American Thinker

I added "American Thinker" to the blog list, and here is a link to a fun story about a woman going to church for the first time -- on Christmas Eve.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/12/power_to_the_conservative_peop.html

2009 Year in Review

Should You Buy an iPod Touch Today?

Gizmodo says wait!

Blog Updates

Updated the blog a bit.  Added links to Picassa photos among others.  The new version also allows followers, so you can stay up to date whenever we blog.

Larry asked for a list of blogs to follow for non MSM news.  I added a lot of links to the BlogList.  Larry, start with Instapundit on a daily basis.  Glen Reynolds is a law professor at University of Tennessee and mostly links to interesting stories on the web.  Drudge Report is a popular news aggregate.  Don Surber is a West Virginia columnist that is always worth a look.

Great Customer Service

Received this e-mail from Blinds.com who we used for our front pleated shades.  The blinds are great, and so is the company who sold them to us:


A Blinds.com coupon and a question . . .

---

CEO@blinds.com	Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 4:07 PM
To: xx@xx.com
David, we SINCERELY appreciate your purchase 30 days ago.  First a question . . . if there was one thing about our products or service (or whatever) you could change, what would that be? I'd appreciate your input and WILL read your email reply. Also, did you know that you can rate your blinds on the Blinds.com website? Use the link(s) below to help someone else with their buying decision by posting photos, reviews, and tips. Large National Name Brand: Close-Out Cellular Shades - Light Filtering Also, please do me a favor and tell your friends and neighbors about us.  Forward this email now (or mention us on Facebook or Twitter) and they can use the coupon below. Thanks again! Warm Regards, Jay Jay Steinfeld, CEO CEO@Blinds.com P.S. Forward this email with the coupon now (it expires in 30 days), before you forget! :) Use this coupon code REF733862-21 to take $10 off your next order of $150 or more. One per person, one per household, and must be presented at time of purchase. Minimum purchase of $150. Cannot be combined with any other offer. No limit on the number of people you refer. Offer expires 30 days from the date of this letter. P.P.S. Visit this page anytime to see special offers and find out what's on sale each month. Click here to remove your name from my address book.

---

PopSci: Best 100 Innovations of 2009

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2009-12/looking-back-100-best-innovations-2009

I like the power roller, and the home heat loss analyzer.

Christmas 2009

We had a fantastic Christmas weekend with the Lundeen and Brown families coming to Winter Park.

Christmas pictures are here



Santa brought a very nice photo printer that includes an easy to use scanner.  David is starting to look at the baskets of old photos.  The first few are posted here

And well worth looking at!

Oldy But A Goody - Merry Christmas

To all my Liberal Democrat friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2010, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wish.

To all my Conservative Republican and Independent friends:

Merry Christmas

And, Happy New Year!

Free Remote Control of PC

http://www.showmypc.com/

Great for remote troubleshooting and it's free. End-User simply downloads " Show My PC to Remote User v3010 " and shares the created password with the person troubleshooting remotely. The trouble-shooter then can grab control of the end-users machine to help with installations, driver support, or to show how to use a program.

Very powerful tool that we are using at work.

Pictures of Florida during Depresssion

http://www.floridamemory.com/PhotographicCollection/photo_exhibits/migrant/dining.cfm

Microsoft Security Essentials

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

Microsoft has officially released "Security Essentials" which replacing their very effective Windows Defender spyware protection and adds Anti-Virus protection.

It seems to be unobtrusive, and should be effective, with multiple updates per day. Absolutely Free.

We will be switching to this on all of our home machines, which, uhm, currently totals 5 machines running six Windows operating systems.

Is available for XP, Vista and Windows 7

Eric on the field

The Mae West President

The Mae West Presidency at Donald Sensing's blog

I think what we are witnessing is a combination of two factors:

• A Mae West personality coupled with,
• The return of the Peter Principle

We have here a Mae West presidency, which I illustrate with two quotes of the platinum blondeshell:

1. It's better to be looked over than overlooked.

2. There's no such thing as bad publicity.


...
At one's level of incompetence, the manager or leader occupies his time with tasks below the level necessary for the office and hopes that staffs can pull success's rabbit out of the hat. (This helps explains why Obama has so many czars.) Couple that with Obama's inherent inability to measure success by any standard other than getting personal attention from as broad a swath as possible, and you see that the Oval office is occupied by a weak, ineffectual leader unable to perform at the level required.

