Dream - Finding my brother's apartment and trying to get ready for work

On Wednesday morning, September 10, 2008, around 4:00-5:00 AM, I had a dream where I was staying in a giant apartment house with hospital-like corridors, and my brother and his family had a huge apartment there with large numbers of relatives visiting, and I had to go to work in the morning and was very tired and trying to get to a shower.

In the dream, I was in a fairly large place, living there. Some relatives and their children had come to visit. I had to go to work in the radiator shop in the morning. It seemed it wasn't a normal thing, but I had to do it and maybe for several days afterward. One of the relatives was going with me to help out. The relatives were actually staying at my brother's house, which was not far away in the dream, in fact the places were connected in the same building. Later, I had to walk through corridors to get to it. I kept going back and forth. It was the middle of the night, but getting toward morning. When I went to his place I went through a large common area and then along wide corridors. The walls had numbers on them for the different apartments. Every little bit would be an opening where there were chairs and tables and where people could eat, along with one or more people who acted as supervisors or helpers. This was similar to how the nurses' stations in the hospital were in real life, but much more deluxe and expensive looking.

At my brother's place people were doing various things, working at various tasks, helping to get things ready, helping to fix things to eat. My mother was there too, looking much younger, helping out.

I laid down on a couch there in the family room, which was similar to my grandmother's house in Arizona. The couch had a few things on it already, including a few folded-up small towels and dish towels and things. They were mostly on one end, though there were a little along the bottom cushion near the back and up on top of the back. I had brought a folded up old T-shirt that I had been using as a pillow. I tried to lay down for a while and sleep, but I wasn't able to with all that was happening around me. I worried, too, about the folded up T-shirt being mistaken for something clean and I thought I should probably crumple it up instead of having it neatly folded.

I got up and went back to where I was staying and laid down on the couch there. Someone was saying something on the radio, something about crime I think. My 1970 Cadillac was parked outside on the enormous lawn, a lawn that had low cut, partly yellow grass, probably Bermuda grass. I think I looked out briefly at the car and was glad that it was still okay. It was getting around 5:00 AM and I had to get started getting ready. I still had to take a shower. I didn't know how easy it was going to be with all the people there. Some might be wanting to take one, too. The man who was going to help was already ready, I saw him now and then. I was already dressed, though not in work clothes, and I would have to get undressed for the shower and then dressed again.

I started over to my brother's place. I was so tired that I ended up leaning against the wall of the corridor, pushing at it with my head. My eyes kept closing and wanting to stay closed. I managed to somehow get moving and kind of slid around the corner, still pushing forward though I should be going to the side. People were staring at me. I was basically slowly stumbling forward. It was hard to stop it. I managed to turn to the left and go that direction, but now I was in the far corridor, not the one I was usually on, and I had to go through one of the small eating areas to get back to the other corridor. One of the supervisor women in the eating area was looking at me uncertainly, like she was wondering if she should ask me if I needed any help. I managed to turn away fairly quickly, considering, and get to the other corridor.

I made my way along it looking for my brother's apartment number. Somehow I went past it and the apartments ended in another open section that apparently went on to an area of small shops. Everything looked different than it had, older and cheaper, like an old section of town. I looked back and saw that the people's names and maybe numbers were now on round signs that stuck out above the doors. The numbers were also on the walls or doors. The number I was looking for was 280 or 281. I found my brother's name, or it seems it wasn't exactly his name, though it seemed to be at first, but was instead some slightly humorous business name he was using. I don't remember now what it was. The apartments were all pretty close together, but when I went in it was enormous and extended a great distance, and went out quite a bit to the sides as well, particularly a ways in. There was a kitchen/eating area to the right and something leading off from it further in, maybe a bar and/or dancing area. The bathrooms and family room were somewhere to the left.

I walked on ahead into a huge area where a lot of people were watching a huge television, maybe more than one, somewhere in the distance to the left. Some of them were sitting on chairs of some kind, maybe webbed lawn chairs, and a lot were sitting or partly laying on the floor. They tended to be in small groups, sometimes only two or three in the group, separated with areas of space that might be five to ten feet. They tended to be grouped by sections of wall that were only about five feet or so long. (This is a little like the dream "In the Matrix," where a dark cloud came down and then I looked out on people that were widely separated and each had their own spike that went up high into the sky, and also a little like other dreams of huge outdoor entertainment complexes.) A lot of them were children. I think most of the people might have been visiting relatives.

I had a huge plastic glass partly filled with water or some other drink and somehow I threw it, kind of a combination throw-shove. I'm not sure now what I intended or where I intended for it to land, or if I even intended to throw it, it seems that it might have been accidental. I remember somebody coming from the left and getting in the way, maybe bumping into me, and I might have been trying to save the glass from spilling or from being knocked over, and so I threw/shoved it trying to get it to a safe place. It went forward a long distance, maybe twenty feet, and came down on the low rug standing up, bumping gently against a young girl, part of a small group of children on the rug in that area. She turned and looked down at it. I went and retrieved the drink, glad that it didn't hit her hard.

I went off to look for the shower. I realized I hadn't brought any soap with me. I hoped there was some in the shower I could use. In the dream I was picturing Caress, which I used to use but don't any longer. Then I was abruptly awakened by Bruce Jacobs. a local right-wing radio host, ranting on the radio in a loud voice. It was a little after 5:00 AM, maybe five or six minutes or so.

Wordzzle 90 - Passing inspection

This is my contribution to this week's Wordzzle. Wordzzle is a game in which each week word lists, used to create stories, are given on the blog Views from Raven's Nest. Participating users post their stories on their own blogs.

This is my entry number 34, for Wordzzle week 90.


Ten Word Challenge:

love is a many splendored thing,
trucks,
inspector,
symbols,
rising,
organic,
liberation,
costly,
smug,
naughty

"Love is a many splendored thing," said the inspector, counting his money, a smug look on his face. "It may seem like I have a rather naughty fondness for cash, but who doesn't? On the bright side, though it may seem costly, all your trucks have passed, and you have nothing to worry about now. I will give you the stickers to place on them, symbols of them having passed the tests, and all will be well. No one will know the difference."

I looked at him and at the money, my anger rising and falling like an organic thing. My face remained expressionless, though, and I still felt a hidden liberation at the knowledge that all the money was counterfeit.


Mini Challenge:

the nature of the beast,
identical,
charcoal,
braggart,
vacation

"I'm no braggart," he said, pouring gasoline on the charcoal, "but I'm the best when it comes to barbecuing. That's just the nature of the beast. No one's better than me, no one is identical to me, and no one even comes close. This will be a vacation to remember."

He was right, of course, though after the fire trucks left we ended up eating inside. The pizza was pretty good, too, and was delivered quickly.


Mega challenge:

love is a many splendored thing,
trucks,
inspector,
symbols,
rising,
organic,
liberation,
costly,
smug,
naughty

the nature of the beast,
identical,
charcoal,
braggart,
vacation

"No two are identical. When everything is handmade, that is the nature of the beast."

I looked at the faces carved in charcoal and encased in plastic. Some were of animals, and some were of people. They were intended to be comical paperweights, but they all seemed creepy somehow, like they were symbols of death and destruction. "Have you got anything else?"

"I have some tiny cacti in organic potting soil, with little naughty signs in front of them."

I sighed. "No, that's not quite it either. I was really looking for something else."

"I have some little toy trucks full of toy soldiers, with an assortment of stickers to go on the sides, for the liberation army of your choice."

"No. No. Something else."

"How about this?" he said, showing me a large fake police badge saying "Vice Inspector" with the phrase "Love is a many splendored thing" in a curve along the bottom.

"No, that's not it," I said, my voice rising in pitch.

"A hard one to please, I see. Well, I have something here that's a bit more costly, but well worth it. It's a laser-engraved oak plaque, trimmed in real silver."

I stared at it. It showed an old-fashioned outhouse by a stream. A crescent moon was cut into the door, which was partly open. A fishing pole projected from it, and a sign hung on the outhouse said "On Vacation."

I swallowed. My throat was suddenly dry, my voice hoarse. "I'll take it. It's perfect."

"I knew I could find something for you," he said smugly.

