Saturday, October 31, 2009

Halloween today...

Happy Halloween:

What are your plans for tonight? Me, not much. Probably just reading my book. The Ducks are playing USC starting at 5:00 pm today, but I will periodically check the score. If the Ducks are winning big I will watch the game. If the game is close, my TV stays off.

The picture here is a sombrero galaxy, again taken by the repaired Hubble.

Wolf Hall has a cast of hundreds. I continually refer to the list of characters in the front of the book to see who they are and where they are. Luckily, the list of characters in the book follow the plot line. But the plot line skips years. One chapter is in 1529. The next chapter starts in 1521 and goes to 1529.

Remember to turn your clocks back an hour tonight before you go to bed. It is "Fall back." I do believe Daylight time starts again in early March. I would rather keep Daylight time year-around. In December, we will see it getting dark around 4:30 pm. That it is too early to get dark.

It is Planet of the Apes weekend on Fox Movie Channel this weekend. I watched the original one then I watched Beneath the Planet of the Apes, followed by Escape from the Planet of the Apes. Next is Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. The last one is Battle for the Planet of the Apes. Not a bad day, watching commercial-free movies.

As a side note, I wonder if 20th Century Fox will every change its name to 21st Century Fox.

Have a great Halloween.

Steven

Friday, October 30, 2009

TGIF, again

Hello:

I have been busy creating a new Kindle book for Nolan. He found poems written by his father. His father died some years ago and looking though his papers we found many poems he wrote. We also found 3 epic poems. All written in long-hand, one is 52 pages, another is 45 pages and the last is 91 pages long. All one big poem, we call these poems epic poems. Typing each of them will take days and days.

We did publish 15 of his poems. He was a devote Catholic so most are related to his faith. Here is a sample of one of them:


The Good Soil

Oh, Lord, Creator of all things good
Teach us to live the way we should
Make of us the good soil.
In humility and patience to toil.
Within us, let you take a good root.
And blossom into glorious fruit.


Here is another example of Ray's poetry:

Smiling Through the Years

Your smile, badge of strength,
Keep renewing day by day
Spreading cheer to every length
Breadth and every which way,
Smiling through the beers,
Smiling through the cheers
Smiling through the fears
Smiling through the jeers
Smiling through the leers
Smiling through the tears
Even smiling though the years


Every line rhymed with the next or following line. Some poets rhymed the first and third lines, but Ray rhymed every line. This is a short poem, he has many much longer poems in this collection.

I downloaded the book, called Poems for the Spirit, to the kindle page today, but it will not be available until next Thursday. Amazon now wants business five days to review the content of the book.

I do not know if any of you have a Kindle reader as I do. But this book is only available on the Amazon Kindle page.

I have some asparagus to can here later today. I will probably get 3 to 4 quarts. I had to go the Internet to find out how to can this stuff.

The picture here I used for the photo on the Poems for the Spirit. Once this book shows up it will have this picture as part of its cover.


Hope you have a good weekend.

Steven

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Calm before the storm...




Good morning from Stayton:
It is cloudy outside but not raining yet, but the rain is coming.
The pictures here are from Seaside. The bottom picture is the people seeking clams. The top picture is what you can find when the tide is so low, a minus 3.0 feet this day. A great day for clamming and seeing whole sand dollars.
I have not been to the library for a few days. Now I have 9 books waiting for me. Some I will cancel a few of them without reading as I cannot remember why I reserved certain books.
I am almost finished with Crude World. I am surprised at the leaders in the world, once oil is discovered on their land, divert the oil revenue to their own account. The countrymen still stay poor but the situation becomes worse for them as the American oil companies do not follow safety laws or health laws when getting the oil out of the ground. The American oil companies are as much to blame as the corrupt leaders. Greed is the main emotion both the oil companies use and the corrupt leader. Like I said earlier, I don't believe in hell, but there has to be a special place where people like this die. These ultimate capitalists cannot share the afterlife with all of the rest of us.
My next book is Wolf Hall, a tale of Henry VIII and his counselor Thomas Cromwell. This book is almost 600 pages long, so major time every day I will take reading this book.
This Cromwell is not the same one you think of when you see the name Cromwell in England. Thomas loses his life around Henry's fifth wife. Oliver Cromwell was the leader of England during the years of the interregnum.
I am drinking tea this morning instead of coffee. Earl Grey is my favorite tea, so that is my drink today.
Stay dry.
Steven

Monday, October 26, 2009

Raining today...

