tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967Tue, 13 May 2008 08:11:35 +0000http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/noreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)Blogger240125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-2658985790933115736Sun, 11 May 2008 03:59:00 +00002008-05-11T00:00:27.011-04:00My daughter’s best friend got married today and she asked me to take pictures of the wedding and reception. I was happy to oblige. But afterwards, while I was at home creating a DVD slide show of the event, I started waxing nostalgic of the time when I was a kid, taking pictures with my cheap plastic camera. I’ve always enjoyed photography. When I was about 12 or 13 I would go around the http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2008/05/digital-photography-still-fascinating.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-7005364880037389389Sun, 04 May 2008 00:18:00 +00002008-05-03T20:20:10.861-04:00Readers of this blog may have noticed that I write a lot of opinions regarding science or technological issues. For that reason, I have created a separate blog for my articles that focus on science or technology. Please visit Wilstar's SciTech Blog.http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2008/05/new-science-and-technology-blog.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-58871960792195246Sun, 20 Apr 2008 14:44:00 +00002008-04-20T10:45:37.151-04:00How much of our lives are built upon our memories? Memories are what link us to the person we used to be. They make our lives fluid, ever flowing from the past into the present, even into the future. Our legacies are but memories for our descendants to share. What would life be like without memories? Each day would be as if we were a newborn baby. There would be no experiences for us to build http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2008/04/as-long-as-i-remember-ive-always-had.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-219705246967850100Sun, 20 Apr 2008 14:25:00 +00002008-04-20T10:25:45.694-04:00Did you feel last week’s earthquake? I did. It was my third one. Back in 1968 Nixon was running for president, I was a sophomore in high school, and Indiana experienced an earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale. I didn’t feel it. But almost everyone else did. Back then, the Indianapolis Star ran is daily quip on the front page by a cartoon bird called Joe Crow. In the edition following http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2008/04/my-experience-with-earthquakes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-8339931445949814320Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:02:00 +00002008-04-26T19:25:20.865-04:00As a science teacher I understand what science is. Just as importantly, I understand what it is not. Science is the study of natural laws and how they work. The application of science to everyday life is called technology. Although pure science can be too cryptic for some people's taste or understanding, they know that if something is "scientific" it carries a label of validity. That's why the http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2008/04/beware-of-bad-science.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-2347341979332751640Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:13:00 +00002008-04-13T13:19:58.621-04:00It’s a Sunday afternoon and I’m about 11 or 12 years old. There’s not much to do in Edinburgh when you’re a preteen, but on Sunday afternoons, many of us got to go downtown to see a matinee. The venue was the Pixie Theater. They showed movies on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings with an added matinee on Sundays. The cost was 50 cents. And, typically, they showed a double feature. I loved http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2008/04/movies-and-theaters-not-like-they-used.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-3722104343384829243Sat, 05 Apr 2008 14:03:00 +00002008-04-05T10:04:59.948-04:00Most of us remember the 1980’s sitcom, Family Ties, starring Michael J. Fox. The original premise of the show was that the parents were far more liberal than the kids, at least the Fox character. It was a role reversal. Recently, my son and I were discussing music, and music delivery devices, and went through a similar role reversal. He was looking through Borders for a special CD he wanted. He http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2008/04/music-cds-to-follow-suit-of-8-track.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-3611887973516712974Sun, 30 Mar 2008 21:07:00 +00002008-03-30T17:07:49.709-04:00Here I am in the middle of spring break, that time of year when students and teachers get to take a much-needed break from each other and soak up the springtime sun, if it ever stops raining. The spring break tradition goes way back in history. In the modern U.S., spring break brings to mind Florida beaches, or California ones for those who live on the West Coast, fun in the sun, too much http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2008/03/spring-break-through-ages.