On Christmas 2009

So it’s Christmas week. The Christmas performances are done, the last of the gifts are (thankfully) purchased, wrapped, and ready for their big day, the cards are all mailed, and I finally have a moment to sit and reflect on Christmas.

I could go through all the commercialization gyrations that I’ve written in many places in years past. But I’m not going there this year.

I could also write about how tired I am of 24/7 Christmas music, and Santa being everywhere I go. Somebody buy that kid’s shoes, get that girl a hippo, and fix that other kid’s front dental work. Sorry, Bing--I don’t want a white Christmas, either. (I’d have to shovel all that snow.) Nope...not writing that up, either.

I could write up the argument about how it’s Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays. While I have issue with how far both sides go with this argument, I’m saving that for next year, maybe. (For the record, there are six major holidays in December, some of which overlap. Seven if you count my birthday. Hence I don’t have as big a deal with “Happy Holidays” as others do.)

I could definitely write about family, and how important that is. It is important, especially to me. But...I’m not writing about that right now. Maybe later.

Instead, I have chosen to quote from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 2:

1 Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. 2 This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. 4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, 5 in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. 6 While they were there the days were completed for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (NASB)

That’s what Christmas is all about.

It’s the day we celebrate the birthday of Jesus of Nazareth. No decorated trees, no fat guy sliding down chimneys with a bag of holding, no flying reindeer (including the one with the 12-volt nose), not even a turkey. Just another night during tax season, with one exception: the figure that came to save us from our sins, the man who split time from BC to AD was born in humble estate and laid in a feeding trough. He was born to die for our sins, so that we, who are dead in sin, might be born into new life in Christ.

That hardly seems like a fair trade to me. But I’m not arguing it. I’ve accepted His gift of life, and believe He came here for the very reason stated above.

Contemplate this over the next few days: Why do you celebrate Christmas, if not for the birth of Jesus?

Grace and Peace to you and yours. Have a Merry Christmas, and a blessed New Year.

Enough for now.

On Facebook, Twitter, and Seppuku

It’s funny, in a bizarre sort of way. Given how much I like working with technology, one would think I keep up with all the latest trends.

Except that I don’t.

I don’t have (at the time I write this) a Facebook or MySpace page, mainly because I don’t feel I’m all that important or interesting. I see no reason to put a bunch of stuff that will bore people to tears out on the web. You don’t really want to know that the one thing I am consuming right now is a box of Sugar Frosted Flakes. I don’t want to tell you all about my friends; I want them to remain my friends. You certainly don’t want to know what I’m listening to on the radio because I don’t listen much to radio anymore. I use my iPod in place thereof...less commercials that way. I don’t need a bunch of “friends” I’ve never met but expect me to list as my friends so we can move up the food chain or however they rank these things. I certainly don’t want people writing all over my walls as I have enough stuff to clean, thank you.

If you’re looking for me on Twitter you might as well stop because I don’t tweet, either. If I want to reach out and touch someone, I can call or e-mail them. You don’t want a pithy message from me telling you I’ve eaten Corn Pops for breakfast, or that I’m standing in the deodorant aisle at Wal-Mart trying to decide what Fresh, Pure Sport, Game Day, Swagger or Smooth Blast smell like. (Those are all scents from Old Spice, by the way, lest you think I’m making them up.) You sure don’t want to know that I’m balancing my checkbook or going flat at quartet rehearsal.

Now, I know there’s folks out there that love and use these things, and I’m happy you do. As far as I’m concerned, however, once the corporations started asking me to “follow” them, or become their “friend”, I got the rather crazy idea that this was nothing more than an advertising gimmick anymore. I certainly do not want to be friends with corporations that have never met me, and I do not need ads being tweeted to me.

What prompted to me write about this was a mildly disturbing story of a new service that allows you to commit “virtual suicide.” Read part of Frank Carnevale’s article:

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - Feeling overwhelmed by your Facebook profile? Having trouble dealing with social anxiety? A new Web site will help you kill your virtual self.

Seppukoo.com offers to help you disconnect yourself from Facebook and "have a really cool, radical, chic experience."

