Decluttering, Week 8

I'm hoping to keep this going at least until Christmas. By then I might actually notice a difference in the clutter. This week was mostly some garbage lying around the garage etc:

1.  2 boxes/cases of old 3.5" floppies, garbage
   
2. Chrysler AM/FM Radio, garbage
   
3. Box of Coleco Adam Cassettes, garbage
   
4. Canon Canonet 35mm Camera, garbage
   
5. Internal 96/24 Fax modem, garbage
   
6. Windows 3.1 on 5.25" floppies w/manuals, garbage
   
7. DOS 6 Upgrade version, garbage
   
8. Box of misc. software, ancient, garbage
   
9. 2 old pillows, garbage
10. garbage bag of clothes, charity

There you have it. What did you get rid of this week?

Operation Christmas Child

It's that time again, to pack a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child. Below is the 2009 promotional video for this great cause. I find it both interesting and at the same time sad, that this cause is sometimes given a bad rap because they dare to keep Christ in Christmas, and otherwise promote Jesus as the "greatest gift".  A while back, the school board in Halifax and other places banned this cause from the local schools because any open exaltation of Jesus Christ could of course be considered offensive and inappropriate. Friends, the "do unto others" message of Jesus has been offending people for a long time. Nevertheless, it is a message that to me, is more relevant with each passing day. This bunch may not be perfect, but they are doing something instead of nothing. If you view the second video (from a few years back), you will notice that there is much more reference to, and mention of "The Christ". Compare the two, and you'll see what I mean. In any case, I hope that they receive so many shoeboxes that they have to charter an extra container ship...He knows my name...

You never forget your first...

...computer that is...While gathering up some junk to throw out I came across this invoice taped inside the manual for my old Coleco Adam. These beasts sported a whopping 80k of memory (64ram + 16 for video memory). I remember doing several university papers and pounding them out on its earsplitting printer. See below for a demo. Sadly, Coleco orphaned the thing in favor of its more successful cabbage patch doll. The Adam retailed for over $1,000, but good old Canadian Tire ended up liquidating them for $300 (what I paid). Oh the memories...

Which 24x SuperZoom Camera for me ?

OK I want a new camera (notice I didn't say need). My Kodak DX6490 is almost 6 years old. No complaints but it's only 4 mega pixels. I think I've narrowed it down to these three, the Nikon P90, the Pentax X70, or the Kodak Z980. I think the Kodak is already discontinued...

Decluttering, Week 7

Not much spare time this week either, but I managed to shed some "stuff". I think I'm going to try out the HRM Freecycle site and see if I can get rid of some "non-garbage" items. I was hoping for a list of 20 things this week to atone for last weeks failure but I'll go for that next week, since our garbage day is only every second week in these parts.

1. 2 old car batteries, recycle
2. Darkroom Chemicals, disposal
3. Old 1lb propane tanks, disposal
4. Stack of old magazines, curb recycle
5. Old (ancient) hard-drive enclosure, recycle
6. laptop bag(s), garbage
7. Old EXP PCMCIA CD-ROM drive, garbage
8. Old VCR Remote, garbage
9. Iomega Hard-drive enclosure, garbage
10. Old tri-fold wallet, garbage
    

Decluttering, Week 6 Setback

Here it is late Sunday night, and I have no decluttering data to report. I could easily list 10 excuses I guess, but I have no valid reasons. It's been a busy week and weekend, and I just didn't make the time. Also, as the weeks go by, all of the "low hanging fruit" has been picked so to speak :) I will attempt to get back on track this week and have a bunch of stuff ready for garbage day/ Friday...

Google; will they ever cease to amaze ?

OK, is there no end to the Google machine ? Now they have all of the "Backpacker" magazines available to read online, as well as many others...this is great...poke around the embedded example below...

"Canadian" Food ??

Received this as a giant 6 meg video that "killed" my inbox, (thanks Bruce, but I digress). Anyhow, it got me thinking about the future, and wondering what my children's lives will be like in 50 years. I know "sustainable" is the all the rage buzzword these days, with "sustainable development" being one of my favorite oxymorons  :)

Is it true that propped up and subsidized cheap transportation costs make it reasonable to import fish from China and apples from New Zealand, while we raze Ontario's farmland in favor of more townhouses? Deforestation is serious stuff. Sadly, the fatalist in me has concluded the nobody cares. We'd all rather debate and wax eloquently about politicians piano playing prowess, argue about the appropriateness of political Logos on giant fake cheques, or...again I digress...just watch the movie  :)

Hellmann’s - It’s Time for Real from CRUSH on Vimeo.

