Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Books Read Aug. 2011

Ok... so I had a goal of reading something more informative or classic but didn't really happen this month.... However, I did sub a couple days of school so read a few books then.

1.) Magic Tree House #5 Night of the Ninjas - Mary Pope Osborn (1995)

      A simple kids book, wasn't impressed considering how popular a series this is for younger kids, just seemed sort of bland/unexciting

2.) My Trip to Alpa 1 - Alfred Slote (1986)

     Another kids book that atleast brings up an intersting philosophical question for the reader... in the future people can travel by having thier brainwaves programmed into a robot at their travel destination. They then use the robot to do everything until its time to come home when they shut it down and you wake up again at home.... What are the ethical implications? (note the book does not questions the ethics, but it is there to think about)    

3) Ramona the Pest - Beverly Cleary (2001)

    A funny look at Kindergarden through a Kindergardners eyes, even has a few little hidden jokes for grownups sprinkled in.

4) The Devil in the Belfry - Edgar Allen Poe (1839)

    Not a kids story, but a lesson in how you have to be prepared for change.... at least thats what I got out of it.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Power of the Past - 2011

Power of the Past was last weekend, and well I don't have a whole lot to say about it in general... It was about the same as it was every year, lots of tractors, good "fair" like food. a flea market with some decent stuff and junk, and a bunch of people.

So I thought I'd list a few intersting things I saw... un tractor related, as I didn't really look at them a lot this year.

1. A lady walking around with a cockatoo on her shoulder... which prompted me to ask Steve and Erin via text if farmers where the new wave pirate....

2. Dillon Wager had a booth at the power of the past with some cool Spray Paint art he started doing, I would have never guessed it was spray paint when I first saw it.


3.... I actually got a picture for this...

An Amish kid wearing Air Jordan sneakers...

not a great picture since I was trying to be sneaky....
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And for a closer look....

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Wow is all I could say about that, I found it funny...

Friday, August 19, 2011

Canoe Trip II

Pictures from Canoeing with Erin, Brock and Joe on 8-14-11


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Friday, August 12, 2011

August 2011 update

So whats been going on lately? I realize I haven't blogged much this month... at least a blog that had much content other than pictures, so I figured I'd take a little time and cover a few topics about my life.

 Activity

I'll be honest and say I haven't been to the gym for a couple weeks and haven't been that active. I need to get my butt into gear and start doing a little more. Maybe takes some walks or something, since it has been so nice out. Today I thought about going on a long walk to Adams like I did last summer but didn't want to have to figure out how to sneak away from Sparky or Pepper... neither of them can handle a walk that long.

Summer

Why does it always seem like Summer is over at the start of August? I mean it does go through longer but with school starting back up and everyone getting back from vacations it just seems like we are moving into fall. Erin is getting ready to go back to school soon... we went to go get her books on Wednesday. I really like summer, its my favorite season so I'm kind of sad to see it go. I always wish I had gotten more done during it. Also on a side note its nice to hear the locust this time of year... I know it drives some people crazy but I like their sounds.


Traveler's Return

Erin's grandparents will be coming home soon, in fact as early as this Sunday they will be arriving home again. Seems like them coming back home will be more than just the end of the summer. They have been gone since early June, and I have spent a great deal of the summer hanging out at their house with Erin. Hanging out with her a bunch isn't going to change, it will just seem different. It's kind of almost seemed like that was our house this summer, which was nice... since we are both living with family.... and now we have to adjust back to the way things were before.

Movies

Erin and I have wanted to go to the drive-in again to see some movies but they have never had two movies we wanted to see... To be honest we haven't been to the movie theatre since the last time we went to the drive in so we are pretty far behind with summer movies... we will have to catch up with our netflix because we have been watching a lot of movies through there. I'll even give the movie she picked out the other night "Tuesday's With Morrie" an endorsement on here, I normally dislike motivation movies... but this one I thought was good. Add in the fact that it was a made for TV movie.... wow really beat my expectations.

Work

What is an update without a quick work update? Looks like its going to be a crazy fall this year at work. New projects are jumping out of the woodwork it seems. September is going to be packed... Archaeology month event, Finishing up our All-American Girls Professional Baseball League exhibit with a panel of former players, Life before Electricity exhibit kick off and the Greensburg Fall Festival. Oh also we have to get a new roof on the museum... so yeah its going to keep me busy, and already is keeping me busy.


