Monthly Archives: November 2005

The Wonderful Interweb

You may remember that a while ago, I believed I had photographed U2’s Bono as he rode through Boston in a limo. I later [discovered](http://prwdot.org/archives/2005/10/bamboozled.html) that it was actually a look-alike who had been hired to promote their upcoming concerts. Well, I later posted that [photo](http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterwood/48993813/) on [flickr](http://www.flickr.com/), and wouldn’t you know it, just a couple days ago, the Bono look-alike himself [left a comment](http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterwood/48993813/#comment18760866)!

Isn’t the Interweb a wonderful thing?

Assorted Photos

Becky used a plastic bag clip to do up my hair, then I had her take [a photo](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/etcetera/grab_bag/P1060003.JPG.html). This is all practice for the inevitable hair-play that will come with having children. Apart from being extremely attractive, the hair clip also serves to keep my forehead clear of my rather oily mane.

There was also this one crazy night a while ago, when we were making grape juice, that I decided to try a few new hair styles. Thankfully, none of them really worked for me. The album is appropriately named [Grape Juice and Hair Styling](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/craftiness/grape_juice_and_hair_styling/).

Enjoy!

Recent Films

Thanks to the “bargain matinees” at Loewe’s we’ve seen two movies during the last two weekends.

First, Harry Potter. If you’ve seen it you know what you think of it.. if you’re going to see it I don’t want to spoil it and if you’re never going to see it you won’t care what I say. So, no big review for you. Sorry. I’ll just point out the things I liked… Ron Weasley’s new ‘R’ sweater, Snape’s ‘study hall’, Neville Longbottom (especially the ‘shoes around the neck’ scene). Neville has always been my favorite, so it was nice to see him grow and become his own person.

Rent. Did you see the play? Yes? You’ll probably like the movie. No? Maybe not. I loved the play in ’97 and the movie didn’t disappoint. They cut some songs and such which I was sad about, but the main plots/characters/songs were all there. I had a very hard time not singing along…too loudly.

What I did notice is that 80% of the theater that afternoon was comprised of teenagers. Kids who are 10 years younger than me. When I first saw Rent 8 years ago I thought that it was the most cutting edge, poignant, dangerous thing I’d ever seen. The topics of AIDS and homosexuality were so new to a sheltered country gal like me. The kids in this theater, however, laughed at this movie as if it was a comedy. I was shocked. They just didn’t seem to get the point. In today’s world those hot button topics from the eighties and nineties just seem mainstream today.

Well, now that I sound like an old curmudgeon…go see the movies and tell me what you think!

Front Row

[Apple](http://www.apple.com/)’s latest [iMac G5](http://www.apple.com/imac/) comes with a piece of software called [Front Row](http://www.apple.com/imac/frontrow.html). This software is a pretty interface to the various types of media on your computer – movies, music, photos, and DVDs. The iMac G5 comes with the software pre-installed, and also includes a wireless remote so that you can control your Mac from the couch. But those of us who don’t have the new iMac can’t take advantage of this feature. Or can we?

Enter [Front Row Enabler](http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/19947), a bit of software hackery that will allow users of Macs other than the latest iMac G5 to use Front Row. I downloaded it and installed it today on my Sawtooth PowerMac G4/450 (quite an old machine), and it actually works really well! Of course, I don’t have a remote, so I have to be sitting at the computer to use it. But it’s still pretty cool. Who says you can’t teach an old Mac new tricks?

Guest Map

I have set up a [Frappr!](http://www.frappr.com/) guestmap for World Wide Wood. Frappr uses [Google Maps](http://local.google.com/) to let our site visitors show us where in the world they are! So head on over to the [guest map](http://www.frappr.com/worldwidewood) and make your mark! The guestmap link can always be found on the left side of our pages under ‘Quick Links’.

Go to it!

Running on Gallery 2

I haven’t formally announced it until now, but for about a month now we have been running our photo gallery on [Gallery 2](http://gallery.menalto.com/). Our old gallery [still exists](http://gallery.prwdot.org/), but we won’t be adding anything new to it. We will just be keeping it around so that links to the old gallery still work.

The new gallery is linked from our sidebar, or you can simply reach it from [http://prwdot.org/gallery2/](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/). To the user, it will look more or less the same as the old gallery, though we have restructured and reorganized many of the albums. Rather than simply migrating the old gallery, I went back to my source photos and re-uploading everything, making some improvements and fixes to photos along the way.

For our family members, your accounts from the old gallery should still work with the new gallery. The biggest difference is that we don’t have a separate gallery for family photo albums. The family albums are now sprinkled in with the rest of the albums, but they are invisible until you log in to your account. So if you’re a family member, and you can’t log in, can’t find some photos you’re looking for, or don’t already have an account, please let us know!

