Hope that helps someone!!!

THE REAL PROBLEM WITH OUR GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM

The folks who are getting free stuff, don’t like the folks who are paying for the free stuff. Because the folks who are paying for the free stuff, can no longer afford to pay for both the free stuff and their own stuff.

And, the folks who are paying for the free stuff, want the free stuff to stop. And the folks who are getting the free stuff, want even MORE free stuff on top of the free stuff they’re getting already.

Now, the people who are forcing people to PAY for the free stuff, have told the people who are RECEIVING the free stuff, that the people who are PAYING for the free stuff, are being mean, prejudiced and racist.

So, the people who are GETTING the free stuff, have been convinced they need to HATE the people who are PAYING for the free stuff because they are selfish. And they are promised more free stuff if they will vote for the people who force the people who pay for the free stuff to give them even more free stuff.

And — when the free stuff stops , the folks receiving the free stuff will riot, burn, steal and commit mayhem. For the “rich” owe them! It is
happening in England and coming here soon.

And that’s the Straight Stuff!

Good friend recommended the Cuisinart DCC-1200 12 cup maker, which had very positive reviews but I looked a little more and found a 14 cup model that looked like it had a nicer looking design. I ended up buying a ‘refurbished’ one from Abe’s of Maine for just $59.95 + shipping. Shipping was pricey at $12.19 but I still saved nearly $30. It came quickly and looked just like new. Note: It did say refurbished by Cuisinart themselves and that the warranty is 90 days. Perhaps a non-refurbished one has a longer warranty.
So how is it so far?

Great! The top opens from front to back (back hinges) which is more convenient than my old Mr. Coffee one but the place to pour the water is somewhat small in the back right, but it’s ok. The controls are simple enough and I like that the warmer temp can be set (L, M, H) so coffee doesn’t get burned. I’d personally rather re-heat cold coffee in a microwave than taste coffee that’s sat on a hot plate for an hour!
It came with a gold permanent filter as well as a few paper ones which was nice. It even incorporates a small charcoal filter cartridge (replaceable) so your water is purified automatically!
The 14 cup carafe is large, but light and EASY to put in and take out of the maker. The manual says if you brew a batch the coffee at the ‘top’ might be weaker than the bottom so giving it a stir before pouring isn’t a bad idea. Seems like a bother, but the first batch did seem a bit weak on first cup, and on the second batch I a) added a bit more coffee, and b) gave it a stir before pouring and the results were better, but I’m not sure if it was more coffee or stirring that did the trick!
Anyway, I like this coffee maker.
If I have one complaint it’s that the clock is tiny and digital and NOT backlit, which means if your kitchen lighting is often not that bright you might have trouble reading the clock.
Programming the maker to make coffee at a given time is simple enough.
Recommended!!

Highly recommended.

DVD and Blu-Ray – I watched the Blu-Ray version.

On a recent trip a friend showed me what was claimed and he claimed to be the tool to make the BEST coffee.  A lofty claim.  But you know, it seems to be true!!!!

Meet Aeropress. A manual device that at first glance seems like a French Press and a large veterinary syringe!

It comes with little single use round paper filters (or you can get a ‘permanent’ type filter separately). You put a filter in a bottom cap that has holes in it for the brewed coffee to flow through. You screw the cap on the bottom of the main clear part that sits on top of a coffee mug. You put in coffee, a little hot water (up to a number on the side, typically the ’2′ mark), stir (with included stirrer), then the syringe like plunger is put in the top and gently pushed down to the coffee to exert pressure on the coffee/water, forcing it through the filter. That’s it, you’ve just made a double espresso! This can be diluted with hot water to a regular American style coffee or hot milk to make a latte.

And the result? It’s EXCELLENT!

Even better, the clean up is amazing. Remove the bottom cap and push the plunger further to push the hard and pretty dry ‘puck’ of coffee and filter out, and into your trash or compost or wherever! Clean the bottom of the rubber plunger and that’s it.

