Here are some interesting experiments I conducted during a fireworks show back in July.

July 4, 2009 at 5:00 PM

Keswick Park at 3496 Keswick Dr.

Chamblee’s annual July 4th Celebration include a children’s parade, games, food vendors and the best fireworks in the area!

Contact: Joel Holmes
Phone: (770) 986-5016
Email: jholmes@chambleega.com

Source: City of Chamblee

The plan for the day – Redwood City Parade and Carnival and then meet Daniel and Riley in Daly City for Dinner.

And it actually worked out exactly as planned with no drama, perfectly behaved kids and a great time.

We arrived in Redwood City at 09:45, found great parking, headed down to the parade route, and found a place right on the curb. This was the first parade the kids have been to, and the first I’ve been to in a gazillion years.

It was very fun – very small town-ish, but very fun. They sat in the same place for an hour and half watching, clapping and laughing.

Then we ventured in the carnival area and the kids went nuts – rides, games, music and fair food. We hit one of the kiddy car rides that go in a circle and (of course) I got nauseas – but they loved it. 3 minutes = $12 – damn!

We then hit the fair games and did a couple here and there – but when we got to the fish bowl toss I was floored – both kids got the ball in the bowl and won a fish each! Teh lady threw in extra one and now we have three little goldfish at home. (let’s see how long they last…)

We then headed home and like clockwork they both napped (Ale for 90min and Luca for 2 hrs) – and I actually took a nap and then watched the Wimbledon Semifinal match between Nadal and Schuettler – great 2nd set but Nadal ended up beating him in three – looks like another Nadal – Federer final on Sunday.

At 5pm we headed up to Westlake Mall in Daly City (foggy and cold vs. 75 and sunny in Burlingame) to meet Daniel and Riley – Daniel is looking for a location for his SNIP IT franchise and wanted me to have a look. We ended up eating at a burger joint and the kids behaved beautifully. God it mades SUCH a difference when they are behaved.

On our way home we stopped at Safeway to do some quick shopping and they were in bed sleeping by 8:45pm.

Perfect Day! Now to celebrate the the day and the birth of our nation, I shall sit back on the couch with a bowl of Lucky Charms.

ta ta.

Snip it.

All factual information below is taken from http://www.monticello.org.  To learn more please visit their website.

My husband andI recently visited Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, along with my parents.  Monticello is located in the Charlottesville, Virginia area.  Monticello was built beginning in 1769 in the Roman Neoclassicism style and was finished in 1809.

Jefferson, at 33 years old, was the youngest member of congress when the Second Continental Congress met beginning in May of 1776.  The purpose of the meeting was to draft up a statement explaining why the colonies wanted independence.

Jefferson was very quiet in the Congress but was selected to draft the declaration because according to Adams he “can write ten times better than I can”.  Jefferson spent about 2 and a half weeks working on the draft of the declaration.  Franklin and Adams requested only a few small changes and the draft was given to the Congress on June 28, 1776. However, delegates from South Carolina andGeorgia would not sign it because of the language against slavery. There were also delegates from New England who would not sign because their merchants had profited from the slave trade. Congress debated the issue, and all language about slavery was taken out.

From late Tuesday July 2 through Thursday July 4th, Congress made changes in Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration. Jefferson’s text was cut by about a fourth. Congress also included the words of Lee’s Resolution “That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States.” On July 4th delegates from twelve colonies voted for the written declaration.

That day, in the late afternoon, Congress approved the written Declaration of Independence. John Hancock, president of Congress, signed it, making the document “legal and binding.” On August 2nd, it was signed by the members of Congress, including Thomas Jefferson.

Page 1 of Jefferson’s rough draft.

As we left Monticello that day we were able to walk by the cemetery where Thomas Jefferson was buried. I had never known that Thomas Jefferson actually died on July 4th, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence!

Teachers: Monticello offers a wonderful FREE resource for teachers and students. Visit http://classroom.monticello.org for more information!

Happy Fourth of July!

Our country was born of
contempt for privilege.

Yet today we are besmirched

for having those same
patriotic opinions.

By John E. Carey
Peace and Freedom
July 4, 2007

I am never sure whether it is our American culture that shapes our TV, movies and other media or whether our media shapes our thinking to such an extent that it changes culture.

Probably a little bit of both.

