Binge re-watching season one of Grace and Frankie (before moving onto S2). Episode 12 has Grace (Jane Fonda), and Frankie (Lily Tomlin), dancing on top of a bar in a nightclub with a bunch of twenty yr old guys ("boys") cheering them on. I don't even want to go where I'm about to go, but how can two "girls" in their mid 70s still be "so hot"??? What's that new phrase, 70 is the new … [Read more...]
Model Railroading books and eBay
May 31, 2016 By
Some backgound first: I'm a collector of vintage Model Railroading books. By "vintage", I mean books published from the early/mid 1930's to the hobby's height of popularity in the mid/late 1950's. That is not to say, I don't collect "newer" MRR books than that since I also collect MRR books from the the 60s, 70's, 80s, etc. The vintage MRR books though, are written in eloquent prose style … [Read more...]
Grad ceremony and cameras (and little girls)
May 29, 2016 By
Omg, so much to share, don't know where to start. (Maybe, we'll only share one story right now) FYI: If you bring your 4 year old granddaughter to a one-time event, such as someone's college graduation ceremony, don't let them play with the camera before taking the pics. Camera "setting" icon was supposed to be on "green/auto". Ended up set on an icon of a "track/field runner". Which, if you're … [Read more...]
Memories about a couple of classes at St. Thomas
May 29, 2016 By
Out of the ten courses I took for my recent degree, this was the most favorite of mine (software process Mgmt) - the instructor was the most engaging person I've ever met (in "recent" life). I really, really enjoyed learning from this guy (Syed Ali Naqvi). I cannot believe two years have gone by since I took this guy's class. The second class mentioned, while I loved learning web design / … [Read more...]
Modelrailroading video
May 25, 2016 By
Kind of a longish (30 mins) video, but well worth it, in terms of seeing what can be done with model railroading. The first minute or two of the video doesn't really do it justice - need to be a bit patient with the videographer, until he actually zooms in on the details, for example, the cracks in the concrete roadways, and various scenes such as the cemetery, and the detail on the buildings, the … [Read more...]
Grad ceremony and Senator Amy Klobuchar
May 22, 2016 By
I neglected to mention yesterday that US Senator Amy Klobuchar was the commencement address speaker. Senator Klobuchar gave a pretty awesome speech, sharing with the grads a short version of her life story of simple beginnings (grandfather was an Iron Range miner, parents were a newspaper writer/columnist, and a elementary school teacher), and her starting a career in law and eventually getting … [Read more...]
Master Degree and College Graduation
May 21, 2016 By
I want to thank everyone for your awesome support and comments today - it was a very special day for me. Usually, participation in a college graduation ceremony happens only once or twice (and, in rare cases, three times) in a person's life. I never wanted a Master's degree until I watched my best friend Kelsey graduate with a similar Master degree in software at the same school, back in 1991, … [Read more...]
Prepping for the Gard ceremony
May 20, 2016 By
As mentioned weeks ago, I received a series of three different emails (on the same day) in early April from my graduate school program director regarding graduation, the ceremony, grad announcements, etc. One of the emails had a link to the U/Saint Thomas bookstore, where you could order your cap/gown, grad announcements, thank you cards, address labels, etc., along with the option to order … [Read more...]
Video plagiarism – part 2
May 19, 2016 By
A follow-up by Jaime, regarding the person who was copying her video talks, word for word (i.e., plagiarism). Apparently video blogging is copyright-able, and is indeed IP (intellectual property), and Jaime had her lawyer issue a "cease and desist" letter, etc. to the plagiarizer. She also then shares her thoughts as to how she used this incident to teach her kids about plagiarism and why it's … [Read more...]
Video plagiarism – part 1
May 18, 2016 By
Jamie is someone that I sometimes view, since she usually has a few inspiring/motivating thoughts, etc. She recently learned that there was a person who apparently also watches Jamie's videos but then made her own "videos" using Jamie's words - word for word. Watch this short video, you'll first see Jamie speak for a few seconds, then you'll see this other person, saying the exact same words, … [Read more...]
Cyber Bullying
May 17, 2016 By
Cyber bullying - what causes a person to become a bully? This attached article is about bullies bullying authors via Amazon book reviews as well as on the "GoodReads" book review social media site. You might want to read it before reading the rest of this posting, in order to better understand where I'm coming from. I wonder if their spouses or significant others know that they do this? I wonder … [Read more...]
Picking up the Cap and Gown
May 13, 2016 By
Going to U/Saint Thomas, to pick up the Cap and Gown, etc. Been more than a few months (December) since I was last on campus. I'm not an easily excitable guy, but I'm getting "Kinda excited" right about now. [Wish my mom was around to watch the graduation ceremony.] … [Read more...]
A note to my good friend “Sam”
February 21, 2016 By
Sam, Either this is a reminder, or maybe the first time I've shared this with you... Sometime, during the 2009-2011 "Great Recession", I somehow came across a story you wrote for a magazine. It was either a sailing mag or a vacation mag. Either way, I enjoyed what you wrote, and, (here is the part I want to emphasize), that story and knowing that you were the person that wrote it, inspired me to … [Read more...]
Lailah – spin art painting
February 20, 2016 By
"We" (the "Royal" We) bought this kid's art device, a splatter/spinner thing-a-ma-bob, in early or mid December. You know, the kind where you put a piece of card stock into it and it spins it around, and you then squirt paint onto the card stock as it spins, causing these multi-colored circle things... After the first one or two times using it in December, we (not the royal we, but Lailah and I) … [Read more...]
Lailah sightings
February 20, 2016 By
Lailah sightings have been a bit more further apart than usual, this last month or two. She is such a busy girl these days! This is one of two short videos we found of her, dated yesterday. We don't know the exact location where these were made, or even who the videographer/narrator is... First vid is only a minute long and the second is 3-1/2 mins long. [We also found a couple of brand new … [Read more...]
Lailah – tomorrow
February 19, 2016 By
The good news is, I have Lailah tomorrow. Haven't seen her in a couple of weeks. Won't be able to sleep tonight - her coming over to babysit her GranPaBrian. The bad news is, just like when you have a maid, you have this overwhelming urge to tidy up the house first, BEFORE they arrive to clean up the place (in Lailah's case, it's not her coming to clean my place, but to purposefully make it look … [Read more...]
Lunch with a friend, and politics
February 18, 2016 By
I met one of my wonderful "friends" today for lunch. We were great friends about ten years ago, but as some friendships do, we lost contact over the years. We renewed our friendship the last couple of years via Facebook, and recently been getting together for lunch and/or movie about once a month. Today, we had another great time, another great conversation with them, catching up, etc. I really … [Read more...]
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...]
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...]