The site is named after "Seppuku," the ritual suicide that samurai practiced. The site explains that rather than fall into the hands of their enemies, ancient Japanese samurai preferred to die with honor, voluntarily plunging a sword into the abdomen moving the sword left to right in a slicing motion.

Today the enemy, according to the site, is not another warrior but corporate media who use viral marketing to make huge profits by connecting people across the globe.

Is this what we have come to? Committing virtual suicide? The really dumb thing is that people can then write you virtual memorials!

But some life is everlasting. Even after committing seppuku, users can read all the comments left by your friends on the memorial page.

And your Facebook profile is not actually deleted - you can easily reactivate your account. Just log into your Facebook profile and your account is reactivated.

Whatever happened to simply deleting things? Granted, once on the web it’s always there...but this is ridiculous. Getting rid of your online profile by creating another online profile is just silly, and a waste of time and bandwidth.

So, don’t look for me using this stuff any too soon. I have better things to do with my time, like playing Nine on the iPod, organizing all my cereal prizes by company then cereal, or dusting the man-cat because he’s been sleeping all day in the same spot.

Enough for now.

On Thanksgiving 2009

Ah, Thanksgiving. That wonderful respite between Halloween and Christmas, where everyone except the retailers slow down and takes stock of their blessings. (The retailers are simply trying to move their stock.)

We have a lot to be thankful for in the Crandall household. Deena and I are in reasonable health, and we’re both employed. Sure, we’d like a little more in our bank accounts--who doesn’t, right now?--but we have enough. We have friends and family who love us. Life is good, really, when you stop and count your blessings.

We are also thankful that we serve a Risen Lord who loves us as well. He loves us so much He died for us, then rose again. Now that’s something to be thankful for!

Which is really what Thanksgiving is all about. The modern Thanksgiving holiday can trace its origins from a 1621 celebration at the Plymouth Plantation, where the Plymouth settlers held a harvest feast after a highly successful growing season. This is the event that is generally referred to as the "First Thanksgiving." God blessed the fruits of their labor with enough food to survive the winter. The tradition of giving thanks to God is continued today in various forms. Various religious and spiritual organizations offer services and events on Thanksgiving themes the weekend before, the day of, or the weekend after Thanksgiving. During Thanksgiving Day families and friends usually gather for a large meal or dinner. At home, it is a holiday tradition in many families to begin the Thanksgiving dinner by saying grace; ours (Mine and Deena’s) as well as at both sets of parent’s observes this. Then we eat.

In typically American fashion, we as Americans have managed to turn it into a feast day. (As if we needed an excuse to overeat.) And it’s kind of forgotten by too many people, as it’s hard to sell thankfulness.

What are you thankful for? Look past all the stuff, the large amount of food, the excessive amounts of sports on the tube, the overly fast computer you’re reading this from, and take some time to really think about how God Almighty has blessed you and yours this year. Then take some time to give thanks to God for all your blessings (and not just the food in front of you).

Enjoy your time with your families. We will enjoy the time with ours.

Enough for now.

What is this Blog of which I hear?

I’m taking some time to address some new readers today. Greetings to all my students! Since many of you will have found this by clicking the link next to my name on the MISD Faculty and Staff webpage, a brief introduction to my blog is in order.

This is a personal blog, and not one sponsored by MISD. What that means is what you will find here is mostly random thoughts on things that interest me. These may be Theological, technical, humorous (an example of that is here), geeky, or merely off the wall. (An example of that is here, by the way.)

I update this as I see fit. That means I will update it when I have something to say. Which may be weekly, every couple of days, or there might be a month with nothing new here. (I doubt that, but one never knows.)

If you are expecting this to be deeply religious and devotional... you’re in for a shock. You will learn about my personal life here. Amazing as it may seem to some of you, I don’t simply go to bed after work and sleep all weekend (though I admit It’d be fun to try, sleeping until noon on a Saturday.) I have the same problems you do, and some of the same interests. Much of what I write relates to technology; it stems from being an electrogeek (a title I’ve well earned, by the way) with Christian overtones.

A few of you may wonder why I write what I do. I could say just about anything here, but the truth is (as more than a few of you have found out) I am slightly no...let’s try mildly--no, that’s not right either...hmmm....how about...somewhat...opinionated. That works.

