Facebook Games

Okay, I just had to write a little something about this subject.

Like many, I enjoy playing a few games on Facebook. Just to chill and focus on something else.
I've noticed quite a few games have been created to bring out the addictive nature in people.
I admit, it's addicting to play some of those games.

In the past the popularity of games like Farmville and Farmtown were soaring and I was an avid "farmer" myself.  But I lost interest and it was too time consuming to keep up with my big farms.

Now there's the "hot" games from King like Candy Crush Saga and the new one Farm Heroes Saga.
Really people, you can give lives as much as you can but if you are at the max of 5 lives they are not adding to your total so the whole life giving is totally useless.

Okay, but here's the scoop. King has programmed those games the further up you get in levels the levels become nearly impossible to complete.
Yeah, they offer you all sorts of power ups which you need to buy with REAL DOLLARS!!!
Only to advance a level in a virtual game???
It's just a game, don't waste your money.
The only time you pay real dollars for a game if you have a chance to win REAL DOLLARS.
FB games don't let you win real dollars.
I have dropped, abandoned, and blocked other games because they became nearly impossible to advance in without spending cash.  I'm getting close in Candy Crush and Farm Heroes too.

I like advancing in games, not standing still for weeks at a time.

In reality people, King makes enough money on in-game advertising so don't fall for the "buy power-ups" trap. It can make you poor and the King execs richer.

To all you FB gamers out there: Happy gaming.
To all the people who buy power-ups: Quit! While you still can.

November 1, 2012

It's the first day of November.
Yesterday was Halloween which never brings us any kids to our door as we live in the country and our driveway is a quarter mile long.
I just enjoyed the pictures posted on Facebook by my friends of their kids dressed up for Halloween.

A few days ago hurricane Sandy hit the north eastern shore with a high category 1.
The devastation it left on the shore is enormous. In the US almost 60 people dead in addition to the amount of people dead in the Caribbean.
Many flooding and in New York City the subway tunnels are filled up with water.
A lot of damage and it's going to take a while before everyone is recovered.
Wall Street was closed for two days in a row, something that hasn't happened since the late 1800's.

The storm went over our area but I think we were shielded from the worst winds by the mountain range right in front of us.  Thank God for that.
We did get a lot of rain and it rained two and half days straight.
Our road was closed for a while from Monday night until Tuesday mid-day due to it being flooded.
Many roads in our area were flooded and closed.

Tuesday night I went to feed the kitties at mom and dad's house and found the basement flooded with water.
Dad's improvised sump pump was pumping but what I didn't know was that he would connect a pipe and some corners to guide it out the basement window if it was necessary.
Needless to say, I found out how he did it and once I had it connected most of the water was pumped out quickly.
Other than that there was no damage there either.

Since my last post I have DJ'ed a wedding in Chambersburg, PA and a birthday party in Frederick, MD.  Both gigs were quite successful and I received very good reviews from the clients.
Next gig will be on November 10 in Hagerstown, MD.

On the tech front, Apple introduced the iPad Mini (a 7 inch iPad to compete with the Kindle) but I think its price tag is too steep to really compete as you can get a full size iPad for only $70 more.
Microsoft introduced Windows 8, the Surface RT tablet, and Windows Phone 8.
I have already installed Windows 8 on a client's Samsung tablet and it works very good.
Of course I already ran Windows 8 beta on my computer since February but now have the final version installed.

Kimmy Cougar, the neighbor's cat has made our front porch her home and Tanya has been making comfortable and warm spots on the front porch for her to sleep. Of course we cannot let her inside or we will have 6 cats going crazy.
We do not feed her as this will cause her to never leave. With the exception of Monday night with the storm and the rain that was relentless.
She always brings her trophies to the front door for us to see what she caught.
Of course it is quite disgusting when she starts to eat her trophies right in front of our door.

We had an exterminator come out to take care of the yellow jackets nest that apparently was in the wall of the sun room and caused many bees inside.
He treated the entrance of the nest with a powder and sprayed the openings inside the sun room as well as all the windows and doors outside.
Haven't seen any bees in the house since.

Okay, back to work.  Ciao folks, until next time.

