room with paint and views

This is a picture of the view out my back window. I guess it's pretty darn impressive, I like it. I used my Panasonic DMC-TZ3 with a zoom of 10 times to get the shot, but I think it is very neat.

The other pictures are of our room once it has been painted. The contractor guy came by today and he got a few other small things to do before he can pick up the final check for the project.

In other news of some humor, I've been called by a lady at our bank, who was watching our large balance in the checking account. She wanted to get us into another type of account that would earn slightly better interest rates. I explained to her that the money will be going out of the account soon, and normally, we don't have a large balance in our checking account.

I like the new room that will be the office soon. But perhaps even more exciting is the fact that our master bedroom has been expanded, and a larger walk-in closet was created.

We got some organizing hardware for the closet, it should be interesting. I guess my wife has been wanting a better organization method for our closets for some time now.

These pictures are of our new room which hasn't yet had the paint added to the walls, other than the orange peel texture of the drywall/joint compound.

It will look better as we progress.

Now that the ceiling fans/light assemblies are up, and plugs are in the wall, it is better.

The floor is a kind of semi rough rectified tile. The grout lines are barely noticable.

Computer Mediated Communication

My passion has been computer mediated communication (CMC). As a traumatic brain injury survivor, I recognize that it has been essential to my recovery process. As a master's level educated librarian, I enjoy seeing the "Ah-Ha!" moment of enlightenment. As an IT specialist, working at a hospital, I see that there are probably many who could benefit from further use of CMC. Yet there are systems and processes established for making proposals to enhance the quality of care that we provide.

I thought "how cool is that?" when I saw the movie Avatar, recently. It touched on the idea of using computer mediated communication. Granted, it was a fictional construct, but many elements could be used and expanded.

Back to my idea of CMC used as part of the rehabilitative process, one of the doctors at the hospital would like for me to think about how to use this as more of a way to get the patients ready to return to a work like environment. I'm thinking that communication is certainly part of the return to work strategy. It is so much more than just an element of the return to work paradigm, but if that gets attention, then yes.

The world of work involves much more than just communication. Perhaps as society evolves, the notion of work will also expand to encompass some of these ideas.

back yard birds

Pork

We fixed a one pound pork, two packs of instant mashed potatoes, and a frozen broccoli snow peas and carrots. We added a jar of pork gravy, and a can of chicken broth, with water when slow cooking the pork. The ten or so 10 ounce tubbies should last awhile.
We just had 2 servings for lunch. It was very good. We will be freezing about four of the tubbies. My wife cut the pork up into smaller pieces, The gravy with the chicken broth gave it very good flavor.

Art in Downtown Tampa, it looks pretty neat I think.

Some nice grasses we saw when we were out riding around town.

Sign proclaiming Lady Liberty.

This is me in front of the Lady Liberty tree, named that because this tree was near in proximity to the Senator tree. It is pretty darn impressive by itself. The walkway (wooden decking) is very nice.

1923 hurricane

The hurricane was in 1925, it reduced the hieght of the tree from 165 feet tall to it's present 118 feet tall. The late 1800s this tree was a big tree and attracted visitors even though the land was mostly swamp. The WPA built a path to the tree. In 1927, Senator Overstreet donated the land around the Senator tree to Seminole County, in Florida.

big tree

Fran and I were riding along in Sanford and we saw signs on the road directing us to the Senator. We decided to follow the signs, and we came to the park for big tree. This is the biggest cypress tree in Florida, possibly the US, maybe the world. I think it might be some 11 feet in diameter. I think the sign said that a hurricane caused the top of the tree to break off, but it's still impressive.

Welcome to the future

I listen to some country music. I like lyrics that have impact and provide food for thought.

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A man with a dream

Wake up Martin Luther

Welcome to the future

Glory glory hallelujah

Welcome to the future

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The song also talks about a football guy who had a cross burned in his front yard because he asked out the home coming queen. It also mentioned the pac man video game, and how it used to be that you would go down to the arcade, now it is on the cell phones. World War Two, fighting with the Japanese, and getting off a video chat this morning with a company in Tokyo.

The notion of the KKK using intimidation to try to influence behaviors seems relatively uiet, though I suppose there still are adherents to several flavors of Islam who still try to follow scriptures, and try to uphold instructions on war fighting as a life after which one should pattern future behavior.

There could be other belief systems.

Is the world headed toward more peace and love, or will there probably be an armed conflict killing scores of thousands of people, or various natural disasters which could make earth difficult to prosper on. (perhaps another Ice Age, or at least very cold temperatures.

Gen Kevin Chilton on Charlie Rose

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/9687
A nice interview with a general from USStratCom. Perspective on what the significance of being a person in an organization.

USStratCom is a joint force of Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. Cyberspace, Global Reconnaisance Assets, Nukes.

It's just business

I think the phrase about 'it's just business' can say a lot. Perhaps the Japanese response to an unemployment level of perhaps half that of the US, the voting in of a new ruling party, and changing relations with the US and Europe will be interesting.

