John is eating an Apple

What's that you say?  I watched a show on the human brain last night, while we were waiting for the Good Wife to begin.  These things are usually interesting to me but a little uncomfortable.  To me they confirm how feeble my mind is.  I would guess most of us feel that our minds are not what we'd like them to be and we're embarrassed when something comes up to prove it.  Well forget about it.
This show demonstrates just how poorly the human brain functions.  Just some random facts from the show.  1. Your brain uses about 12 watts of electricity.(dim bulb)  2. Confirmed, Multitasking is really just jumping your attention from one task to another.  We can only concentrate on one thing at a time.  3. The parts of the brain can confuse one another.  Example: If you are shown the word PINK, but you are directed to identify the color of the ink the word is printed in, let's say green, it takes a second for your brain to disregard the word.  Under hypnosis, the hypnotees did much better when told the words were written in a foreign language.  4. Our minds fill in a lot of information and tend to make us think we're seeing more than what is there.  


I found the show well done and interesting.  It is a series on National Geographic.  So the next show in the series is about memory.  John is eating an Apple was my way of memorizing J and A the letters on the serial number of a dollar bill I was trying to memorize.  Here is what else I used to memorize the numbers.  In the side bedroom on my desk there is a bicycle with a cootie sitting on it.  On top of the TV there is a hand("Thing?") with a cootie on top of it.  On the treadmill there is a hand with a ring on it. On the love seat there is a Four-square court with a bicycle on it.  Thus I have memorized the serial number and will be able to amaze someone who doesn't know the method behind it.

 

Country Boys Can Survive

Maybe the title is Country Folks instead of country boys but same difference.  I'm watching the Detroit Tigers playing the Yankees and I got tired of muting out the same commercials over and over, so I put on Pandora.  I have a country music station called,"George Jones Radio".  I really enjoy listening to the older country singers once in a while.  I heard that Hank Williams Junior was banned from singing on Monday Night Football because of a comment he made on Fox TV.  The way things are going with this kind of stuff I'd advise my clients not to go on these shows if I were an agent.  This is why when you hear athletes and others interviewed they all say the same things.  Just trying to help the team.  Taking it one game at a time.  Not interesting.

Hank Junior sings,"A Country Boy Can Survive".  I looked up the title.  These country songs resonate with a lot of the population.  Songs about daily life.  Kiss an Angel Good Morning.  Take this Job an Shove It. He Stopped Loving Her Today. I wouldn't want to listen to them every day, but once every couple of months or so they strike me right.

Looks like the Tigers are going to lose this one.  I'm not a big fan just when they go to the post season.  

I finally got my lawn mower back together.  I cleaned up the mower deck and painted it to help slow the rust down.  I sharpened the blades and now when the battery is charged enough, I'll mow the lawn tomorrow.  The weather this week is just the way I hope it will be for a week or so at this time of year.  It gives one a chance to finish up those tasks of Summer.  There's a good song playing right now,"Are the Good Times Really Over" by Merle Haggard.  I'm thinking that soon Brooke and I should get a place that doesn't take the maintenance that this one does.  If we lived in a retirement community there would be a lot of things to do and when you get good weather you'd play golf, not work on a lawn mower or paint something.  
That's all for now.  Hope you are well.     

Hi Emma

Hi Emma.  Hope you are well.  It's 5:30 AM and I woke up and lay there thinking about things.  How does one keep one's son or daughter from running off while shopping or otherwise in a large crowd?  That was the main one.  I haven't Googled it yet.  Remember the lady at Crossroads Village that thought it was a good idea to put your cell phone number on the child's arm?  That could help but what of people who want to kidnap the kid?  We don't want to scare the bejesus out of Gabe, but there are a few bad people out there.  The Christain Right, eh?
I know we had the same fears with you and J getting lost.  We probably just yelled at you to stay nearby.  We were lucky to keep you.  We are lucky to have you.  

I saw someone just outside that coffee shop on Queen Street who had their child on a "leash".  I'm sure there is another term for it that makes it sound more appealing.  Maybe baby tender, eh?  The item had some kind of stuffed animal incorporated in its design so the kid might not mind it as much.  I think it would be okay to use such a device.  Gabe would probably be pulling on it as much as Luke does when on a walk.

Well I will research this a little and if I find anything useful, I'll let you know.  Thanks for reading my blog, sweetie.  If you put it on an RSS you'll know if I've written something.  Go Blue, eh?

Hey, I googled it, and it is a big problem.  Walmart and other places have these backpack, harness, animal items that seem to work well.  Don't let other people's opinions regarding the use of these deter you.  If Gabe could carry something in the backpack and feel he was helping you, that would be great.

Maybe I can sleep now. Goodnight. 

Youtube inspiration

This could be about you.  I heard about this guy on the radio about a year ago.  The host said to go and see him if he was ever in your area.  The young man is a motivational speaker who was born without arms or legs.  I just came across this on Youtube and would like you to take the time to watch it. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc4HGQHgeFE&feature=related 

Hope that link works. Just before I watched that one, I watched Steve Jobs address to the graduating class of Stanford in (I believe) 2007.  That was good, too.  There is a lot of junk on Youtube.  I'm even on there Flowbeeing Kleeman's hair.  Very little redeeming value but as Jobs says you have to trust that the dots will connect in the future.  There are also some odd videos with Furbeys. There could be a fun competition done with furbys on Youtube.  These toys/robots are truly under used.
Did I mention that I'm selling mine on Ebay.  As soon as I come up with the shipping cost, they'll be listed.  Hoping to get about $20.00 for the pair.





