LDKBox

Well, we made it another year.  We fooled them all and I am not going to tell anyone.  I have a habit of scanning the pages of several newspapers that I receive on line as I set at the computer at our kitchen table.  It is my early morning ritual to garner information on my already formed opinion that somehow lean the way that I think,  rather than people I know that use the same sources to help make them come to an informed opinion by reading opposing views.  In other words at this point I know what I know.  (sounds a little like Popeye does it not?)  Admittedly,  one must take on new ideas to be fair but as I fought with my Father’s ideas when I was young I still am my Father’s son I must say that having been there I know what does and doesn’t work even if I didn’t do it correct the first, second, or even third time.  All that says is that I am stubborn…kinda…sorta….maybe a little bit…?  Can anyone spell denial?  LOL!!

So in the process of getting news sources I do happen upon the informative side of the Internet.  That would be my horoscope.  I never have been one to have any faith what so ever in astrology but I must admit that I read them all the time and laugh.  I would say to myself. “This stuff is so general in its meaning that it could apply to anyone.”  Then I would read it.  Think about it.  Then cast it off with a whim.  I gotta say that this little snippet of astrological information must be right!  This is no generalization of information but hits the nail right on the head.  This was written for me.

quoted text from an astrological reading found on the web while surfing the Internet today.

Your renowned intellect has been strained the last couple of years, as it’s been forced to find solutions to the many issues you’ve been dealt. In 2010, you’ll finally be gaining some traction on your biggest challenges, and solutions will flow to you with ease.

So armed with this knowledge from such a reputable source(the Internet) I submit to my readers this wish for a Happy New Year and rest my case.  It must be right.  It was on the internet.?!

Comments (0) Dec 31 2009

A week or so ago I made a few phone calls to make plans with the siblings on the gathering of the family for the sale that will be in July.  AT the time that I made the calls I was not feeling very well and felt bad that I had to inform my family that things were not going as well as one would expectas far as my road to recovery was concerned.   Part of the reason for the gathering is to do work.  There is to be an estate sale and items need to be moved and set up for the auction the morning of the sale.  At the time I called I was feeling guilty for feeling like I was not holding my end of the bargain as far as work was concerned.   To a sibling all said the same thing.   “Don’t worry about it!”   Now a few weeks later I am pleased to say that I can see a definite change in my bodies ability to maintain energy.  I  am not going to run any marathons in the fore see able future but change is happening everyday.  So much so that I feel like I may be able to contribute my share of the load when LD and I return to Iowa in July.

Making phone calls is fast becoming my low priority.  As with everything change is always in the offing.  Soon I will divest myself of the lifeline that so many people call a cell phone.   I have to admit that I have been caught …hook, line, and sinker ….by the technology craze.  Somehow I use the new technology to get me closer to Star Trek’s transporter or Spock’s tricorder.  We are not there yet but for that minuscule moment when first obtained and used in the hand of this dirt head it is almost as if I were there fleeting as it were.   Without regard to the feeling that I may or may not have been trying to induce I have enjoyed the benefits of the technology as well.  I remember a video that my wife made of the first day of school for LD.  I was in Alaska when school started that year.  I had lamented the fact that I would not see the first day of school with LD to my wife,  Ellen.  She used the technology available to record the moment and send it to me via the Internet.  Needless to say I wore the F5 button out on my keyboard that night after work when viewing the video.

Well maybe the video on the Internet is not Star Trek  tech enough for some…. it certainly has been for me.  Being a dirt head by trade and a clandestine wordsmith it is easy for me to see the leaps and bounds that I have witness with my generation.  My Dad  used to farm with animals.  Tractors took over.  Farmers produced more with less of everything but money and petroleum.   How about settlers taking years to get to Oregon on  a wagon train.  I traveled from Alaska to Texas in 85 hours in a truck.  A plane can do it so fast it would make anyone, but a star trek fan,  head spin.  True enough it is not the transporter with instantaneous appearance but the changes are what is Star Trek worthy.  I have been a part of that evolution.

