Tag: randomness

shop locally, and buy some art while you're at it!

Heather Ladick, of Zeppelin Threads, wrote a little editorial for The Cynthiana Democrat where she challenged readers to try shopping around town rather than relying upon Wal-Mart. In her writing, she explained that she has spent the past five months doing that very thing, and has relied upon “local” stores as much as possible, only making purchases out of town when there hasn’t been an alternative–and even then she has avoided large corporate or chain stores. I applaud her.
I for one would love to do the same, and will attempt to do so in the coming months. It will be a slight challenge for me, where I have grown so accustomed to strapping the kids in a cart and strolling up and down the aisles of a single store, but I think that I’ll manage.
On a related note, a dear friend of mine, Matt Hyatt, will be having a showing on May 31 at Ladick’s gallery. Matt will be showcasing and selling various pieces including photography and artwork. If you’re on Facebook you can find out more and RSVP here.

ham communications to myanmar…

I received an email the other day concerning efforts to communicate with Myanmar. According to the email, there aren’t any agreements with Myanmar, so there is no way for an amateur to attempt to make welfare inquiries.
Just something I found interesting, so I thought I’d share:

Allow me to preface this email with the statement that I am not an expert of any color in this subject.
However, I have seen a lot of emails on a lot of ham reflectors about the desire to contact Myanmar for health/welfare inquiries. I thought I would do a little research, because there are probably many hams out there with as much knowledge as I had. 🙂
We do not have a Third Party Traffic agreement according to the list at:http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/io/3rdparty.html
Therefore, unless the State Department works out a temporary agreement with the government of that nation, those forms of transmissions are not allowed. Tragic, yes. However, seeing the news stories about the political/diplomatic issues with that nation I say this would not be the time to test international law.
I did learn a lot by reading a page on emergency communications on the IARU web site about international emergency communcication. It is located at http://www.iaru.org/emergency/
Just the facts as I have learned them. I have asked ARRL HQ to issue guidance and updates to the amateur radio community.
Take care, 73, Pat, KD4PWL
—————————Support Amateur Radio in KYhttp://www.kyham.net

scrap metal thefts on the rise

It would seem that thefts of “scrap” metal are growing in the area. Cynthiana Dispatch received a call of a person requesting an officer to report missing copper from the 200 block of Battle Grove Ave.–this coming on the day that The Cynthiana Democrat published an article telling of an incident occurring on Russell Cave Rd, just two days ago.
In the article, Harrison County Sheriff’s Deputy Dean Hutchinson stated that an arrest of two people had been made for “trying to steal metal pipe from a farm.”
While the two incidents may be unrelated (it’s unclear as to whether the suspects were released, as this information isn’t available in the article), it has become very apparent that, “these types of crime are becoming more and more common.”
The last words in the article quote Hutchison as advising, “People need to be aware of what they have and to make sure they keep their eyes and ears open on stuff around their property and around their neighbors’ property.”

internet addiction leads to love of bluegrass…

My addiction to the Internet is growing. I don’t know if this is a good thing. I may need an intervention.
A few minutes ago I found a radio station that can supply me with a nice Bluegrass fix. You’d figure that I just turned on the radio (note: link to same model, not my actual radio), gave the dial a twist, and hit on something local, seeing as I’m in the Bluegrass region of KY. Well, that’s not how it happened at all.
Twhirl notified me of an update to Leo’s friendfeed which pulled a post from TWiT.tv which sparked my interest. The post was for The Tech Guy ep. 450. I normally don’t keep up with his Tech Guy shows, but look on occasion, because there are neat little toys or issues addressed, and since I wasn’t really doing anything, I clicked over, then clicked over to the show notes, and found a discussion on Internet radio. Leo had told someone about C. Crane radio. Since I had never heard of C. Crane, and had an interest in discovering another radio manufacturer/retailer (and had heard of Internet radios, but never looked up any info on ’em) I followed the link.
From C. Crane’s site, I found a radio which intrigued me, so I went to it’s product page, read up on it, and, once again, found another link I could resist from clicking. That link sent me to a directory of Internet radio stations — Reciva. I did a search to see if any of the area stations were listed (only a few were). It was there that I found a listing for WMMT, an FM station in Whitesburg. WMMT’s programming? Bluegrass. Naturally, I clicked.
Once the little pop-up loaded the stream, I was thrilled to hear the sound of a banjo, fiddle, and guitar. I was thrilled. I haven’t heard Bluegrass in a few years, where the last station nearby that played classic country and bluegrass (WAOL, Ripley, OH) was purchased and reformatted.
Anyway, I’m sitting listening to a station 160 miles away.
And it’s all because of my inability to step away from the computer.

