Technology Challenges

An active mind and an active physical routine are part of a healthy fulfilling life. Yet the most important ingredient to health of mind and body is to be active spiritualy.

I'm disappointed that the Craig MP3 player I received as a gift broke. I hated to tell Cyndi what happened. I kept the bubble pack which will probably be needed to get a replacement. We don't have a sales receipt because Cyndi won the device in a contest. One of the short-comings of owning many toys is that we have to spend lots of time learning how to use them and when they don't work it's always time consuming to take care of the problem. Perhaps that's why we've become a throw-away society.

I ran into a problem with the Obituary blog I created on Google. During the process I noticed that I got a message about a "certificate" which I didn't understand. I didn't know what to do, so I just proceeded to the next step. Apparently the folks at Google detected something wrong with the blog. They sent me a message last night telling me to verify that I am a living human being. I went through the steps to get the blog unlocked this morning. I hope that's all that's needed. I hope some hacker didn't somehow gain access to my blog during the creation process. Good grief!

Last night I did some research trying to decide how I am going to go about downloading the webpages from my genealogy website. I need a way to do the downloads in bulk. Otherwise it is going to be very tedious to download all those files one at a time. I'm focused on two possibilities. Both require installation of a program and then going through the learning curve. There are only eight days left until AOL drops the bomb on us and turns off support. One of my friends, from a genealogy chatroom, set up his own website to deal with the discontinued support. It will cost $72.00 a year. He paid for three years at once. I'd be afraid to lock myself into something new for three years.

This morning I'm listening to one of the CDs I brought back with me from my Nebraska and Kansas trip. I'm using the Compaq computer that Cyndi gave me to play the CD. That's about all I have done with that computer.

I'll certainly be relieved when I have put these time-consuming technical challenges behind.

Mr. Dickie

Mr. Dickie's New Google Blogs

For a few months I have been keeping a personal journal (Mr. Dickie's Blog) on Google. I've been pleased with how the service works.

I wrote earlier that AOL will discontinue Journal support on October 31, 2008. Google agreed to move AOL journals to their service. They created an easy procedure to facilitate the transfer.

I'm pleased to announce that I have successfully moved my three AOL journals to Google. As of October 21st I will no longer post new information to any of the AOL journals. Certain housekeeping tasks remain to be accomplished before the three new Google blogs will be configured to my satisfaction. Please be patient as I go through that process.

I'm thankful that Google was willing to support AOL users by providing support for our journals.

My four Google blogs are as follows:

Personal Blog:
http://mrdickiesblog.blogspot.com/

Arrow Prayers:
http://arrowprayers.blogspot.com/ (976 entries)

Henthorn Genealogy News:
http://henthorn-website-news.blogspot.com/ (130 entries)

Henthorn Obituaries:
http://henthorn-website-obits.blogspot.com/ (50 entries)

Mr. Dickie

MP3 Music

Photo: Lt. Dick Henthorn, U.S. Army Infantry, Company "B" near Munsan-ni, Korea 1962-63)

Each new day is an opportunity to look for and find blessings. (Daily Word, Colleen Zuck, Day 212)

My daughter, Cyndi, gave me a Craig MP3 music player. For the last several days I've been learning how to use it. I installed Express Rip on my computer to convert music from my CD collection into MP3 files. I used the music management software that came with the player to move the MP3 files from the computer to the player. The player has 256MB of storage. Apparently that's enough room to hold about 105 songs. I learned how to turn on the music "shuffle" option. I've taken two walks in the neighborhood while listening to music I put on the player.

I also hooked up my old amplified speakers to the laptop computer. This allowed me to listen to the MP3 files I stored on the hard drive. I also put one music file on my thumb drive and tested to see if I could store the music on that device. That worked. I went out and bought another 4GB thumb drive. I'm going to use it for two projects. I plan to put my MP3 music on the thumb drive and I plan to download as many of my genealogy files from the AOL website as I can before the end of the month.

There's a tape cassette player in my minivan. I bought an adapter for the tape player that allows me to play music from my portable CD player. That didn't work too well because a rough road would make the CD skip. I decided to connect the new MP3 player to the adapter to find out if that would work. It worked fine. Rough roads didn't effect the player at all.

Many months ago I created one MP3 CD with 132 songs on it along with the music from four shows that I recorded from television. I put a few songs from the CD onto the MP3 player before I filled it up.

I think the new car can play MP3 files recorded on a CD. I still need to test that.

So many toys and so little time.

Mr. Dickie

Trip to Nebraska and Kansas

Photo: Mr. Dickie (Company "B" Mascot - Susie, in Korea 1962-63)

Very often we find that what we think is the matter, is not the matter at all. (Iyanla Vanzant, Faith in the Valley, p. 270)

I returned from my visit to Nebraska and Kansas on Saturday the 11th. In Omaha, Nebraska I visited with cousins, Fran, Roma, Larry and their families. In Wichita, Kansas I visited with my college roommate, Tom and his wife, Karen. Everything thing went well. I had a very nice time. I flew on Midwest Airline. They fly beautiful Boeing 717 aircraft. There are only four seats in each row. It's much more comfortable than any of the planes I was on during the trip to Oregon in May. I took about 250 photographs. Everyone went out of their way to show me a good time. I returned home with many nice memories.

