We are off to the magical world of Utah. Christmas is coming early in 2007, we are going to celebrate it on Jan. 2nd. Actually, I suppose that it's coming late but that's not quite true either since Mia, Ethan and I had a very nice Christmas day here, with our neighbors and friends.
Well, whatever we are calling it, we are all excited to be heading out to visit with my entire family. We don't get to see them all that often because of the distances between where we all live. I'm sure the 6 days we have together will be fun (if cramped).
I might even try to blog while I'm out there.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Monday, December 25, 2006
Christmas!
Here are the first three videos from Christmas morning.
And, right after the discovery of Santa's healthy appetite, came the stockings.
And, once we got into the full swing of things, Ethan opened up one of his big presents.
And, right after the discovery of Santa's healthy appetite, came the stockings.
And, once we got into the full swing of things, Ethan opened up one of his big presents.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
True speech
I was telling Mia the other day about the cute way that Ethan pauses while he's talking.
Then, yesterday, it hit me. He pauses like that because he's constructing his own sentences. He's not just repeating things that he has heard us say to him.
Our boy is smart. S-M-R-T!
Then, yesterday, it hit me. He pauses like that because he's constructing his own sentences. He's not just repeating things that he has heard us say to him.
Our boy is smart. S-M-R-T!
Thursday, December 21, 2006
???pedia
I've been doing some work with Wikipedia for my job, as well as reading some things about it in other places like blogs and Wired.
Now, it's my turn to say how I feel about Wikipedia. It bugs me.
There are a couple of things about the site that are noble aspirations but that in practice are less than desirable. The foremost of those being the mob-mentality. While the wiki model might be useful for focused groups who can all knowledgably contribute to one topic and build on each others work, opening that same model up to anyone with a Web browser doesn't accomplish the same thing.
I'm not saying that all (and maybe not even most) of the information on Wikipedia is wrong. I'm just saying that the community that is ensuring the accuracy of the articles may not be well-enough informed to do so. Fundamentally, Wikipedia relies on a small group of people who do actually have an in-depth knowledge of the subject to ensure it's correct. But, they allow anyone to make the inital postings and make changes. So, even if a small group of experts is actively working to keep an article, or articles, correct they are competing againt the combined "wisdom" of the unwashed masses.
Secondly, Wikipedia is not really as open as they like to claim. With the rise of wiki-wars and commercialization, Wikipedia now has an extensive group of moderators that can (again, with little actual knowledge about a topic) halt discussion, delete pages, or lock articles from being edited. This removes the concept of "all the world's knowledge" by once again creating a layer of gatekeepers that decide what knowledge is permissable to be distributed.
I think the line that is most blurry in Wikipedia is the commercial line. Where does an article stop being informational and start being advertorial? And, along those same lines, when does information about a company, it's products, it's services, it's history, etc., stop being part of the collected human knowledge?
I can understand that a sales pitch from a company is not necessarily an important thing to preserve. But why not the rest of it? Why not even for a small company?
If the topic were non-commerical, how large an audience does Wikipedia require before it's considered worthy to be entombed in their annals? (Notice the gatekeeper language I'm using for effect).
Since I doubt that I'll ever be able to make a dent in Wikipedia, and since I can see it barrelling along crushing any knowledge that gets in its way, I'll close this little rant.
I use Wikipedia to introduce myself to topics. But, the Internet is full of resources that are more reliable and credible. I hope that all of you Internet researchers out there are taking the time to move beyond the wiki articles and find those sources.
Now, it's my turn to say how I feel about Wikipedia. It bugs me.
There are a couple of things about the site that are noble aspirations but that in practice are less than desirable. The foremost of those being the mob-mentality. While the wiki model might be useful for focused groups who can all knowledgably contribute to one topic and build on each others work, opening that same model up to anyone with a Web browser doesn't accomplish the same thing.
I'm not saying that all (and maybe not even most) of the information on Wikipedia is wrong. I'm just saying that the community that is ensuring the accuracy of the articles may not be well-enough informed to do so. Fundamentally, Wikipedia relies on a small group of people who do actually have an in-depth knowledge of the subject to ensure it's correct. But, they allow anyone to make the inital postings and make changes. So, even if a small group of experts is actively working to keep an article, or articles, correct they are competing againt the combined "wisdom" of the unwashed masses.
Secondly, Wikipedia is not really as open as they like to claim. With the rise of wiki-wars and commercialization, Wikipedia now has an extensive group of moderators that can (again, with little actual knowledge about a topic) halt discussion, delete pages, or lock articles from being edited. This removes the concept of "all the world's knowledge" by once again creating a layer of gatekeepers that decide what knowledge is permissable to be distributed.
I think the line that is most blurry in Wikipedia is the commercial line. Where does an article stop being informational and start being advertorial? And, along those same lines, when does information about a company, it's products, it's services, it's history, etc., stop being part of the collected human knowledge?
I can understand that a sales pitch from a company is not necessarily an important thing to preserve. But why not the rest of it? Why not even for a small company?
If the topic were non-commerical, how large an audience does Wikipedia require before it's considered worthy to be entombed in their annals? (Notice the gatekeeper language I'm using for effect).
Since I doubt that I'll ever be able to make a dent in Wikipedia, and since I can see it barrelling along crushing any knowledge that gets in its way, I'll close this little rant.
I use Wikipedia to introduce myself to topics. But, the Internet is full of resources that are more reliable and credible. I hope that all of you Internet researchers out there are taking the time to move beyond the wiki articles and find those sources.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
RSS
Apparently when I publish my blogs, Blogger is automatically creating an RSS feed for me. If anyone wants it, I'll post the link.
