The Fluffbucket Diaries

Looking for my first few February photoblogging challenge entries on the blog? Find them here.

February photoblogging challenge, Day 23: STATION. Summer at the book fair; Chicago, Illinois, circa 2012.

So, apparently the new Marquee Sports Network hasn’t figured out how to align its audio with its video. It’s like watching an old dubbed Godzilla movie.

At least Mark Grace has work again, albeit as a lousy ventriloquist with the MSN audio issue.

February photoblogging challenge, Day 22: SPECTACLE. At least this passes for a spectacle at our house.

“As part of a far-reaching social media strategy, the Bloomberg campaign has hired hundreds of temporary employees to pump out campaign messages through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.”

This has been the longest short work week ever.

“‘Eh,’ that classic Canadian expression … is the northern lights of this country’s speech: It’s culturally important, it’s out there somewhere, but it’s not as easy to find as legend suggests.”

Paczki order (the kind for human consumption, not the dog stuff I ordered earlier this week) placed for 7 a.m. pickup on Fat Tuesday. If I am not considered an official Chicagoland resident by now, I’m hoping this makes it so.

February photoblogging challenge, Day 21: PROGRESS. According to my daughter (this might have been second or third grade), footwear development denotes progress.

RIP, Nurse Kellye: “I think I was in every scene, because I put myself in every scene and nobody told me to get out."

“A company led mainly by Democrats … repeatedly has tilted rightward to deliver policies, hiring decisions and public gestures sought by Republicans, according to current and former employees and others who have worked closely with the company.”

February photoblogging challenge, Day 20: SCALE. As in, image perhaps NOT to scale. (At this point, I’m just trying too hard.)

I don’t know whether Bloomberg is electable. But so far, he doesn’t seem terribly likable.

I have placed my order for dog paczki before Paczki Day arrives on Tuesday. If you are in the Chicago area, you can do the same for your pooch.

“An email to local media from P.U.T.I.N., an acronym for Pigeons United To Interfere Now …, said the project was an ‘aerial protest piece’ that came after months of ‘exhaustive research, logistical hurdles and pigeon care taking.'”

“…since his acquittal two weeks ago, analysts say, the president has taken a series of steps aimed at showing that, essentially, he is the law.”

Is it too early to start drinking?

February photoblogging challenge, Day 19: SPACE. (Insert sophomoric humor here.) #mbfeb

C and I were recounting a visit to a Catholic shrine in Paris that I barely remembered, though there was a saint there in a clear casket.

The husband, a lapsed Methodist, recalled more than I did. How? I asked. He looked at me, dumbfounded.

“THERE WAS A DEAD LADY IN A BOX!”

Tonight’s TV viewing choices: yet more Democratic presidential town halls or women’s biathlon.

I’m not much for skiing or guns. Or politics lately. I went with the biathlon.

Author Jeff Smith explores the Amish approach to technology, which is much more nuanced and pragmatic than one would assume, in this thoughtful Washington Post piece:

If your familiarity with the Amish doesn’t extend much beyond the image of a bearded man wearing a black hat and driving a horse and buggy on a rural road, you might have the impression that members of the traditionalist Christian group reflexively shun all modern technology. You’d be mistaken. Each church community of about 30 families — in a denomination with well over 300,000 members, spread across 31 states and parts of Canada and South America — has latitude in setting its technology boundaries.

He explains further:

When a church member asks to use a new technology, the families discuss the idea and vote to accept or reject. The conversation centers on how a device will strengthen or weaken relationships within the community and within families.

In a couple of examples, Smith points out that technology’s effect on social ties is carefully considered in these communities. Even with a hay baling innovation, he writes, “The risk to social cohesion, they decided, wasn’t worth the potential gains.”

Imagine if the United States had conducted a similar discussion when social media platforms were developing algorithms designed to amplify differences and then pit us against one another, because anger drives traffic and traffic drives profits.

February photoblogging challenge, Day 18: OPPOSE. My daughter was 8 when she created her first infographic back in 2016.

I appreciate the fact that The New York Times will publish a perfectly good obit even though its author has long since died himself.

It’s Michael Jordan’s birthday. Is that why I have the day off today?

There was a guest at Mass this morning. The priest felt compelled to insist that it wasn’t the Holy Spirit, but was in fact just a bird.

February photoblogging challenge, getting an early start on Day 17: COOL. As in one of the coolest finds at our visit 2 years ago in Cooperstown: a nice tribute to Negro League legend Buck O’Neil. If only the Hall had done right by him and inducted him while he was still alive.