Category: Computers

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Blogging Computers Driving Internet Travel

Melbourne Florida

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. 29 years ago I lived in Melbourne Florida. It was my home from March 1993 to March 1994. I lived in a cozy low-rent studio efficiency on South Oak Street – at first full-time and unemployed, and then part-time and fully-employed.

When I got my honorable discharge from the USAF I moved to Melbourne Florida (from the Washington D.C. area). This was in the aftermath of the destruction of my former home at Homestead Air Force Base. In hindsight – I should have relocated to Melbourne directly after Hurricane Andrew instead of the #DMV (where I grew up as a kid). Had I gone to Patrick Air Force Base while still on USAF Active Duty my life of the next 30 years may have turned out completely different – perhaps for the better – maybe for the worse.

My first 5 months in Melbourne were crazy – and a lot of fun – as I looked for a job in the local area. It was probably the most fun 5 months of my entire life. It was during those 5 months that I learned how to use a modern Windows 3.1 / DOS 6.0-based personal computer for the first time ever. I also discovered an early form of social media known as the BBS (bulletin board system). My friend was running a popular BBS at the time where people would dial-in (via modem) to his computer and participate in message boards and live chat. I was so fascinated by that. I decided to create my own BBS – MANx CAT BBS. It went online during the early-morning hours of Friday May 21ST 1993. It continued for over 4 years.

MANx CAT BBS spawned MANx On The Net – which was the World Wide Web spinoff of the BBS. MANx On The Net evolved into MASSIVESMASH.COM in 1998 – my music-based web site, and it in turn became this blog in 2007.

Original Masthead (1998-2007)

So this weekend marks 29 years of online activity for me – starting with that first BBS – created in Melbourne Florida. And on that BBS we talked about travel and music – among other topics.

Since I moved away in March 1994 I’ve only visited Melbourne a few times. I don’t know anyone there anymore. My old rundown apartment complex was bulldozed to the ground years ago. The city has grown a lot over the past 30 years. So has the metro area (essentially all of Brevard County / Florida’s Space Coast). Over 600,000 call the area home nowadays. 30 years ago that number was right around 400,000. It was congested back then. I know it’s worse today. It’s a nice scenic area with the rivers and the beaches, but I wouldn’t want to live there.

Next #TravelThursday we’ll visit Kings Dominion in Virginia. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Career Computers Driving Home Life Military Money Music Travel

Fun With Numbers

A few days ago (this past Monday) I did not get in my car and drive it for the first time in over 5 weeks. I ended a 37-day streak of driving that started on Saturday March 06TH and ended on Sunday April 11TH. During those 37 days I drove 609 miles – an average of about 16½ miles per day. The 37 days surpassed a 28-day streak this past November and December. It’s the longest streak since a 41-day streak in January and February 2020 just before the start of the global pandemic.

How do I know all of this ? I record my odometer’s starting and ending mileage each day on an Excel spreadsheet. I do it for fun. I’ve been doing it for over 6 years. I work with Excel spreadsheets all day long in my professional career, and I play with them and learn from them off-work at home on my computer. What I learn at home I apply at work. There’s very little time available at work to learn how to do something new on a spreadsheet, so I get smart at home. I have a bunch of unique spreadsheets that I use at home that keep track of the day-to-day operations of my life. I collect the data, and I analyze the data. I perfect the analysis expertise as well – because – that’s also part of my professional career. I analyze historical data in order to make wise and efficient financial decisions to successfully support the mission. I’ve been an Analyst for the USAF for the past 36 years.

Oh – one last thing – you know that music chart that I present every Monday here on my blog ? It’s been fueled by an Excel spreadsheet for the past 25½ years !

All rights reserved (c) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

Categories
Blogging Computers Internet Photography Travel

Social Media Round-Up

FACEBOOK – I’ve been on Facebook since Easter Sunday March 31ST 2013. I was active on it until New Year’s Eve Sunday December 31ST 2017. This blog appeared on there during much of that time. At the start of 2018 I brought my blog back to its previous home – right here on WordPress. I’m still on Facebook, but I no longer post original material. I’m only on there because most of my social media friends are on there. I like / love some of their posts, and I comment occasionally. Most of the time I just read and move on – including all of the political posts. I keep my political viewpoints to myself. I wish others did as well. Facebook was a lot more fun before it became saturated with politics – much of it filled with innuendos, exaggerations, fabrications, rage, and hatred – from both sides.

