Random Thoughts #56 - the "lost and found" edition

Hello and welcome to a day-later-than-usual set of Random Thoughts from yours truly.  I'm itching to start here, so let's get to it.  Enjoy.

 -  The reason for half the subtitle...the "lost" part...is that last week I lost my power, my cable TV, and my internet.  The power outage only lasted about three hours, but the cable TV and internet were out for about a week and I only got those back up about a half hour ago.  I initially thought those particular outages were due to a cut line resulting from the blackout but I come to find out that my service was accidently disconnected.  At this point I'm just glad everything's back up.  It's been probably 12 years since the last time I didn't have either internet or cable TV for an extended period, and to be honest I was completely thrown off.  Combined with the week before with the sinus issues, this was probably one of the most difficult two-week periods I've ever personally experienced.  I hope never again to have to deal with that kind of discombobulation.  Man it was bad and I'm hoping things only improve from here.

 -  The other half of the reason for the subtitle...the "found" part...covers many different areas.  One is that I was reminded, or found out again, that if push came to shove I can deal with things and survive.  While offline I also got a chance to clean up my computer and in the process found some old photos and files I thought lost to past computer reboots.  I also got to rediscover some movies I hadn't watched in a long time on my DVD or computer, one in particular called "Til There Was You" that really helped me get through a very rough week and got me to think about and rediscover thoughts, feelings, and concepts I haven't thought or felt probably since before my friend Roger's passing last year.  I'm thinking maybe the Lord did all this to get me to rediscover some of what I believe in and who I am as a person and a social being, but time will tell on that.

 -  Speaking of the Lord, my church home:  Crossroads World Christian Center.

 -  Another factor for me that made for a rough last couple weeks is play of the Cleveland Browns.  I see flashes of things and some players stepping up, but not enough to put together a win.  They are my team but right now they are really stinking up the joint.  I'm hoping playing Cincy at home next week helps out.  I think they need to loosen up the offense because they are too controlled on that side of the ball, especially with the weapons they have and a lack of audibles...I've seen only one audible total in three games played.  It's hard to be a Browns fan when things are really bad or simply rough, but at least I'm not some fair-weather panic-stricken predictor of the apocalypse who writes off a season after one game....apparently I've heard there are many of those types this year.

 -  Regarding the Browns, the Westerville Browns Backers still and will always support the team.  We're meeting up next Sunday at 1 PM to watch the Cincy game where we'll either celebrate a win or commiserate after a loss.  Either way we're determined to have a good time when the games are on so you Browns fans should come to Jimmy V's in uptown Westerville and join us in cheering them on...to hopefully a win this Sunday.

 -  Speaking of Westerville, I went up to the 4th Friday festival last weekend.  There was supposed to be a table set up for the Browns Backers, but that plan got shelved.  I walked around for a while and pretty much had a free dinner going around to different booths and using a coupon for a free pizza.  Free stuff is cool.

 -  A quote I found from an episode of the original G.I. Joe animated series:  A snake is a sneak spelled sideways.  I don't know why that got my attention but it did...one of the oddities for me last week, I guess.

 -  In the movie "Til There Was You," there was a poem/soliloquy at the end of the film read by the Angenelle character played by Kasi Lemmons.  It was something that got me to thinking about several things from years past.  This particular creative piece has helped me through some rough times and even provided me faith in periods where I was struggling with it.  It's something that might help others looking for some faith, so I'm putting it below.

Most of us have appreciated the perfection of the universe, the animation of living things, the action of the human mind, and the power of love.  These things all seem to denote a dynamic life force that surges through everything around us.  This force appears to direct all things harmoniously, but irresistably, towards a natural, definite, useful conclusion.  Is it hard to recognize in this life force a power greater than ourselves?

 -  Before I hit the final stretch here, over the past couple weeks I've done an awful lot just to get past my difficulties.  In that time I went ahead despite what was going on and finished a couple of off-line projects I'd been putting off as well as starting a new one.  I normally wouldn't put that in its own blurb or would have included it in one of the earlier blurbs, but this new project I'm starting on regards my Random Thoughts blogs.  That project regards getting audio versions of my blogs online for people who might want or prefer to listen to what I have to say.  I'm still doing the written ones here but the audio versions are going to take some time to get set up if I decide to go ahead and do that.  I have the capability to create the audio stuff right now, but I want to take my time and find the right server to host my audio blogs/podcasts.  I'm not setting a timetable for this right now and it's not that high a priority, though it is something I've been seriously considering periodically.  I do want to get some feedback as to whether this is worthwhile enough for me to do, so let me know about that.