October 10, 2012

October 10.  Fall has really started, leaves changing and some trees are already shedding their leaves.
A sign that winter is on its way.  Many of you know that I don't particularly care for winter but do love the sight and view of a nice snow fall, but hate cleaning it from the driveway.
I don't like cold weather but we do get it here in the winter and it's coming.

A couple of days ago we turned on the heat for the first time this season. Temps dropped to about 36 degrees at night which cools the inside off pretty quick.

I mowed the grass last week (I'm thinking the last time, but it's warming up some again so I may have to mow one more time).

Last Saturday I had to DJ a wedding in Mount Savage, MD near Frostburg.
The location and venue was absolutely gorgeous.  It was held at the Castle Bed and Breakfast which is a historic house.
Here are some pictures.

This was the Castle Bed and Breakfast in Mount Savage, MD

This was our setup in the tent for the wedding

It was a successful performance and received many compliments after it was over.

I always enjoy DJ'ing, I enjoyed it in the 80's and enjoy it again now.  It's always good to be around happy people and I love giving people a good time.

I received a wedding request for December 1st from a 26 year old woman named Ashley Anderson.

Her request ended with a URL www.cancerkickingirl.com and Internet dude as I am had to check that out.

Turns out this woman has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

For those who don't know, with stage 4 it is inoperable and there's only a survival rate of 5%.

With this stage they talk about months to live not years.

Ashley is fighting it, she's determined to "kick" it.  I invite everyone to go to her website and follow her blog.

She booked the DJ service for her wedding at the McFarland House in Martinsburg, WV.  I love that place.

I have a wedding again on Saturday in Greencastle, PA.  One of the photographers of the Public Opinion (newspaper in Chambersburg, PA) is getting married and the reception is in a tent at a private residence.  Might be a little chilly but what the heck, cool thing is I can come casual (jeans!!).  I like those gigs.

I also put in a few bids on gigmasters.com on different events around the area.
And finally I got back in contact with Matt, one of the DJ's of Pastimes Cafe (a place I hung out when I was living in Frederick).  His wife Nicole messaged me on FB and asked if I was available on the 13th for a wedding as they were in a bind.  I already had a wedding myself so I had to decline but told her to keep me in mind if that happens again.
She also asked if I would be interested in DJ'ing at Pastimes some times.  I said yes.
Matt already asked me to start last Friday night but I had maintenance that night.

It would be pretty cool to actually DJ at the place I used to hang out myself. A public gig I can actually tell people about and have them come on over.

Okay enough again today, gotta get back to work.
Ciao friends.

Inventions that have formed my life

I wanted to list the inventions that were made during my lifetime that have formed and shaped me into the person I am today.
Plus, it's kind of cool to see the list of inventions by year.
I'm only listing the inventions that had influence on MY life, not all inventions.

1964

• Acrylic Paint
• Permanent Press fabric
• BASIC (computer language)

1965

• Soft contact lenses
• NutraSweet
• Compact Disk invented

1966

• Electronic Fuel injection

1967

• The first handheld calculator

1968

• Computer mouse
• The first computer with integrated circuits
• RAM (Random Access Memory)

1969

• ATM
• Bar code scanner

1970

• Daisy-wheel printer
• Floppy Disk

1971

• Dot-matrix printer
• Food processor
• Liquid-Crystal Display (LCD)
• Micro processor
• VCR (Video cassette)

1972

• Word Processor
• Pong (First video game)

1973

• Ethernet (local computer network)
• Disposable lighter by Bic

1974

• Post-It notes

1975

• Laser printer
• Push-through tab on drink cans

1976

• Ink-Jet printer

1977

• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

1978

• VisiCalc spreadsheet

1979

• Cell phones
• Walkman

1981

• MS-DOS
• First IBM PC

1982

• First Compact Disk (CD) produced

1983

• Apple Lisa (The first Apple with the graphical user interface GUI)

1984

• CD-ROM
• Apple Macintosh

1985

• Windows program (Microsoft)

1986

• Disposable camera (Fuji)

1987

• First 3D video game
• Disposable contact lenses

1988

• Digital cell phone
• Doppler Radar
• Indiglo nightlight (the light that illuminates the face of a watch)

1989

• High Definition television

1990

• World Wide Web
• HTTP
• HTML

1991

• Digital Answering Machine

1993

• Pentium processor

1995

• Java computer language
• DVD

1996

• Web TV

1997

• Gas powered fuel cell

2001

• iPod
• Wrinkle free shirt

2002

• Wireless headset

2003

• CD shredder
• Camera phones

2004

• Intel Express chipsets

2005

• YouTube

2007

• iPhone

These are some of the important inventions during my lifetime.

