We proudly celebrated my son Taylor’s Miami University’s college graduation this weekend at Yager Stadium in Oxford Ohio and later with more family downtown Cincinnati for dinner. Brenda and I enjoyed seeing our son and his fellow college graduates in their caps and gowns enter the stadium, even if the weather was on the cooler side – it would have been perfect for a late autumn football game.
President Hodge’s address to the graduating class was great and the writer and author Will Haygood the commencement speaker was exceptional. He was an excellent invite and his personal story as a 1976 Miami University graduate struck a chord since his major was in Urban and Regional Planning (one of Taylor’s two majors). He also shared how life after Miami took a turn, as it does for many of us, and his education opened doors and passions in other directions. He became a reporter for several newspapers and eventually covered major stories for The Washington Post. One recent front page story was about the long time butler Eugene Allen who served as the Whitehouse butler for eight presidents and became the subject of a movie that will be release in the fall – The Butler (trailer). He left the graduates inspired and hopeful … and I expect as just as like those 174 years of Miami graduates in the past, they will make the most of their college degrees. It was particularly nice to have Taylor’s Grandpa Corbett with us and I know he enjoyed the day very much. The newlyweds, Drew and Katelyn were with us as well, although I wonder how these two hospital residents juggle their schedules and get enough sleep? Katelyn had just finished a 24 hour rotation and came with an hours sleep … she was dragging by the end of dinner.
Speaking of dinner, since Taylor has spent much of this year working on his urban planning senior capstone project in the Over-The-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati, we opted (his choice) to have graduation dinner downtown at the Mayberry Gasto Pub. Brenda’s sisters family joined us for the celebration and pretty much took over the small restaurant for much of the early evening. All in all it was a great day and we had a great time. Congratulations Taylor … you continue to make your parents proud everyday.
Including a slide show below viewable by those who are in my G+ circles. Ask me and I’ll add you to a circle as I’m trying to use this as a way to make some photos viewable but limited — we’ll see how it work?
Google has change their embedded slideshow option, but here’s the link.
After almost throwing away my older version of the Blue Snowball microphone, I decided to plug the USB mic into my new iMac running OSX 10.8.3 … and to my surprise it worked great for a couple VOIP connections. For those of you familiar with this original USB mic, it was not supported with firmware updates or updateable beyond an old XP gain control patch. It didn’t work well on my older early Intel based Mac Mini or any of my Windows 7 installs, but only ran on Windows XP.
Now I haven’t testing it on all of the programs on the iMac or my Parallels install running Windows 7, but it is nice to have an external microphone for those times when the internal mic on the iMac picks up too much intercom sound. The Blue Snowball isn’t perfect, but it might help isolate extraneous background noise when all that is wanted is a persons voice.
An article in Thursday’s WSJ highlighted airline loyalty programs and just how easy it was to book a frequent flyer seat. The data collected by Switchfly Inc, looked for 2 seats on 14 round trip dates between June and October. The regular survey determined which airline made it the easiest to get the seat when flyers wanted.
No surprise, but the bigger airlines like US Airways, Delta Air Lines and American finished at or near the bottom (United the exception). Virgin Australia, AirTran (now Southwest owned) and JetBlue were near the top with Southwest Airlines flyers able to book 100% of all of the requested seats. Well done Southwest.
I was up late Tuesday night taking apart the well crusted rear brakes on the new to me 31 year old Mercedes Benz 300D Turbodiesel. It was a slower than usual process as the quality brakes were nearly down to metal to metal contact and so will require new rotor/drums as well as hoses and pads. No big complication, except that getting the assemblies apart took time. I took it slow to be able to reuse the pins and springs and used a little more liquid wrench and wire brushing rather than brute force. What is nice though is that all the parts are higher quality than I’m use too and they can be cleaned up to last another 30 years … not sure about the cylinder seals, but the are not leaking at the moment.
While I had the rear tires off, I gave the aluminum wheels a soak and scrub brushing. They are cleaning up nicely but show the same scrapes and scuffs that our previous MB 560SEL had back in the 1990s. I’m not sure if it is worth the time and effort to sand them smooth in order to repaint?
One minor detail is that one of the rear lug bolts had been previously stripped out of the hub and tacked in place with some caulk/sealant. Hmm, at least I have the lug bolt. Now to decide if a Helicoil is going to work for a lug bolt or if I should weld and re-tap?
Hmm … it looks like some kind of ancient diesel is parking in my garage? It has been a long time since I’ve looked at one of these beastly relics. (our last was an ‘87 MB 560SEL) The overall condition looks pretty good considering the old Mercedes Benz 300D Turbodiesel is over 30 years old and still lumbers down the road, although a in laid-back cruise mode. The odometer is just shy of 200K (middle age for a MB diesel) and everything is solid. I haven’t spotted much rust and beside some plastic crazing, the finish is good. One weak link is a no-go on the air conditioning. Mechanically, I’m hoping there is just a vacuum adjustments to be made for the hard shifting transmission. All in all, it is exciting to work on a diesel again.
I’ve posted a few Van Session links in the past and figured why not at a SiriusXM Jam_ON session recording a “Little Too Late.” It has been fun watching the Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers expand their audience last year as they toured the country. The “cream rises the top” and it is great to see talent recognized.
Once in a while the “post for the day” reaches desperation levels and inspiration comes to me in the shower … literally! So after reaching into the simpleton part of my brain – the majority of it, before I get a wise crack – a brilliant cheapskate idea for my eventual advice book crops up. I must say, it is amazing “penny-pinching” still exist considering my daughter’s recent wedding(there is another movie remake in this experience somewhere).
I don’t know anyone who appreciates jumping in the shower and finding that there is only a little sliver of soap left. We do this enough of this in our house that I’ve decided to only buy “larger” sized bars of soap so as to minimize the number of small slivers we get stuck using each year.
I’ve calculated that a large bar last me at least twice as long as a regular size bar of soap (and I get more cleaning and deodorant from it too – fewer slivers!) … and after years of using bars of soap that reduces being stuck with a sliver 100s of times.
Jay Leno does a great job shooting automotive videos in between his real job duties (aka: The Tonight Show) and occasionally detours into subjects that interest many of us. His recognition for aviation history and those who fought for our country is appreciated … as is talking about the amazing B-17. Nice job. On a side note, I would love to see a few more links pertaining the B-26 Martin Marauder … add them below if you have them as I would enjoy sharing them with my father-in-law.
The first 50 professional wedding photos from Shuey Mills Photography have trickled in to be reviewed. I know I’m not suppose to be sharing the previews, but can’t help myself and will include two, ok THREE since they are so good (but here were a few photos from our guests – thanks for sharing on the wedding apps and Facebook guys).
EDIT: Adding a short video sent by my sister-in-law today.
doors and passions in other directions. He became a reporter for several newspapers and eventually covered major stories for The Washington Post. One recent front page story was about the long time butler Eugene Allen who served as the Whitehouse butler for eight presidents and became the subject of a movie that will be release in the fall – The Butler (trailer). He left the graduates inspired and hopeful … and I expect as just as like those 174 years of Miami graduates in the past, they will make the most of their college degrees. It was particularly nice to have Taylor’s Grandpa Corbett with us and I know he enjoyed the day very much. 
The newlyweds, Drew and Katelyn were with us as well, although I wonder how these two hospital residents juggle their schedules and get enough sleep? Katelyn had just finished a 24 hour rotation and came with an hours sleep … she was dragging by the end of dinner.
The overall condition looks pretty good considering the 
