Going back through my OhLife.com entries for the past few years I found that I have had an upper respiratory malfunction of some sort every year around this time. This year is no different. Well, it is in that it's a weird kind of cough only and only once and a while kind of thing.  I don't recall having something like this before.

My son has the exact same thing. We seem to have both caught it from the same source.  Another wonderful   holiday tradition!
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This is the first Christmas in many years where the family didn't come to our house. Instead, we are gathered in Maine, along the rocky coast thereof. It is currently a balmy 29 degrees F.

Our friends from Sydney send us photos of the visits to the beach, suffering scalding sunburns and having Christmas dinner dressed for a luau.

Our friends in Westchester complain or rejoice about the coming snow.

The pjs have been exchanged and it is off to nyquil induced sugar-plum land we go.

We'll always have Cuenca!

Merry Christmas.
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Done

It's always the little stocking stuffers that give me the hardest time.  We finished with gathering them just now.

After a moments relaxation, it's on to the wrapping!
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Following the Patriots-Texans Game on Google

Without having to explain why, just understand I have to follow each Patriots game on Google before we can watch it on TiVo.

I am listening to Dean Martin singing Ain’t That a Kick in the Head? on Pandora at the same time. 

If you know the score at this time, 2333, you would see how this is the most ironic song I could be hearing right now.

Two minute warning!  It looks like we have a chance to win…

No. Wait. The Texans scored? Nail biter?

Not yet…

Nope! Now we can watch it.  Wait… where did everyone go?

Oh, to bed.

There’s always tomorrow.

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#Blogchat

A hashtag on twitter is an indexing tool that allows users who don’t normally follow each other to open a discussion, add to a poll, or just add to the graffiti/noise. Don’t get me wrong here. Graffiti can be art and noise can be music when mindfully created and presented.

Paper.li is promoting the ongoing hashtag #Blogchat on twitter this month. They’ve broken the topics down starting each Sunday. The one beginning this Sunday  is” Email + Blogging – This is always a fun topic, we’ll explore ways that email can help us grow our blogs.”

The one thing this hashtag has done is inspire us to take a poke at setting up a Paper.li newsletter.  We did that at Belltowernews Daily.

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Skipped September??

When I just posted the semi-rant on Apple support, I noticed in the left hand column that there were no entries in Belltowernews.com for the month of September, in 2012. 

Wow!

It has been a long time since I have not at least made one blog entry in an entire month.  I’ll try to be better.

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After Two Hours with Apple Support

I am inclined to through the one MAC computer we have in the house in the trash can. 

They instructed me to download this, and then that because I needed that installed before this would work.

Then this said I needed this other that before this would work.  Finally I went to chat support.

They asked me a zillion questions and finally said, oh, you have THAT mac.  You have to buy an entirely new machine for this and that to work. GAHHHHHH!  No where did it say anything about what machine or other would support this and than, only I couldn’t get this to work without that, but once I had that, then this would work.

All of the above was just to get the bleeping iCloud to work. A posh on iCloud.  I’m sticking with SkyDrive.

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I think they should change the day after Thanksgiving from Black Friday to You're Welcome Day to honor all of the caregivers out there.

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Happy Birthday

I was on the road and was unable to wish the United States Marine Corps a happy birthday.  We take the birthday very seriously.

Semper Fi.
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Windows Live Writer Updates

The good news is it didn’t loose the previous settings.  It did unpin the icon from my Windows 7 screen but I can live with that.

And while we’re up here, we would like to remind you to change your Amazon password.

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__________________________________________________________________________

Very Distracting, This Nexus 7

The Nexus 7 has pretty much parked my Google Fire on my nightstand. 
Except for work related activity; it's pretty much replaced my laptop as well.

We will be ensconced at our summer retreat in Maine next week. I intend only to bring my Nexus 7 & no other technologies.
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It arrived.

Windsor Locks gave up the goods. At 1745 the UPS man came up the pathway with a small box in his hand and a tired beaten look on his face. I wouldn't want to be driving in those open dark brown trucks in the over 90 °F. weather we've been suffering the past few days.

