The Ten Best U.S.-War Films

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Let’s see your list of the 10 best war movies ever made. And to make an impossible task a little less impossible, let’s limit it to wars in which the United States has been involved.

ChatGPT: Since we’re narrowing it to wars in which the U.S. was directly involved, I’ll pull across a mix of classics, modern interpretations, and films that capture both the brutality and psychology of war. Not necessarily the definitive top 10, but ten that stand up well as “best ever.” (in no particular order) Continue reading →

Apple Watch Camera Remote + AirPods Pro 3

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In our ongoing effort to “die broke” I ordered the new Apple Watch 11 and a set of AirPods Pro 3. As I wait for these new toys to arrive, I’ve started playing with the Camera Remote feature on the Apple Watch.
The idea is I can take a photo or video while the phone is across the room (or wherever). In the photo mode it captures a burst of images… and video works as you’d expect.

The AirPods Pro 3 has a number of cool new features, including recording audio from the AirPods instead of the iPhone. In this video (:13) it’s obvious the audio is being recorded from across the room. The new AirPods will also allow me to start and stop the video recording.

 

New Categories Page

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In the twenty-plus years I’ve been keeping this journal I have posted 6,420 times. I’m currently using 50 categories and 133 tags (down from ~200). On more than one occasion I’ve mentioned my interest in taxonomy (“An ordered arrangement of groups or categories.”), and I’m in the middle of a major over-haul.

For years I’ve included a little sidebar widget showing my categories but I’d be very surprised if anyone but yours truly ever uses it. Just too long for that tiny space so I’ve created a CATEGORIES page with some buckets into which I’ve grouped the categories.

Silly Willy

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My buddy John continues to unearth treasures from our youth. I think I would have been in the sixth grade in 1959 when our school produced a little musical called The King’s Christmas Carol. Not sure why but I was cast in the role of Silly Willy, the court jester. My only memory is the costume my mom made from a girl’s gym suit. She also came up with some slippers featuring long, curled toes with a tiny bell. Continue reading →

Awareness: 10 key points from ChatGPT

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Last night I had an interesting conversation that centered on awareness. I can’t express how rare that is. I found myself referring to my forty-plus blog posts as a repository of all my thoughts on the topic, knowing that nobody is going read those posts. So I uploaded the posts to ChatGPT and asked for ten key take-aways (PDF).

“Would you like to have these in an essay format that could be posted to your blog?”, asked ChatGPT. The resulting essay so accurately captures my thinking on this topic I’ve decided share it here. Everything below was written by ChatGPT:

Continue reading →

Birthday Party (1956)

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The mother of my friend John was a dedicated scrapbooker. I believe this photo actually appeared in the local newspaper (it was that kind of small town). It was taken at John’s birthday party, probably 1957.

Top row, R-L: Chris Jones, Otis Mitchell, Joe Browning, Jim Blankenship, unknown, David Covey, Steve Watson
Bottom row, R-L: Jim Robison, John Robison, Steve Mays, Terry Hunter, unknown, Jane Robison

More birthday photos here and here.