Personal news, commentary and ramblings
If you’re not on Facebook, this is a couple of screenshots from my “feed” there. This particular person first became a “fan” of  “Fox Business and 11 others” which included Sean Hannity, Steve Doocy and Fox News. Two minutes later they posted their message opposing the new health care reform law. Subsequent comments revealed that it’s extremely unlikely this person understands anything substantial about the debate.
Yesterday I donned gloves and shoes for trimming back some of the blackberry vines in our yard. As I put them away in our shed, it occurred to me that I regarded them in an equally utilitarian way — occasionally useful for protection but usually just an encumbrance that I don’t need.
This is a picture of my second grade class that appeared in our hometown newspaper, the Riceville Recorder. There were many more of us but I suppose they couldn’t all be in the picture with the newfangled computer they had us using. It was actually a teletype terminal that connected to a “mainframe” computer at Luther College in Decorah, IA (via an acoustic modem hookup). The terminal was kind of mounted on a dolly that let the teachers wheel it all around the school. We played Oregon Trail and a MasterMind knockoff called Bagels.
Graham got a little bored at the Scout meeting. Luckily, he brought along his iPod which was freshly loaded with his new CD by Chameleon Circuit. All of the music is Doctor Who themed which is pretty cool. That Graham found it on his own is even cooler. My son, the nerd.
Be sure to click on the thumbnail and then click the “All Sizes” icon beneath the title. It’s breath-taking.
The two space craft are visible in the lower left of the picture. Amazing sense of scale.
This image speaks volumes about Thomas. He made it using Disk Inventory and marked it up with Skitch. Code Monkeys, How I Met Your Mother and Doogie Howser are all television series. Click the image to see it full size.
Graham forgot his book AND his cello when we left for school this morning. Fortunately, he remembered when we were only a block away. I snapped this after he had retrieved both. Yes, that’s snow again. It snowed a little overnight.
In 1976, I was in third grade when America celebrated her bicentennial. One aspect of that celebration was the minting of special bicentennial coins. Anticipating that such coins would eventually be collectable and worth more than face value, I gave some of each denomination to my mother about 5000 dollar yahoo borrowing and asker her to place them in our safety deposit box at the First National Bank in Riceville. When I was back in Riceville in September, my mother handed me this envelope on which she had inscribed my name 30 years ago and said, “These are yours.” While it was cool to be reminded of something I had completely forgotten about, I was disappointed to find that they are not worth much more than face value.
In three words – best toys and gifts for boys!
Click the photo to see the notes.
Update 12/30/08: Today I received Richard Thompson’s Across A Crowded Room and a cool Woot t-shirt. Also, I forgot to mention two pairs of loose-cuff sweatpants I got on Christmas.
