Something to Think About...

Only in America......do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

Only in America.....do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries,
and a diet coke.

Only in America......do banks leave both doors open and then chain the
pens to the counters.

Only in America......do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.

Only in America......do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.

Only in America......do we use the word 'politics' to describe the process so well: 'Poli' in Latin meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning 'bloodsucking creatures'.

Only in America......do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.


EVER WONDER ....


Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin?

Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?

Why don't you ever see the headline "Psychic Wins Lottery"?

Why is "abbreviated" such a long word?

Why is it that doctors call what they do "practice"?

Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?

Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?

Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?

Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?

Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?

You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes?
Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?!

Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?

If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

NCAA Basketball!

Have you been tuning in? Some good games recently. Saw a great game last night between Wake Forest and St. Joseph's. Right to the wire. The one thing I notice about really good teams, that I certainly didn't notice about my school (Indiana) this year, is that players on good teams know how to move without the ball. No one just standing around - these guys are constant motion, looking for the quick advantage. I can't figure out how coaches of teams that just aren't cutting it, can't see this. It's all so obvious :)

Duke/Illinois and Texas/Xavier should both be great games tonight. Better tune in!

Quote of the Day
"I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much."
Mother Theresa

Word of the Day
pulchritude (PUL-kruh-tood)That quality of appearance which pleases the eye; beauty; comeliness; grace; loveliness. (Pulchritude comes from Latin pulchritudo, from pulcher, "beautiful." The adjective form is pulchritudinous) Usage: "Where Linda has her infectious charm, Polly has only her empty pulchritude"

(hardly a word that comes to mind when thinking of beauty and loveliness, is it? - you would almost guess it means something foul smelling - like putrid. LOL)

Oddball Story of the Day

Hot oven shoots woman

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - A woman heating fish fingers has been shot in the leg by a gun that had been stashed in her oven, police say. Roxanne Perez, 29, from Texas, was taken to hospital on Friday where she was in good condition, they said. An acquaintance stored the gun for safekeeping in the bottom drawer of Perez's oven about two weeks ago, then "completely forgot about it" according to a police report.

Perez, who said had no idea a gun was in the oven, said she heard several shots then felt a sharp pain in her left hip.

Change your font size

Here's a neat tip:
Quickly change the font on Web pages (Win XP)

You may already know that you can change the size of the font appearing on Web pages by opening Internet Explorer, and choosing View | Text Size, and then selecting either Smallest, Smaller,Medium, Larger, or Largest, depending on your preferences. But ifyou have a mouse with a scroll wheel, you can accomplish the same task without having to access the View menu at all.

All you need to do is hold down the [Ctrl] key and then scroll the wheel down to enlarge the text on the Web page, or scroll the
wheel up to reduce the text size. I've noticed that this works on many web pages, but not necessarily all.

Want to see Cuban Performers? Tough!

Jackson Browne protests the US Policy in an article from the NY Times. Visas have been denied to other Cuban artists because their visits are "detrimental to the interests" of our country. In essence, the government says that if Carlos Varela plays concerts in the United States, the money he makes would go to Fidel Castro. This is untrue. In Cuba, renowned artists keep much of what they earn, because the government does not want them to leave the country and live somewhere else. Yet, the Bush administration used the same reasoning to keep Ibrahim Ferrer, of the Buena Vista Social Club, and Manuel Galbán from attending the Grammy award ceremony in Los Angeles last month. (Both men won awards.)
Jackson Browne, a singer-songwriter, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 15

Close Call

Space Shuttle
It appears that those brave souls riding the Shuttle space missions were damn lucky over the years. Mr. Parsons said he could not explain why a critical part like the speed brake actuator had not been inspected for more than two decades, despite the major overhauls and examinations each shuttle underwent every three or four years.... Mr. Parsons said finding and fixing the speed brake problems had resulted from increased safety awareness after the Columbia disaster. The Columbia and its crew were lost on Feb. 1, 2003, in a re-entry accident, and the remaining shuttle fleet has been grounded ever since.

