Media’s Love For Government

Sep 01, 2010 Posted Under: bias, government, media, opinion

Have you ever noticed how there are all these shows on TV about the FBI and CIA as well as NCIS and CSI?  I want you to do something for me and watch one or all them with an ear open for the way they use the word Fed, Federal, Agent or Detective.  You will notice a gleam in their eye when they say the word FEDERAL.  I am not making this up.  Just watch the way they refer to judges.   They always have to threaten someone or warn them of the consequences of messing with a FEDERAL agent or a FEDERAL judge.  You can see the pure love and worship these guys have for not just government but FEDERAL government.  I find myself embarrassed for them.  I am serious!

We have a digital video recorder (DVR) and I usually rewind it when I catch them doing it so the rest of the people at my house can see what I am talking about.  I know I know… You are thinking that I am off my rocker on another right wing rant.  Seriously though… don’t take my word for it. Watch these shows and pay attention.  It is almost funny the love the movie industry has for the FEDERAL government.  It is like these guys are going to have to change their underwear every time someone says the word FEDERAL.  It sort of reminds me of when you are a kid and being bullied all the time and someone big comes to your rescue.  You almost get chills with the feeling of power while that big person is there with you.  This is how these people are when someone refers to something FEDERAL.  They walk around with chills at the power they feel that their big friend the FEDERAL government is their to protect them.

It is really difficult for me to watch these types of programs because the obvious irrational love they have for the government clouds their reality.  Since I as a conservative look at government as a necessary evil at best, I really cannot stand being around those that worship the government.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not opposed to government but rather think its role in any society should be limited.  I think governments as a whole work best when they protect freedoms and then get out of the way and let the people run the show.  Clearly the entertainment industry thinks the government is the best source of everything including controlling our lives.  Although it is just a difference of opinion, I worry that these people misunderstand the human aspect.  Humans are inherently selfish and have self fulfilling desires.  Just as in private industry where there are corrupt businesses, there are corrupt people in all walks of life. 

It seems that where the difference in opinion comes from is that those that support government seem to forget that the government is just as subject to corruption as any corporation except they have a greater power over individual freedoms.  That is why I fear government’s growth.  When I see actors in television programs become giddy at the word FEDERAL, it is an obvious clue to me that the person supports government over the private sector.  I tend to shy away from those type of people.  Now that I have given you my opinions on the subject, ignore what I say except to remember to watch what I mean about their reaction to the word FEDERAL.  At least humor me and do that.  You can disagree with my opinion and I am okay with that but do watch and pay attention and you will see the obvious love the entertainment industry has for the government.

Read More

Happy Birthday Dad (2010)

Aug 30, 2010 Posted Under: Birthday, Events, family

IMG_6334

In the last three or four years our family has been getting together to celebrate my dad’s birthday.  He is the one in the middle in the black, orange and yellow shirt.  This year there were 15 people that met up at the Golden Corral in Midwest City, Oklahoma.  We had a good time an ate too much as you may imagine.  This is becoming an annual tradition and gives us an rare opportunity to get the family together.  This year we were fortunate enough to have my sister and  brother in-law with us as they are currently living at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

It seems like as time goes by, families including our own seem to drift apart because everyone is so busy.  I think it is great when everyone can get together and laugh.  Our crowd was so loud at times that I was surprised that we were not shown the door.  Actually the Golden Corral was very nice and even sang happy birthday as you can see in the photo below.

IMG_6310

I think this part was a little embarrassing to him but ultimately I think he enjoyed it.  There were more people singing than what you can see here.  All in all it was very enjoyable being able to be together and laugh and have fun.  Seems like it is rare that we can get together without someone being sick or a funeral.  My dad was very happy and that is what really matters.  He is a great dad and I would not trade him for anyone.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Read More

Location based services

Aug 29, 2010 Posted Under: Internet, opinion, privacy, social networking

There seems to be a lot of buzz on the Internet about the concern for privacy with the new location based services on social networking services.  I think a lot of this is a little blown out of proportion.  Several months ago a service called Foursquare came on the scene where you could download applications to your phone and check in at various restaurants and venues.  You can post online where you are and give a review or any other comment about the place you are visiting.  Prior to that there was a lower profile Google Latitude.  Now that Facebook has added Places, people are bent out of shape about privacy concerns.  My answer to this is to use common sense practices and this will not be a concern.

