Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on January 30th, 2015 in Apple II, MainMy parents owned and operated a small computer store in the mid-80s, Yukon Software. I didn’t get to bring a lot of software home from the store, but one program I ended up with was Trivia Fever. I’ve posted this picture before. That’s me in the mid-80s, wearing a Miami Vice knock-off jacket with a Footloose-esque spike hairdo. That’s my original Commodore 64 I’m posing with, the one I still have and use today. Right behind my Commodore computer is a blue box that reads Trivia Fever. Trivial Pursuit debuted in 1979 and, according to Wikipedia, peaked in 1984. By… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on January 28th, 2015 in MainWhen we bought our current home back in 2011 we also bought a new washer and dryer. I don’t remember why we bought a new washer and dryer. I don’t even remember being dissatisfied with our old ones. I guess Susan just wanted new appliances for the new house. We bought our new washer and dryer from Hahn’s. I consider Hahn’s to be the Aldi’s of appliance stores. I don’t mean that negatively. Hahn’s sells things inexpensively because they don’t spend money on superfluous things in their showroom, like carpet. Also if I recall our Hahn’s was having a grand… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on January 26th, 2015 in Main, Tiny HouseI’ve been following the Tiny House movement, also known as the Small Home movement, for several years now. While technically any home less than 1,000 square feet is considered to be a tiny house, most of these new tiny homes are less than 500 square feet. A few of them are less than 100 square feet. The houses come in two flavors: mobile, and stationary. The mobile ones are built for the most part on top of tandem axle trailers. An 8×16 will net you 128 square feet; a 24 foot one will get you 192. The immobile ones are… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on January 23rd, 2015 in MainSusan being away from home for a week isn’t anything new. In her last position at work she was visiting Washington DC up to one week each month. We have a pretty good system for when this happens. Before she leaves, Susan cleans the house and stocks the refrigerator with easy-to-prepare frozen meals. Then the kids and I spent the entire week eating out for every meal and leaving trash everywhere. A few hours before Susan is set to arrive home, I wheel in one of the big outside trash dumpsters into the entry hallway and spend a few minutes… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on January 20th, 2015 in MainI don’t remember life before this toybox. My dad made this toybox for me for Christmas in 1974, when I was still a year old. As far as toyboxes go it was quite large, especially considering the size of my room at the time. Our house at the time was 983 square feet. According to my mom, my bedroom was 8×10 (my sister’s was 8×9 and the master bedroom was 9×11). I distinctly remember being able to do a complete lap around my room — starting on the bed, crossing over to the dresser, climbing over to the toybox and… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on January 16th, 2015 in MainIt’s a new year, and I know a lot of you (like myself) made resolutions to get organized. One of the things I want to get a better hold of this year is my digital photo collection. I have a lot of digital pictures. Like, a lot a lot. Like, 50,000+ pictures. I have very few physical photographs around the house (the ones I have are old). All of the pictures I’ve taken during vacations and holidays and of the kids are all digital. I read once that owning a tool but not being able to find it is the… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on January 9th, 2015 in MainAs a Star Wars kid growing up, it was impossible to avoid acquiring duplicate action figures. Owning duplicates of some figures made sense. Multiple stormtroopers came in handy to building armies, for example. And then there were figures that nobody really wanted one of, much less multiples. Hammerhead was one of those figures. According to later lore, Hammerhead’s name was actually Momaw Nadon the Ithorian (“Hammerhead” is actually a derogatory term). To kids, Hammerhead was simply that big headed brown alien who we caught a split-second glimpse of in the Mos Eisley Cantina in the original Star Wars. As you… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on January 5th, 2015 in MainOn January 1st, 2015, I shut down my BBS. (Yes, you read that date right. 2015, not 1995.) I’ve been messing around with BBSes for almost 35 years now. When I was just a little kid, my dad and his friends ran multiple BBSes. There was PC-X (which ran on a PC XT), the Backdoor BBS (which ran on our PC Jr.), and many others. In the mid-80s, several of my friends ran Commodore 64 BBSes (I think Jeff even ran one after hours for a while). My BBS, The Gas Chamber, didn’t go online until the 90s. It ran… (read more)
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