March 28, 2008
Why I love looking at old photos
Posted by Jess in
Zoë
A long time ago I mentioned that one of my favorite relaxing things to do was to go back and look at old photos.
I was looking at my baby album with my parents awhile ago, and realized that I had seen some of the pictures before somewhere recently.
Yes, as it turns out, I had seen them, except they were in Zoë's album, not mine.
THEN
Mother and daughter
Newborn, 1976
NOW
Grandmother and granddaughter
Newborn, 2008
THEN
Mother and daughter
Christmas day, 1976
![](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3226/2368633979_0f48ae660a.jpg?v=0")
NOW
Grandmother and granddaughter
Christmas day, 2008
It's nice to know that some traditions occur quite by accident, even 31 years later.
March 21, 2008
Web of Deception Chapter 4 - The Hand of Fate
Posted by Jess in
Day to Day
NOTE: This is a continuation of the "Web Of Deception" round-robin story. If you're late to the party, please start with Chapter 1 on Ben's site and go from there. You can also follow the RSS feed hosted at http://www.andthentheboilerburst.com/WebOfDeception.rss.
Chapter 4 – The Hand of Fate
The hobbit's loud shriek startled the hand, and the human who belonged to it. The vines quickly sprang back, and heavy footsteps could be heard through the grass, getting farther and farther away. The funny little man had fallen down in surprise, but he had managed to grab a quick glance at the hand before he fell.
Now, this little man was not the smartest, best dressed, or the most educated man in town. In fact, his list of unanswered questions seemed to span into a rather impressive list of ponderables he tucked away to find the answers to on a rainy day. For instance, why did that scruffy, unkempt cat always appear when Tom Dufay left the immediate surroundings?
He sighed inwards to himself, berating himself silently for his earlier cruel thoughts about Tom, not particularly caring whether they were true or not. Ever since Tom started supplying him with his wool, the pharmacist had made it clear it was on the condition he could not ask questions about where it came from, and the hobbit-man had no choice but to comply. It didn’t matter, anyway. Every time Tom flashed those pearly white teeth and held out his outstretched hand, it was only a matter of time before they disappeared. The hobbit laughed, his body shook, and then he winced in pain as his body was betrayed by the motions. He shifted positions and leaned back against the cold cave wall. Hell, maybe it was a conspiracy. It didn’t matter; Tom had met them, and now everything would start all over again.
As it had always been, there was no one who spent more time silently scrutinizing and watching the townsfolk like him on a regular basis. No, he was certainly not the most educated man in town, but he was definitely the most observant. While his list of unanswered questions was growing by the day, there were three things he knew without a shadow of a doubt. He knew old Betsy Hodges was a widow, he knew that hand was male, and he knew the match to the wedding ring he saw on that hand had belonged to Betsy.
Armed with a new observation to ponder, the funny old man sighed, furrowed his brow, leaned back against the cold cave wall and continued knitting. He’d be sad. He liked that pretty lady. He paused, drew a deep breath, and started knitting faster.
…
Mike was frantically rummaging through box after box, looking for the familiar glint of the shotgun barrel his father had given him on his twenty-third birthday when Callie poked her head out of the kitchen door, washing up after cleaning his scratches. "Mike, just let it go." She threw up her hands in exasperation.
Mike hated cats. It was Cara, his girlfriend just out of college that had left him with enough hidden feline battle scars to make a field nurse wince. In reality of course, it was not Cara but in fact Marshmallow, her small, white fluffball of doom that grew a halo when Cara walked into the room, yet melted it into a fiery pit of hot lava when she left. That cat was so mangy and dirty, it looked more toasted than fresh, and Mike wouldn’t have shed a tear over a toasted Marshmallow. Yet Cara, having rescued the cat from a dumpster, was blind to the ugliness of the cat, both physical and in nature. Cara. Mike hadn’t though of her since that trip they took with his father down to Florida… wait, his father? Mike abruptly jumped out of his daydream with a start and a realization. The phrase 'leggy blonde' is exactly how one would have described Cara, so maybe his father had the right description, just the wrong girl. Whoops. Cara was no Callie, that's for sure.
Maybe Callie was right. The cat was gone. He'd get over it, anyway. He had withstood the entire experience of being humped by a tomcat with a glazed, detached persona, just as he had when Callie had dragged him to a performance of Dilbert and Mulligan’s P.M.S. Pinafore, or whatever the hell it was called. All he knew was that he had pushed the entire experience to some far back corner of his mind, and he'd do that again now.
