New Years and Bald Eagles

On my way home today, I was sitting at a light watching two large birds flying around each other and half fighting, as they got closer one of them turned sidways so the light caught it’s tail and it was white. What I had been watching were two bald eagles coming closer. As they approached a third came up, the bird that was out front flew off and the two paired up and flew off along the ridge to the south together. It was a spectacular few moments that took me away from my car and the surrounding traffic and hubbub. What made it even more incredible is that it all took place in an area where the balds are rarely seen, much too populated. I looked around and no one had even noticed them. I thought to myslef what a way to end the year, it all seemed like some type of message so I will ponder it into the new year and who knows what it will bring.

May the New Year find you all in excellent health and loved for who you are, as well as your incredible abilities to create what you see and feel!!

Posted by admin on December 31st, 2009 No Comments

Thoughts and Memories at 56

Recently I’ve begun to become more nostalgic than usual. Lately I’ve spent a lot of time on Facebook watching and reading the doings of many old friends I have come back in to contact with. Of course the contact is over the cyber reality of the internet and in a way it’s not real contact but, contact none the less. As I have watched and read and interacted, at times many memories and moments that have passed in to the ethers of time have raced through my head and I begin to see, that where I am now and where I was then is so far apart. It begs the question, “Is the me I am now and the me I was then, the same person?”. How do we determine who we are? Do we base it on our actions? On our relationships? On our accomplishments? On our failures. Or perhaps it’s a culmunation of all of these and more.

Many times I have watched people come and go from my life and even though they may be gone, they still dwell in my memories as (perhaps I’m part elephant?) I truly never forget them. I am, as one would say, an older man with different stages of my life here and gone by, I have older children that know a different father than the one I am now to my younger children. Time has a way, for some, to teach us different ways to be and that brings me back to my question. What do we base our changes in life on, time seems to be a huge factor but time is also an illusion we created to measure deteroration of matter and energy.

SO many times I look ahead and see where I want to be and make plans to reach that goal, but I find when I lose sight of them and move with the flow of the universe I become more of what I want to be than when I try to accomplish laid out plans.

I look at my friends so many of them in thier lives living them, and moving through space as gracefully as geese in flight, and all of us joining in this dance of information sharing on facebook. I begin to feel that nostalgia for the ones who aren’t here. Past lovers, deceased friends, people who have disappeared in to lifes fog of time, I begin to wonder where they are and what has, and did happen to them.

Perhaps what I’m feeling is my own misgivings at how I am beginning to change, a few more grey hairs, the pounds that come and go, the hint of double chin and the age appearing in my eye’s as I look in the mirror. The days I have spent in the high desert alone and in the mountains with no one else there but me were less lonely than now with friends and family in reach.

The irony of it all.

Posted by admin on November 20th, 2009 No Comments

Finally Someone’s Making Sense - Thank You Mr Kucinich!

I’ve Been waiting to hear someone say this very thing, Finally someone in DC with courage!

****************************************************************
Kucinich: Why Is It We Have Finite Resources for Health Care but Unlimited
Money for War?

WASHINGTON - November 6 - Following a statement on the Floor of the House
of Representative, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today made the
following statement:

“Why is it we have finite resources for health care but unlimited money for
war?

“The inequities in our economy are piling up: trillions for war, trillions
for Wall Street and tens of billions for the insurance companies. Banks and
other corporations are sitting on piles of cash of taxpayer’s money while
firing workers, cutting pay and denying small businesses money to survive.

“People are losing their homes, their jobs, their health, their
investments, their retirement security; yet there is unlimited money for
war, Wall Street and insurance companies, but very little money for jobs on
Main Street.

“Unlimited money to blow up things in Iraq and Afghanistan, and relatively
little money to build things in the US.

“The Administration may soon bring to Congress a request for an additional
$50 billion for war. I can tell you that a Democratic version of the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan is no more acceptable than a Republican version of
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Trillions for war and Wall Street, billions for insurance companies…
When we were promised change, we weren’t thinking that we give a dollar and
get back two cents.”

Posted by admin on November 15th, 2009 No Comments

Thoughts of the day!

Today is full of fall, I picked up my son Athan from school and he is having a play date with a friend named Gweny, short for Gwennivere. It’s strange to see my eight year old son having a great time with a girl who not only looks a little like him but shares so much of the same interests. I’m glad he’s finding friendship with girls at such a young age. It will benifit him later in life to know how to befriend women rather than pursue them.
The wind blew through here yesterday leaving the roof of the chicken coup torn up a little and a few other odds and ends that will need repaire before the winter sets in. We picked up our new young bull Yak, Oscar, this past weekend with a drive to Stemaboat Springs that was arduous yet well needed, as trips go.