Let him be happy, I thought, as I walked away with my purchase, numb with elation. I didn't care. I had finally found the perfect trophy for the contest we were holding. The "My excuse to stay home from work is better than your excuse" Braggart Competition could now begin.

The Turkey and the Lizard

This is another story that I did for a message board for a thread that was normally concerned with comically constructing new words and definitions. At that time people were taking turns writing short stories containing a short list of words given by another user. The story is changed slightly here in that it is broken up into several paragraphs instead of being contained in just one.

This story was one of several that I did for my post 989 on that message board. The other stories were separate from this one, with their own lists of words. Along with containing the words from the list, this particular story was supposed to have a Thanksgiving theme. The list of words for this story: psychic, rocks, carnival, lizard, tofu

This story is dated 5:04 AM, November 29, 2006, Arizona time (MST).


THE TURKEY AND THE LIZARD

The turkey was worried. Things weren't the same around the farm. Too much of a carnival atmosphere. First the carving of horrible faces into the pumpkins (what could THAT mean?), then the dressing up in strange costumes. What could be next?

The turkey decided to consult a wise lizard that lived on the top of a tall mountain. The lizard was said to be psychic, and could foresee the future. So the turkey climbed the tall mountain, which in reality was a pile of rocks perhaps seven or eight feet high (well, it was tall to the lizard).

Arriving at the top, the turkey bowed down before the lizard and gave him an offering. The lizard stared at it. "Tofu? You brought me tofu?"

The turkey said, "Well, they don't really like to have me in the kitchen (or the house, for that matter), so I snuck in the kitchen and grabbed the first thing I could. Sorry."

The lizard stared at the tofu some more and finally broke off a piece and nibbled at it distractedly. "Well, what is it you want then?"

Hearing the words, the turkey, who had looked as if he might like to hide under one of the rocks, brightened up somewhat and explained the situation.

Finishing the story, the turkey said, "And so I would like to know something of the future, and of what may be my fate."

The lizard stared at the turkey for a long time and finally said, "I foresee a great giving of thanks."

Greatly relieved, the turkey profusely thanked the lizard and then made its way back down the mountain (well, sort of mountain).

Watching the turkey go, the lizard took another bite of tofu and mused to himself, "Perhaps I should have said 'a great Thanksgiving.'"

Dream - The device to help with astral projections

Very early Wednesday morning, September 10, 2008, around 1:00-2:00 AM, I had a dream in which I saw a large radiator-like object floating in a fiberglass tank, then later I tried to connect a similar object to electricity, as a device to help with astral projections.

In the dream, we went to see my father at his business, where he was having his business these days. He had a small fiberglass tank on the left side of a narrow room with concrete floors. The room was big enough to squeeze two and perhaps three tanks in. There was a hallway that led off from the middle of the room to office-type rooms he had. My father went off to the rooms with my mother and they were talking about something. I stayed and looked at the radiator repair tank.

It was filled with water and there was something large floating in it or suspended in it. I pushed at it from time to time, moving it back and forth a little in the water. Everything was fairly clean, including the floor, like it was fairly new or hadn't been used much, at least not for radiator work. Later, the object seemed more like a floating radiator of some kind, a big thick blocky one. Earlier, it may have just been a hoist for holding radiators, I'm not sure. The radiator-like thing was very heavily built with heavy brass fins that ran across it and square brass tanks, then later it had some kind of rod laid onto the middle of it that was attached to a massive power cord that ran off to an electronic machine. The machine was supposed to be something to help with out of body experiences or something like that.

I had memories then of other times and similar places, a series of such places, in other dreams perhaps or probably. It was a strange feeling and a little disturbing.

Then I was back home at the computer and listening to the radio. (In real life, I was sitting at the computer sleeping and Coast to Coast AM was on with George Noory and guest Lionel Fanthorpe talking about time travel and voodoo.) I was trying to get various largish electronic devices set up, things to help me get an out of body experience or something like that. I had some on the desk or table next to or near the computer screen and one was to the right against the wall. I was having some trouble with it.

I turned the radio off some common setting that it was on and then tuned the channel to bring in the station clearer. Instead of the compromise position, it was tuned slightly to one side in order to have some other benefit. (In real life, the radio is not like this and goes from station to station in discrete steps, not allowing fiddling with the tuning. I do have the bass and highs reduced slightly, though, when listening to AM to minimize noise. However, long ago when I was traveling, probably with the 1970 Cadillac, I did have to tune the radio off center sometimes, probably to bring a faint station in a little louder or to minimize some kind of whine or noise or something like that.)

With the radio tuned properly, the sound was coming through very well and clear, sounding very good. A song of some kind was playing. (In real life it was probably bumper music I was hearing.)

I had ordered something to help with what I was doing. It was $70, and was a heavy brass radiator-like thing like I saw earlier in the dream. I had to hook up the electronics, though, and find some place to put the radiator-like thing. It had to be suspended in a tank of water and I didn't see any place to put it where I was. I couldn't put in the family room because the rod with its massive cable drew a lot of electricity and I couldn't or shouldn't run an extension cord to it. I had wanted to stay in with the computer while I used the device, but it seemed that it was going to be very difficult to get it in there with the computer, and I had to buy some more stuff to even make it work. I didn't have everything I needed now. I almost felt that it would have been better not to spend the $70, but now it was too late, then suddenly things got very ominous and threatening and I abruptly woke up.

Dream - The long line and the door with no return

On Friday morning, September 5, 2008, I dreamed I was driving north or northeast from the Phoenix area, in a smallish car, around the 1987 Oldsmobile's size (a full-size front wheel drive sedan) or a little smaller. I was explaining to someone, my brother I think, about how I used to listen to records in the car in the old days, and then after they changed it I recorded some onto CD's. I was speaking specifically about a certain Neil Diamond album. I'm not sure which one, possibly the new one my sister got me (a CD).

The road wound back and forth and the ground was slowly getting higher. Various other roads joined it. Small towns or just service stations were occasionally seen off to the side.

For some reason I started walking instead, then running. Other people were doing it too, and the cars, never very numerous, were reduced, with mostly just an occasional one going the other way. I was going very fast, I don't remember now just how fast. It was either a little over thirty miles per hour or a little over sixty, on a slight uphill grade. I worried some about the soles of my shoes holding up, especially since I anticipated doing this a lot, going back and forth over this same area on long trips. I wondered if they had holes already. They didn't feel any different, though.

I got to a place where the turnoff led off to a building on the left. The road went to the building and then led around it. Other people were there, waiting in line to make their way around and through it. There was something in the building that they needed before going on. I think it had food, but there also seemed to be something else. I got in line. I think my father had arrived a little earlier, possibly also with his father, though in real life his father had been dead for over twenty years. I think my brother was there somewhere, too. My old lab partner was also there. The line was inside the building now, making its way along the sides.

Someone got a little ahead in line. I heard someone saying, too, something about Obama and him getting out of place, getting ahead in the line. I didn't actually notice Obama there, though I think I did see someone move ahead to a different place in the line. Perhaps they were two separate people, I'm not sure, or it may be that the Obama reference was applied retroactively to the person I saw. In real life, it was around 6-6:30 AM and the radio was playing with the Bruce Jacobs show on, a person with extreme right-wing views. I probably picked up something from it.

In the dream, the line led around the walls to where there was a door that people had to go in. There was a window near it, like a car dealer parts window. Someone went through the door early, out of sequence, to check on things, to see how they were going. I think it might have been my lab partner. He came back out after a short while. He had been anxious to see what the holdup might be, to see why it was taking so long. I think that food was supposed to be available beyond the door, but there was also something else that had to be done before leaving, some kind of short half-page form that had to be filled out, some kind of government thing. I felt that once you went through the door you couldn't normally come back.

Wordzzle 89 - Sugar-coated

This is my contribution to this week's Wordzzle. Wordzzle is a game in which each week word lists, used to create stories, are given on the blog Views from Raven's Nest. Participating users post their stories on their own blogs.

This is my entry number 33, for Wordzzle week 89.


Ten Word Challenge:

officer,
candid,
drowning,
turtles,
sugar-coated,
prospecting,
shame on you,
reclinder,
luggage,
brains

"Shame on you," said the officer to the man on the portable recliner who was eating sugar-coated gummy turtles and taking candid pictures of the near-drowning.