This is being written with my new toy.
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Windsor Locks, CT.

It’s a town near I-91 between Hartford and Springfield.  I have probably driven though it on the Interstate no less than a hundred times, maybe a lot more.  I never noticed it.  Never needed to.  Now UPS tells me my Nexus 7 is sitting in their depot there.  All of a sudden I have noticed Windsor Locks, CT.

Are they waiting for the canal boat?   It’s about 4 hours from my house.

Just saying…

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__________________________________________________________________________

An Awkward Fourth

Now that most holidays have been cornered on Mondays having a “You must take the day off” holiday on Wednesday is a tad confusing. Not confusing as to whether or not to take off on that day, but to which weekend it should be associated.

The previous weekend, which started in June, was called the “July 4th Weekend” by many in the media.  But now, the day before Independence Day, the same media is referring to next weekend as “July 4th Weekend”.

As I think of it, perhaps having a holiday on a Wednesday is not that bad an idea after all.  Instead of one, you get two weekends.

But…

That means you have to take Monday and Friday off.  Which leaves your work days as Tuesday and Thursday… Oh, dear…

Happy Independence Day!!

LiveJournal Tags: Holiday

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A Few Thoughts About Facebook

Time stamping expressions of good will.  I just sent Anniversary and Birthday wishes to my two sisters on Facebook
. 
One, I know has a page but never looks at it. The other may have one but hasn't invited me to it and her married name brings up way too many choices.

But, I did express positive emotions about this day in their general direction.  And it's dated and time-stamped to show I was thinking about them.

As a person who generally avoids the company of human beings, this is such a  happy medium. It beats the mail, the telephone and even email in general.

It's a can of spray paint on the digital wall.  If you happen to walk by and see these nice things about you it should make you smile.  If you missed it, you may
hear about it from a friend.  If you don't at least the positive thought is out there enriching the galactic dharma.

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_________________________________________________________________________

Back to Opera.

This jumping back and forth from Chrome to Opera is making me a little dizzy.

We're back to Opera now that the version 12 has become stable. It's much faster than Chrome and the screen UI is much more intuitive

The more important thing is Scribefire is now working again. It wasn't for a while.

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On Which One Does it Have a Greater Effect?

It is of course monumental to the HS Senior, the last June of his Secondary education. But is it more so to their parents?  In this culture to advance to adulthood really starts when one leaves High School, whether by graduation or quitting.

My three brothers all left early, each for their own reason. It is without doubt their adult lives began at that moment,  They needed to find work or go into the military.  One even started his family upon leaving.  I stuck it out and finished before going into the military.  I know I, and am pretty sure my brothers, didn’t think for a moment how our leaving school mattered at all to our parents. They were done parenting us.  Very done.

That was 43 years ago. Things have changed.  Though we’ll be attending a graduation in two weeks, or so, I don’t feel there will be that abrupt disengagement.  No “Thanks for all the fish” song.  But still, there will be the change.

Neil Gaiman’s recent speech was to a college audience.  I think this recording of it should be mandatory viewing for all High School graduates as well.

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Saw Two Movies This Holiday Weekend

The first movie was a second choice made due to a full theater.

We walked in intending to see Men in Black 3, MIB3, but they were sold out.

Instead we chose to see J. Depp in Dark Shadows. It was a movie very loosely based on an awful television show I am old enough to have watched in its virgin state. That was a strike against it going in.

Going out, I was very happy. It was a fun movie with enough humor and surprise to qualify as entertainment. The egg shell skin and the animated home decorations were worth seeing alone.

We reserved seats today to see MIB3 – IMAX with 3D.

This sequel to a movie was really no more than a very good ScyFi quality television show enhanced, thankfully not distracted by, 3D-IMAX.

As with all sequels a comparison with the predecessors must be made. Will Smith was, well, Will Smith. He seemed along for the ride. Josh Brolin was just about brilliant playing Tommy Lee Jones.

We love Emma Thompson. She was wasted in what was somewhere between a cameo and a walk-on.

