Saturday Blog

Only when we forget about ourselves, when we get out of the thoughts of ourselves, can we fruitfully communicate with others, listen to them, and influence them. (Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom, 18 February)

Work all the time. Do not think that work is a disaster for you, and do not seek praise or reward for your work. (Marcus Aurelious in A Calendar of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy, 19 February)

It's taken me all my life to understand that it is not necessary to understand everything. (Rene' Coty in Abounding Grace by M. Scott Peck, p. 383)

A man must learn to endure that patiently which he cannot avoid conveniently. (Michel de Montaigne in The Heart of the Possible by Alexandra Stoddard)

• I'm having lots of fun reviewing the books I've read in the past few years. I own used copies of most of them. They are stored on bookcases in our basement. At the same time as I'm renewing the books I've read I'm noticing how many good books I own that I still want to read. There are most certainly more books on hand than I can read in my lifetime. I know there are copies of books about the life of Willa Cather, books by Stephen Ambrose, Walden Pond, Anna Karenina and books of the Daily Bible Study Series of William Barclay, et al.

Mr. Dickie

Live This Day Fully

I plan to live this day fully, so I avoid letting my thoughts and memories take me back to living in the past. I have come through events and circumstances a stronger and wiser person, and I can be free of feelings of regret or resentment about mistakes or mishaps that I have experienced.
(Colleen Zuck, et al., Daily Word for Healing, p. 51)

• Yesterday afternoon I went to the Bowie Seniors Center. The purpose of the visit was to use one of the two computers they installed for public access to the Internet. This was my first time to use either of these computers. I took along some blank CDs and my thumb drives. I backed up some photographs to a couple of the CDs. I'm not used to using their version of Windows so the whole process was a learning experience. I also got on AOL to check Email. I looked at Facebook and my Google blogs. What a difference it makes when you have high speed access to the Internet. You must sign up to use these computers. Each session is limited to 30 minutes. The other computer was also in use. Noone came by to sign up. Both of us stayed signed on for more than an hour. I didn't accomplish everything I wanted. I was satisfied with how it worked out. I learned how these computers worked and came away with two CDs of backup.
• The classmate group on Facebook still is having trouble getting our Facebook friends into the group. We are trying to understand why it takes folks so long to join the group after an invitation has been sent. For the last week there have been two or three people Nancy has been waiting to join each day.

Mr. Dickie

"Stand in the Door!"

Photo: Mr. Dickie (back view of "Stand in the door!" in Omaha, NE)

Many "older" children go through life either secretly or openly hating their parents. They blame them for past abuses, neglect or favoritism and they center their adult life on that hatred, living out the reactive, justifying script that accompanies it. (Stephen R. Covey, The Seven Habits fo Highly Effective People, p. 117)

Most of us are so paralyzed by the trappings of our lives that we wouldn't recognize a miracle if it stared us in the face. (Gene Cotton in The Upper Room Disciplines - 2006, 19 February)

Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world. (Helen Keller in One More Day by Sefra Kobrin Pitzele, 18 February)

• I'm enjoying reviewing the books I've read and posting them to weRead(IRead). The process does remind me of that fact that I lost my book catalog when my laptop computer failed. I still have a backup copy. The problem is I backed up in the DBF file format and I don't have a program on my computers that can read this format. Looking at my book collection in the basement reminds me that I have purchased too many used books. I have so many that I would like to read "sometime."


• I enjoy each day checking to see who else has joined The Class of '57 group on Facebook. It's a slow process getting folks to join Facebook and then to join the group. Once a classmate has joined the group there's one more step, encouraging them to post to The Wall and to the topics in the Discussion Board. So far I'm the only one who posted to the photo area and to the links area.


• Yesterday I went for an hour long walk in the neighborhood. I was pleased to see that the county finally removed the porta-potty they place in "the hood" when they were picking up leaves in the fall. After the walk I stayed outside for at least another hour talking to some of the neighbors.

