June 4 2023 - 2023 Hobbies

 

It is almost half way through the year.  Have you considered starting a new hobby? Are there new hobbies to start?  Ones that didn't exist before?  Cold water swimming - start in the summer months when water temperatures are a little warmer. Plogging - an amalgamation jogging and pluck upp (picking in Swedish) - combines jogging and litter-picking. Microcementing - create worktops, storage units, coffee tables and decorative vases by putting concrete textures on surfaces. Bullet journalling - no need for punctuation with a bullet journal - just a notebook and pen Are hobbies something that would impress on a resume?  "Done right, hobbies a resume can help you and out from other candidates, show a bit of your personality to the hiring manager, and potentially even get you the job!" And the hobbies you should have on your resume?  That's no surprise.  The top ones are: Community involvement - volunteering, writing, blogging, learning languages, photography and sports.   And what hobbies should be left out of a resume? Nothing specific is listed - general advice is stay away from things that signal antisocial behaviour, political or religious views, violent or dangerous activities, and ones with little or no interactivity.   And weird hobbies?  These include:  tree shaping, beetle fighting, newsraiding, extreme ironing, stone skipping, suing, element collecting, competitive duck herding and toy voyaging (toys need a vacation).  The article concludes with these examples:  "did you know that… Claudia Schiffer is an insect collector John Travolta is a jumbo jet pilotMike Tyson is a pigeon racer Tom Selleck is an avocado farmer   Here's a hobby - train conductor the Strasburg Railway Line. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

April14 2020 - What's in a Name?

There are people who see things in very funny ways.  Here's an example that popped up last week when the bad dog jokes popped up.  Perhaps there was a google humour day in the searching and retrieval algorithm. It makes me wonder about first names and surnames.  We think of surnames as coming about in England.  They were adopted between the 11th and 16th centuries. The aristocracy started the consistent use of surnames. The Domesday Book in 1086 is the marker for the introduction of family names.  That was so they could tax everyone, and know that everyone had been taxed. But much earlier, the Romans had personal and family naming conventions - both a personal name and regular surname. Well, quite complicated, with the tradition evolving over centuries.  But it broke down following the collapse of imperial authority in the west.   Today, we engage in names as a social convention and personality statement. Websites have recommendations for turning surnames into first names.  A great example is Beyoncé:  "The singer's full name is Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter. Her mother, Tina Knowles, chose the name because of her own French maiden name, Beyince."  I put that in quotes, because I wonder if her mother had spelling issues. Johnny Depp?  This is more traditional:  Depp is a surname of South German origin, from a nickname for a 'maladroit' person, or according other sources a comedian.  Ellen Page's surname is traditional - status name for a young servant, Middle English and Old French. And 50 cent? This is the personality statement name:  Curtis James Jackson III adopted the nickname "50 Cent" as a metaphor for change. The name was inspired by Kelvin Martin, a 1980s Brooklyn robber known as "50 Cent"; Jackson chose it "because it says everything I want it to say. I'm the same kind of person 50 Cent was."   It is a Cumbers and Toltec day - these are from our visit to Colorado in 2017.

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Coinless and Cashless

There are a number of things that Millenials hate - and napkins is high on the list.  What do they use?  Paper towels.  My suggestion for the napkin companies (who are also the paper towel companies) is to package paper towels as napkins with the advantage that "we've got them ready for the dinner table". In comparison, Millenials don't hate cash.  They don't care about it, and use their cards and smart phones instead.  The interesting impact of this?  It turns out to be charities who have depended on hard currency in the box for donations.  How are charities responding to this circumstance? TEXT POPPY TO 20222 or scan this QR code with your phone to donate by credit card. Text-to-donate has been here for years.  The Mobile Giving Foundation Canada (MGFC) is a registered charity that enables text message donations.  Its 2012 articles says that it costs $2,000 - $3,000 for a year.  There are a quite a few mobile giving software companies in Canada - OneCause, Snowball, Qgiv, Double the Donation, SecureGive, Pledgeling.  Each has its advantage for a particular type of charity and cause. SecureGive is aimed at churches. It advertises itself as "the first and only giving platform created by a pastor for pastors". In the US, there's pushpay. They say that 7,500+ churches are already using pushpay to engage younger audiences. Snowball's site gives some interesting text giving facts that tell us the move to cashless living: 95% American adults own a cell phone 81% Americans use SMS daily 90% Text messages read within three minutes of receipt 80 Average number of times Americans check their phones daily 40% Nonprofit website traffic from mobile users 80% The amount that mobile fundraising grew from 2013 to 2016 7,000% How much texting has increased in the last decade A few more pictures from the train show - this first one could be "Exit cash".

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Snow in Cambridge - UK vs ON

Marshall McLuhan brought alive the expression "the Global Village."  He went to Cambridge to earn his Doctorate.  He had both a BA and an MA at the time, but Cambridge required him to enrol as an undergraduate with one year's credit towards a three-year bachelor's degree.  He went on to get his Doctorate. Yesterday, in Cambridge England, they had a heavy snowfall and all the schools are closed today.  It seems more likely that there would be snow in Cambridge Ontario.  The global village has made these places with duplicate names readily available.  How confusing can things be?  Today there's a snow alert for Cambridge ON, with an expectation of heavy snowfall.  Perhaps schools in Cambridge, ON will be closed tomorrow. If we are searching for Spanish place names, there are many occurrences around the world.  Our top place name is San Jose.  There are 1,716 localities that share this name.  See all the countries in the Wikipedia entry HERE. Here are the rest of the top ten: sSan Antonio- 1, 691 Santa Maria- 1,246 Santa Rosa- 1,212 San Pedro- 1,191 San Juan- 1,166 San Francisco- 1,017 San Miguel- 989 San Isidro- 892 La Esperanza- 852 The top city names in the U.S.A. are: 1. Washington - 88 2. Springfield - 41 3. Franklin - 35 4. Greenville - 30 Canada's top name is Long Lake (204 places) with Mount Pleasant (16 places) second.  Today we're riding the rails in Strasburg, PA. There's a Strasburg, ON without the steam.

