This video goes along with my "history-of-the-internet" post from before. It is hilarious, though you need to watch out for a bit of "language." This is what it was like to connect online before IE 4.0.
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Winter weather
They're doing it again. They've been talking for days about it. It's coming. It's coming.
By "they" I mean the people on the news, and by "It" I mean the first snowstorm of the year.
They've been saying it would start at dusk today (Sunday), but we woke up this morning and it was snowing. We thought it would stop. I guess it probably did -- we went to church and it wasn't snowing there. But church is at a lower elevation and it's frequently snowing at our house and not snowing at church. When we got home, it was still snowing, or snowing again -- enough to cover the sidewalk.
Last night my husband said they predicted we'd get anywhere from 7 to 12 inches. Everyone thinks school will be closed. And it's supposed to be windy so the snow will drift and blow and make everyone miserable.
The worst part is that it's garbage night. So there will be garbage cans amongst the snowbanks. What fun!
I want to move south and I want to do it NOW.
By "they" I mean the people on the news, and by "It" I mean the first snowstorm of the year.
They've been saying it would start at dusk today (Sunday), but we woke up this morning and it was snowing. We thought it would stop. I guess it probably did -- we went to church and it wasn't snowing there. But church is at a lower elevation and it's frequently snowing at our house and not snowing at church. When we got home, it was still snowing, or snowing again -- enough to cover the sidewalk.
Last night my husband said they predicted we'd get anywhere from 7 to 12 inches. Everyone thinks school will be closed. And it's supposed to be windy so the snow will drift and blow and make everyone miserable.
The worst part is that it's garbage night. So there will be garbage cans amongst the snowbanks. What fun!
I want to move south and I want to do it NOW.
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Check Mii Out
The ingenuity of the creators of the Nintendo Wii game console continues to amaze and delight me. We had to pay above the going price to get ours from some guy on eBay, after spending many hours on the phone to all local stores that sell Wii's asking every day if they had any in stock. I was frustrated at not being able to get one, but I am glad we finally did.
The thing that is a new is a feature called Check Mii Out. I've always thought the feature on the Wii where you can make your own Mii is really fun. You can make one that looks like yourself, but we quickly realized we could make ones that look like our favorite characters. There doesn't seem to be a limit to how many you can make; I think we have over 100 of them. And they play on your team (or the other team) when you play Wii Sports. So, we have Mom batting and Severus Snape pitching. And Mario and Link, and whenever a friend comes over, we let him make one representing himself. It's very cool.
So now, with this new feature, you can share your Mii with the world. Right on the Wii, you can go to a channel where you can upload your creation, and see those others have uploaded. The only limitation is that you can only give them initials, not names (my son theorizes this is to keep people from being able to use inappropriate words). So, HP for Harry Potter, either LV (Lord Voldemort) or TR (Tom Riddle) for the boy wizard's evil nemesis. We've seen quite a few HPs, and I personally think my Voldie is the best. Snape is popular as well, and I'm not the only one who dressed him in Slytherin green even though he always seems to wear black.
Other popular ones are JC (Jesus Christ) and MJ (Michael Jackson -- someone did a great job capturing the Gloved One's hollowed-out cheekbones). People are getting creative and making non-human characters -- Storm Troopers and Ewoks. I tried my hand at Snoopy after seeing CB (Charlie Brown) and PP (Peppermint Patty). It was hard to get Snoopy's ears right, though. I thought I did a good job with Dobby (Harry Potter's house-elf friend).
One great feature is that you can download other people's Mii's onto your machine. You can't edit them once you've got them, but you can get them.
My kids, even my 16-year-old boy, have had a great time with this feature. It's frustrating that you can only use initials and not names, but then it's sometimes fun to try and guess who they might be.
The thing that is a new is a feature called Check Mii Out. I've always thought the feature on the Wii where you can make your own Mii is really fun. You can make one that looks like yourself, but we quickly realized we could make ones that look like our favorite characters. There doesn't seem to be a limit to how many you can make; I think we have over 100 of them. And they play on your team (or the other team) when you play Wii Sports. So, we have Mom batting and Severus Snape pitching. And Mario and Link, and whenever a friend comes over, we let him make one representing himself. It's very cool.
So now, with this new feature, you can share your Mii with the world. Right on the Wii, you can go to a channel where you can upload your creation, and see those others have uploaded. The only limitation is that you can only give them initials, not names (my son theorizes this is to keep people from being able to use inappropriate words). So, HP for Harry Potter, either LV (Lord Voldemort) or TR (Tom Riddle) for the boy wizard's evil nemesis. We've seen quite a few HPs, and I personally think my Voldie is the best. Snape is popular as well, and I'm not the only one who dressed him in Slytherin green even though he always seems to wear black.
Other popular ones are JC (Jesus Christ) and MJ (Michael Jackson -- someone did a great job capturing the Gloved One's hollowed-out cheekbones). People are getting creative and making non-human characters -- Storm Troopers and Ewoks. I tried my hand at Snoopy after seeing CB (Charlie Brown) and PP (Peppermint Patty). It was hard to get Snoopy's ears right, though. I thought I did a good job with Dobby (Harry Potter's house-elf friend).
One great feature is that you can download other people's Mii's onto your machine. You can't edit them once you've got them, but you can get them.
My kids, even my 16-year-old boy, have had a great time with this feature. It's frustrating that you can only use initials and not names, but then it's sometimes fun to try and guess who they might be.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Random Thoughts about the Internet, Take 2
When I started the post below, it was by way of introduction to some thoughts about how the internet has changed over the years. But I got side-tracked ranting about how Blogger won't work right, and forgot. So now I'm back.
I got my first computer in 1991. I'd used computers before, I even had my brother's old Leading Edge computer (no kidding, this computer had 2 5-/4-inche floppy drives, NO hard drive, and 256K of RAM. 256K. Not Mb, K. Just think of that for a minute).
Anyway, my first computer: Made by NCR, a company famous for making cash registers (I believe NCR stands for National Cash Register). It had a 40 Mb hard drive. It had one 5-1/4-inch floppy drive and one 3.5-inch floppy drive.
The first thing we had to do with it was install DOS. Remember DOS? Then we also installed the following: Windows 3.1, a mouse, and a dial-up modem. Computers didn't come with these things back then. To install something like Windows you had to insert a floppy disk, run the setup program, and wait for it to tell you when to switch disks. After going through a stack of 2-6 disks, your application would be ready to run.
You typed "WIN" at the DOS prompt to get into Windows. (I still remember 3-year-old Dan trying to type WIN into the search field at the library's card catalog computer and being frustrated when it didn't work.)
I remember when Windows 95 came out. They said it was a whole new way of computing, and I guess it was because people don't use DOS anymore. Now computers just start and boot right into Windows and you don't have to mess with DOS-type commands. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
My brother had moved to Colorado and I wanted to be able to email him. He had email at the college he was attending. So I did what most people did in 1992 if they wanted email access at their home: I signed up for Compu-Serve. It was the only way to do it, or at least, the least expensive. There was this thing called Prodigy, but Compu-Serve was cheaper so I went with that.