Perhaps here, as in the most recent JB movies, they were trying to show a strong woman can run such an agency.

Alice Eve, the woman playing the younger Emma Thompson, in comparison to Brolin’s homage to Jones, though born in London, appeared to be faking a British accent. It didn’t work.

The gem was Michael Stuhlbarg as Griffin.

The gem in Dark Shadows was, as he usually is, Jackie Earle Haley

Before this becomes too much of a spoiler, one last thing. Don't wait through the credits for either movie. No surprises.

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Yesterday’s Visit to Dana Farber

Just a quick note:

We went in for our scheduled consultation with my oncologist at Dana Farber yesterday. 

“See you in six months.” was what she said.

We liked that.

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Tomorrow is Evacuation Day!!!

Aren’t you all excited about Evacuation Day in Boston tomorrow?  Well, it really isn’t tomorrow, it’s really Tuesday but Monday’s are a much easier day to holiday and run a marathon. No! Wait, that’s Patriot’s Day.  No! Wait again.  That’s Marathon Monday. Jeeze Loo Ease!

Evacuation Day is really a disguised St. Patrick’s Day.  Though it is the day the British left Boston, rather causally in 1776 when they woke up finding a whole bunch of canons from New York pointing at them from Dorchester. It was not an official day off until 1938 when the then Celtically dominated General Court was looking for a way to get the day off. (Don’t get me started about June 17th.)

What this generally means for us common folk is I-495 will be a mess for the morning commute and I-95 for the afternoon.  Forget about I-90 from 495 to Boston for most of the day.  Come to think about it, that’s normal for a Monday any way. 

In the immortal words of the late Roseanne Roseannadanna, “never mind.”
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Sprung Spring???

We were driving back from the Berkshires the other day.  When we got off the highway, I lowered the window.  After about a ten minute drive through the Southeast Massachusetts open spaces, I remarked, "Is that Spring I smell?"

After a short discussion on how the word "smell" is not grammatically correct usage, we came to the agreement that indeed, the scent of Spring was tentatively making itself known.

With such a wimp of a Winter, there was the fear that Spring itself would be rather brown.  With very little, meaning no, snowmelt or flooding, a drought is feared.

The good news is the lakes and reservoirs appear to be cresting full, but for how long?  Stay tuned...

This too will pass.
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Don’t Forget The Batteries!

When we fall back an hour tonight, don’t forget to change the batteries in you smoke detectors!

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Ping.FM Post

We're trying to get Ping.fm and Windows LiveWriter to work together. So far, not so good.
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We’re attempting to post to Tumblr using Windows LiveWriter

The Cross Pollinate add on is supposed to allow us to post blog entries to Tumblr using Windows Live Writer. 

We did some searching and the solution seems to be to use that add-on with Ping.fm

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Book Reviews

The Charlestown Connection by Tom MacDonald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Whenever I hear an author interviewed on NPR, I, with few exceptions, open up my Kindle Fire and download the book. I would say NPR is batting around 600. Not bad in Major League Baseball, even better in minor league book review.

Tom MacDonald seemed to be the real thing, a local who wrote about his own streets, his own people. I live and work not far from these same streets so my interest was certainly captured. In fact we recently had visitors from Australia who rented a house boat in the same harbor where some of the action takes place.

While reading The Charelestown Connection, it can be said Mr. MacDonald knows his streets and the people who occupy them. Each of his characters are well represented by his writing. From the IRA to displaced Native Americans to the FBI, he has created an interesting crew.

Then there is the plot. Far fetched is being kind.

Not to be a spoiler I won't go into at all. Suspend disbelief, enjoy the writing and hope Mr. MacDonald can find a more grounded and fulsome plot for his antagonist and the surrounding supporting players in his hopefully soon to be published second novel.

View all my reviews

The Bride Wore Black Leather by Simon R. Green
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am going though a bit of Harry Dresden withdrawal. John Taylor the primary character in The Bride Wore Black Leather is not Harry Dresden, but he does fill the gap a bit. I read this book on the chance that it may have something of the irk found in the Dresden books.

