It's News to Me

Happy Birthday

Originally uploaded by Dr Reelgood.

Today is my son Mike's 38th birthday, and this is the birthday present he bought for himself. It is a Canon Digital Rebel XTi, a sweet new weapon in his photographic arsenal. In just over a year and a half, he has developed into quite an accomplished photographer. After I gave him and his family a Canon A510 to introduce them to digital photography and to record the growth of his son, Connor, who was born on 5/1/05, he was bitten by the shutter bug and for his birthday last year, he bought himself a Canon PowerShot S2 IS. Now, he has graduated to this model. It's pretty obvious that the course of the «disease» has progressed significantly.

Keep reading →

The other morning while I was out shopping for groceries, my friend Juan Gutierrez emailed me, asking for advice about a cheap (or free) database program that his wife, Cindy, could use to keep track of the books she reads. (She reads about one book a day. Wow!) Cindy has been keeping track of them in an Excel spreadsheet over the last year or so, but that has become burdensome and not flexible enough for her needs.

Keep reading →

Those of you who use Internet Explorer may not notice, because of the way IE displays my template, that I have added a new page to this website. (That's a source of consternation for me that I haven't yet resolved, but that's another story.) So let me call your attention to it by linking to it here. It's listed in the sidebar on the left where it is called Software and Services. On this new page, I have listed a number of pieces of software and some web services that I use and enjoy. I have provided links to them all, and as my time permits, I may go back and elaborate more on each of them, but for now I just wanted to get the list up here so that I can refer you to it should the occasion arise when I am making posts.

Keep reading →

Miss Carole Jean Oglesbee walked down the aisle and became Mrs. Carole Nelson on August 25, 1962. It's good to remember such milestones, I think. We divorced in February of 1981, but before doing so we had a lot of fun and interesting experiences together. And, of course, we had two sons, Jeff and Mike, who are themselves now fathers and husbands. I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Keep reading →

Keep reading →

On May 9, 1961, Newton Minnow, John F Kennedy's appointee to the Chairmanship of the Federal Communications Commission, delivered his now-famous «Vast Wasteland» speech to the National Association of Broadcasters and described the state of television at that time thusly ...

Keep reading →

This past weekend, I rode with Mike and Cheryl, Kaitlin and Connor, down to Georgia to visit Carole. The trip takes about 4 hours, and on the way down, after Cheryl and Mike got off from work on Friday, things were a bit stressful because everyone was tired and hungry. However, when we came home on Sunday, we left at 2:00 P.M. after having eaten a nice lunch with Carole before we left. As we rode, both of the children drifted off to sleep, giving us adults a nice opportunity to talk without interruption. I am very pleased we took that opportunity and made good use of it, apparently without any pre-planning on anyone's part to do so.

Keep reading →

The Barbershop Harmony Society (formerly known as the S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A., Inc.) holds its annual convention each year during the week of the Fourth of July.  This year that convention is being held in Indianapolis, IN. 

Keep reading →

Keep reading →

After reading Tom Simpson's post about Handy Backup, I downloaded it for the 30 day free trial period and put it through its paces.  After only 5 days of that evaluation period, I have determined that it meets my needs quite nicely.  I was able to set it up and backup my data to my web hosting service without any problem.  Afterwards, I tested whether I was able to restore the backup to my own computer, and I was.  Being able to restore, is, of course, an essential function. 

Keep reading →