 -  Song on repeat:  "You Don't Know Me" by Van Morrison.  A song by the man who brought us "Brown-Eyed Girl," I heard this one in "Til There Was You" and just loved it.

 -  SLP to the following:  The Westerville Browns Backers (too many to name, so I'm just putting it for the entire group), Dave, and Betsy.

I've got an awful lot of catching up to do, so I'm gonna go ahead and take off.  I apologize to those of you who may have tried to contact me via the web since I had no personal access last week.  I should be back to my normal routines this week now that most of the difficult stuff is out of the way.  Until next time, America.  Take care and God Bless.

DJ

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Random Thoughts #55 - the "under" edition

Hello and welcome to another week of Random Thoughts from me, myself, and I. I'm doing this early today because I'm having trouble sleeping right now (I'll get to why in a bit), so I thought I'd get this out of the way now since I'll be busy later on today. Enjoy.

 -  The reason for the subtitle is that I've noticed the word itself, "under," used in many different forms this week...under duress, under fire, down under, you get the gist of it. For me personally a couple of things regarding the word have occurred for me. One, I've been pretty much hiding under a rock, for lack of a better phrase to use, for the better part of the summer and was ready to come out of it starting last week. However, I've had to put that off a bit because of the second thing...I've been under the weather with sinus issues. I actually haven't been on the computer that much except to check on usual stuff as I've been trying to get rest. That itself was complicated by the fact that one of the sinus-related complications I was dealing with was insomnia, at one point this week I stayed up 48 hours straight which along with the other symptoms I was dealing with made for a pretty miserable week...I even missed most of the Buckeye game yesterday because of my messed-up sleep schedule. I'm pretty sure it's due to seasonal changes around this time of year that aren't part of my twice-yearly weatherization but it's still annoying nonetheless. I'm looking forward to feeling better this week.

 -  I've been noticing an uptick in blatant acts of disrespect over the past week, with two of particular note. The first was when Barack Obama was making his health care speech to Congress, Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina yelled that Obama was lying. It was something that, according to the rules of the chamber, is specifically not allowed and can be subject to discipline which it was late last week. His fellow Republican comrades tried to make it all seem partisan when that discipline was meted out, but it's just making them (Republicans) look more and more like they're only about the rules when they are in power and that they'll use or do anything...and I mean anything...in trying to get back into power including using this. In my humble opinion it's rather pathetic and pathetically obvious to anyone paying attention, especially for those conservatives who are looking at the current Republican leadership as well as listening to them and the right-wing talking heads and just shaking their heads in disbelief and embarassment at who's "supposedly" speaking for them. I'm an outside observer on that front, so take it for what you will. The second and probably more public was during the MTV Video Music Awards with Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift's acceptance of Best Female Video claiming that Beyonce should have won. That was extremely rude and disrespectful and an example of what not to do during acceptance speeches. I think Obama unofficially said it best when he said Kanye West was a jackass for doing that. I hope these two things are not harbingers of things to come in the public arena.

 -  Now, even with what happened at the VMAs regarding Kanye West, I have to give the man some credit. He was obviously stung from the blowback of the reaction to what he did on Sunday night, but he manned up about it and even addressed it the next evening on the first episode of the new Jay Leno show. When Jay asked Kanye about what his mother would say about this, you could just see the hurt on his face and the realization that he's got to make some changes, starting with some time off that he's probably not had since before his mother died. I hope he gets it together because he's too talented a musician to let his demons get the best of him. Now even though I was still disgusted with what he did, my prayers still go out to him as he deals with all this and whatever else might be affecting him.

 -  Regarding the VMAs, this year was actually pretty decent even if the awards were rather predictable (with the exception of Taylor Swift's Best Female Video). The Michael Jackson tribute was really good, and I was probably one of the few who saw what Madonna was trying to get at even though it sounded somewhat self-serving to a lot of other people. The class moment was Beyonce giving up her acceptance speech to let Taylor Swift complete hers from earlier in the evening. If anybody has any doubts about who Beyonce is as a human being (it's hard to tell in the music business and Hollywood), her unselfish actions during the VMAs should put many doubters to rest. I enjoyed watching this particular show even though they could do with a better host, and I hope they get one next year.