There was a graphical interface but you had to pay for it. But you could use a sort of DOS version for free (there was still a monthly fee, $7 or $9 a month, but you didn't have to pay for the application unless you got the graphical interface, so I chose the DOS version). There was a section, including email, that you could use for an unlimited time period, and there was another section (including forums) that you had to pay extra (by the hour, after a certain number of hours were used) to use.
So I did email, and I got involved (a bit) in a homeschooling forum. I remember downloading a whole long list of homeschooling vendors, going to the post office and buying pre-stamped postcards, and mailing out requests for catalogs. There were no websites then, this was the only way to buy homeschooling materials.
Then one day a disk came in the mail from this company I'd never heard of before, called America Online. From reading the marketing material that came with the disk, I could tell it was something like Compu-Serve, but I didn't know what it was, really.
I put it in the disk, and it automatically installed this wonderful software. In about 15 minutes I had a new userID ("Meli") and a free month of service. I had access to all of the forums and didn't have to worry about whether I was in a "free" area or a "pay" area. It all came for the same price, though there was a monthly limit of how many hours you got.
AOL brought the internet to the masses. People don't realize that, but it's really true. Before AOL, internet was something engineers used at work. No one had it at home and most people didn't know what it was or how to use it. AOL changed all that, and brought content people wanted to pay an extra monthly fee to have.
But it was still limited. You had 20 hours a month, I think. After that, you paid extra per hour, sort of like going over your minute plan on your cell phone. Then one day they decided to change it to unlimited. They changed the price (it had been $9.95, it went to about $20 a month), but for that price you got all the hours you could use.
There was one big catch: they didn't have enough phone lines for everyone to connect. This was still the days of dial-up, that horrible screaching noise of the modem dialing and talking to the computer on the other end. You had a phone line plugged into the back of your computer and you couldn't make a phone call while you were online (we had a 2nd phone line just for the computer fir a little while).
Suddenly everyone wanted to connect all the time and most people got a busy signal, all the time. You could connect during the daytime, but not during what the TV networks call Primetime. So I'd connect in the morning and download all of my email. Being home during the day was one of the reasons we didn't just cancel our service -- most people who tried to connect only in the evenings never got through.
Finally, AOL got more phone lines. Other ISPs started up. We switched to a local internet provider and suddenly we had "real" internet, with a browser and an email client, like it is now. Except it was still dialup.
Finally, we got broadband. Hooray! We could finally enjoy the internet! I remember there was a website for kids, based on the TV show Blue's Clues. On Dial-up, you'd get an animation of Blue chasing a ball around the screen, which was supposed to keep you interested while you waited for the real game to download. And waited. And waited. Eventually, the kid would lose interest. We never really played that game till we had broadband.
It's amazing to think how far all of this technology has come, all within the short lifetime of my 16-year-old son. Now we have all this web 2.0 stuff that I don't really see the point of. The web is very different than it used to be.
I got my first computer in 1991. I'd used computers before, I even had my brother's old Leading Edge computer (no kidding, this computer had 2 5-/4-inche floppy drives, NO hard drive, and 256K of RAM. 256K. Not Mb, K. Just think of that for a minute).
Anyway, my first computer: Made by NCR, a company famous for making cash registers (I believe NCR stands for National Cash Register). It had a 40 Mb hard drive. It had one 5-1/4-inch floppy drive and one 3.5-inch floppy drive.
The first thing we had to do with it was install DOS. Remember DOS? Then we also installed the following: Windows 3.1, a mouse, and a dial-up modem. Computers didn't come with these things back then. To install something like Windows you had to insert a floppy disk, run the setup program, and wait for it to tell you when to switch disks. After going through a stack of 2-6 disks, your application would be ready to run.
You typed "WIN" at the DOS prompt to get into Windows. (I still remember 3-year-old Dan trying to type WIN into the search field at the library's card catalog computer and being frustrated when it didn't work.)
I remember when Windows 95 came out. They said it was a whole new way of computing, and I guess it was because people don't use DOS anymore. Now computers just start and boot right into Windows and you don't have to mess with DOS-type commands. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
My brother had moved to Colorado and I wanted to be able to email him. He had email at the college he was attending. So I did what most people did in 1992 if they wanted email access at their home: I signed up for Compu-Serve. It was the only way to do it, or at least, the least expensive. There was this thing called Prodigy, but Compu-Serve was cheaper so I went with that.
There was a graphical interface but you had to pay for it. But you could use a sort of DOS version for free (there was still a monthly fee, $7 or $9 a month, but you didn't have to pay for the application unless you got the graphical interface, so I chose the DOS version). There was a section, including email, that you could use for an unlimited time period, and there was another section (including forums) that you had to pay extra (by the hour, after a certain number of hours were used) to use.
So I did email, and I got involved (a bit) in a homeschooling forum. I remember downloading a whole long list of homeschooling vendors, going to the post office and buying pre-stamped postcards, and mailing out requests for catalogs. There were no websites then, this was the only way to buy homeschooling materials.
Then one day a disk came in the mail from this company I'd never heard of before, called America Online. From reading the marketing material that came with the disk, I could tell it was something like Compu-Serve, but I didn't know what it was, really.
I put it in the disk, and it automatically installed this wonderful software. In about 15 minutes I had a new userID ("Meli") and a free month of service. I had access to all of the forums and didn't have to worry about whether I was in a "free" area or a "pay" area. It all came for the same price, though there was a monthly limit of how many hours you got.
AOL brought the internet to the masses. People don't realize that, but it's really true. Before AOL, internet was something engineers used at work. No one had it at home and most people didn't know what it was or how to use it. AOL changed all that, and brought content people wanted to pay an extra monthly fee to have.
But it was still limited. You had 20 hours a month, I think. After that, you paid extra per hour, sort of like going over your minute plan on your cell phone. Then one day they decided to change it to unlimited. They changed the price (it had been $9.95, it went to about $20 a month), but for that price you got all the hours you could use.
There was one big catch: they didn't have enough phone lines for everyone to connect. This was still the days of dial-up, that horrible screaching noise of the modem dialing and talking to the computer on the other end. You had a phone line plugged into the back of your computer and you couldn't make a phone call while you were online (we had a 2nd phone line just for the computer fir a little while).
Suddenly everyone wanted to connect all the time and most people got a busy signal, all the time. You could connect during the daytime, but not during what the TV networks call Primetime. So I'd connect in the morning and download all of my email. Being home during the day was one of the reasons we didn't just cancel our service -- most people who tried to connect only in the evenings never got through.
Finally, AOL got more phone lines. Other ISPs started up. We switched to a local internet provider and suddenly we had "real" internet, with a browser and an email client, like it is now. Except it was still dialup.
Finally, we got broadband. Hooray! We could finally enjoy the internet! I remember there was a website for kids, based on the TV show Blue's Clues. On Dial-up, you'd get an animation of Blue chasing a ball around the screen, which was supposed to keep you interested while you waited for the real game to download. And waited. And waited. Eventually, the kid would lose interest. We never really played that game till we had broadband.
It's amazing to think how far all of this technology has come, all within the short lifetime of my 16-year-old son. Now we have all this web 2.0 stuff that I don't really see the point of. The web is very different than it used to be.
