Mona Lisa
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Book of the Day
Posted Wednesday, July 31, 2002 by johndilbeck
I'd like to recommend Jonathon Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. I've read that book several times over the years, and each time, I think again that it's the most beautiful book I've ever read. I like all of Mr. Bach's other books (other than the few I haven't read, yet) and recommend them as well, especially Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah. You can change the world, just by changing your perception of the world.
JohnDilbeck.com Art Store
Posted Tuesday, July 30, 2002 by johndilbeck
I've started building an Art Store where I'll feature art that appeals to me, and possibly to you.
The only criteria that I'm going to have is that it has to be something I like and which I would buy if money were no object and I had the space to hang it.
If I don't like it, I won't show it.
Book of the Day
Posted Tuesday, July 30, 2002 by johndilbeck
When I was a teenager, I spent many days studying hunting, fishing, camping and related outdoor activities. I was lucky enough to have several old men to teach me some of what they knew.
In The Old Man and The Boy, Rober Ruark tells the story of a boy learning from his grandfather.
There are many things I like about this book and I highly recommend it. Every boy needs an old man to teach him things his mother and teachers won't. An old man in his 60s is okay. In his 70s is better, but if he's 80 or more, that's prime.
Art of the Day
Posted Tuesday, July 30, 2002 by johndilbeck
I've always been a fan of Leonardo da Vinci, and it's difficult to choose between his masterpieces, but I believe I'll pick the Mona Lisa today.
Mona Lisa
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Book of the Day: Dragon Weather
Posted Sunday, July 28, 2002 by johndilbeck
My friend, Marsha, gave me a copy of Dragon Weather last month, and I loved it.
I haven't had time to read anything for fun, lately, but when I started thumbing through this book, it caught my attention and I dropped everything for a couple of days and one night and read it straight through.
Then, a couple of weeks later, I read it again. That's unusual for me.
I frequently read books several times, but usually I wait a year or more before re-reading them. I enjoyed Dragon Weather as much the second time as I did the first.
I recommend this book.
Art of the Day: Dragon Master
Posted Sunday, July 28, 2002 by johndilbeck
Dragon Master
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Affiliated with Art.com
Posted Sunday, July 28, 2002 by johndilbeck
For quite some time, I've been looking for a company with which I can affiliate and offer art, posters, and photographs. I've joined several programs and dropped them for one reason or another.
This week, I found Art.com.
Starting today, I'll be adding art to my site as the mood strikes me. The only criterion for adding a link is if I like it. Your tastes may vary quite a bit from mine, but that's okay.
If you'd like to display art on your site, and perhaps earn a little money in the process, check out the Art.com affiliate program.
I'm quite fond of wizards, dragons, unicorns, and similar fantasy creatures. I believe I'll start by posting a dragon and wizard poster.
New access to Amazon.com in my bookstore
Posted Sunday, July 28, 2002 by johndilbeck
Eight days ago, Amazon.com announced a new version of their web services that gives developers access to their huge database of products. When I got the notice, I jumped on it. After researching several perl scripts that would do most of what I wanted, I chose AmazonProductsFeed by MrRat to implement on JohnDilbeck.com. Working with MrRat, I suggested several improvements and bug-fixes to his script and added a few additional features that are only available, to my knowledge, at JohnDilbeck.com.
I've been working around the clock for the last week to get it working the way I want, and I'm now ready to announce it to the world. In my bookstore, you can access almost all of the products sold through Amazon.com, including used items and some items sold by third-party vendors.
What I find remarkable is that you can access all of this on JohnDilbeck.com several times faster than you can on Amazon.com, and you can add a product to your Amazon.com shopping cart or add it to your wish list here, as well. When you're ready to complete your purchase, you will check out at Amazon.com, using their secure servers for your protection.
If you, like me, have ever been frustrated by searching on Amazon.com, you may find that my solution is just what you're looking for.
I invite you to visit my bookstore and browse and search at your leisure.
Mom is making progress
Posted Sunday, July 28, 2002 by johndilbeck
Last week, about two months after Mom was released from Thoms Rehab, she was discharged by Good Shepherd home health care and she's no longer officially homebound.
As a result, instead of imposing on our kind friends to come and sit with her for a couple of hours while I make a mad dash to town to run errands, she goes to town with me and we can take our time and get a little closer to normal. She still walks unsteadily on her walker and can't walk very far without getting very tired, but she's making progress.