There are plenty of thought provoking, devotional blogs out there. Dr. Frey, President of MISD, writes a really good one; I’ve linked to that off to the right. Skip Moen--our Academic Dean--writes a good one as well, and you’ll find a link to that off to the right too. You really should read those; there’s some deep thoughts there.

I’m not even in their league when it comes to that kind of writing. I am my Father’s son--both my earthly and heavenly fathers--and thus, I write the way I do because of that. My Dad was an Electrical Engineer who taught me to teach myself, and he taught me a lot about electronics and computers. (You can read my eulogy to him here.) Outside of Theology and some music, that’s what I know best. So that’s what I write a lot about.

So enjoy the reading. Take a few minutes and read some of the back posts here. Feel free to post replies to anything you read here.

Just remember who grades your homework.

Enough for now.

MacBook and iPod Update: One Year Out

Well, okay. Not quite a year out; The iPod won’t hit a year until November 13, and the MacBook won’t be a year until November 26.

Background refresher: As has been mentioned before, I’m no stranger to Apple products. My “Intro to the PC” course at LMC was based on the Apple II+ Bell and Howell model, based on the pic in my LMC catalog from the time. I used a Mac while at (what was then called) First Collateral Services from mid 1991 until the end of April 1993, which was thick with them. I survived the transfer from System Six to System Seven. This was a Big Thing. I took two Mac Academy courses on Word and Excel while there. One of my temp jobs for the U of O had me using a Mac for a day.

In real life, however, I had bought into Microsoft bigtime. They had all the programs that I needed to be productive. I used MS Office, MS Money, Windows, MSN Music (the store), MS Picture it!, the whole enchilada. I even had a Hotmail account. I used these for many years (except for the Hotmail account).

But as time went by, I got tired of the constant security issues. MSN Music became Zune.net. MS Money is no longer. I wanted Frontpage...well, it’s gone, too. Vista came out, and everyone I talked to hated the thing. Memory hog, buggy, etc. I had started using Safari about this time last year, as I found it far better (and more stable) than Internet Explorer.

Then came the need for a PDA-like gadget. I was directing one chorus, assistant directing another, juggling two part-time jobs, plus Deena was in a big chorus. There’s a lot of dates I needed to keep track of for various meetings, rehearsals, extra office hours, etc. Plus I needed a calculator that worked. And I wanted another device that had music playing capabilities. Thus, the iPod touch.

The one person I could have used some computer advice from--Dad--sadly was no longer available to ask questions. So I did my homework, and checked everything out. And bought the MacBook. And then discovered that the nice folks from Microsoft had, shall we say nicely, led me astray. My next comment will undoubtedly frost the true Mac believers: Apple isn’t perfect...far from it. There have been a few glitches. But compared to Microsoft...those have been negligible. For example, security is tighter. I don’t have to upload a patch every seven to ten days.

Today: I can do as much on my Mac as I could on my Dell, and I have far less trouble doing it. Pages is actually better than Word, Numbers is slightly better than Excel, and I haven’t played enough with Keynote to compare it adequately to Powerpoint. I still think Safari is a better browser than Internet Explorer, and you can download a Windows version. (I have made it the default browser on my father-in-law’s new HP.) iPhoto is at least equal to Picture It!, and in some cases, better. And since I leave my e-mail on the web, I don’t really know if Mail is any better than Outlook Express (or whatever has replaced it).

The one downside is that I finally did have to get a new wireless printer router. I am now the happy owner of an AirPort Express, acquired May 1. It reads both the PC and the Mac and thus we can both use the printer wirelessly again. (Well, we will when I can figure out the Bonjour/Windows 7 issue.)

So...should everyone go the route I did? Again, I undoubtedly will frost the true Mac believers...but the answer is no. For example, Deena didn’t; she spends too much time in Windows at her job and needs it for her schooling. And since she really likes her mp3 player and it works well for her, why replace it? My mom and my in-laws probably shouldn’t go Mac either; they like what they have, they like what they understand, and who am I to argue? Andy, my very best friend since dirt was young, wants to build his own PC. He has the smarts to do it, too. (I’m actually a bit jealous of that.) I’m guessing that’ll be a Windows job, unless he goes Unix.

**grins**

Everyone else, however, is fair game.

