Keep Still

To say the right thing at the right time, keep still most of the time.  (John W. Roper in Believing In Myself by Larsen and Hegarty, 29 November)

******

I'm still on schedule to finish all of my 2011 reading on the last day of the month.  I've been reading twice a day rather than once a day.

Melva started baking Christmas cookies last night.  The house certainly does smell good during these projects.

As mentioned on Facebook I'm taking a look at whether we can cut back on our cable service.  The issue is whether we will have to give up a few of our favorite channels.  For example, I enjoy watching the Keith Olbermann show, Countdown, on the Currrent TV channel.  On the other hand, since a person can only watch one movie at a time, why is it necessary to have twenty movie channels?

Mr. Dickie

13 December 2011

Anger-Sickness

The symptom of the anger-sickness is an uncontrollable impulse to judge and condemn someone else. ... Am I not ill when I allow anger to destroy my poise and peace of mind? When I lose control, am I not handing over control to the one I am treating like an adversary? (One Day At A Time In Al-Anon, 9 March)

The nature of our attitude toward circumstantial things determines our acceptance of the problems that life brings. (Helen Steiner Rice, From The Heart, 11 February)

******

Melva and I worked in the yard until dark last night. We continued the project to trim the dead growth from the plants and bag the debris. Just before dark we put all of the bags and the remaining limbs from the neighbors tree that fell in the wind out for pickup. They took everything today in the regular Friday trash collection. We are almost ready for Spring. We still have to bag more debris that we gathered in the backyard.

One of the computer club members loaned me a flat screen monitor. I'm going to hook it up to see if this is easy to do and to determine whether it would improve the color enough to make it worthwhile to go buy a monitor.

I'm still working on my project to create my own channel listing for our Verzion FIOS service. I think I added the last channel this morning. I'm ready to print it out. I recorded three pieces of information: 1) channel name, 2) type of programming, 3) four digit channel number. I can sort on any of the three fields.

I didn't know that the Mozilla Firefox browser used to be Netscape. There was a good program on television last night about the history of Netscape. It's a good story if you are interested in MicroSoft and AOL history.

Melva went to quilting class today. They got together yesterday at the teacher's house to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

Mr. Dickie
18/Mar/2011 10:20

Enough is Enough

I will not allow myself to be troubled by anyone else; my one problem is to improve my own way of living and looking at life. (One Day At A Time in Al-Anon, 7 January)

I do not know what course of action is right for anyone else. I can offer only comfort and compassion ... (One Day At A Time in Al-Anon, 26 February)

******

The people of Miami, Florida recalled the Mayor and at least one commissioner. The process was financed by a rich individual who claims he isn't interested in becoming the Mayor. Could this be the beginning of a grassroots "Enough is Enough" movement?

I'm working on a project to create my own Verizon FIOS channel listing because I can't find a complete list of what's on all of the channels. It's not too difficult to create a file with my CSV editor that I can sort three ways: 1) channel name, 2) type of programming, 3) FIOS channel number. I pulled the information I used to create the file from several sources.

Yesterday I obtained a URL for a photo fo Blackwater Falls, WV from a photo album on my Google Picasa account. Then I installed this link on my Facebook wall. It worked. My Facebook friends were able to view the photo. Neat, if I do say so myself.

Mr. Dickie
17/Mar/2011 9:22

Kiss and Ride

We exchange energy with other individuals as we interact with them, touch them, hear them, look at them, even by reading their words. (Betty J. Eadie, Embraced By The Light, 27 November)

******

Last night Cyndi was able to get her laptop computer working with my FIOS WiFi for the first time. I'm glad she had the experience and patience to figure out how to get it working. The signal in the basement was quite strong.

Cyndi also copied the photos we took during our Sunday outing from the card in my camera. She uploaded them to an album she created on her Facebook.

This morning Cyndi had an appointment in Bethesda. The Red line of the subway runs to Bethesda. We decided that she should take the Green line from College Park to either Fort Totten or Gallery Place where she would transfer to the Red line. Because it was raining we decided to see if we could find the entrance to the Kiss and Ride area at the station. After they built a parking garage at the College Park station the Kiss and Ride was relocated on the ground level of the parking garage. When we arrived at the station it was still dark and raining heavily. I couldn't see any signs for the Kiss and Ride until Cyndi directed me into the garage and to the left. It's evident now why people are being dropped off and picked up out on the street. Now that I know how to get in and out of the drop-off spot it won't be a problem. Cyndi told me I should write them a letter about the poor signs instead of ranting about it.

Mr. Dickie
1/Dec/2010 8:31

How Little I Know

Try to learn from the past, rather than repeating it and making references to it all the time. (Dr. Wayne Dyer, Staying On The Path, p. 67)

******

There was a special 50% off sale yesterday on CDs and tapes at the thrift store. I bought 2100 photos in the TIFF format for 71 cents. I had to download and install the program IrfanView to convert the photos to JPEG. This reminded me just how little I know about using graphic file formats. I can't use TIFF files on my Google blogs. I converted two of the photos. To complete my testing I'm going to post them today on this blog and on the Arrow Prayers blog.

I didn't realize that our FIOS service was going to let us have free access to the Tennis Channel during the French Open. Melva is enjoying having more tennis to watch than there are hours in the day. I wonder how we were supposed to know that the Tennis Channel was turned on.

I continued to work on my genealogy edit project. One of the things I'm trying to do is enter nicknames in the Nickname field when I notice one recorded with the AKA tag in the note field.

Mr. Dickie
26/May/2010 7:58

This is FIOS, This is Big!

[When someone says,] "To be honest..." or "To tell the truth..." or "Let me be straight with you" doesn't that mean that all the rest of the stuff they've said was pure crap? (after Wake Up and Smell the Coffee by Andrew Frothingham and Tripp Evans, 11 October)

Listening to other compulsive[s] ... helps us to see ourselves and our own situation more objectively. (Food For Thought, 15 October)

People are taught to speak, but their major concern should be how to keep silent. (Anonymous in A Calender of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy, 14 October)

******

Ever since we had FIOS installed I've worried about a problem with the battery backup that's attached to the wall in the basement walk-in closet. The power outlet for the two-box system is mounted in the wall a few inches away. I noticed that the installer had trouble with the installation. The alarm kept going off. Yesterday, while working on a project to put away things that had accumulated on the bar I put two small boxes back on the bottom shelf in front of the battery pack. I must have touched the battery pack. The alarm went off and we lost the video and sound to the television sets. I called the FIOS help line to discuss what needed to be done. The help desk gave me very good service. He suggested that I run an extension cord to the battery pack. I did that and it worked. Then he said I needed to check the outlet with a hair dryer. Funny it never occured to me that the outlet could be bad. So much for being a great Systems Analyst. As soon as I tried the hair dryer in both sockets of the outlet I realized that the outlet was bad. I had a replacement outlet on hand and knew the steps to make the change. Once I accepted the fact that I'd have to move the shelf to make the repair things went smoothly. I didn't reach that conclusion before first laying on the floor trying to do the job the lazy man's way. At the end of the project I was still shaking my head and asking, "Why didn't either of the two FIOS installers tell me that outlet was bad?" I know the answer, they didn't want to deal with it.

In the evening I discovered that Lt. Jerry Long, one of the officers I served with in the 11th Transportation Battalion in Cat Lai, Vietnam, posted his recollections and photographs on the Internet. I also found another account from a member of 1099th boat company which I didn't have time to read. I plan to revisit these webpages.

Mr. Dickie