Some of the worries that I hear posted online are that you are subjecting yourself to getting robbed or attacked because you are telling the world where  you are.  I think these are real concerns but they do not have to be concerns at all.  If you practice good common sense then you will not have to worry about these.  For example, don’t announce to the world your home address.  Try not to post from your home telling people “I am at home” so that potential “bad guys” will not know where home is in the first place.  Secondly if you post that you are out at a restaurant, it does not mean that your house is free to be broken into.  Just because I am at a restaurant does not mean that every person at the house is with me.  It does not mean that I do not have huge guard dogs.  I guess what I am trying to say is that it is not necessarily dangerous to post that I am at a restaurant unless I also post that no one is home and I have no pets.

If someone really wanted to break into your house, they could find you.  I can go to the County Assessor’s web site and look anyone up by name and find out their home address.  This fact does not change whether I am using an online location base service.  Also just because I announce that I am out does not mean that my house is ready to be robbed.  Any potential burglar will still have to assume the same risks as if I had not posted my location.  I mean, what happens if a burglar goes to a house and sees no cars and tries to break in?  He or she could possibly get mauled by some large dogs or even worse run into a family member holding a gun in their face.

Also I do not believe announcing online where you are makes you anymore likely to be a victim while you are out.  Again, if someone really wanted to attack them, they could look them up on the County Assessor’s web site and stalk them to find them out in public.  Also one could assume that when someone goes out to a restaurant that they are with someone else.  I am not saying there are not reasons to be cautious but rather not worry about this privacy issue like it is that bad.  I say if it really bothers you then do not use them.  Just as the privacy crowd on Facebook.  If you do not post private things, then it cannot be released to the public.  I think that if a person just uses common sense safety practices, many of these privacy concerns could be alleviated. I just think that life is too short than to sit around worrying about being a victim. 

Am I wrong?  If you disagree, I would like to  know.

Read More

More Social Media Learning

Aug 28, 2010 Posted Under: blogging, opinion, social networking

A good lesson can be learned about keeping your social media posts separate.  I mean it it not necessarily a good idea to import all your Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, etc. together.  I cannot say much about how other people operate online but with me it seems like despite my not being into Facebook, most everyone else is.  I am not opposed to Facebook or anything but just seem to irritate someone on there every time I post.  When you have most of your family and friends that you care about, it is not always a good idea to mix information.  I have found that most people in the world are not like me.  Most do not sign up for everything on the Internet.  Most of them are not aware of the hundreds of programs out there and how they work.  I have made a habit out of importing all of the social networking sites together.  Some of them update other services that in turn update others.  What ends up happening is that you have a barrage of duplicate messages coming into people’s inbox.

They see multiple messages of the same post and do not see that it was a single post that was posted again and again by third party programs.  The end result is that people get upset that you are sending them too many messages to them.  I guess the reason I have done it this way is that it is easier to update one service and let it update the others.  It is just too much work to have ten systems on your phone and keep them all up to date.  It seems that most of these social networking sites are nothing more than just noise.  Occasionally you will hear some tidbit of information that is relevant and meaningful for someone to hear.  Since I use the Internet for many reasons including communicating my frustrations, many do not want to hear it and that is okay.  Since Facebook is where most of the family and close friends reside, I usually protect that environment and do not speak about controversial subjects on there.  My last posting was not just a rant but the beginning of a new revelation about this online medium.

