Thursday, February 22, 2007

feed test

this is a feed test.

Check this out

Click here for the coolest recruitment ad you've ever seen.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Trying a picture


Here's an example of a picture illustration added to a blog posting.

Tricia Pennypacker column

To: The Critic
Series: Moments Like This
Title: Cold in the Kingdom
Author: Tricia Pennypacker
Date: February 13, 2007

Cold in the Kingdom

It is the middle of February and the bone-chilling temperatures and short, dark days do nothing for my spirit. I do not ski. This is not because I do not want to, but because I never learned how, nor could I justify the expense. I enjoy ice-skating, but find the artificial air in the rink even more chilling than the air outside. Sadly, I must admit that I no longer enjoy New England winters. I bide my time from December, after my Norman Rockwell idea of a white Christmas either came true or didn’t, until the sap stops running in April, and the peep-frogs start their evening chorus. Until then, I spend much of my time beneath a thick, fleece blanket, sipping hot tea and catching up on the reading that I am too active for during the warmer months. Sometimes, in these dark hours, I contemplate why I am living in the Northeast Kingdom, a place where people quickly shut their doors against the cold, and seemingly, the world around them.

Growing up in the Northeast Kingdom, I was eager to leave my hometown for a fresh start in life. I traded my winter boots and heavy parka for a pair of Birkenstocks and cut off Levi’s, and the cold mountains for the warm, flat Floridian coastline. I entered an unfamiliar world where strangers stopped to help when I was stranded on the side of the road, and women in the grocery stores would befriend me instantly. The compassion and strength of the county surprised me.
On muggy evenings, front porches were full of chatter and laughter. People bustled through their week, sometimes working two or three jobs to support a family. They knew how to stretch a whole chicken to feed more than one family. Clothes were passed from one family to the next as children grew. There was never the sense of abundance there, but there was always enough. By the weekend the fish were frying, the drinks were cold and the tailgates were lowered as the entire town rallied together at the high school’s football game.
Although I loved this sense of belonging, I missed the mountains, the changing of the seasons, and even the snow. More than that, I missed the quaint farmhouses nestled in the valleys, the stoic maple trees and the crooked stone walls that dotted the countryside. Whether I like it or not, I am a northern country girl. I can immerse myself in a place and a culture as I did at sixteen when I spent a summer in Australia, or when I gained a broader perspective on American life as I spent months on the road traveling across the states with my family, but I cannot cut the heart strings that tug me back to Vermont, a place that both confuses and comforts me.
Having witnessed the struggle of the South, I was amazed that the people seemed to accept their life with good humor, as though their trials were inevitable. Here, struggles seem to make or break people. People either give up too easily, or they fail to take pride in overcoming the odds. Instead, I see a community that feeds off of the past, griping about ancient wounds as though they were fresh. I see Vermonters so stuck in their groove that they refuse to accept new people, new laws, and new ideas. They shut their doors to strangers and completely miss the benefit of merging ideas and traditions.
I wonder how a place with such beauty and promise can be so challenging. Everything here is a challenge. Depending on the season, the commute through snowy, icy, muddy, or rutty roads is a challenge. Finding affordable and enjoyable entertainment, in a diverse upper and lower class society can be a challenge. Trying not to jump on the band-wagon as people move away in search of higher paying jobs, and more affordable housing, is becoming a greater challenge.
I miss the hospitality of the South as I am confronted with my own isolation. I tell myself that I am too busy to strengthen friendships, and that maybe someday, if life slows down (which I know it never really does), I will have the energy to do all the things I long to do, and my friends will also have the time to spare. This is really just an excuse for not wanting to step outside of my warm home, and face the chill of the world, not wanting to confront the reality that we have become a close-minded society, each believing that our way of doing things is the only way to do them.
Ideally, I would love to see the Northeast Kingdom flourish with beauty, generosity, and compassion combined. I want to rid the notion that a cold environment breeds cold hearts. Maybe then the winters wouldn’t seem so endlessly cruel. Until then, I guess I need to toss my blanket aside and venture out into the crisp air, maybe start a few friendships along the way.

Monday, February 19, 2007

fun stuff

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Student planning to sell moments in time
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When Oxford student Thomas Whitfield put forward his idea in the
university's own version of the BBC's Dragon's Den, he hoped for nothing
more than encouraging words and a slice of the GBP 5,000 (EUR 7,400)
prize money. But the judges, which included two former internet
millionaires, were so 'blown away' by it they threw the weight of their
GBP 50m (EUR 74m) investment fund behind him.

Whitfield's online timeline idea involves creating a website featuring a
virtual timeline stretching back into history and far into the future.
The 'online timeline' will be split into minutes, each of which can be
bought by users to post memorable moments in their lives.

The prototype of the website can be viewed on www.designthetime.com.
Users can then buy their place in history or the future. The more you
pay the more prominent your entry will be for a particular minute. The
idea is similar to the Million Dollar Homepage in which a student sold
off one million pixels of a computer picture at USD 1 a time. When the
pixel was clicked on the person or company's work was displayed.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=S2IZE3DAXOFLNQFIQMFCFFOAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/02/19/ntime19.xml
- The Telegraph

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Thursday, February 8, 2007

Amazing stuff

Check out Oddcast.
You can even have the woman speak languages other than English.

Thursday, February 1, 2007

idea for online critic?

From that e-mail service I get:

Chronicle airs reader calls as podcasts
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Readers have been angrily calling newspapers with complaints almostsince the first telephones were installed. Now, the San FranciscoChronicle is turning some of those calls into podcasts and posting themon its website for all to hear.Dubbed 'Correct Me If I'm Wrong ...' on the Chronicle's website, thepaper last week posted a podcast of a reader's voicemail expressingirritation with a photo caption and the headline 'Forest service beginstesting pilotless drones' that appeared over a story buried deep withinthe Aug. 29 business section. 'Is there any other kind of drone?' thereader said in the voice mail. 'You tell me right now, is there anyother kind of drone other than a pilotless drone?'The posts were the brainchild of Chronicle executive vice president andeditor Phil Bronstein. Bronstein said the Chronicle might add 'dramaticreadings' of some of the comments, the New York Times reported Monday.'This is about listening to your readers,' Bronstein said. 'Newspapersused to be a lot more lively than they are now, and they coulddefinitely stand some of that.'