's when times were good and the future of the prairies looked bright. I suspect it was thought of as a good investment, to attract families to the town and growing the local businesses. Nobody knew they were heading into the dirty thirties and a global depression, then a global war, and coming out the other side to a totally different world. If they had known, they probably would not have built this. 

It's a handsome building. The bones seem sound in spite of being closed in 1966, and open to the weather for decades. Of course, there could be problems a short visit wouldn't discover. I've little doubt there's been many discussions over the years about what to do with the building. In other places it would have been repurposed, perhaps being made into a big home. I suppose that could be done here if you brought lots of money. But then, you'd be living in Hoosier, SK. It's a 45 minute drive to Kindersley, a town of 5000 people. Or you could saddle up the ponies for the 2.5 hr drive to Medicine Hat.

There were a couple film photos from inside that turned out to be disappointments because of my poor focussing skills. It's a good subject, and I wouldn't mind another crack at it, but I'm not going to drive 4 hours just for that.

Stay tuned for another building very near this one.