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-4719074996352184453Sun, 23 Mar 2008 15:07:00 +00002008-03-23T11:08:35.990-04:00Have you ever eaten hotdogs, spaghetti, or pizza for breakfast with ice cream for dessert? Perhaps some people may grab whatever is leftover in the fridge on their way to work just to get some food into them. But few people actually prepare the above-mentioned foods as their primary breakfast meal. They are better eaten for lunch or dinner. But if you look at the original Middle English http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2008/03/was-our-easter-dinner-really-lunch.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-4035933413822372994Sun, 16 Mar 2008 14:38:00 +00002008-03-16T10:38:56.015-04:00When I was a kid, Easter was probably my third-favorite holiday, behind Halloween and Christmas. Christmas was, of course, the big one. It meant getting lots of cool toys and candy. Halloween was good because I liked the costumes and it was even more fun to get lots of candy. Easter was fun because I got to hunt Easter eggs and because, yes, there was even more candy. It wasn’t as cool as http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2008/03/kids-find-true-nature-of-easter.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-8005830520451151855Sun, 02 Mar 2008 14:08:00 +00002008-03-02T09:09:14.760-05:00Imagine what it would be like if every household, every place of business, and every manufacturing plant had to generate its own electricity. What if there were no power companies that provided the juice to run your lights, appliances, and computers? Every house would have its own generator. Every homeowner would be responsible for its upkeep and someone is the house would have to keep an eye onhttp://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2008/03/future-vision-planet-sized-computer.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-5351841333928362553Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:32:00 +00002008-02-24T10:33:45.396-05:00Tomorrow is a day that comes around only once every four years. It is leap day, February 29. Leap day, occurring in leap years, is a semi-permanent fix to a problem that has plagued official time keepers from the beginning of time. There is really nothing natural about time keeping. And throughout history scholars have had a tough time figuring out exactly what time it was. The word “month” ishttp://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2008/02/leap-year-best-we-can-do-in-time.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-1508262333714663728Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:25:00 +00002008-02-17T13:26:18.085-05:00I’m sitting here browsing the Internet for the latest news, eating my typical weekend breakfast delicacy of biscuits and gravy. It’s my weakness. Every once in awhile, usually on weekends, I get a craving for sausage gravy and biscuits, although any creamy white gravy will do. I’m particularly fond of Cracker Barrel’s sawmill gravy or Bob Evan’s black pepper gravy. On rarer occasions, I also gethttp://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2008/02/food-doesnt-have-to-be-expensive-to-be.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-7414343434128965756Sat, 09 Feb 2008 13:55:00 +00002008-02-09T08:57:49.826-05:00Once upon a time, you could go into almost any local filling station and ask for a road map of the state. They were free for the taking. The maps depicted borders between counties and other states. They showed roads, of course. And you could get an estimate of the population of towns and cities by the size of the map symbols representing them. What you couldn’t see on those maps, which are stillhttp://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2008/02/getting-up-close-and-personal-with.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-8594043353251326046Sun, 03 Feb 2008 15:51:00 +00002008-02-03T10:52:51.186-05:00As a science teacher, one of the things I look forward to each year is the annual convention of the Hoosier Association of Science Teachers, Inc. (HASTI). It takes place at the Indiana Convention Center. Back during my first round of teaching through the 1980s, I not only attended each year, but one year I was a presenter. During the preceding summer, I had traveled much of the state taking http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2008/02/gadgets-and-gizmos-abound-at-hasti.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-4374916056298426171Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:56:00 +00002008-01-27T19:59:10.726-05:00Groundhog Day is in two days. That means by this weekend, we’ll know for absolute certain whether we will be blessed with an early spring or have six more weeks of winter. Well, at least that’s according to tradition. If the groundhog emerges from his burrow on February 2 and sees his shadow, he goes back into his burrow for six more weeks of cold, snowy weather. On the other hand, if it’s http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2008/01/is-is-spring-yet-ask-groundhog.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-3495315126910840382Sun, 20 Jan 2008 23:09:00 +00002008-01-20T18:11:48.426-05:00Almost everyone has a hobby. Some are simple; others are quite elaborate. But unless you have to hold down two or three jobs to make ends meet, you probably have a hobby of some kind. When I was a teen, I had two hobbies. One was recording weather observations and writing about weather for the Edinburgh Daily Courier. The other was tropical fish. It is in my personality to go all out with http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2008/01/my-fish-tale.