Book & Movie: Ring of Bright Water (1969)

 Ring of Bright Water is a book by Gavin Maxwell about his life in a remote house in coastal Scotland where he kept several wild otters as pets. First published in 1960, it became a best seller and is considered a literary masterpiece, eventually selling over two million copies. A fictionalised film of the same name was made from it and released in 1969.

Book: 

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Bright_Water
• https://www.amazon.com/Ring-Bright-Water-Gavin-Maxwell/dp/0956254500
  

 

Movie: 

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Bright_Water_(film)
  
• https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064893/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gaPklj5dgM
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Ring-Bright-Water-Bill-Travers/dp/B0001BKBFW 

Day-Tight Compartments

 

Today's meditation:
My father worked in manufacturing for most of his career.

After his Navy service, he was an aircraft mechanic. Later, when he began his career in manufacturing, he started out operating machinery. Eventually, he rose to the position of Plant Manager.

As part of the company's efforts to prepare him for leadership positions - there was mandatory attendance for several courses. One of which included material by Dale Carnegie.

Some years later, after he had finished one of those courses, when I was still in my teens, he asked if I would like some of the books from the courses.

One of those books would turn out to be perhaps the most important physical gift he ever gave me - and that I still have in my possession [Independence of Thought was his most important gift, and legacy, that he left me].

Inside the book, I discovered many concepts/techniques that have repeatedly proven themselves to be of great value, in both my personal and professional life.

Perhaps the greatest of these is the idea of "Day-Tight Compartments", found in this particular book.

2024 Hugo Awards

[image credit: thehugoawards.org]

https://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/2024-hugo-awards/

"2024 Hugo Award TrophyPresented at: Glasgow 2024, a Worldcon for Our Futures, Glasgow, Scotland, August 11, 2024"

 "1,720 valid nominating ballots were received and counted from the members of the 2023 and 2024 World Science Fiction Conventions for the 2024 Hugo Awards."

An important documentary - PBS Frontline: Age of Easy Money

 

 

 

 

 

Notes to my 30-self

[image credit: NoName_13 on pixabay.com]

[my LinkedIn reply to someone's post]

 
If I could go back to my 30-self, here's what I would say...

Take more photos.

Enjoy the moments.

Relish the challenges.

Listen more.

Write more.

Rest before you get tired.

When you realize that you are in a dead-end, turn-around and leave.

Don't stay in bad situations.

Travel more.

Don't skip vacations.

You are absolutely right in your conviction to never pull another all-nighter.

Don't skip your exercise days - no matter how tired you may feel.

Your instincts are going to be right more often than not. Trust them.

Don't waste your time chasing someone else's idea of success.

One of the most powerful ideas for optimal probability of sustained happiness: Less is more.

Move to Seattle, immediately. The Pacific Northwest is more beautiful than you can imagine. You're going to end up there anyway.

When your plane lands in Tahiti, for that layover on your way to Australia, make sure they don't leave your luggage sitting on the runway...😎

Always make sure you have everything you need to survive for 2-3 days in a carry-on bag...

What have we gained, what have we lost...

 

[image credit: RonaldPlett on pixabay.com]

As contemplation...what have we gained, and what have we lost...

Accomplishing many things in the past required community collaboration, before the rise of industralization and automation...

Many skills have been lost...

Self-Reliance has been sacrifced on the alter of convenience...

Communities were stronger before...weaker after...

Without massive transportation infrastructure, many small local businesses flourished and created local jobs, and strengthened the local economy...now, not so much...

Artisans flourished...skills were valued...creativity, not conformity...

The destruction of the entire world was nigh impossible, by mere armies...

While people died earlier, they didn't suffer the indignities of advancing old age, for as long...

You may think we cannot go backward, but...

After just a few well-placed EMPs, most would not survive...

The Luddites and Amish may, in the end, look quite sophisticated...😎

2024-06-29 Saturday - New Personal Library Additions

From my local Friends of the Library bookstore...

Total spent: $2.50

 Books:

• Other Voices, Other Vistas: A Superb Collection of Contemporary Multicultural Fiction (short stories from Africa, China, India, Japan, and Latin America)
  
• Diary of a Bad Year, by J.M. Coetzee (Nobel Prize in Litereature, 2003)
• The Collected Short Stories of Robert Silverberg, Volume 1: Secret Sharers
• The Best of Jim Baen's Universe 2006, Edited by Eric Flint

Movies:

• Admission (Tina Fey, Paul Rudd)
• Rush Hour 2 (Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan)
• Old School (Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn)
• The Huntsman, Winter's War: The Story Before Snow White (Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, Emily Blunt, Jessica Chastain)
• School of Rock (Jack Black)
• Dorf: Super Fan Collection (Tim Conway)
  

 

2024-05-05 Sunday - Recent Personal Library Additions

[image credit: bboellinger on pixabay.com]

These are some books I recently picked-up through the local Friends of the Library bookstore...or, as I like to call them: treasures collected...

