RichC | September 21, 2021
When I was a kid, I remember studying the illuminated glass globe in my bedroom and my grandparents pre-WW II atlas and then stumbling across the science theory showing the Alfred Wegener proposed supercontinent called Pangaea. The other day I saved the image overlay of today’s international borders on top of the globe image (click […]
RichC | September 10, 2021
In the never ending battle to thwart spam and fill WordPress and server vulnerabilities, a few new tools were added this week to MyDesultoryBlog.com. This security and maintenance release features 60 bug fixes in addition to 3 security fixes. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. All […]
RichC | August 30, 2021
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RichC | August 20, 2021
Most aging entrepreneurs and investors can “in hindsight” spot their mistakes and missed opportunities, but with age and experience, also comes wisdom. The pace of change is rapidly accelerating and decisions seem to be made much faster and happen quicker nowadays’; I suspect even millennials are learning this faster? As a more cautious trader and […]
RichC | June 27, 2021
Who doesn’t occasionally need a little advice from the helpful tips, tricks and tidbits floating around the Internet? Here’s one that should be familiar to most of us, but surprisingly catches us off guard once in a while when a roll of aluminum foil pops out of the box and ends up unrolled and dinged […]
RichC | June 23, 2021
Although I’m likely tainted in having lived through a period where inflation was real and uncontrolled, I do worry that people living today either ignore or downplay the negative impact inflation, stagflation or worse … hyperinflation … can make on our country. For those who know me, I’ve likely been the “boy who calls wolf” […]
RichC | May 14, 2021
MyDesultoryBlog.com was overdue for a backup and since I stepped away early from my desk on Thursday, I figured the end of the day was a good time to sync online and offline storage (the backups make for a sluggish computer and data connection). Besides backing up data, it also seemed like a good time […]
RichC | May 12, 2021
In February 2021, I mentioned The Hustings news website which highlighted how much I appreciated that in America we can hold different political views and civilly debate issues without fear of government retribution (First Amendment). Unfortunately in the past decade or so our differences have become so divisive and derisive, that I’m not sure that […]
RichC | April 23, 2021
I’ve used Twitter as my interactive Newsfeed for almost 15 years now and it has been a struggle to decide if it is worth it or not? BUT, like most people who start the addictive habit of using social networks and reading “feeds” (newsworthy or not), it is a difficult habit to stop. For the […]
RichC | April 11, 2021
Last week my sister-in-law shared an update on her Facebook page of some well-known Hollywood celebrities that I thought would be interesting to at to MyDesultoryBlog. I downloaded the 30+ different-sized photos, resized a few and decided it might work as an automated slide show (if you want my resized originals, download this .zip archive). […]
RichC | March 31, 2021
When was ‘noon’ a time that was later in the day … like 3PM? Let’s check with merriam-webster.com: There’s something aesthetically pleasing about the word noon. Its palindromic spelling feels appropriate for the middle of the day, when the sun is directly overhead and the hands on the clock are pointed upward in a straight […]
RichC | March 24, 2021
The more I think about it, the “lamer” it appears to be talking about shoes … but truth be told, the Sperry Topsider reviews and shoe insole posts still are in the top ten when it comes to blog numbers. I’m posting a photo of my newly arrived clearance priced Vasque hiking boots and previous […]
RichC | March 20, 2021
A technology friend of mine, Scott Bilik (who was considered my Twitter “Godfather in 2007), has recently wiped some of the mud from his hypothetical digital footprints and is systematically freeing himself from Big Tech’s shackles. This current Silicon Valley monopoly has increased its political clout and has enticed or entrapped most of us in […]
RichC | February 28, 2021
Just marking server and blog updates to end the month of February 2021. I’ve put this WordPress 5.6.2 update off a few weeks in order to be sure I had a full backup, etc. Note to self, check on the Seagate hard drive attached to the iMac as Time Machine backups have been regularly failing […]
RichC | February 18, 2021
Almost 1 year ago, I started to use the Chromium-based Brave Browser and an Uphold account to receive the BAT (Basic Attention Token). I convert to Bitcoin along with the income generated on MyDesultoryBlog.com … which currently seems to be the digital currency of choice; I really did it just for the fun of it […]
RichC | February 9, 2021
Did you ever have a political discussion or receive an email that generated a desire to reply and explain? That sort of happened to me this weekend … but I decided there isn’t an upside in the one on one reply. The best approach, as is often the case when talking about faith and religion, […]
RichC | January 24, 2021
"if my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." — 2 Chronicles 7:14
RichC | January 15, 2021
Years ago when RAM was expensive, it was common to set up a SWAP space file for additional memory on computers and servers with plenty of fast hard drive space … especially when speed was not as important as preventing crashes. As applications get a little more demanding and server traffic increases, memory use steadily […]
RichC | January 14, 2021
