Topozone has been sold to Trails.com

I used Topozone a lot. It was a website that I could use to see topographic maps in the U.S. Of course, I would use these inconjunction with lots of other map systems, especially Google Maps.

To my surprise, when I went to Topozone today, a notice said it had been sold to Trails.com. I have never used Trails.com, primarily because it is a paid service. I'm sure their product is a good one, but I don't see why I need to pay for maps that are produced by our government.

Looking around a bit, I found a link to another service someone recommended called ACME Mapper. I found this very simple, yet very powerful, and best of all, I can still find the good old USGS Topo's on it. In fact, it's easier to use then Topozone was.

Out with the old...in with the new...

Backyard Project

We began destruction of the backyard.

Yup, were are destroying the backyard. No fear though, we are going to bring it back to life. We are tired of the grass lawn. We had to carry our gas powered mower up a flight of stairs to mow the back lawn. We hate doing that. So instead, we are going to leave just a small spot for grass, plant a garden, make a path, and add some plantings for the birds and butterflies (and all the critters who like to dine on that stuff as well).

We had a magnificent weather weekend, so we were able to get some landscaping cloth put down. This will be the base layer for our work. We have a raised bed kit on order. We raked and cleaned out the exiting beds. We repaired some of the damage from the sidewalk plow over the winter. We erected a compost bin. We hung a couple of new birdhouses.

Still lots to do...we'll keep you posted, and put up some pictures in the future.

Carving Faces

This weekend, we got together with some local letterboxers to work on carving faces. Laura and I had a great time. We have been wanting to have some small gatherings with local boxers to work on these things, and to build some community in our letterboxing circle here. I printed out lots of faces of famous people, and we practiced transferring them with xylene, and then carving them. I tried to pick a variety of levels for people to carve, but most people were intimidated at first. But everyone gave it a shot, and I think the results were really great. Afterwards, we managed to get to the Abandoned Subway box, with the help of RocNRon who had been there before. Laura wouldn't let me go to do this one alone, so with a group of six of us, we did it! We also finished up planting a new series called Hoodoo Blues. Here's a link to a music site I set up to support the clue. You will find some good old blues tunes and videos there.

Story at Work

First, sorry its been so long since I have posted. I guess I didn't think many people were reading this...then I found out lots of people were reading it. So, onto the update.

I went to New Hampshire this past weekend with Dick to go to the League of Advancement for New England Storytelling (LANES). Dick and I presented a workshop on podcasting, and how it can be used by storytellers. It went off without a hitch, mostly because Dick was there for technical and moral support. Thanks Dick!

We also learned a lot about storytelling, and met lots of great people. The nightly "concerts" were amazing...these guys really know how to tell a story. I'm feeling more energized and creative right now, for all my different interests.