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Author: scribnerorg

  • Memorizing the NATO Phonetic Alphabet Was One of the Best Things I Learned in College

    …And it wasn’t even part of my college curriculum. I learned it all on my own over the course of about a day, though it took a while to commit it to memory, in which I could recall out-of-order phonetic words instantly.

    The NATO phonetic alphabet is the most widely used way of communicating the letters of the Latin alphabet clearly. My dad (“Papa!”) learned the NATO phonetic alphabet when he was in the National Guard, because virtually everyone learns it in the U.S. military.

    Most people have probably heard the NATO phonetic alphabet in the media, such as in movies, television shows, and books. Basically, a word is assigned to each letter of the alphabet (A=Alfa, B=Bravo, C=Charlie, etc.). It underwent rigorous testing from international agencies, and the NATO phonetic alphabet as we know it remains unchanged since being set in 1956.

    This morning, I got breakfast from the drive-through at my local McDonald’s. The person receiving the order, who I assume speaks Spanish as his first language, had difficulty hearing my code for the order (codes are used to place orders when using the McDonald’s mobile app). My code was “AE30.” He had difficulty hearing the “A” and the “E.” I repeated it and he still couldn’t make out the letters, so I said “alfa echo three zero” (if I really wanted to show off my knowledge of the NATO phonetic alphabet, I would have said “alfa echo tree zee-ro,” as there are some minor differences in pronunciation and ways of saying numbers in the NATO phonetic alphabet). He then was able to place my order.

    I have also used the NATO phonetic alphabet when talking to people from call centers in India. Some Indian call center employees even know the NATO phonetic alphabet themselves.

    I recommend everyone learn the NATO phonetic alphabet for clarity when talking to people over radio or telephone communication systems, especially when talking to people who speak another language. It’s fun to learn and really isn’t that hard to memorize. Every now and then, I will go through the entire NATO phonetic alphabet in my head to make sure I am still able to recall all the words. Bravo!

  • No Longer Hung Up on the Hang Ups

    Album cover for “So We Go” by the Hang Ups. Twin/Tone Records.

    My only hang-up about the Hang Ups is how hard it is to come by their music. But, after many years of frustration whenever checking Amazon for MP3s by the Minneapolis band, tonight was the night I’d been waiting for. Now, four out of five of their releases are available for purchase as MP3s. I’ve been informed that their music is also available on Spotify. The Hang Ups are my favorite Minnesota artist. They made highly melodic alternative music in the ’90s. I recommend starting with their 1996 album, “So We Go.” And “What It’s All About” is my favorite song by them; it’s track 2 on “So We Go.”

    See a running list of my 2026 music purchases.

  • Moving Back to the Twin Cities

    I’m moving out of my short-term residence in Rochester, Minnesota, and back to the Twin Cities on Saturday, October 4. I feel I’ve grown emotionally and spiritually during my time in the city best known as the home of the Mayo Clinic, which bills itself as “the world’s best hospital.” Until my next post, this is Nicholas signing off. Onward and upward!

    Sunrise over a small lake in the backyard of my short-term residence in Rochester, Minnesota. Photo taken with an iPhone 16 on September 30, 2025, at 7:00 a.m.

  • 2025 Minnesota Renaissance Festival

    This afternoon, my mom and I spent a few hours at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, which is located in Shakopee, Minnesota, a town near my hometown. The Minnesota Renaissance Festival is the fourth largest Renaissance fair in the United States, according to data available on Wikipedia.

    I took these 16 photos from 12:00 to 1:46 p.m. with my Canon EOS R.

    Guitarist near the King’s Gate, where we entered the Festival
    Mom trying on a garland right away and holding her mead goblet
    King’s Gate, an entrance and exit to the Festival
    Mom trying on another garland
    Debit card in hand, mom decides to purchase this garland
    Performer in the Danger Committee seeks a volunteer from the audience
    Flutist by mead stand
    Guitarist by mead stand
    Vegetable Justice, my favorite part of the Festival when I was younger. It’s a game where participants pay money to throw tomatoes at someone who taunts them from behind holes in a wooden wall.
    Turkey Drumstick stand, my favorite food stand at the Festival
    Tuey Wilson, “Comic Stunt Juggler,” talks to a large audience before his show. He has performed at every Minnesota Renaissance Festival for the last 44 years.
    Tuey juggling metal pails
    Tuey juggles balls while swinging a lasso and riding a toy horse
    Girl volunteer from the audience throws a dart at a balloon, which Tuey is balancing with a stick in his mouth and has a flaming torch on top of the balloon
    The moment the girl volunteer finally gets the balloon to burst with the dart. Tuey successfully catches the flaming torch.
    Tuey holding flaming torches on a flaming ladder that he is balancing on a flaming tightrope. Tuey previously remarked, “There is more fire in my show than any other show at the Festival!”

