My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on October 15, 2024

Ever since I was a kid in elementary school and heard about John F. Kennedy’s World War 2 story and then read Robert Donovan‘s book “PT-109: John F. Kennedy in WW II” and movie “PT-109,” I’ve admired what innovated boatbuilders could do with plywood (besides utility trailer sides, I had a plywood dingy when I was a kid too). Anyway, in the early 1940s, these “mosquito boats” were an amazing small boats especially in South Pacific, both to interrupt Japanese shipping as a 80-foot Elco PT boats (patrol torpedo boat) … or to swiftly move even General MacArthur off the Philippines and to safety as he built up the U.S. military forces in order to defeat Tojo and the Japanese Empire.

The PT boats were not the only “plywood” boat used in World War II … and probably not the “most important” either. That monicker is held for the LCVPs designed by Andrew Higgins and used to land troops onto the beaches: think about the thousands of troops who landed on the beaches of Normandy.

General Dwight Eisenhower was quoted as saying, “Andrew Higgins … is the man who won the war for us. … If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different.” According to the enemy, Adolf Hitler dubbed the boatbuilder as the “New Noah.”

From plywood airplanes and gliders … to the Higgins Boat (LCVP) used to win World War II … plywood deserves far more credit than the disposable 4 x 8 sheets from big box stores that we purchase to board up windows these days. 

See CNN D-Day Gallery of photos

Category: Books, History, Human Interest, Innovation, Millitary, Movies | No Comments »
Tags: andrew higgins, boatbuilding, boats, Dwight D. Eisenhower, john f kennedy, plywood, pt-109, robert donovan, war, ww2

Posted By RichC on October 14, 2024

A quick song for Music Monday that is fitting for today. “On The Road Again” is from Willie Nelson in his prime … and one that everybody knows, probably by heart.

If you don’t know the song or the artist, you haven’t lived long enough. 😊  

Category: Music, Video | No Comments »
Tags: 1979, music monday, musicmonday, on the road again, willie nelson, youtube

Posted By RichC on October 13, 2024

The Christian mentoring organization Truth For Life, centered around the teachings of Pastor Alistair Begg has a new audio book on marriage call “Lasting Love” that I’ve recently downloaded. I can’t comment on it yet since I’ve not listen to it, but if it is anything like his other books, it should be helping in building a relationship to last a lifetime … and as the title references, “how to avoid marital failure.” 

For those who have occasionally read a post or two before on TFL and Alistair Begg, you’l know that I’m a listener and reader of their publications and devotionals.

If you are interested, here’s the link to download Lasting Love. 

Category: Advice, Audio, Books, Faith | No Comments »
Tags: alistair begg, audiobook, christianity, lasting love, marriage, truth for life

Posted By RichC on October 12, 2024

Snipping from my digital woodworking magazines definitely become a habit, although I’m not sure I’ll remember how to find them, even though they are archived on the blog (or keep myself from marking up the image with digital red marks)! 😊

Nevertheless, the one above might be useful IF I make the edge guide a little taller when using my new-ish Table Saw Jointer Jig. It tends to be excessively dusty when I’m making long cuts on the Oostra Oak. 

The next two ideas I’d like to try. I have a couple MicroJig dovetail clamps and adding a small clip as a third-hand would be helpful. The other isn’t something I need at the moment, but using coffee grounds mixed with CA glue to fill knots is interesting.

Category: Archive, Blogs, Ideas, Tidbits, Woodworking | No Comments »
Tags: clipping, ideas, magazine, snippet, woodworking, workshop

Posted By RichC on October 11, 2024

So far I can endorse a couple of inexpensive “non-charging” Magsafe “magnetic” car mounts for our two iPhones (iPhone 14 and iPhone 16 Pro Max). Both were purchased together on Amazon with a minor discount for 2 items together … and for the low-price, I expected to be disappointed. Nope, I was not.

The magnets are super strong and easily hold our phones with an Apple branded silicone case (others might be different). I would have preferred to have them also charge while driving, but that is not as critical these days.

Here are a couple photos mounted in our older vehicles: A 2010 Acura RDX above (vent mounted) and my 2010 BMW X5 35d below (CD mount as my previous homemade version).

Category: Acura, Advice, Automotive, BMW, Cellphone, Shopping, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: acura, amazon, BMW, car mount, iphone, magsafe, rdx, tech friday, techfriday, x5 35d

Posted By RichC on October 10, 2024

All of the smartphones I’ve owned since the 2000s have held a soft spot in my heart and the same could be said after seeing a Palm Treo photo in a “Year(s) Ago On This Day” link this week. It sort of makes for a worthwhile Throwback Thursday #TBT kind of subject … along with an iPhone 16 Pro Max photo fitted into the Apple Silicone case?

Back in 2007, I was a fairly happy Palm Treo user and advocate of the physical keys for tactical typing. After having a couple of Treo models … and Brenda using the Palm Centro … I was early to pick up the Palm Pre (slide out physical keys). Eventually after HP bought Palm and their WebOS … the nice smooth pocketable Pre was killed off. It was depressing. 

A couple of great feature besides the thumb-boards were the ability to use apps on an SD card and have extra storage … handy for saving of photos. The “cloud” and high-speed wireless connections were not a thing yet. 

The Palm Centro keys were even tighter together than the Blackberries of the day and Palm Treo so I wasn’t initially fond of it … but by the time I starting using the even smaller Palm Pre, I was “ok” with it. The same could be said for moving from physical keys to typing on an iPhone display. Amazing how easy it was to adapt … just like forgetting what the iPhone “HOME” but was!!! 😊 

Category: Apple, Cellphone, Photos, TBT, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: centro, iphone 16 pro max, palm, smartphone, TBT, treo

Posted By RichC on October 9, 2024

It has been quite the improvement when it comes to the camera, especially in switching from the iPhone 7 Plus (a great smartphone) to the new iPhone 16 Pro Max. I’ve really yet to learn how to best use the new features, but “out of the box” it just takes excellent photos (that link means little after 8400 posts and most with photos). 😊 

An immediately noticeable change is when in low-light settings. The better normal 1x camera lens, vastly improved sensor and “magic,” when it comes to digitally processing the photos in the iPhone itself, is like night and day. Above is a driveway Sunday night photo while taking out the garbage. It was a quick point and shoot to see how well it captured a dark scene. I’m impressed.

Then next two “lunch” photos were manually controlling the f-stop of the lens … the one on the left being fully open (as in low light or selective focus) and the one on the right fully stopped closed (maximizing the depth of field). Again, very impressed and love having control rather than trying to fool the iPhone using “portrait mode” or the longer lens. My only “immediate” gripe is that the new touch sensor camera control button is challenging to operate. I would not want to be trying to quickly change settings while taking photos — but as with touch-a-glass-display typing, perhaps it will grow on me and I can improve?

For now, it is nice to have the photography controls again — back to my old hobby. 

Category: Apple, Cellphone, Hobby, Photography, Photos, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: camera, control, depth-of-field, experimenting, iphone 16 pro max, low-light, selective focus, smartphone