The brake issue was not found as a result of the Columbia investigation, but corrosion and other problems found on another part of the Discovery led NASA engineers to look at similar machinery, like the brake actuators, officials said.

And you want to vote for this crowd?
Did the Bush administration ignore terrorism warnings before 9/11? Justice Department documents obtained by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, show that it did. Not only did John Ashcroft completely drop terrorism as a priority — it wasn't even mentioned in his list of seven "strategic goals" — just one day before 9/11 he proposed a reduction in counterterrorism funds. .....Did the administration neglect counterterrorism even after 9/11? After 9/11 the F.B.I. requested $1.5 billion for counterterrorism operations, but the White House slashed this by two-thirds. (Meanwhile, the Bush campaign has been attacking John Kerry because he once voted for a small cut in intelligence funds.) . For more on this, read Krugman's article in the Times. Better yet, watch the 9/11 hearings on CNN - they're going to be veryinteresting. Richard Clarke appears tomorrow before the commission. Will Condi Rice appear? Looks like she is trying the big dodgeroooooo - gee, Condi, don't you want to get to the bottom of this mess? hmmm......

Freedom Tower - Irresponsible?
The total amount of energy released by the two 767's that struck the Twin Towers equaled that of a tactical nuclear weapon — almost a quarter of a kiloton. In 2006, two years before Freedom Tower is scheduled to open, a new generation of aircraft, led by the Airbus A380, will begin entering service in the world's airlines. The A380 will carry almost 82,000 gallons of fuel, more than three times as much as a 767. One hardly needs to do the math........ Dangling an iconic and indefensible target in front of terrorists is inconsistent with a strategy of reducing our vulnerabilities wherever possible. A thought provoking article - I couldn't agree more. How about a nice park? A few trees blown up sounds bettter than thousands of people.

Quote of the Day
"If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank."
Woody Allen

How fast can you Read?

This is fun and rather humbling. Go to this web page and find out how fast of a reader you are. Then come back here and post your speed in the comments section below this post. No lying!

Google goes Local

Google now has a neat new tool. Just got to http://local.google.com type in for example pizza+your zip code and check out the results! Click on the little compass that will show up. Try bookstores, restaurants, you name it. Very neat way to find something quickly. You'll get a map to find the place, phone numbers, directions from where you are, etc. Way cool. This would be quite handy if you were on the road traveling. If you're not all that familiar with all the tools Google has , you might want to check out this page. It might surprise you.

Clarke drops a bomb on the Bush Administration

A rough day for the Bush folks. Richard Clarke debuted his new book on 60 minutes (he was Bush's counter terroism expert - and Reagans, Papa Bush and Clinton's) and poked a damning finger at how Bush and his administration have handled the war on terror. Knowing this fixation the current administration has on Iraq, I have the sickening feeling, he is dead-on. At the same time Joseph Biden was saying on This Week, ""I am much more concerned about the safety of my granddaughter in school here in Washington because of al-Qaeda than I am with 10 Saddam Husseins. And we took our eye off the ball because of a preoccupation with Iraq,". Even Chuck Hagel (R) commented on the program that "he is concerned by Mr. Clarke's allegations that the Bush administration did not give adequate attention to al-Qaida. "Without bringing this to the highest levels of government and putting the appropriate focus on it, with the responsible players, then it is going to get lost. And according to Clarke's book, or at least what I read of it, that's much of what he charges here, that it did get lost, that it wasn't a priority, and that's a very serious charge," he said. "

I have a growing concern (as was espoused on This Week) that come June 30th when it is time for the Iraqi's to govern themselves, and we start some kind of exit move, that Al Qaeda is going to find that a fine time to attack. Bush needs to go to Nato and to the World Community now and doing some major fixing up or I shudder to think.... I think this country is at a crisis point in this war on terror and if we reelect this administration that still hasn't awoken to the real threat of terroism, we are in for some damn rough times. Your choice America - if you don't vote, don't blame me.... (For a refreshing look at what a Kerry Administration might bring in dealing with the countries of the world, read this article in the Wash. Post.