As others have exhaustively pointed out, there is nothing at all in Obama's resume that shows he ever made highly difficult decisions that depended, at the end, on his own personal reservoir of wisdom and experience. So he does not tackle the inbox because its contents are above his competence. (One is reminded of Obama telling Rick Warren that when an unborn child gets human rights is "above my pay grade.") He tends instead to lesser matters that match his lower level of competence and gratifyingly feed the ego. And so he flies to Copenhagen to deliver a speech of no significance on a matter of no consequence. Why? Because he can do that - simply standing in front of a crowd reading eloquently from a teleprompter he can handle quite well.

And it gets him front and center in the international media. It's a twofer.

Sweet Little Video

YouTube - GoD And DoG by WJ Francisco

I don't know how to post the picture -

Favorite Firefox Add-Ons

http://www.xmarks.com/

Backup and synchronize bookmarks within Firefox and Internet Explorer. I have been using for about a year to keep four different installations of Firefox synchronized. Now when I add or delete a link on any machine I run Firefox on the others are automatically synchronized.

Zappos.Com

I was listening to a Podcast at work that mentioned that Amazon had purchased Zappos.com

I hadn't been there in ages, but have been slipping and sliding on the slippery streets and sidewalks of Winter Park. My very comfortable Croc sandals have not only lost all their tread, but have been discontinued (because they easily lose their tread?)

So I wandered over to Zappos and found a pair of Teva sandals to try (they may be expensive, but they are really hard to wear out the tread!) That was yesterday afternoon around 5:00 PM. Betsy called after lunch today to say I had a box from Zappos at the front door.

Why do we need shopping malls?

Good article on why we are where we are today

Crisis of a House Inflated — The American, A Magazine of Ideas:

". . . the federal government set out to “solve” a national problem which did not exist and in the end created a national and even international financial problem whose existence is as undeniable as it is painful."

Realty Times - Dear Homeowner:

". . . lately I've been hearing about how appraisers caused this mess and how homeowners should be helped to stay in their homes even if they can't afford them. I'm hearing that my tax dollars and those of my children and grandchildren are going to be used to help people like you who lived way above their means and are now crying foul. It hurts to think that after all the fun you had with the bank's money and with no prospect of making good on the legal contract you signed to pay it back, that you can't just take your lumps and rent for awhile. It would be the honorable thing to do."

The Ruins Project

We have started a blogger diary of the purchase and update of our new home that we have dubbed "The Ruins Project."

There is a permanent link off to the right side of this blog.

Apollo XI -- Forty Years Ago Today

http://wechoosethemoon.org/#

Is live-streaming the entire event over the Internet.

Omnivoracious: The Best Books of the Year So Far

Omnivoracious: The Best Books of the Year So Far

Xylophonia!

Eric and Erik and Connor and Amber and Marrissa

Florida Southern College Band Camp, Saturday June 27, 2009

Percussion Tryouts for Wind Ensemble This Thursday

UPDATE: Eric has accomplished his two big band goals. He has successfully auditioned for both the WPHS Wind Ensemble and made the marching band drum line on snare. Good job Eric. Look forward to the duet with the elephant.

Wish Eric well. The competition is huge.

What the Future of American Motoring Will Look Like

Special Bonus Peek at future Diversity Training meets Global Warming

Home Prices in U.S. Drop Most on Record in Quarter

Home Prices in U.S. Drop Most on Record in Quarter (Update3) - Bloomberg.com

Home prices in the U.S. dropped the most on record in the first quarter from a year earlier, led by California and Florida, as banks sold foreclosed properties.

Prices dropped in 134 of 152 metropolitan areas, with the deepest declines in Cape Coral and Ft. Myers, Florida...
“In areas with the biggest price declines, we also see much higher levels of distressed sales which are distorting the data,” he said.
The steepest price decline was in Cape Coral-Fort Myers, down 59 percent from a year ago, followed by Saginaw, Michigan, with a 54 percent drop. The next biggest decreases were Akron, Ohio, with a 48 percent decline; San Francisco, down 43 percent; and San Jose, California, with a 42 percent drop.
The largest sales gain from a year ago was in Nevada, up 117 percent; followed by California which rose 81 percent; Arizona up 50 percent; and Florida with a 25 percent increase.
Those four states accounted for the 26 highest foreclosure rates in the first quarter among U.S. cities with a population of 200,000 or more, according to RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, California-based seller of real estate data.