Hello:

It is raining hard right now.

This picture is what we saw the day after Labor Day at Seaside. I saw a large group of people way out there in a very low tide. I did not know what they were doing until we walked out there. These ladies showed us the clams they were digging. They also demonstrated to us how they dug these clams.

Our next trip to the coast, we bought the clam guns and tried it for ourselves. I got two and Connie got 3 of them. We went over there a few more times but the tide was not low enough. The next minus tide is on Dec.31 at 6:06 pm, when it will be -2.1. I think it may be dark by that time as we are going back to Standard Time on Nov. 1. I wish we could have Daylight time all year-around.

Before going clamming again, I am getting a clam shovel to use instead of a clamming gun.

I spent last night reading my book. My TV was off for evening after watching 60 Minutes. At first I did not believe the President could not fraud in Medicare enough to pay for the New Health Care Plan. After seeing the segment on 60 Minutes it looks like the President was right, billions and billions of dollars are going to fraudulent claims.

I hope you can stay dry today.

Steven

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Sunday morning

Hi again:

A very good, great weekend. The Ducks won big and the Beavs lost. Cannot ask for a better weekend.

The picture here is called the Cat's Eye Nebula, taken by the repaired Hubble.

I was able to hang clothes outside yesterday, although it did take seven hours for the clothes to dry. I really like to hang my clothes outside rather than use the dryer. In China they have dryers but dryers but no one uses them. We always hang our clothes either outside or in an extra bedroom.

Sunday Morning on CBS today is about Americans being overweight. I think back to my 2 years in China, where I lost almost 50 pounds. I lost 40 pounds during the first 18 months there. I dropped the other 10 pounds because I started running at 5:30 each morning. But the air there is bad, very bad, so exercising outside was problematic.

Today I will finish my second batch of sauerkraut. The brine is now room temperature so later this morning I will cut the cabbage up. I need to get some small mouth lids as I have just small mouth jars left here.

No football for me today. I have not watched an NFL game for over 20 years. Instead I will continue reading my book.

Steven

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Good morning...for a few more minutes

Hello:

The picture here shows you can even put electric motor, batteries and every thing else in an older car, this one is an old VW bug.

I am preparing to make another batch of sauerkraut. I made the brine already, but it must cool to room temperature before I can pour it over the shredded cabbage. I bought another box of Kosher salt as I must use this salt in the brine and in the cabbage. I don't know why Kosher salt is preferred over regular salt.

I am reading a book by Peter Maass called Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil. It is an interesting book. We have past the peak of oil and the scarcity is coming. The book also talks about the plunder of some of the countries leaders. I do not believe in hell, but I hope there is a special place for these jerks after they die.

Nolan's dad wrote many poems when he was alive. I am publishing a book of his poems on the Kindle page. Yesterday, I found three epic poems he wrote. All of his poems are spiritual in nature, so I am calling the series of book of poems: Poems of the Spirit. Subsequent books, containing the epic poems, are to be called Poems of the Spirit II and III and IV.

I do not know how many of my readers have a Kindle like I do. Go to Amazon.com to see the latest in Kindle prices. The Kindle 1, the same as I have, is much less (in the range of 100 of dollars) than what I paid for mine. There is also the Kindle 2, the best selling of the Kindles so far. It has text-to-speech capabilities. It will read the books to you like books on tape. I am happy with my Kindle 1 though. There is the newer Kindle DX, a much bigger Kindle, but it costs nearing $500.

Books at the Kindle store are much cheaper than what you buy them for in a hardbound edition. For example, The Lost Symbol cost me $9.99. Since my dad shares his Kindle account with me, I can download this book to his Kindle without any extra cost. So, two weeks ago, I turned his Kindle on and downloaded that book to his Kindle.

The Kindle store has many more free books also. I do not like reading magazine articles or newspaper articles on my computer screen. So I copy the article over to Word, and then send to the @free.kinde.com and get it back within seconds in the proper format to be read on my Kindle. I then attach the USB cord between my computer and my Kindle to download the article to the Kindle. I have so much to read my Kindle now, I need to set aside some time each day to start reading all of this stuff.

On top of all of this, I have two library books to read here and six waiting for me at the library, plus the movie Twilight.

