Terran went running around in the rain durning a thunderstorm the other day and then decided to grab the guitar on the porch and rock out.

This is our lower garden where we plant our early crops like lettuce, beets, spinach etc. It's cool because we just walk up to the garden around dinner and pull out stuff for a salad.

Aanan romping around the tomato plants (Click pic for supersize)

Garden

Terran & Aanan

Terran and Aanan are two years apart and usually have a great time hanging out with each other. I think they are really starting to look alike. Aanan has seemed to absorbed some of Terran's intense little-boy energy. I often find her stomping around the house going "psshhhh, psshhh, psshhh", looking for Pirates to fight :) She also likes to wander around outside by herself, talking to herself. Completely content and in her own world. I'll be doing some yard work and look around and see her down at the chicken coop or near the garden by herself absorbed in her independent play.

Got an old Masterlock that you've lost the combination to...

How to Find the Combination for a Master Combination Lock
Awesome. This is why I love the internet.

Summer Morning

We have this beautiful cow pasture next to our house. I love waking up on summer mornings and seeing the sun light it up like this. From the bay window in our kitchen, you sit below the pasture so you see the sun shining through the tall grass. One morning last summer Terran witnessed this effect and proclaimed: "Dad, the pasture is on fire"! :)

A great picture of Booper. (Click the picture for hi-resolution)

Early birthday gift

Ron got me a very early birthday gift that arrived in the mail today - a new digital camera! I expect my blogging to now increase 10 fold. Ron bought the camera via my Amazon wish list. What a great concept. Like a wedding registry with no occasion. :)

The camera. This is a pic of the refection of the camera on a disassembled hard drive I have on my desk at work:

A Guide to the Most Efficient Things in the World

This site looks to be a great resource. Our dryer has been broken forever, maybe I'll replace it with this one:

The Spin-X can remove one quart of water from clothes taken out of the Washing Machine, using the same amount of electricity the clothes dryer uses in 15 seconds.

The Spin-X spin dryer extracts at speeds of 3300 RPMs and pulls the water out at 1420 G forces as compared to a commercial extractor which only has a G force of 700 at 1400 RPMs.

10 lbs. wet load capacity (2 king size sheets, 2 large king size pillow cases, 1 bath towel, 2 hand towels)

Alas, the site has no RSS feed...

A picture that Linda just sent me from this weekend. Terran learned how to ride a bike without training wheels in literally about 5 minutes. Mesa taught him. He then practiced for a couple of hours and was able to get going on an incline by himself. He's good to go now. A regular bike rider. One more child to go and then we can do a family ride of the rail trail.

Bob Dylan

Lots of Dylan related things lately. In February I bought a copy of Masked and anonymous for Ron for his birthday and ripped a copy of it a last weekend with DVD Decrypter, (a great app). It's the sort of movie that needs multiple viewings. I read this review this weekend, which will help you out if you plan on seeing it -- and you should, because it is a great film.

Dylan recently released his Halloween 1964 concert as part of the bootleg series. I've had a *real* bootleg of that show for quite some time, (again from Ron), but grabbed the official release, (which is much better sound quality), from AllOfMP3. AllOfMP3 is a music download site out of Russia that sells music downloads by the megabyte. It's like buying clothes by the pound, (or by the bag from Pennywise in Pittsfield :) ). I signed up for 1 gigabyte of downloads, which cost 10 bucks. The cool thing is that you can choose which format, bitrate and encoder you want you music encoded with before you buy it. The music I have bought so far have been under a buck an album. An no DRM to boot. Screw iTunes!

I'm going to see Dylan play this Friday night here in NH. Outdoor show. Should be great!

Free Wi-Fi in Portsmouth, NH

"The first year had 600 unique users connect to a free hotspot in the Market Square area. They’re extending that and hoping for twice the users using donated services and hardware."

Nice. I'll have to remember to bring the Area51m next time I'm in Portsmouth...

It's here!

It's here! Nat got the Lucas Knight film, After The Beep, today in the mail at work.
We watched most of it at lunch. I'll post a full review soon...

Al Gore's Remarks

Quote:
In December of 2000, even though I strongly disagreed with the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to order a halt to the counting of legally cast ballots, I saw it as my duty to reaffirm my own strong belief that we are a nation of laws and not only accept the decision, but do what I could to prevent efforts to delegitimize George Bush as he took the oath of office as president.

I did not at that moment imagine that Bush would, in the presidency that ensued, demonstrate utter contempt for the rule of law and work at every turn to frustrate accountability...

Calvin

The previous post is a picture of the guy named Calvin who was the town "bum" in Brunswick, Maine. My Mom lives in Topsham, the next town over, and I can remember seeing Calvin in downtown Brunswick throughout my childhood. He would sniff glue and was banned from all of the local drug stores due to his habit. I remember my Mom had this hand-drawn map of Brunswick -- all cartoon style-- and Calvin was drawn on the map. He was something of a local legend in the area. I'm sure if you talked with anyone who attended Bowdoin College in the last 20 years they would know of Calvin.

He died a while ago. My Mom told me and I felt pretty sad about it. All sorts of people came out for the service I guess and wrote to the local paper with their Calvin stories. He was pretty harmless and apparently well-liked guy.

My Mom sent me that pic of Calvin today. When I saw it I knew immediately who he was, even without reading the email. I forgot that he had died.

Glasses up to Calvin! The man, the legend.

Calvin - R.I.P.

After the Beep

So, the Lucas Knight movie my coworker Nat ordered, After The Beep, has still not arrived. He's trying to track down Lucas Knight himself to ask him where is movie is. It's a bummer is not here yet, because based on this review that Nat justed IM'd me, it looks like it will rock!

Lucas Knight

Lucas Knight made of the greatest movies I have ever seen: Dark Currents

A coworker, Nat, just placed an order for another one of Mr. Knight's films, 'After the Beep'. I can't wait to see it...