Ben Crowder

While reading The Origin of Species, I got to thinking more about the existence of classics in any given field. By “classic,” I mean the seminal books that virtually all the later books refer to and are based on.

So in biology, Darwin’s book (probably both Origin and The Descent of Man) is a must-read for anyone who’s serious about the field. Whether or not you agree with him, you have to read it to truly be well-versed. You can’t just read commentary about Darwin; you have to read him, the original, straight from the source.

In mathematics, Euclid’s Elements was the standard textbook for around 2,000 years. Sounds like a classic. :) In fact, the Wikipedia article says, “Not until the 20th century did it cease to be considered something all educated people had read.” That’s what I’m getting at — books that everyone should read. (Specifically everyone interested in that field, but it applies to more general self-education as well.)

In physics, Newton’s Principia sticks out as a must-read. Vitruvius’ De Architectura is a classic of architecture. SICP seems to have become the de facto computer science classic. As far as writing goes, Strunk & White comes to mind. Typography has Robert Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style.

Can you think of other classics? Do all fields have them, or only some? (My examples are almost all from the sciences, interestingly.)

It’d be nice to put together a list of these kind of classics — I know that for me, when I get interested in a field I like to go to the original. Is there a classic for sculpture? For botany? For astronomy? For history? For economics?

Hey, this is what librarians do! (Fancy that. :))

[tags]classics, Darwin, Euclid, Newton, Vitruvius, Strunk & White, Robert Bringhurst[/tags]

Last night I watched The Inheritance, a Feature Films for Families movie based on the book by Louisa May Alcott. I liked it a lot. Sure, it’s not perfect, but it’s wholesome and I left feeling good. That’s what it really comes down to.

While walking down the hill afterwards, a realization came to me: I was born in the wrong century.

It hit me like an avalanche. I really should’ve been born in the mid-1800s — I long for that era, feel so much more at home there than I do here, and pine for what I’ve lost whenever I read or watch anything that reminds me of it. The proverbial light bulb also clicked on above my head and explained why I dress the way I do: it’s the closest I can get to 19th-century attire while staying within social norms. :) (If I wore my suit every day, that’s over the top. But a colored shirt and dress pants are merely classy.) This has been subconscious until now, but it makes a lot of sense. The maddening thing is that I’m stuck here in the 21st century and have no way to get back home.

My tongue is halfway in my cheek.

Speaking of the nineteenth century, I bought Persuasion from the bookstore yesterday. Lovely book, Oxford World Classics edition. As I browsed the shelves, I began to notice that in the last few months I’ve become very particular about the typography of the books I buy. Books I would have bought without a second thought last year are now denied even a longer glance once I see the typeface or lack of margins. I also learned that not all Penguin Classics are made equal; my War and Peace and Jane Eyre seem to be anomalies, not the rule. I suspect that I’d need to find older editions to go back to that lovely Garamond (it’s close to Garamond Premier Pro, I think).

Partly because of that, I’ve decided to use Garamond Premier Pro for Project Cumorah (the reader’s edition of the Book of Mormon I’m typesetting). It’s looking good. I’m going to try to finish both it and the Thai romanized hymnbooks I’m setting within two weeks.

[tags]Louisa May Alcott, Penguin Classics, Garamond, Book of Mormon, Thai[/tags]

And now, the long-promised post about A Return to Modesty. (Lesson learned: if you start hyping a post in advance, then you feel more obligated to do a good job of it, which can easily lead to stress. It’s better to go with Apple’s secrecy-before-release mentality, methinks.)

The book, written by Wendy Shalit, is amazing. I can’t recommend it enough. I’m going to start buying up copies to give as gifts. It’s that good. And it’s definitely earned a place on my must-read list (which I’ll be adding to the sidebar one of these days).

Where to begin? The cover, I suppose. :) Yes, it’s a bit embarrassing, and I’ll admit that I covered it up as I was walking around with it at the book sale. Wendy talked about it at her blog a couple of weeks ago.