"Why?" said the man. "They should be worth some money to some news agencies. Don't you think a man ought to be able to make some money where he can?"

"Of course," said the officer. "I don't recognize you, and by the luggage sitting by you it appears that you are not local to here. I guess you're just traveling through, prospecting for stories, and it may be that wherever you were raised they didn't bring your brains, and your manners. to the levels expected around here. I was referring, of course, to your not offering to share your sugar-coated gummy turtles with me."


Mini Challenge:

paragon of virtue,
cats-in-the-cradle,
swamp,
sprinkles,
garbage

The paragon of virtue, covered with sprinkles of garbage and stringy plants, looking like a crazy cats-in-the-cradle had attacked him and died on him, climbed out of the swamp. His day, sadly enough, had just begun.


Mega challenge:

officer,
candid,
drowning,
turtles,
sugar-coated,
prospecting,
shame on you,
reclinder,
luggage,
brains

paragon of virtue,
cats-in-the-cradle,
swamp,
sprinkles,
garbage

The moss-and plant draped man, looking like a mad cats-in-the-cradle come to life, stood there, dripping pieces of garbage and swamp.

"Hey, watch it," the officer said. "You're getting sprinkles of that stuff on me."

"This is not the way a paragon of virtue should be treated," the man moaned.

"Well, you should have watched where you were going. Nobody with any brains would want to drive into that swamp."

"It was an accident, I was drowning," he wailed. "Does nobody care?"

"Let me take a few more candid shots," said the man in the recliner. "And try not to drip on my luggage."

"Shame on you, oh shame, shame!" cried the man. "I have suffered so much, and this is all I get. I was trying to avoid running over some baby turtles and lost control, and went into the swamp. And all I get is this, and no one cares, and I'm asked to pose for pictures when I'm sure I don't look my best, by someone prospecting for bad shots."

"Baby turtles? That reminds me. I think I might have dropped some of my sugar-coated gummy turtles back there. You didn't run over any, did you?"

The Question

This is a kind of free verse poem/essay, one that's unusual for me because of its political nature. The election, over a year ago now, settled things for a time, but the person the poem alludes to remains in the spotlight.

This poem/essay is dated 2:00 PM, October 23, 2008, Arizona time (MST).


THE QUESTION

I can't see Russia
From my house.

But I have seen
Japanese cars
And eaten
Mexican food.

Is that enough?

Dream - Studying data formats, then flying to a mall and meeting someone from grade school

On Saturday morning, July 26, 2008, I dreamed I was studying data formats when a practice alert occurred, then afterwards I flew to a mall and met someone from grade school.

In the dream, I was at work in Nevada. The Engineering room was filled with rows of long tables. I was sitting at one near the front near the corner. On the other side of the wall was the short hallway going to the front door.

I was reading books and doing research. The books were about various things, including formats for getting user names and passwords and security stuff. A lot of other stuff too, probably user addresses, but also other information. It seemed a lot of stuff to have to enter into the computer. It also talked about formats of a type of manuscript and for the editing of it. Many other things, too, including natural history type info.

The Engineering boss came over. He was on the other side of the table across from me and down a little ways toward the inside of the room, and animatedly talking to people. He was smiling as he talked, but I felt he was really spying on us, me in particular, checking to see if we were working. I kept on reading the books and I think taking an occasional note. It was something I needed to be doing and was work related. I felt a little uncomfortable anyway, though not much.

A practice alert occurred, a prescheduled one, though I had forgotten it would happen. The others left, some faster than others. I continued to try and read for a little while, to try and finish up some what I had been doing, but finally realized that I had better get going, that I would get in trouble otherwise. I left and wandered around. I don't remember now what I did.

I eventually ended up eating in my car. It was parked along with many other cars in rows in, I guess, a gravel parking lot. It was beyond the buildings out in what in real life would be desert, out in the Elko direction, away from Fallon. Although it was around lunchtime the light was not very bright, like it might be a little cloudy. I think I was still reading while I ate, also looking out the windows and thinking.

I looked at my watch (or a clock on the dash) and saw that it was a little after 1:00 PM. It was almost 11:00 when the practice alert occurred. I had decided to just combine it with lunch. I thought now, though, that the alert was probably only twenty minutes long and now it was getting kind of late and I had better get back. It didn't seem important, the amount of time I was taking, but then it seemed that the time might matter, that some people might be upset. Some other people stopped by and started talking to me. I got out and shut the door. It was an old car, like something from the 1950s. It seems I had another car there, too.

There was some kind of odd locking device on the outside. Sometimes it was on the fender near the passenger door and sometimes it was on the other side of the door around the bottom of the thick roof pillar. A key went in it to turn it. It was a round thing perhaps a couple of inches across with a bar across the middle. Once the key went in I turned the dial around quite a bit, it had a lot of travel. I kept talking about it as I demonstrated it. It seems it also had something to do with the wipers. One person was still there listening, but the others had gone on, going back to work. We had to get started, too.

I went and looked and there was a long way down to the shopping center. Although it was now a shopping center, not the place I worked, it didn't seem to matter or even be noticeable. The shopping center was at a lower level, down in the desert. The desert had occasional brush and plants. There was a broad dirt road that led down there that went to the side and then turned to the left toward it. Someone was still with me, though it didn't seem to be the same person as before, he seemed taller. Though I suppose he could just have changed in the dream, he looked different, too.

I decided to just fly down there, that I could do it. I wanted to show the other person, too. I think I was encouraging him to fly, but he didn't want to and either drove or hurried down on foot. I flew down, low over the landscape. I couldn't get much height.

As I got closer, a bunch of people were coming out and going down the road toward me. Then the man I was with suddenly came out of the tall brush at the right side of the dirt road. As I came down to the ground the people moved past me, talking among themselves. It seemed to be closing time, at least for the shift the people were on.

I went in to the shopping center. The light was dim. There were still people around, though not huge numbers. There seemed to be some military connection, like the shopping center had some military connection or side purpose.

I was still thinking about the user name, password, and user data formats as given in the book. It seemed there was some manual there that also talked about it as part of other things. It talked about something completely different at the front of it, maybe appliances or something like that, like the rest was partially hidden.

I needed to go to the upper level. It seemed the shopping center was very tall (though it didn't seem so when I saw it outside). The upper levels may not all be shopping and I think that some of them may have had more of a military purpose. There was some kind of projecting balcony or landing, maybe with folding stairs, though I think there was also a stairway or elevator somewhere far at the back of it.

I showed the person with me that I didn't need to use the stairs, I was so tall that I could reach up and grab the floor or something around there with my hand and then pull myself up on it. I think I may have originally thought more about flying up, though.

However I did it, I was now up on the walkway and could go toward the next level of the shopping center. The walkway was made of some dark material, metal and maybe old wood. It went into a right angle turn to the left and then I reached the end. There was a bit of a gap between it and the next level of the shopping center, and the next level was slightly higher, maybe a couple of feet, maybe more. The next level had a narrow walkway long the front of it with a thin metal railing. Someone was already there, or got there just as I was reaching it.

I recognised him as a short person I used to go to grade school with. He was still short and looked much the same, just older. He was there now on the walkway beyond the railing. He wanted to know if I recognized him. I said yes, and told him my name just in case he didn't remember it. I was very, very tired now, though, and I didn't get the name out very well. It was soft and blurred and trailed off. I tried again, saying something like "Stlephebim Morgahn." It was not very good, but I was so tired it was very hard to talk. He seemed to understand anyway.

He offered to help me up on the narrow walkway where he stood, there in front of the next level. I took his hand and he pulled me up.

When I got there I saw he was much taller and his face was longer and narrower. He was much taller that I was, maybe a half foot or so taller. I was surprised. He said he shot up a lot after grade school (or I simply supposed that to be the case). There was some other quality about him too, like he had some extra knowledge and/or power and was part of the military aspect of things in some intelligence or security function or knew something about it.

Dream - The small buildings in the lake, some with red liquid and some with blue

Around July 20, 2008, I dreamed I was driving back to Nevada along a place like the road by Walker Lake, going north, but instead of the lake being way down it was up near the road. My brother was there, in a separate car I think. He was irritated that I wasn't going faster. A lot had already happened, but I no longer remember it.

