May Flowers in the Yard

Here's a quick walk around the house taking note of just some of the flowers now in bloom. Some are fading (lilacs) and some are just on the verge (snowball bush) and some are just right.

Preparing the New Garden

With school out, what are we to do except work on the house? Enjoy the outdoors! Play with software! What if you could do all three at once?

In other words, I continue to play with the time capture software on my computer. While I'm working! Wish I would have had it when I was moving all the sod LAST summer.

An Alternative to Facebook? It's Coming.

There's really nothing new about Facebook. My family and I were networking on a site named eCircles.com years ago, but it couldn't pay, and the phone lines people were using then just couldn't keep up with the message boards, photos, music sharing, etc. But Facebook gathers up all you tell it and puts it to their own uses, and that's got some people a little frazzled. So, here come the nerds to sort it all out. Check out there story in the NYTimes article "Four Nerds and a Cry to Arms Against Facebook."

Embrace This

My sister sent me this. Thank you, sister. Click on the video if it doesn't display the whole thing.

Swarm of the Moped Army

Not sure who the Whiskey Business boys and girls are (an offshoot of Moped Army, apparently) , but this video captures the fun of riding a moped. In swarm.

This second video is uploaded by a fellow who looks to be from Sioux Falls, but I don't think there are Marathon gas stations in SF, and I would wonder where so many mopeds were hiding.

Flowers for Mother's Day

Even as we wait the years it will take for our newly-planted apple trees (one last year, one this), we are enjoying the one old-timer that is blossoming like crazy this spring--promising, perhaps, a bountiful crop of apples. It depends, though, on whether the few tentative blossoms on the youngsters will be enough to pollinate this experienced producer.

In the meantime today, we planted other things for mothers--some ornamentals for KH in a pot, and a snowball bush for RN in her front yard. We also put a new lilac in our yard as well. Now for rain.

Apple Tree Planting

The wife and I put an apple tree in the ground tonight to replace a tired old fellow who died last year and will never blossom again. Here, however, is how you deal with that. Plant a new one.

The Catch : Poetry Everywhere : Video : The Poetry Foundation

The Catch : Poetry Everywhere : Video : The Poetry Foundation Good stuff.

May 4 Morning

Here's what morning looks like from our red-room window in May.

40 years ago today four students were killed and nine injured when National Guard troops shot into crowds of students on the Kent State campus. They're holding commemoration events to remember those who died and were injured.

The days keep turning. Morning comes again. While I went off to swim this morning, I set my Perios time lapse software to take shots every 30 seconds. Here's daybreak to remember those kids.

Why Didn't They Stop for Coffee?

Part of the plan for the day includes heading to Aurora, SD, for some landscaping plants, and when I checked out the route there (52 minutes by car, over 3 hours by bicycle unless the wind is howling like it is today), I noticed that the Google folks had driven by taking photos.

By all signs, they came by last fall (after our mailbox was annihilated but before the snow flew). Thus, here we are, our house newly shingled and painted, largely obscured by trees and plants just the way we like it. But, peeking through, the peak of the grey lady, working on her second century.

Brother, Potter, Singer, Artist

Behold, brother Jered, in Berkeley, making a water bottle out of clay. Kind of a miracle, I always think. Check out his Cloudwest Pottery site!

New Tricks Electronic Version 2

New Tricks is Now Available

You can read our current DSU literary magazine online or pick up a printed copy at the DSU library (in the art space with the Beadlemania display) or in Beadle Hall. You can contact me and I'll try to see that you get one.

Our web site is here: http://www.clubs.dsu.edu/new-tricks/

New Tricks 2010

Ruth Haile, Sioux Falls Lincoln Student, Rocks Washington

The National Poetry Out Loud competition in Washington, DC, crowned its champions tonight:

1. 1st place: Amber Rose Johnson of Rhode Island
2. 2nd place: Ruth Halie of South Dakota
3. 3rd place: Nora Sandler of Maryland.

First place is awarded $20,000, 2nd place is awarded $10,000, and 3rd place is awarded $5,000.

To see Ruth perform her winning poem from the state competition, go here.

Congratulations to Ruth and all the winners!

LOST's Losers

The wife and I hustled home after having dinner out just so we could check out the latest episode of ABC's LOST as it all winds down to the final week. BUT, there was no new episode and, boy, were people pissed. Asked, "Do you think Kate should have let Claire join Sawyer's mission?" Readers responded. Click on the screen capture to check out an example of the response--they're not happy with the rerun. More is available at the link above.

H.L. Chase and Rosie O'Donnell

On Good Morning America this morning Rosie O'Donnell is speaking out on the problem of auditory processing disorders, and I wasn't paying attention until I heard them reading an excerpt that they offered up to illustrate the sounds a sufferer of the syndrome hears. It was H.L. Chase's version of Little Red Riding Hood: "Ladle Rat Rotten Hut." Chase wrote a number of pieces collected in the book Anguish Languish, illustrating how words in English often sound like other English words. If you arrange them well, you can effectively tell a story, as long as you can hear the sounds and not pay attention to the spelling. I thought it was a strange use of the story, and they gave no credit to Chase.

Good Country People, Flannery O'Connor

One of my students sends this link to a video adaptation of Flannery O'Connor's short story "Good Country People." It's a loose adaptation, just ten minutes long and reduced to two characters, but the ending is worth it.

Green Thumb Options in Madison

With spring in the air, it's time to scope out the options for getting your young greenery in Madison. The wife and I took a drive around town and came up with the options you see here. Clearly the Garden Spot has the most friendly-looking structure, with others at Ace Hardware, Lewis Drug, Madison Nursery, Pamida, and those guys down by the Pawn Shop.

Xtranormal.com and Mr. Ellison

In my American Literature class, we were discussing Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, the first chapter, titled "Battle Royal." We used xtranormal.com to make some short animations based on that story. Here's one: http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6459051/

The Torch Be Mine to Hold It High

When you get the call to burn stuff up, it's hard to resist, and this evening the call came in, and it resulted in several acres of burned grass, cattails, and other dried growth out at the Moose homestead. Here I'm shown enjoying the glow of some burning thistle pods.