tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7292867150145720492024-03-05T02:04:21.333-05:00Emory CottageOccasional musings about my life at Emory Cottage, some of which may actually be related to Emory Cottage.
I will try to avoid political rants and religious wars, but I make no promises.Bob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-729286715014572049.post-8750084462622837222014-12-22T08:53:00.000-05:002014-12-22T08:56:32.871-05:00A Christmas Story
Many an' many a Christmas ago, things were not going well at the North Pole.
Santa Claus had a miserable cold. The elves had walked out.
Rudolph's nose wouldn't light up. The sleigh had broken runner. Even
Mrs. Claus was being {ahem} difficult. Into the middle of all that walked the
Littlest Angel, dragging an enormous Christmas tree.
He tugged on Santa's sleeve and said, "Thanta Bob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-729286715014572049.post-34716639658761029502013-08-17T10:52:00.001-04:002017-12-27T11:58:21.614-05:00Instant Chicken KebabsI really like grilled chicken kebabs, where chicken breasts have been cut into chunks, marinated in Italian dressing, then grilled. The grilling takes only eight minutes, but the preparation is long and messy, so I didn't do this very often. Another problem is that a modern chicken breast is larger than one serving. It was that problem that brought me to this "instant" solution.Bob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-729286715014572049.post-62570124347018688172013-07-14T15:50:00.006-04:002020-09-24T14:19:28.804-04:00Books Every College Student Should Have
My people have no tradition of proofreading. —Ken White
In just a few weeks, thousands of high school graduates will be off to college. There are five books every college student should have, and you won't find them on any college book list. If your child, your niece or nephew, your godchild, or the child of a friend is headed for college this fall, you can do the kid a great Bob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-729286715014572049.post-40329023939326622692013-06-26T13:48:00.000-04:002013-06-30T04:37:21.898-04:00The RashA little while ago I came across an insipid little poem, The Dash, by Linda Ellis. The title refers to the dash between the birth and death dates of someone who is, um, dead, and the theme is that what happens between birth and death is what's important. Well, duh! A little poking around turned up the fact that Ellis is, in my opinion, a nasty piece of work who has apparently Bob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-729286715014572049.post-43625161048236394312013-04-20T11:29:00.000-04:002017-12-27T12:02:36.958-05:00Be Careful Buying on eBayFirst, you already know that saying "be careful buying on eBay" is like saying. "be careful jumping out of airplanes." Of course you should be careful buying on eBay. This week I learned about Yet Another thing to be careful of, and it's one that eBay could stop, and would stop if they wanted to protect buyers. At least as of now, they haven't. I'm surprised because, Bob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-729286715014572049.post-77069151972456133842013-04-13T11:48:00.001-04:002013-04-14T13:50:11.998-04:00Don't Lend Money to the IRS; Cut Refund Fraud Risk
If
you're getting a tax refund, you have given Uncle Sam an interest-free
loan. Use the IRS withholding calculator to adjust your withholding so
that you expect a refund of less than $100. The calculator is here: http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/IRS-Withholding-Calculator
Now open a savings account at your bank and set up an automatic
transfer for the day after every payday in an amount Bob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-729286715014572049.post-65898102546279833432012-05-05T17:10:00.000-04:002012-05-06T16:19:18.862-04:00Web HostingFifteen years ago I worked for an employer that allowed me to have a server in their data center and use one of their IP addresses for my personal web pages. I got uninterruptible power, air conditioning, and my own IP address. I had uptime of nearly 100%.
I retired to become a college teacher, which is altogether more personally satisfying, but I lost my "free" data center. Paid-for Bob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-729286715014572049.post-72637255983328182552012-01-16T17:06:00.003-05:002012-01-16T17:06:51.532-05:00Congress is Messing with the InternetI (at least mostly) try to keep politics out of what I write because I want to be read by people who disagree with me as well as people who agree with me. However, Congress is about to launch into some truly non-partisan stupidity. The Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the PROTECT IP Act in the Senate give Big Content the ability to shut down Web sites through administrative Bob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-729286715014572049.post-31294937584682820382011-06-02T20:53:00.003-04:002011-06-02T21:47:38.357-04:00Lights Out for Lightning BugsMemorial Day is behind us, summer is ahead of us, and, if we're lucky, lightning bugs (or fireflies) are all around us on the long summer evenings in Atlanta. Of course, they aren't really flies, they're winged beetles of the order Coleoptera. And for many of us, they're the highlight of a summer's evening.
Thirty years ago the trees and fields of suburban Atlanta were full of fireflies in the Bob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-729286715014572049.post-8628843132036238132011-05-28T02:21:00.001-04:002011-05-28T02:31:16.105-04:00Shiny ThingsA couple of years ago I wrote about warm things. I also like shiny things, and over the years I've acquired a few items of sliver plate. I also have a pair of sterling candlesticks, although the silver is foil-thin over a plaster base. Unhappily, keeping shiny things shiny takes a fair amount of work. Lacking a butler to polish the family silver, I'm afraid I haven't done Bob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-729286715014572049.post-1279452037962529112010-11-21T20:58:00.004-05:002010-11-21T21:40:49.951-05:00The TSA Must Go (An Open Letter to My Representative and Senators)
Enough is enough, and the recent intrusive searches by the Transportation Security Administration have exceeded the limit.