Random Thoughts about the Internet
This old computer in my kitchen is starting to be a problem. With the last update, Firefox has ceased to function on this computer. You can boot it up and go to a website, and somewhere between loading the first page and about the 10th mouse click you make, it hangs. Stops letting you do anything. Ceases to function. Bummer.
So, I installed Opera. Opera, as I found out when I was looking to help my impatient husband find a browser that would load quickly, has the smallest footprint of any of the most-commonly-used browsers. That means that it requires the least system memory and it loads fast. So I thought it would be a good choice for this old Dell.
And so far, it is, except it doesn't seem to agree with Blogger. Yesterday, I was writing the post about the Nesbit books, and it stopped letting me edit. I just couldn't type. I could save. I could go to another web page. The browser hadn't crashed, it just wouldn't let me type anymore. Thank goodness for the automatic save feature in Blogger; I had all of what I'd already typed.
So, I tried again this morning. I was able to type the rest of the post. But one of the paragraphs (the one I was in the middle of when it stopped working yesterday) won't wrap around. At first, the words went way, way over there >>>, under the sidebar and continuing on in a strange color against the far right background. I inserted a bunch of force-returns and managed to get that fixed, but the lines are still off. Some places refuse to let me edit them. I put my cursor at the end of the line, hit delete and it deletes the first character on the next line. I move my cursor down to the beginning of the next line and hit backspace and it brings me back up to the previous line, but then when I type there it either moves me back down or types on top of the existing letters, so that what I type replaces text already there.
Hopefully I'll be able to fix it when I have access to another computer.
So, I installed Opera. Opera, as I found out when I was looking to help my impatient husband find a browser that would load quickly, has the smallest footprint of any of the most-commonly-used browsers. That means that it requires the least system memory and it loads fast. So I thought it would be a good choice for this old Dell.
And so far, it is, except it doesn't seem to agree with Blogger. Yesterday, I was writing the post about the Nesbit books, and it stopped letting me edit. I just couldn't type. I could save. I could go to another web page. The browser hadn't crashed, it just wouldn't let me type anymore. Thank goodness for the automatic save feature in Blogger; I had all of what I'd already typed.
So, I tried again this morning. I was able to type the rest of the post. But one of the paragraphs (the one I was in the middle of when it stopped working yesterday) won't wrap around. At first, the words went way, way over there >>>, under the sidebar and continuing on in a strange color against the far right background. I inserted a bunch of force-returns and managed to get that fixed, but the lines are still off. Some places refuse to let me edit them. I put my cursor at the end of the line, hit delete and it deletes the first character on the next line. I move my cursor down to the beginning of the next line and hit backspace and it brings me back up to the previous line, but then when I type there it either moves me back down or types on top of the existing letters, so that what I type replaces text already there.
Hopefully I'll be able to fix it when I have access to another computer.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
E. Nesbit
I am currently enjoying two books by British children's author E. Nesbit. The books are not well-known, if they ever were, but they should be.
The main character of The Story of the Treasure Seekers is one of the all-time favorites of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. Based on her recommendation, I sought out this book via inter-library loan, as my local library didn't have a copy. And I enjoyed it immensely. It, and the sequel with the not-very-intriguing title of The Wouldbegoods, are laugh-out-loud funny. I recommend them to children and anyone who has ever been a child.
What is so great about them is the characterization. The characters literally leap off the page. You get to know them well and you grow to love them and care what happens to them.
Another obscure book by the same author is The House of Arden. Sounds like an old fashioned romance novel, doesn't it? The kind
with a big mansion located on a windswept moor where the heroine
becomes stranded and meets a dark, handsome and mysterious gentleman.
But that's not what happens in this book. It's about two children who find
they have inhearited a run-down castle and must find a treasure to be
able to afford to restore
the castle to its former glory.
These children actually go back in time, have exciting adventures, and
meet some famous people (great
book to read if you want to study British history).
I think Mrs. Nesbit's books are excellent, even if some of their titles sound strange to our modern ears. My children have noticed the following signs that these books were written over 100 years ago: different money (it's British money, but old fashioned British money, not the same as they have today), gas lights, house help, various types of horse-drawn carriages, differences in education and food (cold mutton was not a particular favorite, but roasted rabbit was a treat worthy of spending their own money to purchase). And we've had difficulty understanding various pop culture references (a good lesson in gaining meaning from context). One of the things the books prove is that, though many things have changed since they were written, people stay pretty much the same.
You may have heard of some of Mrs. Nesbit's more well-known books, such as Five Children and It. I urge you to look for some of these not-so-well-known works. You will not be disappointed.
The main character of The Story of the Treasure Seekers is one of the all-time favorites of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. Based on her recommendation, I sought out this book via inter-library loan, as my local library didn't have a copy. And I enjoyed it immensely. It, and the sequel with the not-very-intriguing title of The Wouldbegoods, are laugh-out-loud funny. I recommend them to children and anyone who has ever been a child.
What is so great about them is the characterization. The characters literally leap off the page. You get to know them well and you grow to love them and care what happens to them.
Another obscure book by the same author is The House of Arden. Sounds like an old fashioned romance novel, doesn't it? The kind
with a big mansion located on a windswept moor where the heroine
becomes stranded and meets a dark, handsome and mysterious gentleman.
But that's not what happens in this book. It's about two children who find
they have inhearited a run-down castle and must find a treasure to be
able to afford to restore
the castle to its former glory.
These children actually go back in time, have exciting adventures, and
meet some famous people (great
book to read if you want to study British history).
I think Mrs. Nesbit's books are excellent, even if some of their titles sound strange to our modern ears. My children have noticed the following signs that these books were written over 100 years ago: different money (it's British money, but old fashioned British money, not the same as they have today), gas lights, house help, various types of horse-drawn carriages, differences in education and food (cold mutton was not a particular favorite, but roasted rabbit was a treat worthy of spending their own money to purchase). And we've had difficulty understanding various pop culture references (a good lesson in gaining meaning from context). One of the things the books prove is that, though many things have changed since they were written, people stay pretty much the same.
You may have heard of some of Mrs. Nesbit's more well-known books, such as Five Children and It. I urge you to look for some of these not-so-well-known works. You will not be disappointed.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Home brewed Iced Tea
I found out recently that I'm right on the cutting edge of a trend. Imagine that!
I went to this little coffee shop called Mocha Lisa's Cafe. They also have Iced Tea there. I can't drink coffee (it gives me heartburn) and I don't generally like warm beverages anyway, so I ordered iced tea and watched how they made it.
They made it almost exactly how I make it at home. That's how I knew I was part of this trend!
Here's how they made it: They brewed hot tea, using my choice from a whole tray full of different flavored teas. I picked Apricot/Peach flavor. The only difference from how I make tea at home was that they didn't use a tea bag, but used some sort of thing similar to a coffee filter to put the loose tea leaves in.
After they had the hot tea, they poured it over ice and served it to me.
Here's what I do at home: I make one cup of tea. Often I do it in an oversized cup that I know will hold up to hot liquids. Then I add sweetener and, often, a little fruit juice. I buy Kern's Apricot Nectar and put in several tablespoons of that per cup of tea. Then I just add ice and stir, that's why I start with an oversized cup.
