Fall and First Snow

|Fall got here last month. First snow got here last night. The predictions said it would go southeast of here. When Becky went to bed around 11:00 it was covering the ground. Around midnight there was impressive lightning and thunder. Thunder-snow is always kinda freaky. I went to bed around 1:30 and there was a couple inches on the ground. At a little before 4:00 a.m. we were awakened by a terrific explosion. Yup — transformer blew and electricity was out. Weird thing was there were already trucks in the street and workers running around; the electricity actually went off almost an hour before the transformer exploded. After a while the electricity came on, for about 15 seconds, then another explosion. This time it stayed off. We added another blanket and went back to bed. When Becky got up for work the house was pretty cold — a gas furnace still doesn’t work without electricity. There was at least four inches of snow. It was starting to melt on the street, and she went on to work. I stuck around to make sure the furnace came on whenever power was restored, which finally happened around 10:30. The snow was very pretty on the trees and stuff, and here are a couple of pictures (the first one was taken last month). There’s a worker (maybe two) in the tree in one of them (mainly you can see the hard hat). Living in Kansas is like living on at least two different planets, but you don’t have to leave home to experience it. ||

The Scout Report

I’ve subscribed to an online weekly newsletter called The Scout Report for at least six years. If I’d check my archives it’s probably longer than that. According to their website: “The Scout Report is the flagship publication of the Internet Scout Project. Published every Friday both on the web and by email, it provides a fast, convenient way to stay informed of valuable resources on the Internet.” I’ve occasionally sent family emails containing items I thought were interesting. This week was another especially rich edition, and I thought I’d post some of the entries here.

Paper Airplane Ken Blackburn, who holds multiple Guinness records in time aloft for paper airplanes, has posted this website dedicated to making paper airplanes. He provides links to websites with information on paper airplanes and images with accompanying text on the how-to’s of paper airplane folding. Planes submitted by visitors to the website are also posted and he encourages others to send in their models. An essay on paper airplane aerodynamics offers an in-depth discussion of why paper airplanes look different than real planes, explains the Reynolds number, and addresses other important aspects of flying such as dihedral, weight, launching, and gliding. A section for teachers includes a guide for curriculum-based activities and explanations of relevant topics as well as some links to other websites. Visitors can also read about his experience competing for the Guinness record, find out about clubs or upcoming contests, or read a history of the paper airplane.

Musipedia Previously known as “Melodyhound”, Musipedia is an open music encyclopedia modeled on (but not formally associated with) Wikipedia. Online (in one form or another) since 1997, Musipedia is a searchable, editable, and expandable collection of tunes, melodies, and musical themes. Essentially, every entry can by edited by any concerned visitors, and entries can contain pieces of sheet music, a MIDI file, and text that describes the work and its composer. Visitors can also whistle or sing a melody through their computer’s microphone in order that they might search the site and find out more about that individual song or melody. The current database includes over 10000 classical melodies, over 17,000 folk songs, and around 100 national anthems. Finally, the site also has two helpful discussion forums where visitors may seek the assistance of other users of the site.

dMarie Time Capsule Ten years ago, around the time the Scout Project was in its infancy, Bill Clinton was president, Mariah Carey was running up the pop music charts with the song Hero, and shows like ER and Friends remained popular with millions of Americans. You might ask how we found this all out, and if you guessed that we consulted the dMarie Time Capsule “On this Day in History” search engine, you would be right. This fun site allows visitors to type in a date from the past 200 years and find information such as the prices of basic foodstuffs, popular songs of the day, and news events that were making headlines. Visitors can use the “quick page” option to return basic information about each date, or use the “advanced page” option that allows visitors to select specific headlines, birthdays, songs, toys, and books for the selected date. Lovers of nostalgia will definitely find this site to be a good way to back in time, even if only for a moment.

Sauerkraut Recipes Those Scout Report readers of Eastern European heritage will no doubt be intimately familiar with that wonderful delicacy known as sauerkraut. This site is certainly one whose time has come, as more and more people discover the joys of fermented cabbage in its many incarnations and variations. One interesting little-known fact about sauerkraut is that it is an excellent source of lactobacilli (even more so than yogurt) and vitamin C. Visitors looking to experiment with sauerkraut will find a number of helpful recipes here, such as one for classic kraut balls, reuben dip, country ribs and kraut, and kraut quiche. Lest one think that sauerkraut can only be used in entrees, there are a number of dessert recipes that feature sauerkraut, including one for sauerkraut custard pie. The site is rounded out by a few fine extras, such as a sauerkraut chat discussion room and a place for visitors to add their own recipes.

If anybody is interested in subscribing or reading the online edition, visit the Internet Scout Project.

Speaking of online tools, I trust everybody who has a PC running Windows is now using Firefox as their main browser.

Fall Has Fell

Seems like there just hasn’t been much to write about, even though we’ve been through a heck of an election. Looks like we’re keeping Tweedle-Dum, after all. Those of us who make our living from oil are generally okay with that. I thought he’d lose. Maybe he’ll be better in his second term. Knock on wood.

Cinnamon still looks at you cockeyed. She reminds me of the RCA Victor dog, which is before the time of many people here. She falls over occasionally when distracted or over-excited. Still won’t eat her original Science Diet dry food. I got a bag of “tiny bites” Science Diet, which she’ll eat if soaked with water and topped with some of the canned glop. Changed from Pedigree to Science Diet canned, which has helped immensely with the gas problem.

Pretty much finished the Douglas County Bar Association website. A nice feature is the forum, which uses phpBB. However, I think the lawyers here are techno-phobes. Despite a mass email announcement about the site, hardly any of them have visited it. The forum is something I’d been thinking about for the Chappells site. But I think it would suffer the same fate as the lawyers forum.

Nice weather this weekend, but Becky came down with a cold. I think she’s trying to get it out of the way before Christmas. I was pretty much on the computer all day Saturday, doing various things ranging from finances to clients to website stuff; I didn’t check on plane tickets yet. Today I’m sharing Becky’s cold. I sent a family email about chappells.us which can be used instead of chappells.biz which still works, as well. I thought it would work for email, too, but apparently not, as the one I sent to john@chappells.us failed.