update

You will have noticed quite an absence. Camp was a major factor in this as was life in general.

I have decided to stop updating this blog. It seems that I just don't have the heart to continue. It was a nice run but, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. I don't know that I would call this blog "good" but that's the saying.

A few factors have gone into this.

1. I really have struggled from day 1 on what I would place limits on myself for putting stuff on here. For example, Mom and Dad have been gone the last week or so on vacation and I thought about putting updates from them. However there are people who scan blogs (and especially facebook) for people who go on vacation and then they rob their homes. So lately I've trended toward not putting a lot of personal information on here. Without personal information, there really isn't a point of having a blog.
2. I've lost interest (partially due to #1 but also due to a host of other issues).
3. There are others but #1 and #2 are the biggies.

So here's my last update...

I'm apparently very hard on steel guitar amps. The amp that I received last October has already messed up. It now produces more buzzing sound than music. So I get to send it off to somewhere. I'm almost done with music as well. I'm almost done with a lot of stuff. I just can't keep up with life and all my "irons in the fire" when the irons keep working against me. So a paring down of the irons is in order.

Mom and Dad made it to Alaska and back on their cruise. They had a lot of fun. Saw some bear, moose, fish, whales, etc...

Marseille is 0-2. They have started the season by losing their top scorer to a Turkish team. Another scorer is gone to a English team. A long ways to go but it isn't looking good so far.

I decided against the iPhone because of signal issues (AT&T and the iPhone antenna problem). However it appears that the Droid 2 which I decided to get also appears to have some signal issues. So I may be back to square one.

Patrick lost 2 teeth last night. One had been loose for a few weeks but it finally came out. He was excited. Unfortunately, we had seen Jon Wade and he jumped the price on the tooth fairy on us! His tooth fairy brings $5 whilst ours brings $1 so we were out $10 to the tooth fairy because it's very important to keep up with the Wades! I really dislike this new tooth fairy.

It was nice to see Jon and Sheila again (excepting the whole tooth fairy ordeal).

It's 1:30AM and I can't sleep. Worried about everything. Miranda always tells me that worrying doesn't help but I've got to try. heh! Life hasn't been working out lately.

Anyway... you have a great "rest of your life" and au revoir mon cher amis.

nc

weekend.

Camp started last night. We went to the service.

Tomorrow I will be headed to El Dorado to look at a sailboat.

Should be an exciting weekend.

nc

humor

I needed to find something funny after the funeral announcement. So here's this:

The flags are (in no particular order):

USA, Great Britain, Israel, France (I think), Denmark, Finland.

I can't recognize the others.

nc

sad news

Miranda is friends with JoNell Filsinger and Gladys Filsinger passed away. I didn't know her real well but I knew Otto (her late husband) pretty well. If you met Otto and talked to him more than 5 minutes, you knew him pretty well. He was hilarious and a go-getter.

Really nothing else to say. Nothing else you can say.

nc

Patrick

Patrick is watching Scooby Doo and he came to Miranda and said, "Mom! You're in this show!"

Apparently there is a "mummy" in this episode and mummy = mommy.

nc

updates

Bad news for Miranda... I may be in the process of purchasing a sail boat. If I get it, pictures will be forthcoming.

All my toys are happening here at once. My computer is fixed so I'm driving over to Monett on Thursday (AGAIN!!!!) to pick it up. The Droid 2 smartphone that I've decided on is coming out in a couple of weeks. And now the sailboat.

Although in my defense, I've saved up the money for the Droid 2. Although that's pretty small change in comparison to the boat.

nc

phone

Here's a cool usage of a smartphone

I know a friend of mine has the Droid Incredible and it has built in voice recognition. It was AMAZING. I've played around with voice recognition a few years ago but this blew everything I've seen away. The translation part would be the trickiest but it's still very impressive.

nc

Allen

So I've done some more reading on the Allen last name. Dad had heard that the name was Scottish. It appears that this could be true as wikipedia says that it's derived from the word aluinn which means "handsome". This is obviously talking about me.

Anyway... I'm gearing up to switch to Scottish language. I actually have a CD on Gaelic that I bought awhile back and I thought it was Irish but it was Scottish. So I've got a head start!

One of the first phrases that people learn is "I love you" for whatever reason. French is:

• Je t'aime (Zuh tim)
  

Scottish apparently is:

• "Tha gaol agam ort." (Hah GEUL AH-kum orsht)
  

It just trips off the tongue doesn't it.

nc

Milton Friedman

nc