  

Dreams

I just wanted to write something this morning, anything.  As said in previous blogs, this is more about me than it is about you.  Last sleep cycle I had some kinda fun dreams. In one, I was watching golf on TV and the golfers had to hit their Tee shots from an elevated tee and then "ski-jump" from the tee down to the fairway.  The camera was from behind the Tee, and low to the ground, so you would see the shots fly out first and then the golfers go flying out over the camera.  Hmmm.

In the second dream, I had been on a trip south of the U.S.  It was time to return and Brooke was coming to pick me up in a large boat.  She knew when to come but not where.  I was with someone and that persons identity seemed to change as the dream progressed.  No one had a working cell phone so I was trying to borrow one at a local hotel.  It wasn't working out well.  I thought,"What bad planning.  We should have had a rendezvous point."  I was thinking she would be able to spot me standing on the beach...Hmmm.

So, those are better than my usual dreams.  Many people put a lot of importance on dreams.  What do they mean? What are they telling us?  I don't know and am not good at figuring them out.  I just take them as general signs of what is worrying me, or on my mind.  Some things just drift through the mind.  Golf should be made more interesting for TV.  Brooke and I should do more planning.  These things will probably not change therefore I have decided to go for the big payoff.  Buy a lottery ticket now and then.  One dollar can win you a million.  Get in on the Million Dollar Challenge.  Get lucky and win big money.  No planning just luck.

The house painting is done for the year.  Football season is underway.  Emma is expecting in November.  There is a lot to do to get ready for Fall/Winter.  

  

Strange Things Are Happening

Hope this isn't my last post.  I'm having a little trouble signing into Google. Also other odd things have popped up here.  If this keeps up I may move to a web page or something. 
It's the day after Labor Day here in the USA.  Most feel it is the end of summer.  Time to get back to school, learn something, get serious.  I'm going to rent some scaffolding and finish touching up the house.  It was so hot last week that I only got about half of what I was planning to do done.  Plus the fact that I took part of a day putting up my camper tent to store tools in.  I try to make each task somewhat fun.  Having the tent up isn't necessary, but it did result in a fellow VW enthusiast stopping by and asking if it was for sale.  The $600 price may have scared him off but we traded names and spoke about other VW guys in the area.  As a  result of this I started a Yahoo Group called Aircooledfenton.  I'm the only member so far.  It could serve for people who are interested in these vehicles to meet and exchange  information.

I've relisted the dresser Brooke bought a couple of weeks ago.  That is on Ebay.  I started the bidding at $10 just to get it going.  The reserve is still $550.
The first listing of this was started at $100.  We only got one bid.  That was for $100.  There are subtle ways of listing your items on Ebay that result in getting more interest and more money.  I think I know some of them but it would be an interesting study.  I would really like to have a certain item to offer that would dependably sell at a nice profit. Wouldn't we all?  I'm not going to rehash the Louis Vuitton bag that I sold.  I'm guessing that I blogged about that already.  If I could have a steady supply of them I'd be living on easy street.  I could hire someone to paint my house.

I'm thinking of listing the Furbys but the profit is so small it's not worth the trouble. 

Thought I had more to say but it's turning out all wrong.  What does it say about you when you're looking for a couch by checking for curb alerts on Craigslist?

Focus

Hi Y'all.  I was going to write about Furbys today.  I bought two furbys at a garage sale last week end.  They are interesting toys.  They have several sensors, transmitters and receivers.  People like to hack them and make youtube videos of them calling them "bent furbys".  I thought it would make an interesting combination to have a furby equipped with a taser.  That would violate Asimov's first law of robotics.

I decided not to pursue the furby line of procrastination.  "I've got your Furby right here."
I need to focus.  The job at hand is touching up the house.  I've done this a few times and no matter how expensive the treatment,  the paint still peels and looks bad after about two years.  I have a tool called a paint shaver that makes the paint removal very easy.  It hooks up to a vacuum which cleans up 95% of the paint chips as you go.  It's kinda like the Flowbee which cuts your hair and cleans up virtually all of the hair clippings. 

I had insulation put in the house a few years ago.  They drill holes in your clapboards and put plugs in afterward.  I've tried to fix those twice now but they still look terrible.  I think the only permanent solution would be to replace the boards.  Maybe some vinyl siding strips could be put on just those boards?  I've also thought of using fiberglass since I've used some on the boat.  I might try a test patch with that.

  One good thing about touching up a house,  the job doesn't have to be concise.  I noticed many years ago how rough the paint job was on one of our historic landmarks in Boston. It's the naval station where Old Ironside is docked.  If it's good enough for that landmark it's good enough for The Benjamin Bangs House.

Now I'm ready to go out and conquer the sides of the house.  I might take Furby along just for company.