One of my favorite January traditions is looking at the Lake Superior State University’s Banished Words listing that get posted on December 31. I can’t believe LSSU has been doing it since 1976 and it is fun to look at their archives! For the year ending 2020 (or 2021’s list), LSSU selected COVID-19 as the #1 […]
RichC | January 12, 2021
The Storming United States Capitol 1/6/2021 and White House plus multiple cities protests 2020 In recent years, NPR has not been my source for balanced reporting and commentary, but I still occasionally pick up a morsel or two that resonates. This time it was shared by a politically liberal/progressive friend on her daily Life Logs […]
RichC | January 8, 2021
A simple blog upgrade project that I’ve been contemplating for a while now was one of my 2021 New Year’s resolutions … so I’m worked on it this past week’s Music Monday post. I’m not sure how long the new button and player will remain unchanged since I seem to keep testing and tweaking it; […]
RichC | December 25, 2020
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RichC | November 28, 2020
Although I’ve worked with my friend Pastor Keith Thomas on his GroupBibleStudy.com site for years, I’ve been happy for him that his daughter has taken on the volunteer job of webmaster. As I warned him, be careful when it comes to maintaining the day to day site management … as once the new design ambition […]
RichC | November 8, 2020
The menu “navigational links” just under the header of My Desultory Blog are primarily there for my own short-cuts … and I haven’t changed them for years. A few aren’t really used much anymore, with improved browser bookmarks – one click bookmarks are just much more convenient. This past week I made a change. I […]
RichC | September 17, 2020
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RichC | September 4, 2020
Larry and Lin Pardey have been a couple of my sailing idols since I was in high school. Their life adventure, magazine articles and books have been a mainstay in keeping the cruising lifestyle close to my heart and in my dreams. I’ve posted a few times before regarding their philosophy and many skills, but […]
RichC | August 14, 2020
Friday afternoon was a day of server housekeeping, along with the week’s usual billing and accounting. It was also time to update this blog’s WordPress plugins and to the current version called “Eckstine” 5.5. In WordPress 5.5, your site gets new power in three major areas: speed, search, and security. Thankfully after the move to […]
RichC | August 14, 2020
Wouldn’t you know, just as I was contemplating how to get rid of our annoying pair of Mourning Doves (pretty much pigeons in my book), they go and have at least one baby. Now I can’t in good conscious shoo them away. The little guy must have jumped or fallen out of the nest and […]
RichC | August 13, 2020
There is no doubt in my mind that I would have tried to do this if Photoshop would have been as advanced when my kids were younger (or if I would have been has skilled – I’m basically a retoucher). As it was, I did include one of Katelyn’s computer art pieces (on my Mac SE […]
RichC | July 21, 2020
After updating a few security features on this server, there is/was a problem (?) in posting to MyDesultoryBlog.com. So as an update test, I’ll add a couple photos. The subject line question is really a trick question since the photo on the right was taken a day before the one on the left a couple […]
RichC | July 18, 2020
As politicians and most of us in the United States (and probably world) debate how to live under the shadow of the Coronavirus pandemic, researchers, doctors and academics are flooding the Internet with studies and opinions both for and against opening up the country. Some have our best interest at heart … and likely some […]
RichC | July 8, 2020
The “Coconut Rifle” … known to most as the Colt ArmaLite AR-15 (SN 000106) … the original for what is now the longest primary service weapon in our country’s military history. The originals firearms (20 of them) were manufactured by Colt in 1959. One of them #106 was involved in a July 4th 1960 “Watermelon […]
RichC | June 20, 2020
A couple weeks ago I shared an old automotive link from MyDesultoryBlog.com on Twitter and one of my automotive buddies sent me a private message asking about the name of my blog (now nearly 7000 posts). The conversation had me contemplate the early decisions and thoughts .. or lack of thought .. when all of […]
RichC | June 19, 2020
Way too often those who maintain their own web servers and computers grit their teeth and cringe when it is time to update and upgrade. A month or so ago I replaced one of my servers (the one this blog is on) and suffered through the anxiety of getting everything working again. I generally follow […]
RichC | June 12, 2020
Regular readers have likely noticed a few “hopefully” discrete ads running on My Desultory Blog. It is a way for me to experiment with ways to help my customers choose or forgo the use advertising services like Google Ads on their sites. For the most part it has been relatively painless (although nothing to retire […]
RichC | May 28, 2020
What do you call the two pieces of bread that bookend all of the slices? Every once in a while, a quirky story gets me thinking and talking to those around me. I once though everyone called the ends of a loaf of bread the “heels.” Unbeknownst to me, even my wife had a different […]
RichC | May 12, 2020
After mentioning problems last week, the new webserver is up and running with a fresh install of Linux Ubuntu 18.04 “Bionic Beaver,” MySQL database and PHP 7.2 … well I actually decided to upgrade that to PHP 7.4 for a little better speed (who knows?) I’ve abandoned MongoDB for the time being for the Quickdex.net […]
RichC | May 11, 2020
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RichC | May 8, 2020