David's Birthday Present

Amazon.com: Garmin nuvi 265WT 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Bluetooth & Integrated Traffic Receiver: Electronics



It features:

> Both speed limit and current speed on the front screen
> BlueTooth so I can answer my phone on the way to work
> Can acquire satellites in less than 20 minutes
> Includes all US maps so I don't have to keep downloading them when I travel.

The Swine Flu Has Us All On Edge

Obama Spending Cuts Demonstrated

Ford Fusion hybrid hypermiles, goes 1,445 miles on a single tank

Ford Fusion hybrid hypermiles, goes 1,445 miles on a single tank

While not nearly as fun as fast high g-force acceleration, here are tips for saving on fuel from the article:

CleanMPG.com founder Wayne Gerdes, an engineer from Illinois who coined the term "hypermiling" to describe the mileage-maximizing techniques, provided the pointers. They include:

* Slowing down and maintaining even throttle pressure;
* Gradually accelerating and smoothly braking;
* Maintaining a safe distance between vehicles and anticipating traffic conditions;
* Coasting up to red lights and stop signs to avoid fuel waste and brake wear;
* Minimize use of heater and air conditioning to reduce the load on the engine;
* Close windows at high speeds to reduce aerodynamic drag;
* Applying the "Pulse and Glide" technique while maintaining the flow of traffic;
* Minimize excessive engine workload by using the vehicle's kinetic forward motion to climb hills, and use downhill momentum to build speed; and
* Avoiding bumps and potholes that can reduce momentum

Source of Swine Flu Identified

Government Says Economy Down 1.74%, but Tax Receipts are down 14%?

BizzyBlog » When Will the Press Catch On to Uncle Sam’s Collections Meltdown?

This year, it’s shaping up to be the “Bailout Year Bummer.” Uncle Sam’s fiscal year began on October 1 of last year, mere days before Congress passed the legislation that has come to be known as TARP, and a bit more than three months after Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Harry Reid promised to starve the economy of energy and punitively tax its highest producers, creating what I have since called the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy.

Through March, federal receipts were running 14% behind the previous year. Each month during the fiscal year has trailed the previous year, and degree of the difference has steadily increased.

Read the whole thing. As Maggie Thatcher once said, "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money [to spend]."

Welcome Back Carter

If there were one person responsible for awakening my conservative views (As opposed to Ronald Reagan who confirmed them) it was Jimmy Carter. I was in high school at the time and loved to argue with anyone about what a lousy president "Jimmah" made.

I never thought I would live to see someone as bad, let alone worse.

Foreclosures 46% higher in March than a year ago - USATODAY.com

Foreclosures 46% higher in March than a year ago - USATODAY.com

Foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 341,180 properties in March, 46% more than a year ago and 17% above February's total, RealtyTrac reports today.

Tax Time

Is it o.k. to call the bottom 50% of taxpayers unpatriotic?

Mortgage delinquencies soar in the U.S.

Mortgage delinquencies soar in the U.S. | Special Coverage | Reuters

Equifax Inc, reported that 7 percent of homeowners with mortgages were at least 30 days late on their loans in February, an increase of more than 50 percent from a year earlier.
39.8 percent of subprime borrowers were at least 30 days behind on their home mortgage loans, up 23.7 percent from last year.
Adams said the continued increase in mortgage delinquencies revealed in his data foreshadows more foreclosures, short sales and home price declines as homeowners default and banks then repossess the homes to sell them at deep discounts.
Credit Cards:

Banks closed 8 million credit card accounts in February, reducing the number of open cards to 400 million from a July 2008 peak of 483 million, according to Equifax data.

Credit limits fell as well, to $3.27 trillion in February from a July 2008 peak of $3.59 trillion.

"Limits are falling because lenders are trying to minimize their losses," Adams said.

