April 30 2001

Playing with words

I just found the Assoziationsblaster, German for “Associativity-O-Blast”.

“The Assoziations-Blaster is an interactive text network. Anyone, including you, is allowed to contribute to the text database. And all the texts inside this database are connected automatically in real time.

You can not browse through all the texts in a linear way. Instead you jump from one text to another depending on their connections, revealing new meanings and associations.

I especially like the Web-Blaster which shows any web page with lots of links. Here’s my site web-blasted.

Random information I found there: The most powerful invention must surely be the book. If not the form, the idea that information could be stored and shared independent of a single person’s memory. So true…

Die deutsche Version gibt’s unter http://www.assoziations-blaster.de/, natürlich auch mit Web-Blaster (meine Site geblasted).

The Lord of the Rings

Imladris is a site with news about the LotR movie. If you’re among those who can hardly wait until the first movie is released, go and have a look! They have all kinds of information and some photos as well.

Link via Garret.

Reading

“If All of Rochester Read the Same Book”: Book sparks student debate, unifies community. Sounds like an interesting project – and an interesting book: A lesson before dying by Ernest J. Gaines.

Link via Garret.

Sad news

Two days ago, Susan’s grandfather died at the age of 100 years. And although I’ve never met him (or Susan) in person, I feel like I knew him at least a bit through a Lake George Diary and other stories.

Our thoughts are with you and your family, Susan.

Endspurt

André posted photos from the last three days of his trip to Cornwall and tells about his journey home.

US National Parks

I’m looking for a book about all the National Parks in the USA. It should be an overview of all the parks with descriptions and some facts about the size and location of the parks, when to go, what to do there etc. I’ve searched several online bookstores and looked at the National Park Service site as well, but all I found was the National Geographic’s Guide to the National Parks of the United States (a newer version of which is available from Amazon). Maybe you could help me out?

Do you know this book, and can you recommend it? Or do you know another book about the National Parks that’s worth checking out? Your recommendations in the discussion group or via email will be greatly appreciated!

10 thoughts on “April 30 2001

  1. garret p vreeland

    i wish i could help you with the national park book. i don’t know of any that are really comprehensive. what you might do, is find a list of all the national parks (national monuments, etc.) and compare them to the table of contents of any book you look at.

    many only cover the ‘major’ parks, ignoring the minor ones. that’s actually a good thing (in my view), because oftentimes the less-well-known parks are empty, untouched, and wonderful.

    national geographic should be a very good source; but this style of book is expensive, and it’s worth looking for authoritativeness before purchase.

  2. Andrea Frick

    many only cover the ‘major’ parks, ignoring the minor ones. that’s actually a good thing (in my view), because oftentimes the less-well-known parks are empty, untouched, and wonderful.

    That’s exactly why I am looking for a book that covers all the parks. On our trip through the west, I found that although Grand Canyon was very impressive, I actually liked Canyonlands better. I especially enjoyed visiting Joshua Tree NP because there were few visitors. Nature is much more impressive that way than if it is overcrowded like Yosemite or Zion.

    I’ll see if anyone else can recommend a book. If not, I’ll have to rely on the recommendations at Amazon or another of the bigger online book stores.

    Thanks anyway!

  3. garret p vreeland

    just in case you haven’t found this yet, here’s a list of the national parks. as i have time, i’ll keep looking for a book. i know there’s a company who puts out *individual* guides to each of the parks … but that would be just a bit expensive.

    whoops … forgot to put in the link!

  4. Jim Stegman

    One way to get lot’s of info about the parks (federal & state) is to join AAA (American Automobile Association). Members can request any number of tour guides and maps at no additional cost. (membership is $59)

    Their Tour Guides are excellent. If you want, I’ll ship you an old copy (they have new editions each year) of any state/region you are interested in.

    The only problem is that since you live in Germany you might have a difficult time joining. My local chapter, Cincinnati, only allows people within Cincinnati to join. :(

  5. Andrea Frick

    Jim,

    thanks for the idea. When my boyfriend and I traveled to the US a year and a half ago, I joined the ADAC, the German version of AAA. I got some maps and tour guides from the AAA from them.

    I might be able to get the maps and tour guides you mentioned from the ADAC without joining AAA. I guess I’ll drop by and ask them if they have any information about the National Parks.

    Thanks,

    Andrea

    P.S.: I read on the AAA web site that non-resident memberships are not available.

  6. Jim Stegman

    Greetings Andrea,

    P.S.: I read on the AAA web site that non-resident memberships are not available.

    This seems so silly! For the life of me, I can’t imagine why they would do this! I’ll call them & ask why.

    Once I got home yesterday I realized that I DO have a copy of National Geographic’s Guide to the National Parks of the United States. (1st edition, 1989) After looking through it again, I would recommend it to you. My only complaint is that my copy (a paperback) has a very tight binding, & you cannot open the book & lay it flat. I hate this in travel books/guides, because when I am reading them I am usually referring to a map at the same time. if you let go of a page in this book, it closes right up! Perhaps they have a hardback version that does not have this problem.

    I also have National Geographic’s Guide to the State Parks, which has the same binding problem but is otherwise useful. Of course it does not cover ALL the state parks, because there are thousands of them. but it does cover about 200 or so of the better parks.

  7. Jim Stegman

    Greetings Andrea,

    I called AAA, & the man said that each person joins within their own local chapter, which I suppose is the ADAC. If you have any trouble getting a guide, send me an email.

  8. Andrea Frick

    Jim,

    thanks for all the effort you put into this! The local chapter of the ADAC is at the other end of town, so I don’t know when I’ll find the time to go and ask for guides, but I will stop by at the next opportunity. It should be no problem to get a guide there if they have it; they are generally pretty generous with stuff like this.

    Thanks for recommending the National Geographic Guide. I’ll see about the binding, but the book itself seems to be what I want (judging from the description at Amazon).

    By the way, is this the book about the State Parks you were referring to?

    Andrea

  9. Jim Stegman

    By the way, is this the book about the State Parks you were referring to?

    Yep, that’s it!

    It covers 4-6 parks for each state, so if you are going to be visiting a couple states it probably isn’t worth it. But in any case check out the Nat’l Parks book first to make sure you like the style & content.

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