I ran a complete scan of my system using AVG 8 whose basic program is free and discovered not one, not two, but three viruses.  I have no idea when or where I picked them up, but was thankful to be rid of them.  Every time we would open any page with Internet Explorer the things would start running pop-up ads.  They often look like legitimate programs or downloads, one using a window that looked like a famous, widely-used anti-virus program that warned your updates were out of date and "click here."  I don't have that program and now the pop-ups would start coming faster and faster.

The reason I thought it was a code on the site was because I had just been working on cleaning up some code and when I change the look of the site I look at it in Firefox, IE6 and IE7 to make sure that everything looks right.  I have had codes that looked beautiful in one browser, but when you get into a different one, the pages were completely skewed.  Anyway, I had just opened my site in the IE7 browser and started getting pop-ups and jumped to the wrong conclusion.  Since a complete virus scan takes several hours to complete I was a sitting duck until I fixed it.  I switched everyone over to Firefox while they waited.

One of the things I was working on for your viewing pleasure and that I think is cool is a links page in frames.  http://herbthiel.com/linksframes.html Now you can go to some of my favorite, most important or most enjoyable places on the internet and never have to leave your one browser window.  There is a button available on each link to make it open in a new window, however.  Some people don't like frames but for things like this I think they are really fun and useful.  Of course the caveat, "Please remember that if you click a link that goes off my site it is impossible for me to be responsible for their content." Still applies.  I know I have missed several, most of them not on purpose, so please don't be offended if your site isn't there, just let me know and I will add it (if I think it needs it).  Of course that's on my time frame, so...

I enjoyed working with frames once I figured out a couple goofs I had made and I think I might make a frames page for my popular original site as well.

Gotta run this morning, thanks for being my faithful friends and followers, and remember, the good book says, "If quitters never win, and winners never quit, who came up with, 'Quit while you're ahead'?"

A couple of things happened this weekend that made me feel pretty good.  One encouraged me to want to keep working on the blogging and on the site itself and the other was just a fun challenge.

A man I admire and respect came up to me at church the other night

Another thing that always makes me feel good is when I have a challenging lesson to teach and I pull it off.  I tried to write it up but it was going to be almost 3000 words when I got finished so I backed off of it.  I try to limit my posts to a maximum of 1500 words.  I think that to go much over that is too much for me to read so may be for you as well.

I am updating the gallery pages as I have time.  The pictures from the camping trip are up already.  I found a script built in to the software that I didn’t know was there that will allow me to FTP the pics up, so all the pics of Savannah when she was 1lb 12oz should be up soon along with quite a few others.

I have also added the e-mail notification to the humor blog so when I start updating it again, you can get an e-mail.  If you are signed up with this blog you will have to sign up a second time on that one as well.

Gotta run this morning, but I just thought I’d drop you all a note to thank you for stopping by.

Being the Dad Guy, I get to wear the black hat.  It's part of the job and you dads all know, even if you are too poor or aren't stylish enough to own a real black hat, it's in the manual, sometimes you have to be the bad guy.  Sometimes you get to be the bad guy and sometimes you have to be the bad guy.

who were simple people, perhaps somewhat simple-minded, from an earlier generation who had a couple of cats from a breed called "Mouzers."  They were guaranteed to catch mice and if you wanted one of her kittens, she would normally sell them to you.  When I was a boy, a mere nothing of a lad, however, she asked my mom and dad if they wanted one.  They had been nice to Dorothy and Woody where a lot of people, especially the generation after my dad's, were not, so she offered to give them one for free.

Finally the day came to go pick her up.  I was excited.  Aside from working a couple of weeks on my uncle's farm I never got to be around animals a whole lot.  I learned a new side of the farmer mentality that day, though.

"Your cat only had one kitten?"  I asked, in my youthful naiveté.

"No, she had six this time."

"And you gave away the rest already?"

"No.  Nobody wanted them."

"Well where are they?"

"I had to drownt ‘em, once."

"What?"

"I drownt ‘em.  You fill a washtub with water and stick ‘em in one to a time and drown'd them."

"But why?"

"Do you know how many cats there would be if people din't drown'd the ones nobody's gonna take?  Me and Woody can't feed all them cats and yer ma and dad can't either.  And what is a person gonna do with five cats?"

