Sea to Shining Sea

  USING AOL with BLOGGER

I have updated this post! Now I give the complete instructions on how to link AOL photographs in BlogSpot! AOL BLOGGER HINTS is now at my AOL web site. Check it out and give me some feed back. I also can email the document to anyone interested as PDF and its is better quality but larger file. Also I apologize for the large first picture. I will clean that up so, but Photoshop grew my file when I added the comment bubble in the first pic?

Your statement: BASE HREF="http://members.aol.com/aolname/" is correct. I noticed that your members.aol.com directory did not have any photos... only a README file. I think that some how the picture got into that "private" directory. I have included here a screen shot of the AOL environement that I am in when I upload a file.

I goto vist AOL Hometown
then I goto see my FTP space
then I would make a directory for my photos
then push the upload button

 

¶ 7:24 PM

  My Cat Raskle

Introducing my daugther Elizabeth! She has her own BLOG now! It is an AOL Journal called A Ray of Sun Shine

Here is one of her first entries. Go over to her journal and the rest of her web site to see how she is doing. She had caught the fever now that she has been watching John publish on Hoppin Readin Review! John's site is on Blogger where his Book Reviews have been a big hit!

My Cat Raskle

By Elizabeth

My cats name is Raskle. He is very cute, and cuddly. I named him Raskle because he is always trying to bite and scratch you. He can climb up trees. We some times let him out side so he can see what it is like to be in a neighborhood. Instead of getting him from the pet store, I got him from my grandpa. We got him to Texas by keeping him in a box. Luckily we had enough food for him. We also had enough milk for him. We ate peanut butter sandwiches in the car. We had a big adventure. It was very fun and exciting. We still don't know how old he is, but we know he is a boy cat. He eats cat food. He enjoys it very much. I think he likes us, and we like him. It is fun. He was a very fierce cat but I know he could change. He didn't scratch my mom. Today he got stuck in our tree but he will come down. I'll tell you about the farm. At the farm my grandpa has only cats. But I still like it.

The End


Please visit the rest of Elizabeth's web site

 

¶ 1:56 PM

  Cousins

Well it was great being back in Bemidji a second time! (refer to my second post!) The bon-fires remained impressive and the time was relaxed. It was warm, and the kids hit the water, and Max leaped into the water! This dog was crazy. Even though he was a rottweiler he completely loved to dive in at the end of the dock. He also was a lean and strong dog and so did not have any extra buoyancy, but that did not limit his range in the water.

Joel was up to a match of Go. I love to play this ancient Chinese game. The great appeal to me is that the rules are easy but the strategy is hard. In fact the rules are deceptively easy for a game that is like a national sport in Japan where I learned the game. It was televised on TV just like a foot ball game! They even had announcers and analysis. Dan was able to make an exchange with John, my son, for the books that John had completed in the previous five weeks. By the way you can always see what John thought at Hoppin Readin Review . Both Jonathan and Jeremy took Elizabeth out with the four wheeler.

Jeremy has some unique wisdom that he shared in the fun spirit of the summer around the fire. Here is a transcript from part of that conversation:


Jeremy: "Converse All Starts you got to have them."

John: "Why"

Jeremy: "because they are popular, inexpensive ,..."

Background: "All the cool kids wear them"

Jeremy: "and I wear them, Ya, got to have 'em"
(Jeremy the Chief of Cool)

John: "What have they done for you in your life?"

Jeremy: "Well I am faster, stronger, and more good look all for 40 dollars or less"

Continued laughing in the background.

John: "Do you agree? So how do you rate Converse, Natalie?" (Jer's girl friend)

Natalie: "I own pairs, but when I walk they left dinosaur imprints, so that is my reason for buying them."

John: "Very good."

Natalie: "high top old school"


Jer, I promise to put the actual movie clip up on the net when I get more disk space:)

I want to give an especially big thanks to Denise and Nancy for letting us hang at the lake. And thanks for the real wild rice! I mean real wild rice, the kind that is long grained and broken brown. Not that harsh black domesticated wild rice. This rice is still harvested by beating it into a canoe! Thanks.





 

¶ 1:50 PM

  Lake Midge

Before harvest engulfed us and made itself the number one priority, an encore visit to my cousins in Minnesota was in order. Their cabin is on Lake Midge near Bemidji. For those of us that have been fortunate to spend time in Minnesota, we know why it is the state of a thousand lakes (vs North Dakota as the state of a million sloughs). It is also a place of great serenity and peacefulness. This is especially true when the loons sing. What beautiful and melancholy songs between lovers, bobbing heads, and diving into the cool waters. A pair of loons promenaded around our canoe while John and I traversed through the Lilly pads. I was amazed at how close they came to our boat. They seems to enjoy the company, or was it that they were so engrossed in their own play? In either case they were a joy to us.





