What Christmas Is All About

Floyd Clark

Today's Shreveport Times has the obituary for Mr. Floyd Clark, the Father of classmate Amelia Clark Woods. Visitation is from 5:00 to 8:00 PM on 12/23/09. Services will be at 10:00AM on 12/24/09 at Centuries Memorial Funeral Home. Interment will follow in Centuries Memorial Park Cemetery.

Click on the title to this posting to go to the full obituary and Guest Book. Please keep Millie and her family in your prayers.

Thomas Edgar Brown

Shreveport Times
December 20, 2009

STONEWALL, LA - Funeral services for Mr. THOMAS EDGAR BROWN, 66, will be held at 9:30 a.m. Monday, December 21, 2009 at Rose-Neath Funeral Home Southside Drive. Officiating will be Rev. Frank Stringham. Interment will follow in Forest Park West Cemetery Shreveport, LA.

The family will receive friends from 2:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. Sunday, December 20, 2009 at the funeral home.
Thomas was born March 21, 1943 in Monroe, LA to Edgar and Doris Brown. He passed away December 17, 2009 in Stonewall, LA. He was a supervisor for Libbey Glass.

His parents precede him in death. Left to cherish his memory is his wife, Patricia Bowden Brown and brothers, James Brown and wife Rita and Randy Brown and wife Lani, and Bob Bowden and wife Kelly and daughters Stephanie, Katie and Holly.

Pallbearers will be Greg Auttonberry, Chris Brown, Ken Johnson, Joey Bamburg, John Ratcliff, and Randall Brown.

Thomas Edgar Brown

Today's Shreveport Times carries the obituary for classmate Thomas Brown. Services will be held at 9:30 AM Monday, December 21, 2009 at Rose-Neath Funeral Home Southside Drive. Interment will follow in Forest Park West Cemetery Shreveport, LA. The family will receive friends from 2:00-5:00 PM, Sunday, December 20, 2009 at the funeral home.

Access to the full obituary and Guest Book are available by clicking on the Title line of this posting. Please remember Tommy's family in your prayers.

Christmas Music

Need a little help viewing the videos on the web site Home page, or those here in the blog? Here's how to do it.

1. After the first video is finished thumbnail images of additional videos load at the bottom of the screen. Click on a thumbnail to play a video. A total of 15 videos are usually available, but don't be surprised if you see more. Click on the right arrow (>) or the left arrow (< ) to go to videos not showing on your screen.
   
   
2. If you want to see a different video before the video you are viewing has finished here's what you do. First, locate the slide bar at the bottom of the video that shows the time remaining on the video you are watching. Then, move your mouse pointer to the last icon to the far right of that slide bar. As your pointer moves over the last icon a small panel of icons directly above that icon will open. Move your mouse to the bottom icon in that panel and click on it. When you do that the thumbnails will reload. An arrow to the right (>) of the thumbnails will load more thumbnails for you. If you want to go back you can use the (<) arrow on the left side of the thumbnails.
   
   
3. When you clicked on the icon to reload the videos mentioned above in step 2, a You Tube Search box loaded at the top of the video screen. You can use that Search Box to find more Christmas music by your favorite artist. Give it a try if you wish.

Jerry Lee Parks

Thanks to Helen Lindsay Rigg for noticing the obituary in today's Shreveport Times for Jerry Lee Parks, husband of classmate Terry Dillard Parks.

Mr. Parks entered into rest on Tuesday, December 8, 2009, at the age of 70 after a sudden illness. Services will be held Sunday, December 13th at 2:30 PM at Centuries Memorial Funeral Home on Mansfield Road. Officiating will be Dr. Howard Hall. Interment will follow in Centuries Memorial Park. Visitation will be Saturday, December 12th between 5:00 - 6:00 PM at the funeral home.

The full obituary and Guest Book are available by clicking on the title to this posting. Please keep Terry and her family in your prayers.

Follow Your Dream

Did you know that what you are doing at this precise moment, using a computer, owes much to the ideas of a fellow named Charles Babbage? Mr. Babbage was born in England in the early 1800's and died there in 1871. He was a mathematician who theorized that a machine could automate many of the mathematical functions that were done manually in his day. He drew up the designs for such a machine, and even built a prototype, but was never able to obtain the funding needed to bring the project to completion. Concerning his machine, he remarked that "another age must be the judge."

