Dave Ferguson

@daveferguson.bsky.social

750 Followers 397 Following

Not as bad as you might think. Tangential. Instructional design, job aids, Ensampler.com. May be related to Alistair MacLeod. Francophonesque. Pic: Dad. Chì mi Ceap Breatuinn, mo luaidh, Fada bhuam, thar an t-sàil.

Eight rocks laid out on a paper notepad. Three of the rocks are on a five-inch-wide, slate-blue dish; the other five are directly on the notepad. Three of the rocks have similar, mottled-pink coloring--not an exact match, more like stony third cousins. All three are somewhat flatt, but the one at the bottom left looks like it could have been a scratch pad for cuneiform writing, if it had been made of clay and been found in the ruins of Uruk. Two others have a mottled, dark, gray-blue coloring and both look like teardrops, or perhaps raw material for tiny, six-centimeter stelae. The common element in this collection is "rocks I found walking along the beach in my Nova Scotia home town."
Part of a message from Microsoft Word. The title asks: Save your changes to this file? Next: Avoid losing changes to this file in the future by saving it to a folder backed up to the cloud instead. After that, there's a field for file name. I'd opened an actual file, added a space, and saved it as HOW WILL MS ANNOY ME AS I SAVE. It's very hard to tell that this is what I was pretending to save, because the file name itself is in faint gray type, with a lighter faint gray highlight over it. It's like you're trying to read the name through very thinly sliced American cheese.
The cover and a typical map page from a Triple-A TripTik, a collection of strip maps around 5 inches wide by 10 high. Workers would collect the individual strips for a customer's driving route, add a heavier-paper cover and back, and use a plastic comb binded to hold the collection together at the top. The "navigator" on the trip could flip the pages like a reporter's notebook as the trip progressed. This photo shows, on the left, the glossy paper cover of a TripTik from the Canadian Automobile Association. On the right is a typical map page showing the route between Kamloops BC and Bellingham, Washington, a trip of around 200 miles or 325 kilometers. Like many TripTik pages, there's a main route (the Trans-Canada Highway) and some alternate routes and nearby cities. Symbols indicated accommodation, local information, hospitals, and so on, and intermediate distances were marked. Additional information sometimes appeared on the same page. Larger cities would be printed on a double page, folded, with the map on the outer part and the details inside. A green highlight on the map shows the route from Surrey (outside of Vancouver) to Kamloops, with an arrow to show Kamloops was the destination.
Musical notation for the Gregirian chant "In paradisum," from the traditional Latin Requiem mass. In paradisum deducant te angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem. "May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs receive you at your arrival and lead you to the holy city Jerusalem. May choirs of angels receive you, and with Lazarus, who once was poor, may you have eternal rest."
A portion of my dad's naturalization certificate from 1957, showing gaps between several parts of the folds. Although the certificate was technically in one piece, it was close to losing that status when it was framed, fifty-two years after it was issued.
A broad view looking north along Broad Cove, near the beach at Inverness, Nova Scotia. Little whitecaps sail from the west (left) toward the shore, which is bordered by long grass that could remind you of machair in the Scottish Hebrides, home of many ancestors of townspeople. A boardwalk parallels the shore, with more open ground further inland. Hills in the distance, and far to the west (left), like a whale caught idling, the rounded crest of Margaree Island, once the home of Cape Breton bard Angus Y. Macdonald.
Part of an appealingly-laid-out breakfast buffet at a hotel in Bergen, Norway. At the far side, bowls of sauces and dressings. Closer to the viewer, long plates with several kinds of cheeses, including (I think) Norwegian brown cheese. At the front, bowls with sliced radishes, cucumbers, and carrots; others with salad greens and cherry tomatoes.
Canada's General Service Badge from World War II. It's a shield-shaped metal badge, the sort worn on jacket lapels and similar clothing. The dull-gold-colored shield features three maple leaves, joined to a common stem. Above the shield is a stylized crown. Along the base of the crown are a cross flanked by two fleur-de-lys, representing the Crown of Canada. A banner running below the botton of the shield reads "General Service."