I was right in many ways and wrong about the equal number.

This volume is the latest in a series that goes back several years. When I finished it, I looked up the series and am currently half way through the first book. That says something about the author's quality.

Nightside, the part of London where most of the action is set, reminds me a bit too much of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. That was published in September of 2003. The first Nightside book, Something From the Nightside, was published in May of the same year. So, both of these very entertaining authors, both English, were inspired by something permeating from London in 2003.

Gaiman's Neverwhere is much more subtle in a well made horror story way, while Mr. Green's Nightside is set in a lively, no holds barred, whatever I can fit in here fits, let's twist the plot till is screams, because the plot is probably alive, kind of place. Very entertaining.

Before you read The Bride Wore Black Leather, I suggest you go back to Something From the Nightside and start there.

View all my reviews

Brave Companions by David McCullough
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Let me begin with expressing my unbridled respect for David McCullough.

If I haven't read everything this man has written, it wasn't for the lack of trying. He made the building of the Brooklyn Bridge one of the most fascination moments in American History. Because of all this pre-established respect and admiration; my disappointment with Brave Companions is very hard to express.

I thought it must be me, my mood, the weather, the tinnitus, anything but David's writing. I read it twice, then downloaded the Audible.com copy and listened to the man himself, a narrator's narrator, read his own work.

Eh!

That was my overall reaction. I felt as if this was all written just to write something. This is a similar experience to when I read Vidal's 1876. I loved his Burr and Lincoln but 1876 seemed to me to have been written just get out another Vidal version of America history.

Don't get me wrong about the writing. It is of McCullough's quality, well done and well researched. I don't doubt for a moment the veracity of every word.

I just don't care.

I need to be grabbed by at least one character, one event, one conclusion either historical or philosophical. I grasped here and there and nothing pulled me in.

All in all, I can't say this is a good read. I am so very sorry to say that.

View all my reviews

They’re Back

The family has been away for almost a week.  I had to stay back to work.

How do did I know things were wrong?  I forgot both of my cell phones yesterday. Can you imagine going though an entire work day without a phone.  I have a landlines phone.  I don’t recall the last time I picked it up.  Everyone seems to talk to everyone else via either cell, text or whatever newly developed method of communication there is out there.

When will the phones we still have hardwired to the wall go the the way of the box crank-phone  with the separate earpiece hanging on the wall? 

Before we have small devices with atom sized transistors embedded into our developing skull bones before birth?

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Why Do Microsoft Updates Require a Reboot but…

With very few exceptions every update for today’s software seems to be done in the background and quietly.  Why is it then Microsoft, the company in my case that built the bloody OS, with very few exceptions, requires a reboot whenever their software is updated?

Is this backwards DOS compatibility, (if that exists.  It does sound good, though)

This would go unnoticed if I didn’t spend so much time now interaction with my three Android based devices, an EVO 4G, a Droid X2 and Kindle Fire.

Except for the memory card self destruction on my EVO on  a regular basis; each of these devices seem to know when to update and how to do it without getting in my way.

Take heed MS.  You’re not the only kid on the block by a long shot. Think buggy whip and journalist…

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Treated Myself to Sushi!

This was a day that was expected to go one way.  Of course, as most expected days go, it went on its own way with little regard.

I won’t say it went bad. I won’t say it went good.  It pretty much went in a neutral way.  I didn’t shine or stink.  But it isn’t over.  This day is going to take three days, two more, to feel done.  Perhaps that explains the neutral feeling.  When the race hasn’t finished running, no matter what the odds, you can say the results for certain.

I’ll try not to be so obtuse about this in the future.  If you know me at all, you know the odds of that are very slim.

Don’t worry, this has nothing to do with the cancer.

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SGTRET.NET

Besides having many of the Famous Grazing domain names; in the early years of domain registration we also picked up the sgtret domains Sgtret.com has always defaulted to the JDK Communications of New England (Special Education Consulting) web page. 

Sgtret.org was parked at GoDaddy.com.

