I just learned about Shirley Burman, Railroad Women's historian (Herstorian!) American Railroad Women Research Site. Go there.

A Fascinating, Mind-Expanding Site Go learn something at the Genetic Science Learning Center. The site explains things like stem cells and genetic disorders in a way that will stimulate your mind instead of lulling you to sleep. And it's pretty.

Stock Pick Update

I found some clarifying information in an old press release: Broderbund LLC Signs Agreement For Sale of its Education Division Company Will Return to its Former Name, Broderbund And Focus on New High-Growth Rich Media Software Categories Novato, CA, Sept. 6 2001— Broderbund LLC announced today that it has signed an agreement for the sale of its Education Division (The Learning Company) to Riverdeep Interactive Learning (NASDAQ: RVDP), an innovative publisher of web-based educational solutions for the U.S. K-12 market. TLC will return to its former name, Broderbund and leverage its market leading position to expand its core productivity software business into the high-growth, rich media segments of the market, including video and photo editing and digital music.

NASDAQ: RVDP

Gwen Vs Her Computer

My computer is trying to drive me to compu-cide. I've lost many battles against it and the list of slights continues to mount but I will win the war. It's my computer I'm not it's Gwen! Anyway, to confuse it I re-brought my favorite game - Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? I use to play years ago but lost my software, changed computers twice, etc., etc. But yesterday when I finally broke down and purchased Family Tree Maker V9 I picked up the latest Carmen. I'm going to install it shortly and play for a while before I get back to work.

Stock Picks

I spent hours last week reading The Motley Fool books, You Have More Than You Think, Money Guide, Investment Guide. Yes, I do things out of order and yes, I was reading them partly to avoid doing more immediate stuff. But in the Stephen Covey scheme of things the reading was important but not urgent so it was all good :-) back to the point: Carmen Sandiego and Family Tree Maker are both products of The Learning Company. One of the Fool tasks is to make a list of companies that you frequently patronize and find information about them. I'm adding the Learning Company to my "investigate" list.

Your List?

Eventually, I'll figure "forms" out and people will be able to add things directly to the site but for now e-mail me or post to the message board. I'll gather the info and put it on MPW.

Project Row Houses! This site is about a project very similar to the idea that's been wandering around in my head for the block where I live. Seeing the site motivates me to proceed instead of pushing the idea to the "nice dream" pile.

Bolder By The Day

Did I tell you I was taking swimming lessons? Well, I am. And today I learned to backstroke. I can't swim forward very far but I did swim backward. Explain that. Anyway, learning to swim is a great confidence builder. And it's good for my legs too. What's next? Let me slow down - at the rate I'm going it'll be months before I can swim well enough to do laps which is my whole point. Briefly, I thought I'd take the life guard test as the ultimate "do I know how to swim" test but that's a bit much - overkill - the kind of thing that too often keeps me from doing anything. So I won't plan to learn to scuba dive. Instead I think I'll interview a woman I know who did. Actually, I gathered all my old spanish books and brought a new spanish CD set so in my spare time that's what I'll do next. What about you? What new things are you planning to learn in the next year? Drop a note at the message board

e-mail a blog test from explorer

the blog I e-mail from AOL looked like crap with a bunch of extra junk so= I'm sending this out directly from explorer.=20

testing

--part1_9a.2583d2b5.2a131b39_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Once again I'm testing the blog by email feature. When it starts working for me -- watch out! and keep up! --part1_9a.2583d2b5.2a131b39_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Once again I'm testing the blog by email feature. When it starts working for me -- watch out! and keep up!
--part1_9a.2583d2b5.2a131b39_boundary--

Is Mercury in Retrograde?

According to a list of dates I found at About.com/Astrology Mercury won't be in retrograde until May 16, 2002. So what's been up with today? Will nothing be safe until June 9, 2002 when Mercury is scheduled to get it together? It's past my bedtime but tomorrow . . . .

Hope?

For the past 5 weeks I've been pretending/acting as if The Artist's Way is the gospel. It's calming to have a truth to follow/lean on - one less mystery of the universe for me to solve. Anyway, I was told to "ask for answers" - interesting - common sense - I did it. The answer to a question was "HOPE". Cynical me immediately thought of something an Army officier said at a briefing I attending when in the reserve during Desert Storm. He said, "Hope is not a method". I love that - believe that - have said that to myself when I've hoped for something. It was useful. It forced me to action many a time. But maybe Hope is not all bad. Maybe action is not the course of action for every circumstance, under every situation, every time. Maybe - just maybe sometimes it's okay to just be a human "being" vs a human "doing".

HOPE: to wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment. 2. archaic. To have confidence: trust. That's not a bad thing. In fact it makes sense. Why make a wish is you don't follow through by expecting it to come true?

Where Have I Been?

Again I seem to have gotten lost in my life. The world of during-school workshops and after-school programs is coming to a seasonal close. And I've generally just been in a fog. Saturday I went on my artist's date. (yes, there'll be a link). Realized that I need to read back through everything I've ever written in this blog and on MPW in general and follow through on anything I said I'd do but haven't done. Also, I need to try that e-mailing in a blog feature. I tried it once but it didn't post. That'll make my entries more daily the way I want them to be. I've done lots that I would love to have blogged about but when I'm in rushed mode it's one/two steps to many to get one up. Anyway, I just wanted the satisfaction of saying something. more soon - yes, I mean today -

What to Say about Derby?

Derby Week in Louisville! I'm sooooooooo glad it's over. I'm all for a party and people having a grand ole time but can we strive for some sort of balance? Can we have a good time and show some self-respect and common decency at the same time? I'm over the loud music. I don't care anymore that some women feel the need to wear as little clothing as possible. I actually like all the motorcycles and Broadway being closed off for a giant party. But I hate litter. I hate people who are so TRIFLING that they refuse to use a trash can. Broadway looks disgraceful. How can adults treat a place that way? How can adults make a mess like that and then sit in it, "party" in it, leave it for others to clean? How can you have a good time while sitting in trash, surrounded by filth? I don't understand. It's ugly and it shouts disrespect for self and community. I've heard that the in-field at the track is the same way. Churchill Downs has to close the day after just to clean! A pock on all litterers.

Okay, a pock is boardering on extream and wouldn't solve anything. And I'd like a solution. The EPA has a website (like all? government agencies) about littering. I haven't explored it fully yet but what I've read calmed my nerves - some. It seems as if there is hope for those people who litter. Find out who litters and other interesting facts about why people litter, the consequences of littering and some things that can be done to help people appreciate the environment to the extent that littering would be unthinkable. Help me out people. Don't litter. Tell your kids not to litter. Tell your family not to litter. Tell your friends not to litter. And ask them all to tell everyone they know NOT TO LITTER.

Until next time (I haven't done this in a while): Be multirespectful (respect self, community, strangers, mother earth, bike riders, etc). Move the care of the environment higher on your purpose list. Introduce a woman to Multipurposewoman.org