Hey Paul - think there might just be a better use for all that money?
Here's a guy blessed with gazillions of bucks and he's going Alien chasing. How bout spending that 13.5 million on schools or something? Chump change to you Paul, but might keep some teachers from having to buy their own crayons. Get a grip, buddy. Nothing wrong with space exploration, but we have a few more pressing problems at the moment, don't you think?

Basketball
On a brighter note, the state of Alabama must be going nuts. First Alabama upsets top seed Stanford, then little Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham rises up and smites the big boy Kentucky, another #1 seed. This is one of the really great sports that one can watch during the year - the NCAA basketball finals. They're not yet making the obnoxious bucks and the little guy can rise up and smack the big guy - great fun.

Word of the Day

red herring

A smoked herring having a reddish color.

Something that draws attention away from the central issue.

Usage: The White House is dismissing as a "red herring" charges from the administration's former counter-terrorism coordinator that President Bush has been more focused on Iraq than al Qaeda.
Idomatic Note: Something that draws attention away from the central issue, as in Talking about the new plant is a red herring to keep us from learning about downsizing plans. The herring in this expression is red and strong-smelling from being preserved by smoking. The idiom alludes to dragging a smoked herring across a trail to cover up the scent and throw off tracking dogs. [Late 1800s]

Quote of the Day
"America has always been an argument about wilderness, what it means and how it is measured and defined. The old idea is that wilderness defines a place out there, an amplitude of emptiness that can easily accommodate the human imperative. After all, it was once commonly predicted that it would take centuries to populate this vast land. But in our world wilderness is sharply demarcated, surrounded and, in logistical terms, not really wilderness at all, like Yellowstone. What preserves it isn't its amplitude but our restraint." ... a quotation from "Stumbling Upon Wolf Tracks in the Northern Reaches of Yellowstone" by Verilyn Klinkenborg (New York Times 10/5/03)

Geez, Time for new Vacation Plans

Here I was going to go somewhere probably lame this summer, and then I stumble across this article The city of Berlin is moving quickly to decriminalise possession of small amounts of cannabis in what is called "bowing to reality", even as federal law in Germany still outlaws production or sale of the drug. The legislation to permit possession of up to 15 grams of pot or hashish "for personal use" is backed by the overwhelming majority of lawmakers in the city council chambers

- shades of the 70's. Seems like the ideal time to brush up on my German! I think the Berliners, who are pretty liberal when it comes to drinking,smoking,etc (like most Germans) are making sense with this idea. Better than running around through peoples' gardens wasting taxpayer money, in the hopes to gather up some kid growing a weed or two in the backyard. Actually, during my college years, I lived with a German family for 3 months, who had a garden and unbenownst to them, their son was growing the "evil weed" in the garden and then drying it in their attic. He used to tell them he was experimenting with a new tea leaf. Ho,ho,ho! Had some good times in that house! LOL

What is a more troubling problem for Germans is the very high percentage of kids smoking, something I noticed even back in the late 60's and early 70's. Wonder what their rate of lung cancer is over there?

And perhaps even more thought provoking - Beer is sold at fast-food outlets such as McDonald's and Burger King. Beer and wine are sold at cinema snack bars. Many autobahn service stations make more money selling beer than they do selling fuel. Boy, now that's comforting to know that somebody is tooling down the Autobahn at 150mph after quaffing down a few liters at the last rest area. Of course, it's not a whole lot different here in the States, except that in Germany, Beer is truly KING! (In fact a nice big Liter from the ol' Herbst Brauerei in the Marktstrasse in Krefeld would suit me just dandy, about now! :) Wonder if it's still there?

Computer Tip

Running XP but don't like the way it stacks up different windows in the task bar? A friend of mine who uses Win98 says that is one of her peeves about XP. Well, you can fix that if you don't like it that way. Right click on an empty area in your task bar and make sure "lock the taskbar" is unchecked. Then click on "Properties" and make sure "Group Similar Taskbar buttons" is unchecked. That's all there is to it. XP comes with the default set to "group them", but by using the above method, you can fix that. Of course, if you open tons of windows, you may see the reason for XP's default setting, particularly if you are still in the stone ages and are not using a browser with a "tabbed windows" interface such as MyIE2 or Mozilla. 

