Halcyon Days

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/games/ba52/

It is kind of neat to see the Dreamcast – perhaps the greatest example of a product lifespan cut too short among video game consoles – back on the market to some extent. But unless you simply must have one never soiled by previous owner hands, you can find them at many classic gaming resellers like Game Xchange or Movie Trading Company for $29-$49, which will also give you a bit of financial room to try to snag a copy of Soul Caliber or Virtua Tennis.

It’s amazing how one day can change your sense of appreciation for what you have.
A co-worker of mine noted this week how she feels very fortunate now to have a relatively safe position of employment after reading about the reduction-in-force moves this week at one daily newspaper. I concurred, having just read the same details at another daily newspaper.
While it’s certainly not a premium gig and never will be, my job as a staff writer for a group of weekly newspapers is steady employment. In this economy, and especially in mass media, job security has become a priceless commodity. While you can never say never anymore, the fact is that I can wake up each day with fairly strong assurance I will have a paycheck coming every two weeks.
Earlier this week, I learned I took second place in feature writing in the North and East Texas Press Association competition.
It’s a nice achievement, and even nicer to know I’ll probably have a chance to shoot for first place next year.
I won’t, however, be so filled with accomplishment as to forget my colleagues let go from larger publications and facing uncertainties I don’t have at present.
I think a lot of us in the U.S.A. are gaining a renewed sense of appreciation for what we have, knowing how quickly now we could lose it. This week was one such reminder for me.

Leave it to the folks at the UK’s PC Advisor to come up with a trip down operating system memory lane, posted on the magazine’s Web site over the weekend.

For those of us who have been around personal computers since they first hit the scene 30-something years ago, the article reads like a “greatest hits” record collection of how you used to get things done on a keyboard and monitor. I was able to recognize/remember most of the 10 OSes featured, but the one that really drew the “Oh, yeah, THAT!” reaction from me was something called GEOS.

In the 1980s, I was a happy and content Commodore 64 owner, but I didn’t like the way some of my hipper-than-thou computer geek friends would dismiss my system as nothing but a glorified video game machine with a keyboard. When GEOS came along, C64 fanboys like myself finally had something that could prove our computers could be productivity machines, too. Think of GEOS as a sort of early Microsoft Windows or MacOS overlay for the Commodore systems and you’ll get the picture. I think it initially retailed for $79.95 – a pricey piece of software for the C64 – but at that time it was really cool being able to manipulate files on a graphic desktop interface, use a font-rendering 80-column word processor and let your inner Picasso out with the paint program. You didn’t even need a mouse, as you could use the cheaper alternative of a standard nine-pin joystick controller to handle input functions.

Check out the article; you’ll be amazed at some of the facts it provides. Oh, and for the record, I remember the brief TV ad campaign for OS2 Warp in the mid ’90s and I can still operate a PC with MS-DOS command line structure.

Sunday wrap-up: Looking outside today, you would have never known anything potentially destructive had touched the neighborhood or the city.  A daylong rain shower with occasional wind gusts was all yesterday brought and the evidence had just about dried up completely by the afternoon.

Of course, there are a lot more people in Texas who are not as lucky as we were here in Canton.  A local reserve police officer I know told me we have about 200 evacuees staying in shelters set up in churches and elsewhere, and just when they will be allowed to return home – and what they will find once they do – is an unknown at this point.  Government officials in some towns along the Texas Gulf Coast have already stated it could be weeks or even months before any semblance of normal life returns.

If anyone reading this has an urge to help, I suggest doing so through the American Red Cross (www.redcross.org).

God be with everyone affected by Ike.

6:08 p.m.: Things have died down considerably in the last hour. Light rain continues to fall and it is still breezy outside, but it appears the harder stuff hit the area to the east of where I am. Tyler Morning Telegraph is reporting about 100,000 without power in an area running through Lufkin and Nacogdoches, Palestine, Jacksonville, Crockett, Tyler and Smith County, and Wood County. God be with them all and hopefully they will get power restored very soon.

I’m going to retire for the time being, though another round of high wind and rain is being forecast for this town starting about 8 p.m. CDT. I’ll pick up the blog again if the situation starts to get intense during the night hours.

4:12 p.m.: The center of what is now Tropical Storm Ike is just to the north and east of Canton. As it moves onward, I expect the wind and rain to whip up again as the back end of it passes through.  Indications I’m getting by radio and other reports is conditions are considerably more treacherous to the east of here in and immediately around Tyler, Texas.

In the last hour or so, I’ve spotted several pickup trucks and other vehicles traveling along my street. I really hope they are out only to check on other family members. This is not the time to be joyriding in a storm.

The water buildup in front of my apartment continues and I’m hoping I don’t start to feel dampness in the carpet covering this home office room later.

3:45 p.m.: Well, here’s a little twist I didn’t count on – losing my cable signal (and the Internet connection with it), but not electrical power.

It went down about 2 p.m. CDT and finally came on in just the last few minutes.

Meanwhile, rainfall has been steady, wind is occasionally gusty, but not much else. The water, though, is starting to build up around the stoop/front wall of my apartment.

1:30 p.m.: The rain has started to pick up and is visibly being windswept down the street in front of me. Nothing major yet, but you can sense the intensity is definitely rising. Water is starting to collect out front. I had a little flooding mishap in the back bedroom in May, so I’m hoping the dirt work and the French drains the landlord installed will be good enough to prevent a repeat this weekend.

I just got word from my son that he has been called to report for Civil Air Patrol duty for the next 3-4 days in the San Antonio area, primarily to check on residents down there and assist National Guard troops. Imagine that in your absentee letter for high school!

Terry

Noon, Sept. 13: I’m going to update this site as Hurricane Ike continues to move inland today (Sept. 13) through East Texas. Right now in Canton, the rain has picked up and the tree branches around my apartment have begun short fits of swaying in the wind, but this obviously is just the beginning.

My immediate concerns: Power lines, obviously. I will continue to update this site about every 30-45 minutes as things progress and I continue to have power for my ‘Net connection here at home.  Still, if the wind gusts reach the 65 mph in the forecast, we’re sure to have some downed lines at some point. Also, there is a large tree right in front of my living room window here. I’ve parked my car as clear of it as possible in the hopes of lessening the odds of a direct hit if that tree falls.  I’ll also have to hope and pray it does fall backward onto the building itself.

My prayers go out to all those in Galveston and Houston that they may be rescued if needed or otherwise will be OK. I’m donning a Galveston Island shirt from a summer visit two years ago as a little sign of solidarity through this. Likewise, my prayers go out to those evacuated from that area and all their family members, as well as all those in the numerous other affected areas of Texas and Louisiana.

Terry