Happy Halloween Everyone!
When I was a kid visiting my grandparents in Ewing, Nebraska at Halloween, my friend Leon and I would go trick or treating around the town of 500, and the towns population was always generous with their goodies for us little guys. As we got older, I heard stories of kids going outhouse tipping, and wondered why that idea had some sort of mean appeal to kids. Now I've also heard and seen picture of wagons placed on top of barns, school mascot statues being moved and placed in odd locations so pranks Halloween pranks were a big deal that involved a lot of work for the perpetrators.
City kids seem pretty mean spirited by comparison. Spray paint, eggs, rotten tomatoes, and bags of nasty stuff on fire at some peoples doors are the stuff of modern day big city pranks. It's not just the kids doing them either. I'm sure we'll either hear of, or read about tainted candy with needles, razor blades or who knows what else given to kids just trying to have fun.
Many communities in metropolitan areas have gone to "safe" Halloween festivities where the city provides the goodies so parents don't have to worry. Hospitals offer free X-Rays of kids candy to check for foreign objects, and there are almost always stories about some idiot driving down the streets with their headlights turned off hitting kids somewhere.
It's such a shame to me that a fun time can turn tragic by purposeful actions of a few. Tipping over an old outhouse sounds pretty tame compared to some of the stuff that goes on today, and I'm pretty confident that around southwestern Nebraska I won't be reading about such horrors.
On a lighter note, a recent trip through the big "discount" place on the west side of McCook found a candy isle with more different kinds of stuff than I had any idea were even made. A US Census Bureau report stated that Americans ate 24 1/2 pounds of candy per capita in 2007. Yikes! Me and Margie haven't eaten a total of 24.5 pounds of candy since we got married, let alone the 49 pounds we were "allotted" for just one year. So those of you eating our share, we want it back. We don't expect any trick or treators this Halloween being 4 miles out of town, but in case they show up, we might need it otherwise they might tip over the outhouse.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Did You Know?
Did you know...
If you are one in a million in China, there are 1300 people just like you?
China will soon become the #1 English speaking country in the world?
The 25% of India's population with the highest IQ's is greater than the total population of the USA? That likely means that India has more honors kids than America has kids!
The projected top ten in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004?
We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist using technologies that haven't been invented yet to solve problems we don't know about yet.
The US Department of Labor estimates that today's learner will have 10-14 jobs by age 38?
One in four workers have been with their current employer less than a year and half of current workers have been there less than 5 years?
One out of 8 couples married in the US last year met online?
There are over 200 million registered users on MySpace.com meaning that if MySpace was a country, it would be the 5th largest in the world?
Bermuda is the #1 ranked country for broadband Internet penetration while the US is #19 and Japan is #22?
There are 31 billion Internet searches on Google every month? Things are changing very fast here as in 2006 that number was 2.7 billion.
The first commercial text message was send in 1992 while the number of text messages send and received everyday exceeds the total population of the planet?
It took 38 years for radio, 13 years for TV, 4 years for the Internet, 3 years for iPods, and 2 years for facebook.com to reach a market audience of 50 million?
The number of Internet devices in 1984 was 1000, 1 million in 1992, and over a billion today?
There are 540,000 words in the English language, which is about 5 times the number in Shakespeare's time?
It is estimated that a week's worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century?
It is estimated that 4 exabytes (that's 4.0x10^19) of unique information will be generated this year which is more than the previous 5000 years?
The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years meaning that students starting a 4 year tech degree, half of what they learn in their fist year of study will likely be outdated by their third year of study?
NTT (Nippon Telephone - Japan) has successfully tested a fiber optic cable that pushes 14 trillion bits per second down a single fiber strand which is the equivalent of 2,660 CDs or 210 million phone calls a second?
The above mentioned speed of data flow is tripling about every 6 months and is expected to do so for the next 20 years?
In the last 5 minutes, 67 babies were born in the US, 274 in China, and 395 in India?
You can see a video presentation of this information at...
http://release.theplatform.com/content.select?pid=x7aVOMrlfkkijQwcLllwk6WjB5JE0zrF
If you are one in a million in China, there are 1300 people just like you?
China will soon become the #1 English speaking country in the world?