"But, but, it sounds so...mean."

"It's meaner to let them run around wild.  If you just take ‘em away right when they're born and drown'd ‘em right away the ma cat don't notice or don't care and they die real quick."

The woman who was going to pay for Steve to be neutered and get him all his shots if we would keep him as an indoor pet never returned any of my phone calls so when Fraidy Cat, one of our neutered males, started marking the front door where Steve always presented himself to be fed and have coffee with me when I got up, something had to be done.  Fraidy had even been to the vet to find out if he had a bladder infection or something physically wrong with him.

So something had to be done.  *Strike a minor chord on that piano, Bart, the bad guy's coming in.*

I put on my black hat and took Homeless Steve to the Humane Society never noticing how alliterative that would be until just now.  They'll hold him for observation for five days so they can see his personality and determine if they think he has any other problems, then he becomes their property and if they don't adopt him out they will euthanize him.

Remember, the good book says, "Sometimes as a dad you get to wear the black hat and sometimes you have to wear the black hat."

Isabel got Ben a new axe for Christmas (I don't know if he axed for it or not but now he has a new axe to grind) and he and Troy were using it on some deadfall they had up there.  Douglas followed Uncle Ben everywhere and had a little walking stick Ben had made for him and he would watch Ben swing the axe and take his stick and hit a tree just like Uncle Ben was doing.  It was pretty cute.  Savannah was a big helper and was so excited she couldn't stand it.  It was pretty cute.  They had pails and shovels and went and picked up woodchips for the fire.

It was a nice place to be, and even though it wasn't totally "roughing" it I think it was rough enough considering we had one 78 year old and two toddlers with us.  I have to hurry off this morning, hope you guys enjoy looking at the pictures.  Let me know what you think of the ones we did get.

we would keep him indoors.  As you may recall, this is something I believe in anyway.  I don't believe in letting your pets run all over the neighborhood and if they are in fact your pets then you should want them to be with you.  The problem is finding a place to put him, having the 4 others, and acclimating him to the family.  Since we spent this week on the conference and next week we will be going camping for Tabitha's birthday We will make a final decision next week some time.  His name for now is "Homeless Steve" and probably after we get him in the house and he finds his place in the family he'll be "Homecat Steve" or "Homie" for short.  I think.

Sorry I don't have more for you but real life calls.  There is a place outside the computer, even outside the house.  We will probably not be going too primitive with the camping since we will have Grandma and some first0timers with us, but all of Colorado is beautiful and we will likely go to an area called "The Crags" or maybe "Eleven-Mile Canyon."  Not quite sure yet.

Had bought a couple of spacious summer tents for the trip and needed to make sure I knew how to set them up and since I was teaching about Abraham living in tents all his life, I thought it would be cool to take my 6 & 7 year olds outside and do my lesson in the tent.  We ended up song service with "Father Abraham" and quietly and orderly (otherwise, if we aren't good and we disrupt the other classes we won't be able to do this again) marched outside to the 7 man dome.  It was a very hot (high 80s, low 90s) day, and the coolness of the shade of the tent and the largeness of it when you are only 3 or 4 feet high and the awe at doing something so different made it a fun and easy lesson.

Sunday School teaching is the most rewarding thing I have ever done in my life.  The little light that comes on in their eyes when they "get" whatever you are teaching them is priceless.  It can be profoundly moving and poignant, too, sometimes.  "My mama drinks too much sometimes and I help her by taking care of my baby sister for her.  My mom's nice, even when she's drunk, but sometimes she needs help taking care of the baby."  "Well, Herkimer, we'll pray for your mom, but you are doing the right thing by trying to be good and helping out like that."  Talking to kids can be a soul-wrenching experience.  I hate alcohol and am a teetotalling prohibitionist as some of you may remember from my piece in '05 called "Dead Drunk."

Anyway, life is happening.  Savannah the miracle is going to have a baby brother, too.  Trent.  Isabel has already made it past the time that Savannah was born (between 25 and 27 weeks at 1 pound 12 ounces) and everything is looking very good.  Funny thing is, I don't seem to be getting any older.  In fact the other day Savannah and Douglas and I were out in the kitchen doing the Hokey-Pokey.

Okay, I have to get this posted.  Margaret has a client a whole hour earlier this week, so I have less time unless I want to get up at an even earlier time.

