Lucky Sevens?

This evening I reached 77,777 miles on my Prius. I knew I'd reach this point today; I could see it coming last night. I rolled into all those sevens a bit past 5:00 p.m. I was just north of Milford.

I pulled over, with flashers on, to take the picture.

It has been just over four months since 66,666.

Blogging From a Government Perspective

A story in Federal Computer Week, GSA showcases agencies' blogs, takes a quick look at the growing use of blogging software by federal agencies.

Blogs have become increasingly popular among federal agencies as they try to bolster their online presence and become more user-friendly. Many of the blogs featured on GSA’s new Web site are hosted by senior agency executives and address some of the more pressing challenges the agency faces.

I think this is an important development. I'm in government, at the state level, and I see a real opportunity for government agencies to improve their communications with (not to or at) the public. I have bookmarked and plan to spend some time with a Guide to Blogging (for government types) from webcontent.gov, an on-line resource for government web managers from a group of federal cabinet agency web-masters.

There may be lessons there that we can apply at the state level.

The FCW site also points to a short list of federal blogs; I'm already reading the Library of Congress blog on that list (I'm a nerd-wonk, sue me). I think I'll also start tracking the Big Read Blog from the National Endowment for the Arts Literature Director.

The first post I found there had this promising opening line:

Bloggers are a gaggle of ignorant blowhards.

One of My Favorite Web Companies is Tweaking My Favorite Car

I saw a posting on the Official Google Blog yesterday that got me excited about what might be my next car.

In a posting called "A clean energy update," Google launched an effort to enable the development of a plug-in hybrid. As regular readers may know, I love my 2005 Prius and am waiting with some anticipation for the next really cool new green car. This might be it, though it's not yet at "regular product stage."

I thought about posting on the topic yesterday, but held off. This morning, however, I have found another write-up in the project. This one lists the grants that Google is making under its RechargeIT project. One of them will go to the University of Delaware's Will Kempton "for megawatt scale vehicle-to-grid research and implementation planning."

That's one of the cooler aspects of this approach; the idea that excess electricity from the hybrids could be sold back to the grid. And, it's neat to know that part of that work will be done here in the First State. And I think I probably have met Professor Kempton, somewhere along the line. (The name is certainly familiar.)

Too bad this wasn't on the market in time for Father's Day. Maybe next year.

Third Golf Game of 2007

Andy and I played golf for Father's Day this morning. We were back at The Rookery again. The place was filled with guys and their young sons, older men and grown sons, and grandfathers too.

I actually played fairly well. Not great. I still can't putt worth a damn. But my drives are getting better and my irons aren't too bad. There's hope.

And, as Andy noted, it's a bit more exciting when its competitive. For a while there, before I blew up on a par three , we were neck and neck.

Afterwards, we joined our wives and kids at the Jungle Jim's water park outside Rehoboth.

It was a good Father's Day.

A Flower

The sun came out this afternoon.

No Longer Endless, Just Repetitive

You know how some stores seem to always be "Going Out of Business?" The State Legislature out in Oregon has noticed, and they've come up with a law to deal with those never-ending business endings, according to a story in The Oregonian.

The measure would require merchants to submit a notice of intent to conduct such a sale with the Secretary of State's office. The notice, including the beginning and ending dates of the sale, would have to be displayed in a prominent place at the sale location.

That way, the endless "going out of business" sales have to have ends.

But they apparently can re-start their endings:

Going out of business sales could last no more than 90 days and merchants would be limited to one such sale a year under the bill.

Yup. You can only go out of business once a year in Oregon.

Why Don't We Write This Way Anymore?

I'm still rooting around in the past, looking for ancestors. This evening I have been reading through portions of William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas, published in 1883. He gives an early history of the town of Olathe, where parts of my family settled and prospered generations back.

I love the way Cutler describes events from what was, for him, only a few decades ago. For example, in his section on early inhabitants of Olathe, he has this to say about one gent:

John P. Campbell, a cousin of James K. Polk, came here from Nashville, Tenn. He was looked upon as a brilliant and promising lawyer in the State, but he impaired his faculties by the use of alcoholic stimulants, and died of consumption in the early years of the war.

Later, in his section on newspapers in Olathe, he recounts the effect of an attack by Quantrill's raiders on the town's only Democrat newspaper at the time, the Olathe Herald, which had been a growing and healthy concern:

Quantrill paid the office a visit September 6, 1862, after which John M. Giffin, its editor and proprietor, gathered up its debris and sold it for $306; original cost having been $3,500. In addition to his newspaper office, Mr. Giffen also lost through Quantrill's efforts, accounts and notes to the amount of $13,000, and the manuscript of an algebra, for which he had been offered $5,000, and fifteen cents royalty on each book sold.

My favorite, though, is his description of the "Reformed Presbyterian, or Covenanter Church." A congregation formed in Olathe in 1865, and split into two in 1871:

This denomination wherever founded is radical in its character, forward in reform movements, and never received into, nor tolerated slaveholders in its communion. While its members have borne arms in every national conflict for right and liberty, yet they refrain from the exercise of the elective franchise--believing the National constitution to be, though in many respects most excellent, yet in some things infidel and immoral.

Seems like I've read similar sentiments on modern day blogs as well.

Where I'm From

I've been spending a lot of time lately looking into my genealogy, playing around on a site called Geni which is an on-line family-tree tool. I've looked into family past before, of course, but now that I've started working on the family tree I've found a great deal of material on-line.

As part of this, I've put together a map of the birth-places of my direct ancestors; at least those whose birthplaces I could determine.

The earliest Mahaffies I could find -- they were Mahaffeys back in the 1700s-- were from northern Ireland. There were Beckers, from my Mother's side of the family, born in Germany in the 1800s.

In the US, there was a steady progression west by my branch of the Mahaffie family. They were in Pennsylvania, then Ohio, then Indiana. My Great-Great Grandfather JB Mahaffie started his family in Indiana and then settled in Olathe Kansas in 1857. He was one of the original settlers.

My Great Grandfather George Mahaffie had been born in Indiana. He started his family in Olathe, where my grandfather Charles was born. George took his family west to Oklahoma as homesteaders.

My grandfather was a Rhodes Scholar, studying at Oxford for a time. He became a lawyer and lived and practiced in Oregon before going to Washington DC, where my Father was born. My Grandmother had been born in Washington State, but raised in New York City, where many of her forbears were born.

On my Mother's side, Farrars, Beckers, Bartletts, and Redmonds were mostly around New York. I also had forbears in upstate New York and in Vermont.

If any of these names and dates match names and dates in your family tree (and you are not already part of my family tree), let me know. I'm always eager to expand the tree.

On Beach Plum Island

I took a walk on Beach Plum Island the other evening. It's one of the Delaware beaches I'd not been to before, and I wanted to have a look. It's very nice, in a quiet, remote sort of way.

Beach Plum is a nature preserve, managed by State Parks. It is a sand spit between the Broadkill River and the Delaware Bay. It runs south from Broadkill Beach to the Roosevelt Inlet.

There are opportunities for fishing, both in the Bay and in the River, and a calm bay-front beach.

Field Trip!

I took a day off work today to go along with Christina's fifth-grade class on a field trip to Fort Delaware State Park.



Fort Delaware is one of the few Delaware State Parks I had not yet been to. And it was fun to go along with Christina and her friends (though I was under strict orders not to embarrass her). And take pictures.

We took a school bus up to Delaware City and rode the Delafort ferry over to Pea Patch Island. We had a picnic lunch and the kids saw presentations on what school was like in the 1860s and on how to fire the big guns of the fort.