DDK 03: The Monster In The Mirror. Digital drawing: 20×30″ @300 dpi. 4/27/2019. CLICK TO SEE IN A NEW TAB SIZED FOR YOUR MONITOR.
The third in the series, and I sat on this one for a long time. There were some technical difficulties towards the end, such as in making the monster’s appendages persuasively symmetrical (working anatomically and compositionally). If I share an earlier version, you’ll understand why.
Below you can see I’d drawn in a couple appendages — a mantis type arm, and a sort of spiked horn — on the left side of the monster’s head. I got rid of the two long insect-leggy appendages in the front, but had to manufacture a matching set of the other ones for the right side. That’s a rather difficult feat of anatomy, perspective, and lighting.
If I’d planned this image, I would have roughed in all the elements on…
Simplify, Simplify, Simplify. At one time I thought it would be a great idea to create several blogs, each with its own theme. This is one of those niche blogs. On August 8, 2018 I decided to transition to a single, self-hosted blog which I named My Strange Life.
However I have no intention of forgetting the folks that actually read my posts. Without readers this is just a wasted effort. Here is an updated list of posts that are available at my new location.
The theme for May 2, 2024 is #Grass I participate in a photography challenge on Spoutible, a social media site, A hashtagged theme is posted each day from the account of Daily Picture Theme which describes itself as “The Big Photo Album of Our Community.” The theme for today is #Grass, The featured photo is… Read […]
The theme for May 1, 2024 is #Frame I participate in a photography challenge on Spoutible, a social media site, A hashtagged theme is posted each day from the account of Daily Picture Theme which describes itself as “The Big Photo Album of Our Community.” The theme for today is #Frame. On This Day –… Read […]
The theme for April 30, 2024 is #Drift I participate in a photography challenge on Spoutible, a social media site, A hashtagged theme is posted each day from the account of Daily Picture Theme which describes itself as “The Big Photo Album of Our Community.” The theme for today is #Drift. I was nine when… Read […]
The theme for April 29, 2024 is #Pearl I participate in a photography challenge on Spoutible, a social media site, A hashtagged theme is posted each day from the account of Daily Picture Theme which describes itself as “The Big Photo Album of Our Community.” The theme for today is #Pearl. My featured photo is… Read […]
The theme for April 25, 2024 is #Shower I participate in a photography challenge on Spoutible, a social media site, A hashtagged theme is posted each day from the account of Daily Picture Theme which describes itself as “The Big Photo Album of Our Community.” The theme for today is #Shower. We have outdoor showers,… Read […]
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I was a bit hasty in announcing that I was retiring this blog. I started it over 10 years ago as a means of sharing photos and random thoughts. Because I had opted for the free version of WordPress, I realized that it would have limits on storage and contain their advertising.
Google’s Blogger product seemed like a better choice for me since it was integrated with Google photos and was free of advertising. I gave it the generic name Poltrack Blog and it is fairly popular because of recurring themes such as Look What I Saw at the Green Center.
However I have a bit of unease over Google’s commitment to Blogger. It hasn’t evolved over the last decade which is a lifetime in software terms. WordPress is the most popular blogging platform and there is a an upgrade path if I run out of space, or it gets more popular.
The time has come to simplify my online presence. I have too many separate blogs, emails and addresses. I’m rolling them all together into my website with a simple address.
“Clutter, a free spirit, and a have-fun attitude leads to real creativity” – Bronson Potter
Not everything is clutter. I like this glowing dolphin that I found at the Green Center. The thing in front of it is hypnotic to watch.I have a lots of ceramic insulators. I think the long narrow one was used when houses were wired with individual wires. The ceramic insulators were placed where the wires would be run between floor and and wall joists.John Weber found this weird brass thing and now it is in my basement. I suspect it might be a ultrasonic transducer. The only clue is the label “Bubble Hole”.A remnant from my days at Digital. A tie-wrap gun with preset tension for various sizes of tie-wraps.Braided ground wire. I might use this to repair a missing wire on my utility trailer.I found all these florescent light sockets with attached ballasts. I have no idea when I collected them, but they will be heading to the metal recycle bin at the dump.All of my cheap bug zappers only lasted one season, but I have no idea why I didn’t toss them when they broke. I finally purchased a high end model that is powered by D size batteries. It is so powerful that it can set a deer fly on fire.Electrocuted remains of a deer fly in my high-end swatterI found an electrostatic dust precipitator which worked for a short while. When it failed I kept the parts including these collectors.