A lot are not listed as they were invented based on someone else's earlier invention.

And some I just couldn't find listed anywhere as being invented in a certain year.

It's also amazing that most inventions during my lifetime have to do with technology but a lot of great inventions were made during my lifetime that are not technology related but they have not had any impact on my life (yet).

It's great we have inventors.  They make the future interesting.  Keep inventing guys!

September 25, 2012

Wow!  I haven't wrote anything on here since December 4th of last year.

A lot has happened since.  We got through the year of "firsts" since mama died.

It was tough for Tanya: 4th of July, Labor Day, Tanya's birthday, dad's birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Eve and Day, my birthday, Mama's birthday, and Memorial Day (she died a couple of days after Memorial Day).

It still doesn't get easier for Tanya, she still missed her mom every day but she's dealing with it.  She has been seeing a counselor of the Hospice and a loss of parenting group.

Of course it didn't get any easier for her when dad died, dealing with the estate, the house, the kitties. She did get a lawyer to help with the estate but still needs to do a lot herself.

I can only help her so much, a lot she has to do.

We had to have little Munchkin put to sleep as she suffered a stroke and was falling over all the time.  That combined with the enema every 6 weeks was causing a lot of discomfort and pain, the vet said.  It was tough, but she's back with mom and dad and they're loving on her.

We did find a new home for Foxy through the vet's office, so at least one of the cats found a new home.  We're glad she found a loving home with people in it.

Separation was tough on Tanya, another little loss.

We did bring mama's ashes home before Christmas. Still in the plastic container she came in from the funeral home but she's home.  Tanya just hasn't been able to come up with a perfect design for her urn.

Okay, so Christmas came and went.  Not the same but we were invited and went to friends and had a reasonably good time (as much as we could have a good time after a dreadful year).

New Year's Eve just went by.  I was supposed to have a New Year's Eve gig but that got called off at the last minute so we stayed home.

New Year's Day, Carol and Ralph came and we had dinner like we used to have with mom and dad.  That was nice, though hard for Tanya.

The Redskins had a horrible season and ended up dead last in the division (again!).

Winter has almost been non-existent.  Hardly any snow (which was fine with me), though we had some cold days and nights.

In the spring I started to get busy with gigs (especially May and June were busy with weddings).

I started planning a surprise 50th birthday party for Tanya back in March and got the Elks reserved for September 7th and started inviting people.

I created a special life video with short video message from a bunch of people, some home videos of Tanya as a child and lots of pictures of Tanya as a child thanks to mama who kept a lot of pics of Tanya in her albums. She was the apple in mama's eyes.

The pool opening took a while as I had to shock the crap out of it but got it clear and clean.

We didn't swim in it much this year either and I start wondering if I should even bother opening it up next year.

I had some gigs through the summer, even one in a barn without A/C in 100 degree weather but it was fun.

This month I got busy again with weddings (seems spring and fall are big for weddings).

September 7th we had Tanya's surprise birthday and she was totally surprised. She had such a great time.  At first she dreaded going to the Elks (we got her there because a permanent plaque was to be revealed in honor of mom behind the bar).

Once we got there, the surprise was complete and she did enjoy herself among all her friends (and some family).

The life video (with videos of her childhood (with mom in it) was very emotional for her as was the special dedication videos I made and showed for mom and dad.

All in all, a great success and good time.  I hope that broke the ice a little for her to be able to go to the Elks a little easier as well.

I closed the pool again as the nights are getting colder (41 degrees this morning) and the daytime temperature is just not high enough to warm it up anymore.

So, now we're here and it's today.  They're saying winter could be like 2009/2010 in which we saw three big snow falls (two of them back-to-back).  I hope not but we'll deal with it when it does. I'll believe it when I see it.