I'm a label-reader and I've found that iced tea mix is not nearly as good for you as regular tea. Even Lipton tea bags that are meant for iced tea don't have nearly the amount of antioxidants that regular tea has. That's why I add the fruit juice rather than buy flavored tea bags. The flavored ones don't have the large quantity of antioxidants, either.
So, that's a great an inexpensive way to make your own healthy and tasty iced tea, and save money versus the cost of buying it at an expensive coffee or tea shop where they make it the same way.
I went to this little coffee shop called Mocha Lisa's Cafe. They also have Iced Tea there. I can't drink coffee (it gives me heartburn) and I don't generally like warm beverages anyway, so I ordered iced tea and watched how they made it.
They made it almost exactly how I make it at home. That's how I knew I was part of this trend!
Here's how they made it: They brewed hot tea, using my choice from a whole tray full of different flavored teas. I picked Apricot/Peach flavor. The only difference from how I make tea at home was that they didn't use a tea bag, but used some sort of thing similar to a coffee filter to put the loose tea leaves in.
After they had the hot tea, they poured it over ice and served it to me.
Here's what I do at home: I make one cup of tea. Often I do it in an oversized cup that I know will hold up to hot liquids. Then I add sweetener and, often, a little fruit juice. I buy Kern's Apricot Nectar and put in several tablespoons of that per cup of tea. Then I just add ice and stir, that's why I start with an oversized cup.
I'm a label-reader and I've found that iced tea mix is not nearly as good for you as regular tea. Even Lipton tea bags that are meant for iced tea don't have nearly the amount of antioxidants that regular tea has. That's why I add the fruit juice rather than buy flavored tea bags. The flavored ones don't have the large quantity of antioxidants, either.
So, that's a great an inexpensive way to make your own healthy and tasty iced tea, and save money versus the cost of buying it at an expensive coffee or tea shop where they make it the same way.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
why I hate movie theaters
I am facing a decision for which I don't have a good option.
We want to see the new Harry Potter movie, and I can't decide which theater.
We have a nice little inexpensive theater nearby that we've seen quite a number of movies at. The last time was for Ratatouille. All went well till I went to get up after the movie. I thought the bottom of my shorts were caught on something, till I put my hand down to find out what it was.
It was bubble gum. Bright yellow (I discovered the color later) bubble gum, which had, while I'd been sitting there, been warmed up by my body heat and was stretching between my behind (clothed in my favorite shorts) and the theater seat. I managed to get a glob of it off into my hand, but much of it was still attached to my shorts. I went out and showed it to the woman who was ripping tickets in the lobby.
She couldn't be bothered to lower the cell phone from her ear, though she did indicate she was listening to me. She didn't, however, seem to think the theater owed me anything, even an apology. She grudgingly offered that I might speak to the manager, though she did not offer to point him out to me, and she firmly stated she didn't think he would do anything for me.
I vowed never to set foot in that theater again, despite the low cost compared to the other local theaters.
So, today I made some phone calls, attempting to find out how much one of the mall theaters was going to set me back. I called Regal cinemas, the local number, but was connected with "1-800-FANDANGO" where I was immediately subjected to, of all things, a commercial! After listening to the commercial, I was given options to say movie names or other things. This sort of menuing system where you actually talk gives me the willies. It did offer to let me type in a zip code, but when I did so, "I'm sorry, I didn't get that," so I was forced to talk. It wouldn't tell me individual ticket prices but told me the total price for one adult and one child including all sorts of fees because I was buying over the phone. Unfortunately, my husband made a loud noise in the background just as they said the price and I couldn't get it to go back so I never did get a price, though it wouldn't have been the price I'd have paid if I went there in person anyway.
So, do I go to the horribly commercial theater that even has commercials on its phone line or do I go to the theater with the gum on the seats? If it was just me, I'd wait for the DVD, but my son really wants to see this movie, and it's going to be over 90 again tomorrow, so an afternoon in a cool movie theater sounds great to me. But I'm bringing a flashlight and checking the seats before I sit down.
We want to see the new Harry Potter movie, and I can't decide which theater.
We have a nice little inexpensive theater nearby that we've seen quite a number of movies at. The last time was for Ratatouille. All went well till I went to get up after the movie. I thought the bottom of my shorts were caught on something, till I put my hand down to find out what it was.
It was bubble gum. Bright yellow (I discovered the color later) bubble gum, which had, while I'd been sitting there, been warmed up by my body heat and was stretching between my behind (clothed in my favorite shorts) and the theater seat. I managed to get a glob of it off into my hand, but much of it was still attached to my shorts. I went out and showed it to the woman who was ripping tickets in the lobby.
She couldn't be bothered to lower the cell phone from her ear, though she did indicate she was listening to me. She didn't, however, seem to think the theater owed me anything, even an apology. She grudgingly offered that I might speak to the manager, though she did not offer to point him out to me, and she firmly stated she didn't think he would do anything for me.
I vowed never to set foot in that theater again, despite the low cost compared to the other local theaters.
So, today I made some phone calls, attempting to find out how much one of the mall theaters was going to set me back. I called Regal cinemas, the local number, but was connected with "1-800-FANDANGO" where I was immediately subjected to, of all things, a commercial! After listening to the commercial, I was given options to say movie names or other things. This sort of menuing system where you actually talk gives me the willies. It did offer to let me type in a zip code, but when I did so, "I'm sorry, I didn't get that," so I was forced to talk. It wouldn't tell me individual ticket prices but told me the total price for one adult and one child including all sorts of fees because I was buying over the phone. Unfortunately, my husband made a loud noise in the background just as they said the price and I couldn't get it to go back so I never did get a price, though it wouldn't have been the price I'd have paid if I went there in person anyway.
So, do I go to the horribly commercial theater that even has commercials on its phone line or do I go to the theater with the gum on the seats? If it was just me, I'd wait for the DVD, but my son really wants to see this movie, and it's going to be over 90 again tomorrow, so an afternoon in a cool movie theater sounds great to me. But I'm bringing a flashlight and checking the seats before I sit down.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Nancy Drew is a fraud
I've just found out that I've been being lied to all my life. I'm so disillusioned I don't think I'll ever get over it.
Carolyn Keene, whom I've always known as the author of the Nancy Drew series, which I grew up reading and enjoying, doesn't exist. No, I don't mean that a person with another name wrote under the pseudonym of Carolyn Keene. It's worse than that. Several people actually wrote the various books, and they just made up the name Carolyn Keene as the author. The same syndicate perpetrated a similar fraud with the Hardy Boys and, of all things, The Bobbsey Twins.
But it gets worse. Not only were these books written almost by committee, but they were continuously revised as time went on. First Nancy drove a blue roadster. Later versions took out such antiquated terms as roadster and rumble seat and running boards, and Nancy then drove the blue convertible I remember from my childhood. Later still, apparently, she drove a mustang. I have no idea how much changed over time, but this article seems to indicate quite a lot was changed to make the characters feel modern to each generation of new readers and socially acceptable as well. The age at which Nancy's mother had died changed over the years, and it seems characters were added or dropped as the whim of the head of the syndicate dictated.
