randzig

While I was away on a mission trip to Croc Mexico it was unfortunate that I missed the Ride for Rachel House.  Morées dad (father in law) is one of the primary organizers of the event.  (You can see pictures from last year here.)  He works really hard to make this thing happen for the past couple of years and I imagine will do so for many to come.  Even though I wasn’t at the ride Morée and the kids were there on my behalf.  Somehow amongst the chaos Oliver had a photo shoot and ended up on the cover of the Tribune.  As you can see he enjoys riding the cherry red motorcycle but the look on face tells you its serious business.

Ok so I have upgraded to the latest wordpress release. My old theme is still having problems so it looks like we’ll have to use this black and white job until I can troubleshoot further. At least the content wasn’t destroyed and it appears to all be in tact.

The Ride 4 Rachel House was a success.  I have a set on flickr documenting the day.  I was thinking about creating a group for users to add their pictures but figured it wouldn’t be needed since this was just a one day event.  If you have pictures of the ride just make sure to tag them with the appropiate tags.  I used “ride 4 rachel house” and “ride for rachel house”.  The quotes are needed as they keep the text as one tag instead of each word being a tag.

I’ve scheduled you to meet me at The Hard Bean this Saturday May 12 @ 7pm. The Brilliant Geographers will be playing along with our good friend and fellow geographer of Omaha Gerram Mathews. You can buy his latest release at the Aware Store or just come to the damn show. Oh yes that did just happen. The Hard Bean is a little venue but we always have a really good time(free food for the performers). There is no cover charge so you have no reason to not come. See you there!

BTW- I’m on vacation and I feel like I’m resting after speaking the galaxy into existence because “it is good”.

Picnik - This is for those of you who sometimes ask for a copy of Photoshop or want something really basic to edit pictures.  Its great for quick cropping and basic tweaks.  The best part is that it connects with your Flickr account.

Grant has some good pictures up of Spencers trip to Japan.

Word of advice - do not send the picture to your right to your hispanic coworkers no matter how funny you think it is.

NPR has an article on overcrowded Russian orphanages.  Not very pleasant read but word needs to get out so change can take place.

“Healthy babies are lying in hospital beds all day as if they were sick, sometimes for months or longer,” Koloskov says. “They’re completely ignored. No one plays with them or provides any kind of stimulation. That happens because orphanages where they’re supposed to go after birth are full.”

Last winter, another patient in a central Russian hospital noticed a room of abandoned babies with their mouths taped shut to stop them from crying. Her cell phone video shocked the country when it was played on national television. Reports of babies tied down in their cots are common. Many believe that’s because hospital staff are seriously overworked.