 -  I got to watch the first two episodes of the cartoon show "Marvel Super Hero Squad" last Monday on Cartoon Network. It's set to feature pretty much every Marvel character except for the really violent ones (like Punisher and Deadpool) and Spider-Man. It's a cutesy show but still pretty amusing, with the Hulk being a potential comedy gold mine. Check it out when you get the chance or when it's on, whatever comes first.

 -  I was saddened to hear about the passing of Patrick Swayze. He was probably best known for Dirty Dancing, Ghost, and the Chippendales skit he did with Chris Farley on Saturday Night Live. I remember first seeing him before all that in the TV mini-series "North & South" and he did a great job there. He was a talented actor with a remarkable career. He is going to be missed. Rest in peace, Mr. Swayze.

 -  It's hard to believe that we had a hurricane blow through Ohio at this time last year. It didn't rain at all, but the wind knocked out power all over the place and caused many disruptions. I was without power for two days and had a lot of food thrown away after just getting groceries a couple days before. I had to charge my phone at a Taco Bell and had to listen to my car radio to keep up with current events. I have a turn-crank radio now in case something like this happens again...and I hope it doesn't.

 -  Last week I talked about browsers and how I was trying different ones. Yesterday I found out that Google is going to start competing more with Mozilla's Firefox browser by adding extensions to its Chrome browser. If they start getting the things I use on Firefox I might consider switching, but for now I'm sticking with my regular browser.

 -  For those of you who read this early on Sunday, the Westerville Browns Backers will be meeting to watch the Cleveland-Denver game starting around 4 PM at Jimmy V's in uptown Westerville and all fans are welcome to come.

 -  Song on repeat: "Mandolin Rain" by Bruce Hornsby. This is a song I like to listen to either in its original form or the instrumental version. Both versions are calming and relaxing in different ways.

 -   SLP for the following: Holly, Andrea (happy birthday), Aunt Claudia and Uncle James, Ernest (happy birthday), Jermaine (happy birthday), and Jessica (happy birthday).

I would say more but I'll wait until next time. I'm gonna try to get some shut-eye before the Browns game later on. Pray for me as I try to get over these sinus issues I've been dealing with. Until next time, folks. Take care and God Bless.

DJ

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Random Thoughts #54 - the "new" edition

Hello and welcome back for another round of Random Thoughts from yours truly. I just got back home and decided to just go ahead and blog, so here we go...or at least here I go, but you're invited too. Enjoy.

 -  The big reason for the subtitle this week is that historically for me, even though it's not really happening this particular year, something new happens or starts for me around this time even though there aren't any major holidays or birthdays I celebrate. This year I'm in the middle of a personal transformation...into what I don't know just yet but it's something the Lord's had me on since the end of last year, so that's not really new. In past years it was maybe school starting or a new job. In 2002 I started in a therapy/treatment program (the mental health stuff) that changed how I saw life in general and in 2003 I officially started my path back to Ohio State and Columbus through weekend trips and working out financial aid and academic stuff for OSU. The biggest thing ever new to me around this time happened in 1991 right before I started Ohio State. It is and always will be one of the most significant changes in my entire life: the change of my name and what I'm commonly known by to "D.J." It's big on many levels for me personally, professionally, emotionally...the works. I've talked about that before here in Random Thoughts so I'm not gonna rehash it today, but the point is this time of year has the potential to be special for me personally. If anybody has a special particular period of time (outside of obvious ones like a birthday or a holiday) that almost happens like clockwork such as it does or did for me...a week, a day, maybe even an hour...and it's something you'd be willing to share, put it in the comments section, whether it be on Myspace, Facebook, Blogger, wherever. (If you just want to share it with me privately, then you can send a private message)....I'd like to hear if this happens for anybody else.

 -  This was a rough weekend for Ohio sports teams with the exception of the University of Akron who opened their new stadium with a blowout win. OSU lost in the last minute to USC...they got too conservative, but it might be understandable with all the newbies in starting roles and at least they made a game of it unlike last year's debacle of a showdown so I'm hopeful. I'm also hopeful about the Browns, who though they lost to a team that is poised for a possible Super Bowl run held their own for at least part of the game and got a monkey off their backs by scoring their first offensive touchdown in about nine months. I just hope the Browns do better against Denver next week.

 -  Speaking of the Browns game, we had a good turnout for the Westerville Browns Backers today. A lot of the group were at the game in Cleveland, probably to see Brett Favre play in probably their only chance to do so. The Backers meet up again next Sunday and every time there's a Browns game, so for you Browns fans in the local Columbus area who want to watch your Browns games in a place that's extremely Browns-friendly, come to Jimmy V's in uptown Westerville. We'll probably have a crowd next week so get up there early to grab a seat. If anybody has questions about joining the Westerville Browns Backers specifically, I can get you the information or, better yet, you can just come up on game day.

