Wordle.net

What a great web site. Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide.

The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

Go try it now! Wordle.net

Here's one I did.


Here's another.



It's so much fun! You won't be sorry.

Last Day Of Work

Today was the last day of work for Bill Gates. He is leaving Microsoft to run the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation along with his wife, Melinda, on a full time basis.

As a testament to the work he has done as a co-founder of Microsoft, I was able to watch the interview Tom Brokaw did with him on my laptop.

Let's hope he's just as successful in his endeavors to eradicate malaria, vaccinate children in third world countries and better educate the world.

After all, he's already made the world a better place for some of us and he's very likely to improve it for those less fortunate.

An Early Morning or A Late Night

Every morning, just about this time, the birds outside come alive. The tweets and chirps are like a symphony that I just can't miss. The sky becomes brighter with the promise of a new day.

I find that I have been staying up for this, or like today, waking up for it.

Either way, it's a nice way to start the day.

Bigotry Is Alive On The Radio

So now we know for sure that Don Imus is a racist.

You would think that he would be careful about what he says, considering there are people listening and it didn't work out so well last time. But no, he spouts off again.

Just goes to show you what a hypocrite he is.

Trouble

Trouble is gone.
The upside down word has left
But everything is still out of focus.

How long before trouble returns?
Will my greens be green again
Or still yellow and blue?

Trouble can build anything,
Taking a piece of wood and
Making a cabinet, a table, a shelf.

Trouble has a heart that
Doesn’t always work,
But trouble doesn’t know how
To ask for help to fix it.

Trouble is gone.

I wrote this poem about Dennis about 6 or 7 years ago while taking a writing class at Brown. Needless to say, Dennis never stays gone. But last February(07) I put my foot down and banished him forever. This morning I get a call; how are you doing? Blah, blah, blah. He knows where I live, knows Patrick lives next to me! I told him to beep as he drives by, don't bother stopping.

This evening I was getting out of the car to go into the market, and my phone rang - guess who calling back. I let it ring.

His message was that he bought scratch tickets (no surprise) but today he won a grand, I must bring him luck.

Trouble needs to stay gone.

Drive Safely

The year was 1994 - June 23rd to be exact.

That day was one of the best days for me, because I drove my brand new 1994 Volvo 850 out of the Auto Show showroom! Getting a Volvo was something that I had dreamed of for years and I doubted if I could ever afford a new one. But thanks to Mr. Cooper and my living arrangement at the time, I was able to afford my dream car.

How I loved the smell of the leather seats, the little wiper blades on the headlights and the heated seats.

And all these years later I still love my car. It's a little (ok, a lot) worse for wear, but it has served me quite well for these past 14 years. The leather is worn and split in places and it certainly doesn't have that "new" car smell anymore. As for the headlight wipers, well, there's just one left as the drivers side headlight is covered with clear tape after Veronica's little bump into the back of a Jeep last year. The heated seats still work just fine, though, and I hope they are the last to go.

So other than some maintenance of oil, anti-freeze and other liquids and an occasional visit to the repair shop for brakes and tires, it's still a very dependable car.

I just hope it lasts another 14 years!

Hippie Dippie Weatherman Dies

Tonight's forecast: Dark. Continued dark throughout most of the evening, with some widely-scattered light towards morning."

George Carlin has died.

While I didn't agree with all of his opinions, he sure was funny at times. I did, however, agree with his views on religion. Here's the link to you tube if you want to check out what he had to say:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PpA47o8E46U

Never mind the "Seven Dirty Words that you never hear on television" - when written in the 70's, was true - now we hear them all! And some of say them from time to time too!

Just last night I watched/listened to an hour long show of his from the 70's, which is why I remember the hippy dippy weather man. Strange how those things work.

The Boss? Who Is He?

Okay, so I woke with a sore throat today, so no going to the beach for me. Next Wednesday will have to be my first beach day of the year. I slept for most of the day and when awake, I drank lots of orange juice which always seems to help me feel better quickly. We'll see.

Tonight I watched the memorial service that was held this afternoon for Tim Russert. I am so pleased that the Russert family and NBC decided to televise it, many of us in the Tim Russert fan club needed some sort of participation.

So while I'm watching the memorial service, Veronica came home. She took a shower and then joined me on the couch to watch. She sat down just as Tom Brokaw introduced The Boss. A screen came down and Bruce Springsteen spoke about Tim for a few minutes and then played Thunder Road, which was Tim's favorite song (Springsteen was his favorite rocker. As a law student in Cleveland in 1972, Tim booked a then unknown Springsteen to play at the university. Tim was instantly a fan, right up to the day he died.)

After a few minutes of Thunder Road I asked Veronica if she knew who that was. She didn't!! She didn't know who Tim Russert was either!

Many years ago I realized that, because of our eleven year age gap, that my twin brothers were going to be listening to a completely different type of music. So I decided to teach them all about music of the 70's. They got to listen to The Beatles, Chicago, Cat Stevens, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, The Who, etc.. I also taught them the names of the band members, so they always would know who was in what band. To this day, if you ask either of them who was in The Who, they would recite; Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, Roger Daltry and Keith Moon. I thought it was important that they have some history of music, but the best thing that came out of it is that they still listen and like that music!

Now I must teach Veronica about music history, US history as well as family history. Otherwise it will be all gone.

Celtics Bring NBA Title Back To Boston

It wasn't Larry and Kevin, or DJ and Robert, or even Danny and Bill, but the Celtics did win the NBA title after 22 years! The score was an unbelieveable 131 - 92 over the Lakers!

Marriage Equality For All

Amber Weiss, left, and her partner of five years Sharon Papo, from Berkeley, Calif., pose for a photo after receiving their marriage license on the first day of same sex marriages at City Hall in San Francisco on Tuesday, June 17, 2008.

It's about damn time!

Gays and lesbians have started to marry in California.

Today, Norway has passed a gay marriage law that takes effect January 1, 2009.

Massachusetts has allowed gay marriage since 2004.

Here's hoping that the rest of the United States and the world get with the program. Two people who love each other should be able to marry, period.

So Long Tim Russert

I'm still having trouble wrapping my brain around the fact that Tim Russert is gone. I feel like we have all lost a friend and an advocate, and it's really going to be hard going forward.

The folks at NBC have, and so shall I. So long Tim Russert, you were a good man and you will be missed.