Caveat: 5 Years Mapping and Naming

[This is a cross-post from my other blog.]

I failed to commemorate my 5th anniversary on OGF. I mapped my first node on January 31, 2014. Maybe there were a few nodes mapped before this, but they have been deleted, and they were on that same date. Puerto Desolado was my first OGF town.

Only today, I felt a moment of nostalgia.

I keep working, slowly, on Makaska. One thing that’s important to me: the “native” names in the state are the pseudo-fictional Rakhoda language. This is just an alternate name for the Dakota language, as spoken by the native peoples of southern Minnesota in the pre-European era. So all the native names of the state are actual Dakota words. Hence when mapping, I keep this hand book on my desk:

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Music to name things by: Sioux Honor Song

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Caveat: Prometheus

I have been trying to replenish the firewood supply. The chainsaw unchained itself. I dubbed it ‘Prometheus’.
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The whole thing should have terrified me. Yes. I have always understood chainsaws throwing chains to be very dangerous. It happened to me once before – when I was here cutting trees and brush in 1998.
Now that I’m living Arthur’s lifestyle, I find I appreciate one of his chief mottos: “I’d rather be lucky than smart, any day.” Prometheus, indeed.
Here are some other recent pictures I’ve taken.
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Caveat: Acute Malignant Optimism

My life here in Rockpit, Alaska, with my uncle Arthur has evolved some very stolid routines. One of these routines is that after dinner (which is always promptly at 5 PM), we watch TV for one or two hours.

Arthur chooses the programming. Some I like better than others. Recently we have been watching episodes of the 2001-2002 series A Nero Wolfe Mystery, based on the detective novels and stories by Rex Stout.

Arthur and I were watching the episode entitled “The Silent Speaker“. This line, “acute malignant optimism,” was used in that episode. There are lot of entertaining and interesting turns of phrase in the series, reflecting the unique voice of the original writing by Stout. I find it entertaining. Arthur, who rarely reacts to the TV these days (much less than in my memories of the past), laughed out loud. I found it interesting that that was the biggest laugh I’ve heard out of him in a long time. It suited his character, I suppose.

We are suffering, here, of acute malignant optimism. What to do?

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Caveat: 1880 Snapshot, Cash Township

[This is a cross-post from my other blog.]

I am intending a historical approach to mapping my FSA state of Makaska.

The contours are in pretty good shape for the whole state – not perfect, but far enough along that I feel comfortable that I can proceed to the next step.

My hope is to map, one by one, each of the state’s 203 townships (in the US, these were surveyed 6 mile x 6 mile squares under the old PLSS system, generally, but they varied because of natural topography sometimes). I will first map each township to the point of a kind of “1880 snapshot.”

I have completed my first township, called Cash Township, in the north-central part of the state. It includes the towns of Apple River and Duy, future suburbs of the Riverton-Uppington Micropolitan Region, the latter of which consists of the whole of Elizabeth Parish (i.e. county).

Here is the map.

Here is the same map in the Topo Layer. [UPDATE 20210531: The OGF Topo layer has been disabled – perhaps permanently. I am looking into hosting my own version of the OGF Topo layer. If I get it working, I’ll replace the broken link below with a working one.]

I specifically would like the following feedback: What would make this most convincingly an 1880 snapshot? What needs to mapped? I have a railroad, two rail stations. All the roads are “highway=track” because that’s what roads were in that era – dirt and only dirt. I have a few buildings but will place some more – those which might be historically important when I later catch my mapping up to the modern era.

What else should I include? There weren’t many parks back then – just a few “city parks”, and urban infrastructure outside of major cities was pretty minimal. Maybe a water tower for Apple River? Maybe a few schools?

Music to map by: Sims, “Tape Deck.”

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Caveat: Art should be arcane

Two musical threads of my life have finally been knit together in an unexpected way. I found this entertaining, two ways to Tuesday.
What I’m listening to right now.

Merle Hazard, “Ol’ Atonal Music.”
Lyrics.

I dedicate this song to my father.

My dad was a composer,
Modern was his style.
His music always made you think,
It never made you smile.
He wrote for chamber orchestra,
Now and then, for voice
Tonality, in Daddy’s world, was just another choice.
Yeah, Poppa’s compositions came in rigid, twelve-tone rows,
There was no tonal center to the music he’d compose.
He was a lover of complexity;
Some have said pretense.
His music wasn’t joyful,
It was just abstract and dense.

Gimme some of that ol’ atonal music.
It lingers in my ears!
Schoenberg and Alban Berg were the genre’s pioneers.
You can keep yoru Bach and Chopin,
They’re melodic and passe.
Gimme some of that ol’ atonal music,
Like Daddy used to play.

Give ’em some, Alison!

[Banjo solo]

Aha!
That’s right.

Since dear ol’ Daddy left us,
Life has been so hard.
There aren’t enough musicians
Who embrace the avant-garde.
No one plays atonally at their home or on the stage.
I miss Igor Stravinsky, my Dad, and ol’ John Cage.

[“Piano solo”]

Gimme some of that ol’ atonal music.
Like my Daddy used to write.
It was hard sing if you rehearsed,
Impossible by sight.
Emotion is for simple folk.
Art should be arcane.
Some compositions feed the heart;
My Daddy’s fed the brain.

Gimme some of that ol’ atonal music.
How I love those random hops!
I’ve tried to write that way myself,
But I’m not as skilled as Pops.
You can keep your Brahms and Chopin,
They’re melodic and passe
Gimme some of that ol’ atonal music,
Like Daddy used to play.
Like Daddy used to play.
Like Daddy used to play.

I miss you, Daddy!

Caveat: Finally, snow

It’s very hard to explain to people that I’ve moved to a weird part of Alaska where snow is rare. Really. Call it “tropical Alaska,” if you want.
Yesterday, it snowed. This is the first snowfall I’ve seen here since moving here. The only other snowfalls I’ve seen were when I was here in the fall of 98. I do believe I’d have seen some snow if I hadn’t spent 2 months driving around other parts of the continent, however.
I announced I was going to take a walk. Arthur was skeptical of the idea of taking a daily walk in the falling snow, and I expected him to decide not to come along. Yet much to my surprise, he elected to come along.
I took a few pictures.
Here is a picture going out the upper door, looking up the steps.
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Here is a picture of Arthur’s retreating backside.
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Here is is a picture of my favorite pond, which I call the “Rockpit City Park”. It is completely frozen and snow-covered.
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Here is a picture of the mouth of the river.
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Here is a picture from this morning, from the deck over the boatshed.
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Personally, I love snow. It’s pretty clear Arthur doesn’t, however.
Today we need to go into town – Arthur has an appointment with an itinerant VA audiologist (which is a very convenient service the VA provides, in my opinion – as usual, I have only good things to say about the level of service the VA provides, so far). Driving on the road will be even slower than usual.

Caveat: Tree #33

A daily tree. The photo is from yesterday – today it is snowing, and that same tree might look different.
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[daily log: walking, 2.5km]

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