Canna Lily

Photo: Mr. Dickie (Canna Lily)

• Truth has a way of scrambling the brain - not the brain of the giver, the brain of the receiver! (Iyanla Vanzant, Faith in the Valley, p. 115)
• When I feel threatened by my anger, I will do my best to give myself time out to sort through my actions and their consequences. (Jonathon and Wendy Lazear, Meditations for Parents Who Do Too Much, 12 May)

Yesterday I continued to work on the project to update the "Links" page on my genealogy website. I checked all of the URLs to dedtermine whether they were still working. Quite a few of them were broken. There were about a half dozen that I'll have to remove and about a half dozen that I can fix.

I discovered a new website with information about the Brierly/Brierley family. This family links to my Henthorn family of England. The Brierly branch came from Lancashire, England about 1845. They settled in Worcester county, Massachusetts. Until I found this website I'd never heard that this branch was also in the United States. It's been a long time since I've made a discovery this interesting.

The flower displayed with this entry is one Melva has blooming this year. Some of the plants are in the ground and some are growing in large pots. She digs up the roots each fall and brings them in the house for the winter.

Mr. Dickie

Day Lilies and Hydrangea

Photo: Mr. Dickie (Day Lilies and multi-colored Hydrangea)

• Whatever is at the center of our life will be the source of our security, guidance, wisdom and power. (Stephen R. Covey, Daily Reflections For Highly Effective People, 17 July)
• It is not always appropriate to reveal my every thought ... (Courage to Change, 25 July)
• Much unhappiness results from an inability to remember the nice things that happen to us. (W.N. Rieger in At My Best, 20 July)
• Self-righteousness is an affliction. (Iyanla Vanzant, Acts of Faith, 27 June)
• We cannot drop out of human involvement without endangering our spiritual health. (Once Day at a Time in Al-Anon, 13 July)
• Carry out God's guidance as best you can. (Alan L. Roeck, Look To This Day, 20 July)

Yesterday I did one of my infrequent checks of the URLs on the "Links" page of my genealogy website. Before long I'd found seven broken links. Using Google I was able to find new addresses for two of the seven. At that point I decided to procrastinate on the newly discovered project. A long time ago I learned that there's a price to pay for sharing links to the websites of others. It's fun to share, when they work, and not much fun when they don't.

The flowers in today's photograph are in our backyard. This year because of frequent rain and because Melva did lots of transplanting in the last year the garden show has been the best we've had in all the years we have lived in his house.

Mr. Dickie

Blue Hydrangea

Photo: Mr. Dickie

• My life matters and it matters how I live my life! (Teresa Ann Willis, It's All Good!, 25 July)
• I must be aware of my limitations. They are as important to acknowledge as my strengths. (Jonathon and Wendy Lazear, Meditations For Parents Who Do Too Much, 28 July)
• My life is an unfolding journey of discovery and I am continually learning more about myself and awakening to my spiritual identity. (Colleen Zuck, et al., Daily Word For Healing, p. 123)

The other day there was an article in The Washington Post about out-of-the-way sculpture around town. One of the pieces was at the student union of the University of Maryland in College Park, MD. The piece is of university graduate, Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog sitting on a granite bench. Yesterday afternoon Melva and I drove to the campus. We found a parking garage across the street from the student union where it cost $2.00 to park for thirty minutes. We took about a half dozen photgraphs including two of each of us sitting on the bench. There was one bothersome late afternoon shadow that got into several shots. The statues are very nice. Once I get the photographs loaded onto the computer I plan to share some of them.

One of my genealogy friends sent me an Email announcing that he had purchased another computer. I wonder what genealogy program he'll use next. Both of us were longtime users of the LDS (DOS) program, Personal Ancestral File. In my own case converting to RootsMagic has been a very tedious process which I may never complete.

