Earlier this evening I was saying that I’m not much of a geek. Shortly after I wrote that post, I had 5 computers running in the house, and I was using all of them. Timeshare to be sure, but I was popping from one machine to the next just relaxing…

Yes, I did say relaxing. I was into my 4th or 5th setup of Puppy Linux, trying to get it to recognize and use one of my wireless adapters. No go so far, even when two of the adapters are readily recognized by my other versions of Linux. It looks like it recognizes it, but for some reason it will not log on to the network. I guess I have more studying to do.

I had my other Linux box working updating some software to try out for video editing. If it works out on the current box, Linux may replace Windows on my main box. I like the software so far, but I want to make sure it does everything my current programs do.

I was doing some picture and video filing on my main box and that was just computer time intensive. I was just there to press the OK button.

The 4th computer was my main laptop. It was busy moving files to and from the 5th and final computer. I was also busy touring the internet while all this was going on. I switched back and forth between my laptop and my Working wireless Linux box. Depending on which one had the most/least processing going on.

I think I was able to turn off the text messaging on my cell phone. I’m fairly certain it got my daughters’ phones too. Oh well, it was pay by the message, so I won’t miss it, I hope they don’t. If they do, they can get their own phones. They aren’t the ones paying for it, so I get to choose. [evil grin]

There are some tech that this computer geek isn’t into. The biggest one is the cell phone. I have one to use as a phone. I don’t text, take pictures, play games, download songs or read my email on my cell phone. I don’t want one with a full keyboard. I don’t want a touch screen model. If I had my way, my phone would only be a phone.

I had an PDA for a while, but after a time I just quit using it. I had calendars and note taking software on my computers. I did not replace it with a blackberry or i-phone.

The cell phone is even pushing it for me. The only reason I picked it up was to have a way for my girls to get in touch with me. Being a single dad, this was important. The latest phone I have does include a ‘camera’. It takes lousy pictures, so I’m better off with my digital camera.

What brought all this up today? Well, last night I got a text message from a number that I did not recognize. The area code placed it in Akron, but I guess it could from there, or it could have been a ‘kept’ cell phone number. I was considering calling it to tell the person I don’t text. I didn’t. It didn’t seem worth it. I keep meaning to go to my provider to see if I can remove the texting. I wouldn’t miss it at all, and I think I would stop wondering about the strange text messages I get. Would I then get phone calls?

It has been quite a long time since I took any of my telescopes out to gaze at the night sky. I’ve had many excuses, but they were just that, excuses. I think I’m really beginning to miss that hobby of mine.

The first thing I need to do is have a talk with my boss. Some of the best nights of the year are going to be happening in the near future. I need to be able to plan some time off on a quick basis if I know the sky will be clear.

I love early spring, because some of the wonderful winter constellations are visible just after sunset, and if you are up long enough, some of the summer constellations are there in the morning. On top of that, the spring time just starts to have some warmer nights. Not summery warm, but you don’t end up fighting the frost bite you do in the winter.

Right now, it doesn’t look like clear skies, but my favorite place to check this sort of thing, is forecasting favorable viewing tonight.

I hope it is clear when I get home tonight, I may take my little scope out to view the heavens above me.

I’ve written before about my signs of spring, but since it is spring again, I thought I would take another look at it.

Yes, the frogs are croaking their little hearts out, and the buzzards are finally circling in the skies. I was saying to someone not too long ago, that I hadn’t seen any buzzards and the very next day there were 15 or so circling in the sky. The geese and ducks made it back and find pleasant rest stops in the flooded fields. Farm implements are back on the road again getting ready for spring planting.