A basket of cardboard coffee sleeves at Discovery Coffee in Victoria BC. A sign in front of the basket reads, "Coffee sleeves full of joy and kindness lovingly created for you by the students of Christ Church Cathedral School. We hope they brighten your day." On the counter by the sign, a sleeve with a message in a child's printing: Have a good coffee.
A two-destination highway sign along a country highway on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. The upper portion reads "W.S.S.W. MARGAREE ROAD", with an arrow pointing right. Below it, with an arrow pointing left, "W.S.S.W. MARGAREE." The abbreviations are for West Side, Southwest Margaree" and "East Side, Southwest Margaree."
A poster for the movie "Wag the Dog," in which a fake crisis is manufactured to help bolster the career of a flailing president of the United States.
An acoustic guiar, leaning against a bench in a slightly cluttered room. The clutter is from unpacking the guitar--a portion of the box is under the bench, wads of packing paper and protective plastic wrap are on the rug. The guitar has a light-colored top of sitka spruce, and slightly darker wood with a distinctive grain pattern on the sides (and on the back, which isn't visible). Larrivée, the guitar maker, calls this wood silver oak (Grevillea robusta) because it comes from India and that's the local name, not "lacewood." The grain of silver oak is hard to capture in a photo. I think it looks as if there are layers of grain, some running horizonal and some vertical, as if the wood had been woven. It's also a great-sounding guitar.
The entrance to Apostolic Nunciature (essential the Vatican embassy) in Washington DC. The gold-and-white Vatican flag hangs over the entrance. Carved above that entrance are the arms of the Holy See: a pair of keys, crossed to form an X, and the three-level papal tiara, traditionally used to crown a pope.
Donald Trump in 1984, sitting on a couch and talking into several microphones. Roy Cohn is sitting next alongside and looking like embalming had already begun on his face. Photo from an April 2017 article in The New Yorker.
A small toy moose, lying on a car's steering column, with dashboard dials visible in the background. She has brown fur, bright if slightly beady eyes. She's a female moose, and they don't have antlers. The light-brown objects on top of her head are obviously a moose tiara.
A scene from inside an airport. Seven or eight ICE agents, dressed in weekend-bro casual with protective vests from Homeland Security's consignment shop, are helping TSA by yakking with each another. Showing keen planning, the group's only steps away from some restrooms. And purely by coincidence, they're just outside a glass-walled room that has a sign over the entrance reading "Oversize Baggage." No one from the DHS Loitering Brigade is THAT oversized, so the sign's clearly a metaphor.
A poor-quality photo of a simple, rectangular headstone in Highgate Cemetery, outside London. The name, in all caps: GORDON BELL Below that, in smaller letters: Middle name Ernest, though he placed no importance on it.
A 1969s era paperback collection of the works of Chaucer. Against a black background, a medieval man in a lime-green robe, wearing a red headdress with folds falling to his shoulders, is riding a horse. The man had red boots with spurs, as if he were one of the four-and-twenty pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales, setting out on the two-day trip to the shrine of “the holy blissful martyr” Thomas à Becket. The book title is The Portable Chaucer, part of a series of collections. Near the bottom of the cover, bands of orange-red and chartreuse, matching the man’s outfit, list some of the works inside.
The Columbus Fountain, directly in front of Union Station in Washington DC. Wikipedia describes it as a semicircular double-basin fountain with a 45-foot-tall shaft in the center. The shaft bears a full-length, 15 foot statue of Christopher Columbus. He’s wearing a mantle, staring forward with his hands folded in front of him. Beneath him is a ship prow that features a winged figurehead that represents the observation of discovery. A globe, representing the Western Hemisphere, is on top of the shaft with four eagles on each corner connected by garland. The photo shows the 65-foot width of the fountain, with Union Station in the background, under a bright blue sky.
From a 2017 post on Twitter as the Cajun Navy, volunteers in Louisiana, prepared to go to Texas to help hurricane victims. The photo is a closeup of a Costco shopping cart. The bottom shelf us packed with "emergency spices" and two cases of chicken stock. The main part of the cart is crammed with Camillia red beans and Tony Chachère sauce. As it should be.