What is culture? One very good online dictionary calls it “The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought. These patterns, traits, and products considered as the expression of a particular period, class, community, or population.”

On July 4, 1963, as a young lad, I was fortunate enough to be at Gettysburg, PA. The Centennial of the greatest land battle in the history of North America had just concluded. That Centennial event was marked with religious services, re-enactors in uniforms and period clothing from the 1860s, and my Dad’s gigantic Ford “Country Squire.”

Just as a reminder, on July 4, 1863, some 50,000 Americans lay dead on the fields and in the town of Gettysburg. The slaves had been freed but the issue of one or two nations sharing this part of the continent was still undecided.

In 1963 at that Centennial, America had a vastly different culture than it has today. JFK was president and the Republican Party largely cooperated with the government called “Camelot.”

In 1963, at Gettysburg, there were no protesters, many men wore a “crew cut,” homosexuality was not discussed, girls wore skirts to the knee, and the Beatles were still hot.

In 1963 there was no Paris Hilton (whom we admire for what? I forget.), no Brittany Spears, and our sex lives and drug use and times in rehab were private matters.

In 1963 there was no internet, no chat rooms, no U-Tube, no talk radio, no Jerry Springer and no Oprah. And Vietnam had not yet become a common word in America.

In 1963, a survey said the most valued and cherished things about a marriage was children. Abortion was illegal and people went to worship their own God in their own way on Sunday – in droves.

In 1963, movie giants like John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Jimmy Stuart and Robert Mitchum were still on the silver screen or in re-runs on TV.  The stars where big and tough, Hollywood filmed epics, and the themes were often based in hitory.  In 1962 and 1963 movies like “Cleopatra,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Birdman of Alcatraz,” and “H.M.S. Defiant” were made.

It seems to me, but I could be wrong, in 1963, most adult Americans were married and not divorced, people didn’t live together in “alternative life styles,” families ate dinner together (and Mom actually cooked — she didn’t bring home pre-made food from the grocery) and we Americans were no so preoccupied with money, big houses and whiz bang cars.

In 1963 we had time for each other and discussed in diners and bars.  Forget about magically disappearing from a face to face talk with your cell phone or lap top.  People were more “really connected” I think: not digitally enhanced.

In 1963 America was an industrial powerhouse, we made most of the cars in the world, and the auto workers and steel men were protected by powerful unions.  Everything that came from China was junk.  Now, junk or not, everything in Sears and WalMart was made in China.

A woman born in Japan who has lived here in the United States most of her life reflected on all this to me just yesterday. She recalled to me the human sacrifices made during World War II but reminded me that we might be living in a Nazi and Japanese warlord world had it not been for D-Day, Stalingrad, and Iwo Jima.

Think of that: a Japanese American stood telling me how import it was that her homeland lost World War II.Then she went on to bemoan our current culture, born in the protests and LSD of the late 1960s.

What some liberals do not seem to understand is why there is now such a phenomena as “Conservative Christians.” The answer is pretty simple: some people reject the America we have become and long for the greatness of the America we once were.

Personally, I ignore most of our current culture as the stuff found on the floor of a horse barn. I never did see one episode of “The Sopranos,” I missed entirely “American Idol,” and I was reading American history while others gobbled up “Harry Potter.”

I am not a reactionary and I love America and Americans very deeply but I do not wallow on the barn floor either.

The younger generation can make of America what it will and take from America what it wants: but there are consequences and there will be more (like when China surpasses the U.S. entirely in everything).

The conservative http://www.spectator.org/ had this to say regarding American culture recently:

“John Wayne reigned as one of Hollywood’s kings for nearly 40 years, and his support of his country’s war efforts — from American settlement of the West to stopping Communism both here and abroad — got him into trouble as the nation’s ideas about patriotism took a sharp turn to the left. …

“[W]hy then is there no John Wayne today? Anyone who surveys the current scene and is old enough to remember the days of the Duke surely knows the answer. The sublime Katharine Hepburn summed it up more eloquently than anyone:

” ‘John Wayne is the hero of the ’30s and ’40s and most of the ’50s. Before the creeps came creeping in. Before — in the ’60s — the hero slid right down into the valley of the weak and the misunderstood. Before the women began dropping any pretense to virginity into the gutter. With a disregard for truth, which is indeed pathetic. And unisex was born. The hair grew long and the pride grew short. And we were off to the anti-hero. John Wayne survived all this.’”

