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Monthly Archives: May 2009

Been Slacking on my updates

Have not had much to post recently.  Work has been keeping me too busy at times.  When I get home, the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer.  Life is going ok otherwise.  In a bit of re-using computer parts, the burner on my computer was getting flaky and Tiffany does not use her’s much, so, I got her DVD-RW and gave her my DVD ROM.  Took about 15 minutes and now I can burn disks again.  Why buy new when you already own one?  In other computer news, a few months ago I parted with my Zaurus.  I really wasn’t using it much and I wanted someone who could really use it to have it, so I sold it off.   The proceeds paid for most of the Lenovo netbook we have now.  PDA’s are just a dead end.  My cell phone manages all my contacts (and that’s where I need them, anyway) and the netbook is much better at web surfing and general computing than the Zaurus ever was.  It was a nice toy, but, time has moved on.  When I no longer use something, I like to sell or donate it, so I don’t have to worry about maintaining it.  On the plus side, I was able to free up a few gigs of hard drive space on my computer, since I don’t need the install files anymore.

I have found that my watch collecting and family are much more fun than gadgets.  I have been in the electronics profession for 13 years now.  It has been a while since I have felt excitement when soldering a board or programming a micro controller.  Now they are just tools to me.  It pays the bills and it is a pretty interesting field that has some changes.  Nothing too thrilling in the last 10 years, but I do read the trade magazines to see what is new.  Everything is the same, just smaller, is the general theme in electronics.  That, and parts consume too much power and batteries are lagging woefully behind.  Same problems they had a decade ago.  It must be neat to be like the brother Ron and sister in law Evelyn and still be excited by electronics.  It is a new field for them.  I still learn new things, but the basics don’t change.

Glenn  is doing fine.  His language skills are really developing.  5 to 6 word sentences are pretty common and crying is down 2%.  I taught him how to climb a ladder with Daddy’s help last weekend.  He liked it.  He is no longer afraid of slides and loves them.  “I wanna go down the slide, wee!” is what he says when he sees a slide.  Wanna, already a Chicago accent.  Wanna, gonna, etc.  Tiffany is out for nice girls’ afternoon out, so I hope she is having fun.  It lets me put up a new blog post, since Glenn is napping.

 

Posted by on May 30, 2009 in Uncategorized

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More layoffs

More layoffs at work last week.  They let go of I would say about another 20% of the people.  Total for the year, 26% is my best guess.  Orders are down about that much so far, but leveling off at 25% less than lass year.  European automotive market is in the toilet, domestic manufacturing and construction, ditto.  For now, I am still hanging on.  I must say, this is about the worst I have ever seen the economy, first hand.  Stores are still somewhat busy, but, remember, many stores went out of business.  Linens n’ Things, Circuit City, Tweeter, and countless local businesses are out.

On a personal note, Glenn is being very challenging, but, he is two going on three.  He is talking more.  I think he can talk a lot better than he lets on.  He loves watching people play driving games like Burnout and Mario Kart.  I am looking forward to the weekend.  After a week o computers, technology, and electronics at work, it is nice to touch things that don’t use electricity, like the Glenn Monster,  Wifey, and a good book (on paper).

 

Posted by on May 8, 2009 in Family, General Comments

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