Does anyone remember Web-TV.  Well it was good for a Luddite like myself.  It was slow but one could watch TV while one waited….and waited….and waited  for it to magically appear.  Heaven forbid that you might click on the wrong icon.  You may as well shut it off and start again on the morrow.  Remember dial -up?    How about Pocketmail?  Anyone interested in a Nokia 770?   How about an e-Book ?   Then there is Alienware , Spyware, Malware and all the other ware’s, hard or otherwise,  that are out there.   Hands free, voice recognition, HD, WiFi, Blutooth, wireless, wired, touch screen  and any other app to come to mind to the most recent entrepreneur  app inventor.   It changes so fast that it has gone past the cutting edge of technology to the ultra exteme referred to in our house as the “bleeding edge” of technology.  I am still hemorrhaging  from my least favorite item in my arsenal the Ipod phone or IPhone.   The things that Appledid to limit me could well be the cause of my depression.  Just the other day I was talking to the wife about the cost of the new IPhone.  What was I thinking?????  I want to simplify (lower my costs)not add to my life with voice recognition software(there is another ware…they are everywhere!) or make HD movies or have an enhanced version of a not so good camera.

All of this because I made a few phone call to my family.  What was I thinking…? LOL!

Comments (0) Jun 12 2009

Everyone in this household is thinking about the upcoming inaguration of President-elect Obama.  Are you going?  What party are you going to attend?   Where are you going to view it?  At what cost are you willing to attend something that you may or may not observe ?  I am taller than a lot of people but when you are talking about millions of people in attendance I think I may, at one time or another, be blocked from viewing the inaguration simply from the massesin attendance.

I believe that TV has changed my desire to be in attendance.  The advent of new technologies that disperse these events through the air waves and the receptors that produce the pictures after being sent.  You see I am one of those people that can remember the shear joy of having a test pattern to view on black and white  TV.  In my generation snow on a TV was a positive thing.  The TV was warming up almost ready for a broadcast picture from the network  Then came the test patterns.  A sure sign that the networks were coming to life.  I am from the generation that pre-dates the clicker…remote….channel changer.  I WAS the original channel changer.  I laid on the floor in front of the TV and changed the channel as requested by my Mother, Father, hired man, aunts, uncles,brothers, sisters, cousins, and even a cattle-buyer eating noon meal at my families kitchen table.  Consequently, I cannot remember a time that I did not have access to a TV.  There have been so many events that I have witnessed on live television that allowed me to be there in the comfort of my own home, with considerable monetary savings.   A fifty yard line, box seat, birds eye view,  with instant replay plus concise and cogent analysis.  (Ok, maybe no so cogent commentary sometimes)  Just given the fact that I witnessed the astonauts rocket into space as a young boy with my father in our farm home in Iowa, I knew, even though I was not there, that I would have the image and the memory of sharing those space shots with my father because of the televsion. 

So from my vantage point I have made a preference shift of thought as to what is witnessing and what is attending something to witness it such as physically attending.  I would be crazy to say that I would not want to attend!   If a front row seat to the inaguration were to be offered I would be the first to take it with out a doubt.  With that said, I also know that when I view the inaguration videos at a later time,  I would be viewing all the things that I missed.  The televison coverage gives me information that I have pondered plus it brings up a whole lot of questions that I had never thought about.  Some being good and some being not so good.  But the commentary always stimulates my thoughts as to where I stand in the whole scheme of things.

So what I am saying is…I would attend if given the oppurtunity.  Knowing that that is not an option makes viewing the inaguaration on the latest video technology that man has to offer society some how easier.  The  stage and scene all digitally remastered through the airwaves to give me a picture that is better than being there.  The smells of the city may be missing  yet I think that I can live without the smell of car exhausts and industrial polution.  Mix that smell with the smell of countless BTU’s being expended by the millions of 98.6 degree’d BTU burners I like to call people.  Now that is a memory that may or may not produce a warm fuzzy moment. 

I hope my wife records the inaguration so we can, in the years to come,  re-live the moment with the same view, the same sounds, at exactly  the same time and instill in our children that witnessing and being a part of something does not always mean one must attend.  It is of the mind and spirit that I am talking about.  I miss my moments with my Father.  As I miss my own Mother.  Both are at rest together at last.  I hope it was as good a moment for them as it was for me.  Watching the test patterns on TV with my Mother and Father will always be the linking moment,  that will make television and what it provides to me,  the memory between my Mother and Father.  I would die a happy man if I were able to instill that feeling into my own son.

Comments (0) Jan 16 2009