It's just freaking how my mind works. A FB friend of mine "liked" a Christmas photo of Marlo Thomas, her husband Phil Donahue, and their family. I'd thought I had heard a rumor about Mr. Donahue's health, so I decided to read his biographical article on Wikipedia. Fortunately, there was no mention of any health problems, and I truly hope he is well. While reading his Wikipedia article, there is … [Read more...]
Archives for 2015
Recent updates to my website
December 16, 2015 By
First, it's taken me three yrs to figure out I should be using this blog to also record what I'm changing on this website - it's a great way to document all the changes I make. i.e., post an update any time I make changes to the website, like what I'm doing here, documenting the changes I made tonight. Geez, not sure why I didn't think of this before - actually I did, because I created a … [Read more...]
Recent work on my website – wondering if I should change the theme.
December 13, 2015 By
Not sure what happened today, but the day just flew by (after waking up from a nap in the afternoon.) I spent a few hours working on my personal WordPress blog/website - the production site, as well as a couple of others that I use to "experiment" with. Other than posting blog updates (it basically mirrors my FB status postings, but also then sorts them into 'topic categories', as well as various … [Read more...]
Clear motivation to clear your home
November 13, 2015 By
Food for thought: There is no known more motivating power to clean (and tidy) your home than someone who proposes to hand deliver a dessert to your home. 🌋 🎁=🍎,🍒,(what, no emoticon for pie, really??) … [Read more...]
Miscellaneous thoughts and Sunrise photo
November 13, 2015 By
Random thoughts presented to you today by your <put your own flattering word here> blogger. === i woke up to the most brilliant sunshine ever this morning (as compared to doom and gloom of yesterday's lack of sun). Woke up a few days ago, about an hour or more earlier than my usual wake up time, looked out the window and saw this absolutely gorgeous sunrise. Got my camera and actually … [Read more...]
Listening to Herb Alpert (or…)
November 12, 2015 By
In the sixties, when I was a little kid, I was brought up listening to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass - my dad had all their albums ("South of the border", "The lonely bull", "Going places", "A taste of honey", "Whipped cream and other delights", etc.), as well as the various hits by Sergio Mendes & Brazil '66. Never really gave any thought to where I picked up my love for Latin Jazz, but I … [Read more...]
Star Wars vs. Star Trek
November 10, 2015 By
I'm not going to go into the "why" since it's a stupid (and long) story, but last night, I re-watched something called "Star Wars". I'm sure you may have heard of this film by now. If I had to guess I've probably not watched this movie in roughly ten yrs or more. To be frank, the movie last night was not the original version - this one was from a DVD (non blu-ray) collection of all 6 movies, and … [Read more...]
Star Trek Trivia (and a story about Lailah)
November 8, 2015 By
I once read that Doctor McCoy said "He's dead, Jim" lots of times through out the original series. Here is proof (according to someone geeky enough to count them), indicating he did say this phrase 22 times - an average of once every 3 or 4 episodes. By the way, in case you don't watch my Lailah videos (or haven't noticed while watching), I've been teaching her this particular phrase, and … [Read more...]
Question on Application to graduate form causes an issue
November 8, 2015 By
So. I'm sitting in class Friday evening, next to one of my project teammates, and she is filling out a Saint Thomas form, before the evening's lecture starts. I recognize the form since I filled it out myself in early Sept. - It's a declaration of your intention to graduate (she's filling it out a bit early since she apparently still needs one more class, spring term - no matter). Anyway, there … [Read more...]
Law Enforcement – “Use of Force”
November 8, 2015 By
Article about LEO and "Use of Force" (opens new window) A former Unisys colleague Paul Martig shared the above article on FB, and below are my subsequent thoughts upon reading that article: Interesting and very well written newspaper article about the "use of force" by the LaCrosse PD, and it gives reasons why all "use of force" situations need to be recorded (into a [national?] database - … [Read more...]
Pandora and an irritating limitation
November 7, 2015 By
Pandora thinks one hundred stations is enough for a Pandora listener. I wonder if this was just an arbitrary decision by the developer (who, obviously doesn't like lots of different music/artists), or did someone actually say in 'The Requirements', "the maximum number of stations for each user should be 100" … [Read more...]
Video of a guy “driving” a self-driving car
November 4, 2015 By
Article on self-driving cars (opens in new window) Haven't really been paying much attention to google or tesla and their auto driving cars - but just watched this demo video of how the Tesla car works. (Software + Hardware) engineering is just freaking amazing! I am now able to better understand those Star Wars (prequel trilogy 10-15 yrs ago) scenes where all those "personal flying cars" are … [Read more...]
Funding for Marching Bands
November 3, 2015 By
Marching Bands article (opens in a new window) Great article about Marching Bands in Michigan (and their lack of funding by the state). There were many, many "things" in high school that influenced me into the person I am today. Marching Band (and the teachers, parents, etc., that supported this extra-curricular activity) are quite near the top of those influential "things" (people such as … [Read more...]
Supporting really old applications
November 3, 2015 By
Article on supporting really old computer programs (opens in a new window) Really interesting story about supporting a 60 yr old "computer application"...and not being able to find people that know the older programming languages [they mention Fortran, Assembly, even ALGOL.] I know that some of the code (programs) I wrote in the early to mid nineties are still running - twenty or more yrs later … [Read more...]
Lunch with BFF Rick today
November 3, 2015 By
Had a nice lunch with BFF Rick this afternoon, downtown MPLS ("Loon cafe" - just "ok" food for me, though Rick says his food was great). It was great getting together since today is an absolutely gorgeous day, and we decided to go for a walk around Lake Calhoun - just a real nice, fabulous walk, with the sun really shining (65 degrees?), and leaves still beautiful, and still falling in the breeze, … [Read more...]
The “Twitch” app and Bob Ross!
November 2, 2015 By
Bob Ross! Read something recently about a thing called "twitch" (which is now a part of Amazon). Apparently it's an iPad/iPhone app, and it streams "stuff". The thing that caught my attention is that they are now streaming a marathon of Bob Ross painting shows...ALL ~380 of them. The "twitch" app is free, and the streaming service is free as well. So, if you want to watch Bob Ross, download the … [Read more...]
Racial discrimination during jury selection
November 2, 2015 By
Racial discrimination during jury selection (opens in a new window) Racial discrimination during jury selection - by prosecutors. In this day and age?? By definition, a jury is impartial, and here we have officers of the court creating non-impartial juries. Why not do a "blind audition" similar to what orchestras do when auditioning musician candidates - place them behind a screen, in order to … [Read more...]
Lailah texting me
October 28, 2015 By
Earlier this evening I received a text from the little girl, asking if she could babysit me tomorrow - I love getting texts like this one - of course I said "Yes!". [twice now, two weeks in a row] She. Is. The. Best. GranPaBrian-Sitter. … [Read more...]
Middle of my final semester at Saint Thomas
October 28, 2015 By
It's now the middle of my final semester. Just six more class sessions to go, then the final exam - there is no mid-term exam. i was just looking at my "grade history", and noticed two different and distinct patterns: It seems I always receive "A"s in my Fall semesters, and "B"s in my Spring semesters. My two summer sessions were a mix, one summer session I received an "A", the other was a "B". … [Read more...]
Marlboro Brand now being used for marijuana cigarettes
October 27, 2015 By
"Branding" of Marijuana Cigarettes (opens in a new window) Way, way back when I was a clueless 6th grader (around 1970/71), I read a 'science fiction' short story/book). It was about a group of people ("hippies") living during "caveman" times, and they were talking about the invention of various things, one example being "art", with one caveman/hippie throwing pieces of bloody meat on the cave … [Read more...]
