My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on June 22, 2010

  The BP Oil Disaster is bound to be the story to remember 2010 by as historians archive this year. Like most Americans who’ve travelled and enjoy the gulf coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, I’m disgusted and saddened by the damage that is being done to the economy, coastline and ecosystem. As we pass the 2 month mark, few can defend the response from BP and our own government when it comes to stopping the gushing leak, preventing the oil from reaching the shore and making a coordinated effort in clean up the mess. All we see and hear from the Obama administration is the pointing of fingers, a BP tongue lashing and focus on extracting dollars. I don’t question that blame for the explosion and spill is squarely on BP, but our country’s policy of demanding more domestic oil and approving mile deep offshore sites when there are far safer locations, leaves much to be desired.  It is hard to believe that the well is still spewing oil and that it continues to spread.

Alabama site AL.com posted an interesting video off Fort Morgan Alabama, Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, which highlights differing fish behaviors as well as the difference between the tarballs being talked about and the sticking stringy orangeish oil mess that is coating wildlife and killing shellfish. I’ll include the video below.

Also, it was good to hear that the hugely popular entertainer and concert performer (and singer, songwriter & author) Jimmy Buffett is performing a free concert on the beach in Gulf Shores Alabama on July 1st. I’m sure the free tickets will go fast and hope the crowd responses with an outpouring of help for those economically impacted by the spill. Way to go JB, I’m proud to have purchase your albums, attended my share of concerts and been a fan for more years than I care to count (FYI, I go back to “Before the Salt” … mid-70s believe it or not!)

Category: Entertainment, Environment, News, Travel, Video | No Comments »
Tags: alabama, bp, disaster, gulf of mexico, jimmy buffett, oil, spill

Posted By RichC on June 21, 2010

We are enjoying the changing weather as a thunderstorm rolls through over my  lunchtime break here in Cincinnati. Since I’m at the house today, I had a chance to snap a few “first day of summer” photos. It is awe inspiring to see and hear storms arrive from the west and feel the cooling rain blowing on one’s skin.

It’s also great to see my 21 year old still enjoying being a kid, and having many of his high school friends over as in years past. I’m impressed at how respectful all of them are and that they are still comfortable hanging out a “parent’s” house. (yes … that includes you Mike and Aaron)

Below is a 20 second Palm Pre video clip of the storms rolling in on Monday, June 21, 2010 using the upload directly to YouTube feature. (we just lost power, but I’m posting on my notebook and uploading via MyTether.)
🙂

Category: Personal, Photos, Video, Weather | No Comments »
Tags: taylor, thunderstorms

Posted By RichC on June 20, 2010

We had my dad over to our house this past week and enjoyed celebrating Father’s Day a bit early on Thursday evening. The conversation was great while reviewing photos from our trip to Washington DC and reflecting on what a great example my dad has been for me. He did a great job in a changing time of being a father and husband.

Between my dad’s generation and mine, the expectations on fathers and a husbands has changed significantly. Not only is more expected from fathers around the home and in their community, but males also have had to adjust to the “liberation of women” and equality in the workplace. Most of the many of the changes in the last 50 years have been positive for both men and women, but there is a tinge of jealously in how previous generations of males were treated – there was no question who was the head of the household. Yes, there was a time when “dad” was “king of his castle.”  Still, I like my family relationship the way it is. I’m thankful my wife is independent and that we’ve raised a daughter who doesn’t set limits on her potential. I’m glad my son respects women as peers and doesn’t even question the idea of shared home duties, parenting and that both men and women can provide income for the family.

As for the changes, below is a series of sexist mid-20th century advertising that better illustrates the change American males of my father’s generation saw; if women viewed their changes as ‘gains,’ what about men — ‘losses’ … or ‘gains’ too?

Category: History, Humor, Personal | No Comments »
Tags: ads, advertising, dad, family, father, fathers day, Marketing

Posted By RichC on June 19, 2010

I saw some video shot with an under $1000 Canon Rebel T2i/550D camera today that had me drooling to upgrade my digital camera. Although I’m not really in the market for a new 18 megapixel DSLR, the advertising video shot for Amber Mac’s (Amber MacArthur) book Power Friending had me thinking about it. The encoded flash video below doesn’t do the original 90MB MP4 file justice, but the quality is most definitely better than I’ve ever been able to shoot on my older camcorder or Palm Pre. (Check out Amber’s business savy social networking book Power Friending.)

Also this is (‘was’ if you are reading this) the weekend to back up my growing myarchive.us database and upgrade WordPress to 3.0 — ‘Thelonious’ for Thelonious Monk.

Hopefully WordPress will continue to remain as solid at the last several minor updates. Besides a new ‘default’ theme (won’t see here), version 3.0 incorporates a Multi User (MU) feature permitting several blogs on one install … similar to WordPressMU. Several new management features will eventually make menu setup and changes quick as will the plug-in updater. Business users might like the changes that support contacts, employees, products and the ability to manage newsletters. I’m not sure how many of the new features I’ll be using for my personal site, but this install will be great for small to mid-size corporate sites that used different CMS software or heavily customized WordPress.

