Personal

Uncluttered charging station

May 17, 2009 by Keith Seabourn Leave a Comment

I got the idea from Lifehacker. It’s a good idea. For $8.50 and about 15 minutes, I moved from clutter to unclutter.

Here’s where we have been charging our cellphones and other stuff.

I bought a plastic box at Target for $1.00 and a surge-protected power strip for $7.50. I wanted the type with the sockets horizontal to accomodate charging bricks better.

I used simple tools from my garage: a drill and a large bit for the power cord and a smaller bit for the charging cables along with a sharp knife to trip the holes after drilling.

Drill the large hole for the power strip cable. The Lifehacker article uses a slightly different approach for drilling the power strip hole. I have these wood auger bits that worked well for the hole. The velcro tie-wraps are not necessary. I travel with these some of these chargers so I already had the velcro wraps attached. But they do help keep the box orderly!

Inserting the power strip and charging bricks

Drill holes in the lid for the charger connectors. All of mine would fit comfortably through a 1/2 inch hole. The Lifehacker article has a creative way of drilling for longer connectors that will not easily fit through a round hole.

And there it is. A tidy charging station.

Beware of Quicken Starter upgrade limitation

March 23, 2009 by Keith Seabourn 6 Comments

OK. I’m not happy. This is a not-so-happy post about my favorite money manager, Quicken. I did the buy-TurboTax+Quicken-and-get-$30-rebate thing. As I installed Quicken, I was informed that the Starter edition “can’t convert a data file from a previous version of Quicken”!!!

This is enough of a change that Quicken felt the need to alert me before installing itself. That’s a good move. It would have been even better if I had been alerted before I purchased the product!

I grabbed the original box and checked to see if I’d missed some fine print. Well, I kind of did, maybe. In the really fine print, the box says “Quicken Started Edition 2009 imports data from Quicken 2008 only.” I have Quicken 2002 on my computer. I’m on the road and have Quicken 2008 at home but never upgraded. So, I don’t know which is correct yet — the inside of the box or the warning dialog box. The dialog box did not say my version was too old, it said none, nada, zippo conversions from previous versions.

So, now I don’t know what to do. Do I pay for the upgrade to another Quicken version so I can use it while on the road? Or do I wait until I get home, install Quicken 2008 to see if Quicken 2009 can convert data files from Quicken 2008?

Any of you have ideas?

Update: I’ve spent about 2 hours researching this “can’t convert a data file from a previous version of Quicken” problem. It’s real. The Quicken Community forums have some unhappy long-time users of Quicken. (Read here…) I found this statement in the forums: “The Starter Edition is for new users only. You cannot open a Quicken file from a previous version with the Starter Edition. You will need to upgrade to Quicken Deluxe or higher to convert and open your Quicken data file.”

Looks like the marketing folks went overboard in segmenting the market.

First Date

February 15, 2009 by Keith Seabourn 2 Comments

Forty years ago on Valentine’s Day weekend, two nervous teenagers had our first date together. We even have a photo of that first date. Mesquite High School All-Stars Drill Team banquet, Royal Coach Inn, Dallas, Texas. February 15, 1969. Remember the all polyester days?

Several years ago, I had the bright idea of taking Kay back to the Royal Coach Inn to celebrate. I drove back and forth along Northwest Highway but couldn’t find the hotel. It had been destroyed to make room for apartments.

I’m glad our life together has outlasted the hotel building! Kay is the love of my life, God’s gift.

Saying “thank you” in all things

November 26, 2008 by Keith Seabourn 2 Comments

I was ticketed yesterday while driving in South Carolina. “Improper lane change”. The officer said I had changed lanes in an improper manner. I feel like screaming, “Did you not see my traffic indicator blinking before I changed lanes?” And “Did anyone have to swerve or stomp on their brakes to avoid a collision?” He felt that I pulled between two cars with insufficient space.

Part of me has to acknowledge that he is right. It was a little tight. The traffic was heavy and the only way to get around the 18-wheeler I was following in the right lane was to move into a pretty full left lane. I wondered why he didn’t ticket people for not using the left lane for passing-only rather than camping out there.

I also felt like pointing out his own improper driving. I mean, who is he to call my action improper when he had just committed an improper action. When we passed this officer, he was just finishing ticketing someone else. This offender was parked on the right shoulder. The officer pulled around the car on the right, on the grass, and rejoined the highway. He wasn’t chasing anyone, just rejoining. I thought policemen were supposed to stay behind the vehicle as it rejoined traffic, using their flashing lights to make sure cars safely rejoined the highway.

Self-righteousness welled up. Other cars were doing wrong things, why pick me? You, Mr. Officer, are not a paragon of proper driving so how can you pick on me?

Other thoughts swirled.

God is sovereign. Nothing happens to me by chance, it is all part of God’s shaping me into the image of Jesus Christ.

Give thanks in all things. Rejoice always. I even preached on this back in July, calling it 10 Words to Live By.

I remember what long-time friend Don Myers taught me once about the Spirit-filled life, “It only works when you work it.” It doesn’t help to only know to give thanks in all things. It is beneficial in my life when I obey, when I follow God’s principles and actually give thanks in the midst of an unpleasant circumstance.

This morning, I read some thoughts from another friend, Judy Douglass. She wrote yesterday in a private message:

I believe thanking God does many things. Here are three:

The first is that it expresses my trust that God is God and God is good. Even when it doesn’t feel like it or look like it.

Second it gives me a more peaceful heart–sometimes just a little, sometime a great deal.

Third, I believe my saying Thank You opens a door for God to work in amazing and unexpected ways.

So, after a long night of laying awake thinking of smart remarks to make to Mr. Officer, I am writing this post as part of my saying to God this morning, “Thank you for the ticket. Thank you for what you want to do in my life through this ticket. Thank you for Mr. Officer who is participating in your plan to mold me into the image of Jesus Christ.”

After all, it is Thanksgiving and Kay and I drove to North Carolina to participate in thanking God with Jennifer, and with Daniel and Michelle and Abby and Lucy. It’s just a part of giving thanks that I was unprepared for, but I’m now getting around this giving of thanks also.

I Voted

October 25, 2008 by Keith Seabourn Leave a Comment

Kay and I stood in line for 1 1/2 hours yesterday. But the weather was cool. And the company of fellow voters was good. The person in line ahead of us was knitting a maroon and white bedspread for her nephew who is attending (you guessed it!) Texas A&M. She was an Aggie also. Pretty amazing to find three displaced Ags standing in line for early voting in Florida!