Yes, I know we've been over this already

More on the net neutrality issue. This is important, folks.

Net Neutrality: It's Pretty Simple, Really.
By David Sims

Here's some of what Mr. Sims (a.k.a. First Coffee) has to say:

... It's rare First Coffee finds himself agreeing with RINOs like Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, but whoever writes her public statements uncorked a good one with "Net neutrality has been the founding principle of the Internet and has been the single greatest reason for its growth and its success." Ditto here.

After all, it's not like the phone companies invented the Internet, or even subsidized its early years, or have done anything but make money off it. They have tons of unused bandwidth lying around, do they expect us to believe their tatty excuses that they need more? No, I don't think they really do, they just need some mantra their bought and paid for legislators can repeat at press conferences. "Need to invest in more bandwidth" will do for the intellectually lazy, those who dig deeper, well, screw 'em. Who cares?

... First Coffee's almost always on the side of the free markets — when it's a product or service that was developed via the free markets, which the Internet was not. The Internet was created and developed by the government and large research universities, about as far from the free market as you can get in America. The free market didn't develop it because it wasn't profitable to do so.

Now you can make a buck off the Internet, so the phone companies are blustering around like they took losses for years "innovating" and "differentiating" as they nursed the Internet along, and now they want to cash in on what's rightfully theirs.

Bushwa. If anybody should rightfully get to cash in off today's Internet it's the government, specifically the Department of Defense, not the Johnny- come- lately phone companies. ...

RINO means "Republican In Name Only" by the way — I had to look it up.

If you can't really go there ...

... you can virtually go there. At least, for almost 100 cities you can.

I just discovered the "City Daily Photo" blogs. Some of my favorites are now listed in my blog list, at right. I'm seriously debating starting a South Bend one...

Another geek thing

ClockLink.com is a site where you can get a clock to put in your blog or on your web page. You can get analog:

... or digital:

There've even got a countdown clock:

What will they create next?

Blog this

I'm not really much of a Slate fan, but I do sometimes listen to Day to Day on NPR, which is co-produced by Slate (or something like that). Between one thing and another, I found out about this:

Blogging the Bible
What happens when an ignoramus reads the Good Book?
By David Plotz

I've only read bits of it, so far, but I'm finding it rather interesting. Mr. Plotz is "a proud Jew, but never a terribly observant one" and fairly obviously intelligent, and his ideas about the stories he's reading are by turns amusing and thought-provoking.

Here's his own description of the blog from its introduction:

My goal is pretty simple. I want to find out what happens when an ignorant person actually reads the book on which his religion is based. I think I'm in the same position as many other lazy but faithful people (Christians, Jews, Moslems, Hindus). I love Judaism; I love (most of) the lessons it has taught me about how to live in the world; and yet I realized I am fundamentally ignorant about its foundation, its essential document. So, what will happen if I approach my Bible empty, unmediated by teachers or rabbis or parents? What will delight and horrify me? How will the Bible relate to the religion I practice, and the lessons I thought I learned in synagogue and Hebrew School?

Housekeeping, Part I

I had reached the point where I have so many craft supplies that it is virtually impossible to actually work on anything. My sewing machine was nearly buried and I was having more and more trouble locating the supplies I knew I had.

Side Note: I have a theory that when we know we don't have time to work on something, but we really want to, we tend buy more supplies. Or maybe it's just something I do. It's like I subconsciously believe that if I can just accumulate a critical mass of yarn or cookbooks or sewing materials, then I will have to crochet or cook or sew. So far it's not working...

What has happened is a combination of too much stuff and not enough organization. This was made worse by the fact that upon moving into the "new" house (two and a half years ago), too many boxes were simply put up in the sewing room closet (or into the basement, but that's another project) unopened, unexamined, and unlabeled. Therefore, it was time to straighten and label. Oh yes, and get rid of some of the stuff.