Category: Social Media, Technology, Video | 2 Comments »
Tags: camera, Canon, dslr, mp4, upgrade, wordpress

Posted By RichC on June 18, 2010

I’m definitely not a soccer fan or someone who closely follows the World Cup, but as the games proceed into the weekend, I’ve been someone conscious of our nation’s team and find myself cheering for a strong finish.

Today’s game against Slovenia was one of disappointment after a valiant comeback. The United States rallied from a two-goal halftime deficit to tie Slovenia 2-2 yet having an erroneous offside call disallow a winning US score. So once again, a tie for the United States is the best they can do in Friday’s play. Tremendous comeback nevertheless.

Category: Sports | 4 Comments »
Tags: soccer, world cup

Posted By RichC on June 17, 2010

Reid Stowe arrives in NYC today after his “odyssey at sea.” (previous posts) The homecoming is broadcasting live by UStream below at about 11AM EST on Thursday June 17, 2010 with an expected flotilla arrival between 1-3PM at Pier 81.

EDIT: Might be 1152 days … although I thought my count was accurate?

This past January, Stowe reached his original goal of remaining at sea for 1,000 days (2 years, 7 months and 4 days) without re-supply or touching land, in the process setting or breaking 4 world records.

However, since Day 1,000 (16 January, 2010) of Stowe’s challenging voyage would put his return to NY harbor in the middle of winter when the storms of the North Atlantic were at their peak, Stowe decided to sail with the variable winds and currents of the Atlantic doldrums, planning to return instead on Thursday, 17 June, 2010 at which time he will have passed 3 years and will end up at 1,151 days total.

Stowe left port on April 21, 2007 and was accompanied by his girlfriend and first mate, Soanya Ahmad. Together they sailed from the Hudson towards the Atlantic on a ship laden with three years worth of food, solar panels for energy, large tarps to catch rainwater, a laptop, an iridium satellite telephone, and a Metocean tracking unit that would verify the path of the 1000 days voyage.

Category: News, Sailing | 4 Comments »
Tags:

Posted By RichC on June 17, 2010

I’m not a regular email ‘forwarder,’ but occasionally one tickles my funny bone. Thanks D.

Only in  America …

• do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy  cigarettes at the front.
• do people order double  cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke.
• do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.
• do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk  in the garage.
• do we buy hot dogs in packages of  ten and buns in packages of eight.
• do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

Ever Wonder …

• Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin?
• Why  women can’t put on mascara with their mouth  closed? Why don’t you ever see the headline ‘Psychic Wins  Lottery’?
• Why is  ‘abbreviated’ such a long word? 
  Why is it that doctors call what they do ‘practice’?
• Why is  lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and  dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?
• Why is the man who invests all your money called a "broker"?
• Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called  ‘rush hour’?
• Why isn’t there mouse-flavored cat food?
• Why didn’t Noah swat those two mosquitoes?
• Why do they sterilize the needle for Lethal Injections?
• Why don’t we make whole planes from the indestructible black box ?
• Why don’t they make the whole plane out of that stuff?
• Why don’t sheep shrink when it rains?
• Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?

IF …

• con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
• flying  is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

Category: Humor | 2 Comments »
Tags: dawglegs, email, Humor, jokes

Posted By RichC on June 16, 2010

I ordered a couple books for summer reading on Tuesday, although I might hold one back for vacation. First, the new “thriller” called The Overton Window by Glenn Beck was just released and it is sure to be a best seller. Thankfully this mass marketed hardcover is priced right at several online booksellers … which tempted me to add a second book by one of m favorite authors Steven Coonts – The Disciple.

A third book that I’d like to read was also released today is from Ohio candidate for governor John Kasich – Every Other Monday.

Category: Books, Video, Video-TV | 2 Comments »
Tags: Books, foxnews, glenn beck, john kasich, oreilly, steven coonts

Posted By RichC on June 15, 2010

After dipping below the 10,000 mark for early June, the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 213.88 points, or 2.10%, to 10404.77 today breaking out of the closely watched 200-day moving average. The S&P 500 was also up 2.35% seeing every sector moving in the up direction. The biggest gains 2.76% were over at the Nasdaq, where positive earnings from Best Buy citing notebook computer sales were strong. Unfortunately the good news for the overall market wasn’t good enough news for Best Buy shareholders as trader expectations were for even better sales, hence BBY shares tumbled 6.1% to 38.56. There’s a good reason the trader saying, “buy on the rumor and sell on the news.”  (POLL BELOW or on TwtPoll)

For the year, the S&P has inched into positive territory by 0.13 point, whereas the Dow moved to within 24 points of its 2009 year end finish. For those long in the market, we need the recession to confidently be over … is it?

Category: Financial, Poll | No Comments »
Tags: djia, finance, Poll, stock market, twitter, twtpoll

Posted By RichC on June 15, 2010

With so many video embedding options, I wanted to see how well the established Brightcove video works in my WordPress install. The clip below is from Rasmussen Reports which gathered opinions on buying alternative fuel cars and dealing with our insatiable appetite for petroleum. Interesting results.

Category: Environment, Poll, Video | 4 Comments »
Tags: alternative fuel, brightcove, rasmussen