Mr. Dickie

Double Rainbow

Photo: Mr. Dickie (Double Rainbow behind our house)

I'm at my best when I'm aware of God's presence. (At My Best, 3 July)

Money trouble causes a restriction in the brain. (Iyanla Vanzant, Faith in the Valley, p. 138)

Learning Experience

Photo: Mr. Dickie (Melva's Cactus)

• ...everyday is a learning experience, a part of the process of "becoming." ... I am in the process of becoming ... What I do daily is what I will become. [It's all part of human being. REH] (Jonathon and Wendy Lazear, Meditations for Parents Who Do Too Much, 19 June)
• Just for today, pay close attention to how you think. (Iyanla Vanzant, Faith in the Valley, p. 135)

Yesterday there was an article in The Washington Post about further cutbacks at AOL. Apparently, little by little, they are dropping some of the features they offered to subscribers. I've noticed that they never make an online announcement when they drop a service. Apparently they can't make enough money with their XDrive service to keep it running. I tried out the free part of the service. I found it hard to use. After I asked one of my genealogy friends to try it out I stopped trying to learn more about it. The article also mentioned something about discontinuing photographs with blogs. The article wasn't clear about what this means. Because we are still paying AOL to use the service it's rather upsetting whenever they remove some feature that we are using.

Yesterday I realized that there's another way to upload photographs for use in my Arrow Prayers blog. Last night I used the My Pictures function to upload ten photographs at one time to my Shoebox Album. This morning I was able to quickly select and include a photo from the Shoebox Album in the daily blog entry. This got around a problem I'd been having with photos I took myself. Often I couldn't get the photo to load from the blog editor.

When I worked at The Library of Congress I found a book titled: Thomas Cresap: Maryland Frontiersman by Kenneth P. Bailey. This 322 page book was published in 1944. I read the book when I found it. Every since I have been looking for a copy. I'd like to read it again. I made some Internet searches for the book and didn't have any luck. Maybe there is a copy in the Maryland Room of our county library. I'll have to check.

Mr. Dickie

Grotto of Lourdes

Photos: Mr. Dickie

All photographs taken at the Grotto of Lourdes in Emmittsburg, Maryland. The stained glass is of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton the first American saint.

• I am grateful for the way it is rather than the way it used to be. (after At My Best, 4 May)
• I will try to create a day without conflict ... (Jonathon and Wendy Lazear, Meditations for Parents Who Do Too Much, 29 April
• If I feel insecure or frightened today, I will remember that my fear is a signal that there is something for me to learn. (Courage to Change, 28 April)

In June of 1950 a four page article (pages 123-127) titled, Cornelius Atkinson - Frontier Ranger was published in The Detroit Society for Genealogical Research Magazine (Vol. XIII, 5) by Atkinson descendant, William C. Hudson. The article consisted of two pages of textual information and three pages of genealogy descendant chart. There were five numbered citations in the article. Unfortunately the citations themselves were lost. In January 1996 researcher Professor Raymond Bell shared this article with me. Recently, in July 2008, I reviewed the article and decided I'd like to share it on the Internet.

To make a document that I could share I rekeyed all five pages. I entered the information into my genealogy program, RootsMagic. The textual information, which was on the first two-plus pages of the original article, was included in the notes of the appropriate individuals. I also wrote several paragraphs in the note fields when I wanted to comment on something in the orginial piece. I did resist the temptation to add additional information. My goal wasn't to create an updated Atkinson genealogy. Rather, I wanted to share the information from the original article in a format which uses more pages and which lends itself to publication on my website.

I selected a numbering system (D'Aboville (indented)) similar to the one used by Mr. Hudson in his article.

I hope readers will be pleased with the result. Anyone working on the Atkinson family of Monroe County, Ohio owes William C. Hudson a debt of gratitude.

Mr. Dickie

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Collage

Photo: Mr. Dickie

Three of the four photographs in this collage were taken at the C&O Canal Park in Cumberland, Maryland. The one in the upper right corner was taken south of Cumberland, near Lock 75. You can see the towpath along the left side of the photograph. The photo in the lower left is a shot of the Potomac River. The statue of the boy and his towpath mule is in front of the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad depot. The canal ran from Cumberland, Maryland to Georgetown in Washington, DC, just over 187 miles. It was one of the first major engineering feats built in this country.

Whatever comes we must prepare to face it. There are no guarantees. (Jonathon and Wendy Lazear, Meditations for Parents Who Do Too Much, 19 April)

By the way, when I use the BlogThis! feature to load the photo collage to my blog I'm telling the software I want the image centered. After the photo is in place I've been adding the text. This isn't working like I want. I'm not able to turn off the centering. I'll try something else tomorrow to see if I can regain control of the formatting.

