My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on January 23, 2012

David Walker is an idea man that speaks as clearly as any in stating our country’s issues and would be a great advisor to any administration lucky enough to add him. His ideas, that “I believe” the majority will agree on, could be a reasonable approach for most of America who elect moderate Democrats or reasonable Republicans. We’ve gone off the fiscal path over the past 10 years (if not more) and need leaders willing to address problems head on. Mr. Walker’s interview on CNBC’s Squawkbox this morning was excellent.

Walker: “…frankly i get tired of people trying to put one class against another. Why don’t we go back to the values under which the country was founded that it should apply to everybody.

• Limited but effective government.
• Individual liberty and opportunity.
• Personal responsibility and accountability.
• Rule of law and equal justice under the law.
• Fiscal responsibility and intergenerational equity.

The truth is we’re violating all five of those to differing degrees and we need the president, the current president as well as whoever the next president will be, whether he gets reelected or Romney or somebody else gets elected to tell us the truth and to talk to us about the tough choices that are going to be necessary in order to restore fiscal sanity.”

David Walker – CNBC Squawkbox on January 23, 2011

CNBC video below … and my previous comments about his book “Comback America.”

Category: Audio, Politics, Video-TV | 1 Comment »
Tags: cnbc, david walker, Politics

Posted By RichC on January 23, 2012

After watching the TIVO-ed Journal Editorial Report this weekend, I pointed to a couple of photos I snapped with my Palm Pre and asked Brenda who they were. She commented that they were both of the WSJ’s Dan Henninger, just one when he was younger. I chuckled thinking something similar, but in actuality the younger was from a currently running TV commercial which ran during the broadcast. I still wonder if the commercial model is related to Daniel Henninger … ehh???

Category: Misc | No Comments »
Tags: dan henninger, fox news, look-alike, wsj

Posted By RichC on January 22, 2012

A year and a day after she set out to sail single-handed around the globe, Dutch teenager Laura Dekker finished her 27,000 mile voyage on Saturday night.

Miss Dekker has had to cope with weeks of solitude, ocean storms and a fear of pirates while navigating and sailing a 38-foot yacht called Guppy, all the time trying to keep up with her schoolwork Photo: AP

Miss Dekker, who is 16 years and four months old, has cut six months off the unofficial record set in 2010 by Australian teenager Jessica Watson, who was days away from her 17th birthday when she completed her own non-stop voyage.

Dozens of people jumped and cheered as Miss Dekker stepped aboard a dock in St. Maarten and waved.

“There were moments where I was like, ‘What the hell am I doing out here?,’ but I never wanted to stop,” she told reporters.

“It’s a dream, and I wanted to do it.”

via telegraph.co.uk

Posted via email from RichC’s posterous

Category: Sailing | 2 Comments »
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Posted By RichC on January 22, 2012

Category: Computer, Misc | No Comments »
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Posted By RichC on January 22, 2012

Our first boat “Brenich” in Huron Ohio back around 1984???

I’ve been hankering to find a reason to include another old photo from the 1980s after sifting through the pile in my desk for the archive post the other day – there isn’t a good reason so this will be a “desultory” post. About the only reason I can come up with is that my mother has been on my mind and she is in this photo (dark blue top). Unfortunately for those of middle age that are still fortunate enough to have living parents, health issues are often front and center. That has been the case for me the last couple of months.

Her problem started in May of 2011 when working out in the garden she felt something in her back hurt when bending over. The assumption was a pulled muscle or small irritation, but about 3 months later it was determined to be a herniated disc. The doctor decided to treat with a series of Prednisone injections and pain medicines before opting for surgery. Unfortunately it did not solve the problem and she was schedule for surgery in early December of 2011. By the date of the surgery mom was losing muscle tone and weight (she was already thin) and in constant pain. Surgery seemed to be the only option so we were satisfied that it was the right choice. Unfortunately on admission to the hospital it was determine that things had drastically changed from the previous scans and a new doctor and tests were ordered. The holidays interrupted schedules and she was given more medication to make it through the pain.

By the beginning of the January she needed to use a walker and was unable to walk for much more than the length of the house at one time. Steps were becoming difficult and by the time of her vertebrae reconstruction consultation she was deteriorating to the point I was concerned that they would not even consider surgery. Her overall health ended up not being the concern as new scans showed deterioration of the bone to the point that several vertebrae had crumbled and collapsed – according to the surgeon there wasn’t anything he could do to rebuilt, cement or fasten anything to such weaken and brittle bones. Not good … although mom was actually relieved not to have to undergo surgery.