March Weather Savage and Serene

We enter the month of March, that which draws us into spring. Poets had great emotions on the subject of March: December days were brief and chill, The winds of March were wild and drear, And, nearing and receding still, Spring never would, we thought, be here. ~Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861) It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. ~Charles Dickens (1812–1870), Great Expectations These, marching softly, thus in order went, And after them, the Months all riding came; First, sturdy March, with Brows full sternly bent, And armed strongly, rode upon a Ram, The same which over Hellespontus swam: Yet in his Hand a Spade he also hent, And in a Bag all sorts of Seeds ysame, Which on the Earth he strowed as he went, And fill'd her Womb with fruitful Hope of Nourishment. ~Edmund Spenser, The Fairy-Queen, 1590s Today's pictures are "Blowing Off Steam" images from the Sandy River and Rangely Lakes Railroad trip in Maine last year.

Fifty Years a Ruler

Black Friday sales reports violence across the U.S.  It seems regrettable that this shopping day has an association with the Black Friday label.  Black Friday 'days' commemorate catastrophic events such as scandals, stock exchange crashes, fire devastation, military operations, and so on. There's an entry for Black Friday 2016 for the United Kingdom - the day after the Brexit vote - when the financial markets lost 2 trillion dollars in the worst single day drop in history.  Fidel Castro has died at 90 so today's photos show scenes from Cuba.  Here is his most famous quote: "Condemn me.  It does not matter. History will absolve me" And an historical fact I'd forgotten: "Castro’s speeches, lasting up to six hours, became the soundtrack of Cuban life and his 269-minute speech to the UN General Assembly in 1960 set the world body’s record for length that still stood more than five decades later."

Middelton, MD Layout Scenes

We're looking at Bill and Mary Miller's  Middleton, MD layout.  They model Colorado with the mountain scenery with logging, mining and great mountain bridges.  It is an operating layout so the last picture shows the cards with the operating instructions.

Revenge of the Fact Checkers

A model layout can be whatever the modeller wants - based on actual or imaginary (freelance) railroads. Prototypical layouts are modelled based on the actual real world railroad.  It has to be as close as possible to reality.  Freelance modellers have more freedom - but they still need to choose an era so things match, have a purpose for the railroad (e.g. mining, logging) and be similar to prototype practices. These scenes are part of a module group - every scene different and fun - so it seemed like an imaginary railroad.  I didn't check whether that was the fact, though, as I was busy taking pictures.  The Globe and Mail today had an article on the facts in the Presidential debate on Monday and the approach to fact-checking.  It seems Trump's imaginary stories and lies are now revealed as such in real-time.  In news stories, they are carrying the revelation of false information in the banners at the bottom of the screen.

Strasburg the Oldest

It is a Strasburg Railway Day.  It is the oldest continuously operating railraoad in the western hemisphere.  It was chartered in 1832 and operates under its original charter and name.  The buildings and the water tower certainly set the stage for an historic heritage railway.  The countryside around the railway has Amish farms using horses for ploughing. It seems like an heritage area all round - a percentage of each train ticket is contributed to the Lancaster Farmland Trust.

Steam Day Today

Time.com kept track of the best April Fools Day pranks.  You can scroll through them here.  The first one on the list is the return of Texas currency.  The bills are called Texas Redbacks and have Willie Nelson's face on a ten dollar bill. Our pictures today take us to Strasburg Railroad (2015) showcasing the conductor and locomotive.

All Aboard for a Trip

Are there steam trains in Florida?  We're driving to Florida tomorrow for a month's stay.  I found the St. Marys Railroad just north of Jacksonville, and that's closeby to St. Augustine.  We'll be on the Wild West Express, so you will be seeing more train pictures as February progresses. At the end of February we'll be in Clearwater for a train symposium and outside Orlando to the Sundance display.  I know that's one of everyone's favourites. It is All Aboard today - at Strasburg, PA.

Steamed at Chama

Chama still seems like a remote village in New Mexico.  It remains rustic with a dusty street of a few stores and places to eat.  But it is home to the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad - which I call the Chama Yard.  You are allowed to walk around everywhere and check out the equipment being stored or restored. There is a web forum and regular images of the yard - one from two days ago showed that Colorado is a winter wonderland.  Here's the webcam link. View this email in your browser

How Many Model Railroaders Are There?

It's a Happy Train Day! How many Model Railroaders are there?  I wondered this and one of the forums had this answer. "If one considers all those with some sort of interest in model trains, teen through adult, tin-plate or scale, I believe that something like 300,000 might be a reasonable figure for the U.S.A., based on magazine circulation, hobby sales, etc. However, I'd have to say that likely more than half of these would be more properly classified as model railroad enthusiasts - persons with an armchair interest only or who never get beyond a single loop of track on a bare piece of plywood. Based on what you can find in the magazines and on-line, maybe something like 10k-20k might be considered true model railroaders with operating, scenicked layouts, while there appear to be a great many individuals that fit somewhere between that minority and the simple enthusiast level, or are those who are between layouts. " While this answer was from 2004, I can assume the number would remain a good estimate a decade later.