Mr. Dickie

Garden Collage

Photos: Mr. Dickie

• We simply can't afford resentments of any kind in our ... lives. (A Time to Be Free, 9 June)
• Love for your Higher Power is the result of gratitude and is the acknowledgement of the blesssing[s] that He has given you. (Alan L. Roeck, Look To This Day, 3 June)

I'm working on some genealogy. I have a four page article published by William C. Hudson in June 1950. It's about the Atkinson Family some of whom lived in Monroe County, Ohio. Two of the pages of the article were text and three were a genealogy chart. I want to make this article available on my website. I'm going to rekey the textual information and enter the genealogy data into RootsMagic. I think I can combine the two pieces into one PDF file that I can share on the website.

Today I posted the URLs for two articles about Col. Samuel Baker of Marshall County, WV on my Henthorn Website News. One of the articles appeared in the Wheeling newpaper. The other article was written by me. I commented about the newspaper article.

Today's photo collage was created from four photographs I took of Melva's flowers. The potted plant with the red berries grows in our diningroom. I took it outside to take the photograph.

Mr. Dickie

Melva's Garden

Photo: Mr. Dickie (Melva's Garden)

• I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday. (Stephen R. Covey, Daily Reflections For Highly Effective People, 8 July)
• You cannot want more for people than they want for themselves. (Iyanla Vanzant, Faith in the Valley, p. 156)
• I will try to apply Easy Does It to every incident that might increase the tension and cause an explosion. I will try to realize that an exchange of hostile words will not help me to find the serenity I want. (One Day at a Time in Al-Anon, 7 July)
• I will find ways to make my life more interesting, take a fresh view of the pleasant things that happen each day. (One Day at a Time in Al-Anon, 9 July)

Today on my Henthorn Website News I featured Catherine Hester (Foreaker) Fedorchak. For many years she wrote a column about genealogy research for the Monroe County Ohio Beacon. Several of the families she wrote about in her columns were of interest to me. My posting has HotLinks to pages on my website. There's a copy of her obituary and copies of articles about the following families: Atkinson, Baker, Foggin, Henthorn, Hickman, Kyger, Yockey and two about Yoho.

The photo collage today is shots I took of Melva's Garden. I used the Google Picasa program to create the collage. I like using this method to show more than one photo with the daily blog entry. The large white and red flowers are hibiscus. Each bloom lasts only one day. The white flowers in the upper right photograph are coneflowers. The yellow flowers with the black centers are black-eyed Susans (the Maryland state flower).

Mr. Dickie

Photo Collage

Photos: Mr. Dickie

This photo collage was created using the Google Picassa program. Then the collage image was uploaded to my blog using the BlogThis! feature of the program. Neat isn't it?

The photos are all of Engine 734 at the Frostburg, Maryland terminus of the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. Melva and I went there to met the train when it arrived from Cumberland, Maryland. The pictures were taken with an HP PhotoSmart M737 digital camera.

Mr. Dickiie

Western Maryland Scenic Railroad

Photo: Mr. Dickie

• The only way I can achieve peace is if I set my sights on it. I must learn to slow down, lessen the intensity in my life. (Meditations for Parents Who Do Too Much, Jonathon and Wendy Lazear, 19 April)
• In my search for self-knowledge, I will pay special attention to the spiritual voice within. (A Time to Be Free, 5 May)
• What other people are doing or have done is not something you have to be concerned with or involved in. (Faith in the Valley, Iyanla Vanzant, p. 166)
• ... extreme poverty is also violence ... (Family Feelings, Vanceburg and Silverman, 7 July)

Today's photograph was taken by Mr. Dickie at the Frostburg, Maryland terminus of the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad which runs from Cumberland, Maryland to Frostburg. Dick and Melva went to the train depot to meet the daily train when it arrived at 12:30 p.m. They've taken the train ride once in the fall to see the foliage.

Dick used "BlogThis!" to upload and size the photograph. Afterwards he posted the text to the blog entry.

Yesterday I sent out invitations to some of my cousins to join the Carlson and Hagstrom Family group on MSN. The purpose of this group is to give us a place where we can share information and photographs about our families. It's an experiment. I have no idea if there will be enough interest in such a thing to make it a place where folks will want to return often.

