If you enjoy listening to streaming audio at work or home on your computer, a recent 300 percent royalty increase imposed on webcasters is poised to crimp your fun. A "Day of Silence" is underway today, June 26th to protest the increase and raise awareness of the issue.
Today was the Lyerla family reunion at Giant City State Park. As a kid I looked forward to the reunion every year as a chance to run around with my cousins and see aunts, uncles and other relatives that came in for the occasion. Twenty years and two children later, my enthusiasm has tempered somewhat. It was still great seeing everyone and catching up, but coordinating with my wife to keep track of our girls added a whole new angle to the event.
I did get a chance to pitch washers, and wound up with a great partner who nailed ringers the entire afternoon and pulled us to an undefeated record. I added a few points myself, but definitely found myself in the support role.
One glaring difference between reunions even five years ago and now was the topics of conversations between the cousins my age. Back then we talked about fun stuff; hunting, fishing, music, etc. The first conversation I walked up to this afternoon involved one of my cousins cautioning another about needing to get to a doctor to have something checked out. Growing up stinks! LOL
Anyway, we had a good time seeing everyone, Nancy won a basket full of camping/picnic gear in the drawing at the end, and hopefully we reinforced the importance of family history to our girls. Someday it will be THEIR responsibility to keep the tradition alive.
My dad and I went to a Southern Illinois Miners game on Saturday night. A group of men from my dad's church arranged the trip while their wives were at a women's conference in St. Louis. My first impressions of the minor league franchise in Marion was positive. We were able to see a lot of runs scored, the Miners won, and Tim Dorn crushed two home runs over the 400' mark.
The enthusiasm of the crowd was good to see, and I hope they can maintain that level of excitement in future seasons. Tickets and concessions were a little higher than those at Pringles Park here in Jackson, but not as much as a major league park would charge. Traffic going in and coming out was managed effectively, something that truly surprised me.
Another surprise was the number of people I know that were at the game. A friend of mine from high school, a couple we used to go to church with and fellow blogger and friend Chase Abner. I was glad to see the game draw fans from all over southern Illinois.
Seating in Rent-One Park was a little tight, but they do have a "blanket area" down the left-field side that seemed worth checking out. I walked around the concourse to check the view from other seats and found few, if any BAD seats. As we were leaving dad voiced satisfaction by saying he and mom would probably watch another game.
To sum things up in small-town newspaper language, a good time was had by all.
Okay, I thought this was pretty cool. Had no idea that whales had such a long lifespan.
Weapon dates bowhead whale to 1800s
For anyone who reads my musings, I want to apologize for the lack of content over the past month or so. Mix a little bit of writer's block, some discouragement and a lot of things going on at work this summer and it adds up to the blog slipping my mind. I'll do what I can to keep more current as the summer goes on, if for nothing else than a sounding board.
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