Enough for now.

On Windows 7

So my beautiful and charming bride took advantage of a Best Buy promo: HP Netbook, Laptop, PC, Netgear G-Band router, and Geek Squad install, for $1199. She now has a new laptop AND the new netbook (her dad got the new PC part of it, as well as the new router). All this sounded like a good idea at the time.

My opinion of the netbook is simple: it’s a cute little doorstop. I have textbooks bigger than this. For what it’ll be used for, it’s just fine. And if I’m playing softball and need something to be the first base, we can always use the netbook.

The other units themselves are okay enough, but after having spent the better part of my free time this last two weeks trying to fix the goofs with Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 I am, shall we say, less than impressed. I can see that Windows 7 is better than Vista.

That’s not saying much!

And IE8 is worse than worthless. Of course, since IE8 is built into Windows 7, I don’t really want to try and remove it. Which means I finally had to install Safari on her dad’s computer, as his IE8 crashed more than it ran. Installed Safari, made it the default browser, loaded Adobe Reader, Java, Shockwave, Quicktime, and Flash on it, then took away the IE8 icons from his desktop.

The other major issue is that Deena’s laptop is refusing to print. I have had to delete, then reinstall Bonjour for Windows far too many times (I have an AirPort Express connected to the Printer) so she can print. And even at that, so far I’ve only been successful enough to get two thirds of a page to print before the printer gets fouled up.

This is easy? This is the great Windows upgrade, with “none of the problems that Vista had.” Yeah, right.

Give me a break!

There’s an ad with a four and a half year old child playing with Windows 7. Maybe that’s what I need: a four and a half year old child, because if this is all great and wonderful, I’m just not getting it. The cute child had some “pretty words” for Windows 7. I’m not as cute, and have a few choice words of my own right now--none of which are reprintable, much less fit to say in front of that small child.

Now I admit I like my Mac--that’s a blog that’ll be out soon. Stuff just works with it, and I like that. However, I went into this Windows 7 thing with an open mind. I wanted to believe that this was going to be a better experience. But as I said before, I’m less than impressed. If this was the Windows that was supposed to make me want to come “back to the fold”, it has failed wildly.

So if you’re reading this, and you decide to “upgrade”, save yourself before it’s too late.

Enough for now.

On Halloween

Halloween used to be different.

It used to be a time where we put some really ugly cardboard stuff on our windows, got dressed in ridiculous outfits with bad plastic masks held on with elastic string, and went out trick or treating. Adults had costume parties, and did whatever it was adults did; we were kids and we didn’t care. The big question was “What are you going to go out as?” We had “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” to watch on TV, and maybe some old movies with Bela Lugosi. The older kids went out and kind of kept an eye on the younger kids, and sometimes they got some candy out of the deal.

It’s becoming increasingly dark. It’s not fun anymore. It’s gone from a fun kind of scary to flat out evil. I can’t tell you the last costume party I attended; it’s been at least ten years and probably longer. In fact, too many people are afraid to have parties anymore; the liability issues aren’t worth it. Kids don’t go out at night on halloween, twilight is about the best they get anymore and they have to have all the candy inspected to make sure it’s safe to eat because you just know some sicko has poisoned it, or added bugs or razor blades to it. That’s if they can get it home without some teenager mugging the kid for it.

In a sense, it’s too bad. Kids today have lost out on yet another childhood ritual, because we adults have held onto things too long. Some of us have made our lives like that of the undead.

I admit don’t get all the goth scene. I’m not into vampires, were-anythings, zombies, or monsters. A Zombie was a cheese filled yeast bun when I was in school, most bloodsucking is best left to the IRS, and with cloning we are creating our own monsters.

When you run in the circles I do, you only die once. Then you face judgement, and if you are not right with God you go straight to hell, do not pass go, do not collect $200. (See Hebrews 9:27.)

And Hell is not a party place. The devil is evil incarnate, and Hell is a place where you are in torment for eternity. (Eternity, by the way, means forever.) It’s dark, you are tormented all the time, there is no rest, and it is a lake of fire.

Not exactly my idea of a vacation destination, kids!