While I was on the trip I received an Email notification from AOL that at the end of October they will discontinue free website space and free journal space. This means that the information I've made available on my genealogy website for many years will no longer be available at the end of the month. The Arrow Prayers blog (journal) that I started in 2004 will also disappear. I'll probably create an Arrow Prayers blog on Google. I don't know what I'll do about the genealogy. It would take many hours of work to move the information to a new website.

While I was in Wichita I had fun learning how to record music and video on the computer of my friend, Tom. I spent one morning working on the project by myself while Tom was at work. We finally got it to work using Roxio and his combination DVD/CD drive. I was pleased that I was able to learn the steps and then show them to Tom.

Cyndi came to visit on Saturday night. She won a Craig MP3 player. She already bought a ScanDisc MP3 player for herself that she uses when she goes to the gym. She gave the new one to me as a gift. I've been busy learning how to use the device. It has at least 256MB of internal storage. You can add an additional 512MB with a memory card. I downloaded and installed a program called, ExpressRip, which I used to convert some CDs to MP3 format. I'd forgotten which program I used when I learned something about MP3 many months ago. The MP3 device came with a program to manage the movement of the music files to the device. I think I already reached the device capacity of about 105 songs. I bought a little blue booty bag at the thrift store half price sale on Monday. I'll use that to carry the device when I don't have a shirt pocket. I already went for one walk in "the hood" while listening to the music. I learned how to turn on the "shuffle" which plays the music at random. I also tested the device in our minivan. I was able to play the music through the van cassette tape player. That's neat!

Mr. Dickie

The End

AOL recently announced that they will discontinue support of private websites, AOL Hometown, and journals as of 31 Oct 2008. This is probably another sign of the ultimate demise of AOL as an Internet powerhouse.

This announcement will impact me personally. For many years I have maintained the Henthorn Genealogy Website in free space provided by AOL. I've also been posting to my Arrow Prayers journal and several others. I estimate that there have been over 27,000 visits to the genealogy homepage since I added a visit counter.

I'll probably create an Arrow Prayers blog on Google. I don't plan to move any of the prayers from the AOL journal archive to the new blog.

I don't know what I will do about the genealogy information. I suggest that if there is anything you want you either print out the information or make a copy of the file on your own computer prior to October 31st.

I currently have a personal blog on Google. If you are interested in keeping track of what I am doing please read the blog postings from time to time. After October 31st this will be the best place to find out what I decided to do.

Mr. Dickie's Blog: http://mrdickiesblog.blogspot.com/

Thanks to everyone who shared information and encouragement during the years that AOL provided this service. I hope you found something of interest from time to time.

Dick Henthorn

Traveling

Photo: Miss Melva (Mr. Dickie at Greenbelt Park, Greenbelt, MD on a very hot 2008 summer day. Color photo altered to sepia tone using the camera photo editor.)

It may provide temporary relief to blame your unhappiness on your upbringing, or your spouse, or your unconscious mind, or society, or the phases of the moon, but blaming will not cure what ails you. (Daniel Taylor, The Healing Power of Stories, p. 142)

This will probably be the last entry to this blog until after October 11th. Tomorrow my daughter, Cyndi, and I will be traveling to Omaha, Nebraska. Cyndi will be there on business. I'll be visiting my cousins and the graves of my parents, aunts and grandparents. I'll also be driving to Wichita, Kansas to visit with my college roommate, Tom and his wife, Karen. I'm looking forward to seeing loved ones again.

Last evening Cyndi dropped by the house for a visit. She brought her laptop computer. She showed us the photos she took during her recent vacation in Italy and England.

I lost $10.00 gambling. I had a bet on the football game yesterday between the Redskins and the Cowboys. The Redskins won 26-24. Melva is ten dollars richer.

I sent a copy of a photograph of the college drill team to my friend, Jim, in Renton, WA. That prompted him to write me a nice long Email recollecting his involvement in the drill team and in the formation of the Pershing Rifles. I was a member of the Pershing Rifles staff and enjoyed the experience a great deal.

Ray, one of my genealogy buddies, is thinking about buying a new genealogy program. I recommended RootsMagic. I hope he will try out this program. The ability to create PDF files is worth the entire cost of the program.

Mr. Dickie

Risks

Photo: Mr. Dickie (Greenbelt, MD Farmer's Market)

Risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live. Chained by his certitudes, he is a slave, he's forfeited his freedom. Only the person who risks is truly free. (Leo Buscaglia found in Thinking Outside the Church by Jennifer Leigh Selig, p. 236)

Mr. Dickie