Project 52

Project 52 is something new I started last week to force me to concentrate on creativity. Hopefully, useful things will come out of it. Of course, I hope I can keep it going with good stuff and I hope I don't run out of gas.

Here's the link: http://rcdanek.us/project52/

Google Voice is a an interesting, free offering from the Internet giant. You sign up, get a phone number (or use your existing one), and have some nice features available to you. I opted for a new number and was able to get one that includes CASEY01 in it. Neat. (Your mileage may vary.)

Well, one of the new features is that, if someone calls your number and leaves a voice message, Google will transcribe it into text. This way, you can hear the message on your voicemail and you can read the message as well. I get the text versions as a standard text message on my phone as well as an inbox text message on my personal Google Voice website inbox.

What so much fun is that the translation for spoken word to text is often inaccurate. There are many reasons for this. The cell phone originating the call may be garbled, the speaker may be bouncing around in a car or walking, making the speech pattern sound off. Who knows.

Here are some unrelated text translations from my friend, Dixon, who, so far, is the only one actually calling my new number.

Enjoy...


"Hi Dick, this is Dickson hobbled I was just heading over and i thought i'd let. Maybe I should of bats called yesterday and I got the message it sounds sort of like God show up withoutyour and I hope that's how you understood it. Anyway, I'm on my way over, but I realized that the then upset about not getting in touch. Anyway, I was. I'll see you when I see you.Thanks. Bye."


"Thank you. Hey, it's 6 and 2. I was thing, so I'm off. I put the web but I got lost in the day on chat and Shawn that, but I'll be free later in the air. 2. Hello."


"Hi Casey, this is Jason and that's when I get time the rafson it's 5:30 right now and I'm sure there are a Shah, I was just wondering what was works heading over or not, this is numberdidn't get to the subminimum. I will try your other number and see if I get that okay. Talk to you soon. Bye."


I still laugh to myself when I read these.

Google Voice is a good service. Someday, maybe, they'll get this translation thing working better. It's not entirely necessary because the audio version of the message is always available. But, if they can make straight messages sound this funny...I'm all for it never changing!!!

Between Weeks

Sunday morning, the Patriots are playing in their first playoff game at 1:00 PM. I have company coming (Camera Club) to review some images from our sister club in England. I guess it will be a busy day. I should get moving soon to do some cleaning and setup. If the club members arrive when the game is ending, I'll likely ignore them. There are priorities.

Patriots are expected to win, but anything can happen.

I did have a wonderful time last week visiting Art, Jeanne, and Steven in Merchantville. I was supposed to help Art with a video interview, but the dates got messed up and it didn't happen. We worked on some computer problems and secured/extended his home network. In fact, we found out that Steven, with his own computer, had been hooking into a neighbor's unsecured network accidentally.

While there, I got to visit the Martin Guitar Factory in Nazareth, PA. Wow! Now I want a Martin. Really. It's a good thing they're too expensive. Lessens the temptation. (I teased Lee about this and I think she really thought I was going to buy one.)

Who Am I, Really

I thought I'd start off 2010 with an explanation of my name, or names. Folks know me by different monikers and that can confuse some. So, here goes.

I was born and named after my grandfather. Kazimierz. I have a birth certificate somewhere attesting to that, although I can't read it because it's in German. (Well, I guess I can figure out the relevant parts.)

I grew up in Worcester in the Vernon Hill area. I was, up till about five, completely immersed in Polish. That was the language I understood. Then, I was released into the wild meeting English speaking kids and my transformation to Polish-English and English-Polish began. I think it took 20 minutes. Maybe less. I can't be sure. Seriously, I have no recollection of struggling with language back then. Kids just figure stuff out so magnificently at that age. (I envy that.)

But, the name think, well, that was a problem. Most kids got it by calling me Kaz. (Which, in today's day and age is a neat sounding name...back then, though.) The bad memory I have is walking down the street and having some kids yell out "Hey, Cashmere Bouquet". If you know what Casmere Bouquet is, and you're a boy, you just don't want anyone calling you that. So, I was always envious of my American friends who, Polish or not or whatever, had American sounding names (like Steve, or Paul, or Georgie, or Ray.)