The Semicolon is Not a Surgical Procedure.

As an unofficial member of the apostrophe posse, I was thrilled to hear that the oft overlooked and misused matter of punctuation is actually celebrated today with National Punctuation Day.

There's a great book called, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss , but if you don't have time to read it, here's a fun game you can play instead.

Be sure to check out this site from the UK.

If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.
~Doug Larson, British Olympic Gold Medalist, 1924

Bienvenu l'automne

Instead of my own words, here's a selection of prose by more eloquent writers:

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.
~Albert Camus

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. ~George Eliot

October's poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter. ~Nova Bair

falling leaves
hide the path
so quietly
~John Bailey

Enjoy the crispy leaves and cool days.

La Liberation de Paris

At the dawn's early light on August 25, 1944, the 2nd French Armored Division entered Paris, ending the long German occupation of the City of Light. Despite Hitler's order to destroy Paris, General Dietrich von Choltitz refused the order and instead surrendered to French Major General Jacques Le Clerc. Later that day, President Charles de Gaulle led a parade down the Champs Elysees.

On February 13, 1944, Tech Sgt John Prasch was killed over Germany while on manuevers for D-Day. It wasn't until 1971 that a family member visited his grave at the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer France, also known as Omaha Beach. I was that family member, a 20 year old college student at the end of a 3 month European trip. That visit to my Uncle John's resting place was a pivotal moment in my life, for not only was he my Mother's only brother, but also my Father's best friend. I will never understand the pain they must have felt when they got the news, yet I am inexplicably tied to an Uncle I never knew, a war I never experienced, and the historical importance of that war, fought by the Greatest Generation.

Defend Paris to the last, destroy all bridges over the Seine and devastate the city.
~Adolf Hitler - August 1944

Attended thanksgiving service…for liberation of Paris…hearing the Marseillaise gave me a great thrill. France seemed to wake again after being knocked out for five years.
~General Sir Alan Brooke - 28th August 1944

The Sounds of Silence

It's a noisy world we live in, so when I seek refuge from chaos even from my work at the library, I am elated when I find the rare silence to be deafening. I'm pleased to report that at least one famous author saw it in the same way:

A man's silence is wonderful to listen to.
- Thomas Hardy

Summer Fun!

Wow, it's the middle of August already! We've had a pleasant, albeit short summer in terms of warm weather, but September and October are still ahead, and the Northwest is best in early autumn.

Was 1968 really 40 years ago? Apparently so, since this past weekend John and I went to his HS reunion in Grandview, Washington. We had great fun, and that's given me the extra incentive to attend my own reunion in October. If I could do anything about the passage of time, I'd be avoiding it like the plague, but I'm actually looking forward to seeing which classmates show up for the shindig.

Perhaps my best weekend so far this summer was going to Cannon Beach with my good pal, Kim. It was a perfect trip all around, with requisite long beach walks, great people watching, and an amazing meal at EVOO, Cannon Beach Cooking School. Wandering the beach at low tide was the icing on the cake, with starfish and sea anemones and puffins aplenty.

Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.
~Henry James

SNL Favorites

For the past 4 weeks I've been rising quite early to work out at an outdoor 'boot camp' at beautiful Green Lake in Seattle. A few days ago there was a group of runners who took off for the 3 mile trail around the lake. As each runner returned to the start, someone would enthusiastically ring a very loud cowbell. So as we boot camp girls puffed through our crunches, it became quite hilarious when someone yelled, 'more cowbell, please,' reminding me of another of my fave Saturday Night Live skits. And since I'm on the subject, check this one out, too. Ah, the golden days of SNL.

I got a FEVER! And the only prescription...is MORE COWBELL!
~Bruce Dickinson (Christopher Walken)

Down to Business

I am not the only person who uses his computer mainly for the purpose of diddling with his computer.
~Dave Barry

Creating a blog was originally part of a work assignment called Web 2.0. However, I seem to have strayed off course by blogging about OTHER important topics. So I will summarize here my impressions of all that is part of Web 2.0.

To Infinity and Beyond...Despite dragging my feet on several assignments, I must say I really enjoyed the Web 2.0 experience. I've cut my teeth on several 'new' facets of the web and had fun doing it. I would absolutely and willingly participate in future exercises like this!

Gaming...I've grown fond of wasting a bit of time now and again playing mahjong/scrabble/snood or solving a crossword puzzle. I'm happy to know that there are still more opportunities to indulge my whims when the spirit moves me. After all, everyone needs to take some time to blow the cobwebs out!

Maps and Geotagging...I think Google Earth is one of the coolest sites ever! The street shots are still a bit surrealistic to me, so I kept it simple and zoomed in on my family home in San Mateo, California. When I zoom in on our house in Seattle, I can guess by cars, house color and green or brown grass when the image was 'beamed up'. Fun stuff...

Wiki...I do like the idea of wikis for planning events and ongoing discussion, but again, email or the good old phone can work here as well, although eventually land lines may find this to be their graveyard...

Avatars and Second Life...fun to know about, but not enough time or inclination to create a fantasy world that reaches beyond my penchant for certain reality shows.

Online Application Tools...since I have Microsoft Office at work and home, I am unlikely to have a need for these, but it's nice to know they exist.

Search Engines....One of the millions stuck in a Google rut, I was happy to try out other search engines. Searching dogpile is just...well, fun. Still a Google girl, however.

Podcasting...I downloaded several podcasts last year before vacation. I was able to learn a bit of Spanish and catch up with a few of my favorite NPR shows while airport delays vanished.

Playtime with Online Generators...So much advertising seems to 'junk up' the screen. I want fewer distractions from a website.

Overdrive.....For all the time that SIL has had this product, I've been asked for help just a few times. I'm still not on this bandwagon myself, but a product that's so user friendly is a good thing!

Social Bookmarking....I now absolutely LOVE del.icio.us. It has replaced Favorites, as it is much more useful and logical to me. Seems strange coming from someone like me who avoids the visual catalog like the plague.

YouTube, Hulu...How else could I satisfy the urge to watch Chris Farley as Matt Foley on SNL. His skit about 'living in a van, down by the river' is simply too funny to believe. RIP, Chris. I call YouTube 'Hoover', because it just sucks the time out of my life as I surf around looking for ridiculous videos. It's good to know that when my Tivo croaks that I can watch my favorite silly shows on Hulu, too.

Facebook, MySpace...I'm not a social networker on these sites although I once set up an account on Facebook and promptly deleted it (I thought) when I starting getting weird emails. I really don't like putting my whole life out for the world to see...it creeps me out.

Flickr...I haven't yet made the full leap to Flickr, although I use Picasa2 for my photos. Soon I will download one to the other so I, too, can have a cool slideshow on my blog.

Technology... the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it.
~Max Frisch