The 25% of India's population with the highest IQ's is greater than the total population of the USA? That likely means that India has more honors kids than America has kids!
The projected top ten in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004?
We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist using technologies that haven't been invented yet to solve problems we don't know about yet.
The US Department of Labor estimates that today's learner will have 10-14 jobs by age 38?
One in four workers have been with their current employer less than a year and half of current workers have been there less than 5 years?
One out of 8 couples married in the US last year met online?
There are over 200 million registered users on MySpace.com meaning that if MySpace was a country, it would be the 5th largest in the world?
Bermuda is the #1 ranked country for broadband Internet penetration while the US is #19 and Japan is #22?
There are 31 billion Internet searches on Google every month? Things are changing very fast here as in 2006 that number was 2.7 billion.
The first commercial text message was send in 1992 while the number of text messages send and received everyday exceeds the total population of the planet?
It took 38 years for radio, 13 years for TV, 4 years for the Internet, 3 years for iPods, and 2 years for facebook.com to reach a market audience of 50 million?
The number of Internet devices in 1984 was 1000, 1 million in 1992, and over a billion today?
There are 540,000 words in the English language, which is about 5 times the number in Shakespeare's time?
It is estimated that a week's worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century?
It is estimated that 4 exabytes (that's 4.0x10^19) of unique information will be generated this year which is more than the previous 5000 years?
The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years meaning that students starting a 4 year tech degree, half of what they learn in their fist year of study will likely be outdated by their third year of study?
NTT (Nippon Telephone - Japan) has successfully tested a fiber optic cable that pushes 14 trillion bits per second down a single fiber strand which is the equivalent of 2,660 CDs or 210 million phone calls a second?
The above mentioned speed of data flow is tripling about every 6 months and is expected to do so for the next 20 years?
In the last 5 minutes, 67 babies were born in the US, 274 in China, and 395 in India?
You can see a video presentation of this information at...
http://release.theplatform.com/content.select?pid=x7aVOMrlfkkijQwcLllwk6WjB5JE0zrF
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Fire!
"Our house, is a very very very fine house" were a few of the lyrics to a Crosby Stills & Nash tune popular somewhere in my past. Now while I love our place, it does have some interesting features that have been added since the house was built. For example the plumbing system. Yep, this place was built without indoor plumbing in 1925 we understand, and though not added to "code", the system works pretty good most of the time... until yesterday.
I had just headed into the basement to start work on a shelve project when I smelled the unmistakable smell of an electrical fire. Unmistakable to me at least as I worked for years with electronic systems that "smoked" wires and components and the smell is always the same to me. So off I go looking for the source as quickly as possible and once I hit the utility room, the cause of the smell was apparent... there were flames!
Now before you get a mental picture of the utility room being on fire, there was a small flame coming from the water systems pump pressure relay and not a full conflagration, and the flame I doubt could have ever caused a serious fire the way it was installed and away from combustible materials, but the sight of an open flame where it should not be is always disconcerting.
To make a long story short, I quickly cut the power and extinguished the flames simply by blowing on it like a putting out a candle. I drained the water system enough to replace the relay and after a quick call to Lord's Hardware in Indianola, determined they likely had a new replacement relay. So off I went, procured parts, and replaced same to get things back in order. While I was at it I replaced the sediment filter that I'd been putting off since I knew I would have to drain the system. What I didn't know was that someone had removed the old filter element and never put one back in. No wonder I noticed sand in the toilet tank when working on a leaky tank ball a few weeks ago.
So now that this emergency repair is behind me, I can go back to my original plan of building some utility shelves. I just hope something else doesn't come up to bite me in the butt. Like I said before, me and Murphy (Murphy's Law) must be pretty good friends because he still seems to be living around here somewhere.
I had just headed into the basement to start work on a shelve project when I smelled the unmistakable smell of an electrical fire. Unmistakable to me at least as I worked for years with electronic systems that "smoked" wires and components and the smell is always the same to me. So off I go looking for the source as quickly as possible and once I hit the utility room, the cause of the smell was apparent... there were flames!
