In Today' News

Yesterday I had to buy a new desk chair. I didn't want to buy a new chair, and thus help enable Obama's economic recovery, but I was forced to. See what happened is this.

There I was Friday night, typing assiduously away on my blog post, and I leaned back in my chair. That caused the air piston to break out the bottom of its seat, down in the wheeled base of the chair and push through to the floor. since my weight was 70% behind the piston, it had the force advantage, and pushed me over backwards. One minute I am typing away; the next I am laying on my back, in my chair with my feet caught up in the knee hole of my desk.

I had no idea what happened or why. None of the kids were around- that would have been my first choice, blaming them- and whats worse; none of the kids were around, so I was kinda caught. It took a minute to wiggle around enough to get my feet out of desk, and then roll over so I could stand up. That's when I saw the air cylinder rod poking 18 inches out of the bottom of the chair.

Just so we are all on the same page, most modern desk chairs have a gas pressurized cylinder, like the ones that hold open your trunk lid or hatchback on a mini van, inside the base. This is what makes then adjustable. Usually the piston is bolted to the bottom of the wheel assembly, and the seat rides on the bottom of the cylinder. pulling on the lever on the side of the chair allows some gas to escape from under the bottom  of the piston to above the piston, so the chair will lower. Pulling the same lever with the seat empty allows the gas to go below the piston, raising the seat. Okay; that's probably more that you really wanted to know about office chairs.

So yesterday I went shopping. Wal-mart had a good deal on a chair. Like I said; I didn't want to buy a new chair, but my other options were a metal folding chair or an old bentwood chair with a 10-inch round seat; neither were really viable for long term sitting, like the hour or so I need to create a post.

I'm still not comfortable in my new chair. I had the old one better than 10 years. We were old friends. Evey paper I wrote for college was done in that chair. Most of my blog posts were written there as well. I spend a lot of time at my desk when I'm home; working from home on some occasions, or just writing and reading from the internet. That chair is custom fit to me, after 10 years of use. The new one; eh, not so much. But it might fit better eventually. After 4 or 5 years of use.

But you see what finally motivated me to contribute to the Obama Economy; I literally had to be knocked to the floor before I would spend a dime.

I No Longer Carry A Cell Phone

I was watching Star Trek the other night and realized I need to rename my cell phone. I now carry a Communicator.

Think about it. 'Phone' is such a limiting word. And it only describes a small fraction of what the device does, especially if you have a Smart Pho... Communicator.

I probably spend less time using my Communicator as a phone than I do anything else. Emails, Texting, Games with Friends, Information from the Internet. I'm even reading the Complete Sherlock Holmes.

The Communicator Captain Kirk carried only did one thing; kept him in touch with his ship through voice communications. Mine keeps me in touch with family, friends, co workers- the entire world. And it does video.

And it fits in the palm of my hand, and can be carried anywhere on my belt.

It's a Communicator.

The only thing wrong with the word is its length. Phone is a nice one syllable word. Even Cell Phone is a short two syllables.

"Have you seen my Cell Phone?" rolls off the tongue, especially with the constant usage that phrase gets.

"Have you seen my Communicator?" has those extra 3 syllables that make it awkward.

Maybe we can shorten it? Maybe Commie? Except "have you seen my Commie?" may have a bad connotation. And I think Commie already has another meaning.

Phone is actually short for Telephone. Maybe  K-tor. "Have you seen my K-tor?" is short enough, but sounds evil.

Maybe Cater? "Have you seen my Cator?" It's short enough, but doesn't have the right ring.

Maybe CeeGee; short for Communications Gateway?

 I think it's perfect; short, has that rhyming thing going on, stands for something longer, and is incredibly descriptive of the device we all carry.

Now I just need to figure out how to get it into general circulation.

Act of Congress?

Nah; if the Repubs are for the Dems won't be.

Apple. I'll bet if I can get Apple to start using the term, then it won't be long and everybody else will too.

As much as I hate Apple and it's products, you can't deny the force they are in the marketplace.

So it won't be an Apple iPhone 5, but an Apple iCeeGee5.

That has a ring! I'd better start looking into licensing...

Its Been A Long Year

It has been over a year since I have had a fully functional computer. I have had one that worked for the last month or so, but I could not access my old files. They were on a hard drive I couldn't seem to gain access to. I kept getting the error message that the directory was corrupt. So I thought all that good old stuff was gone for good.

But yesterday the stars must have been in alignment, because miraculously it started working. I still can't access it through 'My Computer', but if I open up Word or Excel then I can open the drive. Weird, huh?

What does this mean to you, gentle Reader?

Now I can inflict some of my old writings and photos on y'all.

Now ain't THAT a wonderful thing?