For a grand total of $2.50 (for all of these):

1. Chicken Soup for the Soul: 101 Stories to Open The Heart and Rekindle The Spirit (by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen)
2. First Things First: To Live, to Love, to Learn, to Leave a Legacy (by Stephen R. Covey, A. Roger Merrill, Rebeca R. Merrill)
   
3. Catch Me If You Can (by Frank Abagnale)
   
4. The Birth of an Island (by Francois Clement)
   
5. The Golden Retriever (by Eve Adamson and Wayne Hunthausen)
6. The Not  So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live (by Sarah Susanka)
   
7. The Big Book of Business Games: Icebreakers, Creativity Exercises, and Meeting Energizers (by John Newstrom and Edward Scannel)
8. The Man from St. Petersburg (by Ken Follett)
9. Harrington on Hold'em: Expert Strategy For No-Limit Tournaments, Volume 1: Strategic Play (by Dan Harrington and Bill Robertie)
10. One Day In September: The Full Story of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and the Israeli Revenge Operation "Wraith of God" (by Simon Reeve) 
11. Legal Problem Solving: Analysis, Research and Writing (by Marjorie R. Rombauer)
12. Constitutional Amendments: An Encyclopedia of the People, Procedures, Politics, Primary Documents, Campaigns for the 27 Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. Volume One: Bill of Rights, Eleventh Amendment to eighteenth Amendment. (by Mark Grossman) 
    
13. Constitutional Amendments: An Encyclopedia of the People, Procedures, Politics, Primary Documents, Campaigns for the 27 Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. Volume Two: Nineteenth Amendment to Twenty-seventh Amendment. (by Mark Grossman) 
14. Bon Voyage: Florida Edition, Glencoe French 3 (by Schmitt Brillie Lutz)
    

On another trip, for a grand total of $3.50 (for all of these):

1. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (by Doris Kearns Goodwin)
   
2. Beyond The White House: Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope (by Jimmy Carter)
   
3. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (by Barack Obama) 
4. American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History (by Navy Seal Chris Kyle, with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice) 
   
5. MacMillan: The Great American Grain Family, An Illustrated Biography (by W. Duncan MacMillan, with Patricia Condon Johnston) 
6. The Great Depression: An Eyewitness History (by David F. Burg) 
   
7. Techniques of China Painting (by Gunhild Jorgensen)
8. China Painting: Step by Step  (by Doris W. Taylor, Anne Button Hart)
   
9. The CAREER ARCHITECT Development Planner: An Expert System Offering 96 Research Based and Experience Tested Development Plans and Coaching Tipos, 3rd Edition (by Michael M. Lombardo, Robert W. Eichinger)
10. The Client (John Grisham)
11. The Turing Option (by Harry Harrison, Marvin Minsky) 

Suggested Reading: The Art of Worldly Wisdom, by Baltasar Gracián (1601-1658)

The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Gracián y Morales, Baltasar, 1601-1658;

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltasar_Graci%C3%A1n 
• https://archive.org/details/artofworldlywisd00gracuoft/page/n1/mode/2up
  
• https://librivox.org/art-of-worldly-wisdom-by-baltasar-gracian/

"300 short maxims by Spanish Jesuit Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658). The advice is still useful and insightful for our modern world. Gracian was considered one of the most interesting philosophers by both Nietzsche und Schopenhauer, and the latter translated The Art of Worldly Wisdom into German. This English translation was done by the famous Australian fairy-tale collector Joseph Jacobs (1854-1916)."

The One Word of Truth

[image credit: Stephen R. Donaldson]

 

“Stone and sea are deep in life

Two unalterable symbols of the world

Permanence at rest

And permanence in motion

Participants in the power that remains”
- Saltheart Foamfollower (a giant, of Seareach)

 

“And he who wields white, wild magic gold is a paradox
For he is everything and nothing
Hero and fool
Potent, helpless
And with one word of truth or treachery
He will save or damn the earth
Because he is mad and sane
Cold and passionate
Lost and found”
- Mhoram (last High Lord of the Council of Lords)

 

 

“Melenkurion abatha! Binas mill Bana Nihoram khabaal! Melenkurion abatha! Abatha Nimoram!” 

 

~ Stephen R. Donaldson, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever

 

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Thomas_Covenant
• https://unbeliever.fandom.com/wiki/Thomas_Covenant
  

When Words Collide

[image credit: WOKANDAPIX on pixabay.com]

 

Hexagonal.

 

It is a geometric shape - and it is also an application architecture pattern. 

 

I used this term in a series of calls over the past three weeks, interviewing candidates - and asking if they could describe what the term means. 

