I'll be back

Out of the loop for a bit until Metrocast brings us back online. Major outage, this should be repaired later tonight, early morning. Posting from a remote location. Taking meds that make me sleep and should finish the regimen tomorrow.

Bookends, Just Half Here

We left the memorial service Saturday and regrouped at Starbucks. My daughters, my sis in life, Felecia, son in law Charlie who has become one of my best friends, Maddie my purple princess of a GRAND daughter, and my exwife, Jan. Sitting there laughing and talking about Jim, we remembered good times. We all loved him, still do. Then out of the clear blue over the intercom, this song played:



Thank you God...

Music Monday - Turn It Up!!!!!!!

Pretty, happy, into her career, and admired by peers. When the folks ran a talent test, the meter blew up. Her Australian accent is so dad gum hot! Don't bother telling me old information. I do realize this video has been posted before today. I like her so much it may be posted again next week! BTW, the voice overlay at the beginning is Dick Cavett interviewing Carlos Santana. Listen to Orianthi Panagris perform a classic Jimi Hendrix tune:

GW2

Last weekend there was fun around Sis's house. Jim Couch showed up. He was in good spirits as was Felecia. Heck, I was happy too. Why all the joy? All three of us were participating in an online beta test of Guild Wars 2. Haven't heard of Guild Wars? Well, hang on, it is about to knock the MMO, online gaming community right out of their virtual socks and shoes...or elf boots if you happen to be wearing them.

Simple way to embrace online gaming. Go down to the Walmart, purchase Guild Wars 2 (available August 28, 2012) install it and start playing. It's that simple. You don't have to be a Guild Wars 1 player or need any gaming strategy. Just start playing. The game will teach you. If you don't like fun, have a sh-ty attitude towards life, or rejoice in the pain and agony of others please don't play. Spend that money on badly needed therapy.

I hope my assessment is clear and easy to understand. With clothes on, this game is the most fun a human can have period, end of statement. It's gorgeous beyond all expectations, the sound is awesome, ease of play is good for gamers and non-gamers and there is NO monthly fee. Unless you are hopelessly stuck in Muggle land you'll like GW2. Several million people experienced the beta test last weekend and it's 99.9999% assured to be the next evolution in online gaming.

The folks at Arena Net have delivered. If you have never played an online game, start now...or on August 28th.

More

Brother Couch had a beautiful memorial service. Please, the loss is hitting me hard now. Get your thoughts together because it's important that everyone make a comment or send an email reflecting on your thoughts concerning Jim. I will assemble everything and pass it on to Aley (Jim's daughter) and his parents in hard copy. Thanks to everyone that has responded. Steve, thanks for being a better person than me. Rest assured he was honored by a room FULL of family and friends. Stay tuned...

Saturday Services for Jim

Here is information about visitation and the memorial service for Jim Couch:

Memorial service will be 2 p.m. Saturday at the Jefferson Street Chapel, W.E. Pegues Funeral Home. Reverend Chad Grayson will be officiating. Burial will be in Tupelo Memorial Park.

Visitation will be from noon until service time Saturday at the funeral home.

Memorials may be made to Salvation Army Womens’ Auxiliary, P.O .Box 7240, Tupelo, MS 38802.

My Friend

Jim Couch had a stroke late Monday or early Tuesday. He is in NMMC and I have room info etc. I just talked to his Dad. He is presently comatose and the family has not been able to learn more at this time. Jim has been my friend for over 30 years and my prayers for him and his family are accompanied by many others. Jim is a super human being and has touched a lot of lives. Folks, this is a friend that I talk to almost daily. We have helped each other through ups and downs, with Jim being the better friend. He attends church and has a tremendous amount of faith. Join us in prayer for Jim, his daughter, and parents.

EDIT: Jim passed away around 11:00-11:30AM this morning. As details transpire about arrangements, I'll post info here. Jim is fine. He's crossed the bar to take his place in heaven. Let us support his family in this time of grief.

I love you, brother. Sing with the angels.

Music Monday - Mannheim Steamroller

Sometime a picture is worth wayyyyyy more than a thousand words.

Thanks out to JimC for this great pix!

Just in Case

A friend sent this to me. Rather poignant.



One day a woman's husband died, and on that clear, cold morning, in the warmth of their bedroom, the wife was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't "anymore".

