2 comments
permanent link
email this
This is the view as Zeke and I walked in to work this morning. We're atop a 1200 foot peak and somewhere down there in the fog, much closer to sea level, is the office. A light rain was falling, just enough to replenish the droplets glistening on buds and blossoms. The air had a crisp freshness that makes a person glad to be alive. Brooks babbled, Zeke ran nose first among a bounty of scents, and French phrases filled the air.
"Une table avec des aliments."
"Deux garçons sautent."
"Mon chien est vert."
Ok, the last one I made up, it's one of my favorite songs. ":^)
I've started to learn French. I bought one of those CD sets of "all audio French," ripped to MP3, and downloaded to an iPod so I can fill my mind with the language while wandering the woods to and from work. The other step was going to be classes through the local community college, but they didn't get enough students. Trop mauvais.
Researching French language software I found good reviews for the Rosetta Stone program. They offer something interesting: online language instruction. Instead of buying the CD set (three hundred bucks) you can opt to take the same lessons online for twenty bucks a month, or fifty bucks for three months. You download a small application or use the shockwave version in your browser, probably the coolest shockwave I've seen to date. Check it out.
I'm learning slowly but, still, I'd be lost without the google translator. Mon chien Zeke indique le woof!
Tres bien. Les parents de ma femme, ils sont professeurs a Stanford dans le departement Francais. Avec ca, ma Francais c'est si mauvais! Il faut essaie alors. (sp?)
I noticed an entry in my log files for geourl.org and checked it out. Cool! By adding two meta tags to my pages the geourl engine can now spatially indexed my weblog into the real world. Click the little logo to find other weblogs and pages in proximity to my location (Lebanon, NH).
I used to offer a geographic visualization of the updated weblogs in my sidebar but it got to be a pain trying to figure out where everyone's physical location was. Maybe someday all weblogs will have geourl meta tags? The next step is to create a markup for individual entries...since entries in my weblog may not have a thing to do with Lebanon, NH. I would tag an entry with a geourl and some program would spider the RSS and organizer everyone's daily log entries into "localized headlines." Throw dots up on a map to show where folks are writing about, search for entries near your home, research an upcoming vacation spot. Lots of fun.
Vicinity's vision coming to fruition...by motivated individuals. There's a business lesson in there somewhere.
NetNanny blocked the picture. What is it? ;^)
You're kidding me! It's a picture of two bucket loaders at rest for the night, buckets together.