Miscellaneous – Page 16 – Random Connections

Yard Portal

June 18, 2012 Tom No Comments

Miscellaneous

I was out in our backyard cutting grass when I spotted this enormous hole in the bank leading down to the lowest level of our yard. The hole is about 40 feet from our lake, but about four feet above lake level in the bank. Its about 10 inches across, and depth is hard to … Read More “Yard Portal” »

Blog Migration Complete

May 21, 2012 Tom 3 Comments

Miscellaneous

It’s done. I now have more control over my online destiny. Today I migrated my domain name, randomconnections.com, to a host that gives me more flexibility and management – Godaddy, of all things.

First, the saga of the blog…

My old web hosting company was Accuwebhosting. It was an absolute pain in the posterior, as for as hosting was concerned. I was severely restricted as to what I could do with databases, and I could only allow uploads to one subdirectory. The first version of this blog was a home-grown ASP application. The blog kept crashing, and the host provider said it was my recursive ASP scripts. Yeah, right.

So, I switched over to WordPress. It was actually cleaner and much easier to use, but my blog still crashed and my hosts still complained. They wanted me to delete some of my content to make the site run more efficiently. Yeah, right.

WordPress kept upgrading their products. When version 2.5 came along I wanted to upgrade so that I could take advantage of some of the security features. My host informed me that I would have to upgrade my platform, which would mean deleting my current database and reconstructing everything from scratch. Yeah, right.

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RandomConnections Down Time

May 20, 2012 Tom No Comments

Miscellaneous

Just a quick note to let everyone know that this website may be offline for up to 48 hours starting tomorrow. I’m transferring my domain name from one registrar to another so that I have greater control over the domain. It takes about 48 hours for DNS servers to catch up once I make the … Read More “RandomConnections Down Time” »

Remembering Dave

April 24, 2012 Tom No Comments

Miscellaneous

Monday morning we learned of the passing of David Pass, fellow singer and long-time manager of the Greenville Chorale. Dave sat next to me in rehearsal for many years, and usually stood next to me in concerts. In addition to being an excellent singer, he had a quick wit, and was always ready with a … Read More “Remembering Dave” »

Jungle J’s

April 4, 2012 Tom No Comments

Local, Miscellaneous

Usually during my spring break I like to spend one day just cruising around town and seeing what there is to be seen. This morning I decided to drop by one of the long-time merchants with a very specific inventory. Jungle J’s on Rutherford Road carries only two types of items – hats and knives … Read More “Jungle J’s” »

The Hounds of the Basker-Ikes

March 21, 2012 Tom No Comments

Family, Miscellaneous

My brother Houston decided that he would like to do some journaling. However, he seems to be in a weird meta-state, somewhere trapped between not wanting to sully his new, pristine, leather-bound journal, and not wanting to start a blog. He decided to test the waters with a story typed up on his word processor. … Read More “The Hounds of the Basker-Ikes” »

Happy Pi Day

March 14, 2012 Tom 8 Comments

Miscellaneous

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510 5820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067982148086513282 3066470938446095505822317253594081284811174502841027019385211055 5964462294895493038196442881097566593344612847564823378678316527 1201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273724587 0066063155881748815209209628292540917153643678925903600113305305 4882046652138414695194151160943305727036575959195309218611738193 2611793105118548074462379962749567351885752724891227938183011949 1298336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798609437027705 3921717629317675238467481846766940513200056812714526356082778577 1342757789609173637178721468440901224953430146549585371050792279 6892589235420199561121290219608640344181598136297747713099605187 0721134999999837297804995105973173281609631859502445945534690830 2642522308253344685035261931188171010003137838752886587533208381 4206171776691473035982534904287554687311595628638823537875937519 577818577805321712268066130019278766111959092164201989 Pay no attention to those Ides, 3.14 is the true March holiday for geeks. Pi has been around for nearly 4000 years. The ancient Babylonians and Egyptians knew about it, and Greek mathematicians refined the concept. Supposedly the concept … Read More “Happy Pi Day” »

I’ve Seen Fire and I’ve Seen Rain

March 3, 2012February 20, 2020 Tom No Comments

Local, Miscellaneous

It’s been a rough night. It started in the afternoon with storms sweeping across the Midwest and into the Southeast. Laura came home to find her mom in her raincoat with purse in hand, heading down to our basement. She heard “tornado warning” on the radio, and not knowing the location of counties, etc., thought it must be for our area.

Friday is usually our “date night”, and we had planned to go out that evening as well. Once we had reassured Laura’s mom that no bad storms were headed our way, we were able to go ahead with our plans. We had a very nice leisurely meal at The Lazy Goat, then headed on home just in case any storms were on their way.

When we got to our street we noticed a deputy sheriff’s car up near John Knox church. As we turned onto our street, this was the scene that greeted us…

Remembering Priscilla

March 2, 2012 Tom No Comments

Miscellaneous

Last week I learned of the death of one of my former choir members. Priscilla Johnson was one of the first people I met when I came to McCarter Presbyterian Church back in 1990, and she was on my interview committee. Priscilla was also a dedicated choir member, singing alto in our small group during my tenure at the church.

My time as choir director at McCarter had its ups and downs, but Priscilla was the one steadfast rock I could count on in the congregation. She told it like it was, and fortunately (for me) we saw eye-to-eye on most issues. I last saw her several months ago in a local restaurant, and was delighted to have one last good conversation with her.

Yesterday afternoon a memorial service for Priscilla was held at McCarter, and I made a point of attending. It was great seeing old friends, and seeing how the church had been remodeled and expanded since my days there. Even with the changes, much remained the same.

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Take Five

February 8, 2012 Tom No Comments

Miscellaneous

For many years now Laura and I have had a saving strategy. Any loose coins get dumped into a large jar. Slowly, but surely the amount grows, and when we run out of space we deposit them. The saving part was easy – we never really missed the money itself, and we don’t need coins … Read More “Take Five” »