We got past the big curve and were going along a section that wound in and out slightly along that end of the lake. There was some kind of building or structure that went from the lake out over the road, very low, and we had to go through it. My brother went into it in his car, going slow, and I think stopped for a while. I was flying beside the road over the lake now, very low, unable to get much height even though I thought I should be able to. I think one arm or hand was stretched out toward and over the road, touching it, and my body and legs were out over the water. Sometimes my legs dipped into it a little bit as I flew.

A little before the building, maybe before the curve I think, I went out over the water and there was a tiny building, the size of a very small restroom, that had a pool of liquid near the door, trying to spread forward some, with little waves or ripples in it. It was a bright deep red in color, almost a fluorescent red, and a little thicker than water, like Jello before it sets or like antifreeze.

Now with my brother under the structure that came out from the water, I went out again over the water and found another little building. I think I did this a couple of times. These buildings, like the other, were tiny and had a narrow path to the door, but the pools associated with both of these had a bright deep fluorescent blue color instead of red. I was thinking that sometimes it was one color and sometimes the other, like this was normal and matter of fact. All the ones in this section seemed to have blue liquid though, which was a little disturbing for some reason.

Wordzzle 88 - Who done it?

This is my contribution to this week's Wordzzle. Wordzzle is a game in which each week word lists, used to create stories, are given on the blog Views from Raven's Nest. Participating users post their stories on their own blogs.

This is my entry number 32, for Wordzzle week 88.


Ten Word Challenge:

Cute,
come with me to the Casba,
bloodhound,
respiration,
Facebook,
Canada Geese,
modern,
gravity,
spider webs,
sea shells

"Come with me to the Casba," whispered the bloodhound, in breathy respiration.

The Canadian geese listened attentively but didn't move, held down more by the spider webs than by gravity. A small dog with sea shells hanging from its ears said, "You looked much cuter on your Facebook page."

The bloodhound nodded in acknowledgement and said, "It's amazing what modern photo editing programs can do. It's a mystery to me why more folks don't use them."


Mini Challenge:

curiosity killed the cat,
charming Victorian,
railroad tracks,
tower,
salt and pepper

"Curiosity killed the cat," said the charming Victorian gentleman, as he poked at the salt and pepper gravel around the railroad tracks, "but even those who aren't the least bit curious die eventually." He turned and looked at me. "That's what happened to me, you know. I wasn't curious at all, I simply happened to fall out of a tower."

He continued to ramble on, but I was distracted by the sight of the body lying beside the tracks, a body knocked there by the recently passed train.

A body that looked very much like mine.


Mega challenge:

Cute,
come with me to the Casba,
bloodhound,
respiration,
Facebook,
Canada Geese,
modern,
gravity,
spider webs,
sea shells

curiosity killed the cat,
charming Victorian,
railroad tracks,
tower,
salt and pepper

"I used to sell sea shells by the sea shore, but someone stole them all," said the bloodhound. "You wouldn't know anything about that would you?"

"I know nothing at all about it," said the little dog, "and I got these sea shells from a perfectly reputable source."

"I was called away to try to solve a murder mystery," said the bloodhound. "Someone sprinkled salt and pepper all over the trail, though, and I lost the scent. When I returned, all my things were gone."

"It wasn't me! And I'm sorry you weren't able to find out who killed the cat!"

"Who said anything about a cat?"

"Why, er, I just assumed... Curiosity killed the cat, anyway. Everybody knows that!"

The bloodhound turned to the Canadian geese, who said, "It wasn't us! We've been stuck in the spider webs all day! And we wouldn't know a thing about a cat being thrown from a tower onto some railroad tracks!"

"Who said anything about a tower and railroad tracks?" said the bloodhound.

"I wasn't there when the cat's respiration ceased. I never saw her last breath, or any of the breaths before that," a charming Victorian gentleman said, almost invisible in the shadows of a doorway.

"Who said she was a female?" said the bloodhound.

"I just read her Facebook page," said a cute young woman dressed in modern clothes. "She didn't say anything about being dead."

"Who said anything about the cat having a Facebook page, and how could you find it without knowing who the cat was and what name she used?"

The bloodhound looked with great gravity at all of them, and they cowered away under the intensity of the look.

"Who said anything about the cat being dead?" said the cat, casually strolling in. They all turned to look at her. "Come with me to the Casba," she whispered to the bloodhound.

The bloodhound looked back at her. "I thought you'd never ask."

Toasting Them All

This is another story that I did for a message board for a thread that was normally concerned with comically constructing new words and definitions. At that time people were taking turns writing short stories containing a short list of words given by another user. The story is changed slightly here in that it is broken up into two paragraphs instead of being contained in just one.

This story was one of several that I did for my post 989 on that message board. The other stories were separate from this one, with their own lists of words. The list of words for this story: rotation, mai tai, hooker, everglades, cheerful

This story is dated 5:04 AM, November 29, 2006, Arizona time (MST).


TOASTING THEM ALL

He raised the mai tai and toasted the bar, the hooker, the everglades, and the whole state of Florida. He then toasted them all again and began weeping.

His friends looked at each other uncertainly, and one put his finger by his head and moved the finger in a slow rotation. The other friend said "You may be right. He was a lot more cheerful, though, before we started watching 'CSI: Miami.' Let's see if we can find something else."

Dream - The Oldsmobile station wagon and teddy bears

In May of 2007, probably around the 26th or 27th, I dreamed of the 1973 Oldsmobile station wagon being down by Skaggs/Osco and having something wrong with it. I went with my mother down there, taking what looked like an antifreeze bottle but having a little bit of U.S. Chemical Z-4 Ring & Valve Free in it. It was night and we stopped at a little diner that, in the dream, was on the west side of the building. I left the Ring & Valve Free down next to the counter.

My father eventually showed up and the station wagon was somehow taken to the radiator shop on the main road. I stopped back at the diner, as my mother was worried about the Ring & Valve Free. It had apparently been a day or two, maybe even more, but it was still there, along with my black leather briefcase. I was a little surprised about the briefcase, as I had forgotten it was there. In spite of the place apparently having been cleaned, and probably more then once, they were both still there, though the briefcase was slightly moved out from the counter on one side and the expansion snap had been undone on the inside on the bottom on one side, and one of the latches may have been undone also. I took both the briefcase and the Ring & Valve Free with me.

Sometime later, I went to the shop to check on the car. It was now daytime. In the dream, the shop had recently been turned back over to my father. The station wagon was parked way in the back, near the alley, next to another car. I walked slowly toward it across the concrete that I had had poured years ago, noting the occasional clumps of dirt on it, about the size of a large shovelful, some with an occasional blade of grass sticking out. I thought of how they had let the place go, leaving stuff like that there. I walked though one of them, shoving through it with my heavy rubber boot. I was very tired and it was hard to keep walking, and too much trouble to try and lift my feet above it.

A couple of employees went out there to the back, were perhaps going out there anyway, and in any case got there before me. One of them may have been one that I knew. They talked about a bunny they had found, evidently a toy one. I was excitedly shown two triangular piles, flat on one side, of what were apparently teddy bears, not bunnies, gray with old dust. One pile was supposed to be normal teddy bears and the other an antique version that was no longer made. Then it was abruptly reduced to one of each.

The antique teddy bear had a more oval head that was very flat in front. They were excited about licensing it to toy companies, and apparently several were interested. They hoped to use the money in a legal fight against the city, and perhaps also to meet some of the new city requirements.

It seems the city was trying to do some kind of revitalization project for that area. The old shed was going to have to be torn down, and nearby businesses were also going to be affected. I think some kind of beautification was also going to be done to the whole area near the alley. Perhaps even the main building would have to be torn down at some point, I'm not sure.

I think I started asking about the car, and my father had someone move it around to the side, where they opened the hood and started working on it. Other cars were there, too.