 

Late on Friday night - I was pondering why my pronunciation of the word seemed a little off, even to me. 

 

As I went to several online dictionaries - I was a bit mortified to find that I had indeed been mispronouncing the word. 

 

While using Google Translate to check the pronunciation in a few different languages, I discovered the root/cause of my mispronunciation. 

 

I was using the German and French pronunciation rules. Two languages I have studied in depth in the past.

 

Sometimes I stumble over the pronunciation of a word - which I attribute to a consequence of my dilettante efforts to study a bit of over 36 different languages, over many decades.

Favorite Military Themed Movies

I have a great passion for great story-telling..and films are one of the great mediums for telling a story...the craft of creating a movie, the casting, the music, the writing, the acting, the directing, the production, the sets - so many fine details that must be carefully managed to create something of enduring excellence. 

And, heroic stories - are some of the best stories - for they may inspire individuals - or entire nations.

A work-in-progress list...

 

 WWW III

1. Doctor Strangelove (1964)
1. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/
   
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Strangelove
2. By Dawn's Early Light (1990)
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/By_Dawn%27s_Early_Light

  

Lybia

1. 13 Hours: The Secret Soliders of Benghazi 
1. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4172430/
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13_Hours:_The_Secret_Soldiers_of_Benghazi
   
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13_Hours_(book)
4. YouTube Trailer 
    

Afghanistan 

...

 

2nd Gulf War  

...

 

1st Gulf War  

...

 

Vietnam War  

1. We Were Soldiers (2002) 
1. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0277434/
   
2. Green Berets
3. Platoon
4. The Boys in Company C (1978)
1. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077270/
   
5.  The Siege of Firebase Gloria (1988)
1. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098328/
6.  The Losers (1970) [trailer]
   
1. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066126/
   
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Losers_(1970_film)
   

Korean War 

...

 

WW II

1. Band of Brothers (2001)
   
2. The Pacific (2010)
   
3. In Harms Way 
4. Patton (1970)
1. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066206/
   
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patton_(film)
   
5. Tora! Tora! Tora!
6. Too Late the Hero (1970)
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Late_the_Hero_(film)

 

Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)

1.  The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)

 

 

WW I 

1. The Razor's Edge (1984)

...

  

 Civil War

...

 

Revolutionary War

Foreign Films

1. Seven Samurai
   
2. Kesari (2019)
   
1. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6264938/
   
2. https://www.amazon.com/Kesari-Akshay-Kumar/dp/B08KWQGCSH/ 
3. "Based on an incredible true story of the Battle of Saragarhi in which an army of 21 Sikhs fought against 10,000 Afghans in 1897."
4. Historical Context:
   
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Saragarhi
3. ...
4. ...
    

Medieval Periods (500-1500, A.D.)

1.  Quentin Durward

...

 

Ancient Periods

1. Troy (2004)
1. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0332452/
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_(film)
3. Historical Context:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad  
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_War
   

2024-03-01 Friday - Preparation for the "Epically Awful Verses Sought for [the] Annual Bad Poetry Contest"

 

[image credit: grom900 on pixabay.com]

113 words.

The beginning of seeds.

Tonight I have planted them.

In my deep sleep, they will send out tendrils - and perhaps take root.

This is how ideas begin.
The first few faint lines of ideas. Mere sketches, at first.

This is how I prepare for the harvest of writing that will spring forth from my subconscious. In this case, I am planting seeds for poetry.

Friday night, I hope I have something finished...to perform on stage.

But even if not - I relish the challenge of improvisation, thinking on my feet.

I have three poem ideas for which I've started "the seeding" process. 

 

You Should Know...

 

[image credit: dlsdkcgl on pixabay.com]

Beyond Time...
Beyond Space...
Beyond Place...

Beyond any comprehension, beyond any logic, or rational thought - this, I believe: 

 

"You should know, I am protected by powerful forces"

 

 

 

Currently Reading: John Huston autobiography - An Open Book

 

[image source: Amazon.com]

 

For Christmas, I ordered a used copy of the autobiography of the great director, John Huston ("An Open Book"). 

 

I am a passionate cinemaphile ("movie buff") - and scour Wikipedia articles and the IMDB.com site for information on the movies I watch, background on the production of a film, profiles of the actors, etc. 

 

In several cases, an actor/actress was quoted referring to John Huston - sometimes in praise, sometimes not so much. 

 

My interests grew, over time, to understand this complex, human - and very flawed, man. 

 

I started reading the book last night...and only stopped reading when exhaustion overwhelmed me around 3am. 

 

It is a fascinating story, told by the man, through his personal lens (of course) - but he does not shy away from revelations that others might have wished to hide / whitewash. 

 

Few biographies have grabbed my attention as this one. Every page is filled with delightful morsels. 

 

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Huston
• https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001379/  
• https://catalog.oscars.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=65274