Archive
Summer Fun
Wow, I see it’s been a long hiatus since my last post!
My BIG ADVENTURE for the summer was the four day Cub Scout camp-out at Camp Sam Wood with Arthur at the end of July. My son was in Boy Bliss! The first night it rained and thundered, and I was not happy; but we remained relatively dry. After that the weather was gorgeous and we got lots of exercise hiking and swimming. The scout camp was well-organized and the boys had lots to keep them busy! The best part for Arthur was he got to learn how to shoot a BB-Gun. I enjoyed the archery practice, too. I also had a nice time with the other scout leaders and parents who attended. And after being around ten 8 to 10 year-old boys for four days in the woods, I realized once again that my son is not as loud and loony as I sometimes think! While we were at camp, Stephanie and my daughter Fiona had some friends over for an overnight of Girl Bliss.
Arthur had his 10th birthday August 11th. Wow, that decade sure flew by! And a couple of weeks ago both the kids spent a week at our local community center’s Day Camp, where they both had tons of fun (and I got to have some fun by myself bike riding and such).
This summer I got to make two more concrete garden sculptures. Gosh, that was fun! And I’ve been helping out with weeding and harvesting at a nearby organic farm where we’d bought a share, which has been very enjoyable and provides us with loads of wonderful, healthy vegetables! And Arthur loves playing with their boys. The kids also got to go to Seabreeze Amusement Park in Rochester last week. All in all, it’s been a pretty nice summer!
Fiona is now all prepared to start public school for the first time (Hello Kitty backpack; Hello Kitty notebooks; Hello Kitty lunch bag; Hello Kitty sneakers…) She really craves more social interaction with girls, but I also think the structure of school might be good for her. She loves reading and says she’d like to be a teacher when she grows up (as well as a singer and dancer, of course!) She’s excited and eager to begin this new adventure. Arthur prefers homeschooling and still has no desire for the traditional educational experience. Not having the distraction of his sister around might be a good thing for us.
Hopefully I will be posting more often as summer comes to an end. September will be an interesting time for us all!
3 Haiku
Blue sky fades into blinding white
high above
unseen sun brings new life.
Shining canvas of sun and shadow
trees glow
in an ocean of light.
Bird calls and luminous green
flower-scented breeze
blows my mind away.
Why Digg Cracks Me Up!
Hi. Just a quick observation about the world of online information. My God; there’s so much ‘information’ flying around on the internet! Opinions; breaking news; horror stories; scientific advancements; political extremists; conspiracies; the latest technological toys; the ravings of lunatics; and then we have Digg.
I don’t look at Digg every day, but this morning I happened to check it out and saw this:
Coincidence? I think not!
I would also like to share this under
The Most Bizarre Headline of the Day: Researchers create robotic rings to turn your hand into a blinking, anthropomorphic face
That is all I have to say for the moment, gentle readers. Have a nice day!
A New Direction
I’ve been noticing for the past few months that my posts have been few and far between. This is starting to bother me. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say; I think it’s because there are so many things on my mind and I don’t feel like I have enough time to actually sit down and begin something. What with home schooling and doing things with the kids; shopping; taking care of things around the house, (and of course, perusing the Internet for news of what’s going on in this insane world), by the time it comes to writing, I’m too darn exhausted! Even for the paltry blog posts I usually write, it can sometimes take a lot of time to organize and edit my thoughts into coherent words. But I want to write more. I need to write!
And my other problem is that I am still very intrigued (dare I say obsessed?) by Free and Open Source Software and operating systems; and particularly the world of ‘Linux’. I think Open Source is going to be more and more important in the future; hell, it’s transforming the world already and most people who use it aren’t even aware of it! But I specifically love the incredible diversity of Linux-based software and operating systems; the availability of it for anyone to use. And this is not from the point of view of a programmer, (though that could become quite lucrative in the future: see THIS). I would like to show average desktop/laptop computer users how useful Linux/Open Source is.
So I find myself gravitating toward writing about my current adventures with Linux and not writing so much about the rest of my life and interests. Though to be honest; my posts about Linux/Open Source stuff consistently get a lot more interest/hits than anything else I write about. And with the growing awareness of Linux, I’ve been thinking that it might be a good idea to create a separate blog just for indulging my obsession with desktop Linux and saving Dragonfly Dreaming for personal expression and all other aspects of life in general.
Now I just need to create my new Linux blog!
For the moment I’ll leave you with a lovely and brief video for a lovely almost-Spring day: The Beautiful Forest
I’ll be back!
A Beautiful Summation of SOPA by Khan Academy
SOAPBOX: To me, the so-called ‘Stop Online Piracy Act’ is one of the most frightening foreshadowings of how the corporate control of our government is attempting to destroy what little Democracy we have left. Isn’t this the kind of crap the Chinese government practices? The only difference is, this is disguised as doing something that sounds reasonable.
Here is a quote I saw on Wil Wheaton’s blog today:“Why is it that when Republicans and Democrats need to solve the budget and the deficit, there’s deadlock, but when Hollywood lobbyists pay them $94 million dollars to write legislation, people from both sides of the aisle line up to co-sponsor it?”
–Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian on CNBC.
And HERE is a video from Khan Academy that succinctly explains this whole SOPA mess. Please watch it!
That is all from the Soapbox today…
SOPA, PIPA Are Threatening Economic Innovation and Growth: Red Hat
