Note: <888> 02/29/04  Sunday 11:40 P.M.:  I did some regular computer work.  I will now shut down the computer, and I will go to bed soon.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/29/04  Sunday 10:55 P.M.:  I did some regular computer work.  I moved the old computer CDs from below the sideboard in the bedroom to the bottom shelf of the CD rack to the right side of the computer chair.  I moved the computer tool kits to the left side of the old tool box that my left handed Kensington wireless mouse sits on.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/29/04  Sunday 9:25 P.M.:  I switched my three calendars from February to March.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/29/04  Sunday 9:05 P.M.:  I finished going through my email.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/29/04  Sunday 8:35 P.M.:  58th Interdepartmental Hurricane Conference, Charleston, South Carolina, March 1 - 5, 2004 IHC

Note: <888> 02/29/04  Sunday 7:50 P.M.:  I checked www.airborne.com , and my Microsoft Office Suite 2003 Professional arrived at South Norwalk, Connecticut at 9:43 A.M. yesterday, but its estimated delivery date here is not until Wednesday March 3, but possibly it might arrive tomorrow.  It says it was shipped ground from Kent, Washington 2/25/04 at 8:11 P.M., so it made good time to this coast by ground.  CIO  

Note: <888> 02/29/04  Sunday 7:25 P.M.:  I watched a bit of CSPAN.  I have a 1:45 P.M. inspection tomorrow from the Greenwich Housing Authority, so I will probably not be going out until after that.  I will now do some regular computer work.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/29/04  Sunday 6:30 P.M.:  I went out after the last message.  I drove down by the waterfront.  I the drove over to Tod's Point, and I walked out to the southwest picnic area, and I then walked out to the southeast point.  I then went by the ATM machine at Putnam Trust Bank of New York in Old Greenwich.  I next went by CVS in Old Greenwich.  They have two Coca Cola lamps there for $10 at 50% off instead of $20.  I then went by Staples in Old Greenwich, and I browsed the clearance rack, but they did not have much there or anything that I needed, so I did not buy anything.  I then went downtown, and I sat out for a while.  I did not walk because although it was warmer above 50 degrees Fahrenheit, I felt a bit fatigued.  I then returned home.  I helped a neighbor get a piece of plastic stuck underneath his car out.  I sat out for a while by the baseball field viewing the indoor ice skating rink.  I then went back into my apartment, and I had a message from a relative, and I called the relative back, and the relative said they would call back.  I then made and ate my usual salad www.geocities.com/mikelscott/salad.htm .  I use a 4.25 ounce tin of pink crab meat instead of tuna fish and for the cheddar cheese portion, I used Stop and Shop Vermont extra sharp cheddar cheese.  I used all of the other regular ingredients.  I had the salad with iced tea.  The Lipton tea at CVS is still expensive at two 100 count boxes of orange pekoe tea bags for $4.99, but I have plenty of tea here in reserve.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/29/04  Sunday 1:20 P.M.:  I will now eat a piece of apple pie with a glass of iced tea, and I will then clean up and go out to enjoy the day.  

Note: <888> 02/29/04  Sunday 1:15 P.M.:  Well, I watched a bit of television.  They seem to be worried about weapons of mass destruction.  I happened to stumble across a unique weapon of potentially destructive force, when I was put on Lipitor to lower my cholesterol.  I started eating salads with canned fish, instead of other types of meats.  With all of the roughage from the greens and other items in the salad, one gets such a methane gas buildup in one's digestive track that one seems to be constantly emitting a non stop stream of digestive gas that if one is not familiar with the smell of such sulfur type odors such as one would have around an oil refinery, one basically is not too socially acceptable in mixed company.  Basically one has about the same potential lethal objective of a horse in a barn when it breaks wind.  I could for the same price of the salad diet go back to the meat, poultry, pork, and fish diet with rice and cooked vegetables, but I have stocked up on the major ingredients of my salad and tinned fish diet, so it would take a while to readjust my pantry provisions and used them up to return to a fresher smelling diet.  This has been pretty much the case since the end of June 2003 when I started the salad and tin fish diet.  However, I have a feeling it is a healthier diet despite the odor problems, so since I really do not entertain many people at home, and since I spend most of my time out in public in the open air, it is not really a problem until I have to go inside for some errand.  I could always increase my budget for CVS Enzyme tablets which are the generic equivalent of Beano, but that would mean having to increase my monthly expenses on another health supplement.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/29/04  Sunday 11:45 P.M.:  I was up at 10 A.M., and I had breakfast of oatmeal, toast with raspberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I have been watching Cspan local cablevision channel 65 on the Senate Intelligence Oversight committee briefing.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/28/04  Saturday 9:20 P.M.:  I will now shut down the computer, and I will go to bed soon.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/28/04  Saturday 8:50 P.M.:  I relaxed a bit.  I made and ate my usual salad www.geocities.com/mikelscott/salad.htm .  For the cheddar cheese portion, I used Stop and Shop Vermont extra sharp cheddar cheese.  I used all of the other regular ingredients.  I had the salad with iced tea.  I relaxed a bit after dinner.  Basically, although I pay close to $50 a month for Cablevision Family television service, I actually do not watch it too much, since I find its content frequently is not very conducive towards instructive thought.  It seems a shame to waste such a vast communications network on innocuous material that is of little relevance to day to day living.  I guess each program has its niche group of watchers, but at close to $600 a year, I could probably buy a set of encyclopedias and learn more.  However, it is part of normal childhood development in this country to be programmed on the electronic media, since the country is so spread apart, it gives people some sort of shared experience when they can not always travel to far off destinations or remote locations in other parts of the country.  I see so many people walking around here since they have New York City experience that, it would seem from my experience in Manhattan that although I worked as a clerk typist for CBS news briefly in the spring and summer of 1973 that when I went out and explored Manhattan not many people actually owned or used televisions.  However, I do recall knowing a few people whom had quite a few books in their apartments, which generally meant that they had accumulated so many books, they could no longer afford to move or relocate when they ran out of space.  I only have about 400 books in my apartment, most of which I have not read, but most of which are on subject matter that I have read in other books in my formal education.  Thus, although some of them are a bit dated, they can occasionally be handy reference information.  However, on any popular subject, there are always a great many books, so more than likely different authors and even censors have different viewpoints as to the real quality and accuracy of their writings.  Much could be said for the vanity press that some people pay to publish to advertise or promote their viewpoints or personal family viewpoints compared to the liberal penny press, which frequently has an ax to grind.  It would seem to me that so many of the veteran New York press writers were historically heavy drinkers of alcohol that their primary sources of information was cocktail party and bar room or club gossip, which any informed individual would know is not always the most accurate information.  In my investigations in New York City, since most everyone else there regards everyone else there as a tourist, people float around investigating their neighbors, but with all the cleaver people in New York, it sooner or later comes down to the fact that they are probably trying to sell one some item or real estate in another location, so as to enrich themselves.  Thus I am not a member of the Trump school of philosophy, which is basically that if you build it, they will come, since a great many people in the country live in more rural environments in the country by choice, it would seem that conservationists far out number, the relatively small number of people in the urban environments that happen to make a big noise.  I guess from what I hear reported recently that Manhattan is actually very quiet and peaceful, so not many people are actually venturing into the city.  Thus there are probably a few of the older white glove Fifth Avenue type of elderly women around with their long time family associates, whom probably leisurely stroll around familiar landmarks that have for many years been a presence in the city on the Hudson.  I would imagine the press in Manhattan does listen to some of the old guard there, so it would seem to me that, they probably are not interested in the viewpoint of a walker, since a great many of the carriage trade have never had a chance to enjoy the ambience of a peaceful walk in their more urban environment.  However, it is the nature of Manhattan that they also tend to be dependant on the outer areas for goods and services, so as far as I can tell, the only parts in Manhattan that originally belonged there are a few trees and rocks in Central Park.  I suppose the small group of owners could get together and have it all marked "Return to Sender", and then it would be back to the way it was about 1640 when the Dutch established a trading post there.  However, I would imagine it was the nature of the trading post in Manhattan, it was not only meant to service Manhattan but the other areas along the neighboring waterfronts and interiors of the inland empire.  Thus from what I can tell, whatever the viewpoint of myself here relative to Manhattan is very limited, since I was frequently on a night schedule, I did not actually interact with that many people except people whom happened to be awake late at night.  I suppose since currently I have only been to Manhattan twice in 12 years, because I was mugged at knife point by someone from Bermuda, and that since the current mayor of Manhattan spends weekends in Bermuda which was founded by pirates that the current crop of people in Manhattan are nothing more than a group of pirates that have temporarily laid siege to the City.  However, more than likely the plot is to try to lure a large number of people into Manhattan, so some terrorist group can wreck havoc.  As long as the vast majority of people stay out of Manhattan, it would seem that by keeping ones various pieces separated as much as possible, the outside forces in Manhattan will have little chance to interfere with the daily life of normal every day Americans.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/28/04  Saturday 6:05 P.M.:  Of course in conservative areas like Greenwich, Connecticut, old guard people tend to be a bit more conservative in their spending also.  Thus if one saw some old timer in a beat up old blue Cadillac, it might be the sheriff or chief of police whom was just making the rounds in that old gas hog.  Since the old timers tend to be more sedentary, about the only thing they enjoy in their advanced age after they have made a lot of money is a good meal.  Thus they usually tend to be overweight, and they tend to eat too much, which generally means they do not live as long as their wives, whom seem to end up with everything sooner or later.  Then there is another group whom seem to prosper off the widows, since they know how to cater to their affairs, which their husbands usually managed.  Thus since over 77% of the private money in the United States of America is controlled by women over 70 years old, it basically comes down to the fact that the group whom influence this group of older women exercise a considerable amount of influence.  However, a great many of the women having lead conservative frugal lives just simply continue with their knitting and pursuing their normal affairs and really do not pay much attention to the larger events in the world as the public media continually report it.  Thus one is more than likely to influence the real financial decisions makers by advertising in a magazine like Good House Keeping versus using the tombstone press of the Wall Street Journal.  Whatever the case as a hermit like pensioner, I do not feel like getting involved with the larger public relations squabbles as they relate to the world in general, since generally when one is on a low income bracket in this town, one does yield much influence, and one generally is too busy trying to make ends meet.  I just chatted with a friend, and he told me that www.greenfield.com is opening up Worldwide offices, so they are going international.  However, it is more than likely a niche group activity in the computer field they are pursuing, and once they go international their local expertise might not be applicable to the larger world in general.  From my viewpoint here in Greenwich, Connecticut the most internationally attuned individuals in town are the hard working fellows from India that run the news stands, since in their public jobs on main street dealing with a diverse crowd, they actually have a clearer idea of what the scope of international activity is here as it relates to the English speaking language.  However, I never see many of the Asian community using any of the services offered locally here in town, so they obviously drive elsewhere to obtain certain services and goods at cheaper prices.  CIO    

Note: <888> 02/28/04  Saturday 4:10 P.M.:  I took a short nap.  I also ate a piece of apple pie after the soup.  I guess there is not much going on.  I am just having a lazy relaxing Saturday afternoon at home.  There is really no point going out and dealing with the busier activity downtown, since I am quite comfortable here at the moment.  I have spent so many years downtown, I am not the least bit curious as to what the normal activity is of the weekend shoppers versus the week day shoppers.  Basically, as far as I can tell, there are so many people in this area whom live in more remote sections that like in the old days in farming communities, they enjoy their Saturdays downtown shopping, since when one lives up in back country Greenwich or Banksville, New York or even up in the boon docks of Bedford, New York, they begin to feel sort of isolated in their rural splendor, so like the farmers of old days, they come to town to see what their more urban cousins are up too, and of course all of the local merchants know it, and they are eagerly lining their pockets to pay their rent which mostly goes back to a bunch of New York City real estate tycoons, whom can afford to employ highly paid workers in New York, whom can afford to move out here in the country and shop at the so called Company stores.  Thus it is a never ending cycle of urban suburban commerce that never seems to end, and of course the quaint country folk that sell gasoline to the big City slickers are obviously living more comfortably than many of their urban cousins seem to realize.  I basically realized when my family first moved here in 1961, and because we enjoyed outdoor sports, we joined the Greenwich Country Club, and many times I saw that the earlier names on the Greenwich Country Club trophy plaques back in the 1920s were those of the Rockefeller family winning various trophies that this was a one horse company town or what one would more simply call an Exxon company town.  At the moment, I do not feel like going through the routine of cleaning up just to go out and buy gasoline.  However, despite the fact that the Rockefellers over advertised themselves, other long term residents in the country actually owned the real estate where the oil was pumped from, so those families were also some of the original partners in Exxon, and they more than likely since they were more traditional and conservative were able to retain their wealth from the oil producing properties and never felt any reason to cater to big city slickers whom were out to fleece them.  Thus although the Rocks made a few dollars off of oil, more than likely other families are also involved in the oil business and more than likely the families that knew how to transport the oil probably made some money too, since if you can not get your product to market, you are not going to be making any money.  Thus from what I know we could just simply declare Irvine, Texas a sister village to Greenwich, Connecticut, so when they decide to come up here in the warmer weather, they would not have to adjust to the discomfort of dealing with an inhospitable business community.  Of course from what I know, winter is probably not over yet, since more than likely the mid 50s temperature of the next few days are just a teaser.  The warmer weather makes me want to sit back and relax, but at the moment I am not just yet turning on my air conditioner.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/28/04  Saturday 2:15 P.M.:  I heated and ate a 18.8 ounce can of Campbell's New England clam chowder, which I had with about 40 small cut Arnold garlic and herb croutons.  I ate the soup with a glass of iced tea.  I checked my mail.  I will now put the computer on standby, and I will take a nap.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/28/04  Saturday 1:30 P.M.:  Actually the Caribbean nautical chart map was drawn in 1886 with updates to 1967, and it is in black and white, not like the more current nautical charts at Land Fall Navigation nearby, so more than likely when it was new after 1967, it cost less than $10, since that is all I paid for a coast of Maine chart about ten years ago.  However, it is sort of a novelty, since it was located in this town, and people lost interest in it.  More than likely the original owners used it on some adventure and once they got down there, they "Went Native", and they probably never returned to tell their story at the Explorers Club in Manhattan, which I once found an apartment two doors away from for a art gallery operator in Manhattan with the restaurant La Galoue in between which was much favored by the Duke of Windsor and his small group of friends.  The apartment at East 70th Street just east of Madison Avenue on the south side of the street back in 1974 was about $350 a month for a second story main floor front studio about 30 feet by 30 feet with small kitchenette and bathroom in a prosperous neighborhood close to the Frick and other art orientated activities.  Alas, I just found it for a friend, I  never rented it myself, so I do not have rent control on it.  However, I did meet up with the friend in Nantucket in 1975, and he told me was going to sublet it, while he worked at a gallery near the Pompadou center in Paris.  So possibly the friend still has the lease on that apartment.  I would think one would be foolish to have given it up, considering what Manhattan real estate prices are today.  It also had about 11 foot high ceiling with a fireplace and big bay windows.  Basically, it was one of those well maintained brownstones in an expensive neighborhood.  The gallery operator had me attend a nearby gallery opening with a prominent New York politicians like retired governor W. Averell Harriman, which gallery was across the street from the Austrian consulate to the United Nations, so more than likely I have already touched base with a certain group of established New York democrats considering, one of my roommates at Lake Forest College was Robert Wagner's stepson, and another classmate at Taft's father was deputy mayor of New York, so more than likely any contacts I had with the New York political establishment were at the highest level, and it is the nature of Franklin Roosevelt's advisors such as W. Averell Harriman, they were independently wealthy, and were known at the dollar a year men in his administration.  Thus having done my time in New York around various political groups alas, I was never paid, so alas I am one of those forgotten dollar a year people left out to pasture in Connecticut.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/28/04  Saturday 12:55 P.M.:  I did research, a piece of glass 28" by 41" single thickness costs $24.25 http://www.miror.com/windows.asp , a black wooden framed 28" by 41" by .75" by .75" basic black frame would cost about $50 The Frame Shop 28" by 41" black frame , mat board would cost about $10, the Caribbean Map would probably cost $20 to $100 if one could find about a 50 year old map, and hooks and wire would cost $3 and mounting and framing would cost about $50,  so conservatively my Caribbean framed map would cost with tax and shipping would cost $200 to $300 on today's market prices, so at a $20 cost to me, it is sort of amusing that no one bought it for the last six months for $40 at the Greenwich Hospital Thrift.  I guess it is not most people's taste in decorative arts, but they frequently are willing to spend much more money on vacationing in such locations.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/28/04  Saturday 11:05 A.M.:  I was up at 7 A.M., and I ate breakfast of oatmeal, toast with strawberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I relaxed a bit.  Today is suppose to be warmer, but I think I would rather go out later in the day, since the Big Bucks movers and shakers always seem to hog the downtown area on Saturday mornings.  When my family first returned to Greenwich, Connecticut in 1961, the average house cost less than $50,000 which was much the same price of houses anywhere else in the country.  A great many houses at the time in Greenwich were less than $25,000.  However, since we are a bedroom community near the New York City area, the highly paid corporate and financial types from Manhattan tend to drive up the real estate prices, so now the average price of a house is close to a million dollars.  Thus there has been an over 2000% inflation rate in the price of housing in this community in 43 years.  Still certain items like Social Security have only risen 2% to 3% per year, so people whom are dependant on less inflationary sources of income have become financially squeezed.  In my particular case whenever I get a Cost of Living Increase from Social Security, other financial benefits and supplements are decreased, so in reality in 20 years I have never had a cost of living increase.  Basically the United States government is suppose to have Economists, but it seems that they are more prone towards generating inflation to reduce the actual value of the United States Government debt.  Thus besides being the largest not for profit tax collectors in the country, they are also the largest cause of economic net worth loss in the country, which indeed could be considered another unfair tax.  However, as the real estate becomes more expensive the local municipal government is also able to increase local property taxes on the long term residents.  However, there are a great many of the voting public whom do not actually own property and actually have very little net worth in the homes since they are mortgaged.  Still they assume because of their numbers they can ease out the long term tax payers because of their numbers.  This is not a practical solution, since a great many of the long term tax payers also happen to volunteer their services to this community where they have lived a long time, and they also seem to have professional backgrounds having lived and worked in this area for a long time.  Thus when new arrivals whom are programmed on other experiences from living in other areas will frequently find that the old guard are more reserve about the speculative nature of the new arrivals business and politics in this area.  To put it simply, just because one can afford to buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks and relax in town, it does not mean one represents the town or that one has any influence in the town in terms of the way the town is run or governed.  Since a great many former residents whom worked for the town still have relatives here and since a great many of the same former residents are dependent on pensions from the town, quite a few highly trained professionals work behind the scenes in this town to maintain the financial integrity of the town, so that the long term conservative financial obligations are met by the town government.  Thus a great many town administrators are not highly paid, but they have skills and knowledge of the community that represents the continuity of the town of Greenwich as it administers its financial obligations.  Much could be said about other financial institutions in this community, since they frequently represent individuals whom may not be seen frequently in the downtown area of Greenwich, which is actually a very small part area wise of the entire town.  Thus unless one sells dresses, you will probably not get rich networking on Greenwich Avenue.  Still since the town is well known for having a certain level of financial prosperity, a great many people frequently spend time here trying to cultivate business contacts in their locations of business which frequently are less costly to operate.  In other words people whom come here to shop in the Silk Stocking district are not here because they think it is cheaper.  Even the financially frugal crowd at the Greenwich Hospital Thrift shop which has to pay over $6,000 a month in rent find bargains or they would not be there.  Since I do not know anything about women's clothing, I would imagine with the expensive women's clothing shops here in Greenwich, there is also expensive high price clothing in the thrift shops, which people seek out for the lower prices of used clothing.  In a town like Greenwich with so many families, it is frequently the case that the skinny women whom are well dressed, once they get married and have children start to put on weight, and they also tend to have less money because they have families, so this rather large group in town delights in finding clothes in the thrift shops, and they frequently donate their clothes from when they were thinner, so that the young skinny women just starting out can occasionally find bargains that they normally would not be able to afford.  Of course just because one dresses in expensive clothes, it does not mean that one has any more money.  Basically, I do not dress up better myself, because my better clothes are a bit dated, and they tend not to fit me with the extra weight having gone from 145 pounds to 205 pounds.  However, I still keep them around in case I ever manage to lose weight again.  I have a suit that would fit me at my current weight, but there is no point in wearing it, since I would not have anymore money, which people whom wear suits are generally expected to have a little extra spending money.  Also on cold days, when one spends a lot of time outside, suits tend not to be too warm.  Thus if one can not afford the cost of coffee at Starbucks, there is no point in wearing a suit to be warm and comfortable inside.  Basically, the only people I see wearing suits here are the professionals in the offices, and it is the nature of their services that to deal with them tends to cost money.  Of course on Saturday mornings in a town like  Greenwich a lot of the professional suit crowd goes downtown, and they tend to wear khakis and a sweater of whatever looks more democratic.  However, it is the nature of their persona that they still exercise the same level of influence despite the fact they are not in their business attire.  However, once they retire and they do not have the high levels of income coming into their financial reserves, they tend to be more democratic, once they gain the viewpoint of what their other retired associates are doing with their spare time.  In other words if one is going clam digging at Tod's Point, I would not try wearing your Wing Tips.  Thus the formal nature of Greenwich as it is presented in the media is not the usual case, since a great many people also have to do maintenance themselves, and when they pursue such past times, they tend to wear more informal attire.  In other words, just because someone has paint on their clothes does not mean they are financially hard up, and it could mean they are fortunate enough to own property that they can afford to paint and maintain.  Well dressed people walking around downtown whom do not seem to be local residents and whom do not seem to have any general purpose here, more than likely are enjoying the local ambience trying to make connections with the business community.  However, since my family is pretty much the original business family in this area, I tend to let the Bank of New York take care of business while I fiddle with my hobbies.  CIO   

End of Scott's Notes week of 02/27/04:

Note: <888> 02/27/04  Friday 10:45 P.M.:  I relaxed a bit.  I will now send out my weekly notes.  I will then shut down the computer, and I will go to bed.  It is suppose to be warmer the next few days, so I will try to continue to be on a daytime schedule.  I have appointments on next Tuesday and Thursdays during the daytime.  Well stay warm.  The Texas democratic party is once again sending me email against the Republican party http://www.funsnap.com/1/bushgirl.swf . Unfortunately it is the nature of the role of commander and chief that the current President if I am not mistaken President Bush could exercise executive privilege and send a lot of Texas government employees to some more sober place like Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to find out what freezing Yankees already know.  It is the nature of private money on private property, that the owners can exercise their own judgment as to what they do with their property.  I recently read in a four month old Time magazine that Canada has more energy than Saudi Arabia, so more than likely since the Queen of England is also the Queen of Canada that her subjects are still relative warm inside up north.  The people in Texas have been south for so long with their canaries in their warm homes that they will find out that the canaries were originally used by the Germans that brought them here to detect natural methane gas buildups in coal mines.  From what I know about coal miners, I would rather not mess with them, unless of course one remembers that John Harvard's father was a coal miner.  Basically the people down in Texas whom stay there too much of the time are so hot so much of the time that they frequently forget that there is more to this world than bar room beer humor, particularly as they get older and they might need the services of more expert people up north.  When one speaks English, it is the nature of the English speaking language that the people speaking English tend to get smarter the further north one goes.  Ultimately, for the 10 cent Canadian dime award, what is on the reverse side of the Canadian dime opposite Queen Elizabeth II's engraving.  It looks to be some sort of sailing craft.  More than likely the real vessel exists somewhere in the world.  On the United States dime we still have parsley on the reverse side of our dime with Franklin the coal miner on the front side.  Basically, I guess one could stay and eat parsley in the United States of America or try sailing where the Canadians found bounty, but from what I hear tell, it is a much harder life there.  I heard reports on the New York media that Canadians still eat moose stew, which might not be as enjoyable to the tenderloin crowd down around the Rio Grande.  Next time someone in Texas wants people up north to "Remember the Alamo", one better remember that those people whom fought and died there still have relatives living in this country, and more than likely they are as formidable as their relatives, and I am not talking about the actors in the movie of the same name.  Well from what I can tell up north, we probably could make money selling beer in Texas in the summer, since more than likely not too many of the ingredients for beer are available in large quantity in Texas.  I also seem to remember that our local cablevision company in Connecticut use to show pictures of quaint farm people down in Texas doing the Texas "Two Step".  Basically I guess the sidewalks get so hot in Texas in the summer where they can afford cement, that they are what one would call down there Tender Foots.  It is much the opposite up north that the cold cement tends to make one more sure footed until one slips on black ice.  Basically, the Texans seem to spend too much time watching Ted Turner's bar room gossip from Atlanta, and if they ever ran out of batteries for their remote controls on their big screen television and had to lift a book to find out something else than what they learned in grade school, they might be surprised that it is still a big world out there, much larger than Texas.  Basically, it is my viewpoint, that the whole internet is nothing but a bunch of frustrated writers in India letting off their creative energies on the World.  We all know that India tends to be a frugal country, so there is not much money in trying to shake down India unless one wants more curry in one's rice.  Basically curry in the hot climate of Texas would help the individuals not feel the heat.  During the hot summers here, I recommend a few dashes of curry in tomato juice for relief from the heat.  Since we never hear much from India, I would imagine they are saving their energies for producing tea.  Well stay warm.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/27/04  Friday 9:20 P.M.:  I went back out after the last message.  I went downtown, and I walked the entire length of Greenwich Avenue, and I sat out at various locations.  I stopped by CVS, and I bought a white Djeep disposable lighter for $1.89 plus .11 tax for $2 total.  I noticed that this Sunday for next week's sale items, they will have 100 bag packages of Lipton orange pekoe tea on sale.  I have noticed during my walks that regularly on Fridays that someone or a number of individuals throw American Online CDs on the street at the top of Greenwich Avenue around the Pickwick Plaza.  I suppose if one could find out whom does it, one could fine them for littering.  I completed my walk, and I used the bathroom in the senior center.  I then drove down by the waterfront.  I next went by the Greenwich Library.  I was told they have a copy of the National Geographic with the Greenwich, Connecticut story at the reference desk, if one can not find it in general circulation.  I then returned home.  I made and ate my usual salad www.geocities.com/mikelscott/salad.htm , but this time I used a tin of King Oscar sardines instead of tuna fish.  For the cheddar cheese portion, I used Stop and Shop Vermont extra sharp cheddar cheese.  I also used all of the other regular ingredients.  I had the salad with iced tea. I opened up the new white Djeep lighter to have available for use.  I use them since they last four times as long as a Bic lighter, and they also seem to work in the very cold weather and in the wind, if one shields them.  However, it is the nature of butane lighters, when they get very cold below freezing, they tend not to be as strong.  I suppose that is why many people still prefer Zippo lighters with Ronson lighter fluid, but unfortunately cold steel lighters in one's pocket might be seen as a security threat since they would set off metal detectors unlike plastic lighters.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/27/04  Friday 2:40 P.M.:  I went out after the last message.  I went by Putnam Trust Bank of New York on Mason Street.  I then went by the Greenwich Hospital Thrift Shop.  Everything is still half price.  I bought for half price for $20 a 28 inch by 41 inch framed map of the Caribbean from Guadeloupe to Trinidad with about a one inch thick wooden frame around it, and it is framed in glass.  I then returned home.  I used a triple nail OOK hook, and I hung it beneath the framed tapestry of the Unicorn to the right side of the bathroom door.   One can only see it when the bathroom door is closed.  I moved the Audubon print of the Great Blue Heron to beneath the mirror on the bathroom door hallway side.  I moved the Moulin Rouge painting to above the white framed mirror above the white bureau in the bedroom.  I cleaned the glass on the Caribbean map.  I will now go back out again.  It is a nice day as far as I can tell.  CIO   

Note: <888> 02/27/04  Friday 12:45 P.M.:  I made and ate my homemade onion soup www.geocities.com/mikelscott/onionsoup.htm which was quite enjoyable.  I used one three inch yellow Spanish onion and one two inch diameter red Bermuda onion along with all of the other usual ingredients.  I had the soup with a glass of iced tea.  I also had a piece of apple pie.  I will now shut down the computer, and I will go out shortly as soon as I dress warmly.  Even though it is warmer out at 38 degrees Fahrenheit, I still wear two pairs of cotton long underwear, since I tend to spend a bit more time outside walking around than just dashing from a car to a shop.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/27/04  Friday 11:25 A.M.:  I showered and cleaned up.  I threw out the paper and garbage from the bathroom.  I picked up my mail.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/27/04  Friday 9:40 A.M.:  I chatted with a relative at 11 P.M. last night.  I was up at 5:30 A.M. this morning.  I chatted with a friend.  I ate breakfast of oatmeal, toast with strawberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  Since Saturday and Sunday might be warmer with temperatures up to 50 degrees Fahrenheit, I decided to do my house cleaning today instead of Saturday.  I just finished house cleaning and watering the plants.  I used CVS cleaner with bleach instead of Lysol Island Breeze cleaner, so the apartment smells a bit like bleach.  I listened to Radio 107.6 FM with my Emerson Wireless headphones.  I am now recharging the Radio Shack nickel cadmium rechargeable batteries, and they should be charged at 4:30 P.M..  The other pair of freshly charged batteries is in the Emerson wireless headphones.  I threw out the garbage.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/26/04  Thursday 10:20 P.M.:  About 10:05 P.M. the lights blinked for a split second, but my computer did not go off.  I relaxed for a bit after the last message.  I put the tea in the refrigerator.  I will now shut down the computer, and I will go to bed.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/26/04  Thursday 8:35 P.M.:  Over the last 15 years that I have lived in my current location, I have made my apartment very comfortable, although it is a bit cramped, since I am always buying items at our local thrift shops.  I have never had any security problems, and my neighbors respect my privacy like I respect their privacy.  Occasionally some friends visit but not very often recently.  I have never had any personal property disappear, and since it is a quite small apartment which I keep well organize, I would notice if anything were amiss.  Occasionally I misplace or hide items from myself.  On my personal computer setup, since the modern systems are very complex, about the only irregularity is that the volume control on my audio is frequently turned up to the maximum, when I normally keep it at about 50%.  Thus if someone were cleaver enough to gain entrance to my apartment, and bypass the password security on my computer systems, the only evidence would be that they are probably deaf.  However, with a cable modem it could be an outside hacker or some other system irregularity.  For someone to gain access to my apartment, it would have to be with cooperation of my neighbors whom would notice right away and whom are very vigilant.  If not it would have to be someone whom looked like me, which is unlikely, since then they would have to have a car like mine with the same license plate and other irregularities.  Thus it is highly unlikely someone would go through such complex activities to gain access to a modest apartment for no reason what so ever.  The fact that the inkjet cartridges ran out of ink after three months without hardly any use could mean that they might have dried up, which they can do, if they are not used regularly, particularly since they were generic cartridges.  The $15.86 missing in my accounts could have been a transaction error, but with all the simple transactions, I do it is highly unlikely.  All, I can think about is that I must have bought something that I forgot about.  One could think like Sherlock Holmes, and one could say that someone is using my computer for some subterfuge, and they are gaining admittance to my apartment using disguises, and that they turn the volume up, since they are listening to remote broadcasts of inferior audio quality, and that being hard up Russian type spies from the old cold war school of espionage, their weakness is cheap Vodka, and they somehow pilfered funds from me to buy a 1.5 liter bottle of cheap Vodka.  However if this were the case, it is more than likely someone would have taken note.  More than likely the systems are complex and they occasionally change their system settings, the ink in the inkjet printer dried up from lack of use, although I have left ink cartridges in it for longer periods with use, and $15.86 was part of an even sum of money such as $15 for a cab ride to Westchester airport, so the individual could flee the country by whatever type of aircraft they might have available.  However, since it is highly unlikely that a person with a private aircraft would need to use my apartment, it is more than likely the individual might have needed the money to travel locally on our train system.  Since only once this month, I can recall having kept that much money in the apartment, and my records showed that I spent it the following day without going to the bank again, it is hard to imagine anything more complex or obscure.  Still, with all the cleaver types of people in this area, I have made note of the facts, which is basically part of the routine of maintaining a log.  Whatever, the case I can not imagine anything out of the ordinary unless I am just getting older and absent minded.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/26/04  Thursday 8:05 P.M.:  I heated on both sides at 12 minutes a side in the Farberware convection oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit six America's Choice fish filets from one box, 15 America's Choice onion rings and 15 America's Choice potato puffs.  I also mixed three tablespoons of horseradish with a third of a cup of Heinz ketchup for a condiment to go with the baked food.  I had it all for dinner with a glass of iced tea.  I am now making up a batch of iced tea www.geocities.com/mikelscott/icetea.htm .  I am not using sugar in it, but I am using a couple of teaspoons of Angostura bitters.  I am also using 10 Salada orange pekoe tea bags, 5 Lipton green tea bags, and one each of the five different types of Twinings five type variety pack.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/26/04  Thursday 6:35 P.M.:  I went out after the last message.  I made my 3 P.M. appointment which was a bit later today.  I then went downtown, and I sat out briefly.  I then drove down by the waterfront.  I next returned home.  I tried to figure out in my accounts for the $15.86 that I can not account for missing.  Since I usually only take out from the bank as much as I need for a day's expenses, I never have that much in my wallet at the apartment, so it would not have disappeared from the apartment.  I never have anyone visiting here anyway.  I keep track of my expenses daily on the computer, and I was balanced out at the first of the month.  Since it is not too hard to keep track of $20 withdrawals and one's daily expenses, it is hard to figure out what happened to it or what expense I forgot to record.  I checked my accounts, and they all seem to be in order.  Besides grocery expenses which are already high this month, I have not made too many expenses besides my regular ones.  In other words, I have not bought that much at the thrift shops this month.  It is highly unlikely that someone picked my pocket downtown and put back my wallet.  Since my transaction processes are usually very simple, I can not figure out the reason for the imbalance.  Since I like to be precise in my accounting, it is still a mystery.  Basically when one studies in accounting and when one has worked in a bank, frequently it is an imbalance that shows some accounting error or transaction error.  Still from my records, I can not figure out the reason for the discrepancy.  I chatted with a relative.  CIO  

Note: <888> 02/26/04  Thursday 2:05 P.M.:  I will now shut down the computer, and I will go back out.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/26/04  Thursday 1:50 P.M.:  I watched some television after the last message.  I ate a piece of apple pie.  I went to bed about 10 P.M..  I woke up at 4 A.M., and I ate breakfast of oatmeal, toast with raspberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I went back to bed until 6:30 A.M., when I chatted with a friend.  I then cleaned up, and I went downtown about 7:30 A.M..  I walked the entire length of Greenwich Avenue.  I sat out at various locations.  I stopped by CVS, and I bought five 8 ounce bags of Necco candy tart hearts for .09 each plus .03 tax for .48 total.  I then completed my walk, and I ran into another regular walker.  We walked back up to the top of Greenwich Avenue, and then we walked east on East Putnam Avenue as far as Christ Church.  We then walked down Milbank Avenue as far as the center of town, and we parted company.  I used the bathroom at the senior center.  I then drove down by the waterfront.  I walked out onto the pier.  I then went by Putnam Trust Bank of New York on Mason Street.  I then went by the Greenwich Hospital Thrift Shop.  I bought a wicker and wood rack about two foot by two foot by five inches deep with a center shelf in brown color for $1.50.  I then went by the Stop and Shop, and I bought a quart of Stop and Shop strawberry preserves for $2.99, a three pound bag of organic Spanish yellow onions for $1.99, two half gallons of Tropicana premium orange juice with double vitamin C for $2 each, Rosenburg blue cheese from Denmark at $7.05 a pound for $4.93, a 10 ounce box of fresh mushrooms for $2.29, and 10 ounces of fresh spinach for $1.99 for $18.19 total.  I use a couple of tablespoons of crumbled Danish blue cheese in my salads, since I think the mold is good for you.  I then went by the Arnold bread outlet, and I bought a loaf of Hearty Health Nut nutty grain bread for .99 and a 5.5 ounce box of Arnold large cut garlic and herb croutons for .99 for $1.98 total.  I then returned home.  I put the brown wicker and wood shelf rack on the floor to the right side of my primary computer chair.  I took out all the computer CDs from the left wall rack behind the left monitor, and I put them in the shelf rack on the floor along with my computer tool kits and WWF digital camera.  I also took out the driver CDs from bags and boxes in the bedroom, and I put them on the floor shelf rack too.  I moved the empty ink cartridges in their boxes from the right wall shelf rack to the left wall shelf rack.  I made and ate my usual salad www.geocities.com/mikelscott/salad.htm .  I used a tin of sardines that I chopped instead of tuna fish.  For the cheddar cheese portion, I used Stop and Shop Vermont extra sharp cheddar cheese.  I had the salad with all of the other regular ingredients.  I am throwing out a number of plastic packaging boxes that I had on the white bureau in my bedroom.  When I balanced my accounts on the computer, I came up $15.86 short, which I can not figure out where it disappeared to, since I keep exact record of my expenses.  I have a 3 P.M. appointment today.  I have the 5 bags of Necco candies on the floor in a bag in the left living room closet, and I have another three bags in the top drawer of my mahogany bureau in the bedroom.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/25/04  Wednesday 8:15 P.M.:  I finished going through www.geocities.com/mikelscott/scotwork.htm .  I will now shut down both computers, and I will go to bed soon.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/25/04  Wednesday 8:00 P.M.:  I finished running the maintenance utilities on the Dell backup computer.  I also did a three part backup from the C: to the D: drive, and I ran Norton Speed Disk on the C: drive.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/25/04  Wednesday 7:45 P.M.:  I finished going through my email.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/25/04  Wednesday 7:35 P.M.:  I received notification from Microsoft that my copy of Microsoft Office 2003 Professional shipped today via Airborne Ground, so I guess it will be a while before it arrives.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/25/04  Wednesday 7:00 P.M.:  I am heating a 18.8 ounce can of Campbell's New England clam chowder, which I will have with a glass of iced tea.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/25/04  Wednesday 6:25 P.M.:  I have the Dell backup computer configured, and it is running just fine.  I now have to run the system utilities.  Then I will do a C: drive to D: drive backup.  Then I will run Norton Speed Disk.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/25/04  Wednesday 3:40 P.M.:  I am installing programs on the Dell backup computer.  I checked my mail again, and I did not get any mail.  I had a telephone call to change an appointment next week to a day later.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/25/04  Wednesday 1:40 P.M.:  I made and ate my usual salad www.geocities.com/mikelscott/salad.htm .  Instead of tuna fish, I used a 4.25 ounce can of flaked pink crab meat.  For the cheddar cheese portion, I used 50% Kraft Cracker barrel baby Swiss cheese and 50% Stop and Shop Vermont extra sharp cheddar cheese.  I used all of the other regular ingredients.  I had the salad with iced tea.  I will now drink a 50% Folgers' instant and 50% Folgers' decaffeinated instant coffee.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/25/04  Wednesday 12:30 P.M.:  On the Dell backup computer with Windows XP SP2 beta 1 #2082, I was able to successfully install Norton System Works 2003 and Norton Personal Firewall 2003, and I also installed the updates.  They are running just fine.  I ran Norton Win Doctor.  The XP firewall seems to work with them also.  However, the XP beta startup security program does not indicate that the XP Firewall is working when it seems to be working.  I am restoring my data and other files to the C: drive from the backup on the D: drive.  I checked the mail again, and it has not arrived.  I also installed the Siemens router port.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/25/04  Wednesday 11:05 A.M.:  The test of the NOAA weather warning radio which is scheduled for this time on Wednesday went off at 11:02 A.M..  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/25/04  Wednesday 11:00 A.M.:  I threw out some garbage outside.  I have the XP SP2 beta 1 #2082 installed on the Dell backup computer.  I turned off indexing on the C: drive.  I also disabled automatic updates.  I disabled the XP Firewall, until I try to install Symantec Firewall 2003.  I installed the updates and rebooted, and the second time I ran the updates, it took a few minutes to find and install the last update.  I then made a backup with System Restore, and I will install Norton System Works 2003 run the updates and then install Norton Firewall 2003 and run the updates and then enable the XP SP2 beta firewall.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/25/04  Wednesday 10:15 A.M.:  I finished going through my email.  Yesterday, I went through most of www.geocities.com/mikelscott/scotwork.htm , before I started working with the new XP beta on the Dell backup computer.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/25/04  Wednesday 9:55 A.M.:  I have XP installed on the Dell backup, and I did some minor configuration, and I am in the process of installing XP SP2 beta 1 #2082 from the local hard drive install file that I copied to its C: drive.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/25/04  Wednesday 8:55 A.M.:  I formatted the C: drive on the Dell backup computer.  I am now installing Windows XP.  I will then install Windows XP SP2 beta 1 #2082 upgrade, which I have the full 350 meg. file for on CD.  I will then do some minimal system configuration, and I will restore the data files from my backup files on the D: drive.  This still will take most of the day.  I imagine the Symantec Norton System Works 2003 and Norton Firewall 2003 will work on a clean install, since the problem was probably with old registry entries.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/25/04  Wednesday 8:25 A.M.:  The beta #2082 is downloaded.  I can not get the Symantec programs to install on the Dell backup computer.  I will now format the C: drive on it, and I will do a new install and configuration.  This should take some time like most of the day.  I think what I will do is do a new install, and then put the betas on it, but I will not waste all of the time configuring it.  However, it is my backup computer, and I have other backup computers.  The question is whether to configured it as a stable backup computer or a beta machine, either way will take a bit of time.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/25/04  Wednesday 7:55 A.M.:  On the Dell backup computer with Windows XP SP2 beta 1 #2082, I could not get Norton System Works 2003 and Norton Firewall 2003 to install after I had uninstalled them all and removed their entries including running Norton Win Doctor from the CD to clean up the registry.  Since the beta seems to be a bit of a problem, I am uninstalling it right now.  I will then have the basic Windows XP setup, and I could either configure it, or I could restore the backup of Windows XP SP2 beta 1 #2055.  I will see how the system works after uninstall.  When I was trying to install Norton System Works, it would not do a full install, but kept changing back to a few megs. of files to install for some odd reason.  It might be a Symantec problem and not a XP beta problem.  I will see if it installs after uninstalling the XP beta.  I could always format the drive and do a clean install and configuration from scratch which would take a day or two, but I do not think I would want to put the XP beta on again.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/25/04  Wednesday 6:40 A.M.:  I was up at 5:30 A.M..  I had breakfast of oatmeal, toast with raspberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I am downloading the XP SP2 beta 1 #2082 install file which has about an hour and a half to go.  I will now work on configuring the Dell backup computer.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/24/04  Tuesday 9:50 P.M.:  I can not get Norton System Works 2003 and Norton Firewall 2003 to work with the beta on the Dell backup computer.  I tried reinstalling them, and some of their updates will not install.  I am tired, so I shut down the Dell backup computer.  I will now shut down the primary computer.  I will eat a piece of apple pie with some iced tea.  I will then go to bed.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/24/04  Tuesday 8:10 P.M.:  I have the new XP SP2 beta 1 #2082 installed on the Dell backup computer with the updates.  I now have to do some configuring and reinstallations of programs.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/24/04  Tuesday 7:15 P.M.:  I am installing the new beta #2082 of Windows XP SP2 beta 1 on the Dell backup computer.  I had to reinstall Windows XP overriding my existing Windows XP settings, but I did not reformat the drive, but I will have to reconfigure it after installation and reinstall some of the programs.  However, that is part of beta testing.  The download from the small install file is going fast.  I have 11 minutes to go on the download.  It is not suppose to a stable beta, but it does have a lot of new features supposedly.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/24/04  Tuesday 4:30 P.M.:  Microsoft Adds More Features to XP Service Pack 2 and  Microsoft Adds More Features to XP Service Pack 2 .  The beta site is busy now, and I have not been able to get it to download.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/24/04  Tuesday 3:50 P.M.:  I used my pill cutter, and I cut 50 aspirin in half, and I put them in my bottle of half size aspirin, and I take one every day when I wake up with my vitamins and supplements.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/24/04  Tuesday 3:25 P.M.:  I checked my mail.  I found this link to check my Microsoft shipment https://status.microsoft.upgrade.com/orderstatus/default.asp , however it returns an error message, when I use it.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/24/04  Tuesday 2:25 P.M.:  I chatted with a friend.  I took a 10.75 ounce can of Campbell's condensed mushroom soup, and I put in a microwave proof pot with lid, and I added three ounces of Rene Junot white wine and six ounces of milk and 1/4 teaspoon of parsley and 1/4 teaspoon of basil and a tablespoon of olive oil and five 1/8th inch thick sliced medium mushrooms, and I mixed it all together.  I then heated it in the General Electric microwave oven on medium level for seven minutes.  I served it with about 12 large cut croutons and parsley sprinkled on it.  I ate the soup with a glass of iced tea.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/24/04  Tuesday 12:35 P.M.:  I checked outside.  It is 33 degrees Fahrenheit outside, one degree above freezing, and it is snowing lightly outside, but at the moment, it does not seem to be accumulating.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/24/04  Tuesday 12:15 P.M.:  I went through my email.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/24/04  Tuesday 11:55 A.M.:  I woke up from my nap about 10:30 A.M., when I had a telephone call about a charity basketball game at the Greenwich High School on May 7, 2004 with spin off team from the Harlem Globe Trotters.  I explained to them that I would not be able to attend.  I watched a bit of CSPAN television that had Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd whom we hardly ever hear about here in Connecticut.  I will now do some regular computer work.  I also ate a piece of apple pie which I had with iced tea.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/24/04  Tuesday 8:10 A.M.:  I will now put the computer on standby and take a nap.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/24/04  Tuesday 7:55 A.M.:  I chatted with a friend.  The friend mentioned an internet company in his real estate building at http://www.country-living.com/ in Wilton, Connecticut called Greenfield Online - Leading the Research Revolution .  I made and ate my usual salad www.geocities.com/mikelscott/salad.htm .  I made the salad with a tin of King Oscar sardines instead of tuna.  For the cheddar cheese portion, I used Kraft Cracker barrel baby Swiss cheese.  I used all of the other regular ingredients.  I had the salad with iced tea.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/24/04  Tuesday 6:20 A.M.:  I went out after the last message.  I walked the entire length of Greenwich Avenue.  I sat out at various locations.  I noticed a Starbucks employee had to wait an hour for someone to open up the shop at 5:25 A.M..  I guess the shop manager is not as punctual as the early rising employee.  I also sat out at various locations.  I found a champagne cork with VCP and a anchor on top and on the bottom it has the same with VEUVE CLICQUOT PONSARDIN, so I guess someone was in a festive mood last night.  I found it across the street from the Ginger Man restaurant.  I completed my walk, and as usual the various sanitation trucks were out.  I also walked the train station area.  I drove down by the waterfront.  I walked out onto the pier, and I could see a few ducks in the water.  I then returned home.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/24/04  Tuesday 3:50 A.M.:  I put away the laundry.  I will now shut down the computer, and I will clean up, and I will go out for some fresh air.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/24/04  Tuesday 3:05 A.M.:  I was up at 1 A.M..  I started two loads of laundry.  I have 15 minutes to go on the dry cycle.  I ate breakfast of oatmeal, toast with strawberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I put clean linens on the bed in the bedroom.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/23/04  Monday 4:30 P.M.:  I chatted with a relative.  I will now shut down the computer, and I will go to bed.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/23/04  Monday 3:50 P.M.:  I made up a fresh batch of homemade hummus www.geocities.com/mikelscott/hummus.htm .  I used two 4.25 ounce cans of California black crushed olives for the olive portion, and a clove of elephant garlic for the garlic portion.  I made and ate my usual salad www.geocities.com/mikelscott/salad.htm .  For the cheddar cheese portion, I used Kraft Cracker barrel baby Swiss cheese.  I also used all of the other regular ingredients.  I had the salad with a glass of iced tea.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/23/04  Monday 2:05 P.M.:  I went out after the last message.  I went by Putnam Trust Bank of New York on Mason Street.  I saw a DHL truck in their parking lot, so maybe today, they will be delivering my Microsoft Airborne package, since DHL uses the Airborne title.  I then went by the Greenwich Hospital Thrift shop, and everything continues to be half price.  I then went downtown, and I walked the entire length of Greenwich Avenue.  I sat out at various locations.  I stopped by CVS, and I bought buy one get one free of Reach Performance medium full head toothbrushes for $2.99 both and from the 90% off rack, I bought four 8 ounce packages of Necco tart conversation heart candies for .09 an 8 ounce bag plus .20 tax for $3.55 total.  I used the bathroom at the senior center.  I then drove down by the waterfront.  I walked out onto the pier with the sea gulls.  I then drove over to the Arnold bread outlet, and I bought a Entenmann's home-style apple pie for $1.89 less 10% senior discount of .19 for $1.70 total.  I then went by Smoke for Less in Byram, and I bought a carton of Seneca Ultra Lights 100s for $31 total.  I then returned home.  I drank some ice tea.  I will fill up the candy dish on the right side of the mahogany bureau with a bag of the NECCO hearts.  I will replace my two current two brushes with the Reach tooth brushes.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/23/04  Monday 10:35 A.M.:  I rested until 9:30 A.M..  I cleaned up.  I will now go out.  I will shut down the computer before leaving.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/23/04  Monday 7:20 A.M.:  I made and ate a serving of onion soup www.geocities.com/mikelscott/onionsoup.htm .  This time I used one peeled and sliced three inch yellow Spanish onion and one two inch peeled and sliced red Bermuda onion along with all of the other usual ingredients.  I ate the onion soup with iced tea.  I also ate a piece of apple pie.  I will now put the computer on standby, and I will rest for a while.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/23/04  Monday 6:10 A.M.:  I finished going through my email.  It says here Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: Microsoft Office System 2003 Editions Review that for the copy of Microsoft Office 2003 Professional that I will receive this week that I am allowed to install it on three machines, which is what the Microsoft representative said at the TS2 conference where I got the certificate for it.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/23/04  Monday 5:20 A.M.:  Microsoft Creates a Stir in Its Work With the U.N. .  CIO

