All posts by Blake Swopes

Blake Swopes is a disabled former Linux Systems Administrator from Southern California. Due to chronic pain, he can no longer spend much time on a keyboard, so this site has become largely archival.
Journal

Feb 28, 2009

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Learned a bit about my dad’s side of the family. Turns out that Swope and Swopes are, surprisingly, related… (Also Schwab, Swab… same name, which came from the region – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabia ) So, this is a chunk of my family history…

http://books.google.com/books?id=NkEVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA494&lpg=PA494#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Not sure where I branch off from, but we do know that we’re among the original settlers of pennsylvania, we settled lancaster county where the amish now live, then moved on to monroe county, west virginia, where there’s a smallish mountain named swope’s knob…

my dad’s mom’s side has a convicted witch, which is kinda neat. She was executed, so that kinda sucks for her.

http://members.tripod.com/rfox52/LydiaGilbert.htm

 

According to this artist’s conception, apparently she could shoot lighting out of her hands… how badass is that?

http://womenhistory.blogspot.com/2008/02/lydia-gilbert.html

 

Journal

Feb 25, 2009

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Rode down in the elevator with a coworker, Cynthia. She said she thought she heard something about me lately, and had it been my birthday. I said, nope, that’s in November. “What day?”, she asks. 13, I tell her. “Me too!”

So, I get down to my car, and the audiobook I’m listening to comes on… Its Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson… Born Nov 13, 1850.