My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on June 10, 2022

A semi-disaster struck as my iMac choked on a Parallel 17 "virtual Windows" update on Thursday. It reminded me of the movie "Blackhawk Down" or perhaps "White House Down" … hence the subject line for Tech Friday.  

The virtual Windows 10 side of my computer booted, but everything from the connected drives to the display resolution was messed up. I stayed up late … or early… working on the problem only to throw in the towel and crawl into bed at 2:30AM. By morning I had things to do and decided to use my Apple TimeMachine backup from before the update to rebuild the 200GB virtual drive. Unfortunately this process from a USB connected drive was an 8 hour ordeal so computing and "market slide" watching for the day was on my Lenovo notebook (it seems sluggish too … or perhaps that new Apple MacBook M2 powered Air is just looking attractive)?

So as I’m prepping this post for Friday morning … I’m tweaking the reinstall and debating if I should try to update Parallels to 17 again??? Gulp.

Category: Apple, Computer, Financial, Movies, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: apple, blackhawk, crash, imac, lenovo, m2, macbook air, parallels, stock market, tech friday, techfriday, timemachine, white house down

Posted By RichC on June 9, 2022

There are days we humans need to be reminded that we are small in relation to the universe, but unique (Genesis 1:27) and loved (John 3:16) in relation to God’s magnificent creation.

TIDBITS:

Voyager 1 continues into heading into our outer solar system as the space probe continues to communicate with the Deep Space Network and transmits back to Earth (to make this post a Throwback Thursday #TBT post, it was launched when I moved into Founder’s Hall at Ohio Northern University back on September 5th 1977).

Here’s a photo “of Earth” … and according to NASA and JPL it is currently 14.5 Billion miles away. It is the “most distant artificial object from Earth.”  Amazing.

In a further testament to the robustness of Voyager 1, the Voyager team tested the spacecraft’s trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) thrusters in late 2017 (the first time these thrusters had been fired since 1980), a project enabling the mission to be extended by two to three years. Voyager 1‘s extended mission is expected to continue until about 2025, when its radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) will no longer supply enough electric power to operate its scientific instruments.

— LINK

EDIT: From recent ScienceAlert feed …

NASA’s Voyager 1 Is Sending Back Mysterious Data From Beyond Our Solar System

NASA’s Voyager 1 is continuing its journey beyond our Solar System, 45 years after it was launched. But now the veteran spacecraft is sending back strange data, puzzling its engineers.

NASA said on Wednesday that while the probe is still operating properly, readouts from its attitude articulation and control system – AACS for short – don’t seem to match the spacecraft’s movements and orientation, suggesting the craft is confused about its location in space.

The AACS is essential for Voyager to send NASA data about its surrounding interstellar environment as it keeps the craft’s antenna pointing right at our planet.

“A mystery like this is sort of par for the course at this stage of the Voyager mission,” Suzanne Dodd, a project manager for Voyager 1 and 2 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement.

“The spacecraft are both almost 45 years old, which is far beyond what the mission planners anticipated.” (more…)

Category: Education, Faith, Science, Space, TBT, Tidbits | No Comments »
Tags: astronomy, college, creation, founders hall, jpl, nasa, onu, photo, probe, space, voyager1

Posted By RichC on June 8, 2022

In keeping with a previous book, I downloaded another book: “Land Of Big Numbers” by Te-Ping Chen. It is a collection of stories … on the “diverse and legion Chinese people” and according to a review, this book offers an “acute social insight” on Chinese history, their government, “and how all of that tumbled—messy, violently, but still beautifully—into the present.”

Currently, I’ve only listened up to track 4 of 13 of the “Lulu” story published in the The New Yorker and record for this HarperAudio book. The reader Eddy Lee does a great job of reading and it is interesting contemplating all the young Chinese people trying to circumvent China’s censors … and risking their future by resisting the CCP.

I’ll keep listening and am looking forward to the stories from Fiona Rene, Matt Yang King, Christine Lakin, Katie Tang, Chris Naoki Lee.

(more…)

Category: Audio, Books, Human Interest | No Comments »
Tags: audio, audiobook, Books, censorship, china, chinese, land of big numbers, listening, reading, te-pin chen

Posted By RichC on June 7, 2022

Brenda and I enjoyed our anniversary weekend staying around home, working in both the yard and for me painting on Sunday afternoon (Brenda helped out at a store short a pharmacist in Dayton).

Slowly I’m making progress in painting the guest bedroom (pano photo below). Ceiling are done, walls have their first and second coat of new color and trim paint is yet to be done. Hopefully I’ll find the time and more importantly the ambition to keep plugging along … but I really prefer to be working outside, tinkering in the workshop or really anything but painting.

