Source: In Memoriam: 9 Tech Titans Who Died in 2012 | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com. He was just one of several tech titans who died over the past year. None had the name recognition of a Steve Jobs — who passed in 2011 — but they may have moved our world in bigger ways. Among those that passed in 2013 are the IBMer who invented the bar code and the Zenith engineer who devised the first wireless TV remote — not to mention one of the physicist who helped built the atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Click on the images above … Continue reading Techie Titans …

Dexter, our cat has been chasing a mouse around the house for the last few winter days. When he does he gets Beulah our sixty pound basset hound all excited and involved in the chase. It is funny to see Beulah with her tail wagging a mile a minute sitting next to Dexter staring at the bottom of the refrigerator where a mouse is currently hiding.  When I started this post that picture came to mind but that is really not the topic at hand. Instead it is about giving up my computer mouse.

I started out my computer life with a Radio Shack TRS-80 computer in the 1980s. It had no mouse or graphical user interface (GUI for all you techies). Everything had to be typed in on a keyboard and I spent hundreds of hours on doing just that.  I was hooked from the very beginning.

Continue reading “Giving Up the Mouse…..”

  Some time ago I came across a blog from a Romanian blogger named Cristian Mihai that got my attention. On many of his posts he seems much too mature for his twenty-two years.  But then other times he seems to fit right in to that bracket.  He is an ambitious young man who has totally conquered English as his second language. He is also a self-published author. Below is one of the posts that seems almost profound to me. He is talking about what it means to be a writer: Source: You either write or live « Cristian Mihai. You … Continue reading You Either Write or Live

  You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger. Let a person overcome anger by love. Hate is never ended by hatred but by love. — Buddha — These words could just as easily come from the mouth of Jesus as from Buddha. But in reality Buddha lived on this earth several hundred years before Jesus. It amazes me how similar the reported lives of Jesus and Buddha are. Here are some of those similarities as found at Wikipedia and other sources:  Buddha is actually a title which means “the awakened one”, his … Continue reading You Are Punished By Your Anger, Not For Your Anger…

It seems we hear a lot about how the Republicans say they can’t vote for this or for that because they must “follow their principles”.  The trouble with all this is that they don’t want any government so blowing up the system IS following their principles.

Their hero told them that “government is the problem”. But what is a country without government?  That condition is called “everyone for themselves”. Is that what we want for our country? I think not; at least for 99% of us.

Is there really anything except shutting down government that can pass through a GOP controlled house of representatives now days? Are they really so head strong on eliminating their own jobs? That would be a first for any government employee wouldn’t it?

Continue reading “Following Their Principles…..”

  Source: Home for the holidays: Fewer US troops are absent this year – CSMonitor.com. When President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama issued a special holiday greeting over the weekend to US troops fighting overseas, they were addressing the smallest deployment of combat troops in at least five years…. Then, as Mrs. Obama emphasized in the video greeting, there are the 2.4 million veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and their families, who will continue to require services beyond holiday acknowledgments from the president.  Even though I don’t have any friends or relatives in harm’s way now, this is … Continue reading Home for the holidays: Fewer US troops are absent this year…

I am a tool guy. I have had many of them throughout my life. My barn is stuffed with specialized tools I purchased when I had a cabinet making business. I am also a firm believer in the old phrase The Right Tool for the Job That is you don’t use pliers when the job really calls for a socket wrench.  In that regard when I looked out on our 150 foot driveway covered with over fourteen inches of wet snow I knew I didn’t have the right tools for this job. My Craftsman garden tractor is the top of … Continue reading The Right Tool….

Being that we are coming upon the end of another year I am in a self-reflections mode. I admit that much of what I post about is the result of reading a post or article about something and thinking that there is more to the story than is written. Sometimes it deserves an alternate view. Sometimes it needs expanding to attain its full meaning. And sometimes it’s just wrong, at least in my view. :)  I write to fill these gaps.  While I don’t like others putting me in boxes, particularly those that don’t really fit, I do sometimes try … Continue reading Being A Contrarian….

We have a white out here at the homestead so I will be hunkering down with a picture puzzle and a keyboard today but not at the same time, I don’t believe in multitasking. :)   We knew it was coming but don’t really believe it until we see it.  We are kind of like our Missouri neighbors in that regard. I stayed late after the Christmas meal at the soup kitchen and shelter yesterday to make food for the guys there through the next few days so they should be ok. My tractor plow is harnessed up and ready … Continue reading White Out in Indiana….

Merry Christmas Everyone   Continue reading Merry Christmas

  “We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.” — C.S. Lewis C.S. Lewis is my favorite non-theologian theologian. That is he like me was not trained in a seminary or such place. But his book Mere Christianity had a great impact on me and millions of other lay people. I think it is the number one theological book sold. He just seemed to understand things about Christianity that all those trained … Continue reading Turning back….

  Island House Hotel – A nice place to stay while visiting Mackinac Island.   Continue reading Mackinac Island