I'm highly disappointed by all of this. It's probably old news to everyone else, but I feel like I've been betrayed by a very good friend.
Carolyn Keene, whom I've always known as the author of the Nancy Drew series, which I grew up reading and enjoying, doesn't exist. No, I don't mean that a person with another name wrote under the pseudonym of Carolyn Keene. It's worse than that. Several people actually wrote the various books, and they just made up the name Carolyn Keene as the author. The same syndicate perpetrated a similar fraud with the Hardy Boys and, of all things, The Bobbsey Twins.
But it gets worse. Not only were these books written almost by committee, but they were continuously revised as time went on. First Nancy drove a blue roadster. Later versions took out such antiquated terms as roadster and rumble seat and running boards, and Nancy then drove the blue convertible I remember from my childhood. Later still, apparently, she drove a mustang. I have no idea how much changed over time, but this article seems to indicate quite a lot was changed to make the characters feel modern to each generation of new readers and socially acceptable as well. The age at which Nancy's mother had died changed over the years, and it seems characters were added or dropped as the whim of the head of the syndicate dictated.
I'm highly disappointed by all of this. It's probably old news to everyone else, but I feel like I've been betrayed by a very good friend.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Smoking car and the blue screen of death, all within the same hour
Okay, so I wasn't there when the van started to smoke. My husband called me from church, it started smoking as he entered the parking lot. "You're going to have to come pick me up later," he tells me.
Great. Just great.
Then for the second time today the Compaq came out with the blue screen of death. It happens mostly when my youngest is using it. Though he's convinced it's not always the same thing that causes it, or brings it on or whatever. I know I've had it happen to me when I was using Firefox. Last time was when I tried to load the wonderfully crisp and clear high-definition trailer for the next Harry Potter movie in a resolution equal to the screen res. of my laptop. I got to see about 1/3 of it before it crashed.
:::::sigh::::: At least I'm not the car mechanic in this house, but I am the computer mechanic. I need to open the case and remove one of the RAM cards or chips or whatever they're called (some mechanic I am, huh?) and see how the computer works with only one. If it works and doesn't crash, then we switch. If it crashes right away, and consistently keeps doing that, I guess I've found the culprit, but no, it could be the chip or the (again with the I-don't-know-what-it's-called problem) place where the chip connects to the motherboard. So I need to move the same chip to the other seating or connector or whatever it's called and try it again, then for good measure I should try both connectors with the other chip just for the sake of knowing for sure. If it's one of the chips, which I dearly hope, I then go online and find out which exact kind of chip I need to buy to replace it, upgrading to twice as much RAM as possible, and my 5 year old Compaq will hopefully then be good as new (though I should really try to get rid of some of the dust inside it while I'm at it). If it's not the chip, then it's the motherboard and we get to have a bonfire in the back yard. No, not really, they can be toxic I guess, so it'll join it's older siblings in the computer graveyard in the basement, though I might take the hard drive out first.
We already have (shh!) more working computers in the house than the number of people who live here, and as we speak a cheap used laptop is slowly chugging its way here via parcel post, so I suppose we don't technically have to replace this computer right away, but we're going to have lots of fights over the remaining 2 computers that have sufficient system resources to run most of the programs we generally use. Sounds like we're going to have a lot of fun here in the next few weeks!
Great. Just great.
Then for the second time today the Compaq came out with the blue screen of death. It happens mostly when my youngest is using it. Though he's convinced it's not always the same thing that causes it, or brings it on or whatever. I know I've had it happen to me when I was using Firefox. Last time was when I tried to load the wonderfully crisp and clear high-definition trailer for the next Harry Potter movie in a resolution equal to the screen res. of my laptop. I got to see about 1/3 of it before it crashed.
:::::sigh::::: At least I'm not the car mechanic in this house, but I am the computer mechanic. I need to open the case and remove one of the RAM cards or chips or whatever they're called (some mechanic I am, huh?) and see how the computer works with only one. If it works and doesn't crash, then we switch. If it crashes right away, and consistently keeps doing that, I guess I've found the culprit, but no, it could be the chip or the (again with the I-don't-know-what-it's-called problem) place where the chip connects to the motherboard. So I need to move the same chip to the other seating or connector or whatever it's called and try it again, then for good measure I should try both connectors with the other chip just for the sake of knowing for sure. If it's one of the chips, which I dearly hope, I then go online and find out which exact kind of chip I need to buy to replace it, upgrading to twice as much RAM as possible, and my 5 year old Compaq will hopefully then be good as new (though I should really try to get rid of some of the dust inside it while I'm at it). If it's not the chip, then it's the motherboard and we get to have a bonfire in the back yard. No, not really, they can be toxic I guess, so it'll join it's older siblings in the computer graveyard in the basement, though I might take the hard drive out first.
We already have (shh!) more working computers in the house than the number of people who live here, and as we speak a cheap used laptop is slowly chugging its way here via parcel post, so I suppose we don't technically have to replace this computer right away, but we're going to have lots of fights over the remaining 2 computers that have sufficient system resources to run most of the programs we generally use. Sounds like we're going to have a lot of fun here in the next few weeks!
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
and so it begins . . .
. . . just like that, almost innocently, small, pretty flakes floating down. Just barely a dusting covering any surface that we'd previously cleared of the three to four inches of snow that's fallen in the past month or so.
The last forecast for my county said we'll get between 20 and 30 inches. I'm trying to look out and remember what my yard looks like, because I don't think I'll be seeing it for awhile.
:::::sigh:::::
The last forecast for my county said we'll get between 20 and 30 inches. I'm trying to look out and remember what my yard looks like, because I don't think I'll be seeing it for awhile.
:::::sigh:::::
I spoke too soon
:::::sigh:::::
Second to the highly insulting snowstorm-on-my-birthday that I spoke of before is snowstorm-on-Valentine's-Day. Ugh. They're saying we could get 24-36 inches. I guess when people less than a 3 hours' drive from here got over 11 feet and still expect more, I shouldn't complain, but still, there it is.
Second to the highly insulting snowstorm-on-my-birthday that I spoke of before is snowstorm-on-Valentine's-Day. Ugh. They're saying we could get 24-36 inches. I guess when people less than a 3 hours' drive from here got over 11 feet and still expect more, I shouldn't complain, but still, there it is.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
There but for the grace of God . . .
We live in what we refer to as "upstate NY". Just a couple of counties over from Oswego county, really. And we've been really blessed this year (from the perspective of this non-snow-lover). We have less than 6 inches on the ground, and that's the most we've had all year.
Here's a link if you want to see what our "neighbors" to the west are dealing with. Every time I hear about it I thank God again that it didn't happen to us.
One article I read referred to it as an "unreal" amount of snow. 8-10 FEET in one week, can you imagine? I can't believe roofs aren't caving in all over the place out there.
