Picture Monday, June 23, 2008

Whenever I go through the pictures in the comfort of my La-Z-Boy, I always come across a picture and I think, "Why did we take a picture of THAT?" So I collected a few to show off today. Maybe you can figure out why we took a picture of that.

A lamp. Obvious enough. But why? I took that picture in high school. I guess I fancied myself a budding prize photographer. But a lamp? Why?

The picture below isn't much better.

A dandelion.

In black and white.

I still remember taking this picture and several others. I had my camera and I walked around the neighborhood taking pictures of as many different colorful things I could find. I was really excited about them until I had the pictures developed. I had used black and white film. I imagine that explains the lamp picture above.

I'm sorry, but this one defies logic. Why would you want a picture of your cat in the litter box? So far no one has owned up to this one.

Then there's the microwave. For posterity we have a picture of something be warmed up in the microwave. Years from now we will be able to show our children's children's children that we used to cook the old fashioned way, in a microwave.

Finally, a picture of Sam Houston, great Texian of yore. Former president of the Republic of Texas. Sam Houston was a famous head of state who apparently had no head of his own. Yes, we have a picture of famous statue of Sam Houston in Huntsville, TX. The statue has a head. the picture does not.

© 2008 Barry T Horst

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.

What Is It About Today?

What is it about today?

Well on this day a lot of interesting people were born. For instance, this date in 1903 brought into the world Carl Hubbell, former pitcher for the NY Giants; and John Dillinger. Both men were wanted in their time but for vastly different reasons. This was not a very good for Hollywood though. On this date in various years the world lost many fine performers. A few of those lost were David O Selznick in 1965, Judy Garland in 1969, Fred Astaire in 1987, and one year later, Dennis Day.

That's not all that happened. In 1342 Bilbo Baggins returned to his home at Bag End. In 1808 Zebulon Pike reached his peak, and "NO" it wasn't named Pike's Peak yet. And history tells us that in 1847 the doughnut was created. I'll bet that was good news for the folks at Krispy Kreme.

And for our friends worldwide the day has special significance also. In the Congo, today is Army Day. Go Army! And in El Salvador, it's School Teacher's Day/D¡a del Maestro. Go Teachers! And in Yemen PDR it is Corrective Move Day. Uhhhh! I'm not quite sure about what that is. Maybe it is a national holiday where everyone takes Carter's Little Pills. Just a guess.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.


Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.

Free Saturday, Sort of

I wanted to take this opportunity to remind you of a few things on the blog site. First, I want too urge you to visit the "Giveaway of the Day" each day. The link is always near the bottom of the left sidebar. Each day they offer free of charge quality software downloads. I have picked up some very useful programs in this way. Just recently I have downloaded and installed "Macrium Reflect" which is a disk imaging too, "Almeza Multiset", and "Button Shop". I had download several other good and useful programs from the sight but I lost them in the transition from bad disk drive to new disk drive.

I also would like you to visit the "Game Giveaway of the Day" each weekend. Every Saturday and Sunday they offer a full game free. They have a lot of great games. I tend to enjoy the puzzle type games as opposed to the Role Playing and Action games. Just last weekend I downloaded "Mahjongg Epic" and have played it several times. I was able to install this game on my thumb drive so I can take it with me and play on any computer with a USB port. Cool huh? I also picked up "Bloom" and play it just to relax a little. Just as before, I had many more games but lost them in the transition between drives.

Also please take a few moments to visit my other links on the sight. For instance at the Cafe Press link on the bottom of the page I offer a few items with various photographs that I have taken in the past. The Amazon link takes you to the Amazon store that I run, Blue Sunflower Associates.

Oh I almost forgot! Please check out the "Easily Amused" link on the bottom of the page. I change this link periodically and use it to highlight some destination on the Internet that I think is interesting and therefore Easily Amuses Me!

PS: Look for my soon to start new blog for just this sort of thing!

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.


Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.

If Spiderman Can

What is it about dreams that lets everyone be a superhero?