  • Field Trip to Quarry Hill Nature Center

    Today, the group of people I’m living with in Rochester, Minnesota, and I went on my second weekly field trip. This time, we went to Quarry Hill Nature Center, a park and indoor nature center in Rochester, Minnesota. I left my Canon mirrorless camera at home this past weekend, so I am now using my iPhone 16, which is a perfectly capable camera in most situations, on these field trips.

    I took these 11 photos from 12:58 to 1:17 p.m.

    Quarry Hill Park & Nature Center sign at the entrance
    Canoes on Harry L. Buck Children’s Pond
    Crop of a dragonfly
    Echinacea purpurea, Eastern Purple Coneflower (self-identified)
    Crotalus horridus, Timber Rattlesnake
    Rhinella marina, Cane Toad
    Gromphadorhina portentosa, Madagascar Hissing Cockroach
    Crop of Lithobates clamitans, Green Frog
    Emydoidea blandingii, Blandings Turtle
    Aquarium with various species of fish
    Pituophis catenifer sayi, Bullsnake

  • 2025 Degele Family Reunion

    My maternal grandfather, Albert, and his Degele family are having a reunion from August 8 to August 10.

    I took the first four photos today from 1:15 to 2:11 p.m. in Dalton, Minnesota, at the venue for the family reunion and the last photo this evening at 6:55 p.m. at my family’s Airbnb apartment in Fergus Falls, Minnesota.

    Mother and daughter, Loren with Lilly
    Elena with Lilly
    Father and daughter, Marc with Lilly
    Four generations: Loretta, Albert, Marc, Lilly, and Nita
    Great grandparents, Loretta and Albert, with Lilly

  • My Niece, Lilly, Visits Her Paternal Grandparents’ House for the First Time

    Grandpa Jeff and I saw my niece (and his granddaughter), Lilly, for the first time this evening. I took these eight photos at my house in Chanhassen, Minnesota, from 6:08 to 6:16 p.m.

    This could be considered my first photo of Lilly, since she is inside this rental car as it turns up my driveway
    …but it makes much more sense to call this my first photo of Lilly, as it is my first exposure with her clearly visible
    A close-up of Lilly taken outside
    My brother, Marc, standing with Loren and Lilly
    Grandpa Jeff sees his granddaughter, Lilly, for the first time. This is my first exposure of Grandpa Jeff with Lilly.
    Taken three seconds later, this is my second exposure of Grandpa Jeff with Lilly
    My first photo of Grandma Nita with Lilly. (N.b.: Grandma Nita had already visited Marc, Loren, and Lilly at their house in Washington, D.C., for a week.)
    Taken five seconds later, this is my second exposure of Grandma Nita with Lilly

  • Field Trip to Kinstone, the Stonehenge of the Midwest

    Today, five residents (including myself) and two staff members with the facility I am currently staying at in Rochester, Minnesota, went on our weekly field trip. For this outing, we made it across the Mississippi River and over the Minnesota-Wisconsin border to Fountain City, Wisconsin, to visit Kinstone—or, as I like to call it, the Stonehenge of the Midwest.

    I took these 13 photos from 1:32 to 2:11 p.m.

    Great Stone Circle Planning Model inside the gift shop
    Virgin Mary by tree stump
    Arch with ivy
    Great Stone Circle
    Peace Portal sign by the Great Stone Circle
    Center crop of a bumblebee on a black-eyed Susan
    Ivan and the Watcher
    The Labyrinth
    Apple trees by The Sauna
    Close-up of apples growing on a tree from the previous photo
    The Yurt
    Chapel of Creation
    Black-eyed Susans by the Great Stone Circle

  • Remastering Audio Is a Big Deal

    Popular Science published an article earlier this year on mastering and remastering audio. I’ve found myself thinking about the article many times in the months since I’ve read the article, so I decided I would list some of the main takeaways as bullet points.