So I won’t be dressing up this year, though I have a nice Star Trek Next Generation tunic with chirping commbadge and can make my iPod a tricorder. (Yes, Virginia, there’s an App for that.) I’m not even sure I want to be home; the U of O is playing USC in an early evening kickoff, ESPN’s College Gameday will be here, and it’s Halloween. Which means the party will start about 4:30 the day before, and is likely to go well into November 1st.

Now that’s scary. In fact, the only thing scarier to me is Nancy Pelosi’s healthcare plan.

Enough for now.

On The Big Windows 7 Party

I’ve spent the last few days flat on my back. Acute impacted sinusitis does that to you--you get dizzy and can’t sit up for too long at a clip, until your eustation tubes drain and the pressure equalizes in your head. As I write this, I can sit upright for about an hour. Yesterday, it was 35-45 minutes. The day before that, 30 minutes tops--and walking unassisted was a real experience. To top it off, my vocal folds have been hamburger for four days now. If all goes well, I should be okay by the start of the workweek.

While I’ve been recovering, I’ve noticed that Windows 7 has finally been released for those of you who have PC’s. This is indeed a grand milestone for those of you who went with Vista, and is light years ahead of same, if all the reports I’ve read are even half true. However, If you still have XP, seriously consider buying a Mac or a new PC. You’ll have a lot less headaches as far as I can tell, and trust me, I’ve had a few real winning headaches of my own this week.

Now, I love a good party. I like certain celebrations; that’s why I attend things like Barbershop and Sweet Adeline Internationals, BrickCons, and so forth. I like getting together with friends and having a good time. But since I have a Mac, I’ve felt a little left out of this party. I mean, I kind of wanted in on the fun that PC users seemed to be having. I’ve read about the launch parties, and all the other attendant hoopla. And I really felt like I should join in on all the fun and games.

So I decided to celebrate this fantastic milestone by removing Win XP from my Mac.

Here’s the fun and games part: I’m not replacing it with Windows anything.

That’s right--I have finally cut the Windows cord. See, I only installed XP because I thought I’d need it for a few things, like for work. Turns out there’s a Mac version, and our IT person was kind enough to send me the link for it. The other two programs I had it for...I don’t need the one anymore, and the other refused to transfer to the Mac. (When they said one copy to one computer, they weren’t kidding around.)

Gone is the Open Office I installed. If I really want it back, I can get it as it runs on Mac. Also gone is the last Norton product I’m paying for. I didn’t really need it for the Mac side, but did for the Win XP side. When Deena’s Norton subscription runs out, I think I’m going to download Avast or AVG for her, unless she wants to pay for Norton herself. (I have been suspicious that part of her HP’s issues stem from her Norton, however.)

I don’t mind cutting Win XP; it’s been good but is now two versions back and the support for it will dry up soon enough. I also don’t mind losing Norton, mostly because I didn’t mind gaining 100 GB of memory back for the whole Win partition.

Have fun with Windows 7. Me...I’m saving some of what I would have spent on upgrades for Windows, MS Office and Norton and be getting Snow Leopard, iWork and iLife 2010 (if there will be such a thing). I’ll also be doubling my RAM from 2GHz to 4GHz. It’ll be like having a whole new computer, for about the cost of a PC netbook.

And I’ll have enough left over to throw my own party, if I want.

Enough for now.

Faith and technology

Theology and computers are my stock in trade. I work online, and while that allows for certain perks, there are certain drawbacks as well. It also makes for some trying times. This week has had a few of those in my life, mostly good people who do not understand how things like cutting and pasting something into a browser works. (Not all links in an e-mail are live ones, mind you. Nor should they be.)

Now I could very easily go off into a blog about how, as Christians, we should not be afraid to use the technology and yet need to not make it more than it is. It would certainly be easy enough to write.

I’ll get to part of that in a minute.

It just surprises me that, in this day and age, there are those people my age and slightly older by a year or three who really don’t understand technology, people of faith not withstanding. Worse, they’re afraid of it, and I don’t understand why. Granted, I grew up in a home where technology was embraced. We learned by doing, and doing meant having the tools to work with, or at least going to where there were tools to work with in order to learn.

But technology didn’t replace hard work as such. For example, calculators were used to check math, not to do it. A spellcheck would have been helpful (and is today), but we had a big dictionary. Encyclopedias were available at home as well.