Note: <888> 02/23/04  Monday 5:00 A.M.:  During my last couple of years in Manhattan up until February 1982 when it was minus 24 degrees Fahrenheit, my roommate worked as the head of word processing for a prominent lawyer named Cyrus Vance whose office was across the street from the IBM headquarters at Madison Avenue and 57th Street, so I occasionally checked out the bamboo in the lobby of the IBM building.  Well back in those days at Polaroid in the summer of 1971, I worked with the computers at the Polaroid film factory on Interstate 128 in Waltham, Massachusetts.  I did punch card entry for my programs.  I worked with flow sheets, and I also wrote a spread sheet program in Cobol, which worked successfully on the IBM 360 once the data had been entered from the programming sheets into punch cards.  That following fall at Lake Forest College www.lfc.edu they gave me 3 course credits for the summer internship program which permitted me to graduate that following June 1972.  I needed the three credits, because I had twice flunked Dr. Shockley's course in Quantum Mechanics in advanced calculus, and one other course, which I can not remember at this moment.  In presenting the material for the three course credits, I presented all of my work from Polaroid which I had copies of in print outs along with the IBM 360 manuals that taught me how to program in Cobol.  Lake Forest College kept the material and never gave it back to me.  However, spread sheet programs began to appear out of Borland in Santa Cruz, California around 1982 where a number of my fellow Lake Forest College alumni were working at the time.  At the time during the summer internship at Polaroid in the summer of 1971, I was neither an employee of Polaroid or IBM, but I was paid $200 a week as an independent subcontractor working on computers.  During that same period I was interested in the chain printers they were using, so I designed a Laser printer which worked with an actual laser beam.  I never built a prototype, but I showed the design to Joe Costello who was the head of personnel at Digital Computers.  I also back in the summer of 1968 when I was working as a research photographer for Polaroid at Polaroid's research facility on Osborne Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I described in the photography photo laboratory in our office, my concept of X-ray lithography, which supposedly was invented by Intel back in 1965.  In the computers offices at that time in 1971, they had 300 baud teletype machines connected to main frames that were part of the original internet that was developed nearby at MIT www.mit.edu .  Also at Technology Square near MIT and Osborne street they had the backup computers for NASA.  Also across from Osborne Street was the NECCO candy wafer factory.  While at the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut they had computers, but the individuals involved in the school computer club would not let me use them, but as I recall they were mostly used by the Taft School astronomy club since they had a very good telescope in the science laboratory.  Alas at Greenwich Country Day, we did not have computers, but I did spend quite a bit of time in the photography laboratory as a photographer for the school year book.  Of course before moving to Greenwich in 1961, I lived nearby Huntsville, Alabama in Decatur, Alabama, so with the NASA people nearby, I played with Gilbert chemistry sets, model electric trains, and I assembled model airplanes out of plastic and balsa wood along with other models of ships.  I seem to recall back then reading Popular Mechanics like I did when I was down in the Florida Keys in the mid 1970s.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/23/04  Monday 4:25 A.M.:  I finished watching Kevin Maney talk about Wiley::The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson, Sr. and the Making of IBM .  Having lived in this area since 1961, I do not need to be reminded that IBM is also a player in this area.  I remember when I lived in Key West from October 1976 in the winter through the winters of May 1978, I frequently saw someone with a red LaCoste alligator shirt at tea time in one of the local discothèques in Key West, Florida that I assumed was a retired marine, since he wore a red shirt.  He had a military haircut, and a military demeanor like he was a pilot.  What I noticed is that the individual had the same look at Thomas Watson Junior, but I never bothered to ask the individual if he were a relative, since a great many senior people in the military seemed to have had the same look.  I once attended a debutant party in June 1971 for one of Thomas Watson Junior's daughter, and since I had been programming IBM 360 computers at Polaroid the previous summer with punch cards and code writing sheets, I recognized both Thomas Watson Junior and Arthur Watson.  The party was at the roof garden of the St. Regis hotel in Manhattan, where I used to get my hair cut in the basement during the 1973 to 1982 period.  I was too shy to chat with them, but I happened to get in the elevator after having a few drinks, and it was one of those old time elevators with a 360 degree operator's lever, and since the elevator operator was not there, I decided to run the elevator, and since I was inexperienced at running the elevator, I gave the occupants the ride of their life which included the two Watson brothers.  Thus although I tried to get a job with IBM many times, I guess they remembered their ride, and they never gave me a job with IBM.  In the Maney presentation, he says there are no major memorials or buildings named after the Watson family which is incorrect, since they have the Watson Business and Economics Library at Columbia University http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/business/ , the Watson research center at IBM http://www.watson.ibm.com/ , and the new pavilion under construction at the Greenwich Hospital http://www.greenhosp.org/home.asp will be named after them since the family are local residents.  On a lesser note, although I received notification from Microsoft Airborne with a tracking number, it does not work with DHL airborne, and although it says it will be two day airborne, it also says 5 to 7 days delivery for the Microsoft Office Suite 2003 Professional package, so I might have to be here to sign for it when it arrives.  This might mean that I will have to stay around the apartment during this week until it arrives, since I can not track it.  We will have to wait and see what develops.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/23/04  Monday 2:10 A.M.:  After the last message, I drank a 50% Folgers' instant coffee and 50% Folgers' decaffeinated coffee.  I chatted with a relative.  I went to bed until 1 A.M..  I had breakfast of oatmeal, toast with raspberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  On book TV on channel 66 on our local cablevision system, there is suppose to be someone on at 2:30 A.M. in 20 minutes talking about Thomas Watson Sr.  CIO   

Note: <888> 02/22/04  Sunday 11:05 A.M.:  I rested a bit more.  I am a bit bored being inside, so maybe I have Cabin Fever.  I guess I will clean up, and I will go out for a little daytime activity.  I will now shut down the computer.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/22/04  Sunday 9:45 A.M.:  I also ate a piece of apple pie.  I still feel a bit tired.  I guess all of the cold that I have endured during the past few months has caught up with me, and I still feel a bit tired.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/22/04  Sunday 9:25 A.M.:  I rested since the last message.  I also chatted with a friend.  I am microwaving a Maria Calendar 14 ounce chicken tenders dinner, which I will eat shortly with a glass of iced tea.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/22/04  Sunday 5:30 A.M.:  I went through my email.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/22/04  Sunday 5:20 A.M.:  CNN.com - Spot, spaniel born in first Bush White House, dies - Feb. 21, 2004 .  CIO

Note: <888> 02/22/04  Sunday 5:10 A.M.:  I made and ate my usual salad www.geocities.com/mikelscott/salad.htm .  Instead of a can of tuna fish, I used a 4.25 ounce can crumbled Bumble Bee pink crab.  For the cheddar cheese portion, I used Kraft Cracker barrel baby Swiss cheese.  I had the salad with a glass of iced tea.  

Note: <888> 02/22/04  Sunday 3:55 A.M.:  Wired News: Russia Tests New Wonder Weapon .  CIO

Note: <888> 02/22/04  Sunday 3:15 A.M.:  Russia Tests Missile That Could Evade U.S. Defense .  CIO

Note: <888> 02/22/04  Sunday 3:05 A.M.:  I had the tiny screw fall out of my reading glasses.  The right ear piece became detached.  I was able to find the tiny screw on the dining room table place mat where I had placed my eye glasses.  I reinserted and tightened the tiny screw along with the screw on the left ear piece, so now my reading glasses are secure for a while.  I keep two sets of eye glass screw drivers on my dining room table, along with some spare tiny screws.  They are available by the cash registers at the Food Emporium, which is not opened all night on weekends.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/22/04  Sunday 2:40 A.M.:  Well, I noticed the original movie Robin Hood was on television tonight on the Turner movie channel.  When I first returned here over 20 years ago from living in Manhattan and Nantucket, I said I would try to be the sheriff of Sherwood Forest.  Well, I have partially succeeded in that occasionally I spend time around the Greenwich Hospital Thrift Shop on Sherwood Place.  The local youth in this rural environment tend to be like Robin Hood and his merry band of woodsmen compared to their more urban cousins whom occasionally venture out into this forested area.  Of course the Big City Slickers are well known for their own escapades.  We do have an archery practice range at the Montgomery Pineum reserve.  I even have a Swiss cross bow in my apartment that I bought at the ELDC thrift shop for about $5 about 15 years ago.  Alas I have no arrows for the cross bow.  Still, I will keep a keen eye out for William Tell and Robin Hood or any of their followers.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/22/04  Sunday 2:20 A.M.:  I ate a piece of apple pie before going to bed after the last message.  I woke up during my sleep, and I ate 10 saltines.  I finally woke up at 10 P.M., and I ate breakfast of oatmeal, toast with raspberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I then went back to sleep until a short time ago.  I will now do some computer work.  In the mail, I received a nice picture of George and Laura Bush with a form and an a envelope for campaign contributions.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/21/04  Saturday 11:25 A.M.:  I went outside briefly.  I checked the mail which has not arrived.  I will now shut down the computer, and I will go to bed soon.  I received notification that the Microsoft Office Suite 2003 has been shipped two day airborne, so I guess I will receive it on Monday.  Well, it has warmed up, and it is currently 39 degrees Fahrenheit, and it feels like 34 degrees Fahrenheit http://www.weather.com/weather/local/06830 .  CIO

Note: <888> 02/21/04  Saturday 10:40 A.M.:  I am microwaving a Swanson's 11 ounce boneless white meat fried chicken dinner, which I will eat with a glass of iced tea.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/21/04  Saturday 10:15 A.M.:  I vacuumed my apartment.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/21/04  Saturday 9:30 A.M.:  I went out after the last message.  I went downtown, and I walked the entire length of Greenwich Avenue and the train station area.  I sat out at various locations.  I used the bathroom at Starbucks.  I then drove down by the waterfront.  I next went by the ATM machine at Putnam Trust Bank of New York on Mason Street.  I then went by the Greenwich Exxon station next to the library, and I bought $2.35 of regular unleaded gasoline at $1.959 a gallon for about 27 miles per gallon.  I then went by the Stop and Shop, and I bought eight 4.25 ounce cans of Bumble Bee pink crab meat for .99 a can, two 6.5 ounce dry cans of Stop and Shop California medium black pitted olives for .99 each, a 16 ounce container of Stop and Shop grated parmesan cheese for $4.99, a 17 ounce bottle of Rienzi balsamic vinegar for $2.99, fresh plum tomatoes at $1.99 a pound for $3.56, 10 ounces of fresh spinach for $1.50, 16 ounces of baby carrots $1.50, 10 ounces of fresh mushrooms $1.99, and fresh broccoli crowns at $1.99 a pound for $1.73 for $28.16 total.  I then went by the Arnold Bread outlet, and I bought two 5.5 ounce boxes of Arnold large cut garlic and herb croutons for .99 each, a loaf of Arnold whole wheat oat bread for .99, a Entenmann's home-style apple pie for $1.89 less 10% senior discount of .49 for $4.37 total.  I then returned home, and I put away my purchases.  I drank some iced tea.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/21/04  Saturday 5:10 A.M.:  I will now shut down the computer, and I will clean up.  I will then go out for a walk downtown, and I will also do some errands once the stores open.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/21/04  Saturday 4:55 A.M.:  I made and ate my usual salad www.geocities.com/mikelscott/salad.htm .  I used all of the regular ingredients.  For the cheddar cheese portion, I used 2/3 Stop and Shop Vermont extra sharp cheddar cheese and 1/3 Kraft Cracker Barrel Baby Swiss cheese.  For the grated parmesan cheese, I used Stop and Shop no fat grated parmesan cheese topping.  I also opened the 6 ounce jar of 4C imported grated Parmesan and Romano cheese, and I put it in the empty Stop and Shop no fat grated parmesan cheese container.  I had the salad with iced tea.  CIO

End of Scott's Notes week of 02/21/04:

Note: <888> 02/21/04  Saturday 3:10 A.M.:  I will now send out my weekly notes.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/21/04  Saturday 2:40 A.M.:  I was up at 10 P.M., and I had breakfast of oatmeal, toast with raspberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I just finished my house cleaning and watering the plants.  I still have to do my vacuuming, which I will do after 9 A.M., so I will not disturb my neighbors.  I listened to 107.6 FM with the Emerson wireless headphones.  I am now recharging the Radio Shack nickel cadmium rechargeable batteries that I used in them, and they should be ready at 10 A.M..  I have a fully charged pair in the Emerson wireless headphones.  I like listening to music when I do house cleaning, because it makes it go by faster.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/20/04  Friday 4:00 P.M.:  I will now shut down the computer, and I will go to bed soon.  I might just nap for a while.  I also chatted with a relative.  CIO  

Note: <888> 02/20/04  Friday 1:45 P.M.:  I went out after the last message.  I went downtown, and I walked the entire length of Greenwich Avenue.  I sat out at various locations.  I also walked the train station area.  During my walk, I stopped by CVS, and I picked up a prescription at $1.50 cost, and I also bought ten 3.75 ounce tins of Beach Cliff sardines in water for .50 each for $6.50 total.  I then completed my walk.  I next drove down by the waterfront.  I then went by Putnam Trust Bank of New York on Mason Street.  I then went by the Greenwich Hospital Thrift shop, and I bought a 40 inch brown leather belt with brass buckle for $3.75.  Everything there is half price.  I next went by the Greenwich Library.  I then returned home, and I drank some iced tea.  I made and ate my usual salad www.geocities.com/mikelscott/salad.htm .  I used a tin of sardines that I chopped instead of tuna.  I also added the soy oil.  I used Stop and Shop Vermont extra sharp cheddar cheese, and I also used no fat Stop and Shop grated parmesan cheese.  I used all of the other regular ingredients.  I had the salad with iced tea.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/20/04  Friday 6:50 A.M.:  I chatted with a friend.  I will now shut down the computer, and I will clean up, and I will go out after that.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/20/04  Friday 5:55 A.M.:  I went to bed after the last message.  I was up at 10 P.M., and I ate breakfast of oatmeal, toast with raspberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I checked my mail.  I went back to bed until 4 A.M..  I just ate a 18.8 ounce can of Campbell's New England clam chowder, which I had with ten large cut croutons.  I also drank some iced tea.  I also made a 50% Folgers' regular instant and 50% Folgers' decaffeinated instant coffee, which I drank.  Recently in the last 48 hours my allergies have been bothering me again, as if a cat had been in my apartment.  Since as far as I know, a cat has not been in my apartment, the other possibilities are my neighbor downstairs has a cat, but that in the past has never bothered me.  Also I saw on the television that there are major dust storms in Texas, so possibly the dust storms have changed the air quality in this area too.  I do not seem to have any mold growth in the refrigerator.  The only other possibility in terms of change in routine is that I might be allergic to the raspberry jam, I recently started eating instead of strawberry jam.  However, once about five years ago, my cat allergies were activated when I was driving in back country by the reservoir, and possibly some sort of wild cat jumped on top of my Volvo, and whatever it was activated my cat allergies.  Possibly there is another wild cat in this area, but I am not sure I would sense it from inside at a distance.  Well, this morning, I feel a bit better anyway.  I have not cleaned up in 48 hours, so maybe I am allergic to myself.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/19/04  Thursday 4:35 P.M.:  Traditionally the British colonial subjects enjoy tea in the American colonies around 4 P.M., hopefully with some scones and cakes.  After the last message, I ate a Nature's Valley granola bar, and then I relaxed a while.  I am having a hard time falling asleep.  I checked my mail twice, but it has not come as of a half hour ago.  I just ate a 12 Nabisco saltines with 1/8th inch thick slices of Stop and Shop Vermont extra sharp cheddar cheese on them along with some iced tea.  In the heated up Republican versus Liberal political campaign in the American political process, the Bush Cheney group are saving money on bumper stickers so far, but I have seen one with their name on it that says "Bush Cheney Compassionate Colonialism".  I am not sure how to interpret that one.  Basically, from an old guard American viewpoint, it is fun to see all the newly arrived fresh face immigrants in this country, but having been to Europe a half dozen times, I have also seen how hard they tend to work and they also tend to be very regimented.  Basically, supposedly the population density of Belgium for example is the densest population in the world per area.  Thus I guess when the Belgium people visit here, they enjoy a little open space.  Basically, I still call my public housing complex "Flanders's Field" named after Flanders's which is the area between the Belgium Netherlands' coast and the English coast, which about 50,000 years ago was above water before it was swallowed up my the English French channel.  Thus the area that was once known as Flanders is now under water.  When that happened more than likely the people whom lived there took off exploring other parts of the world around the oceans, so more than likely the Flemish were the original discovers of America, since their old home was under water.  I have been told that the Vikings have been also mining copper in Michigan for 50,000 years, so newly arrived Europeans should realize that their relatives long ago preceded them.  Basically what we have in current history in America is the revised history in America to make it easier to learn without having to go back to far in time.  I never studied pre European American history, but more than likely there are a small group of people somewhere that know about it like the stories of the Mud people.  Whatever, the case I have heard more traffic from the local airport today, so more than likely some people are either returning from vacation or coming to visit us.   It is hard to tell what really goes on here, since so many people constantly pass us by, since our downtown area can be a bit expensive except maybe for CVS.  Still we do our best to try to be hospitable to strangers should they take the time to stop by.  My local guide for this area recently has been busy with other more profitable ventures, so I do not know anyone to recommend for sightseeing excursions, but more than likely some of our regular visitors are already familiar with the area.  I suppose, I could try to be more helpful, but on a limited budget, I can only recommend to people to be frugal and to save their money for a rainy day.  The town motto here is "Frugality and Fortune", but with all of this news about possible terrorists attacks, it would not hurt for some people to try to be modestly prepared as best as one can afford it with common sense.  I do not watch much television just a small bit of what is on it, so as far as I can tell without having gone out in the last 36 hours, the situation pretty much remains the same in this area.  Still for people from warmer areas, it might be a bit chilly.  Still, I am enjoying relaxing at home today.  I will now shut down the computer again, and I will try to get to sleep.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/19/04  Thursday 11:55 A.M.:  I chatted with Microsoft Small Business solutions at 1-800-626-6307.  I am a bit tired, so I will now shut down the computer, and I will go to bed soon.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/19/04  Thursday 10:30 A.M.:  If one needs a calendar try this link ftp://ftp.tekcolor.com/latest/CALPS-01UA.PDF .  Of course I can not afford this Xerox color laser printer for $999 http://www.office.xerox.com/perl-bin/response.pl?26303 , but maybe some of the more enterprising individuals in this area can.  Of course, it would also cost money to run the Xerox printer, which might be more expensive than the inkjet printer.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/19/04  Thursday 10:20 A.M.:  For some odd reason my Epson Stylus Color 880 printer which I bought the day before "911" ran out of ink, and I have only used it to print out test pages and cleaning since I put in new ink cartridges from www.3dayinkjet.com about three months ago.  It is peculiar that it ran out of ink.  I tried resetting the cartridges with Scotch tape, but they were out of ink.  I finally put in the two new one black and one color original Epson cartridges that I had obtained from Entree computer in exchange for the two Epson 800 cartridges that I had bought for half price for about $27 when Marx Brothers was going out of business.  Thus it seems to be very expensive to run a inkjet printer which I hardly ever use.  I bought the Minolta QMS PagePro 1250W laser printer, so I would not have expensive ink cartridge bills.  I also have three other HP laser printers which have full toner cartridges.  Thus whatever seems to be making my Epson Stylus Color 880 inkjet printer continually run out of ink, when it is hardly ever used by me is getting to be very expensive.  If it is a ghost or something using it, I wish they would consider the cost to me.  I originally paid $80 for it and the week after "911" I got another $10 back from Staples in Old Greenwich, since it had price protection and was $10 cheaper.  However at the time it was marked down from $150, so it is a very good inkjet printer, and not one of the less expensive models.  It is running fine now with the new ink cartridges.  I put the old ink cartridges in the boxes on the wicker rack on the shelf to the right of the primary computer.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/19/04  Thursday 8:50 A.M.:  I threw out my garbage.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/19/04  Thursday 8:15 A.M.:  I rested a bit.  I am now microwaving a Swanson 11.75 ounce roast turkey breast and stuffing dinner, which I will have with a glass of iced tea.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/19/04  Thursday 6:55 A.M.:  I worked on my email.  I will now put the computer on standby, and I will rest a bit.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/19/04  Thursday 5:00 A.M.:  Cool News: NSF - OLPA - PR 03-135: ABANDONED PENGUIN COLONIES MAY HELP REFINE ANTARCTIC CLIMATE STUDIES .  CIO

