Innovation

Innovation occurs when ripe seeds fall on fertile ground. (p. 39)

By 2014 there would be 847 million blogs in the world. (p. 427)

Almost every digital tool, whether designed for it or not, was commandeered by humans for a social purpose: to create communities, facilitate communication, collaborate on projects, and enable social networking. (p. 485)
(Walter Isaacson, The Innovators)
21 January 2015

Things

How long are you going to hold on to the things that are not working in your best interests?
Things that are not fulfilling?
Things that are no longer productive?
(Iyanla Vanzant, Until Today! 3 October)

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I noticed this week that the number of posts to my four Google blogs passed the 5,000 milestone.

Mr. Dickie

6 October 2012

What Works

When we do what works why are we so surprised that it works? 

(Rev. David Stier in Believing In Myself by Larsen and Hegarty, 9 December)

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Yesterday I ordered, downloaded and installed version five of the Roots Magic genealogy program on the new Toshiba laptop. Before yesterday there was no genealogy program on the new computer. In the days ahead I will be setting up the folders for the new program and moving the genealogy files from version three of Roots Magic on the old desktop computer. I'm looking forward to being able to once again share the work I did in the past. It's also going to be fun to try out some of the features of the program that I wasn't able to use in the past. If health and interest hold up in 2012 I should be able to accomplish some interesting genealogy projects. I'll keep you posted on my genealogy blogs.

Mr. Dickie

9 January 2012

Clear Thinking

The root of many of our emotional problems lies in a lack of clear thinking - clear thinking based on Scripture.  (Selwyn Hughes, Every Day Light, Day 224)

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Last night I worked on a project learning how to use the ten "Pages" that are available with each Google blog.  It turned out to be more complicated than I anticipated.  In the end I decided to leave learning about "tabs" until later.  I created a "Page" and then I added a link to the page in the sidebar of Mr. Dickie's Blog.  I'm planning to use the "Page" to store links to some of the webpages I look at frequently.  Early this morning I realized I can keep the web address of the "Page" private if I want.  I added the address of the "Page" to the Business button on my Chrome toolbar.  I can click on Business to access the drop down list of bookmarks and then click on "Mr. Dickie's Blog: My Private Links" to go to the Google page with my special links.  For now, you can take a look at the "Page" via the entry in the sidebar.

Mr. Dickie
21 September 2011

Less and Less

The years have a way of taking our ideals away of making us satisfied with less and less, of lowering our standards, of accustoming us to defeat. (William Barclay, The Letters To Timothy, p. 245)

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I hard another tooth break last night. Today, I'm trying to make an appointment with my dentist. This has happened several times in the past. I can't concentrate of anything else until I get the problem fixed.

Yesterday I noticed that I have posted 700 times to my genealogy blog. There's lots of information available on the blog. When I noticed the count of postings I was prompted to take a look at the other three blogs as well.

• Genealogy blog - 700
• Obituaries blog - 280
• Arrow Prayers blog - 1912
• Mr. Dickie's blog - 1114
• Total posts - 4006

Mr. Dickie

6 July 2011

Blogging

This year is a book of clean blank pages on which I will write a record of my experiences and my growth. (One Day At A Time in Al-Anon, 1 January)

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One of the books I'm going to read this year is "Daily Guideposts - 2009." This is the 33rd edition of this Christian daily devotional classic. I own, and have read, all previous editions. I read three editions in 2010. All of my copies were purchased "used." I collected them over a period of years. I've started to look for the 2010 edition. I expect to find a "used" copy before too long.

I conducted a review of my blogging activities in 2010. I have four Google blogs. Two are used for sharing genealogy information and two are used for daily postings. Here's a recap (The first number is 2010 posts and the second is the number of posts since I started the blog.)

