Stephen figured out how to scroll down a webpage today. On this laptop, you can scroll by dragging down with two fingers on the touchpad (like a mac). So he dragged his hand across the touchpad and the web site moved. Well, this made him extremely happy, so I started guiding him, showing him how to scroll up and down. Everything was going well--it was a cute little moment--until he snatched my left Shift key in one motion. He completely removed it and was chewing on it within a second. He also removed my left Ctrl a few days ago. Fortunately, a replacement keyboard is about 11 bucks for this laptop.

We went hiking yesterday with Russ and his sister. I didn't attempt any time-consuming landscape photos, but I did get some shots of Stephen playing on the path up the mountain. He is on the ground playing with a little stick and there is a huge, distant landscape behind him. Some cute stuff. I can't get them off my camera until I fix/rebuild my computer, though. Also, when I got home and looked through the photos, I realized that every shot was under-exposed by 2 stops. My camera had switched to some "custom" setting that automatically adjusts exposure time to be 2 stops too dark. So instead of getting a proper exposure at 1/500s, it was shooting everything in 1/2000s. Pretty pissed about that. I had to reset all settings to factory default to clear the "custom function."

Apparently a lot of people are going to be here tomorrow afternoon. Tonight and tomorrow morning we have to clean, clean, clean. I am trying to set up Jaime's old desktop computer with Ubuntu to replace Eric's dying computer. Lots of other people are coming over to play SNES and eat pizza.

A good article on Usain Bolt. There is a lot of hype in sports. Among still-active athletes, we are supposed to believe that:

• Peyton Manning is the best quarterback of all time.
• Roger Federer is the best Tennis player of all time.
• Tiger Woods is the best Golfer of all time.
• Michael Phelps is the best swimmer of all time--and maybe the greatest olympian ever.
• Usain Bolt is the fastest man in history.
• James Stewart Jr. is (or will become) the best motocross racer of all time.

These are just claims that I have heard mentioned directly. People like to indirectly claim things about LeBron James too, but I have never heard of anyone coming out and challenging Michael Jordan's "greatest ever" status directly.

Is it really possible that all the greatest athletes in history are alive and active right now? Doubtful. Usain Bolt, however, is not hype. All "what if" discussions aside, he is the fastest man in history. And he doesn't even care.

Some good music-related youtube vids.

Skip James - Crow Jane
Roscoe Holcomb - Little Birdie and Graveyard Blues
Bluegrass Jam in Brookline 2
Leadbelly - Only footage to survive of the legendary Leadbelly
Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs - need I say more?