Last night I was having the strangest dreams. In one dream I had I was driving along the highways in some unknown large metropolitan city. As I was zooming along I was in one of the right lanes and needed to be in the left lane because I was coming to a split in the highway. I couldn't change lanes because there was someone in the lane I needed in. So I thought to myself, "Stay in this lane and take the next exit and loop around!" So I did just that. That exit came up awful fast on the right but I was able to jerk the car around quick enough to make it.

Then IT happened. You know, that thing that always happens in dreams. That thing that could never happen in real life. That thing that happens because of the Laws of Physics or the Laws of Man or just because it can't happen. I took that exit and began to loop around and then my perspective changed from the driver's to that of someone watching from above. That's when I realized the exit ramp quickly dropped off and became a brick wall inside a large pit full of water. What to do?

Easy! Stop the car and climb the wall of course. After all there were several windows and vents on the wall. So I started to climb. It seemed that the wall just kept getting taller and taller. I made it to some windows. No help, they were just sealed up. I finally made it to a vent. I was able to reach in and tear it out and then miraculously I was able to start tearing bricks down and rip into the duct work and climb down to safety.

Now for a few thoughts on the dream. 1. Why did I stop the car and get out? Couldn't I have just stopped, put the car in reverse and back out? 2. Why did I climb the wall? I can't climb walls. The only explanation I have is that Chris bought our Grandson Jace some new Spiderman underwear yesterday. Maybe Spiderman was on my mind. I promise he was not on my waist. 3. Why did I go down the vent? I'm not quite sure about that because that is where the water was. Oh well, I woke up and was none the worse for wear.

I did like the perspective thing though. Wouldn't it be great if we could really do that?

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.

A Grave Situation

I mentioned yesterday that I found a goodly portion of my family tree on ancestry.com courtesy of my niece Kari Horst Nilsson. Well now to add to the story, yesterday I was looking up some information on the Internet Movie Database and from there ended up going to findagrave.com. This lead me to posting pictures of the headstones of my family on the site for Oakwood Cemetery in Waco. I then decided to check into the family that are buried at Rosemound Cemetery. When I went to the cemetery I got the plot information and from that information I learned something very interesting. Now I already knew that the plot was purchased by my uncle for his wife, Ruth Creswell Carter. She was my mother's sister that died in 1929 at the age of 20. Anyway, her husband bought the plot and gave it to the family to be used for his wife and other family members.

Now here is the interesting part! The plot measures 14 feet by 15 feet by 20 feet and was purchased for $60.00 on March 5, 1929. The plot was sized for 6 spaces. That's not too shabby, $10.00 per space. A quick Internet search at gravesolutions.com yielded the following results. For a comparable size plot in Waco Memorial Park for $1095.00. Let's see, that would make the 6 spaces about $182.50. I guess that's cheap though. At Forest Park East in Houston, TX I found a plot going for $12,000.00. That would be $2000.00 per space. I suppose it's cheaper to die in Waco. At least it's cheaper to live in Waco after you die.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.


Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.

Easily Amazed As Well As Amused

I always like summertime. It seems that it is the time that I can catch up on things that take a lot of time to do. I decided that today would be an excellent day to wade through bookmarks and various on-line accounts. One thing led to another and ultimately I accomplished nothing. I started out at Ancestry.com and discovered that my niece, Kari, in Houston had been doing a lot of research on the family tree. I seem to remember that she had mentioned that she had been working on it; I just didn't realize how much research she has done.

Based on her research I found that she had followed my mother's side of the family all the way back to 1105 Burgh By Sand, Cumberland, England and 1115 Guisness, Picardy, France. I learned that there were also members of the family from Ireland. It is awesome to actually see the names of your ancestors from over 900 years ago.

From this, somehow, my search shifted to TV Dinners. Yes, TV Dinners. In my search I came across a really interesting web-site and blog. The website is linked at the bottom of the page in my "Easily Amused" section.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.


Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.