Author: bestep
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Catchup
It has been a while since I’ve posted anything. Some fun stuff going on, so here are some updates. I finished NaNoWriMo 2013 as a winner! What a fun challenge. Everyone should give it a try. If you have ever thought of writing a novel, start thinking about it now for the 2014 NaNoWriMo. Start roughing out an…
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Training Pays Off
Mario Frangoulis sings a wonderful cover of the Moody Blues song, “Nights in White Satin.” This guy has an amazing voice. It’s a great song, but put it in Italian and give it to an opera singer, and wow–powerful stuff! Just goes to show, if you know what you are doing, you can sing anything…
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Common MySQL Queries
I ran across this terrific resource, Common MySQL Queries. Tons of great examples…for example: Given a birthdate in @dob, here are two simple formulae for age in years: Date_format( From_Days( To_Days(Curdate()) – To_Days(@dob) ), ‘%Y’ ) + 0 Year(Curdate()) – Year(@dob) – ( Right(Curdate(),5) < Right(@dob,5) ) and here is one for age in years to…
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Dragons Past and Present
Below is a paper I wrote for a college lit class. It was a fun research project. Enjoy – Bill Dragons appear in our oldest mythology and folklore. Dragons have been a source of terror and mystery, throughout history. They populate early mythology, medieval literature, the Renaissance, and modern fiction. The dragons of today share…
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The Galaxy Note II After a Week or So
The thing is huge! I know I’ve said that a dozen times already, but it is ridiculously large. Its the same (almost) screen size as my kindle touch. For someone without an iPad, the extra screen real estate might be nice, but as a phone, it is just way too big. There are a couple…
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The Galaxy Note II by Samsung
I got an evaluation phone at work to fiddle with for 30 days. I’ve been a long time apple iPhone fan, and still am, but I’ve been hearing more and more good things about Android and Android phones that I figured it was time to check them out. My first reaction when they handed me the box was, “Damn!…
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Apartment Living
Yeah! I’m finally getting settled in the new place. Moving is exhausting. Mostly mental, but exhausting none the less. I haven’t lived in an apartment since my early Navy days in Virginia. I shared an apartment with a Navy buddy in Virginia Beach. We were noisy! To be honest, I don’t remember much about the…
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Anger Management
Silence. Internal voices saying, “I’m not good enough,” and “I’m evil.” Jibes and taunts. I talked about this some in the MBAGPP post, what it is like to stand apart from society and deal with the bigotry. Folks are driven by these challenges in different ways. Some turn away and find new groups and families that meet…
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People Are Challenging
I make no claim to understand people. In fact, I’m often confused by peoples motivations or responses. For a long time, I was convinced that my lack of understanding was a result of my own limitations. I believed I was either naive about the situation, or I had put up too many barriers between myself…
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Old Words
Packing, boxes, tape, more boxes more tape…. That’s my life for the next few weeks. I’m getting ready to move. Finally facing reality and ditching the too-big house and moving into an apartment in the part of town where stuff actually happens. And I am going to use this opportunity to shed much of the stuff I’ve…