tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330Sat, 21 Feb 2009 11:25:15 +0000Grasshopperly musingshttp://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)Blogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-110780215695806906Mon, 07 Feb 2005 18:45:00 +00002005-02-07T12:49:16.960-06:00It’s 1:00. Do you know where your children are?http://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2005/02/learners-permit.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-110753357497434570Fri, 04 Feb 2005 16:10:00 +00002005-02-04T10:12:54.973-06:00Okay, so we know that drinking too much alcohol can kill you. But too much water? Just goes to show that just about anything can be dangerous in excess.http://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2005/02/drinking-can-kill-you.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-110572848289641515Fri, 14 Jan 2005 18:45:00 +00002005-01-14T12:49:59.360-06:00Players: 2-4 Ages: 7-Adult So I picked up a few more games for the family at Christmas time, including Take Away, by Jax Games. The basic idea of the game is to find matches or runs (up or down in the same suit), which you can take from other players’ slots and add to your own, trying to collect the most cards. My two oldest sons (ages 8 and 7) and I pulled it out and played it. It is one of http://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2005/01/game-review-take-away.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-110012913640507472Wed, 10 Nov 2004 23:21:00 +00002004-11-10T17:25:36.406-06:00No, I haven't died. Life has just been too busy for blogging, what with work, side projects, church assignments, library books piled up way too high, a teething baby, and home improvement projects with winter coming on in Minnesota. And so I'm going to get away from it all. We'll be taking a vacation to Disneyworld and will be back at the end of the month. (No, not all the time will be spent at http://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/11/still-kicking.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-109908072124109768Fri, 29 Oct 2004 20:10:00 +00002004-10-29T15:12:01.240-05:00Last week, PBS had a special on the history of Broadway musicals. I caught a few minutes of it as my wife was watching. They were discussing a relatively new musical (one year old), Wicked. It looked fairly interesting, so when I saw it on the Showtunes section of MusicMatch, I thought I'd take a listen. Wow! This musical has completely blown me away. The music is original and evokes emotions http://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/10/wicked.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-109752931195585593Mon, 11 Oct 2004 21:03:00 +00002004-10-13T09:58:02.040-05:00Players: 2-4 Ages: 6-Adult I was browsing at the game store at the mall recently and noticed Coda. It looked intriguing, and was relatively inexpensive, so I picked it up. I played it yesterday for the first time with my 8 1/2-year-old (Dallin) and 7-year-old (Sammy). Coda is a fairly simple “code-breaking” game, using numerical codes only. There are two sets of tiles, white and black, each http://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/10/game-review-coda.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-109752854781530767Mon, 11 Oct 2004 20:51:00 +00002004-10-13T09:59:15.150-05:00Last Friday, my family came to pick me up from work so we could go to lunch together. We decided to go to Big Bowl, on the recommendation of some friends. We had to wait about half an hour to get in, so we decided to walk around the mall a bit (boy, do kids find escalators fascinating!). It was well worth the wait. They were great with the kids: each received chopsticks that had the top ends http://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/10/restaurant-review-big-bowl.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-109716675297875947Thu, 07 Oct 2004 16:32:00 +00002004-10-13T09:57:18.153-05:00Players: 2-10 Ages: 10-Adult Last year, my brother introduced me to Quiddler, by Set Enterprises. This is a word-building card game with elegantly designed cards, inspired by Celtic manuscripts. The object of the game is to make words out of the cards in your hand and score the most points (different letters have different point values). There are a few two-letter combinations, such as QU, IN, http://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/10/game-review-quiddler.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-109664728625641853Fri, 01 Oct 2004 16:10:00 +00002004-10-01T11:16:38.733-05:00Bush and Kerry each missed an excellent opportunity last night to clarify important distinctions in their positions. I can't say I was terribly impressed by either of them, though the debates were somewhat useful in helping me develop my opinions of them and this race. Bush's big missed opportunity was this: He said, in answer to a question about Iraq, “the enemy attacked us,” and Kerry jumped http://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/10/biggest-debate-mistakes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-109597430394740654Thu, 23 Sep 2004 21:17:00 +00002004-09-23T16:18:23.946-05:00Money Can't Buy Happinesshttp://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/09/why-didnt-somebody-tell-me-this.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-109595841447715601Thu, 23 Sep 2004 16:45:00 +00002004-09-23T11:53:34.476-05:00I am a heavy public library user. I typically have five to ten books checked out from the library, plus books for my kids, both for home school and for pleasure reading, plus DVDs, videos, and CDs (listening to a library copy of Elton John's Greatest Hits as I type). Our local library (Hennepin County Library) is really excellent. They have a great website with a very good catalog system for http://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/09/i-love-public-libraries.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-109568511187915658Mon, 20 Sep 2004 12:55:00 +00002004-09-20T08:09:36.966-05:00blockquote div.fancy {text-align:center;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;margin-top:5px;font-style:italic;} “Darkness cannot drive out darkness;only light can do that.Hate cannot drive out hate;only love can do that.Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence,and toughness multiplies toughnessin a descending spiral of destruction.” --Martin Luther King, Jr.,“Strength to Love,” 1963 http://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/09/still-applicable.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-109521621913960576Wed, 15 Sep 2004 14:43:00 +00002004-09-15T09:50:25.466-05:00As election season approaches, the colors of fall are abounding. No, not the browns and oranges of autumn leaves -- the reds and blues of election signs on everybody's lawns. Most of the time, Republican candidate's signs are primarily red with a splash of blue, while Democrat candidate's signs are primarily blue with a splash of red. We are all familiar with the images on TV of the "red states"http://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/09/fall-colors.