Monty KD6CAE's rants

For those wondering about my daily loudtwitter postings
Since March of this year, I've been sending the tweets I make each day on twitter to my journal here, in order that I can have a quick summary of my tweets for the day. Also it allows me to have a record of the tweets I likely can no longer get to on the main Twitter site, since I don't think it is possible to browse all your updates from day 1 to present on Twitter directly. This automatic posting of my tweets each day was being provided thanks to a service called Loudtwitter. However the LoudTwitter site has gone down due to a server crash, and it is possible that the Loudtwitter service may not return. If it does, I'll once again send a once daily summary of my tweets to this journal, otherwise, I'm going to have to find another way to do the same thing, or just remember to post here as I've been doing anyway. Just wanted to update you all on why you haven't seen my tweets here on my journal since June 29. Hope LoudTwitter returns. Have a good night everyone.

ACB convention going well
The 48th annual National convention of the American Counsel of the blind is now underway, and I'm happy to be able to participate in this year's activities being held at the Rosen Centre hotel in Orlando, FL. Yes the word Centre is spelled c e n t r e instead of c e n t e r, and I don't understand why that is.
Anyway for convention week, I'm hanging out with a friend of Joey's and mine who's going to the convention as well this week. I was there today and was impressed with some of the technology I saw. It included among the usual assortment of screen reader vendors and such, a talking tape measure, as well as a reading machine which allows one to put a page near the unit, push a button, and a picture is taken, and the device immediately begins reading the page, no computer or the like required. It was even able to read the writing on a new watch box that was used as a test for the unit. I was impressed, and I'd likely get one, except I don't quite have the $1590 it costs. I did make a purchase today though. I've been wanting to get some playing cards for some time now. I've wanted both a standard deck of playing cards, as well as some Uno cards, so I can play Uno with friends of mine. Well now, I can, since I purchased both uno and standard playing cards, so yay for that. I will be at the convention tomorrow from 11 AM to 11 PM, so if anyone wants to meet me, I'll have my cell and radio on tomorrow, check my twitter page at http://twitter.com/kd6cae
for contact info. I hope to meet some of you during the week when I'm at convention.
Yesterday, we went to my friend's storage unit, where a very old, but still perfectly working laptop computer was unearthed. This computer has the latest and greatest version of Microsoft Windows 95A, combined with a massive 1.4GB hard drive, and a very impressive 32 megabytes of memory! Maybe I'll make that computer my primary computer. Then again, I'd probably better not.
Oh yes, I almost forgot, this Del Laptop comes complete with no ethernet networking built in. I am very impressed though that the thing even works at all, but it does, almost like new from what I could tell using the JAWS5.0 screen reader that was on the system.
Of the 1.4GB, only 75MB or so was free, so yeah guess I'd better not store any videos on that computer, lol.
Weather has been interesting, with periodic bursts of heavy rain that are brief, and temperatures in the low to mid 90's. I did get to meet Larry T from ACB radio, and even went live on ACB radio Interactive for a brief moment this morning, that was fun. Wil bring you all more updates throughout the week.

Going to the ACB national convention in Orlando, and remembering my mother
Hope everyone is doing OK. I'm continuing to enjoy my time here in Florida. I honestly can't believe how fast the time has gone by so far. Do you realize, I've already been in FL for 19 days already! And I have slept very well each of the 18 nights I've been here, incredible I say. My vacation does have some breaking news to report. It looks as though I will be able to attend the American Counsel of the blind (ACB) national convention being held this year in Orlando. This was an event I wanted to attend but at first it didn't appear that I would be able to. However, a friend of Joey's who we were helping with installing some software, has invited me to join her in going to the convention on Sunday, July 5. So, the way things appear to be coming together, I'll be meeting up with her on Thursday, July 2, and staying with her through at least the morning of July 6. My plans from July 6 through 10 are still not set in stone, but I may try to go to Tampa to visit my friend Sheri down there. And then of course July 11 it is hoped will finally be the day that I get to see a space shuttle launch in person!
Updates will be made available as developments dictate.
Now let's take a brief moment to reflect on an event that's rather sad in my life, which occured one year ago today.
It was June 30, 2008, that my mother passed away rather suddenly at the age of 65. I hope she didn't suffer too much in her final moments, which I can say were rather strange for me. If I had known she was close to dying, and not drunk as I assumed she was, I would've tried to stay awake during her final moments. Rest in peace, Mother.
Weather lately has been a bit on the more rainy side in recent days. Yesterday, I experienced probably the loudest and closest thunderstorm I've ever experienced, and let me tell you, it was loud!
And then today, it's been raining fairly often throughout the day, and according to the forecast I saw, the rain will continue from time to time through tomorrow, and possibly even Thursday, which should really make things interesting since I may find myself in the rain when I go meet the person I'm going to the ACB convention with this weekend. So that's what's going on as of now on my awesome trip to Florida. If any of you reading this journal plan to be at the ACB convention on Sunday, July 5, I'll likely be hanging arround in the exhibit hall area, so feel free to contact me and we can meet up in person if anyone wishes to do so. I'll have both cell phone and amateur radio communication capability with me, so getting hold of me shouldn't be a problem. Hope to meet some of you at the convention. Talk to everyone later, and don't forget to follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/kd6cae if you wish to chat with me via twitter.

events of the past day

18:21 I just had tater tots and barbecued chicken with green beans for dinner, very good. #
18:22 Also enjoyed cooling off in the pool at Joey's parent's place, had fun there today as well as churcdh. #
18:22 That was suppose to be church, gee Monty don't type so fast. #
21:19 Ok this is way cool, I'm tweeting from my computer at home, but I'm still in FL, love system access 4 remote control! #
21:21 Currently downloading new Adventures in Odyssey episodes directly to the home PC, this is way neat! #
21:33 @littlesteph2004 Not crazy at all, actually I had to have my roomMate turn it on for me but I'm using it as if I were there. #
21:48 Earlier tonight I had a brief scare with my cell phone where I thought it disappeared, but all is fine now I found it, yay. #
22:12 Just disconnected from my home computer, uploading files on it in background, and going to bed soon. #
23:37 @BorrisInABox Uhh 24k? That's just wrong! I wanted to throw an upload your way but don't have rights for upload into upload directory. #
23:38 @BorrisInABox However your upload from you to me here on Brighthouse RR in FL is solid at 175K/sec or so, no issues there anyway. #
23:41 Umm gee it's almost a quarter to 3 in the morning, shouldn't I uhh.. go to bed maybe? #
23:43 @BorrisInABox OK that makes sense, will be uploading an 8MB test file which u can delete once received, here it comes shortly #
23:48 @BorrisInABox That was odd. I only uploaded to you at about 105K/sec, this connection can upload at over 235K/sec to other sites. #
23:49 @kd6cae And network wise you're on RR just as I am, so something wacky's up there? hmm me wonders my TWC home line isn't great either. #
23:51 @BorrisInABox That's crazy! I from my current connection should easily max my upload going to you on almost the same network. Weirdness. #
23:53 @BorrisInABox I guess at least the main thing, your upstream on TWCBC is working, grinn, good luck, that's odd for sure! #
23:54 Going to get a drink of water then go to bed, good night everyone. #