Author Archive
The Shape of the Book: From Roll to Codex
Title: The Shape of the Book: From Roll to Codex Author: Franka Arduini (ed.), Guglielmo Cavallo (essay) Publisher: Mandragora, 2008 ISBN-13: 978-88-7461-116-4 I bought this book in the Duomo Museum in Siena. As the title indicates, its a book about books, or more accurately a catalog of some of the history of the written word. […]
April 7th, 2009 by alephnaught
The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures
Title: The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures Author: Phoebe Gloeckner Paperback: 312 pages Publisher: Frog Books (November 14, 2002) Language: English ISBN-10: 1583940634 ISBN-13: 978-1583940631 I love the mix of graphics and story. This is a hard book to read from a content perspective. Its part graphic novel and […]
April 4th, 2009 by alephnaught
What I look like when I don’t shave
We took a 10 day trip to Italy, which actually means 12 days including the travel time. I didn’t bring a razor along. I thought it would be fun to show the daily effects of not shaving; I used the built-in iSight camera and Photobooth software to take the images, then used Morpheus Photo Morpher […]
April 2nd, 2009 by alephnaught
I like to make things – my Toastmasters speech
Our local Toastmasters club selected me to compete in this year’s International Speech Competition. So, I got up early one Saturday and competed. My speech was entitled, “I Like to Make Things,” and I hope it captured how important creativity is to me; I talk about building a theatre organ from a kit when I […]
April 2nd, 2009 by alephnaught
For Toastmasters: Table Topics
Toastmasters is a structured program to learn how to give good speeches. One section of a meeting is called “Table Topics,” which is an opportunity for people to speak extemporaneously. It can be hard to develop good Table Topics questions, so I’d like to suggest two that worked (very well, I got a lot of […]
April 1st, 2009 by alephnaught
Blackberry App World quick review and pointer to a more detailed one
As I was reading the Engadget RSS feed, I saw an entry on Blackberry App World, so I grabbed a copy (you need to go to the Blackberry web site to download this application). And it seems to work. I’ve downloaded a free application already (a calorie counter) and will be downloading a few more. […]
March 31st, 2009 by alephnaught
Many Italian tourist attractions are getting more savvy
We’ve been traveling to Italy for years (my first trip was 9 years ago). We’ve noticed that tourist attractions are getting more savvy. For example, most churches and museums no longer allow photography inside, but they have nice full-color books available for purchase (when they don’t have a book they should allow photography – pet […]
March 29th, 2009 by alephnaught
Bologna
We got up a bit late; we’re finally road weary, sore and tired – we’re getting a little old for schlepping our stuff from city to city for ten days. Breakfast at the hotel was good, we got cleaned up and headed out. We took a hotel car to the Museo delle Cere Anatomiche, which […]
March 29th, 2009 by alephnaught
A Short History of Siena
Title: A Short History of Siena Author: Giuliano Catoni Paperback ISBN-10: 8877813199 ISBN-13: 978-8877813190 Bought this book in Siena with high hopes; unfortunately, it was mostly a waste of time to read this on the flight home from Italy. The author’s writing style is scattered; at times I thought Catoni would have some unifying themes, […]
March 29th, 2009 by alephnaught
China Underground
Title: China Underground Author: Zachary Mexico Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: Soft Skull Press (March 1, 2009) Language: English ISBN-10: 1593762232 ISBN-13: 978-1593762230 I bought this book for our trip to Italy from an independent LA bookstore. And I loved it! I want to go to China more now than ever before. There are 16 stories, […]
April 12th, 2009 by alephnaught