Of course, maybe there will be other interesting changes to the international relations infrastructure, it is too early to really tell for certain.

No one likes to be unemployed. I am happy that I have a nice job contributing to the smooth operation of the VA Hospital's computer systems. I guess I do try to move up in the system, which has so far not moved forward, but who knows what the future will hold?


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Though Japan's economy has shown signs of coming out of its worst recession since the second World War, in a country used to lifetime employment, the unemployment rate has hit a record high. Just two days before the election, the jobless rate was announced at 5.7 percent.

In the world's second largest economy, for many people, it is all about business.

On the sidewalks of Tokyo, street vendors tell ABC News "business has been getting worse and worse" and that "people used to buy two items but now they only buy one."

igoogle is pretty cool

there's a post applet for blogger (blogspot, or whatever)from inside of igoogle. http://www.google.com/ig Hmm, this could be an interesting addition.

I like the Ipod Touch music playing through my Bose Accoustic Wave Radio. Maybe the new Apple Tablet will be more mac than strictly a larger Ipod Touch. I like the portability of the music collections made possible by the Ipod Touch. As far as the web browsing from the Ipod Touch goes, in my opinion it is way too lacking. At least as long as there are actual laptop computers around which can provide a better experience.

Maybe if the Tablet will be supporting the leading edge networking infrastructure, it could be really cool.

shoe thrower to be released early

The Iraqi Shoe Thrower, who proved GWB 43 had reasonable reflexes, and could get out of the way of an object hurled at him appears to have been behaving well.


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An Iraqi journalist imprisoned for hurling his shoes at former President George W. Bush will be released next month after his sentence was reduced for good behavior, his lawyer said Saturday.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi's act of protest during Bush's last visit to Iraq as president turned the 30-year-old reporter into a folk hero across the Arab world, as his case became a rallying point for critics who resented the 2003 U.S. invasion and occupation.

sunshine state shrinking

Wow, this looks pretty interesting. To think that the population for Florida declined. It might be reasonably expected that this trend will reverse itself.
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Choked by a record level of foreclosures and unemployment, along with a helping of disillusionment, the state?s population declined by 58,000 people from April 2008 to April 2009, according to the University of Florida?s Bureau of Economic and Business Research. Except for the years around World Wars I and II, it was the state?s first population loss since at least 1900.

Edward Kennedy died

I'm not sure why the media is going so ga-ga over the life of Edward Kennedy.

I guess the Senate Democrats now have 59 votes. I doubt that the democrats can be too united on big, divisive issues. But whatever. Who knows, maybe the senate democrats could pass the House Bill.

Weight loss so far

I'm not too impressed by the current weight 188.6, but considering we've been eating good stuff, and small portions, we are doing pretty well.

I've been having some mouth soreness pain. I attribute it to a recent filling that I had replaced and expanded, due to the cavity that was forming on the side of the tooth. The dentist wanted me to bring in my night guard for some "adjustment" on Monday. I put the night guard in my mouth last night, and it was uncomfortable, so I slept without it. Today, there was still some pain. I took some Tylenol ez tabs a couple of times today.

Yesterday I think I took more Tylenol than I took today.

Tonight for dinner, I had a scoop of meatballs on top of a slice and a half of Texas Toast. It was quite good. Maybe I shouldn't have gotten the chocolate milk, but the chocolate milk was pretty good. I might have had about 12 ounces.

I'm happy that my wife was pleased that she got 20W shorts, and had to return them to Bell's clothing store, and she got 18W shorts, and they fit. She says she can't remember the last time she wore 18W shorts.

I'm not really wanting to continue the rapid weight loss. I'm happy at this weight. I think if I wanted to get the lap band adjusted again, I would most likely eat smaller portions again, and I'd lose more weight. Then I'd probably need to get smaller pants again.

Grilled Cheese

Most of a grilled cheese sandwich from last night. It was very good, I had 3 slices of white american cheese, some sausage pieces, and a handful of mozzarella cheese. It was a very cheesy sandwich. We will have family over for lunch. Fran, my wife is going out of her way to fix alot of food. Part of the family who we are inviting over, we're not that fond of, but it's a matter of strategic diplomacy, I suppose. So, there should be alot of food fixed for this event, and I'm not sure how much of it we'll be able to eat. Fortunately, we can eat about anything. I wasn't sure how I'd do with the sandwich, but it was very good.
We will be having some neices and a nephew with wife and daughter who are down from Massachusettes over today. Other family will also come visit. It should be interesting.

A nice detail at another of the buildings on USF's campus. The fencing indicates where there will be more construction soon.

river art zoomed in

This is an up close zoomed in shot of the bottom of the river art piece.

River Art

This is a cool piece of art work on the side of a building over at the Department of Environmental sciences on the campus of the University of South Florida. I like several things about several of the buildings and architectural designs. Anyway, this art is supposd to represent the Hillsborough River.