I’ve written enough of late to give most of you the idea that I know a little about computers. But in a sense, I’ve had a lifetime of learning about them. BASIC in summer school, plus TRS-DOS in high school. AppleSoft in college. More software programs over the years than I want to list or admit to, never mind the hardware that ran them all.

Now you can see why I wonder why people don’t understand how things like the Internet works.

Now, moving forward, we add faith into the mix. As Christians, we need to use whatever tools we can to advance the Gospel of Christ, and use them well. And while I admit to a fondness for “dead tree editions” (read: books), I am not against using Keynote or PowerPoint for worship services as opposed to hymnals and Bibles. (I still think we should have both in the seats or pews, however. Some folks like to have the book in their hands.) We cannot allow ourselves the luxury of being afraid of computers or the Internet. We must learn to use these tools, not to keep up with the world (or worse--become worldly), but because the world uses these tools and has come to expect their use on a daily basis. If we want to reach the world, we need to take the tools (which are neutral, in and of themselves) and put them to work for the Kingdom, just like we did with radio, television, and music. (Notice I haven’t mentioned movies. There are better Christian movies being made--Left Behind, Facing the Giants and Fireproof among them--but Christian movies still have a long way to go in terms of writing and production values.)

And this isn’t just for large churches, or well-to-do Christians, either. This is for all churches, and honestly, given the cost of computers these days, any Christian.

I understand that I am preaching to the choir, as it were. If you’re reading this, you’re online unless someone printed it out. (If so, I’d like to know, okay?) I guess I feel so strongly about this because it used to be that the Christians were well educated. Now we are perceived as being backwards, a little slow perhaps. We react, and we need to be proactive in its place. We put our faith in front of our brains, and it needs to be that our faith molds our education. We need to be the educated people God called us to be, and that means being able to use a computer for more than an expensive doorstop.

So...go learn how your computer works. Figure out some of those programs you don’t know much about. There are books that you can get that will help, and online tools as well. You can’t really break your computer, anyway, unless you mess with the registry or you drop it. (I do not recommend you do either. Both become very expensive.)

If nothing else, at least learn to cut and paste a link into your web browser.

Enough for now.

This Whole Green Mess

Okay, I admit it. I’m sick of everything having to be green.

Don’t take it wrong. I’ve long been a supporter of nature, starting with several years of being in the Nature Club at Mt. Diablo Elementary. I got Ranger Rick magazine from the National Wildlife Federation for years, and a few years of National Geographic World. (I also had a subscription recently to National Geographic, but have since let it lapse.) I recycle my plastics, cardboard, and glass here at the apartment complex, take newspaper to my Barbershop chorus for recycling, and take recyclable bottles back to the store. (That nickel a pop for pop cans and bottles starts adding up for a Coca-Cola addict. Not to mention that Oregon duns the same amount for water in those 20 oz. bottles.) I just recycled the old Dell laptop, a Toshiba laptop, an old clock radio and both my old electronic PDA type devices at NextStep Electronic recycling. I have long been a supporter of “recycled” (read: used) books: both Tsunami and Smith Family Bookstores here in Eugene, as well Powell’s Books in Portland are current favorites. Growing up in Concord, the late, lamented Book Nook at Park and Shop, and both Moe’s and the late Cody’s in Berkeley were favorites. (I’ll really miss Cody’s. That’s a tragic loss.) I’ve long said the government has underfunded our National Parks, and state parks are not much better. I’ve even replaced many of the incandescent light bulbs in our apartment with CFL’s, even though I don’t like them as well. I’ll even recycle myself when I go: I’m an organ donor. They can have whatever they can use from an aging epileptic that’s been on seizure meds since the Ford Administration.

But since being green has been shown to make money for business, all of a sudden it’s being rammed down my throat. As a result, it seems to be the cause du jour for everyone, and everyone just must do more. Plastics, styrofoams and chemicals are evil, natural, sustainable and organic is in. The world is warming at an alarming rate. (Yeah, right. I’m sitting at 42 degrees as I write this. A bit chilly for October 5th in these parts.) We must cut emissions, reduce plastics, and eat organically, and if we eat meat at all, it must be organic, free-range, and so forth.

Just hold on there, partner. Explain to me--with a straight face--why it is that I’m getting hit in the Big Mac with all this?

Kids, my body is a product of modern science! As mentioned above, my body is riddled with seizure meds and caffeine. I make a living (such as it is) by working online. (In fact, I probably spend more time in front of my Mac than is good for me.) I use cell phones (but turn in my old ones for reuse). I use a microwave to heat and cook things. Electricity, electronics, computers, and so forth are modern marvels, even now. This also means I am absorbing microwaves, radio waves, wi-fi waves, bluetooth waves, and UVA and UVB waves. (All those waves, and I can’t surf on any of them. Bummer.)

And, I eat meat because I grew up in a world where protein was A Good Thing. We ate beef and chicken and were not afraid to go outside and play; sunscreen was almost unheard of when I was ten or so and your choice was Coppertone. In fact, a good tan was a sign you were healthy! We ate meat, drank cow’s milk and put it on our presweetened cereals, and went outside and played. I spent summers in little more than a t-shirt, swimsuit and zoris, and swam daily. Rode my bike and/or my skateboard, went roller skating, and was in (generally) good health, except from the bruises where other kids beat on me, or from where I fell (or was pushed) off my bike. And was skinny like a rail until I was in the care of the US Naval Recruit Training Command Great Lakes, when I had my final growth spurt. (Civilians, you might know this better as Navy boot camp.)

All well and good. I’m a married adult now, and we’re not paying an extra $40 a pay period to buy organic food. We ask for the plastic bags at Walmart, so we can use them for cat dump. I personally am only willing to buy a certain amount of clothing from places like St. Vincent dePaul’s or the Salvation Army. Shoes and underwear are not among those items. (Some things should be bought new.) We are not turning the heater controls in the apartment to 65 degrees, and colder at night. (Granted, right now they’re set at 60 degrees. Winter is coming, however.) I am not riding my bike in the rain or at night.

Should we do what we can to reduce, reuse, and recycle? Sure, we should. There is only a finite amount of resources we have, and yes, Virginia, the globe really is warming. They have proven a certain amount of that is man’s fault. (The rest of it, however, is cyclical in Nature. It happens. Deal with it.)

Should we be less dependent on chemicals? Probably. Too many chemicals have or are leaching into our water, and if you really knew how they clean and retreat the water you drink you’d never drink a drop again. Sure, I drink tap water from time to time. (I run it through a Brita filter first, though.)

Can we go back and live like we did 200 years ago, before the Industrial Revolution? I don’t think so. If you want to try, go ahead. Leave all your technology behind. Walk everywhere, make your own clothes, grow your own food without chemicals and store it for the winter, and make candles. No computers, iPods, microwaves, etc.

Me, I’ll stay here and enjoy the nice modern technology. I am, after all, a product of the age.

Enough for now.

(published 10/9/09)

My Life with Computers

Computers have changed over the years, mainly for the better. The sleek, speedy MacBook I now enjoy is light years ahead of the IBM Thinkpad that I had prior to the Dell that died about a year ago. (Come to think of it, the MacBook is light years ahead of the Dell.)

I got to thinking the other day about my very first computer. I’m talking about the unit I got when I first went to Moody. The backstory: I had gotten a bit spoiled when I came home from the Navy; I had used Dad’s computer for various homework assignments, and LMC had a computer lab. So when I arrived at Moody and discovered that these things called typewriters were still in play, I panicked. One of the worst kept secrets in the world is that I can use a word processor such as Pages or MS Word with speed and grace, but I can’t type well enough to make a difference, even on an IBM Selectric 2.

Now, we didn’t have the TRS-80 Level 2 that Dad got while I was in high school. That unit had been replaced, and really, would not have helped me much at all. PC’s were king, and still pretty expensive. However, Dad found a neat little unit for me. The Epson PX-8, otherwise known as the Geneva, graced my desk for the three years I was in Chicago. I also had the TF-20 hard drive, the additional battery wedge/Ram upgrade, a Seikosha dot-matrix printer, and a modem that would connect me to Compuserve, at a rate of $6/hour. In essence, it was “the whole ball of wax.” Dad got it for me through the DAK catalog, and it was a lifesaver.