Screen grabbed from a Costco ad, showing a rectangular box of Little Hotties hand warmers. The text says the box has 40 pairs. Cost is $22.99 Canadian, less a $3 discount.
A full-figure statue in Moscow of Felix Dzerzhinski, head of the first three secret police organizations under Lenin. The statue includes a long coat extended as far as its feet.
A screen grab of a State Department page, linked to on the post to which this one is a reply. The screen has only the State Department seal and a "we're sorry, technical difficulties" message.
A sgian dubh (SKI-on DOO), or black (dubh) knife next to its leather sheath. The knife typically has a blade under four inches. It’s usually worn tucking into the top of knee-high stockings worn as part of traditional Highland Scots dress like the kikt and sporran.
A sort of bookcase. It has two triangular wooden sides, with four wide pockets (magazine-holder “slings”). The open ends of the four pockets—into which you’d place books or magazines—running up the front of the bookcase, like a set of hammocks forming stairs. The front of each pocket consists of fabric sewn together, with a rod inserted through that sewn tube and joined to the bookcase sides. The example in the photo has five thin early-reader books placed tastefully in the four slings by a underemployed person who specializes in home-for-sale staging.
Closeup of someone’s hand holding an open book. The person’s thumb is at the bottom center of the book, between the open pages. The thumb’s inserted through a hole in a wooden object, shaped like an elongated diamond. The long sides of this diamond extend sideways onto the open pages to hold them down.
A red box for French fries, sporting a gold M logo. The box is only about 25% full, indicating that someone's several fries short of a Happy Meal. Photo by Nik at Unsplash.com - https://unsplash.com/photos/mcdonalds-fries-on-red-mcdonalds-fries-box-WUTpM4iPCVA
A chart with mnemonics for converting temperatures from Fahrenheit to Celsius. For example, for 0 degrees F, the mnemonic is "zero, North Pole near-o," and the Celsius equivalent us -18 degrees. Fahrenheit temperatures go up 10 degrees per line. Example: 60 F, "Six, spring flower mix," and the C equivalent us 16 degrees.
An image from an NVIDIA page about the RTX PRO 6000 workstation edition. In the photo, which has pretty dim lighting, you can see a laptop, an external monitor, something that might be a workstation on a low riser, a keyboard, and a bunch of other tech boxes. In the foreground is the RTX Pro, a black box standing on end, about 12 inches high and five wide. Presumably it connects to all that other stuff, though not necessarily all at the same time. All the equipment seems to be on a big shiny floor, or possibly a desk the size of a city park, since no edges are visible.
A bag of popped corn. On a bright green background, a cartoon figure's head, shoulders, and hands. The figure has popped-corn circles for eyes and a wide-open smiling mouth. It's wearing a green knit cap and holding a drink topped with whipped cream with a candy cane for a stirred. The popcorn flavor is Peppermint Mocha.
A parody of the Microsoft Clippy character. In cartoon form, a paper clip with googly eyes, standing on a sheet of yellow note paper, is saying “It looks like you’re thinking of peas, Janet… Do you need some A.I. with that?”
A young man of 21, in a formal black-and-white photo showing head, shoulders, and upper torso. He's wearing the red serge, the ceremonial dress uniform of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, including broad-brimmed Stetson hat, a leather Sam Browne belt across his chest, and the cord of his sidearm lanyard around his neck.
A brunette woman, 25 years old, in a head-and-shoulders, black and white formal portrait. She's wearing the dress uniform of a nursing sister in the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve. A white headress behind her hair. Epaulettes with a naval insignia. A white collar over the dress coat, with two rows of bright buttons down the front. A small pin near the left point of the collar has a bright maple leaf.
A satire of the "Come and Take It" flag, which usually features a star in the upper center, the silhouette of a 19th-century cannon, and the slogan "come and take it." This version includes a gold star, a stylized submarine sandwich with colored layers to represent cheese, tomato, salami, onion, and lettuce. These ingredients are, well, sandwiched by two brownish layers curved on the end to represent the sandwich bun. Beneath the sandwhich, in capital letters: "Here, you take it."
