“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
― Ray Bradbury
September TBR
What are you reading in September? On youtube, aka booktube, folks are enjoying Shorty September, reading more short books during this month. I did stack up a bunch of Analog, Asimov, and other science fiction and fantasy short story magazines to read this month for Sharty September. I also made a short stack TBR to…
August Reading Wrap-Up
Wow, August is over already. I was really on a roll for a while finishing a lot of books and starting to catch up to my adjusted Goodreads goal, and then I started in on Charles Dickens novels. Yep, I have been working my way through the rest of Charles Dickens’s novels, roughly in chronological…
Pursuit of Wellness
The internet is just a tool, as is social media, and while it can lead to mental illness, laziness, or poor physical fitness, it does not have to. This year I have been enjoying some of the wellness resources available online, especially on youtube. In the years since my K-12 school days, the information available…
Books
July Wrap-Up
Before we get into books, check out this cutie, my newest permanent addition to our family, Christopurr. Yes, he really is this precious. He was born in a not-yet managed colony, and my sister adopted his cousin, same age but gray fluffy tabby instead of light gingerish. Their siblings were sent off to be adopted…
2022 Wrap-Up: June-July
In June I had a new litter of kittens from a semi-rural area just outside the city. I adjusted my annual reading goal down to reflect the actual reading I was doing so far, so instead of aiming for 365 books I was aiming for 300. I made another adjustment to 275 more recently, too.…
2022 Wrap-Up: March-May
Books I finished in March: This was the most active month of the war in Ukraine, so my list of completed books is very short for March. Mostly I was reading books set in the area I was watching on my computer screen. As a result my completed books list was unusually short, but I…
Music
New Weekly Spotify Playlist: May 1-7
I spent a while listening to my friend’s radio project The Colorado Playlist online today and decided it has been far too long since I last made one of these. So, here are 21 songs (because one of them is pretty short), including a few newer songs by some of my favorite musicians, along with…
Album of the Evening- Stages
Album of the Evening- Stages by Josh Groban The longer I blog about music, the less I seem to tolerate albums in the classical/pop crossover subgenre that all include the same songs. I suppose if you are a man singing baritone or tenor and covering musical theater and recognizable classical and traditional songs, including all the same…
Album of the Evening- Hushabye
Album of the Evening – Hushabye, by Hayley Westenra I had enough high energy evening music for a while, at least enough that tonight’s album is a lullaby collection by one of the women whose voice I occasionally wish I could match. (I still prefer to sing alto, so her soprano range, while gorgeous, is…
Ravenblog
Revisiting the KonMari Method
I discovered the KonMari Method for tidying a few years ago. A few friends had recommended it, and I came across the audiobook while I was bored, during Covid lockdown. I found a lot I liked about this approach to tidying one’s space and life, despite still finding the book section cringeworthy. A few years…
New Kittens! Microbiomes and Crochet
First, the kittens. I got a call yesterday from a former coworker who wanted to know if I could take a couple kittens. Today the kittens arrived, 3 cute little kiddos who are pretty non-feral already for backyard stray kittens. Two are visibly underweight, but they are all eating on their own. Hopefully with ample…
A Day in My Life: May 31
Kitten season has definitely set in here, and I am awaiting a second (or third?) litter of kittens this week. I had 10 kittens by Sunday, though I shared out the smaller, younger ones to a friend who prefers the younger ones that still need a bottle. So, I have 6 cuties right now, who…
“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”
―
ROV Rescue at 2000 Meters
On Thursday, August 26, 2021, the cable detached that was connecting two deep-sea exploration ROVs (remotely operated vehicles- unmanned machines that allow us to see and explore the deep sea) to their ship on the surface. All of a sudden Argus and Hercules were stranded on the sea floor at a depth of over 2000…
Jack of all Trades, Master of None: Oceanography Edition
A lot of the professional academic folks connected to the deep sea ROV dives have areas of expertise, so that while they might not know as much about all the other critters on the screen, they really know sea stars, black corals, comb jellies, siphonophores, etc. As someone with plenty of time, and with a…
Cool Science: Deep Sea Stuff
I’m adding a new column to this blog, devoted to nerdy science stuff. I’m obsessed with watching deep sea ROV exploration live-streams this summer, namely the E/V Nautilus livestream and the Okeanos Explorer livestream. I’m of course no expert in deep sea life or geology or oceanography of any sort, but I do have an…
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
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Established in 2011, Ravenmount is a personal blog project devoted to books, music, the arts, science and great ideas, with a twitter account(@ravenmount1), tumblr page, and facebook pages (Ravenmount and Ravenmount Books).
– Jamie B. , owner/operator/manager/writer/editor/etc. for Ravenmount
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