June 26, 2006
Snowball Trumpet
Sunday, Harrison told me that when he grows up, he's going to fill a trumpet with snowballs so that he can shoot snowballs at his children.
June 19, 2006
Fireflies
Saturday evening Harrison and I decided to catch fireflies. We found a small mason jar in the kitchen and poked air holes in the top. I bent the tines on a fork pounding through the metal but we were in a hurry. We could see small sparks from our window. It was the magic hour. The fireflies were in abundance. There was no time to lose.
Once we had our gear assembled, we went to the front yard. Even though it was only 8pm, it was completely dark outside. The sky was still overcast after a full day of rain. The grass was damp under the trees and the air was cool. We stood still for a second, quietly surveying our lot. Our neighborhood was dark and hushed. Not a creature was stirring not even a. . . then we saw a flicker to our right and another out towards the street. Harrison bolted into the yard. I watched him as he hopped a few paces away from me, down our sloping yard and into the night. He stopped near the street. He paused. I saw another flicker between where he stood and my position at the edge of the lawn. He saw the light too and was off again, running now with his hands out in front of him. "I got one!" he yelled. I couldn't belive it. It seemed too quick but I walked down and held out the jar. He put his closed hands over the lid and then unclenched his little fists while pushing his palms inwards, towards the mouth of the jar. Quickly I slid the cover under his hands and when we both looked, we saw that we had made our first catch.
"What should we name him?" I asked.
"Robert," said Harrison, without missing a beat.
We looked again and Robert blinked once.
Loverboy
So this Saturday I was screaming my head off at the TV. I had World Cup fever, especially during the Ghana vs Czech Republic game. "Shoot it! Shoootiiiit! SHOOT!" After enduring a lot of my couch potato revelry, Harrison turned to me and said, "Hey, Loverboy. Here's the deal. They can't hear you."
June 13, 2006
Crumbs
Crumbs - DJ Kels creates the first music instructional video mash-up I've ever seen.
Hey Wms, dig the Jaco wannabe on green bass.
Links:
Curved Air
sharpeworld
June 09, 2006
Last Day of Kindergarten
So here's the artist on his last day of kindergarten, which was last Friday. Since then, Harrison's been basking in summer vacation goodness: going swimming, going to the park, going to the zoo, etc.
This week we went out to dinner with some friends. While the waitress started taking our drink orders, Harrison said, "This is the life. . . no more homework. . . no getting up early. . ." Then he started waving his arms in the air like some sort of Sicilean Don, "THIS is the life, I say." The waitress started cracking up. "Look at the way he's waving his arms," she said, "That's so cute."
2 Drawings
Harrison has been doing some great pencil and crayon drawings lately.
I love the colors in this totemic creature.
I like this guy's attitude — I see: flower power meets bewildered blue crab with crooked arrow to yo mama.
Net Neutrality Dead in the House
This is not good news folks.
June 08, 2006
The Ballerina
Here's our little ballerina in her rose costume, back stage before her debut appearance in "The Frog Prince."
Etta James Aeronautics
So file this under cool and unusual things to do tonight in Little Rock - Etta James at IMAX.
Yep, AETN, KUAR, and The Arkansas Times are sponsoring an Etta James IMAX concert tonight at Little Rock's Aerospace Education Center. The concert is an Austin City Limits broadcast from 7/12/2005 and the reason they are showing it at IMAX is because. . .
Hey, it's free, it's air conditioned, it's on a big screen, what else do you need to know?
Links:
June 01, 2006
Letter from Ebay
So now it looks like Ebay is taking a stand on the Net Neutrality issue. If you've ever bought something on Ebay, I'm sure you got one of these notes from Meg Whitman today:
Net Neutrality and the eBay Community: A Call to Action
As you know, I almost never reach out to you personally with a request to get involved in a debate in the U.S. Congress. However, today I feel I must.
Right now, the telephone and cable companies in control of Internet access are trying to use their enormous political muscle to dramatically change the Internet. It might be hard to believe, but lawmakers in Washington are seriously debating whether consumers should be free to use the Internet as they want in the future.
The phone and cable companies now control more than 95% of all Internet access. These large corporations are spending millions of dollars to promote legislation that would divide the Internet into a two-tiered system.
The top tier would be a "Pay-to-Play" high-speed toll-road restricted to only the largest companies that can afford to pay high fees for preferential access to the Net.
The bottom tier -- the slow lane -- would be what is left for everyone else. If the fast lane is the information "super-highway," the slow lane will operate more like a dirt road.
Today's Internet is an incredible open marketplace for goods, services, information and ideas. We can't give that up. A two lane system will restrict innovation because start-ups and small companies -- the companies that can't afford the high fees -- will be unable to succeed, and we'll lose out on the jobs, creativity and inspiration that come with them.
The power belongs with Internet users, not the big phone and cable companies. Let's use that power to send as many messages as possible to our elected officials in Washington. Please join me by clicking here right now to send a message to your representatives in Congress before it is too late. You can make the difference.
Thank you for reading this note. I hope you'll make your voice heard today.
Sincerely,
Meg Whitman
President and CEO
eBay Inc.
P.S. If you have any questions about this issue, please contact us at government_relations@ebay.com.