Mr. Dickie

Vacation's Over

Photo: Corel

• All I can do is make the most of this day. (Courage to Change, 17 June)
• A small incident may be blown up out of all proportion to its reality; [when] constant tension, anger and frustration have deprived us of a rational perspective. (One Day At a Time in Al-Anon, 10 June)
• When we have been around the genuine article long enough the cheap and the shoddy become obvious. (His Passion, Day 101)

We are back home after several days vacation in Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. We had a nice time. We decided to come home yesterday afternoon, one day early. The temperature was around 95-97 degrees. It was so hot we were sweating while standing still.

I had a lot of fun with the new digital camera. I took a few photos before we left home and a few more this morning. In all I took about 140 shots. I transferred all of the photographs from the camera to my big thumb drive.

Mr. Dickie

Vacation Time

Just because I can, I'm posting this to my Google Blog while we are on vacation. We are visiting western Maryland and West Virginia. We are going to spend a couple of nights at the Best Western in Berkley Springs, WV. I used the 800 number to make a reservation. After we check out we'll have a family meeting to discuss how that worked out. I have a hunch it depends on whether we have high expectations.

At 12:30 p.m. today we were at the train station in Frostburg, MD when the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad train arrived from Cumberland. Today they were using the steam locomotive. I took about a dozen photographs with the new digital camera. One didn't turn out. The rest looked pretty good. There's a turntable at the end of the line. It's amazing to watch how that huge locomotive is turned around for the return trip.

When I get home I should have some fun posting some of the pictures I'm taking during the trip.

I read the story of Helen Keller's life while we were in Frostburg. It's a small book and quite easy to read. Maybe I'll have more to say about that later on.

Mr. Dickie

Does It Work?

• Everything cannot be treated with the same amount of gravity. Today is a time to sort out what can be dealt with and what can be laughed off. (Jonathon and Wendy Lazear, Meditations for Parents Who Do Too Much, 22 May)
• If the world and how it works is a reflection of the people who live in it, what will it take for us to realize we have a lot of work to do? (Iyanla Vanzant, Acts of Faith, 10 April)
• If you've done things that didn't work, do something else. (Iyanla Vanzant, Acts of Faith, 16 April)
• We can find peace of mind and real fulfillment only through devotion to something above and beyond ourselves. (One Day at a Time in Al-Anon, 1 May)

I'm trying to create a Group where my Carlson and Hagstrom cousins can exchange photographs and messages. I chose to use MSN for this group. I liked how their group handles photo albums and photos. The next step, after creating the group, posting some messages and posting a photo album is to send an invitation to someone to join. I've been trying to send out such a message for over twenty-four hours. I've been getting a message that this function is out of service. For the time being I'm stopped. I'm disappointed. For the moment, it doesn't work.

I'm going to take a break of about a week from posting to my blogs. We want to go on a short vacation. If I can use a computer in a motel I'll probably check the Email but may not be inclined to post to any of the blogs. I'm not sure any of them are being read, so it probably doesn't matter.

Mr. Dickie

Family Group

Photo: Cyndi Henthorn

• There is a limit to what you can accomplish in helping others. (Alan L. Roeck, Look to This Day, 25 May)
• God has given me the ability to think clearly and creatively and the freedom to be the pilot of my own life. (Colleen Zuck, Daily Word, Day 75)
• I will approach this day with enthusiasm, eager to recognize and claim all the good that is in store for me. I am determined to find joy today and to share it freely with others. (At My Best, 28 June)

I'm interested in using MSN Groups to create a place where members of the Carlson and Hagstrom families could post messages and photographs about our families. From my preliminary investigation it appeared that the photo album feature would work very nicely for this purpose. If each family group can create their own album and if it's easy to caption the photos then folks will probably want to use the group.

It wasn't easy to find out how the groups work. I finally decided to join MSN and create a group and learn by doing. Once I created the group (Carlson and Hagstrom Family) and clicked on the "Help" button I discovered that there's lots of good information there about how to do things.

When I tried to upload a photograph from my computer to the group I ran into the same problem I encountered with this Google group. The upload took forever and never terminated. I accepted the MSN offer to install some photo uploading software. This software allows the sender to select more than one photo at a time to upload. This was just what I needed. The photo uploads went smoothly once I downloaded the software which automatically installed.

I posted some Welcome messages and created two message boards where I'll post information about our family and where cousin Fran Witt can post messages about their family if she decides to join the group.

I made the group "private" which means membership is by invitation only and only the members can view the information.

