Indonesian Digital News Archive

Odyssey Book Shop, South Hadley, MA

This is a fantastic bookstore and it does a lot for children. The children's book section itself is fun and well stocked. Additionally, the Odyssey hosts storytimes and in the summer, weekly saturday morning family entertainment.

I'll confess I don't go there often, I think I went to a reading by Jenny Boylan several years ago and haven't gotten back. I plan on returning soon, however. A local writer (and parent) named Samantha Wilde will be reading from her new, mommy-lit, novel at the Odyssey on June 25, 2009 - you can check out her website, linked below.

A South Hadley afternoon might include a visit to the Mt. Holyoke Conservatory, or the Art Museum. The Village Commons, where the Odyssey is located, is an interesting outdoor mall with businesses that include a delicious deli, movie theatres, and a few stores.

Odyssey Book Shop

Samantha Wilde

Northfield Drive In, Hinsdale, NH

This is a great place to take the kids at least once per summer. A green and beautiful drive takes you up to Northfield (actually Hinsdale), where you can enjoy the parking lot atmosphere and have something to eat while you wait for dark. A large playground is provided (though it's pretty old equipment). Concessions are available but why not bring a spread of your own with everything that you like? If your kids start to cry during the movie, just roll up your windows and turn the movie's volume up on your radio. Eventually they will fall asleep and you can watch the rest of the double feature.

We are really looking forward to visiting again this year.

Northfield Drive In

July 2009

Viewing Tower, Quabbin, Ware, MA

Update: Tower was still closed on July 4, 2009.

Original Post:

On our recent visit we learned that the tower is closed for renovations, with an expected re-opening date of June 30, 2009. The views pictured above are from the base of the lookout tower.

The vista from the top is of some of the many Quabbin islands - hilltops that have become hummocks on the water. It's often misty, and always very beautiful. Think Avalon.

A large parking lot is surrounded by a circular drive. Picnic spots are dotted along the edge, where scenery is the most lovely.

The walkway leading to the tower is short, and paved, so you could potentially take your stroller. There are also a number of trails leading from this spot. Several years ago we walked around the area quite a bit and found the paths difficult to navigate - if memory serves, we had a barely toddling little guy who couldn't keep his footing on the roots and rocks. We are looking forward to exploring this area again, this time with our baby in a backpack.

Quabbin (DCR site)

Winsor Dam (my post)

Quabbin Hike (my post)

Quabbin Fishing Area (my post)

Fairy Houses

This activity is great for at home or out somewhere. The fun begins with treasure hunting for various materials to construct your house, and selection of an appropriate location. Then you're ready to start building. It was fun for me to do this, and my boys got into it also - especially my 3 year old. They introduced action figures and animal figures to the houses, so it turned into free play when we were done.

As it turned out, this was also a cool nature activity. Looking at the materials up close prompted a lot of questioning. And answering, of course.

Book that inspired us

How-to information

Calling all developers for Android Developer Challenge 2!

I'm excited to announce the second Android Developer Challenge (ADC)! The first challenge was a huge success with over 1,700 entries that resulted in 50 excellent winners. With the recent release of Android 1.5, as well as the availability of devices in multiple markets around the world, I'm pleased to announce the second ADC.

We've expanded ADC 2 to involve a very important part of the Android community—the users who will be running these applications. Users of Android-powered devices with Android Market will be able to download a special Android judging application and use it to download and rank applications submitted to the Challenge. The results from this round will determine the top ranking applications in each of the 10 categories. These top applications will then be ranked by a combination of users and a panel of Google selected judges through a similar process as the first round to determine the final winners.

I've already seen a lot of great apps on Android and I look forward to seeing even more innovative and unexpected cool apps that will come out of this Challenge! For more details on ADC 2, please see the official site. Start your engines and good luck!

Sunwheel, UMass, Amherst, MA

I accessed this spot from Amity street, but I believe you are also able to use the UMass Stadium entrance.
We were there on a sunny day, which I recommend since it dramatizes the rocks/sculptures/icons. The kids had a blast running around here, and spent a long time in the meadow of wildflowers just outside of the mowed circle that surrounds the monument.
The meadow and a small bridge create the sense of being in a park - a defined area. I liked this. We spent about an hour here. That's probably the upper limit of entertainment here, except maybe older kids who were more interested in the meaning of the Sunwheel. Or if you picnicked.

Sunwheel Website

Make a sunwheel at home

Astronomy and Spirituality

Holland Glen, M-M Trail, Belchertown, MA

Update: Our recent visit here found the trail well used, the parking area full. The top two photos are from May 24, 2009. We went up to a fairly large waterfall area with a pool underneath. A campfire area and large picnic rock overlook the small waterway.

This gorgeous walk follows the path of a babbling brook as it flows through a serene wooded landscape.

From the M-M trail guide:
Mass. Rte. 9, Holland Glen, to Mount Lincoln (5.0 miles)
An interesting walk over ridge tops and beside dancing streamlets on footpaths and old town roads long since abandoned, bordered on the West Hill area by sturdy pioneer stone walls with old cellar holes which mark the site of an old agrarian community, all now in mixed forest. Holland Glen is a steep-sided ravine with a crystal dashing stream, shaded by a mature hemlock stand, forever preserved by the Belchertown Historical Society.

Android Icon Guidelines

For our second post in our series on Android UI, we're releasing our Icon Design Guidelines and an Android Icon Templates Pack. These should make it a lot easier for you (or your designer) to develop all the icons your applications need, so they fit with the other icons in the Android environment.