Have a good week. It will be a great weekend if the Ducks win and the Beavs lose.

Steven

Friday, October 23, 2009

Figured out the problem

Hi again:

I figured out what was wrong with my blog, so now I can add a picture of sunset on the Oregon beach.

I gave away a quart of sauerkraut today to the lady who runs the fruit and vegetable stand. She charged me $5.00 for a 10 pound cabbage. I plan to start the second batch of sauerkraut tomorrow. I had to buy some more Kosher salt for the recipe. It calls for Kosher salt, but I don't know the difference between Kosher salt and Morton salt.

Anyway, thought I would tell you the blog works again.

Steven

TGIF, again

Hi again:

Something is wrong with this blog page. I cannot add a picture to it. So no picture today.

I made my saurkraut today. I got six quarts to can from my crock today. The cabbage was in the crock for five weeks. I had a friend taste it as I do not like it.

I plan to use the saurkraut as gifts this Christmas. My dad loves it so he will get few quarts.

I got another large cabbge today. I will make another batch of saurkraut and it should be ready the first week in December.

I do not know how to can saurkraut. I just took it from the crock and put it into the jars. My next batch I will use some vinegar and dill to put in the jars. If you know anything about canning saurkraut, please write me to tell me what I did wrong, if anything.

I also made an apple crisp today. It turned out much better than the first time I made it two weeks ago. I used melted butter this time instead of just soft butter that the recipe called for. The topping turned out much better this time.

I restarted my computer thinking it would open this blog would work.

I did try to add a picture but all I see is computer code. We shall see if this works. I will edit it out if no picture appears.


Steven

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Good morning on this H



Hi again:
These pictures came from a friend in Eugene who said it "oh crap..." At the end of these pictures was a picture of President Obama's swearing in ceremony. Of course, I do not agree with my friend on these pictures to tie in with the election of our President.
This appears to the only good day this week. I tried to hang clothes outside a few days ago, but the rain came before they got even close to dry. Today I have two towels outside today...to see if these can get dry before the rain starts later today.
I finished the book on the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is an excellent book, telling us the story behind the story. If you are interested in this history then I suggest you get this book (featured in an earlier post, below).
A report on the China growth of 8.9% I do not believe it. You cannot trust any word from the government there.

None of the factories closed last year are open yet. I see no sales here in the U.S. to support such a fast growth rate in China. There is a high speed rail line being built between Beijing and Shanghai. Those workers are funded by the government. 88% of the growth in the country this year comes from government funded projects. It will not hold for the next quarter. Like I told you, the Chinese government lies all of the time. China is not driving growth in the world. I am glad of this.
We went out for pizza last night. I had the best pizza I have eaten last night. It is a beef, bacon and tomato pizza. I usually get one with Canadian bacon and pineapple, but the one I ate last night was much better. I know, a pizza contains cheese, but this the only anomaly in my cheese-hating system. I cannot taste the cheese on a pizza. Everything else with cheese I can taste and hate it.
Have you gotten a swine flu shot yet? I got a regular flu shot last week, but I don't know if I will get a swine flu shot. It seems to affect younger adults and children and not the older folks like me.
With a rainy weekend coming what are your plans?
Steven

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Hello again

Hi:

How are you doing now? I got sick today, stomach problems. I am better now after a small dinner and two glasses of water.

The picture here I may have shown you before. It is a friend's house about two miles east of here. The color of the trees are quite pretty this time of year.

My poor Dodgers; I was looking forward to an LA/LA World Series, now it appears neither team will make it. Which means I will not be watching the World Series this year if the Yankees and Phils play in it.

The book I am reading about the fall of the Berlin Wall is quite enlightening. In GDR (East Germany) it was a crowd that forced the government. In Poland it was an outside group (Solidarity) that forced the commies out. But in Hungary, it was the government itself, the president and prime minister worked to end communism there. It is interesting to read it all started by the Hungarian government officials when on August 19, 1989 held a party by cutting the fence between Hungary and Austria. Only 600 people from East Germany left at the end of that party. But during the next few weeks over a million GDR people left for West Germany. I have still not gotten to the part of the book where GDR people started tearing down the wall. I highly recommend this book, The Year that Changed the World by Michael Meyer.

Back to reading my book.