• Arrow Prayers (6 years) - 324/1725
• Mr. Dickie's Blog (3 years) - 326/900
• Henthorn Genealogy (3 years) - 302/635
• Henthorn Obituaries (3 years) - 81/255
• Total Posts - 1033/3515

Mr. Dickie
2/Jan/2011 9:27

Philippians 4:11

I have learned to be satisfied with the things I have and with everything that happens. (Philippians 4:11 in Grace For The Moment by Max Lucado, 9 December)

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I didn't post to my blogs for the last two days. On Wednesday I attended four Christmas events at the Library of Congress. Yesterday I went to lunch with former co-worker, Bill Hamilton.

There is a rumor that Yahoo intends to drop support for their social bookmarking site, Delicious. I am a user of this application. I suppose that many other free Internet services will be shutting down in the months ahead. When there is a strong possibility of marked reductions in spending for advertising it is inevitable that any endeavor that relies on advertising for revenue is going to fail.

It snowed yesterday during the day. Melva and I were out driving in the snow going to luncheon engagements. Driving was tricky. We both managed to make our trips without incident. On our way to Bowie we noticed several accidents on the in-bound lanes of U.S. Route 50.

Mr. Dickie
17/Dec/2010 7:37

Resources - Blogger Gadgets | GeneaBloggers

Resources for Blogger Gadgets | GeneaBloggers - StumbleUpon

Wish you knew more about blogging? Want your blog to be different than the next guys? Maybe you will find what you need on this page.

Search Engine

Search Engine

A friend asked me if I know how to install a Search box on a website. When I had my website on AOL I installed the code to search the components of the website. I've forgotten how I did it. I think I used a free routine I got from Microsoft. I decided to do a Google search to see what I could find about free search engine options.

I discovered that Google has a Search gadget that can quickly and easily be installed on the Google blogs. I believe this feature can also be installed on websites

I tested the gadget on one of my four blogs and it worked "like a charm." I decided to install the search box at the top of the sidebar on all four of my Google blogs.

Enter your search terms in the search box and click to search. The results of your search will appear in the display window on the left side of the screen. Notice at the top of the window there is a line with three search options and an "X" in a little box:. The options are:

• This Blog
• Linked From Here
• Links to Other Blogs and Points of Interest
• "X" - (to close the search results window)

Try all three to see how they work. With each "hit" the URL for the blog where the cited item was found is displayed.

I hope the "Search" feature will help you move around in the blogs and make it easy to find anything you want to look at a second time.

Mr. Dickie
28/Feb/2010 8:41

Genealogy Blogs

Photo: Aztec New Media

Negative thoughts can rule our lives as compulsively as an addiction. (Touchstones, 14 September)

The most helpful thing we can do for someone is to listen and care; then we need to be ready to let go of the outcome. (Touchstones, 16 September)

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Yesterday we finished the project to build a two-course retainer wall around the smaller flowerbed in the front yard. I had to break one block and place it in the bottom course to make everything come out even on the top course. Melva also helped me plant some of the zoysia grass in the backyard where I want to kill the clover.

Cousin, Jean, and friend, Job, became Facebook friends. I also joined the GeneaBloggers group on Facebook. My genealogy "News" blog is registered on GeneaBloggers and the "Obits" blog is registered on Genealogy Blog Finder. Job wrote a five-chapter autobiography and posted it to the Internet. I created a posting on my "News" with hot-links to each of the five chapters. I enjoyed reading the first autobiography chapter in the evening.

Mr. Dickie

Email Me From Google Blogs

When a person drowns himself in negative thinking he is committing an unspeakable crime against himself. (Maxwell Maltz in Touchstones, 14 September)

Nothing is either good or bad. It's thinking that makes it so. (William Shakespeare in Courage to Change, 15 September)

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Yesterday I posted a collection of Henthorn genealogy research extracts to my genealogy "News" blog. The information came from different sources. It describes the early presence of members of the Henthorn family in this country. I'm pleased that this information is once again available on the Internet after a years absence.

I spent three hours yesterday working in the yard. The end is now in sight on the project to put retainer blocks around the smaller flowerbed in the front yard. I went to buy the stones for the second course as part of my effort.

