Category: entertainment

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why do we need projects?

my latest project is a 4 x 5 redwood picnic table
my latest project is another 4 x 5 picnic table

Do you ever wonder why we need special projects to accomplish in our lives and why we are not satisfied with the more mundane raking of leaves or washing dishes?

Laura answered this years ago for me by saying that ‘ although all jobs are honorable’, the ‘routine’ jobs really never end and only in ‘projects’ can we see a final effort that lasts long after the work is done. This — of course — was her nice way of saying,” mow the lawn.” However, I confess to not being able to resit tinkering with some project, culinary or otherwise.

24 years ago, I was very dissatisfied with a particular kind of outdoor furniture. I didn’t like the flimsiness of red wood picnic tables you could buy or make. I wanted a table that I could stand on one corner and it wouldn’t move. Given my ponderous size at the time, this was really saying something. One of the local lumberyards had some returned redwood in unusual sized ( 2 by 12 in particular) and priced right. What I needed was a design and most of the tables I found  were rectangular and didn’t provide for social interaction of 4 couples or eight people. I knew I had to design one myself.

I called this table my ‘four seasons’ table after the Rotary Club I belonged to at the time in which 4 random couples would dine at one home socially each month. This worked great when there were only 8 people, but I have finally  decided to make another table. I love my ‘double trestle’ design because everyone can easy talk to anyone gathered there.

Besides, projects are fun after all.

UPDATE:

now ofr four benches!

Roger

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iPad envy is a terrible thing


Everyone in my family loves technology, especially something new. Each generation of technology was fun for us to explore. We all joke about the days when updating an Apple meant knowing how to use a soldering iron! I remember cutting into a case to add the first floppy disk, then the 3 1/4, cd and dvd and all the recording versions. If you are old enough, you’ll remember when a floppy handled a whopping 10k of memory and buying a computer without a hard disk. We’ve even beta tested a few items which was fun, especially new video game systems. We smile back at those times. We may never meet any of the geniuses associated with these great devices, but we are grateful for the sense of awe they bring, their usefulness and practicality…. and yes, for the envy it causes in others!  😉

So one day, we are all on the conference phone discussing Apple’s latest mobile devise called the iPad and ‘wondering’ which iPad — if any — is worthy of purchase? After much discussion, we agreed that we each would buy the  WiFi 6G 64GB as it had virtually everything. They’ll be shipped at the end of the month and the only question remains is who will get theirs first?

Here’s a nice discussion on iPad:

iPad-Wikipedia

iPad — at Apple


Yes, I have heard from a few friends that we are once again being mislead on the quest for truth and enlightenment. We have heard that the iPad is just a fad and this too will pass. They said the same thing about the personal computer thirty years ago.  However, I am reminded of Mark Twain’s famous remark,”denial is not just a river in Egypt!.”

iPad envy is a terrible thing.

Roger Freberg

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immortality in a mousepad

immortality in a mousepad
Laura, do you now feel 'immortalized'? 😉

What really is immortality? This is a wonderful question pondered by many great minds over the millennium and although some prefer to shrug the suggestion, others find solace, hope and comfort.

Historically, immortality was an expression of a religious belief. Scientific writings as late as the early 1800’s often began with an expression of how their work was not religious blasphemy, but was, in truth, another expression of the miracles around us.

The American Psychologist  William James was someone who wrestled with concepts that often had a foothold in two worlds: scientific (psychological/philosophical) and religious. Conflicting perspectives weren’t unusual at the turn of the century (1900’s) as the theory of evolution was finding both acceptance and resistance. Scientific exploration was continuing to explode and a dichotomy between what we thought we knew and what science was beginning to theorize came in sharp contrast. In a final funny quip, William James concludes one of his seminal works with the following about salvation (immortality):

“For practical life at any rate, the chance of salvation is enough. No fact in human nature is more characteristic than its willingness to live on a chance. The existence of a chance makes the difference, as  Edmund Gurney says, between a life of which the keynote is resignation and a life of which the keynote is hope. But all these statement are unsatisfactory from their brevity, and I can only say that I hope to return to the same question in another book.”

William James ( page 526-527, “The Varieties of Religious Experiences”, 1903)

The ancient Egyptians believed that a person lived on simply by mentioning their name and they certainly carved the name of their pharaohs into every pillar and wall lest we forget. However, I think real ‘immortality’ is simply being remembered by those important to you.

So, this goes a long way to say that I created a little bit of ‘immortality’ for Laura… a mouse pad with a picture of her and her new book. Laura, do you feel ‘immortalized?’  😉

Roger

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a taste of Brazil

a taste of brazil

Whenever members of my family travel , we like to immerse ourselves  into certain aspects of their culture. Since my daughters will be going to a convention in Rio de Janeiro, we thought it would be fun to look at some of the local fare. Charles Darwin ( I’ll cover that in another post) wrote in his ‘Journal’ about the two types of meals he found in parts of South America: roast meat or boiled meat and sometimes a little pumpkin. 😉  In the south of Brazil, they love barbecue or “Churrasco”. These were my kind of guys!

Brazilian Barbecue
'Churrasco' or Brazilian Barbecue

Today, however, we will be talking about Brazil’s National drink… the ‘Caipirinha’ made with ‘Cachaça’ or Brazilian sugar cane rum. There are three types of rum you can buy from Brazil: 1) rum made purely for export 2) what they refer to as ‘industrial’ or from large operations and 3) the ‘artisian’. Personally, I like the sound of a smaller batch rum made and distilled in copper kettles, so the ‘artisian’ is what I was searching. I settled on “Cabana”.

Interestingly enough the name ‘Caipirinha’ means ‘from the country’ and some say it closely resembles our concept of ‘hillbilly’.

Here is their basic recipe:

2 oz. — Cachaça

2 teaspoons — crystal sugar

ice

lime

Process: take a few slices of lime and cover with the sugar and mash together, add ice, then the rum and stir! It is a simple yet nice drink… make one and it might become your favorite as well!

Saude!, Viva!, Topa!

Roger Freberg