Actually this is just a filler post while working on server upgrades. Hopefully when finished, the new server will be fully up-to-date with Linux (Ubuntu Bionic Beaver 18.04), PHP 7.2 and a current LAMP stack set-up. WordPress will finally be able to be updated to 5.4.1 and maybe eventually bring back a cache to speed […]
RichC | May 6, 2020
Today’s post serves as a test … since I’m having a few webserver and database problems. If you are a regular reader, this will also be a notice that this blog will likely be sporadic until it is fixed. Once my business sites are updated, then I’ll address my long-in-the-tooth (see below) Quickdex project site and […]
RichC | April 18, 2020
Another nail or something in the tire, this time in Brenda’s Acura RDX. Thankfully it was in the tread and small, so an easy plug … but plugging two tires within 30 days? (the animated gif above is just a little soap water sprayed on the tire for leak detection) As for a video that […]
RichC | April 16, 2020
For those automotive enthusiasts who are spending A LOT more time at home due to the Coronavirus stay-at-home orders and interested in ways to entertain our minds, try the ConsumerGuide.com Automotive blog’s Engine Parts word search. Tom Appel and crew always find something interesting for their blog (and car stuff podcast). Click image larger or […]
RichC | March 31, 2020
Olympus Mons is the tallest mountain and largest volcano on any planet in the solar system. It is about the size of France (or the U.S. state of Arizona) and is a shield volcano 624 km (374 mi) in diameter, 25 km (16 mi) high, and is rimmed by a 6 km (4 mi) high […]
RichC | March 29, 2020
This is a two-purpose post: A woodworking (sort of) bookshelves project archive update and shared information on a jig I made. First, the bookshelves and music room/ library painting coming along slowly. I’m bogged down with putty, sanding and painting after adding a strip light shield (wood to hide the LEDs that I’m planning to […]
RichC | March 20, 2020
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RichC | March 19, 2020
Every once in a while MyDesultoryBlog’s “Year(s) Ago On This Day" script pops up something that shocks me. It is hard to believe we donated Brenda‘s 1998 Toyota Rav4 back in 2016? It does not seem that long … but "life moves pretty fast …" as the Ferris Bueller line goes. So I’ll repost one […]
RichC | February 28, 2020
Right-click and Save-as for a very interesting larger download version of this map A new Brilliant Maps twitter feed is constantly sharing some very interesting mapping projects and this one was particularly intriguing. As a commenter posted, “obviously a map like this is going to disputed, but PisseGuri82 has gone to great lengths to explain […]
RichC | February 27, 2020
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RichC | February 19, 2020
Although I have not sought Katelyn’s approval to include her rounded “personal coffee table” or her pregnancy photo (cough, cough – one in the same) to MyDesultoryBlog, but I’m boldly going out on a limb by posting it. The longer I post daily, the more I find myself wanting to archive family milestones … as […]
RichC | February 17, 2020
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RichC | January 21, 2020
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RichC | December 19, 2019
How does a “relatively open minded” politically moderate to conservative American see the impeachment of President Trump? I pay relatively close attention to the news … and politics since it is a big part of our news nowadays … AND with three years of quarrelling and intense dislike for President Donald Trump by his political […]
RichC | December 15, 2019
I’ve often questioned just how much data is being collected by Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc … but considering I’m a relatively light user of FB … getting push timely advertising is a bit creepy. I called my insurance company last week for a windshield repair/replacement for our 2010 BMW X5 35d and handled the entire […]
RichC | September 8, 2019
Hopefully grandparents are as appreciated ad much today as they were in generations past? I think most are, but as a new grandfather, it is hard to live up to the legacy left by grandparents of previous generations. I’m thankful for the 10-years I had with my grandparents on this year’s National Grandparents Day (September […]
RichC | August 13, 2019
Great energy use tip for those of use who heavily rely on ceiling fans: The direction a ceiling fan should turn can be confusing. Modern fans have a switch that enables them to blow the air either up or down. During the summer you want the fan to blow air straight down, so your ceiling […]
RichC | August 9, 2019
Currently, I pay for a few subscriptions. Some pricey (Wall Street Journal, Barrons, etc) because I avidly read them. Others, like monthly magazines, I continue to pay for and rarely get around to reading, especially online only subscriptions. Several others, I occasionally receive a link or click on one from those annoying “reader apps” that […]
RichC | May 7, 2019
In a discussion with my son Taylor last week, the subject of homeownership came up. He is single and currently rents, but like many millennials, hasn’t been in a big hurry to "put down roots" as have previous generations. On the other hand, being that his career is in "planning" and "economic development," regularly talks […]
RichC | March 27, 2019
A couple of decades ago I suffered from Ménière disease (Ménière’s disease) and struggled to find treatment and relief from the miserably vertigo episodes. One does not understand how debilitating and miserable that this be, so much so that any potential treatment, regardless of the risk, seemed worth it at the time. In my case, […]