I started last night, opening boxes, compacting things, trying to group like supplies (still need to go back and sort the fabrics...), and, above all else, LABELING. Hopefully this will help me not to make anymore impulse purchases of yarn or fabric or ... Well, you get the idea.

I figure the blogs are a good place to save some of this stuff without having to actually store it (although I do need to figure out a way to back up the blogs). So over the coming days and weeks, there will be various entries fill with quotes, directions, pictures, and whatever other miscellaneous things I find that I can thus post.

One (okay, technically two) of the things that I found were children's reading lists that I had clipped out, or more likely that someone else had clipped out, of a newspaper and magazine. One was an NEH reading list from August of 1988 (here's the current NEH Summer Reading List), the other a list compiled by then U.S. Education Secretary William Bennett. I think I'll just recycle those now...

Another thing I found were these pictures. Enjoy!

Happy Summer Solstice!

Today is the first day of summer, the longest day of the year, the day of maximum sunlight. According to ReligiousTolerance.org, the solstice occurred at 12:26 UT today — UT meaning Universal Time, which you may be more familiar with as Greenwich Mean Time or GMT (I was). That means for those of us in the Eastern Time Zone it was right about 8:30 this morning (I'll let the rest of you do the math for yourselves *grin*). According to Wikipedia (and yes, I know that is not the most reliable source on the 'net *grin*):

At the time of the summer solstice, Earth is at a point in its orbit where one hemisphere is most tilted towards the sun, causing the sun to appear at 23.45 degrees above the celestial equator, thus making its highest path across the sky. The summer solstice is the day of the year with the longest daylight period and hence the shortest night.

Summer Solstice is one of the days celebrated by some during the year to mark the turning of the seasons, along with Samhain, Winter Solstice, etc. Celebrations held on or near the solstice include: the ancient Celts' Alban Heruin ("Light of the Shore"); the celebration of the earth, the feminine, and the yin forces in ancient China; the feast day of St. John the Baptist by Christians (June 24); and simply Midsummer in many traditions. The day is termed Litha by some neopagan groups, and there are celebrations held at Stonehenge.

The first illustration (above left) for this post comes from Cassandra Eason's The Druidic Year, while the second illustration (at right) is a painting by Jane Brideson (available as a greeting card from 13 Moons, and perhaps others).

Do you see the honeycomb included in the image? Again according to ReligiousTolerance.org, "The first (or only) full moon in June is called the Honey Moon. Tradition holds that this is the best time to harvest honey from the hives." (Here's a list of moon names, for those of you who, like me, are fascinated by such lists. *grin*)

WeatherPixie

Found this in my wanderings and thought it was tres amusant, had to share...



This is WeatherGirl:9
for the South Bend Regional Airport.

Ah, dirt, bugs and rain...

Well, it was the 4^th annual Happy Head Horde camping reunion this past weekend. This means that I am now achey, burnt, and very, very itchy — but also happy and relaxed in a way I haven't been for quite a while. (And no shower feels as good as the one you first take when home from a camping trip!)

Here we have a couple pictures of Chris with the girls in my hammock. Note the face Nora is making on the left — that's her idea of smiling for the camera. :-) In the picture on the right you can see our tent in the background.

We got in with plenty of daylight to set up our site, anearlyly enough to have a good choice of sites. Basic grill food for dinner (burgers and dogs), and all the fun of meeting our friends as they arrived. We were happily surprised when one couple we haven't seen since their wedding showed up. As it got dark, the campfire was stirred up and s'mores were made.

The next morning we were awakened way too early by a rather excited three-year-old — Mairi really liked camping. I'm not sure how many little kids were there, exactly, as I never stopped to count, but there were certainly enough. There were swings hung from the branches of one tree, and in another the older kids were building a fort. And everywhere, there was dirt:

Here we have Mairi and Nora playing with our friend Serra. The first picture shows Serra making a sand angel, something all three had been doing. I don't think either Nora or Mairi could quite believe that they were being allowed to play in the dirt, and get as dirty as they did. *grin* We had a bit of trouble explaining to Mairi and Serra that Nora wasn't so much allowed to throw dirt, it was simply that there was no way to make her understand she couldn't (next year, on the other hand...).

