My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on 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 or perhaps Mac II Ci) for Taylor’s birth announcement, but nothing like this dad. So here’s an image for ThrowBack Thursday #TBT.

Tom Curtis runs the ‘Things I Have Drawn’ Instagram page from London and shared his two kids drawings online. As the BoredPanda.com blog comments, “the result is both terrifying and hilarious.” Of course when it is a good thing, you really can’t get too much of it so there’s a page1,  page2 and page3 at this point. Good stuff.

Here are a few more examples in case they disappear (more below the break):

A dog and an elephant (I think?) …

… and since I’m working on birdhouses for Annalyn (previous post) … (more…)

Category: Art, Blogs, Computer, Humor, Memories, Social Media, TBT | No Comments »
Tags: artwork, drawings, Humor, parenting, photoshop, photoshopped, TBT, throwback, thursday

Posted By RichC on August 12, 2020

An image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is just too beautiful not to include on MyDesultoryBlog. I many not be the biggest astronomy or space geek, but I do spend time looking up at the stars in the evening. Although I didn’t get a good look at the NEOWISE comet last week (not for the lack of trying), I do plan on staying up late or getting up early to try to see the Perseid meteors 2020 this week.

The barred spiral galaxy known as NGC 4907 shows its starry face from 270 million light-years away to anyone who can see it from the Northern Hemisphere. This is a new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the face-on galaxy, displaying its beautiful spiral arms, wound loosely around its central bright bar of stars.

Shining brightly below the galaxy is a star that is actually within our own Milky Way galaxy. This star appears much brighter than the billions of stars in NGC 4907 as it is 100,000 times closer, residing only 2,500 light-years away.

NGC 4907 is also part of the Coma Cluster, a group of over 1,000 galaxies, some of which can be seen around NGC 4907 in this image. This massive cluster of galaxies lies within the constellation of Coma Berenices, which is named for the locks of Queen Berenice II of Egypt: the only constellation named after a historical person.

Text credit: ESA (European Space Agency)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Gregg

Category: Nature, Space | No Comments »
Tags: astronomy, comet, galaxy, hubble, meteors, nasa, neowise, ngc4907, persied, skywatching, space, telescope

Posted By RichC on August 12, 2020

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Category: Archive, Humor, Misc, Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: annalyn, archive, birthday, brenda, coronavirus, covid19, family, goggles, Photos, swing

Posted By RichC on August 11, 2020

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Category: Archive, Misc, Personal, Photos, Travel, Video | No Comments »
Tags: annalyn, archive, bees, birdhouse, bluebird, brenda, drew, ellerie, family, granddaughters, home, house, katelyn, mp4, Photos, pool, project, pyramid hill, richc, vacation

Posted By RichC on August 10, 2020

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Category: Music | No Comments »
Tags: album, beatles, mp3, Music, music monday, musicmonday, paul mccartney, ringo starr, siriusxm, song, the bridge, walk with you

Posted By RichC on August 9, 2020

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Category: Automotive, Packard, Personal, Photos, Social Media | No Comments »
Tags: annalyn, charging, circuit, drew, ellerie, family, hawk, katelyn, mig, model3, packard, tesla, tig, twitter, vacation, welding

Posted By RichC on August 8, 2020

Although I’m looking high and low for some material to replace the clearance foam bead filled pool floaties I bought a few years ago, I continue to re-stitch and reinforce the old product with “Brenda’s” Sailrite Ultrafeed LS-1.

The new stitching holds as long as the old fabric holds up, but sooner or later I’m going to have to replace all the float items (noodles, beanbag like chair) with either new material or find new ones. So far I have not been able to find this mildew and sun resistant two ply (coarser and finer mesh) material … so I’ll keep repairing until then.

Category: Misc, Personal, Photos, Recreation, Tidbits | No Comments »
Tags: beanbag, chair, float, material, mesh, pool, repair, sailrite, sewing

Posted By RichC on August 7, 2020

It is always concerning to use and recommended a software product for years and to hear negative news on the software from a reputable antivirus. Last month, Microsoft Defender marked the “crap cleaner” known as CCleaner as PUA (Potentially Unwanted Software) likely due to the “PC cleaning software’s bundling unwanted add-on and annoyance software. The risk in doing this for semi-reputable company … if they are which is likely for their free version … is that users choosing CCleaner could end up with more “junk” on their computer than they are actually cleaning off their computer.

In 2018 I stopped regularly using CCleaner to “Fix Registry Problems” due to concerns that it might “error on the side of cleaning” that will trigger errors that render Windows inoperable. LINK

After tweeting the TechRadar article, CCleaner tweeted a reply saying“Our products and our partners’ products are genuine and so we are in discussions with Microsoft to resolve this issue as soon as we can.”

Hm .. Windows 10 is warning users not to install @CCleaner – @techradar https://t.co/FGETn48dmS

— Rich Corbett (@RichC) July 31, 2020

Category: Advice, Computer, Social Media, Software, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: ccleaner, defender, microsoft, pua, registry, scanning, Software, tech friday, techfriday, tweet, twitter, virus, windows, windows10

Posted By RichC on August 6, 2020

My friend Jeff has been part of my life since college and knows WAY too much about me … both good (which he conveniently forgets) and bad (which he’s remembers all too well). We’ve always have great times together, be it in Founders Hall dorm at ONU back in college or the many years after college on hiking trips … or nowadays when just grabbing coffee or lunch. Just last week he asked, “How about a photography trip to Headlands International Dark Sky Park in northern Michigan?”

Last month while he was clearing out his desk, in order to switching to a “no-drawers” stand up desk at home and sent me a “remember this” photo. Yes … I unfortunately do and will archive it for Throwback Thursday #TBT.

I would like to have said this was before I took on the responsibility of being a dad and thought about setting a better example for my kids, but I think this was after kids. Ugh! About the only thing I could point out to him was that I at least had a climbing rope around my waist … to which he replied, “and who’s idea was that?” –> Jeff’s of course. (FYI … he didn’t always act responsibly).

Category: Friends, Memories, Nature, Personal, Photos, TBT, Travel | No Comments »
Tags: backpacking, desk, friend, hiking, jeff pitts, Memory, north carolina, photo, stand-up

Posted By RichC on August 5, 2020

Ever since reading Boys’ Life magazine as a kid and perusing the “military surplus” advertising, I’ve wanted a classic military Willys MB Jeep (or Ford GPW). I’m sure that I was not alone?

The old restored Jeeps have been staples at car shows, parades and aviation fly-ins for decades and I’m always attracted to them .. and yet only recently learned about the Hotchkiss M201 versions that were built well after WW2 and were nearly identical.

PHOTO RIGHT: Once the jeep’s design had converged, and was standardized, Ford and Willys built over 600,000 jeeps virtually identical to this 1944 MB (see Wikipedia link on the Willys MB)

Also the fact that Jeeps are made in Toledo, which is my original hometown, gives the “GeeP” (GP or GPW) soft spot in my heart. I can remember playing with the Tonka version of the little go anywhere topless “toy vehicle” the beach and ogling the Jeepster Commando (below), CJs, Wagoneer, Cherokee and pickup trucks (J-series and Comanche) when I was contemplating first and next cars.

(more…)

Category: Automotive, History, Memories | No Comments »
Tags: boys life, classic, ford gpw, hotchkiss, jeep, jeepster, m201, military surplus, overland, willys mb