After going over the wrong pass and having to go back over it to get back on the right road things smoothed out. The Yampa Valley was as beautifull as I remembered, but the town of Steamboat Springs was quite different, as well as Phippsburg and Oak Creek. Of course it has been almost fourty years since I had been up there. I remember playing at The Inn At Thunderhead back then and there was only a small dirt road up the side of the mountain with one large grey building for the lodge. Now the entier mountain side is coverred in condos and you can’t see much of it except for the ski runs on the mountain.

The trip got me thinking about how so much can change but how much the same we feel inside regardless of how old we may get. My body say’s 56 but my mind and heart say 20, perhaps this is the diachotomy of existance we all must feel but fail to recognize at times. Perhaps this is the joke played on us by time and space, supposedly both are illusions yet we feel something change as our bodies do become different regardless of the illusion of time.

Posted by admin on October 2nd, 2009 No Comments

Father’s Day

Father’s Day, a day about Father’s. Somehow it never really seems to be like Mother’s Day, Mother’s get roses or candy or something very beautiful but men, we get ties (perhaps to hang ourselves), calogne ( do we smell bad?), tools (as if we don’t do enough work already). My father was a hard man to live with and so in turn I guess I am too. For years he wouldn’t talk to me much or even say he loved me or hug me. I guess in those days and being from the generation he is, that isn’t manly behaviour. Now, every time we talk on the phone he tell’s me he loves me.

For many years I held a grudge for my father and pretty much felt hate for him, for all the things he did and didn’t do. Over the years I realized how foolish that was and found forgiveness for him. Funny thing, as soon as I forgave him, I began to forgive myself for my own short comings.

Dad never spoke much about the war to me, he fought in Korea. I remember once as a kid we were watching a show called The 20th Century, it was a historical show much like those on the History Channel these days, I must have been about 10 years old. That night there was a show about a certain offensive that took place in Korea about a platoon of men who had been trapped in the mountains of Korea in the winter. About half way through the show my father who had been very quite, suddenly said ” I was there”.
I remember looking at him expecting more, but he never said another word about it.

Not too long ago we were talking on the phone and somehow we had gotten on the subject of my sisters bickering over my Mother’s jewlery after she had died. He asked me about a ruby ring. He told me he had given it to my mom. Then he told me an astonishing story. He told me he had been wounded while in the war and during his recuperation they put him on laundry detail, while washing blankets he had shaken out a blanket and out fell this ring, a very nice ruby ring. Then he told me he shook the blanket once more and out fell a finger. In all the years I had spoken with him he had never told me this.

I guess what I’m geting at is, we as children and young people tend to judge our parents pretty harshly without even knowing our parents as people until years later. This can only happen if we give them a chance and as adults we open ourselves to them as people. I know of many father’s who’s children are not accesable to them because of astranged situations or just plain misunderstanding. I myself have been in that position, and found/find it to be very painful, perhaps it ws this experience that led me to forgive my father, I had learned what he must have felt.

I won’t say Happy Father’s day, what I will say is Father’s deserve something different than we have gotten over the years and perhaps it’s time we rethink this whole Holiday. I feel strongly about the fact that many Fathers have received unfair treatment and although I know many women have too, this day is about Father’s, so hug yours and if you can’t, call him up and let him do all the talking, you never know you just might find out who you really are.

Posted by admin on June 21st, 2009 No Comments

Playing Halo on Vista/Laptop with Intel Mobile 945 chip

Well here is the scoop for any gamers who may find this blog. I have a laptop running Vista with the notorious Mobile Intel 945 chip, of course most people will tell you that Halo, Neverwinter Nights among other games will not play with this config. Some will say that Halo and NWN will squeek by. After some tweeking I have found what I believe to be the best configuration for playing Halo on my laptop.

Within the Game go to video setup and do this:
Framerate - vsync
Specular - No
Shadows - Yes
Particles - Low
Texture - Medium

Now on the computer go to “Graphics Properties” then “3d Settings” once there here’s what you do:

Async Flip - Off
Triple Buffering - Default
Flipping Policy - Flip
Depth Buffer Bit Depth - 24bit
Force S3TC Texture Compression - Off
Force FXT1 Texture Compression - On
Driver Memory Footprint - High
Texture Color Depth - 32bits
Anisotropic Filtering - On

These settings are for Halo only, settings for games like Neverwinter Nights are a bit different. This works for me but I’m sure you could tweek things further to your liking. Happy Gaming!