Although I still love finding these new toys, I like know that every time a new one comes out we have to re-educate everyone on how to use them as well as try to convince them to start using them.  This requires a huge effort especially when I am not always sold on them myself.  Sometimes it is just not worth the effort.  It is similar to the boy crying wolf scenario.  When you are constantly introducing your family and friends to new toys and gadgets, they often do not see the appeal when a truly amazing toy comes out.  Although this toy my be far superior to previous fascinations people do not see the need to try something new.  For example…  The past week Google came out with an amazing new feature in their Gmail that allows ANYONE in the United States and Canada to call regular phones and cell phones for free.  There are no restrictions at all.  Although this is very cool, I have already given my friends and family so many things that it does not seem worth trying out.  People are missing out on a truly amazing service simply because of burnout.  the moral of this story is that if you are an Internet ‘junkie’ like myself, you may have to reserve your findings for those that also have the same enthusiasm.  Others simply do not  care. 

There are times that I forget about this and find myself getting excited about a new finding on the Internet and decide to show it to everyone I know.  I am quickly reminded by others when they politely do not respond or just ask me not to send it to them.  I completely understand their feelings and do not get upset about it.  This is a lesson that other enthusiasts can learn and pick their audience when it comes to sending out invitations.

Read More

The blog is ‘Where it’s at’

Aug 22, 2010 Posted Under: blogging, opinion, social networking

Where a person focuses their energy with respect to their online presence has been a point of contention with all of the social networking sites.  Let’s be honest.  I am the world’s worst about signing up for virtually everything on the Internet.  I am always trying out the newest toy and looking for the best way to share with other people.  Today I read a story called Buzz Kill by Leo Laporte. This article was about how he was using Google Buzz to update his Twitter.  At one point he noticed that his Buzz posts were not showing up on Twitter.  In fact none of his posts had shown up since August 6, 2010.  He was stunned that no one had noticed it.  He spoke of how he had wasted his time on several social networking sites when he should have been posting on his blog all along.  He seemed disappointed that no one had noticed that his social posts were not even noticed when he was offline.  He went on to say that if his podcasts had been off line for a week or so, surely people would have noticed. 

Leo was right.  People would have been screaming if his podcasts had been offline because that is what he is famous for.  People go to TWiT’s web site to see him.  If they need to see what is going on with him outside of his podcast, they naturally go to his blog on leoville.com and I can honestly say that is what I do when I want to see what he is doing.  I am pretty much of the same mindset as Leo when it comes to this topic.  I often follow the statistics to the traffic to this web site.  The statistics show a fact that I already knew but rarely acknowledge.  People go where there is traffic.  I found out this revelation on our ham radio repeaters a while back.  We use to have our repeaters on all the time and will be again soon once the heat snap breaks.  Our repeaters were on 70 foot towers while many other repeaters were on 1,000+ foot towers.  At the time, our repeaters were getting traffic all the time while some of the big ones were sitting quiet.  Why was this happening?  The answer to this is simple.  We were using our own repeaters.  It is only human nature that ham radio operators will often put their radios on scan and then stop on a frequency that has activity.  I know I have done it many times. 

People will stop and listen even if they do not talk.  Many people have told me this over the years and I usually dismissed this information as someone just telling me what I wanted to hear.  The fact is that it is true.  Our repeaters are no better than any of the others and yet ours was pretty busy.  Our secret is that we would get on the air and talk to each other day after day around the same time.  I had no statistical way of following who was listening in other than people telling me via email that they “listen all the time but never talk”.  I can’t tell you how many times I have heard those very words.    This ham radio analogy is very relevant to the social networking versus a personal blog.  When I am active on Facebook, people respond.  If I go long periods of time without posting on this blog, the traffic statistics show.   Even when no one is posting a response to this blog, the traffic shows a rise in activity immediately following a post.  In Leo’s case, his podcast and blog is where people know he is and so that is where people are looking for him.  Yes, he is on Twitter, Friendfeed, and Google Buzz also but that is not where I go to find him.  There are people that I do go on the social sites to find and that is because that is where they spend most of their time.

