Shiny

Nothing much interesting happened today, but look what came across my Google reader:



Enjoy!

1960's at Ancient House

After all that research, today was the day! I talked to museum patrons about '60s protests some of the time. But I did a lot of listening. I especially enjoyed talking with the ladies who lived in Thetford during the town expansion. This is actually the reason that the '60s are significant to Thetford and it was really interesting to learn more about it.

I was quite impressed that so many of the children understood the concept of making a protest poster. Once I said "think of something you don't like and talk about how you want less of it, or think about something you do like and talk about how you want more of it," they came up with some great posters. We had protests of baked beans, tomatoes, and hunting cheetahs, and we had kids promoting recycling, rabbits, guinea pigs, and flowers.

What's with the mustache? I finally recorded "The Ballad of John's LLM."



A small piece of advice: When doing a large recording and editing project, save often. Because if imovie crashes and you haven't saved, you might want to throw Lappy out the window. And that's not really good for you. Or the laptop. Or the window.

Making a Website

So, I spent some hours today working on the website. You can see the under construction version of it here. I still need to make the rest of the pages and make a style sheet for the whole site.

Not only did I learn how to do things like line up text on opposite sides of the page and how to embed the YouTube video (you can't just use the code YouTube gives you, apparently), but I also learned that John is really intense when he plays World of Warcraft by himself.

I actually did the website construction on my own with support from John when I had specific questions. But, so that I could have him nearby, he let me use the spare desk in his room. (The one I use when we play WoW together.) I guess I had never been in the same room with him before when he was playing by himself and really getting into it.

Kind of scary.

Election Day

I have never been very good at the school subject termed "social studies." History, Geography, Government, Economics. I find it difficult to get into these things. Nevertheless, I took both AP Government and AP Microeconomics my senior year of high school. I got a passing 3 on the Econ exam even though our teacher told us throughout the semester that she wasn't going to teach us "utils" (a unit for measuring utility) because they wouldn't be on the exam...and then they were on the exam. I got a not passing 2 on the Gov exam which is still remarkable because it is not the lowest score possible and I wrote all my essays in haiku form. A particular point of pride is the fact that before going into the exam everyone from our class agreed to work the made-up court case "Kramer vs Crosby" into one of the essays and I was able to do this even though I was writing in verse.

This same year many of my good friends and classmates decided that they were interested in things like politics and they created SPAC, the "Student Political Action Coalition." As a budding student group they needed all the members they could get, and they asked me to join. Meetings had snacks and didn't last too long, so, why not?

The big project SPAC undertook that year was setting up tables in the lunch room where students could register to vote. They asked me to register (I would be turning 18 before the next election). But lunch period was so short that I didn't really want to spend any of it not eating. Worst SPAC member evar.

Six years later I'm voluntarily reading about Roman history, World War II, and I am not only registered, but I voted! But I still write the occastional haiku.

I hope everyone voted for Ginger Cat!

Abundance

I did an abundance of running this morning. I was feeling pretty good at the end of my half hour so I did another lap which brings me up to about a three mile run.

I got an abundance of fun new things in town today. John decided (agreed) that I needed more warm clothes and the next guitar lesson book.

There was an abundance of rain which made both of us really glad we got new rain coats yesterday. We were surprisingly comfortable walking around town during the persistent downpour.

"The Foolish Frog" has had an abundance of views. About three times as many as the next most viewed video I've put on YouTube, "Mattie Groves," and nine times as many as most of the other videos. I can't figure out if people I know have been watching it over and over again, or if people I don't know are actually watching it.

Boudicea Tells Rome "Up Yours!"

I did a little research today about British hand gestures because I have noticed on TV that a particular gesture that is entirely friendly in the U.S. is not so in England. The V. Yes, what means "victory," "peace," or "two" to Americans, can mean "something rude" to the Brits, you know, depending on which way your hand is facing. Going on context I thought it was their version of The Finger, but it turns out they've got that as well. I also learned that you shouldn't give Greeks an air five or put horns on an Italian.

In other news, in the hopes of doing some Romano-British storytelling while I am here I have created a story about Boudicea. Turning the work of a historian (Tacitus) into compelling storytelling is not at all easy. I usually prefer to tell in third person, but after weeks of struggle I decided Boudicea had better do the talking herself. I also took great liberties with Caesar's Gallic Wars. What fun!

Happy Birthday to Mumsie

So, I did some more work in the garden today and I took some before and after pictures to prove it.

Before, pots with weeds in them. Also two of the pots are sitting on small plates that go with the set we use to eat off of.














After, no more pots. Just some dirt that I dumped out of the big one.














Before...where to begin. This is our brick grill. It is covered in burned papers that I have decided are all the junk mail that tends to get delivered daily. In the bottom of the grill is a cinder block and a bucket filled with what looks like a giant glob of cement. ??????



















After...an improvement. I disposed of all the burned paper, uncovered a totally ruined metal sheet, and emptied the bucket. We are still a few steps away from having a barbecue.




















And to Mumsie, Happy Birthday! As if seeing my smiling face this morning wasn't enough, I made you this:

Mattie Groves

I am one step closer to working because my application for a National Insurance Number is now in the mail on its way to me. This number means part of my pay check (once I get a job) will contribute to the national health care (which I will be using). John asked at the University and this number seems to be all I need, aside from my visa, to work.

One of my goals for this year is to work on my web presence, so I have signed up for a YouTube account which I will use to post videos of my stories. I feel kind of funny talking to myself, but I did the best I could.