But back to the book. It’s about modesty, of course — more particularly, how our let-it-all-hang-out culture of sexual “freedom” has caused more problems than it solved. Violent sex crimes are more prevalent than they were in the modest days of yore, and the perpetrators are becoming younger and younger. (She mentions several cases of sodomy in the playground, with nine-year-olds. Nine! What is the world coming to?!?)

Now, being a Mormon, I’ve made vows of chastity, promising God that I’ll only have sex with my wife, after we’re married. No premarital or extramarital sex. And I will of course keep those vows.

Granted, I knew that our society was pretty darn sex-saturated, but it hadn’t really struck me just how much the rest of the world has embraced casual sex and free love and all that jazz — or how early on (twelve- and thirteen-year-olds? Holy smokes!). I suppose I live in a bubble. :) (And yes, I think that’s fine.)

The part that really spoke to me, though, was the bit about gentlemanly behavior. Having watched my fair share of Jane Austen movies, I’m enamored of courtesy and chivalry and the old-fashioned etiquette, and I think it’s a good thing that really ought to be brought back. I open doors for girls, and I’m starting to stand up when they enter the room and help them with their coats and such. But the feminists (and others) have labeled such behavior as sexist, propagated by male chauvinist pigs who think women are too weak to do these things for themselves. Bah, humbug. (And a big sigh.)

Anyway, the book’s great. It’s very well-written, and Wendy says it all a lot better than I ever could. I really haven’t done it justice here — not even close.

If you’re interested, you can also check out her website, ModestyZone.net, and her blog, Modestly Yours.

[tags]A Return to Modesty, Wendy Shalit, modesty, Mormon, Jane Austen[/tags]

First off, if you’re subscribed to the feed you may have noticed a bunch of Flickr photos coming through. I realized it was the last day of the month and so I had to upload enough to fill my quota for the month. :) When I get a digital camera, I’ll almost certainly upgrade my Flickr account. It’s addicting. :) (And it’s nice to have my photos online where I can share them with friends and family.)

Second, I picked up my laptop from the computer repair shop today, unfixed (but I still had to pay $65 for the diagnostic fee ~sigh~). Since last night I’ve been thinking twice about not needing a laptop. Portability would be pretty nice, as I detailed in my comment.

For the moment, though, I’ve realized that most of what I do can be accomplished on lab computers, at least for now. E-mail, blogging, even Photoshop and InDesign (but sadly not Illustrator; but then again I’ve hardly been using Illustrator at all lately).

So, what I’m most likely going to do is use lab computers until my $1,500 scholarship money from the Utah State Office of Education arrives, then use that to buy a MacBook. Hopefully they’ll introduce a new laptop at the WWDC next week (yeah right :)) and the MacBook prices will go down. I’d rather buy new and get a nice three-year warranty, for what that’s worth.

Anyway, enough of that. LibraryThing’s groups are cool. I’m still not quite sure how I ended up joining 57 groups (I’m ranked #3 right now) — they all seemed interesting to me. And heck, I am going to be a librarian. :) Once the summer’s over I’ll start getting more involved with LT, both on the Google Group and in the group message boards. I love talking about books. And that’s what my next post is going to be about. :)

[tags]Flickr, Mac, MacBook, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, LibraryThing[/tags]

Two quickies for now: first, BenjaminCrowder.com got a minor facelift this morning. It looks a lot better (I think :)).

Second, when you do check it out, you may want to check out the latest post (“A voice from the dust”). It’s a PDF of 1 Nephi from the new reader’s edition of the Book of Mormon. I won’t post much about it here because that’s what BenCrowder.com is for, though. :)

[tags]Book of Mormon[/tags]

What shall I write about today? I accidentally left my index card at home (not my index finger, thank heavens!), the one on which I’d written what I wanted to write about. And unfortunately I can’t remember what it was.