She's b-a-a-a-a-a-c-k...

Debbie and the team are back from Uganda. Mission complete !! If you are someone who bought one brick, said one prayer, wished them well, or in any other way expressed kindness toward this effort; THANK-YOU !!

Here's a "tiny" sample of what took place...

 

Don't fall for Batter Blaster

Admittedly, I'm a sucker for this sort of thing. While at Costco during the summer, we bought some Batter Blaster, thinking it might be convenient for an upcoming 2-week camping trip. I guess I forgot about it, but the boys tell me that Debbie tried it and they were not impressed. I found it in the back of the fridge over the weekend, and unlike a fine wine, it does not get better with age. This stuff is actually pretty horrible. I tried my best to make it palatable by adding some blueberries and even some extra sugar. Alas, sometimes judgment must be honest and swift, if not harsh. It's one thing to be too lazy to make pancakes from scratch (eggs, flour, milk, sugar etc) and go for the "total" mix. This next level, however, is a genuine mistake. See the video on their site for a real laugh.

Decluttering, Week 5

No time this week...too busy trying to be the "Mommy" replacement, an impossible undertaking. Nevertheless:

1. Another old answering machine, garbage
2. Bag of photography magazines, curb recycle
3. Bag of books, curb recycle
4. Old Electric Shaver/Razor, garbage
5. Box of VHS movies, "give away" pile
6. Small color TV, recycle
7. Various unexposed 35mm & 120 film, garbage
8. Unused photographic (darkroom) paper, garbage
9. Mountain of old bills etc, shredder
10. Haynes Datsun 210 Shop Manual, curb recycle

I'll try harder next week :)

Uganda Watoto Classroom

...heard from Debbie today. The classroom is pretty much completed. Some people think it's not worth trying to make a difference, but I'm reminded of the old saying: "I cannot do all the good the world needs, but the world needs all the good that I can do". God bless Debbie and the team. Give them a good rest and a safe trip home...Amen !!

 

Google Maps Street View !!

All I can say is "WOW" !!!  What once would have been an almost impossible registration or geo-referencing undertaking is now met with a quick news "mention" and everyone moves on. Here's our shack as seen in Google's Street View:

 

 

 

As far as I can tell, these images were acquired sometime early this past spring. Does this give anyone besides me the creeps?

The Week the Woman Went :)

Ok, so Debbie's been gone for four days now. We miss her (but our aim is improving, har-har). The 15 Hungry-Man dinners are holding their own. Joel has consumed 4, James 1, Me 0. (Joel sees them as a bedtime snack). Three of us were at a conference all day yesterday, so we ate lunch at Wendy's. Actually, Debbie has the place and the freezer well-stocked. Today, we had a favorite but simple brunch: hash-browns with egg and turkey sausage (low fat for the information of you lipid conscious freaks). The suggested recipe calls for some chili peppers or the like, to add a little color and pizazz, but we didn't have any...this is about a 12" skillet, lots for three hungry boys :)

Decluttering, Week 4

Time is flying and we're up to week 4 already. Here are some items to get rid of this time around:

1. Old Dell Docking Station, gave to a friend
2. Old GE Answering Machine, recycle/garbage
3. box of 35mm film cassettes, can't believe I still have these  :)
4. Old Pentium mmx Desktop, recycle pile
5. 3 more bags of old computer magazines, curb recycle
   
6. OS/2 Certification Handbook, curb recycle
7. Canadian "Internet" Handbook, 1994 Edition, curb recycle
8. Giant DOS 5 PowerTools Book, curb recycle
9. MS Works for Windows by example Book, curb recycle
10. Mastering Wordstar 4, curb recycle
11. Lotus 1-2-3 release 2.4 Que Quickstart, curb recycle

I cheated a little by listing individual books but hey, it's still progress.

Montreal vs. Toronto

Ok, season opener tonight and I don't know what to expect. My team has cleaned house, so to speak. No more K-factor: Gone are Koivu, Kovalev, Kostopoulos, & Komisarek. No more Higgins, Brisebrois, Tanguay, Schneider, Lang, or Bouillon. As of yet, no Captain has been named but Gionta, Gill, and Markov will sport the ubiquitous "A" designation...Go Habs Go !!!  (I'm expecting Komisarek to make his Toronto presence known, early and often. Perhaps him and Laraque will put on a show)...