I'm somewhat concerned that it isn't easy to print information from a Google blog. In the case of genealogy information there are two ways to look at this issue. Do I want to make it hard for viewers to obtain copies of my work or do I want to make it easy. I think I discovered a way to get around the problem. If this is something that is troubling to folks reading my blogs you can ask me about it.

Did you know that you can find my Email address in the profile of my Google blogs? Look for the profile introduction in the blog sidebar. There's a place at the bottom of the box where you can click to bring up the entire profile. Then look for the "hot spot" on the left and click on it to send Email.

Mr. Dickie

Five Hundredth Posting

Photo: Aztech New Media

Just for today, I will try to live through this day only, and not tackle all my problems at once. (From Just For Today found in Courage to Change, 27 September)

...we can get unlimited benefits from changing our way of thinking. No realistic, reasonable person would consider this an easy task; indeed, there is nothing more difficult in life! (One Day at a Time in Al-Anon, 24 September)

A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. (Winston Churchill in One More Day by Sefra Kobrin Pitzele, 15 September)

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Yesterday I made the 500th posting to Mr. Dickie's Blog.

Yesterday I attended the computer club meeting in Bowie, MD. All of the officers, except the Vice President/Program Chairman, agreed to run again. Dan, the outgoing Program Chairman, will be sorely missed. He has done a great job finding speakers. Thank you Dan for the work you did for the rest of us. Several of the club members discussed what appeared to be rather serious issues with their computers. Everyone is struggling constantly to keep their machines running. In my opinion, it's no fun.

In the evening I added a "gadget" to my Arrow Prayers blog that will display "Words of Jesus Christ." I'm not sure I like how it works because there are some ads at the bottom of the scrolling window. It will be fun to see how it works and to see if anyone comments about the ads.

I'm enjoying being able to post to my Google blogs and to Delicious from the Firefox browser. I think in time I will wean myself away from AOL and it's version of Internet Explorer.

Mr. Dickie

Check My "News" Blog Today

Today I posted my long posting that you usually see in this blog to my genealogy "News" blog. The topics I wrote about seemed more appropriate for that blog. I don't know if I did it on purpose or just didn't watch what I was doing. I didn't realize what happened until about 8:00 p.m. I'm writing about what happened because the main post won't show up on Facebook "Notes." If you are interest in the Wayback Machine be sure to check out what I wrote. You can find the link to the "News" blog in a sidebar box on this blog.

This evening I used "FireFTP" to post the changes to the computer club "Meeting" page on the club's website. Learning about how "FireFTP" works is another interesting project.

Mr. Dickie

Blogging From iGoogle

I installed a gadget in my iGoogle page that will let me post to my four Google blogs from iGoogle. I enjoy learning how all of these free tools work.

Adding Color to My Blogs

Photo: Aztech New Media

Look at your family history as a blessing. Yes a blessing! It's precisely what you had to go through to arrive where you are today. (Wayne Dyer, Excuses Begone!, p. 56)

The biggest obstacles to understanding the truth are lies disguised as truth. (Anonymous in A Calendar of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy, 15 September)

We don't get to know today what will happen tomorrow. (Courage to Change, 16 September)

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Yesterday I finished the project to add "labels" to the postings on my genealogy "News" blog. There were some obsolete postings that I deleted and some postings that I modified because they included links to webpages no longer available. Currently this blog has approximately 230 postings.

I realized that my blogs needed changes in the blog settings. For example, the "links" weren't changing color when visitors viewed them. I set the unvisited "links" color to a shade of blue and the color of the visited "links" to a shade of red. I didn't have time to make these changes on all four blogs. There's always something to learn.