 -  I heard a very interesting term coined last week that may be of interest to those of the spiritual persuasion. It's sort of a countering activity to and a takeoff of "strip club." It's called "Script club," as in Bible scriptures where people meet up and read those scriptures regularly, and I guess it was being used as another term for "Bible study group," though other religions could probably use the term as well for their meetings and groups for reading spiritual and religious texts. I haven't heard the term before much less regularly but it might be something that religious and spiritual groups can use as a name for a Bible study group and potentially used as terminology for promoting such groups to normal and popular culture in a potentially positive way...just my two cents here.

 -  Speaking of spiritual things, my church home: Crossroads World Christian Center.

 -  Something just hit me regarding this week's subtitle...Mr. Telephone Man...there's something wrong with my line...when I dial my baby's number I get a click every time...

 -  On a more somber note, a couple days ago there was the 8th year anniversary of the attacks by al-Qaeda terrorists on New York City and Washington D.C. It's not something people want to think about, but it's a time we will probably never forget. On that note I had an idea that if I ever had a political career I might promote as something if it hasn't happened yet. There are many who are trying to find a way to commemorate what happened on September 11, 2001 and I may have found a way to do so, though I do admit now it is sort of radical. It involves switching Labor Day to the end of May where Memorial Day is now and moving Memorial Day itself to the static date of September 11th. Bear with me here I have a basis for this. One of the reasons there is a summer break for schools today is that back in the early days of this country there was a need for labor for the agrarian season (meaning growing crops and stuff like that) which was during the summertime. Moving back Labor Day could be looked at as a symbolic recognition of the beginning of that agrarian season. For those who labor today, it could be looked at as a culmination of sorts and a celebration of the end of a long year's work and maybe a beginning of a summer break as Memorial Day is generally seen now...an unfortunate consequence since that's not what was intended to be memorialized. Changing Memorial Day to September 11th could be symbolic as well. It would be a midpoint between Independence Day (July 4th) and Veteran's Day (November 11th), and symbolically speaking we would celebrate the following, in this particular order: the independence of our country....the remembrance of those who have fallen...a celebration of those who have served. Given that the other two holidays have static dates and September 11th has become very symbolic in our society, I thought this might be an appropriate day to have the Memorial Day holiday. Now, I'm pretty sure there are valid reasons to keep things the way they are now but I think this should be given some serious consideration as a potential solution for memorializing 9/11/01.

 -  Song on repeat: "Higher Love" by Steve Winwood with a contribution by Chaka Khan. I didn't realize how many songs Steve Winwood has that are so distinct and so diverse in pop culture yet are so recognizable as specifically his songs. They're catchy as well, as in they can stick in your head for a while if you listen to them even once. This was a song that did that for me this past week...and it's a song I like.

 -  SLP to the following: Holly, Jennifer, George (JamDawg), Rusty (happy birthday), Pat, Anna, Walt, Nick, Steve, and my fellow Browns Backers.

That's all for this week. Summer is ending soon and autumn is just around the corner, so go out there and enjoy the nice weather while it's still here. Take care and God Bless.

DJ

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Random Thoughts #53 - the "cascade" edition

Greetings once again and welcome to another set of Random Thoughts brought to you by yours truly. Since there wasn't an edition last week, I have an awful lot to say and get off my chest this week. With that in mind, enjoy.

 -  The inspiration for the subtitle of this blog is a reflection of what happened last week which caused me to skip an week's set of Random Thoughts. As I've stated in my status on my social networks, I had some computer problems starting a week ago Saturday. First my wireless mouse decides to quit on me and then the backup broke, all in the span of an hour. I had to use my keyboard's number pad to use the pointer, which was a pain. As a result I could not cut & paste, which for the creation of my blogs is a big-time necessity. If that wasn't enough, also last Saturday I started having glitch issues with video and graphic stuff on my computer and I didn't figure out until yesterday where the problem was. It was like a cascade effect (hence the subtitle) where one thing would fall into another and so on and so forth. It also seems like a regular theme in my life sometimes, but this time it was only with the computer (thank the Lord). As I cross my fingers and knock on wood as I say this, the computer stuff's been fixed and I'm good to go.

