Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Happy Birthday Mark Twain 176
If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
Mark Twain
This post dedicated to the StoneQueen
Monday, November 28, 2011
SCAM ALERT
The IRS does not contact
you via e-mail
you via e-mail
If you receive this email .... Delete it ....
Do not open the attachment.
Dear Taxpayer!
You are encouraged to pay a penalty for the failure to file income tax returns prior to January 31, 2011.
Note, IRC [Section 6038(b)(1)]
provides for a monetary penalty of $10,000 for each [Form 5471]
that is filed after the due date of the income tax return or does not include the complete and accurate information described in [Section 6038(a)].
No penalty will be imposed if the company shows that the late filing was due to reasonable cause.
For more information please refer to attached file.
Thanks,
Internal Revenue Service United States Department of the Treasury.
Links and attachments removed
Carl E. (Eddie) Demaree, 73 of Osgood
Carl E. (Eddie) Demaree, 73 of Osgood passed away Wednesday November 23, 2011 at Margaret Mary Hospital in Batesville. He was born May 19, 1938 in Milan, IN the son of Charles E. and Grace (Patrick) Demaree. He married Marjorie (Knowlton) Demaree September 19, 1959, and she survives. Eddie was a Heavy Equipment Operator for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 181 since 1959. Eddie was a member of the F&AM Milan Masonic lodge #31. Eddie enjoyed gardening, raising tomatoes, car racing, fishing, and hunting.
Eddie is survived by his wife Marjorie A. Demaree of Osgood, Daughters: Shannon D. Demaree of Batesville, Suzanne C. Grigsby of Osgood. Brother: Jack Demaree of Versailles. Sisters: Fern Strimple of Columbus, IN. Norma Lee Meachum of IL, Vivian Storie of Madison, IN. Two Granddaughters: Carlene J. Eaton and Augusta W. Grigsby, nieces, nephews, cousins and a host of friends. He was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers Charles F. Demaree, James Collinsworth, and two sisters: Faye Sloan, and Edna Horton.
Funeral services will be Sunday November 27, 2011, 2PM at Laws-Carr-Moore Funeral Home, Milan with Pastor Tommy Beatley of the Delaware United Methodist Church. officiating. Burial will follow in Marble Corner Cemetery in Versailles. Visitation will be 5-8PM Saturday November 26 at the funeral home. Masonic service will also be Saturday 8PM. Memorials may be made to the Family. Laws-Carr-Moore Funeral Home 707 S. Main St. PO Box 243, Milan, In. 47031 is entrusted with arrangements.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Thanksgiving Day
In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. It wasn't until 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Killing Lincoln
If you are a Civil War buff or just like a very good interesting book to read you will enjoy Killing Lincoln. I know that you die hard democrats do not care for the author, get over it, put Bill out of your mind and just enjoy the story. I must confess I did not know the history of this war but I found myself enjoying this great true story and at the same time getting a history lesson. I downloaded the audio version thinking I would burn it to CD so to listen on my set top player or in my car, but after unzipping the file I found it to be in a format that would not play with the standard default player (windows media player) that comes on all Window's OS computers. In order to use the downloaded file you must find, download, and install a program to convert it to the standard MP3 format. This is above most users ability. So I do not recommend getting the book this way unless you are an advanced computer user. Another note, it takes about five hours to download with a very fast broadband internet connection. If you have an Amazon Kindle you can read it for $12.99.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
B-2 stealth bomber first displayed 11-22-88
The first B-2 stealth bomber of the United States Air Force was first displayed in public at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.
Read More
from: wikipedia
Monday, November 21, 2011
Dog Days
"Dog Days" are the hottest, most sultry days of summer. In the Northern Hemisphere, the dog days of summer are most commonly experienced in the months of July and August, which typically observe the warmest summer temperatures. In the Southern Hemisphere, they typically occur in January and February, in the midst of the austral summer. The name comes from the ancient belief that Sirius, also called the Dog Star, in close proximity to the sun was responsible for the hot weather.