“A long time ago, some senior mentor of mine gave me some really good advice.  When you turn on the microphone you are not talking to thousands of people, you are only talking to one person.  If a person is listening to you, they may alone, or with lots of other people, but you are truly only talking to that person, not the people with them.

There is no one inside their head with them.  You are their friend, and most of the time, they trust you to entertain them, console them, make them smile, and most of all, they expect you to tell them the truth.   You may be their best friend today.   I have been in radio for over forty years, and it never ceases to amaze me how many good friends I have that I have never met.”  Tom Brenner - Veteran Broadcaster - WJOD

 “Pilot of the airwaves

Here is my request

You don’t have to play it

But I hope you’ll do your best

I’ve been listening to your show on the radio

And you seem like a friend to me”

– Charlie Dore, Pilot of the Airwaves 

I’ve loved radio all my life.  As a young boy and a teenager I listened to my “pocket-sized” transistor AM radio with the leatherette case that had holes in the front to let the sound out.  It ran on a 9-volt battery.  Later I got a larger table-top model that had two (yes, count them, two)

Did you know that I almost became an OJT disc jockey at the local station in my hometown?  There was a situation with me working without pay and potential claims, blah-blah-blah which stopped me from it.  My friend Tom, who works at WJOD in Iowa these days, was a big part of my instruction.  He taught me how important it was to record commercials that didn’t sound over-dramatized or just plain stupid and how to spin records, cueing up the next record before the last record ran out and “walking the ramp” or talking in between songs, timing it exactly right so you were done when the song started.  He introduced me to some of his other friends who had a popular morning show in one of the bigger towns of the area and I got to see some of the things they did to prepare for it.

Technology may have left me behind on most fronts but I did learn a couple of lessons that will never change and which have been useful in other areas of life as well.  One is, “Treat every mike as though it were on.”  (When I started writing this piece certain political figures had not yet made their faux pas in front of a hot mike.)  If you have ever been in charge of any kind of meeting or emceed any affair (remember I was a Cubmaster and Scoutmaster) this is important.  Same is true for another rule, which in radio can get you sent to the deepest, darkest pit and if you are a Scout leader will almost certainly result in restlessness and eventual pandemonium, which is you must never, ever, ever allow “dead air.”

I told you all that because I like good radio.  I enjoy and appreciate good broadcasting technique as much as content and if you like listening to real music on real radio stations (and/or over the net, I have readers locally and around the world) then the station called “Legends” is for you.  On the local dial it’s AM 1530 KCMN and on the Internet it’s http://www.1530kcmn.com/.  If you listen locally, you should note that they broadcast in HD, which makes AM sound like FM if you have the right receiver.  A set of speakers on your computer produces beautiful results, too.  The cool thing about listening on the computer is that if you have one of those “OH!  Who did that song?” moments, it tells you (I get the best results with Internet Explorer, but it works with all browsers).  I have also been told that HD radios have this capability, but I don’t know yet.

This is a station I recommend for whatever kind of music you like.  If you like 30’s and 40’s Big Band, Swing or Jazz; Fabulous Fifties, 60’s Pop and 70’s stuff.  Do the names Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Alan Sherman or Spike Jones ring a bell?  How about Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and/or the rest of the Rat Pack?  Nat “King” Cole, Bing and Bob; Elvis, The Beatles and The Bee-Gees; Marty Robbins, Merle Haggard, Charlie Daniels, Jerry Lee Lewis; Neil Diamond, Dinah Washington, Doris Day, Barry Manilow, or Englebert Humperdinck; Les Paul and Mary Ford, Paul Anka teamed with Jon Bovi (not sure of the category for that); Montovani, Herb Alpert…Show-tunes, Musicals, One-Hit Wonders and Novelty Songs; just about anything you can think of and many you probably can’t or have forgotten including many patriotic songs, the (real) National Anthem and pieces by John Wayne.  It’s not merely “Standards” or just another “Oldies” station.  It’s not “Pop” or “Big Band” or “Country” alone, but is, in truth, “Legends.”  I like the name and it fits the legendary music they play.

