I watched Arthur get on an airplane this morning. He’s bound for Portland, Colorado, Oklahoma – points south. He was pretty disappointed that Covid interrupted his standard winter tour of his friends and relatives. So once vaccinated and all that, he pretty quickly moved to remedy the missed trip. I’ll stay here and work at the gift shop and ‘hold down the fort.’ It will do us both good, a bit of a break from each other. Hopefully his travels go well.
Category: Banalities & Journaling
Caveat: Frame Shop Journal #5
It was a slow week at the frame shop. I actually only made one frame for a paying customer – it was a repair job, at that, and not a new frame at all. The customer was very pleased, though, because in taking apart the frame, I found a bunch of “long lost” family baby pics stashed behind the picture shown and sealed into the frame.
Sometimes the frame shop is slow not due to lack of customers, but because we rely on our supplier to send us the pre-cut frames ready to assemble for orders we’ve requested, and sometimes those deliveries are slow – that’s life on an Alaskan island for you.
To use up some time during my frame shop hours, I focused on improving my mat-cutting skills. I got adventurous, and tried some circles (using a special, very finicky tool) and some “lines” in box shape around the cut area of the mat (I’m not sure what these lines are formally called, but they’re popular on high-end matting styles).
So I did a bunch of mat cuts and then dropped random objects – a company brochure, a cartoon cat I quickly sketched – into them to give them focus.
Caveat: Frame Shop Journal #4
Here are two weeks’ worth of frames – I missed last week because I felt horribly sick due to my second Covid vaccination.
Caveat: Tree #788
This tree was by the water, amid the snow.
I am increasingly convinced that my “covid vaccine hangover” has overlapped with the onset of some other issue. I’m past the fever and chills problem but I still experience periodic bouts of nausea and upset stomach. I wonder if maybe I’ve just reverted to old gut-related stress-reactions (gastroenteritis) such as I suffered so much in my 20’s and 30’s. I’ve been feeling overwhelmingly stressed with Arthur lately, too. At this point, no single utterance of mine is understood on the first attempt. Yet he basically seems to take the stance that “problem belong you” (in his adaptation of PNG pidgin – meaning his not understanding me is my problem, not his), and mostly finds it amusing when he misconstrues what I’m trying to say and decides that that thing that he’s understood is more meaningful or important than what I was actually trying to say. It’s like instead of having a conversation with him, I’m just providing some loosely-structured, improvisational prompts for a neverending conversation he’s having with himself.
[daily log: walking, 1km]
Caveat: Double-shot
I got my second Covid vaccine shot this morning. I am experiencing some flu-like symptoms but I think I’ll be fine.
Caveat: Storage Tent Revival
Feeling fed up with my server reconstruction efforts, I decided to work outside all day today. I have made good progress on my storage tent reconstruction. Arthur helped me for one step – pulling the roof tarp over the frame. Other than that, I just plod along, fastening things and such, putting it together. “Starting at the top and working my way down.”
Caveat: Frame Shop Journal #3
I didn’t complete that many frames this week. There weren’t that many orders.
This first one is quite cool, though. It’s a 16th century map of Bucarelli Bay, as mapped by the Spaniards exploring the region at that time.
This map shows all the names they gave to the islands, capes and inlets. Some of those names have stuck – e.g. San Juan Island, San Ignacio Island, Madre de Dios Island. Other names were later changed. The town of Craig was place on what the Spaniards named Cabo Suspiro (Cape of Sighs). I think Cabo Suspiro would be a much better name for the town, than Craig.
And here is a hobbled mule.
Caveat: Frame Shop Journal #2
The frames I completed this week were these.
Caveat: Destudiofication
I have disassembled my “studio” (i.e. giant pre-fab storage tent), since it had been blown by high winds down the hillside, seeking to enter the sea.
There are some tears in the tarp cover, but nothing that a little duct tape won’t solve, I don’t think.
Now I have to wait for the ground to thaw so I can resume digging the holes for the 6 pier blocks that will support the new “foundation.”
Caveat: Merry Seollal
In Korea, “Chinese New Year” is not, in fact, Chinese. It’s called 설날 (Seollal), i.e. Lunar New Year. I would prefer if that’s what it were called in English – “Chinese” feels culturally narrow if not incorrect.
새해 복 많이 받으세요.
Caveat: Tree #756
This tree caught my storage tent as high winds tried to blow it away.
My pre-fab storage tent (the “studio”) had come unanchored a few weeks ago, on a windy day. It hadn’t been well-anchored in the first place, so I admit that was my fault. I set out on a project to build a proper foundation for it. That project was progressing slowly, partly due to the cold temperatures, which have been making the ground too frozen to dig easily. And meanwhile, the storage tent was even more poorly anchored than before – with pollyannaish optimism I’d placed some 2×4’s on the corners with piles of rocks, to hold it down. The wind today decided that was inadequate. And so now… what will become of this beloved storage tent?
I’ve tied the upside-down and somewhat damaged storage tent to the tree the wind had attached it to. I’ll wait for a less windy day (the wind today was pushing windchills close to 0°F), and begin to disassemble it, as best I can, hoping to be able to salvage and re-build it on the new foundation, once that’s complete. Meanwhile I’ve laid a tarp over the stuff that had been inside it, that was exposed… with many rocks to hold that tarp down.
I went to town today and got my first Covid vaccination. That was without incident. I got the “Moderna” vaccine, same as Arthur received in January.
I’m beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed. I feel the gods are testing me: The server crash; the wind tearing down my storage tent; Arthur’s obstreperousness and denialism (esp. with respect to hearing loss).
[daily log: walking, 3.5km]
Caveat: The Terrible mysql Crash of 2021
I still don’t know how it happened. I somewhat suspect I got hacked, somehow … I found strange and unexpected Chinese IP addresses in my mysql error log. But I don’t understand mysql back end or admin well enough to know for sure what was going on.
I was able to restore a full-server backup to a new server instance, and have re-enabled the mysql-driven websites (my 2 blogs, my wiki, etc.) on the new instance. Meanwhile, I somewhat stupidly reactivated the non-mysql website (the geofictician OSM-style mapping site, the so-called “rails port”) on the old server instance. The consequence of that is that I am now stuck with a two-server configuration where I had a single server configuration before. I think in the long run I’ll want to isolate ALL my mysql-based sites to a single server, and ALL my non-mysql-based sites to another single server. That’s going to take a lot of shuffling things around, which is not trivial.
For now this blog (and my other blog) seems healthy and up-and-running, again.
There may be more downtime ahead as I try to reconfigure things more logically, however.
[This entry cross-posted from my other blog.]
Caveat: Server down and downer…
My server crashed sometime early this morning.
I don’t know why. Specifically, some kind of fatal database error, on the mysql database used to back up all the blogs (like this one) and several other important applications.
I have successfully restored the blog – I’ve relocated it, using a backup file, to another server.
But all the other things running on the server: my mapping application (OSM-style GIS for geofiction), my other blog, my MUD, some development work – all those other things are still missing in action.
I have a lot of work ahead of me, trying to rebuild this stuff.
Caveat: Binge-scrolling Space Boy
I have been quite negligent in posting to this here blog thingy, except for the daily trees and poems.
You might wonder, well, what in the world does he do all the time, these days?
There’s my work at the gift shop – but it’s hardly full time. And there are my various projects: outdoor projects, like the storage tent and treehouse, and indoor projects like my mapping server, my geofiction, my aimless feints at unfinishable novels.
And meanwhile, I kill time reading things. Blogs, mostly – about politics or science or culture or philosophy. Lately, I have plunged into reading a few “webtoons.” This may require explanation for those not in-the-know with respect to current cultural trends. A webtoon is the online incarnation of the good-ol’ graphic novel, also called “manga” – a Japanese loanword but fully nativized to English at this point. Once upon a time, these were also called comic books, but the comic books of my youth or my parents’ youth have little in common with contemporary graphic novels, which often treat complex themes, have novelistic plots and characterizations, and can be of epic length.
I had a phase, about 10 years ago, when I was reading manga quite a bit. I picked up the habit from my middle-school students in Korea. It was something they did, and so I pursued it too, out of curiosity and to find points of common interest. There were some excellent old manga that I enjoyed – the Deathnote series, the Excel Saga, I even found a graphic novel version of the life of the Buddha that I read substantial portions of.
(At right, a photo of my manga collection, on the shelf – you can see I even bought a Korean edition of Deathnote, thinking to try to learn Korean better while reading it.)
With the emergence of smartphones and the always-online generation of my last few cohorts of students in Korea, I noted that interest in manga (called by the cognate “manhwa” in Korean) had faded, and had been replaced by what have come to be called webtoons (In Korean 웹툰 [wep-tun]). These are graphic novels translated to the infinitely scrollable vertical format familiar to web browsers.
And since coming back to the US, I have occasionally dipped into the world of webtoons out of a kind of nostalgia for my years of daily interactions with Korean teenagers, most of whom always had a webtoon window open on their smartphone, which they would scroll through and read given any free time to do so whatsoever.
One webtoon I was enjoying was a sci-fi series called “Seed,” by a Turkish artist, I believe. It deals with themes of emergent Artificial Intelligence, the nature of cognition, and of course, lots of international spy-thriller events, too. More recently, I was browsing through a series called “No Longer a Heroine!” – a Korean series that I enjoy mostly because it’s a low-bandwidth way to remain somewhat immersed in Korean culture – the plot is reminiscent of any number of Korean television dramas of the most generic sort, but vaguely compelling nevertheless.
But then I found “Space Boy.” This webtoon started in early 2015, but this month is the first I’d known anything about it – though it’s been quite popular. It’s currently on episode 263. Each episode is like a chapter in the old manga books, and, given the format is heavy on artwork and often quite light on written dialogue, can be consumed in a matter of 5 or so minutes. But at 263 episodes, that’s a lot of scrolling. I did something I’ve never done before with a webtoon – I compulsively read through all the episodes, catching up to the most recent online. It took me about 5 days – a few hours each day, easily.
It’s a remarkable bit of narrative work. The art, too, is nicely done – but most webtoons I’ve seen are compellingly drawn, from an artistic angle, exploring visual space in interesting ways, providing support to narratives through creative bits of visual evidence and cues. This has all that, but the story itself is several grades above your “average” webtoon – at least in my estimation (and limited experience). At times, it reads like some kind of CS Lewis allegory about love, forgiveness, trauma, human frailty, and such. Other times it’s just a simple teen romance, and other times, it’s a sci-fi thriller.
I’m not sure that I have anything conclusive to say. The series is on-going and unfinished. But if anyone wants to try a long-running webtoon, they could do much worse than “Space Boy” as an introduction to the genre.
Caveat: Tree #742
This tree (well, it’s not so much a tree as a small piece of a tree that became detached from a pointy stick of arboreal provenance) spent three days embedded in my thumb, without my realizing it. But it started to hurt and I pulled it out, somewhat painfully. I have placed it next to a dime for scale.
[daily log: walking, 2km]
Caveat: Tree #732
This tree was witness to the fact that my “studio” (a plastic storage tent structure) had been subjected to high winds and therefore dislodged from its moorings.
I spent some time putting rocks and logs on parts of the “feet” to hold it in place temporarily, but will need to reengineer the base of it. Meanwhile, I got distracted sorting the dirt in my greenhouse, because I want to temporarily store some of the things from the studio up in the green house.
[daily log: walking, 3.5km]
Caveat: Just the Vax
Arthur received the Moderna vaccine at SEARHC Clinic in Klawock today. Per Mike and Penny (neighbors-down-the-road), who also received the vaccine a few days ago, there will be some cold/flu-like symptoms of fairly moderate intensity over the next few days. From the literature:
The Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine has not been approved or licensed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but has been authorized for emergency use by FDA, under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), to prevent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) for use in individuals 18 years of age and older. There is no FDA-approved vaccine to prevent COVID-19.
Anyway, the distribution here on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska is prioritized by age, descending. It may be weeks or even months before I am eligible, since I am younger and lower priority.
This fills me with optimism, however, with respect to the Coronavirus situation. I despair at the prevalence of antivaxxers here in my region (impressionistically, they may even approach the majority, here). I affirm my belief in science and in the general good intentions of people and organizations – even “evil” organizations like pharmaceutical companies.
“Never attribute to malice that which is more simply explained by stupidity.”
Caveat: 2020
This year, 2020, was the Year of the Hypochondriac. I continued living in Rockpit, Alaska. I gave up my expectation to become a teacher in the schools here on the island, and started working as a part-time clerk in the Alaska Gifts shop. I took on duties as the matting and framing specialist. I didn’t travel off the island at all, the whole year. I did quite a bit of hobby work on my “map servers,” and I started building a treehouse on lot 73, down by the sea.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2020 – it was written in the future.]
Caveat: Tree #708
This tree was given to us by our neighbors-down-the-road last night, along with some cookies. Juli mailed us some stockings which we opened in the morning. That was the sum total of Christmas, here at Rockpit.
For dinner we cooked some salmon on the traeger (smoker grill), had baked potato and spinach.
[daily log: walking, 2km]
Caveat: Tree #696
This tree awaited the rain.
I made some borscht and wallowed in my laconicity.
[daily log: walking, 2.5km]
Caveat: Curmudgeonly-Elf-in-Training
I was a curmudgeonly elf in training. Santa came to the gift shop today.
Here are my boss and I.
Here are the store’s owner and Santa.
Many children came in the store to see Santa. There are many false Santas on this island, but I guess this was the true one – he had the uniform, anyway. We all had a discussion as to whether groups of children should be quantified as “barrages of children” or as “herds of children.” We decided it was a matter of experience. Having worked as a teacher, I felt children mostly needed to be considered as herds. But working in retail, my coworker felt strongly that children should be considered as barrages.
Caveat: Poem #1594 “Thursday is shopping day”
ㅁ We went to town for Thursday shopping. Our first stop was the library - had to refresh DVDs. Next was the post-office. And then, groceries. A cold wind blew. But no snow. So far. Soon.
– a nonnet.