If you love coffee, get one now!

Loved this. Thanks Joe and his Stranded Starfish blog, and thanks to the authors of the book “The Art Of Possibility”

As the old man walked down a Spanish beach at dawn, he saw ahead of him what he thought to be a dancer. The young man was running across the sand, rhythmically bending down to pick up a stranded starfish and throw it far into the sea.

The old man gazed in wonder as the young soul again and again threw the small starfish from the sand into the water. The old man approached him and asked why he spent so much energy doing what seemed a waste of time. The young man explained that the stranded starfish would die if left until the morning sun.

“But there are thousands of miles of beach, and miles and miles of starfish. How can your effort make any difference?”

The young man looked down at the small starfish in his hand, and as he threw it to safety in the sea, said, “It makes a difference to this one!”

Anonymous

Recent projects include:
hangitwright.com – a building contractor in Wildwood, Florida, specializing in drywall, acoustical insulation, and framing for commercial and residential construction.
frankjdeluca.com – a site for Frank J. DeLuca, owner of DeLuca Toyota in Ocala, Florida, and great supporter of the community.
debbieklugger.com – a life coach, Debbie Klugger coaches individuals and groups and conducts workshops globally based on the Inner Bonding and Heal Your Life philosophies.
fabiandinkins.com – a site for Fabian Dinkins Construction, a highly successful and respected residential and commercial construction firm based in Ocala, Florida.

The description is as follows:

How many times have you been embarrassed by giving the wrong gifts? Or the wrong size? Or the wrong color? The new QuickGifter iPhone app takes all the worry out of gift giving by keeping a well-organized gift database of any and all important wish list information that you may need while shopping . Best of all, if you have a spouse, partner, relative, or friend that is shopping and needs the same info, you can easily email them QuickGifter wish list details for any person in your QuickGifter library.

Check it out at quickgifter.com or watch the video:

Watch the video:

zachfightsback.com

Facebook

Thank you.

In the case of web development as with many things, some people who use web sites, think they know how easy/hard it is to build them. (Hint: they don’t)

Check out this person who needs to hire a programmer yet they already ‘know’ how ‘hard’ the task is and how long it will take.  link.

A few months ago I figured I’d upgrade the display driver, and got a new install from the ATI (now AMD) web site. After the install, the ‘Catalyst Control Center’ (known as the evil ‘CCC’ to many) would NOT start automatically or run when launched – displaying some obscure error.

After so much wasted time researching the problem, finding hundreds of people with similar problems but no answers, or none that worked at least, I gave up, but wait, I couldn’t uninstall the new software either. So I had to use the system restore to go back to an earlier ‘time’, which worked, restoring the old driver and control center that shipped with the system.

Fast forward to recently, and my system has been crashing overnight a few times lately. Not good. Couldn’t find out why, nothing in Event Viewer, or anywhere else. I leave my machine on all the time because it backs up at night, plus it’s actually less wear and tear on the hardware to leave it on.

Recently after being frustrated further with the occasional out of the blue crashes, I upgraded to the latest driver, but did NOT bother trying to install the catalyst control center (ccc) as I don’t need it anyway. All good so far!!!

Guantanamo, the U.S. military detention camp, has been loudly criticized for ‘water-boarding’ (simulated drowning) of 3 terrorists.  No doubt this technique is psychnologically terrible, but whether any permanent damage is inflicted is unclear.  Top level U.S. military personnel themselves are subjected to water-boarding so they’re aware of what they might be subjected to by enemies, so if one believes water-boarding is torture, then the U.S. tortures its own military.  A soldier told me of a fast 25 mile walk he had to endure with 50lbs of gear on, and his bleeding feet.  Is that torture?  Heck, I’ve been in business meetings I’d describe as torture.  Sorry, must not make light of this!

But somehow lost in the argument is what other countries do.  60 Minutes did a piece on an Iranian student’s story.  He had been part of a student protest in Iran and was eventually arrested and then held and tortured for years before being released.