Palms/Hiking/Computers/Books

Palm
Just added a new link to in the blogroll on the right side - Palm Addicts. If you own a Palm, this is a cool site. You will definitely be in the KNOW!

Hiking the PCT
Just got a note from "Nocona" re: her new attempt to complete the PCT (as well as news of her recent wedding! - Note the picture to the left - this was on top of their cake - the summit of Katahdin on the Appalachian Trail and the completion of a Thru-Hike for both her and her husband "Bald Eagle" - hikers take their hiking seriously, as you can tell! :) . She started the Pacific Crest Trail once with her new husband (boyfriend back then) , but developed high altitude pulmonary edema and had to get off. Janet and I know Bald Eagle from our hike of the AT in '95 - we hiked with him off and on and I remember my Dad (who in his 80's came out to hike with us for a few days in the Shenandoahs), being quite impressed that Bald Eagle was a Texas Aggie (as was my Dad - Civil Engineer - class of '34). I am, of course, digressing as I usually do, but had to point out the pertinant facts! :) Anyway, check out Nocona's journal. She's a great journal writer and you can follow along with her as she hikes the PCT. I feel like I somewhat know the PCT from having transcribed "Simply Seekings" journal for her when she hiked the PCT, so it will be interesting to compare their experiences. (for those of you unfamiliar with the hiking world, a transcriber is someone who types up a hiker's notes from the trail. The hiker periodically mails them to the transcriber, who types them and then posts them on the Net).

Computer Tip
Want to compress your images (jpeg) before transmitting them over the Net so that they won't take up so much bandwidth? There used to be free programs for this, but now many places charge. I recently found an online one that you can bookmark. Simply upload your picture and in a few seconds, you'll have a much compressed picture file (actually they will give it you in a number of different compressions) and then you can save the one you like back to your hard drive and use it to send in your email or post to a web page if you have one. Quite slick and does a good job. Nice to see that you can still find a free one out there.

Booklovers
Remember the Bookcrossing web site I talked about the other day? Well here's another good reason to join - a completely free book! Even the shipping! Take a look at this free book offer . You can thank me, once you get the book. :)

Related Links:

The karma of virtual libraries

Read and Release

Find This Book

A Global Book Club's Traveling Titles

A Novel Approach to a Circulating Library

Die ganze Welt als Leihbücherei For my German Readership!

Quote of the Day
"I think high self-esteem is overrated. A little low self-esteem is actually quite good…Maybe you're not the best, so you should work a little harder."
Jay Leno 

Audible Billboards

As most of you know, I'm a big fan of audible.com and audio books (as you can see from the ad at the top of the page and the links in the right sidebar). It's a company that has taken off once Ipod included it on it's nifty little music player (you can get $100 off an Ipod by hitting the link that advertises that in the right column - with a 12 month membership to Audible). People on an Audible business forum I regularly read are always try to find a way to promote the company. Here's a neat idea that Audible uses out in San Francisco that I would think could be used in any major city. Sure could have been used on I-285 in Atlanta where I sat many an hour trying to get home at night for about 8 years. Check it out!

Sports
Lots to keep your attention this week. NCAA Basketball Tournament starting Thursday - the ol' tube will get a workout. Should be a good tournament - don't think any of the top teams are unbeatable. On the golf front - Tiger goes for 5 straight wins at Bay Hill (Arnie's tournament). Something no golfer has done in history. Bet he'll be pumped for this one. If he has a good first round, look out.

