Saturday, September 03, 2011

Progress Report





# 1 Helper...



#1 Boss...

More wonderful news for Helen

I have finally heard back from our Powell cousin in Canada and I have a Name and address in British Columbia  to send a DNA test kit.  Betty suggested I write him a letter, as he does not have a computer, and when I get a letter in return I will have FTDNA send him a test kit.  He is out of Peter Powell Sr. of Caswell Co. NC.  I hope we match because if we do, it will prove we are both from our original Charles Powell.  If we do not match, it pretty much just proves we are not of the same family line and not much else.  Here is his line back to Peter Powell.  We think Peter is likely a grandson of John Powell of Caswell through his son Charles.


Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Tony

is on his way to south Arkansas to have a baby, or so Patsy said.

Monday, August 29, 2011

A book for some

But certainly not all will be interested.

The book is free to read online, or download as a zip file and is also available for purchase on ereaders.

Here is the link

http://www.arachnoid.com/lutusp/sailbook.html

It is about this man's sailing around the world solo 1988-1991. It is not exciting, but I found it very interesting and read the entire book. Reading an entire book without skipping at least small parts is a very rare occurrence for me. Read a little of it online and if you like it, you can download the offline version if you want, or read the entire book online.

The author, Paul Lutus, is the computer programer that wrote the program that Betty and I use to write our webpages. It is free and simple but powerful. It is not very popular because it is not drag and drop. It is more what I can down and dirty. You have to hand code all the html in this program.

From the first time I found this man's website I knew he was different, a little weird, a little out of step with much of the world. He gives his program away free in exchange for the users to quit whining about their poor lot in life. I try hard not to whine except to George, so I mostly fulfill my part of our bargain. I think Betty Jean may need to send her program back.

What I did not know about this man until I found his online book and started reading about him is that he worked at NASA for years and that he wrote the first word processing program for the first Apple computer and made lots of money from it.

I think Patsy will like this man's writing. Here is an excerpt from his website:

Intelligent people can see there are no easy answers to the world's problems, but they know making more people is certainly not on a humane list of answers. Only the genuinely stupid (or the trapped) can take part in an activity that so clearly adds to the world's suffering. The result is that there are more and more dull people over time.

Individuals may think of children in any way they care to, but we need to remember how politicians view children — as exploitable, expendable weapons. Why else would people be encouraged to have more children precisely when there is less food, less opportunity than before? I believe this is a case where people would vote by way of personal choice, not ballots, if only they could.

None of this reasonable banter can circumvent the intelligence paradox described above (intelligent people choose to have fewer children out of compassion for the plight of mankind, thereby decreasing the amount of compassion in the future), but this paradox cannot and should not be used to rationalize a decision to bear children regardless of any other consideration and without reflection, as I have seen countless women do during my life.



Sunday, August 28, 2011