Misc

We met Liza and Jim on our 2002 Everglades Trip, sharing a camping platform with them in the backcountry. Liza has a collection of wildlife art on her website. We recently ordered a couple prints: Light in the Maples and Forest Floor May. They turned out beautifully and were professionally framed and carefully shipped.

I'm a baseball fan and I'm excited that the new season's beginning. But I'm not a big fan of the Major League Baseball money machine. A few years ago they took away my free web broadcasts (like I'm going to pay to listen to choppy broadcasts on Real player over dialup).

This article talks about how MLB has thrown out baseball tradition in favor of the almighty dollar (or is it yen?). I may be biased because I'm a Cincinnati Reds fan, but the first pitch of the season is supposed to be in Cincinnati.

I could probably live with some out-of-the-country games starting the season, but having real games play out simultaneously with spring training games is ridiculous.

Go Reds!

First blog in February...been swamped lately.

I ran across an interesting link on Phil Greenspun's blog. This article discusses research that indicates that people are happier doing things than buying things. I tend to agree; I really enjoy planning on going on trips, but buying stuff is a chore. The things I like to buy are usually in support of doing something interesting. That's why we bought our kayaks, so we could explore new places. Going through the unused stuff and clutter in my house is a good lesson in this...were those things important at the time I bought them? Just think of the extra trips I could've taken with the money.

I could have paid a lot more on my house, gone through a couple more cars, or had a bigger TV, but I wouldn't trade my trips for anything.

Growing up in Ohio, it was called "pop" and no one disputed this. Later I was exposed to friends and relatives from the east who called it "soda." Now I live in the South and it's "coke." Where do you draw the lines between these words for the same thing?

There's a cool interactive website here, and they have a nice detailed map here.

Ohio and a good bit of the midwest own "pop" but I find the "soda" enclaves of St. Louis and Milwaukee interesting. I guess "soda" is more of the sophisticated big city term.

I'll stick with "pop."

My first entry. Happy 2004!

I was glad to see it get started with Ohio State winning the Fiesta Bowl.

Hope to be adding lots of cool stuff to the website this year. We'll see if I accomplish half of what I have in mind!