If you listen in the morning (6:00 – 11:30 Colorado [Mountain] time), you will hear a contagiously high-energy guy named Tron Simpson who does frequent giveaways of books, DVDs, music CDs and occasional assorted oddments.   He interviews all manner of authors, musicians and strange people in between playing requests.  I have heard him interview Charlie Daniels, Bill Cosby, Tim LaHaye, Suzanne Somers and a variety of lesser-know, occasionally weird ones as well.  Sometimes he calls his brother in New York or his mom and just talks to them.  He takes calls for his give-away games from anywhere in the world and has shipped stuff all over at his own expense because he likes getting the Internet crowd along with the local listeners and he treats everyone the same.  He has, rightly so in my opinion, won a “Best of the Springs” award from the local newspaper two years in a row.

Now John Michaels, the afternoon guy, does music from Wednesday to Sunday afternoons and if I did have a complaint about this station it would be that they just can’t give this guy enough air time.  Oh, he does some celebrity birthday stuff and news and weather and things, but mostly what he does and does well, with insight and knowledge, is play music.  He is a DJ like you remember Disc Jockeys being and besides all of the Legendary music on the station’s play-list he will also dig into his own huge and esoteric collection to find just the song you requested (if it exists), often having every known version by every artist that ever did that song.  On his show you will hear some tunes from the “Novelty File” as well as selections from “One-Hit Wonders” with just enough mental oddments about things musical to entertain you all day.  He is just an all-around amazing guy to talk to, too.  Of all the radio personalities I have heard or met, he really fits the quote I opened with and makes you feel like he is broadcasting just to you.  Not only that but he is just a pleasant and down-to-earth guy to talk to, too.

Both of these guys are wonderful examples of how radio broadcasting is supposed to be done and what it’s like to have real, live people making choices and taking input on which part of their giant, eclectic and widely diverse collection you want to hear.  Listen for at least an hour or two and you will want to leave it on all day.  A last thing is that these guys have a clean moral outlook and never purposely play anything crude or offensive.  Good, clean fun for the whole family.  There is another station in town that says they are “Safe for the whole family” but it should be these guys’ tag-line.

Add to that some of the other programming they have to offer.   Big Band Jump, Sounds of Sinatra, Saturday Night Sock Hop with Cruisin’ Al and an inimitable program called “Europe Today with Hermann Bockelmann.”  The guy’s accent is unbelievable, but he came to zis country to be citizen, yeah, undt vants to share zome muzik wiss you und entertain you baby, yeah.  Yes, his accent (which is real) is that thick.  He talks about news and plays European pop along with American music or whatever strikes his fancy.  I have never heard anything like it before.  The other day he played Englebert Humperdinck’s “You Make My Pants Want to Get up and Dance.”

So, my suggestion to you is that you should point your browser to http://www.1530kcmn.com/ and click on the “Listen Live” button right now.  Today is the “All-Request-All-You-Can-Eat-Finally-Friday” show, so tune in!

P.S.

Being in and out of the car all the time I tune in a variety of radio and being somewhat interested in broadcasting and the way radio and radio stations work as well as the content and the types of personalities that work in radio, I had started out to do a review of all the stations that I listen to and that you can listen to on-line but the more I worked on it, the more I just wanted to share the experience of what real radio is supposed to sound like.  Others change their formats more often than their socks or they have one show that is appealing and the vast majority of stations rely on the vulgar potty-humor so prevalent nowadays so I couldn’t really do them justice.

I know that some readers only listen to one or two Christian stations for everything, including news, weather and talk.  If that’s you, then this post was not for you and I apologize for any offense.  I may do one with my opinion on the crassly commercialized Christian music industry, but not today.

Well, Old Mister Herb had troubles all his own
He found a little yella kitten that wouldn't leave home;
He tried everything he knew to get the cat to stay away
He even took him up to Canada and told him for to stay

But the cat came back the very next day
Thought he was a goner
But the cat came back
‘Cause he wouldn't stay away.

"If a man could be crossed with a cat, it would improve the man but deteriorate the cat."  -- Mark Twain

This puny little orange Tom kitten has been coming around and talking to our cats at the windows.  He might be 6 months old at the most.  Ours are all fixed, but they find his conversation interesting.  He is all bones and if he belongs to someone they haven't seen him in a long time or they don't care.  He is really scrawny and pathetic.  Carter says I'm a sucker (Although he and I both know someone who fed a stray cat in an alley behind a Laundromat in a small town in Montana because he felt so sorry for it).  I'm thinking, only thinking, mind you, it's just a sort of an idea, kind of, that's just a thought really, but I've been thinking, when we get the check, that I should probably take him to the vet and have him checked to make sure he doesn't have any diseases that he could give to our cats (even though they have all talked to him through the screen door) and er, well, um...you know...We don't have all the critters we used to have and this one is quite small...