Steven

Monday, October 19, 2009

Strange night

Hi again:

Indeed a strange night, a bifurcated night. Up at 4:30 am and back to bed at 6:00 am. Then up at 7:30. Drinking coffee in the afternoon and evening. I should restrict my coffee drinking to the a.m. only.

The picture here Mars, taken by Hubble.

Wednesday I will watch a webinar, a program on my computer on how to promote ebooks for the Kindle. Webinars are new to me. I watched one last week. I have another scheduled for later this month. The big advantage is if it no good I can just close the program. No traveling and no fees.

Hope your weekend went well.

Steven

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Sunday morning

Hi again:

The picture here is the fruit and vegetable stand about a mile west of Stayton. This is where I got my prunes, corn and other stuff.

My canned prunes are very good. Not as sweet as my mother made, but excellent nevertheless.

I am watching Sunday Morning on CBS. I record it to get by the commercials. It has longer stories than the daily news programs. I do not watch TV news except on C-Span or MSNBC. But with the latter show I stop live TV for about half an hour so I can speed through the commercials.

My next book I will read is The Year that Changed the World: The Untold Story Behind the Fall of the Berlin Wall by Michael Meyer. This is history we all lived through but I want to find out the details of how it happened. Someday soon I hope we see the same thing happening to the government of China. This is something I wish for but I do not expect to see it happen, maybe in my lifetime.

Have a good Sunday.

Steven

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Prlblem solved...


Hi again:
I solved the problem with Real Player. I had to delete my current version and download it again. Once that happened, I could hear the copies I made.
But my Real Player library only had 3 of the 14 disks from The Lost Symbol, so I had to order it again from the library. I am the 26th person to request it so there may be some time before I get it again. Although I see Stayton is getting a copy but it is not cataloged yet. If no one else from Stayton ordered it, then I will be first in line to get it early next week. We shall see how this goes.
The top picture is from our local library, the stacks in the library.
The bottom picture are the Twin Galaxies, a photo taken by Hubble.
We have some fresh corn here from our local farm stand. It is the end of the corn season here, so we got 19 ears of corn for $2.00. Two ears of corn were my lunch today, with ice cream for dessert.
I found today the CDs I brought back with me from China. I forgot how I put them, but it is so nice to find them again. I have been listening to The Four Seasons by Vivaldi. Great music for this Saturday afternoon.
Have a good Saturday.
Steven


Hello on Saturday





Hi again:


My CDs of The Lost Symbol and a Beck book for a friend did not work today when I played them. I wonder what happened to Real Player. I also tried to make a copy of Story Songs III, but the new copy did not work either. I wonder if putting the books into the music category causes this not to work. I will try again now since I rebooted my computer. I will let you know how it works.


The pictures here are from the Hubble. The top picture is Saturn over time; the bottom one a cone nebula.
I opened my berry jam last night. It is so very good on toast. I love the seeds in the jam.
My strawberry ice cream is also excellent. I do not each much of either, as the sugar content is high.
Time to experiment with Real Player again.
Hope your weekend is going well.
Steven

Thursday, October 15, 2009

It worked

Hi:

I see that my experiment worked. With no pictures the paragraph separation works. So now I try it with one picture to see if it continues to work.

I made part of the ice cream and now I need to add the cream and the strawberries and then let it freeze again.

The picture here is the house I live in Stayton. Nolan lives upstairs and we live downstairs.

I do hope this works.

Only two more days until the weekend. What are your plans?

Steven

Good morning

Hi again:

I tried it with one picture, two pictures and three pictures. So today I will try it NO pictures. I know the pictures are a big draw for this blog but this is just an experiment to see how it works with no pictures.

I made an apple crisp yesterday, but it the top did not turn out right, It tastes very good though. I will try again soon, but this time melt the butter before putting it over the apples. Trying to get soft butter into the other stuff was problematic.

Later this morning I will make strawberry ice cream. My strawberries are ready to go and it will be so good, especially with chocolate sauce on the top of it.

I know, too much sugar, but I don't eat much of it. But in China, very little sugar so that is why I lost 50 pounds during my two years in China.

We shall see how this works.