I did get a chance to cut out and glue the leather surface to the newly oak-banded corner desk project. Tedious to say the least, but it is turning out pretty nice. It won’t be a piece of “fine furniture or anything, but it will definitely be a functional computer desk for my upgraded office.

No warm sunny summer weekend would be without a dip in the pool and sitting on the back porch. I continued reading a little more from “The Old Man and The Boy” but was distracted by a new Kindle book by Bill Rivers: “Last Summer Boys: A Novel” … and a butterfly (video below). HA! It doesn’t take much!

Category: Archive, Books, Misc, Personal, Photos, Video, Weather | No Comments »
Tags: bill rivers, Books, butterfly, corner desk, guest bedroom, Last summer boys, mp4, novel, painting, pano, project

Posted By RichC on June 7, 2022

This content is restricted.

Category: Archive, Cellphone, Personal, Photos, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: 5G, annalyn, cincinnati zoo, drew, ellerie, family, granddaughers, iphone13, katelyn, megan, taylor, verizon, weekend

Posted By RichC on June 6, 2022

I was tuned into a television morning news show a few weeks ago and was shocked that two of the three hosts didn’t know “the band” Lynyrd Skynyrd … in fact one commented, “but I’ve heard of ‘him.’”  Shocked, but maybe it’s an age thing?

The conversation quickly shifted into the band’s eponym … Forby Leonard Skinner (photo right), America’s “arguably the most influential high school gym teacher in American popular culture,” according to the NYTimes. The band members derived their band’s name “as a way of getting back” at Mr. Skinner for getting them suspended due to their long hair in school. Yes, it was a different time … the time I grew up in too (my high school “Fearsome Foursome” buddies in photo on left) … and watching the band, crowd and guitar riff from this outdoor live concert video from 1976, I can understand why my dad was not fond of long hair either! 😉 (see more on Leonard Skinner below break at the bottom of this post)

So for Music Monday today, it is back to the 1970s era of rock and roll and the music I grew up … that being the rise of the 1964 band “My Backyard” (original name) followed by several others and and combination of band members to finally adopting the name Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1969. They released their first album in 1973 followed by 4 more. Southern Rock had finally rose to accepted prominence in the mid-1970s with popular songs such as “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Free Bird” (oddly, my wife’s favorite).  Depressingly in 1977, the band’s chartered airplane crashed, killing band co-founder Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and backup singer Cassie Gaines, and seriously injuring the rest of the band.

Ronnie Van Zant’s younger brother Johnny Van Zant helped reform the band ten years later in 1987 (Second Generation Skynyrd) with original guitarist Gary Rossington, Rickey Medlocke, Michael Cartellone, Mark Matejka, Peter Keys and Keith Christopher. They’ve continued to perform and have recorded nine additional studio album from 1991-2012. They announced a semi-farewell tour in 2018, but hinted that their pandemic delayed Farewell Tour, which became the Big Wheels Keep On Turnin’ Tour in 2021, might not be their last. It wasn’t … since they have their tour dates scheduled through September 2022.

(more…)

Category: Entertainment, History, Memories, Music, Video | No Comments »
Tags: band, eponym, freebird, leonard skinner, lynyrd skynyrd, music monday, musicmonday, southern rock, sweet home alabama, youtube

Posted By RichC on June 5, 2022

A poor quality scan of our 1982 wedding with DadH, MomH, MomC and DadC

Often a 40th Wedding Anniversary triggers a husband or wife to make the comment “thanks for putting up with me” or something to that effect. Although there is truth to it, spending the rest of your life with another person is the challenge of two people face in compromising, and sometimes struggling, to learn out how to work together to be a “happily married couple.”

Thankfully for Brenda and me, the road has been pretty smooth in retrospect and has had far more positive and happy times than negative and rocky ones. Our focus has always been on “teamwork” and picking up slack for each other. We have helped each other overcome our weaknesses and have tried to enhance each others strengths. I am so bless to have Brenda in my life: God gave me a person (who birthed a couple more!) to live for and prioritize … instead of selfishly living only for myself. As my mother-in-law would proclaim: “Praise the Lord” … although as I recall, she did that when Brenda finally settled down. 😊

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” – Genesis 2:18

Thank you Brenda for 40 years! How about we share forty together?

(more…)

Category: Archive, Idioms, Memories, Personal, Photos, Raspberry Pi | No Comments »
Tags: 40th anniversary, anniversary, brenda, dadc, dadh, idiom, idioms, milestone, momc, momh, richc, wedding

Posted By RichC on June 4, 2022

Q: What do you call a religious person who claims that the end is near?
Answer: A fanatic.

Q: What do you call a secular person who claims that the end is near?
Answer: An environmentalist.

