After ~thirty-five years as an adult and not knowing what's it's all about, I am now able to relate to this short essay below (re: a child's hand laying casually on your arm, or their hand touching/exploring your face, or a tiny hand in your hand, walking together, outside), due to a little girl entering my life four years ago. It's been a truly wonderful, and beautiful, eye opening experience for … [Read more...]
Archives for 2016
Jesse Wiliams at the BET Awards
July 5, 2016 By
A fellow by the name of Jesse Williams gave an impassioned speech at the BET awards recently. It's been getting some (almost viral) press so I watched/listened to it, and didn't have any issue with it, actually thought it was a pretty good speech, and he's a very passionate, eloquent, articulate speaker. I'm not sure, but I may have even shared his speech here. At the time I thought no big deal - … [Read more...]
Surprise visitor today
July 5, 2016 By
I am having a guest / visitor today, and we're going to have a wonderful time together today. She truly rocks my heart. Can't. Wait. To. Enjoy. The. Day. With. Her. … [Read more...]
Storming
July 5, 2016 By
Severe rain storm here in DARK (but still beautiful) downtown Apple Valley. It's just sprinkling a bit now (after sounding like it was almost hailing), but the power went out for about three-five seconds, which is unusual for this side of town. ...back to our regularly scheduled program... … [Read more...]
Photography and Fireworks
July 4, 2016 By
The problem with shooting 280 fireworks photos (in the space of thirty minutes), is trying to figure out which are the "truly great" and which are only "good", the easy part will be throwing out the junky ones. Some of the "good" ones look "artsy-fartsy", and while I like them, i don't think others would agree. Going to try to review them and post only the top 10 percent - we'll see how that goes. … [Read more...]
A fav blogger of mine wants to give up…
July 3, 2016 By
One of my fav FB bloggers made a decision a week ago to take a break from writing, but then wrote the following post this morning. My South Carolina Life You might want to read her post first (to understand the context) before reading my comment to her: Susan, I had a friend over this morning, and while they were doing something in the kitchen, I got onto FB for a few mins, and noticed your … [Read more...]
Commentary on what qualifies a person to be president?
July 1, 2016 By
The following is a commentary I wrote last night as a response to a friend's post, and I thought I would share here as well. The topic was "trusting (or not trusting) so-and-so candidate". The version below has been edited and expanded on, with additional thoughts. Not any one politician/candidate can satisfy all 200 million eligible voters in the USA, 100% of the time. They all have to make … [Read more...]
Tesla, Auto-Pilot, and software development
July 1, 2016 By
Reading a pretty cool and short (text)book (yawn), called "A gentle introduction to the art of object-oriented programming in Java. (yes, a truly exciting two volume set) Uses as an example, the programming of a robot. Reading this book, and also reading the recent news posted by my former colleague Charles Rader, about the first fatal accident with Tesla's autonomous self-driving car, makes me … [Read more...]
Homeless people
July 1, 2016 By
Humans of MPLS - Homeless interview A sad situation, and a catch-22: need a job to get away from being homeless, but being homeless prevents them from getting a job. Homeless people should be a number one priority for our help (both via our government, and our selves). ==================================================== “How did you end up homeless?” “I struggle with addiction and depression, … [Read more...]
Recruiters – faux pas
June 30, 2016 By
Had a very awkward realization just now. One of the two recruiters I spoke with on the phone yesterday, sent me a LinkedIn invite a few minutes ago. The person I was saying "no mam", "yes mam" to, is male. In my defense, their name is Abhinav, and seemed to have a high pitch accent. In no way is this post making fun of them - I'm quite embarrassed by this. … [Read more...]
Model Railroading and “Collecting”
June 29, 2016 By
So. Most all Model Railroader hobbyists are also "collectors". They (read: "we") either collect engines (locomotives), passenger cars, freight cars, or even things called "structure kits" (various types of buildings you put together). We usually do our collecting via eBay, or at the local model railroading flea markets, etc. Sometimes, we even collect "track". (to run our MRR collection on...🙄 … [Read more...]
Maps – Houston, and Appleton
June 29, 2016 By
I love maps. I really do. I can stare at them for hours. I absolutely love looking at them. But, sometimes, even when I look at these things for hours, some stuff doesn't "sink in". Like, I know, the Twin Cites is way, way north of Detroit (where I grew up). Way, way, north, meaning, if you drew a horizontal line from Detroit, moving West, Minneapolis would be way, way north of that line. I … [Read more...]
New TV series
June 29, 2016 By
Well, it seems I've been in a writing mood today. So, this last one is going to be quite short. If you like science fiction with your tv shows, then try out "Humans." Awesome premise, causing some very profound thinking about our future with "robots". If you have already seen this series or start watching it, I would enjoy reading your thoughts on it. I want to say more, but can't find the … [Read more...]
Recruiters calling…Houston and Appleton
June 29, 2016 By
Had a recruiter contact me (today) about a six month contract job in Houston, and a second recruiter (yesterday) for a contract to hire position in Appleton, WI. This second one I'm not so sure about, since it seems to be from one of those recruiter job mill firms that send out hundreds of emails (not bothering to see if you are qualified or not), with them hoping to get a bite on their line … [Read more...]
Waking up in the middle of the night
June 28, 2016 By
Highly unusual for me to wake up at 3:30 am...tried to fall back to sleep, nope. Now (around 4:15-4:30), my lovely backyard birds decided to start their head-banging music (aka, chirping). 😱🙉😉🤓🙄 … [Read more...]
Cheating at sports
June 28, 2016 By
NPR article about professional cyclists cheating I can understand putting a motor in your bike, if you're just a person who likes biking and is getting a bit old in the tooth (to help you go up on some of those steeper hills). But, if biking is your "profession", and you then make a conscious decision to cheat (by using a motor), in order to win? Now that, boggles my mind. I don't think I could … [Read more...]
Britain vs United Kingdom vs England
June 27, 2016 By
I never really understood the different nomenclatures - this visualization really helps. However, I wish it also included Canada and Australia. ===== "This may be the most useful Venn Diagram I've ever seen" Original post … [Read more...]
CNN Video – Clinton and Warren?
June 27, 2016 By
CNN - Elizabeth Warren This would be an awesome ticket - two HIGHLY intelligent people, both of whom are leaders, both of whom are articulate as well as coherent when speaking in public and/or during interviews. We need intelligent people, visionary people, true leaders (such as these two) who can articulate their vision, their plan, and their thoughts, as well as the ability to know when to … [Read more...]
Wise words when deciding whether to post or not on social media
June 26, 2016 By
Here are some wise words from a fellow blogger when posting on social media: "I type out roughly 10 Facebook statuses a day... Normally about 2 make the cut. I always ask myself: Is it encouraging? Is it helpful? Is it loving? Is it going to fix something? Is it hilarious? It has to hit 4/5 to make the cut. If it doesn't - it's a no go. We need to think before we post. It's real people … [Read more...]