Past security measures have clearly been ineffective. The TSA has caught not one shoe bomber after x-raying billions of shoes. The TSA has caught not one liquid bomber after confiscating tons of shampoo and toothpaste. They do find a few guns and knives; asBob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-729286715014572049.post-1017491613200157502010-10-25T14:34:00.002-04:002010-10-25T14:36:47.682-04:00Competing with ChinaI do a little work with the Girl Scouts, and we give the girls event patches when they come to the University campus for activities. There's a group coming in two weeks for a "CSI" activity, and I discovered last week that I'm low on CSI event patches.
We buy the patches from a company in Pennsylvania, but they're manufactured in China, presumably on a numerical-control cutting and Bob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-729286715014572049.post-12478604082174585972010-04-02T09:48:00.002-04:002015-10-31T11:47:05.336-04:00Junk Phone Calls and the Battle to be Let AloneI'll probably be the last person in Atlanta to have a land-line phone. I've had the same number since it was DRake 3 instead of 373. That's more than 40 years.
Over those forty years, I've fought a battle of wits and technology to keep my phone free for my friends and neighbors, and to keep it free of junk phone calls of all sorts. The Federal do-not-call list has helped, Bob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-729286715014572049.post-39889400456991970642010-02-27T18:50:00.009-05:002010-02-27T21:19:06.660-05:00An Open Letter to the Georgia General AssemblyIf you've read my blog before, you know that the subjects dear to my heart are education and food. Today I am writing an open letter to the members of Georgia's General Assembly on the more important of those two subjects. Dear Senators and Representatives:
We are at a critical moment in the future of higher education in Georgia.
I’m sure you know that Governor Perdue has recommended in Bob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-729286715014572049.post-49167512906877789012010-02-20T16:12:00.004-05:002010-02-25T16:20:39.163-05:00Some Thoughts on YeastYup, yeast. The stuff one buys in little foil packets and uses to bake bread. At least, I used to buy yeast in little foil packets until I figured out how much it was costing me.
Three of those packets (they're sold together in threes) cost $1.99 at the super market. Each packet holds 1/4 ounce, so one is paying $2.65 an ounce, and that's before taxes!
Alternatively, one can Bob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-729286715014572049.post-75939902357981298482010-02-18T21:32:00.003-05:002011-05-15T21:35:18.033-04:00Kids! (Reprise)Kids! They are just impossible to control,
Kids! With their awful clothes and their rock and roll!
Oh, wait! That was me!
I am extremely lucky to have been invited to judge the junior division of the Fulton County Schools' Science and Engineering Fair earlier today. The junior division is middle school students, seventh and eighth graders. I saw middle-school kids in suits and {gasp!} Bob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-729286715014572049.post-38914371997697820292010-01-26T22:35:00.010-05:002010-02-28T21:06:52.851-05:00Pasta with Broccoli Fleurettes and Cheese SauceI got home from school late and hungry. (That happens when one teaches evening classes.) Although I "cook leftovers" on Sunday expressly to deal with this contingency, none of the usual suspects appealed. The freezer had various types of frozen meat, frozen French bread, and less than a serving of frozen broccoli. Not inspiring... at least until I thought of pasta.
Idea: Bob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-729286715014572049.post-62976022865518694722009-12-26T09:41:00.008-05:002015-07-19T19:54:25.726-04:00The Feast of StephenSt. Stephen was the first Christian martyr; the Western church celebrates St. Stephen's Day on December 26, the second day of Christmas. That's "the feast of Stephen" that one hears about in Good King Wenceslas. (Never mind that he was really a duke and his name was Václav!)
Today is St. Stephen's Day, and after the frenetic rush to Christmas, it seems to be time to slow down a bit. Bob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-729286715014572049.post-61529024829359326732009-11-15T11:43:00.005-05:002011-02-01T22:07:34.410-05:00What's The Matter With Kids Today ?Last week I was invited to a "Career Day" at a big high school in Marietta, Georgia, possibly because I can do a double-feature: I can tell what it's like to be an information technology manager and also what it's like to be a college teacher.
I went with a little trepidation. Remember the song Kids from Bye Bye Birdie? "Kids! They are just impossible to control! Kids! With their Bob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-729286715014572049.post-47470042944597409172009-11-04T18:44:00.001-05:002009-11-05T19:54:42.191-05:00In Praise of Things WarmWhen I built Emory Cottage, I built in a few small luxuries. I've lived here for about six months now, and the weather is beginning to turn chilly. Now that it's late in the fall, I have realized that my small luxuries all have to do with keeping warm.
The first, and perhaps the greatest of the luxuries is the hot water system. I bought a good gas-fired water heater, but the Bob Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10329126915794755200noreply@blogger.com0