Read More
from: wikipedia
Read More
from: wikipedia
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Sunday November 20th 2011
Today:
A gloomy overcast morning but the temperature is warm for this date. The sun has settled down slightly with a flux reading of 140. This reading tells me the Ham bands will be good but not great. I have the radio set on 28 Mhz. and see lots of stations coming in from Europe. I will try to contact a few later. I worked a fellow from Iowa last evening that was only using 2 watts of power on JT65HF mode. Yesterday I tightened up some of the hardware on my moon bounce antennas that had loosened up with the wind we have had for the past few days. I had wanted to take down the array for the winter, but its not going to happen. It is a big job that I can't do by myself. We will see if the wind and ice do it in this Winter. I talked to Mike (k9mdc) from Greensburg this morning. He has installed an antenna that I had suggested. He likes it and tells me it works on the bands 75 through 10 meters. I will put together one for field day next June. I have a best friend in the hospital and I am hoping he is doing better. I received a report yesterday and it was not good. I wish I could do something to get him back to normal. He was one of the fellows I eat biscuts and gravy with each Saturday morning, I am hoping he can rejoin us soon. My wife Betty got a new I-phone and after a glitch with the SIM card it is now working fine. She also received a new Kindle Fire from Amazon. This little jewel is fantastic. I have it on the "N" network wifi system here at home. It is $200 but this is much less than the tablet computers costing about $500. It has internet and email for free and also features all the Kindle books and movies. I don't know why you would want to watch a movie on the tiny screen it has, but to each his own. If you are not near a public wifi it will still connect but it will draw from your data plan. One draw back it looks to me if you would drop it to a hard surface it would be all over. I checked on a case but found them very costly. She will have to be careful with it. I see that Natalie Wood is all over the news. One of my favorite movies was "Inside Daisy Clover" and I haven't seen it for years. I have hundreds of DVD movies but it is not one of them. I looked online to see if I could buy it and I could but the price was too much for me. I will see if I can find it from one of my geeky comrades. Anyone out there have it ?? I did want to tell you about the wonderful program South Ripley students produced for the many Veterans that attended on November 11th. A very well prepared breakfast was enjoyed before the program. A big thank you goes out to the students and staff. ......... Jack
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Gettysburg Address - 11-19, 1863
The Gettysburg Address is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and is one of the most well-known speeches in United States history.[1] It was delivered by Lincoln during the American Civil War, on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
From: wikipedia.org
Friday, November 18, 2011
The Big Wheel Story - Again
This little story goes around just before Christmas each and every year. Is it true ? I know it is, as I knew the girl, the cop, and the owner of the Big Wheel. Read this story & then be like the fellows at the truck stop.
Make someone happy tomorrow........... Jack
In September 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungry babies and just 75 cents in my pocket. Their ather was gone. The boys ranged from three months to seven years; their sister was two. Their Dad had never been much more than a presence they feared. Whenever they heard his tires crunch on the gravel driveway they would scramble to hide under their beds. He did manage to leave $15 a week to buy groceries. Now that he had decided to leave, there would be no more beatings, but no food either. If there was a welfare system in effect in southern Indiana at that time, I certainly knew nothing about it. I scrubbed the kids until they looked brand new and then put on my best homemade dress. I loaded them into the rusty old 51 Chevy and drove off to find a job. The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small town. No luck. The kids stayed crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I tried to convince whomever would listen that I was willing to learn or do anything. I had to have a job. Still no luck. The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town, was an old Root Beer Barrel drive-in that had been converted to a truck stop. It was called the Big Wheel. An old lady named Granny owned the place and she peeked out of the window from time to time at all those kids. She needed someone on the graveyard shift, 11 at night until seven in the morning. She paid 65 cents an hour and I could start that night. I raced home and called the teenager down the street that baby-sat for people. I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night. She could arrive with her pajamas on and thekids would already be asleep. This seemed like a good arrangement to her, so we made a deal. That night when the little ones and I knelt to say our prayers we all thanked God for finding Mommy a job. And so I started at the Big Wheel. When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home with one dollar of my tip money--fully half of what I averaged every night. As the weeks went by, heating bills added a strain to my meager wage. The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began to leak. I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every morning before I could go home. One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found four tires in the back seat. New tires! There was no note, no nothing, just those beautiful brand new tires. Had angels taken up residence in Indiana? I wondered. I made a deal with the local service station. In exchange for his mounting the new tires, I would clean up his office. I remember it took me a lot longer to scrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires. I was now working six nights instead of five and it still wasn't enough. Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the kids. I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some oldtoys. Then I hid them in the basement so there would be something for Santa to deliver on Christmas morning. Clothes were a worry too. I was sewing patches on top of patches on the boys pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair. On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big Wheel. These were the truckers, Les, Frank, and Jim, and a state trooper named Joe. A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were dropping nickels in the pinball machine. The regulars all just sat around and talked through the wee hours of the morning and then left to get home before the sun! came up. When it was time for me to go home at seven o'clock on Christmas morning I hurried to the car. I was hoping the kids wouldn't wake up before I managed to get home and get the presents from the basement and place them under the tree. (We had cut down a small cedar tree by the side of the road down by the dump.) It was still dark and I couldn't see much, but there appeared to be some dark shadows in the car-or was that just a trick of the night? Something certainly looked different, but it was hard to tell what. When I reached the car I peered warily into one of the side windows. Then my jaw dropped in amazement. My old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with boxes of all shapes and sizes. I quickly opened the driver's side door, scrambled inside and kneeled in the front facing the back seat. Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box. Inside was whole case of little blue jeans, sizes 2-10! I looked inside another box: It was full of shirts to go with the jeans. Then I peeked inside someof the other boxes: Therewas candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries. There was an enormous ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes. There was pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour. There was a whole bag of laundry supplies and cleaning items. And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll. As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose on most amazing Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing with gratitude. And I will never forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning. Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December. And they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop.
