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Odds and Ends part- who knows!

Today Google was 'off line' for a while and that even effected me! Couldn't log on for much of the morning. Working now though so a good time to update since its been almost two weeks since the last one.

I thought it was very funny this morning on XM 60's on 6 when the D.J.(?) Plash Phelps was talking about how in June 'analog' and wind up clocks and watches would stop functioning if you didn't upgrade to a digital watch/clock. He even gave the fake URL of cleanmyclock.gov as a governmental web site for a discount coupon for a new digital watch or clock just like the TV analog to digital converter box.
He said that some analog watches and clocks might start to 'hum' and wind up watches might slow or start to run backwards as you go into different time zones after the digital conversion date.
Even with some of his canned laugh track in the back ground of several of his 'announcements', I'm positive some people will believe it and start to worry over their watches and clocks!

Did you get your TV converter box? There really is a new end date for analog signals for TV, June 12th. If you need it get it soon!
We have American and Canadian satellite systems at home so didn't need one for there, plus if we needed it the local TV translator, since it's considered low power, stated they don't need to convert to digital for a while yet. But for our 5th wheel I wanted to get one for it for when we travel. Many places we've stayed at don't have cable and we don't normally spend days on end at any one place so it's a hassle to set up the satellite dish. So after a few weeks we got the orange credit card for the box rebate. Made the RCA unit from Wal-Mart cost $9.00. I think that makes it kinda worth it. I've heard how many problems people are having with their units since the analog signal was much broader and therefore more easily seen in fringe areas. The digital signal is more direct, more line of sight and it is either all on or all off. I hoping that when I use the unit with the boost of the amplified TV antenna it will work well.

Sandy and her husband start moving into their new apartment this weekend with the big move over Memorial weekend. She's set up help with a U-haul and her brother Sean and I'm guessing anybody else they were able to wrangle away from any plans they might have over the 'first official weekend of summer' that this weekend has become.

Here the wet weather continues. Yesterday, Wednesday, was the only day it hasn't rained at some point so far all week. Tomorrow its supposed to just be cloudy and actually it's predicted to be in the low 70's on Sunday and Monday, then might rain again on Tuesday. We'll have to see! Right now, 49 degrees breezy and raining at 1:40 PM. Everything is green and growing fast. I'm going to have to break out the weed eater this weekend and do some cleaning of more downed dead branches out front so I can start mowing again next weekend. Get the quad and the weed sprayer going too.

I've taken the fast track in converting the home videos to DVD. It had been taking a long time to sit and watch the videos making the scene breaks and labeling all the separate scenes. I decided to just copy the tapes and go with the DVD recorders 10 minute chapter marks as dividers. Just separate the videos by the tapes then list the chapters. Its working much better. I have programs that will rip media from DVD's so it doesn't matter so much as long as the scene can be easily found for putting together compilation home videos, the next step after they're all converted.
I think I may have said this before but even stuff that I'd originally thought was too long and boring is a treasure now. I wish I'd gotten so much more! Wish I'd had a two camera angle too, and used a tri-pod! Even though the early camcorders were all big and heavy I wasn't as stable holding them as I thought I was or a tri-pod would have been!

What about all the season finales on TV? Some shows I liked, those season finales have become series finales as those shows were not renewed on the new schedules announced by the different networks.

And lastly does anybody else see it like I do? It seems to me that technology is not running, but still rapidly moving towards making fact of the sci-Fi movies scripts of computer domination like in "Colossus the Forbin Project", or even "Terminator" or "Battlestar Galactica"? EVERYTHING it seems is now so dependent on computers. I recall when our kids were young I gave them grief when I saw them using calculators for home work, until they showed me that they had to use them per the teacher! Electronics, and I'm not knocking them, I like them too, have become so important to just about anything one might want to do. What will happen when the plug gets pulled or the networks get to big for their britches like in those movies?
I've been in areas of natural disasters and many people literally freak out when their technology doesn't work. I think that many older folks, guess I'm in that club now, wouldn't have it as bad as the newer generations that seem totally lost when things don't work. Just watch a movie about a group of people out someplace alone and the killer starts after them, it always happens so it must be true right :)
Till next time, Tad

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