The next step is to send an invitation to cousin Fran so she can test it out and give me some feedback.

If I can get several family members to take part this could be a lot of fun.

Mr. Dickie

Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport, Virginia

Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport, Virginia

Photo: Mr. Dickie

• Obsessively reviewing everyone's behavior focuses my attention where it doesn't belong and keeps me too busy to have many serenity. (Courage to Change, 7 July)
• We make "ourselves" sick trying to anticipate, solve, or cover up other people's problems. (A Time to Be Free, 11 July)
• A broader perspective, and possible change, is a vital part of my spiritual program. (Family Feelings, Vanceburg and Silverman, 9 July)

This morning I created my blog posting using an Email message. I sent the photo along as an attachment. I told the computer to shutdown after the upload was completed. Later I signed on to the Blog to post the title, which I forgot to put in the Subject line, and to add this paragraph.

Melva and I went to the postoffice this morning to send three boxes to her sisters in Panama. The postal service no longer allows us to send the boxes by surface mail. Using air mail nearly doubles the cost to ship each box.

After the stop at the postoffice we went to some of the yard sales in Bowie, Maryland. We decided to come home before we drove on all of the streets. It was just too hot to be much fun. I got lucky when I bought a brand new box of floppy discs for 25 cents. I also bought an HP Deskject F4140 All-in-One printer scanner for $15.00. There wasn't a manual or USB cable (I have at least one USB cable I'm not using). Later in the afternoon I'll go to the library to use their computers to download a set of the manuals and the driver. If I can just get it to scan some old photographs I'll be satisfied. I'm interested in learning about scanning. I haven't scanned anything since I worked at The Library of Congress.

Mr. Dickie

Blackwater Falls, West Virginia

Blackwater Falls, West Virginia

Photo: Mr. Dickie

• Difficult people need not cause me difficulty. (At My Best, 23 April)
• There's nothing easier to postpone than confronting conflict. (Mary H. Frakes, MindWalks, p. 191)
• We don't see the world as it is. We see the world as we are. (Courage to Change, 26 May)
• We are guided on our journey by a power greater than ourselves, but the steps we take must be our own. (Courage to Change, 31 May)

Yesterday I worked on the project to load photographs from three CDs to the hard drive on the laptop. The CDs were created from 35mm negatives of photographs we took in the past. I had the photo shop at the drugstore put them on the CDs. The person who did the job didn't know how to do the job. I thought I was going to be able to put a couple of hundred images on one CD. That plan didn't work out. Instead I ended up with three CDs with a total of 65 good images. Unfortunately about half of the landscape images were upside down. During the process of copying the images to the harddrive I rotate all of those images and the portrait images.

One of the places Melva and I have enjoyed visiting is the Blackwater Falls, West Virginia state park. The image accompanying this blog entry is one taken during one of our visits to the falls. To get to the falls it's necessary to walk down a long set of wooden stairs. There are a couple of platforms along the way with places to sit down if you need a break.

I couldn't get the photo to upload to the blog using the blog editor. I went back to AOL, attached the photograph to an Email and used that method to post the photo. It still took a long time, about seven minutes. After the image uploaded I waited about five minutes before I came back to the blogger to write the blog entry. Patience is a virture.

Mr. Dickie

Talking About Blogging

• The more we learn of science, the more we see that its wonderful mysteries are all explained by a few simple laws so connected together and so dependent upon each other, that we see the same mind animating them all. (Olympia Brown in Thinking Outside the Church by Jennifer Leigh Selig, p. 156)
• Have you thought about your blessings today? Have you made a mental (or written) list of the things you have to be grateful for? (after A Time to Be Free, 2 July)
• Perfection is a long way off, but improvement can be made to happen every day. (One Day at a Time in Al-Anon, 18 June)

The collage image used today was made with one of the photo editor programs I'm learning about. I'm not quite sure what the purpose of such an image might be. At first I thought I could use the collage to call up a larger image of each photograph. If that's possible I didn't figure out how to do it yet.

The last couple of times I've gone to the AOL Family Treehouse genealogy chatroom I've talked about blogging. Someone usually asks, "What's a blog?" When I describe a web log someone usually lets their Internet phobia kick in. They talk about the dangers of the Internet. Then they describe something that happened to one or more prepubescent girls because of what they put on their blogs. I'm willing to accept that bad things happen because the Internet is there. But, I don't think the Internet is any more dangerous than life itself. I remain hopeful that I'm right.

