RichC | December 31, 2024
Wishing all who read My Desultory Blog a Happy and Healthy New Year … and may you all have the household size you desire and live in an ideal sized home. Playing with #AI (results not verified, but interesting) A chart comparing the average household size to home square footage in the US from 1940 […]
RichC | December 30, 2024
Today’s Music Monday song is from 1972, a few years before my music listening days, but the supergroup Emerson, Lake and Palmer was definitely played on stereos during my college dorm listening years. The album Trilogy featured Greg Lake’s song “From The Beginning” which became the progressive rock band’s highest ranking U.S. single at #39 […]
RichC | December 29, 2024
Every once in a while I come across a idea from a library-borrowed digital woodworking magazine that get snipped and stored on my iPad as a photo (some are overseas even). Sometimes its a better idea to add them to MyDesultoryBlog’s Woodworking section as it is easy for me to find them again (there are […]
RichC | December 28, 2024
The word titanic is hardly one we would pick to describe something huge today due to the history of the RMS Titanic. BUT, back in 1911-12 when it was built and sailed, the RMS Titanic was an enormous and impressive ship. If not for the arrogance in believe the design was nearly invincibile to the […]
RichC | December 26, 2024
Sleep has never been a problem for me until this past year or so. I don’t know if it is age or that my mind is filled with too much stuff — my running out of hard drive space theory (a worthless thought for another time). Anyway, I mentioned this to my primary care physician […]
RichC | December 25, 2024
Wishing all who stumble on these pages (or choose to click on MyDesultoryBlog) a Very Merry Christmas, safe travels and a warm and wonderful celebration of Christ’s birth. May you and yours enjoy time together with family and friends. Weather? Check to see if the Old Farmer’s Almanac is correct this year (below).
RichC | December 24, 2024
As the hustle and bustle of the holiday season reaches its crescendo, it is all too easy to become engulfed in the whirlwind of commercialism and festive preparations. However, Christmas Eve offers us a moment to pause and reflect on the true essence of Christmas – the birth of Jesus Christ. This pivotal event in […]
RichC | December 23, 2024
It may not be the “best” … or even a “favorite” Christmas song … or even a thoughtful Music Monday song that puts us in the snowy, wintery, Christmas spirit. Still, Jimmy Buffett’s “Christmas Island” from 1996 seems about right this year since the decorations are minimal and I’m already thinking about warmer weather. It […]
RichC | December 22, 2024
Part of me wonders why I continue to post “something” … “anything” … on the MDB pages everyday? Perhaps it is habit or an addictive obsession, but then again I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used it as a way to track my family life as a timeline. As the years roll by […]
RichC | December 21, 2024
Where should you work — for the government or their private counterpart? From economist Stephen Moore: According to @RealEJAntoni‘s recent analysis, the cost of state and local government employees is a staggering 41.7% higher than their private sector counterparts. While wages are 24.4% higher, the real kicker is benefits—an astonishing 83.0% more!
RichC | December 20, 2024
As a “Stone Age” user of the Apple Macintosh computer, it is always surprising to stumble upon a feature or shortcut that I didn’t know about. Command-click the files to Quick Look I often use the Quick Look spacebar shortcut (2007) to preview a file in a folder, but until reading an iBoysoft article this […]
RichC | December 19, 2024
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is infiltrating almost everything we do on a smartphone, tablet or computer these days. Last week, my X.com feed sent a message that “you should try generating an image of yourself” based on whatever data it collects. I suspect it relies on my profile information, but am not sure what else it […]
RichC | December 18, 2024
The Federal Reserve is less sure about how much it’ll keep cutting rates after agreeing to a reduction this Wednesday afternoon. Chair Jerome Powell admitted that the decision was a close call (see WSJ and rate chart from 2000-2024 below). The latest cut, approved by 11 out of 12 Fed voters, will lower the Fed’s […]
RichC | December 18, 2024
I do enjoy checking the Farmer’s Almanac (above) and the Old Farmer’s Almanac for seasonal forecasts (below), but rarely go back to see how accurate they are (although have shared here before). That’s probably their assumption, although they claim to be 80% accurate? As has been true in every year since 1792, the newest edition features […]
RichC | December 17, 2024
It is that time of year … time for Christmas photos … with children and pets? Well a “dog” in the case of Megan and Taylor, but our granddaughters in the case of Katelyn and Drew. In both cases these 2024 photos belong on in the My Desultory Blog archive. Here’s one of Gigi with […]