Upcoming...

Going Canoeing Again this Sunday, less people going this time which is a little disappointment but I enjoy going Canoeing so I'm sure I'll have a good time.

Steve and I talked about a possible film project, who know if it'll come out good or not... or even if it will get made but hey... it could be a fun little project. (you will hear about this for sure if it gets made)

Might be going to the Half Century of Power antique tractor show again with my Dad in Illinois here in a few weeks as well.



Well that's all for now, I'll try to update more frequently the rest of the month.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

All-American Girls Baseball League

A brief article I wrote for the fall historical society bulliten about our current featured exhibit, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. After studing up for this exhibit I feel like I could write a full paper on the topic, however the length of the bulliten requires me to condense. I added the pictures for the blog. 

“A League of their Own”


The All-American Girls Baseball League was formed in 1942 by Philip K. Wrigley of Wrigley Gum and Chicago Cubs fame. Wrigley feared that due to World War II he would soon find his ball park sitting empty with all of his players off fighting. An empty ballpark doesn’t generate any revenue, so Wrigley formed a committee that proposed the idea of creating women’s baseball league. Wrigley’s committee originally pitched the idea to other major league owners, with the proposal that the women would play games on days that the men were not, doing so in order to maximize the use of their stadiums. However, this idea of a women’s baseball league did not draw much interest from the other owners, and Wrigley was left to continue on his own selecting four cities without Major League baseball teams near Chicago to be the original host cities.

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These original cities and teams were: Kenosha Comets, Racine Belles, Rockford Peaches, and the South Bend Blue Sox. Over the Leagues history it fielded as many as 10 teams for the 1948 season, though the league expanded and contracted often in its short history. Only two of the original four teams lasted long enough to play in all twelve seasons of the league - these teams were the Rockford Peaches and the South Bend Blue Sox. Even though all of the teams were located around the Great Lakes region, the players came from near and far. When the league was formed scouts were sent out to major softball leagues around the country and Canada, as well as having try-outs held in major cities around the United States. After this initial round of scouting, 280 girls were brought to a final try-out at Wrigley Field in Chicago where the top sixty were selected to be the first professional women baseball players. The initial season of league play featured players from twenty-six states and five Canadian provinces.

One of the major fears Mr. Wrigley had when forming the league was that the girls would come off as too masculine, making fans unable embrace the players. To combat those image concerns, Wrigley sent players to “Charm School” to teach his players etiquette and guidelines to become a vision of feminine beauty on and off the field. The uniforms for the All-American Girls Baseball League were also designed to be very feminine and stylish, created by the team of Mrs. Wrigley, Otis Shepard who was the art designer for Wrigley’s Gum, and Ann Harnett. Ann Harnett, a softball star from Chicago, was the first player signed to the league and became the model for the league’s uniforms.


 
When the All-American Girls started playing baseball in 1943, the rules and strategy were a combination between the baseball played in men’s professional leagues and softball. The major differences to be seen were: distances between the plate and pitching mound, distances between the bases, styles of pitching, and the size of the ball. Throughout the years these differences became less pronounced as the league continued to evolve to more closely resemble that of the Major League.

A Shrinking Target:

The size of the ball used by the league shrunk throughout the years. The All American Girls Professional Baseball League started out using a twelve inch circumference ball which was similar to the size of a softball and ended up using a nine inch circumference ball. This nine inch ball was the same size used by their male counterparts in the major leagues.

 
Pitching Styles:

When the girls took to the field in 1943, only underhanded pitching was permitted, in what was basically an early form of fast-pitch softball. As early as 1946 the league began allowing side armed pitching and in 1948 the rules allowed the girls to pitch overhand just like the men.



Running the Bases and Moving the Mound:

The distance between the bases grew from only sixty-five feet apart in 1943 until they were eighty-five feet in 1954; this was just five feet shy of the 90 foot distance used by the men. The gap between the pitcher’s mound and home plate also grew during the leagues history, starting only forty feet away the home plate and moving back several times until the girls were pitching sixty feet from the plate.