Mr. Dickie

Some Quotes

• This day is too precious to waste by resenting things I can't change. (Courage to Change, 8 May)
• I am the only one who can tell my story. (Courage to Change, 10 May)
• I never know from where a message will come. (Courage to Change, 10 May)
• Chronic self-neglect is a condition that is easily produced in a troubled family. (Family Feelings, Vanceburg and Silverman, 21 June)
• The work we do to improve our own health is the most important task in our lives. (Body, Mind and Spirit, 11 May)

If you are wondering where I'm getting all of these quotes, they come from my daily reading. I have a stack of books that I read from each day. Most of the books have one page for each day. I find this morning reading to be very helpful. Many of the books follow the philosophy of the many recovery programs. When I find something that "speaks" to me I copy the statement on to a note pad that I keep on a small clip board on the nightstand.

Mr. Dickie

Melva's Sun Bonnet Sue Quilt

Here's a photograph we took of Melva's Sun Bonnet Sue and Farmer Boy quilt. She gave it to our daughter, Cyndi, for her double bed.

Mr. Dickie

I Figured It Out

• Procrastination can be the source of a great deal of needless anxiety. (Mr. Dickie after Courage to Change, 2 July)
• Few people know how to be old. (Du de La Rochefoucauld in Family Feelings by Vanceburg and Silverman, 6 July)
• Don't go around saying the world owes you a living; the world owes you nothing; it was here first. (Mark Twain in Instant Health and Happiness Boosters, by M.J. Ryan, 27 April)

After a couple of days trying to understand why the right-hand sidebar of this blog suddenly started to appear at the end of the display I finally found something in the "Help" section that gave me enough information to fix the problem. Or so it seems.

Apparently some photographs and some long URLs (website addresses) cause this malfunction. Since I didn't have any links embedded in my postings I was suspicious of the photographs. I checked each individual posting until I found the one where the problem started. I removed the HTML code for the photograph from the posting. That seems to have solved the problem. I certainly hope so. I like the page style I selected and don't want to change it.

Mr. Dickie

What Changed?

• I should like to enjoy this summer flower by flower, as if it were to be the last one for me. (Andre Gide in Thinking Outside the Church by Jennifer Leigh Selig, p. 160)
• We must value our ideas, our energy, our time and our life to such an infinite degree that we become unwilling to waste who we are. (Iyanla Vanzant, Acts of Faith, 6 June)

Last night I noticed that the right-hand sidebar of this blog and the slideshow at the end of blog moved. The sidebar is now posted at the end of the blog. That's not where I want it. I don't have a clue about what caused it.

When I tried to post a photo with this blog entry I couldn't get that to work either. Should expect things to work that I got for free?

I took some 35mm negatives to the drugstore yesterday to have them put on CDs. The clerk told me I could put about 200 photos on each CD. I don't know whether that's true or not. When I went to pick up the job she had created three CDs and each one had thirty or less photos. The worst thing was she didn't understand how to load the CDs into the machine. About half of the landscape shots are upside down on the CDs. This can be corrected with a photo editor on the computer. This is a very tedious process and shouldn't be necessary. To say the least I was disappointed in how my experiement turned out. Each CD cost $3.99 cents. I was hoping to get a bargain if they could put 200 photographs on each one. Further experimentation is needed.

Last night I discovered that the Google Picasa photo program can create a photo display that can be uploaded to a website. I did a test with four photographs. It worked on my own computer. There are several display formats from which to choose. The next step is to upload the various pieces to some webspace to see if I can get it to work on the Internet. Because I usually upload one file at a time on AOL this process is going to take a while. Whenever I discover something new it isn't long before I discover that there is something I don't understand. Usually I can't seem to find the documentation I need. It's challenging and frustrating.

Mr. Dickie

The Valley of O.P.P.

The Valley of O.P.P.

Other people's problem's, other people's priorities, other people's principles, other people's people, can get in our way, hold us back, and take us off track until we develop the strength to be honest with ourselves. (Iyanla Vanzant, Faith in the Valley)

Iyanla Vanzant is one of my favorite writers. I try to read something from one of her books each day. I've read several of her books more than once. The above quote is something I read again this morning. While the majority of her books are addressed to African American women I have found all of them very useful in my own life. I think you would too. I recommend her book Acts of Faith to get started.