Mr. Dickie

It's Not My Problem

By following a few simple guidelines, we become free from slavery to compulsive ... [behavior] and self-centered confusion. (Food For Thought, 31 August)

People today foolishly try to believe that all the world's senselessness and cruelty - the richness of the few, the great poverty of the many, the violence and warfare - happens outside their own lives and does not interfere with them and their way of life. (Anonymous, A Calendar of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy, 6 September)

We must not be easy in giving credit to every word and suggestion, but carefully and leisurely weigh the matter according to God. (Thomas a' Kempis in One Day at a Time in Al-Anon, 12 September)

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Yesterday I continue working on the project to add "labels" to the postings I previously made to my Google "News" blog. This is one of my two genealogy blogs. While doing the project I discovered that many of the entries are in need of further formatting. It will take many hours to complete the project. The result should be worth the effort. It will be much easier to find things in the blog and once found the appearance of the text will be much more user friendly.

I'm also working on a project to share more of the pages I used to make available on my AOL website. Before uploading the information I need to removed the HTML information and then I need to edit the end of each line of text to fix a "word wrap" problem. Last night I did a test using MS Word to correct the "word wrap" problem. The test worked. I plan to do further testing to determine if I can speed up the process by changing the strings I place in the search box.

Mr. Dickie

Posting to My "News" Blog

We are a nation of literary lazybones. ... For lots of people, books are the equivalent of silk flowers: nice, low-maintenance decorating accessories. And there are even fake books that are really cool boxes for hiding valuables.

Try books-on-tape. It's like reading without eye-strain. (Andrew Frothingham and Tripp Evans, Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, 21 September)

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I continued to work on the project to add "labels" to the postings in my "News" blog. It's a very slow process. I found a few obsolete postings that I either deleted or updated. I also uploaded a page about Azor Jefferson Henthorn another about Benella (Norris) Henthorn to this blog. I started getting five more postings ready to upload.

Yesterday I went to the Senior Center to see if I could fix the problem with the course description display. I discovered that the display works on the right hand computer. I couldn't fix the problem on the other machine because I don't know how to display the Control Panel. Oh well!

I put a button link to the Yahoo Henthorn Family site of Elizabeth onto a page in my "News" blog. I think this was the first time I copied HTML code to include in my postings. It worked!

Mr. Dickie

What is BlogThis! ? - Blogger Help

What is BlogThis! ? - Blogger Help

This is a test to see if I properly installed the Blog This! application on Firefox. The link explains the feature. The test worked. The underlined text is a hyperlink to a Google description of the application. Click on it to see how it works.

BlogThis! allows me to quickly post a webpage link to any of my four Google blogs. It's a quick and easy way to share things I liked with folks who are reading my blogs. There's an icon on the Firefox toolbar that I click to invoke BlogThis!

I hope you'll find something of interest as a result of my using BlogThis

Mr. Dickie

Diminishing Returns

Without honest, meaningful contact with other people, we are emotionally undernourished. ... we learn to seek out the kinds of people and activities that fill us and to avoid those that leave us empty. (Food For Thought, 14 September)

Just for today, consider those experiences where you are experiencing a diminishing return on your mental, emotional, spiritual or physical investments. (Iyanla Vanzant, Until Today!, 15 September)

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Yesterday I went to the library. I had to return a book I was trying to read. It's a new book and someone else put a hold on it before I could finish. While at the library I used one of their computers to print out a report I created at home, an incoming Email that we both wanted to read and a snail mail letter I wrote with Google Docs. I printed out the snail mail letter, placed it in an envelope I brought along and mailed it in the mailbox across the street. I'm glad most of my friends and relatives now communicate via Email. It's so much more immediate and much easier.

This morning I finished a project to label 28 Zip disks that I used to store some of my data over the years. I downloaded a program, JDirPrinter, and used it to create twenty-eight report files listing the contents of each disk. Now when I'm looking for something or trying to remember if I even have it I'll be able to look at those reports to get an idea of what's available.

On one of my blogs I posted a link to Google help page about "What's a Following." I'm not certain I understand it yet myself. Maybe I need to spend more time reading that help page.

I also started to use the Google Reader. So far I'm only reading my own stuff. Talk about "having an ego."

Mr. Dickie

What is Following?

Link to the topic, "What is Following?"

What is Following? - Blogger Help