Iraq
Would $5000 be enough if your wife and 3 kids were killed by bombs from an invader? Seems like a pittance to me and more so, an insult. You couldn't pay me to have this Capt. Tracy's job. What does one country owe another for the lives of civilians in a war? Read the story . Your thoughts on what should be done? Post in comment section below. (Did German civilians get any money after WWII? How about VietNam? Korea? - anybody know the answer to that? ) And finally - the Iraqis should appreciate this quote - ""And there is, I am certain, among the Iraqi people a respect for the care and the precision that went into the bombing campaign." - - Donald Rumsfeld, defenselink.mil, 04-09-03



Quote of the Day
"We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown and when strawberries bloom in Israel."
-- Golda Meir (someone should remind Sharon of this quote?)

Word of the Day
perfidy \PUR-fuh-dee\, noun:
The act of violating faith or allegiance; violation of a promise or vow; faithlessness; treachery. Usage: "To ordinary Algerians, the news that chemical tests did not end until 1978 was renewed proof of the hypocrisy and perfidy of the military who have misruled them since independence in 1962. "
--"Bombshell that rocked generals in Algeria," Irish Times, October 25, 1997 (Perfidy comes from Latin perfidia, from perfidus, "faithless, treacherous, false," from per-, "through" (perhaps connoting deviation or infringement, or perhaps explicable by qui per fidem decipit, "who through faith or trust deceives") + fides, "faith.") 

What's new with XP Service Pack 2?

Here's a lengthy and well written article on the changes that will be forthcoming this summer for XP. In my review for Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1), I noted that that release wasn't your average service pack. That description is even more apt for SP2, which is in effect a major update to Windows XP, one that will likely replace existing XP versions on store shelves when it ships in mid-2004. XP SP2 is laden with much-needed security features, and a must-have upgrade for all XP users. I recommend that all Windows XP users upgrade to this service pack as soon as possible.

--Paul Thurrott

Sure hope this is an easier install than SP1 (one I never have tried to do). For that service pack, you had to go through a lot of steps initially to make sure you had a clean upgrade. Maybe they'll improve on that with SP2? For those of us with modems, it's probably worth ordering the disk. I'm sure this thing will be huge.

Computer Tip
Ever get frustrated when trying to print a web page in IE and the right side of the page gets cut off? (happens to me all the time). Well, you can go in and fiddle around with margins and all that, but an easier way is to just copy the URL and then open up Mozilla (that's an alternative browser to IE and can be downloaded at www.mozilla.com and paste the URL (that's the web site address) into Mozilla. That will open up the page and then you can print it and no more chopped off right margins! Why IE hasn't fixed this, is beyond me. I'd like to say MyIE2 (a browser that uses IE as it's core engine and my favorite browser) gets around this problem, but alas, it doesn't. So if you want to print web pages without disappearing right margins, download and install a copy of the Mozilla browser.

Word of the Day

pejorative
adj. Tending to make or become worse. Disparaging; belittling.
n. A disparaging or belittling word or expression.

Usage: "The GOP spent millions of dollars and many years making the word "liberal" a wicked pejorative" and "The neighborhood is filled with dilapidated duplexes -- earning it the pejorative moniker "Duplex City" 

Seabiscuit and Iraqi Children

Just when you think all you ever read is bad news (thanks to news services who think all we want are Gladiators and Lions ripping at each other), along comes a very nice story from the author of Seabiscuit (Laura Hillenbrand) and actor Gary Sinese. Check it out and make a donation if you so desire. And if you haven't read Seabiscuit, do yourself the favor and do so (the book is much, much better than the movie).

Quote of the Day
"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."
Scott Adams  

Back Again!

