My Family History Project

Paul , July 25, 1943
Originally uploaded by savtadotty

I've almost completed the transcribing of my brother's letters home from his tour of duty in the Navy during WW II. In one of the early letters, from boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Training Station, he refers to photos he had the camp photographer take. I realized that in my vast stash of family photos I had the one he was referring to. Here it is, in the same patriotic frame Mom got for it. He was 17 years old at the time.

Now I have only 2,867,943,671 more loose ends to tie up and I'll be finished.

Change - and Apple isn't perfect either

Why is change so odious? Here I was, humming along and suddenly, wham! my skin erupted. So, three months later, I am almost recovered and humming along again when, wham! my iPhone de-activated itself. Well, the second time my humming along was not so innocent: having successfully exported my address book from the old Windows 2000 PC and imported into the MacBook and then synched it with the iPhone, I was feeling pretty cocky. And also impressed with the amount of nothing I had to do on the Mac side. But flush with success, I proceeded to click OK on the Mac to a message informing me that there was an upgrade to my iPhone's software and did I want to install it? BIG MISTAKE. In true Mac form, I had nothing to do but sit and wait while the whole software upgrade took place before my eyes and then, suddenly, the iPhone changed into an iPod...the phone bit stopped working and announced that it needed to be re-activated. The only problem with that is, it needs be re-activated using my AT&T account, which is over yonder across the Atlantic Ocean about 5,000 miles away. Well why would I worry about not having a phone that uses AT&T when I'm in Israel using a completely different cellphone provider on a different phone device? Because 1) Now the newly-imported and synched address book on the iPhone doesn't work, and 2) When I land in the US the iPhone won't work there as a phone either because it first has to be plugged into iTunes to be activated. I think. If anyone knows differently, please tell me. I do so not want to drag my MacBook along just to re-activate my phone.

Non-U.S. citizens can also vote

Franklin, the author of Panopticon, a very entertaining knitting blog, has a "friend" named Dolores who occasionally writes some posts herself. Dolores is a sheep with a sardonic take on life. She has just declared her candidacy for U.S. President, running on the Fibertarian Party ticket. Here is her election symbol.

Totally Immersed

My productive hours in the day seem to be dwindling, what with the skin-slathering regime I've been maintaining for the last three weeks. After the slathering, it takes about 1/2 hour before I can put on the clothes that I don't want stained with grease forever. So with the remaining precious time I have been on a nest-beautifying and comfortizing rampage. Martha Stewart would be proud! Re-upholstering old but much-beloved seating in the kitchen-dining and living rooms, framing and hanging mementos, renewing the bedding (after 40 years, don't you think I need some new pillows?), installing wi-fi, all while dodging the forceful raindrops and hailstones. My goal is to "finish" my home so I can stay snug in it forever, and when I can't go down the stairs any more (G_d forbid), everything will be delivered. This project seems to be taking a very long time, because every so often high light-bulbs burn out and I have to interrupt my decorating to call and wait for temperamental handymen (the only kind there are here) to change them. It's a tall son's job, I know, but I'm the one who moved thousands of miles away from my tall son, so I have to use proxies. Unless I want to wait for his bi-annual visit, that is.

The nice part about this endeavor is it insulates me from irritating news, although I do enjoy looking in on the American election campaigns as a kind of citizen-voyeur.