No more hugs, no more special moments to celebrate together, no more phone calls just to chat, no more "just one minute."

Sometimes, what we care about the most gets all used up and goes away, never to return before we can say good-bye, say "I love you."

So while we have it, it's best we love it, care for it, fix it when it's broken and heal it when it's sick.

This is true for marriage.....And old cars... And children with bad report cards, and dogs with bad hips, and aging parents and grandparents. We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it.

Some things we keep -- like a best friend who moved away or a sister-in-law after divorce. There are just some things that make us happy, no matter what.

Life is important, like people we know who are special.. And so, we keep them close!
Suppose one morning you never wake up, do all your friends know you love them?

Important thing is to let every one of your friends know you love them, even if you think they don't love you back.

And just in case I'm gone tomorrow, please vote against Obama!



Thanks out to EdC for a great email!!

Chris Butler

He will be missed. My heart goes out to the family and friends. Chris was one of the good guys. So many times he helped me out of computer jams. A super friend. His attitude towards life, work, family, friends was "can do." An inspiration and positive person, he will be missed.

Thanks "Elvis the Butler" and peace.

Intimations of Mortality

As you gather to enjoy an evening meal, saying Grace might help. If you are fortunate enough to look at family or friends while at this table, rejoice in them. If you are inside, comfortable and secure when you close your eyes, please remember you are blessed.

Music Monday - Dream Voices

Self Explanatory

Thanks Ashy for a great link!

Hey Dude, You Are Still the Man

Yes. I really miss my Dad. Life can be tough, so naturally his guidance still helps me love our God...even in despair.

Gone? Me thinks not.

Duality

Here at the beach house there was a love hate relationship concerning Apple in the early years of this blog. Then Apple changed in a positive fashion to their latest operating system based on FreeBSD. Shortly thereafter they switched to Intel processors. Their market share has more than doubled since making these wise changes. It's really not about the hardware though. They have always manufactured great products. Jobs finally decided to enter the mainstream of computerism.

The very first job I had in the industry was a salesman/tech for Apple. My disdain with things orchard started years ago when Steve Jobs made the claim that Apple was faster than PCs. Absurd and very undignified. This was during the Power PC chipset incarnation and hyper threading or dual core were not terms familiar to fanboys. Shucks, multi-tasking plumb evaded them. Now this is not to say that Apple computers weren't nice products. They were and are to this day. But fast as a PC?

Today the market has changed. No doubt a business can run on Apple networks, but it is far more cost effective to use the PC format. Heck, the cost of software alone is a huge savings. So, as technology evolves it'll be fun to watch this healthy competition. In the meantime, something new is learned every day about the iPad. An iPhone is a dream. Hope it comes true one day. But trade my Toshiba Qosmio laptop for a MacBook? That won't happen. I leave every morning armed with a PC and an iPad. You don't have to pick sides in this age old debate. It's okay to like both!

Random Thursday, 12th of July

Guess that makes tomorrow the 13th.

Yet to Come Part 2

Anyone can make predictions. The internet is informative and that's with a huge wow factor. But beware, not all info is correct. That said, let's look at some of the hubbub around the web;

TABLETS
Tablets are here to stay. For a while. The variety grows, hence competition boosts the quality and power factors through the roof.

No doubt Apple led the the way with the iPad. I own one. It was a gift last Christmas that rarely leaves my eyesight. Kudos to Apple marketing and their manufacturers. Nice delivery on the retail side and an excellent product. At Christmas Flash based media was a slight problem with Apple. Today, a shift has occurred and playing media problems are virtually history.

Apple has a few minor drawbacks. Why won't they let us replace the batteries? Price is somewhat a factor. Their proprietary interface cable could use some upgrading, like maybe a standard USB 3.0 which blows everything, including Firewire, away. I do like the current trend that the orchard seems to be moving away from Big Brother type control. A few days ago Apple made Chrome available for iPad. Haven't used Safari since, lol.

Android based tablets are on fire. A huge part of the cause is the Kindle Fire. This is a great tablet. At 200 bucks it's a steal. They will offer some new models before year's end hopefully reflecting their decent price marketing strategy. I know several techies that use the Toshiba tablets and hear nothing but praises of these devices. And Windows is busy taking things off the back burner of their tablet stove. Just wait, they won't be left out of this market.