Detail from the renovation of a bathroom, looking into an alcove about five feet wide. The far end of the alcove a wall where the plumbing will be for a toilet and a shower. The floor of the alcove is covered with 1 by 2 foot gray tile. The floor is divided lengthwise by a raised area -- a curb. To the right of the curb will be the walk-in shower; to the left, a toilet. The wall on the right, which is the long side of the shower, and the wall at the back of the alcove are covered with tile in an off-white pattern with streaks of gray, meant to resemble marble. Although none of the fixtures are in place, the renovation is more than halfways done.
A screen shot of an online calculation. The title is "Percentage Decrease Calculator." The first line is labeled "starting number," and the number given is 242. The next line is labeled "decrease amount," and the number given is 232. The third line is labeled "percent decrease." The calculated answer runs to fourteen decimal places. Rounded off, the answer would be 95.87%. (The full answer is 95..86776859504133 percent.)
Woody Guthrie, in a photo dated 1943, making him about 31 years old. He's seated, shown from rougly the waist up. He's wearing a long-sleeve shirt, open at the neck, and he's gazing off to the viewer's left. Eyebrows are raised, forehead wrinkled, as if he's studying a reaction or thinking of the next line in a song. He's playing a guitar (most of the next is out of frame), a sticker on the guitar, above the fretboard and to the right of the sound hole, reads "This machine kills fascists."
A close-up to a stone carving above the entrance to Paisley Close, a narrow passageway in Edinburgh, Scotland. Above a bust of a young man's face is a banner that reads "Heave awa', chaps, I'm no' dead yet." On Nov. 24, 1861, two tenement building, each over 250 years old, collapsed, killing 35 people. Joseph McIvor, a boy of around 12, had been standing in the doorway of one of them. Much later, as rubble was being cleared and hope of survivors was dim, his voice came out from the debris: "Heave awa', lads, I'm no deid yet." (The word "chaps" on the stone carving is likely an anglicization of McIvor's words, as is "dead" for "deid.") Paisley Close was built on the spot where the tenements collapsed, and the bust in the carving above the entrance is Joseph McIver.
Cover for the educational video game "Super Solvers OutNumbered." The math-problem plot takes place in a television station, the rooftop of which is shown in cartoon form. Perched on the antenna tower is the mad scientist Master of Mischief, with his TV-set robot henchdroid Telly nearby. Climbing onto the roof from an outside wall is the SuperSilver, representing the player, wearing a puffy blue jacket and a red ball cap. As in the game itself, Supersolver's face is not visible.
A steel Halligan tool, commonly used by firefighters, on a white background. The steel shaft can be of various lengths; around 30 inches is common. One end has tines making a kind of claw or fork. The opposite end has a blade (a wedge or adze) and a tapered pick. These ends can puncture, pry, twist, or smash structures like doors and walls. The Halligan is useful for prying doors open, forcing locks, breaking down walls, and similar tasks.
A small, stuffed-animal moose, riding in the drink holder of a car. She has dark brown fur and tan antlers (actually her tuare; female moose don't have antlers). She's looked out at the viewer with a calm but happy aspect. She's just finished a 5 day, 3,000 Mike car trip. She's resting her muzzle on a receipt from BC Ferries, waiting to take the 1 p.m. sailing from Tsawwassen, outside Vancouver, to her new home on Vancouver Island.
A six-ounce container of "Slap Ya Mama" cajun seasoning from Walker and Songs. The main part of the container is on a diagonally-striped background, alternating bright yellow and pastel yellow. Grass-green letters spell out SLAP YA MAMA, with "Cajun Seasoning" below that in red. There's a red chili pepper on either side of the word "ya." A grass-green band at the toppart of the label serves as the background for the company's logo: the words Walker & Sons in white, with a drop shadow, on top of an outline map of Louisiana. All in all, a breezy, cheery label, and inside the canister there's pretty good stuff for livening up your food.
