Spent the morning visiting with Dwayne Leslie (5 min interview). He’s a farmer from Manitoba, Canada, who –five years ago– decided to build a web page to help pass the cold winter days when he couldn’t farm. He created PrairieLinks.com which is the #1 ag portal in Canada. When he couldn’t find any good farm auction sites, he started FarmAuctionGuide.com which attracts 10,000 unique visitors daily. Do not tell me that farmers are not plugged in.
Category Archives: Personal History
57
Another year, another birthday. Fifty-seven. (Shudder) Man, I can throw a rock and hit sixty from here. But I feel great. Shoot, I weigh exactly what I did when I graduated from college in 1970. Or do I? Surely a lifetime of experiences and memories must have some infinitesimal mass. All the good times must weigh something, even if you subtract a few bad moments. Of course the answer is right there in the mirror. I couldn’t find the quote but it’s something like at twenty you have the face god gave you and and sixty you have the face you earned. Damn. I just don’t think that’s accurate. Life’s been better than I look.
Flu shot
This is my official warning to seniors, mothers with small children, the lame and infirm of any description. If there is a flu vaccine shortage next year, you’re gonna have to wrestle me for the last vial. This year Barb persuaded me we should not get the shots –assuming we could– so there would be “more for those who need it most.” Easy call when you’re feeling great. Well, we both got the flu and it has been a nasty, miserable three days (assuming the worst is over). So I won’t be holding the door for you down at the clinic, granny. Tell the OATS bus driver to floor it.
Three years blogging
On Thursday, I will have been “…writing some of this down” for three years. More than 1,000 thoughts, notes, links, rants, reviews and random ravings. I couldn’t have imagined sticking with it this long and I can’t imagine ever stopping. I’ll be 57 next month so I could easily have another 25 years of blogging ahead.
I tell new bloggers that the first 48 hours will tell the tale. If you’re gonna get the bug, you’ll get it within those first couple of days. And if you’re not hooked by then, it’s probably not for you. M
Hustle & Flow
A recent entry in the Sundance Film Festival, Hustle & Flow — written and directed by Memphis native Craig Brewer, and produced by John Singleton– has been purchased by Paramount.
“Djay is a pimp suffering a midlife crisis and although nominally successful, he yearns to record his flow and become a respected rapper. Galvanized by a gospel song, he sets his dream in motion–recruiting his motley crew and building a studio in his home. And though he succeeds in putting his rap, “It’s Hard for a Pimp,” onto tape, the barriers to fame and fortune are many, and getting there becomes an elusive goal.”
Kennett Senior Correspondent Viretta, proudly reports that her baby boy, Luke, worked on the soundtrack. She adds that she’s not bothered that the film is about “pimps & ho’s.”
Brother Blane safe and sound.
“Just got back to town. Incredible damage on North Sumatra, but we were just too far south. Feeling blessed beyond words. Thanks for your prayers.”
Rollin’ my own.
I never read local newspapers. I know, I know. I’m just not interested no matter how much I should be. As a result, I’ve been reading USA TODAY for years. I could barely get through breakfast without something to read and USA TODAY was my paper of choice. No longer. The bump to seventy-five cents is part of it but there are too many stories I don’t care about. (Yes, I know I should care about them, but I don’t) So I’m reading less of the paper and paying more.
But recently I’ve been surfing with my finger on the print key. In five or ten minutes I have more than enough stories to get me through my Malt-o-Meal. Sort editing my own newspaper. And this process will get more automated but I enjoy browsing and printing and will probable keep rolling my own daily. And I’m saving almost $200 a year.
List making
I don’t make lists the way I used to. Many years ago I became a voracious list-maker. I attended lots of time management seminars and read lots of self-improvement books and was very much into being effecient and effective. It occurred to me last week that I no longer do very good job of making lists. I’m much more likely to scrawl something on a Post-It not. Or enter a new Task in Outlook. As a charter member of Anal-Retentives of America, I started wondering why. Here’s the best I could come up with:
For most of my 35 years as a working adult, I was responsible for “managing” others. Now, I’m pretty much responsible only for my own work. I can still appreciate the need for organizing and prioritizing my work but I just don’t seem to take the time make those nice, neat, numbered lists (with the A, B or C designations). It would be easy enough to check (15 years of Day-Timers in the upstairs closet) but I’ll bet most of those list items involved telling someone else to do something or checking to see if someone did what I told them to do. Only now, in retrospect, do I see how much I hated those little “nag lists.”
Maybe it’s like a bunch of people that all want to reach a common destination. They can get there much faster, and more comfortably, if they get on a bus. Everyone can shout out the best route but, in the end, only one person can drive. For some, the slave galley is a better analogy.
A few years ago I decided I didn’t want to drive the bus, even if it wasn’t headed in the direction I wanted to go. For now, I’m enjoying the ride… but I don’t mind walking.
Fiber to the home.
Brother-in-law Chris reports that Verizon is installing fiber-to-the-home in his neighborhood of South Lake, Texas. According to this Yahoo! story, the company expects to market video services on the new FTTP network next year. DSL? Cable? Shhiiiiitttt. Fiber will deliver “download speeds of up to 5 Mbps, 15 Mbps and 30 Mbps, with upstream speeds of up to 2 Mbps for the first two products and 5 Mbps for the third. The 5 Mbps service sells for $34.95 per month, when purchased with a package of Verizon services, and $39.95 when purchased separately.” Hard to believe I’ll live to see that kind of speed to our home but I’m happy for him. Sort of.
Photo journal.
Some friends of ours are making a quick holiday trip to see family in Florida and will be travelling at the peak. It gave me a wonderful idea. Take a photo every hour, on the hour, for the duration of the trip. Start with a shot of the alarm clock on day-one. Then, at the top of each hour, look around and take one picture. Nothing posed. Just shoot the first thing that catches your eye. And then go one with your holiday. If you’re awake 15 hours each day, for a fast 3-day trip… you have 45 images without having to think much about what you’re doing. If anybody tries this, let me know how it works. And I’d love to see the photos. If you don’t have a Fotki account, here’s a good reason to set one up.