Dream - Grandpa and the violins

In May of 2007, probably around the middle of the month, I dreamed that I was driving through the south side of Phoenix, going east, probably a little south of Jefferson St. There was a lot of bare land, just dirt, to the right, the south. I went by or through some overpasses, underpasses and crossroads. For some reason I had been drinking (I don't drink) and a few miles ahead I was going to hit someone with my car and kill them. I somehow knew this was going to happen, like it was fated or had somehow happened before. Or perhaps I was informed by some presence or entity in the dream. I know there was someone I stopped and talked to. I continued on, but somehow never made it to where I was supposed to kill someone.

The dream seemed to skip ahead a few years, though I seem to remember at least some things happening in between. Years later, though, I was at another town, the place where the dead person's family lived. Grandpa, my mother's father, who has been dead about fifty years, got off a train, along with some other people who were with him. He looked thinner and seemed more energetic, but his hair was short and white instead of gray. He had several violins in their cases sitting around him, though not directly in front of him. There might have been six or seven. Although the person I killed had been dead for several years and presumably long buried, Grandpa felt that it was only right that since he was visiting the person's hometown that he should perform some kind of memorial service. He wasn't mad or judgmental, and seemed almost cheerful. More happened after that, but I don't remember what.

My time at GeoCities

Yahoo GeoCities closed sometime Monday, October 26, 2009, perhaps at the end of the day, as it was still available earlier in the day. I had been on it for a long time. I got a surprising amount of traffic for a while, though I got little or no traffic in the later years.

Before I joined GeoCities, I had been looking for a place where I could have my own web page. I chose GeoCities because it had just been acquired by Yahoo, and I already had a Yahoo email account.

The earliest file creation date I have on my C: drive for copies of my GeoCities files is for an old version of Index.html, the starting page for my site. The date for the file is Tuesday, July 4, 2000, 7:15:00 AM, meaning I probably joined GeoCities around that time.

I used one of their templates to create it, a pale green one. It had a place for a picture at the top left, with the part below that occupied by a short set of default links (to Yahoo locations), my name and email address, a smiley face that indicated whether I was online or not, and two links to the guestbook, to leave a message or to view the messages. I later replaced the Yahoo default links with ones of my own, and though the list remained short, it got long enough to affect the display and I had to adjust the code several times, to both place the links closer together and lengthening the lines that were used to frame the page.

On the right side of the page, room was given to write something. I devoted it initially to talking about what was on the other pages, with links to them, and also about being mentioned by a famous FoxPro book writer and programmer, in response to something I asked her about, and with links to that. I later also mentioned this blog. Originally the text the template used in this area was very small, but I eventually adjusted to display slightly larger.

The lines that framed the page were actually pictures and not connected to each other, with small square blocks at the corners that were in two sizes. The blocks weren't connected to the lines. If the page was stretched due to adding too many links or because of adding too much to the text, the vertical lines and the small blocks at the bottom corners grew too far apart.

I had been intending to redo the Index page and make the two sides two cells in a table, and get rid of the bordering picture lines and the associated code. This would make the page a lot easier to update. However, when I discovered that GeoCities was going to be discontinued, I dropped the plans. I had not actually written anything anyway, so it wasn't a big deal in that regard. I kind of wish I had done it earlier, though, and got it up, so it would be there for a while and I would have the satisfaction of having done it.

Two of the pages on my site were colored. The Index page, as mentioned already, was a light green. The color code for it was "#CCCC99". My Resume page was a kind of yellow-cream, with a code of "#FFF8CB". I found the color by looking for a web site that had a color close to what I wanted somewhere on it, then checking the source code for that page and finding the background color code for what I saw. I then did a little bit of experimentation with it on one of my web pages, perhaps the Resume page itself, to see if I could make the color a little closer to what I wanted. The rest of the pages were white.

I put site counters on all the pages, except those concerned with the guestbook. At one time the Index page counter showed over 800 visitors, but it got reset at some point, perhaps because of excessive time between visits. Some of the other pages also had high counts. All had shown very low counts for years, though, and the style of the display had changed on its own to show tall, thin, narrow letters. In researching and viewing things near the end, I noticed that it said that the settings would be dropped if there was no activity on that page for 90 days. That would explain some of it, though I'm not sure why the main page would reset. I tried to visit it more often than that, though I guess it's possible I could have been away longer than I thought a time or two. The pages had not only lost their counts, they lost the type of number display I had chosen, changing to the tall, narrow, hard to read numbers, which was frustrating. In going through it again near the end, I saw that the thin, narrow number style was the default one, so that it explains it. I changed it back for the Index page to normal looking, easy to read numbers, though it probably just had hours left to go at that point.

Besides the Index page, I had a resume and a long list of programs I had worked on, with links to descriptions of the programs. The program descriptions were in two files, one for utility programs and one for the others. I put code in to take the viewer to the specific program that was chosen. Because of the length of the two pages, I have divided them further here. The utility programs occupy two posts and the other programs occupy four posts.

There was a problem with the guestbook files, that occurred sometime along the way. While I could view the messages left (there was only one, plus a test message from me), I found near the end when I wanted to see what the display looked like for the one where a viewer enters a message, I got an error for the file not being found. The link pointed to a GeoCities file, that presumably would have pointed back to the file at my site containing the entry form. The entry form file (addbook.html) was still there that the file linked to should be looking for, and after opening it up to look at the code, I found that it seemed to reference the same address that the link had (going back and checking I found it was shown in a FORM clause). I doubt that it ever looked for addbook.html once the error started happening, though. It would have failed at the address linked to on the Index page. After a while I seemed to remember seeing this error years ago, and attributed it to a Yahoo-Geocities problem of some kind, since there wasn't any other reason for it not working. I had made no changes in it for a long time, and even then just to the text displayed with it, not to anything important.

Thinking now that they had changed in some way how guestbooks were handled, I went and set up another guestbook. I discovered that after it was done, I was just given code for the links to add a message or to view existing messages. They didn't have guestbook files on my actual site anymore (though what I had before wasn't bothered, of course; they didn't care about what was there). I tested it out and found that it now worked, but I didn't bother putting the links for the new guestbook on my Index page, as only hours were left and it was seldom visited by anyone now.

The files here have undergone some changes in appearance. Besides that already mentioned, in some cases the fonts may not aways be the same or the same size as they were. Some minor corrections have also been made, and where, in a few instances, the program descriptions were not filled in, they have now been done. Due to so many years passing, they may not be quite as detailed or certain as they might have been, but they should be sufficient. The links now also point to this blog and posts on it, of course.


My Geocities Homepage
My Geocities Guestbook
Resume
Program List
Utility Programs, Part I - Printers
Utility Programs, Part II - Error handlers
Programs, Part I
Programs, Part II
Programs, Part III
Programs, Part IV

---

The GeoCities File Manager

Create & Update > File Manager

geocities.yahoo.com/stephen_m99: GeoCities Free View My Site

GeoCities Control Panel
Home Create & Update Manage Promote Help Index

Create & Update > File Manager


Your site: http://www.geocities.com/stephen_m99 Edit using: HTML Editor Basic HTML Editor

New Edit  Copy Rename Delete checked files    
     Name                  Last Modified (GMT)       Size (KB) 
[] / addbook.html   View   August 02, 2000     Stats         2 
[] / dtlpg1.html    View   August 03, 2000     Stats        47 
[] / dtlpga.html    View   August 02, 2000     Stats        16 
[] / geobook.html   View   November 11, 2000   Stats         2 
[] / index.html     View   March 20, 2009      Stats        17 
[] / projpg1.html   View   August 03, 2000     Stats         6 
[] / resume.html    View   October 30, 2001    Stats         6 
Check All - Clear All  = Subdirectory = PageBuilder = PageWizard  
New Edit  Copy Rename Delete checked files    

Subdirectories 
New (Create Subdirectories to organize your files)   

Disk Space Usage 
Used: 
0.1 MB 
Available: 
14.9 MB  
Total Allocated: 
15.0 MB 

.


Notes from the final two days

[ Written initially around 3:26 AM, 10/26/2009, with later additions ]

I updated the counter style for the index page and it did update and did increment (going from 00029 to 00030 after the initial viewing and one or two subsequent ones). The new one is an easy to read square style instead of a thin narrow style (which was the default). (At one time the counter was over 800, but the counter used back then stopped working and I had to replace it, years ago.)