Mr. Dickie

Take a Good, Hard Look

Photo: Mr. Dickie (Airborne - "Stand in the door!" At a park near Con Agra, Omaha, NE)

Take a good , hard look at your life and take responsibility for everything. Seek truth and justice in your daily life. Don't let pride stand in the way of understanding and peaceful living. Allow others their truth even if it differs from yours.

Know that you are solely responsible for your actions and for your inner peace. Be grateful for this and all blessings. Remember that free will is the blessing that allows you to experience life in order to learn the lessons that lead to wisdom. It is often more difficult to be grateful for the uncomfortable lessons; they also allow you to grow when you take responsibility for your part. Look for the lesson in any challenge and the challenge dissipates. If you allow it, everything that happens to you is designed to teach holiness and bring you closer to God.

Affirmation: I am true to myself and grateful for all my life's lessons and oneness with God.(Susan Smith Jones, Choose to Live Each Day Fully, day 63)

Principles

Principles always have natural consequences attached to them. There are positive consequences when we live in harmony with the principles. There are negative consequences when we ignore them. But because these principles apply to everyone, whether or not they are aware, this limitation is universal. And the more we know of correct principles, the greater is our personal freedom to act wisely. (Stephen R. Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, p. 123)

• This morning there was an artcile in The Washington Post Business Section about the bankruptcy filing of Ritz Camera (the largest U.S. photography retailer) this past weekend. This store started in Atlantic City ninety-one years ago and is still held by the family. The headquarters is located in Beltsville, MD a few miles from our house. I have been in the headquarters store a few times in recent months. There are 800 stores in 40 states, 51 in the Washington, DC area. There are 6,424 employees. They are going to try to stay in business. After reading the article I have my doubts.
• This morning I realized that I should send a "suggest" a friend message to one of my new Facebook friends. That's a neat part of the Facebook experience. Yesterday several folks joined the "Class of '57" group. Next thing is to encourage them to post to "The Wall" and to the Discussion Board.
• Last night I brought up a stack of books from the basement and posted them to my weRead(IRead) account. My goal is to post 100 books. I won't have any trouble reaching that number. I've posted 79 so far. I tried to post all of the seven Harry Potter books. I don't own those so I have to do a little research to determine which ones I missed.
• I'm trying to understand how my Google Henthorn group works. There are certain aspects of it that I don't like. It seems difficult to let the visitors know what's in each of the files that are uploaded to the Files area. Perhaps I need to write a "Page" with file descriptions. Because I haven't made a lot of use of the group I seem to have forgotten what little I knew about it.
  

Mr. Dickie

Email Posts Test

This message is a test to determine if I installed an envelope icon, with an arrow on it, at the bottom of my posts. Clicking on the icon allows the visitor to Email my posts.

The test worked. Now if I ever write anything profound you can even Email it to yourself. Or you can annoy all your family and friends by sending the posting to them.

Mr. Dickie

Pigeons

Imagine a flock of pigeons in a corn field. Imagine that ninety-nine of them, instead of pecking the corn they need and using it as they need it, start to collect all they can into one big heap. Imagine that they do not leave much corn for themselves, but save this heap of corn on behalf of the vilest and worst of the flock. Imagine that they all sit in a circle and watch this one pigeon, who squanders and wastes this wealth. And then imagine that they rush at a weak pigeon who is the most hungry among them who darest to take one grain from the heap wihout permission, and they punish him.

If you can imagine this, then you can understand the day-to-day behavior of mankind. (William Paley, A Calendar of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy, 23 February)

More Delicious

• The road of life is strewn with the bodies of promising people. People
  who show promise, yet lack the confidence to act. People who make promises they are unable to keep. People who promise to do tomorrow what they could do today. Promising young stars, athletes, entrpreneurs who wait for promises to come true. ... Turn your promise into a plan. Make no promise for tomorrow if you are able to keep it today. And if someone calls you promising, know that you are not doing enough today.

