Locator: 48642ARCHIVES.
This has nothing to do with the Bakken or the market. This is simply some rambling.
The best thing I ever did was start a blog.
Now, I see that Apple has added a new app: journaling. Interesting.
Journaling.
I looked at the app the other day.
I'm thrilled that Apple is encouraging folks to journal. I think it's the most important thing folks can do. I prefer that folks journal the old-fashioned way -- pen and journal but, I assume, an e-journal is the way-to-go for the new generation.
At night, when I can't sleep, and I don't want to read the news, I find myself reading my own e-journals, or rather, my various blogs.
My favorite blog is my "literature" blog.
I think, in the big scheme of things, the best website I ever did for me personally was the blog on literature.
It's amazing how much original material I have. I will use it as a jumping off point when studying literature (and history) with Sophia.
ChatGPT (or the AI of your choice) has become a huge, excellent complement to the blogging process.
I have learned the importance of scaffolding when studying an issue. We'll talk about scaffolding later. I've already discussed the concept with ChatGPT. It is absolutely amazing how quickly ChatGPT becomes your best friend. Absolutely scary. LOL.
By the way, I forwarded the list below to ChatGPT and asked ChatGPT, based on the book list below, what she recommends I read next. She gave me four suggestions. Truly amazing. And she read and analyzed my list in a nanosecond.
My hunch: a college student could submit an essay to ChatGPT and ask ChatGPT to grade and critique it before submitting it for a grade. LOL.
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Summer Reading Program
Summer reading program: 2025
- Reference: Super Simple Math, The Ultimate Bite-Size Study Guide, Smithsonian, DK Penguin Random House, glossy; a nice book for parents to review when helping their children through public school, elementary to high school.
- Lunar Men, Jenny Uglow; read it years ago; reading it again.
- The Traditional Potters of Seagrove, North Carolina: And Surrounding Areas from the 1800s to the Present, Robert C. Lock, c. 1994.
- Red Brick Black Mountain White Clay: Reflections on Art, Family, and Survival, Christopher Benfly, c. 2012; Penguin soft cover, 2013.
- The Innovators: How A Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution, Walter Isaacson, c. 2015.
- The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created The Modern World, Simon Winchester, c. 2018.
- Life in Ancient Egypt, Adolf Erman, c. 1971; Translated by H. M. Tirard with an introduction by Jon Manchip White; notes here.
- The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, T. J. Stiles, c. 2009.
- Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography, Laura Ingalls Wilder, editor, Pamela Smith Hill, c. 2014; South Dakota Historical Society Press.
- The Rough Riders: An Autobiography, Theodore Roosevelt, c. 2004. Really, really good. Series: The Library of America.
- The Cocktail, Parragon Publishing, 2010.
- The Story of Semiconductors, John Orton, Oxford Press, c. 2004.
- The Seven Storey Mountain: An Autobiography of Faith, Thomas Merton, c. 1998.
- The
Daring Invention of Logarithm Tables: How Jost Bürgi, John Napier, and
Henry Briggs Simplified Arithmetic And Started The Computing Revolution, Klaus Truemper, the color edition, c. 2020.
- Lockheed -130, FlightCraft 32, British publication, $24.95, through Amazon, Ben Skipper, c. 2024.
- The Annotated Great Gatsby: 100th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, editor, James L. W. West III, c. April 10, 2025
- Assyria: The and Fall of the World's First Empire, Eckart Frahm, c. 2023.
Stories From Ancient Canaan, Second Edition, Michael D. Coogan, c. March 15, 2012. Notes here. - The Invention Of Hebrew, Seth L. Sanders, c. 2009. Notes here.
- Who Really Wrote The Bible? The Story Of The Scribes, William M. Schniedewind, c. 2024, Princeton University Press. Notes here.
- 1177 BC The Year Civilization Collapsed, Eric H. Cline, c. 2021. Updated. Tracked here.
- Thutmose III and Hatshepsut Pharaohs of Egypt: Their Lives and Afterlives, Aidan Dodson, c. 2025, The American University in Cairo Press (wow)
- The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion, Ford Madox Ford, c. 1915.