“Clutter, a free spirit, and a have-fun attitude leads to real creativity” – Bronson Potter
When I was about ten I developed an interest in electronics. I would take apart old radios and try to understand how it worked. Later I bought an electronics kit that had schematicsfor several different projects. This was a time before integrated circuits and transistors, so the kit consisted of tubes and discrete components. It wasn’t very safe either since it operated on line current. It was a way to learn how to solder and learn some basic electronics. Later I moved on to a company called Heathkit that sold kits for everything from amplifiers to a digital computer (with vacuum tubes). I built amplifiers, a VTVM, and an AM/FM tuner.
These kits would arrive in a box with a chassis, bags of parts and very precise instructions. Soldering tube sockets was a royal pain and the instructions would tell you when to apply solder since each lug usually had multiple wires attached. The instructions contained illustrations showing how many wires should be attached to each lug. There were no printed circuit boards back then so everything was done with wires. It was tedious but back then I thought it was fun.
Later in the early 1970s I took an online course with the GI bill and built a Heathkit color television. It was an insane project and it cured me of any desire to ever use a soldering iron again. The damn thing worked but I didn’t want to spring for a cabinet, so it sat on a table with all the dangerous wiring and high voltage components exposed. It was the last model that was completely analog and required constant adjustment to keep the colors somewhat life like. Thankfully my young son didn’t get electrocuted as it sat on the table emitting X-rays.
This was my first kit, which generated an audio tone transmitted to an AM radio. I used it with a telegraph key to practice Morse Code. It is a Hartley oscillator. Sadly it no longer works, so I’m going to say goodbye after 50 years.
Pretty isn’t it? I think this was a test breadboard for the alpha chip developed by Digital. It belongs in a museum, not in my cellar.
I’m a sucker for old electronic equipment and this arrived at the Green Center, It can produce a serious amount of direct current, 25 amperes is impressive.
As I expected the voltage control is a variac transformer which I think is the coolest thing. It also had two beefy transformers and a serious group of rectifiers.
Two transformers and one big electrolytic capacitor.
My family has always used Electrolux vacuum cleaners. At one time I had about 3 of the older ones in my attic that I had picked up at the dump. As a kid we had the 1940s sled model that looked like a rocket ship. My parents bought it from a door-to-door salesman. It came with all kinds of accessories such as this paint/ bug sprayer. This is old school, the black top is bakelite, an early plastic.
Need parts? these are going to the Green Center. The centipede looking things are integrated circuits. Can you spot the tube socket?
My nephew is a mechanical engineer who designs guns. He built this rubber band model when he was a kid. I’m going to return it to him.
The same nephew took me shooting and I recovered shell casings and slugs from our “target” (see below)
Boot error on the hard drive.
Such a cool device to measure high electrical resistances. Note the bakelite case. I bought this at a yard sale at the home of Bronson Potter, an eccentric inventor who lived in Mason, NH.
Time to rid myself of these. They all work!
Remember the slide rule??
Modified to change keys
Auto lights, need one?
Turn signal flashers, do they even use these anymore?
Nine years ago I started this blog and after a few postings I forgot about it. This was my neglected progeny, lost and forgotten. Over the years I’ve posted to other blogs on both the WordPress and Blogger platform. This is the oldest of the WordPress blogs and I’ve re-purposed it to cover the topic of strangeness. If you think carefully about your life, consciousness, events, people and reality you will come to the conclusion that it is a long strange trip.