This means that I'm no longer officially homebound with her, and I can start doing a few things I haven't been able to do for several months. One of those things is going to my smithy and smiting metal. Tomorrow morning, Mom's going to walk to the car and ride up to my smithy and wait a couple of hours while I get a start on creating the first steel rose I've been able to make since last October.
I'll slowly catch up on the orders that are waiting. I want to thank my very patient customers. When I told them what was happening, not a single one of them has been impatient or has cancelled an order. I appreciate that.
It's going to be quite a while before Mom will be able to walk unassisted and resume her normal daily activities, but she's a lot closer to it than she was a couple of months ago.
A couple of days ago, Mom went to the hospital for a CAT scan, and on Thursday, we'll visit her oncologist to get the results. We have our fingers crossed that it will show that the tumor is completely gone.
New Photo Gallery Added
Posted Saturday, July 13, 2002 by johndilbeck
In order to be able to upload more photos, I've installed a dynamic photo gallery.
I've been managing a family genealogy site on another server for a couple of years and I've decided to remove some of the photos from that site and upload some of them to this one.
Additionally, I'll be uploading new photos as I have time. I'll be able to do it more efficiently than I've been doing when I had to build new web pages every time I wanted to load a photo.
You're invited to browse my new John Dilbeck's Photo Gallery.
Is spam killing your email service?
Posted Tuesday, July 9, 2002 by johndilbeck
In TidBITS #637, Geoff Duncan discusses the problems spam is causing for legitimate emailers. Not only is spam becoming increasingly intrusive, but efforts to eliminate spam are causing email that should be delivered to be bounced or trashed, often without the intended recipient being aware of what is happening. I know this to be true for some ISPs because subscribers to some of my mailing lists hosted by Yahoo are regularly filtered and the subscribers blame me when they don't get their email.
Geoff Duncan has written a great article where he gives some good examples of why some of their issues have been bounced for reasons that make no sense.
It's a good read if you're interested in this problem that's just getting worse every year.
Also in that issue, they announce that eBay is making an offer to purchase PayPal for approximately $1.5 billion and have plans to phase out eBay Payments.
What's been happening?
Posted Saturday, July 6, 2002 by johndilbeck
As I've previously posted (see the Old Archives for 2002 -- above -- for more information if you're interested), this has been a difficult year.
Mom was diagnosed with colon cancer on her 81st birthday last November, and starting around the first of this year, underwent three months of chemo and radiation therapy.
Then, with the good news that the cancer had not spread, she went to Asheville for surgery to remove the remains of the tumor. We expected to be there six days, but it was six weeks and two days before Mom could come home.
There was a complication related to the surgery that caused her intense pain in her left leg and she was not able to walk. It's been nearly three months since her surgery, and a little over a month since she came home from the hospital, and she's making progress learning to walk, again, and building her strength. We're hoping that she'll be much more independent in a couple more months.
Since the surgery, Mom has needed a lot of care, and I've been spending most of my time and energy providing what I can. This has kept me out of my smithy and unable to leave the house unless someone volunteers to sit with her while I run errands for an hour or two, every week or so.
Folks who have purchased steel roses have been more than patient, and I'm looking forward to returning to my smithy later this month and making a very limited number of roses. Hopefully, I'll be able to do more each month as the year progresses and Mom needs less help.
I'd like to once again express my gratitude to all the folks who have helped us as Mom continues to improve, and let those of you who have been following this story know that real progress is being made now. Just a month ago, it was a real ordeal for Mom to walk to the kitchen and back, and now she's able to do it several times each day and is regularly eating her meals there, rather than having to have them brought to her.
So, thanks for your interest, support, help, encouragement, prayers, and kind thoughts. She's working hard and getting better. She even started talking a couple of days ago about wanting to start trying to catch up on her email -- something she hasn't done since March. If you've written to her, you'll probably hear from her in the next month or so.
New method for posting news updates
Posted Saturday, July 6, 2002 by johndilbeck
For over a year, I've been using a method I mostly liked for posting news items to my website.
However, after setting up the news section on GeorgiaDragRacing.com, and finding it incredibly easy to use, I've decided to switch to a similar method for updating John Dilbeck's Ramblings here on JohnDilbeck.com.
The old entries are viewable by clicking on the appropriate links in the Old Archives section at the top of this column.
New entries will be kept in a separate set of archives and links will be added soon, again at the top of this column.
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