{"id":13841,"date":"2024-06-27T13:29:29","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T18:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/?p=13841"},"modified":"2024-06-29T15:29:31","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T20:29:31","slug":"13841","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/2024\/06\/27\/13841\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Howdy, y&#8217;all, and welcome to this special edition of Random Thursday. This is actually more of a rabbit trail edition, because I initially set off in one direction and ended up meandering through a number of alternate <s>realities<\/s> subjects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It all began when Jen, a fellow blogger from Ye Olde Dayes and current Facebook friend posted the following Instagram reel (use the link if the embed looks wonky: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/C8HYksesKFK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/C8HYksesKFK<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"width:100%;\"><blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/C8HYksesKFK\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\" style=\" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);\"><div style=\"padding:16px;\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/C8HYksesKFK\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" style=\" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> <div style=\" display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;\"> <div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;\"><\/div> <div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;\"> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;\"><\/div> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div style=\"padding: 19% 0;\"><\/div> <div style=\"display:block; height:50px; margin:0 auto 12px; width:50px;\"><svg width=\"50px\" height=\"50px\" viewBox=\"0 0 60 60\" version=\"1.1\" xmlns=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" xmlns:xlink=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\"><g stroke=\"none\" stroke-width=\"1\" fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><g transform=\"translate(-511.000000, -20.000000)\" fill=\"#000000\"><g><path d=\"M556.869,30.41 C554.814,30.41 553.148,32.076 553.148,34.131 C553.148,36.186 554.814,37.852 556.869,37.852 C558.924,37.852 560.59,36.186 560.59,34.131 C560.59,32.076 558.924,30.41 556.869,30.41 M541,60.657 C535.114,60.657 530.342,55.887 530.342,50 C530.342,44.114 535.114,39.342 541,39.342 C546.887,39.342 551.658,44.114 551.658,50 C551.658,55.887 546.887,60.657 541,60.657 M541,33.886 C532.1,33.886 524.886,41.1 524.886,50 C524.886,58.899 532.1,66.113 541,66.113 C549.9,66.113 557.115,58.899 557.115,50 C557.115,41.1 549.9,33.886 541,33.886 M565.378,62.101 C565.244,65.022 564.756,66.606 564.346,67.663 C563.803,69.06 563.154,70.057 562.106,71.106 C561.058,72.155 560.06,72.803 558.662,73.347 C557.607,73.757 556.021,74.244 553.102,74.378 C549.944,74.521 548.997,74.552 541,74.552 C533.003,74.552 532.056,74.521 528.898,74.378 C525.979,74.244 524.393,73.757 523.338,73.347 C521.94,72.803 520.942,72.155 519.894,71.106 C518.846,70.057 518.197,69.06 517.654,67.663 C517.244,66.606 516.755,65.022 516.623,62.101 C516.479,58.943 516.448,57.996 516.448,50 C516.448,42.003 516.479,41.056 516.623,37.899 C516.755,34.978 517.244,33.391 517.654,32.338 C518.197,30.938 518.846,29.942 519.894,28.894 C520.942,27.846 521.94,27.196 523.338,26.654 C524.393,26.244 525.979,25.756 528.898,25.623 C532.057,25.479 533.004,25.448 541,25.448 C548.997,25.448 549.943,25.479 553.102,25.623 C556.021,25.756 557.607,26.244 558.662,26.654 C560.06,27.196 561.058,27.846 562.106,28.894 C563.154,29.942 563.803,30.938 564.346,32.338 C564.756,33.391 565.244,34.978 565.378,37.899 C565.522,41.056 565.552,42.003 565.552,50 C565.552,57.996 565.522,58.943 565.378,62.101 M570.82,37.631 C570.674,34.438 570.167,32.258 569.425,30.349 C568.659,28.377 567.633,26.702 565.965,25.035 C564.297,23.368 562.623,22.342 560.652,21.575 C558.743,20.834 556.562,20.326 553.369,20.18 C550.169,20.033 549.148,20 541,20 C532.853,20 531.831,20.033 528.631,20.18 C525.438,20.326 523.257,20.834 521.349,21.575 C519.376,22.342 517.703,23.368 516.035,25.035 C514.368,26.702 513.342,28.377 512.574,30.349 C511.834,32.258 511.326,34.438 511.181,37.631 C511.035,40.831 511,41.851 511,50 C511,58.147 511.035,59.17 511.181,62.369 C511.326,65.562 511.834,67.743 512.574,69.651 C513.342,71.625 514.368,73.296 516.035,74.965 C517.703,76.634 519.376,77.658 521.349,78.425 C523.257,79.167 525.438,79.673 528.631,79.82 C531.831,79.965 532.853,80.001 541,80.001 C549.148,80.001 550.169,79.965 553.369,79.82 C556.562,79.673 558.743,79.167 560.652,78.425 C562.623,77.658 564.297,76.634 565.965,74.965 C567.633,73.296 568.659,71.625 569.425,69.651 C570.167,67.743 570.674,65.562 570.82,62.369 C570.966,59.17 571,58.147 571,50 C571,41.851 570.966,40.831 570.82,37.631\"><\/path><\/g><\/g><\/g><\/svg><\/div><div style=\"padding-top: 8px;\"> <div style=\" color:#3897f0; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;\">View this post on Instagram<\/div><\/div><div style=\"padding: 12.5% 0;\"><\/div> <div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;\"><div> <div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);\"><\/div> <div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;\"><\/div> <div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);\"><\/div><\/div><div style=\"margin-left: 8px;\"> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;\"><\/div> <div style=\" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)\"><\/div><\/div><div style=\"margin-left: auto;\"> <div style=\" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);\"><\/div> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);\"><\/div> <div style=\" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);\"><\/div><\/div><\/div> <div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;\"> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;\"><\/div> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;\"><\/div><\/div><\/a><p style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/C8HYksesKFK\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A post shared by James Cook Artwork (@jamescookartwork)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote><\/div> <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>Being the cynic that I am, I immediately suspected that an AI trick was involved, but a visit to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jamescookartworkshop.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the guy&#8217;s website<\/a> convinced me otherwise. It&#8217;s apparent that his brain is wired much differently than mine, with a savant-like skill that I can&#8217;t comprehend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Rabbit Trail #1 &#8212; Same but different<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Interestingly, he&#8217;s not alone. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cerebralpalsy.org\/inspiration\/artists\/paul-smith\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Paul Smith<\/a> (1921-2007) was born with a severe case of <a href=\"https:\/\/cerebralpalsy.org.au\/cerebral-palsy\/types\/spastic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">spastic cerebral palsy<\/a>. Smith not only defied the medical odds by living to age 85, but he taught himself to &#8220;paint&#8221; with a manual typewriter, using only the symbol keys aligned across the top row of the machine. Here&#8217;s a video that showcases some of Smith&#8217;s creations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Paul Smith -- Typewriter Artist\" width=\"750\" height=\"563\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XiHyQhf9qAY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>James Cook&#8217;s and Paul Smith&#8217;s techniques and created works are quite different, but they share the same fundamental creative idea: repurposing a machine for a use much different than its original intent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Rabbit Trail #2 &#8212; Different strokes for different folks<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Cook&#8217;s technique brought to mind a much simpler use (<em>simpler<\/em> as in  &#8220;cave drawings vs. the Sistine Chapel&#8221;) of typewriter symbols and letters: ASCII artwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"quote\"><p>A quick ASCII primer for youse kidz, via ChatGPT:<\/p><p style=\"margin-top: 1em;\">ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It is a character encoding standard that assigns numeric codes to represent characters in computers and other devices that use text. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices.<\/p><p style=\"margin-top: 1em;\">ASCII defines codes for 128 characters, including letters (both uppercase and lowercase), digits, punctuation marks, control characters (such as carriage return and line feed), and non-printable characters.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>I first encountered ASCII artwork in my first job out of college, working in the ARCO Oil &amp; Gas Company&#8217;s accounting department in 1975. ARCO, like every other major corporation, conducted all of its computerized business on Big Iron: IBM mainframe computers. We accessed the computer via <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Silent_700\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Texas Instrument Silent 700<\/a> dumb terminals (we would make a giant technological leap to CRT terminals a year or so later) which employed a dot matrix printer and a long roll of paper to print out archived copies of reports and other documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Someone &#8212; and I suspect they were the nerds\/gods that worshipped at the altar of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/IBM_System\/370_Model_165\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">IBM System\/370 Model 165<\/a> located on the 7th floor, where we accountants would carefully tote punch-card decks and implore the operators to <em>pleeeeeease<\/em> run them as soon as possible &#8212; had programmed a routine and loaded it in a publicly-accessible location on the mainframe, which, when executed, would print out a three feet long ASCII picture of a long-haired, disrobed woman sitting demurely on a stool. It was an ill-kept secret which today would cause every HR employee in the world to retire to a fainting couch. It was, as they say, a different time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway, ASCII art is still alive, and if not exactly well, it&#8217;s still residing in the independent living wing and watching <em>Twilight Zone<\/em> reruns with the volume turned up to eleven. What&#8217;s more, with the miraculous advent of modern technology, we no longer need to know how to code or even understand how it works; we can just upload a photo or enter a string of text into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.asciiart.eu\/text-to-ascii-art\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">free converters like this one<\/a>, and <em>voil\u00e0<\/em>: ASCII &#8220;artwork&#8221; appears.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-twentytwentyone-border\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"498\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/ascii_tuttle.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13860\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Bluegrass musician Molly Tuttle playing guitar [my own photo]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>The above-linked website has a gallery of artwork submitted by users, organized into subject matter sections, including one that contains the forbidden image from the Seventies that I described earlier. Hey, these posts require actual research, y&#8217;know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Rabbit Trail #3 &#8212; More ancient office machinery<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The memory of those Silent 700 terminals led me to another recollection. Some of the accounting clerks in the group to which I was assigned as a trainee had impressive command of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Comptometer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">comptometers<\/a>, the ancient predecessors of 10-key adding machines and calculators. I don&#8217;t recall the manufacturer or model of the device used in our department; it might have been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vintagecalculators.com\/html\/sharp_compet_cs10a.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">this one from Sharp<\/a>. Frankly, I was never allowed to use one; the clerks were fiercely protective of their machines. That was fine with me, as I found them to be quite intimidating (the comptometers, but also the clerks, each of whom had approximately 600 years of experience).<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-twentytwentyone-border\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"450\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/comptometer.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13863\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/comptometer.jpg 450w, https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/comptometer-300x253.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sumlock Comptometer [image via <a href=\"http:\/\/anita-calculators.info\/html\/sumlock_comptometer_993m.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">this website<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Rabbit Trail #4 &#8212; Oh, look&#8230;a baby squirrel!<\/h4>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-twentytwentyone-border\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"554\" src=\"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/truckpiememe.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13864\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/truckpiememe.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/truckpiememe-300x277.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Diagnosis: Head gasket failure. But also delicious pie. So, it&#8217;s a wash.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ll bet you haven&#8217;t thought about ASCII art in ages. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,34,19,78],"tags":[405,407,406,408],"class_list":["post-13841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-design","category-history","category-random-thursday","category-tech","tag-ascii-artwork","tag-comptometer","tag-silent-700","tag-typewriter-art","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/ascii-randomthursday.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13841"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13866,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13841\/revisions\/13866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}