Well, I’ve been talking to myself in a British accent ever since yesterday’s Pride and Prejudice adventure. It makes what I say to myself seem more important somehow. :)

One of my friends lent me The Inheritance, a Feature Films for Families movie based on a Louisa May Alcott book. It came highly recommended, and knowing her I think it’s going to live up to it. So I’ll watch that sometime this week, probably when the stress level gets so high that I have to take a break lest I fizzle out and die.

Ah, I know what I want to write about. I want to write about this girl that I had a crush on for a while, who I momentarily ran into today, and who is causing me all sorts of anguish because she’s the most adorable and lovely woman who ever lived and I’m apparently not over her after all, but she’s quite uninterested. Very nice girl, but not attracted to me. I can’t help but hope that there’ll be a Darcy/Lizzie reversal and she’ll come to me having had a change of heart. Nah, that only happens in the movies.

But I’ve said too much. Should I delete that paragraph? Writing about love and romance and all of that is always a little awkward, at least intellectually, but I suppose there’s no harm in it. (And considering that my last post was about watching Pride and Prejudice, maybe it’s good to reassure y’all that I do like girls an awful lot and no, I don’t feel particularly in tune with my feminine side, and yes, I’m quite pleased with my gender, thank you very much. :P) Well, it’s not like I’m writing about the girl by name, nor am I divulging anything I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable telling any of you in person.

Anyway, the calm and rational thing to do is wait till morning, when the waves and storm will have ceased and my infatuation has disappeared on a morning beam of sunlight. I trust that the Lord will take care of me, that at the right time and in the right way I’ll find a girl who I can love with all my heart who (unbelievably) loves me back, and we’ll get married and live happily ever after. The wait is frustrating, but there’s no point in rushing into something so important — especially when it’s pretty clear that Heavenly Father thinks this isn’t the right time for me. I must be patient. Argh! (I need to learn patience some other way, and quickly, so that I don’t have to be taught it this way. :))

“We are all fools in love.” And until the right time comes for me, I’ll have to live my romance vicariously, I suppose. (Did I mention that I checked out Emma from the library? I saw the movie several months ago but haven’t read the book yet.)

Looking back, this is one of those posts where I wonder why on earth I’m actually clicking the “Publish” button. Better to discard it and write something else. Oh well.

[tags]Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott[/tags]

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”

Thus begins Pride and Prejudice. Today I completed the marathon that few men dare to attempt: the almost-six-hour-long A&E version of Pride and Prejudice (on two DVDs).

My first brush with Jane Austen was my senior year of high school, when I read P&P (on my own; I’d already taken AP English Lit my sophomore year). In fact, according to my book log I finished it June 23, 2001, a couple of months after school got out. Loved it.

Then a year or two ago I watched the Mormon version. It has its charms, but I suspect I wouldn’t like it nearly as much nowadays. (My taste for movies is gradually becoming quite exclusive, and that’s even within the realm of clean movies. Silliness grates on my nerves. But that’s for another post.)

A few months ago the Keira Knightley version came out, and I watched it with my roommate and his girlfriend. I found it tremendously delightful, as did the girlfriend. My roommate fell asleep.

Since then, I’ve been meaning to watch the A&E version, but I never had the time. Today I decided that if I didn’t watch it before the summer ends, I’d never have the time. And so I did. Alone. (Yes, daring. :P)

As far as comparisons between the Keira and Colin versions, the production quality of the new one is certainly much better. And I find Keira (and whoever plays Jane) much more attractive physically, but Lizzie’s personality seemed almost identical in both versions. An hour or two into this one today, I realized that I have a big-time crush on Lizzie Bennet. My list of literary crushes now totals two: Anne Shirley and now Lizzie.

But I’ve already said too much. ;) Anyway, Mr. Collins is far more loathable in the A&E version, as are Mrs. Bennet and Lydia. It was nice watching the longer movie, because there was so much extra material that I’d forgotten was in the novel. And yet it was long. I’ll have to watch the Keira Knightley version again now that Colin Firth is fresh in my mind.

Other than that, I found both versions quite funny. I love Mr. Bennet! :)

Watching P&P while reading A Return to Modesty really affected the way I saw the movie, in a good way. More on that later, once I finish the book.

