History Detectives

Last week, Jen and I settled in to our bedroom to watch one of the shows we recently started recording on our DVR, History Detectives on PBS. During each episode, a team of historians and appraisers examine about three artifacts that individuals have in their possession. The owners of these objects often have an interesting theory about the items in their posession - the one last week thought he had a letter signed by Clara Barton.

iPhone 4 Thoughts

It has been a few days since Jen and I received our new iPhones, and I want to share with you all my thoughts about the new iPhone, now that the dust has settled out there about this new product. To be honest, this is my third iPhone - I had the "original" 8GB model, and then a 16GB white model 3G. So then the iPhone 4 represents a big leap ahead as far as camera and speed for me.

Empire of Liberty

I just wrapped up the second of three Oxford History of the United States titles I am trying to finish by the end of the summer: Empire of Liberty. This book was great, and gave me a good base of knowledge about a period in American history about which I was less than familiar. It truly was a time of sweeping change in the United States, something Gordon Wood illuminates beautifully with his text. It was highly readable and accessible, but his scholarship was excellent - typical of the series. If you love American history, then you should give this book a shot! I'll conclude this brief review with a quote from p.2 of the book:

By 1815 Americans had experienced a transformation in the way they related to one another and in the way they perceived themselves and the world around them. And this transformation took place before industrialization, before urbanization, before railroads, and before any of the technological breakthroughs usually associated with modern social change. In the decades following the Revolution America changed so much and so rapidly that Americans not only became used to change but came to expect it and prize it.

Your Dean Files Experience Is Now Complete

Readers,

I just finished uploading and categorizing the entirety of the posts from the old Dean Files. In celebration, here is an image I made last night on the way home:

Internship Update

As you might remember from a previous post, I am completing my formal internship at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. The Cowgirl has an archival photographic image collection of about 4500 images, each with an associated surrogate record (think: catalog record) in their collection management software. These are, generally, images of cowgirls - be they inductees into the Hall of Fame, or other cowgirls. Of course, the images also include many cowboys. It doesn't sound too challenging on the surface, but allow me to get into more detail.

New Music Purchases

Last night, after having some delicious Mexican food at one of our favorite places here (Esperanza's), we headed over to Barnes and Noble on Hulen to browse through their music section and see if there was anything out that we wanted to purchase, or listen to.

The New Yorker, July 12 & 19, 2010

Well, readers, in an effort to give this blog a broader array of topics, I am debuting a new recurring post series about each issue of The New Yorker. I feel sure by now that you know Jen is kind enough to buy me a gift subscription every year, and so for the majority of the 52 weeks of the year, we receive a fresh issue each week. As an homage to Heather Champ's great blog post about how to read The New Yorker, I want to begin this inaugural post with a small overview of how I read each issue.