Blogging Potpourri

I've just taken the first of five on-line classes on Web 2.0. How many people really know what it is? As I understood it, Web 2.0 is the next evolutionary step in the Internet where people wanted to make it more accessible to everyone. For example, instead of shelling out hundreds for Microsoft Office, people can go to OpenOffice.org and download a comparable set of office tools for free. Or they can use GoogleDocs, which also has spreadsheet capabilities. Basically, it turns the Internet from a commodity controlled by the few into a "platform", as they kept calling it, that has programs that everyone can access, use, and even change, like Wikipedia. It's kind of interesting: The reason Google knocked the tar out of Netscape as a browser is because Google isn't technically just a browser; it's more. It's a connection between the user and other browsers, other sites, etc. It also keeps up on the technology in that they update the site every day instead of every few years, as sites used to do. This opening up of the Internet obviously has a lot of pros and cons, the most obvious one being that it requires a lot of trust that people won't abuse what's now available. For example, in teaching research, we teachers frown upon Wikipedia as a legitimate site because anyone can add to it. We tell them to click on the sources at the bottom and see if they're legitimate in and of themselves, or we tell them just not to use it at all. Web 2.0 also includes blogging (hah!) because it's so interactive and anyone can comment if you let them or add RSS feeds to see exactly when it changes, and sites like Facebook. Interesting stuff, I think. I'll let you know what future classes yield (if I think you'd like it--I won't bore you!).

On a totally different note, I'm taking a break because it's pretty beastly hot--a "blinger", as you call it, Grammie!--and anyone who's seen me knows I'm fairly vampiric when it comes to sun exposure. In a few minutes I'll slather on my 30SPF and go back outside to help DH.

...Annnnnd he asked me to help him: We have these pine trees with the very long, leafy branches:

...but we don't need that much canopy and not all the branches were doing well, so we used this tree cutting tool called a pole saw that looks like a really long scythe with a small branch-cutting attachment. It's hard to explain, but using it was a ton of fun and we cleared a ton of branches out, clearing out an entirely new space of yard. I also spread that dried blood on my plants, which are kind of flourishing, in hopes that the deer will let me get my veggies! Here's what they looked like, post eating session:
See? Nice clean bite. However, they're still growing, so I'm still hopeful for a few peppers and tomatoes. Here's the full effect of the fencing:
As you can see, things are still a-growin'. We also have a wild blackberry patch that I should go harvest in the next few days; there are TONS of them. Delicious!


That's it for now, chickadees. We're off to the wilds of Quebec and the St. Laurence River on Thursday for a week, so we have to get ready. Enjoy the weekend!