//BNJMN (8/12/19): Watching that show, ‘Shitt’s Creek’, and they’re making fun of cheese balls and I’m here to say cheese balls are awesome and not liking them is a crime.

//BNJMN (8/9/19): When Lieutenant Henry Shrapnel invented his fancy explosive ammunition in 1784, I wonder if he intended his family name to be synonymous with death and destruction two centuries later, or if that was just considered a perk

//BNJMN (8/3/19): Is eating an apple sexy?

//BNJMN (8/1/19): Ok y’all, listen up. There’s a better way to eat cheese sticks.

Here’s the game—heat up some water on the stove, put the cheese sticks in the water (still wrapped), wait until the cheese has melted.

Then cut off an end and slurp that mozza into your face like it’s gogurt.

//BNJMN (7/30/19): I’ve become a person who listens the Hamilton soundtrack on repeat all day like its 2015.

//BNJMN (7/29/19): I don’t used inDesign often, but every time I do, it feels like I’ve been transported to this uncanny alternate dimension of Illustrator, where everything is stuck in the Middle Ages, but where they have multiple page documents.

//BNJMN (7/26/19): Cool thing about libraries—sometimes they have private rooms you can reserve for literally free!

//BNJMN (7/25/19): DNS stuff is one of the most frustrating aspects of web development for me, because it’s one of the few things where you don’t get immediate feedback, and it’s not something I deal with frequently enough to feel like I have deep expertise.

//BNJMN (7/25/19): Last night, prepping a walnut dresser for restoration, the mineral spirits I was using dried out the skin on my right thumb so badly that TouchID no longer recognizes me and it’s a living nightmare!

//BNJMN (7/23/19): Ok, hear me out– I think Donald Trump and Borris Johnson ascendeding to become chief executives of a country is good evidence David Foster Wallace has taken over as cosmic script writer and it’s gonna be post-mordern farce from here on out.

//BNJMN (7/22/19): I’ve been slowly working through this book “Being Ecological” by Timothy Morton and there is one particular concept that I’ve been chewing on.

The idea is this: we are familiar with the idea that a whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but there are times when the opposite is true. Sometimes a whole is less the sum of its parts. Maybe much less than the sum of its parts even.

I’m still thinking about the idea, but a particularly visceral, easy to access illustration of this is the example of the holocaust. The holocaust was horrible and it’s easy to say it was horrible. But what’s not easy is going through the list of the 8 million odd people who were murdered, one by one, and say that each murder was horrible. It would take days or weeks or months.

As an aggregate, the crime of the holocaust was just one thing—an operation to purify Germany of undesirables—but it was made up of 8 million murders, each of which is in some ways just as evil as the idea of the holocaust itself as a whole. You can tell that this is true because if we lived in a world where only 4 million were killed in the holocaust, we wouldn’t think the holocaust was any less evil. Its evilness is maxed out. The whole is less then the sum of its parts.

This isn’t to say that the concept “holocaust” isn’t useful and necessary, but the process of bundling it into existence inherently diminishes the actual total of the things the holocaust refers to.

I kind of hate this particular example, because it seems so trite, but it’s a pattern that applies to anything with scale, and the interesting thing is that literally everything has scale when you consider the number of things it’s made of.

The one area I’m still trying to understand how this fits in is when emergence happens—that is to say when a system of small things work together and are defined by the effect that they create. Is the sum of the cells in the human brain larger than a consciousness? Is the sum of the individuals in a culture greater than the culture itself? I’m not really sure.

//BNJMN (7/21/19): I’m finally getting around to listening to the Hamilton cast album. It’s really good…shocker. The guy who plays King George is so good.

//BNJMN (7/17/19): I’m in research mode this evening. I’m trying to figure out different approaches for content management.

I’m not really happy with the CMS’s I’ve used…I was looking at Ghost, which seems very cool, but ultimately I’m not sure how it fits into what I’m interested in. I’m in a gray area with this little e-commerce project that I’m focused on—my current solution is a bit hacky (I’m using forestry.io), but there aren’t that many better options that I’m turning up.

//BNJMN (7/13/19): I’ve discovered I sorta kinda love taking photos at fairs. Lots of good cheesiness.

//BNJMN (7/12/19): Actually doing some illustration work for the first time in a few weeks…oof…rusty.

//BNJMN (7/10/19): I walked around the Winneshiek County Fair for about 45 mins this afternoon. Beautiful day, and the barns smelled wonderful.

//BNJMN (7/9/19): I just spent 15 minutes hunting down a single particular fly who buzzed at me wrong.

Let this be a warning: If you are an insect and you cross me, I will do what it takes to finish you.

//BNJMN (7/7/19): Looking around, I’m clearly the coolest person in this WalMart bathroom. Feelin good!

