Beautiful Image...

I found while perusing the web for images of autumn.

I'm Soooo Excited for Fall!

My Weimaraner, Armani, loves autumn too.

I suppose the title of this post is self-explanatory, but allow me to say it again: I am SO excited for fall! Perhaps it's my innate dislike of summer, but whenever the leaves start to change, the hay is harvested, and the weather grows cooler, it's like I become an entirely different person. Having hibernated in my air-conditioned cave all summer long, I'm finally ready to get out -- apple picking, pumpkin farms, corn mazes, and hay rides are waiting! It's like autumn gives me a license to be a kid again.

We're planning a trip out to New England to visit family & friends this fall; it'll be my first time back in Massachusetts (in fall) since 2008. As was a tradition of mine when I lived back there, I'll be visiting Honey Pot Hill Orchards in Stow, MA, for fresh, delicious apple cider (and cider donuts!) and yummy local honey and homemade jam. Check out their YouTube commercial:

Well, I'm off -- time to open all the windows to let in the cool breeze. It's going to be 50 degrees tonight -- so excited! <3

The Internet & Communication

While it can be said that communication has been hindered by the explosion of online communication, I contend that communication has been helped more than its been hurt. For instance, when I packed up and moved away from Arizona to spend time with my aunt and uncle in Massachusetts, I was still able to talk to and even "see" my family & friends via webcam without running up a huge telephone or travel bill. Frankly, I think the homesickness would have eaten away at me if not for the visitation the Internet provided.

The word "friend" has not been cheapened; rather it has been expanded. No longer are we relegated to becoming friends only with those who are already in our town, city, or neighborhood -- the world has become an extension of these communities, allowing like-minded people to connect through the virtual world on the web.

I liken this battle to the one waged every Christmas, at least in my family, when someone (generally some time into retirement) is offended when a young relative mails a mass-printed greeting card with no handwritten, personal message. It's a difference of perspective, and eventually time will tell which gains the upper hand.

Exploring the 'Net

So, I've a few objectives for the course; the first is to say what my expectations of this Exploring the Internet course include. I expect to get a little more in-depth information regarding the web and what it has to offer; hopefully a bit of website creation will be thrown in for good measure. I'd like to create a website to showcase my work in photography.

I don't have any blogs that I follow; I occasionally read the Huffington Post blog, and might become interested in a link a friend posts on Facebook, but nothing I'm interested in enough to consistently check their posts.

As far as the topics that interest me, I'd say travel, digital photography, fiction writing, liberal politics, and horror tales would be of the most interest to me.

My previous experience with the Internet is pretty much the same as most Gen-Yers out there. I use Facebook, MySpace, occasionally Twitter; I maintain a photo site on Smugmug; I haven't purchased a CD in years (I download my music from iTunes and Amazon); I get my news, fashion advice, maps, schoolwork, and all sorts of other info from the web; I do a lot of my shopping online (the deals to be had are marvelous), and find that my life is sooooo much simpler thanks to Google. I access the web from my laptop and my smartphone, and absolutely love it. What a marvelous world we live in.

An Introduction

Hi, everyone. This is my first blog, and since the class assignment is to make an introduction to the other students in the class, that's just what I'll do.

My name is Cate Hansen; I live just north of Dallas, Texas, with my husband and our two Weimaraners, Versace and Armani. Most people from Texas can tell I'm not a native Texas almost immediately -- I think the lack of a southern accent and the liberal bumper stickers give me away. ;) I was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, but have lived in various locales across the US, including long stints in Massachusetts and Colorado, and a shorter venture into San Francisco. Thanks to my stepfather's family, I became a Red Sox fan early on; I also developed a love of hockey from them. I'm a huge fan of reading -- I started reading at a very early age, and even now the occasions that one can find me without a book in hand (or very close nearby) are few and far between.

As for work, I currently work as a teacher's aide at a local school district, in addition to running my own transcription and editing business. Thanks to this lingering recession, two jobs are a necessity at the moment. I also "attend" school full-time -- I say "attend" because all of my courses are online this semester, so what I really do is log on from the comfort of my home (or wherever else I happen to be when the need to do schoolwork becomes overwhelming).

I guess that's all for now. Happy blogging!