Now before you get a mental picture of the utility room being on fire, there was a small flame coming from the water systems pump pressure relay and not a full conflagration, and the flame I doubt could have ever caused a serious fire the way it was installed and away from combustible materials, but the sight of an open flame where it should not be is always disconcerting.
To make a long story short, I quickly cut the power and extinguished the flames simply by blowing on it like a putting out a candle. I drained the water system enough to replace the relay and after a quick call to Lord's Hardware in Indianola, determined they likely had a new replacement relay. So off I went, procured parts, and replaced same to get things back in order. While I was at it I replaced the sediment filter that I'd been putting off since I knew I would have to drain the system. What I didn't know was that someone had removed the old filter element and never put one back in. No wonder I noticed sand in the toilet tank when working on a leaky tank ball a few weeks ago.
So now that this emergency repair is behind me, I can go back to my original plan of building some utility shelves. I just hope something else doesn't come up to bite me in the butt. Like I said before, me and Murphy (Murphy's Law) must be pretty good friends because he still seems to be living around here somewhere.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Divided We Fall
Since this election cycle has warmed up, blog posts around Nebraska prove to me that this state has conservative values which I admire. Yep, Nebraska is firmly in the "red" column when it comes to it's political leanings, but I think most folks would also say they vote for the candidate rather than the party.
November 4 is just around the corner, and I can hardly wait for the peoples voice to be heard and the direction of our country decided for the next 4 years. A recent poll states that more than 4 out of every 5 (82%) of us feels that the country is headed in the wrong direction, so here is our chance to help right the ship. I'm looking forward to not hearing terms like Republi-cants and Dumbo-crats as I feel these do nothing to foster an intelligent discussion of the issues... indeed I think they are intended to stir up negative emotional responses to color the position being discussed.
No matter which side of the fence you ride, come January a new president will be sworn into office. I personally believe that the guy that gets sworn in, no matter which party he is affiliated with, loves this country and will fulfill his sworn oath... "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
It's been commented over and over on every type of media outlet that our nation is deeply divided, and it makes me wonder how that happened. Since most of us already feel the country is headed down the tubes unless we change our ways, it is my hope that we can unite behind whoever is elected to public office and do everything we can to help pull our nation back together again. I hope we can again become one nation under God, not one nation divided by intolerance, indifference, and selfishness. Our forefathers had a vision that seems to be slipping away, please do your part to help us heal our differences. United we stand, divided we fall.
I received the following email message, and want to share it with you. At least in Nebraska, I think most folks would agree with Billy, and I hope it is actively received by folks all across our land...
Prayer attributed to Billy Graham...
'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and
called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!'
November 4 is just around the corner, and I can hardly wait for the peoples voice to be heard and the direction of our country decided for the next 4 years. A recent poll states that more than 4 out of every 5 (82%) of us feels that the country is headed in the wrong direction, so here is our chance to help right the ship. I'm looking forward to not hearing terms like Republi-cants and Dumbo-crats as I feel these do nothing to foster an intelligent discussion of the issues... indeed I think they are intended to stir up negative emotional responses to color the position being discussed.
No matter which side of the fence you ride, come January a new president will be sworn into office. I personally believe that the guy that gets sworn in, no matter which party he is affiliated with, loves this country and will fulfill his sworn oath... "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
It's been commented over and over on every type of media outlet that our nation is deeply divided, and it makes me wonder how that happened. Since most of us already feel the country is headed down the tubes unless we change our ways, it is my hope that we can unite behind whoever is elected to public office and do everything we can to help pull our nation back together again. I hope we can again become one nation under God, not one nation divided by intolerance, indifference, and selfishness. Our forefathers had a vision that seems to be slipping away, please do your part to help us heal our differences. United we stand, divided we fall.
I received the following email message, and want to share it with you. At least in Nebraska, I think most folks would agree with Billy, and I hope it is actively received by folks all across our land...
Prayer attributed to Billy Graham...
'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and
called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!'
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Words That Start With "S"
There is a popular game show on TV that asks questions of all types, one of which is "Words that start with", and plug in a letter and they have probably covered it. So with that in mind, today's blog topic is animal names that start with S around our farm.