A fedora-style felt hat on a flat white background. The felt is olive-brown, including a straight brim. There's a tan brown leather band at the base of the crown.
Part of a crowded bookshelf in a used-book store. The cover of a book, facing the camera, reads "Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales." A small sign just below the book reads "New and Notable: Chaucer's Canterbury Tales."
A screenshot from a software package released in 1988. On a black background, one box reads: Sidekick Plus version 1.000, IBM version. Copyright 1988, Borland International, Incorporated. Overlapping the lower right corner is another box, framed by ASCII-character lines, with the software's main menu. The choices are: Time Planner, Notebook, File Manager, Phone Book, Calculator, ASCII Table, Outlook, and Services. The bottom two lines of the screen show a function key menu, white characters on a blue background. In this menu, F5 reads "Zoom."
A sample of tartan cloth, folded on itself at least a dozen times. This is like a view of a kilt, except the folds have soft edges and not the sharp ones of a kilt. This is Ferguson tartan in "ancient colors," meaning a modern attempt to duplicate dyes that were mainly vegetable based. The colors are generally not as strong as more modern tartans, though they can be light and distinctive. Like most tartans, this is made up of a pattern of repeating colored stripes of various widths, woven with the same pattern of vertical stripes. The basic idea of the thread pattern is that it uses a certain number of threads of one color, then of another, up to a so-called pivot point, where the pattern continues in reverse. In this example, there's a thin, distinct white stripe bordered by two thinner black ones, against a heather-green background. Moving an inch or so away from the white stripe, there's a reddish one, the same width as the white strip and its borders, also on a green background. An inch further past the red strip is a black strip, about an inch wide. Next is a two-inch area with only a light blue background that takes the place of the previous light green one. Halfway through this blue area is where the pattern reverses: blue followed by black, followed by the green background with the red strip, followed by the white and its borders. The complexity of a tartan comes from weaving the pattern horizontally and vertically. The colors depend on tradition and on the mill that weaves the cloth.
Parody of a news photo showing Trump entering the Oval Office through a door featuring half a dozen fake-gold decorations, with more good exuberance around the door casing. In the news photo, a woman is standing just inside the door, which would strike her if it opened any further. The woman's head and upper torso have been replaced by a poorly-edited photo of Joanna, a waitress in the movie Office Space. Joanna has just been reprimanded by her manager for not wearing enough "flair" on her uniform -- the collection of pins and badges that employees at the fictional Chotchkie's restaurant are required to wear.
A search screen on the Folger Shakespeare Library site, forger.edu The search box contains "loose the forces" in quotation marks. The result text reads: Found 0 results for "loose the forces" and Othello. Additional notes point out this phrase is not found in either the plays and poems or in the texts.
Two Corvette Mako Shark concept cars, around 1962. Both have a dark blue body that blends into white, making a light area downward from about a foot off the ground. One model is a two-person coupe, with the passenger area looking like a pilot compartment in front of a curving trunk area. The second car has a long sloping back from the top of the windshield to the rear of the car. Both have curving, aerodynamic lines that bring to mind seagoing predators like the actual mako shark. The cars are parked on pavement with many grassy areas and a body of water in the background. The photo was taken at the GM Technical Center in Warren, Michigan.
The cover of the 1964 edition of the People’s Mass Book, an English-language hymnal used by Catholic parishes in Detroit and elsewhere as part of the liturgical changes introduced by the Second Vatican Council (“Vatican II”). On a white cover, six stylized human figures stand in a row, the bodies made up of solid medium-brown shapes that are mainly rectangular. Most bodies are formed by eight to ten such shaper: one with a rounded top for the head, the the torso, the pelvis, two shapes for upper legs, two for lower, and so on. The modern stylization recalls stained glass figures, with the white of the cover acting like the metal dividers between pieces of glass. Below the figures, in large sans serif capitals: PEOPLES MASS BOOK. Below that, in a smaller font: a new edition of the Peoples Hymnal.