When my podcasts on my weekend playlist are finished and I’m still in the mood for some audio content, I occasionally tune into a Dennis Prager episode. Last weekend it was his Fireside Chat #231 on “Inflation is a Thief.” One of his riddles (above) had me smiling; there is so much truth to it – see Human-Induced Climate Change – Take it with a grain of salt.

I can recall from my short 60+ year history that someone is always worked up about something … one crisis after another. From smog and pollution in the 1960s, to global cooling in the 1970s, peak oil and global warming in the 1980s-2000s … changed to climate change by 2010 and a climate crisis by 2020. Each time, the most radical of the environmentalists would claim that unless we did something to drastically address it … “the world will end in ___ number of years” and that damage will be irreversible. Like the “boy who cried wolf,” it gets old and even when there is merit, starts us shrugging our shoulders like in Seinfeld.

As a conservative and environment lover, I’m all about taking care of our planet and managing our resources … the key word is “managing” our resources. Take a moment to do your part, but perhaps avoid the hysteria that is likely to harm our economy, our personal financial wellbeing and physical health. If we end up struggling just to survive or cause famine and war, we’ll likely forego any concern for the environment.

Loved this photo below and remembered my early mornings working on a commercial fishing boat on Lake Erie near where I grew up (see PDF) … obviously we were not fishing quite like this, but we did use seines (like the 1966 B&W photo from Sandusky Bay).

📷© benzchaivadee

Category: Environment, Human Interest, Humor, Memories, Personal, Weather | No Comments »
Tags: commercial fishing, dennis prager, environmentalist, fanatic, fireside chat, global cooling, global warming, lake erie, podcast, pollution

Posted By RichC on June 3, 2022

Over the years, I have backed a few smaller companies needing capital and pre-sales to expand their businesses. Before the days of online crowdfunding platforms such as Indiegogo and Kickstarter, I participated as an investor in two smaller Ohio local companies … one that landed a contract to fulfill candy for Disney World which need capital (sold shares) and the other as a printed packaging supplier for fishing tackle (oh … and just remembered a smaller one for fishing lures). None of them really worked out all that well.

The biggest loss came from my deposit with what seems to be a “defuncted” Elio Motors in getting zero back … whereas the others were primarily lessor refunds, poor investments or products that were delayed in launching in a timely fashion. That leads me to my MAGFAST wait. Pandemic delays aside (excuse) … they have been excruciatingly slow to bring their line of product to market. Having received the latest update this week, I’m crossing my fingers something will arrive this month?

Category: Advice, Financial, Innovation, Shopping, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: capital, elio, elio motors, funding, indiegogo, kickstarter, lures, magfast, mayfly, ordering, shipping, startup, tech friday, techfriday

Posted By RichC on June 2, 2022

The “bowling” comment I made a couple weeks ago triggered me thinking about what “junk” to put back in my office storage closet and what to toss. There are “functional” but OLD computers (with hard drives and too much CPP customer data), boxes of magazines … and more to the point … my old bowling ball from college. Huh, why am I keeping it?

Back in the late 1970s and early 80s, I was an avid bowler, which was a college extra curricular activity while living in Founders Hall at Ohio Northern University (it costs 50 cents a game to bowl back then). For the most part this was an ONU college league, but I did end up as one of the five members of the team to represent the university against other colleges (yes, blowing my own horn). By today’s standards, having a 170 – 190 average and a top score of only 265 is subpar, but “back in the day” it was enough to be anchor on our team.

So after discussing “what to do” with my old bowling ball with my college buddy Jeff (he was not a bowler or on the team) … we decided it should be buried just west of State Route 235 north of Ada, Ohio. For context, driving on the nasty winter weather day I was scheduled to pick up my newly drilled bowling ball was treacherous … but I really wanted it and didn’t want to delay picking it up. So, when I was returning southbound on State Route 235 and the roadway jogged at the county line … as they often do in rural Ohio … the west-to-east wind had polished the icy-snow roads and my 1974 Capri fishtailed one too many times spinning off the road and ending up a foot from a lone tree (satellite 2022 map view below but now is a much softer “jog” rather than “turns”).

Perhaps Jeff and I will make a pilgrimage to Ada, Ohio to both complain about all the changes to the town and campus like “grumpy old men” … and to bury my bowling ball at the base of this tree? I can feel a ROAD TRIP coming!

Fun side memory: Years ago when Drew was in college (who was Katelyn’s boyfriend at the time) … found out that I had an old pair of bowling shoes; he just had to have them … I assumed to wear? I never really understood the attraction (to the shoes, not my daughter!), but was glad to see my old bowling shoes put to use.

Category: Friends, Memories, Personal, Photos, TBT | No Comments »
Tags: ada, bowling, capri, college, drew, founders hall, jeff pitts, jeffp, katelyn, ohio, ohio northern, onu