TWITTER – In a few days I’ll observe my 11TH Anniversary on Twitter. I’ve tweeted over 8,400 times over these past 11 years – much less nowadays than I used to. I mostly utilize my Twitter account to announce new blog posts here on WordPress, and that’s an automatic process. Every so often I’ll tweet lyrics from a current song I like. Sometimes I’ll tweet a random thought. My last 5 tweets can be viewed right here on my blog (right-hand column below the calendar – if you’re on the web site).

FLICKR – My longtime photo storage site (since 2011) is Flickr. I’ve got over 3,200 photos on the site, and 88½% of them are public for the whole world to see. They are mostly vacation photos from over the years – from as far west as the Hawaiian islands, as far south as Fanning Island Kiribati, as far east as Saint-Martin / Sint Maarten, and as far north as Niagara Falls. I’m currently adding photos from my recent Orange Beach Alabama vacation. My last 5 photos can be viewed right here on my blog (right-hand column below my tweets – if you’re on the web site).

WORDPRESS – And here we are – the social media site that I’ve been on for the longest time – since the end of 2007. (I know I abandoned it for over 7 years while I was tweeting and Facebooking.) This is my 1,801ST blog post here on WordPress – and 480TH since I returned at the start of 2018. I have a lot of new readers on here, and I welcome each and every one of you to my blog. I blog 4 times per week – Thursdays, Fridays, Sundays, and Mondays. My blog posts go live at 3 AM U.S. East Coast time on most of those days, so that’s 12 AM on the U.S. West Coast, 8 AM in the United Kingdom, 9 AM in South Africa, 12 PM in India, 5 PM on Australia’s East Coast, and 7 PM in New Zealand. (I’ve got followers in all of those great places around the globe.)

The best place to check-out my blog is at my home page at revchrismday.com. It’s also where you can link to my Twitter and Flickr. If you think that you have a similar blog that I may be interested in then comment on any of my recent blog posts. No spam please. WordPress will automatically capture it, and if it slips through then I’ll delete it. If you already follow my blog then there’s a good chance that I’m probably already checking-out your blog occasionally. Keep up the great writing !

All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

Categories
1990s Career Computers Home Military Travel

My Last 2 Years On Active Duty Air Force

National Military Appreciation Month continues on this 3RD Thursday of the month with my own appreciation of my 35-year career with the United States Air Force. It’s no secret that I’m currently in the greatest 13-year era of my career. It started at the end of July of 2007, and it continues to this day. But there’s a runner-up to this great era, and that’s January 1991 to February 1993.

I was sent to war (Operation Desert Shield / Storm) as 1991 began. I didn’t volunteer for it. I’m actually quite antiwar. I was sent as punishment by my supervisors at the time. They didn’t like me, and they made life miserable for me. I threatened to report them for harassment. Before I could take action on that they sent me away to Saudi Arabia.

As it turns out my deployment overseas into the war zone turned out to be the turning point of my career back then. I was scared over there due to an uncertain future, but I also made new friends with fellow airmen from other bases, and I matured quite a bit in “Tent City” in the desert. I flopped at building fuel tanks, but I exceled at building bombs.

When I returned home to Homestead AFB after the war I was immediately sent home to my family near Washington D.C. for up to 30 days of uncharged “rest and recuperation” leave. When I returned to the base I met my brand new supervisor. You see my previous supervisor, and a few others as well – were relieved of their duties and sent away while I was away. I wasn’t informed of the specifics, but the outcome was great. There was even a reorganization of our squadron and flight structure. We even moved to a different building down towards the other end of the airfield. It continued the peak of my career at that time that started at wartime.

And then Hurricane Andrew destroyed the base. I became a “refugee” at Andrews AFB Maryland. I picked that base because it was my hometown base at the time – closest to my family. I really liked my supervisor and coworkers at my new base. They treated me nice. They respected me. I respected them. I informed them quite early on that I would not be reenlisting for a 3RD 4-year term in early-1993, so they had me for about 6 months to do what they wanted with me. They had me teach them everything I knew about the computer system and database that we managed and utilized in my career field at that time. They were so impressed that they had me teach the rest of the base as well. I was essentially a teacher for my 6 months there. They gave me a bunch of awards for my work during my short stay there – the most prominent of which hangs on my wall just above my computer workstation here.

My last duty day was the same day that the World Trade Center in New York City was bombed the first time around (Friday February 26TH 1993). We found out about the bombing via overhead TV sets at Pizza Hut where we had my farewell luncheon. I went on “terminal leave” for a month after that, and at the end of March I was officially out of the Air Force after nearly 8 years, or so I thought …

gray plane inside hangar
Photo by Kelly Lacy on Pexels.com

All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries