Books
I have 100’s of books that I love, and that I would call favorites. It seems that almost every time I read another book it pops up to the top of the favorite list. However, there is one that never seems to get pushed very far down the list, “The Man Who Was Magic” by Paul Gallico. I have come to think of it as the one that I try to measure up to.
Review – from the website
“Subtitled A Fable of Innocence. A young, strangely dressed man comes to Magiea, the wonderful city of conjurors, magicians and prestidigitators. He wants to be admitted to the Guild of Master Magicians. But the inhabitants discover that he appears to be able to do magic quite unlike theirs…
I think this book is aimed more at young teenagers than adults. It is certainly not a children’s book, but it is certainly couched in slightly simpler language than his usual books. It is a lovely allegory of the problems that people with different attitudes and talents can have in a closed society.”
What I’m reading now …. I’m always into three or four at a time,
“AI Super Powers,” by Kai-Lee, “America’s Great River road,” Pat Middleton, “The Inventor and the Tycoon,” by Edward Ball, “The Keepsake,” by Tess Gerritsen.
Music
Like my reading, my taste in music is eclectic, I like almost everything. But at the top of the list are songs that tell a story, which finds me listening to folk and country a large part of the time. Songs like the Kingston Trio’s “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” and Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard’s “Pancho and Lefty” are examples of the tunes that rattle around in my head a lot. I also enjoy the way different artists can make the same song sound different and say different things. “Frankie and Johnny” has been recorded a zillion times, but the way the Kingston Trio did it and the way Johnny Cash did are really worlds apart.
When it comes to playing music, I can play a trumpet and cornet when I’ve practiced enough to keep my lip up, I lean toward the swing tunes of the big band era.
I do amass CDs. My collection now approaches 2000 discs. I have, and use, the equipment to convert vinyl and tapes to CDs, so my collection ranges over several decades of recorded music, and all genres.
Photography
I love taking pictures, always have, though there were times when the cost of film, particularly the cost of developing film stopped me. Ah, but digital, it’s the answer for me, and all those like me. I have, I think, a decent eye for composition. Alas, good composition only shows itself in about one in five shots and then only for a portion of the picture. No matter. Throw four of five away, crop the rest to the proper scene, and optimize the color, lighting, and all the other parameters on the computer. Good pictures come of this.
What really matters is pixel resolution and the quality of the lenses. Right now I use a Nikon D300 SLR. I prefer a SLR because sometimes the ambient lighting doesn’t allow you to see the scene on a display. Let me look through the lens.
Computer picture processing isn’t limited to original digital photographs; it also works on scanned prints and slides. I’ve spent, and continue to spend hours digitizing all the old family pictures. How good they look on a huge screen TV. And what fun it is to see them again.