Summer Vacations
|
|
Playgrounds
Best Playgrounds Around the Metro AreaCameron Run Water Park
Learn how to:
Make money by
Build your skills by:
Improve your knowledge
Go Bicycling
Make a Survival Kit
In one Altoids tin put:
- matches hand-dipped in Thompson’s WaterSeal,
- a tiny magnesium fire starter,
- a small lens for igniting fires should the matches and magnesium fire starter fail,
- an L.E.D. flashlight,
- a button-size compass,
- a thin square of mirror to signal potential rescuers,
- 20 water purification tablets,
- a meticulously folded freezer bag to store potable water,
- a packet of antibiotic ointment,
- butterfly bandages,
- a sewing bobbin with 20 feet of fishing line,
- a dozen hooks,
- six weights,
- laminated instructions on tying knots and
- snare wire for capturing small animals.
“You can’t let people die in your class,” said Mr. McCann, who is a former Marine drill instructor.
Out of a tackle box, he pulled out tinder fashioned from his own recipe: cotton balls moistened with petroleum jelly. A vial holds about 15 compressed, greasy orbs, which can burn for at least two minutes when expanded and lighted. Organic alternatives include cattails and curly birch bark. For his finale, he shaped some extra-fine steel wool into a fibrous horseshoe and touched the ends to the positive and negative contacts of the battery from his cellphone. Sparks flew, and the steel wool erupted in flames.
Games
My dad taught me to play checkers. He was very good and I don't think I ever beat him. Later I became addicted to chess. Uncle Hays taught me when when I was in ninth grade, I joined the Chess Team at Las Vegas High School in 10th and was ninth place. That's where I met Ian Jordan, number 1 or 2 against Lance Mays (Athiest vs Fundamentalist Christian).Then I assembled my computer Sophomore at Bishop Gorman and learned Adventure. Now you can waste many hours playing Adventure on-line
Summer Activities
How should you fill your leisure time? If I had my life over again, I'd make better use of my summers. I really miss summer vacation - 3 months, and winter vacations were a month long.Outward Bound - an alternative to boy scouts and girl scouts
My favorite activities remain unchanged since I was 16
Since I lost my feet, I can't do the last three anymore. If you choose team sports, hopefully you'll make some good friends and learn to get along with different kinds of people. Since all my activities were solitary ones, I was never able to do either, and my life is less than it would be. Except chess, I met one of my best friends (Ian Jordan) on the High school chess team. He now lives in Westminister and we see him a few times a year.
Water Fun
Local Scuba and Indoor Waterparks
Camping, Hiking
See the Travel page for more information.To the Beach
Washington Post, May 11, 2008HEALTH WATCH
Beach Bums
How would you like to go for a nice swim at a beach that fails half of all tests for fecal contamination? No? Then get the facts before taking a dip.
At the Natural Resources Defense Council Web site ( http://oceans.nrdc.org/beachgoers/map), a map shows how often water at 100 popular U.S. beaches failed to meet federal health standards in the latest available rounds of tests. Bacterial counts that exceed standard levels set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can cause gastrointestinal illnesses, pinkeye and rashes, among other things. The map was created by the NRDC, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, using EPA data.
The NRDC also named six "beach bums" that exceed EPA bacterial standards more often than not. Two are in Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay: The water at Hacks Point showed potentially unhealthful levels of contamination in 60 percent of tests. The figure is 56 percent at Bay Country Campground and Beach .
Find a state-by-state list of test results at http://www.nrdc.org/water/oceans/ttw/titinx.asp. The site shows that the 48 monitored beaches in Virginia are checked every week, and the vast majority pass every test . In Maryland, some beaches are checked weekly, some monthly. Though Maryland's ocean beaches fare well , other swimming spots seem dicey. At the YMCA Camp Tockwogh , for example, the water fails to meet federal bacterial standards about half the time it's tested.
There is no federal requirement that jurisdictions close a beach, or even notify the public, when water standards are violated, although most jurisdictions do so voluntarily.
PC & On-Line Games
By yourself, or with friends, you'll waste countless hours playing computer games. And multi-player games will suck you in to a new virtual community. These games allow you to make friends all over the world. Rather than spending time with your neighbors next door and friends at school, you'll find you'd rather play in a virtual world.
Block Advertisements
Annabelle's Game - Spring 2008
First, draw as many squares as you want on a piece of paper. Second, find a token for each player. Third, find a die to roll. Now, play by these rules or make up some of your own:- Move 1 space and roll again.
- The other player moves 2 spaces, not you.
- You loose 3 turns.
- Move 8 spaces (double 4).
- The other player rolls and goes backward the number rolled.
- Move 6 spaces and switch positions with the other player.
Computer Games
I spent several summers playing computer games and became quite addicted to them. My first one, "Adventure" introduced by my cousin Glen who helped me with my first computer. Zork came next, and my first fincee got me SimEarth Zork "But as I played more and more, I was slowly being drawn in. Homework was secondary. Social life was non existent. Eating was of little relative importance anymore, for I swore that by time the sun set, I would connect London to Manchester, such is the addictive nature of Railroad Tycoon."Trade a paper clip for a house
Sell your grandmother's plates on e-Bay or Craigslist
Build a Computer
One summer I built a chess computer (Boris), a Heathkit Printer, a Heathkit terminal, and a Z80 computer. Don't know if you can do that anymore, but I did it without any knowledge of electronics. It was a lot like putting a jigsaw puzzle together with a soldering iron.:56K or Memory originally 16K Double Density 180K 5 1/4" floppies
300 Baud Modem
When I arrived at Northwester to begin my graduate Political Science program, I purchased:
1200 Baud internal modem
16Mhz
To help me as I worked on my Ph.D. Dissertation, I purcahsed a
with a 100MB Zip Drive 16Kbs external modem
One month after marrying your mother, as we were settling into our new house, I bought a
56Kbs internal Modem
Now with DSL
Home Last updated: August 29, 2008