Hooray! TV is digital now! ??

I've been considering dropping Dish (our cable provider).  We never watch TV anymore. Lately, I don't even watch CNN/Headline News in the mornings - I watch local for the weather and local events.  The kids don't watch TV unless they have a DVD from Netflix or the library.

But then I checked the reception since the BIG SWITCH TO DIGITAL TV and, yeah, I don't get CW or PBS or KET. It gets black squares and the sound goes out.  SO STUPID!  I could watch TV with a little snow and slight hiss.  This is digital = ON|OFF.  It's mostly OFF on a lot of channels I used to get with the old, outdated technology.  And, of course, I can just pitch my 2" portable TV I'd use during storms or camping.

So, we just may keep Dish for a while, if for no other reason than to reward them for rescuing us from the stupidity of digital TV. 

We had to check on the bees since a raccoon had been messing with the hive and shoved the entrance excluder way back in there where it could do no good (there is a certain type of hornet that can destroy a hive if they find an easy way in). I noticed it Tuesday but couldn't do much about it. (You are supposed to work the hives in midday). At first I thought the bees must've gotten into some mud - then I figured it out. The raccoon didn't do much else - they must've defended themselves! They do that well! I've gotten stung twice adding sugar water to the feeder! They weren't kidding when they said the Russian hybrids were more aggressive! The other hive is Italian and doing great! The Russian hybrid is doing about like last year's Italian hive - not too impressive. I didn't see much brood. If I could've found the queen, I think I would've removed her and spliced the two together. Looks like I could probably add a honey super to the Italian hive.

Here we are flipping the cover lid. You have to put it in upside down when you install the packages. We never did flip it over. We pulled out some nice honey comb off the top. It was the best honey any of us has ever tasted! Really! I wonder what percentage sugar water it was? They sure eat a lot. They are out of sugar water again after I topped it off this morning. I wonder if the heat had anything to do with it. I'm definitely taking the smoker when I feed them! Part of it may be the type of feeder in the new hive. It is fairly disruptive to add water to. And no more shorts & tank top!! Ha! I got away with that all year last year! I only donned the gear if I popped the top. Lots to learn and it seems most is by experience. This year, I am "leaving them alone". That is only the 3rd time I've open the hive since April 11th. (The date on the camera is wrong. This pic was from today.)

Fishing Derby this weekend

Ruth and I are staying home to watch the racing homers come in from a 165 mile race. Ruth enjoys sitting out in the yard waiting for them to pop over the horizen too. We work together training the birds. She always calls me when they come in from a training drop - or don't come in on time.

I hate to miss this with Kyle but I think it will be nice for him and his grandfather to have some time together. Besides, I'll be there later. The birds should be back by noon ( just in time for the fishing derby to be over). In the meantime, this will be a neat memory for Kyle and his grandfather.

Great Lecture by Dr. Kenneth Miller

I attended his lecture, entitled “Darwin, God, and Design: America’s Continuing Problem with Evolution". His basic premise was that science and religion need not be at odds - a feeling I share. He expressed himself very well and was entertaining to boot! He has even been on the Colbert Report - twice! I had ordered two of his books and had hoped to have him sign them but they didn't come in. His books sound as if they are nearly identical to my masters thesis idea which I thought was pretty unique up until recently. Of course, I'm sure he's covered the ground much better than I ever will but my thesis is not just focused on cosmology and religion and really has more to do with my personal spiritual journey.

I was impressed with his gracious handling of a presumed fundamentalist who asked basically [paraphrased] "who he thought he was trying to use his finite mind to understand the infinite." He answered he was just a fallible human being trying to answer the same questions everyone was trying to answer while being well aware of his limitations.

I couldn't possibly do his lecture justice in a blog entry so please click the links.

I came across this Google ad in my mail: http://www.byki.com/

So, I gave them my junk mail email address and they started sending me lessons.  I started with the flash cards - easy!  "I know these!"  Then they started presenting them backwards, giving me English and asking for  Russian in multiple choice (I think).  Neat.  "I can do this."  Then
came the hard part: Type your answer in Russian.  I thought I had it right but left off the soft sign - WRONG!  Man!  Some of these Russian words are hard to spell!  (They give you a little Russian keyboard on the screen).  By the time you learn to spell these - you ought to have them down cold!

So I bought it.  I haven't used Rosetta Stone but this was a fraction of the cost so I'm going to say it's a pretty good value.  You can really manipulate the lessons and they way they are presented.  Incidentally, I also recently purchased Berlitz Ear Worms (I know - ewww!) and moved to my MP3 player.  Byki had podcasts too.  Tons of them!  I was shocked at how many podcasts there were!!  They already had a lot more content than most beginner language series.  It's an amazing value - and very portable.  I wish this was one of those sites I could profit off of sharing ideas like that!  :-)

Current Reading List

• Finding Your Religion (for Masters Thesis)
• Seven Daughters of Eve (also for Thesis)
• Saxons, Vikings and Celts (for genealogy, sort of)
• Thomas Jefferson: Writings (for fun - my favorite president)
• The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2008

Yes, even though I'm taking a break on the classes - I am still working on the thesis for my Master of Arts in Liberal Studies. Actually, I was already working on it before I started taking classes.

I got many of my friends and family a copy of The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2008 for Christmas. I thought it would be neat to have something interesting to discuss and share via email. It went over like a lead balloon. :-)

See, that's what I'm talking about

Translating Airat's blog today, I picked up a very useful term (for a computer guy): столы. From his post "Качественные рабочие столы на interfacelift.com". I get "Quality working [table?] on interfacelift.com". Table? I've known стол as table for more than 20 years. I look it up anyway. Yeah - table. So I decide to put it in Google Translate and it translates it as "desktop". Ah! Makes sense! So I guess this is something like "Good stuff for your desktop at interfacelift.com"? Anyway, knowing the word for the computer desktop is useful.