A link, a funny story, and a nervous news item

Hudson Home Healthcare is a scummy company, apparently.

Last Wednesday, I hung out with my new friends Dave and Josh in Avon, CT. We talked about binary math, magic, philosophy, drawing, and a bunch of other stuff. Good times. In the course of the evening, I got recommendations for five books, all of which sounded great. More on them as I learn more, and actually get the books.

Anyway, this past weekend I went into two different Barnes & Noble bookstores, a Borders, and our local friendly neighborhood bookstore (LFNBS). I wound up being able to flummox the infodesk specialists at all three big-box stores with all five titles. One was the store’s assistant manager (at Borders), and he was absolutely horrified — anguished, I tell you — at the thought that a customer had come into the store that has everything, and was walking away empty-handed even though he desperately wanted to buy the books on this list.

The woman at the FLNBS, on the other hand, found them quickly, ordered them, and I’ll have them next week or so. Awesomeness.

So… if you feel like you want to flummox the big-box book stores, make a point of asking for these books:

• Marginalia: Readers Writing in Books
• The Origins of the Modern Mind
• What Video Games are teaching us about literacy and learning
• The Mustard Seed Manual of Chinese Painting
• and now I can’t find the fifth title. Oh, well.

No, I don’t know what most of them are about, either.

In other news

In other news, Russia is considering shutting down its pipelines west to protest EU and NATO military activity in the Black Sea, and diplomatic protests about the mess in Georgia and South Ossettia. And a hurricane is likely going to pass right through most of the offshore US oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Keep your gas tank full through the weekend, OK?

Update, MANY YEARS LATER: It’s funny that the most important thing in this entry is the fact that I had lunch with Dave and Josh in Avon, CT. That was way more important than anything else that happened at this time.

Red Tent Temple

Red Tent Temple
Originally uploaded by anselm23.

Here’s ‘s new Red Tent Temple, as I had it (incorrectly) set up yesterday. Since then I’ve made some modifications, and narrowed the set-up space by re-staking the corners and sides to be much closer to the tent itself. It’s not that hard for one person to set up alone, and I think it looks pretty good. Their first night in the temple (I think) is tomorrow.

Update: Saturday morning
I hope they have a good time. It rained a little last night, and it’ll be interesting to see how the tent holds up to the first wet. Although I do hope it clears enough and warms up enough that I can help them take it down tomorrow (Sunday). They’re worried about the grass underneath.

Given that the tent is canvas, and canvas has a propensity to rot, I think that the reality is that it will have to come down after each Red Tent, and go up beforehand, depending on how frequently they want to use it.