Well, after a week's stint cleaning out my parent's house in preparation for a sale, I have returned to the mountain. If that isn't thrilling, I don't know what is! My only comment on cleaning - give some thought to your future heirs on what really has meaning or might have meaning in the future for others and toss the rest of the stuff. Does it make sense to save notecards for 50 years? I don't think so, unless there are good letters included inside of them. I've learned a lot from this little experience and it has renewed my resolve to dump all the useless stuff I have - Ebay, here I come! :)

News Aggegrators
I keep coming back to this topic, because I think for many readers they are still unaware of the merits of this type of news browsing for the Net. Here's a nice tutorial that explains it in simple fashion and allows you to register and have your own free web-based aggregator (seems like they could have come up with a more user-friendly word, other than "aggregator". That word would spook anyone). It also mentions pc-based aggregators so that you can take your news with you and read it offline like on a laptop or tablet pc. I use FeedDemon on my Desktop which I really like, but there are others as well. One other nice feature of news aggregators is that once you have your list of feeds, you can export them via an OPML file (who cares what it means?) to another user and then they have a nice set of ready made feeds. (OPML - Outline Processor Markup Language (XML-based format for exchange of outline-structured information - now aren't you sorry you asked?)

Change for a Million?
Did you hear about the woman in Covington, Georgia, who went into Walmart and purchased some $1600 worth of merchandise and then presented a forged million dollar bill to pay for it? Think someone should have told this poor soul that there is not such thing as a million dollar bill. Geez, I wonder if she contemplated how they were going to give her change for this large of a bill, anyway? Takes all kinds - but hey, if you want to make the news, not a bad way to do it. Will be interesting to see what her sentence is.

Family Genealogy
Have members of your family flung out across the country or globe? Trying to find a way for everyone to stay in touch? You might want to check out www.myfamily.com . I've been using this for about 3 years now and is an excellent site for sharing photos, news, family trees, files and much more. Of course, it may take some cajoling to get your family members to become active, especially if they are not Internet junkies, but if you can get them to become active, there's a lot of good that can come from it.

Using AOL Instant Messenger? Be notified when this Site updates! If you use AOL's Instant Messenger, then a pop up message will notify you that this site has now been updated. To make this happen, just click on the Blog/Notify Me icon underneath the advertisement for Vital Choice seafood at the top of this page. It's that simple!

Word of the Day
Lagniappe n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi.
A small gift presented by a storeowner to a customer with the customer's purchase.
An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called boot. Broadly, something given or obtained gratuitously It could be an additional doughnut (as in baker's dozen), a free one for the road drink, an unanticipated tip for someone who provides a special service or possible a complimentary dessert for a regular customer. REGIONAL NOTE Lagniappe derives from New World Spanish la ñapa, “the gift,” and ultimately from Quechua yapay, “to give more.” The word came into the rich Creole dialect mixture of New Orleans and there acquired a French spelling. It is still used in the Gulf states, especially southern Louisiana, to denote a little bonus that a friendly shopkeeper might add to a purchase. By extension, it may mean “an extra or unexpected gift or benefit.” Pronounced like "len-yep". Usage example - "Two lagniappe seminars also are offered this spring, free to anyone enrolled in at least one of the other classes"

Laptopping it

Giving the ol' laptop a whirl for awhile. Heading back to my Dad's house to clean it out and put it up for sale - about a 10 hour drive, so at the moment am letting the wife drive while I tap away to keep myself amused (I hate riding). Now if I just had a Bluetooth phone and a bluetooh enabled laptop (actually I think I can buy some kind of bluetooth dongle for my laptop for cheap), i could even be cruising the Net! Oh well.... Decided to fire up bloggar which is a very handy offline tool that allows one to compose blog material offline and then easily post it to one's blog - free program and it can be found at Bloggar. Fortunately I have one album on this laptop - Oystein Sevag's Global House. Just unplug my earbuds from my little Otis audiobook player and plug them into the laptop and high quality tunes! Nice background music - New Age music is good for that.

Stopped for a moment at at Flying J truck stop to grab some grub off the buffett. Didn't have time to try out the $1.95/hr. wi-fi access, although I did fire up the laptop before leaving the parking lot and it grabbed the signal and sent me to a browser screen where I could pay up to get online, but didn't have the time, so...... Don't think Janet wanted to sit in the parking lot waiting on me while I endulged in such important work.