back from the grave! my dead notebook came back to life!

odd…
while i was sitting laying on the couch, i reached over to the end-table and picked up my old notebook (the “dead” one), and turned it on, expecting nothing, but hoping for a miracle.
the miracle came.
several months ago my acer aspire 5100-5022 decided to become unresponsive to user inputs–the keyboard, mouse, and usb ports stopped working. a few weeks later i replaced it, but never threw it out. (i had plans to use it later, once i found an alternative for inputs).
well, tonight, like many nights, i picked it up, opened it, turned it on, and played with the keys. after no response, i turned it off, closed it, banged it on my knee (just as i had done on those other nights), opened it back, and turned it on. nothing. i started turning it on, and removing the battery as it went through the POST. nothing. i kept this up a while, and then, to my surprise, on one attempt when i hit F2, it actually responded and sent me to the BIOS!
shortly thereafter it stopped responding again.
so, i repeated all the same steps again. AND IT WORKED!
now i’m piecing the thing back together (i put the HDD back in–i had yanked it for external uses–and am reinstalling an OS).
i just wonder how long it’ll last…

rotten neighbors…

Last night WKYT mentioned RottenNeighbor.com, a site where people can chime in and map out locations of “rotten” neighbors. Out of curiosity, I checked it out and found one house listed in Harrison County.
rottenneighbor
So far this is the only rotten neighbor in Harrison County. I’m not sure whether they meant noisey or nosy, and I’m still trying to figure out how someone “stars” at another…
For more info on the complainant, you can check their website, at http://raysrapidroadsideservice.com/default.aspx.

odd ramblings

I sat down about an hour or so ago in the bedroom to sort out laundry. while sorting the laundry, i did something i hadn’t done in quite some time. I watched television.
It’s been a while since I had watched the tube, and I’m not really sure why. Well, I suppose I can’t say that I haven’t watched TV altogether, but that I haven’t watched a regular broadcast station in a while. I’m not quite sure of the cause either. It might be due to Diana’s attempts at purchasing more sitcoms on DVD. It might be that writers strike that was finally resolved not so long ago. It might also be due to the Internet.
There are many other factors that could have affected my interest in television, but, in my opinion, I think the Internet is the greatest cause. Why? I blame Dave Winer. (Okay, I really don’t blame him–just needed something to say.)
RSS has changed a lot of what I do in a day. I’ve subscribed to several different feeds, all of which deliver me “news” of some sort. I read stories from all over the world (kind of – my feeds come from the states, but some deliver news from abroad on occasion) every morning, throughout the day, and at night. I have no need for television, nor do I have any need for printed media (well, I won’t until the local paper’s site becomes more reliable).
I have no idea why I sat down and wrote any of this. In reading back over it, none of the words make much sense. Odder still is the feeling I’m having of being separated from the TV now — kinda like I just shrugged off an old friend.
Here’s something interesting. I felt an odd feeling of joy (nostalgia, perhaps?) in sitting there on the bed watching the news. Maybe it was nostalgia. I dunno.
Now I have an odd desire to go back, and turn the TV on, and sit and watch the world unfold again. Maybe I can go see if repeats of The Simpsons still come on.
TV, here I come!

an interesting twist to a story from carlisle…

In February of this year, a Carlisle woman was reportedly shot and left inside her home which was set ablaze following a home-invasion/burglary attempt by two unidentified young men. The story has changed now, as police have taken the victim, Mary Willoughby [alias of Mary White, according to WKYT] into court, facing charges of falsifying a police report, and second degree facilitation to arson.
Mary plead not guilty before the court, and neither her attorney nor herself are making further comment.

Article Sources:

Ogawa, J. (2008). Woman shot, house set on fire during robbery. Lexington Herald-Leader. Retrieved April 24, 2008 from: http://www.kentucky.com/181/story/329405.html

Spencer, D. (2008). Woman Accused Of Arson And Shooting Herself Makes Court Appearance. Retrieved April 24, 2008 from:

Police: Woman Lied About Fire, Shooting. (2008). Retrieved April 24, 2008 from: