Pathways

I wanted to somewhat recreate a photo from near this location that I had taken years before – it always seems to have nice reds in the trees at this particular cemetery in Arlington, Mass and it’s on the way home. So I pulled over real quick and did a quick jaunt through. I found he original location and took some shots but wasn’t really wowed by them this year – I was going to put one of those up but as I was leaving I turned to my left and saw the structure you see in this shot and I felt it might provide a good frame. I think it came out pretty good. I am wishing I had maybe visited a week earlier since we’ve had a lot of wind and rain lately so a lot of the leaves had fallen off the trees. I think if the trees were fuller in this shot it may have looked even better. Maples do produce the best reds I feel.

Meanwhile back at Earth-1 we’ve had some furnace issues but better to take care of that now then to wait until it really gets cold. Anyways that’s all set now too – seemed to be some kind of wiring issue as to why the radiators weren’t producing heat – I even bled them all the other night.

Goat Snuggles

Went up to Georgetown for the afternoon to try out some ‘Goat Snuggles.’ Definitely worth the trip even in the pouring rain! The baby goats were dressed in various costumes for Halloween (although some costumes we still can;t figure out what they were supposed to be). It was better than I expected! They generally do all the activities outside but the weather was terrible so it was held in this amazing looking 5-story barn. We would surely visit them again someday – maybe next spring.

With over 200 pictures taken it’s a bit of a challenge to figure out which ones to put up, they’re all so cute! Maybe more later…

‘Skully’ Lives Again

Cabin in the Woods at Moose Hill. Is Slender-man in there?

Got back from doing some errands today. Had to get some candy to hand out later next week. Also picked up a bunch of hearing aid size batteries to replace the dead ones in this skull light up thing that we use every year as a decoration. I totally sure I had gotten the right size but when I placed them into old ‘Skully’ it worked and lit up brightly. Why the hell it would need three of them is beyond me. I ended up going to this brand new CVS they just recently opened across the street from the one it was replacing and I was curious to see what it looked like inside. They all pretty much look the same, although this new one is definitely bigger than the one it replaced and even had a fairly large grocery section.

Also spent the afternoon replacing the door summer screens to the house with the solid glass panes because the weather is turning cooler and cooler now. Should keep the heat in a little better as well. Oh, and my lens cap finally arrived today to replace the one I lost in the fields of Long Valley, NJ last week.

Pulling Muscle

No lie, this is the back yard view right now from the sun room.

I don’t know what the heck I did last night but my left shoulder up to my neck is killing me right now. Perhaps I slept on it wrong, or I don’t know, but it’s a real bummer. I did power on and mow the front lawn however because it really needed it but I should probably take it easy. While sitting out in the sun room I noticed the trees out back looked pretty nice, so I took a quick picture. Going to suck having to deal with these leaves when they fall but that’s life.

There may be a pregnant bunny that was witnessed out in the back yard, but it didn’t appear to be Brazen Bunny. Also Squibbs the squirrel out back appears to be clawing and scraping away at the pumpkins out there. Really annoying.

I’m messing around with the site design a little bit. Might go back to what it was before, but I do like how this design puts my photos front and center. Only thing is it sends all the sidebar material to the bottom of the page (click the ‘plus’ sign to see what I mean down at the very bottom of the page).

I’ll also go back and read my latest issue of KMT magazine, It’s a quarterly that deals with ancient Egypt. This particular issue really strikes me as some of the articles in it are really interesting to me. One about the actual lineage of the 18th dynasty – does it really start with Tao I and end with Tutankhamen? Lots of gray area on that. A really cool article about using state of the art CT scans to look inside mummy coffins to see who and what’s inside including any artifacts they had on without opening them or damaging them (the photo quality they can get now is amazing and in three dimensions) and using iPads and software to recreate the hieroglyphic walls adorning various tombs accurately digitally – a process called digital epigraphy. Told you before I was a complete nerd for this stuff. So with all that I feel I’ve got to try to rest up and let this shoulder heal up a little bit.

Trolley Square

Leaves are falling again.

Been spending the last couple of days learning to run the Moodle LMS and it’s Drupal front end. Not to toot my my own horn, but I do think I’m picking it up rather quickly. It’s not the mist user friendly software in the world and the user interface (UI) is pretty clunky – but it’s some open source free tool so what does one expect. I even created my own example course today with an assignment, a video to watch, and a quiz that one must pass in order to get the certificate of completion. So I think I have the basics down. Seems like they mostly use this tool for users to self-learn so don’t have to do any grading or any of that other teacher kind of stuff. I found some really helpful videos on how to use the software on LinkedIn of all places. Guess I’ll still play around with it until I get some actual requests to start building some real course material. It’s not that bad really once you figure out where everything is (kinda all over the place and like I said, not the most intuitive interface) but I can deal.

Back from Jerz

Stop along Mystic, CT

Spent the weekend in Long Valley, NJ doing the pumpkin thing. Met up with some folks too who needed an ear, but didn’t stay long. Did get called “Massholes” down in Jerz which was kinda funny. Picked a pumpkim myself and even a gourd, as is my custom. This particular gourd is kind of cool because it naturally grew somewhat in the shape of a starfish. Never saw anything like that before. I also lost my lens cap in the field on the hayride back but I’ve since placed another one on order.

Finally picked Sean, the pumpkin we’ve been growing up here. He looks a little deformed on one side actually but it’s all good.

Train of thought

Taking a seat and enjoying the show of Autumn in New England.
  • Picked up bagged some leaves that had fallen off the trees.
  • Finally got a haircut. Much needed and I really like how it came out.
  • Went to the store to get some minor snacks for myself
  • Went to the Depot to get some batteries and a nice celosia I saw last week on sale. The batteries are for the exercise bike we got for free last week. Good model. How often it actually gets used – time will tell. It works!
  • Caught up on a bunch of little things around here.
  • For some reason, the town is ripping up the grass edgings along the street – I imagine they are going to replant it new?

Moodling

Boston Common

I’m currently in training learning how to administer an LMS (Learning Management System) called Moodle. It’s basically a tool that allows teachers and such to provide online courses to their students and it allows them to do grades and other things of that sort all online. Could be a new direction for me, so I’m giving it the old try.

The Best of Autumn

Autumn scene along a river in Norton, MA.

Beautiful couple of days here – decided to spend it doing a bit of leaf peeping, and saying hello to our animal friends down at the sanctuary. Also stopped by an apple orchard and got some apples for making some apple stuff probably later today, a huge butternut squash from the farm, and some other grocery odds and ends. Also getting the place ready for the upcoming seasons, shutting down the outdoor hoses, moving the grill into the storage shed, etc.

Halloween is coming. Old cemetery in Wrentham, MA.

Joker

Went and saw the movie Joker this afternoon with some friends. I had heard mixed reviews about it going in. Some people loved it, others didn’t.

Yes, it is disturbing, but I kinda liked it. I mean, the Joker is a homicidal maniac after all. This film kind of delves into why he became that way. I didn’t realize he was so much older than Batman however.

Rainy Friday Minutiae

Spent a good part of yesterday reading another book I got from a little library – Still Alice. It was a movie a little while ago too. I’m digging it. Did some chores around the house, went to Home Depot to pick up some things. Had lunch at Burger King (got the original chicken sandwich meal). Trying to figure out why one of LD’s tire sensors is giving incorrect results – even though I went to fill it up in the rain. Probably just needs a reset. Caught the latest episodes of Supergirl (guilty pleasure) and Real Money (was possibly the last episode – ended on a good note I thought if it is). For dinner picked up some fish from an awesome Greek place down by the airport – however they apparently forgot to include a salad which was a bummer but the weather made me not want to go back so I didn’t. Fell asleep on the ouch by 8. That kind of day I guess.

Barbells, Sean Jr., and Books

“Barbell” appetizers!

Some friends of ours are opening a gym, so to celebrate them we created these “barbell” appetizers where the weights consist of different fruits for last night’s get together. We also ended up playing some games, including Scattergories (which is fun but hard, although I did learn from tricks from LD’s friend who visited a while back) and something they brought over called Mexican Train which uses dominoes (and I didn’t care for).

Sean Connery Jr. – getting bigger every day!

Our pumpkin, loving called Sean Connery Jr. because the seeds we planted were from a pumpkin I got the seeds from last year (obtained from same friends mentioned above) and they had named Sean Connery. (The reason why it was named that is a long story that goes back to a previous party outing with them).

We dropped off a bunch of books we had lying around from little libraries and deposited them at a bunch of different little libraries. While there I picked up two new books to read: The Golden King: The World of Tutankhamun (which I know a lot about already as I’m a big ancient Egypt buff – but I do find this book a great introduction to the Boy King) and Proof of Collusion: How Trump Betrayed America. Looks interesting so I’ll give it a read and it seems topical to what’s been going on in the news recently.

Niceties

Check out this nice email this morning.

Mark,

Thanks so much for sending this over. It’s been a crazy week since the contract ended but I want you to know that I will truly miss working with you. Your hard work over the years made a lot of the things I’ve accomplished with x possible and it truly was invaluable.

I wish you the best in everything moving forward.

Regards,

That was so nice! I do miss working on that job – it really helped me out a lot. Meanwhile I’m currently in limbo awaiting whats coming down the pike….somewhat apprehensive of what’s to come.

Relay

Relay. This game is amazing. I was finally able to get to the bonus last level (22) after about a week and a half, although I couldn’t beat it. Really makes you think! I’m looking forward to more of what this team can create.