Spices are the Flavor of Life

I honestly can’t imagine a world with spices.  Known now, in the internet cute cat world, as ‘flavors’ food is pretty crappy without them.  Its amazing how for granted we take spices now, considering entire empires rose and fell because of the spice trade.

Spices go way back in human history, and have become such an integral part of every day life.  They are even mentioned a few times in the Bible, of all books.  Oddly though, I think of all the fantasy stories I’ve read, and they don’t really get too much into spices....  A shame.  Fantasy and Sci/Fi have really drawn a new connotation for the word ‘spice.’  In Star Wars and Dune ‘spice is a form of drug.

Genealogical Research is Fun!

Genealogy is an extremely fun hobby.  Even though I only dabble in it from time to time, its amazing to learn all the stuff that happened for you to get born.  In the end, you never know what you’ll find.  I know some people that branch way out and find links to celebrities, or famous people in their past.  I know, I was hoping to find a link to a very infamous family secret....

Luckily its very easy to get started, Ancestry.com is a great place, and its pretty much free.  Sure you can pay for more access to stuff, but the main thing is the family tree maker, and that is most definitely free.  After that, its all about searching and cross referencing.  Its hard not to feel the joy of searching through history, and finding links to other people, making the tree bigger and bigger.

The Digital Age is Here.

Its so amazing how the digital age has changed just about everything we can comprehend.  Besides making the generation gap far more evident.  I still find it hard to imagine that I now have friends all over the world.  I remember the old days of ‘pen palling’ and how it was such a huge failure with me and my friends, now its alive and well more than ever....

But, I did mention that generation gap thingy.  Many people don’t see how you can have honest to goodness friends who are so far away.  I wonder if its just the idea of not getting the whole instantaneous world wide connection, or the thought of sharing personal and intimate issues with someone you have never met personally can possibly happen.