Make someone happy tomorrow........... Jack
In September 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungry babies and just 75 cents in my pocket. Their ather was gone. The boys ranged from three months to seven years; their sister was two. Their Dad had never been much more than a presence they feared. Whenever they heard his tires crunch on the gravel driveway they would scramble to hide under their beds. He did manage to leave $15 a week to buy groceries. Now that he had decided to leave, there would be no more beatings, but no food either. If there was a welfare system in effect in southern Indiana at that time, I certainly knew nothing about it. I scrubbed the kids until they looked brand new and then put on my best homemade dress. I loaded them into the rusty old 51 Chevy and drove off to find a job. The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small town. No luck. The kids stayed crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I tried to convince whomever would listen that I was willing to learn or do anything. I had to have a job. Still no luck. The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town, was an old Root Beer Barrel drive-in that had been converted to a truck stop. It was called the Big Wheel. An old lady named Granny owned the place and she peeked out of the window from time to time at all those kids. She needed someone on the graveyard shift, 11 at night until seven in the morning. She paid 65 cents an hour and I could start that night. I raced home and called the teenager down the street that baby-sat for people. I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night. She could arrive with her pajamas on and thekids would already be asleep. This seemed like a good arrangement to her, so we made a deal. That night when the little ones and I knelt to say our prayers we all thanked God for finding Mommy a job. And so I started at the Big Wheel. When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home with one dollar of my tip money--fully half of what I averaged every night. As the weeks went by, heating bills added a strain to my meager wage. The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began to leak. I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every morning before I could go home. One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found four tires in the back seat. New tires! There was no note, no nothing, just those beautiful brand new tires. Had angels taken up residence in Indiana? I wondered. I made a deal with the local service station. In exchange for his mounting the new tires, I would clean up his office. I remember it took me a lot longer to scrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires. I was now working six nights instead of five and it still wasn't enough. Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the kids. I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some oldtoys. Then I hid them in the basement so there would be something for Santa to deliver on Christmas morning. Clothes were a worry too. I was sewing patches on top of patches on the boys pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair. On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big Wheel. These were the truckers, Les, Frank, and Jim, and a state trooper named Joe. A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were dropping nickels in the pinball machine. The regulars all just sat around and talked through the wee hours of the morning and then left to get home before the sun! came up. When it was time for me to go home at seven o'clock on Christmas morning I hurried to the car. I was hoping the kids wouldn't wake up before I managed to get home and get the presents from the basement and place them under the tree. (We had cut down a small cedar tree by the side of the road down by the dump.) It was still dark and I couldn't see much, but there appeared to be some dark shadows in the car-or was that just a trick of the night? Something certainly looked different, but it was hard to tell what. When I reached the car I peered warily into one of the side windows. Then my jaw dropped in amazement. My old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with boxes of all shapes and sizes. I quickly opened the driver's side door, scrambled inside and kneeled in the front facing the back seat. Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box. Inside was whole case of little blue jeans, sizes 2-10! I looked inside another box: It was full of shirts to go with the jeans. Then I peeked inside someof the other boxes: Therewas candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries. There was an enormous ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes. There was pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour. There was a whole bag of laundry supplies and cleaning items. And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll. As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose on most amazing Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing with gratitude. And I will never forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning. Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December. And they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
***SCAM*** Direct Deposit payment ID 42868876300 ***SCAM***
*** If you receive this email do not click on any of the links, DELETE It ***
-----------------------------
Subject: Re: your Direct Deposit payment ID 42868876300
Dear Customer,
Please be notified, that your latest Direct Deposit via ACH transaction (# 42868876300) was declined, due to your business software package being out of date. The detailed information about this matter is available in the secure section of our web site:
**link removed**
Please consult with your financial institution to get the updated version of the software.
Sincerely yours,
Becky Saunders
ACH Network Rules Department
NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association
13450 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 100
Herndon, VA 20171
Phone: 703-561-1100 Fax: 703-787-0996
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Using Google Public DNS
You may want to change your DNS servers as I did a long time ago. I have never encountered a problem using Google DNS. I think it makes your pages load much faster and is safe to use. Give it a try, read how to do it HERE.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Veterans Day - November 11
'Those who live today remember those who do not. Those who know freedom remember today those who gave up life for freedom.'