Using this way of thinking one could say that blogs, social networking sites, or forums are no better than the other.  People will go where the activity is.  If  you spend your time and post REGULARLY on a blog or on a social networking site, that is where the people will go.  I love both of them but I have to say that as much as I like social networking sites, I really love having my own blog.  This is because you can write what you want and as long as you want.  You have administrative privileges and can monitor the usage where you cannot do it so easily on other sites.  On your own site, you can look at the statistics and see what people respond to and those they do not.  You can see where you hit a nerve and when people just do not care.  For example, I was a bit surprised to see the traffic spike after I wrote a post that affected no one but my family.  On July 30, 2010 I posted about selling our house called “Good Bye Friend”.  This post strangely had an increase in traffic that had more than 1,000 hits in three days.  For the life of me, I do not know why.  The story was not some new revelation to the world, nor was it some Earth shaking news.  The point is that not one person posted a comment and so I would not have even known that a single person looked at it.  I would venture to guess that it was likely the title that got people’s attention and then they moved on once they saw what it was about.

I still use social networking sites and think they are better than blogs for some people.  In my case, the blog is the way to go.  In either case, the secret is to actively post if you want traffic.  It does not matter what you post as long as you post.

Read More

Progressive = Counter Culture

Aug 20, 2010 Posted Under: bias, opinion, politics

Have any of you noticed a recent trend in the political world?  The liberals have begun using the term progressive to describe themselves.  Dictionary.com defines the term progressive as…

Progressive: favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are,esp. in political matters: a progressive mayor.

This definition paints a beautiful picture in the minds of those that read it.  It sounds very positive but when used in a political forum it gives a false image of good intent because “progress, change, improvement, or reform” is defined differently by people depending on their  personal upbringing. To a person that was brought up in United States in the early 1800’s, it may be seen as “advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform” to own slaves.  I think most would agree that is not progress in any positive way. I was at work in my office yesterday where the vast majority of the employees have at least a Bachelor’s degree.  I quietly listened to a conversation between a guy who in my opinion erroneously calls himself a political moderate, and a guy who identifies himself as a Conservative.  They were talking about the seven forbidden words that can be said on television.  I am not sure if either of them actually uttered any of the seven words but I heard the “Moderate” guy say that the seven words are down to five now and that “it was a very progressive move”.  The “Conservative” guy responded with “…progressive?  Don’t you mean degradation?”   This comment was followed up with “How can you say that?”  My point to bringing up this conversation is to illustrate my observation that most people that I see referring to something as being “progressive” tend to be of the counter culture mentality. 

I could have used the term liberal but I think it is deeper than that.  By the correct definition, a liberal is a person that advocates using public funds for social programs.  The reason I say the correct definition is because political correctness is at work in trying to redefine terms.  If you look at a dictionary today and look at one from ten years ago, you will see clear differences in the definition of this term.  The current definition is completely political and redefine as…

a political or social philosophy advocating the freedom of the individual, parliamentary systems of government, nonviolent modification of political, social, or economic institutions to assure unrestricted development in all spheres of human endeavor, and governmental guarantees of individual rights and civil liberties. 

WOW!  Is that an amazing indictment of revisionism?  This definition came from Dictionary.com and is another example of redefining terms to rewrite history.  The term liberal has some positive uses but when it is used in a political way, it is very clear in meaning the advocating of using public funds for social programs… PERIOD.  In that “politically correct” definition they are actually admitting the “modification of political, social, or economical institutions” including in my own words “redefining terms”.  People, you need to wake up and open your old dictionaries and compare them to the new ones.  You will see the redefining of terms right before your eyes..