 -  You're probably wondering why even with that computer stuff I didn't just go ahead with a blog last week, like maybe go to the library and do it or just go to someone else with a computer, and if it had anything to do with the last blog entry. Well, to be honest, the last blog was an emotional and even literal release for me as I let go of a lot of things (and unfortunately some people). Once that blog was typed up, however, it seemed like the world stopped and after months of inner turmoil and just dealing with a lot of crap, outside of the computer issues it was all peace and quiet on my end for an entire week. Thus there really wasn't that much to talk about, and with the aforementioned computer issues I just decided to skip a week. That length of peace and quiet hasn't happened in a really long time and I took advantage of the chance to reflect and get ready to put a lot of things behind me, not just of stuff from the last blog but a lot of other things as well, so I can start moving forward. I want to thank many of you who helped me through a lot of this stuff and/or supported me throughout, and more importantly let me keep to myself and just left me alone when I needed it so I could start getting myself together...that is much appreciated. I'm sorry I was "away" and haven't been too involved or not as involved as some of you might have expected from me but now I believe I'm pretty much ready to re-engage with many of you that are still with me and the world once more. For me, when it comes down to it, Jakob Dylan said it best in a song...I ain't changed, but I know I ain't the same.

 -  The major activity that was going on for me these past couple weeks was Westerville Browns Backers-related stuff. A week ago Friday I manned a table for Westerville 4th Friday outside of Jimmy V's (where we will be meeting for all the games this year). It got cut short an hour by an approaching thunderstorm, but it was good to get the information out about our group and that we've finally got a permanent home for our Backers group. There were also a couple of preseason games that had decent attendance for preseason, which bodes well for the main group who usually comes during the regular season...the regulars are going to get a shock as to how much is going good right now for us and we're looking forward to the upcoming season. For those of you interested, the first game is next Sunday at 1:00 PM against Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings, and we'll be at Jimmy V's in uptown Westerville for all the games...and I'm hoping the Super Bowl with the Browns playing in it.

 -  A quick reminder...with the upcoming NFL season I will be posting my Random Thoughts blogs at different times on Sundays during the season, so if the timing of when they're posted seems a bit irregular that is why.

 -  Speaking of the Browns, they have finally got their roster down to the 53-player limit. No real surprises in the cuts and anybody who played in last Thursday's game against the Bears was probably eligible for being cut from the team. I'm really looking forward to this upcoming season, more so because it seems like the team had some successes in this preseason. They looked like they had a plan throughout and really started executing it during the second game and since. That is something I haven't seen since they came back and it really is getting me pumped for this next season. Honestly, I don't expect much this season but if preseason was any indication it might be a decent year for the Browns....here's to hoping.

 -  I guess I'm going through a bit of fatigue concerning the OSU Buckeyes football team, since the last few years they haven't won a bowl game (they have beat Michigan, so that makes me happy). So this year my expectations were tampered down. I think they even may have been overrated by the media in the polls this year. In any case it is my alma mater and I still support them. Anyway, a lot of people were surprised that the Buckeyes were almost upset by Navy yesterday. I wasn't, because Navy had that triple-option offense that has led to success for them the last couple of years, and most teams would have trouble with it. Now, I've heard a lot of the pundits stating based on the game that they could be in trouble next week against USC. I think the opposite...because Navy gave them a tough game already, the Bucks will probably be more prepared and better focused for next week's game against a team with a more traditional offense. USC sorta had it easy yesterday and weren't as challenged as OSU was. Also, USC has a brand new and potentially exploitable quarterback and a lot of new players on both sides of the ball. On top of that, it's being played in Ohio Stadium. I'm not making any outcome predictions but don't be surprised if the Buckeyes do very well next Saturday.

 -  I actually caught the Daytime Emmys broadcast....if you could call it one. It seemed more like an exercise in how fast and how crappy a show can be produced. It went so fast that when I turned the channel a couple of times for like 20 seconds each I actually missed awards being handed out. The show started out alright but then it went into hyperspeed where only the Flash and Speedy Gonzales could probably keep up with it. There looked to be too much in too short a timeframe, with presentations and acceptance speeches cut off or shortened. It seemed like an exercise in television as a cram session, and a failure of one at that. The people the show is supposed to honor did not and do not deserve that type of poor production and abbreviation. I hope for next year's sake and future shows the Emmy people do not make the same obvious mistakes that this one did.

