In the Personal category on the BlogFlux BlogTopSites page, with whom I recently registered with (like two days ago), I am now number 817 out of 2388 listed personal type blogs. By Jeezum, I’m somebody now I guess! (boldly spoken with heavy Vermont accent).
Just thought everybody should know.
Now you just sit back and watch me ’cause it won’t be long before I’m 642! 
Technorati tags: BlogFlux, blogtopsites
And “Old Reliable” is a 2003 HP Pavilion a645c desktop computer, mid-tower type, 200gb HDD, 512mb ram (not shared!), AMD 3400+, standard DVD drive plus a DVD Burner and a 9 in 1 media reader thrown in just for fun. The display is a 17″ HP flat panel display that came with the original system. I wiped the drive when I first bought it and reloaded it with Windows XP Pro SP2 and currently it’s as updated as MS updates can possibly make it.
It’s running all the .NET frameworks up to and including version 3.3, MS Silverlight (just for grins) and all the latest versions of Java, Flash player, Shockwave, etc etc etc. The browser is the latest version of Firefox, the email client is Thunderbird and it will even run the latest version of Google Earth (the resource hog that it is) without breaking a sweat or even increasing the fan RPM’s.
And it’s Windows Live Writer beta 2 as the main blog writing tool.
Of course there is much to be said about the owner having years of experience in which to draw upon when it comes to keeping his Old PC fine tuned as it were so for having only 512mb of ram and an under powered video card (after market), the thing fairly screams right along . But just over the last week or so there have been several small glitches occurring such as unexplained slowdowns, program crashes and that ever mysterious random reboot that happens for no apparent reason. All the symptoms of a sick power supply that is headed out the door (the hard drive is fine). So…a new 550 watt power supply is on the way from the folks at Tiger Direct to replace the wimpy original one along with another 512mb of RAM of the type made for this machine. What the heck I said–at almost $13.00 for shipping (UPS ground) I might as well get more than one item and let old reliable breath a little easier while I was at it. Besides, the thing has to last at least another year or so since I’m not touching Windows Vista with a ten-foot pole until I see SP1 out for at least four months and some brand new hardware sitting on my desk. And then I’ll still keep this one for other purposes.
There’s an off chance that these various pieces/parts may arrive by the weekend but I’m not holding my breath and in the meantime the machine seems to have settled down and is behaving normally again…at least for the time being. We just did Laurie’s PC (a P4 she put together herself, similar setup) when it started exhibiting the same problems. Worked like a charm. So if all of a sudden I disappear for a bit it simply means the parts arrived and I took the time to clean the insides before I installed the new hardware and I like to take my time.
Hmmm, sure is a long post for such “at home” stuff. But that’s what a personal blog is all about right?
The ever elegant Liz Strauss of Successful Blog, after overcoming a few obstacles that lay in her path, has begun a new series called:
May she forgive me for using her logo for this post. The image above is linked to the “Inside Out Thinking” Category at Successful Blog in an effort to keep the link as up to date as possible.
The world of business is changing, the ways and “winning formula’s” and strategies of the 20th century are rapidly becoming obsolete and no longer viable in the first decade of the new century hence the cutbacks, buyouts and eventual fall of the “old standards” of business. Names that have been around for decades are not so slowly disappearing as the times and people leave them behind and look toward a future more different and sometimes even frightening in it’s unpredictability than anyone in the last 50 years has ever known. And the way to do business, any business, will have to change along with it.
As for myself I knew this was coming. Things could never remain the same once the entire globe found out that they could easily talk to each other without restrictions or regulations. My past experience coupled with instincts that started poking at me back in the late 70′s and have been outright screaming at me during the last 2 years or so saying:
Times…they are a’changing! And boy are they changing fast.
Unfortunately, although I’ve been able to see this coming and have greatly anticipated it, the sad truth of the matter is that I simply don’t have a head for business and never have so I was not the one to be speaking of this. If there’s one thing I hate is attempting to write about something that I just can’t wrap my head around and the ways of business is one of them. It doesn’t mean that I can’t see and understand how things of business work, it’s just that I have no natural ability to build on such things. I’ve always been able to work within the system, I just don’t have the knack for sitting out front and making it happen.