Saw a very cool wide screen (oxymoron?) 10.25" Sony laptop today at CompUSA.. Had built in web cam, gorgeous, highly reflective screen - 40 gig HD, 512mb RAM, wifi 802.11G built in - not sure of the weight but had to be under 3 lbs - slick. Just past $2000 mark. Then stumbled over to gasp and pee my pants over a 23" Apple active matrix LCD screen - good god was that gorgeous! A mere $1999. After seeing that , it made you want to buy a Mac on the spot! Off to the Handhelds - played with a Palm Tungsten T3 for awhile - liked it - slides open to reveal large screen - beautiful screen, seemed very fast. Wanted to check out the new Toshiba 850 with the 640x480 screen, but unfortunately someone had screwed with it and the screen wasn't functioning correctly. Built-in wifi though and also took CF I/II cards which means I could use my microdrive cards in it. Sure wish that screen had been working!

Meanwhile the little '92 Accord is humming along I-65 at a nice 75mph and still getting 30+mpg. Has been a very reliable car since buying it some 60K milies ago. And that's the news of the day - bet you can certainly rest peacefully now. :)

Booklovers

If you consider yourself a lover of good books, then check out the link on the right side of this page that sends you to BookCrossing.com. Spend some time exploring the site and join up, if you like. I think this is such a cool idea and a great way to open up reading to lots of people. I'll not say more, as it would not do justice to all the good words at BookCrossing.  

Anty Up Time

Time to anty up a few bucks to help the Kerry folks defeat GW in the Fall. He'll need all the money he can get and then some. You can contribute here . Just $25 will help but if you're one of the fat cats, a few more bucks might help even more. :)

Word of the Day
scuttlebutt Half of a barrel, filled with soapy water and kept next to the main mast, where crew members went to clean up. Since each crew was often restricted to a particular location on the ship, this was the only location where members of different gangs could exchange information 

Time To Hit the Appalachian Trail Again!

Thruhikers have started up along the Appalachian Trail again. Some 40 had left Springer Mountain, north of Atlanta as of Feb. 20th. 1750 northbound thruhikers started the trail last year, down somewhat from the peak back in 2000 when some 2875 started. Of those 1750 who started last year, 352 made it the whole way. 291 went southbound with 45 finishing the whole trail. The trail covers 2174 miles and crosses 14 states. Janet and I hiked some 1800+ miles of it back in '95 and if we ever get healthy again, we might just finish it! For a bit of history:

First reported thru-hiker
In 1948, Earl V. Shaffer became the first to report a thru-hike, walking the entire Trail from Georgia to Maine. He hiked again—this time from Maine to Georgia—in 1965. On his third thru-hike, 50 years after his first, he became the oldest thru-hiker at age 79.

Youngest thru-hiker
A 6-year-old boy became the youngest person to hike the A.T. when he completed a flip-flop thru-hike with his parents in 1980. Twenty-two years later, in 2002, another 6-year-old boy completed a flip-flop thru-hike with his parents and 8-year-old sister

Youngest female thru-hiker
The youngest female to thru-hike the A.T. was 8 when she completed hiking the Trail in 2002 as part of a family group.

Oldest Female Thru-Hiker
Emma Gatewood, better known as "Grandma Gatewood," mother of 11 children and grandmother of 23, was 67 when she first hiked the Trail in 1955. She completed her second thru-hike in 1957 and became the first person to complete the Trail three times when she finished a section hike in 1964. Yep, she carried that sack and wore Keds!

Multiple hikes
Approximately 100 people have reported hiking the A.T. two or more times; about 25 have reported hiking the A.T. three or more times.

For some good links to trail stories, forums, pictures and ongoing events, try some of these.

Appalachian Trail Conference

Daily Trail Journals of this and past year's Hikers

Wingfoot's Trailplace (WF has hiked the entire trail 7x)

Our Trail Journal from '95

Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association

The Thru-Hiking Papers

Frank Logue's AT Page

Appalachian Tales An Appalachian Trail Education Project 

For the Lover of Words

Dictionaries
Check out this interesting compendium of dictionaries - you'll surely find something good in here!

