technology

Books are Friends that Never Leave…

Taking in strays?  Books?  Looking around you, suddenly, you realize you’ve been taking in and collecting stray books, filling your shelves, boxes, corners, attics, nooks, and crannies…only to find yourself overwhelmed!  Collecting books can easily go from an interest, to an addiction, especially if you were raised in a house full of books (as I was), where language was loved, and words (the correct ones of course!) were more important than any thing else…

And this taking in of strays, and collecting books still goes on, despite the rise of Internet publishing, social media and e-Books!  In fact, it may be that the internet and e-Book revolution has put even MORE stray books on the street, as people eschew their bookish lifestyles, give up all or most of their collections for adoption by libraries (already overwhelmed by taking in too many strays!) , and even leave their books in unmarked brown paper bags in the trash or on the stoops and porches of those who may still love and collect stray books…

In the spirit of word-worship, ink-on-paper-loving, and book-collecting-to-the-point-of-being-a-fetish, I found this “Stray Books” cartoon by Grant Snider of Incidental Comics posted on Mashable.com, and had to re-post it with comments, and share it with you…

straybooks-mashable

Direct link to the Mashable article/post: http://mashable.com/2013/04/02/stray-books-comic/

So…be careful of taking in too many strays!  See you at the library?  🙂

 – Russ Murray

More early fascination with technology…

I used to love going to where my dad worked. Over 20 years, he moved from clerk to the personnel manager (HR). It was a factory, downtown in my hometown of Ossining, which manufactured medical and industrial devices and they had an electron microscope on premise! It was a technology feast-for-the-senses, for me.

Anyway, here’s a shot of me at 8 years old, wearing my recently purchased Camp Kresge sweatshirt, reaching out to touch technology, with great fascination:

Rusty Murray - Russ Murray - Technology

Rusty – 1969

 

That’s my dad and stepmother on the right, watching me about to touch something I shouldn’t…or maybe I was telling them something I thought about that mess of parts and wires…

– Russ

Early fascination with technology…

Back in the day, I made all my own Halloween costumes, usually with the help of my father, sometimes my brother, and later on, my stepmother. This one was my first foray into technology–as a robot–lovingly constructed out of tin (aluminum?) foil, a cardboard box and heavy paper. No doubt it was the shiniest costume in the neighborhood that All Hallow’s Eve…

Rusty Robot

Halloween 1966 (?)

 

Unsure of the photographer, whose shadow can be seen falling on my legs, feet, and the ground in front of my robotic self…most likely my dad, or brother…

– Russ