Father’s Day came early for my dad this year. This morning, the Postal Service delivered the watch I ordered for my dad. Of course, I had to make an unboxing post (even though my mom thinks they’re weird).
I ordered this Seiko SNE593 from Island Watch last week, shortly after boarding an Amtrak train to take me back home to St. Paul from East Glacier Park, Montana.
Enjoy these 12 photos, dad!
Last week, I took an Amtrak train from St. Paul to Glacier National Park to begin my seasonal job working in a kitchen at one of the lodges. I am living and working in St. Mary, Montana, in northwestern Montana, close to the Canadian border.
After getting off the train in the blackness of night last week, the first thing I noticed was the smell of pine permeating the air. I likened it to fictional F.B.I. special agent Dale Cooper from “Twin Peaks” asking about the smell after arriving in Washington State (the smell is Douglas fir, an evergreen tree). I foresee the pine smell becoming a Proustian madeleine for me. And I wouldn’t mind living in the Pacific Northwest long-term (it is simply breathtaking); I just wouldn’t want to be around bears or moose!
The first two photos were taken with my iPhone, while the last three were taken with my Canon EOS R.
Tomorrow is Memorial Day, and the weather is looking up. I will need to get used to this rainy biome, but so far I cherish it (just not the bears and moose!).
I wrote and recorded these songs in February and April of 2005 for my only album, “OG.”
Today, I found some photos on my 2004 Apple iBook G4, which was my first major purchase after starting work at McDonald’s. I was so transfixed at the time with Apple computers and iPods (I might’ve even been the first person in my 9th grade class to have an iPod) that I exuberantly told my parents to invest heavily in Apple. Up to that point, I had never told my parents to invest in any company. I hope they did invest in Apple (they’ve always denied it), because then I’m sure we’d all be millionaires!
Back to the subject, I hadn’t been on this computer in 5–10 years, and I couldn’t remember the password this morning. Luckily, though, the heavens eventually let me remember it. I was most delighted to find a self-portrait I took shortly before leaving home to attend Bard College in 2007–which was also my first profile picture on Facebook–and a self-portrait I took in the spring of 2010, which was in between the times I left Bard College mid-semester in the spring and fall of 2010. I never returned to Bard College after the fall of 2010.
As mentioned, these photos are self-portraits. I took the 2007 photo with a DSLR and a tripod. I took the 2010 photo by holding my DSLR over my body while lying in my yard. The 2007 photo depicts the Temple of Eck in my hometown of 30 years: Chanhassen, Minnesota. This building is on the site of the headquarters of Eckankar, a cult-like religion. I have never joined this cult-like religion, though I believe my parents and brother are members. I did, however, write an article about Eckankar for Chaska High School’s student newspaper during my junior year of high school (the spring of 2006, to be exact) and got to go on a tour of the Temple of Eck with a member of Eckankar from my high school, his mom, and another unknown member. Otherwise, no one has ever talked to me about Eckankar, much less asked me to join.
Both of the following two photos were taken straight out of camera (SOOC), meaning I did not post-process or edit them in any way.
Here is the “before” photo and some EXIF data:
DSC_8117.JPG
Date taken: 6/5/2007 7:51 PM
Dimensions: 3008 x 2000
Camera maker: NIKON CORPORATION
Camera model: NIKON D50
F-stop: f/9
Exposure time: 1/200 sec.
ISO speed: (blank)
Exposure bias: -0.7 step
Focal length: 50 mm
Metering mode: Pattern
Flash mode: No flash
Contrast: Normal
Exposure program: Aperture Priority
Saturation: High saturation
Sharpness: Normal
White balance: Manual
Here is the “after” photo and some EXIF data:
DSC_4309.JPG
Date taken: 5/21/2010 6:18 PM
Dimensions: 4288 x 2848
Camera maker: NIKON CORPORATION
Camera model: NIKON D90
F-stop: f/3.8
Exposure time: 1/160 sec.
ISO speed: ISO-200
Exposure bias: 0 step
Focal length: 24 mm
Metering mode: Pattern
Flash mode: No flash
Contrast: Normal
Exposure program: Aperture Priority
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Normal
White balance: Manual
It’s probably been over five years since I last used Photoshop. I even had a blog devoted to editing photos in Linux, which is possible but not nearly as feature-rich. As of this morning, I’m excited to announce that I’m back on board with Adobe! In addition to Photoshop, Lightroom is included with my subscription. The total cost is $10 a month–a steal in my opinion.
Here are 10 photos I took this morning around my neighborhood from 9:50 to 10:10 a.m. to test out Lightroom–of which I’m a first-time user–and Photoshop.
While doing something unrelated on my new computer this morning, I came across a photo from 2010 with some of my Scribner cousins; we were visiting our grandparents’ home in Wisconsin at the time. I was even able to track down the original file (with some minor, automatic adjustments I made in Photoshop). See more EXIF data below.
DSC_4655.jpg
Date taken: 6/20/2010 3:50:38 P.M.
Program name: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh
Dimensions: 4288 x 2848
Camera maker: NIKON CORPORATION
Camera model: NIKON D90
F-stop: f/8
Exposure time: 1/200 sec.
ISO speed: ISO-200
Exposure bias: 0 step
Focal length: 24 mm
Metering mode: Pattern
Flash mode: Flash, compulsory, strobe return
35mm focal length: 36
Exposure program: Aperture Priority
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Normal
White balance: Auto
EXIF version: 0221
Thanks, Alicia!