The Geneva, right out of the box.

The Geneva’s OS was a little something called CP/M, instead of DOS. The programs that came with it were on chips you installed as needed (WordStar, Portable Calc, and Portable Scheduler), and the memory was pretty limited, but I had something very few people did on my floor: A functional computer setup that allowed me to type and print from my room. Nice in those Chicago winters, let me tell you! And while I couldn’t type fast enough to take notes, I could do assignments quickly (and neatly, I might add) enough. Add a few dust covers and a printer stand from Egghead Software--when it was a brick and mortar store at the time--and I was in business.

Once I graduated and returned home, it wasn’t long before I got married, and we got a new/used computer from Dad, and another while I was in Seminary. In fact, the next truly “new” computer we had for our own use wasn’t acquired until 2000, when I was looking for work and using this “internet” thing to assist me. We got an HP workhorse desktop that survived some five years, and was replaced by another HP desktop that I ended up selling to by Father-In-Law to finance the move to the wireless setup the included by then the Dell and the HP laptop Deena has.

The Epson sat, well loved but unused, in its component boxes until 2004 when we moved. I ended up donating the thing, sadly, but at that time we had something like four computers, two of which were in use--the HP desktop, and the IBM Thinkpad. Someone got a true collectable, and I unloaded a piece of gear that I just couldn’t see holding on to, especially as we were moving out west.

Unlike the DX-150A I replaced, however, I don’t think I’ll be buying another Geneva. Some things are better left as pleasant memories.

Enough for now.

Moving day has come...

My blog, take two.

You’ll notice that this blog starts on October 2, 2009.

That’s not entirely true. It actually started January 11, 2008 over on (what was then) Yahoo 360.

But times change, and Yahoo 360 has morphed into some sort of social networking site. And while I like being social, what I really wanted was a place to write about what I thought. I know it’s hard to believe, but I have been accused of being slightly opinionated from time to time. (You have been duly warned.)

Plus, since it became some sort of social networking site, a number of readers have complained that they can’t read the Heaping Pile o’ Blog without first signing out of Yahoo. They also made it more labor intensive to write on the thing.

In short, it was becoming a pain in the lower half of my anatomy. (I’ll let you choose whatever part you wish.)

That’s why I moved here to Blogspot. Nice, neat, simple, and I can actually use some HTML to liven it up a bit. I know just enough HTML to be dangerous, having done a little website building in my time. I can add pictures, such as one of my Man-Cat, for example.

About the URL: Cpromptpoke is an old Applesoft command. Way back when, in those days where you actually programmed a computer, I learned a lot of programming in BASIC. (We all did, as kids.) There were programming languages called COBOL, PASCAL, and FORTRAN, but BASIC was what we learned first.

Then came the home PC revolution.

All you kids out there, who are are so used to having everything computerized, have I got a news flash for you: It wasn’t always this way! Instead of going online to play games or talk, we actually went outside to play and/or talk. Sometimes to talk, we used a little something called a telephone. It hung on a wall or sat on a table, was connected to the wall by a wire, and didn’t take pictures or have fancy ringtones. It used a bell to get our attention, and you dialed a number by using...a dial. When we did get to play a video game, it was a little something called Pong.

And once the Atari 2600 came out, we could play Missile Command and Space Invaders. Pac Man was a big deal. There was something called IntelliVision, Nintendo was a huge advance, and TRS-80’s, Commodore 64’s, (with a whole 64 KB of memory...not GB, not MB, but KB as in Kilobyte) and Apple I’s were on the landscape. We were lucky if we had a disk drive; most of us backed things up with tape. You know...a cassette tape. And in those days, you programmed a computer. Not just load a new program onto the hard drive. You wrote and debugged the program yourself.

Then came the Apple II. This was a great improvement over those Commodore 64’s and Apple I’s. (For some odd reason, I still have a soft spot for the TRS-80, tape drives and all.)

Applesoft was what I learned by taking a college course in PC on an Apple II of some extraction. It was designed to set memory location address to x. (You programming geeks might recognize the command better as C:\Poke addr,x.)

What is a blog, but one’s memories online? Hence, Cpromptpoke. A place to send my online memories.

Enough for now.

(Posted 10/3/09)