Setting: Rick and I met for lunch after the interview, eating at Andreas pizza in the skyway - a fav eatery close by to where I worked at Wells Fargo during 2011/2012. We then got out of the skyway and walked outside for a bit, enjoying the fresh air - more so me, than Rick (not sure if he really likes fresh air or not - lol) We then went to downtown B&N, and actually also went to downtown … [Read more...]
New credit/debit card – surprise!
July 26, 2016 By
My local bank recently sent a letter indicating they were replacing my old debit card with a new "chip" card and offered me a choice of either their default (boring) design, or I could upload a photo to use in it's place. I think it came out really good (this picture of the card is fuzzy in some areas since I used photoshop to remove the numbers/dates, as well as the "chip" that was growing out … [Read more...]
Inspired to get myself a new business card
July 25, 2016 By
I think I just might have to get me a new business card...Something like: Brian S. Williams Armchair Model Railroader Talented Paint-Nite Painter Opinionated FaceBook Blogger Complete Amateur Photographer AKA Lailah's GranPaBrian. Thanks goes to Susan Hipkins DeBow for the inspiration! … [Read more...]
The Mac-Mini FROZE UP – first time ever
July 22, 2016 By
Wow. I was on the Apple Mac-Mini just now, had edited a Lailah video, and was also working on the blog, when the screen just froze. Actually, I was in Adobe "Premiere" elements, and the app was "rendering" the video (whatever that means), which is a CPU intensive process, I guess, because the fan always goes on, and the CPU goes to 100%. I let it sit for 20-30 minutes to see if letting the … [Read more...]
Thrivent Interview
July 21, 2016 By
"Exciting" day for me. Face to face interview at Thrivent Financial, with a panel of three. Two of the three were in Appleton, Wi, so we used video conferencing to include them. The guy in the room with me is the team lead. One of the people in WI was the manager, and the other person in WI was just a techie type, but not on the team that I would be on. Overall, I think the interview went great. … [Read more...]
Rick’s birthday party at Nancy’s
July 21, 2016 By
Hello there. I see you're back with us now. It seems one of my recent stories has a following. I've written a couple of stories the last few days, and the one I thought that would have generated the most "likes" (because of the "hook" used, of Lailah dropping by, after stealing GMR's car) only received a couple of "likes". Whereas, the other story of my dinner with Rick and his friends received … [Read more...]
Paint nite
July 20, 2016 By
Photos of my completed art were just posted to an album, along with photos of two examples painted by our instructor (a very young woman, she must have been in her early to mid twenties - but, she really knew her stuff, knew how to teach painting, and also to make it fun for the "trainees"). Had a great time. This was my third paint nite - should do it more often … [Read more...]
Women, bullies and internet trolling
July 20, 2016 By
There's "trending news" today about some so-called "internet journalist" (i.e., IDIOT) who is now permanently banned from Twitter for inciting his followers to troll a movie actress. Here's one woman's (abbreviated) response why she agreed with Twitter's action: "Women...are often at the receiving end of some of the most heinous of misogynistic trolling - and while we dismiss trolls as, well, … [Read more...]
Dinner with Nancy and Lois, before seeing South Pacific
July 20, 2016 By
Hi there. This is story #2 from this past Saturday night. Story #1 was my encounter with a stranger in the parking lot before dinner at "The old spaghetti factory". Once I figured out how to pay for parking (had to download an app) and actually paid it, I walked across the street to the restaurant. I was still a bit early, and this place has a huge lobby with lots of elegant seating, so I took … [Read more...]
Friend with IT background unwilling to learn about new technologies(?), or just tired
July 18, 2016 By
Friend of mine (who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent) is an IT person with as many years of experience as myself. Wanted to share some "documents" with them. Me: "...Do you or use Dropbox?" Them: "Never heard of it." Well, OK, Then. I guess, based on your response, it seems you aren't even remotely interested in learning about it. Fine, be that way, I'll send them to you the … [Read more...]
Curly red-headed actress with southern accent?
July 18, 2016 By
Help this old gizzer out - I'm trying to place an actress, but am not able to remember her name or which show she was on. This person had curly red hair, and spoke (I thought) with a southern accent. My first idea was a character on Roseanne, then I thought Designing Women (and no, I'm not thinking of Annie Potts). Anyone have a clue? ----spoiler ahead---- After typing this up, and giving it … [Read more...]
Woman in downtown parking lot
July 17, 2016 By
First story of the day. After having spent a totally wonderful day with little Lailah yesterday, I had plans on getting together with BFF Rick and a few other people for dinner and theater show in the evening (that story will be for another post). We had agreed to meet the the "Old Spaghetti Factory" in downtown MPLS, on Washington. I've been there once or twice before, and the restaurant has … [Read more...]
Seeing South Pacific in the evening after having Lailah that afternoon
July 17, 2016 By
Huh. Well. Starting from around 5:30pm Friday, thru 11pm tonight, it's been a whirlwind of "activity", in the life of Brian. You can tell with my lame opening of "Huh. Well.", that I'm just too dad-blame tired right now (midnight) to write all about what's transpired during this 30 hour period, since it would probably take me a couple of hours to do it, and Mr. Crabby didn't get to take a nap … [Read more...]
Blogging milestones as of 7/13/2016
July 13, 2016 By
Blogging Milestones: Created my WordPress blog in Nov/Dec, 2012. Received my first "comment" to one of my blog pages from an outsider (someone whom I didn't know) in Feb, 2014, inquiring about a Model Railroading book they were interested in. They apparently found my bog/website via a google search, looking for a specific (and rare) Model Railroad book - of which I had a duplicate copy and … [Read more...]
Website CSS changes – documented
July 13, 2016 By
This is a technical post regarding CSS changes made early on, when first creating this website in late 2012 and thru-out 2013. Top Image - Original CSS, Bottom Image - My tweaked CSS Basically, adding a black bar, with white text on each of the sidebar widgets, and making the background of the same area white, instead of fading into the gray background. Then, kind of reversing the main area, … [Read more...]
Apology (w/explanation) to my subscriber(s)
July 12, 2016 By
An apology is in order, along with an explanation. When I first created this blog, 3-1/2 yrs ago, I would only write and post a blog entry, on average, a couple of times a month, and would then manually copy that posting over to Facebook since this WP blog didn't have any actual readers. After leaving USPS in the fall of 2014, I stopped posting to this WP blog, and just started writing my blog … [Read more...]
going to be that kinda day…
July 10, 2016 By
Closed the windows an hour ago, mistakenly thinking it was going to be hot one today. Forgot to turn on the Air...kinda stiffing now inside. Guess I can re-open the windows since it's only supposed to be low '80s. Did a load of laundry, put the washed clothes in the dryer, added a new load in the washer. Washer timer alarm went off like it usually does, -45 mins later. Went to move the second … [Read more...]
Dealing w/recent events, & confidence (2 of 2)
July 8, 2016 By
I am a bit down today. You know or can figure out why. [if not, please see previous post from today.] So, I'm looking at my old FB albums of Lailah and using those memories of our times together, to cheer me up. So, I can progressively see Lailah growing up, as I move from one album to another. [I am just OCD enough that for my FB albums, I put the date in the album title]. I'm looking at pics … [Read more...]
News, World Events, & Good vs. evil (1 of 2)
July 8, 2016 By
[part 1] Twenty years ago, my (ex)wife, Gail and I used to watch the 10pm "news" broadcast with Paul Majors almost every night before bed - we did this for the eleven years we were together. A bit more than ten years ago, I stopped reading the morning "news" paper that I used to read religiously every morning - had been doing that for probably twenty or twenty five years. Ten years ago, I … [Read more...]