At some point during the day most of the campers did make a trek into Lake City to swim in Lake Missaukee — but that just made the dirt stick better when we got back to camp, I think. It was amusing to me to see just how dirty they did get:

Mama's two little dirt devils. :-)

While in town we were treated to ice cream by "Uncle" Tony, after our swim. Chris showed me the yard sDan dan had discovered, which Chris and Lee had then gone to. I found yarn. :-) Back at the camp we had turkeys cooked in garbage cans — it sounds odd, I know, but they were some of the most delicious birds I've ever eaten!

We stayed up late, more s'mores were eaten (yum!), and whbroughtrough Mairi to the tent her complaints were perfunctory — she was asleep before I left the tent, something truly unusual.

Out tent consists of a center square with two "wings" forming a squat L-shape. The wings have entirely mesh ceilings, for air flow, and I pulled the rain fly back in the afternoon to make sure that was maximized. I realized after the girls were asleep that I hadn't put them back in place, so I did so in the dark (a fun adventure). Therefore, when on Sunday morning I heard the rain start, my first thought was, "Gee, good thing I put the fly back in place."

My next thought, as I felt water on my face, was "Hm, better close the window."

My next thought, as I realized the rain fly was not in fact keeping the rain out and that the dripping was coming through the mesh ceiling, is not going to be recorded — this is a family friendly blog. *wry grin*

So Chrishurriedlyurridly packed our belongings into the Subaru, while the kids continued to sleep. Once everything else was packed, we woke them, settled Mairi, Chris and Nora under the pavilion, and Tony helped me pack the rest of the tent. I was inclined to be rather annoyed by this rude awakening at the time, but in retrospect there was a definite silver lining. From just as Tony and I finished packing the tent through till when Chris and I departed with the girvariedvarried between a light rain and a downpour. We were actually fortunate to get everything packed when we did, as it turned out.

So, this weekend's adventure is past, but we've made plans to gather for the RenFest in September and for Halloween at Amy & Dave's. It's a very good feeling to know that we have such friends, even if the fact that we see them so rarely makes it a bit bittersweet.

Fantasy artwork

Trying to find out more about the woman who painted the images used in the wings blog thing (Sheila Wolk), I discovered a whole set of new artists:

Linda Bergkvist Autumn Whisperlings, n.d.	Jonathon Earl Bowser Tears of Waialeale, 2001
Kate Dawidziak Chrystaline, n.d. Copyright © Kate Dawidziak	Jessica Galbreth Autumn Splendor, n.d.
Ruth Sanderson The Oak King , 2000	John Emanuel Shannon Lady Avalon, 2002
Nene Thomas Memory, 2005

However, I could find no offical site for Ms. Wolk. :-7

Blog of the day

101 Cookbooks
Exploring Cookbooks, One Recipe at a Time

I discovered this one because today's entry was the web clip when I was checking my gmail (Toast and Smash Spice Blend - "a quick-yet-fresh approach to the bread/olive oil standard" and "a crumbly nut and spice blend typically associated with Egypt").

If I used this as an approach to writing in my blog, I would never run out of things to write, a fact to which those of you who have seen my cookbook collection can attest.

SNL videdo

Okay, most of you already know my political leanings (I'd vote Intelligent but that's so rarely on the ticket). I like to think I would have found this humorous regardless...

May 13, 2006 appearance of Al Gore on SNL. What the world would be like if he had taken the 2000 election. (9.9M)

Mairi's fine, it's Mom who's a mess

"Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it."

— Jane Wagner

Today I left Mairi (my little girl, my first baby) at ECDC for the first time, for summer camp — or, as she says, for "school."

How did she get big enough for this? She was obviously slightly anxious about the whole thing, but she was more curious about the new toys and the new kids. I, on the other hand, stood at the window, watching her for several minutes before I was finally able to tear myself away. I'll probably call in a little while, to see how she's doing (her teacher said I could — I'm obviously not the first anxious parent *grin*).

