Clearwater Lake is a place we don't visit often enough. But we did get a chance to go down for a day and a half over Tuesday and Wednesday. We swam in the Black River, caught a catfish on a trot line, and got caught in a thunderstorm.
There is no doubt we have a smart little five-year-old (five as of yesterday, anyway).
From an early age she has shown a love of being read to, and now she has a love of reading and writing for herself. Sometimes her writings require an interpreter since she doesn't use vowels, but still she impresses us frequently.
I was a computer user from an early age. Our first machine was an Atari 800, complete with a tape drive. It was a sort of hand-me-down machine, so we were using it many years after its heyday.
I can remember my dad spending days typing in a long BASIC program that had been published in a computer magazine (ANTIC?). I think it was probably for a game. That sort of thing was common for computer hobbyists in the 70s and 80s.
Anyway, for all the advantages of digital communication, one thing is clear: digital files are more ephemeral than we realize.
Most of the emails, projects, and stuff from my early computing days are gone. Even modern stuff like webpages can disappear suddenly. For example, with very little warning last year, Yahoo killed the once-popular GeoCities. Millions of people had created homepages there over the years.
Among my own lost projects is a choose-your-own-adventure style game I wrote for the TI-8x series of calculators when I was in high school. It was called "Doom at West" and was related to my "S.S.S." stories. I loaned my own calculator to my younger brother when I was in college. He lost it and by extension all the stuff on it.
Seeing the work of digital historians like Jason Scott has motivated me to preserve what I can of my own old digital stuff, and to share at least those bits that might be of some small interest to other people.
So here are a few little archives I've put together that you might want to check out:
You can follow our three-week sojourn in Bolivia by checking out our Amazing Adventures in Bolivia blog.
My nephews came to stay in town with my parents for four days. It has been a fun time for our girls. The first two days we went over to Nanny's house to play.
The girls love any excuse to see their Nanny and play in a different locale. But the addition of their two cousins to the mix makes for icing on the cake.
Today the weather was so amazing that I could no longer put off a small project I have long wanted to embark on: finding family gravestones at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.
A few comments from Jadzia about how she enjoyed "Beauty and the Beast," her first show at the Muny:
"I liked when the Beast gave her the library.
"When he turned back into a prince. The fireworks turned him into a prince.
"I liked every song that Belle sang.
"I liked the castle set and I liked how the Beast's costume looked.
"I liked seeing the Beast with the binoculars. He was the same size but he was better to see. I could see him really well."
We now has passports in hand for Josie and Joseph. I was surprised how fast they processed the applications. In fact, they did it so quickly, we may have enough time to apply for Bolivia visas for them.
So now my attention turns to other things, like how the heck we are going to survive travel in a plane with four children, two of whom will be on our laps.
Yeah, we are taking them as lap kids. I mean, there's really no way around it. The tickets are going to run about $1100-1200 apiece, and I am willing to endure 8 hours of insanity on a plane to save a couple grand.
Plus, there is a decent chance they will put us at the back of the plane with some empty seats, at least on the flight to Bolivia. If that happens, BONUS.
I came across a cool blog entry today about a clip toy a mom made for her toddler. This looks like something that's right up Josie's alley:
I think I'll try to make one myself.
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