These so called progressives are very militant against the traditions that our country was founded upon.  They oppose Christianity with a passion.  They oppose the Constitution of the United States referring to it as a “living document”.  If they get their way, the Constitution will be discarded and not worth the material it is written on.  Our country has become so galvanized in their Republican versus Democrat mentality that all common sense is lost.  To use the current definition in a positive sense is to say that eliminating God, eliminating traditions, and anything associated with Christianity is seen as progress.  If you look at the world this way then you could legitimately use the term “progressive” to describe the modern day counter culture movement.  I think counter culture is a better description than to use politically charged words like liberal or conservative.  Those are political words like “Pro-Life” and “Pro-Choice”.  They are completely opposite in meaning, yet they are worded in a way that sounds positive.  To an anti abortion person, the term “Pro-Choice” means “Pro-Murder”. so their meanings are very different.  Be careful not to fall into these political terms used by both Democrats AND Republicans.

Republicans use the term “Conservative” and even I have used it to describe myself.  Only recently have I come to the revelation that I have fallen for the same political games as described in the “Pro-Choice” example above.  The “Conservative” definition use to be one that was opposed to public funding for social programs.   This definition is exactly the opposite of the real definition of “Liberal”.  We are witnessing a rewriting reality right in front of our eyes.  I have been guilty in the passed for demonizing the media and the education (indoctrination) system.  The end result is that people of traditional American values have been avoiding these careers virtually leaving them for the counter culture crowd.  Now they have complete control over these career fields.  We are going to have to change our thinking and actually encourage our children to pursue these fields and change them from the inside.  People of traditional values are going to have to do it from the inside instead of sitting on the outside cursing the counter culture crowd.  It is time to wake up and do the right thing.

Read More

Politics of Homosexuality

Aug 09, 2010 Posted Under: bias, politics

The changing culture is not necessarily a natural change where society changes on its own but rather is being actively molded by some militant homosexual groups.  Over the last ten to twenty years we have seen a new word appear and, redefined, and abused.  That word is “homophobic”.  It is derived from the word homophobia.  As one my age my guess, the word is a combination of two words “homosexual” and “phobia”.  The term phobia has been understood through the ages as an irrational fear of something.  It has nothing to do with likes or dislikes but instead is strictly in  reference to a fear.

The homosexual community have been very successful with their accomplices in the media and educational system by indoctrinating the public. Practically every television program you watch has at least one homosexual and is usually depicted as the most likable character on the program.  In the real world the homosexual population is maybe 10% at best yet nearly 100% of television programs have homosexual characters.  I am a firm believer this is a calculated decision.  For example.  There is a so called reality show called “Big Brother” that airs annually on CBS.  To my knowledge, every year there has been a homosexual on the show.  There are usually around 12 to 14 characters on the show and this has been a greater representation than would be in the public.

The term “homophobic” has been politicized and the definition has been changed over time.  This subtle change has gone unnoticed by most because politics has trumped common sense.  If you look up various phobias in the dictionary you will see they describe a fear of something except when you look up the word “homophobia”.  In this case the term refers to a “fear” just like the other ones but add a “dislike” of homosexuals.  In other words a person that fears heights is an acrophobic person.  A person that dislikes heights is not an acrophobic person.  A person that has a fear of water is a hydrophobic person. A person that dislikes water is not a hydrophobic person.  It is only when a person has a “fear” OR “dislike” of homosexuals that one becomes homophobic.  Do you see the subtle change?  This can be proven by simply looking these terms up in newer dictionaries or online.  Older dictionaries will have the correct definition where it only refers to “fear”.

I have taken the liberty to look a few terms up in three different online dictionaries.  These are the Meriam-Webster, Dictionary.com, and Thefreedictionary.com.  I looked up the same terms in all three dictionaries so you can see the trend I am talking about.  I would suggest you find some older dictionaries in your home to verify that older dictionaries have the correct definitions.  The terms that I searched for were phobia, homophobia, claustrophobia, arachnophobia, acrophobia, and hydrophobia.  I chose these terms because most of them are widely used in public life. Below I will list the word, followed by the definition of the term from that source, followed by the link to where I found it.