Somehow I though that the fact that I'm not the one at home with her would make this easier for me — and maybe it has, who's to say. But it hasn't made it easy. I've been repeating to myself the litany of things I've been telling Chris for weeks — that Mairi needs the stimulation and socialization, that she's ready, that it will be good for Nora to have Chris's undivided attention a couple mornings a week, and that it will be good for Chris to have just one child to care for on those days...

It's all still true, but I still feel ... What? Not really sad, not really anxious — I'm quite comfortable with ECDC as a child care place. I guess wistful is the best word. My babies are growing up.

Family Update (long overdue!)

I know it's been a while — a whole month, I guess — what can I say, it's been a busy spring!

The biggest thing by far to occur in the past month was my brother's wedding, on May 20th. It was a great day, part of a great weekend. The bride was lovely and the groom handsome — not least because they were both so obviously happy. The flower girl was pretty cute, too, I think you'll agree.

The bride and groom are off in Europe on their honeymoon now (flew into Munic, then on to various points in Italy — off course I'm jealous, but totally thrilled for them and eager to hear all about it *grin*).

(Click on any of the pictures to see a larger version.)

After the rehersal dinner there was a boat cruise on Portage Lake, which was great fun. Chris opted to stay home as we both agreed the kids (and there us) wouldn't benefit from being out late the night before the wedding — I managed to enjoy myself despite feeling guilty that he couldn't come, too.

Once all the wedding shenanigans were over, we drove over to Sault Ste. Marie for the rest of the week. In addition to having a generally nice time staying at my folks' house, we were able to enjoy some visits with Chris's family — Dad and Janet even watched the girls for us so that we could go on a date! Okay, it was just to Clyde's Drive-In for dinner, but stil, it was a date. Mom and I took Mairi on the boat trip through the Locks, which we all enjoyed.

On Friday we drove down to Traverse and spent the weekend with Chris's Mom. We did a little bit of shopping, and hung out with Amy and Willa at a playground, but mostly we just relaxed and enjoyed the company, which was nice.

While we were traveling, Nora continued to make progres towards walking and by the time we got to Jan's house in TC, she really had the hang of it. Since Mairi starts preschool next Tuesday (just two mornings a week), we now officially have a preschooler and a toddler! They sure are growing up fast...

On our return from the big trip, I did something I'd been threatening to do for a while: short haircuts for all three girls!

The next month or so will be a bit of a blur, as we have travels and visitors to look forward to, as well as adjusting to Mairi's preschool schedule. It should be a fun summer here — hope yours is too!

Please take a moment to consider this!

Telephone and cable companies are trying to take control of the Internet away from the public. They're asking Congress to give them the power to tell you where you can go on the Internet, what you can do, and how quickly you can do it.

Please, join me in standing up for the Internet as we know it. Click here to learn more and to tell Congress "It's Our Internet":

http://www.itsournet.org/Net

Those of you who know me know that I don't usually do this. And I certainly don't do it without checking the facts. Consider this from Snopes - Network Neutrality:

One of the most important current legislative issues involving the Internet is the concept of "network neutrality." Simply put, network neutrality means that no web site's traffic has precedence over any other's on the massive fiber-optic and copper-wire networks that connect millions of computers together on the Internet. Whether a user searches for recipes using Google, reads an article on snopes.com, or looks at a friend's MySpace profile, all of that data is treated equally and delivered from the originating web site to the user's web browser with the same priority.

In recent months, however, some of the telephone and cable companies that control the telecommunications networks over which Internet data flows have floated the idea of creating the electronic equivalent of a paid carpool lane — that is, charging larger or more traffic-intensive Internet businesses and information providers a fee in order to send their traffic via faster and more reliable network pipelines. ...

I think this is important. I hope you'll take a moment to consider the issue and then contact your representatives. I did.