Major Mike's Musings

Ready For A New Drive

Monday I disassembled by iBook G4 in anticipation of a new larger disk drive arriving. Here’s a photo of the disassembled pieces minus the screws. 

I originally came with a 60 gigabyte drive which was getting too small and also starting to make strange noises. Thinking the drive was about to head south on me, I ordered a new 250 gigabyte hard drive to replace the old one.

Unfortunately, replacing an iBook drive requires the almost total disassembly of the computer. It’s certainly not as easy as replacing a drive in a desktop computer where the most you have to do is remove the cover, remove a few screws, unplug the old drive, plug in the new one, replace the screws and reinstall the cover.

My Mac Mini has a small drive, too. It’s 90 gigabytes. Maybe I’ll put the 250 in the Mini and the 90 in the iBook.

I think I’ll start searching for a repair manual for the Mini.

Charlene, Mike, Pam Bill

Last week we spent a wonderful time with our good friends Bill and Pam Bache. They were in Orlando to see their grandson, Zack Leech play three-on-three soccer at Disney’s Wide World of Sports. We picked them up Sunday and they stayed until Friday. 

Besides being very comfortable around each other, we’ve shared lots of life with them. Our kids are contemporaries, went to school together and grew up together in the youth group at Chapel Rock Christian Church. So we parented together, coached youth together, went on youth mission trips together, and hung out together a lot.

Last week besides hanging out, we made some day trips. We visited Tarpon Springs, a small Greek community started by sponge divers. We ate a great Greek lunch and spent the afternoon shopping in the village. 

We also went to Mt. Dora, a quaint little town of the Golden Triangle (Mt. Dora, Eustis, and Tavares). We took a ride on the Inland Lakes Railway to Tavares and back. We were lucky in that they changed the train from three open cars to one closed car or we probably would have passed on the ride as the temperature was about 40 degrees. We shopped in Mt. Dora, too.

On the way to the airport  on Friday we stopped at the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art. The have the most comprehensive collection of the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany. They also have late 19th century and early 20th century pottery, furniture, and art. Quite a place for the $3.00 admission fee. After the museum we relaxed at Panera for a cup of coffee and roll.

What a great visit.

One thing that irks me is talking heads completely butchering the English language. Many times they take a term that means one thing then use it incorrectly to mean another. For example, the word momentarily means for a moment. How many times a day do you hear an announcer say, “We’ll be back momentarily?” The announcer means in a moment but is actually saying for a moment.

One phrase that talking heads misuse that really annoys me is begs the question to mean asks the question. In fact, begging the question is a logical fallacy wherein the arguer tries to prove a point by relying on a premise¹ that proves the point. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say on the topic.

In logic, begging the question has traditionally described a type of logical fallacy … in which the proposition to be proved is assumed implicitly or explicitly in one of the premises...

In contemporary usage, “begging the question” often refers to an argument where the premises are as questionable as the conclusion.

In popular usage, “begging the question” is often used to mean that a statement invites another obvious question. This usage is stated to be incorrect in The Oxford Guide to English Usage, 1st edition; ”raises the question” is suggested as a more appropriate alternative. Improper usage of the term may to some observers make the user appear uneducated; this is presumably the opposite effect the user intends by using the term. [Emphasis mine]

Are you surprised the talking heads get stuff like this wrong?

1.  something assumed or taken for granted [↩]

The new season of American Idol begins tonight with four hours of programming over the next two nights. Mrs. Major and Son Major enjoy this show. I use the show as an opportunity to read or fool around on the computer.

Kevin McDonough, in his column “Tune In Tonight,” sums the program up very well:

With its endless hours of idle chatter and forgettable patter, “Idol” was made for the fast-forward button. I tend to speed over the obviously horrible performances, the banal travelogue and practically every segment featuring Ryan Seacrest. Technology can be a wonderful thing.

I say, “Just saying, ‘no,’ can be a wonderful thing.”

After a two-week cruise and a week of visitors for Christmas and New Years, I’m finally getting caught up with all the stuff I let go during the interim. Today, I’m finally reading all the RSS feeds on the blogs I read. Whew.

By the way, Bonnie, on of Major Mike’s readers, commented that she couldn’t find the next–previous links when single articles were displayed. After having used the current theme for about a year and not even noticed it myself, I was surprised. So I added links to the next and previous articles above the title to the current article using the next and previous article titles. Thanks, Bonnie, for noticing the discrepancy.

Looks like the Manning boys will be able to watch the Super Bowl together this year.

Mother's Taffy Cremes

Chowing Down

One of Old Dad’s favorite (and mine, too) cookies is Mother’s Taffy Cremes. Unfortunately, earlier this year, Mothers went out of business and the Taffy Cremes are not to be found in any store. A few months ago, Old Dad sent out a photo of the very last Taffy Crème he had lamenting their demise before he scarfed it down.

However, my brilliant, talented, and sweet Daughter, found some in the Internet and bought me a package for Christmas.

They didn’t last long. Here we are (Sweet Dau, Dau’s Man Friend, and Mrs. Major) stuffing our faces with them. I don’t think they lasted more than two hours. They were so yummy!

Sorry, Old Dad, I didn’t save you any. They sure were good, though.

Cat Retirement Home

We’re home, the guests are gone so maybe I’ll get around to posting some more. In the mean time, check out this coupon I got in the mail for cat services. Free cat retirement analysis. Free meow mobile transport service. Cat retirement home. 

I guess if you were a cat person and you had an old cat you just couldn’t bear to put down this wouldn’t seem as weird to you as it does to me.