Bob and Debbie Conroy - Enjoying the Journey Together!

Student loans have become a hot political issue. That is too bad because the true solution to the issue will be delayed. There are a few simple principles in play here. First Issue: Supply and Demand. With the massive government subsidization of higher education, it is no wonder that college tuition is out of control. This subsidy has created an increasing demand curve against a relatively fixed supply so of course the cost of tuition has outstripped inflation for many years. Second Issue: Return on Investment. The conventional “wisdom” that “everyone should be able to get a college degree” has left us with millions of new graduates with thousands in debt because their schools misled them into thinking that getting a job with a unique degree would be an easy path to success. Third Issue: Caveat Emptor. Parents are not teaching their children fiscal responsibility! Their children are targeted by predatory financial institutions for credit cards and assume debts for material things b...

Debbie and I had a long delayed getaway weekend starting the day after Thanksgiving.  We went to Minneapolis and stayed at a nice hotel across the street from the Mall of America (MOA).  A recent story in the news reminded me that I wanted to share our MOA experiences.  Here is the excerpt from the news item: “Authorities arrested at least nine people after a “series of fights” at the nation’s biggest shopping mall sent chairs flying and caused after-Christmas shoppers to flee, officials in Minnesota said Tuesday….Witnesses described a chaotic scene.”  Reports stated that up to 200 were involved in the fighting. First of all, we did not go there to shop.   After all Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year and frankly there are no special shopping destinations anymore.  We live four blocks west of Jordan Creek Town Center in West Des Moines.  Within a few miles of our house, we have about one of every store and restaurant chain t (albeit ...

(…Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs / Of every head he’s had the pleasure to have known …) I was digging through some files stored on a file server at home.  After writing that last sentence it occurs to me that not everybody has an 8 terabyte Network Attached Server (NAS) at home. Today that seems like a lot of storage, in a few years not so much, and of course, the preferred storage method will be in the cloud. (…And all the people that come and go / Stop and say hello..) Anyway, I found bit and pieces of blog posts from 2005-2008. I cleaned up the formatting as well as I could and posted them by year.   I did not try to fix any hyperlinks.  Most of the links were to pictures on the old site that no longer exists.  The lack of links does not materially affect the context of the blogs – at least it did not for me. (…On the corner is a banker with a motorcar / The little children laugh at him behind his back / And the banker never wears a mac...

My mother, Merge Conroy, died October 20, 2011 in Phoenix, AZ. It was not an unexpected death and she had been preparing for it for several years. Merge transcended the sometimes stoic, and often painful, process of dying with a peaceful acceptance of the inevitable. Her powerful proof of personal courage was a final lesson and gracious gift to her children. Thanks Mom! Her passing was made easier for me by the company of my sister Deb and her husband Ray, my brother Dan and baby brother Bill. Deb and Ray spent many months in Arizona caring for Merge while we all were together most of the last five weeks. It was a special time that will always be fondly remembered and appreciated by us all. Dan, Bill and I also appreciate that our spouses, Bonnie, Toni and Debbie kept the home fires burning and a couple of businesses efficiently humming while we were away. Here is the obituary that was published in her hometown newspaper, The Daily Jeffersonian of Cambridge, OH.: ETHEL BASFORD CO...

I voted in the Iowa Straw Poll and have the blue ink on my index finger to prove it. It was not easy to be part of this event. I had to endure a three mile shuttle bus ride from the east side of Ames to the parking lot by Hilton Coliseum. Fortunately the bus was air conditioned or the ride would have been unbearable in the 70 degree heat. The wide cushioned seats were a nice touch too. Upon exiting the bus I was handed a $30 admission ticket, some leaflets and a t-shirt – all for free. After a short briefing I was free to visit the various venues set up by the candidates.  National media and international media were swarming the grounds so I played a game to get into the background of live camera shots.  (Hi Ma!) Then it took a bad turn. There was food everywhere! There was BBQ from Famous Dave’s, pizza from Godfathers and ice cream from Dairy Queen just to name a few of the options. Did I mention it was all free? How could I stay on my diet with so much free food availab...

I went to the Iowa State Fair today along with 104,621 other paid attendees plus fair workers and vendors. Between sightings of four presidential candidates I kept running into people I know.  I got to thinking I could pass for a native Iowan as well as I have the layout of the fairgrounds memorized.  When the National Weather Service reports Iowa counties under the threat of severe weather I no longer need a map to know where they are located.  I am going to The Iowa Straw Poll tomorrow in Ames. I have become an Iowan. I was born in Ravena, Ohio in 1953 and moved into 1980 Hanover St, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio before my first birthday. In 1963 we moved to Villa Park, Illinois followed by a move to Oak Park, Michigan in 1964. 1965 had a move to Mount Clemens MI, 1966 on to Royal Oak, MI and in 1967 to Beverly Hills, MI and then on to a second house in Beverly Hills in 1969. My last move during high school was to Hazel Park, MI in 1971. My first house on my own was also in Ha...

“Cloud computing” or “in the cloud” are phrases that I read almost every day now that many major technology companies have embraced this as their business model.  On the surface the concept is simple: all applications and data are hosted in secure data centers and user access is over a broadband Internet connection. When I hear about clouds I think about something I have first noticed decades ago: that most people already live in a cloud.  They go through the motions of living but it appears as if outside forces are pulling their strings. Commons symptoms include: following the crowd, keeping up with Joneses, believing that reality TV is real, lacking any substantial interest in current news unless it involves a celebrity, and a general lack of curiosity about the world around us.  Picture in your mind a football field with thousands of people standing, sitting, and moving about the field through a low fog bank that is spreading over the field.  Now notice a hand...