Business As Usual

Photo: Mr. Dickie (Sculpture in downtown Omaha, Nebraska)

We try not to indulge in cynicism over the state of the nations, nor do we carry the world's troubles on our shoulders. (From page 132 of Alcoholics Anonymous found in Daily Reflections, 23 January)

There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it. (Mary Wilson Little in The Art of the Possible by Alexandra Stoddard, p. 70)

Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand. (Thomas Carlyle in Abounding Grace by M. Scott Peck, p. 345)

• Yesterday I wrote Email messages to: Noel, a former co-worker; and to Jo and Ray, friends I made through the genealogy hobby. I included photographs as part of the messages. When you send Email do you ever think about how it impacts the postal service? Those three messages reduced the postal service revenue by $1.26 cents. When you consider that this probably happens millions of times daily it's no surprise that they want to cut back service.


• I'm re-reading parts of a book I have check out. I'm trying to understand what the author is talking about. One very brief item mentioned that an Internet file storage service called, Box.net, could work with Facebook. I visited the Box.net site and very quickly was able to enroll and upload a file. That was the easy part. After some searching I found the page where the Facebook interface was turned "on." The hardest thing to figure out was how to post anything about the file to Facebook. I was getting frustrated when I finally discovered that this option is invoked by right-clicking the mouse on the file name. I think it took about an hour to work my way through the learning process. I eventually was able to post a link in my Facebook profile that pointed to the stored file on Box.net. I was quite proud of myself because I was able to concentrate long enough on the task to learn how to do it. The next thing is to come up with a reason to use it.


• By the way, lately I often prepare my blog entries offline. Since my typing ability isn't getting better, with time, I've realized that working offline is the thing to do if I want to let folks reach us when they call. I'm still using a phone connection to the Internet.

Mr. Dickie