Nov 5 2006, 11:57 PM About twenty years ago, there was a movie by the title Winter of Our Discontent, starring Donald Sutherland, among others. It’s title always stuck in my head, as did the grey, dreary winter images of the film’s cinematography, and whenever I have a series of economic or life downturns in November, that title comes to my mind. This November seems to be shaping up along these lines, despite my concerted efforts at positive thinking. My wife calls it “trials”; that I am being
Nov 2 2006, 08:07 PM Some of the readers of this blog know that I’m at the “end of life” in my radio engineering career, which largely replaced my graphic design career, which I started after retiring from the corporate 9-5 world in the 1980s. With property tax debts piling up and an income that was more business expenses than income, the time was right for a change. Last spring, I was in the middle of a huge emergency with renovating the worst part of the roof of our home. Water damage, carpe
Oct 28 2006, 11:43 AM This is an incredulous story that I’m about to relate. I’ll get to the background and then the shocking part: I’ve been a member of a mostly techie web site called BroadbandReports.com, also known as DSLReports.com for about five years now. I’ve been a member in good standing, never spammed the discussion forums and, while often held a contrary view on property taxes and was somewhat notorious for that, never got into a clash with the board’s management because of my view
Oct 27 2006, 03:52 PM I just finished watching a DVD video called "The Secret". It is a documentary about a secret, known by all the great, successful men throughout history, a secret because the average wage slave doesn't know about it. The topic I am about to discuss is metaphysical and has some grounding in quantum physics. I am writing about the Law of Attraction. It is the primary secret of success. It embodies visualizing what you want, and aligning yourself in harmony with the universe
Oct 22 2006, 09:11 PM (Cross-posted from my Blog at www.basspig.com) A close friend of mine celebrated his 60th birthday yesterday; his wife had invited myself and a number of other close friends to a surprise party. The requirement was to bring a "homemade" card. Knowing that most of my cards were cheesy, I had to think long and hard about it. And then I realized that a cartoon theme might just have the right flavor for my friend's sense of humor. I'm not a big comic strip fan, but there was
Oct 3 2006, 10:48 PM Friday, September 29th marked the first real step toward my launching my new business as a representative of Primerica Financial Services. I passed my Life Insurance Producer pre-licensing test. I took the test in Wallingford, CT. It was a strictly-controlled computer-based test (they even make you remove all personal items from your pockets and put them in lockers before you enter the testing room). There is no score given, only pass or fail. I passed! I did 5 hours of r
Oct 16 2006, 02:32 PM Although this is a story that I had heard about a few weeks ago, yesterday, while I was at the Primerica Leadership training in New Haven, CT (something we reps attend every 3 months), the story came to life in a very intimate way, when it was told in front of the group of 1,000-plus people that were there Saturday, Oct 14th. On October 1st, 2006, a family of five was traveling on the Long Island Expressway and for some reason their minivan veered off the highway and coll
Oct 8 2006, 03:20 AM Following the general downturn of the radio industry with respect to RF engineers who work in the field, I am faced with the possibility of a forced career change. One of the things that plagues me with the radio industry is the relatively low hourly wage that clients consider "fair". My published rate is $65, however, I charge clients retained by referral just $50. Despite this modest rate, quite a few clients are indicating that the rate is more than they want to pay. I
Oct 5 2006, 11:47 PM This is about carpentry, struggling against poverty, and being in a positon where one's back is against the wall and slowly prevailing, little by little. It is about an ongoing project that I started in earnest in 2003. I live in a house that, a few short years ago was fit for condemnation and demolition. Having gotten married late in life, to an Asian, we returned to the US and the situation was, fortunately, not too much of a shock for her. And American woman would have
Feb 12 2006, 11:29 PM This is the story of a small dream that came true. For years, I'd been authoring web pages and uploading them to some server across the country, for a yearly hosting fee. My cable company broadband forbids running servers and blocks all the common server ports. I'd been with them about four years. All of this would change after the wind storm of January the 18, 2006... We had two back-to-back outages in which the cable was out for a week or more before they would send a r
Aug 10 2005, 11:25 PM We shot our first wedding with the VX2000 (and my wife shot stills with a new Olympus E300—what a camera!!) last Sunday, August 7th. The wedding video was planned back in March. We had decided to use three cameras, our two VX2000s and our TRV900. I had arranged to have a relative who is going to school for commercial graphics apprentice as a camera operator. She had done a reasonable job at an event we taped last summer, so I decided to offer this job to her. The morning