President Reagan
1988 Veterans Day speech
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Edmund Fitzgerald sinks in Lake Superior November 10, 1975
The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was a 729-foot (222 m) Great Lakes freighter that made headlines after sinking in Lake Superior in a massive storm on November 10, 1975, with near hurricane-force winds and 35-foot (11 m) waves. The Fitzgerald suddenly sank approximately 17 miles (27 km) from the entrance to Whitefish Bay, at a depth of 530 feet (160 m). Her crew of 29 perished without sending any distress signals, and no bodies were recovered; she is the largest boat to have sunk in the Great Lakes. The Fitzgerald carried taconite from mines near Duluth, Minnesota, to iron works in Detroit, Toledo and other ports. Many theories, books, studies and expeditions have examined the cause of the sinking. Her sinking is one of the most well-known disasters in the history of Great Lakes shipping and is the subject of Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 hit song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Tuesday, November 08, 2011
This is a test an only a test - Nov. 9th
Nationwide Test of the Emergency Alert System
Wednesday, November 9 at 2:00 PM EST
Sunday, November 06, 2011
nightmare 2 days
After a nightmare 2 days with my ISP ComCast I still have a major problem with my network that provides uploads. This is my live video, live sound, and live camera images. I will attempt to configure it on Monday with the help of a professional located in Shelbyville. Wish me luck ........... Jack
FLASH 1
After hours on the phone Comcast tells me the problem is in my system. Funny, it all worked prior to Comcast installed a different modem and static IP. I will call Comcast again today and try to convince them to put me back as I was before the modem and IP change. I have over ten hours into this nightmare. I hope I wake up today. ...... Jack
Flash 2
After another 1 1/2 hours on the phone with Comcast idiots I have been sent back to where I was a week ago.
I will install the camera back to its location on the roof in the morning. All should be back to where it was in a day or two as I have to configure all the components after the hard reset. This has been a very trying few days for me as Comcast kept telling me it was in my configuration, It was not. As soon as I reverted back to my old modem all began to work again. I have over 12 hours trying to straiten this Comcast mess out............ I knew it was their fault and I was not at fault. Give me a few days to get the web addresses and equipment back configured correctly. Stay tuned .......... Jack
I will install the camera back to its location on the roof in the morning. All should be back to where it was in a day or two as I have to configure all the components after the hard reset. This has been a very trying few days for me as Comcast kept telling me it was in my configuration, It was not. As soon as I reverted back to my old modem all began to work again. I have over 12 hours trying to straiten this Comcast mess out............ I knew it was their fault and I was not at fault. Give me a few days to get the web addresses and equipment back configured correctly. Stay tuned .......... Jack
Nov. 6th 1935 - Edwin Howard Armstrong
Before the Institute of Radio Engineers in New York, American electrical engineer and inventor Edwin Howard Armstrong presented his study on using frequency modulation for radio broadcasting. Read more about Armstrong from wikipedia.
I am old enough to remember when FM radio was was just a sideline of the big AM stations. In the 1950s and even in the early 60s there were few FM home receivers and no cars had FM. I can't remember the first car I owned that had an FM radio, I know my 57 chev had none. It must have been in the late 60s or early 70s and I'm sure it was an option. The first FM radio was purchased with the money from the sale of a calf. It was an A and B battery powered and the cost was about $60. That was big money back then. The 90 volt big battery was short lived and cost about $6. The FM stations only played what is now known as elevator music with no or very few commercials. As a kid I did not listen to the FM band very often. Armstrong received a very undeserved welcome with his invention by RCA, and Westinghouse. .......... Jack
Saturday, November 05, 2011
falling behind on sleep ?
If you've been falling behind on sleep, this is the weekend to fall back into bed for an extra hour and take advantage of the transition from daylight saving time to standard time. ("fall back") The change officially takes place at 2 a.m. daylight saving time on Sunday, Nov. 6th, which instantly becomes 1 a.m. standard time
Wednesday, November 02, 2011
The last flying B-29
I have been aboard this aircraft a few years ago. See the video I have online HERE
........ Jack
Enjoy this 7:50 minute video. The Mustang intercept is perfect.
This one will positively warm your heart. The only remaining flying B-29 in the world.
http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=1143348987001
Tuesday, November 01, 2011
A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs
Mona Simpson is a novelist and a professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles. She delivered this eulogy for her brother, Steve Jobs, on Oct. 16 at his memorial service at the Memorial Church of Stanford University.