Note: <888> 02/19/04  Thursday 4:40 A.M.:  Specifically, my friend told me at around 10 P.M. last night that yesterday that there were using special tactical units at the Guggenheim museum http://www.guggenheim.org/ which she was told they revolved them around the city on a rotating basis.  Thus if New York City is using such high levels of security, I would imagine they are worried, since extra security costs money.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/19/04  Thursday 4:25 A.M.:  I just woke up from my nap.  I ate about 15 saltine crackers with some iced tea.  It would seem to me that although the United States government never tells us very much, that they must know something, or they would not be spending all this money on terror prevention.  I am not sure how it is relevant to our area, since most people only know what is in the Greenwich Time and on local television and the internet.  However, I suppose some people whom travel into Manhattan for work would have a better idea of the larger picture.  At the moment, http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/ is at yellow level, so whatever activity is going on in Manhattan is part of their normal preparedness which they have kept in effect since "911".  Still, since I am more expert at running computers than I am at walking around at night in cold weather, I have not gone out yet.  Although it is warm at 25 degrees Fahrenheit outside with a wind-chill of 16 degrees Fahrenheit http://www.weather.com/weather/local/06830 at the moment, I feel like it might be damp outside, which since I have arthritis would bother me.  Generally when I can feel the dampness inside, it means it is damp outside.  The humidity level is 56% outside which is enough to make an arthritis sufferer feel a bit cranky.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/19/04  Thursday 1:30 A.M.:  I relaxed a bit.  I put the ice tea in the refrigerator.  I will now put the computer on standby, and I will take a nap.  With the apartment being kept cooler, one frequently feels more comfortable in bed.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/19/04  Thursday 12:05 A.M.:  I made and ate my usual salad www.geocities.com/mikelscott/salad.htm .  I used Stop and Shop Vermont extra sharp cheddar cheese with the salad, and I also used Stop and Shop no fat grated parmesan cheese topping.  I used all of the other regular ingredients.  I had the salad with iced tea.  I am also making up a fresh batch of iced tea www.geocities.com/mikelscott/icetea.htm .  I am using 10 Salada orange pekoe tea bags, 5 Lipton green tea bags, and one each of the five different types of Twinings tea in the five variety pack.  I am not using sugar, but I am using a couple of tablespoons of Angostura bitters.  The friend whom called me from Manhattan told me that they are still using antiterrorist tactical forces around Manhattan and New York City, so I would imagine that it is not really safe to visit the city.  Locally here our top notch antiterrorist tactician is probably in hibernation, since I have not seen any of the local skunks downtown since winter began, but I have seen raccoons, and I would imagine in back country various coyotes, wolves, bears, mountain lions, cougars, and bob cats are probably still prowling around.  Whether any of them ever venture into the downtown residential areas is opened for debate.  About the only back country wildlife I ever see south of Putnam Avenue is an occasional deer or fox.  A local resident brought up the subject of Conyers Farm yesterday, and I mentioned that I had tried getting a relative to buy all 4,400 acres in 1978 when it was offered for $7 million dollars, thus the current residents have seen the value of their property increase substantially.  Back in the spring of 1975, when I was try to quit smoking cigarettes, and I was much younger and in better physical shape, I tried camping out and swimming at the local Conyers Farm lake around mid April to mid June that year, when the water turned mucky from too much algae buildup.  I once swam the entire length of the lake, but since I am not a very good swimmer, I took my time.  I would not advise other young people to try that unless they were skilled swimmers, since even a skilled swimmer can get cramps and drown particularly in cold water.  A number of the local high school students were out there using the property then.  I met Louis Rosenstill and other of his family members whom were resident owners of the property at the time.  Louis Rosenstill use to walk the property with three Russian wolf hounds, so more than likely he kept the wolf hounds, because he had wolf problems.  The local caretaker from Banksville, New York on the property advised me that bears were frequently seen on the property.  Since wildlife frequently returns along its long natural tracks in the woods, more than likely the polo crowd with horses are probably worried about their live stock.  I was advised a couple of years ago, one should keep a radio going in the barn to scare away wildlife.  I also once saw a Florida grey panther around the polo fields in Boca Raton, Florida.  More than likely the back country people keep dogs, so more than likely when the dog barks at night, it means there is some animal or someone out in the woods.  Of course it could just be Yeti paying a house call.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/18/04  Wednesday 10:05 P.M.:  I put the AARP expiration stickers on my two AARP cards.  One of them I keep in my wallet, and the other one is on my bedroom desk in the Harry's Bar ashtray from Venice, Italy, which I found many moons ago at the Old Greenwich rummage room thrift shop.  The current expirations stickers that I received today are for May 2005.  I have been told by two relatives that in some locations that AARP offers driving course renewal programs which certain insurance companies like GEICO give a premium deduction on their rates to their customers whom take the AARP course.  However, I am not sure whether it is offered in this area or not.  On CSPAN earlier they showed the CSPAN bus touring Grant's Tomb in Manhattan.  When I used to live on West 74th  in Manhattan near Riverside Park, I would occasionally walk up north to around West 96th street where I believe Grants Tomb is located in Riverside Park.  Back then up until 1982, Grant's tomb was covered with a lot of graffiti, but I recalled that they have since restored it.  A friend of mine showed me Ulysses S. Grant's house in North Salem, New York, and it still a beautiful home, which I think is still in private hands.  I believe Grant also lived in New York City.  He had publishing debts in publishing his memoirs, and his friend Mark Twain helped him publish him memoirs.  Mark Twain lived nearby North Salem, New York about 30 miles away in Redding, Connecticut.  His estate was recently put up for sale.  Well, not much happening in this neck of the woods.  I chatted with a friend.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/18/04  Wednesday 8:55 P.M.:  I woke up at 4 P.M., and I ate breakfast of oatmeal, toast with raspberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I went back to bed until 8 P.M..  I watched some television.  I checked my mail, and I got my www.aarp.org renewal information, which I already have paid for.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/18/04  Wednesday 8:35 A.M.:  I finished going through my email.  Being fairly good at photo analysis, I think this picture most accurately represents what President Bush looks like in person http://www.georgewbush.com/news/photoalbum.aspx?gallery=7 .  I will now shut down the computer, and I will go to bed soon.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/18/04  Wednesday 7:15 A.M.:  I heated and ate a 18.8 ounce can of Campbell's New England clam chowder, which I ate with a glass of iced tea.  I put in about 20 Arnold large cut garlic and herb croutons.  I tried logging onto my Siemens router SpeedStream 2614 4-Port DSL/Cable Router with the default IP address.  It prompted me for a password.  I found my Siemens router quick-start guide in the Optimum Online bag that I keep on my white bureau in the bedroom with the Optimum information.  I used the  default password in the instructions.  I then reset the Siemens router to its defaults and ran "Simple Setup".  I then rebooted the computer, and it is pretty much running the same.  I chatted with a friend.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/18/04  Wednesday 4:40 A.M.:  Basically in the downtown area of Nantucket, the houses are so close together that everyone knows everyone else's business.   I had two friends from New York whom lived two or three houses away from one of my rentals on India street where I rented a room, and during a six to eight month season, I would only see either of them two or three times.  Thus even as small of an area like Nantucket, people get lost in the crowd.  Basically, Nantucket after Fairfield county is suppose to the third wealthiest county in the United States and of course Nassau county on the North Shore of Long Island is suppose to be the wealthiest.  Thus when one looks across to the south from the south shore of Connecticut towards the north shore of Long Island, one is viewing where all the money is going to.  Since one never hears very much about Long Island and Nassau County in the national media, it would seem that they are wealthy and clever enough to control their public relations.   About the only thing we ever hear about it in this neck of the woods is occasionally advertisements on the television for the North Shore Medical Hospital facility.  As I recall when I lived out there about 21 years ago to 26 years ago, it is about ten times busier than this area, and there seems to be a lot of prosperity.  Thus I suppose if they closed the Queens midtown tunnel and other ways of transportation such as the Long Island railroad, the Long Islanders whom are making all of the money in New York City would have to go back to growing potatoes.   It is my viewpoint, that since a member of the Scott family founded South Hampton, and one time owned all of Long Island until 1700, when he moved to Jamaica which was suppose to be more profitable that more than likely there are some remnants of our family heritage out on Long Island, but I am not sure.  More than likely it is plaque in South Hampton, Long Island.  I have visited the Hamptons about a half dozen times over the years, and it seems quite remote from the busier activity in this area.  Basically, from what I know if my family members have been around for so long, more than likely some of them might still own long established properties in some of those various locations.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/18/04  Wednesday 4:25 A.M.:  For the multi lingual international crowd whom are under whelmed by the United States of America media, many of them frequently forget there are over 8 million or more people up in Canada whom speak French mostly in Quebec.  Thus I would say it is fair to say that they have their own viewpoint of their neighbors to the south.  When I use to visit in Florida in the mid 1970s, the most common sign in front of beach front hotels and motels was "Nous Parlons Francais", or something like that.  Thus I would dare say the French Canadians are probably large investors in Florida.  However, locally here in Greenwich, Connecticut, I have only counted 118 cars from Canada in the last 20 years or more, so it would seem to me that the Canadians have enough room up their way without traveling down our way.  When I lived in Nantucket over 20 years ago during my last summer there, I occasionally worked with an individual named Ian Greenshield whom was French Canadian whom did casual maintenance around the island.  He sort of looked like a Beefeater on the Beefeater gin bottle.  He claimed to have been a body guard for Jackie Kennedy Onassis in Stowe, Vermont, and the last project he had me working on was painting the trim on Admiral Halsey's house off the Polpis road facing on the Nantucket harbor.  They eaves area of the house had lots of bees.  After that, I also once saw him walking the beach in Kennebunk, so more than likely there were French Canadians there occasionally.  Ian enjoyed drinking alcohol, and he always seemed to have a different girl friend every day or several times a day, so he was quite popular.  He told me his son lived in Fort Lauderdale, and his father sat around some old hotel in Montreal and owned the Greenshield Bank.  However, there is no reference to the Greenshield bank on the internet, and the only reference to Greenshield is that it is the name of the Rothschild family home in Europe.  Thus maybe Rothschilds live in Montreal also.   Ian was friends of the Grennon family on Nantucket from Concord, Massachusetts and Stowe, Vermont whom owned real estate and the Languedoc restaurant on Nantucket.   A great many of the employees of the Languedoc restaurant in the summer worked for the Stowe, Vermont ski patrol in the winter, so the Languedoc group was always amused to see me every spring coming up from Key West, Florida.  Needless to say, I once cleaned up their bar Sister Kate's in Stowe, Vermont after the ski season which took about a week to clean up.  They had rented the bar to someone called "Rock", so more than likely this Rock character was a cold weather person.   That spring in 1983, as I recall was the last time I was in Stowe, Vermont, so more than likely the cold winters have taken their toll on the cold weather group up there.  Since I have been up north really since about the spring of 1979, except for one two month vacation in Key West back in 1982, I would imagine that life has evolved into new generations in those localities.  Ian lived above the firehouse in Nantucket, so a great many people regarded him as a security type of individual.  We once witnessed an event which was terrifying.   I recall it was a hot July weekend, and we were driving east on the dirt road from Surf Side towards the Nobodeer beach at the end of the runway of the airport.  Ian had bought an old rusted GMC Jimmy with removable roof.  There were approximately 500 or more people at that beach location at the end of the runway, and we could see it along the beach road from about a half mile away.  One could here lots of people yelling and screaming, and the water seemed to be quite red.  Ian observed the scene, and he said we better drive back into town, and I then went to work that late afternoon.  We were at such a long distance away, it just looked like another beach day.  Still, I regularly walked to that beach from town all the time after that, so as far as I could tell over the years, nothing ever happened there that I was aware of.  About the only thing that happened there was that Preston's bar across from the airport burned down a number of years before my final summer in 1983, so they built the Mews disco on the Surfside road.  Since most of the time I did not have a car on Nantucket, my viewpoint was mostly limited to the comings and going in town, and those places like the beach I either walked or jogged to.  Occasionally I would walk up to Sconset on the Sconset road, and I would walk back the Polpis road which was more dangerous.  Also occasionally, I would walk to Madekat.  Thus my viewpoint was more limited to the downtown area of Nantucket.  I suppose the four wheel drive crowd had a larger overall perspective.  However, I did try to use the Nantucket library regularly to keep informed of Off Island events.  Thus people whom seem to have television always seem to think they know more, and since during that time when I traveled and lived in those locations, I did not have television, I was not aware of a great many events that other people were better informed on.  However, the media in the United States of America does not cover too much, so when one uses one's own two eyes, one frequently sees more.  I suppose all of the French Canadians whom have traveled through this country over the years would also have their own perspectives too.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/18/04  Wednesday 3:00 A.M.:  Inexpensive generic computer without the operating system Accessmicro Computers Motherboards and Laptops $50 rebate for $249 total cost on generic computer system without operating system .  CIO

Note: <888> 02/18/04  Wednesday 2:45 A.M.:  I did some minor tweaks on the Dell backup computer.   CIO

Note: <888> 02/18/04  Wednesday 1:45 A.M.:  I woke up from my nap two times, and I ate 10 saltine crackers each time.  I guess now that I am awake again, I will do some more computer work.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/17/04  Tuesday 10:40 P.M.:  I am a bit tired, so I will go to bed early.  I will now shut down the computer, and I will go to bed.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/17/04  Tuesday 10:15 P.M.:  Yahoo! News - Tech Tuesday Free Software .  CIO

Note: <888> 02/17/04  Tuesday 10:10 P.M.:  I chatted with a relative.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/17/04  Tuesday 9:20 P.M.:  I made and ate my usual salad www.geocities.com/mikelscott/salad.htm .  I used a 3.75 ounce tin of Beach Cliff sardines, which I chopped into small pieces, and I added it all to the salad with the soy oil, instead of tuna fish.  For the cheddar cheese portion, I used Cabot's www.cabotcheese.com 50% less fat Vermont cheddar cheese, and I also used Stop and Shop no fat grated parmesan cheese topping.  I also used all of the other regular ingredients.  I had iced tea with the salad.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/17/04  Tuesday 7:50 P.M.:  I did not fall asleep until 5 A.M. this past morning.  I ate about 10 Nabisco saltines.  I did not wake up early enough for my emissions inspection appointment at the Shell Station on East Putnam Avenue and Sherwood Place, which was at 12:45 P.M..  I did wake up about 1:30 P.M..  I ate breakfast of oatmeal, toast with raspberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I then cleaned up, and I went out.  I went by Putnam Trust Bank of New York on Mason Street.  I then went to my 4 P.M. appointment.  I then went by the Shell station on East Putnam Avenue at Sherwood Place to reschedule my appointment.  I am now scheduled for 4:30 P.M. on Tuesday March 2, 2004.  I next went downtown, and I walked the entire length of Greenwich Avenue including the train station area.  I sat out at various locations.  I stopped by at CVS, and I bought two 32 ounce spray bottles of CVS cleaner with bleach for .99 each and one 16 ounce bottle of CVS wool wash for .99 plus .18 tax for $3.15 total.  I then completed my walk.  I next drove down by the waterfront.  I then went by the Greenwich Library, and I just drove around the parking lot, I did not go in.  I next went by Smoke for Less in Byram, and I bought a carton of Seneca Ultra Lights 100s for $31 total.  I then returned home, and I drank some iced tea.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/17/04  Tuesday 3:35 A.M.:  I made and ate my usual salad www.geocities.com/mikelscott/salad.htm .  For the cheddar cheese portion, I used Cabot's www.cabotcheese.com 50% less fat Vermont cheddar cheese.  I also used Stop and Shop no fat grated parmesan cheese topping.  I had the salad with iced tea.  I will now shut down both computers, and I will go to bed soon.  I have to be up at 10:30 A.M. for my daytime appointments.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/17/04  Tuesday 2:25 A.M.:  Here in Greenwich, Connecticut late at night and during the early morning hours, there is not much in the way of warmer hospitality for casual travelers except the Greek owned Greenwich Glory Days dinner across from the YMCA on East Putnam Avenue one and half blocks east of the top of Greenwich Avenue.  Since the railroads are not very profitable anymore, they do not keep the train station opened all night for casual travelers.  On weekdays at night the Food Emporium is opened 24 hours, and also the small Shell gasoline station on West Putnam Avenue is opened 24 hours.  Of course if one breaks the law, the Greenwich Police can frequently offer hospitality, but that can be expensive by the time was pays a lawyer and a fine.  Also we have hotels and inns, but it is the nature of this area that they are very expensive.   The cheapest lodging that I know of in Greenwich, Connecticut is the Howard Johnson's motor lodge http://www.hojo.com in the Riverside section of town.  If one calls their 800 telephone number at 1-800-446-4656 they supposedly can offer a discount rate from the usual $109 a night plus tax for $83.99 a night plus tax.  Their web site says they also offer a 20% discount to AARP American Association of Retired Persons http://www.aarp.org/ , but those rates are not always available.  I called the 800 number, and they told me the current lowest rate they can offer at the Greenwich, Connecticut Howard Johnson's is $83.99 a night plus tax.  There is hour local bus service from that location in the daytime on week days.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/17/04  Tuesday 1:45 A.M.:  Of course when dealing with the Saudi Arabians and other people from the Middle East, they were traditionally nomadic following their wandering herds of goats and sheep.  They usually stayed in middle eastern style tents which probably would not be too practical in the northern parts of the world.  However, since they had goats and sheep, they more than likely had warmer woolen and goat hair garments to stay warmer when it got cold.  It supposedly gets cold in the Middle East too, so I suppose it depends on what one is use to.  I have never visited the content of Africa, but I have been as far south as Selchuk, Turkey, Crete, the south coast of Greece, Malaga, Spain, and Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, so more than likely I have seen a few people from further south of there.  Of course that was over 30 years ago, and the world has changed.  Locally here in the United States of America, one needs credit in the United States of America currency dollars to generally afford to live here and maintain a lifestyle.  Occasionally people trade items in exchange for items of like value.  Whatever, the case in the north country because of the cost of heating and maintenance, it can be very expensive to travel outside of the normal tourists' areas.  I suppose the oil barons have their lodges where they entertain people from warmer areas of the world.  Whatever, the case the largest lodge I have seen in this area is the lodge at Harriman State Park, which is one of those Adirondack lodges.  However, there are large homes in this area, but the people in the large homes frequently travel, and they have their own private networks of friends and associates.  In other words, some of the homes up north might not be very warm in the winter.  Once again, it depends on what one is use to.  Although I keep my apartment at 70 degrees Fahrenheit during the winter which is very expensive, there are plenty of people whom are more frugal whom live in colder environments indoors around 50 degrees Fahrenheit.  I have a friend who has plenty of money, and for many years he use to come to visit my apartment just because I always kept the temperature at 70 degrees Fahrenheit, when his own personal house was frequently 50 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter and very hot in the summer.  Thus keeping an average temperature in an apartment on a year round basis from around 65 degrees Fahrenheit to 75 degrees Fahrenheit is a more expensive lifestyle.  Of course when working with computer equipment which generates heat around electronics, it helps to have a cooler environment on a year round basis.  When I went to the Microsoft conference at the Holiday Inn at Bridgeport, Connecticut two weeks ago, the Microsoft representative from Waltham, Massachusetts commented the conference room at 72 degrees Fahrenheit was a bit too hot.  However, since Bridgeport is also where the Royal Dutch Shell tankers deliver oil for this area of Connecticut and it is also where Northeast Utilities has a large power plant, more than likely they can afford to keep it warmer.  I was once given free hospitality in Bridgeport, Connecticut because a computer hacker working for a local Connecticut politician falsified information on a United States of America Federal computer network 20 years ago.  Thus since at the time, I was not as computer aware, it is obvious that various politicians including government employees can use this technology to their own advantage.  Thus one of the reasons for keeping the computer log is to let people know what I am up to doing, so others whom might try to profiteer off other peoples experience, connections or long time family affiliations know exactly what I am up to and basically how simple life can be when one ignores the salesmen on television.  CIO    

