Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on June 30th, 2016 in Main, Mason and Morgan, My Life 
Sometimes when it rains it pours — both figuratively and literally. Morgan’s 11th birthday party was last Sunday. The weather report for the past two weeks (and the next 2 months) was “dry and hot.” Literally, our local weatherman said, “It’s going to be hot and dry for the next three months.” So we scheduled a pool party for the end of June for Morgan, and an hour before the party was set to start, storm clouds rolled in. Again — in Oklahoma, in the middle of summer, in the middle of a heat wave. You just haven’t lived until… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on June 27th, 2016 in Main 
Rumors continue to fly as to whether or not the next generation of iPhone will contain a 3.5mm headphone jack or not. As the owner of both an iPhone and some pretty good headphones, I’m not thrilled about this. The larger version of the headphone jack — the 1/4” or 2.5mm version — was invented in 1878 for telephone operators. You probably remember seeing them those old movies where operators were manually moving cords around to connect people’s phone calls. This same plug is still used today on things like microphones and guitar cables. I couldn’t find an exact date… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on June 21st, 2016 in Adventures, IBM PC 
I’ve scanned in 99% of my old photographs, but every now and then I run across one that slipped through the cracks. This is one of those. I’ve told this story before, but right around the year 2000, a co-worker of mine and I attended a local auction for a computer store that was going out of business. At the auction there were large cardboard boxes full of computer keyboards. The opening bid was crazy — something like $20 per box. My friend Don and I chuckled at the price and stopped paying attention. The auctioneer tried restarting the auction… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on June 20th, 2016 in OKC Thunder (NBA) 
The 2015-16 NBA season was a good one for Oklahoma City Thunder fans. With first year NBA coach Billy Donovan at the helm, the Thunder finished the regular season with 55 wins and 27 losses, placing them third in the Western Conference. In the first two rounds of the playoffs, the Thunder muscled their way past two aging but solid Texas teams: the Dallas Mavericks and the San Antonio Spurs. In best of seven contests, the Thunder beat the Mavericks in five games and San Antonio in six to make their way to the Western Conference Finals to face the… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on June 19th, 2016 in Main 
I stand firmly grounded in middle age, inasmuch as when I look back over my shoulder at the starting line and up ahead toward to the finish, the distances appear to be about the same. To my left stand friends who never became parents — some by choice, others by circumstance. To my right are those who either won’t or can’t be with their fathers today. And it doesn’t escape me for a moment how lucky I am to be here, in the middle. Today I had lunch with my dad and my children at the same table. (And Susan… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on June 15th, 2016 in Star Wars, Star Wednesday 
I have lots and lots of books in my Star Wars collection, both fiction and non-fiction for young and adult readers alike. Star Wars: The Mystery of the Rebellious Robot was published by Random House in 1979. I remember checking his book out from our school’s library. This copy also came from a school library, although not my school. Unsurprisingly the story begins with Han Solo piloting the Millennium Falcon, Chewbacca and R2-D2 playing Planetary Poker, and C-3P0 running around like a maniac. First it’s R2-D2 that begins acting rebellious, although soon many of the droids, robots and machines down… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on June 13th, 2016 in MainIn 1981’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Marion Ravenwood becomes frustrated with Indiana Jones when he complains that it hurts everywhere she touches him. “Where doesn’t it hurt?” she asks, and the infamous archeologist is able to come up with four locations: his elbow, his right temple, his eyeball, and finally, his lips. I’m in worse shape than Dr. Jones. In addition to my feet, ankles, thighs, butt, abdomen, ribs, back, shoulders, and neck all hurting, my eyes aren’t all that good, my elbow is aching, and my lips are chapped — and I didn’t even get chased by a… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on June 10th, 2016 in Adventures, Main 
It turns out, llama farms are located pretty far outside the confines of the city — at least the one we visited was. After thirty minutes of navigating gravel roads so narrow that we honestly didn’t know what we would do if we encountered a car coming toward us, we arrived. There wasn’t anything at the llama farm I wasn’t expecting. There were two barns, a four-wheeler, a motorcycle, a pickup truck, a small cabin — and, in the middle of it all, a fenced-in pen containing roughly a dozen llamas. Except for an all-white one. “He’s a jumper,” said… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on June 7th, 2016 in Main 
The last time I spent time in Pigeon Forge, TN, I was nine years old. My family and I went to Knoxville in 1982 to attend the World’s Fair, and stayed in Pigeon Forge. My father once described Pigeon Forge as “a sideshow without a circus” back in 1982. Not much has changed. Susan got a good deal on this cabin for the weekend just off the beaten path. It was overkill for only four of us, but it was cheaper than the hotel I’m in tonight in Washington D.C. One of the main things Morgan wanted to see in… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on June 2nd, 2016 in MainLast week, a high school student was prevented from walking across the stage at his high school graduation ceremony because he had a beard. Before I got a chance to write about that, I read another story about a local Native American student was was prevented from wearing a beaded cap during graduation. Earlier in the year, a student was suspended for dying her hair a non-natural color. I have a message for these and all oppressed youths who are being held back by the man and prevented from expressing themselves and doing whatever they want regardless of established rules:… (read more)
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