    • Mastering an album literally means creating a master copy
    • Newcomers in the record business used to create the masters, but it’s now a highly skilled career
    • Creative mastering started in the 1970s when some people said, “Hey, maybe if I add a little low end here or a little top end there, the result will just sound a little bit better to the end listener”
    • To make an album louder, one can’t simply turn everything to 11, since there is a delicate balance of frequencies created by the mixing engineer
    • Furthermore, in the case of vinyl, too much volume in the low bass frequencies can actually kick the needle out of the groove
    • Record companies created albums for the lowest common denominator (i.e. cheap record players likely to skip if there’s too much volume on the low end)
    • If one listens to old records by Led Zeppelin or the Beatles, for example, there is very little volume on the low end
    • Remastering an album happens when a previous master is optimized for a new format
    • The first remasters were released in the 1980s and early 1990s, coinciding with the burgeoning CD format
    • The first remasters for the CD format were “flat transfers,” which meant there were no alterations
    • These older CDs can sound bland and quiet compared to the remasters available today, though some prefer the sound of these older CDs
    • Remastering became a highly sought-after career because of the possibilities the CD format created
    • Taste is subjective and every remastering project will have its share of fans and detractors
    • In the digital age, masters are no longer physical objects but rather a digital file from which all copies are made
    • Streaming music involves low bit rates, but their compression algorithms are more efficient than the those of the MP3s one may have from the era of pirated music
    • Streaming platforms have all their music mastered specially for them, so the volume doesn’t change from one song to the next
    • The demand for immersive audio with the rise of home theaters presents another opportunity for mastering
    • This stereophonic sound is meant to emulate seeing a band live, with the vocals and drums coming from the center, the bass close by, and one guitar from the left and another from the right
    • It can also be used to create sounds that seem to move from one side to the next
    • Spatial audio standards, such as Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, add a third vertical dimension
    • This adds a new challenge for mastering, since the audio needs to sound good in both spatial audio and standard stereo audio
    • Mixing involves editing the sound on each individual track in a multitrack recording, whereas mastering involves editing the entire recording as a single unit
    • The main tools in mastering are equalization (or EQ) and compression
    • EQing is similar to adjusting the treble and bass knobs on a stereo
    • Compression is about leveling off the quietest and loudest parts of a song so it sounds more even
    • Mastering involves nuance, skill, and even knowledge of how perception works in the psychology of human hearing
    • For example, loud sounds seem louder if they last longer and drums in hip-hop seem louder if they are in mono (or centered in a stereo configuration)
    • Mastering is a lucrative career and is in as high of demand as ever
    • Now that artists have moved out of the studio and record in their bedrooms, there is a greater need for professional mastering

  • The Joy of Writing With a Fountain Pen

    I got a journal and a bottle of ink today. I am writing these words with these materials and a fountain pen, which I brought to Rochester, Minnesota, from my home where I lived with my parents in Chanhassen, Minnesota. I am currently writing the rough draft of this post on a picnic table facing a large pond next to the short-term facility where I am staying. Though it’s a bit breezy—and it was hot and humid today—I am enjoying writing this post outside now that evening is beginning and the temperature is dropping, especially in the shaded area I am in.

    I’ve used fountain pens almost exclusively since I was approximately a junior in high school. That would be approximately since the fall of 2005. I had always loved pens and mechanical pencils as a child, so using a fountain pen was the next logical progression in my hobby of writing instruments. My first fountain pen—which was the only fountain pen I owned while in high school—was made by Cross and had a wine red barrel and gold-toned grip. I still own this fountain pen.

    While I only used one fountain pen and one, or maybe two, bottle(s) of ink in high school, in college I branched out and purchased additional fountain pens and experimented with different inks. For example, I had a Lamy Safari with an extra fine nib that I used with bright orange ink for underlining text and writing in the margins of books. I was a literature major at Bard College in upstate New York, and it was strongly suggested by virtually every literature professor there that we should underline and take notes in our books. I attended Bard College from 2007 to 2010, and left the college without graduating. Interestingly, when I was a student at the University of Minnesota—Twin Cities from 2016 to 2019, where I completed a B.A. in English, I was never told to write in the books by any of my professors. I, therefore, did not write in my books while a student at the U, which was good for their resale value. By this time, I had accumulated a small but delightful collection of fountain pens, including a pricey Pelikan and Montblanc, both with gold nibs.

    I started out a psychology major at Bard College, though I wanted a new major by the second semester of my freshman year. In my first semester of my sophomore year, I switched my major to literature and my advisor to the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Elizabeth Frank. I still remember nervously approaching her after class one day to ask if she could be my advisor.

    “I would be honored,” she said, without the slightest bit of irony.

    I still think about the life lessons she taught in the two classes on American literature I took with her. The main lesson she taught me as a writer and a person was to take life seriously, rather than as a joke. Frank was probably the most influential professor I ever had and is a bona fide genius. Her dad was the prolific writer, producer, and director Melvin Frank, who made many films during Hollywood’s Golden Age. He was the co-writer of “White Christmas.” His wife was investigated for accusations of communism during the McCarthy Era, and Frank wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, “Cheat and Charmer,” about her turbulent childhood. In an article or interview I once read about Frank, she said she writes everything initially with a fountain pen.

    Which brings me back to the topic of this post. For the foreseeable future, I will write rough drafts of all of my posts while sitting on this picnic table facing a large pond that would make Thoreau proud. I will say that my ideas flow better when writing this way, as opposed to staring at a computer screen. If writing this way is good enough for Frank, it is good enough for me.