First up for $100... What is another word for a feral cat? The answer is... stray. Almost from the first day we bought the farm, we've had a Tom cat visit every couple weeks. We've given him the name of Yellow Tail as he has been here so frequently, and lately he's been taking up residence in the refurbished barn it seems. Not only that, but he now has a girl friend with him that I've been trying to shoo away so we don't end up with a flock of kittens hanging around. My last attempt involved a walk where the cats followed us down the road to the next vacant farmstead. Once there, I did everything to scare the cats into the brush, and though Yellow Tail has visited once since then, I've not seen his girl friend again.
Next question for $200... What birds live in barns (and other places) and are considered "swift fliers"? The answer is... Swallows. We had at least 10 Barn Swallows living on and in our barn this summer, though they have all moved on in the last week or so. These little guys are a lot of fun to watch as they are quite the aerobatic flyer's.
Words that start with S for $300... Besides snakes, what other reptile has a name that starts with S? The answer is... Skink. These lizards are very common around the farm we've discovered. My first encounter scared the heck out of me as I was moving a pile of brush. One of the larger variety of Skinks moved in the bush and I thought is was a big snake to start with, only to find it to be the biggest lizard I've personally encountered.
Next question for $400... What insect family has 8 legs? The answer is spiders. We've got spiders of many types around the farm. The Wolf spiders get me the most as they are so fast and BIG. I don't like spiders and snakes you see, but at least we seem to be knocking the spider populations down around the farms house. Now snakes are a different story completely. I may go into that some other day but not today.
And finally for $500, what animal do people and other animals try and avoid? The answer is skunks. A couple times in the last week I've spotted the black and white relatives of the weasel rooting around our yard just before sunrise. Now I enjoy watching wildlife as much as anybody, but I don't really need these guys in the yard, though they do seem to provide the benefit of lawn aeration as they like to dig.
So that's it for today... Brian's game show of the week recap. Stay tuned for future tails (tales) from the farm(stead).
First up for $100... What is another word for a feral cat? The answer is... stray. Almost from the first day we bought the farm, we've had a Tom cat visit every couple weeks. We've given him the name of Yellow Tail as he has been here so frequently, and lately he's been taking up residence in the refurbished barn it seems. Not only that, but he now has a girl friend with him that I've been trying to shoo away so we don't end up with a flock of kittens hanging around. My last attempt involved a walk where the cats followed us down the road to the next vacant farmstead. Once there, I did everything to scare the cats into the brush, and though Yellow Tail has visited once since then, I've not seen his girl friend again.
Next question for $200... What birds live in barns (and other places) and are considered "swift fliers"? The answer is... Swallows. We had at least 10 Barn Swallows living on and in our barn this summer, though they have all moved on in the last week or so. These little guys are a lot of fun to watch as they are quite the aerobatic flyer's.
Words that start with S for $300... Besides snakes, what other reptile has a name that starts with S? The answer is... Skink. These lizards are very common around the farm we've discovered. My first encounter scared the heck out of me as I was moving a pile of brush. One of the larger variety of Skinks moved in the bush and I thought is was a big snake to start with, only to find it to be the biggest lizard I've personally encountered.
Next question for $400... What insect family has 8 legs? The answer is spiders. We've got spiders of many types around the farm. The Wolf spiders get me the most as they are so fast and BIG. I don't like spiders and snakes you see, but at least we seem to be knocking the spider populations down around the farms house. Now snakes are a different story completely. I may go into that some other day but not today.
And finally for $500, what animal do people and other animals try and avoid? The answer is skunks. A couple times in the last week I've spotted the black and white relatives of the weasel rooting around our yard just before sunrise. Now I enjoy watching wildlife as much as anybody, but I don't really need these guys in the yard, though they do seem to provide the benefit of lawn aeration as they like to dig.
So that's it for today... Brian's game show of the week recap. Stay tuned for future tails (tales) from the farm(stead).
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Political Advertising
Why can't our political candidates present straight scoop with their political ads? You probably wouldn't like my answer depending on which side of the political fence you sit, so I'll just say that it's well documented that advertising is effective. The difference between political advertising and product advertising is that there are laws that restrict deceptive ads for products while political ads apparently allow unlimited deception to sway your opinion.