I also added a counter to geobook.html (the old View Guestbook file), and it gave me the code to add to the file. However, GeoCities no longer uses that setup, keeping the guestbook files in a central location. When I had earlier attempted to view the Sign guestbook page, it gave me an error for the page not being found. The link pointed to a Geocities location that would have presumably pointed back toward my file, but that Geocities page evidently no longer exists, having been replaced with the new system. I did not try to actually add the code to geobook.html.

The Control panel page seems to have largely stopped updating statistics a few hours ago. It did finally show 10/26 on the graph, but it came up as zero even though I had just visited it, and I noticed earlier that it had stopped updating 10/25.

Goecities closes today, Monday, October 26, 2009.

Checking it again late afternoon October 26, 2009 (writing this 6:12 PM 10/26/2009), I saw that 10/26 did update to five I think, then to 11 after a lot of viewing, making it the most activity for a day this month.

The counter for the Index page (the starting page for my site) got updated to 33, I think, the other counters don't seem to work, and at least a couple of them seemed stuck at zero. Even the counter for the Index page seemed to work erratically, which is normal.

The final statistics, from the GeoCities Control Panel:

  Site Status
Data Transfer Usage 
  0%              100% 
Hourly limit: 4.2MB
Used: 10%
Times exceeded today: 0
Times exceeded this month: 0

Disk Space Usage (MB) 
  0%              100% 
Total: 15.0 
Used: 0.1 
Extra: 0.0 
Available: 14.9 

Tired of hourly limits? Need more room? Upgrade your plan.



  Site Activity
Page View Summary
Total page views in last 7 days: 23
Total page views in last 30 days: 23
Most page views in last 30 days: 11 (Mon 10/26)


Daily Page Views
50  
25  
0  
  0      0      0      0      3      9     11 
 
10/20  10/21  10/22  10/23  10/24  10/25  10/26  
  
Site Statistics 
Review all available reports on your site traffic and 
performance.

My GeoCities Homepage

This originally had a green background when it was at Yahoo GeoCities, with the text in a column at the right and everything else in a column at the left, which also had a dafault picture place marker image. The links to other pages on my Geocities site have been changed to link to posts on this blog.

---

Title: Welcome to Stephen Morgan's home page


This site features a description of my programming abilities and includes examples of my work. The programs, for the most part, are written in FoxPro. A list of past projects will also be presented.

My resume may be viewed by clicking here.

A partial list of past projects may be viewed by clicking here.

In early 1998 I emailed a question to Lisa Slater Nicholls, who is a major figure in Foxpro circles. She very graciously answered me, and later that year published the question on her web site, as well as a more detailed answer. See the heading Menuing and keyboard interactions on the page Lisa Slater Nicholls Fox Volume 4 on her site.

In the original email, I also responded to a question she had posed on the site, as to whether anyone would be interested in hearing how to accomplish individually coloring bars in a list. I mentioned that I would be interested, and in a later page she responded, again mentioning me. See the heading Coloring separate items within listboxes and comboboxes on the page Lisa Slater Nicholls Fox stuff on her site.

I am also writing a blog now, Stephen's Thoughts. It is on a variety of topics, with many details of my personal life.

The number of posts on my blog has now exceeded 100. The oldest posts are falling off the bottom, and the archive list only shows the month and year, not the posts' titles, so I have created a separate blog to act as a table of contents. The second blog is called, appropriately enough, Table of Contents for Stephen's Thoughts, and is accessed through links on the main blog.


My Favorite Links:

Lisa Slater Nicholls Fox stuff

FoxPro Advisor Magazine

FoxTalk Newsletter Online

Pinter Consulting

Word Imperfect

Never-Ending Story

My Info:

Name:
Stephen E. Morgan

Email:
stephen_m99@yahoo.com

[ Yahoo! Presence indicator. This is a picture of a smiley, awake if the user in question is connected to the internet and asleep otherwise, but it's always asleep if Yahoo Messenger is uninstalled. ]

Sign Guestbook

View Guestbook

[ Number of visitors Counter. At one time it had over 800, but got reset for some reason, perhaps lack of visits over a long enough time. ]


My Time at Geocities
My Geocities Homepage
My Geocities Guestbook
Resume
Program List
Utility Programs, Part I - Printers
Utility Programs, Part II - Error handlers
Programs, Part I
Programs, Part II
Programs, Part III
Programs, Part IV

My GeoCities Guestbook

The original guestbook leave-a-comment page

The following is approximately how the original guestbook leave-a-comment page would have looked, but it was evidently unavailable for much of the time I was there, because it was replaced by another guestbook system. I didn't realize this until near the end, because I seldom tried to access that page. I have this information about the page only because I had the code for the page, and indeed the page itself, though when I tried to go to it through the link I got an error, because it tried to access other things that were no longer used by Yahoo. I do think I remember trying to access it a few times several years ago and got an error then, too, but attributed it to a problem on Yahoo's part. I don't remember if I ever noticed anything about the guestbook system being changed.

Active links have been changed from the originals to point to addresses on this blog. Any links that are part of the comments and appear in plain text form are just dummy test data and are not valid links, or at least were not intended to be.


Title: ADD Entry to Stephen Morgan's Guestbook


Welcome to my Guestbook! Please sign in and leave a message. The fields are optional. Fill in as many as you feel comfortable doing, but please leave some means of identifying you as a unique visitor, such as a nickname, even if the nickname is chosen solely for this site.

I read all messages. If you would like me to respond to a message, please leave your email address. Note that email addresses will be visible to other visitors. If you would rather not have other visitors view your email address, leave your greeting or message here and send me an email with your address in the body. An email may be sent to me through the link on my home page.

Nickname:

URL:http://

Email:

City and State:

Your Comments:

---

The original guestbook

The following is the guestbook as it appeared for almost all the time it was there. The first comment is a test comment by me, but the second one was real. I have blocked part of the email name, but it was complete originally.


Title: Past Visitors to Stephen Morgan's Guestbook


Welcome to my Guestbook! Entries of past visitors may be viewed here.

Sahid sumitro - 11/11/00 23:05:56
[thin blue line]
[thin blue line]
My Email:--------@yahoo.com
City and State: indonesia
Comments:
I want to look for guide book of visual foxpro,
If you don't mind, help me please... and send me a book.

thnaks
[thin blue line]

S. Morgan - 08/02/00 06:25:46
My URL:http://whereeveriam.com
My Email:www@http.com
City and State: Whereiam, US
Comments:
This IS a test.
[thin blue line]


My Home Page
Explore Yahoo! GeoCities
Get your own free homepage

---

Testing the original guestbook

The following three test entries were deleted and replaced by one with more obscure info, as shown above. The ones below appeared for only a short time.


Title: Past Visitors to Stephen Morgan's Guestbook


Welcome to my Guestbook! Entries of past visitors may be viewed here.

S. Morgan - 08/01/00 14:10:20
City and state: field 4
Comments:
Test 3.

S. Morgan - 08/01/00 14:08:34
My URL:http://anywhere.com
My Email:field 3
City and state: field 4
Comments:
Test 2.

S. Morgan - 08/01/00 14:02:01
My Email:Scottsdale, AZ
Comments:
This is my message to myself. This IS a test.


My Home Page
Explore Yahoo! GeoCities
Get your own free homepage

---

The new guestbook

The following is the new guestbook with my comment as it appeared, with the end cut off. Unlike the prior guestbook, the new one used a common storage area at Yahoo for the guestbook leave-a-comment and view-comments pages and for the data, so nothing for it appeared at my site. The only access was through links, which i didn't install on my web page, as there were only hours left before GeoCities shut down. I accessed the guestbook myself by pasting the links directly into the browser address bar.


First Name : Stephen
URL : http://stephen-has-spoken.blogspot.com/
Comment : This is the first and likely only comment, as the GeoCities site is closing down today (its 2:03 AM Monday, October 26, 2009 now), and I am not likely to add the Guestbook links to my home page. It already has such links, but the Sign option no longer wor

[narrow double red line]


Return to Web Site Sign Guestbook

---

The comment in full

The following is my comment as it was actually written:

This is the first and likely only comment, as the GeoCities site is closing down today (it's 2:03 AM Monday, October 26, 2009 now), and I am not likely to add the Guestbook links to my home page. It already has such links, but the Sign option no longer works, evidently because of a change in how it's done.