Steven

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

I edited this page again and again




OK, I edited and edited these pages.
I do not know how to fix the paragraph problem. So this time I am using 3 pictures.
The top picture shows the view from our condo in Depoe Bay.
The middle picture shows a boat coming back to Depoe Bay. I assume it is a crabbing boat, but could be a charter boat.
The bottom picture are my brother in the foreground and my dad in the background.
We shall see if this works.
Steven


From now on, just one picture


Hi again:
We shall see if this works, since my last posting with two pictures did not work.
I hope to see this work.
The picture here is a back yard of a friend who's trees are turning color during this time of year.
I do hope your day goes well.
Steven

Mid-week finally...



Hi:
Now we shall see if putting two pictures on this blog creates no paragraph separation. As you can see from yesterday's blog entry, the paragraphs separated just fine, but with one picture.
The two pictures here are the vegetable and fruit stand about a mile west of Stayton and the acreage across the street. The corn field that is the top picture with what is called "solid sets" sprinkler water lines under the ground. In the past there would be pheasants out there. I am not a hunter of birds, except maybe geese later.
The last part of A Brave Vessel is the author's view of two of the survivors of Sea Village that landed on Bermuda watching a performance of The Tempest, a play written by Shakespeare. The author imagines what each must thought seeing that Shakespeare stole much of their story for his story in the play, including some words used by one of the viewers of the play from the ship.
I am unthawing strawberries to make some strawberry ice cream. The strawberries are frozen now so I will probably make it tomorrow once the strawberries are thawed.
Hope your day goes well.
We shall see if this works, two pictures with paragraph separation.
Steven

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Hi again

Hi again:

The picture here is another picture from the repaired Hubble. This is called the Whirlpool Galaxy and a nearby galaxy. I have many pictures here from the Hubble. Some are so pretty such as this one.

I just don't know why this blog will not separate paragraphs. I can edit it after I post it but no matter what I do it comes out as just one long paragraph. I will try to see if it changes if I use one picture instead of two.

I reading The Brave Vessel I see the people of Jamestown, in 1611 almost abandoned the settlement because of the Long Starvation. The arrival of another ship with the new governor prevented it. But the settlers still raided the two Indian tribes and killed many of them. I just do not understand people killing people who are not like them. But the worst thing the New Americans did was to bring measles and other diseases like that killed most the Indians here from 1608 to the 1800's.

Plus the new Americans killed almost every buffalo they saw, almost getting to it to near extinction.

Hope you are doing well.

Steven

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Good morning



Hi again:
The pictures here need some explanation. The top picture consists two donuts, cut in half. The bottom picture is what I put on them. Hamburger and bacon. I added katsup and dressing to mine to complete my burger. I added cheese to Nolan's burger. (An aside: I had to wash my hands with two different kinds of soap after touching the cheese.). I saw this on TV and heard about it on NPR. It is suppose to be 1,500 calories. You are suppose to use Krispy Creame donuts but we don't have one close to here, so I got the donuts from Safeway.
I must admit it was OK, but I could not finish mine. I ate about 3/4 of mine. It still is here. I may heat it up to try to eat later today.
I opened a can of my pears. Boy, they are so very good. I did not cut the peelings off the pears and this makes it even better.
I am about half way through The Brave Vessel, a story of ship in 1609 traveling across the Atlantic from England to America. It got caught in a hurricane and had to run the ship aground in Bermuda, an uninhabited island. The shipmates get used to the island, and some want to stay and others want to build a small boat to make it to Virginia. Apparently Shakespeare used this story when he wrote The Tempest. It is a good book and I look forward to finishing it.
I have jury duty on Tuesday. I had jury duty just before I left for China. I even got a forwarded mail in China calling me to jury duty in Marion County. Seems like my name is coming up too often, three times in four years. Counties used to use voter rolls for jurors but now they use driver license records. I plan on taking my Kindle with me when I go there on Tuesday.
Time to get some breakfast.
Steven

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Good weekend coming...


Hi:
How are you doing on this Saturday, probably the last good weekend for a long time.
I did my laundry yesterday and I was able to hang my clothes outside, again, probably for the last time.
In China no one has dryers so we always hung our clothes either outside or on a rack in a bedroom.
The pictures here are my family. The top picture shows my Dad, my niece Valarie, and my brother Ken. Valarie just got back from 11 months in Iraq. She is in the Marines and a helicopter pilot. Her next assignment is in North Carolina. My brother lives in Maryland and is out here for a visit. Valarie is the daughter of Ken, one of the triplets.
The bottom picture is my dad and his wife Eleanor.
I recorded Real Time with Bill Mahar last night. A very good liberal program. This program celebrated Obama getting the Peace Prize, so unlike, I imagine the Wingnuts of the Right Wing.
I can go on a rant against the same Wingnuts but I will not do so now. Some other time I will do this.
Time for some breakfast here.
Yesterday I edited my posting four times to try to get the paragraph separation but it did not show up right.
Steven


Friday, October 9, 2009

Firday here now...