(Iyanla Vanzant, Acts of Faith, 21 February)

I was able to add bookmarks to pages on my Google genealogy group to Delicious. That's nice because the bookmarks allow me to write a description of the file I am referencing.
Tags make it possible to focus on a topic within my bookmarks. For example, If someone wants to see all of my bookmarks that have a tag for the "Yoho" family entering this URL is all it takes.

http://del.icio.us/MrDickie/Yoho

You can also search for more than one tag by entering a plus sign (+) between tags. For example: to find all of my bookmarks pointing to the articles about "PDF" written by Dick Eastman use this URL.

http://del.icio.us/MrDickie/Eastman+PDF

After trying this URL enter the following line without the word "Eastman" to see the difference. This one finds all of the pages about "PDF."

http://del.icio.us/MrDickie/PDF

This ability to gather all of the links together in one set is very powerful. You could think of the bookmarks of "MrDickie" as a website with pointers to all of the webpages he's either found or posted himself. This website doesn't have a structure, like a tree or organizational chart. Rather the website is dynamic or virtual. The visitor searches for the topic of interest using a tag or tags and Delicious presents a display, similar to a Google search, which gathers all of the pages about the topic of interest together.

There's more to it than I'm writing about here. Once you are at Delicious you will see lists of tags, a place to key in tags, counts of the number of times the tags were used and much more.

If you take a look at what I have done so far I'd appreciate hearing your opinion. Did you find it useful? Was it easy to learn and use?

Mr. Dickie

Stories

...When did you stop being enchanted with stories? Stories are the greatest healing and teaching art that we have. Through stories, we transmit values, ethics, traditions, memories, and identity. One way to retrieve our souls is to ask ourselves what our favorite stories are, to repeat the ones that we find most healing and comforting, and to remember which ones we especially want to pass on to others.(Angeles Arrien in Nourishing the Soul, p. 106)

• This morning there was a piece in the paper announcing the death of Socks, the black and white cat of the Clinton family while they were in the White House. The cat lived to be nineteen years old. When my friend, Jim, and I visited the White House we were waiting near the east gate for my neighbor, Fred who worked at the White House, to come out to get us. I remember being so surprised when he came to the gate carrying Socks in his arms. Everyone got so excited when they saw the cat. Soon camera shutters were clicking.

Mr. Dickie

Our Own Tasks

Photo: (Selena)

For though we are made especially for the sake of one another, still each of us has his own tasks. Otherwise another's faults would harm me, which God has not willed, in order that my happiness may not depend on another. (Marcus Aurelius - Meditations, paraphrased, One Day at a Time in Al-Anon, 29 January)

• Yesterday I attended the website committee meeting followed by the computer club meeting at the Bowie Senior Center. The club is considering what they want to do next with the club's website. They are looking for a cheap host and for webmasters who already have the necessary skill.
• I continue to add more bookmarks to my Delicious account. So far I have posted links to the genealogy sites of others and to the websites that describe some software I like.

Mr. Dickie

Words

When people speak in a very elaborate and sophisticated way, they either want to tell a lie, or to admire themselves. You should not believe such people. Good speech is always clear, clever, and understood by all. (Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom, 15 February)

Words can unite people. Therefore, try to speak very clearly, and tell only the truth, for nothing can unite people more than truth and simplicity. (Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom, 15 February)

• I went to the website committee meeting followed by the computer club meeting at Bowie, MD today. We are planning to bring the club website up-to-date and then maintain it current. We can use free webspace we have on Comcast.
• After the meeting I stopped at the home of former co-workers to drop off a book I bought at the booksale last weekend.
• I'm having fun creating my own bookmarks on Delicious. I'm planning to write about it on my genealogy blog soon.

Mr. Dickie

What Happened?