I think everyone should see this. It’s just 12 minutes.

I’d looked around the internet for solutions and most described things I’d already done, plus the usual “they all do that, throw it out” unhelpful comments.

Then finally, I found solution #2 at fixya.com’s page on this and figured I’d give it a try.

It basically said open it up, clean out the dust, and then disconnect and reconnect every connector you can get your hands on. I’d already vacuumed out the inside (which wasn’t really dusty anyway), but proceeded to disconnect and reconnect every connector in there, and there’s a BUNCH. Some are electronic type connectors with tiny wires, and others are definitely power type connectors.

Anyway, did all that, fired it up, AND IT WORKS! I’m now testing with loud playback connecting my blackberry storm to an input (what an amazing phone that is!).

Anyway, sounds awesome. State of Trance 2008, Mosaik’s music… ahhhh….

• He’s fighting to restructure healthcare in the country while the economy collapses.
• He’s had a string of tax cheating nominees and appointments to his cabinet.
• He’s reneged on his commitment to get out of Iraq, taking longer to end ‘combat’ than he promised, and he’ll leave 50,000 troops there after.
• He campaigned to veto all earmarks and yet is ok with a budget containing thousands.
• His trillion dollar ‘stimulus’ program does not seem to have impressed anyone, except politicians bringing useless pork-barrel projects to their districts.
• After just 5 weeks, he plans to balloon the deficit to exceed the total of all deficits during the 8 years of the Bush (II) administration.
• He is planning to end tax breaks for sizable charitable donations by the wealthy which will really hurt charities AND small businesses.
• His vice-president has made gaffe after gaffe after gaffe.
• His vice-president met, just today, in a SECRET meeting with AFL-CIO at their swanky conference in Miami. The Obama administration plans to end privacy for union votes.
• Instead of trying to inspire a nation, his speeches have been consistently negative, talking of crisis and catastrophe. He pathetically said this week maybe it’s time for people to put money in the stock market. The market plunged right after.
• He keeps the White House heated like an oven, is doing massive and expensive renovations, yet wants everyone else to conserve.
• He’s talking about ‘green jobs’, but there’s no energy policy.
• He still hasn’t filled his cabinet.
• He has waged a PR war with a radio blow hard (Rush Limbaugh) which is completely irrelevant, and just a distraction.
• His treasury secretary (Geithner) has no lieutenants and so the senate banking committee got no treasury representative to attend their inquiry into AIG bailout because Geithner was being grilled in the House on another matter.
• One day the President declared Geithner would speak with details the next day on the banking and other plans, and the next day Geithner gave no details, and weeks later, still has no details or plan.
• Perhaps this is Obama’s actual plan – to drive the economy into the dirt, so he can then establish some ‘emergency powers’ or something, and turn the U.S. into the socialist economy he wants.
• I do believe he LOATHES small business because everything so far has been aimed AGAINST that. Why? Because small businesses are hard to control. Europe began a war on small business decades ago and killed most of them. European governments prefer big companies with back room ‘deals’ because they can keep an eye on them and control them better.
• I think it’s fair to say he’s off to a horrible start. Wall St. has ZERO confidence in what they’ve done and what they haven’t done.
• I believe we are witnessing the END of America and any American dream as we have understood it. Thanks a lot Obama.

If you voted for him, shame on you. Fooled you good.

Get involved!

At this past week’s tournament however, where he played excellent golf but was just outdone by a bad shot on the last hole and a surging Phil Mickelson, I heard about Fred Couples the person, with real life challenges. His wife with whom he was long since separated and working toward a divorce, had died of cancer at the home they once shared in California. A tragedy indeed, but he has said he remains devoted to her children, his step-children.  Sounds noble. I decided to read up a bit on that history, and wait, there’s more. Much more.

This was his second marriage.  His first marriage ended in the 90s in what appears to have been an ugly and expensive divorce in Florida.  His first wife later committed suicide in 2001.

