Tag: Thoughts

Mind Games: A look at Lumosity.com

Improving the way we think by playing games.  Mind-training.  Why not… our brains are mental muscles that need exercise to strive.  When I came across an article about a company called Lumosity I thought I would give it a try (as have 35 million others) and over time its like going to the gym (you feel better)… so why not keep going.  Note:  The fifth area is Memory… not Attention twice.  Memory is my lowest score.

How smart can I be... I used a 1909 Remington Standard 10 to create this post.
How smart can I be… I used a 1909 Remington Standard 10 to create this post.

Burroughs gets me thinking….

Discovery often is just seeing something old in a new way.  Yesterday day I put into context the age of my Royal 5 (100 years) and the lightness of its key action.  Today I sit behind a 1930’s Burroughs and start to love it… just the way it is.  My perception has changed.

Each use of the 1931 Burroughs retrains my brain to appreciate its value.
Each use of the 1931 Burroughs retrains my brain to appreciate its value.

Thoughts when using a Generation 3000 typewriter.

We have come a long way from communication by smoke signal, drums, flashing mirrors, telegraph… and when I pick up my 2005 Generation 3000 Typewriter I want to laugh at how modern technology makes a lesser typewriter than it did 50 years ago.  Still… by calling it the Generation 3000 I look to the future and what can… could… will be.

In 50 years will I still be using this 2005 Typewriter?
In 50 years will I still be using this 2005 Typewriter?

Acts Not Words… Part II

Images are stored in different places than documents.  It is easier to get pictures of the 91st Engineers in World War II… than it is to obtain words regarding what they were doing.

I thought I had lost the “official picture” of when the Presidential Unit Citation was awarded (a year plus after the fact and long after most had moved on to other places).  But my scanner stopped scanning and while I was waiting for my computer to complete a check on why the scanner was not working… I found the picture.

Some things were just meant to be…

Thinking and being inspired by history while typing on a l956 Underwood.
Thinking and being inspired by history while typing on a l956 Underwood.

Acts not words…

By the time I came into this world… World War II had been over for eleven years.  By the time I was old enough to understand what my father had to say about his time in service he had stopped talking about those days.  Until his last weeks… then he spoke of the transport troop ships and how the confined space caused some to just leap overboard.  And about his desire to return home.

Being in a general service unit he came back with the ability to work every piece of heavy construction equipment you can imagine.  He knew how to build, paint, repair, and work with stone, electrical work… auto maintenance… which would seem obvious if you spent your time with the Corp of Engineers.  The thing is that the official records have been lost and this range and level of expertise was not expected of a “colored” general service unit.

So I have to go by his discharge papers… and the medals… and campaign pins to re-construct a possible history.  He arrived in the Pacific Theater 6 April (Australia), three campaign stars: 1) East Indies 2) Papua 3) New Guinea.  U.S. history books show the bulk of the 91st Engineers General Service going to Papua until December.  However, Australian history books show elements of the 91st in Papua on April 15, 1942.  The Presidential Unit Citation was for work done during the Papua campaign which indicates work being done on Hospitals, Ammo Storage Areas and Wharf/piers… which would indicate he was in Papua before the arrival of the main group… since I can find no other way to explain the high level recognition unless he was there early in the events at Papua instead of the tail end.

The 91st Engineers General Service... WWII. Typed on a 1975 Smith Corona.
The 91st Engineers General Service… WWII. Typed on a 1975 Smith Corona.