"Let it go? Fine, Callie, but that cat was nasty. I'd go to the doctor for a rabies shot if I knew where the local doctor's office was, for crying out loud." He paused for a minute. "Hey, where is the local doctor's office?"
"Somewhere in town, probably," she waved her hand still containing the towel dismissively. "Hey Mike, I forgot to tell you earlier about someone I saw in the yard." Callie proceeded to tell Mike everything she had seen, including the strange, small old man that had been traipsing around the garden.
Callie had barely finished the description, when Mike, visibly alarmed over what he was hearing, rose from digging through boxes. He was already up and halfway out the door when he saw Tom Dufay bolting up the old farmhouse driveway. And he did not look happy.
The fate of this story has been placed in the hands of Libby Ingrassia, who included the word "inebriated" in her chapter. Who knows where this story is going! It certainly isn't the authors, and that's what makes it so fun.
March 18, 2008
The true value of Twitter
Posted by Jess in
Tech Talk
Ed Brill and Volker are talking about their new found enjoyment of Twitter, the social service that allows people to quickly send "tweets", that is, to broadcast 140-or less character updates about what they are currently doing.
The big question that I see brought up all the time is the Who, What, When, Where and Why’s about social networks, Twitter in particular. "Why should I be using this? What is useful about this service? How is this different than any other social service? Why do I care what anyone else is doing at the current moment?"
Usually, when we talk about social sites, we give them two classifications. They are either useful to the tween/teenagers generation and disregarded as frivolous and dangerous, or they are useful to the corporate world, in which they are embraced and welcomed with open arms to the working force.
I'm going to give you a demographic that I think has never been mentioned when talking about social networking sites, yet I feel stands to benefit the most from them.
I'm talking about the hermits. The stay at home moms. The homebound. The work at home warriors. Even though it may be by choice (though not for some, such as the disabled or ill), there is still a basic human need to belong. People whom otherwise might not be socializing enough now have a medium in which to come very close to the next thing besides face to face banter. I believe this, as I know what happens when you feel like you don’t belong. In fact, people who belong to any category of social group tend to live longer (church, organizations, extra-curricular activities); the fulfillment leads to a more generally happy and healthy life. How’s that for necessity?
According to Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, the third element, right after basic needs like sustenance and sleep, is purely social. To belong, to be accepted, to be supported. I myself discovered what I think is the true value and spirit of Twitter when I caught a particular post by Phil Randolph, who said, (something like), "Too much change in my pocket - must procure snack. Headed to vending machine." This statement might be passed off by some as a purely frivolous statement; however to me, this captured the very essence of office banter that I get jealous of Matt for getting to have on a day-to-day basis. This sort of statement wouldn’t even get sent to me via instant message, which is what I feel makes Twitter a very unique service in that regard.
To the existing cubicle or office dweller, this chatter may seem ordinary, venturing on boring and mundane. But to the isolated, this captures a small sense of office banter that I can finally grasp. This is the sort of thing a co-worker would come up to you and say if you were in the same building.
Thank you, Twitter, for giving me a small part of a total experience.
March 17, 2008
Round-Robin Writing - The story starts with The Web of Deception!
Posted by Jess in
Day to Day
Ben L. and others have come up with a fantastic idea to keep the creative juices going - a round-robin story.
A round robin is a sequential story in which multiple authors take turns adding to an existing story with a set of rules. The particular rules are laid out here.
Ben has started Chapter 1 of "The Web of Deception", and ends it on a nice note for Julian to take over Chapter 2.
What I love about the idea and the rules is that Ben has offered this up to *anyone*, not just those who have blogs. He or I or others are more than happy to host the story for you, so let him know if you'd like to participate.
If you want to read the story in order as it happens, you can via the Feed that Julian has set up at: http://www.andthentheboilerburst.com/WebOfDeception.rss.
Enjoy! Where will this lead? Who knows, least of all any of us authors! But that's the idea.
March 16, 2008
Stinky Pee?
Posted by Matt in
Zoë
For the baby shower, our friends Bill & April gave us a food mill. Basically, you take whatever you are eating, throw it in and grind away. The food gets passed through a bunch of little holes and what makes it through is ground up enough for Zoë to eat.
Tonight she had steak and asparagus. Now we are just waiting for her to pee to find out if we gave her enough :-)
March 09, 2008
Six Months
Posted by Jess in
Zoë
More here --> Zoë 4-6 Months on Flickr
