My Bro.

I have lots of pictures in lots of shoe boxes. I keep trying to find common themes or series. I don't always have a lot of luck. These pictures of my brother are from different 'eras' and I thought they went together some-how.

The last two include his wife Janine.


I remember flying home for the wedding. I was in Hawaii and took leave to come back to PA for the wedding.

Spam-Prevention Robot!!!!!

What the (pardon me) HELL!

I have been locked out of my Blog effective the 28th of February until some twit headed geek at Google decides I am not a spammer. I am still allowed to create drafts (which is where this is being saved for later ranting) for future posting if I get approved(?).

I probably should not rant. The internet nazis might take away my free blog space.

Till whenever ...

Red Candle on Camp-K Blog

I have, with a lot of help from Dan and Steve, posted the Red Candle story on the Camp-K Blog. Dan wrote the story and Steve had kept it archived over the past few years. They were nice enough to share the story with me. Check out the story at this link - The Red Candle.

Computer Crashes can have an upside

Friday morning I tried to start up my computer at work and . . .

. . .

. . .

. . . nothing happened!!!

It sucked and is still sucking!

I ended up taking the whole thing to circuit city and literally shouting 'FIREDOG"! to the customer service person. I nice tech-geek named Shane helped me come to the conclusion that I needed to wipe my hard drive and start over.

There is good news in this. We were able to save my recent work documents before wiping the drive. Most of my other stuff was backed up in one way or another. My music was on my Zen player. Other documents and pictures were backed up on an external drive. I did lose many of my downloaded programs. I also lost my Neverwinter Nights characters and saves.

Reloading everything had some benefits. Lots of little programs that were constantly running in the background got wiped out. I decided to ditch Internet Explorer and loaded Mozilla Firefox as my web browser. I had one heck of a time getting my VONGO player running. I finally got that figured out late Saturday night.

So, in the end I have learned that it is a great idea to keep your files backed up and that I am way to attached to my computer. I'm back up and running! Now, more posts!

The Eck Men

Sam was home to Mom and Dad's. We were there late today so I'm posting a pic and getting to bed.

I missed a Lifeguard picture

I missed a picture of a lifeguard class. Thought I would post it. It has some people who are still around.

I also found an older B&W polaroid (Polaroids? Instant satisfaction for picture takers before digital came along) of Jack Williams, Brian Guffy, and myself. Eric Erdman is on the deck sporting the oversized cooling fins on the side of his head that earned him the nickname 'wingnut'.

I'm excited about this picture. It is really touched up or restored. The Black and White Polaroids bleach to white over time and this doctored scan is much nicer than the original. And I did it all by myself (pat self on back).

24

I won't take the time to link to all the left wing web sites that are carrying critiques of all the torture scenes in '24' and using the fall-out to slam the Bush White House. Just google '24 torture' and you will get enough hits to keep you busy. Well . . . Ok, here are a few sites -

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2005-03-13-24-torture_x.htm
http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2007/02/13/us_military_slams_24_torture_scenes http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0212/p99s01-duts.html
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/13/torture-on-24/

BOTTOM LINE -- '24' is a FICTIONAL TV SHOW!!!!!

It is not real. Most of the show is not even plausible. To think that people in the military use Jack Bauer as a model for conducting interrogation is . . .Lame. Sure, Jack is inflicting pain on the bad guys every week and the rag heads are always the bad guys (and that is not even true).

But Boy-oh-boy -- It is good entertainment. It is like the old cliff hangers. Mom and I make a point of watching it every Monday Night. She missed last weeks episode because she was at a Red Hat meeting. In the end, Jack Buaer will probably find out that the whole conspiracy being masterminded by the Red Hat Society. Or, is that real life? I can't remember.

Children of the Crow

This is something my brother and I did over Thanksgiving. It is an original piece of music he and I created. We tried to keep it 'pink floydish'. It does get a little loud at times. I like the second half the best.

We called the piece "Children of the Crow".

MyMusicCode.com

More Yahoooo!

My brother and I spent more time on messanger today. We found a new way to share photos. Now we don't have to download them to each other. They just open in the chat box on a seperate side screen. He sent me some more pictures from Canada and a few of my nephew Sam.

This picture has my Mom, Sam, Cramer (the dog), Dad, and Sean Hannity (on the TV).

Bay Watch - Milton Style

This is a little gag reel I made right after I bought my computer. It kinda ties in with yesterdays post, so I thought I would put it up for your amusement.

Y do I care about lifeguard training

For years I ran the Red Cross Lifeguard Course at the Milton YMCA. Then, two years ago, Ann L. started running the course. I was not asked to help, I was not told I would no longer be running the course, I was just 'black balled' without notice.

And it is OK. I spent many, many hours prepping and running the course. I called in favors from several friends. The end result was a superior program that produced quality lifeguards. No-one has run a lifeguard course as well as I did; and I did it with the help of pros like Jack Williams, Brian White, Keith Yiako, Eric Erdman and others.

It is a loss for the YMCA. It is a gain for me, for I have found other opportunities to fill the time I would have spent managing the lifeguard course. Ultimately, I enjoyed the process of teaching. Now I do that every day.

Tomorrow, Bay Watch - Milton Style

More Snow!

It continued to snow today. And, best of all, it was a snow day, a 'no go to school' day.

There was very little traffic in Milton and an awful lot of snow.

Let it Snow!

Finally, it has snowed.

I snapped a quick pick off of my back porch (a roof) for proof.

Yahoooooo (messenger)

I have been having so much fun with Yahoo Messenger. I finally convinced my brother to get his computer set up with messanger. The first time we got online to audio chat he sent me a few videos from a past canada trip. In one of them Dave W. and I are riding on a jet ski. Darned if Dave doesn't call me on my cell phone. Within a few minutes Dave is online and giving my brother and I a web cam tour of his apartment. Then my son Dan gets online with us. We were having a four way phone call with video. How cool is that?!



This past weekend my brother and I got online together and played some games together and talked for almost an hour and a half. He lives in New Hampshire. It didn't cost anything more than my internet bill which I would be paying anyway!! That is super cool!

Now, tonight, Todd figured out we can share our music files with each other. Yipeee!

He sent me "Smoke on the Water". A 'must have' for your mp3 player.

God and Equus

I have been reading "The Language of God" by Francis Collins. Collins was the key researcher and program leader of the Human Genome Project. The book examines the evidence, both intellectual and scientific, for a belief in God. Then, I see Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is getting naked for his role in a revival of "Equus".




I had to get the play and read it. Equus is a complex play by Peter Shaffer. It was originally written and performed in 1973. It remains as valid today as it did in 1973. It was interesting that I came across it when I did. It dove tails nicely into the thoughts presented in "Language of the Gods" and what is going on in my life today.

Shaffer, in his play, portrays how materialism and convenience have ruined societies capacity to worship or see God in our world. This thought works in well with the material presented in Collins book.

The shrink in Equus must weigh the decision to 'cure' his patient and, in the process, destroy the patients passion. Dysart (the shrink in the play) must choose between two bad decisions. He must decide which bad plan is less bad. I know this dilemma.

Both the book and the play are good reads. I recommend them both.

New Blog

I started a new blog . . . Like an "official" blog .. with purpose.

It is a Blog for Camp Pictures and postings of Camp memories, stories, and recollections.

CAMP K