Just so you know, we haven't always been blessed. I remember -- I think it was 1993, or it may have been 1994. We had at least 3 12-inch snow storms in February. We'd had storms before then, but I remember those three because my husband took a week-long missions trip to Mexico. They closed the airport right after their plane took off in the first of the 3 February storms. We just barely got out of the driveway without getting stuck, taking him to the airport. Then I had to find someone to plow the driveway and wait at a friend's house while it was plowed -- with a toddler in tow. Then another storm on Wed. -- I had to leave the toddler alone in the house while I went outside and shoveled the sidewalk and cleaned off and moved the cars around out of the way of the plow guy. Then there was the 3rd storm, my husband's plane was the first one in after they re-opened the airport (no it hadn't been closed for the whole week). We lost a whole station wagon that week, we didn't see it again till April. And that wasn't the end. We had 2-1/2 feet of snow in March, all at once. I remember it took the plow guy almost 2 hours to plow the driveway. The dog couldn't go anywhere but the driveway anymore, it was too deep for her to walk. We didn't see the ground until about 5 days before Memorial Day that year. I built a snowman in April.
Then there was the year we got 27 inches of snow on my birthday. What an insult. Most towns around us got about 8-10 inches that day, we just lucked out with 2 feet more. We lost our sidewalk that time -- gave up shoveling it till spring.
So I think we're due for a reprieve. I'm just thrilled to be getting it. I should probably keep my mouth closed, Winter's not over yet.
Here's a link if you want to see what our "neighbors" to the west are dealing with. Every time I hear about it I thank God again that it didn't happen to us.
One article I read referred to it as an "unreal" amount of snow. 8-10 FEET in one week, can you imagine? I can't believe roofs aren't caving in all over the place out there.
Just so you know, we haven't always been blessed. I remember -- I think it was 1993, or it may have been 1994. We had at least 3 12-inch snow storms in February. We'd had storms before then, but I remember those three because my husband took a week-long missions trip to Mexico. They closed the airport right after their plane took off in the first of the 3 February storms. We just barely got out of the driveway without getting stuck, taking him to the airport. Then I had to find someone to plow the driveway and wait at a friend's house while it was plowed -- with a toddler in tow. Then another storm on Wed. -- I had to leave the toddler alone in the house while I went outside and shoveled the sidewalk and cleaned off and moved the cars around out of the way of the plow guy. Then there was the 3rd storm, my husband's plane was the first one in after they re-opened the airport (no it hadn't been closed for the whole week). We lost a whole station wagon that week, we didn't see it again till April. And that wasn't the end. We had 2-1/2 feet of snow in March, all at once. I remember it took the plow guy almost 2 hours to plow the driveway. The dog couldn't go anywhere but the driveway anymore, it was too deep for her to walk. We didn't see the ground until about 5 days before Memorial Day that year. I built a snowman in April.
Then there was the year we got 27 inches of snow on my birthday. What an insult. Most towns around us got about 8-10 inches that day, we just lucked out with 2 feet more. We lost our sidewalk that time -- gave up shoveling it till spring.
So I think we're due for a reprieve. I'm just thrilled to be getting it. I should probably keep my mouth closed, Winter's not over yet.
Monday, January 15, 2007
The Value of a Human Life
I found two news stories this morning that were interesting affirmations that we, even in our technology-saturated society, still value life.
Click here to read about how this couple rescued their frozen embryos from Katrina's flood waters and are now about to give birth.
And this story makes me feel old. I remember the controversy surrounding the first "test-tube baby". We were afraid science would engineer life instead of allowing God to be in control. But it's turned out, and I think most would agree, that God has used this technology to allow couples to become parents and the value of life has ultimately been affirmed. Now, the first baby born from this technology has become a parent herself. Click here to read the happy news.
Click here to read about how this couple rescued their frozen embryos from Katrina's flood waters and are now about to give birth.
And this story makes me feel old. I remember the controversy surrounding the first "test-tube baby". We were afraid science would engineer life instead of allowing God to be in control. But it's turned out, and I think most would agree, that God has used this technology to allow couples to become parents and the value of life has ultimately been affirmed. Now, the first baby born from this technology has become a parent herself. Click here to read the happy news.
Monday, September 18, 2006
PotterCast
For several years now, I've been regularly checking a site called The Leaky Cauldron . I found it when I was desperate for news about the next Harry Potter book, which at that time was not yet published and was eventually titled Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. There are lots of Harry Potter sites on the web, but The Leaky Cauldron is the absolute best. Even JK Rowling thinks so.
What makes this site so good? They are very professional. They do talk about rumors, but they identify them as rumors, and give their opinion as to whether or not they might be true. You'd be surprised how many Harry Potter related rumors turn out not to be true, and the Leaky staff can spot a false one a mile away. Here's a recent example: the article about the rumor and a follow-up.
They are careful to tell the truth, but they also almost always have news as soon as it happens. If you want to know the latest news about anything Harry Potter related, this is the site to check. Plus, it's run by adults, not kids, so it has a certain maturity many other Harry Potter sites lack.
After I'd been visiting this site for quite awhile, they started a forum called The Leaky Lounge. This is absolutely the best Harry Potter forum on the internet. Lots of interesting discussions, and even some other Christian homeschooling Harry Potter fans (and I thought I was the only one!)
Then, just over a year ago, the staff of the Leaky Cauldron started a podcast. I had just gotten an mp3 player, though I would have listened to this even if I didn't have one (you can download them and listen on your computer, if you don't have a portable mp3 player). Right from the start, PotterCast was very, very well done. I find myself talking back to the podcast while I'm walking along listening to it -- people give me strange looks. But it's hard to listen to it without wanting to talk back, to express your own opinion or just laugh because, in addition to being informative, they are also very funny.
Since I got my mp3 player, I've found other podcasts I also enjoy. A very eclectic mix of technology-related shows, sermons, etc., but PotterCast is still my favorite. I look forward to it each week and often wish it came out more often than weekly.
Click here for episodes and info;
click here to use this player on your space and win prizes!
My current favorite segment on PotterCast is called Canon Conundrums. Along with Steve Vander Ark from the Harry Potter Lexicon (another great grown-up Harry Potter site), the staff of PotterCast discuss a different theory regarding some of the mysteries in the Harry Potter series each week. This week's was about why Dumbledore had James Potter's Invisibility Cloak at the time of Jame's death, which, according to JK Rowling, is apparently a "crucial" question that no one has yet asked her. I know I've asked a similar question, just how did Dumbledore get the cloak. I thought that was the same question until I listened to the experts discuss it on PotterCast and realized there are more details here than I'd even thought of. Very interesting discussion, indeed!
What makes this site so good? They are very professional. They do talk about rumors, but they identify them as rumors, and give their opinion as to whether or not they might be true. You'd be surprised how many Harry Potter related rumors turn out not to be true, and the Leaky staff can spot a false one a mile away. Here's a recent example: the article about the rumor and a follow-up.
They are careful to tell the truth, but they also almost always have news as soon as it happens. If you want to know the latest news about anything Harry Potter related, this is the site to check. Plus, it's run by adults, not kids, so it has a certain maturity many other Harry Potter sites lack.
After I'd been visiting this site for quite awhile, they started a forum called The Leaky Lounge. This is absolutely the best Harry Potter forum on the internet. Lots of interesting discussions, and even some other Christian homeschooling Harry Potter fans (and I thought I was the only one!)