Jul 19 2005, 05:15 AM The third week of June was a most interesting period for me, as I was enjoying a rare opportunity to achieve one of my dreams: recording a symphony orchestra. The opportunity arose because of a longtime client of mine, the general manager of a classical/fine arts radio station, who also happens to be the son of a famous American composer and a conductor as well. In late May, he approached me about a recording session, mainly to be for his self-promotion. I was to make a v
Jul 15 2005, 02:26 AM I just got back from the Cathedral in Hartford, CT where I heard the Austin organ demonstrated for me by the assistant music director. This is one of the larger cathedrals in the eastern US. We talked about numerous recording possibilities, including orchestrating unconventional renditions and adapting them to the organ (ie, a piece normally played by an orchestra, adapted to organ). I also spoke to the organist, who lit up when I mentioned the great Bavo Organ in the Net
Apr 19 2005, 04:47 AM Last Friday night (4/15), I attended a dress rehearsal of a regional symphony orchestra. I was there for the purpose of preparing for the early stages of a possible recording contract; ie., getting familiar with the venue, the orchestra and the politics of it all. This particular night, the orchestra was preparing for a performance of La Traviata in concert form. I sat in the middle of the front row of an otherwise nearly empty theater of 2000 seats, with nothing but my n
Apr 9 2005, 03:58 AM I just finished reading State of Fear by Michael Crichton. The book impressed me to a degree. By proxy, he proceeds to demolish the entire fraud of the environmental movement, exposing it for what it is: an apparent means of making a few leaders of the movment rich, while pretending to be doing something noble for humanity. The story had a few moments where "suspension of disbelief" was stretched a bit thin, but overall, he did a very adequate job of building suspense, mys
Mar 1 2006, 08:34 PM A couple of years ago, I received a Plaxo invitation from a trusted friend (or was it Plaxo, impersonating him?), so I figured I'd try it, since, well, if he is using it, then it must be safe. So on my system, it's been for two years running. And in the back of my mind, I'm wondering some things that this particular writer, whose article is linked below, is wondering: http://www.meskill.net/archives/000467.html Things really came to a head when I decided to troubleshoot, i
Mar 22 2006, 03:54 AM I've been making a concerted effort to find work in my area of talent and experience, relating to computer technology this year, and I'm coming back from it all, very frustrated. For example, job postings on Elance.com are attracting very low--ridiculously-low--bids. And the companies that post these projects have absurdly-small budgets. Who the hell can produce a 36-page 4C catalogue for $236?? Other jobs involve fairly advanced 3D graphics modeling and animation, again,
Mar 30 2005, 12:08 AM I went to the dentist today to have a long-needed root canal done. This is part of a series of things I am doing to get myself physically feeling better. The mind, in order to function well, must be supported by a body that is functioning well. I've had trouble with a certain back molar for a few years now. It usually flared up twice a year, but it was becoming more frequent this year, so I decided it is time. My dentist is probably on of the best around. He's actually qu
March 29 2005 The last time I read Anthem was the autumn of 1968. I did not fully understand it then, as I was much younger and had less context by which to reference the work. Tonight, it was my intention to continue reading a Michael Crichton book that I had just purchased, however, thinking about how I might introduce my wife to Objectivism in a series of small, pleasant steps, I went to my Sacred Books, which I keep in a place out of reach of all but myself, at the top of the bookcases. I to
Hey, wutsup, this is my blog. Basically I'm not sure how much substance will be on this, probably a fair amount though. I'll also use this to post updates on my baseball team and funny snippets from conversations I have that I like. My baseball team is 1-1. I had a conversation with my sister yesterday that was real funny. It went something like this. Her: Why would you not worship a God that can accomplish so much that man can't? Me: Because I don't think that's possible. Her: Well can man fly
OK... time to lose some weight. I am tired of getting old and fat and achy. I joined Weight Watchers and got myself a Tony Little Gazelle Sprintmaster. I'm just starting out and I am motivated and ready to work towards a goal of losing around 30-35 pounds. I will occasionally write about my progress as it is supposed to help keep me on track and motivated. Kat
Below are links to my two blogs. On my main blog, "Zenwind," the Climbing Log is a historical recounting of my more memorable rock and ice climbs, most of which happened in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. They are often epic adventures that I record partly as instructional material with advice for newer climbers. I also have what I consider to be my more important reviews of books and movies. Use the "Index" to navigate the various categories. This is a slowly updated but more permanent blog. . The
The Community Blog module allows you to create a personal BLOG (also known as weblog). Creating a Blog In your User Control Panel (My Controls), you will see a Community Blog menu group. To create a Blog click on Blog Settings. When authorized you can create your Blog by agreeing to the Blog Terms and Rules. You will be asked to provide a name for your Blog and a description (optional). You are able to choose between a local and external Blog. Local Blog: A Blog hosted on the board which include