(I sent this letter to President Biden, via WhiteHouse.gov, at 6:00:00 p.m. CDT today.)
September 3, 2022
Dear President Biden:
My name is Nicholas Scribner. I have not contacted the executive branch under your administration yet about the issue of needing–not wanting–a new identity in WITSEC. I should also note I did vote for you in 2020.
While I understand I can’t demand when I get into WITSEC, I think an ideal time would be between now and the middle of October, since my brother, Marc Scribner, is getting married in Knoxville on Oct. 22.
My brother manually strangled me for a long time on my dad’s 54th birthday on Dec. 30, 2012. It’s likely it was premeditated attempted murder. I have significant trauma from the crime, which should have landed my brother in a federal prison. But the Carver County Sheriff’s Office decided not to even arrest my brother and just left me stranded in the E.R. without a ride home.
I believe other attempts have been made on my life since then. The worst attempts seem to happen when I am around my brother (I am not going to his wedding for this reason).
My parents are abusing drugs and alcohol on a daily basis; I have been sober since the night of Oct. 30, 2021. Worse yet, my parents’ nearly constant intoxication is causing them to abuse me more than they probably ever have in my life.
No one will hire me for a job because I don’t have a work history. I am very intelligent and able to work, however. I have a B.A. in English from the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. I was even told by Sid Bedingfield, Kate’s dad, that I was perhaps his best student ever (at least the best JOUR 1001 student) and was his first student to get 100% on one of his multiple-choice exams.
If I am not given a new identity in WITSEC, I believe my parents and/or my brother will find a way to carry out a true 187.
I think good people (such as people in the F.B.I.) will breathe a long sigh of relief and be very happy indeed if you use your presidential powers to give me a new identity in WITSEC.
Sincerely,
Nicholas Albert Scribner
Lately, I have been active on my Facebook profile. I will try to update this post as I add more photos on Facebook.
My parents have been threatening me lately. See my two latest YouTube videos for evidence and my Facebook profile for significantly more evidence.
Here is my Facebook post from this morning:
TROPHY? Approximately six months before my dad’s 60th birthday in 2018, I surprised him with a framed photograph with the autographs of the Minnesota Vikings’ Purple People Eaters. He acted like he didn’t want it when I showed it to him and just kept it in bubble wrap on the floor of our living room.
Today, I told him I wanted to sell it on eBay, and he became aggressive. He said he would steal all my computers if I sold it. My mom said she would cut off my cell phone connection and prevent me from using our cars if I sold it.
Therefore, I decided not to sell it. I am concerned my parents are saving it as some type of trophy, since I think my brother attempted to murder me by strangulation on my dad’s 54th birthday, which was on 12/30/2012.
See also: <https://www.oxygen.com/mark-of-a-serial-killer/crime-news/why-do-serial-killers-take-trophies>.
Facebook/Nicholas Scribner
Here is the framed, autographed photo in question:
Sometime within the last week, I bought flags for my mom, my dad, and myself. I did this because I wanted a family photo on the Fourth of July, since I realized there weren’t any photos of my dad on this blog.
I almost forgot about my photo opportunity this evening, but luckily remembered just as my dad was about to go upstairs to his bedroom. When my dad came outside this evening for the family photo, I told him where I wanted the photo—by a tree—but he started yelling loudly at me and saying he can’t go down that far in our yard.
My dad is in a walker and likes to stay at home in the kitchen, presumably because it’s hard for him to get around. (With that said, he always liked spending most of his time in the kitchen even when he wasn’t in a walker, which basically amounts to all my life.)
Back to the story, he said he needed to be in front of my mom’s flower garden. But not only that, he insisted that he rotate his walker such that a compost bin and his old SUV in our garage are my background. Yet my parents got to have flowers as their background. When I asked if we could rotate ourselves a different way—so that the compost bin and his old SUV in our garage are not by me—my dad started crying loudly. Interestingly, he stopped crying immediately after I let him get his way.
Indeed, I acquiesced, since I wanted a photo with the flags on the Fourth of July. The photo below, which was taken by me with my smartphone, is probably the one where the compost bin and garage show up the least (my head is blocking most of it).
My dad’s T-shirt reads, “RUNNING THE COUNTRY IS LIKE RIDING A BIKE,” which is apparently a reference to President Biden falling off his bike. Most of my dad’s shirts have a political message.
In other news, I’m eight months sober. No alcohol, no nicotine, no drugs. Also, a hard pass for Delta-9 THC, which became legal in Minnesota on July 1. If everyone else in my family followed suit, many of our problems would dissipate. #NQTD
Note: The backward flag was unintentional (at least on my part).
UPDATE, 07/04/2022: Since I’m not one to end a holiday (or any day, really) on a bad note, here is a photograph of the grand finale of Chanhassen’s fireworks display at Lake Ann. I stood across the street from Paisley Park to get this photo. It’s where I was last year as well.
UPDATE, 07/05/2022: I took a portrait of just my dad this morning. Now I have recent portraits of my mom, dad, grandpa, and grandma. Although I recently visited my grandparents’ house, my dad stayed home. This portrait was taken in the same place as the photo with the flags from yesterday evening. The lighting is harsh and could have been ameliorated by using fill flash, but I currently do not have a flash for my Canon camera. It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to get one.
UPDATE, 07/08/2022: While watching “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News (with Raymond Arroyo filling in), I discovered my dad’s shirt is a reference to a video taken by a reporter named Nikki Schwab.