In the 1980's a fellow in London came across Mr. Babbage's designs and spent about 20 years building a working model of the machine. And it worked exactly like Mr. Babbage thought it would. Because of his recognition that a machine could automate mathematical calculations, Mr. Babbage is today considered by many to be the father of modern computing.

This story has many interesting twists, turns, and nuances. You can read the entire story by clicking HERE. There is also a video available at the link that shows the machine being operated.

Death Of John Gough

Ricky Gough, son of John and Sue Scott Gough, posted the following info today on the web site they had used for posting updates on his Dad's condition.

I want to once again thank you all for your prayers for mother and dad over these past 4 months, and even longer. Dad went in perfect peace this morning with me and Bobby at his side.  Since he was taken to the hospice floor of the hospital, he was never alone for 1 minute. There was always someone from the family by his side 24 hours a day. My dad never did like being left alone in the hospital. He always said he just couldn’t take it. We made sure he wasn’t alone his last few days.

His breathing was shallow most of the night, and this morning he breathed out a breath and then did not breathe in again.  He simply slipped off to sleep and didn’t wake up. That is a great comfort to us all after all he’s been through. His breathing was not a struggle for him at the end, like it has been for several years now.

The arrangements for the visitation and funeral services are as follows:

Woodlawn Funeral Home and Cemetery
1101 Antoine Drive
Houston, TX 77055

Visitation - Friday December 11, 2009 from 6pm to 8pm.

Funeral Service – Saturday December 12, 2009 at 2pm with a graveside service to follow officiated by Cole Wilkins from Bear Creek Baptist Church.

Sue’s House – directions will be provided at the funeral service.

Celebration of Life - following the graveside service.

Cole has asked that those that wish to; please e-mail Lisa any written stories, memories, or tributes that you might have of dad through the years.  He would like to incorporate these memories into the service on Saturday. If you could e-mail them to Lisa at lsmuniz@comcast.net, she will combine them and forward them to Cole.

Thanks again for the support you have given my mom and dad, this is what it’s all about. Coming together and supporting one another in time of need. It’s was God has intended for us all along.

Signing off for the last time,
Ricky – from Houston

Addendum - 12-14-2009

I found John's obituary in the Houston Chronicle. If you wish to leave a note of condolences for his family you can access the obituary and Guest Book by clicking HERE.

Helen Lindsay Rigg

I received the following note from Helen expressing her Christmas greetings to everyone.

In this joyous season, I am blessed with a sweet husband  & loving children & grandchildren. We will have a GREAT grandchild early next year !!!!! Merry Christmas to you all......Helen Lindsay Rigg.

Wilma Roberta Beaird

Today's Shreveport Times has the obituary for Wilma Roberta Beaird, Mother of classmate Wilma Beaird Adams. Funeral services for Mrs. Beaird  will be at 11:30 AM, Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at Rose-Neath's Southside Chapel. Officiating will be Rev. McKee Williams. Interment will follow in Forest Park West Cemetery. Visitation with the family will be from 9:30 AM until service time at the funeral home.

The full obituary and the Guest Book are available by clicking on the Title line of this posting. Please keep Wilma and her family in your prayers.

John Gough

I received a short note from classmate Sue Scott Gough that her husband John was transferred to hospice care on 12/7/09. He has been hospitalized since August 2009. The family has chronicled John's efforts to get better at a special location on the web. If you want to visit the site click HERE. Please keep Sue and her family in your prayers at this difficult time.

Google Wave Week

Classmate Mickey Phillips and I have played around for the better part of this week trying to become familiar with using the Google Wave program. When we've both been online at the same time we've sent messages back and forth to each other in near real time.Its most interesting to watch the person with whom you are "waving" start typing a response to a message that you are just about to complete. But it works just fine that way. When we weren't online at the same time any messages would be waiting for us when we next opened Google Wave. No need to download them. They are available at almost the instant they are prepared. But if a mistake is noticed, or an additional point needs to be made, just open the message for editing and make the correction or add the additional info.

Google Wave is a very versatile way for folks to stay in touch with others. Based on the things Mickey and I have done this week I'm confident that anyone who can email can use Google Wave for that purpose. In fact, I read that Google is considering integrating their email program and Google Wave sometime next year.

One of the things Mickey finds especially to his liking is the ability to add photos to a Wave and then view the photos inside Wave as a slide show, or as individual photos. Others who see the wave can view or download the photos easily. Mickey said that makes sharing photos a lot easier than putting a lot of photos in a zip file for emailing.