The data shows that lenders have good reason to be wary. Bank card delinquency is at its highest level in the past five years. Some 4.5 percent of total balances on bank-issued credit cards were at 60 days past due in February, a 32.7 percent increase from a year earlier.

Capturing YouTube Videos to your iPod using FireFox and Windows

Step 1. Open Firefox and follow the DownloadHelper link then click on the "Install the extension !" link

DownloadHelper - Media download Firefox extension

After you restart Firefox, go to Youtube, find a video to watch and click on it. While it is playing, click on the DownloadHelper icon on your Firefox toolbar. This will open a dialog box that will allow you to save the YouTube flash video file to you hard drive.

Step 2. Go to cnet download and download the FLV Player 2.0 Install this player. You can then click on your download .flv files and watch them on your PC. But this still does not put them into your iPod.

Step 3. Click HERE to download the Videora iPod converter. Once downloaded, install the software. You can use Videora to covert your flash files to MPEG4 format that will play on your iPod. Videora can be used to convert the file, then add it to iTunes. Use iTunes to move the files onto your iPod.

Don't Worry We're From the Government and we're here to help... repair your GM car...

Spokane Bans Clean Dishes

Spokane residents smuggle suds over green brands

Forces residents to drive out of state to obtain Cascade or Electrosol.

Our governments are in the very best of hands.

The Country's In the Very Best of Hands

Human Achievement Hour” Announced for March 28

Press Release here: CEI Announces “Human Achievement Hour” to Coincide with “Earth Hour” | CEI

Make sure to keep the lights on.

Now Everyone has a blog

Even Obama's Teleprompter has one:

Barack Obama's Teleprompter's Blog

AtlasShrugged - Now More Than Ever

Atlas raised his eyebrows - Megan McArdle:

"Perhaps predictibly, Ayn Rand is making a comeback on the right, with Congressmen handing out her books, and loose talk of rich people 'Going Galt'.

I don't think that we will see a mass exodus of productive people to secret hideouts. I look to Atlas Shrugged more for conveniently totable beach reading than an economic blueprint. What's interesting to me, though, is how many details Rand did get right--like the markets in 'unfreezing' Ukrainian bank deposits, so similar to the frozen railroad bonds of Atlas Shrugged. Or the cascading and unanticipated failures, with government officials racing to slap another fix on to fix the last failing solution.

She was able to describe these things so well, of course, because she'd seen what an economy looked like while it was being wrecked. All of Rand's writing is dominated by the fact that she lived through the birth pangs of Soviet Russia, and saw her family's business destroyed by Lenin's ideology, and extraordinarily incompetent economic management. Her philosophy does not work, at least if by work we mean generate a framework by which a person or society can order itself. But she was actually a really very gifted observer, and she had a quite subtle understanding of how all the interconnected elements of an industrial economy fit together.

Keep reading the book, son.

These signs are popping up all over America as people come out to protest the Trillion dollar generational theft being propagated by Congress. And please, stop talking about it being "inherited". These thieves have run Congress and the Senate for the past two years, and failed to work on a 2009 budget until Obama came to power. They now own the 2009 1.5 Trillion dollar deficit.

Bumper Sticker of the Day

Laugh of the day

Iranian Air Defense Radar: “Unknown aircraft you are in Iranian airspace. Identify yourself.”

Pilot: “This is a United States aircraft. I am in Iraqi airspace.”

Air Defense Radar: “You are in Iranian airspace. If you do not depart our airspace we will launch interceptor aircraft!”

Pilot: “This is a United States Marine Corps FA-18 fighter. Send ‘em up, I’ll wait!”

Air Defense Radar: (no response… total silence)

****************

overheard recently on the VHF Guard (emergency) frequency 121.5 MHz while flying from Europe to Dubai .

Photo from the NYC "Tea Party" Deficit Protests

Keep reading Eric. The book is 52 years old and still very relevant.

Dilbert

Joke of the Day

Question: What is the difference between Obama and Jesus?

Answer: Jesus was a carpenter and Obama can't assemble a cabinet.

Orange County Public Schools -

Orange County Public Schools Safety and Driver Education Page -

No Hyperbole Here

According to Nancy Pelosi, every month that goes by that the $900 Billion Generational Theft Act has not been passed, "500 million Americans will lose their jobs."