How do I mark the 9th birthday of this blog? The answer is simple, with a photo of the gravestone of The Blue Lady, Mary Ritter who haunts Vales End Cemetery in Wilton, NH.
I sat quietly waiting for a visitation, but nothing, maybe next time.
I was inspired by a recent downsizing talk by Dave Downs to clear up some of the stuff I have in the basement and attic. I discovered that Staples will take old computer hardware for no charge, so today I’m planning a road trip.
I have no need for another old desktop, but I did remove the CDrom, zip and hard drives because you just never know when you might need one. I have a HP docking station but no matching laptop. The HP color laser printer was a gift from HP for my 25 year anniversary. It is incredibly heavy. It works but uses four $80 toner cartridges which have run out.
These empty ink cartridges are going to Staples which I believe gives store credit
This was a useful item a few years back. It would allow a single keyboard and mouse to operate four different computers. However this unit is obsolete (see photo below).
No HDMI, no DVI, no USB
In the Attic I found some Easter decorations. It was wrapped in a newspaper from 2000. Seventeen years unused, time to go.
Among the junk in the attic I discovered some treasures. I have no idea why this hidden away out of sight for so many years.
We have mice in the attic and I suppose I should have checked my NO KILL trap.
All that is left of the mouse (or mice) are bones and fur. The beetles got the rest, then they died. Ugh, what a fate.
My basement is a museum of forgotten memories and unfinished projects. On Saturday during the April Fools snowstorm I poked around and found some interesting glassware. It brought back some memories.
Among the antique bottles I found these decorative glass light coverings. I don’t even remember where I found these.
I’m old enough to remember seeing glass insulators on utility poles. I read that in the desert the clear glass ones would gain a violet tint from the sun’s ultraviolet light.
When I lived in Stamford, CT my dad would take me to Scofield Town Dump and we would scavenge for treasures. American Cyanamid dumped there and I would collect reagent bottles, test tubes and other chemical glassware. There was always a fire burning somewhere and among the pungent smoke I once found an antique banjo which was half burnt. I have no idea why I’m still alive. This is one of the bottles, but that is just food coloring.
Imagine my surprise when I found this mouse skeleton INSIDE this antique bottle. Why would this stupid thing crawl inside an empty bottle? How did it get in? What a horrible way to die.
Each regional area has it’s own brand of soft drink. My wife was born on Vancouver Island and for some reason I must have picked up this bottle when I was there. It is one of those forgotten memories.
I do remember painted label San Miguel beer from my Navy Days. We drank enough of this stuff in the bars of Olongapo City in the Philippines.
Olongapo City 1970
I was pretty thin during my stint in the Navy. Note the 8 track player behind my right shoulder.
I have a basement filled with decades of outdated technology, dried up paint, unfinished products, jars of screws, neglected kitchen appliances, wire, string, tape, disk drives, audio tapes, flower pots, quick fuse, IC chips, tools, glue, crayons, poisonous chemicals, burnt out fluorescent light bulbs, record albums, work clothing, ladders, laboratory equipment, computers, shell casings, sea shells, rocks, nails, plant fertilizer, plant killers, plants, living worms, a litter box and some other weird stuff.
I cannot even move about without tripping over some treasure. I long to have a clear spot on the workbench to actually get something done. The time has come to purge of these items, but each on of them has a story to tell and I would be remiss as a blogger without telling that story. I’m starting this project after being alive for seven decades, but some of this stuff was collected by my dad and foolishly was added to my “collection”.
I’ll start with something simple. At one time I had a pile of PC power supplies. They have a regulated DC current output of 12 and 5 volts which is convenient for different hobby projects. These are the remaining units. You want them?
DDK 03: The Monster In The Mirror. Digital drawing: 20×30″ @300 dpi. 4/27/2019. CLICK TO SEE IN A NEW TAB SIZED FOR YOUR MONITOR. 
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