Kimler Adventure Pages (http://randsco.com)

A classic Norman Rockwell moment, as Alex takes her ceramic piggy bank down to our local credit union "Island Savings" and opens her very first bank account. At age six, our girl is learning how to save her money! She deposited $54.40 in coins.

Alex's Opens Her First Bank Account - Chooses Island Savings Credit Union

Here Piggy Piggy: Alex proudly holds her hand-made ceramic piggy bank, before dumping the contents and depositing them (most of them) into her very first bank account. (One coin was a token, another an English Pence ... the American coins went in at par).

It was classic Norman Rockwell. A six-year-old girl holding a ceramic piggy bank, sitting in the lobby of a bank, waiting to open her very first bank account. The girl was none other than our Alex and the bank was the small branch of a local credit union.

Earlier that morning, Alex asked, "Can I get a bank account?" (Since Dad is keen on personal finance - having retired at age 39 and opened his first business when he was 12 - his ears perked up).

Several questions later, it became clear to him that Alex understood the concept of banks (even though she couldn't name all the denominations of coins in her piggy bank).

Alex has a very special piggy bank, one given to her by her God-mother - a beautifully decorated and glazed ceramic pig, complete with Alex's tiny hand-print on it (Alex was two-years-old at the time "Wilber" was made).

That afternoon, Dad drove his 6-year-old daughter to the credit union in Cedar. It was a long visit. She signed multiple forms and it took time to count out her "life-savings".

It was a very big day for Alex and a proud one for her Dad (who was busy taking pictures of the event). The visit brought smiles to the banking staff, whe were very patient with Alex and treated her like a 'big girl' customer. Not every new account holder meets one of the Credit Union Board of Directors, but Alex did! She also learned the difference between tokens, coins and foreign money (as she had a few Pence and U.S. coins).

To learn more about Alex's first account, read on ...

Alex Breaks the Pig

On October 26, 2009, Yahoo pulled the plug on millions of websites hosted on GeoCities web servers. It marks the end of an early Internet Era and one that affects no less than five of our early adventure journals. Restoration efforts are taking place. Learn more (including why the Internet is a house of cards)

26-Oct Yahoo-GeoCities Shut Down
Randsco Adventures Rescued from Ashes

GeoCities Closes: In a cost-savings move, Yahoo shut-down the GeoCities free online hosting servers on 26-Oct-2009. The move marks the end of an early Internet Era, where millions of users created personal websites (web1.0 animated GIF-land).

On October 26, 2009, Yahoo-GeoCities shut-down their servers and immediately obliterated 15 years-worth of personal websites, made by millions of people across the world.

We rescued our early adventure journals off of GeoCities, reposting them on the Randsco domain, including: Scott's Big Ride, Rachel's 1999 Big Ride, our Oregon Cycle Tour and Wonderland Trail backpacking trip.

Begun in 1994, GeoCities spawned "neighborhoods" and by 1997, there were over a million "homesteaders" that had created personal websites. In 1999, Yahoo! bought GeoCities for $2.87 billion dollars.

GeoCities floundered under Yahoo's leadership. Terms of service changes, monthly data transfer limits, eliminating FTP access and changing advertising strategies drove users away. (We moved our home page off of GeoCities in 2003, because advertising changes interfered with visitor experience - and shared server costs were becoming affordable).

To learn more about the GeoCities shut-down, what's being done to preserve this bit of Internet history and the pitfalls of 3rd-party servers ... carry on.

GeoCities Restoration?

There are 110 days till the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, but the Olympic torch is on it's way to our little town of Cedar, British Columbia. Learn about the 2010 Olympic torch, the Canadian national torch run and more. If you can, come down and help celebrate the event with live entertainment, free hot-dogs and Halloween treats. (Olympic torch run map included)

2010 Olympic Torch Run: Click to follow the Olympic Torch on its 45,000-kilometer trek across Canada (longest national Olympic Torch run ever).

Olympic Torch Arrives in Cedar on Oct 31st

There's 110 days to go before the start of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, but the Olympic torch was lit, in Greece, on Thursday.

The torch run has begun. It's currently on a 7-day circuit through Greece. After that, it will be handed off to Vancouver 2010 officials and flown to Canada, where it will begin a 45,000-kilometer, 106-day trek across Canada.

The Olympic flame will be passing through our little hamlet of Cedar, British Columbia on Day 2 of its 106-day journey ... coming through town on Halloween (Oct 31st).

For more on the torch, maps & the Cedar celebration ... read on ...

More on the 2010 Olympic Torch Run

Rachel loves scrapbooking and recently made a "100 Things I Love" page, partly using Photoshop. I carried on with Photoshop and made a pure digital version. Also included is a photoshop tutorial for the "text-masking" typographic technique.

Scrapbook Page via Photoshop

100 Things I Love: Rachel used Photoshop to make the text "one hundred" out of all 100 things that she loves. It's a blend of digital and hardcopy scrapbooking, which turned out nicely.

Rachel has been scrapbooking for a few years and she has improved her skills remarkably. Each 12-inch by 12-inch page she does now is a work of art. Most of her pages are vignettes of the moments of family life and - one day - I will photograph and put them in an online gallery - to share and inspire others with their own scrapbooking projects.

In contrast, I scrapbook online, with this blog. (I'm more about the words than the pictures ... but I try!)

Rachel's latest effort is shown here, a page dedicated to the "100 Things I Love". The page is a blend of digital scrapbooking and paper scrapbooking. It's Rachel's first foray into the digital scrapbooking realm.

I found an online Photoshop tutorial that explained how to make text from words, which Rachel then used to make her own "100". I think it turned out really well and thought others might like to learn about the technique. (Of course, because I'm the "computer dude" in the family, I took Rachel's final "100" and put my own spin on a purely digital page, which you can see by reading on) ...

Photoshop Scrapbooking Technique

Rachel reviews "Infidel", by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Ayaan was raised in a traditional Muslim home in Africa, she experienced an intellectual awakening in Europe and now critical of Islam, living under armed guard. In 2005, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

(Non-Fiction)Review of "Infidel"
An Autobiography by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Infidel: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of "The Caged Virgin," tells her unusual life story. From a traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia and Kenya ... to her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the West.

When I finished the last page of Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, I closed the cover and commented on what a powerful book it was. Others have described the Hirsi Ali's autobiography as remarkable, amazing, or a a brave, inspiring and beautifully written memoir. All such acclamations are warranted as Hirsi Ali uses clear and descriptive language to tell the story of how she became one of Time magazines 2005 one-hundred “most influential people in the world today.”

Born in 1969, Hirsi Ali was born a traditional Muslim girl. She was raised in Somalia, Saudi Arabia and Kenya, where her family held steadfast to the doctrines of the Quran. Like the 6000 young girls that undergo female genital excision everyday, Hirsi Ali was forced to submit to excision in order keep her pure, as well as other cultural practices requiring her to take a secondary and subservient role in life, simply because she was female.

Click the link below to continue reading my review of "Infidel".

More on "Infidel", by Ayaan Hirsi Ali