 -  I watched The Sound of Music last night and a weird takeoff of one of the songs in the movie popped into my head: "How do you solve a problem like DJ? How can you put up with all his CRAAAAAAAPPPPPPPP?!?!?" Is that a bad sign or is my imagination just going wild and getting the better of me?

 -  My church home: Crossroads World Christian Center.

 -  The hamburger chain Swensons coming to Columbus? One can only hope....they got GOOD burgers, fries & shakes.

 -  I'm still waiting for computer pics from the reunion I had with my mom's family over a month ago. The main reason is that I have a different look about me now that I want to use for my default pics, so if anyone has some, especially ones with decent pics of me (since when have I ever had a decent pic taken, but I digress), please send them my way. Thanks.

 -  The day August 31 has always been somewhat of an eventful one for me for some odd reason...maybe it's the end of summer, I don't know. This year was no different...an event happened that really shocked me: Disney bought Marvel Comics. Now, many of you know I am a fan and reader of comic books, so this is big news. It's probably the biggest comic book-related story of this year and possibly the past few years. Marvel is now on even footing with it's main competiion (and the comics I read most of) DC Comics which is owned by Time Warner. The new reality is Marvel is now a Mickey Mouse operation and Spider-Man is now Goofy's b****.

 -  Something else I've been watching in the past week was repeats of roasts of several celebrities on Comedy Central. Roasts are pretty outrageous affairs and the ones on last week were beyond even that. It's amazing seeing people insult you and other guests as they honor you...it's not something I can really handle (I'm a wee too sensitive for that type of thing), but props to those who can....and dish it out to boot.

 -  On Thursday night a despicable act occurred during the Boise State/Oregon football game. At the end of the game a BSU player tried to engage in some smack talk with LeGarrette Blount, a senior and starting RB for the Oregon Ducks. Once the BSU player turned around, Blount sucker-punched him and then started to bluster about it. Blount then went after some teammates and apparently even fans and coaches. It was a pretty disgusting thing to witness. There is no place for that type of thing in any sport, especially with the emphasis on good sportsmanship. I've seen comments saying the BSU guy deserved it, but nobody, and I mean nobody, deserves to be sucker-punched...it's a punk move. As a representative of the University of Oregon by virtue of being on its football team, Blount has to be above all that and not be a punk. Blount got suspended for the rest of the season, which means since he's a senior he's finished in college football. With Roger Goodell as head honcho in the NFL and his crackdown on poor behavior and bad sportsmanship, Blount can forget entering the pros. At least he is keeping his scholarship so he can get a college degree and possibly do something else, but he screwed things up for himself big time.

 -  I've been having some Flash-related issues on several websites on Firefox, so until they've been fixed I've been downloading and testing out some other browsers for Linux to see if I get some better preformance of Flash and generally to get a decent idea of what they can do. I have an older version of the Seamonkey browser and it worked with some Flash sites I couldn't get to work with Firefox...I think it's based on the old Netscape browser, but I'm not sure. It was a bit slower in load time but effective for the older Flash-type sites. I also got an unstable version of Google Chrome (the actual one, not it's Chromium counterpart). It's fast on websites but the browser is not a configurable as I'd like it. It seems more like a "take it out of the box and use it now"-type browser. I just got Opera late last week and so far it has some configurability that I like but not as much as I have for Firefox. The look of each browser is different and may take some getting used to. As with Firefox, I was having the same exact issues with Flash on both Chrome and Opera, so it seems that Adobe Flash is the issue in all this, so it will probably have to be fixed eventually especially for certain sites that slow down computers because of the apparent compatibility glitches. I'm stilcking with Firefox as my main browser, but I'm still gonna keep the others and tinker with them from time to time.

 -   Song on repeat: "I'll Still Be Loving You" by Restless Heart. A previous song on repeat, this is the song that has literally been on my computer music player on repeat for the past couple weeks. It is a calming, hopeful, and romantic song for me and, especially after the last blog entry, it has helped me tremendously.

 -  SLP to the following: Scotty, LaDonna (for the bulletin a couple weeks back), Mindy (happy birthday), Holly (happy b-day), Lynn (happy birthday), Dave, Mary, and Cheryl.

That's all for this week. I think I got writer's cramp from all I put in this week's edition. I am back on my regular schedule again on many fronts, including my Random Thoughts, and as I said earlier I'm getting ready to re-engage with the world and many of you. I look forward to seeing and/or hearing from those of you I've been away from and have waited to speak to or be around again. Until then and the next set of Random Thoughts...take care and God Bless.

DJ

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