I’m Back - Welcome To My New ‘Bits ‘n Bytes’ Blog

The old saying “a change is as good as a rest” sure worked for me as a simple one day absence from blogland for the first time in 5 years has left me totally refreshed.  One trap I do not intend to fall into again is feeling that I have to blog every day.  I’ve come to the conclusion that not only is that just plain nuts but it’s counterproductive too.  Some days are just plain dull and I have nothing to say – so, on those days I’m going to say  “nothing”!

I took Carrie and Mason out for dinner before Poker on Wednesday

Mason still loves to pull on my beard

My new blog, Rick’s Bits ‘n Bytes, Pics and News, isn’t going to be drastically different from my old one other than I am going to severely limit talk about my daily routines like mowing the lawn or getting a haircut and other personal stuff that is not even interesting to me. Keep in mind that I’m not making any iron-clad rules here and I’ll no doubt wander off the beaten path once in a while. It may take a while for me to adjust to my own guidelines.

Pounding on the table at the restaurant – “where’s my pizza”?

By popular demand, followed up by threat of a revolt, from my friend John (RV Life on Wheels) our Little Man will definitely continue to be an important part of my blog including pics.  It was interesting and heart-warming to read all the comments left by readers on my previous post expressing the hope that somehow Mason wouldn’t be “left off my new blog”.  As for me perhaps quitting – “hey, no problemo, hasta la vista”!  I agree.  Mason rules!

This is Malware – DO NOT ‘Accept and Install’

Enough philosophizing – on with the show! A few days ago, Paulette called me upstairs to check out the above pop-up that appeared on her computer screen asking her to install a new Video Player for her Chrome browser.  It looked official but I knew right away that this was just another malware scam designed to make money because this is not how Google updates Chrome.  Beware of this as this same pop-up appears on Firefox and IE.

If you do agree to ‘Accept and Install” this update you won’t be getting a new  Video Player.  Instead, you’ll download a malicious adware program that may install unwanted programs like toolbars (Sweet-Page Toolbar, AwesomeHP Toolbar), adware (EnhanceTronic, Feven 1.8, CouponBuddy) or other forms of malware. Always be very careful what you agree to install on your computer and if in doubt then simply exit and don’t do it.

I received many requests to leave my old blog available online….

I was surprised to read in comments and emails that so many readers were hoping I would leave Rick & Paulette’s RV Travels available online rather than sending it off into deep cyberspace. I want everyone to come to this new blog so I inserted a line of code in my old blog to auto-redirect everyone to this one.  I thought that was pretty clever as the majority of my blog traffic is generated from Google Searches.  But, fear not, I have another solution.

….So….I created a full Archive of Rick and Paulette’s RV Travels

Yesterday, I created another new blog named Archive of Rick and Paulette’s RV Travels. Next, I exported my original blog posts to my computer and then imported all of them into the Archive blog.  The link to Archive of Rick and Paulette’s RV Travels will remain on this blog’s sidebar for anyone wishing to go back and have a look for any particular post or photo.  Good deal, eh?

Syria, Iraq, Russia, North Korea, and nine other nations Sen. John McCain has been eager to bomb, invade, or destabilize. 

Sen. John McCain, not deterred by the deaths of thousands of American troops in gawd-forsaken Iraq and Afghanistan, now wants to add the jungles of Nigeria to the list of countries he wants the US to attack by saying about the kidnapped Nigerian school girls "If they knew where they were, I certainly would send in U.S. troops to rescue them, in a New York minute I would, without permission of the host country.”

Have these 2 Republicans gone completely mad?

Many young Americans, it seems, literally “dodged a bullet” when Barack Obama defeated Sen. McCain in the 2008 Presidential election. The world, I’m sure, also dodged a bullet with McCain’s loss as we were all spared the lunacy of  Sarah ‘the nitwit’ Palin becoming Vice-President.

Instead of riding off into the sunset and being known rightly as a war hero, McCain is in danger of being enshrined in the Hall of Shame with the artful draft-dodger and war monger supreme Dick Cheney. These two old men need to be moved to the Smithsonian Museum with all the other dinosaurs.