Back Again After Being Back Again Earlier

Back in December, I was so happy to be posting again.  A buddy with technology knowledge came over and got me back on line after being off since May.  I was a happy lad, but then it went down again and I decided I needed a new pc for upstairs.

I somehow got the new one hooked up and working (and believe me I am still amazed).  I now am trying to remember how to get back on my blogs and two e-mails sites.  Those passwords and verification codes are driving me to go to a bar tonight.  

But, I finally have gotten to this four blog site and have posted to day to all eight blogs.  However, today's posts was the last time for one of them.  Now, I only have one e-mail site to get back and I'll be somewhat set for the most part.

Just Loving All This Technology Stuff.  --RoadDog

That Last Post Was #6,000

I just happened to notice that the last post I made was the 6,000th one on this blog.  This was my very first blog and started it on April 25, 2007.

I was coming back from visiting my mom in North Carolina and was spending the night with my nephew and his wife, Andy and Andrea, in White House, Tennessee.  She is quite tech savvy and I had been thinking seriously about getting into the blog thing I kept hearing so much about.

She showed my how and that is when the blog started.  I wrote about being on Route 66 on my way down to North Carolina in the towns of Odell and Dwight. Illinois.  This first blog was and still is mostly about old roads and kindred stuff most of the time.

However, even with 6000 posts, this is not by biggest blog.  That is my second blog called Down Da Road I Go which has 7191 posts.  This blog started when I got back home in Illinois and couldn't get this blog to come up.  I eventually got this one up and decided to keep the new one and write about anything else I was interested in.

Since then, that blog has spawned six more blogs.  I am interested in way too many things.

I Need to get a Life.  --RoadTooMuch

Well, It Wasn't a Complete Disaster (Actually Had Some Success) in a Battle With New Technology

All of the blogs I make entries for today are being done on the new PC which  I was able to set up yesterday all by my self.  I am so proud of myself.

It  will take me a long time to figure out how to use it, but maybe there is hope.  Maybe I'm just  somewhat technologically challenged.

Actually, this is one of the times when I am sorry Liz and I didn't have kids as they would have grown up with all this quickly changing technology and I sure would have liked to have had one of them around yesterday and in the days to come while I am trying to figure out how to use it.

A reckon that is too late now.

Oh well, somewhat success WAS MINE yesterday.

Now, if I could just figure out how to get sound and turn it off.

Not So Technologically Impaired.  --RoadSavvy

Doing Battle With Modern Technology Today: Setting Up a New PC

In a little while I venture into the Great Unknown as I trepidly approach setting up the new HP all-in-one computer downstairs.

Believe me, I am not looking forward to it as technology pretty well buries me.

But, I will do my best.

Wishing and Hoping for Some Success.  --Roaddog

It's Their Whole World-- Part 2: Dog Got Smarts, Human Not So Much

Even the dogs are getting into it.  From the DOGS OF C-KENNEL comic strip by Mick and Mason Mastroianni.

First frame:  A human is looking at the Siberian husky chewing on the tennis ball with great joy.  Human says, "Isn't it cute how he becomes so fixated on that thing?"

Second frame:  "It's like it's his whole world!"  As the husky continues to chew.

Third frame:  The human turns around and takes out his smart phone.  Another dog in the kennel says to a third dog, "It's like it's his whole world."

I Think the Dog Has Something.  --RoadDog

It's Their Whole World-- Part 1

If you're like me, nothing is worse than going into a restaurant or bar and seeing just about everyone with eyes glued on their smart phones.  I've seen families of four sitting at a table and the kids both on theirs, then look over to their parents and guess what they are doing?

This is a really sad state of affairs in the world.

This past Sunday, the Chicago Tribune had two comic strips that got a chuckle or two from me.

TAKE IT FROM THE TINKERSONS by Bill Bettwy

We see five frames where a family of four is seated on and by a sofa.  You'd think perhaps watching TV,until you see everyone has a mobile device except the Dad, who has a remote.  The Mom and two kids never move.  The last frame has a fellow office worker asking the Dad "Did you do anything over the weekend?"  The Dad replies, "I spent time with the family."