Happy Birthday (Again)
I wanted to post a couple of things that happened with Ethan this weekend. But, of course, right now I can't think of what they were.
So, I'll just make a post about Ethan's combined Birthday/Christmas weekend with his grandparents.
We went out to Albany this weekend (as should be obvious by the above statement) now that Ethan is a 2 year-old. We were worried that he wouldn't do well but he seemed to take it all in stride.
He enjoyed walking through the 'woods' behind Grandpa Gibson's house. And walking on the bridge over the stream. In fact, the boy kept trying to get into the stream and I had to keep pulling him back.
Mia and I enjoyed watching the Best Christmas Pagent Ever starring Cris, McKay, and Bryson (and some other people from the community).
After the play, Ethan enjoyed chasing Bryson around the house and opening his Train presents. He loves trains. You usually won't see Ethan without seeing a train in his hand (and his cup in the other hand).
The evening we went over to Grandma Miller's and Ethan got a sombrero to add to his hat collection. I picked up a car outlet. It's a little battery-generator thing that you can plug into your car and has two normal outlet sockets for pluging things in. Very handy. Mia got stuff too ;)
Then, we sat down and decorated little cake trains (did I mention that Ethan likes trains) that Linda had made. Ethan mostly just ate the candy that we gave him to decorate with... so did I.
They turned out looking very unique and very good. Mia and Linda did most of the hard work, but Tim created a car or two as well.
On Sunday we did some more hanging out with the families. Took some Christmas pictures with all the brothers and sisters (a feat to get everyone in the same place at once). And in the evening, took the back wheel off the car to see why the brakes were making a scratching sound everytime we braked.
We couldn't find anything wrong (or at least fatally wrong) with them on Sunday night so we drove back to Boston. On Monday, Mia took the car in and had to replace all four rotors and brakepads. The one consolation we have is that the mechanic told us the parts on the Grand Marquis are made to wear out quickly, so it's not that we neglected them.
I guess that's good news. Fortunately, I had a Christmas bonus that we used to pay for it. (Again... I guess that's good news)
But, aside from that, then entire weekend was fun. And Ethan loves seeing his grandparents. Mom and Dad, I'm sure that includes you too ;)
So, I'll just make a post about Ethan's combined Birthday/Christmas weekend with his grandparents.
We went out to Albany this weekend (as should be obvious by the above statement) now that Ethan is a 2 year-old. We were worried that he wouldn't do well but he seemed to take it all in stride.
He enjoyed walking through the 'woods' behind Grandpa Gibson's house. And walking on the bridge over the stream. In fact, the boy kept trying to get into the stream and I had to keep pulling him back.
Mia and I enjoyed watching the Best Christmas Pagent Ever starring Cris, McKay, and Bryson (and some other people from the community).
After the play, Ethan enjoyed chasing Bryson around the house and opening his Train presents. He loves trains. You usually won't see Ethan without seeing a train in his hand (and his cup in the other hand).
The evening we went over to Grandma Miller's and Ethan got a sombrero to add to his hat collection. I picked up a car outlet. It's a little battery-generator thing that you can plug into your car and has two normal outlet sockets for pluging things in. Very handy. Mia got stuff too ;)
Then, we sat down and decorated little cake trains (did I mention that Ethan likes trains) that Linda had made. Ethan mostly just ate the candy that we gave him to decorate with... so did I.
They turned out looking very unique and very good. Mia and Linda did most of the hard work, but Tim created a car or two as well.
On Sunday we did some more hanging out with the families. Took some Christmas pictures with all the brothers and sisters (a feat to get everyone in the same place at once). And in the evening, took the back wheel off the car to see why the brakes were making a scratching sound everytime we braked.
We couldn't find anything wrong (or at least fatally wrong) with them on Sunday night so we drove back to Boston. On Monday, Mia took the car in and had to replace all four rotors and brakepads. The one consolation we have is that the mechanic told us the parts on the Grand Marquis are made to wear out quickly, so it's not that we neglected them.
I guess that's good news. Fortunately, I had a Christmas bonus that we used to pay for it. (Again... I guess that's good news)
But, aside from that, then entire weekend was fun. And Ethan loves seeing his grandparents. Mom and Dad, I'm sure that includes you too ;)
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Date Night
Mia and I went and had a date night last weekend. We needed it.
I can't believe how easily we forget that going out on dates helps us unwind and re-connect with each other. We went into Boston (something we do more often these days as we are no longer afraid of driving downtown) and watched a movie.
We went to see Stranger Than Fiction. The movie was quite good, we liked it. The entire premise was interesting and I suppose a little strange. However the execution made watching it entertaining and we even felt that the ending was very well done.
I think that this is the first movie I've seen that worked well while touching on the inward-focus of a writer writing something. :)
Also, I found a universal AC adapter at Best Buy that I'm going to pick up and hopefully be back in action with the video camera.
I can't believe how easily we forget that going out on dates helps us unwind and re-connect with each other. We went into Boston (something we do more often these days as we are no longer afraid of driving downtown) and watched a movie.
We went to see Stranger Than Fiction. The movie was quite good, we liked it. The entire premise was interesting and I suppose a little strange. However the execution made watching it entertaining and we even felt that the ending was very well done.
I think that this is the first movie I've seen that worked well while touching on the inward-focus of a writer writing something. :)
Also, I found a universal AC adapter at Best Buy that I'm going to pick up and hopefully be back in action with the video camera.
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