---

My Time at Geocities
My Geocities Homepage
My Geocities Guestbook
Resume
Program List
Utility Programs, Part I - Printers
Utility Programs, Part II - Error handlers
Programs, Part I
Programs, Part II
Programs, Part III
Programs, Part IV

Resume

Home

Stephen Morgan's Resume

Email: stephen_m99@yahoo.com

Objective

A position in computer programming using Visual FoxPro to create and maintain programs and databases.

Summary of Qualifications

• Experience with Visual FoxPro
  
• Experience with Datastream MP2 5.0 Enterprise for MS NT SQL Server, including writing Visual FoxPro programs to import records.
  
• 10 years of experience with FoxPro, FoxBase and dBASE III. This includes creating and upgrading a wide variety of programs of all sizes and complexities.
  
• Experience with multi-user programming, including site level and user level security.
  
• Experience with software documentation, including writing and editing user manuals and detailed descriptions of program operations.
  
• Experience with Novell NetWare and Microsoft Windows NT SQL Server.
  
• Experience with the programming languages of Assembly, BASIC, Pascal, and C.
  
• Can work alone or as part of a team. Though most work was performed alone, some activities were coordinated with another programmer who worked on a related program, with the programs released as a team effort.
  

Professional Experience

Using Visual FoxPro:

• Created programs to import records from DOS FoxPro tables to Datastream MP2 5.0 Enterprise for MS SQL Server 6.5 after reworking tables and data to match MP2 requirements.
  
• Created a program to reopen (unclose) MP2 work orders.
  
• Created custom MP2 reports.
  
• Corrected various MP2 data problems through direct commands to SQL Server from Visual FoxPro and through specially created programs for that purpose.
  
• Created a form for searches.
  

Using FoxPro, FoxBase and dBASE III:

• Created programs for inventory control, data entry, and equipment status tracking, as well as modifying and rewriting existing programs. Program features included complex screen displays, extensive file manipulation, data validation and error checking, mathematical computations, and a variety of menu driven options and editing features.
  
• Screen displays included screen and window scrolling, left-right scrolling, displays of help instructions, switching and returning from record lists to specific records, and multiple window displays.
  
• Database manipulation/management included creation of temporary work files, verifying and/or copying specific information across files, use of multiple tables, complex indexing/sorting, movement of table information across networks, simultaneous access of tables by multiple users, automatic notification of data updates, and automatic updating of data displays.
  
• Data validation included checking of values and formats, and duplicate entry prevention.
  
• Some programs were written with spreadsheet-like screens that computed totals and subtotals, including both horizontal and vertical calculations.
  
• Programs were written to automatically generate monthly/quarterly inventory summary records.
  
• A complex error and exception handler was created. Error data was logged to a table.
  
• A complex program was created to allow the entry of printer codes, printer location (LAN or local) and printer menu choices. The average user simply had to choose the appropriate printer from the menu, and the program saved the choice.
  
• Programs were created which printed highly detailed forms when an HP LaserJet printer was chosen. The form was hand-coded and the graphics and text micro-positioned.
  

Using Turbo C:

• Created a program for polling machinery operation status through a modem by utilizing PC interrupts, for the purpose of querying a large UPS for status and other data. Also created an associated FoxPro program. The C program wrote text files containing the UPS data, which were then read by the FoxPro program. If the power to the UPS went down, the FoxPro program notified users over the network by use of the Novell SEND command.
  
• Created a program for printing the company logo (Ford Aerospace) on dBASE III/FoxBase reports.
  

Networks:

• Assisted in troubleshooting Windows NT Server.
  
• Assisted in troubleshooting, installation and maintenance of NetWare 3.x and 2.x servers.
  
• Installed NetWare 2.15C and set up server and workstations to communicate through modems.
  

Education

2000

Landmark Forum
Landmark Education Corporation, Phoenix, Arizona

1997

MP2 5.0 Enterprise Training
Datastream Systems Incorporated, Irvine, California

1988

Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering Technology
Presidential Honor Society
Upsilon Delta Chapter of Tau Alpha Pi
DeVry Institute of Technology, Phoenix, Arizona

Work History

Lockheed Martin/Loral/Ford Aerospace (they merged), Fallon, NV

1990-1998

Software Engineer/R&D Engineer

1988-1990

Associate Software Engineer

Volunteer Experience

Expert in multiple categories on askme.com (as stephen2345)


Home

Program List

Stephen Morgan's Projects


This is a partial list of my past projects. Almost all are in FoxPro for DOS 2.0, though some are in Visual FoxPro 5.


Printer Menu - Details

Error Handler - Details

Startup Error Handler - Details

Error Handler for Visual FoxPro - Details

Status Monitor - Details

ECP Summary - Details

ECP Pages - Details

Config. Status Acct. Rpt. - Details

DCN - Details

ICN - Details

TEC - Details

Engineering Drawings - Details

Engineering Taskings - Details

Engineering Release Record Forms - Details

Technical Library - Details

Barcode Trakker-Inventory - Details

Barcode Trakker-Technical Library - Details

Training Program - Details

Shipping Documents - Details

GFE Inventory - Details

Test Equipment - Details

Key Control - Details

Job Control-Equipment Status - Details

Range Manager-Equipment Status - Details

Smoky Sams Usage - Details

QA PDR Forms - Details

UPS Alerts - Details

MANDATE - Details

Supply - Details

Supply-Purchasing Interface - Details

Supply-Servmart Interface - Details


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Program List
Utility Programs, Part I - Printers
Utility Programs, Part II - Error handlers
Programs, Part I
Programs, Part II
Programs, Part III
Programs, Part IV

Utility Programs, Part I - Printers

Stephen Morgan's FoxPro Projects - Utility Program Details

Introduction

This area offers details of some major general-purpose programs used in some form by almost all the full application programs I wrote. Unless noted, all these programs were written in FoxPro 2.0, for DOS. Some early programs started out in dBASE III PLUS or FoxBase, but all were converted to FoxPro at some point.


Printer Menu

One of the first versions of the printer menu program was as a short list of available printers for the Technical Library program. The list included a high speed LAN printer. At that time, the Novell CAPTURE command was used to access the printer, but this caused memory problems if the command was used more than once or twice in a program session. Eventually, FoxPro added a command to access printers on a Novell network, and that command was substituted.

The printer menu eventually had four or more options, with the LAN printer being one of them. The printer codes were usually placed just before the report began and just after it ended, though some hand-coded reports had internally placed codes because of such things as expanded-print bold titles and different character spacing at different points in the reports. The printer codes were soon placed in variables instead of being stated directly, though extra steps were necessary in processing the LAN printer because of the requirement of connecting and disconnecting. Not all programs were given a printer menu, though the Engineering programs usually were. It became a problem to keep updating the code for all the programs, so I eventually wrote a separate program.

In the separate printer program, the printer names and printer codes were kept in tables instead of being hard coded. Three tables existed: one with the users' names and printer choices; and with the printer names and codes; and one with the actual menu options. The one with the menu options also tracked whether the printer was LAN or Local, and the server name was also recorded. Key numbers existed for the menu options and for the printer definitions.

Though the program worked well, it had a major deficiency in that it did not have the ability to edit anything. All editing had to be done directly from FoxPro. I had not wanted to get too deeply into writing a printer program because I was expecting FoxPro to offer a printer selection utility. However, the utility FoxPro offered was extremely slow in operation and required setting up predefined report definitions. This meant that I had to either set up a report definition for all necessary printers and continue offering the user my own menu, or rely on the user to set up the definitions (and to know what the definitions should be). For example, a user would have to know that a report required 17 characters per inch. Also, although a table of printers and codes was provided, altering anything required recompiling the utility. The utility could also be used only with FoxPro report forms, and not with hand-coded reports, which were sometimes absolutely required for Engineering printouts.

It became evident that FoxPro would not provide what I was looking for. Also, some programs on which I wished to implement the printer menu were going to be released to other locations, and it would not be right (or workable) to require the users at the other locations to set up the printer records directly from FoxPro. I then created the second major version of the separate printer menu program.

