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...]
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...]
More thoughts about music
June 22, 2016 By
Listening to Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. What a piece of music. Then: Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the common man". Years ago (in the '80s), a jazz group called "KittyHawk" did an upbeat electronic version of this piece, on an album called "Fanfare". Silly thing is iTunes has this album but this particular piece is missing from it. If you want to listen to it, look for it on their "Collection" … [Read more...]
Thoughts on music
June 21, 2016 By
On a completely gorgeous day, I'm listening to Pandora, my "Stewart Copeland" channel. (He was the drummer in one of my favorite bands of the 80's "The Police"). Mr. Copeland also has composed movie and tv soundtracks, such as the music to the tv show "The equalizer." The music currently playing is from "The Rhythmatist", which I also have in my CD collection. According to Wikipedia: The … [Read more...]
Franklin Graham
June 16, 2016 By
A quote from Mr. Franklin Graham: “Mr. President, you’re looking at the wrong place when it comes to the root cause of gun violence. Your executive actions will do nothing to change this horrific problem. You can take all the guns in America and put them in a pile on the Mall in Washington DC, and those guns will stay there and will eventually rust and decay. Not one gun will crawl out of that … [Read more...]
Bobby Fischer Movie
June 11, 2016 By
Watched a pretty good biographical movie tonight: "Pawn Sacrifice", staring Tobey Maguire as a young Bobby Fischer (chess champion in the '60s and '70s). Tobey does a great job at portraying Mr. Fischer. The movie starts with us seeing him as a 6 yr old chess prodigy, thru his teenage and young adult years, and finishes with the infamous 1972 Fischer/Boris Spassky championship match in Iceland, … [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...]
Obama graduation ceremony speech
May 18, 2016 By
Short two and a half minute video. At least watch the last 45-50 seconds. Obama Video … [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...]
“ABOMINATIONS” – Franklin Graham
May 14, 2016 By
"Abomination" I so much dislike that word. As in: "Deuteronomy chapter 22 verse 5. Read your bible everyone. The whole transgender issue is an abomination in the eyes of God." Someone who I love with all my heart recently "liked" the above FB posting quote. -- I moved away from my hometown when I was just twenty four, and therefore, have not been a part of this person's life since that time. … [Read more...]
Tolerance
May 14, 2016 By
To say the very least, this isn't the typical fare I share. I'm not as you all know, a bible thumper. But, I'm in the middle of writing a blog post that I'll be sharing later today/tonight and this particular article I'm sharing now goes pretty much hand in hand. Acceptance. Tolerance. Love. Leave "Hate" at the door. Original blog post … [Read more...]
Photos and Film
May 12, 2016 By
Before i started working on the stuff i have to do today, i wanted to share the following: I have four "rolls of film", sitting on my desk, they're been sitting around for about ten years now (at least). And, two more rolls with the film leader sticking out - i can't tell whether those two rolls were never used, OR, if I (partially) used them but didn't rewind the leader in "all the way" in order … [Read more...]
Dream job??
May 12, 2016 By
I have had a long and successful and diverse career in software development and IT, encompassing more than thirty five years. I wouldn't trade my chosen career for anything. Wouldn't trade it for the world. But, with that said, here are my latest "dream jobs": Orchestra conductor Hollywood film composer Musician in a (successful) Latin Jazz Big Band Software development instructor at the … [Read more...]
Reading Stephen King’s “11/22/1963”
May 12, 2016 By
As most (if not all) of you know, I'm a huge book reader, have been since at least sixth grade. In high school, I started reading Stephen King and really enjoyed his stuff, and read several of his thousand page novels during that time. Eventually my tastes changed (having stopped reading Mr. King), and started reading mysteries, and other stuff, but also started reading Tom Clancy's 1,000 page … [Read more...]
Listening to music
May 11, 2016 By
For the most part, I don't listen (much) to Piano music. Sometimes, it's a bit "too slow" for me. However, today, we're listening to music from a disk called "100 Best Film Classics" - this is disc four of a six CD set I received last year via a donation to MPR (MN Public Radio). After listening to this CD, it seems to be mostly piano music - some piano solo's and some with orchestra … [Read more...]
IBM Robots, Carrie Fisher, and Watson
February 28, 2016 By
This, made my day (ok, not really, but it's pretty funny!) … [Read more...]
Book collecting
February 26, 2016 By
Apparently, without my knowledge, someone took this hidden video when I was a teenager. … [Read more...]
Composing music – John Adams
February 20, 2016 By
This is how my mind works. A friend attending a concert tonight posts a picture of a (living) composer giving a talk before/after this particular concert and mentions their name: John Adams. I just happen to know or believe that I vaguely remember there are two composers (living) having that name. One of whom I like and have more than a few CDs of various orchestras playing his music (such as, … [Read more...]
Jeremy Cowart – photographer – video
February 18, 2016 By
Jeremy Cowart I have to admit, when my friend Kathy Pretty Kaczmarek shared this just now, I was going to scroll right past it. But, for some reason, I felt a little bit "compelled" to see what it was about. I'm very glad I did. It is a long (25 mins) video. So, if you don't have time to view it now, "save" it and came back to it when you do have some free time. Set aside 25 quiet minutes in … [Read more...]
Vivian Maier – unknown (but now famous) photographer
December 29, 2015 By
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...]