Mr. Dickie

Found CDs

Melva found two photo CDs of shots I had developed at Walmart. This morning I copied the photos from the CDs to my thumb drive. Then I rotated the shots that were taken in the vertical format. Most of the photos are of Melva's Sun Bonnet Sue applique quilt and of the flowers and bushes in our yard. I don't remember which cameras we used to shoot the photographs. I can tell one of them was a Kodak disposable. Those photos are often quite grainy.

Today I'm going to post HotLinks to Search Engines on my Henthorn Website News. Using Google isn't the only way to search the Internet. The results are often surprisingly quite different.

Mr. Dickie

Melva's Garden

Here are four photographs taken in Melva's garden. They were uploaded to the blog using Google Picasa in one upload operation. The captions were added after the photos were posted to the blog.

Mr. Dickie

Pink Peony and Varigated Iris

Wine Peony

Mr. Dickie's Bleeding Heart

Variegated Rose

Formula One

Formula One Car

Photo: Internet

• The secret of making one's self tiresome, is, not to know when to stop. (Voltaire, in At My Best, 30 June)
  
• Recover is a journey, not a destination. (Program saying, Body, Mind, and Spirit, 20 June)

One of the things I like to watch on cable television is Formlua One auto races. This is a strange kind of car racing. The cars are built to have tremendous downforce. This makes them highly maneuverable and very difficult to pass. Often the races are won because of what happens in the pits. Some teams might try to run the entire two-hour race with only one tire change while others will use two tire changes. Because passing is so difficult this kind of racing is markedly different from the kinds of races that are run in this country.

For the last several days I have been posting HotLinks on my Henthorn Website News blog. I created lists for:

1. Henthorn, Jennings and Watson Families
2. State and County Websites
3. Baker Family
4. Yoho Family

I visited MicroSoft Groups yesterday. I'm thinking about creating a group where members of my Carlson/Hagstrom family could share information and photographs. The format of the MSN Groups appears to lend itself well to what I have in mind. I looked at a Quilting group and discovered that they had many photo albums in the group. Some albums had one photograph and others had many. The photos were captioned. Captioning is important and that seems to be a short-coming of the Google Groups.

I watched some of the PBS 4th of July show from the Washington, DC Mall last night. It started raining at our house, several miles east of the mall, just about the time the show started. I couldn't tell if we were watching the live show or a video of the rehearsal from Thursday night. I stopped watching when the host, Jimmy Smits, started talking about how the members of our armed forces are fighting to save democracy. I don't know why we have our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan but I'm not buying that we are there to save democracy.

Mr. Dickie

Fallen Comrades

Photo: Internet

Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;

Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.

Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;

Trusting, that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will;

That I may be reasonably happy in this life,

And supremely happy with Him forever in the next.

Reinhold Niebuhr

Today on this Fourth of July I am thinking about two fallen comrades who gave their lives in the military service of this country in Vietnam: Major (Chaplain - Father) Aloysius Paul McGonigal and LTC Burr McBride Willey. Father McGonigal lived in our company officer's quarters in Korea for a short time in 1962-63. I knew LTC Willey at Spanish Language School in Monterey, California and later when we were both stationed in the Panama Canal Zone.

May they rest in peace.

Mr. Dickie

4th of July

Photo: Internet (Niagara Falls Fireworks)

• The one area of life that cannot be addressed on a part-time basis is the spiritual life. (Iyanla Vanzant, Acts of Faith, 11 May)
  
  Yesterday I spent some time trying to clear some of the paper clutter from the area around the computers. I sorted papers, shredded papers, and filed papers. I didn't eliminate all the mess but I did make some progress. Dealing with this problem never ends. As soon as I think I've got it under control I start making new piles of papers on the floor. It's not an easy mental issue to deal with. As a matter of fact making another pile is much easier than starting a project to clear the clutter.
  
  I searched the Internet for some 4th of July photos. I found many that I really liked. I've always wondered why AOL doesn't let me save a JPEG file in that format. Rather than start up the Internel Explorer, which let's me save JPEG files, I just let AOL save the pictures I wanted in the .BMP format. The photo that appears with this blog shows fireworks behind the Brooklyn Bridge, one of the greatest engineering feats of all time. If you are interested in the story of how the bridge was built read the book by David McCullough.
  