How fortunate I am to have met Liz just as this phenomenon is beginning to make itself strongly known. This is where her experience and abilities to bring a point across to a wide audience of rather unique individuals comes into play and this new series of hers is going to bring this phenomenon forward into the light.
This is Liz at her best.
She’s not alone in this effort though. She has help from her various contacts, friends and associates of long standing from both the business and personal sides of things along with a community of blogger’s both intelligent and insightful. And she never fails to give credit where credit is do so the reader always has connections to sources of well written information and opions. So even though this is Liz’s show here it is sure to become a community effort as well. I heartily and strongly recommend that even if you’re the slightest curious, interested or involved with today’s rapidly changing ways of the business world, to check into this new series and perhaps even contribute your own thoughts and ideas.
I know I will be.
Technorati tags: Liz Strauss, successful blog, business strategy, Inside Out Thinking, motivation
I tell ya’, this new programming that my audiologist stuffed into my hearing aids makes the whole world about THIS BIG. It felt like I was wearing these babies in the above image.
‘Scuse me? Huh? What was that noise? Pheeyeew! I was exhausted by the time I got home. All this new hearing capability is a lot to get used to all in one shot. I actually had to have one of my co-workers come back to the shop so I could ask him if that piece of medical equipment always sounded like that. He said, “Yup, sounds about right”.
I just shook my head, thanked him and got back to work.
The funny thing is that it’s not actually an increase in volume but more of an increase in audio spectrum overall. I’m hearing more of what the world has to offer because my audiologist turned the rest of it on for me. So even though I’m hearing more of what’s around me it’s actually much less annoying then if the gain had just been turned up on the previous settings I had. It’s like my head woke up and wrapped itself around what it perceived as a more natural type of hearing. Of course this means I have to learn how to hear all over again and quickly at that since my neck is taking a beating from my head whipping around so much.
The thing I always have to keep firmly in mind though is that my hearing hasn’t really improved at all…just my perceived hearing as I mentioned in the previous post. My ears still ring like the dickens from tinnitus and my hearing will still slowly degrade over time but with the new technology coming out these days it looks like I’ll be able to hear almost like normal folks do for about as long as they do. Well, as long they’re around my age and with the help of a few packs of batteries that is.
Technorati tags: deaf, deafness, hearing impaired, hearing aids
Or perhaps it’s “I think I can hear!” but I’m not too sure of that yet either. As the previous post stated I Laurie and I traveled down to Vermont’s VA facility for my annual audio exam and the good news is that there has been no further significant degradation of my current physical hearing ability. This of course, doesn’t mean that I don’t have to wear these high end hearing aids any longer, it just means I’m not getting any deafer than I already was. Still, because the act of “hearing” is so much more than just a simplified tonal test, the ability to hear something leans a lot on the brain end of things as well meaning that the brain might actually begin “tuning out” those frequencies where most of the nerve cilia of the cochlea have burned out.
What this basically boils down to is that there is a perceived and absolutely valid sense of worsening hearing ability as time goes by. The person who is wearing the hearing aids slowly finds it more and more difficult to hear everyday sounds that they were able to hear before and having trouble making out what people are saying in general. It’s simply a matter of the remaining ability of the cochlea to exercise that part of the brain which interprets these audio signals from the ear sufficiently enough for the brain to remain receptive in those areas. In other words, if you don’t exercise it, it ain’t gonna’ work right.
At least that’s the way I understand the whole concept.
Because of this there have been new ways introduced to properly program these top of the line hearing aids with different curves of sound reproduction which can be used to make up for those lost frequencies of a damaged cochlea (picture a 10 band equalizer for an old style, high-end stereo system adjusted for the lousy acoustics of a room.) These different modes of equalization allows the patient to experience and judge for themselves which provides the most comfortable and satisfying hearing experience. I had three to choose from and my hearing aids were the type that could be plugged right into a PC and programmed right on the spot. I’m not going to get into the type of “curves” that I could try out or what their names mean since I don’t really know that yet but after trying both the DSL and then the NAL approach and taking a short walk outside after each programming, I settled on the DSL method and the world became a hell of a lot noisier.
