OK, I've created a new Blog which is pretty much gonna take over from this one. The new address is:
  http://home.earthlink.net/~elzorroviejo/blogger.html
As of yet, there isn't very much there, and I don't have commenting turned on yet, but it's coming...it's coming. I also have to edit the template and a buch of other things. It should be ready to rock and roll, though, by sometime late tonight.
 
I will post here once more to let anyone still hanging around that the new site is up and fully ready for business (which is most certainly is not at this moment. But not now; now I have to go do some actual work around here before I go play for an hour or so...Laters....
 
UPDATE! I'm turning off commenting here and moving it to the new blog. I think I'll leave this up for a month or so before I kill it and migrate entirely to the new site. The commenting will be gone by tomorrow morning. (As if anybody cares!)

Disregard that abortive effort below (ie. the second post of October 19, 2002). I left out a couple quotation marks in three of the links and managed, thereby, to totally screw up the post to the point where I can't get in to edit it. That (me being so stupid) really sucks! So, following is what I meant to post the first time.
 
TCS: Tech Central Station - Where Free Markets Meet Technology
 
I stumbled across this site courtesy of another New Joisey Blogger. It is an interesting mix of tech and conservative politics. I feel a little funny recommending it to anyone who happens to stumble across this, but recommend it I do--with the caveat that one has to approach this site with a certain degree of...of...caution, I think, is the word I'm looking for. Don't take their every word as gospel and understand that their agenda might not be the same as yours (or mine, as the case might be.)
 
For example, there is a good article by Brock Yates (my God! I remember Brock Yates writing for Car and Driver back in the 60s when I was in my twenties) about hydrogen fuel cells and their highly suspect future as an automotive fuel source. I don't want to read this kind of stuff except that his facts and his science (to the best of my ability to verify them) are sound. Then there is another article about wind generators and their limitations as an alternative source of electricity. Another of my pet technologies given a severe, and seemingly warranted, downgrade. However, there is, I think, a silver lining in all this: namely that both could eventually contribute significantly so long as sufficient resources are devoted to furthering their technology.
 
There are other articles which I think are plain wrong, and deserve opposition. The thing is that whether I agree or disagree with an article, they all make me think about the science involved, the economics involved and the politics involved. These are not strident polemics from the fringe right. They are pieces by, as far as I can tell, intelligent people who are trying to rationally, and with supporting evidence, advance their agenda. This is not a bad thing, and I recommend TCS to all and sundry.

TCS: Tech Central Station - Where Free Markets Meet Technology
 
I stumbled across this site courtesy of another hydrogen fuel cells and their highly suspect future as an automotive fuel source. I don't want to read this kind of stuff except that his facts and his science (to the best of my ability to verify them) are sound. Then there is another article about No comments:

OK, I've been a baaaad boy in that I haven't posted anything in two weeks! This is supposed to be a daily exercise rather than a "whenever I feel like it" event. Mea Culpa and I'll really, really try to do better in the future. In fact, to try to make partial ammends and to catch up on things I've been doing/thinking, I will try to post a bunch this weekend. (However, I do have to split my writing time between my Blog and my Diaryland site where I'm supposedly posting chapters from the novel I'm working on --and have been working on, on an intermittant basis, for the past 15 years: that works out to about a chapter a year, more or less. I will be happy to supply my diaryland address to anyone who is interested [he said in a blatant attempt to see if anyone is reading this site.])
 
Last weekend, my wife and I went up to the Adirondacks to close the family cabin for the winter. We did not get up there at all this summer, which was a mistake. I get such a feeling of renewal being there that I have to make going up a priority rather than a luxury. The cabin is on the west shore of a medium sized lake, and it is totally surrounded by state parkland. This means that there is no road access to the place. Consequently, there are no modern utilities: no electric, no gas, no plumbing. Cooking is done on a woodstove; heating is by said stove and a big fieldstone fireplace; water comes from a spring which is about 1/2 mile distant by land (a little less by boat); sanitation is rudimentary--an outhouse; finally, light is from a couple Coleman lanterns and some kerosene lamps. When you are in residence here, life truly gets back to basics.
 
We have issues with this place. The biggest issue is that, in 1956, the town hall where the deed was registered burned down. When the town "reconstructed" its records, it screwed up our deed--giving us about 1/10th the land we were supposed to have. My grandfather died soon after this, and neither my uncles nor my father ever noticed the discrepancy until sometime in the early '70s. By then, if we had made waves about it, the state would have probably taken our camp (paying "condemnation" prices-hah!) rather than losing a couple acres of "state park". Now the situation is probably pretty much beyond redemption. The back taxes alone would be enough to put an end to any thought of reclaiming our land unless one of us was lucky enough to hit the lottery: 46 years of back taxes and interest would probably hit 6 figures. *sigh*
 
Other than that little problem, we are going to have to replace the kitchen in the very near future. The kitchen is actually a shed attached to the main cabin. The problems are that the roof leaks, badly, and one of the main floor joists is about 3/4 rotted through. I want to sneak in a little expansion of the room (which is now about 10x10) when we make those repairs. An added 5-6 feet in depth and another 2 feet in width would give us more room to move around and more storage room as well. I'm working on my cousins to bring 'em around. I think we could get away with it with the town without incurring any official notice, but the rest of the family aren't all that confident. We'll see what happens in the next year.
 
I also have a set of plans which I call "the hit the lottery" scenario. It would involve turning the main cabin, which is now 18x28, into one with measurements of 24x40. Obviously, that would require construction permits and official approvals, which would, in turn, require large expenditures in both legal prep and in doing things like making "voluntary" donations to various public institutions (towns, state park commissions, etc.) I don't look for this to happen any time in the near future, but I can dream...
 
OK, enough for now. I have to go work on the great sideboard restoration project for a couple hours. This piece of Victorian furniture has to be in place in our dining room by Thanksgiving. More on this as it progresses.