Merriam-Webster

pho·bia

: an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phobia

ho·mo·pho·bia

: irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homophobia

claus·tro·pho·bia

: abnormal dread of being in closed or narrow spaces

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/claustrophobia

arach·no·pho·bia

: pathological fear or loathing of spider

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/arachnophobia

ac·ro·pho·bia

: abnormal dread of being in a high place : fear of heights

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/acrophobia

hy·dro·pho·bia

a morbid dread of water. rabies

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hydrophobia

Dictionary.com

pho·bia

a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, orsituation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/phobia

ho·mo·pho·bia

unreasoning fear of or antipathy toward homosexuals andhomosexuality.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/homophobia

claus·tro·pho·bia

an abnormal fear of being in enclosed or narrow places.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/claustrophobia

arach·no·pho·bia

an abnormal fear of spiders

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/arachnophobia

ac·ro·pho·bia

abnormal fear or dread of being at a great height

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/acrophobia

hy·dro·pho·bia

an abnormal or unnatural dread of water. rabies

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hydrophobia

Thefreedictionary.com

pho·bia

A persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid it, despite the awareness and reassurance that it is not dangerous.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/phobia

ho·mo·pho·bia

Fear of or contempt for lesbians and gay men.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/homophobia

claus·tro·pho·bia

an abnormal fear of enclosed spaces. Also called cleistophobia

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/claustrophobia

arach·no·pho·bia

An abnormal fear of spiders

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/arachnophobia

ac·ro·pho·bia

abnormal fear or dread of being at a great heigh

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/acrophobia

hy·dro·pho·bia

An abnormal fear of water. rabies

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hydroph

Read More

Update August 7, 2010

Aug 07, 2010 Posted Under: Air Force, Personal, radio

I just wanted to take this time to give an update on what we have been up to over the last week or so.  We have finally settled into our new apartment and put everything away. I still find myself turning down streets toward the other house and have to catch myself.  It is hard to get out of the habit.  We have updated our address with our mail, utilities and our ham radio licenses.  The Del City Amateur Radio Club license would not update over the Internet so we had to print an FCC Form 605 and mail it in.  That one has not updated yet.  On the W5DEL, we changed it to my dad’s address since he is the Trustee.

On another front, our new apartment is just about two miles straight off the North end of Tinker AFB runway.  The image below shows a Google Earth depiction of where we are in relation to the runway.  As you can see, the airplanes fly over the apartment about 500 feet above the ground and are very very loud.  I am not complaining because I actually think it is pretty cool.  I am sure it would bother some people but I enjoy watching them fly over.

Flight Path

As you can see in the picture below, there is a B1-B flying directly over our apartment.  You may notice that it is flying with no paint.  This is because it is going through depot maintenance at Tinker AFB and is doing a functional check flight (FCF).  If I had any brains, this would worry me since this plane is flying directly over my home after being torn down to a point that you can see through it.  Forgive the quality of the picture because it was taken with my 3.2 megapixel Blackberry phone.

 B-1B Flying over apartment

When we were looking for an apartment, we were looking cheap so that we could save even more money toward our house.  We settled on an apartment complex on the North Side of Joe B. Barnes Regional Park on Reno Avenue in Midwest City.  There are two apartment complexes over there but we are in the one on the West end toward the post office.

We are next door to the post office, Fire Department, Police Department and a half mile from Midwest Regional Medical Center.  We do hear sirens driving by but surprisingly still less than we did at the old house.  In that house I would hear sirens at all hours of the night.  In all honesty, I have become a stalker of my old house.  Every time I am in that neighborhood to visit my dad, I find myself driving by to see if the buyers have moved in.  Strangely enough, it seems like they turned on both porch lights and went away.  After a week, no one has ever seen anyone over there.