It also became a hell of a lot more natural sounding too! It’s as if the rest of the spectrum was turned on for me and it became quickly obvious what I had been missing out on these last couple of years. Boy…it’s going to be a different experience at work tomorrow, that’s for sure.
It turned out to be a great day after all despite all the traveling. Besides…this time I had my honey with me.
Technorati tags: deaf, deafness, hearing impaired, hearing aids
Yes, it’s a Sunday ride down to the VA in White River Junction, VT and yes–I realize it’s Sunday. It’s just time for my annual Audio exam and my audiologist keeps strange hours that’s all. I don’t mind though since it irks me just a bit when I have to miss a days pay and have to pay for gas as well. After all, it is a 4 hour round trip–uphill–both ways.
This time I have the extra perk of being chauffeured down my my wonderful lady who decided to close up shop today and head down with me and take advantage of “civilization” in hopes of finding the right kind a fabric for the makings of a special order quilt for one of her customers.
So down we go to visit civilization once more to see how much more “mostly deaf” I’ve become and to remind ourselves why we don’t no longer live amongst the civilized any longer. It doesn’t take much reminding, trust me. 
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I’m completely embarrassed. I found out that not only had I forgotten to update my About page but even worse, all the paragraphs had disappeared and the page was just one big long jumble of text. And people are looking at this?
Great!
Alright then. Time to leave a reminder somewhere on this thing I call a PC that will wake me up every month or so and tell me to go check my About page to make sure I don’t look like an idiot. 
I’ve made some quick updates and reformatted the paragraphs but it definitely is in need of a full rewrite. I’ll just have to add it onto my ever growing list of things to do in the very near future.
In the meantime, I’m off to the day job. Have a great day.
Once in awhile and idea will come my way that triggers all sorts of memories of the past and once in awhile…things long separated will join together and fall into place. Then, if I’m anywhere near my computer, I’ll sit down and put that idea into a post. So here I sit after a hard day’s work with my bones telling me all about it when I ran across a post at Successful Blog that held up a big sign and things started falling together once again. The above post triggered this thought…
I am truly blessed.
And then I realized that I truly was blessed. You see, years back when I was 18, I made a decision that would literally change my life (and then I told my parents about it) and because of that decision, my life throughout the years following that decision have been filled with amazingly varied and unique experiences. At that single moment when I made that all important decision, on my own without anyone else’s influence, I stepped onto the path that I would travel the rest of my life. And like any path that lays before you, sometimes the going can get very rough indeed where you find yourself having to forge your way through, clearing the way as you go. At times you may get lost and have to find your way back again. And so it was with me. There were times when I found it very hard to stay on my path and times when I thought I had lost it altogether. But it was my path in life…no one else’s. And that’s why I always found my way back.
All has not been roses and warm sunny days, that’s for sure but each experience, good or bad, had it’s worth in learning something from it–even if it was learning how not to allow myself to get into a similar situation again. Other’s were lessons in how not to give in to hatred and bitterness when all went bad for so long. And the most important; to take an experience for what it is–something to learn from. Always learning and always growing for when you stop learning from life’s experiences, life may just pass you right by taking your path with it and you may never regain that path again.
My father had this thing he said that I have taken to heart and try to remember every day. It’s not profound or poetic at all. Just straight to the point…
Don’t die before you’re dead.
Thanks Dad…I haven’t forgotten.
And now, with my fiftieth birthday less than two years away, with my disabilities that I have to deal with everyday (stemming from that decision I made long ago) and having to force myself past them so I can maintain the day job, I have absolutely no regrets about my how my life has gone and the path I’ve tread. Life has been good and I have no complaints.
And it’s not over yet…
And that, so far, is the greatest blessing of all.