A black-and-white photo of a brunette woman, about 25 years old, taken in 1943. This is a formal portrait, showing her head and upper body in the dress uniform of a lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve. The uniform jacket has two rows of brass buttons, epaulets with the emblem of the RCNVR, and a small rectangular pin on the left lapel. The most visible part of that pin is a brass maple leaf. Behind the woman's head, the phot shows white fabric -- the traditional white veil that made part of a nursing sister's uniform.
Three rectangles showing parts of the 1956 set of rules for the U.S. federal prison at Alcatraz. These rectangles refer to how an inmate's cell is to be organized. The large area on the left is a hand-drawn diagram of a typical cell, seen from the cell door. A cot-style bed is on the right, two shelves with various items are on the back wall, along witha sink. A coat and cap hang on right right side wall, a robe and coat on the left. Many items have a callout letter next to them. A rectangle at the upper right quotes rule 30 from the rules: "Keep your properly nearly arranged on your shelves, as shown in the cell diagram on Page # 8." The third rectangle, at lower right, is a list of the callouts and what they indicate: A: Twelve books (maximum). B: Personal papers. C: Paint box, etc. D: Radio headphones. E: Ash tray and tobacco. F: Extra soap. G: Mirror. H: Toothpowder. I: Razon and blades. J: Shaving brush. K: Shaving mug. L: Drinking cup. M: Face towel. N: Bathrobe. O: Raincoat. P: Calendar. Q: Coat and cap. R: Soap. S: Sink stopper. T: Cleaning powder. U: Toilet tissue. V: Extra shoes and slippers. W: Musical instrument / case. X: Broom. Y: Trash basket. Z: Extra blankets. Below that list: Extra blanket is to be folded neatly at food to bed. Pillow at the head of the bed toward the bars. Blankets are to be tucked in under the mattress. Shoes, slippers and musical instruments and cases are to be under the bed with the shoes or slippers under the leading edge of the bed.
A cherry tree on a sunny day. It stands by an urban sidewalk, with a parking lot just behind it, and an eight-story residential building beyond that. Bright blue sky frames the top of the building and the top branches of the cherry tree. The tree is full of blossoms and has begun losing some. Most of the blossoms are white, but pink ones appear to be scattered throughout. The reality is that only one main branch on the tree has pink blossoms, but all its smaller branches have gotten mixed with the more numerous branches that bear white blossoms.
On the surface of a frozen lake, an angry Canada goose has its wings raised, its neck bent, and its beak open as it confronts an apparently startled bald eagle.
The Winged Victory statue on the Daru staircase at the Louvre museum in Paris. Abroad set of stairs leads to the statue, which is framed by a tall, arched niche in the wall behind it. Light flows down from many windows; most of one round window is visible. The statue, 9 feet tall, takes up less that 20% of the height of the photo. The landing it stands on could be four times higher. With no people and no signs visible, the image heightens the unique beauty of the statue, which stood 2,400 years ago in Samothrace, Greece.
A plate holding two Danish pastries, one topped with cream cheese and lemon, the other with cream cheese and cherry.
The logo of the Penn Central railroad, circa 1968. It consists of a capital P and a capital C, in a wide font. The strokes of the letters have the same thickness. The bottom of the loop in the capital P does not touch the letter's upright stem. The upper line of the C is placed inside the loop pf the P, nearly filling it. The vertical.part if the C nearly fills the gap on the P, and the bottom of the C runs under the loop.of the P. Together the letters resemble a parallelogram, with the sides slanted so as to lean to the right.
A doorway in Tallinn, Estonia showing the elaborate decoration of exterior diuble doors in the old city. Each half of the wooden door has a safe green background divided into bands by orange trim. The two halves of the door form six or eight upward-pointing chevrons. Each side of each chevron is decorated with gold rosettes. On the Demi-line area above the doors is an equally elaborate crest featuring the profile of what I assume is some long ago dignitary.
This is an example of Bluesky's screen for entering alt text for an image. A window shows an image (in this case, a photo of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip). Below the image, there's a text box labeled "descriptive alt text." In that text box are the words "Whatever gets typed here is the alt text." Under the text box, there's a number representing the number of characters still available in the text box-- room for 1,958 more. And there's a wide, blue Save button.