Last week my brother and I built a ramp into their house so that dad could wheel her back and forth from the car in a wheel chair but she continues to have severe pain and is not eating well. The emergency squad took her to the hospital this past week and I was up again when she was release and helped her home. After doing a few more chores and shopping I was comfortable knowing that the new pain patches were working better than the oral meds. I’m not sure what the future holds, but just getting her to eat, preventing any sitting and bed sore and finding an effective pain management Rx is about the best we can hope for … I feel for my dad saddled with caring 24/7 for mom. Something has to change.

Hope readers don’t mind my posting this today … and requesting prayers for my mom.

Category: Personal, Photos | 4 Comments »
Tags: back, brenich, family, mom, Personal, surgery

Posted By RichC on January 21, 2012

I’m archiving the comments of guest Doug Dechille (First Principles Capital Management LLC) on CNBC’s Squawkbox this week. It gave me pause as our politicians and media debate the capital system which helped grow our country. Dechille brought light to the problems financial institutions have with government involvement and the heavy hand of the Federal Reserve … and the telegraphing of their actions. I’m not sure how much of this is understood by those outside of the finance world, but it could add to the pile of things slowing our economic recovery.

Doug Dechille – CNBC Squawkbox on January 19, 2011

Doug Dachille, CEO of First Principles Capital Management, offers his analysis on how difficult it is for financial institutions to operate in the current environment, and how it has been made even more difficult by Federal Reserve policy.

Category: Audio, Financial, Politics | No Comments »
Tags: banking, cnbc, doug dechille, finance, Politics, squawkbox

Posted By RichC on January 20, 2012

I saw the Shapecatcher link highlighted on one of the technology media sites and thought it might make for a good a Tech Friday post. Yes, it has been a while since Friday has seen a technology related idea … so here’s any easy way to find the correct Unicode hexidecimal equivalent for a particular character. It might be used for foreign language characters and symbols or frequently used characters we all type.

How To: 

Start by navigating to the Shapecatcher.com website, then use you mouse (I haven’t tried a phone or tablet?) to draw the character that you are looking for. Tap the “recognize” link and the database looks up several close symbols for your scribble. I’ve tried it successfully with accented foreign letters and the trademark symbol below. By drawing a TM and the Unicode hexidecimal: 0x2122 is found to be the closest match.

Category: Computer, How-To | No Comments »
Tags: shapecatcher, trademark, website

Posted By RichC on January 20, 2012

Could help but sharing this pretty interesting (long) video illustrating traditional Birch bark canoe building … who knew so much went into building these boats.

Category: Archive, How-To, Misc, Sailing, Video | No Comments »
Tags: boatbuilding, canoe

Posted By RichC on January 19, 2012

Category: Misc, Social Media, Video | No Comments »
Tags: record, youtube

Posted By RichC on January 19, 2012

My college friend Dallas on Marco Island BEFORE it was developed – 12/1978 

Who doesn’t enjoy reminiscing a little bit about “the good ol’ days” after looking through a couple of old photos? Here are a few from a trip to Florida over Christmas break back in 1978 … whoa, we were young.

This past weekend when an old Ohio Northern University college friend’s name came across my computer – actually his wife’s – and she requested to connect by Facebook (not that I use it much). After saying yes and noting the family photo, I dug into my draw of old photos and spotted a couple which made me smile. Hmm … an archive type blog post perhaps???

It was great to see Dallas and his family in a photo since we haven’t connected since the 1980s. It does seem like I’ve been able to connect with a couple of old friends this way like Jerry, Bill and Don my room-mates and one of my closes high school friends Charlie, so it is great to add Dallas Guilford to the archive.

For the record, the photos above were taken during one of our several road trips during Christmas break. I think I took one every year and several of them with Dallas. We eventually fixated on camping about as far south on the eastern side of Florida at Collier Seminole State Park since we could drive each day to the small town of Goodland for supplies and to Marco Island for the sunshine and beach. Back in “the day” we had to use plywood sheets to drive over the soft sand trails that lead to Tiger Tail Beach … pre-housing or roads. Besides dealing with bugs and sand, the time was terrific.

I believe the trip above was our 1978 trip and we drove a Oldsmobile Starfire that Dallas named Earl – who doesn’t name their car?

Dallas is the guy who taught me car rebuilding skills as it was a way for us to own late model vehicles on the cheap.  I’ve owned several totaled vehicles purchased from wrecking yards that I was able to rebuild and sell … and no doubt Dallas lost track of the number he was able to turn. Below was my first totaled project car that we worked on in the evenings while in college … a 1974 Capri (although I did an engine rebuild, rust repair and paint job with my dad on our 1967 Ford Custom 500).

Category: Archive, Personal, Photos | 2 Comments »
Tags: college, dallas guilford, florida, friend, marco island