Hello:
The pictures here are some from our local library. My next set of pictures will show my brother Ken. He lives in Maryland and is here to see his family and friends. Ken is 16 months younger than me.
I opened some of my strawberries last night. I forgot how good my frozen strawberries taste. It has been some years since I ate berries. I have not opened my peaches or my prunes yet.
I bought a bag of apples a few days ago. I will make an apple crisp from a recipe I found on the Amazon blog I get every day on my Kindle. I have enough apples to make it with a few left over that I will make some applesauce too.
I downloaded a few books to my dad's Kindle yesterday, including The Lost Symbol. I am sure he is well into that book by now. He reads books, I do believe, exclusively, on his Kindle. We share a Kindle account, meaning every book I buy from Amazon can be downloaded to his Kindle as well as mine.
I see where President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. I was surprised at this selection. But I am sure all of the right wingers are apoplectic at this choice. I do not watch Fox news but I can imagine what those crazies are saying about the choice. But thinking about it, I do not know anyone else the Nobel committee could choose among the world leaders.
Our President must get out of Iraq soon and come up with an exit policy for Afghanistan.
The health care plan coming out of Congress is the worst I have seen. It does nothing to get everyone on health care. It needs to provide Medicare for everyone, getting the insurance companies out of the loop. They provide no service, only an intermediary that takes the bulk of the money and provides nothing in return.
We are now better than China, where there is no health care plan there at all. This why the Chinese save so much of their earnings. There is no social network in China at all. Remember when the Communists provided cradle to grave coverage of services. Now, China is Communist in name only with a government that is one of the most corrupt on earth.
I do wonder when the communist government in China will fall. I was completely surprised when the Soviet Union fell apart. That is something I never expected to see in my lifetime, but then it happened.
I think something in China will happen that we do not expect or can think of right now. It will come from "left field." I will be very happy when I see the communist government falls in China.
If you have any comments about what I write here, either post an entry in the comment section of this blog or write me an email: schwindt68@hotmail.com.
Time for some breakfast.
Steven

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Hi again

Hello:

How are you doing these days. Wednesday now.

The picture here the check out desk at our library in Stayton. The library expanded just as I left for China. I did not see the newer library until I returned a year ago September. It is so very beautiful and roomy these days. It has about 20 computers but I never use any of them except the one near the front desk that is for looking only at the library website.

No responses yet from my list earlier this week from the places I listed of places where people read my blog.

Here are a few other places that that regularly read my blog.

Japan.

Casper, Wyoming.

Auckland N.Z.

Whitter CA.

Queen Creek Arizona.


If you are one from any of these places then please write me to tell me who you are. Write me at schwindt68@hotmail.com

If you are from any of the places from the other list I listed in an earlier post, again please write me.

Time to get some lunch here.

Steven

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Hi again and again

Hello again:

I know a another post so quickly after the first one. I did find out my problem why the posting looked different. I had checked the box for the new enhanced editor. Once I checked it back to Old Editor my other page came back. I like this one better for reasons you need not know right now.

We shall see if this works with the paragraph separation under the old editor check.

We went to Salem tonight in order for Nolan to get his glasses fixed. A screw had fallen out of the frame. Costco fixed it for free as that is where he got his glasses.

I started the The Brave Vessel already. Shakespeare was quite the stealer of scenes and stories, according to this author.


My brother Ken is in Oregon now. I will see him later in the week. I have not seen him since 2001. He is staying with my other brother Randy for the next few days, then going to Randy's coast house for few more days. I have two brothers, both younger than me. I have three sons and no daughters. Some day I missed out having sisters or daughters. What do you think?

The picture here is the inside of the Stayton library. The next few pictures will be from the library.

Steven

Hi again



Hello:


The picture here is our local library in Stayton. It is a wonderful library. Like I told you before this is a regional library, having access to all books in the Chemeketa Community College district.

No matter how much I edited yesterday's post, I could not get the paragraph separation that I wanted to show. I edited four times, each time putting in paragraph separation. But every time I posted it the posting showed no paragraph separation.

