Musings

I read about Negroponte’s program to get laptops in the hands of kids around the world, which I think is a terrific idea, and I got confused. In his package deal, sponsors pay for two laptops, one they get and one that’s sent “away.”

I’m confused about two things. One, the laptops cost something like $100, but the two-laptop deal is $399. I’m reasonably competent at addition, and there’s a real gap there. Presumably some funds are necessary for shipping and handling for the give-away laptop, but $200 seems rather excessive. Second, how many of these laptops are destined for kids here in this country? After all if they are for disadvantaged kids, we’ve got quite a few within our national boundaries, and they should not be overlooked.

Still, I’m tempted to participate. This deal kicks in 12 November.

How ’bout you?

Posted at 10:22 PM | 2 Comments »

Yeah, I know; this is not a horse. But it’s the closest I had….

While browsing tables of contents for issues of the International Journal of Historical Archaeology, I ran into this term: horselads.

The term harks back to the days of horse-farming in rural Britain, and to the social hierarchy on rural farms (those Brits!). Horselads were at the bottom, while still valued for their knowledge of work horses, although they were assigned other menial field labor. The horselads received room and board as part of their compensation, in part because the farms were relatively isolated, or at least by keeping horselads resident on the farms their labor was assured.

Horselads could be recognized by their by their distinctive dress at the hiring fairs where they looked for their next position—they moved each year—while striving to move up the hierarchy.

Because of their low status, annually fluid employment situation, and the way written history (even modern history) is generated, little directly from horselads has made it into records. Giles and Giles opted to examine the graffiti in barns where horselads lived and worked to obtain insights into their lives.

Conclusions: horselads wrote about sex and the ladies, they glamorized themselves, they recorded song lyrics, they wrote about hardships (extreme weather, boredom), and they drew pictures (mostly line drawings) on the same subjects (especially the first).

I wondered if the horselads are in the direct social ancestry of North America’s western cowboys, but these British researchers do not address this point.

Posted at 10:22 PM | 2 Comments »

I’m still on the fence about whether this is a fake sign, meant to terrify (or at least drive off) Bad Guys. After all, don’t you expect an alarm system to be, well, loud?

However, this sign still makes me smile!

Posted at 8:49 PM | Comments Off on Loud sign

Light inspires me.

Light plus texture—truly exciting.

Thinking about fabric today (not like Ababsurdo or Mouse). Instead, we’re considering getting new curtains for the living and dining rooms. The consumer role is not one of my favorites. Additionally, I think this new curtain thing may require me to somehow convert some panels with fabric that I like into pinch-pleated drapery that I—we—will enjoy living with, which will require me to dip into a skill set that I have but rarely choose to activate.

What irony—curtains block that same inspirational light….

Posted at 7:54 PM | Comments Off on Obscuring? light

I renewed my acquaintance with Athens (the Georgia one) today. I found my favorite fountain fenced and dry.

Perhaps a metaphor for…?

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Fenced fountain

Love having friends in from out of town! Now we can get caught up not only by telling stories, but by looking at pictures posted on the web.

Love that modern technology!

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Story telling

You had to guess that the iPhone capability I’d latch onto with the most fervor would be the camera.

Conclusion: I’ve got to de-zoom my viewpoint.

Final assessment: this “photographer” needs more practice.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on iPhone photography

We’ve hit a wall—or maybe our number can only be transferred during normal weekday business hours. Here we sit with a wonderful iPhone, but only outgoing capabilities. Or maybe that’s actually a good thing!

And what’s with charging us a penny (still, charging us!) for the fancy one-on-one tutoring we got with the phone?

Still, we forge ahead on getting the piles of mail off the dining room table—the obviously important stuff is being processed, and the obviously junque is en route to the garbage, but what’s left is the ambiguous material. Which is not insignificant. Actually, most of it’s junque, too, but you can’t tell until you go to the trouble of opening and reading it.

Sigh.

Posted at 5:00 PM | 1 Comment »

This morning, before the sun really started heating up this city, we made our usual trek to Piedmont Park, where we found the natatorium all closed up—a real marker of the transition out of summer.

iPhone update: The Guru was up until almost 3 am getting AT&T and the powers that be to do his bidding and get the iPhone initialized (plus load all our data, etc.). Apparently it will receive calls—the last step in getting it working—by late this aft.

Whooohoo!

PS I understand that we’re still last-century in that we don’t EACH have our own cell….

PPS For Enquiring Minds, no, this photo was taken with the “new camera” not the iPhone….

Posted at 11:14 AM | Comments Off on Natatorium

Okay. So Steve Jobs announced a drop in iPhone prices, so, no surprise, we finally got sucked in.

Initial report, as we attempted to initialize, was 5-7 days to get our “other” landline switched.

I expect The Guru will find a way to shortcut that!

Posted at 10:22 PM | 5 Comments »