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The All-American Girls baseball league ran until 1954, when dwindling attendance spelled the end for the league. With live broadcast of major league baseball games on television becoming more and more popular, fewer people came out to watch the girls play. The league had contracted back to only four teams in this last year with the Kalamazoo Lassies winning the final championship. However, the league lived on through its players’ memories, hosting many reunions as well as being featured in the hit movie “A League of their Own.”



The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League’s Decatur County connection is Janet Rumsey, a pitcher for the South Bend Blue Sox from Burney. Janet played four years in the league (1951-54) and has the distinction of being named the pitching champ of 1954 as well as pitching the league’s last no-hitter.

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The Historical Society Museum invites you to come and check out our display of the league which includes: uniforms, a “Charm School” guidebook, scrapbooks, photographs as well as a large collection of items provided by Janet Rumsey’s family. We will also be hosting a special event on September 18th at 1:30 at the historical society museum with a panel of former players and an umpire from the All-American Girls Baseball League.

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Monday, August 8, 2011

Making Headlines

I haven't posted in a few days and this will only be a quick update but I did make the front page of the Greensburg Daily News twice in the last 5-6 days.

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For the Completion of the work done to Broadway street on the square in Greensburg, to be honest I didn't have much to do with this as the design and development of the project took place before I joined the Mainstreet Greensburg board of directors this spring. However, they asked me to show up for the ribbon cutting ceremony and I did, thus I made the newspaper. I must say the project looks good, I just hope the town is willing to do the upkeep that the maintaining the plants will involve.


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"August 8, 2011



Sesquicentennial Quilt Now Housed at Historical Society Museum
Greensburg Daily News


Greensburg — Countless members of the Greensburg and Decatur County community contributed to the creation of this quilt one stitch at a time during the Greensburg 150th celebration in 2009. Mary Yoder and Mary Jane McKahan helped to organize the project as part of a committe chaired by Letti Davis, who presented Historical Society of Decatur County executive director Dustin White with the Greensburg Sesquicentennial Quilt.
It will be displayed at the gallery after the All American Girls Professional Baseball League exhibit closes in September."

Better late than never I guess for the quilt. Good publicity for the Museum though since we were able to get on the front page.

Monday, August 1, 2011

July 2011 review

So July is over, wow seems like summer is going fast! But I guess we say that every year, though I will admit it seems like I haven't accomplished much this summer. Last summer I was unemployed and enjoyed a relaxing summer going on walks and playing video games, I need to walk to Adams one day in August just for old times sake I guess, or even just go driving around one night... I haven't done that in forever.

This month was good though, at the start Erin's family visited and we hung out with them for her birthday week.

The next week was the fair, and all of those small town festivities that go along with it... stuff us simple Decatur County folks enjoy.

Baling Hay took up some time this month.

Went to the Drive-in Movie theatre for the first time.

Went Canoeing with some friends.

So it was plenty eventful I guess...

I don't have a book list this month because well... didn't read any... I started "The Bells of San Juan" and need to get back to reading it... hasn't done much to interest me yet.

I guess I feel like I need to be accomplishing more, I just need to figure out where/what I want to accomplish these things.... I haven't done a good job getting to the gym, so I need to improve that. I think I need to intellectually do something challenging and force myself to stick to it... Erin is going back to school and so is Steve and I guess maybe I feel like I haven't done anything that was intellectually challenging since college.

Erin and I have even discussed me going back to school, which would kind of be fun, I just have to think about it a lot and get the whole money thing figured out as to if I want to really do it. Its a scary proposition and well I feel like if I go back to school its like saying I wasted several years of my life. I think that is the biggest hold up, the fact I'd be saying I wasted a couple years getting my History Degree, so it'd be admitting a failure that I don't think I want to admit yet.

I've finished my blog series this month, but again I hated it about half way through... I haven't decided what I'm going to do for August... I don't think I'll do an everyday series, maybe a once a week deal on a bigger topic or theme? I'd like to even do maybe a discussion/debate series sometime, but that would take a lot of planning. Anyway don't plan on seeing an everyday post in August like you did this month, sometimes the everyday thing just burns  me out.

Well overall the month has been good, so hopefully everything was well for all of you readers as well.

Canoe Trip July 24th 2011

Pictures from the Canoe Trip on July 24th, 2011 with Erin, Joe, Scott, Kris, Katy and myself. Pictures were taken by Katy which is why she isn't in any of these.

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Erin and myself




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Kris




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Joe and Scott