Detachment allows us to let go of our obsession with another's behavior and begin to lead happier and more manageable lives, lives with dignity and rights, lives guided by a Power greater than ourselves. (Courage to Change, 12 February)

At twenty-two, I thought I knew everything. Now, at sixty-seven (69 in Mr. Dickie's case), I find I haven't tasted a drop from the sea of knowledge. The more I learn, the more I find out how little I know. (John Copage in Abounding Grace by M. Scott Peck, p. 382)

• Yesterday was the scheduled date for the cutover from analog television to digital television. In the last few weeks the national government decided to postpone the cutover date until later in the summer. Apparently the main reason for doing this was because millions of people were going to be left with no television reception. The government plan to issue coupons for convertor box rebates failed when the coupons weren't used fast enough and when the program ran out of rebate money. If our government couldn't plan and manage this program what makes us think that the government can manage the current economic crisis?
• Last night I watched about half of an excellent one-hour PBS program on the show, Frontline. They discussed in very clear fashion the various factors that lead to the current economic crisis, the worst since the Great Depression, and thus the worst in my lifetime. One of the most disturbing things about the situation is that some of the people who work on solving the problems for the country are the same men who earlier were top executives on Wall Street. If they couldn't manage billions of dollars on Wall Street what makes us think they can manage trillions of dollars as government officials?
• Yesterday there was a piece on the news about the financial situation in the state of Kansas. It sounded like the state is broke. They don't have money to pay their bills. And, worst of all they didn't set aside funds to cover the tax refunds they knew they were going to have to pay. That is to say, they spent money that wasn't theirs in the first place. Will the people of Kansas ask the rest of us to "bail them out?"

Have a good day!
Mr. Dickie

A New Day

Patience is a virtue many do not possess. We have very little difficulty identifying what we want and need. The difficulty comes in waiting for it to manifest. (Iyanla Vanzant, Acts of Faith, 15 February)

The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life. (Muhammad Ali, in Abounding Grace by M. Scott Peck, p. 381)

Many persons might have attained to wisdom had they not assumed that they already possessed it. (Seneca in Abounding Grace by M. Scott Peck, p. 381)

• Yesterday I worked on installing and learning about WeRead(IRead) into Facebook. This application tracks and shares information about books we own, books we've read and books we want to read. Two or three of my Facebook friends already installed the application.

• I'm enjoying writing and reading some recollections in the Facebook group for the Bellevue, Nebraska, Class of '57. So far, Lloyd, Nancy and I have been the ones posting. I'm hopeful that something we write will inspire other group members to post some of their memories of growing up in Bellevue.

• I had a nice private chatroom visit with Eileen my friend (and relative) in genealogy esterday. She's lives in England which makes being able to do this such a neat thing.

• On the first of January 2008 I started reading, "Abounding Grace - An Anthology of Wisdom," edited by M. Scott Peck. I finished the book this morning. It's a collection of quotations from others. Author Peck wrote an introduction to each chapter. I used many of the quotations in my Mr. Dickie's Blog.

Mr. Dickie

How To Grow Old

To know how to grow old is the master-work of wisdom and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living. (Henri Frederic Amiel, in Abounding Grace by M. Scott Peck, p. 378)

If you don't have time for exercise, ask yourself if you have time for heart disease, stroke, cancer, or diabetes. If you don't exercise with some degree of regularity, you are making a decision to compromise your life quality, today and in the future. (Dr. Phil McGraw, The Ultimate Weight Solution, p. 213)

A man cannot leave his wisdom or his experience to his heirs. (Italian Proverb in Abounding Grace by M. Scott Peck, p. 381)

• Last night I finished reading "America's Hidden History," by Kenneth C. Davis. I checked the book out at the library. I didn't like this book as much as I like his books from the "Don't Know Much About ..." series.
• I installed an icon for Delicious on my AOL toolbar. When I click the Icon a window appears with my list of bookmarks that I recorded on Delicious along with the site descriptions I wrote. If I want to post the bookmarks to Facebook I have to invoke the "Import" command while signed on to Facebook.
• This morning I had a nice private chat with my friend and distant relative, Eileen, in England. Being able to do this is one of the wonderful things about the Internet.

