Free Cell

Unfortunetly I have started playing Free Cell (solitare). Free Cell is, as far as I know, delivered as part of every Windows program. It is a very interesting game. It takes a lot of thinking ahead. It is unfortunet because I am spending too much time on the computer playing it. Even my wife is hooked on it. There is even a forum for Free Cell (there are probably more than this one) - [www.freecell.com]
I maintain a spread sheet of play's. Lets see how it comes across on this blog. The cell format did not come across very well. But, if you care, you can probably get the gist of it.


Tom's Free Cell Records - Statistics 11/25/05
Number of different games played 219 : % of total 0.68%
Number of Wins 119 : % of played 54.3%
Number of tries 426 : Average Tries per Game 1.9
:% wins/tries 27.9%
Average Tries per Game won 3.6
Games not won 100 : % of played 45.7%
Average tries per game not won 2.1
Wins 1st Try 72 : % vs/wins 60.5% : % vs games played 32.9%
Wins 2nd Try 28 : % vs/wins 23.5% : % vs games played 12.8%
Wins 3rd Try 9 : % vs/wins 7.6% : % vs games played 4.1%
Wins 4th Try 4 : % vs/wins 3.4% : % vs games played 1.8%
Wins 5 or greater Tries 6 : % vs/wins 5.0% : % vs games played 2.7%

Relaxing at Coonbottom 99

The NEW definiton of Indiana Time is nearing

Within the next month, or so, (Jan 06) the US Dept of Transportation will provide us all with the new definition of 'Indiana Time'. After this I will remove the Time comments from my blog. The article below is my input among the 6000 submissions to the DoT Indiana Time docket. You can check them out at http://dms.dot.gov then type the docket number in Simple Search and read the results to your hearts content.

=============

OST-2005-22114-1565 Comment(s) 11/07/2005 Tom Anspach TXT (2996 bytes)
PDF (36006 bytes)
1 Page

--------

Indiana and Time
Time, time, time, Indiana time. A year ago I wrote that the Governor should petition the USDoT to change Indiana’s time zone. I did not realize at the time that USDoT’s ‘charter’ was to base time zones strictly on the impact to Local Commerce.
("from DOT-156-05" Under the Uniform Time Act of 1966, the Secretary of Transportation is given the authority to set time-zone boundaries and requires that decisions be made based on the impact to local commerce.)
Commerce is not the only important thing that should be considered anymore. Maybe at the time USDoT was given the charter for Time Zones it was, but not anymore. Just read some of the horror stories of common, ordinary people living, working and schooling on community time zone boundaries. The involvement of the USDoT made the Indiana Time solution even more confusing. If we come anyway near the USDoT initial recommendation, Indiana time will be even more confusing, and laughable, than it is now.
The basic geographic Time Zone placement for Indiana is so simple that it is beyond me how the politicians can make it so complex. Indiana is a very fortunate state (compared for example to Kentucky and Tennessee) to be entirely and well within 1 geographic time zone. In this case the Central Time Zone. Not Eastern time, not split between communities, but Central Time everywhere in the State of Indiana.
At Time Zone borders there will always be difficulties. The best location for these ‘difficulties’, is at the political borders of States. The worst place for these ‘difficulties’ is to push them down to the borders between communities. With today’s electronic commerce, electronically controlled clocks, automatic DST/ST changes, computer networks, etc. commerce can readily adjust to Time Zone borders. . . . As long as they know where they are. And again, the best place for these Commerce boundaries is between States. Trying to satisfy some ‘figment’ of Commerce Hot spots by dividing communities by time zones boundaries is preposterous. The leadership for Indiana Time Zone(s) belongs at the State level, not at the coummunity level. It is a State ‘Commerce’ issue not a Community Commerce issue.
My solution: . . . . The State, Governor Daniels, should petition the USDoT, to let Indiana decide their own time zone boundaries for commerce purposes (to fulfill USDoT Commerce charter). The Time Zone options for the State to be in priority order: 1- Central Time Only, 2- Central Time or Eastern Time, 3- NOT restricted Eastern Time.
This will satisfy the USDoT charter to base their decsion on Commerce. In this case, Commerce of the State of Indiana. Then the State of Indiana should place Indiana totally in the Central Time Zone. And switch back and forth between DST/ST as the Governor has already done. The result everyone doing business with Indiana will know that Indiana is on Central Time. And the confusing, comical, term of ‘Indiana Time’ will fade into the past.

Capitalism

Comment sent to SBT Voice of the People and unpublished. (updated 11/24 - Comment was published in SBT VOP on 11/22/05)
----- Original Message -----
To: "vop"
Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2005 6:19 AM
Subject: Capitalism
We are Capitalists, we are not Communists, we are not Socialists. For example; the ability of the oil companies to make record profits during devastating national disasters and the sacrifices of war. Doesn't it make you feel proud? /IN Tom

History of 'Books I have read' List

The main purpose of putting my book list data base on my Blog was to be able to check it while, if needed, at the library. To, hopefully, prevent me from checking out a book I had already read. Unless, of course, I wanted to read it again. I will add another post with my 'books I want to read' list at some time. A little history of this list. As you can see this list was started in 1981. I have read all my life. I can still remember the first book I read- Tarzan of the Apes. I recall it being in 3rd grade or so. About 1970's I started thinking that I should keep a list of books I've read. It took me about 10 years to decide to do it. I started on paper. Decided to just write down sequence number, date, title, author, whether fiction or non fiction. Trying to write a review, or even to rate the story, would be too much effort. I wanted it to be quick and simple. After several years, and pages, I finally put it on the data base program on MSWorks. It is very easy to update and search. And make specific reports if needed. I describe it as like keeping a diary. It is very interesting to go back over it once in a while. There are 3 categories occurring in the review. Books that I cannot recall the plot at all, those that are vaguely recalled and those that are vividly recalled. Some I have decided to re-read. A couple years ago I added the comment section to write a sentence that, maybe, would help remind me of the plot. I also added a note as to whether it was an 'audio book'. To enter an audio book on my book list. I had some controversial thinking about whether this was valid. If an audio book, why not video (movies)? I decided that an audio book like a written book made you mentally visualize the story as opposed to a video (movie) which made the mental visualization for you. Therefor audio 'novels' entered, video 'novels' not entered. I encourage people who read to keep a simple log. Try it, you will like it. /IN Tom