It's News to Me

With apologies to David Bowie, I've made a few «ch-ch-ch-changes» just for variety's sake. I'll probably let the site stay like this for a while to see how I like it and how you react to it. Feel free to comment, pro or con, in the comments to this post. I can always revert to the previous theme if I decide that's what I want to do, but for the moment I sort of like the cleaner look. The fact that the pages are listed across the top will allow me to eliminate the pages section currently in the sidebar at the left. So, we'll see what the feedback is.

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An article in today's New York Times (free registration required) discusses the many, occasionally-confusing widgets a reader of a blog might encounter and suggests that a blog author would do well to explain them to his readers. Being the nice guy that I am, that seemed reasonable to me, so I thought I'd give you a brief tour of this site so that you aren't in the dark about what these little items are. Today is an appropriate day to do that because I've just added a new one in the sidebar that I'll explain in a moment.

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Today, January 15th, is Carole's birthday. 

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As I mentioned in a post the other day, the Plug-In to your Community group held an event for recycling computers on Saturday.  It was well attended as the photo at the right suggests.  I was really surprised by how many people took advantage of this opportunity.  The line of cars snaked through the Best Buy parking lot and eventually split into two separate lines as we drove by the collection point so the army of volunteers could unloaded the equipment we'd brought for recycling.  My car had the back seat, the passenger seat, and the trunk full of equipment.

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Andy Beal in a post titled «Exclusive - Yahoo Using Dirty Tactics to Switch Google & Firefox Users?» warns that accepting the update to Yahoo Messenger downloads IE7 and highjacks many of your browser's preferences. What appears to be an «auto-update» for Yahoo Messenger may be more than it appears.

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I had a priceless opportunity when I was growing up to become a greasemonkey. My dad, Willie Nelson (yes, boys and girls, I am Willie Nelson's son), owned a used car lot, the Decatur Auto Exchange, during my pre-teen and early teenage years. There were always plenty of cars in need of all kinds of minor, and sometimes major, work to put them in working order and get them ready for resale that I could have learned on. My dad even had people who worked for him who would have gladly taken me under their wing, allowed me to be their apprentice and learn the ins and outs of rebuilding a carburetor or setting the timing of a motor. A lot of kids of that era, the early and mid 1950s, would have given almost anything to change places with me and take advantage of the unique opportunity I had. But me? As has all too often been the case with me, when opportunity was there pounding on my front door, I wasn't interested in letting it in. I had no curiosity at all about cars, the mechanics of what makes them work, nor any interest in getting my hands dirty or greasy. Though he never expressed any unhappiness to me about that choice, I can't help thinking my dad must have felt at least some disappointment that I didn't show any interest in something he seemed to care so much about. And I can't help but wonder how different my life and, probably not coincidentally, our relationship might have been if I had.

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The highlight of my boyhood Saturday afternoons at the movies (price of admission about $0.25) wasn't the cowboy movie or the Tarzan flick that was at the top of the bill; it was the cartoon! Who'd have ever thought I'd be able to add a classic one, such as this, to my blog!?

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Adam Pash, the person who writes Lifehacker's excellent tips section, has just posted «Seven New Year's Resolutions for your PC» that I think contains some terrific advice. It is written with both the Mac and the Windows PC in mind, and he adds that «most of the required software is freeware, so all you need to follow any of these tips is a little bit of time and resolve.» Although I've just finished reading this article, I plan to explore each of the programs he recommends and, where I don't already have a system in place to do what he recommends, experiment with his suggested resources.

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Juan in his home office wearing his Skype headset

Originally uploaded by CaptQuirk.

This photo of my friend Juan Gutierrez (taken yesterday by his wife Cindi) in his home office certainly illustrates the fact that his sense of orderliness and decor differs from mine. If you visit the photo on my Flickr site, you'll see several «notes» that describe a few of the items in the office and give a bit of background on how they came to have a prominent place in his office.

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In keeping with the spirit of the post I made about «Conquering Clutter» a few days ago, I'd like to alert you to an upcoming opportunity to recycle any old computers or peripherals you may have that are cluttering up your home. This coming Saturday, the 13th, the Staples in West Knoxville (near the Best Buy store) will be facilitating the collection and distribution of these old electronic relics to the benefit of several worthwhile charities in our area. Here's the link to the announcement of that event.

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