//BNJMN (7/5/19): Update on Aaron Copland: I’ve been listening to the Bernstein collecting of his work on repeat for almost week and movement II (the Allegro) has this great moment where there are frantic strings playing over these long, stately, arching horn passages, and it’s one of those perfect little morsels of art.

//BNJMN (7/1/19): Medium is so frustrating. You can tell they know what a good reading experience would be like, but none-the-less they consistently find ways to obscure content.

//BNJMN (6/30/19): Went on a short hike this afternoon but it was so hot I didn’t even feel like taking any photos. Alas, how will I prove it?!

//BNJMN (6/30/19): I’d never really gotten why Aaron Copland was considered great, but I’m listening to Appalachian Spring this morning and it’s really clicking.

//BNJMN (6/29/19): I need to get back in the habit of posting more asides. Here’s one: I’m watching ‘All the President’s Men’. So far it’s fine. A little slow paced, but I like the hard boiled vibe that it has. I don’t think it has any scoring at all at this point.

//BNJMN (6/19/19): I’m not a huge baseball fan, in the sense that I don’t follow it closely, but I do love ball games. It’s the perfect sport for an outing, because it’s not just about the game. It’s a pastoral sport that doesn’t demand your constant attention, so you’re free to wander the concourse with a beer and a camera for a few innings, and still fully enjoy the game. The Twins lost today, but it was a very nice evening.

//BNJMN (6/18/19): Launches Adobe Illustrator…waits…waits…oh crap, why has the screen going black? Why are the fans spinning up like a Blackhawk?…jams power button until it stops…now waits for the computer to grumpily restart. Launches Adobe Illustrator…waits…

//BNJMN (6/17/19): I didn’t get carded at one of those places with a sign that says they’ll card anyone who looks like they are under 40 and now I’m concerned.

//BNJMN (6/17/19): Checked my email and I see there is a new update to my pet fav font and I’m a happy boy! ISO is the best: https://www.futurefonts.xyz/scribble-tone/iso

//BNJMN (6/14/19): The scariest thing in the world is code that works and you aren’t quite sure why…

//BNJMN (6/13/19): I picked up a neat old projector lens today for a couple bucks and now I’m realizing I don’t really have a use for an old projector lens.

//BNJMN (6/11/19): My git habits on single person projects could definitely use some improvement…the problem is that I have a habit of just sort of mobbing and grinding so my project delineation isn’t always great. Will keep getting better.

//BNJMN (6/8/19): Goes outside, stretches his arms back, looks to the sky and says to the sun ‘what a beautiful day!’ and is immediately engulfed in a cloud of gnats, his eyes eaten directly from his skull, and is now very dead

//BNJMN (6/6/19): Working in this quaint, chill coffee shop and suddenly, like a bomb, Blink 182 is popping off in the stereo, and I look over and I see that the punk kid at the register has done a coup d’état and is now in charge.

//BNJMN (6/5/19): Recently this has just turned into a spot to put photos it seems like. I’m not sure exactly how I feel about that, but I suppose I haven’t had the energy to post many links. It’s better then posting nothing though I think, and does provide an ambient angle into my day.

//BNJMN (6/3/19): There is nothing more frustrating than code that won’t work even though you just know it should.

//BNJMN (6/2/19): I finally put away my sweaters and most of my long sleeve shirts for the season. This summer I’m going all in on these cotton drawstring shorts that Old Navy is selling. Comfy and they look good in a casual, fun sort of way.

//BNJMN (5/30/19): Update: My XF10 seems to have survived its drop into the bucket of water. All its preferences got wiped, and I am not 100% confident it’s not going to suddenly die on me someday, but for now I’m grateful.

//BNJMN (5/30/19): Went on a nice hike this afternoon and got quite a few cool shots…I’ll probably space them out a bit over tomorrow and the weekend.

//BNJMN (5/29/19): Last night I dropped my little camera (the Fuji XF10) in a bucket of water while doing chores. It was off and I grabbed it immediately, pulled the battery within probably 3 seconds, and dried it as well as possible…right now it’s under a heat lamp in between cloth bags filled with rice. Hopefully it’ll still work, but I hate the tension of having to wait to know.

//BNJMN (5/29/19): I tried to reunite my raccoon pal with his family last night after I stabilized him, but it didn’t work. But thankfully I was able to find him a new home at Gilbertson Nature Center. He may have had some health problems beyond just being abandoned, but hopefully he gets on well there 🦝🥰

//BNJMN (5/28/19): Ok, yes…Benjamin from 3 years ago did do some stupid, hacky stuff that caused my biz email to go completely MIA this morning…and yes, all the Benajmins from 3 years ago until this morning knew about the issue and ignored it…

But wow! Today’s Benjamin really fixed it up great! Raise please.