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-109520999608878975Wed, 15 Sep 2004 00:53:00 +00002004-09-15T00:38:54.133-05:00Rarely do I see a movie at a first-run theater. It's just too expensive. Usually I just rent them, but occasionally we go to the dollar movies, which of course really cost two dollars, except on Tuesdays, when they have nostalgia or something and charge only one dollar. So I took my kids to see Shrek 2 this afternoon. I conceded to the high prices (now you know why it's called a concession standhttp://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/09/sneaking-food-into-shrek.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-109484214024529654Fri, 10 Sep 2004 18:47:00 +00002004-09-10T13:49:00.246-05:00Thanks to Clark for pointing out that my comments here weren't working. I've fixed them now, so have at it! You know you've got comments just stored up...http://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/09/comments-fixed.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-109467662421009567Wed, 08 Sep 2004 20:48:00 +00002004-09-08T15:50:24.210-05:00I'm adding a new feature to my blog: game reviews. I'm not a video gamer or role-playing gamer, though, so if you're looking for that, sorry. I'm talking about board games and card games, primarily. Feel free to suggest some of your favorites. This first review is of Swap! Card Game, by Patch. You can find this game at Wal-Mart for about $4. Like UNO, the point of Swap! is to get rid of all thehttp://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/09/game-review-swap.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-109467530412234307Wed, 08 Sep 2004 20:25:00 +00002004-09-08T15:28:24.123-05:00I've been reading Phillip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series, and am almost finished with book three, The Dark Design. I completely agree with the reviewers at Amazon.com who comment on Farmer's “asides” that give him a chance to include his own philosophy, thinly disguised as a character's thoughts, dreams, or whatever. The later Terry Goodkind books have the same flaw. So, to you budding writers http://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/09/how-to-distract-your-readers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-109155050166376674Tue, 03 Aug 2004 16:22:00 +00002004-08-03T11:31:12.566-05:00I've seen lots of discussion about a liberal bias in the media. Well, if they're trying to prop up John Kerry's campaign, either they're doing a lousy job of it, or Kerry has a really lousy campaign. I have my share of concerns about Bush, but if anybody wants me to vote for them, they better tell me some specifics about their ideas for governing the country, not just tell me how poor a job Bushhttp://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/08/vote-for-me.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-108999214987340905Fri, 16 Jul 2004 15:32:00 +00002004-07-16T10:35:49.873-05:00My wife and two oldest boys recently performed in Cross Community Players' Brigadoon. Despite their fears, it turned out to be a really good show. This was the first play for my two oldest (aged 8 and 6), and they had a great experience. I'm very happy that they enjoyed it; I hope that we can make a family tradition out of community theater. Only problem is, now I have the theater bug worse thanhttp://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/07/community-theater.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-108998785991817337Fri, 16 Jul 2004 14:20:00 +00002004-07-16T09:24:19.916-05:00Since “real life” has been keeping me so busy, I should surely have something to post on my personal blog, right? I hope to revive this blog and maybe someday even be ready to participate in the Mo Life Blog Club...http://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/07/little-mo-life.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-108490865618950083Tue, 18 May 2004 19:28:00 +00002004-05-18T14:30:56.190-05:00We just ate our first fresh apricots of the season. Mmmmmm... reminds me of being a teenager and climbing my grandparents' apricot tree in the backyard, eating apricots right off the tree. Hard to beat that.http://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/05/fresh-apricots.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-108437143601890990Wed, 12 May 2004 14:12:00 +00002004-05-12T09:17:16.016-05:00Wal-mart has taken up the second spot in online music sales, after iTunes. One likely reason for this is that they price tracks at 88¢, rather than everyone else's 99¢. The NPR story on Morning Edition today remarked that this is Wal-mart's typical strategy: undercut on price by taking advantage of economies of scale. But how does that apply to digital music? Where are the economies of scale thathttp://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/05/wal-mart-and-digital-music.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-108377663564501851Wed, 05 May 2004 17:03:00 +00002004-05-06T00:34:09.733-05:00It seems that one of the driving forces in (American) English public communication is the search for one-word nouns that encapsulate ideas. Unfortunately, this leads to some very silly innovations, like the one I heard on NPR the other day. They were discussing the recent reports of abuse of Iraqi prisoners, and the fact that the military had outsourced interrogation to private contractors. The http://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/05/silly-language-innovations.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-108361123669721117Mon, 03 May 2004 19:07:00 +00002004-05-03T15:08:05.903-05:00I just finished reading Orson Scott Card's recent essay at The Ornery American (dictionary.com doesn't recognize the “onnery” pronunciation). Last year, Card called himself a “Tony Blair Democrat,” but it seems from his recent essays that he's really a Bush Democrat: socially conservative, fiscally liberal, and a hawk. Bush certainly hasn't been very fiscally conservative in this term (though he http://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/05/bush-democrats.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854330.post-108295051776212475Mon, 26 Apr 2004 03:30:00 +00002004-04-26T08:58:46.950-05:00So, we've all heard the news about the death of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan (I first heard about it from all-encompassingly). The flurry of media attention given to his death contrasted with the relative lack thereof for other fallen soldiers. Why? And what was a key point of most reporting of his death? The fact that he gave up a 3.6 million dollar salary to serve his country. Money, money, moneyhttp://grasshoppermuse.blogspot.com/2004/04/value-of-life.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Grasshopper)0