We shall see how this works today. The type face is different today as is the way I download pictures. I don't know how this one will turn out.

No one has responded to my plea yesterday for emails to me to tell me where you live. I am getting views from the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia and South America. I can pretty much guess the U.S. people, but not all. I have no idea who you are if you are viewing this from outside the U.S. Please write me to tell me who you are. Again, my email address is schwindt68@hotmail.com

The next book I plan to read is: A Brave Vessel: The True Tale of the Castaways Who Rescued Jamestown and Inspired Shakespeare's The Tempest. The author is Hobson Woodward.

I checked out two Steve Berry books, The Third Secret and The Venetian Betrayal. I know I read the latter even though I was in China when this book was published. I cannot remember if I read The Third Secret. I will start it soon to see if I remember it. I may have ordered The Venetian Betrayal from Amazon when I was in China. This would have been before I got my Kindle there.

His book, The Templar Legacy, was free on the Amazon Kindle site earlier this week, so I ordered it and have it on my Kindle. I know I read this book before. Looking over all of his books, I do believe I read all of his books. We shall see...

Hope this works...


Steven

Monday, October 5, 2009

Monday here...



Hello again:
How was your weekend?
The two pictures here of whales in the ocean along 101 and Otter Crest Loop. The top picture you can barely see a the back of the whale after he/she blew and took some air. The bottom picture shows a whale getting air.
My weekend was only half good. The Ducks won big but the stupid Beavs won too. As you know my best weekend is when the Ducks win and the hated Beavs lose, hopefully big.
I downloaded seven articles from The New Yorker website this morning. I now have each of them on my Kindle. I find it much easier to read an article on my Kindle rather than on computer screen.
I finished reading And Then the Roof Caved In: How Wall Street's Greed and Stupidity Brought Capitalism to Its Knees by David Faber, the on-air commentator for CNBC. This book concentrates on the four different types of sub-prime mortgages that Wall Street so loved to securitize. This is why our government had to pay a trillion dollars to Wall Street firms and AIG to save them from their greed and stupidity. This is a short book, only 186 pages long but sets out the case against Wall Street so very good.
I have six books here from our local library. I will read only two of them as two are chick-lit novels and one is of no interest to me.
I burned my own copy of the audio CDs of The Lost Symbol. We can listen to it if we go on a long road trip during the next year.
I also burned my own copies of Driveway Moments 4, the NPR CDs on stories that kept you in your driveway listening to the story instead of going into your house or office. I know I have done this on more than a couple of occasions.
Yesterday I made tea instead of coffee. I love Earl Grey tea so that is what I made. I sometimes dunk my chocolate cookies in my tea but no cookies here for the past few months. Maybe that is why I can get into pants that were too tight a few months ago but now fit fine today.
My nephew Chris is writing a blog now. Rather different than what I write about. His blog is at chrisc.blogspot.com.
I have a counter on this blog that tells me more than just how many visits I get each day. It tells me location as well as provides a world map.
Here is a list of the places of where people live who read my blog. Some I can guess but others I have no idea. If you read this blog and your location is listed here, write me an email to tell me who you are. My email address is schwindt68@hotmail.com
Stayton, Oregon.
Wayland, Michigan.
Portage, Indiana.
West Roxbury Mass.
Toronto Canada.
Redding PA.
Hillsdale Illinois.
Singapore.
Scio Oregon.
Eugene Oregon.
New York.
Portland Oregon.
Laie Hawaii.
Indonesia.
India.
Mesa Arizona.
Hong Kong.
Mexico.
Malaysia.
Sidney Australia.
Galveston Texas.
Iowa.
Omaha Nebraska.
Again, if you see your place on this list write me an email to tell me who are.
I do hope your week goes well.
Steven

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Hi again



Hi again:
How is your weekend going?
We went to the Shaw breakfast this morning. It has some of the best breakfast I like.
The pictures are old cars. These will be last pictures from the Jordan dinner.
My brother, Ken, is here now. He lives in Maryland.
Not much news here.
Steven

Friday, October 2, 2009

Freezer Jam made today...