 

¶ 9:42 PM

  The Hub of the Extended Family
One of the great things about going back to your roots is visiting members of your extended family. For me that means seeing all my cousins, aunts, and uncles. But most of all it means seeing my great aunt Dorothy who keeps the communication going between the divers members of the family that have literally spread from Sea to Shining Sea! She lives in Valley City, North Dakota only 20 miles from the farm. We have been thinking of having a Craft family reunion to celebrate the 100 th year of the farm. The Crafts moved from their homestead in Sanborn to Spiritwood, the location of the present day farm, in early 1905. Alice, Adeline, Dorothy, and Blanch are all part of my great grand father's family. There were 18 brothers and sisters that grew up in Spiritwood! Thank God that Dorothy can keep all the third and fourth generations straight.


 

¶ 8:01 AM

  Breaking Down an Equation

How do you own an equation rather than letting it own you. First break it down. That is figure out how many different kinds of question could be asked from that equation, and know how to solve all of them. Consider the first order rate equation for chemical reaction kinetics.

Example:

Start by listing down the question you could ask:

1) Find t
2) Find k
3) Find Ao
4) Find A
5) Find %A
6) Find %P

A) How long would it take to complete 80% of the reaction given the k = 7xE02 sec-1?
B) An experimenter started a half liter with a [5] molar solution of material and when the reaction was monitored in 45 minutes only 1.2 moles remained. Compute the rate constant.
C) What was the initial concentration of the substrate if after 30 minutes the concentration was 30uM and the k=5xE-03 sec-1?
D) What is the concentration of substrate after 1 hour in problem B?
E) What percentage of substrate remains after 20 minutes when the k = 8xE-05?
F) What percentage of the product remains after 10 minutes from the setup in problem E? Problem C?
G) Compute the time it take for half the substrate to be consumed when the rate constant is k=7.5xE-02?

Now answer all the questions for the second order equation:

1/[A] = 1/[Ao] + kt



Could all the questions be answered? Why not?

 

¶ 7:25 PM

  A Progressive State

North Dakota is a unique state from many perspectives. It has a long tradition of progressive politics. I think that it is the only state that had "state socialistic institutions" like the State Bank, State Mill, and State Wheat Board. It had a major political force, the Non-Partisan League, that controlled much of the state politics. These politics were a back lash to what was often exploitation by the east (and the extended railroad interests) and more recently by Minnesota, which considers North Dakota like a colony. In fact for most of North Dakota's modern history, North Dakota's economic welfare was dictated by the export of agricultural products to Minneapolis or Duluth. It also was a strong supporter of the Populist Party candidate James Weaver for president in 1892 giving him its electoral college votes. In 1912 Theodore Roosevelt won the neighboring states of South Dakota and Minnesota so I expect the state was pretty split between Taft, Roosevelt, and Wilson. Wilson won the state... I found the state tally at http://www.presidentelect.org/e1912.html#state. Wilson only won 10 states with over 50% of the vote and he got 13 states with LESS than 40% of the vote. North Dakota was the second weakest state he won with only 34.2%. Theodore got 29.7% and Taft got 26.6%. 112 electoral college votes went to Wilson from states that he won with less that 40% of the vote. Classic divide and conquer.




North Dakota was the bridge to the western exploration by Lewis and Clark. In fact Sacagawea will be the state's representative in the Museum of Statues in Washington DC. She has long been an icon in the states identity. Her statue was on display on the capital grounds before the trip to DC. We were very fortune to meet the security guard right at 5:00. The capital was closing, but he asked where we were from and when he found out that we had come from Texas, well he insisted that we get the personal tour of the chambers. A party had also arrived from New Jersey and they were also making a national tour of state capitol buildings.





Theodore Roosevelt made his ranch home in the state. We of course stopped at both the south and north unit of the National Park. Though I would have to say that the park is one of the poorer managed parks that I have been to. Facilities and picnic areas are sparse and poorly placed and there is no reasonable access to the river unless you have a horse. I am sure it would be a good destination if you planned a trail ride, but for a stop off the freeway with a tent... well I expected better access. The best picnic area ended up being back in Medora at the old packing pant site. I would call Theodore Roosevelt National Park a "hit and run" location.



And finally, one of my favorite trivia facts of the state is that it would be the third largest nuclear power if it secede from the union. That is because both Grand Forks and Minot have large bomber fleets and the state is peppered with ICBM silos. It protects the northern shield and has one of the largest flight times for an incoming missile from either the Russian main land or submarine. That would give crews and operators the longest possible lead time to make a response to the attack. Fortunately, the scale of these systems have been reduced and the need for the Civil Defense handbooks that we had as kids on how to build a bomb shelter are obsolete.
 

¶ 7:24 AM