To infinity … and beyond

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Mushroom Identification

So, it's still early for mushrooms round here but I found this one the other day in between some pine trees and oaks. I can't identify it with the book Michael gave me, or the internet. Here's some pictures if you'd like to take a crack at it. It wasn't slimey, or sticky feeling, only slightly moist, hollow trunk, and didn't bruise blue.

Let me know if you have any ideas on identification. Hope I'll have some better luck come mushroom season.

50 Word Stories

I know it's behind me, not watching me, it has no eyes. Then, out of nowhere, it's stunted figure appears, stubby arms flailing. Slowly, silently, it takes on the form of a man, then stretches out into a distorted gangly shape evaporating into the darkness. My heart races. I run.
~ Aaron

Do we need all these options? I want only the best. A better model comes out every year, why not get a cheap base model and upgrade yearly? Have you seen the cost of upgrades? Right, let’s go high end. Where’s the salesman?Doctor, we’re ready to have a baby.
~Matthew

Jump, Jump, scurry, swing, swing, grab. Success, joy, triumph! Mmmm, delectable treat! Worth every risk! What’s this, a bug? Hazah! Another prize. Footsteps? Familiar odor? Wait, oh no, a fellow foe coming to steal my prize! Must escape, hurry, grab precious prize! Scurry, climb, jump, swing…Oh look, another bug! Victory!
~Meghan

So warm, so nice. Oh look, the farmer, ouch! Its dark, its cold! Oh look, it’s farfnuckle! Now who’s this, hey, no pulling! Ahh, its warm again. What’s that shiny thing? Ouch! Finally, peace, but wait…I’m sinister, what has changed? I think I’ve lost weight too! So warm, I’m glowing!
~Meghan

The Office

I don't know if this is legal or not...but I'm adding an odd thought to Aaron's blog! Aaron and I really like to watch the show, "The Office." If you haven't seen it, it's hysterical. I was dubious the first couple of seasons, but now that I actually sat down and watched it, I love it! I laugh so hard every week. Anyways...odd thought...if I had to have a job, I would so want to work for the boss, Michael. He is the biggest idiot in the universe and I think that I would be the happiest person in the world. I'd come home from work every day thinking that I had the greatest job ever. No one works there and they have things like "Movie Monday." It would be my ultimate job. Well...just something to think about!

How is everyone doing on their Christmas Stories?

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Stories I have so far (Don't be last on the list!) :

Sarah

Aaron

Lost Theories (If you’re done with Season 2)

So does anyone have any good theories about what’s going to happen in season 3? Or what we've learned in season 1 & 2?

iPod Design Contest

These are my soon-to-be submissions for another iPod Design contest. The H20 is a waterproof touch screen iPod, the Cinema is the same just focusing on the wide-screen for movies. I went for aesthetic appeal this time rather than throwing all kinds of gadgets and functionality at it. The contest is to design the next-gen iPod, any suggestions?

Audio Books & Online Libraries

Is anyone out there a fan of Audio-Books? I’m not talking about a replacement to paper books; audio will never give the same experience as paper. Personally I’m a huge fan of them for commuting to work or staying awake on a long drive or exercising (not that I do much of that). I have a huge collection of audio books (99 days worth of audio and growing) that I'm slowly chipping away at, including conference talks, the standard works and education week lectures. It guarantees that I’ll always have something that will be fun to listen to, and there’s always music if I get tired of spoken word :) Suffice it to say I’m a huge fan of iPod’s. How else could you organize all thes books and music? Who all out there has an mp3 player? I’m hooked on them. Anyway our library recently adopted online downloads for audio books. I’m sure most big city libraries have that option. It’s much better than trying to rip scratched CD’s from the Library onto yor iPod to listen to.

Along the same lines as audio books being made available at online Libraries, Google is in the process (fighting publishing companies along the way) of digitizing huge libraries of books. The project is called Google Books http://books.google.com/ and is an awesome idea for research. Imagine having the world’s greatest libraries available to goggle. Imagine being able to scour millions of books for a quote or topic. For fun go to the link above and type in "seer stone" (quotes included) and browse through some of hundreds of books available. Some books (publishers) will let you see a few pages surrounding the search string, others won't, but it’s a start. Legally I don’t see how the publishing companies are fighting Google on this, it’s definantly not illegal to quote a book in a report and that's essentially all they’re doing. Google doesn’t make the full book available just the page your information is found on, though some full books are available.

Pluto

The International Astronomical Union officially demoted Pluto from "planet" to "dwarf planet." That means that we now have eight planets (according to the scientists), three dwarf planets, and thousands of "small solar-system bodies." Out of 2,500 astronomers from 75 nations that attended the conference (where Pluto was demoted) only about 300 voted. It will be sad if 300 “scientists” can really shift cultural thinking as easily as arbitrarily redefining planets. The new definition is "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit." I vote we keep it and add the other 2 as well. 11 planets is better than 8.