Have I mentioned that Darcy is one of my role models? (Along with Mr. Knightley, from Emma.) In the very near future I’m going to write a post about gentlemanly conduct and chivalry and all that.

One last thing, and then I’m off to learn about the library databases in preparation for applying for this library job. So today I went home for lunch and told my roommates how I was watching Pride and Prejudice. Mostly for the shock value, I suppose :), but then again they know me pretty well and so it wasn’t shocking at all. Anyway, imagine my surprise when my former-wrestler roommate turns to me and asks, “So, do you think bonnets are hot?” And he meant it! We then had a cool little discussion about how modesty is far more attractive. (He thinks they are and said three-fourths of the guys he’s talked with agree.) I keep wanting to write about A Return to Modesty but I really must hold off until I finish the book! :)

[tags]Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen, Keira Knightley, Colin Firth, Anne of Green Gables, modesty[/tags]

So, I’ve added a “Blogs I read” page. Keep in mind that anything computer-related will end up on Outside the Box (when I add a blogroll there), and anything art or design-related is on BenjaminCrowder.com, and anything genealogy-related will be on Footprints from the Past (when I add one there), so I do read more blogs than this. And I still haven’t added all the book/library blogs yet because there are a lot of ‘em, and I have to get to work. But at least it’s a start. A long overdue one, in fact.

Yesterday the hem on the right leg of my pants came undone while I was here at work (or at least I noticed it while I was here; who knows how long it had been like that? Years? :) Nah, more like hours). It got in the way of walking, so I stapled it back up. When I got home I pulled out my handy-dandy sewing kit and stitched it back together (after removing the staples, of course). And the stitches aren’t all that noticeable! Mmm, success. :) Every time I sew (well, this is only the second time, but it still applies), I have two thoughts. First, “Wow, this is fun!” Second, for some odd reason I always think of Mickey Mouse as a tailor in that old Disney movie The Brave Little Tailor. I want to start sewing more, along with crocheting and knitting and all that, but the only problem is I’d have to go into a fabric store to get materials, and for some unknown (read: I am a male) reason, I’m embarrassed to go into one. At least not alone. :P

I finished the first of the fairy tales in Grimm this morning. Great stuff. I’m understanding more, reading faster, and looking up fewer words. It would help to start memorizing all of the little words (nach, ihm, immer, um, aus, auf, etc.), since there’s a lot of them and they’re kind of essential. :)

I made my first Lulu book. Read all about it at BenjaminCrowder.com. (Y’all should try this shameless self-promotion thing. It’s kinky. :P)

(As for the lollipop gang, I’m reading The Marvelous Land of Oz. ‘Nuff said.)

[tags]blogging, sewing, Grimm, Lulu[/tags]

When we left off last night, I was on my way to the library to pick up a copy of Rachel and Leah (which apparently isn’t on LibraryThing yet, thus no link). And I did. (If you were expecting a really cool story here, something along the lines of “some runaway bank robber sped through campus in a BMW, chased by three police cars, and I barely avoided getting run over, but when I saw the BMW coming my way I remembered I had a box of three-inch long industrial-strength thumbtacks in my front pocket and threw them all on the concrete, along with the glass bottle I happened to be holding at the moment, so when the car passed by the tires popped and the car thudded to a stop, and then the robber hopped out of the car and started shooting at me, so I had to hide behind the concrete pylons until the police apprehended him,” you’ll be sorely disappointed.)

Anyway (phew!), I had another of those ah-hah! moments while walking through the bookshelves, book in hand, experiencing an inordinate amount of joy. (For the more library-minded, I was walking through the Z’s, which are the book books (library science, printing, typography, etc.), and as far as I’m concerned are not sleep-inducing in spite of their LC code. ;)) I can’t wait to be a librarian. Mmm. :)

To that end, when I got home I finally started memorizing the Library of Congress (LC) classification scheme. I’d made the cards several weeks ago, but hadn’t actually gotten around to it. Memorized all the general classifications (A = General Works, B = Philosophy, Psychology, and Religion, etc.) and then finished the subcategories for A and B (AY = Yearbooks, BC = Logic, BX = Christian Denominations, etc.). It’s sticking pretty well, and at this rate it won’t take long to finish off the set.

