As Nick Cave’s co-conspirator with The Birthday Party, Rowland S. Howard should not have remained unknown to me for so long. Today I discovered his first solo record, “Teenage Snuff Film.” I love hearing wonderful things for the first time. Howard’s guitar work is terrific and the songs are dark and moody and depressing and awesome. I’ve lost the power I had to distinguish Between what to ignite and what to extinguish.

I’m in favor of simple, but I think that an app needs to do something in order to be useful. For example, a weather app should tell me more than what I could gather by just looking out the window. Maybe it’s time for the complexity pendulum to start swinging the other way.

Every now and then I find myself fascinated with LaTeX even though I have no real need for it. I don’t write academic papers. I don’t need to represent complex mathematical equations. I don’t write long documents requiring references, figures, or any of the other things LaTeX is so good at. What I like most about LaTeX is the way it formats text. I also like the idea of leaving layout or design out of the document and focusing on content.

It would be easy to dismiss If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler as overly clever by half, but that would be a shame because it’s a terrifically fun read. It’s like reading an Escher print.

Keeping track of All the Things(™) isn’t that difficult. Or at least it shouldn’t be, but I find it nearly impossible. The problem for me isn’t a lack of software, it’s the abundance of great software. Here is a list of software I’ve used to keep track of all the digital detritus in my life: Circus Ponies Notebook DEVONthink Tinderbox Yojimbo Curio Finder Evernote VoodooPad Notational Velocity Notes TiddlyWiki …and so on.

Nick Hornby writes about reading in More Baths Less Talking: Notes from the Reading Life of a Celebrated Author Locked in Battle with Football, Family, and Time Itself. It’s funny and insightful and great fun.

My interest in blogging varies with my mood. I go from digging deep and wanting complete control to just looking to type a few sentences and hit the Publish button. One thing that always returns is the desire to have a basic, static blog running on as simple a server as possible. Years ago I published a blog using Tinderbox. It was a powerful and flexible tool, but ultimately I fell for the easy, instant gratification of other systems such as WordPress and Tumblr.

No complex software stacks, no database, no configuration. But I want to own it so no Tumblr, WordPress.com, etc.

“Color (C-41) processing is hard.” Or at least that’s what I always assumed. Several months ago I decided to find out for myself, but only yesterday did I finally get to it. The trick to color negative development is accurate, consistent temperature of the chemicals. I solved that by buying a JOBO processor from a guy on Craigslist. It can also be done with a pan of warm water. The JOBO keeps the chemicals at the correct temperature and will agitate (rotate) the tank for me.

Finally got around to reading The Handmaid’s Tale. I found it riveting from beginning to end. This is the first thing I’ve read by Margaret Atwood. Terrific writing and much to think about. The book ended in a way that was both disappointing and perfect.

You know those people who have a seemingly non-stop flood of great ideas? The ones who then spend as many of their waking hours as possible making those ideas a reality? I’m not one of those people. When my lack of ideas and surplus of time collide, I do things like the following: I threw a muslin backdrop on the wall, set a strobe with umbrella in the corner, dropped the Mamiya 6 on a tripod with the timer set and screwed around with a couple of eggs for 12 exposures.

<div> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tenth-December-Stories-George-Saunders/dp/0812993802%3FSubscriptionId%3D0ENGV10E9K9QDNSJ5C82%26tag%3Djackbaty-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0812993802" target="new" class="product-title title">Tenth of December: Stories</a></p> <div> By George Saunders </div> <p> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tenth-December-Stories-George-Saunders/dp/0812993802%3FSubscriptionId%3D0ENGV10E9K9QDNSJ5C82%26tag%3Djackbaty-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0812993802" target="new" class="buy-button"><input type="button" class="sqs-amazon-button sqs-system-button sqs-editable-button" value="Buy on Amazon" /></a> </p> </div></p> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div> <div> <div> A series of short stories by George Saunders. I found it amazing, funny, weird, and moving. Saunders’ ability to take us inside the minds of damaged contemporary-seeming characters while placing them in an unclear future makes the whole thing very unsettling.