Monthly Archives: June 2005

They just keep coming

June is indeed the month of occasions… today we have two more!

ggg|niagara_trip_day_1/IMG_8338|Happy Anniversary, Mark and Kirsten!|ggg

ggg|zach_andrea/P1020503|Happy Anniversary, Ken and Dianne!|ggg

Hope your anniversaries are happy all around. I think there are a few more occasions on the calendar for June, so we’re not done yet!

Ask Us Anything.

No, really. Ask us anything. Simply leave a comment on this post, with as many questions as you would like to ask us. If you think of another question later, feel free to add another comment. You can address your questions to just one of us, or both of us together. You can ask questions specifically about us, or any topic you’d like us to talk about. You can even ask us to take photos of things, kind of like ***Nikkiana did in her recent photo meme|http://www.everytomorrow.org/archives/2005/06/07/photo-meme-pt-2/***. We will most likely leave this post up for a while, and then write up another post with the answers.* That is, assuming there are any questions.

Remember, there are no stupid questions… but our answers? That’s another story.

* We’ll attempt to answer your questions as well as we’re able, but we can’t guarantee that every question will be answered.

I (heart) my Nalgene

It has happened to lots of people: your favorite local band goes big time and suddently EVERYONE loves them (but you loved them first!) or you buy a pair of shoes that are totally unique and then some star wears them and EVERYONE now has a pair… When something we love, for its uniquness or for its utility, beomes popular in the mainstream we tend to get jealous or resentful.

I have a similar story. ***Nalgene|http://www.nalgene-outdoor.com/*** water bottles have been around since the 70’s and have been very popular with the hiking/camping/backpacking crowd. They are extremely durable, fairly lightweight, have a loop to hang them from your bag and are all around great.

I bought my 32 ounce, wide mouthed bottle in 1999 when I was preparing to backpack through ***The Three Sisters|http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/north_america/three_sisters.html*** in central Oregon. I discovered then what other hikers had known for decades…that this was a perfect camping water bottle. Definately worth the 5 bucks I paid for it and destined to be a fixture on my future camping trips. Upon returning to civilization (read: spring semester, 2000, Gordon College) I realized, in horror, that they had become an uber trendy way for college kids to carry water around campus! Imagine my shock. I still wanted to use it, but kept is somwhat out of sight, lest I appear to be riding the bandwagon.

Now, six years later, my bottle has seen better days… It still has the original “wolf” logo and ounce markings- but they are wearing away. The masking tape lable reading: LOWE is quickly disintegrating and I’ve had to replace the blue cap due to an unfortunate incident with the dishwasher. All in all, however, it has served me well over the years and has become a world traveler first to Bolivia and then to Russia. Who could ask for more from a water bottle.

This past weekend, my trusty Nalgene got an upgrade. I laid down $2.99 of my hard earned cash and purchased a ***splash guard|http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=32128927&memberId=12500226***. This fantastic little piece of plastic slides right into the wide mouth of the bottle and keeps me from pouring half the contents right down the front of my shirt. The last few days, I have enjoyed nice dry drinking conditions, whether I’m at my desk, climbing the 5 stories of stairs in the office, or riding the commuter rail. I can only imagine how well it will work when we’re out hiking this summer.

Maybe now I’ll finally upgrade the masking tape to read: WOOD

Triple-Header

We have three well-wishes to send out for today!

ggg|grab_bag/IMG_8455|Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad! (Ah, yes, like father like son.)|ggg

ggg|zach_andrea/P1020426|Happy Birthday, Dianne!|ggg

ppp|Uncle Tom
Happy Birthday, Uncle Tom!|ppp

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to come up with a different photo for Tom than I used ***last year|http://prwdot.org/archives/001824.html***. Obviously, I need to get out and see my side of the family more often.

Mac on Intel: Roundup and Reactions

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past 24 hours, ***Apple|http://www.apple.com/*** has ***announced|http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/jun/06intel.html*** that they will be transitioning the processors in their Macintosh computers from ***IBM|http://www.ibm.com/***’s PowerPC to ***Intel|http://www.intel.com/*** chips. This transition will start with low-end models by June of 2006, and high-end models by June of 2007. The technology world, Macintosh devotees in particular, has been quite shaken up by this announcement. I’d like to round up some of the coverage, and add a few of my own thoughts.
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500 mile weekend

I left Friday afternoon for ***River Vale, New Jersey|http://www.rivervalenj.org/*** to visit my dear friend ***Jennifer|http://junefourteenth.blogspot.com***. It was an uneventual trip south and I only met a little traffic on the approach to the Tappan Zee Bridge.

A major component of most trips to NJ is the visit to the Paramus IKEA, and this weekend was no different. We persued the display floor and rode the carts in the warehouse, had yummy soft serve and left with a few good bargins.

Saturday night the ***Ridgewood Gilbert and Sullivan Company|http://www.dancaster.com/RidgewoodGandS/index.htm*** had a performance of the Pirates of Penzance. Jennifer gave a fantastic performance as one of General Stanley’s lovely daughters. I also got to meet some of Jenn’s friends and co-workers, including fellow blogger, ***Marisa|http://nortonthedog.blogspot.com/***.

Sunday was filled with Family Galore. I made it to Sunday Dinner in Worcester just in time for the macaroni to be served. YUMMMMMMM. I had some nice chats with Grammy and the aunts, pitched a couple whiffleball innings with the boys and was on my way.

I met Peter at North Station in Boston and we headed over to South Boston to celebrate my Grandpa’s 84th birthday with the Lowe clan. Burgers, hotdogs and a narrated tour of our trip to Russia rounded out the night.

We got home around 10:30, a late end to a long and very fun weekend!

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

Thanks to an ***entry|http://drbacchus.com/wordpress/?p=972*** at Richard Bowen’s ***journal|http://drbacchus.com/journal/***, I’ve been introduced to the writing of ***Marc Prensky|http://www.marcprensky.com/***. In particular, I’m fascinated by his “classic” two-part essay on “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants”. To boil it down, “Digital Natives” are those people who have grown up surrounded by technology, and are “fluent” in the language. “Digital Immigrants” are the older generation who have not been surrounded by technology for their whole lives. These two articles help to put a face and a name to an issue that I have thought about quite a bit.
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Gimme 5!

My frustrations with ***TekTonic|http://www.tektonic.net/*** had reached the boiling point, so I decided to switch prwdot.or back to its previous host, ***Site5|http://www.site5.com/affiliates/idevaffiliate.php?id=9***. The move is now complete! I’m much happier to be back on a nice, snappy, responsive host. One that I don’t have to spend my time administering. The folks at Site5 have much more time and knowledge to do that sort of thing, and I’m happy to let them do it!

Hooray for Site5! Now I’m off to enjoy some of the lovely weather we’re having.