Charles W. Moore

KANQ Balloons Aloft 2014

Here are some pictures from this years Balloons Aloft event this year that was held on July 11, 12. Another great event thanks to Walt and Marsha, et. al.

New Stuff & House Bound

Ok, so I recovered from the password adventure.  Now what?  Well, I bought a Dell Precision T5400 w 2x 4 core Xeon processors. a full win 7 32/64 bit disc set with COA and a cheapy reactivation code for a Win 7 Home install.  At this point all are operational.

The Dell Precision I bought from eBay arrived and it was much heavier than I expected. In addition, when I pulled the cover plate off it is extremely tightly packed.  Working on it is not your usual Dell Optiplex experience.  In fact, it is down right uncomfortable except if you are in a Precision expert.  Perhaps I will become one but it will not be without travails. Spent the afternoon on this beast.  Still to come – clone the 160GB HDD for the future fail – and then clone it to a 500 or greater HDD. It is a nice machine.  Really.

Before the Precision, I took an old Dell Latitude D620 with Win XPP and applied a face lift with a new life of Windows 7 Home. It installed OK with a full format install and is not too slow.  Unfortunately, I found out later that the replacement battery I bought a couple of winters ago is kaput.  Therefore, it is a run without battery only and this is a disappointment.  Anyway, jobs are all done and I am going to relax a bit.

The Friday Night Net on IRLP is on so I have to go.  Bye.

Windows 7 – a word to the wise

Oh oh, recovering Dell w Win 7 64 Bit. This happened when the auto-update did not perform correctly. A word of wisdom: make a thumb drive with the password restore on it and make a repair disc. I had neither for the 64 bit install so I was sad for a while. BTW – this was a two account machine but the other account only had standard user rights – which means I could not change someone elses account password.

I installed the original 64bit install disc and managed to back off the last update and – walla – the password was my normal one. I this whole process I generated another account that has admin rights so if it ever happens again I can for a start log into that account and restore my password.

It all started with ……

—--still waiting and bought a full version Win 7 Pro for the Dell Precision Server:  will it live up to expectations?  This is an experiment that may be a throwback to some older server version.  

Alternative Medicine: Part 1

In the past I have been a scoffer at such stuff as alternative medicine.  This is based upon my very conservative Midwest upbringing, a critical and conservative nature with a bit of mis-trust thrown in and finally a belief in the big business scientific process.  I admit that you cannot just throw all the junk being made these days into the public realm with no authoritative confirmation that it has “some” value:  With a worldwide audience of “ready-to-jump-for-anything” people there has to be a “control” of some sort but the with the national mania for “tag’em, bag’em, book’em” these days who can believe anything?  Folks, there is a thriving counter-culture spending good money on things that merit some research and a modicum of “control”.  So what does the term ORGANIC mean to you?  It really means nothing at all, in any sense.

I prefer the term “Naturally Grown” and this means that a seed can reproduce itself in the same exact form as its parents, year after year, without patent or other encumbrance year after year.

Now, after that comes the “wild” label and this means it is free grown in the world, from its own seed,  with no artificial means of support from human intervention, other than planting the seed,  for 10 generations.  I like the Wild label.  I strived for that but finally caved to the $$$ and lack of familia support needed during the heydays of my farm days.  So here I am at the end of my statement and wish that others will win.

This is by no means an endorsement but just a reprint:

http://www.bluemorphotours.com/scientific-research/mental-health-and-ayahuasca.html

Mothers Day from Facebook

Little Yellow in the morning

Here it is the day after the 4th of July. This is the day after the night before and when I slept soundly through the fireworks that I did not hear. This is the day after the early morning arrival of Abby, who jumped upon my bed and awakened me, and who disappeared almost immediately. This is the day that I could not go back to sleep after Abby Event.

I got up and made some porridge, via a three minute burn in the microwave, and added pecans, raisins, cran-raisins plus local honey that I know came from fields nearby. While all this was melding together, the electric teapot was plugged in and water was boiled, cooled to proper temperature and added to two bags of Teatley English Breakfast tea in a very fine teapot. Breakfast was enjoyed on the back porch while being serenaded by birds of all sorts on this clear, cool day.

I took the deck umbrella cover off and laid it aside so that I could deploy the umbrella and made it so. The morning sun was just filtering through the trees while I was enjoying my strong tea and Abby cavorting around the deck in her silent non-barking manner. While all this was happening, I noticed a green tree frog sittng in a nook on the adjacent deck chair. She was a pretty frog.

Later in the morning I took the red but striped cover down to Little Yellow so I could cover the exposed boom that has the main sail attached. I adjusted a few lines and this helped LY to ride more naturally in her slip and left for the morning.

Science fiction legend Bradbury wrote this as part of a 12-piece series for Esquire in 1951. Bradbury explores a world in which everyone has the same dream that the world would end, yet no one erupts in panic. Instead, the unstated end of the world lends a kind of calmness to society with everyone following their daily routines exactly as planned. The story leaves you wondering what exactly you would do if you knew the world was ending.

Read it for free here.

4 July 2014 – A Sail with sister Ann

Today is the 4th of July 2014. So far I have heard very, very little fireworks or other indications of the celebrations going on outside our little quiet town of 500 souls. Out big deal is the family get together at sister Ann’s house. We had great hamburgers grilled by Lee. The burger meat came from Albright’s in Corunna – they are a recognized purveyor of fine meats of most types – and we like their style. They also have sheep cheese which is aged – guessing at 8-10 months – and I am able to digest this cheese with no problems.

After lunch with most of my sisters clan, we headed down to Pleasant Lake for water fun. Ann and I took out Little Yellow for her maiden voyage on this boat. She did a fine job of learning the fundamentals and took care of the Jib and sometimes the Main Sheets. Next time I sit back and be a coach while she sweats and keeps us from a capsize. Finally after and hour or more I became thirsty so we sailed down to our beach and just sort of drove her onto the beach where we leisurely lowered and stowed the sails and gear. Then we manually hauled Little Yellow around to her slip on the north side of the pier. The winds on the lake today were from the north and maybe 5 MPH down on the lake which is in a glacial moraine bowl. Every once in a while there was a little puff that might be 10 MPH and this cause moments of fun with screams from some as the boat tilted past 20°. We are under the influence of Hurricane Arthur as you can see from the picture.

“Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemmingway

Just finished reading a short story “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemmingway.  I read this today as part of a series of 14 brilliant pieces of literature that you can read on your lunch hour.  I still want to know what the little operation or procedure that is almost nothing really happens to be – I guess we will never know and this allure is perhaps what drew me to the article.  I am attaching the pdf in its entirety to this short post.

Hills Like White Elephants – Ernest Hemingway