Posted by admin on June 20th, 2009 No Comments

Flagstaff for the Weekend

We’ve come to Flagstaff AZ for my daughters graduation, staying at the Du Beau Hostel in town, owned by an old friend who was once a local musician turned city councilman, now buisness owner. I went to Macy’s Coffee shop for a low fat mocha and low and behold as I walked out I saw several familiar faces. Since it’s been over 10 years I had no clue who they were but familiar just the same. It’s odd how we (the human) are truely a creature of habit and some habits are quite predictable. Here’s a shot of the Du Beau courtesy car and the door to the commons.

Du Beau courtesy car

The back wall with the mural is the outside wall of Macy’s Coffee Shop and where I conceived my song One Armed Girl. It seems like light years away when I was in the recycle truck working that day, so much has happened and so much is different. Which brings me back to the creature of habit thing, although I like to think I’m not caught up in that whole thing, sometimes I fear I am following the crowd no differently than anyone else. Then I take a look around myself and see that isn’t possible because of the fact so much has changed and is different for me. This deserves comtemplation. More to come from our journey to Flagstaff before it’s over.

Posted by admin on June 5th, 2009 No Comments

Wordpress Upgrade and New Photo Page

Well I upgraded to Wordpress 2.7.1, since I run my own site I was a little worried about doing it, but no problems and things are running smoothly, I highly recommend doing it if you are tired of the upgrade nag that appears at the bottom of your page. Taking some getting use to the new format in the Dashboard and Admin area but no biggy. Also added a photo album page using a plugin for Wordpress, WP-Photo Album. very simple plugin and easy to use, nothing fancy but integrates with the existing Theme nicely. If you are interested stop by and take a look. This is just a brief entry to chronicle my doings.

Posted by admin on May 31st, 2009 No Comments

New Gallery Of Logons and Bootskins by JG

I have been creating Logons and Bootskins for Windows using Stardocks Logon Studio and Bootskins. Logons are the screen you see when you enter your password to get in your computer and Bootskins are the screen you see when your system is booting up. In order to use these you have to have both utilities from Stardock installed on you computer here is a link to them.

Bootskins

Logon Studio

This is a very easy and quick way to personalize your computer with out all the hacking and re-programing of script.

Stop in and check out my Skins here JG’s Skin Gallery

Download them here JG Wincustomize

Posted by admin on May 29th, 2009 No Comments

The Truth About Vista

I have a Toshiba Satellite with Vista on it. Of course over the course of owning my laptop I, like so many, decided that Vista sucked. I got this idea that I would uninstall Vista and downgrade to Windows XP Pro. As I researched the internet for information on this process I began to find that over and over again anyone who had done this with the same model laptop I have had a night mare on their hands. The biggest problem was drivers, among some other minor ones. At one point I came upon an entry in a particular forum, this one fellow had done what was called a clean install of vista and found that it was actually an excellent OS. The more I looked in to this the more I decided that this would be the thing I would attempt to do.

Fortunately I found a handy little tool called the ABR (Activation Backup and Restore), this handy little app was a life saver and mad this all the easier. The thing about Vista and computer sold to day is a thing called by geeks BLOATWARE!  Bloatware are all the little things that a manufacturer will put on their computers that is absolutely worthless resource hog items. When you do a clean install of any OS you end up with the bare essentials that are the main part of the OS and nothing more. That means that you can add what ever apps you want on your system and only that. This is what I did.

A clean install in a sense gives your computer back to you in a stripped down streamlined manner that allows your computer to actually behave in the manner it should. You will suddenly see just how fast your system should move. It is strongly recommended that you backup anything you want to keep before doing a clean install.

Once I did this I found that Vista is actually a very nice OS and it has gotten a bad rap because of all the bloatware that comes along with it. Here are a few links with instructions on doing a clean install, If you have a copy of the Anytime Upgrade Disc that came with your system then your good to go with this process. first a link to the ABR tool

ABR (Activation Backup and Restore)

Notebook Review.com Vista Clean Install

DirectEdge.US- Installing Vista Clean with No Crapware 

If you don’t find these informative enough them you can simply do a Google on Vista Clean Install. Good luck and I think you will find that once you do this you will never complain about Vista outside of it’s annoying quirks. The truth about Vista is simply this it is just another OS with as many problems as any other and the thing that makes it such a pain is all the Crap that computer manufacturers shove down our throats along with it. Do your self a favor and clean your system.

Posted by admin on January 31st, 2009 1 Comment