Fred Couples is also known for his really major back pain problems.  No doubt made worse by a game of unnatural contortions and a unique swing that probably puts more stress on him than other golfers with theirs.  This back pain limits the tournaments he can play.  It limits his practice.  It has basically hindered the last 15 years of his career in a major way.

At 49 though, he’s still out there, and in many ways he seems more determined than ever.  Maybe his shattered personal life and failing body increases his determination to overcome these major challenges.

Regardless, he is still a joy to watch, a class act on the golf course, and I for one want to say “thanks Freddie” for all the joy you’ve brought me over the years, and I hope only the best for you going forward.

And I won’t miss any coverage of you at the Masters in a few weeks.

References:

1993 NY Times

2003 Sunday Herald

2009 (this week) Golf Digest

When i was a kid in England, my Dad got a sail boat (or yacht as the English say for anything with a sail) – I think he was given it by a wealthier friend – we certainly couldn’t have afforded it. It was nothing huge, and it certainly wasn’t new. It was 22 ft with a small engine that was noisy and stinky, and a typical mast, jib and main sail. It had a raisable keel which my Dad thought was cool, but and it did mean we didn’t worry as much about running aground in the tidal waters around Portsmouth.

To GET to the ‘yacht’ we had to use this small fiberglass dinghy with an outboard motor. I’m talking 6 foot long boat with noisy stinky 50cc (maybe?) outboard (Yamaha?).

So my Dad would drive us to the dinghy place (maybe 60 miles which in England is a LONG drive) early in the morning, get in the stinky cramped dinghy and go at about 2mph I’d guess for about 1/2 mi. ? to where the boat was moored. With bags and crap in the dinghy it was about 3-4″ out of the water at the back and more at the front of course especially when moving, but it was creepy to me seeing the dark water so close. and of course it was often cold out, or rainy, or foggy, or all of those.

We’d get to the boat, clamber on, detatch from mooring bouy, attach dinghy to mooring bouy quickly before we drifted away, and then “head out” wherever into the harbor from the small waterway (solent?) where the boat was moored.

Then my dad would attempt to sail at some point, which was a pretty hit and miss thing. Too slow and we didn’t get anywhere. Too fast and it was pretty scary as the boat leaned, or rocked, or hit waves, just right was hit maybe twice for a minute or two in all the times I went on the boat.

My dad would criticize almost everything I did on the boat (too slow, too fast, not done right, too lazy, get out of the way) – oh it was so much fun.

One time, I was told to hold a rope by the mast which held the boom up (for those that don’t know that’s the horizontal piece connected to the mast and the main sail connects to both). Anyway, he had to duck under the boom to get to the other side I think and of course I somehow got distracted and let go of the rope and the boom fell on his head. He wasn’t injured and I can laugh now, but boy was he pissed off and was i scared. Nowhere to go, him ticked. Ah, good times.

On a more positive note, the wealthier friend of my Dad’s (well compared to us when i was growing up – the friend who gave my Dad that boat i think) – well he had a 36′ yacht and we went on that ONCE out into the English channel to fish. We fished for hours in roiling seas and caught a FEW mackerel, each probably 8-12″ long. I of course got sea sick for a while and the adults all laughed telling me it was good I was getting my “sea legs”. They cleaned and cooked the fish and we ate it on board, and in a massive group delusion we all claimed it was excellent. That was the BEST experience i ever had on a sailboat.

To say i loathe sailing would be an understatement.

http://passionateaboutpizzabook.com/

Like many who love NASA and all it has accomplished, I was horrified to learn the Challenger space shuttle blew up a couple of minutes after launch as it rocketed into space.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4JOjcDFtBE

Later that day, President Ronald Reagan gave a speech to the nation, that was brilliantly written by Peggy Noonan, and brilliantly delivered. He talked to the astronauts loved ones, to all adults, to children, about loss, taking chances and bravery, why life isn’t for the ‘faint hearted’ and added a poetic line at the end that still gives me goosebumps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JKIZ7j20EA