Then, just over a year ago, the staff of the Leaky Cauldron started a podcast. I had just gotten an mp3 player, though I would have listened to this even if I didn't have one (you can download them and listen on your computer, if you don't have a portable mp3 player). Right from the start, PotterCast was very, very well done. I find myself talking back to the podcast while I'm walking along listening to it -- people give me strange looks. But it's hard to listen to it without wanting to talk back, to express your own opinion or just laugh because, in addition to being informative, they are also very funny.
Since I got my mp3 player, I've found other podcasts I also enjoy. A very eclectic mix of technology-related shows, sermons, etc., but PotterCast is still my favorite. I look forward to it each week and often wish it came out more often than weekly.
Click here for episodes and info;
click here to use this player on your space and win prizes!
My current favorite segment on PotterCast is called Canon Conundrums. Along with Steve Vander Ark from the Harry Potter Lexicon (another great grown-up Harry Potter site), the staff of PotterCast discuss a different theory regarding some of the mysteries in the Harry Potter series each week. This week's was about why Dumbledore had James Potter's Invisibility Cloak at the time of Jame's death, which, according to JK Rowling, is apparently a "crucial" question that no one has yet asked her. I know I've asked a similar question, just how did Dumbledore get the cloak. I thought that was the same question until I listened to the experts discuss it on PotterCast and realized there are more details here than I'd even thought of. Very interesting discussion, indeed!
Monday, September 11, 2006
Remembering . . .
This is the first year that I haven't felt an overwhelming sadness, remembering the events of September 11, 2001. Maybe it's finally starting to heal. If I feel like that, after 5 years, and I had no connection to any of those who died that day, nor really any connection to anyone really affected by what happened, other than that I live in the same country, the same state -- how must the families feel? Like it happened yesterday? Like it's a nightmare that they'll never wake up from?
I remember thinking, "How could the buildings have fallen down?" I was in denial for about a month. I'd never seen them in person. They were built when I was a child, but I don't remember hearing about it. The encyclopedia I had as a child (World Book from the early 70's) shows them not yet completed. I vaguely remember the 1993 bombing, and the little information I gleaned from the coverage of that event and still remembered eight years later was all I knew about these buildings. There are two towers? Did I know that before the morning of September 11? If someone had said to me, "describe the World Trade Center," before that morning, I don't know what I would have been able to say. Not much detail at all. Odd that I would mourn the passing of buildings that I hardly knew. . .
I spent the morning thinking it couldn't be as bad as the man on the radio was saying. I was at home when the first plane hit, but they thought it was some small plane, a tragic accident. If I have time later I want to write another post describing in detail how I heard, but anyway, I was in the car, driving down the driveway, when the second plane hit. I was on my way to a Bible study with a group of women I hardly knew -- well, I only knew one of them, and only just a little. The rest were strangers. It was the first meeting of this group. I'd been looking forward to it and a plane crash several hundred miles away wasn't going to keep me from going. If I'd still been home when the second plane hit, I probably would have stayed, but I wasn't.
"This guy is confused," I thought of the local talk show host, who I know to be an experienced radio man and not someone to give out false information. "I'm watching a second plane hit the other tower! I can't believe this!" He said something like that. "No," I thought, "he's watching a replay of the plane hitting the [first] tower. Someone's found video of what happened 15 min. ago and they showed it, and he just doesn't understand what he's seeing." Because I couldn't see the picture, of the first tower clearly billowing huge quantities of smoke, while a huge commercial plane slams into the second tower. So, it wasn't truly real to me.
I did ask the women running the Bible study to pray. Some of the women there knew about the first plane. I was apparently the only one who'd heard about the second plane. I still was thinking, however, "It's two small planes, it's a big fire, we need to pray that everyone can get out of the buildings." No idea still how big this was.
So, the Bible study started and we sat there for at least an hour, oblivious to what was going on. Eventually someone's phone rang, she stepped out to answer it and came back with the news that, "both towers have collapsed and 100,000 people are dead." My brain said, "No, that just can't be true. Buildings don't just collapse." Then the pastor came in and told us what had happened, "There might still be more planes . . . the Pentagon was hit too . . . yes, they were commercial, passenger airplanes . . ." The meeting hastily let out early and I got in my car and turned on the radio. A car bomb had gone off in front of some government building in Washington. [That turned out to be false.] I looked up into the sky above the small town I was driving through -- were more planes going to crash, here?
When I got home I sat and watched them replay the events I'd missed, again and again. My husband had stayed home from work, glued to the TV in disbelief. We sat and watched, scared and shaken.
How could a bunch of guys from so far away hate us so much that they'd do this? How could a bunch of terrorists believe so strongly in their cause that they'd be willing to die in the attack? How could this have been planned and carried out without anyone catching on and stopping it? How could those big tall buildings just fall down?
Now, five years later, I have different questions: How is it that we never went after these guys when the bombed the Cole? How could we so quickly forget what we learned and how we felt five years ago? We came together as a country and stopped our petty, partisan bickering. But only for a little while. How is it that many of us can't see the connection between the terrorist attacks we suffered and Iraq? How could we so quickly forget?
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Poor Pluto
I guess it was too good to last. One of those constants you think can't change, and one day you find out that it has. I thought they could add planets, if they discovered more. But I never thought they'd take one away.
I guess some good can come out of it. I've learned quite a lot about Pluto over the past couple of days. Did you know it has 3 moons? I hadn't heard they'd discovered 2 more besides Charon. Though I still don't get this "clearing its own orbit" thing.
Just goes to show us, we don't know everything.
I guess some good can come out of it. I've learned quite a lot about Pluto over the past couple of days. Did you know it has 3 moons? I hadn't heard they'd discovered 2 more besides Charon. Though I still don't get this "clearing its own orbit" thing.
Just goes to show us, we don't know everything.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Cooperstown
Yesterday, we took a day trip to Cooperstown, NY -- about and hour and a half's drive from home. We were motivated by my husband's desire to see the baseball hall of fame.
I'm not much into baseball. The website said that a serious baseball fan could spend 2 days in this museum. The less than 3 hours we spent there was more than enough, in my opinion. It was okay, but I can't see spending even a full day there. There were lots of things to see. First, the big hall with a plaque for each hall-of-famer, organized by the year they were inducted. Then you go a half-flight up and there are some exhibits and a bookstore. Then you realize that you can't go up the seemingly open staircase in the atrium outside the bookstore. The stairs are for staff only and lead to offices. In order for a visitor to get to the 2nd or 3rd floor, they must retrace their steps thru the main hall back to the entrance where there is a stairwell.
At the top of that stairwell is a cute little theater made to look like the inside of a baseball stadium. We watched a short movie about the history of baseball. Then we walked around and looked at the exhibits. The museum provides you with a sort of scavenger hunt with 10 questions based on various exhibits. If you get all of the answers right, you get a free set of baseball cards. This motivated my younger son to pay attention to some degree.
My older son was mostly bored, till we came to a TV that was playing Abbott & Costello's Who's on First comedy sketch. Suddenly we couldn't tear him away.