The Icon Design Guidelines document describes how to design and export icons that fit within the Android framework. It includes a wealth of detail about icons in the Home screen, menus, the status bar, tabs, dialogs, and lists.

The Android Icon Templates Pack is a collection of template designs, filters, and settings that make it easier for you to create icons that conform to the general specifications given in this Guidelines document. We recommend downloading the template pack archive before you get started with your icon design.

The Templates Pack provides templates in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator file formats, which preserves the layers and design treatments we used when creating the standard icons for the Android platform. You can load the template files into any compatible image-editing program, although your ability to work directly with the layers and treatments may vary based on the program you are using.

Lightning talks at Google I/O

Google I/O is approaching, and with over ten quality talks lined up, we should all strive to be attentive, avid learners. But for the last Android session of the conference, we thought it would be fun to unwind and open up the podium for lightning talks. This is where anyone can take the stage for six minutes and talk about anything. If you've done a cool hack involving Android, if you've devised a clever technique for a common problem, or even if you just want to get up on your soapbox for six minutes to appeal to your fellow developers, this is your time to be heard.

For those planning on attending Google I/O, we need you to submit and judge lightning talk proposals through a Google Moderator series we've set up. Please go ahead and start submitting your proposals. You only have 250 characters to describe the talk, which may be 110 more characters than you've been used to these days.

Voting is open from now until the moment the session starts. We'll take the eight highest rated talks and will call upon each speaker to take the stage. Remember you only have six minutes. Exceed that, and our security force tackles you off the stage. Thanks and see you all at I/O!

Fish Hatchery, Sunderland, MA

This hatchery is quite different from the one we usually visit. The pools are layed out to resemble a natural waterway, and the permanent screens arched over the top support wildflowers and tall grass. The area is wooded and the paths are pleasant. On the down side, only two of the pools were inhabited by fish, so there was some disappointment. There was no fish food for sale there (that we noticed, anyways). Also in contrast to my experience at the McLaughlin Hatchery, there was a bit of an unpleasant odor. I noticed it when we first climbed out of the van, but quickly acclimated to it. It didn't really impinge on our visit - but it was there.

Fish Hatcheries

Mt. Sugarloaf, Sunderland, MA

In the words of my children, "this definitely looks like a hiking zone." We parked way up at the top, so the only hiking we did was up the stairs of the observation tower. There are a number of beautiful picnic spots, including a large pavillion with tables beneath.
The summit is very parklike, and the kids had a great time romping around, inspecting bugs and rocks. The view made an initial impression on them, but they quickly forgot about it. My oldest, at 4, spent the longest time admiring the view, noticing that the cars were very small, and lo and behold, the road was small too. The observation tower was alluring as a castle hosting one red dragon and one blue prince.
Take 116 all the way through Sunderland and into Deerfield (over the blue bridge). A couple of intersections later turn right; immediately start looking for the brown DCR sign on your right hand side. The road to the summit has at least one secondary parking area that I noticed, perhaps there are more. There is a $2 parking fee.

Mt. Sugarloaf

Bonfire at Chestnut Hill, May 21, 2009, Belchertown, MA

BONFIRE ’09 ADDING MORE HEAT TO BELCHERTOWN ON A HOT THURSDAY EVENING Green Day Tribute Band ‘Dookie’ Scheduled To Play at 8pm at Chestnut Hill Athletic Fields
For Immediate ReleaseMay 20, 2009 Belchertown, MA – A huge bonfire and a live band known as ‘DoOkiE’, a Green Day Tribute Band that plays all over the nation, will take over the Chestnut Hill Athletic Fields on Thursday, May 21, 2009 from 7pm to 10pm. Great visuals from 7:45pm – 8:15pm for special prayer for a recent death of a Belchertown student’s father (Marc C. Sugrue), lighting of the bonfire, national anthem and student singing group performance before the entrance of the band. The Green Day band is famous for Boulevard of Broken Dreams (I Walk Alone), the 2006 Grammy Awards Record of the Year. Along with other hit songs like Longview, Basketcase and When I Come Around, Green Day is known for the song Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) which was the nostalgic musical end of the final episode of NBC’s Seinfeld . DoOkiE, will be performing all these hit Green Day songs and more. Gate opens at 7pm and food and lite fare will be available as well as some great raffle prizes. The Bonfire ’09 event is open to all friends, family and residents of the area and will have plenty of police and fire protection. All the fun will be for a new non-profit organization in Belchertown, MA, Future Leadership: Journey 2009. The new organization is in the process of applying for a State Non-Profit Certificate and will assist six Belchertown High School students in raising funds for educational travel to Europe and Africa this summer. Tickets are available for presale by calling Ms. Lori Brown @ (413) 323.6064 / lbrownma@charter.net or Ms. Elizabeth Taras @ (413) 687.3144 / elizabeth@marketmentors.net. Day of event prices are $20 for those 12 – 21 and $10 for adults over 21. Children under 12 are free.

Stone Soup Farm, Belchertown, MA

On Jackson St. in Belchertown, across from the DPW, lies the Stone Soup Farm and the Belchertown Community Gardens. Inside the barn are the fresh vegetables picked that day, which you can purchase for great prices. Last summer our kids discovered how refreshing it can be to bite into a juicy cucumber and eat it whole, when you are walking miles and miles through hot summer evenings, in a fruitless effort to jiggle a sibling out of your mother.
There are some chickens running around, and plenty of cattle to view from afar, but there weren't any other animals there at that time. We enjoyed walking along the edge of the community gardens, looking at what individual farmers had done with their plots.

CISA