The only problem with doing this is that I’m finding all sorts of interesting categories that I’d never looked into before — for example, CE houses books on calendaring systems. How cool is that? I had no idea. While I’m familiar with much of the LC (particularly BX, because that’s where most of the Mormon books are, N (arts), and P (languages and literature)), it’s exciting to stumble across heretofore undiscovered country. I feel like a mini-Columbus. (And no, it doesn’t really matter that it’s only undiscovered to me. :))

(PQ is the French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese literature category, by the way.)

In other news, this morning I noticed a few dew-dusted patches of spiderweb on the grass, glimmering like a crystal garden. Nature’s great. :)

[tags]libraries, Library of Congress, books, Mormon, Columbus[/tags]

Crunch time is upon me here at work, which means working each evening for as long as I can. (I usually go till 7:30 or 8, so that I have enough time to get home and read for an hour to recover. :P) But I’ll keep blogging, never fear. One a day seems like a good goal (at least for me).

Item 1: LibraryThing now has groups:

Very cool. I haven’t yet gotten really into LT (I’ve only written one review, for example, nor have I left many comments on others’ profiles), but I expect to do that before too long. I changed my picture and joined a ton of groups. If you have an LT account, let me know!

Item 2: I bought a fern plant for $3.99 at Smith’s a couple of days ago. This morning I realized that the yellowish-brown color on the tips of one of the stalks probably means it’s dying. Oh. Just when I was getting emotionally attached… ~sigh~ ;)

Item 3: I’ve been reading A Return to Modesty and want to blog about it right now, but I’ll restrain myself until I finish the book. Lots of good stuff. Go check it out.

Item 4: Lulu.com — cheap, on-demand publishing for the masses. I’ll write more about it after I submit Adventures in Thailand and see how the printing quality is, but I’m really, really, really excited about this.

Item 5: Have I mentioned that I’m working on a reader’s edition of the Book of Mormon? I’m taking the Project Gutenberg text and getting rid of the verse numbers, then reformatting it to be more like the first edition (though I’ll be making my own paragraphs). I’m also adding quote marks in for dialogue. It’ll be pretty nice when done. You can catch a glimpse of what it’ll kind of look like over at BenCrowder.com.

Item 6: While you’re there, check out the third pic on today’s post (wedding invitations). Blender is cool. :) Granted, it’s nothing too exciting (the 3D part, that is), but it’s nice to be able to throw together shaded mockups like this when working on projects that’ll be printed and folded.

Item 7: If you’re not using an aggregator, go to Bloglines.com or Newshutch.com. Now. You won’t regret it. (Saved time = happiness.)

Item 8: Breads and crackers and Wheat Thins and frozen burritos seem to have wedged their way into my diet in an unhealthy proportion. I look at my dinner plate each night and it’s all dead food. Nothing green, no fruit, nothing. This is bad. I do have an apple each morning, but it’s not enough. The only problem is, I usually forget to eat fruit. I’ve got a bag of grapes in my fridge right now that I’ve meant to eat for a while, but it keeps slipping my mind. I’ve got to change this — fruit is so delicious and good for you (um, me) that it’s insane not to eat it.

Item 9: Things are going well at work. I’ve found that attacking little projects — bite-size chunks — is making quite a difference. There’s still a mammoth-sized mountain of work left to finish by the end of the summer, but these small successes are building momentum for the big whammy.

Item 10: I’m still reading Grimm, of course, and it’s great.

Ten’s a good number to stop at. The End. For now, at least. Off I go to check out Rachel and Leah, go grocery shopping, and recover from 8.5 hours of coding…

[tags]LibraryThing, Lulu, Book of Mormon, Mormon, LDS, Project Gutenberg, Immigrant Ancestors Project, Orson Scott Card[/tags]