Using some of the more powerful capabilities of Google Wave takes more user effort than using it like email. But the best way to learn to do some of those other things is to give them a try. One of the promised features I'm interested in trying is posting articles directly from Google Wave to the Blog. I'll be interested to see how that feature works when its ready to use. The program has possible uses way beyond emailing and posting to the blog but I don't know enough about them at this time to pass along any details.

If anyone in the class gets, or already has, a Google Wave account do get in touch. I can add you to the Wave articles that Mickey and I have created. You can then read the articles, contribute to them if you wish, and hopefully profit from our mistakes. Laughing at us as we stumble along the way is also an option. <grin>

Google Dictionary

Goggle recently added a dictionary to their list of services available online. Go to it by clicking on the title of this posting. When it opens consider setting a favorite, or bookmark, or whatever your Internet browser calls the link to a web site you want to get to easily.

Google's Dictionary is a good example a trending shift to online software. I've had American Heritage Dictionary (AHD) software on my computer so long I can't even remember when I bought it. But now I can open the Google Dictionary, find what I want, and be through before I can load and open my AHD software. I'll probably still use the AHD software occasionally because it has some features Google doesn't. For example, it will pronounce words for me. I love that feature because I can't look at a new word and be sure I am saying it correctly.

And what about my printed version of the AHD? I still have that to but I quit using it when the print in it started shrinking about 20 years ago. The print is now so small my glasses and a magnifying glass hardly does any good. Hope that same problem doesn't happen to the online version.

Get Her Another Dog

Google Wave Testing

On October 3, 2009 I posted a video to the blog about Google Wave and what it is intended to do. Now anyone who wants to participate in testing the Google Wave program can request an invitation from Google to be part of the effort. If you are an experienced computer user you can probably do most of the things you will need to do to use the Wave software. However, other users may want to forgo participating in the testing effort.

If you are interested in being involved request an invitation by clicking HERE. There is no cost for the invitation.

The Good Stuff

During a recent Internet search I made for music players I heard a great song on the Goree, TX blog site. The song is sung by Kenny Chesney and is titled "The Good Stuff." The words to the song are special, and so is Chesney's singing. If you'd like to hear the song, click HERE. If The Good Stuff doesn't play first you can go to the bottom of the blog page and click on the song title to make it play. The other songs available on the Goree blog are also good. If you have the time listen to all of them as you explore Goree's well done blog site.

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Lyrics: The Good Stuff
------Kenny Chesney
Well me and my lady had our first big fight
So I drove around until I saw the neon lights
Of a corner bar.
It just seemed right, so I pulled up.
Not a soul around but the old barkeep
Down at the end lookin' half asleep.
And he walked up and said, "What'll it be?"
I said, "The good stuff."
He didn't reach around for the whiskey;
He didn't pour me a beer.
His blue eyes kinda went misty,
He said, "You can't find that here."
"'Cause it's the first long kiss on a second date.
Your Momma's all worried when you get home late
And droppin' the ring in the spaghetti plate,
'Cause your hands are shakin' so much.
And it's the way she looks with the rice in her hair.
Eating burnt suppers the whole first year,
And askin' for seconds to keep her from tearin' up.
Yeah, man, that's The Good Stuff."
He grabbed a carton of milk and poured a glass
And I smiled and said, "I'll have some of that."
We sat there and talked as an hour passed, like old friends.
I saw a black and white picture and HE caught my stare.
It was a pretty girl with bouffant hair.
He said, "That's my Bonnie,
Taken 'bout a year after we were wed."
He said, "Spent five years in the bottle,
When the cancer took her from me.
But I've been sober three years now,
'Cause the one thing stronger than the whiskey..."
"Was the sight of her holdin my baby girl.
The way she adored that string of pearls,
I gave her the day that our youngest boy, Earl,
Married his high school love.
And it's a new t-shirt saying, "I'm a Grandpa!"
Being right there as our time got small,
And holding her hand when the good Lord called her up.
Yeah, man, that's the good stuff."
He said, "When you get home, she'll start to cry.
When she says 'I'm sorry' say 'So am I'
And look into those eyes so deep in love,
And drink it up.
'Cause that's the good stuff.
That's the good stuff."

November 2009 Address Updates

There were two address related changes received from classmates during November 2009.

• David McRee provided his updated email address and confirmed his home address info.

• Thomas Casteel provided updated home address information for Loraine Durr Reazin.

The updated email address is shown in our Class Email Directory dated 12/01/2009.