Mr & Mrs Caveman For Dinner

Having fallen hopelessly, passionately, in love in middle age, what do Boyd and Mrs. Boyd talk about during dinner?

Last night it was cavemen with Mexican food. Carla picked my feeble mind about the links from our chimpanzee-like ancestors to modern man.

LiveScience gives a great run-down of the top ten hominids to work with.

From Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) to my personal favorite, the Neanderthals and why some people have big noses, we covered the fabled path from monkey to man.

For the record, we're both deeply christian, but also happen to believe in evolution.

Monkey Island Model Progress

Below are two images from my Monkey Island project.

Before starting on the model in the real world, I'm building it in my computer using Google Sketchup. It's a great (and free) 3D modeling program from Google.

Thirty years ago, I would have begun the model building process by drawing up a blueprint on paper, but computer generated 3D modeling is a much stronger tool.

Although very rough, you can see I'm starting to develop the basic shape. The idea here is that I'll be able to use this computer model to create a card paper rough model of the castle that I can then add clay details to, finishing the model.

Perils of Stick People

For years we've depended on stick people to keep us safe. This flickr photo pool gathers stick people warning signs from all over the world. See if you can figure out what the danger each picture tries to prevent.

Social Networking For Grown ups

Social networking sights like Facebook or Myspace are far more popular with kids, but they're actually more useful for grownups.

When you're a kid, you see you have a lot more opportunities to see your friends than when you're a grownup. You go to school five days a week and most of them are there. You go to football games on Friday night and they're there too and Sunday school on Sundays and parties and dances and sports and all sorts of opportunities for social interaction. When you're a grownup all that slows down considerably.

When you're an adult things are different. You go to work five days a week, but most of those people aren't really your good friends. Some you don't even like at all. When you get home you have kids or housework to deal with and going out just isn't as much fun as it used to be so it can be weeks between times when you see your friends face-to-face.

That's where social networking sights come in handy. You can check sights like Facebook or Myspace once a day and get short snippets of life from and about your loved ones. Folks who just love to talk (like me) might even keep blogs that you can read and share.

There's a stigma attached to older users of social networking sights because predators have used them to solicit children. The stigma is going away though and, thanks to some very diligent people, the predators are being caught and dealt with.

It may be easier for me to adapt to this type of technology since I've been on the Internet so long, but the Internet is changing all of our lives and I'm going to predict that this type of social interaction is only going to grow among all age groups as time goes on.