Musings, Commentaries, Photos and Reviews

The leaves are out but there are a number of trees that will never recover from the ice storm of December 2008. I’m eyeing 2 severely damaged popular trees that I’m sure that will die. I’m trying to determine if I drop them I can avoid having them crash through the kitchen window. I’m assuming that if I look at the top at a 45 degree angle I can guess the height. I haven’t been too successful lately with my logging. I managed to drop a tree on my 30 year old chain saw. The good news is that I didn’t drop the tree on my body. The bad news is that I am now in the market for a chain saw. The town has arranged a brush pile pickup that is behind schedule and underfunded. A short drive around town shows the extent of the downed limbs. My pile is sparse and unkempt. Of course there is always someone that excels at everything, they have the best Christmas light display, the nicest lawn, the neatest wood stack and of course the neatest (and biggest) brush pile.

Like so many others I am disgusted by the excesses of greed in the investment sector. However, this morning I saw a segment on the local New Hampshire business news that made me smile. It was a segment about a website that facilitates small loans to entrepreneurs throughout the world.  The idea is simple, make small loans to people so they can improve their business and their lives. These are loans and there are risks involved with repayment but the concept appeals to me, helping people better their lives through their own efforts.  I urge everyone to take a look at the site and at least read up a bit on the idea of microfinance You can find a link right here at Kiva.org

Warning! I’m going to be a little geeky here, so you may be excused if you are not interested. I found myself overwhelmed by the number of “tweets” that appear from folks (and news sources) that I am “following”. The Twitter window is filled with “tweets” rolling in, many are just URL’s to articles from their syndication. I was looking for a way to filter the tweets from family and friends which frankly is of more interest to me than the daily barrage of bad economic news and impending nuclear doom in Pakistan. I was pretty happy with a free product called TweetDeck which allows one to create filters and groups based on search criteria, but it does not seem to archive the old “tweets”. I’ve settled on a free product called "OutTwit" which integrates Twitter and Microsoft Outlook (Microsoft’s full mail program). I was able to create an advanced search criteria for family tweeters based on their user names: The advanced search command is from: followed by the use

As an avid user of social networking sites, I thought I would share this video:

As some of you know, Google places sponsored advertisement links based upon the text of search strings and email text. I usually give it a glance to see if the links are relevant or unintentionally funny. I got an email from someone who is following me on twitter. Apparently Google thinks I’m in great physical pain for the ad links are for: Comprehensive eye care Painless Bunion Surgery (I hope so!) Avoid Hip Replacement Now! (hope forever!) Kugel Hernia Mesh Lawsuit (I will look this up) Adhesions Causing Pain? (They are now) Rotator Cuff Surgery (I really want to avoid this)