Caveat: Tree #683
This tree saw that I had helped Richard this morning, as we installed a brand new drainage culvert across the road on lot 73. The thinking is that this might help relieve the flooding problem at the main culvert at the top of Arthur’s driveway. You can see the outlet of the new culvert in the right center bottom of the photo. To the lower left is my famous pile-o-rocks.
[daily log: walking, 3km]
Caveat: Tree #659
This tree finds its own way.
I made a cake.
[daily log: walking, 4.5km]
Caveat: Tree #652
This tree was also in Klawock yesterday. The mountain in the far distance in the lower left of the photo is in fact the back side of Sunnahae mountain, which we can see from our house.
I spent part of the day putting the torsion bar and wheels back on the boat trailer, having gotten new hubs installed by Chet in town. You can see the shiny new hub in the picture.
[daily log: walking, 2.5km]
Caveat: Tree #649
This tree (which tree? – some group of trees, perhaps?) saw an unprecedented traffic jam on Port Saint Nicholas Road. This was due to the landslides and a flagger being present to direct traffic through the sporadically-open single lane as many excavators and dumptrucks did their duties to clear debris.
[daily log: walking, 2km; retailing, 6hr]
Caveat: Tree #648
This tree saw the road become a river.
[daily log: walking, 5km]
Caveat: griddier than before
The power coming on interrupted our wood-stove-cooked dinner. Not clear if it’s fully restored or temporary. No news on road closure. More later, with a tree picture if power stays on.
…from phone.
Caveat: off the grid
Multiple landslides on PSN, road to town is closed, possibly for days. Power is out. Arthur and I are fine but somewhat off the grid. I will only check email / text / fb messages sporadically, to save charge on phone. Blog may not see updates. But we are fine.
Posted from my phone.
Caveat: Tree #637
This tree is seeking attention.
Arthur and I pulled out the lower two rails from the boat rail assembly with a nice low tide at around 5 this evening.
I found the original pulley that broke, camouflaged among the seaweed and rock – corroded and barnaclized, as I’d suspected.
[daily log: walking, 2km]
Caveat: Escapism
The last few days I’ve been engaging in escapism of the purest sort. Frustrated with the world, with my “productive” projects, with Arthur’s curmudgeonly chaos, I’ve retreated into my own world.
After a long time away, I’ve returned to my mapping project for the imaginary city. This is cross-posted from my “other blog.”
I keep doing small historical edits for the city’s Metropolitan Area. I’m up to the year 1904 or so.
I made this cool gif of the mapping progress so far:
Here’s the transit network, on the same frame:
Here is a wider area view – I’m going to start a time series of screenshots for these, too, to show the growth of the metropolitan area.
I have been placing lots of industry and factories and such. I’m most proud of the rail-car factory, here.
Caveat: The Saga of the Boat Rail
As mentioned before, last Friday the boat rail pulley on the lower end failed.
On Tuesday morning, Arthur and I got up super early (4:30 AM) to catch the low tide and install a new eye bolt for a pulley to anchor the lower end of the boat trolley cable.
I didn’t take any picture, but this is what an eye bolt looks like.
After I went to work, Tuesday, Arthur tried to pull the boat out of the water on his own at the mid-day high tide.
The new eye bolt failed. So it looked like this.
It left us questioning our choices. Not to mention, it looked like a question mark, right?
Yesterday morning (Wednesday), we got up early again, and tried to re-engineer an anchor for our pulley. We drilled a second hole, and installed a U-bolt.
It looked like this.
Then I went to work, and though the boat was out of the water, Arthur decided to lower the boat back into the water because the boat was crooked on its cradle.
As Arthur attempted this, there was a catastrophic failure of our U-bolt. I found this piece of our rail, and the loose pulley, near the tide line when I got home.
And this was the base of the rail in the morning.
So now there was no chance of getting the boat back into the water to “re-float” it and straighten it out. You can see the crooked boat, here.
Instead, we decided to use a come-along and chains to pull the boat around on its cradle. I didn’t take a picture of this process, because I was working hard. But this is a come-along and a chain, which we used (somewhat blurry).
We got the boat straightened out and up into the barn using the come-along and the trolley winch (but only “uphill” would work, because of the broken pulley at the bottom, so each time we needed to “reverse” we had to set up the come-along).
We paused during the uphill trip because Arthur wanted to wash off the boat. I said it would be a multi-day job, but he plowed into the effort.
After about two hours, he said he agreed it would be a multi-day job, and decided on second-thought he’d just like to get the boat put away in the boat house. So we did that.
Yay.
Caveat: Tree #622
Here are some trees and some road and some sun, from a few days ago. The daily tree is among them.
Arthur had more problems with the boat rail while I was at work. Big problems. Our second repair to the bottom-end pulley failed much more catastrophically than the first – the boat is okay, Arthur is okay, but we have some work ahead of us.
More later.
[daily log: walking, 3km; retailing, 8hr]