As much as I love posting on this blog, I have been out of the habit for so long that I had to force myself to post anything.  It just seems like the few minutes of freedom and time to myself I just want to relax.  I will post more on here as well.  Between posts, you can see my short Twitter messages sent from my phone on the right side of the blog. I also post to Facebook from my phone as well. Another of my hobbies is photography that I have practically abandoned over the last year.  Seems like the only pictures I have taken were of the house during repairs.  I cannot wait to get back into taking pictures again.  It is so relaxing for me.  Also once we get moved into our new house, I will set up my ham radio shack again.  No huge towers like before but I will have small, low profile antennas.  Many people thought that I gave up on ham radio and that is not true.   In fact, as I type this, I am listening to my trunking police scanner next to the computer.  Keep checking in and I will eventually get back to normal.  This blog is something that I really enjoy so I will not be giving it up. In fact, I just renewed it for three more years a couple weeks ago.  I also renewed the Del City Amateur Radio Club’s website for three more years.  You can be in fear or comfort depending on your perspective, knowing that I am not going anywhere Winking smile

Read More

Good Bye Friend

Jul 30, 2010 Posted Under: Events, Personal

Last Day

The last few months I have been posting about selling the house.  Today, July 30, 2010 we closed on the sale of our house.  This photo was taken at 9:00 AM this morning, just two hours before turning the keys over to the new owner.  This was our first real home and a bit sad to move but also allows for a greater opportunity of a better home.  This was the house that we moved into when we came back from the Air Force in 1999.  We now live in an apartment in Midwest City for the next year while our house is being built.  For those of you that know us personally, our phone numbers are the same and this web site will remain.  Our kids spent most of their childhood years in this house.  We have been so busy trying to get the house in sellable order.  Also we have been just as busy at work preparing for some very important meetings.  With all this going on, I have not had a lot of time to post on this blog. 

I can say that my wife and I have been over our heads in work with a new project every day.  If anyone has ever needed a vacation, it is us.  If you are considering selling a house, be prepared for a lot of work and patience.  Looking back, it went relatively smooth though a lot of stress.  Now that the sale is complete, we can finally catch our breath. 

I will continue to post on this page in the future despite my lack of activity in the last few months.  Now we have a lot of things to put away.  What a mess!  I hope to be back into a normal pattern again soon.  Thanks for continuing to check the page even though I have not been online much.

Read More

Last Pass

Jul 11, 2010 Posted Under: Internet, computer, security
There is a pretty cool new tool out there to keep all of your Internet passwords.  I don’t know about you but I get tired of trying to keep track of every password that I have especially since many of them have different requirements.  Well I have been hearing a lot on the Internet about a company called LastPass where they store all of your online passwords on your PC and they encrypt them.  By encrypting them, no one can hack into your computer to gain access to this information.  This way you only need to remember the LastPass password and it will do all of the rest.  It also allows you to have pre-filled out forms that will auto fill online requests for information.  This way you do not have to fill out your email, address, phone number and all that personal information every time you sign up for something.  It does allow you to pick and choose which sites it stores information for.

LastPass also lets you synchronize your browsers so you can have access to your information anywhere and at anytime.  LastPass also allows you to encrypt your information in other files on your computer.  This way, even if someone did gain access to the sensitive information, they could not read it without your LastPass password.  The amazing thing is that it is free to download to your computer.  They even have versions for PC, Mac, and cell phones.  They allow you to put secure notes in your vault so that you will always have a place to store private information without revealing it to others.  Even if someone stole your computer, they could not get your information.  You can store bank account or Social Security information without worrying about others being able to gain access to it.  I have been reading about what a great product this is from many sites around the Internet.
Another cool feature is that since the information is stored on your computer, then it cannot be subpoenaed from a court.  The reason is that LastPass does not have the information to release.  It is your information and is encrypted so you do not have to worry about others gaining access to your things.  Try it out.

Posted via email from Paul L. McCord Jr.

Read More