Yeah, Right.  --RoadDog

Inventions: The Mother of Vacation-- Part 1: San Jose

From the April 19, 2013, USA Today "10 Great Places: Invention is the mother of vacation" by Larry Bleiberg.

From author Alec Foege who wrote the book "The Tinkerers: The Amateurs, DIYers, and Inventors Who make America Great." So, for your next roadtrip, check these places out.

1. SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA-- That would be Silicon Valley. All the big names of the era come out of here like Facebook and Google.

You can learn more at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, the Intel Museum in Santa Clara and the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose.

---RoadDog

Still Buying That Obsolete Technology-- Part 2

THE BEST OF LEON RUSSELL--  A great, but little-known performer.  Had his own sound.  Listening to it right now "Shootout at the Plantation."  Of course, bigger hits with "Tightrope" and "Delta Lady."  I don't think I ever heard the album-cut "Delta Lady," just the Mad Dogs and Englishman one.

Unfortunately, no cuts from his great "Hack Wilson's Back" album, the country side of Leon.

Then, the Beach Music.  Who'd have figured Beach Music in Central Illinois?

SOUL WAV. VOL 1--  25 songs.  All good, but some of my favorites:  Listened to this one the rest of the way home from Springfield.

King of the Road--  Billy Scott (done up beach-style)
Drip Drop--  Bill Pinkney
Please Accept My Love--  Maurice Williams
I Found Somebody--  Neptune Blues
Shut Up & Kiss Me--  Cindy Floyd
Havin' a Party--  Sugarbees
Leave Your Panties Home--  Drink Small
Shake a Hand--  Toni Williams
I'd Be a Fool--  Groove Therapy
No Time--  Commands
Ain't No Big Thing--  Scotty Todd

CAROLINA BEACH MUSIC: DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY--  with such CBM nuggets as "Bowlegged Woman," "I Ain't Drunk,""Walkin' the Chalkline" and Safronia B."

Good Listnin' the Whole Way.  --RoadDog

The Sad State of CDs...But Wait, There's a Little Hope

It always saddens me that the era of actually looking through and holding music in the form of CDs (and before that, cassettes, 8-tracks, vinyl albums and 45s and 78s) is fast approaching its end thanks to downloading.  It just "ain't" going to be the same.

Everytime I go into a store selling CDs, there are fewer each time.  Stores like Wal-Mart, K-Mart and Best Buy just don't much carry them anymore.

However, last Tuesday, I had to smile.  After going to the Springfield, Illinois, Barnes and Noble and seeing they only had about 50 CDs for sale, I remembered there was a Best Buy nearby and the last time I was there for a hour an in my glory.  Lots and lots of aisles of CDs. 

I ended up buying four CDs, including greatest hits by Leon Russell and the Shangri-Las.  Ended up playing the Shangri-Las most of the way home.  If ever there has been a group of girls who have suffered so much emotional boy problems than this group, I'd sure like to know who they were.  I figured Liz would really like the album; she did.

Poor Girls Have to make Better Boyfriend Picks.  --RoadDog

Technology and Me: So Sad!

I usually run any favorite comics in my Down Da Road I Go Blog, but decided to relate my problems with technology on this one.

This is from a Zits comic strip.

FRAME ONE: The father is sitting at his desk tip computer and turns to his son Jeremy (a teenager) and says, "Jeremy, what kind of new computer would you get if you were me?"

Jeremy, "Something less irrelevant."

FRAME TWO: Walt, the father, is now looking forlornly at his desktop computer.

Jeremy is walking away and adds, "Get a tablet or a smart-phone...anything but another clunky old desktop."

FRAME THREE: Walt is at the kitchen table and says to his wife, "I've just got comfortable with another obsolete technology."

