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|
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.
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.
Continue reading
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!
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.
Continue reading
Becky is down in NJ visiting ***Jenn|http://junefourteenth.blogspot.com/***, so I needed something to do to keep myself busy. I decided to take a mini road-trip in one of my favorite areas, ***Cape Ann|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Ann***.
Continue reading
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.
I have been tagged to complete a survey. I’ve been remiss in responding. Without further delay…
***Jennifer|http://junefourteenth.blogspot.com/*** tagged me for the ‘Movie Meme’.
1) Total number of films I own on DVD/video: seventy two (based on Peter’s count)
2) The last film I bought: I honestly can’t remember. It was THAT long ago!
3) The last film I watched: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
4) Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me (in no particular order):
Sound of Music
Pirates of the Carribean
Henry V
French Kiss
Napoleon Dynamite
Ten Things I have NOT done:
1. Danced on a bar counter 2. Hang glided 3. Been to Kansas 4. Dyed my hair 5. Met ***Michelle|http://mikao.blogspot.com*** in real life 6. Had stitches 7. Drunk a Double Light Sweet Mochachino 8. Changed my own oil 9. Shoplifted 10. Gone on a cross-country road trip
I’m certainly not the biggest ***Bloglines|http://www.bloglines.com/*** subscriber – from what I’ve read, some users have over 1000 feeds on their blogrolls. My blogroll numbered at a slightly more modest 244. Until today, when I decided to put it on a diet. Now there are only 198 feeds on my blogroll. I’ve removed redundant news sources, eliminated blogs that are rarely updated, axed blogs whose posts I simply didn’t like reading, and consolidated blogs where an aggregated source was available (e.g. ***Planet Mozilla|http://planet.mozilla.org/*** or ***Planet Movable Type|http://planet.movalog.com/***).
I’m still working on cutting some of the fat and not only on the blog but on myself, I just started a new diet I found on this blog Jenny craig vs nutrisystem which one should you buy. There are blogs that I’ve kept around ‘just in case’ something interesting pops up… but I’ll probably let them go. One thing I’m trying to convince myself of is that I simply don’t need to be the first person to hear about news… I’m going to try to be happy just reading news from a second or third tier reporting site, rather than subscribing to all of the ‘important’ first tier bloggers. So here’s to a slimmer blogroll, less compulsive blogroll checking, and more free time.
I am pleased to report that Grilling, Take Two was successful. This time, we used a new batch of real wood chips instead of charcoal, and used lighter fluid to get the fire started. The fire burned nice and hot, and we were able to get our burgers grilled to perfection. The weather was nice enough that we were able to sit outside and have a backyard picnic. Tonight’s menu:
Cheeseburgers (1/4 pound of 85% lean ground beef each, mixed with Worcestershire* sauce, garlic powder, salt, pepper, celery salt, and just a hint of sugar! Grilled and topped with jack cheese, ketchup, and tomatoes.)
Baked beans
Dill pickles
Ruffled potato chips
And to top it all off…
S’MORES!
With temperatures pushing 70F, it was a very nice dinner.
* A benefit of spending time in Massachusetts is that it’s not too hard to spell Worcestershire. 🙂
One of our must-have PowerBook accessories is the ***RoadTools|http://www.roadtools.com/*** ***Traveler CoolPad|http://gallery.prwdot.org/grab_bag/P1020716***. This is a hard plastic pad designed to be placed under your laptop. It has a two-plate pivoting design, so that your laptop can easily be swiveled from side to side for enhanced viewing. The pad also raises your laptop to a comfortable viewing/typing angle, and increases airflow around your laptop so that it doesn’t run too hot. It comes in a slim design so that you can easily slide it into your laptop case. The Traveler also has a bigger cousin, the Podium, which is designed for more permanent fixtures like desks or presentation stands.
Recently, the pivot screw on our Traveler had been coming loose. This caused the pad to occasionally slip apart when the laptop was sitting on it. Luckily we never had any serious damage, but it was pretty annoying. Well, I decided to write in to RoadTools about it. I quickly received a response from Jim MacEachern at RoadTools, telling me that he thought I needed a new CoolPad. He said that he’d send one out the next day if I’d just provide a mailing address! Well, my ***new CoolPad|http://gallery.prwdot.org/grab_bag/P1020717*** arrived today, and I couldn’t be happier. The new model has an improved design that pivots more easily and doesn’t seem to come loose. It also has a more ***aggressive tilt|http://gallery.prwdot.org/grab_bag/P1020719*** than the previous model, allowing for better positioning of the laptop and improved airflow.
Anyway, I’m impressed with RoadTools’ customer service. Maybe there’s something about New England companies – RoadTools is located in New Hampshire, and like the Maine-based ***LL Bean|http://www.llbean.com/***, they offer lifetime warranties on all of their products. (LL Bean is known for doing free repairs on boots that are decades old. They’ll also do things like replace zippers free of charge.) I’m certain the reason that RoadTools was willing to send me a new CoolPad on good faith alone is that they wish to build a good reputation, and are counting on the fact that I’ll spread the word about them to help grow their business. And they’re right – I’ll heartily recommend their products to anyone with a laptop.
***Check out RoadTools!|http://www.roadtools.com/***