As I was wading around the internet this morning, I came across a couple TV ads that are a BIG departure from common political ads we're exposed to every day. So to beat the drum and jump on the bandwagon, turn on your sound and click here...
Republican Ad
And to learn just about everything you ever needed to know to make your decision...
Democratic Ad
Too bad the current crop of ads go in such a different direction!
As I was wading around the internet this morning, I came across a couple TV ads that are a BIG departure from common political ads we're exposed to every day. So to beat the drum and jump on the bandwagon, turn on your sound and click here...
Republican Ad
And to learn just about everything you ever needed to know to make your decision...
Democratic Ad
Too bad the current crop of ads go in such a different direction!
Monday, October 6, 2008
New Year Resolutions
I remember one of my new year resolutions last January was "Clean, repair, and paint the barn. This may be a job that extends beyond this year". It's convenient for me that the Gazette has all my blogs archived as I would never have remembered the exact phrase used, but when I looked it up I got a bit disheartened as I'm not doing so well on some other resolutions. More on that later.
As those of you that follow the City Slickers know, we've spent a good portion of the summer working on the barn. Now I will be the first to admit that I have spaced apart the work done as best as I could so as to not burn out on the project, and we had major help from Margie's family from Colorado territory. The old barn sure looks different than the day we made our offer for The Farm(stead). I've got a few small things to wrap up like getting the hay loft windows located if there are any, and getting one hinge and a couple of boards attached to doors on the back of the barn and painted, but that's it!
We'll be running our own test of barn red paint. I've heard paint doesn't hold up too well around here, but we're hoping we don't have to paint more than every 5 years or so. The old siding really swallowed up the paint, but we did our best to put plenty of the red stuff on to really soak into the cracks completely.
OK, so the barn is pretty much done which was high on my list of things to do this year. Where I've fallen behind is going to baseball games and I guess I waited too long now though we've been to Cambridge home football games. Getting organized is well behind schedule as is building a new bathroom and remodeling another. Beyond that, I've loafed my way through my list of things I planned to accomplish.
And the best part of all this is the year isn't over yet! I've still got time to catch up on quite a few things I want to do. Our priorities shift back and forth around the place as we get more and more used to how we think we'll live out here in the country. It's been 9 months already and I can hardly believe we've been here that long. Summer is over and I have no idea where it went.
I have a bad feeling that I won't get the bathrooms completed as resolved, but we'll see how far into the remaining construction projects we get before the end of the year. With the weather cooling off, the weed war is about to have a seasonal shutdown and I hope to make some good progress. Now if it just wasn't for football on TV, I might have a chance.
As those of you that follow the City Slickers know, we've spent a good portion of the summer working on the barn. Now I will be the first to admit that I have spaced apart the work done as best as I could so as to not burn out on the project, and we had major help from Margie's family from Colorado territory. The old barn sure looks different than the day we made our offer for The Farm(stead). I've got a few small things to wrap up like getting the hay loft windows located if there are any, and getting one hinge and a couple of boards attached to doors on the back of the barn and painted, but that's it!
We'll be running our own test of barn red paint. I've heard paint doesn't hold up too well around here, but we're hoping we don't have to paint more than every 5 years or so. The old siding really swallowed up the paint, but we did our best to put plenty of the red stuff on to really soak into the cracks completely.
OK, so the barn is pretty much done which was high on my list of things to do this year. Where I've fallen behind is going to baseball games and I guess I waited too long now though we've been to Cambridge home football games. Getting organized is well behind schedule as is building a new bathroom and remodeling another. Beyond that, I've loafed my way through my list of things I planned to accomplish.
And the best part of all this is the year isn't over yet! I've still got time to catch up on quite a few things I want to do. Our priorities shift back and forth around the place as we get more and more used to how we think we'll live out here in the country. It's been 9 months already and I can hardly believe we've been here that long. Summer is over and I have no idea where it went.
I have a bad feeling that I won't get the bathrooms completed as resolved, but we'll see how far into the remaining construction projects we get before the end of the year. With the weather cooling off, the weed war is about to have a seasonal shutdown and I hope to make some good progress. Now if it just wasn't for football on TV, I might have a chance.
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