I started talking like that and Margaret said we needed to make the sign you see above and post it around the neighborhood.  "What if some little child is missing their kitty and here you are, big mean man, keeping the kid's cat?"  To which I replied that the kid couldn't have cared too much because he didn't make any signs himself and post them around the neighborhood and besides, his parents couldn't be teaching him to care for the cat very well since it's so scrawny.  To which she said that not everybody had access to a computer to print a poster.  Anyway, there is the sample of it sans phone number.  I tried like crazy to get a decent picture of him, but you can see by clicking here that that didn't work too well.

My quasi-hero in the literary/writing world is, as many know, Edgar Allen Poe, who is said to have done his writing with a cat perched on his shoulder and known to have a cat named "Catarina" and nicknamed "Catters."  Catters was said to snuggle with his wife to keep her warm when she suffered with Tuberculosis.  "Catters" might work, but this is a male.  The name of the cat in his famous story, "The Black Cat," was Pluto.  Hemingway (not a particular literary hero of mine) had 30 cats, one, also yellow-eyed, named Mr. Feather Puss, was so trusted that the Hemingways would allow him to babysit their infant.  Winston Churchill had several cats including Nelson, who went to cabinet meetings with him.

As I was thinking about Poe I wondered if any of the muses had a name that was manly enough, but the one muse that I would like and would be appropriate for me is Calliope but that hardly seems right for a male cat, although "Cal" might be okay.  Of course there are names like Tuffy or Tom but I don't know.  When he comes to the door begging for food I say "Alright Mister Big Yellow Kitty" but that's a little long.

He has a mark on his ear that looks like he may have been in a fight, like someone bit his ear and held on.  Oh!  Wait.  You know who he does kind of remind me of?  When I put down food for him he scarfs it down in a mouthful or two and acts a bit paranoid or schizo so maybe I should call him "Bill" after "Bill the Cat" of Bloom County fame.  My brother's name is Bill, too.  He (the cat) is way too skinny to be called Garfield.  In keeping with Tabitha's "Cinnamon Bear" program (all 26 episodes are available for download here http://cinnamonbear.co.uk/ if you want a sweet little Christmas story. A 30's radio serial for children.) Theme we could call him Cinnamon Bear or Paddy O'Cinnamon.

Not that it matters.  I mean, we are NOT getting another cat.  We are NOT.  Not getting another one.  But, okay, well, I decided to create two new polls.  Just to test the software, you understand, but please take the time to answer anyway and please feel free to comment. If you have a suggestion that isn't in either of the lists you can add it in the comments.

Meet the guys who did http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_founding_fathers_overview.html

Go here to sign it yourself http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_join_the_signers.html

Always read what you sign

http://www.herbthiel.com/original/declaration.htm

http://www.herbthiel.com/original/billrights.htm

Bill Gates retired.  Here's the video of his last days http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr5w3X4R8b4

The song "Too much time on my hands" comes to mind...

Also, I cut this comic out of the paper and put it on the fridge.  If you have young people that use the computer and are online a lot, especially by themselves, I suggest posting it in a prominent place as a humorous but real reminder of the way life is in cyberspace.  You never know...

Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2008 9:22 PM
To:  My Fans, Friends, Fiends and Foes

Subject: Getting to know me!

Okay, so everyone knows I really am not a fan of doing memes, but I recently ran across one of those rare people that were nice to me back in high school and she had included me on her list of friends to receive this, so I decided to go ahead.  Besides, I needed something to give you guys while I work on my next "real" post which should be by the end of the week.  I added questions number 45 - 47 to make it an even 50.

I don't tag people because I don't like to be tagged, but if you decide to do this one, would you please leave me a comment with a link so that if my friend comes around she can have an opportunity to see all of your answers if she wants to?

Thanks.  Here goes...

From: Barb D

Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2008 9:22 PM
Subject: Getting to know me!

If you decide to play, leave me a comment so I can have a link.