After the museum, we walked around the little town and looked in the shops. Most of them had a baseball theme -- lots of souvenirs and more personalized bats than all the professional baseballs teams in the world could ever use. One shop was called Rivalries and was devoted to Yankees and Red Sox merchandise. A lot of high priced stuff in all the shops, new and old. One shop had old equipments supposedly used by famous players. A bat that belonged to Lou Gerig was listed for $395.
The town itself is very picturesque. Beautiful houses and old buildings, a beautiful lake and beautiful countryside. We parked on the outskirts of town and took a "trolley" into the main business section, and then back again at the end of the day. I'll have pictures in a little while.
I'm not much into baseball. The website said that a serious baseball fan could spend 2 days in this museum. The less than 3 hours we spent there was more than enough, in my opinion. It was okay, but I can't see spending even a full day there. There were lots of things to see. First, the big hall with a plaque for each hall-of-famer, organized by the year they were inducted. Then you go a half-flight up and there are some exhibits and a bookstore. Then you realize that you can't go up the seemingly open staircase in the atrium outside the bookstore. The stairs are for staff only and lead to offices. In order for a visitor to get to the 2nd or 3rd floor, they must retrace their steps thru the main hall back to the entrance where there is a stairwell.
At the top of that stairwell is a cute little theater made to look like the inside of a baseball stadium. We watched a short movie about the history of baseball. Then we walked around and looked at the exhibits. The museum provides you with a sort of scavenger hunt with 10 questions based on various exhibits. If you get all of the answers right, you get a free set of baseball cards. This motivated my younger son to pay attention to some degree.
My older son was mostly bored, till we came to a TV that was playing Abbott & Costello's Who's on First comedy sketch. Suddenly we couldn't tear him away.
After the museum, we walked around the little town and looked in the shops. Most of them had a baseball theme -- lots of souvenirs and more personalized bats than all the professional baseballs teams in the world could ever use. One shop was called Rivalries and was devoted to Yankees and Red Sox merchandise. A lot of high priced stuff in all the shops, new and old. One shop had old equipments supposedly used by famous players. A bat that belonged to Lou Gerig was listed for $395.
The town itself is very picturesque. Beautiful houses and old buildings, a beautiful lake and beautiful countryside. We parked on the outskirts of town and took a "trolley" into the main business section, and then back again at the end of the day. I'll have pictures in a little while.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Low Fat Zucchini Bread
I was given an enormous zucchini, and I decided I wanted to make zucchini bread. My trusty Betty Crocker cookbook only had a recipe that called for shortening. Not having shortening on hand, I turned to the internet for a recipe. Again and again I found recipes that contained 1 cup or more of vegetable oil. Ugh! Probably very tasty but not so good nutritionally. But I finally found this one that contained only 1/3 cup oil and used applesauce to make it still moist and edible. Recipe here
I made this Thursday and it was great. I made it again today. I still have almost enough zucchini to make a 3rd batch. (I said it was a big zucchini.)
I did have one problem -- the recipe called for a smaller loaf pan than mine. But it made 2 loaves -- maybe it would all fit in one? But once I mixed up the batter, I could tell I'd have a mess on my hands if I did that. So I used my large loaf pan and put the rest of the batter in a mini loaf pan I have, one of a set of 4 that I bought a while back. I baked the big one longer than the small one, of course.
I also made some modifications to the recipe:
First, I added half a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter. The bread would still be good without that, but this made it really good.
Also, I reduced the oil to 1/4 cup, added about a tablespoon of water and about 4 tablespoons of ground flax seeds. I add ground flax seeds to any recipe I can -- you can substitute 3 tablespoons ground flax seeds for 1 tablespoon of oil and it adds lots of nutrition as well. I bought a big bag of flax seeds and I grind them in my coffee grinder. My local supermarket now sells golden flax seeds in their bulk natural foods section.
I made this Thursday and it was great. I made it again today. I still have almost enough zucchini to make a 3rd batch. (I said it was a big zucchini.)
I did have one problem -- the recipe called for a smaller loaf pan than mine. But it made 2 loaves -- maybe it would all fit in one? But once I mixed up the batter, I could tell I'd have a mess on my hands if I did that. So I used my large loaf pan and put the rest of the batter in a mini loaf pan I have, one of a set of 4 that I bought a while back. I baked the big one longer than the small one, of course.
I also made some modifications to the recipe:
First, I added half a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter. The bread would still be good without that, but this made it really good.
Also, I reduced the oil to 1/4 cup, added about a tablespoon of water and about 4 tablespoons of ground flax seeds. I add ground flax seeds to any recipe I can -- you can substitute 3 tablespoons ground flax seeds for 1 tablespoon of oil and it adds lots of nutrition as well. I bought a big bag of flax seeds and I grind them in my coffee grinder. My local supermarket now sells golden flax seeds in their bulk natural foods section.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Unsatisfactory graphics
I am embarrassed about the graphics on this blog. I can't figure out the right color for the text of the heading, nothing is easily readable against the background. So I went in and made the area directly behind the text lighter, but it looks like some kindergartener who just learned to use a computer did it. Then, if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page, you see something very unintended that I don't know how to fix. That's what I get for trying to modify the template without really knowing what I'm doing!
I'll probably leave it for now and try again when it's Fall and I feel like a change of graphic motif. Maybe I'll get further then and learn from my mistakes.
I long for the "good old days" of computers -- to me, that means: I remember our first computer. When we took it out of the box, we first had to install DOS (remember DOS?). Then we installed Windows -- a whole stack of 3.5" floppy disks, or maybe it was even the old 5-1/4" disks, remember those? We installed a mouse, and later a hard drive. I knew everything about how that computer worked, I edited the config.sys file, I really felt in control of it. Now, computers are so complicated, with more and more features coming along all the time, that I'm starting to feel that I can't keep up. And the web -- the first websites I visited, you could look at the code and read the words of the text among the few snippets of HTML code, and it was even obvious what the codes did. Now, websites are so complicated -- CSS, PHP, RSS, blogging, tagging, web 2.0, social networking -- it's too much for my small brain to be able to remember.
Though, there is one good thing this new technology has brought -- podcasting! Maybe I'll post more about that later.
I'll probably leave it for now and try again when it's Fall and I feel like a change of graphic motif. Maybe I'll get further then and learn from my mistakes.
I long for the "good old days" of computers -- to me, that means: I remember our first computer. When we took it out of the box, we first had to install DOS (remember DOS?). Then we installed Windows -- a whole stack of 3.5" floppy disks, or maybe it was even the old 5-1/4" disks, remember those? We installed a mouse, and later a hard drive. I knew everything about how that computer worked, I edited the config.sys file, I really felt in control of it. Now, computers are so complicated, with more and more features coming along all the time, that I'm starting to feel that I can't keep up. And the web -- the first websites I visited, you could look at the code and read the words of the text among the few snippets of HTML code, and it was even obvious what the codes did. Now, websites are so complicated -- CSS, PHP, RSS, blogging, tagging, web 2.0, social networking -- it's too much for my small brain to be able to remember.
Though, there is one good thing this new technology has brought -- podcasting! Maybe I'll post more about that later.