Not being pleased with the behavior of some of GoDaddy’s owners, we left it there to rot, pretty much.  Whatever we wanted to do to the page, the hosts seemed to think rated a charge. I can understand they need to make money, but once a site is hosted they shouldn’t be nickel & dimed.

We lost sgtret.net due to neglect. We had to wait four years to get it back without paying a bloody ransom.  Now we have redirected it to the Google vanity page where we are listing the seven active Famous Grazing blogs.  We’ve totally abandoned a dozen or so.

You can still find them if you search.  The web preserves pages forever, we are told.

The question now is: do we update the Twitter and Facebook pages to reflect this?  Perhaps. 

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Could it be all of the settings were lost?

I was expecting my Windows Live Writer to have retained the setting for all of the Famous Grazing blogs.  I was wrong.  I was very wrong.  Most of the programs that we migrated from the old servers to the news ones picked right up where we left them

Not so Live Writer.  It would appear we now have go digging for URL’s and passwords.  Lord knows where we put them.

What the hey?  I have a day off.  Might as well go searching now.

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This is not a blog where I delve into politics or religion.  It is, however, a blog.

As such, this story being reported by the Huffington Post about Hamza Kasgari being sent from Malaysia to Saudi Arabia where he could be executed for the content of his tweets applies.

I haven't a clue what the man wrote. It could be entirely inane or horribly provocative.

I know too he is not a citizen of the United States where a person's right of expression are relatively free.  There are limits, as there probably should be. Hopefully where the line is crossed the punishment fits the violation.

Execution can never be the punishment to fit the crime of expressing opinions. Never.

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The Gill House is for sale

A little over 18 years ago we moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to a New England town of approximately 15,000 people.

Today the town, with almost the exact same square miles as Manhattan Island, has grown to just over 27,000.

There are many many wonderful things here: a State park and a large wilderness area as well as over 4,000 acres of town controlled open space.

But then there is the Gill House. It is old.

It hasn't been touched for many years allowing it to fall into ruin. The rurination has progressed slowly over the 18 years.

First the porch roof, then the porch itself.

The roof near the chimney caved in. The entire rear collapsed soon after.

The entire structure, made of very old and very dry wood, sits only a few yards from a busy state road.

It has been a wonder to me that a stray cigarette from a passing motorist hasn't ignited it.

This morning on the way to work, I noticed a Real Estate Company's sign in front of the house.

The first thing a new owner would do is tear it down. We'll have to find something else to watch decompose as we travel to and from town.

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LiveJournal canceling?

A tweet flew by me saying the tweeter had just received notice his LiveJournal had been canceled.  He said 'what LiveJournal account. '

Earlier in the month we got a notice from LiveJournal warning inactivity would close our FamouGrazing blog on LiveJournal.  We took them seriously.  It helped when we found a LiveJournal app for Android.

It sits now next to the Blogger, SquareSpace & WordPress Apps. 

The blog lives!

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Book Review

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



View all my reviews

A day at Dana Farber

It was today I was due for my CATT scan at Dana Farber.  If you have been following this blog for the past two years you will know I started being treated there for NH Lymphoma.

The good news is today's scan and blood test came up negative.  Negative in this case is good.

After each visit, when I get this news, it feels like a temporary reprieve from the Governor. You exhale and drop your shoulders.  It will take another three months for the shoulders to ride up again and the breath to shorten.

There is no complaint here.  Two years ago I was getting my affairs in order.  It's a good thing I've lasted this long because I  haven't finished.

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.

The New Year (Scots and Klingons)

Hogmanay is what Scots call the First Day.  And Quaaltagh means First Step.

We Scots are generally a very superstitious people. (How else can we explain...?)

It is on this day we concentrate more superstitions than apply to the rest of the year.

I grew up in a house full of ginger topped Scots.  We were forbidden by all others of our own nationality from being the first person to cross their threshold after midnight on New Years eve.

They wanted a tall dark haired man with blue eyes.  It made me feel slightly rejected.  Now that my hair is entirely white, I'll have to  research if that ban still applies.

Knowing how long we Scots remember things, I am sure it still does.

Happy New Year!

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