Thoughts

The history of rickrolling


The History of RickRolling

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Places

Natural Bridge: 20 stories high

Formed who knows when, by the collapse of a cavern, Natural Bridge, located in Virginia, is a monument that has been admired by people for over two centuries.

Legend has it that George Washington surveyed it in his youth, for Lord Fairfax. What we do know for sure is that Thomas Jefferson bought it, built a log cabin nearby, and upon his death, left it to his heirs, who later sold it.

The property (157 acres) changed hands over the course of time, gaining more and more public attention, until in 1988, it was declared a National Historic Landmark by the US Department of the Interior.

Although it has remained in private hands till today, it has been open to the public since the early 1800s, and it has been developed in such a way that visiting tourists may find plenty to do while they’re there. Continue reading

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Places

Morning fog, Virginia countryside

In my book, there are only a handful of things that rank as high as taking a walk in nature, in the midst of soft, lightly glowing morning fog. This was one of those beautiful mornings I won’t soon forget.

Photos taken in the Virginia countryside, near the very interesting rock formation called Natural Bridge.

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Thoughts

Trixie comforts Mitzi

As I promised in my post about the birth of our six new kittens, here is a video that shows how close our two cats, Mitzi and Trixie, really are. They are sisters, from the same mother, and they’ve been together since birth, but even we were surprised by how caring Trixie could be toward Mitzi the night we recorded this video.

You see, both of them were near the end of their pregnancies, and Mitzi was feeling a little sick. She was scared, and came to us to be comforted. We began to pet her, and Trixie came as well, and began to comfort her in ways we didn’t even know cats were capable of. We just sat there, moved by the display of love between them. Honestly, sometimes I think cats are capable of more empathy than most people.

I remember one time our tomcat, Felix, was feeling a little under the weather. I was sitting at my desk and he asked to come into my office. I opened the door, and he plopped himself down on the floor, letting out the sort of meow that gave me to understand he was a bit ill. His demeanor also told me the same thing. Just for fun, I thought I’d imitate his meow. He immediately jumped to his feet and came bounding toward me, chirping, with a look of concern on his face. He began to rub his nose on my leg, looking toward my face and trying to cheer me up. My jaw dropped. I had faked it, but he honestly thought I was sick and needed to be comforted. Never mind he was ill, his first concern was for me.

Some people say cats are egotistical creatures… What fools!

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Events

Keynote video from State of the Word 2010

If you haven’t yet seen the “State of the Word” keynote from WordCamp San Francisco, held on May 12, then it’s worth a watch. Matt Mullenweg, WP’s founder, talks about WP’s history, the challenges of a growing platform, and highlights the neat features of WordPress 3.0, which will soon be released.

I’ve been a big fan of WordPress, and have been using it since late 2005 (publicly since 2006). After more than three years of self-hosting a WP.org install, I moved to WP.com, so I could focus on writing and leave the hosting to the folks that made the platform.

Can’t wait to see (and use) the new features of WP 3.0!

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