Mr. Dickie

Delicious

...staying focused is one of the most important things you can do to change your life for the better. (Susan Smith Jones, Choose to Live Each Day Fully, Day 28)

Of all sad words of tongue or pen the saddest are these: It might have been. (John Greenleaf Whittier, in One More Day, by Sefra Kobrin Pitzele, 7 February)

...regular, intentional exercise is a big deal, a huge deal. It unlocks the door to "body control" - a state of fitness in which your body is metabolically geared for losing weight and keeping it off, and is flowing with energy and vitality. (Dr. Phil McGraw, The Ultimate Weight Solution, p. 199)

• Yesterday I started a project to study how the social bookmarking service, Delicious, works. I registered and posted one bookmark. Then I attempted to install a link between my Facebook profile and Delicious. Today when I sign on to Facebook I'll see if that worked.

• I received several nice responses to the Email Valentine's greetings I sent out yesterday. I used the AOL Email artwork to create my message rather than signing on to some Ecard service. It seems to me that these services now offer very few free cards for any one occasion.

Mr. Dickie

Henthorn Groups

My goal is simply to move in a positive direction, knowing that major strides often begin with very small steps. (Courage to Change, 7 February)

Life will work for me when I realize...I am totally, completely and fully responsible for what goes on in my life! (Iyanla Vanzant, Until Today! 27 January)

The longer I live, the larger allowances I make for human infirmities. (John Wesley in Abounding Grace by M. Scott Peck, p. 328)

• Yesterday I was reminded by Elizabeth that there is a HenthornFam group that she created on Yahoo. It's a place for people interested in Henthorn genealogy and history to share information.
• There's also a Henthorn group on Google that I created.
• And we recently discovered the "Henthorn's Are So Hot" group on Facebook.
• In the days ahead I'm going to post some links from one group to another to help folks find these sites.

Mr. Dickie

Thank Goodness for the USB Port

Patience is a virtue I am once again cultivating. Life's circumstances have taught me the importance of finding the joy in each day. (Sefra Kobrin Pitzele, One More Day, 1 February)

I cherish the memories of the golden moments of my life. (Colleen Zuck, et al., Daily Word For Healing, p. 34)

One man asked another on the death of a mutual friend, "How much did he leave?" His friend responded, "He left it all." (Stephen R. Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, p. 99)

I hate people who are intolerant. (Laurence J. Peter in Abounding Grace by M. Scott Peck, p. 328)

• Yesterday I completed a project to take some photographs off of my damaged desktop computer. I used the inconveniently located USB port on the back of the computer to accomplish the task. During the process I even created some new folders on the thumb drive to better organize the photographs. By the end of the day I think I recovered everything I wanted. While the computer seems to respond more slowly when I use the USB port that's a small price to pay if I can save some of the files I want.
• Today, I'm working on another salvage project. There are 2,664 journal files on the broken computer that I want. Using the same thumb drive I think I will be able to get all of that information that took years to write off of the computer. If it works it will be a blessing.
• You can never have too many backups.

Mr. Dickie

Photo Recovery

We should have much peace if we would not busy ourselves with the sayings and doings of others. (Thomas 'a Kempis in Courage to Change, 29 January)

It's true: obesity - just like starvation - is a disease of malnutrition. ... Amazingly there are as many obese people in the world as there are people suffering from starvation! (Dr. Phil McGraw, The Ultimate Weight Solution, p. 279)

It is quite easy to shout slogans, to sign manifestos, but it is quite a different matter to build, manage, command, spend days and nights seeking the solution of problems. (Patrice Lumumba in Abounding Grace by M. Scott Peck, p. 351)

• Over time I have learned to expect problems with my personal computers. There's always something going on. Months ago I was signed on to the desktop computer when there was a nearby lightning strick. The two CD drives and the ability to connect to the Internet were damaged. There were some photographs on the computer at the time of the accident. This week I have been working on a project to copy them from the broken computer to a thumb drive. It's inconvenient because the two USB ports are on the back of the computer. I have to lay on the floor, under a table to attach or detach the thumb drive. It seems to me that after the thumb drive is attached the mouse response is slowed. That's a small price to pay if I can recover the photos this way. Yesterday I made good progress creating eight folders on the thumb drive and copying the appropriate photographs into the folders. More work remains to recover the remaining photos. The end is in sight.