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-3170496529195962429Sun, 13 Jan 2008 16:44:00 +00002008-01-13T11:45:37.917-05:00Suppose your child has done his homework for the day and has completed his chores, so you allow him to traipse off to the store with some of his allowance to purchase a sweet treat. Upon arrival at the store, the kid picks out his candy and heads to the counter. There, the clerk tells the youngster that candy is bad for his teeth. So the clerk refuses to sell the candy to the child because of http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2008/01/should-pharmacists-be-allowed-to-refuse.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-7017048078421490384Sun, 06 Jan 2008 15:57:00 +00002008-01-06T10:58:26.779-05:00A goal I set for myself back when I was in my 20s was that I would be resolved not to stagnate in the present as technology moved quickly into the future. I saw around me a world where those over 50 were confused by such new-fangled devices as the video tape recorder or the handheld calculator. The VCR, in particular, became part of a running joke. It was the device that baby boomers and senior http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2008/01/keeping-up-with-techno-joneses.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-1915470288499464455Sat, 29 Dec 2007 17:02:00 +00002007-12-29T12:03:57.127-05:00When New Year’s Day has come and gone I wonder how many resolutions will have already been broken. It’s one reason I don’t like making resolutions. It’s for the same reason I rarely make promises. Despite one’s best intentions, sometimes the saying is far easier than the doing. But that doesn’t stop me from creating a wish list for the coming year. I did that last year, and as stated in my lasthttp://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2007/12/my-wish-list-for-2008.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-260095138910492500Fri, 21 Dec 2007 15:35:00 +00002007-12-21T10:35:42.962-05:00Last January I wrote in one of my columns that I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions, but I did publish a wish list for the coming year. This was a list of things from the local to the global level that I, personally, would hope to see some progress in. Obviously, I wasn’t naïve enough to suppose that all my wishes would be fulfilled within 2007, but I was hoping there would be some http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2007/12/i-wished-upon-star-but-nothing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-6086581914869681903Sat, 15 Dec 2007 23:51:00 +00002007-12-15T18:52:05.562-05:00Christmas is the only holiday that is both a legal federal holiday and a Christian celebration. That’s probably because Christmas is two holidays in one; it has a secular component that includes Santa Claus, presents, decorations, and parties. It also has a religious component, which includes church services and the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. But both sides of the Christmas http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2007/12/dispelling-myths-about-christmas.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-7640639448935986316Sun, 09 Dec 2007 16:17:00 +00002007-12-09T11:18:18.736-05:00This is the season of paradoxes. Christmas is a time for joy, warmth, and family coziness. The key word in most Christmas traditions is family. It is the second time within the span of a month when families get together to eat, play parlor games, and re-bond with each other. On the other hand, Christmas is a stressful time. Shoppers who love to shop are thrilled with all the bargains that aboundhttp://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2007/12/whats-christmas-without-traditions.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-5245798146941286464Mon, 03 Dec 2007 01:15:00 +00002007-12-02T20:16:23.225-05:00Are you ready for next week’s big celebration? Ok, so I’m being sarcastic. And, no, it has nothing to do with this month’s other big holiday, Christmas. December 11 is Indiana Admission Day, as will presumably be proclaimed by the governor. When I was in the sixth grade, I remember being taught a subject called Indiana History. The whole course lasted only a couple of weeks and was part of our http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2007/12/indiana-day-is-next-week-but-will.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10325967.post-7945578312996048451Sun, 25 Nov 2007 14:46:00 +00002007-11-25T09:47:20.962-05:00In little more than a month, the presidential caucuses and primary elections will begin. These are basically state-by-state competitions designed to narrow the field of candidates down to one from each party who will then run head-to-head for the presidency. For the last 150 years there have been two major political parties in this country, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. People http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2007/11/even-in-election-years-not-everyone-has.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jerry Wilson)