Note: <888> 02/17/04  Tuesday 12:45 A.M.:  Chicago, Illinois pied a terre http://www.forbes.com/2004/02/16/cx_bs_0216how.html .  If I am not mistaken Chicago, Illinois' Astor Street also intersects with Scott street at the intersection of which location, my father lived during his first marriage.  It is convenient to the Ambassador West and Ambassador East Hotels, and I believe the Ambassador East still has the dining room called the "Pump Room" with their very large black Nubian waiters wearing feathered head dresses such was the style in the old world court of some long forgotten Sultan.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/17/04  Tuesday 12:35 A.M.:  Well since all of the movers and shakers seem to have headed south for the winter, we seem to have mostly the local group of people whom have lived in this area for a considerable amount of time.  Since a great many of them are frugal Yankees, more than likely they might also be stockholders in larger international investments.  Whatever, the case the movers and shakers that seem to fly in and out of this area on business jets seem not to be in this area during the winter, since from an economics point of view it costs too much money to store and maintain a business jet in this area in the winter.  Thus the corporate types whom are dependant on their business jets, more than likely are in warmer locations, where they can maintain their aircraft more cheaply.  I would imagine it costs quite a bit of money to heat an aircraft hanger up north in the winter.  I suppose when they get down south around the more frugal retired stockholders, they are more closely observed my the real owners and not the absentee management in this area.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/17/04  Tuesday 12:15 A.M.:  Since it would be too difficult to remove all the items from the shelf in the bedroom window and to try to climb over the various LAN cables to get up to the curtain rod to install the Saudi Arabian flag in the bedroom window, I decided to hang the Saudi Arabian flag over the open bedroom door which I always keep opened with a Rubbermaid hamper containing smaller pairs of pants and on top of the hamper are a couple of old laptop computers with their cases.  The Saudi Arabian flag covers the mirror on the bedroom door, and it partially covers the invitation to the George W. Bush and Richard Cheney inaugural invitation.  I could lower the invitation, so it is all seen, but I do not feel like hammering the OOP nail at this hour of the morning.  I also rediscovered in the long mahogany bureau the very large United States of America 49 star flag, which I have no room to display.  It was very popular when Alaska became the 49th state before Hawaii a couple of years later became the 50th state.  I bought it at the New Canaan, Connecticut visiting nurse thrift shop for $5 about 15 years ago.   It was folded in a traditional manner, so it might have been used at some ceremonial occasion when they folded it.  I have since refolded it in the traditional manner of a triangle.  I used to display it on my bedroom wall in two different locations, so it has tiny nail holes in it.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/16/04  Monday 11:55 P.M.:  I is currently 19 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind-chill temperature of -13 degrees Fahrenheit.  Since I frequently feel like the Swiss house boy in my own chilly apartment, I could always try to make it feel warmer.  I currently have a large United States of America, large Netherlands, and large Great Britain flag displayed over my living room curtains going from left to right.  I also on top of my two primary 19 inch computer monitors have two small Swiss flags to reflect the neutral nature of the internet, since much of it started in Switzerland.  I also above my dining room table on the left side computer speakers have a small French and small Belgium flag.  I also on the Dell backup computer monitor adjacent to my primary computer, I have from left to right small Canadian, Scottish, Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish flags.  I have in reserve if want to make it feel like it is warmer, a large Saudi Arabian flag, which I have stored in the long mahogany bureau in the living room.  I have room to display it over my bedroom window, but since I am not Saudi Arabian, and since I figure the Saudis can afford their own flag, I will have to consider whether to try flying it again or not.  At this moment, it would be quite difficult with all the accumulated junk in the bedroom window to try to climb up there to once again to try to fly it.  Since I consider the other flags important in a cold climate, I will have to contemplate the interior decoration from a Swiss point of view before I make any rash decisions.  I basically could do it, but the last person that told me that they were Saudi Arabian lived in Key West, Florida, and although I have seen the Saudi Arabian flag flying many times at the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan, New York, New York, I am not sure if the area is still friendly to them or not.  Basically with this cold winter, they must be making some American wampum along with whatever else they seem to be invested in.  At the moment, I think it is too cold here for camel racing.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/16/04  Monday 11:30 P.M.:  I restored my copy of the Microsoft Investor portfolio tracking portfolio, and it is now back where it should be at a total value of $1,328,628 and the number of Sun Microsystems shares is only around 3,000 shares.  Maybe when I put the Sun Java virtual machine on my Dell backup computer which interacts with the Microsoft Investor portfolio, it changed the numbers.  I also reuploaded the download for my Microsoft Investor portfolio http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/home.asp at www.geocities.com/mikelscott/scopor01.zip .  Remember this is just a tracking portfolio meant to track the stock market, it is not meant to outperform the stock market like and investor might try to do.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/16/04  Monday 11:10 P.M.:  I printed out the two Microsoft emails regarding the beta testing.  On the Dell backup computer with the Windows XP SP2 beta 1 full install, I also installed the Customer Support Diagnostics for Service Pack 2 for Windows XP beta 1.  I am not sure, but the beta on the Dell backup might expire around August 13, 2004 after six months in which case I would have to install another operating system and reconfigure the computer.  However from reading the beta newsgroups, I saw mentioned that Microsoft frequently gives beta testers a final copy of the released version.  Whether, one would have problems installing it or not is another question.  One can not install Windows XP current released version over the beta.  Also on the beta newsgroups it says they do not recommend installing updates or final releases over betas.  I suppose I will have to deal with that eventual possibility when the time arrives.  I also noted at the Microsoft TS2 conference, when they chatted about the free copy not for redistribution of Microsoft Office Professional 2003 that I will be receiving for attending the conference, they mentioned that one is allowed to install it on three machines.  I personally am not a stockholder in Microsoft, but I have a relative who owns a bit of stock in Microsoft, so in using the Microsoft products which I have bought and the betas which I am also using, I try to be encouraging towards the company's prospects, but I do not do anything that would undermine the company profitability or its position towards the client user software group.  Since I am not a lawyer, but I have read quite a bit of Microsoft public relations over the years, I fell that I am in compliance with the Microsoft EULA agreements as I perceive them.  However, I do have a couple of old outdated backup computers that I have installed the beta on, and although I am not testing the beta on them, they are available for emergency use for web browsing or word processing in an emergency situation if we ever have one in this area which is close to New York City which is considered a terrorist target potentially in the future.  However, none of the computer equipment would be useful, if we did not have electricity or cable modem access in this area, so we are dependent on a larger group in this area despite or own internal resolve to maintain the sanctity of our private homes.  The reason I mention this is that on my own personal computer which I keep secure with password protection, I have noticed certain system changes which I have not performed myself.  One of the most recurrent system changes in the Volume control on the sound volume slider in the audio settings is frequently turned up to the maximum, when I normally keep it at about 40%.  Since I have good firewall protection, either someone is hacking into the system and changing the settings, or when I depart my apartment to go downtown for a walk, someone is gaining access to my apartment and possibly using my computers, and the fact that nothing much ever changes, it would indicate to me that the individual is deft or hard of hearing and forgetful to reset the audio control.  However, if this were the case in terms of my lease arrangement with the Greenwich Housing Authority and my own private constitutional rights this would be considered a violation of my own personal security, and if it were the case, it would be impossible for it to happen without my other neighbors taking note of the intrusion unless it was someone whom they would not challenge.  Still, if someone were gaining access to my apartment, it would mean also that besides the computer equipment potentially other items like my food or drink might be tampered with.  Still, it could be just a system malfunction or a hacker trying to show my firewall setup is not secure.  I once tried about three years ago to put motion detector software on my computer cameras, which meant leaving the computers turned on, and the time I did it, the software was tampered with.  This would indicated to me that if there were intrusions in my apartment or tampering with the computers from externally or internally, that there is a certain level of sophistication in terms of the intruder.  However, it would seem to me with a large number of foreign nationals in residence in this area, that if the intruders were gaining access to my apartment, that more than likely they do not respect the various codes of conduct as they relate to this matter as they are established in this country.  Whatever, the case it might also explain the change in the Microsoft Investor portfolio, but it seemed to me when I loaded it on the Dell backup computer, it crashed twice trying to go through a lengthy synchronization process in which case possibly when the portfolio is loaded simultaneously on two computers, it reports a different price level, or once again the portfolio index was tampered with from internally or externally on the primary computer before I loaded the copy on the Dell backup computer.  Since the copy on the Dell backup computer came from my download on the Yahoo Geocities server, it is possible that someone tampered with the download on the Yahoo Geocities server.  I believe I have a copy on my local hard drive on the primary computer to try to see if that makes a difference.  In the current state of the portfolio there seems to be a lot of Sun Microsystems stock, which since in the original portfolio setup about four years ago, it would have contained about 100 shares, the current level of 30,000 shares would indicate a lot of splitting activity in the stock price of Sun, or some potential hacker as some sort of relationship with Sun Microsystems which does produce very power computer equipment if one is Unix savvy.  Whatever, the case it is still a mystery.   CIO

Note: <888> 02/16/04  Monday 9:55 P.M.:  I made and ate Michael Louis Scott's Onion Soup .  I had the onion soup with a glass of iced tea.  I used a Spanish yellow onion.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/16/04  Monday 8:50 P.M.:  I ate about eight Nabisco saltines.  I left a message with a friend about 7:30 A.M. this morning.  I went to bed about 8 A.M..  I was up at 4 P.M., and I had breakfast of oatmeal, toast with raspberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I went back to bed until 8 P.M..  I watched a bit of television.  I have to be at the Shell gasoline station tomorrow at 12:45 P.M. to have my emissions checked on my Hyundai, and I also have a 4 P.M. appointment.  I guess I will not go out, and I will work on the computer.  Around 4 A.M. this coming morning, I will try to sleep until about 10:30 A.M..  CIO

Note: <888> 02/16/04  Monday 6:10 A.M.:  I finished going through the Microsoft Windows XP SP2 beta 1 newsgroups.  I ate 12 Nabisco saltine crackers with 3/16 slices of Cabot's www.cabotcheese.com 50% reduced fat Vermont cheddar cheese on them.  I finished going through my email.  Since today is the President's Holiday, there is not much news.  I shut down the backup computer.  I will now shut down the primary computer.  I will go to bed soon.  It is currently 10 degrees Fahrenheit, and the wind-chill is -4 degrees Fahrenheit http://www.weather.com/weather/local/06830 .  I also turned off the DeLonghi oil filled radiators.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/16/04  Monday 4:30 A.M.:  I am still reading the Microsoft Windows XP SP2 beta 1 newsgroups.  I ate the last piece of cherry pie with some iced tea.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/16/04  Monday 1:55 A.M.:  I am reading the Microsoft Windows XP SP2 beta 1 newsgroups.  I turned on the backup Dell computer with the beta, and I logged onto the Microsoft Investor Portfolio http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/home.asp , and in 24 hours while the exchanges were closed my tracking portfolio www.geocities.com/mikelscott/scopor01.zip went from $1,350,000 to about $1,897,084 which is sort of peculiar.  I did put the portfolio on the Dell backup computer with the beta as well as having it on my primary computer.  When I put it on the Dell backup computer earlier yesterday morning, it kept crashing trying to synchronize with the Microsoft Money server, although it works fine now.  Whatever, the case it is sort of strange that it would show such a great discrepancy while the markets were closed.  Maybe it is in Canadian dollars.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/15/04  Sunday 11:55 P.M.:  I made and ate my usual salad www.geocities.com/mikelscott/salad.htm .  I used a 3.75 ounce tin of Beach Cliff sardines in soy oil instead of tuna, and I chopped the sardines, and I also added the soy oil to the salad.  For the cheddar cheese portion, I used 75% Stop and Shop Vermont extra sharp cheddar cheese and 25% Cabot's 50% reduced fat Vermont cheddar cheese.  I also used Stop and Shop no fat grated parmesan cheese topping.  I used all of the other regular ingredients.  I had the salad with a glass of iced tea.  I also made up a fresh batch of homemade hummus www.geocities.com/mikelscott/hummus.htm .  For the olive portion, I used two 4.25 ounce cans of chopped California black olives.  For the garlic portion, I used one large clove of elephant garlic.  I used all of the other regular ingredients.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/15/04  Sunday 10:40 P.M.:  I had a telephone call from a friend about noon today.  I was up at 4 P.M., and I ate breakfast of oatmeal, toast with strawberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I went back to bed until 6 P.M..  I cleaned up, and I went out.  I went by the Exxon gasoline station next to the Greenwich Library, and I bought $5.10 of regular unleaded gasoline at $1.899 a gallon for about 24 miles per gallon usage.  I went downtown, and I walked the entire length of Greenwich Avenue and the train station area.  I sat out at various locations.  During my walk, I stopped by CVS, and I bought two 33 ounce spray bottles of CVS window cleaner for .99 each, a 25 ounce bottle of Ivory ultra concentrated dishwashing liquid classic scent for $1.99, two CVS heavy duty scrub sponges for .99 both, a 3.5 ounce CVS bleach toilet bowl cleaner for $1.99, four 3.75 ounce tins of Beach Cliff sardines in water for .50 each tin plus .42 tax for $9.37 total.  For some odd reason, they had one package of 50 Bretam and Taylor Earl Grey Tea bags on the shelf at CVS, but it is not a product that they sell, so I gave it to the front counter for them to keep.  Perhaps a customer dropped it by mistake.  I then completed my walk.  I used the bathroom at Starbucks.  I next drove down by the waterfront.  I then went by the Stop and Shop, and I bought buy one get one free of Progresso New England clam chowder 18 ounce cans for $2.49 both, a 10 ounce bag of fresh spinach for $1.50, a 10 ounce box of fresh mushrooms for $1.99 for $5.98 total.  I then went by the ATM machine at Putnam Trust Bank of New York on Mason street.  I then returned to the Stop and Shop, and I bought two three liter cans of Bertolli Classico full bodied and mild olive oil imported from Italy $9.99 each $8 off a can for $19.98 total.  I then returned home, and I drank some iced tea.  I had a message on the answering machine from a relative.  I left a message with that relative.  I chatted with another relative.  I turned on the two oil filled electric DeLonghi radiators in the living room to medium level setting of 4 of 6 to add a bit of extra heat in the living room area.  It is currently http://www.weather.com/weather/local/06830 13 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind-chill of 2 degrees Fahrenheit.  I will put one of the heavy duty scrub sponges by the kitchen sink.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/15/04  Sunday 7:55 A.M.:  I will now shut down the computer, and I will go to bed soon.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/15/04  Sunday 7:50 A.M.:  Staples Special Savings Konica Minolta 1350W laser printer $80 off instantly for sale for $99.98 .  CIO

Note: <888> 02/15/04  Sunday 7:40 A.M.:  I finished going through my email.  I finished running Norton Speed Disk on the Dell backup C: drive.  I did a few tweaks and added Optimum Rhapsody after I did the backup.  I shut down the Dell backup computer.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/15/04  Sunday 6:55 A.M.:  On the Dell backup computer with Windows XP Professional full install SP2 beta 1, I ran my basic maintenance utilities.  I then did a C: drive to E: drive backup in two parts.  I ate a piece of Cherry pie with a glass of iced tea.  I am now running Norton Speed Disk on the C: drive of the Dell backup computer.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/15/04  Sunday 5:45 A.M.:  I pretty much have the Dell backup computer completely setup with Windows XP Professional full install SP2 beta 1.  I have about 5 gigabytes of hard drive space on the C: drive used out of 14.3 gigabytes total space on the C: drive.  I transferred my data files from the primary computer along with my working URLs or Favorites.  I only installed the programs that I regularly use.  When I installed the email accounts and the newsgroup for the Microsoft beta, I found out in the beta newsgroup that there is a download fix "KB834004" at the Microsoft SP2 beta web site for the Epson print spooler problem.  I downloaded it, and I installed it, and the Epson Stylus Color 880 printer is now working just fine.  I have it setup as the primary printer on the Siemens' LAN port and also on the LPT port, since I have an LPT cable available by the Espon printer to also use.  I can not think of anything else to do.  I guess I will now do a C: drive to E: drive backup.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/14/04  Saturday 11:05 P.M.:  I made and ate my usual salad www.geocities.com/mikelscott/salad.htm .  For the cheddar cheese portion, I used Stop and Shop Vermont extra sharp cheddar cheese, and I also used Stop and Shop no fat grated parmesan cheese topping.  I also used all of the regular ingredients.  I had the salad with a glass of iced tea.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/14/04  Saturday 10:00 P.M.:  I chatted with a relative, and I left a message with another relative.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/14/04  Saturday 9:00 P.M.:  I put the old CDs from the behind the primary computer monitor, and instead of putting on the bedroom desk, I put them on the floor underneath the left side of the sideboard in the bedroom.  I am still in the process of configuring the Dell backup computer with Windows XP Professional full install SP2 Beta 1.  It is all going along without any problems.  However, the Epson printer driver for my Epson Stylus Color 880 printer for Windows XP still does not work although it installs.  I deleted it.  I have the HP LaserJet IID setup on the Siemens port and the Minolta PagePro 1250W setup on the USB port.  I also installed the Logitech cordless wheel mouse driver which prompted me that my Logitech cordless mouse had low batteries, so I installed new AAA Energizer batteries in the Logitech cordless mouse.  Most of the primary programs are installed and updated.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/14/04  Saturday 6:20 P.M.:  I was up at 4:30 P.M..  I had breakfast of oatmeal, toast with strawberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I am now configuring the Dell backup computer which will take a while.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/14/04  Saturday 11:05 A.M.:  I did some configuration on the Dell backup computer.  I shut it down.  I will now shut down the primary computer, and I will go to bed soon.  On the wicker rack behind the left computer monitor, I took out the CDs that I no longer use, and for now they are on my bedroom desk.  I have the ones I need for configuration out, and I will put them back with the ones that I use more often after I am finished with configuration.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/14/04  Saturday 10:15 A.M.:  I was able to get Microsoft Passport working on the Microsoft Beta web site by enabling all cookies in my web browser.  I then was able to get a product key for Microsoft Windows XP Professional Full Install SP2 beta 1.  It is good for 30 activations, but I only needed one.  It installed without any problems on the Dell backup computer.  I installed the updates.  I copied the install CD to the hard drive.  The Dell backup is a 366 MHz computer with 384 megs of memory and a C: drive of 14 gigabytes and a E: drive of 8 gigabytes with the CD drive on the D: drive.  I will now configure it until I get tired, which I already am.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/14/04  Saturday 8:30 A.M.:  On the Dell backup computer, I did a Windows ME floppy boot and ran Fdisk, and I deleted the Red Hat Linux 9.0 partitions and the other partitions.  I am now installing on the Dell backup computer Windows XP Professional SP2 beta 1 that I downloaded earlier.  It will expire after some undetermined amount of time, probably six months.  I do not know whether I need a registration key or not.  When I try to log onto the beta web site, it says I need to log on with my Microsoft Passport, but there is no way except to log out.  I think if one is logged on too long, it expires and one has to let it reset.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/14/04  Saturday 7:50 A.M.:  I burned the *.iso files and the *.exe file for Windows XP SP2 beta one to CDs.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/14/04  Saturday 6:55 A.M.:  I ate a piece of cheery pie with a glass of iced tea.  I chatted with a friend for a while.  I am finished downloading the *.iso files for Windows XP SP2 beta 1.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/14/04  Saturday 5:40 A.M.:  I took the Radio Shack rechargeable Nickel Cadmium batteries out of their charging position in the Radio Shack battery charger below the Orion television in the living room.  I now have a fully charged spare pair of batteries.  I am doing system maintenance on the Dell backup computer.  I have 50 minutes to go on the last *.iso file download.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/14/04  Saturday 4:45 A.M.:  I have been going through my email.  I am in the process of downloading the third and final *.iso file.  I have about two hours to go on it.  I also have been doing some system maintenance on the Dell backup computer.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/14/04  Saturday 2:55 A.M.:  I am installing 60 megs of updates on the Dell backup computer Red Hat Linux 9.0 partition.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/14/04  Saturday 2:40 A.M.:  I finished downloading the *.iso of Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2 beta 1 complete install.  However, if I chose to use it, I would have to request a product key from the Microsoft beta web site, since it is a complete install.  It would probably expire after six months from the release of the beta on December 11, 2003 or six months from when installed which is usually Microsoft's procedure.  I am now downloading the *.iso file for just the Windows XP SP2 beta 1 upgrade, which one should be able to use from CD to upgrade an existing XP system.  Still, one has to remember it is still a beta.  I also have the smaller 2.5 meg file for downloading from installation, which is for slower dialup users.  I will then download the *.iso file for Windows XP SP2 beta 1 for the Customer Diagnostics and Support CD.  Thus the downloads should be done about 7 A.M. to 8 A.M. this morning.  The downloads are available in English, Japanese, and German.  Also there are other downloads for support such as HCT "hardware compatibility testing" and there is a complete Home edition download with the beta too, which I do not need.  I can not figure out why Microsoft has them posted on a server that is limited to 53 KB/sec. bandwidth instead of the usual high speed connection.  Maybe Microsoft is short of band width, or I suppose one can split their server software to limit bandwidth, so more people can use it at one time.  One is suppose to keep the beta software secure, and it is not for general distribution.  Product registration keys that are released outside of the beta test program for example on the internet will cause the beta tester to be terminated.  I am now going through my email.  I will then read some of the newsgroups on Windows XP SP2 beta 1 which I am registered for with the beta program also.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/14/04  Saturday 1:55 A.M.:  Happy St. Valentine's Day.  I went out after the last message, and I went downtown.  I drove by the train station area and down by the waterfront.  I then walked the length of Greenwich Avenue, and I sat out at various locations.  I then drove by the waterfront again.  I next went by the ATM machine at Putnam Trust Bank of New York.  I then drove by the Food Emporium, but they are closed tonight.  I just now returned home, and I drank some iced tea.  I have 20 minutes to go on the first *.iso file which is the complete install of Windows XP Professional with SP2 beta 1.  I will also download the *.iso file for the XP SP2 beta 1 upgrade and the *.iso file for the utility configuration program, which should take a few more hours.  I have already downloaded the *.exe file for the upgrade of Windows XP upgrade SP2 beta 1.  Once they are downloaded to the different folders on the D: drive, I will burn them to CD to have them available for future use.  I will eventually delete the three *.iso files from the D: drive, since I will probably need the space for C: to D: drive backups in the future.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/13/04  Friday 11:35 P.M.:  I will now shower and cleanup.  I will go out after midnight, so I will not be going out on Friday the 13th.  I will leave the computer running with the download process of the *.iso files.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/13/04  Friday 11:10 P.M.:  I am downloading one large Microsoft Windows XP SP2 *.iso file and I have two more queued for download.  It will probably take several hours to six hours.  I am just about to eat the spaghetti and tomato sauce that I refrigerated last night with some grated low fat parmesan cheese along with iced tea. 