I still have a few gigs scheduled for this year and already have two booked for June of next year (and potential one in March).

I did do one for Tanya's work's conference in Western Maryland during a social mixer last week outside. It was chilly but we had fun.

That was also the debut of the karaoke and I'm trying to market that to local establishments to see if I could maybe land a weekly karaoke show.  That would be cool.

Okay, I wish peace to the world and love in our hearts. Until the next time. Ciao!

Henk

Letter to Mama

Dear Mama!

It's been more than 6 months since I last spoke with you.
I miss you every day. Not because I used to speak with you or see you every day but because you spoke to Tanya nearly every day on the phone. I miss you through Tanya.
I miss Tanya telling me every night "Mom says goodnight" and I miss saying back "Good night Mama!".
I still say it every night before I go to bed while I look at your picture.

A lot has happened since you physically left us.
I quit drinking, a day you would have loved to see come.
Summer has come and has past. Tanya's birthday has past without your presence this year.
Dad has joined you up there much to our shock and disbelief.
Thanksgiving has come and past and now we're facing Christmas without you and dad.

Tanya misses you more than I can tell you.
In a matter of 4 months she has lost here entire close family support.
I know she is hurting and I am hurting for her.
She holds up very good for the outside (and even for me) but I feel deep inside she is crying every day. I can tell she is not the same.
I wish I could help her more to make her pain easier for her.

We go and feed your kitties every day at the house and every time I pull up in the driveway I silently hope it was all a bad dream and you swing open the front door to great us.
But the only way to open the front door is with the keys we have only to find the house empty of your presence.
And those kitties. What do we do if we can't find a home for them. So far all attempts have failed.
Yesterday Furfull darted into the kitchen when I opened the basement door and was looking around like he was looking for the two of you, like he was thinking "Where are they?"
I'm sure they miss you so much too.

This year we are going to put up your christmas tree which you left completely decorated in your basement in honor of you and dad. Decorated just like the last Christmas we spent together.
Maybe somehow and in some way this will make us feel like you're with us this Christmas.
I know this is wishful thinking but, hey, there's nothing wrong with wishing for good things.

Mama, I know you're smiling down on us from heaven, but I wish I could see it.
I love you, mama, and miss you.

Henk

November 23, 2011

It's now the evening before Thanksgiving.
That was a holiday we would spend with dad because mama always had to work at the Elks.
We would get up early and I was in charge of cooking the turkey. Tanya would prepare the rest of the food.
Then by mid-day dad would arrive and we would eat around 1'ish.

This year the joy of preparing for Thanksgiving is gone. Taken away by a year of great loss in our lives.
At first I wanted to just stay home and spend it like any other ordinary day.
But the plans are different, we received an invitation from friends to come and spend Thanksgiving with them and their family. I was reluctant at first but Tanya seemed to have the desire to be among people to try to get her mind occupied with other things.
I feel that Tanya needs that and I will support whatever she feels she needs because her pain is far greater than mine. I'm sure we'll have some good time tomorrow as we always enjoy being with these friends.
I'll miss cooking the Turkey, something I always enjoyed doing. Just as I managed to perfect it.

Since dad died a lot has happened. We have dad's ashes with us at home in the stein he wanted his ashes to be kept in on the mantel above the fireplace.
Mama's ashes are still with the funeral home director as Tanya wants to perfect the cat pictures she wants on the urn for mama. For Tanya that has to be absolutely perfect. If we don't get the design done before Christmas we'll bring mama home in the container she came in from the crematory.

We're going to different places trying to get the house and estate matters all in order but that hasn't gone as smooth as we would have liked. We're having a meeting with a lawyer on December 5th who is specialized in these matters. Hopefully we can get some answers from him to guide us.

In the meantime we're driving to mom and dad's house every night to feed the kitties and a neighbor there feeds them in the morning.
We've been trying to find homes for them, even through a facebook page I created but have been totally unsuccessful.
We contacted several no-kill animal shelters but that has fallen onto deaf ears, no response from them. One shelter did respond but they just had to help house 86 cats in Frederick County they found in a home neglected.

All-in-all it has been a struggle between trying to find homes for the kitties, dealing with the house/estate thing, and the pain of missing mama and dad.

I miss you mama and dad. So much.