  Today I prepared this blog entry offline and then submitted using Email. The Email posting didn't work, so I prepared the entry to old way.
  
  Mr. Dickie

Email Posting With Photograph

This is a second attempt at posting to my Google Blog using an AOL Email message.

This time the photograph is attached as a file. And, I added the end of message indicator to insure that any AOL text ads don't get posted to the blog entry.

It worked! This time I used a smaller photograph to speed up the process. This little photo is cropped from an annoying FlashPlayer ad that appears sometimes when I am in the Family Treehouse genealogy chatroom on AOL. I wanted to see if I could steal the image of the two boys and crop off the ad. These two kids remind me of the characters, Beavis and Butthead. I centered the photo when I added the last paragraph to this posting. Now I have another way of uploading a photograph when I'm posting to the blog.

I can't decide which is the best way to learn something. Sometimes it seems to me the learning process is much easier when there is a teacher talking about the subject and demonstrating the steps. Learning how to do something by reading about it and viewing computer screens requires much more mental effort. Once I figure out how to do something myself there is a very nice sense of personal satisfaction.

Mr. Dickie

Posting to My Google Blog Via Email

This is a test to see if I can post to my Google Blog using Email. I included another photograph of myself taken in our backyard near the storage shed. I don't know why I don't hold my head straight when I have my picture taken. Some folks have said "it's because you are a little cock-eyed."

The test worked, after a fashion. The text part of the message posted. I tried to include the photograph inside the Email. I noticed afterwards that the photo should be an attachment. I also noticed that the string "#end" should be entered after my message to prevent any AOL Email ads from appearing in my blog.

I updated this entry and removed the empty photo box. I'll post again to test whether I learned everything I need to know about the process.


Mr. Dickie

A Blogging Hint

Western Maryland Railroad

Photo: Internet

• It's hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head. (Sally Kempton in Meditations for Parents Who Do Too Much by Jonathon and Wendy Lazear, 28 June)

Here's a blogging hint.

An index list to the entries on this blog is located in the upper right hand corner. There are two triangular shaped arrows. One points downward and the other to the right. When the arrow points to the right you can click on it. The arrow display will then point downward and you will see an expanded list of the titles of the entries for a particular time frame. Click the downward arrow to collapse the display of information.

Mr. Dickie

Learning Something Every Day

Photo: Internet

• Nothing makes us want to live more than the feeling that we have something important to do. Nothing makes life seem as worthless as the feeling that we do not. ... We need the sense of a coherent story to our lives, a significant connection between its major episodes, and the reasonable hope that it will have a satisfactory conclusion. (Daniel Taylor, The Healing Power of Stories, p. 58)

Yesterday I discovered that there's a personal profile area associated with my public photo gallery on AOL. The only way to learn how some things work seems to be clicking on all of the buttons on the screen. I filled in the different sections of the profile and posted it. Long ago I decided that I wasn't going to be "profile phobic." So far, the willingness to post some personal information hasn't come back to bite me. I remain hopeful that this will continue.

I also discovered that I could post a link to the public photo album to an AOL blog in a couple of minutes. I tested to see if it worked. I haven't decided how I might use this feature yet.

I spent quite a bit of time working on my "signature block" yesterday. The signature block is a boilerplate closing that I can include in my Email messages. I realized I could use this to share HotLinks to my website and the various blogs I created. If you get an Email from me and want to visit one of the places where I am posting you can click on the entry at the end of the Email to go there.

This morning I was able to upload the photo with this blog entry without using the Picasa software. Sometimes I can post the photos from the message editor and sometimes I can't.

Mr. Dickie

Does This Thing Work?

Photo: Cyndi Henthorn

Does this thing work? (Mr. Dickie)

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature, and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. (Anne Frank)

There's a big mess in Prince George's County, Maryland. A couple of young punks in a stolen pickup truck ran down a policeman and killed him. After the police apprehended the alleged driver they put him in an isolation cell. Over the weekend he turned up dead. Last night they announced that he died of strangulation. Someone in that jail had access to the prisoner and killed him. The state police and the FBI will handle the investigation. People will lose their jobs, someone will go to jail and the family of the accused will win a million dollar civil rights law suit at the expense of the residents of the county. Things continue to go from bad to worse.

Mr. Dickie