I failed to mention a few things last year about spring in NW Ohio. One very popular attraction, that I actually used to take part in, was annual spring walleye run. Anglers from all over the place would line up side by side hoping to catch their limit of walleye during the spring spawning season. The Maumee river between Maumee/Perrysburg and Grand Rapids Ohio was alway the place to go to catch these fish. My brother and I went fishing many times together. I don’t remember catching too many fish during the spawn, but we had fun anyway. I do miss those days. 🙁

The other sure sign of spring is the start of road construction season. I experienced this first hand today on my way to a work meeting. Since I left early in the morning, I just saw the early morning setup. But on the way back the construction was in full swing. I was stopped so long, I was able to chat with the Road sign holder, they were waiting for a load of stone to fill in the big hole they dug (30 minute road closure). Any way, a sure sign of spring is a Rob in a red vest… Oh wait it was orange…. Oops 😉 Sorry, it was a bad pun, but Rob the construction guy gave it to me, so I had to repeat it. He did have a point, his old safety construction vest was about the same color as the Robin’s signature plumage. If they are known as Robin redbreasts, I guess we can let Rob, the construction guy be known as “Rob in a red vest”.

Happy spring….

Thanks to advance posting (thank you taylhis for making me look for this), I am able to wish myself a happy blogging anniversary and not have to worry about getting it done that day.

I wasn’t sure what I was planning on doing when I started this blog. I thought I would get a few more space/science related blogs than I have, but that is neither here nor there. I did assume that I would write about my theater experience. That I did. I also wrote about my family, friends, life experiences and even some book and movie reviews.

I am always interested in who reads my blog, but it seems that most visitors are either computers (loads of spam visits) or very shy lurkers. For the most part I average around 25-30 visitors a day. Less if I don’t write anything new, more if I do. Are people telling their friends that I wrote something? I don’t know. My guess is that it is just the computers finding new stuff. I also noticed I get more visitors when I post on other sites with my blog as part of my signature. I hope they enjoy what they find here.

My regulars, well I just think they are the some of the best people I know. But of course I still wish more people would reply. I’m in theater, I enjoy the notice. 😉

Today marks one year of my blog. More on that in the next post… 😉

I was wondering how random my thoughts have really been in the past year. I’ve written about a lot of different topics that interest me, but I’ve seem to have posted most about the things in life that are most important to me.

Family and Friends.

Posts written in times of sadness revolved around family and friends no longer in my life. Posts written in better times revolved around family and friends I share my life with now. Theater posts revolve around plays and my dear friends that I’ve met through that theater. Even posts on space and science go back to family events I’ve kept in my mind through many a year.

Just how random?

Over three hundred posts and some posts fit into more than one category, but here is a rough break down.

160 Thoughts on Life (default category could contain anything)
100+ posts on Family
50 posts on Friends
48 on the theater
42 on movies or reviews
37 on Widows and Widowers
24 on Science and Technology
10 to 20 on the remaining categories.

If we add the posts for family, friends and widow/widowers together, that is over 1/2 my post total. Yep, kind of shows were my mind is most of the time. This place is a dumping ground to clear my mind and help get thoughts back in gear. I’ve always know what is important to me, and it is good to see that my thought ‘dumps’ confirm this.
😉

I have noticed over the past few months that a number of large newspapers are either going out of business or filing for bankruptcy. I’m sure this is also a problem with many of the small town newspapers too.

Personally, I have not had a subscription to a newspaper in many years. I was tired of the apparent lack of news I was seeing. More and more it seemed I was getting opinion pieces on the front page. It doesn’t matter if I agree with the opinion or not, I just wanted straight news. While I still haven’t found a place to get that, I feel I get better news coverage now, than I ever did before. I go to many different news sites on the internet. If I find that the stories I’m interested in are reported by more than one news organization, I will read multiple articles. I’ve found that most news is just regurgitated from one of a few major news sources, never a chance to get a full story there.

To my eyes, the newspaper industry lost its focus years ago. They didn’t see that they were losing customers when cable news became a mainstay for most people. They missed the internet boom of getting news to people too. The newspapers became a place to get ads and coupons. The news or opinions were no longer important to people. They could get those in other places. And along came coupon bug and other web based coupon sites. No need to wait for the Sunday edition of the newspaper for coupons.