We picked a small cottage cheese container of blackberries a week ago. I froze them and today un-thawed them to make some freezer jam. I got about a quart of blackberry jam in two containers. I used liquid pectin today. I wonder if I should have used powder pectin. The recipe calls for the powder pectin but I mixed the liquid pectin to a cup of water, boiled it and then added it to the berries. I do wonder if it will set up as jam is suppose to do. I am to keep the jars in the house for 24 hours before putting them in the freezer. We shall see what happens to tomorrow when I get up tomorrow morning. Right now the jam is still a liquid. I assume it must cool to set up.


So now I have canned peaches, prunes, applesauce, tomatoes, peach syrup, pears and now jam.


The picture here is an older "Woodie" station wagon I saw drive by me at the Jordan dinner.


I was able to hang some clothes outside today for over eight hours. I noticed my jeans were not drying at all so the jeans went into the dryer. Everything else stayed outside, survived a few showers and ended up mostly dry by the time I took the clothes in after being out there for 8 hours.


Tomorrow I will go the library. One book I have on reserve I will return at the same moment I get it, as I bought it for my Kindle instead. Big books are easier to read there than the three weeks I get to read a 900 page book. The book is Wilderness Warrior by Douglas Brinkley. The book cost my $9.99 for my Kindle. It was higher a week or so ago, but I will always wait until I see the price comes down to $9.99 before buying a book for my Kindle. I do believe the hardcover version of the book costs $32.98.


The only two books I bought for my Kindle were The Lost Symbol and Wilderness Warrior. I probably added six or seven free books in the same time.


I have jury duty on Oct. 13 so I will take my Kindle with me to pass the time there.


Hope you have a good weekend.



Steven

Friday, finally


Good morning:
I see it has been raining during the night here. I am doing wash today, but I cannot hang my clothes outside today.
The pictures here are a couple of old cars from the Jordan dinner last Sunday. The Metropolitan is the strange car, one which I have never seen.
I am going to watch Who Killed the Electric Car tonight. A sequel is coming out very soon called The Revenge of the Electric Car by the same people, obviously, who made the first film.
I was wrong yesterday when I said Mao killed 1,000,000 fellow Chinese. It is more like 10's of millions of Chinese or even 100's of million Chinese. He is the world's worst dictator. The deaths stopped only upon his death in 1976.
I wonder when the Communist party will lose power in China. I know I was surprised to see the Soviet Union fall when it did. I never expected to see it it fall in my lifetime. Hopefully, we might see the the communist party in China fall soon too.
I have the audio of The Lost Symbol now. I will burn my own copies, 17 CDs in that packet. It will take a few hours this weekend to do this. If we go on a long road trip in the next year we can listen to the book.
I do hope you have a good weekend.
Steven


Thursday, October 1, 2009

Good morning

Hi again:

Well, it is working now, showing the paragraph separations like it should.

The picture here are some very old, 1960's era, Corvettes.

The first car we will convert to all electric in our business, Green Car of America, will be a 1981 Corvette. We may buy a kit that has all of the necessary parts, except the batteries, so we can get some instructions on how to do it. I will hire mechanics who know how to take engines out of a car, but I rather doubt I can find anyone yet who knows how to install the controller, motor and batteries in an all-electric car.

Oct 1 is the 60th Anniversary of the Communist takeover of China. Yesterday and last night there we big celebrations in China but I did not see any of the coverage. The communist government is a bankrupt system. Even with the overlay of some sort of capitalism there, the underlying government promotes corruption on a grand scale. Read the book China Road by Rob Gifford to see corruption in action as the author takes the Old Silk Road from Shanghai to the western border of China. Police bribes are but a small part of the corruption in China.

My friend Wenny there, a few months ago, sought a license to start a clinic in Shanghai. She is a doctor and knows the proper people to contact in China to get such a license. She told me she had to put 80,000 rmb ($12,346) in her application in order to get a quick decision by the head official in Beijing. I asked her if that was bribe and she said yes.

I like the people of China but I absolutely hate the government of China. The Chinese people have been taught to revere Mao, but Mao is the world's worst dictator having killed more than 1,000,000 Chinese people during his disastrous reign. His Great Leap Forward, followed by the Cultural Revolution are the most ugly plans ever thought of by a world leader. Most of the Chinese died from starvation during those two events.

The Chinese government calls it missile it launches The Long March, to supposedly recall the event that Mao did not take part in, but all Chinese believe he did. During the Long March Mao waited in the house of his mistress and did not walk with his army at all.

What are your plans for the coming weekend?

Steven