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Friday, July 10 2020 – As if the year wasn’t already a dumpster fire. I finished mowing the yard and went out with the weed whip to do the trimming. Upon returning to the shed, I found this…. Kim called 911 as I turned a hose on the fire. I had no expectation of putting it out, but I did want to keep it from the house. If I could just keep the fire down a little. The Brighton Area Fire Department rolled up 7 minutes after we started the phone call. Given that we are 5 miles from the department, that was an absolutelyRead More →

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In: Tae Kwon Do

#1 Step left, Right hand Suto. Right Side Kick to ribs. Spin crescent kick left to head. Right four knuckle strike to temple. #2 Step left, left palm strike to face, right palm up neck chop. Step with right with right elbow, convert to left spinning backfist. Finish with right in to out crescent kick. #3 Step right with left foot, spinning elbow strike while ducking under their punch. Quickly backfist to nose. Step forward with right foot, left side kick, convert to outside crescent. Finish with right outside crescent. #4 Step in with right foot. Left suto block, right hammer to temple. Rechamber toRead More →

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In: Tae Kwon Do

I recall in elementary school, probably about 4th grade (1963-ish), finding a small booklet in my school library called G.I. Judo. It was probably 20 pages, comic book style illustrations of a dozen-ish judo throws and takedowns. I couldn’t find anybody that would let me try them out. Little did I know, that booklet would gnaw at me for another 30 years. For my 38th birthday, I gifted myself with Tae Kwon Do lessons. And so, it began. I began under the tutalege of Master Instructor Dr Richard Griffith, veterinarian by day, bone breaker by night. His school was associated with Grandmaster Jung Soo Park’sRead More →

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We had a paper route in our family for years. My eldest brother, Jim started when he was 12. My brothers, Steve and Jack all had it at one time. My younger sisters helped Jack. After Jack gave it up, the route was given up. This was the Flint Journal, in Flint, Michigan. It was an afternoon paper, with Sunday and Holiday morning delivery. Thursday and Sunday were the big days, where the paper was the thickest/heaviest. We had about 100 customers on Lawndale and Proctor Streets, from Pasadena to Rankin, and the connecting streets in between. We broke it down into the Front halfRead More →

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As far back into my youth as I can remember, I was a Science nerd. Capital “S” Science, capital “N” Nerd. My Christmas catalog was Edmund Scientific. I didn’t check the drugstore rack for the latest Mad Magazine; I was waiting for Popular Science. My favorite literature was science fiction. (Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Paint/Homework Machine/Weather Machine/Heat ray…, Asimov, Heinlein, Pohl, Van Vogt…, movies like Forbidden Planet, War of the Worlds, The Day the Earth Stood Still). Many birthday and Christmas presents were in various sciences: telescopes, microscopes, computer, chemistry set, gyroscopes and hover cars. I didn’t hang out at the local gas station,Read More →

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Digi-Comp 1963 My parents always fed my science nerd hunger, often without my even knowing what I wanted. When I was 9-10 (1963 or 64), I remember getting my first “computer” for my birthday. It was so awesome! The Digi-Comp! More at Wikipedia. It was a mechanical digital computer. All it was was three logical AND gates controlled by plastic pins flipping against spring-loaded bars. The “computer” was clocked by cycling a plastic lever back and forth. There were only a few problems/projects provided in the manual, but they were enough. This wasn’t something I asked for. And, I don’t know if this choice wasRead More →

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In: API, REST

A well written, three part article/sample of coding a Web REST Service with Java and Spring from DZone. “In the modern world of interconnected software, web applications have become an indispensable asset. Foremost among these web applications is the Representational State Transfer (REST) web service, with Java becoming one of the most popular implementation languages. Within the Java REST ecosystem, there are two popular contenders: Java Enterprise Edition (JavaEE) and Spring. While both have their strengths and weaknesses, this article will focus on Spring and create a simple order management RESTful web application using Spring 4. Although this management system will be simple compared to the large-scale RESTful services foundRead More →