— Lisa Fabrizio, writing on “The Duke of America,” June 27 in the American Spectator Online at http://www.spectator.org/

So I long for heroes this 4th of July.  Harry Reid, Tom Cruise and others like them just are not doing it for me.

And we have a post-script for this rant.  Today we attended a small town family Fourth of July Celebration and parade.  It was campy and quaint and I cried.  It seemed like every child and dog participated; yet in keeping with America’s diversity and understanding, we also saw: a “Gay Band” (They call themselves the “Different Drummers”); Chinese Dragon Dancers; Scottish Bagpipers; and representatives from several civic and city groups (a Dump Truck and several Fire Engines were just as a part of the celebration as the kids and dogs).  It was very American and just great!

Happy Independence Day to all my fellow Americans!  Enjoy this special day with your family and friends.  I got to go ’show my face’ at my family’s pinic…Don’t want to but I got to.  I am sure I will have some fun stories tomorrow.

Until then…Keep Smiling and Keep it MOVING.

First friday’s big j and yeahdef will be blending the nicest high/middle school jams eva.

if you do not RSVP – you will not get in for free!
suite.basement@gmail.com

One of the new rituals I promised to integrate into my life is regular exercise.

I decided my first new ritual would be going to bed even if the chore aren’t done.  Hah.  I live in a village where fireworks go off all night every night for 2 weeks before and 1 week after the 4th.  And J’s been waking up with teething pain.  So that hasn’t worked out as well as I want but I know that if I keep myself in the habit of going to bed when I should it will get better as the next week wears on and J gets through it.  So now that I’ve spent a week on that I’m working on the exercise part.  This is the one I dread.

I’m calling the gym for info Monday.  It’s too hot to run outside here in the summer for long.

But I thought I’d at least try a short run with J in the stroller tonight.  PB was watching Pooh.  We had a few minutes before the landlord came back from town and stopped to pick up my check.  I made it to the stop sign and back in under ten minutes.  It’s about 1/3 of a mile away.  On gravel.  With a stroller.  And it was about 98°.  And when we got back I learned that PB spent the entire 10 minutes screaming that I’d left him behind.

But I did get to break in my new shoes.  And it seemed to help J go to bed with less of a fight.  I’m still going to bite the bullet and join a gym.  I was surprised how just a little bit of working out helped me out last week.  And I know that I need to make myself do this.  Grandma’s agreed to pick the kids up 2x a week so I can stop off on my way home.

I don’t want to spend the money, the time, the effort.  I don’t work out.  It just isn’t me.  I’m always moving, always on the go, even at my desk.  But obviously it isn’t enough real work.  An average preformance level shouldn’t hurt like it did.  And, lets face, I’ll get a few minutes all to myself.  Doing something I hate, but am determined to learn to love.

In high school I had a fitness evaluation for an aerobics class I took to get out of PE.  At 16 I had the body fat compostion and cardo strenght of an olympic athelet.  And now I’m barely average.  Sigh.

Granted, at that time, I have just moved 2,000 feet down in elevation and I didn’t own a car.  Also, I hadn’t been smoking nearly as long.

So I’m gonna make myself do this.  Besides, I just had to face the truth that I really do feel better after sweating and panting for 30 minutes.  Ugh.

Last night was my first venture to a Shoot Miami Meetup. Anytime you get a group of people together who are passionate about one topic, good discussions are sure to follow.  In attendance were people hailing from a wide variety of camera platforms – Nikon, Canon, Sony, etc – and photographic experience levels.

The upstairs room of John Martin’s Irish Pub in the Gables was filled with photographic portfolios from the members. Some of these photographs yielded stories of photographing gators from a few feet away, painting with light, and macro (or micro, depending on platform) shooting techniques referencing a variety of subject matters.

The gathering was informative and helpful. ZiZi, the group leader, is heading up the Photo Walk along Lincoln Road on the 18th of July – I’ll be leading the South Beach walk around the same time. They have a Fourth of July outing planned for Miami Beach, as well as a meetup for the Miami – Homestead Speedway FARA Race in early August.

I look forward to doing more with this group in the future. The seem very low-key and willing to share ideas and techniques.