RichC | December 16, 2024
It is probably time for me to start listening to Christmas music, but I’m still stuck on SiriusXM “The Bridge” and stumbled across another great song from my high school and college years. So for today’s Music Monday, here’s a song by the Stills-Young Band (Stephen Stills and Neil Young) from 1976 called “Long May […]
RichC | December 15, 2024
Click image of landscape pond from back in 2008 when we asphalted the rear driveway. Both have aged. ☹️ My mistake this past month was when it came to scrubbing some of the waterfall area off and using Dawn dishwashing soap … whoops! Not a big deal, but it still has creating an offseason soapy […]
RichC | December 14, 2024
Although I’m glad the 2024 presidential election is behind us in the United States (and hope Kamala Harris becomes a lost memory), there’s a lot of angst in our country and in the world over the political direction and change. I’m cautiously, optimistic that a Trump administration will have a foreign policy that leads to […]
RichC | December 13, 2024
Although I don’t have an Apple Watch like Brenda, but I think one is coming my way for Christmas now that I have a modern iPhone (my Fitbit Versa 2 is “still ticking after taking a licking” — old Timex joke). One of the features or apps that does not exist, is an app for SiriusXM.I […]
RichC | December 12, 2024
Today’s archive post will be quite the Throwback Thursday #TBT stretch … as the photos and Christmas tree subject matter are from last weekend … even though “The Longest Game” podcast forwarded by my daughter Katelyn is a baseball story from years ago (she knows I enjoy baseball). Let’s start with the baseball story from 1981 […]
RichC | December 11, 2024
After typing the title and looking at my photo below from Sunday afternoon, I realized that listing “smartphone” should also be added to the title/subject list … since it more than likely is read from the most these days? I personally have always been a luddite and preferred paper as the medium of choice when […]
RichC | December 10, 2024
With early November and December winter weather showing up somewhat early, there’s no better time for Megan’s employer to have a holiday gathering at Kings Island. For their business, it is time to promote WinterFest with 7-million lights and some ice skating. Both Megan and Katelyn learned, and then taught, figure skating for the Queen […]
RichC | December 9, 2024
There’s no getting away from highlighting music from the 1970s on Music Monday — I can’t help myself. 😊 While listening to the segment-change music on a Fox Business show, KC and the Sunshine Band’s “Get Down Tonight” from 1975 caught my ear. I realized that Harry Wayne Casey and his band was highlighted before in […]
RichC | December 8, 2024
Our 2002 Honda Odyssey van sits outside in Florida for a longer period than usual and a few times the battery didn’t start the car. At first I replaced the battery thinking it was just old. Then I started to disconnect the battery when leaving it covered in our condo parking lot … but it […]
RichC | December 7, 2024
There are a few dates that tend to be remembered each year; December 7th is one of them. This year marks the 83rd anniversary of the surprise attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy on the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, killing 2,403 Americans and thrusting the United States into World War II. […]
RichC | December 6, 2024
The annual Corbett Christmas Letter has been reduced to the ubiquitous Christmas card printed by one of the many card producers (below). This year’s card was ordered before our Thanksgiving famly get-together and unique Google “Add Me” AI feature used in the photo above on Drew’s new Pixel 9. Very impressive — hey, Apple, get […]
RichC | December 4, 2024
The updated 2024 Tesla Model 3 Long Range only has a few subtle styling differences since the EV still looks like it did when it was introduced eight years ago, but has an improved range and is even quicker. Looks are deceiving. There isn’t any single earth-shaking upgrade, but this latest version has smartly placed […]
RichC | December 3, 2024
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RichC | December 2, 2024
For Music Monday this week, let’s go way back to a song Pete Seegar wrote in 1959 called “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is a Season),” but really didn’t peak on the musical charts until it was recorded by The Byrds in 1965, on an album that same name. It is hard for me […]
RichC | December 1, 2024
Who doesn’t enjoy watching a Sunday Night Football game from Buffalo, NY during a “lake effect” snow. It brings back memories of our years both living in NE Ohio and in driving to and from Western NY (Jamestown) to be with Brenda’s family and playing football — we called it “the Howard Bowl.” A quick […]