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Movie: The Queen (2006)
It must be really daunting to make a historical film featuring characters who are still alive, telling a story that is remembered so well. I found this really convincing, although I don’t remember the death of Princess Diana nearly as well Ann, or probably most people. The tension and dependencies between the British monarchy and…
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Fall River Road Snowshoe
I join friends Kate and Mark on a snowy day for a snowshoe stroll up Fall River Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. For more story, click a picture in the slideshow to see the description, and use the arrow keys to change pictures. Fall River Road Snowshoe Map at EveryTrail:
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Buckhorn Creek Snowshoe
We attempt to snowshoe the official-looking "Donner Pass Trail", only to find a newly installed gate and NO TRESPASSING signs blocking the way. Checking the map at the trailhead on our way, it’s pretty clear that the trail is supposed to continue past the gate. I’ve been discouraged by private property every time I try…
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She done bucked us!
I think of our planned new year’s eve in Vedauwoo as an easy test run to prepare us for more challenging winter outings in the camper. Maybe part of being born in Wyoming is an eternal willful ignorance of her reaction to such assumptions. We’re beggin’ to be whupped like flapjack butter. I see the…
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Happy Jack Snowshoe
It’s a bit cold and windy when we pull into the Happy Jack parking lot, but we don’t have a clue what’s coming. Neither does anyone else – the parking lot and ski hill are bustling with tubers, sledders, boarders, skiers, and snowshoers like us. It gives one some respect for the constitutions of people…
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OLPC Laptop
My XO laprop is here from the One Laptop Per Child program! it actually came before Christmas, but I haven’t tinkered with it too much yet. I did figure out right away how to install the Opera web browser, because the default Firefox-based browser doesn’t have JavaScript enabled. Too many of my web activities require…
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Movie: Children of Men (2006)
I think City of God must have inspired this movie. There are no children in this film, and it takes place in a fictional near future, but the presentation of the effects of violence on the characters achieves a similar gut-wrenching realism. The future merging of the issues of immigration and terrorism is the real…
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Movie: Reign Over Me (2007)
Another surprising performance from Adam Sandler in a character drama. In this one he plays a guy in denial after losing his family in the September 11 attacks. Don Cheadle is an old college roommate who discovers him and helps him come back to reality while coveting his apparent freedom. Many opportunities for clichés are…
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Beaver Island Arts Redesign
My mom’s been visiting for the holidays, and we’ve spent some our time together redesigning her website. I’m not good with graphics, but I like the result of following Mom’s directions to the best of my ability. We stuck with TYPO3 as the back-end content management system. We considered ditching it for something simpler, but…
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Movie: Travellers & Magicians (2003)
I didn’t know what to expect from a movie directed by a Buddhist lama, and was surprised how entertaining this was. A modern story of a Tibetan enamored with visions of America while isolated in a tiny village parallels a monk’s mythic tale of a man seduced into isolation, where he encounters the dangers behind…