Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is an exciting hobby with many opportunities. Talk to folks around town or around the world. You can also server your community by becoming a severe weather spotter or by providing communications during local special events such as the 500 parade and mini marathon, no Morse code required. Earning your technician class license is the first step to exploring all that ham radio has to offer.

The Mid-State Amateur Radio Club is offering a 1 day class on Saturday, February 11th, 2012 from 8a.m. to 4p.m. Testing will begin at 4pm. The class is free with lunch provided. Students are recommended to pre-purchase the ARRL Ham Radio License Manual and pre-register. This will be a condensed class and we recommend students study the material before the class. Books are available for purchase for $29.95 at www.arrl.org, testing is $15.00.

Location: Johnson County Emergency Management Agency
1000 Hospital Road, Franklin, IN
Basement conference room.

For more information Email secretary@midstatehams.org

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There’s just no way to sugar coat a blah grey day like this!

It almost feels dead. If it wasn’t for the spammers I wouldn’t have any commentors at all. I understand that the world has migrated to Facebook but there are so many blogs out there that do deserve some attention, maybe not mine but they are out there!

Broaden your horizons, go read a blog and leave a comment for the blogger who spent the time to open up their bandwidth to you.

I finally got a ebook reader, specifically a simple touch nook. I had resisted the whole eBook thing for the longest time. Partly from past experience with trying to read eBooks on a computer and mostly because I love the tactile feel of a book.

I got Becky a nook a while back but wasn’t all that impressed. I played with it over the past few months though trying to figure out specifically what I disliked about it. Navigation seemed to be its biggest downfall.

Enter the Barnes & Noble Simple Touch nook. Within seconds I had mastered the navigation, it was living up to its name. It has a slightly smaller form factor than the one I got Becky. I count this as a plus and a minus. Why you ask, well it slides into my back pocket with ease and noticed right away that it was imperceptible in there. Way too easy to forget about it and sit on it. Needless to say I removed it before that happened. The E-ink display is crisp and easy to read and it gives me easy access to the menu to change the font size when needed! Battery life, well I’m not sure what the average is but I know it has outlasted my android tablet by at least 3x.

In short, I love it, its awesome, if you’ve been holding out then now’s the time to make your move. I picked mine up at my least favorite retailer for less than a hundred dollars before tax. Do it, you won’t be sorry.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately, mostly about life the universe and everything. Not in a Douglas Adams way but a real and life shaping way.

I have tried to live my life with the attitude that Gods got this. Do what I’m supposed to do and trust God for the rest. This fly’s in the face of what the world wants you to think. The majority of people will tell you that is an outdated and naive way of thinking. For awhile I was able to just let the worlds opinion slide off my back. Somewhere along the line I forgot to ignore and instead fell in line with the rest of the world. Once you let that happen, then all hell breaks loose, literally!

Now here I am, at an odd cross road in my walk. I know which way I need to go, but need to find the strength to make that trek. Now that’s the hard part, finding the strength.

Thanksgiving is over and now comes the mad dash to Christmas, which I am totally not ready for. I’ve been thinking I might go through the girls closets and dig out the stuff they haven’t used in awhile and just wrap that stuff, they’d probably never notice.

We, and by we I mean Becky, have become obsessed with puzzles. I do enjoy helping but I don’t have the patience Becky has. After about ten minutes of staring at a bunch of pieces that all look the same I have to give up. I swear they all look the same to me. Ten piece puzzles are about my speed, 1,000 pieces, no thanks.

Watching Star Wars trilogy, I forgot just how bad Return Of The Jedi was till now.

So yeah, like I said on Facebook, we went out and bought a Kia Soul. Neither one of us really liked the car and I preferred to try to cram me and the girls in the truck rather than drive the Aveo.

I love the Soul, there’s tons of room and it gets great gas mileage. Plus, I can cram all my ham radio stuff in there and there’s still room to fit people! Which, by the way, the people in my life seem to appreciate that fact the most.

Driving it is a blast, literally. They put in a killer stereo system that will send most people running away. Which is the only part Becky doesn’t seem to like, go figure. I can plug in my iPod and jam to my hearts content, unless of course Becky’s in the car. I take it easy on her, for some reason she doesn’t like my heavy metal or rap metal taste!

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And in case you’re wondering, yes I did download the “Do What You Do” song from the Kia commercial, no hamster suit yet though!

Ever!