Precious Moments through the Years

My wife and I have been married for quite a while now, we in fact have an anniversary this month. Not one of those that ends in a five or a zero and has a gift type sanctioned by Society.  But a significant bunch of years.

Recently she inquired about getting a new wedding ring.

I had noticed that she had not always been wearing hers, so I made a few necessary inquiries.  Was she in fact indicating that she needed one to get married to somebody else?  If so the correct response would be something along the lines of "Not my circus, not my monkeys".

No, it appears that my Provisional status, my Probationary Period if you will was over some years back and we are in it for the "Death do we part" version.

But decades of hard work, scrubbing cold floors with a brush made from nettles that she had to harvest by hand in mid winter (I am exaggerating a little here) has made the fit of the old ring less than perfect.  Re-sizing the ring was not entirely satisfactory in result.  Re-sizing ourselves to previous dimensions while a worthy goal may not be practical.

So, ring shopping.

I am not exactly sure how to handle this one.  Traditionally the guy is supposed to be involved on some level.  I guess that does not really have to be so.  But it seems just a little weird for a woman embarking on one of the few activities in which a man is traditionally a necessary component to just show up solo. There are various of her female friends who could give good counsel and who have excellent taste.  But in these modern times I can just imagine a clerk looking at the two of them, making some quick internal calculations, then assuming that the ladies want a matched set of bands. Just a little awkward maybe.

So most likely we will go the route of finding a craftsperson in the area who can make a custom band. The specs on this will probably get some token input from yours truly.  It should perhaps not clash too much with the band that I continue to wear.  (each and every day, thank you very much. In my eyes it shines as brightly as the Love I felt on the day we were married.  Said affections have never acquired a spot of tarnish nor a smidgen of wear and tear through the many years which of course fall away and seem like only yesterday on the occasion of our happy anniversary).

I am in fact expected to offer opinions, perhaps as in the case of other clothing/home improvements/accessories to serve as a baseline for the "meh, not so much" average.

But I'm going to surprise her, I will.  I have a great idea.  A classic Ring design, and one that shows my eternal devotion that borders upon slavish.  Yes, yes.......

My Precious!

Happy Anniversary dear.  It's like in a couple of weeks, right?

Happy National Robotics Week

What?  You did not know it was Robotics Week?  I think you can be forgiven.  It is the 21st century after all, isn't every week robotics week?

My friends over at Servo City asked if I would do a guest spot on their blog.  Old news for faithful readers of Detritus but if you want to see me chew the scenery a bit while discussing student robotics projects, here ya go...

Robotics Part One

Robotics, Bigger and Weirder


Note that in one of the video clips I am referred to by a name you may not have heard me use.  Yes, it is what it says on my birth certificate but whether that identity is more "me" than Tacitus2, Dagmar Suarez or Badger Trowelsworthy is a very uncertain matter.

Spring Cleaning

As I seem to be the Internet's leading authority on a few obscure topics I have felt it necessary to provide an email link from this blog.  And indeed I do get messages from people with questions.

But I get a lot more automated "spam".  And so I have come to regard my "dagmarsuarez" email as being primarily a spam trap, checking it every week or so for the occasional living, breathing correspondent.

Most of the spam is what you would expect, and is likely the same junk you get regularly.  But some of it is odd stuff, and it makes me wonder if the spambots are gaining sentience and starting to learn...

Here is a recent sampling.

"We know your company is a professional manufacturer for the wooden houses".

"Dear Sir/Madam, We'd like to purchase 150,000 of wood pallets.."

"Dear Sir, we need some wooden boats for entertainments".

These are from various Chinese senders.  Guess they know I have a few acres of pine trees up North.

"Don't let middleman draw your profit from the growing hair market (human hair weaving)"

Does this take off on my status as Tacitus MD?  Or simply a guess that at least 50% of internet users are male?

And my Spam Hall of (recent) Shamelessness

Third Place but honorable mention for honesty, an email consisting of a single word (with the usual don't touch it link):      "ransaction".

Second Place: from "E-Z PassManager.  DAGMAR pay for driving on toll road.  Invoice #-----"
I really liked this one because it came from an address that contained the word mummia and a suffix indicating it was an Italian web site.  Mummia was a tarlike resin that was used to preserve mummies! And I have thus far never been to Italy, although I understand that semi-predatory use of speeding cams is fairly common there.

First Place, well, it is just so odd:  "There are 258 students in our company.  Now we need to find a professional and sophisticated wax museum immediatly for a three month training program..."

Well Mr. Zhang shaog, if that is your real name, perhaps it was not the brightest business model to begin a training school for wax museum workers.  Did you first wonder a little about the world wide demand for such an arcane specialty?  Best wishes, Dagmar Suarez.

Family Gathering - Spring 2015

We got together for Easter.  As we are a collection with varying beliefs it was not a church going affair this year.  But a fine time.

Shoes by the door.  We are now 2.5 generations.

Not counting these guys who seem to get along well.  Chino had on a dapper sweater vest.  No bunny ears but his natural ones come close.

Happy Spring.