Pompeii
Just finished my latest audio book Pompeii . Wonderfully narrated with appropriate Roman voices. Full of suspense, even though you know what will eventually happen - actually that increases the drama. Meticulously researched , you'll learn a lot about aqueducts and volcanos, all while having a great time. From an Amazon blurb about the book

All along the Mediterranean coast, the Roman empire’s richest citizens are relaxing in their luxurious villas, enjoying the last days of summer. The world’s largest navy lies peacefully at anchor in Misenum. The tourists are spending their money in the seaside resorts of Baiae, Herculaneum, and Pompeii.

But the carefree lifestyle and gorgeous weather belie an impending cataclysm, and only one man is worried. The young engineer Marcus Attilius Primus has just taken charge of the Aqua Augusta, the enormous aqueduct that brings fresh water to a quarter of a million people in nine towns around the Bay of Naples. His predecessor has disappeared. Springs are failing for the first time in generations. And now there is a crisis on the Augusta’s sixty-mile main line—somewhere to the north of Pompeii, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.

Attilius—decent, practical, and incorruptible—promises Pliny, the famous scholar who commands the navy, that he can repair the aqueduct before the reservoir runs dry. His plan is to travel to Pompeii and put together an expedition, then head out to the place where he believes the fault lies. But Pompeii proves to be a corrupt and violent town, and Attilius soon discovers that there are powerful forces at work—both natural and man-made—threatening to destroy him.

If you want to get started on Audio books, just click the link at the top of the page and you can get a free audio player (will also play .wma or mp3 music files) with a year's subscription to Audible. 2 books a month for $20 - cheap when you consider what you would pay for audio books in a bookstore. Books on tape or on CD often run between $25-$50 each. (or click the link on the right side of this page and save $100 on an Ipod). And with an an Audible audio player, you just download books - no tapes or cd's to lug around. You can check out some of the books I've read in the last year on the right side of this page - click on the links and you'll see what the price is, if you are not an Audible listener. Then imagine getting that book for just $10! A wonderful service - especially useful if you are driving lengthy distances to work or are working out at the gym on treadmills or anywhere that you are doing something mindless and could be enriching your mind at the same time.

Master and Commander

Now on to the Patrick O'Brian series and the first book in his series. Wonderfully narrated by Patrick Tull, an old salt if there ever was one, great prose and a whole new world of terminology. I'm already prowling the Net for naval terms. Did find a great sight at this link describing his books and so much more. Most of you are familiar with the recent movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, starring Russell Crowe. That was the 10th in the series, so I've got some reading to do before I go see the movie. :) Check out the book jacket covers and an interesting article by Robert O'Harrow in the Washington Post.

Back to brushing up on my naval terms!

Word of the Day:
Gerrymander - To divide (a geographic area) into voting districts so as to give unfair advantage to one party in elections. And for a bit of word history regarding this strange word:

WORD HISTORY “An official statement of the returns of voters for senators give[s] twenty nine friends of peace, and eleven gerrymanders.” So reported the May 12, 1813, edition of the Massachusetts Spy. A gerrymander sounds like a strange political beast, which it is, considered from a historical perspective. This beast was named by combining the word salamander, “a small lizardlike amphibian,” with the last name of Elbridge Gerry, a former governor of Massachusetts—a state noted for its varied, often colorful political fauna. Gerry (whose name, incidentally, was pronounced with a hard g, though gerrymander is now commonly pronounced with a soft g) was immortalized in this word because an election district created by members of his party in 1812 looked like a salamander. According to one version of gerrymander's coining, the shape of the district attracted the eye of the painter Gilbert Stuart, who noticed it on a map in a newspaper editor's office. Stuart decorated the outline of the district with a head, wings, and claws and then said to the editor, “That will do for a salamander!” “Gerrymander!” came the reply. The word is first recorded in April 1812 in reference to the creature or its caricature, but it soon came to mean not only “the action of shaping a district to gain political advantage” but also “any representative elected from such a district by that method.” Within the same year gerrymander was also recorded as a verb. (Word history courtesy of Gurunet)