I feel your pain, Walt, as I sit here two-finger typing away at my desktop computer. Only Walt has one of those slim monitors. I still have an old TV-type one.

So Far Behind Times I've Pretty-Well Given Up. --Road "Buried By Technology" Dog

A Sad Look at the Future

Woke up to a very foggy morning and it is still that way.

Sitting here a two-finger-typing away at the McDonald's in Panama City Beach, Florida, right now. A little while ago, Liz was sitting across from me on the laptop and I was reading the local News Herald newspaper. Between the two of us, we were exhibiting the past and future of the printed news biz.

Liz only uses newspapers for crossword puzzles and gets all her news off the internet, even comics. I still prefer the feel of actually holding the newspaper in my hands, but the time is rapidly approaching when I won't be able to do that any more.

So, in the meantime I will enjoy it while I can.

Sure Gonna Miss It. --RoadDog

Mister Boffo Tells It like It Is

I couldn't help but have a chuckle over a comic strip in Mr. Boffo back in Jan. 17, 2010.

In these days where anything you know how to use today is gone by tomorrow and you have to learn some different technology this hits home. I don't care if the new technology is better and faster, I just don't like learning new stuff, especially when in a few months it will be obsolete.

Plus, as far as environmentalists and all the Green Folk, what happens to all the "new" technology when it is discarded?



Anyway, the strip reads:

"They Can't Take That Away from Me."

Then, it continued, "Another example of an old, no longer viable song lyric that hasn't stood the test of time."


Oh, Yes!! I am always wondering what "they" will take away from me next.

Never Used an ATM and STILL Uses Audio Cassettes. At Least for Now. --RoadDog

Has It Come to This?-- Part 2

July 27th, I wrote about the comic strip Cathy where she received a trip notice from a friend that was JUST TOO MUCH.

Yesterday's Tribune ran one of her strips from August 2002 as Cathy is on vacation until this Monday.

This is along the same lines as the one from Sunday.

It starts with three of her office workers standing around talking.

The woman says: "...so there we were...the middle of nowhere...day four of a ten-day trip...with a full memory card and a frozen laptop!"

The two men look aghast, "Oh, No!"

"My husband got on cell to find a place that that could transfer files to CD...but we were nowhere! You couldn't even buy more digital memory!"

The two men, still aghast, "What did you do?! What did you do?!"

"It took 36 hours, but we finally got a PDA wireless web navigation connect to a mini-mart two counties over that could download and e-mail our vacation pictures home!"

The two men, "Wow! Bravo! What an adventure!"

Last frame, another woman comes in and says, "We saw Paris." All three run out of the room saying, "Yawn."

What in the world was the first lady talking about?

Has It Come To This? --RoadDog

Has It Come to This?

After reading this comic strip, I realize that I haven't even heard of a lot of this stuff, much less have any idea how to use it. But, I should talk, I'm pretty bad in my own way. Gone are the days you had to suffer through looking at some one's vacation photos, or worse yet, SLIDES.

Today, there are a LOT MORE options to dull folks to death.

Sunday's Cathy comic strip made me laugh and made me afraid.

It opens with her on the computer reading a screen. Each new line is a new panel.


Hi! Greetings from our vacation!

I tried leaving a photo/text message on your cell, but it said you weren't connected.

So anyway, I'm e-mailing the address of the phone-cam blog that posts mobile photos from our trip...or you can access our regular digital shots on the site that's doing our online albuming!

Or, visit our family vacation URL and see live-feed video of our in-car sing-a-longs!

I can't wait to hear what you think of Dad and Conner's fishing photo journal! wasn't the footage of Emily's raft ride hysterical?! E-mail back with your vote for "funniest film edit"! The kids are having a contest! Also, forward this note and you favorite shots to...


Then, you see Cathy unplugging the machine.

The last panel shows her with a cup of coffee thinking, "Put me down as one who misses the picture postcard."

Anyone know what her friend was talking about?

Me No Understand!! --RoadDog