Mr. Dickie

Computer Issues

You can't blame everything on your parents. No matter how bad your childhood was, sooner or later you have to take responsibility for yourself. Some of the boneheaded things you do "are" your fault. (Andrew Frothingham and Tripp Evans, Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, 5 February)

Life delivers us "chance cards," events and experiences we don't count on... (The Upper Room Disciplines - 2006, 4 February)

• My anxiety level is up this morning. I had trouble getting the laptop computer to boot up. This is the machine I use to get on the Internet. I've had this problem before. It seems to have something to do with having a charge built up on the battery. I try to run off the wall power most of the time. I hope I don't lose my link to the Internet. I'm having too much fun right now.

• I belong to two groups on Facebook. One is for folks with the surname "Henthorn" and the other is for classmates of the Bellevue, Nebraska Class of '57. I'm having fun posting to both groups. I was the first to try posting to some of the available sections. When I know how to do something I like to use the facility in hope that it will help others to get started.

Mr. Dickie

You Can Bank On It

Longing for the "old days" and "old ways" won't bring them back. I am learning to accept changes. They are not imposing upon my life -- they are my life. (Sefra Kobrin Pitzele, One More Day, 9 February)

...there are times when the right road takes a wrong turn! (Iyanla Vanzant, Until Today!, 9 February)

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." (Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis in The 7 Habits of Highly Effectice People by Stephen R. Covey, p. 101)

• Banking business isn't getting any easier. There are so many banks with so many options. There are: checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, loans, ATM machines, online banking, telephone banking, debit cards, credit cards, safe deposit boxes, money transfers by phone, money transfers at the ATM, transactions at the teller window. And, we can chose to bank at more than one bank. How do we keep it all straight?

Mr. Dickie

Facebook Fun

Photo: Mr. Dickie (NRECA - Touchstone Energy balloon at Omaha, NE, 2008)

The first question to be answered by any individual or any social group, facing a hazardous situation, is whether the crisis is to be met as a challenge to strength or as an occasion for despair. (Harry Emerson Fosdick in Abounding Grace by M. Scott Peck, p. 363)

• Today I added Facebook friend number twenty-six, Richard, one of my very good friends from college and Army ROTC. This weekend I added Nancy and Lloyd, former classmates in Bellevue, NE, to my list of friends. I'm hopeful that two more classmates will respond to my messages. Three of the ladies in my group of friends celebrate their birthdays today. I wouldn't have known this without Facebook. While composing a birthday message to one of the ladies I noticed that she had a message on her Wall from one of our mutual AOL friends. The more you use Facebook the more fun it becomes.

Mr. Dickie

You Want to Go Ice Fishing?

Photo: Mr. Dickie (One of our houseplants in bloom in January 2009)

There is a basic knowledge which is necessary for every human being; until a person has acquired this basic knowledge, all other kinds of knowledge will be harmful for him. (Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom, 25 January)

I cannot change what I believe as long as I believe it. (Iyanla Vanzant, Just For Today! 28 January)

Let not the future disturb you. You will face it with the same reason which you now use for present things. (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, VII-8)

• Yesterday between 134 and 150 people went ice fishing on Lake Erie. The sheriff certainly was upset when the plywood bridge to the place they were fishing fell in the lake and he had to call out all of his resources to rescue all but one. He said everyone had been warned to stay off the ice. Go figure! There may be a shortage of jobs and a shortage of money in this country. There's no shortage of stupidity.

Mr. Dickie

What Do I Know?