The Space Babes Full Employment Program

I don't watch much television.  But I do have a few weaknesses to confess.  I am a big fan of Star Trek and will watch reruns of almost any episode from the various Trek incarnations.

And over the years I have also found a few shows with ensemble casts that I come to enjoy sufficiently to plop down on the sofa once a week.

There is an interesting connection here, several of the current/recent shows I watch have frequent guest appearances by Star Trek alumni.

Consider Castle.  A recent episode had no fewer than three former Trek actresses in roles large or small.  We had:

In a real acting tour de force Captain Yates from Star Trek DS9 has become Captain Gates

Keiko Obrien from Star Trek TNG and DS9, cast now as the scheming Mimi Tan

Ensign Sato from Star Trek Enterprise.  Now appearing as Inspector Zhang

Of course these actresses all have real names and real lives off screen, but something about Sci Fi characters seems to fix them in the minds of the viewers as "being" their Star Trek characters. Leonard Nimoy was somewhat resentful of this phenomena and actually wrote a bio once titled "I am not Spock".

Three former Trek cast members in one episode is a bit much for Castle, even if Captain Yates/Gates is a semi regular.  But over the years Castle has provided a paycheck to quite a few such alumni. Here, somebody has tracked this although his list of 25 needs to be updated now.

But Castle is nowhere near as prolific a Trek Alumni Employment Program as another show I favored for a while. Boston Legal had as its star none other than William Shatner, aka Captain Kirk, or as I prefer to call him Prociuttius Maximus.

Someone compiled a list claiming that no fewer than 78 Trek alumni appeared on Boston Legal in one fashion or another.  I read somewhere that David Kelley, the creator of Boston Legal is a serious fan and was always willing to sneak another Trek connection in.

Sometimes the former members of Star Fleet came and went on the set of Boston Legal so rapidly that they passed each other unseen.  When Scott Bakula had a cameo as an opposing counsel he had no scenes with William Shatner.  In fact, the two men never met.

Now that does not seem right.  Since Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer commanded the USS Enterprise first (2151-2161) one would think that protocol would demand that Shatner/Kirk (commander from 2265-more or less 2293) would have made a courtesy call on his senior officer!

This slight will not be forgotten, Midshipman Kirk!

So how to explain the Trek alumni concentration on certain shows?  I guess producers and casting directors are allowed to be fan boys and girls.  Does this make them nerds?  Yes. Yes it does.  And am I a nerd for noticing?  Yes.  Yes I am.

Tree Shaped Tombstones - A Sad Tale and a Revelation

A while back while on a road trip my brother and I made a quick visit to the cemetery in Augusta Wisconsin.  We had to, when you see those large and elaborate tree shaped tombstones a stop is mandatory.  But being in a hurry we missed something, a smaller monument that I spotted on a later trip.  I will warn you, this one is extra sad, but it is also one with features that I consider to date unique in my studies of the topic.

A closer look is called for here.

I had never seen one of these that actually gave the cause of death.  Maybe the fact that a four year old child drowned was so much more shocking to 19th century sensibilities.  They were after all quite accustomed to infant mortality from disease.

You run across these carved straw hats once in a while.  I have referred to them as "Mary's Hats" as the first one I saw was from a young girl by that name.  But here we have the same hat on the grave of young Kyle.  I will change my designation.  We tend to forget that up to a certain age little boys were dressed up in some outfits we would consider something short of rough and tough. Little Lord Fauntleroy and all that short pants nonsense.

Not just his hat, we also get Kyle's little shoes.  Sad, but not the saddest part of this doleful monument.

There is symbolism in tree shaped tombstones.  The smaller ones usually go with a shorter life, the gigantic ones are symbolic of a healthy, extended family.  Most have the additional symbol of a cut off limb, representing a life cut short.  The writing here is fading, barely visible now.  In another generation or two it will just be some vague scratches.  But you would still know what it meant.

Short Cuts to Learning Italian - In a Hurry

(A post motivated by my tardy behaviour with Italian language learning tapes. I have done my best but time grows short)

Lets face it.  Italy does not have a tradition of being an efficient place.  At least not since the early Imperial times.  Things happen.....ah, when they happen.

So it is a surprise to me that the Italian language seems to be overstocked with synonyms for "now" and "hurry".

Hurry can be expressed as sbrigarsi, or spedire in fretta, or maybe even as urgenza.

Now can be rendered in all sorts of ways.  In what I think is descending order of urgenza it could be:

immediatemente - obvious meaning there
rapidimente - with haste
subito - at once
atualmente - presently
allora - well, in that case...

Missing from the list are a couple of words that are certainly Italian that have picked up new meaning when sliding over into English.

Pronto - In English this is a rather peremptory command.  "Clean up that mess pronto, young man". In Italian pronto just means "ready".  In Italy I think a lot of things are pronto, ready to go but just not happening today.  Tomorrow does not look good either. Pronto is also the word Italians speak when they answer the phone.  But don't assume that when you call a Governmental agency in Italy that when they pick up and say "Pronto", that they actually will do anything quickly.  Or at all.

Presto - In English this is basically a magical incantation.  "Presto, Chango!" means I wave my hands and it happens.  Alas, in Italian presto just means....soon.  Could be any time really.