The biggest shortcoming of Gallery 2, so far, is that it doesn’t have any RSS functionality built in. There was a module developed as part of [Google Summer of Code](http://code.google.com/summerofcode.html), but it hasn’t made it into an official release of Gallery 2. From what I’ve heard, it isn’t even built on the latest Gallery 2 code, so I probably won’t be using it for a while. Of course, according to [Feedburner](http://feedburner.com/), only six people are subscribed to our old gallery’s RSS feed, so maybe it’s not worth it anyway. Would anyone miss it if our gallery’s RSS feed went away? ( Did you even know it was there? Did you know about our [other feeds](http://prwdot.org/feeds.html)? )

The other disappointment is that Gallery 2 doesn’t have automatic notification of new comments to the gallery. So I have to go through manually and check to see if anyone has commented (so far it’s two comments from [Michelle](http://mikao.blogspot.com/) – thanks!).

Other than that, the software is great from an administration and customization standpoint. And it still works with [iPhotoToGallery](http://zwily.com/iphoto/) – a must!

I hope everyone enjoys our [new gallery](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/)!

C-dawg

fff|ppp|Corey
Corey builds a thatched roof gingerbread house|ppp|fff

So. My baby brother is a quarter of a century old. We had a nice time celebrating with him over Thanksgiving.

Happy Birthday, Corey!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Becky and I are out in Townsend at her parents’ house. There is a lot of cooking going on in the Lowe family kitchen… [Corey](http://corey.prwdot.org/) brought a 30 POUND TURKEY that he got at [work](http://www.solidworks.com/)! Yikes! There are only going to be eight of us, so… there are sure to be plenty of leftovers. There is lovely snow falling outside, the house is starting to warm up inside, delightful smells are filling up the kitchen, and we’re enjoying a nice relaxing day with the family.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Update
I’ve put up photos from [the past couple of days](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2005/thanksgiving/). Enjoy!

Like a Freight Train

Today was Becky’s second prenatal exam, and I was able to go with her! The coolest part was getting to hear the baby’s heartbeat. Using a [Doppler device](http://www.drspock.com/article/0,1510,9851,00.html) which plays the sound on a speaker, we were able to listen in. The sound was like a tiny freight-train, chuggin’ away at a healthy 160 beats per minute. Awesome! Mom and baby are both doing fine, though Becky is still suffering from a cold that has been dragging on for about two months. The doctor says that it’s quite normal to have long colds during pregnancy, and that other than taking medicine to treat the symptoms, there’s not much we can do.

Becky has an ultrasound scheduled in about a month, which is very exciting!

p.s. Thanks to [Universal Hub](http://www.universalhub.com/) for the [mention](http://www.universalhub.com/node/2556)! I guess they’re not doing trackback pings any more…

Baby Catherine FAQ

Baby-Related Frequently Asked Questions:

*Last Updated 06/14/2006*

Q. What is your baby’s name?
A. Catherine Elinor

Q. What are the other stats?
A.

* May 26, 2006 at 4:32 a.m.
* 7 pounds, 2 ounces
* 20 inches
* Full head of brown hair 🙂

Lilypie 1st Birthday Ticker

Q. Did Catherine have any problems when she was born?
A. Catherine had a fairly severe case of [Meconium Aspiration Syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meconium_aspiration_syndrome). She was taken to [Brigham and Women’s](http://www.brighamandwomens.org/) hospital in Boston about five hours after she was born. At B&W, she was given aggressive respiratory therapy. She was down there for the first six days of her life, then went back to Beverly Hospital for another week. Now she’s home, and doing great! 🙂

Q. Is this your first baby?
A. Yes!

Q. Is this the first grandchild for your parents?
A. Yes, for both sets of parents! To say they are excited would be an understatement. 🙂

Q. Are you excited?
A. Yes, of course!

Q. When did you find out that you would be having a baby?
A. We’ve known since the end of August, 2005.

Q. How is Becky feeling?
A. She’s feeling a little tired, but much relieved that Catherine is doing so much better.

Q. What hospitals have you used?
A. [Beverly Hospital](http://www.beverlyhospital.org/) (for delivery and Level 2 NICU) and [Brigham and Women’s Hospital](http://www.brighamandwomens.org/) (for her Level 3 NICU experience).

Q. Are there any pictures I can see?
A. Catherine has a whole photo gallery devoted to her photos. You can see it [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/baby/).

Q. Where can I find out more about Catherine?
A. Any baby-related posts will be filed under the Baby category. You can see all of the posts currently in that category at the baby category archive.