Note: <888> 02/13/04  Friday 10:35 P.M.:  I chatted with a relative.  CIO 

End of Scott's Notes week of 02/13/04:

Note: <888> 02/13/04  Friday 9:50 P.M.:  I am the process of downloading some Windows XP beta SP2 files to have available, but I will probably not be installing them on the primary computer, since when I installed it before the Epson Stylus Color 880 printer would not work.  However, I can get a CD key to have them temporarily put on one of the backup computers.  The downloads seem to take over an hour, and I will probably also download the *.iso file for Windows XP Professional SP2 beta too, but I would also need to register for a CD key for that too.  I guess I could beta test the Windows XP SP2 beta on my backup computer to give them performance reports, but it would not be as fast as the primary computer, which I should keep for regular work.  I will now send out my weekly notes.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/13/04  Friday 9:10 P.M.:  I was awaken at 1 P.M. this afternoon by a call from Microsoft about the TS2 conference, and I was asked if I would be interested in purchasing the Microsoft Action pack.  I told them I would not be.  I did tell them about the TS2 DVD not working, and they gave me a number to call at 800-630-6740 about getting another one.  I then ate breakfast of oatmeal, toast with strawberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I watched a bit of television.  I then slept until 6 P.M..  I checked the mail.  I heated and ate a 18.8 ounce can of Campbell's New England clam chowder which I had with about 15 Arnold large cut croutons.  I also ate it with a glass of iced tea.  I then did my house cleaning and watering the plants.  I did the vacuuming first, so I would not disturb my neighbors later in the evening.  I just threw out the garbage.  I listened to the stereo system on radio 107.6 FM with my Emerson Wireless headphones while doing the cleaning.  I just put a fresh pair of fully charged rechargeable Radio Shack Nickel Cadmium batteries in the wireless headphones, and I am charging the pair that I used.  They should be fully charged at 4 A.M..  CIO

Note: <888> 02/13/04  Friday 3:20 A.M.:  I will now shut down the computer, and I will go to bed.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/13/04  Friday 3:10 A.M.:  I went through part of www.geocities.com/mikelscott/scotwork.htm .  I did a System restore backup.  I then tried running a registry maintenance utility which shall remain nameless, and when I rebooted the Norton Anti Virus protection and Norton Internet Security 2004 did not boot up.  I did a system restore, and the system is now running fine.  The registry repair utility found 440 errors, but I figured it was best to restore the system before I used the utility.  I uninstalled the utility.  I then ran Norton Win Doctor.  I then changed in the System Properties of My Computer under Advanced and then Performance, I changed it to "Adjust for Best Performance" with "Smooth Edges of Screen Fonts" selected as the only option.  Thus although my system does not look as good with as with all the other settings selected, it is a lot faster and more responsive.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/13/04  Friday 12:10 A.M.:  Friday the 13th.  I just ate 12 Nabisco saltine crackers with 1/8th inch thick slices of Vermont extra sharp cheddar cheese on them along with a glass of iced tea.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/12/04  Thursday 11:10 P.M.:  I went through my email.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/12/04  Thursday 10:55 P.M.:  I ate a piece of Cherry pie with iced tea.  I set up the newsgroup for the Microsoft beta, but I have to wait 24 hours for the password to clear.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/12/04  Thursday 9:50 P.M.:  I chatted with a friend and a relative.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/12/04  Thursday 9:10 P.M.:  I tried watching the DVD movie, but the DVD was defective, and it would not work.  I returned it back to the Greenwich Library, and I looked for another DVD or videotape, but there was not anything I felt like watching.  I just now returned home.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/12/04  Thursday 8:00 P.M.:  I went out after the last message.  I went downtown, and I walked the entire length of Greenwich Avenue.  I sat out at various locations.  I used the bathroom at the Senior and Arts center.  I then drove down by the waterfront.  I next went by the ATM machine at Putnam Trust Bank of New York on Mason Street.  I then went by the Greenwich Library, and I read the Greenwich Time and P.C. Magazine.  I checked out the DVD movie "Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers".  I then went by Val's Liquor pantry at the Stop and Shop plaza, and I bought a 10 ounce bottle of Angostura bitters for $8.79 plus .53 tax for $9.32 total.  I then went by the Stop and Shop, and I bought three half gallons of Tropicana premium orange juice with calcium for $5 all, a bunch of broccoli at .79 a pound for .94 and plum tomatoes at $1.99 a pound for $2.81 for $8.75 total.  I then returned home, and I drank some iced tea.  I heated a large pot of water to boiling, and I boiled a 16 ounce package of Mueller's thin spaghetti noodles for 9 minutes.  I also heated a half of a quart jar of Ragu primavera tomato sauce in a microwave proof container in the microwave oven on reheat.  I put Ragu sauce on half of the cooked spaghetti noodles along with a few tablespoons of Stop and Shop no fat grated parmesan cheese topping.  I had it all for dinner with iced tea.  I put the remaining noodles in a Rubbermaid container with the remaining Ragu sauce, and I put it in the refrigerator.  I will now watch the movie.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/12/04  Thursday 3:25 P.M.:  I ate breakfast of oatmeal, toast with strawberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I checked the mail.  I will now shut down the computer, and I will clean up and go out.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/12/04  Thursday 2:25 P.M.:  I just woke up.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/12/04  Thursday 4:55 A.M.:  I made and ate my usual salad www.geocities.com/mikelscott/salad.htm .  I use 1/8th thick slices of the cold baked garlic herbal chicken that I made a couple of days ago instead of tuna fish.  For the cheddar cheese portion, I used Stop and Shop Vermont extra sharp cheddar cheese.  I used twice the regular amount of Danish blue cheese, and I also used Stop and Shop no fat grated parmesan cheese topping.  I did not use any broccoli.  I had the salad with iced tea.  I will now put the computer on standby, and I will rest a bit.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/12/04  Thursday 3:45 A.M.:  I went through my email.  I received this link http://www.connect-ms.com .  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/12/04  Thursday 2:50 A.M.:  I put the laundry away.  I tried watching the Microsoft DVD TS2 disk on my DVD player.  However, the TEAC DVD player would not work.  I tried resetting it by unplugging the plug from the rear plug on the right most power strip in the left bookcase to the left of the right stereo bookcase, but it still would not work.  I took all the items off the TEAC DVD player top, and it worked just fine.  Usually if one puts too much weight on it, it does not work.  I moved the wooden remote control holders to the left back of the blue couch.  I put the MP3 CDs on the other CDs in the left bookcase.  I put the videotape rewinder on the rear right arm of the long green couch.  I left the Emerson wireless headphones on the TEAC DVD player.  It works fine, but the Microsoft TS2 DVD disk gives a disk error, although the Windows XP DVD disk works just fine.  I put both Microsoft DVD disks in the black Microsoft tote bag, which I put on top of the spare Rubbermaid hamper at the bedroom entrance with the old laptop computers and their cases.  Thus the TEAC DVD player is ready to use.  To use it one has to turn on the Orion television with the remote control on the brass and glass coffee tables by turning on the cable box and then the Orion television.  One then uses the Orion television remote on the same brass and glass coffee table to switch the TV/AV switch to AUX1 and the TEAC DVD feed comes through if turned on.  Of course one has to use the TEAC DVD remote control to control the TEAC DVD player, and it is kept in the wooden remote control holder.  CIO   

Note: <888> 02/12/04  Thursday 1:25 A.M.:  I have 35 minutes to go on the dry cycle.  I received email from Microsoft Beta testing that I have been accepted for the Windows Update beta and the Windows XP SP2 beta, but they are not posted on their web site yet.  However, since I already have tried Windows XP SP2 beta, I will not be installing it again on my primary computer, since my Epson Stylus Color 880 printer did not work with it.  I guess I could put the Windows Update beta on the backup Dell computer.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/12/04  Thursday 12:50 A.M.:  I started two loads of laundry.  I am just about ready to start the dry cycle.  I also put clean linens on the bed in the bedroom.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/11/04  Wednesday 11:55 P.M.:  I woke up from my sleep, and I finished eating the can of smoked almonds.  I was up at 9:45 P.M. when a relative called.  I ate breakfast of oatmeal, toast with strawberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I watched some television, and I rested briefly some more.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/11/04  Wednesday 2:05 P.M.:  I just ate a piece of cherry pie with some iced tea.  I will now shut down the computer, and I will go to bed.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/11/04  Wednesday 1:35 P.M.:  I went out after the last message.  I went by Smoke for Less in Byram, and I bought a carton of Seneca Ultra Lights 100s for $31 total.  I then went by the Arnold Bread outlet, and I bought a fresh loaf of whole wheat natural oat bread for $2.39 and two 5.5 ounce boxes of Arnold large cut garlic and herb croutons for .99 each, and a Entenmann's cherry pie for $1.89 less senior discount of 10% of .63 for $5.63 total.  I then went by the Valley Road post office, and I mailed a letter.  I next went by the Greenwich Hospital Thrift shop.  I then went downtown, and I went by the Merry Go Round Mews Thrift Shop.  All clothes are 50% off.  I bought the Random House Audiobook of 6 tape cassettes of "Dutch a memoir of Ronald Reagan" by Edmund Morris for $3.  The box had some water damage, but the tapes looks all right.  I then drove down by the waterfront, and I walked out on the pier.  I then went by the Greenwich Library, and I read the Greenwich Times and P.C. World magazine.  I just now returned home, and I drank some iced tea.  I put the Reagan audiobook to the right of the stereo system on top of the videotapes.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/11/04  Wednesday 9:40 A.M.:  I printed out a Valentine's Day card for a relative, and I have it ready to mail.  I had to reset the black ink cartridge in the Epson Stylus Color 880 printer.  The ink cartridges are fairly new in it.  However, the black ink cartridge indicator light was flashing, so I took it out, and I put a small piece of Scotch tape over the bottom opening and reinserted it, and the light went out.  I ran the Head Cleaning Utility 3 times and the Epson Stylus Color 880 printer is working just fine.  I do not use it that much, since I have the Minolta QMS Page Pro 1250W laser printer, but I have to remember to run the Epson print head utility once a month to keep it clean, so it does not clog up.  I will now go out shortly.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/11/04  Wednesday 9:05 A.M.:  I rested.  I have a call from a friend at 6:45 A.M. this morning.  I heated and ate a 18.8 ounce can of Campbell's New England clam chowder with 12 Arnold large cut croutons.  I also had drank a cup of Lipton green tea with about an ounce of lemon juice in it.  I watched some television.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/11/04  Wednesday 3:15 A.M.:  I read some news.  I will now shut down the computer, and I will rest.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/11/04  Wednesday 2:50 A.M.:  I went out after the last message.  I walked the entire length of Greenwich Avenue and the train station area.  I sat out at various locations.  I drove down by the waterfront.  I then used the ATM machine at Putnam Trust Bank of New York on Mason Street.  I then returned home.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/11/04  Wednesday 12:20 A.M.:  I rested for a half hour after the last message.  I ate a few handfuls of smoked almonds while reading with some iced tea.  I read about two dozen back issues of Computer and Technology magazines.  I threw out all the old magazines and periodicals including the four foot stack including alumni magazines on the right side of the day bed.  I used my grocery wire cart to carry them down.  I will now clean up, and I will go out for some fresh air.  I will put the computer on standby.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/10/04  Tuesday 8:00 P.M.:  I reheated the garlic herbal chicken along with the steamed white rice and chicken cooking juices, and I ate it with steamed fresh broccoli with a small bit of olive oil and a glass of iced tea.  I also ate about a half of a 16 ounce jar of CVS lightly salted dry roasted peanuts.  I will not put the computer back on standby and rest a while.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/10/04  Tuesday 7:00 P.M.:  I removed Cacheman from my computer.  I ran Ad-aware 6.0, Spybot, RegCleaner, Norton WinDoctor, Disk Cleanup, and I did a backup of the System with System Restore.  I also installed two Microsoft Windows updates.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/10/04  Tuesday 5:35 P.M.: I finished going through my email.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/10/04  Tuesday 4:55 P.M.:  I fell back to sleep until about a half hour ago.  I turned off the water on the toilet, and I flushed it.  I then used a potato brush and tooth brush that I keep in the top left drawer of my mahogany bureau in the bedroom to clean the inside of the back tank of calcium build up.  I then turned on the toilet water again, and I flushed it a number of times to flush out the reside and make sure it functioned properly.  I put in a new CVS Clorox toilet tank tablet in the tank.  Ever since I had the problem with the toilet overflowing last July, I now wait whenever I flush for the toilet to run its complete cycle and quit filling the tank.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/10/04  Tuesday 1:30 P.M.:  I was up at noon, when someone from IBM called me to do a survey, which I answered.  I then ate breakfast of oatmeal, toast with strawberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I received another survey from www.npca.org .  I was thinking about staying in this afternoon and doing some computer work.  I have a lot of computer work to catch up on.  Particularly I have a couple of dozen computer periodical news weeklies to catch up on.  However, today is very nice, and the temperature is 47 degrees Fahrenheit, so maybe I will go out.  I will have to think about it.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/10/04  Tuesday 3:25 A.M.:  I went through some of www.geocities.com/mikelscott/scotwork.htm .  I will now shut down the computer, and I will go to bed soon.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/10/04  Tuesday 3:10 A.M.:  Yesterday, I ate a Nature's Valley granola bar before going to bed.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/10/04  Tuesday 2:45 A.M.:  I just finished going through my email.  I checked the Lindbergh radio in the bedroom and National Public Radio 88.5 FM is now working.  I changed the plug on it from the power strip on the Danish end table on the Danish desk to the wall plug that turns on with the bedroom lights.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/10/04  Tuesday 1:40 A.M.:  MenuetOS.org OS bootable from a floppy.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/10/04  Tuesday 1:05 A.M.:  Wired News: Stay Fat and Live Long .  CIO

Note: <888> 02/10/04  Tuesday 12:45 A.M.:  I finished off eating the bag of corn chips, and I also ate a bowl of lightly salted dry roasted peanuts.  I just remembered when I was mentioning in my notes the other night about the disposition of various geopolitical groups, there is another geopolitical group that the United States of America does not belong to.  It is the Commonwealth of Nations, and because it also includes the billion people of India, there are roughly about 2.5 billion people in the Commonwealth of Nations.  I think the Commonwealth of Nations was formed out of the remains of the old British Colonial Empire, so many of them have long held ties with the British.  If I am not mistaken the Monarch of England Queen Elizabeth II is also the Head of State of a number of Commonwealth Countries.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/09/04  Monday 11:30 P.M.:  I am running the updates on the other three backup computers.  I chatted with a relative.  I put the ice tea in the refrigerator.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/09/04  Monday 10:05 P.M.:  I rinsed in cold water the three remaining halves of boneless breasts of chicken, and I dried them with a paper towel.  I put in a Pyrex pie dish, and I rubbed all sides with a couple tablespoons of olive oil.  I then turned them bottom side up, and I seasoned them with Old Bay Seasoning, garlic powder, celery salt, chicken and meat seasoning, ground black pepper, basil, oregano, Italian spices, parsley, and Hungarian paprika.  I then turned them bottom side down, and I poured on about three tablespoons of La Choy low sodium soy sauce and about a quarter of a cup of Rene Junot White wine.  I then seasoned the tops of the boneless chickens breasts with the same herbs and spices as the bottom, and I minced one clove of Elephant garlic, I spread the pieces over the tops of the chicken.  I then baked them in the Farberware convection oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 minutes.  I had one of the chicken breasts with steamed white rice with the cooking juices from the chicken and steamed fresh broccoli with a small bit of olive oil.  I refrigerated the other two cooked chicken breasts with the remaining rice and cooking juices in Rubbermaid containers, to be reheated tomorrow for dinner and one cold with a salad the day after.  I had the dinner with iced tea.  I chatted with a relative.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/09/04  Monday 9:35 P.M.:  I normally keep my Lindbergh radio in the bedroom tuned to National Public radio for the Stamford and Greenwich, Connecticut area at 88.5 FM, but at the moment since I checked two hours ago and presently, they are only putting out a signal, they are not broadcasting http://www.wnpr.org/ .  There must be some technical difficulty.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/09/04  Monday 8:30 P.M.:  I also put the family portrait file holder on the AMD backup computer CPU, and I put the Radio Shack electronic clock and silver plate portrait frame of the Canadian quarter with Queen Elizabeth II on it on the IBM Cyrix CPU.  I am now making a batch of www.geocities.com/mikelscott/icetea.htm .  I am put 9 Salada orange pekoe tea bags, five Lipton green tea bags, and one each of the five variety pack of Twinings tea, and the last one of the Bigelow orange pekoe tea bags that I bought at Staples in Port Chester, New York a couple of years ago as a clearance item.  However, I still have plenty of other tea in the apartment along with coffee.  I will now put my little folding suit case cart by in my Hyundai rear area of the hatch pack compartment in the rear of the car.  I used it to move the monitor.  CIO  

Note: <888> 02/09/04  Monday 7:50 P.M.:  I was up at 1 P.M. this afternoon.  I ate breakfast of oatmeal, toast with strawberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I cleaned up, and I went out.  I went by Putnam Trust Bank of New York on Mason Street.  I then went by the Greenwich Hospital Thrift Shop, and I bought a Hewlett Packard HP Ultra VGA 1280 17 inch monitor manufactured in 1999 for $20 and a World Wildlife Federation www.wwf.org 2004 calendar for $1 for $21 total.  I then went downtown, and I walked the entire length of Greenwich Avenue and the train station area.  I sat out at various locations.  I then drove down by the waterfront, and I walked out on the pier, and I checked out the harbor front vista.  I then returned home.  I installed the HP Ultra VGA 1280 17 inch monitor with the AMD backup computer on the brass and glass coffee table on the Danish desk in the bedroom, and I put the 17 inch Royal monitor on top of the IBM Cyrix 233 MHz with 64 megs of memory CPU on the Danish end table on the Danish desk.  I moved the Lindbergh radio to on top of the green leather case on top of the right side of the mahogany bureau.  Connecticut Public radio does not seem to be broadcasting at the moment.  I put the backup Radio Shack NOAA weather radio on top of the stack of scrap paper in the bedroom window.  I put pewter bowl with all the spare pairs of sun glasses on top of the right speaker on the right side bedroom chest of drawers on the right side of the bed.  I moved the 41st Presidential souvenir cups to the center area of the bedroom Danish desk.  They contain various pens.  I hung the World Wildlife Federation 2004 Calendar on top on the right side panel of the hallway closet in the hallway, so I now have three calendars in the apartment.  One is also on the apartment inside door of the USGA calendar and the other is on the refrigerator of horses.  I also am installing the updates on the two computers that I worked with.  I have four backup computers in the bedroom, but with the NetGear Hub, one can only run three online with the cable modem at the same time.  However, I can also run the primary and the living room backup computers at the same time with the cable modem, so that I can have five on line at the same time with the high speed cable modem.  I also have two backup cable modems.  I technically could also run a sixth computer from the Siemens router in the living room, since it has a spare port.  Although there is not room for a third computer in the living room, with a long enough LAN cable one could run a laptop computer.  I also drank some iced tea.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/09/04  Monday 2:10 A.M.:  Well not much going on in this section of the Tundra, so I guess I will now shut down the computer, and I will go to bed.  I did eat five 1.25 inch by 1.5 inch by .25 inches pieces of Kraft Cracker barrel baby Swiss cheese, and I drank some iced tea.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/09/04  Monday 12:30 A.M.:  Of course Lake Forest College www.lfc.edu was just north of Fort Sheridan, which was in charge of recruiting for the United States Army and south of Great Lakes Naval Station which was a large Navy Hospital facility which also did some basic training for the United States Navy.  Thus there was fairly adequate security in the area, but down on the Farm in Knollwood, Illinois, we did not have K-9 Security like in Key West, Florida, it was mostly Grey Wolf security which tends to be more invisible except to the keen observer.  Of course besides wolves, there were a few mixed breed domestic dog and wolf mixtures also in the woods.  I recall there was a bowling alley just west of the farm across the highway and there were a couple of road house bars in the area and a Dairy Queen.  The owner of the Dairy Queen had a collection of antique cars including a 1906 Rolls Royce roadster with wicker doors, so obviously the people in the area had seen better times.  Towards the end of my stay in Illinois in 1971, I recall they had built a large mall north of the farm, so the area is probably more heavily populated.  Around October 1978, I revisited Lake Forest College with a friend, and I drove into the Farm, and I recall there was a Chevrolet dealership on the southeast corner of Waukegan Road and I-176.  Other than that at the time, the area did not seem to have changed too much.  It is the nature of the Midwest of the United States of America that there is plenty of land, and farms are still relatively cheap.  However, the Lake Forest, Illinois area is probably one of the more expensive areas in the Midwest, so property on the outskirts of town was probably held in conservation.  In Libertyville, Illinois there was the much more Stately farm of Adlai Stevenson, and halfway from the Knollwood farm to Libertyville, Illinois there was the International Harvester Factory now I believe part of Navistar.  Beyond Libertyville, Illinois in McHenry, Illinois was the retreat for the Archdiocese of Chicago, which quite an opulent campus like setting with brick buildings and golf course and reflecting pools and pedestals with statues.  It was suppose to be the retreat for the Vatican if they were ever thrown out of Rome, Italy by the Communists.  I recall visiting it a couple of times, and I once visited it a day or two after a snow storm, and there was not a tire track or foot print in the snow in the large complex.  Lake Forest College at the time was a Presbyterian college and nearby south of it on Sheridan Road was also and old world looking Jesuit Monastery.  There was also a catholic girls college south of the monastery called Barat College and a girls prep school called Fairy Hall.  I believe west of Lake Forest, there was also Lake Forest Academy which was the private day school in town.  While attending Lake Forest College, they also built a new public high school at Kennedy Road and Waukegan Roads on the southwest corner, so the area at the time was growing.  However, with the Midwest in industrial decline and most the industrial Midwest becoming the Rust Bucket of America, I suppose the area is not as upscale as when I attended college there.  In the expensive Lake Michigan frontage property of the area, there was a marble villa and other European style homes on small pieces of property in the expensive town.  I recall in Libertyville, Illinois there was also a Yugoslavian Orthodox Church where an exiled king of Yugoslavia was buried after he died after a career of working as a Bank Officer in Las Angeles, California.  I was an observer at the Funeral outside of the small church, and I recall the graveyard had the pictures of many other people buried there on the headstones.  I think the church had a blue onion style dome.  Since not much ever happens in the Midwest in terms of the International World Events, people frequently would remember that event around 1971.  I suppose it is the nature of Adlai Stevenson having served at the United Nations after World War II, he might have collected some international refugees around him in Illinois, but from what I could tell at the time, most people were middle of America type people.  Basically, the Lake Forest, Illinois community was a comfortable community and quite a few people were business and financial people and a large number seemed to have seats on the Commodity Exchange in Chicago, Illinois.  Thus I dare say, if they should ever have enough energy to travel away from their community, they probably would be able to afford to pay their bills.  However, it is the nature of the Midwest of the United States, that people are very sedentary, so unless they get too cold and venture south, they usually stay put indefinitely.  In the heat of the summer, some of them travel north up into Canada for cooler weather too.  Basically the Chicago, Illinois area has about 9 to 10 months of winter and 2 to 3 months of summer, so it is a bit like the northern areas of Europe and Russia.  I heard rumors that White Russian exiles were also living comfortably out there.  Still, once one goes west of the Lake Michigan frontage property, there is only the vast plains of America and a very rural environment.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/08/04  Sunday 11:00 P.M.:  This is a picture of the Farm House in Knollwood, Illinois that I rented from the fall of 1970 through December of 1971 www.geocities.com/mikelscott/mlsfarm70.jpg .  CIO

Note: <888> 02/08/04  Sunday 10:45 P.M.:  I relaxed a bit.  I ate a bowl of corn chips and three 1.5 inch by 5/16th inch by 1 inch slices of Kraft Cracker barrel Baby Swiss cheese.  I drank some ice tea with the corn chips.  I recall, when I finally gave up the lease on the Farm House in Knollwood, Illinois, we sublet the place to students from Northwestern University, and we sold them the furniture including additional items in the house for around $200.  Basically the farm was on 40 acres about seven miles northwest of Lake Forest College with the Knollwood Country Club on two sides, Interstate 176 on the north side and with an old railroad track bed running east to west along side of it and woods to the west for about a mile before there was the main Chicago to Milwaukee railroad line with a rail switching yard and a number of older railroad cars and odd railroad items.  One could frequently hear railroad cars being coupled and uncoupled all night long, so it was a relatively quiet area.  Back then number 2 fuel oil was .12 a gallon and we even toyed with the idea of buying old Mercedes Diesel automobiles, so one could run them on the Diesel fuel oil instead of paying about .27 a gallon for premium gasoline.  I also recall there was a large colony of dormant bees in the front porch roof and walls, which possibly became more active in warmer weather.  The house was warm enough with a barn for storing two cars and a manure pile.  We used the Culligan man for water filtration, but high amounts of sulfur in the water are suppose to be very good for longevity. Back then a lawyer named Mr. Michaels in Lake Bluff, Illinois rented the farm, but I am not sure if he owned it or if he represented the owner.  It was sort of my version of the Doonesbury Farm like this where I presently live is Flanders Farm.  Well, anyway I had one of my 15 watt candelabra bulbs burn out in the right most sconce above the primary computer, so I replaced it with another used one, which is a tricky procedure reaching over the computer monitors.  I was just able to do it.  I have two new four packs of General Electric 25 watt Candelabra bulbs, which I will eventually use when the 15 watt ones start going out.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/08/04  Sunday 8:40 P.M.:  Back in the old days at college at Lake Forest College www.lfc.edu in Lake Forest, Illinois from 1968 to 1972 beginning in the fall of 1970 through 1971, I rented a farm house west of Lake Forest, Illinois in Knollwood, Illinois at 1014 Rockland Road halfway between Libertyville, Illinois and Lake Bluff, Illinois, and I shared it with four other roommates initially.  I recall the rent was about $250 a month, and we split it about evenly.  We needed to furnish the house, so I went to the Salvation Army in Waukegan, Illinois, and for $50, I bought a gas stove, sofa, dining room table and six chairs, and a full size bed, mattress and box spring along with a desk and chair, coffee table and a round hallway pedestal table, refrigerator and other miscellaneous items for that $50 price, they also delivered the merchandise in a big red truck to the Farm about 20 miles away.  To compared the local Fairfield Country thrift shops in this area to what items cost out in the Midwest of the United States of America today, one might find this web site interesting http://www.salarmychicago.org/frames/extd_your_help/donations.htm which goes to show that prices seem to have risen outside this area also.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/08/04  Sunday 8:15 P.M.:  I chatted with a friend.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/08/04  Sunday 7:10 P.M.:  I chatted with a relative.  I reheated in the microwave oven the garlic herbal chicken that I made last night along with the steamed white rice and cooking juices.  I also put about 3/4 inch of water in the larger rectangular microwave container with sliding tops that I bought at Wal-Mart for $10 in the microwave cookware kit, and I put in about four stalks of broccoli crowns, and I pushed the Vegetable button on the microwave, and the broccoli came out just fine.  I had the dinner with iced tea.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/08/04  Sunday 6:00 P.M.:  I went out after the last message.  I went downtown.  I found a empty package of Camel cigarettes with a British customs stamp on it.  It was one of those half size packs that the British use.  Thus somebody from the United Kingdom or someone whom had traveled there recently was parked or walking downtown.  I walked the entire length of Greenwich Avenue.  I sat out at various locations.  I stopped by the new Blimpie Sandwich shop, and they have a nice warm sandwich shop and coffee beverage area.  It is run by the same group that have Zyn Stationary.  I also stopped by Harringtons of Vermont, and I told them about my idea for Jack Daniels smoked hams cured in Jack Daniels whisky.  I noticed they have some nice French Roquefort cheese there along with their other specialty items.  I put another United States quarter at the base of the north lamp at the senior center, so there are now two quarters, in case anyone finds them, and wants to make a telephone call.  Friend of Animals was protesting at the movie theatre on Greenwich Avenue against people whom wear fur.  I stopped by the 70% off rack at the Greenwich Hardware store.  I stopped by CVS, and I bought a 16 ounce jar of CVS lightly salted dry roasted peanuts for $1.50.  I then walked up to the top of Greenwich Avenue as usual.  I chatted with the proprietor of the cell phone store.  I stopped by the Subway sandwich shop, and they have a very good product too, plus they bake their own fresh bread and rolls, but alas they have no warm place to sit down inside, so it caters more to the office and automobile crowd.  I suggested that someone should put a fish and chips shop on Greenwich Avenue.  I then suggested Bang and Olufsen that they should make large LCD screens for computers, which they do not.  I then completed my walk.  I next drove down by the waterfront on Steamboat Road, and I walked out to the end of the pier.  I then drove around the Grass Island area.  I returned home, and I drank some iced tea.  I had a telephone message on my answering machine.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/08/04  Sunday 2:00 P.M.:  I watched a bit of television.  It is amazing how the television media in the United States of America focuses on such a limited number of characters.  In one hour walk on Greenwich Avenue in the daytime, one sees more characters than all the United States of America television seems to be able to show in a year.  Thus the old U.S.A. television is a very limited media in terms of what it covers.  Well, I guess I will now clean up, and I will go out to see what is happening in the broader world around me, which includes the 20 million people in the New York City area, some of whom occasionally venture through this area, and then the local merchants whether they sell coffee, rags, or gasoline seem to make a little bit of wampum off the traffic.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/08/04  Sunday 12:30 P.M.:  I had a call at 6:30 A.M. this morning.  I was up at 11 A.M., and I had breakfast of oatmeal, toast with strawberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I was rethinking my list of the world's major population groups, and I mentioned in last night's notes that in a world population of 6.5 billion people, there are 2.5 billion people whom speak various dialects of Spanish, 1.2 billion of Chinese origin, 1 billion from India, and there are also 1 billion Muslims, so that leaves 800 million people from everywhere else in the world.  Thus with the world's minority populations so spread out all over the world, it is important this large minority group of 800 million people have better communications to stay in touch.  Thus the internet helps facilitate this activity.  In the last two decades we have had a large influx of Spanish speaking people in this Fairfield County, Connecticut area, but there were large Spanish groups already in the Manhattan area before this occurred.  Basically most of the Hispanic groups here claim to be from Columbia or Brazil.  However, on a number of times when I explored the Port Chester, New York flea market, the most common flag displayed was the Cuban flag, so although nobody says they're from Cuba, the fact that they were trying to sell large numbers of Cuban flags would seem to indicate to me that a large number of them are Cuban exiles who had earlier resettled into the Miami and south Florida area, and later moved up north.  Also Chicago use to have the second largest Cuban exile community and then Union City, New Jersey.  Thus where ever they come from, the Hispanic groups seems to have melded into this area in much the way they have in Southern California.  Apparently in Mexico the going wage is $1.50 an hour and here the Hispanic population is earning upwards to $8 an hour and more.  Of course this area is a lot more expensive to live in than in the Latino areas of America.  I suppose if the wage scale goes any higher, the Hispanic community will price themselves out of the labor market, and other groups like the Asian, Canadian, or European groups might displace them at the higher wage scale.  Whatever, the case the wealthier people in this area seem to need to employ the Hispanic work population to maintain their environment, so they can continue to work in their more highly paid Manhattan area.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/08/04  Sunday 1:25 A.M.:  About an hour ago, I ate a couple bowls of corn chips.  I will now shut down the computer, and I will go to bed soon.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/08/04  Sunday 1:10 A.M.:  Basically in the world of International Business and International Economics, most of it is irrelevant as it relates to this area.  Basically the only economic trend in this area for all of these years is that the Scottish are probably one of the most frugal people in Europe, and once they chopped down most of their forests, they had to start paying the German wood choppers which included the Kaiser for forest timber.  Thus the Kaiser made money which he leant the Rothschild family which in turn used it to develop other forest areas, so hopefully the Germans could continue to make money off the frugal Scottish.  Thus we have had this Western Expansion for the last 400 years for lack of timber in rugged highlands of Scotland.  However, if one ventured into the north country of this area, there seems to be plenty of timber that is well managed.  Thus although the bankers seem to know it all from the Harvard Business School, they only know about managing other people's property, it does not mean the bank itself actually owns the property.  From my perspective, locally in this area, once one gets on Greenwich Avenue or any other primary commercial street in this area, one of the business entrepreneurs in this area which is well known was P.T. Barnum whose motto was that a "Sucker Was Born Every Minute".  Thus when dealing with the carnival or circus school of business, one should be careful on weekends, and wait until the regular more reputable business people set up shop on weekdays.  From my perspective, since I am only about 1/8th Scotch Irish, 1/4th French, 1/8th German, and 1/2 Dutch, I have a more continental viewpoint that the more isolated frugal Scottish whom seem to have their original sheep skin to fall back on in times of trouble.  However, more than likely the real Scottish being cheap never leave Scotland, but only let those leave and represent them whom might have some sort of idea of what the Scottish mentality is all about.  Thus since the Dutch and French are neighbors of the Germans, it would seem to me that whomever the Scottish have chosen to represent them would not be as intimidating as the real Scottish are.  The real Scottish are a quite formidable people which is why a great many of them served in the British Armed Forces in the Commonwealth.  The Dutch were more merchant seamen and traders whom seemed to prosper off the existing trade between foreign nations and the larger hemisphere of the Eastern Hemisphere whom were land locked.  Thus from my viewpoint if one wants to conquer the ocean or the people whom live peacefully around the ocean, your only chance might be to join some local Navy and see the World.  I mentioned tonight at the Food Emporium, one character in Nantucket use to sell smoked pheasants, but one never saw any pheasants around Nantucket, so it was a curiosity as to where they came from.  However, I use to see a few in near back country here in Greenwich, and when I was out at Lake Forest College www.lfc.edu which is a much colder area, there were quite a few pheasants, since they like the corn fields in the fall after the farmers harvest them, since there tends to be a bit of grain left in the fields to feed on, if the hunters or wolves do not get them first.  However, if one does not harvest a field of corn, one is more than likely to end up with a lot of crows, and then one would end up trying to "Eat Crow" as opposed to "Judge Crow".  Basically on the waterfront, the sea gulls know quite a bit, but once one goes into the interior of the country, the Crows know a lot more, since they see a lot more of the land.  The crows obviously try to keep an eye on the waterfront, but frequently they get run off by the sea gulls.  Back during the great wars of this century when there were shortages of food in this country, I believe they use to send hunters to Gull Islands like Nantucket to shoot the large flocks of sea gulls for additional food, but like in the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds" that probably back fired, since although one might see quite a lot of sea gulls for hunting, when a few thousand suddenly turned into a few million more than likely the sea gull hunters ended up a sea gull droppings.  Thus in  nature and conservation, one has to be careful about what one hunts or harvests.  Basically an area like Scotland in the old days was just a front outpost for the larger Eastern Hemisphere which like to keep an eye on its shores.  Thus I would imagine even before the first Europeans ventured into the Western Hemisphere, the Eastern Hemisphere had problems with individuals from the Western Hemisphere showing up and trying to blend in.  Whatever, the problem is locally, it is my viewpoint the large numbers of so called Hispanic workers in this area might actually be Asian that speak Spanish, since having been to Spain, I have a viewpoint as to what the actual Spanish people look like.  Moreover, I mentioned tonight that Spain tends to be a very "Old World" country, and they do not try to do everything the modern way, but frequently use old Time Tested methods.  Thus since certain areas of the world have lots of personnel like Chinese areas of influence, Spanish speaking areas, or India places of influence, they frequently use large numbers of people for certain tasks instead of more modern expensive procedures, which they use in more modern industrial areas.  Since there are suppose to be 1.2 billion people of Chinese connection, 1 billion of India connection, and 2.5 billion people whom speak various dialects of Spanish that adds up to 4.7 billion people on a planet of 6.5 billion people whom have some sort of large affiliation, which leaves the other 1.8 billion people as a lose connected minority watching all of the other larger numbers come and go about their various businesses.  I sometimes think the various two great wars of this century were caused by large numbers of people working their way from the sub continent or Asia towards what they perceived to be a goal somewhere in Western Europe, which may or may not have made sense, since all the places along the way or further due north from their regions might have more insight into their goals.  I believe Gingus Khan was from Mongolia, so just because the horses took off for better feeding, we now deal with a larger Arabic speaking group whom refer to the Khan family, and it would seem to me the indigenous people in the areas where this Khan family have traveled would have their own perspective and viewpoint as to what their mission was in their travels.  Possibly the American Indians were also descended from the same tribe of people, but Gingus Khan had horses where the American Indians supposedly did not have horses until the Spanish arrived.  Whatever the case like the circus people they seem to have built up some sort of political base, but whether it will fly on Monday morning when more level headed people prevail is open to question.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/07/04  Saturday 11:05 P.M.:  Free words of advise.  Large numbers of elderly people tend to live during the winter in warmer areas where they grow large amount of vegetables on a year round basis.  Also elderly women tend to outlive their elderly husbands.  Also in the old days elderly women would live on tea and toast.  Today in the modern world of communications, we seem to have locally here a bread factory and sufficient energy to make toast.  However, we also know that they produce tea in warmer areas of the world along with the vegetables.  Thus basically from a philosophical point of view the "the Whole World is Run by a Little Old Lady whom Owns a Vegetable Garden".  However, the transport and grocery people up north tend to be a more mercenary group of people since they have expenses to pay, so basically they are looking at the bottom line here and not the overall picture.  Whatever, the case it pays to be frugal and to buy sale items when they are on sale.  Since a large number of the local young people are so busy working in business on their individual shopping sprees, they frequently do not have the time to watch their Ps and Qs which is derived from the old Wall Street expression of Prices and Quotes.  However from what I know, a lot of the people here have quite a bit of long time experience working here, however when they try to transfer that experience to other areas, it is not necessary applicable, because other areas also have individuals with long time experience.  Basically, I just speak about what I know locally.  I do not try to comment on what I see broadcast on the electronic media.  The town of Greenwich is suppose to have a budget for essential services, so assuming their regular personnel are not on vacation, the town should be able to provide the general services, it usually does on a year round basis.  However, it is the nature of this area that for people coming from the south it tends to be cold in the winter.  It is also basic reality that we can not change the weather in this area as it occurs on a four season basis.  Thus when it is cold in this area, the people whom might own property here on a year round basis and whom only occupy it during the warmer months might not realize it takes another group of people whom are use to colder weather to maintain the property when they are not here.  Also some people whom are from colder areas on a year round basis find this area enjoyable during the winter months, since it is not as cold as the colder areas.  Thus on a four seasons basis, one might see different people coming here for various periods of residence, since we are suppose to be an international business community besides a suburban bedroom community.  Thus if one is newly arrived in this area, and one has business or family connections in this area, it would seem reasonable that one would contact them when venturing into this area.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/07/04  Saturday 9:50 P.M.:  I went out, and I went downtown.  I walked the entire length of Greenwich Avenue and the train station area.  I sat out at various locations.  I stopped by CVS, and I bought two 1.76 ounce tins of Altoids one citrus sour and the other tangerine sour for $1.99 for one and a penny for the second plus .12 tax for $2.12 total.  I also stopped by the 70% off rack at the Greenwich Hardware store and Bang and Olufsen http://www.bang-olufsen.com/ which has very high tech Danish electronics equipment.  I chatted with one of the salesmen about technology.  I suppose one could configure a large high resolution LCD screen for a computer, but I am not sure if the internet has the content that would need such a screen.  Also such a configuration would be quite expensive.  I completed my walk.  While I was standing at the Senior Arts center, I found a U.S.A. quarter that someone had dropped from a bench in front of the building in a puddle of cold water.  I put it on the pedestal base of the north lamp in front of the building.  Unfortunately, one can no long make a telephone call on Greenwich Avenue for a dime or a quarter, I think a local telephone call now costs .50 or two quarters.  I then drove down by the waterfront, and I walked out onto the end of the pier.  I next went by the Exxon gasoline station next to the Greenwich Library, and I bought $9 of regular unleaded gasoline at $1.899 a gallon for about 28 miles per gallon this week.  I used more gasoline this week because I made the trip to Bridgeport, Connecticut this past Thursday.  I next went by the Food Emporium, and I bought the second to the last of packages of boneless breasts of chicken at $1.99 a pound for $4.46, two eight ounce bars of Cabot's www.cabotcheese.com Vermont 50% less fat cheddar cheese for $1.49 each bar and a pound of Nabisco Original Premium saltine crackers for $2 for $9.44 total.  One of their customers fell on his butt as he was walking from the parking area down the steeply inclined driveway that had frozen over.  Although they have cut groves in the pavement, it still ices over at the entrance to the Food Emporium.  I suppose they should put more sand in slippery locations which tends to stay in place versus melting like salt or salt substitutes does.  However, I would imagine the store employees do no like cleaning up after the sand tracked into the store.  We have the same problem at my building in that the sidewalks were not sanded, and one of the tenants is now wearing a neck brace from having slipped and fallen.  When one has days like today when it warms up and melts in the daytime, and then it freezes again at night, and it can become very hazardous when walking.  Also rubber sneakers or athletic shoes tend to be more slippery and hazardous, and there are better winter type shoes that have better traction.  I then returned home, and I drank some iced tea.  I took the five halves of boneless chicken breasts, and I rinsed them in cold water, and I dried them with a paper towel.  I put three in a Rubbermaid container in the refrigerator for cooking later.  I put two in a Pyrex pie dish, and I rubbed all sides with about two tablespoons of olive oil.  I then turned the bottom side up, and I seasoned them with Old Bay Seasoning, garlic powder, celery salt, chicken and meat seasoning, ground black pepper, basil, oregano, Italian spices, parsley, and Hungarian paprika.  I then turned them bottom side down, and I poured on about three tablespoons of La Choy low sodium soy sauce and about a quarter of a cup of Rene Junot White wine.  I then seasoned the tops of the boneless chickens breasts with the same herbs and spices as the bottom, and I minced one clove of Elephant garlic, I spread the pieces over the tops of the chicken.  I then baked them in the Farberware convection oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 minutes.  I had one of the chicken breasts with steamed white rice with the cooking juices from the chicken and steamed fresh broccoli with a small bit of olive oil.  I refrigerated the other cooked chicken breast with the remaining rice and cooking juices in a Rubbermaid container, to reheated tomorrow for dinner.  I had the dinner with iced tea.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/07/04  Saturday 2:55 P.M.:  I chatted with a friend at 7 A.M. this morning.  I was up at 11 A.M., and I had breakfast of oatmeal, toast with strawberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I just finished my house cleaning and watering the plants.  I ate a Quaker low fat white cheddar flavored corn cake with some iced tea.  I listened to the Emerson wireless headphones while doing house cleaning playing 106.7 FM.  I am recharging the Radio Shack rechargeable Nickel Cadmium AAA batteries that I used, and they should be charged at 10 P.M..  I have a fully charged pair in the Emerson wireless headphones.  I will now shut down the computer, and I will clean up and go out.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/07/04  Saturday 12:05 A.M.:  I ate two bowls of corn chips along with a glass of iced tea.  Actually I feel more productive when on a late night early morning schedule, but still it is enjoyable to be out and about in the daytime.  I will now shut down the computer, and I suppose I will go to bed soon.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/06/04  Friday 11:25 P.M.:  I watched a bit of television.  I sometimes think it is not worth the electricity let alone the money one pays for Cablevision, but it is suppose to be for relaxation, so I suppose it serves its purpose for people whom are too tired to think.  Mostly on the web, I read technology news, which I suppose if one were not interested in technology, one would find it not too interesting.  Thus my reading list of links www.geocities.com/mikelscott/scotwork.htm might not seem interesting, but if one were in the business of information technology, it would help one stay informed about current events in the business.  CIO

End of Scott's Notes week of 02/06/04:

Note: <888> 02/06/04  Friday 9:25 P.M.:  I drank a cup of Lipton green tea with a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice.  I watched a bit of the American television media.  Apparently it is such a low budget communications media, it is hard for them to come up with any original programming or content.  However, I guess it is mostly intended for children and elderly shut ins.  I suppose it serves it purpose, but most people here seem to prefer to read a book compared to web browsing or television or media watching.  Basically there are quite a large number of new books as usual in the Greenwich Library, but most of them are selling their own brand of soap.  However, I suppose if one were to continue to read enough, one would find some original content.  Basically in my writing effort of my web log, I do not try to provide any original content or imagination, since I am not being paid for it, I do not feel like putting any effort into my writing.  Well, I will now send out my weekly notes.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/06/04  Friday 8:15 P.M.:  I made and ate my usual salad www.geocities.com/mikelscott/salad.htm .  For the cheddar cheese portion, I used Kraft Cracker Barrel baby Swiss cheese, and I used all of the other regular ingredients, but I used six olives instead of eight olives, and I used Stop and Shop no fat grated parmesan cheese topping.  I had the salad with a glass of iced tea.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/06/04  Friday 7:00 P.M.:  I went out after the last message.  I went by Putnam Trust Bank of New York on Mason Street.  I then went by the Greenwich Hospital Thrift Shop.  I next went downtown to the central Greenwich Post Office, and I obtained a money order at .90 cost to pay my Northeast Utilities Electricity bill.  I mailed the bill in at the post office.  I then walked the entire length of Greenwich Avenue and the train station area.  I did not sit out at various locations because it was raining.  During my walk, I stopped by CVS, and I bought two 1.76 ounce tins of Altoids one citrus sour and the other tangerine sour for $1.99 the first one and the second one for .01 plus .12 tax for $2.12 total.  I completed my walk.  I then drove down by the waterfront.  I next went by the Greenwich Library, and I read the Greenwich Times.  David Ogilvy http://www.davidogilvy.com/ has a nice cottage for sale on the waterfront on Field Point Circle and the Belle Haven area of the waterfront.  I guess some people do not like the cold damp winters on the waterfront and pull up stakes and move to Palm Springs, California or other drier environments.  The only time I was ever in Palm Springs was at I recall around December 1978, and it was about 50 degrees Fahrenheit at sunset, but all the Date palm trees looked like they had seen warmer days.  I next went by the Food Emporium, and I bought two of the packages of Twinings tea containing five each of five different types of tea for $3.19 each box and three packages of Salada 100% Green tea each containing 40 bags each for $2.49 each box for $13.57 total.  I then returned home.  I drank some iced tea.  I put the Salada tea in the right living room closet on the shelf with the Salada orange pekoe tea that I already have, and I put the Twinings tea on the wooden shelf above the kitchen sink.  I guess I will be using more green tea in my ice tea mixture in the future.  I put the Altoids on the Danish bar with the Queen Elizabeth II whisky jug.  In the Greenwich Time www.greenwichtime.com they have a story today the two buildings on the top of Greenwich Avenue just south of Pickwick Plaza is are to be condemned since they were damaged by fire.  I also noticed that the vintage building where the antiques shops are on the lower right side of Greenwich Avenue have a "Unfit for Human Habitation" signs posted since the fire two nights ago, so maybe they are going to be condemned too.  Times are changing around town.  I suppose next they will tear down the Food Emporium and build an office complex on its valuable property, and I suppose they could have underground parking and a Food Emporium on the ground level.  Sooner or later, they probably will do that, since it is valuable property.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/06/04  Friday 2:05 P.M.:  I heated and ate a 18.8 ounce can of Campbell's New England clam chowder, which I had with a glass of iced tea.  I will now shut down the computer, and I will clean up, and I will go out on this rainy afternoon.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/06/04  Friday 1:25 P.M.:  I just got up.  I checked my mail.  I received my Northeast Utilities electricity bill which included my electric heat.  For this past month, it was $176 of which I will have to pay the monthly average of $95.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/06/04  Friday 9:40 A.M.:  I will now put the computer in standby mode, and I will rest for a while.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/06/04  Friday 9:30 A.M.:  I finished going through my email.  I ate a bowl of corn chips with some iced tea.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/06/04  Friday 8:25 A.M.: THIS MIGHT BE INFORMATIVE and Sun Clock .  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/06/04  Friday 8:05 A.M.:  I was up at 6:30 A.M..  I chatted with a friend.  I had breakfast of oatmeal, toast with strawberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  Today is Ronald Reagan's 93rd birthday Ronald Reagan's Birthday - February Fundays and http://www.reaganfoundation.org/  and Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Library-Send Pressident Reagan a Birthday Message .  CIO

Note: <888> 02/05/04  Thursday 11:25 P.M.:  I will now shut down the computer, and I will go to bed soon.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/05/04  Thursday 11:05 P.M.:  I chatted with a relative.  I microwaved and ate a Maria Callendar chicken tenders dinner, which I had with iced tea.  I was given some web site addresses at the Microsoft conference.  They are http://www.handsonlab.com/ , http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/ , http://members.microsoft.com/partner/default.aspx , http://sbs2003.msuspartners.com , http://www.msuspartners.com , and http://members.microsoft.com/partner/salesmarketing/PartnerMarket/ActionPack/ .  CIO

Note: <888> 02/05/04  Thursday 9:25 P.M.:  I registered to receive for free in 6 to 8 weeks Microsoft Office 2003 Professional System Microsoft Office 2003 Professional How to Buy , which normally would cost $500.  Thus it was worthwhile besides the useful information to attend the Microsoft conference, since I also will receive a most excellent software package for free.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/05/04  Thursday 8:55 P.M.:  I had a telephone call at 6:30 A.M. this morning from a friend.  I then ate breakfast of oatmeal, toast with strawberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I then fell back to sleep until 11 A.M..  While I was checking my mail, I noticed the Greenwich Housing Authority representative was not busy, so I was able to present my paperwork for the current lease application process.  I was thus free this afternoon.  I called the Holiday Inn in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and I was told I could still attend the Microsoft TS2 event http://www.connect-ms.com/msts2/ , so I cleaned up.  I then drove up to the Holiday Inn in Bridgeport, Connecticut which was fairly easy to find in the downtown area there.  I parked in the Holiday Inn garage on Level 5.  I arrived at the presentation just as it was beginning.  The presentation lasted from 1 P.M. to 5 P.M. with a break about 3 P.M., and another about 4:15 P.M..  I had a cup of Lipton tea at the second break.  The presentation was very informative explaining the Microsoft Small Business Server and other products.  After the presentation, I was given a Microsoft black tote bag holding the presentation information.  I was also given a certificate for a free Microsoft Product, which I think is Microsoft Office Suite 2003.  I have to apply for it online.  I then returned to the parking garage, and I got my parking stub, and then I returned to the Holiday Inn, and they validated the parking receipt, so I did not have to pay for it.  I then thanked the Microsoft presenter who was a New England Patriots fan.  I then returned to the garage, and I did not have to pay for parking.  I then drove down to Norwalk, Connecticut, and I toured CompUSA.  I next toured Best Buy.  I then went to Staples in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, and I bought three rolls of Scotch Magic tape 3/4 inch by 27.7 yards each roll #810 made my 3M for $2.99 all three plus .18 tax for $3.17 total.  I then drove to downtown Greenwich, and I sat out briefly.  I next drove down by the waterfront, and I walked out onto the pier.  It is a bit easier now to get out on the pier, but it is still a bit slippery.  I then returned home.  I drank some iced tea.  I had a call from a friend, so I tried to return the call, but the friend was not there.  I will put the spare rolls of Scotch tape on the bedroom desk with the Scotch tape dispenser.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/04/04  Wednesday 10:35 P.M.:  I will now shut down the computer, and I will watch a little bit of television before going to bed.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/04/04  Wednesday 10:25 P.M.:  I chatted with two relatives.  I ate the last piece of Entenmanns's apple pie.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/04/04  Wednesday 9:05 P.M.:  I made and ate my usual salad www.geocities.com/mikelscott/salad.htm .  For the cheddar cheese portion, I used Kraft Cracker barrel baby Swiss cheese, and instead of tuna fish, I used 1/8th inch thick slices of garlic and herbal boneless breast of chicken I baked a few nights ago.  I also ate the salad with iced tea.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/04/04  Wednesday 7:55 P.M.:  I went out after the last message.  I went by the Greenwich Hospital Thrift Shop.  I then went downtown, and I walked the entire length of Greenwich Avenue, and I sat out at various locations.  During my walk, I stopped by the central Greenwich Post Office, and I bought 10 Purple Heart .37 U.S.A. postage stamps for $3.70 total.  I also stopped by CVS, and I bought two tins of Altoids 1.76 ounce sours one of tangerine sours and the other of citrus sours for buy one for $1.99 and get the second for .01 plus .12 tax for $2.12 total.  I completed my walk.  I then stopped by the waterfront, and there were two full size white swans on the waterfront.  I next went by the Greenwich Library, and I read the Greenwich Times.  I then went by the Stop and Shop, and I bought three half gallons of Florida Natural Home-style Squeezed orange juice for $5 all, a 48 ounce container of Quaker Old Fashioned oatmeal for $3.99, a 20 ounce bag of Tostitos super size restaurant style white corn chips for $2.99, two 18 ounce jars of Smucker's raspberry jam for $2.50 each, a four pack of six ounce cans of Star-Kist solid white albacore tuna fish for $3.99, a 11.5 ounce Swanson's turkey dinner for $2 and a 11.5 ounce Swanson's chicken cutlet dinner for $2, two 18 ounce cans of Goya chick peas for $1.09 each can, six 4.25 ounce cans of California crushed olives for 3 for $2, two 6.5 ounce dry cans of California medium black pitted olives for .99 each, a liter of Italica Spanish extra virgin olive oil for $5.99, a 17 ounce bottle of Rienzi balsamic vinegar for $2.99,  a 6 ounce container of 4-C grated Romano and Parmesan cheese for $2.99, four 8 ounce bars of Stop and Shop Vermont extra sharp cheddar cheese for $1.99 each, Rosenborg Danish Blue cheese at $6.99 a pound for $4.16, a 8 ounce container of Colombo vanilla yogurt for .67, broccoli crowns at $1.99 a pound for $1.43, a three pound bag of red Bermuda onions for $3.29, 10 ounces of fresh spinach for $1.50, a bulb of elephant garlic for $1.99 for $65.44 total.  I then returned home, and I used my cart to bring up my purchases.  I drank some ice tea.  I put the Altoids with the other Altoids on the Danish bar behind the Queen Elizabeth II whisky jug.  I also open up one each of the two different flavors of Altoids, and I put them in my Steuben style glass bowl on the right side of the long mahogany bureau in the living room.  I am keeping my used Altoids tins on the bedroom desk.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/04/04  Wednesday 2:45 P.M.:  I will now shut down the computer, and I will clean up.  I will then go out to enjoy this warmer day.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/04/04  Wednesday 2:35 P.M.:  I finished going though my email.  I am throwing out a six month opened jar of Hellmann's low fat mayonnaise.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/04/04  Wednesday 2:15 P.M.:  I went through part of my email.  I made up some www.geocities.com/mikelscott/onionsoup.htm , and I ate it with a glass of iced tea.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/04/04  Wednesday 12:45 P.M.:  I chatted with a friend at 6:45 A.M. this morning.  I ate breakfast of oatmeal, toast with strawberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I went back to bed until 11 A.M..  I watched some television.  I checked my mail.  I did some minor errands around the apartment.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/03/04  Tuesday 10:10 P.M.:  I will now shut down the computer, and I will go to bed soon.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/03/04  Tuesday 10:05 P.M.:  I made and ate my usual salad www.geocities.com/mikelscott/salad.htm .  Instead of tuna fish, I used 1/8th inch thick slices of the boneless breast of chicken that I cooked two nights ago.  For the cheddar cheese portion, I used 50% Cabot's 50% reduced fat Vermont cheddar cheese and 50% of Kraft Cracker Barrel baby Swiss cheese.  For the grated Parmesan cheese portion, I used Stop and Shop no fat grated parmesan cheese topping.  I used all of the other regular ingredients, except I used 6 olives instead of 8 olives.  I ate the salad with a glass of iced tea.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/03/04  Tuesday 8:40 P.M.:  I put the Netgear 4 port hub on the left front of the Danish desk in the bedroom.  I have its power transformer connected to the power strip in between the left IBM Cyrix CPU without the monitor and the right AMD CPU.  One has to turn on the power strip to activate the Netgear 4 Port Hub.  Of course one has to have the Motorola Cable Modem and the Siemens router in the living room turned on for them to work.  There is a 50 foot LAN cable that runs through the false ceiling from the Siemens router to the bedroom Netgear 4 Port Hub.  I ran the updates on the three backup bedroom computers.  I then shut down all the bedroom systems.  I would imagine the Siemens printer ports should still work on the bedroom computers that connect to the living room printers, but two of the bedroom backup computers also have the HP Laser printers.  CIO  

Note: <888> 02/03/04  Tuesday 8:05 P.M.:  I put away the laundry.  I left the socks to dry on the day bed.  I have all three backup computers in the bedroom working online with the Netgear 4 Port 10BaseT Ethernet Hub model EN 104TP.  I had three spare LAN cables.  I took one of them which was not being used off of the Siemens four port router.  Thus with the two online computers in the living room, I have the primary computer in the living room and the backup computer in the living room and the three backup computers in the bedroom for a total of five computers that can be online all at the same time.  In an emergency if we had power, we would be able to be internet connected for a larger group.  However, the living room computer is adjacent to the backup computer, so it would be hard to use both at the same time, and it would be a bit cramped in the bedroom, but technically three skinny people could use the bedroom setup all at the same time.  CIO 

Note: <888> 02/03/04  Tuesday 6:45 P.M.:  I took the advise of the associate, and I put the moldy Jell-O, the contents of the three containers of year old homemade yogurt, and two unopened older containers of Colombo yogurt, and I put them all in a five layers of plastic shopping bags, and I tied them together.  I showered and cleaned up, and when I went out, I threw out the moldy items in the dumpster.  I then went by Putnam Trust Bank of New York on Mason Street.  I next went by the Shell Oil gasoline station on Sherwood Place and East Putnam Avenue, and I made an appointment for Tuesday February 17, 2004 at 12:45 P.M. to have my Connecticut Emissions done on my Hyundai.  I then went by the Greenwich Hospital Thrift Shop, and I bought a Netgear 4 Port 10BaseT Ethernet Hub model EN 104TP with power transformer for $5.  I then went downtown to the central Greenwich Post Office, and I bought three money orders at .90 cost each to pay my Verizon telephone, Cablevision television, and Optimum Online computer cable modem bills.  I then mailed the bills at the central Greenwich Post Office.  I then walked the entire length  of Greenwich Avenue.  I did not sit out at various locations because it was raining heavily.  I did stop by briefly at the Greenwich Hardware store, and I also went by CVS, and I bought four tins of Altoids 1.76 ounces each two of Tangerine sour and two of citrus sours for buy one get one for a penny for .99 each altogether for $3.96 total.  I completed my walk, and I then drove down by the waterfront.  I next went by the Greenwich Library, and I read the Greenwich Times.  I then went by Smoke for Less in Byram, and I bought a carton of Seneca Ultra Lights 100s for $31 total.  I then returned home.  I put the Altoids on the Danish bar behind the Queen Elizabeth II whisky jug.  I started two loads of laundry, and I have 20 minutes to go on the dry cycle.  I put $10 on my laundry card.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/03/04  Tuesday 12:55 P.M.:  I ate a piece of apple pie before going out yesterday, and I also ate some triscuts the night before last.  I ate a piece of apple pie this past evening before going to bed, and I also ate some triscuts.  I was awaken at 6 A.M. this morning be a telephone call from a friend.  I ate breakfast of oatmeal, toast with strawberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I went back to bed until about 11 A.M..  I finished eating the box of triscuts, and I ate a piece of apple pie.  I called the laboratory at the Greenwich Hospital, and I decribed the mold, and they said I should call the Greenwich Health Department.  I called the Greenwich Health Department, and they said I probably should put it in a bag and throw it out.  They said if I wanted to know more about it, I would have to hire an independent laboratory.   I have a friend whom works for an independent laboratory, whom I might call up, but I do not know if they work with mold or not.  I put clean linens on the bed in the bedroom.  I will now shut down the computer, and I will clean up.  I will then go out and pay bills.  I just received email from my 4 P.M. appointment yesterday, and they suggested that I clean the inside of my refrigerator to avoid any mold or bacteria allergies.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/02/04  Monday 10:40 P.M.:  I reheated one of the garlic herbal chicken breasts that I made last night along with the rice, which I ate with some of the chicken cooking juices.  I also drank some iced tea.  I am tired, so I will now shut down the computer, and I will go to bed soon.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/02/04  Monday 9:35 P.M.:  I went out after the last message.  I went by Putnam Trust Bank of New York on Mason Street.  I was reminded that Fleming from Scotland discovered penicillin, which I should have remembered.  However, I still am curious as to whether I have come up with a mold similar to penicillin if it is not penicillin.  I have a neighbor whose son works for Pfizer, so possibly a spore from penicillin got into my environment, and I also had antibiotics when I had hernia surgery a year ago.  Anyway, I intend to keep the gelatin mold mixture for a while and see how it develops.  I also put a sample with the entire mold circle white and light blue  in a small Rubbermaid container in a bag of ice in my freezer. I emailed a number of associates.  After the bank, I ran into a fellow walker, and we had coffee at Starbucks at the shopping plaza next to the YMCA.  We then walked east on the Post Road to Christ Church and back, and then I gave the fellow walker a ride from the shopping plaza back downtown, and we parted company at the Wachovia Bank on Benedict Place.  I then paid my rent there.  I next drove down by the waterfront.  I then went by the Greenwich Hospital Thrift Shop.  I then parked downtown about 4 P.M., and it was such a nice day, I decided to go for a walk.  However, I forgot my 4 P.M. appointment.  I walked the entire length of Greenwich Avenue.  I sat out at various locations.  I stopped by briefly at the Greenwich Hardware store and CVS.  I completed my walk, and I then returned home.  I left a message to reschedule my appointment.  I drank some iced tea.  I chatted with two different relatives.  I then thought for a while, and I emailed some associates.  I also received my Minolta $70 rebate today on the Minolta QMS PagePro 1250W laser printer I bought about two and a half months ago.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/02/04  Monday 12:10 P.M.:  I heated and ate a 18.8 ounce can of Campbell's Select New England clam chowder, which I put 20 Arnold large cut croutons in.  I ate the soup with a glass of iced tea.  I will now shut down the computer, and I will clean up.  I will pay bills if any arrive in the mail, and I will go out after I clean up.  I have a 4 P.M. appointment today.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/02/04  Monday 11:35 A.M.:  I have plenty of food in the apartment, so food is not a problem, but sometimes we forget items in the refrigerator, which may or may not be important as they mature.  As I recall Louis Pasteur developed penicillin, but recently on the United States television, they have been saying that Pfizer www.pfizer.com developed penicillin .  The president of Pfizer is supposedly a local resident, so maybe he would know more about the current state of penicillin development.  A recent news story suggested that if Bird Flu should reach pandemic proportions, more than likely there would not be enough vaccine in the world.  If I am not mistaken in the usage of penicillin the body tends to lower alternative immunities, which means that in future usage of penicillin it might be as effective, so it is frequently best not to take penicillin unless, it is absolutely necessary.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/02/04  Monday 11:05 A.M.:  I checked the mail, but it is not here.  They have an electrician downstairs, and they are installing electrical cable in the community room to install more electrical heat in the community room, but the hallways in the building remain cold.  I checked in my refrigerator, and I have three containers of homemade vanilla yogurt that I made about a year ago.  One of them looks normal, but two others are mostly a combination of a clear and dark liquid with sediment on the bottom.  I wander if they would have some sort of new mold culture too that was more advanced about a year old.  I will continue to treat my apartment like a laboratory environment, but my mother the nurse would probably urge that I throw the Jell-O and yogurt out, but I am still curious about them, and I think somebody with advanced mold and spore skills should examine the two different sets of cultures.  Alas, I do not have any moldy jelly, since I have been eating it more regularly.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/02/04  Monday 10:20 A.M.:  I emailed reseau@pasteur.fr <reseau@pasteur.fr> about the mold spots on the gelatin mixture.  The mold spots are white about 5/8 inch in diameter with turquoise blue spots in the middle about 1/4 inch in diameter.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/02/04  Monday 9:35 A.M.:  I have always called my apartment a branch of the Pasteur Institute http://www.pasteur.fr/ .  I use to keep Tropical Angel Fish in my aquarium here until I started into computer research ten years ago.  I use rinse the aquarium filter charcoal weekly and bake it in a 550 degree oven for about an hour to recycle the carbon that I used in the aquarium filter.  It got me to thinking with all of the natural items in angelfish feces from areas like the Amazon River in Brazil that any mold that might develop in the carbon which I also kept frozen in the refrigerator freezer before recycling, might be immune to temperatures from 20 degrees Fahrenheit to 550 degrees Fahrenheit or some sort of genetic mutant mold.  I occasionally buy Danish Blue cheese or other blue cheeses because they contain a certain mold that I think is good for you, and I use small amounts in my salads.  On January 8. 2004, I made up a batch of sugar free sparking Champagne Jell-o with a little Rene Junot white wine, orange juice and canned DelMonte peaches and their syrup, and I ate some a couple of times the following week, and then I forgot about it.  I just noticed on the remaining two thirds of the Jell-O mixture there are interesting mold spots developing in much the same way, one would culture a mold in a Petri dish gelatin.  Since because of the environment has remained relatively stable in my apartment for 15 years reflecting our native environment in this area as it relates to the Scott's world travels which would have dust from their travels on certain items in the apartment like the family couch, it would be interesting to investigate the mold to see if it is some new scientific breakthrough in mold and spore research or just another variant of a typical mold that is produced frequently in this area.  I am not sure whether to throw it out or to let it continue to develop to see how it develops and grow.  I think we should have a local pharmaceutical laboratory examine the mold to see if by chance we have come up with anything new or not.  Thus for now, I will let the moldy Jell-O remain in the refrigerator to see what develops.  CIO    

Note: <888> 02/02/04  Monday 9:00 A.M.:  I finished going through my email.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/02/04  Monday 8:05 A.M.:  If in the next week, a interesting group of people start to converge in the New York City area and the surrounding area, it is because of this event The Westminster Kennel Club | Latest News: Another Full House For 2004 .  It is not that these people are particularly well financed, but they save their pie money and invest in a yearly event.  Basically, people whom own pets and dogs are a large share of the population in the United States of America, so a great many people whom show their pooches at the Dog Show are breeders, and the sponsors are those whom manufacture items that support the industry.  If one is interested in a particular breed or just likes dogs, it can be an interesting event, but basically it is not as low key as the "Putting on the Dog" event here in Greenwich, Connecticut.  We also use to have an "Adopt a Dog" fund raising event, and the wool carpet in my living room apartment was bought for $40 at a "Adopt a Dog" tag sale about 14 years ago.  It was donated by a well known local celebrity, and it seems to have held its own over the years.  I suppose people with dogs will be following the event closely to see how their particular breeds fair.  Frequently with smaller children in a community like ours, we have a number of smaller breed dogs around besides the larger breeds that local owners are seen walking around town.  This time of year, Tod's Point beach park is opened to the general public and dogs, but one is required to use one of the clear plastic gloves made available for free in the southeast beach area to clean up after their dog's mess.  I suppose we probably have someone downtown in the early morning trying to enforce canine regulations as they relate to the early morning dog walkers.  Also by the Bruce Museum we have a local dog pound that seems to draw attention, and I would imagine there is always a temporary resident there every once in a while.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/02/04  Monday 7:15 A.M.:  Today is Ground Hog's Day, so if the ground hog sees his shadow, we will have six more weeks of winter, which actually would not be too bad.  I was up at 5:15 A.M. this morning.  I had breakfast of oatmeal, toast with strawberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I will now do some regular computer work.  On the business front locally, I suppose it is important to try to network with other people, but since most of the local business community here is already established, they do not seem to feel like networking with any new people.  However, since the Scott family was one of the original business partners in the New Amsterdam colony, I suppose we are already networked with most of the established business community.  Thus we have so much influence whatever we suggest or back seems to be successful.  The only person that contacted me yesterday has a family involved with http://www.bbh.com/ , http://www.up.com/ , and he dabbles in race horses www.nyra.com .  However, I did chat with other people yesterday whom are involved in equally complex operations whom because I chat with them randomly, I am not totally familiar with the complete scope of their operations.  A lot of people in this area seem to have some sort of Midwestern United States connection, so the old guard blue bloods in this area are actually a bit put off when people try to do business in this area, when they frequently think they control everything.  However, it is frequently those families from further west that are the original business partners in this area before the more recently arrived families in this area put up stakes.  However, a number of the more recently arrived families might have been some of the original foreign investors, and more recently in the last 100 years or so, they have come over to personally supervise their investments.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/01/04  Sunday 7:50 P.M.:  I ate a piece of apple pie.  I will now shut down the computer, and I will go to bed soon.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/01/04  Sunday 7:15 P.M.:  With the four halves of boneless breasts of chicken, I made garlic herbal chicken breasts.  I rinsed the chicken breasts in cold water, and I dried them with a paper towel.  I put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a Pyrex pie dish, and I rubbed all sides of the chicken breasts in the olive oil.  I then seasoned the bottom sides of the chicken breasts with Old Bay Seasoning, garlic powder, celery salt, ground black pepper, chicken and meat seasoning, Italian spices, oregano, basil, Hungarian paprika, and parsley.  I then turned the seasoned bottom sides down, and I poured on the breasts and into the dish about a quarter of a cup of Rene Junot white wine and several tablespoons of La Choy low sodium soy sauce.  I then seasoned the tops of the chicken breasts with the same seasonings.  I next minced a large glove of Elephant garlic, and I spread the pieces over the chicken breasts.  I then baked them in the Farberware convection oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 minutes.  I ate one of the chicken breasts with the juices, and I put the other three in the refrigerator in a Rubbermaid container.  I had the chicken with steamed white rice with the chicken juices and steamed broccoli stalk pieces with a little bit of olive oil.  I also had a glass of iced tea.  I chatted with a friend.  CIO  

Note: <888> 02/01/04  Sunday 4:50 P.M.:  I put the Altoids in the Steuben style glass bowl inside the Delft style bowl on the right side of the long mahogany bureau in the living room.  I put one of the Altoids tin containers on the dining room table holding some small odd items and the other one on the bedroom desk.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/01/04  Sunday 4:30 P.M.:  I went out after the last message.  I went by CVS on Greenwich Avenue, and I picked up a prescription at $1.50 cost.  I also bought four 18.8 ounce cans of Campbell's Chunky New England Clam Chowder for 2 for $2.99 for $7.48 total.  I then drove down to the center of downtown.  I walked the entire length of Greenwich Avenue including the train station area, and I sat out at various locations.  I stopped by at CVS again during my walk, and I bought 3.25 ounces of Paprika for .99, 2.75 ounces of Ground Cinnamon for .99, 2.875 ounces of Cayenne pepper for .99, a 1.5 liter bottle of CVS yellow mouthwash for $3.69 plus .22 tax for $6.88 total.  I then brought two 1.76 ounce tins of Altoids one of citrus sours and one of tangerine sours buy one get one free for $2 both plus .12 tax for $2.12 total.  They did not have 3 volt battery display Christmas light candle holders to use the bulbs I bought yesterday.  I will use the other bulbs for night light bulbs.  I am not sure whether it would be safe to use the battery bulbs with 120 volt electrical current.  I completed my walk.  I then used the bathroom at the senior and arts center.  I sat out for a while.  I then drove down by the waterfront.  I next went by the Greenwich Library, and this month's National Geographic magazine with the polar bears on it and the Greenwich, Connecticut story was not available.  I then returned home, and I put away my purchases, and I drank some iced tea.  CIO  

Note: <888> 02/01/04  Sunday 10:25 A.M.:  I heated and ate a 18.5 ounce can of Progresso New England clam chowder which I put 10 Arnold large cut garlic and herb croutons in.  I had the soup with a glass of iced tea.  I will now shut down the computer, and I will clean up, and I will go out.  I chatted with a relative.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/01/04  Sunday 9:30 A.M.:  I ran Ad-aware 6.0, SpyBot, Regcleaner, Norton WinDoctor, System Restore Backup, Disk Cleanup on the C: drive, Norton Fast and Safe CleanUp, Norton Disk Doctor.  I then did a C: drive to D: drive backup in 7 different parts.  I next ran Norton Speed Disk on the C: drive.  While doing all of this, I went through part of www.geocities.com/mikelscott/scotwork.htm on the Dell backup computer.  CIO

Note: <888> 02/01/04  Sunday 6:40 A.M.:  I was up at 5 A.M., and I had breakfast of oatmeal, toast with strawberry jam, orange juice, vitamins, supplements, and coffee.  I opened up one of the packages of 10 CD jewel cases and two were broken, so I threw them away.  I put the other eight on the wicker rack to the right of my primary computer.  I noticed yesterday, when I was at Zyn stationary, they have lots of copies of the National Geographic with polar bears on it, which has the article on Greenwich, Connecticut in it.  I will read it in the library.  I will now run the computer maintenance utilities, and then do a C: drive to D: drive backup, and then run Norton Speed Disk.  This should take about three hours.  I can watch a little bit of television while doing it or use the Dell backup computer.  CIO