SSDs

Solid State Drive. Say it with me and remember it, "Solid State Drive." They are not coming...they are here. There are two in this laptop. More about that later. One advantage to these drives really stands out. Can we say, "Screaming yellow zonkers fast?"

The next evolution in hard drive technology has many positive features. They have no moving parts so the heat factor is all but negated. You don't defragment SSDs. Very quiet devices that take up minimal space in a case. The market has grown competitive so prices are becoming more realistic. Many more features exist. Here is an idea of size difference.

That's a standard hard drive on the left and the SSD on the right. Quite a difference, huh? Also, the SSDs will fit most laptops that use SATA interfaces.

Why 2 SSDs in my laptop? One is a boot drive that runs Windows 7 Pro and essential software. The other is for downloads and MMO files. Also there is a 500GB 7200rpm external drive for data. The primary drive is a Plextor 128gb. The secondary is an Intel 120gb. The Intel drive was a gift several years ago and has performed perfectly. But, the Plextor was brought online a few months ago. Wow, fast? Please click on the Plextor link above.

The software that cloned the drive (Acronis) was easy to use and transferred everything is less than 15 minutes. That's right in 15 minutes, operating system and data! After fine tuning a few days, this laptop actually booted in 7-9 seconds! Since then I've changed the MBR and it boots in 20 seconds. Hey, toys? lol.

Just look at the specs in the two above links and it will help clear up doubts about speed and reliability. Here are some more links concerning SSDs:

Oops. No care about a deep gash in my leg? Oh well, more links tomorrow, stay casual. (Am I milking this or what?) Comments please.

Yet to Come Part 1

Several major changes will happen during the next 300-400 days. Well, this is all possible if the Mayans are/were wrong about December 21, 2012.

Windows 8 will be available at retailers in October.

The highly anticipated (for years now) Guild Wars 2 will crank up late August.

For some goofy reason beyond my power of understanding, Google will pull the plug on the iGoogle homepage November 1, 2013.

Flash will be out of the mobile business in a few months.

There will be 3 new models of the Kindle Fire arriving before the holiday sales.

A 7" iPad is now being developed in Brazil for some reason. It should be available before the end of year. Hey Tim Cook! Give those jobs to the legal citizens of the USA!

Mozilla has announced no further support of Thunderbird, a great email client. Simple solution - use GMail.

Hopefully, we will once again become a nation united. Sad that the socialist leaning incumbent is uniting the country under a banner of hate and disappointment - for him.

Tomorrow's Post: A few personal predictions about hardware trending in the near future. Be sure and catch my take on SSDs. Don't know about SSDs? Links will be there for your enjoyment and pleasure.

Music Monday - One of the Top 5

There are several live versions of this song on YouTube. Sometimes it's better to listen to the original and enjoy the wells of quality that always exist around some performers. Mr. Hall and Mr. Oates possess such talent. This is an all time favorite. Pretty, well recorded, beautiful lyrics, important message and really over the top. Take a few minutes and hear a classic:

Fallen and Almost Didn't Get Up

After a round of back problems and making a decision that I WOULD NOT have back surgery without a second opinion (that probably won't make any difference) several weeks have passed in a muscle relaxer stupor. After staying off the meds for a few days I was busy moving equipment around and tripped over an open computer case. If not squeamish the picture below shows the results. It starts at the bottom of my kneecap and continues down for about 9-10 inches. Pretty huh? Eat your heart out Gwyneth Paltrow, Mila Kunis, Naomi Watts and Kate Beckinsale! After tearing it open at the top again on Saturday, I am off my feet for a few days to let this knit back together.

Most of my life I've been a blessed man and not suffered a great deal physically. Of course some that know me seem to think the same is not true when applied to the mental aspect. On occasion I am bothered by an old wound that hinders walking a bit, but other than the blood pressure/stroke problems down through the years that have been controlled by meds most of the time, it hasn't been that bad. That said, the last few years have been hell.

One malady after another. Yes I am familiar with whine mode, turbo whine mode, and warp whine mode. Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, let me tell ya that warp whine can be found at the beach house most any time of the day or night. If you drive by don't think those horrible sounds you hear are the neighborhood possum, Sid, whuppin' up on a cat or dog. Just might be me trying to stand up, roll over in bed or tie my shoes.

K, dropping out of warp back to normal. Hey, it's not all bad. I have lost over 50 pounds! You know, sometimes you just have to accentuate the positive...