Photo: Mr. Dickie (Interesting bridge from Qwest Center to Missouri River water front at Omaha, Nebraska)

I do my part to make a positive difference in my family, workplace, and community by helping to create an atmosphere of love through words of healing. (Colleen Zuck, et al., Daily Word For Healing, p. 32)


There's what you know. There's what you don't know. And what you don't know you know. And what you don't know you don't know! The last of these is the most dangerous. (Patricia Wilson in The Upper Room Disciplines - 2006, 26 January)

• This morning I talked to my cousin, Donna in California. It was the first time we'd talked in many months. I used my cellphone to make the call. Later in the day, while we were at Cyndi's, Melva talked to her friend, Yoshiko, in Florida. For that call she used Cyndi's free long distance service from her cable company.
• One of my former classmates in Bellevue, Nebraska agreed to be my Facebook friend. I'm hopeful that several others will also join in the fun.
• When the new technologies work it's amazing how much better we are able to communicate.
• To speed up the photo upload process I decided to make the image smaller. I'm not certatin it made any difference.

Mr. Dickie

Your Life

Photo: Mr. Dickie (Qwest Center, Omaha, NE)

Somewhere along the line of development we discover what we really are, and then we make our real decision for which we are responsible. Make that decision primarily for yourself, because you can never really live anyone else's life, not even your own child's. The influence you exert is through your own life and what you become yourself. (Eleanor Roosevelt in Abounding Grace by M. Scott Peck, p. 352)

While living I want to live well. I know I have to die sometime, but even if the heavens were to fall on me, I want to do what is right. There is one God looking down on us all. We are all children of the one God. God is listening to me. The sun, the darkness, the winds, are listening to what we now say. (Geronimo in Abounding Grace by M. Scott Peck, p. 352)

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

Your Actions

Photo: Mr. Dickie ("He ain't heavy, Father. He's my brother," statue at Boys Town, Nebraska)

Your actions should be determined not by the desire of the people around you, but by the needs of all mankind. (Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom, 24 January)

Reactive people build their emotional lives around the behavior of others, empowering the weaknesses of other people to control them. (Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, p. 72)

...people may not remember everything you do, however, they will always remember how you do it. (Iyanla Vanzant, 21 January)

• I joined the Facebook group "Henthorn's Are So Hot." There are about 90 members. I posted several messages about early Henthorn history. Yesterday I read the messages in the discussion area and in the wall area. Many of the comments were about whether the surname should be spelled with the "e" on the end. I let folks know that Hinthorn(e)s are also part of the family.


• This morning we woke up to snow again. The cars and the ground were covered. I made a test drive to the Shell station to put gas in Melva's car. I didn't have any problems. We decided that it would be all right for Melva to go to work. She left a few minutes after 9:00 a.m.

Mr. Dickie

Philanthropy

Photo: Mr. Dickie (Oil painting purchased in Saigon, Vietnam)

It is a grim commentary on human nature that, when a man is dreaming of what he would do if he was a millionaire, he always begins by thinking what he would buy for himself, and seldom of what he would give away. (William Barclay, Letters to the Corinthians, p. 183)

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary. (Martin Luther King, Jr. in Abounding Grace by M. Scott Peck, p. 315)

Get On With It

Chronic procrastination can be symptomatic of deep-seated emotional problems, and do-it-yourself psychiatry is by no means as successful as do-it-yourself carpentry. (Edwin C. Bliss, Doing It Now, p. 184)

...understanding teaches us to accept ourselves, other people, and situations as they are, not as we want them to be. Understanding is the ability to get underneath the thing and stand in the truth of what is. (Iyanla Vanzant, Faith in the Valley, p. 53)

Far too many of us take on more than we need or want to, and by doing so, we get in God's way. (Iyanla Vanzant, Faith in the Valley, p. 38)

"Successful people will do what unsuccessful people won't." (Father of Dr. Phil McGraw, The Ultimate Weight Solution, p 145)

Super Bowl?

The Super Bowl is Just a Lousy Football Game

It's been built up for months -- the big game. But with so much on the line, the coaches are going to be conservative. There'll be more action in the ads than on the field. No matter how much brew you down, by the fourth quarter, it'll be clear that the announcers are desperately trying to convince you a meaningful battle is going on.

Enter an [office] box pool; that way you'll at least have a stake in the final score.

(Andrew Frothingham and Tripp Evans, Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, 21 January)