Today I heard bits and pieces of some of the things coming from Washington, and there is some movement to bail out the Newspaper industry. My question is why. How is it important to the country. There are other news outlets, why do we need a newspaper that can’t stand on its own? I don’t like seeing jobs lost, this economy needs all the jobs it can get. I would like to see sustainable jobs. With newspapers going downhill for years (maybe even longer than auto industry), I only see bailing out newspapers as a big waste of money. If the economy had stayed healthy, I still saw the newspapers failing within the next few years. The young adults of today don’t relish the feel of a newspaper anymore. It is much easier to get your news on the go. I-phones, Blackberries, computers, televisions all do a better job reaching people today.

And of course with the new soy based inks, silly putty doesn’t do nearly as good of job producing reverse images of the comics. That was a big set back for the newspaper industry. Kids weren’t playing with newspapers anymore…. 😉

Since Sunday my sleep patterns have been severely off kilter. While even in the best of times, my sleep habits are not the best (only around 5 hours per night), this is weird even for me.

I don’t care what time the post says (I haven’t bothered adjusting it to local time), it is now almost 1:00am. I went to bed around 8:30pm. I was just exhausted. I’ve been doing similar things every night this week. And then around 12:30, I wake up. Not just wake up to roll over again. No, I’m wide awake. I’m not sure how long I will stay awake tonight, but on other nights, it was the whole night or most of it.

On Sunday, I’m sure my nerves were getting in the way of any sleep I was going to get. After answering all the questions at the Hospital on Monday, I realized that this was the first time I’ve every been admitted to a Hospital. Any other time I’ve had something wrong, it was done in a clinic or the Doctor’s Office. While I’ve visited many hospitals, this was the first time I was in for me. Good news that, I guess, even this visit was a screening visit. I’ve had no complaints.

I’m very certain the medicine used to put me under has been the main culprit behind my strange sleep habits this week. It put me under quickly, and I remained in a relaxed state of mind for 2 days. Too bad I was very relaxed early in the evening. Now I’m wide awake and I can’t think of anything really quiet to do. I need to hit a library or a book store for some new books to read. I just don’t feel like watching a movie. So here I am writing a blog about being awake. Dang that sounds familiar, just without the kids. Wonder if I can find something a little different to comment on.

I heard and read that Baseball player/hall of famer/tv announcer George Kell died. I am just a bit too young to remember his ball playing days, but I do remember him announcing the games on television.

My brother and I used to watch the ballgames on TV just and his voice gave more to the game. With Ernie Harwell on the radio, we had wonderful announcer either on TV or radio.

Just another sad day for me. Memories shared with my late brother. A voice from my past gone. Sad thoughts for me today.

Yesterday I stopped at our local theater to pick up two barrels to take back to the theater we borrowed them from. When I got there, as stove was waiting to be delivered back to our theater. A lot of work to do the day of and day after a surgical procedure. Me, I scheduled all of this last week when I thought my visit to the hospital was next Monday.

I was feeling well enough to roll a couple of barrels, so that wasn’t a problem. The return trip with the stove, well that started out good. We were able to roll the barrels out and then load the stove. Two people with minimal effort. I like that kind of move.

Then I got to the final destination of the stove. No ramp, no steps to back up to, just brute strength and manpower to move the stove. Lucky for me, there were other there to do the work. Don’t you love it when a plan comes together. Really there was no plan, just luck and younger theater people there to do the heavy work. I like that kind of move too.

There were more things to move and I was lucky enough to get out of most of that too. I guess until the same things have to move again I am safe. There is a very good chance that my name will be in the mix if and when those items need to be moved again. Any volunteers?

Then a quick trip to a local establishment to share a drink or two with a couple of friends. They helped with the move and it was fun to talk without having a play to rehearse or perform. Nice time, even if I don’t care for the bar scene. Maybe I will volunteer for the next move. I think I owe a round or two.