Chazd's (Charles Dowdell's) News Burps

BBC NEWS | Magazine | Future travel: How will we get around? The warmer weather is appreciated. It was 37 degrees this morning, but with the birds returning and the earlier sunrise, it seems better. Fawna is dragging herself around the paddock. We may have to put her down soon. I am competing in the toastmasters international speech competition today. I hope I win. I am getting better at teaching myself to relax under these circumstances. This weekend is the area 11 contest. I will be building the pig pen in the barn and I have located a couple of piglets for $35 each. The plan is we will keep one and sell one in the fall. I need to get feed, a generator, and a freezer. The warmer weather is greatly appreciated this spring. It was a long winter.

About birch sap and pollen allergy It is a nice warm morning. I suspect it is in the 50s! I can see fawn struggling to get around down in the llama pen. She is working at it. I am about to go back and collect birch sap. I will probably get some firewood as well. Also on the list today is working on my competition speech. I have been at work manning the printer for the big job we have going. We got a 19 hour shift out of the machine yesterday. Today we will have at least 8 hours. Farm school was pretty good yesterday. I need to take a day off and make some phone calls and otherwise decompress. I find it strange that I take my job as seriously as I do. No one else does. So why should I? My accounting class is over. That class really put a drag on me. I learned a lot, but it felt like I had a tire around my neck. I have decided not to enroll in a class this summer. I just have too much other stuff on the plate, including: new roof on house, barn work, drainage work, llama trek work,

NASA Seeks New Frontier in Jet Engines I am off to work for a couple of hours this morning. It is a big job printing our new -------------. After that Bonnie and I are going to farm school at Cornell. We have some mini-seminars this afternoon. Fawna spent the night outside last night. The low was 48 degrees. I figured it is probably good for her.

Injuries Associated with Hazards Involving Motor Vehicle Batteries The other night we were wakened very quickly at about 4:00 am. There was an explosion in the house. It turned out that a car battery I had under charge in the radio room decided it had enough charging and it blew up. It was quite loud. It tossed another gel cell on top of it flying and split the case in half. Batteries do explode.

Slashdot | Opera Promises Voice-Operated Web Browser I am back from Florida. I got bumped on the way back so I got a free round trip ticket. I am not sure how I am going to use it yet. We will have to see. Fawn is still not all better. We are optimistic that the warmer weather that is supposed to start today will help a lot.

Well I am down in Florida. This is day two of the meeting. I decided to skip the golf/fishing excursions scheduled for tommorow. We are short handed. I will help rip the booths down and do what needs to be done. I have a very active imagination. I have a tendancy to get carried away with thoughts about things I am doing right and wrong. Bonnie tells me to relax. Telling me to relax does little to help me relax, though. I seem to have a habit of thinking the worst out of situations sometimes. I think that perhaps I have always been that way. I think I may be well enough adjusted nowadays, that I notice these feelings more. I will fly home Sunday Morning.

weather.com - Daily Traveler--Travel Wise Fcst Well, I am off to Tampa Florida for the next few days. We are having a very large business meeting in Florida that we have every other year. I will be back in Berkshire on Sunday.

360 Degree Feedback: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Defines and Examines Multirater Feedback I received the results from my 360 degree feedback session yesterday. I have worked through it now several times. This was the first time I had ever gone through one of these. It is tough stuff when it is done correctly. It is is really tough stuff if not executed correctly. I was warned by one of my mentors on the grizzily nature of these studies. You cannot hide, you cannot "forget" and move on. People remember. And when thy have an axe to grind they will let you have it. Overall, the comments were positive. Except for one thing...... It was clear that one of the folks (of course I know who) in the peer/other category was using a first person voice of someone in my department. It appears the person did not realize there were to be categories of respondents visable in my report. It appears that they thought they could appear as if they were in my department and staf

Cheating Mouse I should be asleep.

Wired News: Having a Bad Day? It's Hilarious Douglas and I got the tractor stuck this morning before work. He got it out. The pic shows someone else's tractor stuck problem

Internet marketing for consultants I didn't walk out back this AM as I planned to see if the sap was running. I am planning on doing it tommorow. It is exciting times at work for sure.

Dictionary Information: Definition Awakefulness - Description Meaning Thesaurus I was awakened with some negative thoughts. I am nervous.

AIIM International - The Enterprise Content Management Association Bonnie and I went to NYC for the day today. It makes for a long day but it can be done. The show was bigger than I expected and I spent quite a bit of time there, so we didn't do anything else while we were in the city.

Tapping Into Spring I had a groundhog snap this picture when I was out back tapping birch trees. I enjoyed a particular trait of the holder tractor today. When you are in very tight quarters in between trees, the articulated steering helps you get out of spots you get into. With standard steering you can never track exactly the same in as you can when you are backing out in reverse. Interesting.

Cooks.com - Recipe - BIRCH BEER One of things on my list today is to get a black birch tree tapped to make birch beer. Enough snow has melted. I can get out back in the tractor.

CareerJournal | How to Reduce Stress at Work I am up thinking of work again. I must get better at dealing with some things. It is Saturday morning. What differnce can I make today. Perhaps in myself, certainly nothing at work.

Got Mead?: Honey Wine-Making mead?and?Buying?Mead?(Honey Wine) Work was tough today, this week, this month.. Ah hell. Toils it is... Nothing but toils. If nothing else, management is challenging. The moon was in a bad phase today... crabby customers. We just bottled some mead over at Michele and Scott's house. It looks good. It is a fun hobby. I might make a birch mead after I bottle the melomel I have ready to rack now. Fawna is not much better today. We are optimistic about the warmer weather helping her out though.

Adventure Network International - Home It is summer in Antarctica. I am swamped at work.

Soil Supplies - Best Buds Garden Supply It is a new day and although I lost some sleep last night think, I hope that I taught myself something.

eBay View About Me for chazd1 Weird, I had two boxes of different versions of McAffe Virus software listed on eBay for sale. Poof!! they are gone, no explanation, no word on where they went. The other stuff is still listed. I suspect that the McAffe license forbids resale or something and ebay just pulls the ads. It certainly doesn't seem right. But that is the way it goes.

Llama Lying Down Plush Fawna is Walking!! She was outside the llama house this morning. I thought that would be great so we left her out all day. Tonight when we got home she showed us how she can get up and walk about 10 steps or so!! She is definately showing signs of improvement today. Now we have the problem of trying to control the patient and keeping her in bed when she should be in bed. Good problem.

Mars: A Water World? Evidence Mounts, But Scientists Remain Tight-Lipped It is really starting to look like there was water on mars. This article is one of the first, posted this morning, that starts to explain the findings. There will be more news soon, I am sure. Just not yet. These guys don't want to be like the cold fusion scientists.