FirstTimeDriver.com

FirstTimeDriver.com

First Time Driver (D.A.T.A.) - $21.00

Never had a Driver's License? All first time drivers in the State of Florida are required to take the Drug Alcohol Traffic Awareness (DATA) course before applying for their license. Take the 4 hour class at your convenience and from the privacy of your own home! By taking this course, you will learn about how alcohol and other drugs affect your ability to drive, laws and responsibilities, safe driving techniques, and how to increase your awareness on our roadways. You will also have the option of taking your driver's license exam online after completing this course (if applicable).

First Time Driver (TLSAE) Course Online

http://www.funnyinflorida.com/first-time-driver.php

Florida DHSMV - Learner License Information

Florida DHSMV - Learner License Information

The Future as seen from 1981

The San Francisco Examiner is no longer in business...

Joke of the Day

"A man seeking to join an East Texas Sheriff's Department is being interviewed.

The Deputy doing the interview says: 'Your qualifications all look good, but there is 'an attitude suitability test' that you must take before you can be accepted.'

Then, sliding a service pistol across the desk, he says:

'Take this pistol and go out and shoot six illegal aliens, six meth dealers, six Arab extremists, and a rabbit. '

'Why the rabbit?'

'Great attitude,' says the Sergeant. 'When can you start?'"

Our Government at Work

Just a typical day at the office

So I was at the office this afternoon and Hector calls me to come see what is happening in our parking lot.

This is what is happening. Hector took the pictures standing in our front door.

What's so strange about this you ask? Well obviously, he's barefoot and the rest of the country is being hit by a record cold wave today. It's dangerous to acrobat around barefoot. He might catch a cold.

Go ahead and click on an image for a larger picture.

That building he is next to has a 10' high roll up door. So the building is about 16' high. The chairs were about as high as the building. And yes, that is asphalt below him. No pads to help him live if he falls.

Why Maggie Does What Maggie Does

Squirrel blamed for outage that affects more than 6,000 Idaho Power customers | News Updates | Idaho Statesman

Networking External Hard Drives

Pogoplug — How it works

Pogoplug is one of the most talked about new devices at the big CES show in Vegas this year. $79 gets you a transformer sized device you plug into the wall. Attach an ethernet cable into your router (supports up to gigabit Ethernet speeds) and plug in any USB external hard drive.

Not only can you share files around your home network, but you can choose to share files over the internet through their website.

You can store files on the drive and e-mail the link to your friends and family for easy access. Seems like a great way to share photos or home videos.

How to Import Audio CD audiobooks into iTunes for Listening on an iPod or iPhone

How to Import Audio CD audiobooks into iTunes for Listening on an iPod or iPhone

Detailed instructions on importing Library Audio Book CDs into Itunes and onto your iPod.

Update: Here is information on using the current iTunes 8.0

Well, maybe a few words are still in order. Here’s the new process, which will work every time:

1. Import your audiobook using your favorite process, in your favorite audio format. (I’ve written detailed instructions for both standard Audio CD audiobooks and for MP3 CD audiobooks.)
2. Select the imported track(s) in iTunes, and choose File > Get Info, and then click on the Options tab, to get to the Track Info Options panel.
3. From the Media Kind pop-up menu, choose “Audiobook”.
4. Check the Remember playback position and Skip when shuffling options.
5. Click the OK button.

From now on, iTunes, iPods, and iPhones will all treat the track(s) as full audiobooks, including remembering playback position automatically (saving your “bookmark”), skipping the track when you’re playing a random shuffle of music, and allowing you to speed up or slow down playback with the Settings > Audiobooks speed options on your iPod or iPhone.
Note: When you make the above changes, the audiobook track(s) will be moved from the Music source list to the Audiobooks source list. If you haven’t enabled the Audiobooks list, it will seem as though your tracks have disappeared. See Optimal iTunes Import Settings for Audiobooks for more details of enabling the Audiobooks source list.

GasBuddy.com - Find Low Gas Prices in the USA and Canada

GasBuddy.com - Find Low Gas Prices in the USA and Canada

The Math Behind The Economic Meltdown