In the new version of the program, the menu options and printer definitions were set within the program. The users were not manually set within the program, as the program automatically detected new users and added user records as necessary. User names were placed in a variable in the DOS environment at the time of network login, and most of the programs accessed that variable for a user name, though Status Monitor had a partially separate system. All that was needed was a common variable name that the printer program could access, or at least a known range of possibilities. The programs did not in fact all have the same user variable name, so the printer program checked for all reasonable variations on the variable name before looking for a name in the DOS environment. (Some initial user variable name possibilities were User, MUser, UserName, and MUserName. This list was later expanded after variable type and scope prefixes were added, producing variations such as cUserName and gcUserName. Although I did not personally implement scope prefixes, I thought it best to check for them in order to handle possible future situations.)

What the printer program did was set public variables with the users' printer choice, and save key numbers recording the users' choice in a record. Normally, the printer program did not save a LAN printer choice, but could be configured to allow this.

When a report was to be printed, modules within the application program, not the printer program, accessed the variables, connected to the named file server if the choice was a LAN printer (or connected to the default server if a server was not explicitly named), and sent the appropriate printer codes (held in code variables such as cCPI10, cCPI17, cLPI6, and cLPI8) for that report. After printing, the printer codes to restore the normal printer state were sent, and if the printer was a LAN printer, a disconnect was sent by setting the printer to local.

This allowed both report forms and hand-coded reports with internal printer codes to be used.


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Program List
Utility Programs, Part I - Printers
Utility Programs, Part II - Error handlers
Programs, Part I
Programs, Part II
Programs, Part III
Programs, Part IV

Utility Programs, Part II - Error handlers

Error Handler

Originally, none of the programs had an error handler. I had never used an error handler, and none of the preexisting programs had one. I tried to write the programs to eliminate as many errors as I could. This was not enough to totally prevent errors, and so I eventually began to explore setting up an error handling system.

The error handler was originally centered on handling file-does-not-exist problems (if the requested file is on an unavailable file server, this can easily cause the error) and file-is-in-use-by-another errors, and had minimal processing for other errors. Except for printer-not-ready errors, most errors resulted in shutting down the program, since the consequences of allowing the program to continue with an unresolved error is great. Exceptions were allowed if the section of the program from whence the error originated indicated that it would be able to handle the problem.

For instance, if a table was unavailable and the user did not want to retry, and the section of the program where the error occurred had previously set variables indicating that the command was being checked, the error handler would return control to that portion of the program after setting a variable to an error value and the program would see that an error had occurred and cancel the operation.

What would happen if the program had simply continued, thinking the table had been opened? The user would eventually be presented with some other error. Perhaps a field would be referenced and a variable-not-found error would occur, or a string of such errors if the error handler kept returning control to the program. Eventually, a command would probably be encountered which would cause FoxPro to believe that a table should be open. At that point, FoxPro would present the user with a list of available tables to open. Even if the user knew which table to select, any associated indexes would not be opened and so the indexes would be corrupted if the table was updated. No guarantee exists that the table would be positioned on the correct record or that the correct table would be chosen. If the wrong table was chosen, the program might proceed without further activating the error handler, as some commands are sufficiently general as to work with any table, but the wrong table would be used. What if the command was to update a record, delete a record, or to delete ALL records?

Even a variable-not-found error can be dangerous. If the variable not found was being used to initialize another variable, then the variable is not initialized and may itself not be found when the variable is later referenced. {If the variable has been declared in some fashion, the variable will exist, but may be of the wrong data type.) If either variable is used in another command, then that command will fail, whatever that command may be. For an extreme example, what if table work area numbers are kept in variables, and the program intends to switch work areas, delete all the records in a temporary table, and then return to the original work area, which holds a permanent table with 30,000 records? If the work area variable does not exist, an error will occur and the work area selected will remain that holding the permanent table. If the program is allowed to continue, and the next command is to delete all records, the 30,000 records in the permanent table will be deleted instead of the records in the temporary table.

It would be best if some means were provided to allow the user to safely continue. Eventually, I devised a system where variables held the name of the module to return to when an error occurred. If the error was a printer error, a special variable was referenced which was set to the name of the report menu module. If a table was being opened and if the operation was being checked, the error handler returned control to the program at the point where the error occurred. Otherwise, and for almost all other errors, the error handler attempted a return to the designated main module. If a special variable was set with the name of the main module, the program tree was checked to see if the name was present. If the name was not found, an alternate possible name, such as MainMenu was checked. If nothing was found, a RETURN TO MASTER command was given. Note that such a command will result in leaving the current program if the program was called from another program. In some cases, and for some errors, the situation was deemed sufficiently serious to directly quit FoxPro. Tables were always closed in situations where control was not returned to the area of the program where the error occurred. If the error occurred while the user was in the designated top module, the user might be returned to the place of the error. If the error occurred during initialization of the program, further errors might occur even (or maybe especially) if the user is returned directly to the top module. Though such situations are rare, I had the error handler place a counter in a public variable the error handler itself created, and if multiple errors of the same general type were occurring too close together, the error handler would decide that the situation couldn't be saved and simply quit FoxPro.

Almost all errors resulted in the user being given notification. Sometimes the error handler message was suppressed to allow the module where the error occurred to give a message, and sometimes custom messages where passed to the error handler. More often, in cases where a FoxPro type error occurred, the error handler presented the FoxPro error message and number.

Non-FoxPro errors and events could also occur, as the error handling portion could be bypassed and a call made directly to a section of the error handler that saved the errors. Sometimes, specific areas of programs were set to log unusual or disturbing events or activities, in which case the error would be saved as a custom error message and number (usually, but not always, zero), along with the user name, the name of the module (or a special name), and the date. These records would go into the same table as the FoxPro error records. Additionally, the error handler recorded the frequency of the error by looking backward through the file for other errors with the same message, number, user name, module name, and date, and then incrementing the error count and saving the result.

In the end, I did not record large numbers of errors, except in unusual situations.


Startup Error Handler

One type of error that disturbed me was an error that seemed unreachable. Some users loaded FoxPro from their file server and then received a file-does-not-exist error when FoxPro attempted to load the application, because the application was on a server to which they had failed to attach. This happened relatively frequently, as some users failed to provide the proper password when the attempt to attach was made. In some cases the subsequent attempt to map a drive also failed. In some cases, the user did not know the right password, because the user had changed the password on the default server and not on the other servers. This was all occurring in DOS, sometimes even on Windows computers running DOS windows (the programs were in DOS). When such an error occurred, the error handler was not activated because the application could not even be found. FoxPro presented its own error message through its native error handler. After acknowledging the message, the user was left in the command window. The user was frequently trapped in FoxPro, not knowing how to exit.

Eventually, I decided to do something about it. FoxPro had a startup program that installed the Run menu. I didn't use the Run menu. I substituted my own program for the startup menu. The new program ran a version of my error handler in a subdirectory I created off the FoxPro directory, and specified a table in that subdirectory when errors were logged. I gave users Novell write rights to that directory, to allow them to write to the table. The new system worked very well, enabling me to identify users with password problems and inform the LAN Administrator, frequently before the users themselves did (when the users did complain, they frequently blamed the program or some unknown problem, rather than the password).


Error Handler for Visual FoxPro

In converting the error handler to Visual FoxPro, I made two versions: one as a program and one as a class. Although a class was needed to fully handle errors occurring in forms and classes, a separate error handler was also needed for those cases where the class error handler was not available. The updates from the earlier error handler involved mainly adding error checks for new error types, saving class information in the tree of procedure names leading to the module in which the error occurred, modifying the file structure of the error log table, and using the Windows msgbox instead of coding message windows.

Note that error handling within classes is more complicated than simply installing a global error handler, as ideally the class should have some native error/exception handling mechanisms built-in, with the error passed to the global error handler only if it falls outside of what the class can handle. Since I wanted errors recorded, I made the error log portion available separately from the error handler, so the class error handler could log the errors without calling the global error handler.


My Time at Geocities
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Program List
Utility Programs, Part I - Printers
Utility Programs, Part II - Error handlers
Programs, Part I
Programs, Part II
Programs, Part III
Programs, Part IV