Ryte
Bytes is the monthly
newsletter of the Commodore Users Group of Kansas City (CUGKC). This newsletter
will not appear on CUGKC's website before that month's scheduled CUGKC meeting. This is in deference to
actual CUGKC members. The Webmaster will strive to publish it no later than 10
days after that month's scheduled CUGKC meeting.
If you would like to join CUGKC, we would love
to have you!
by Jack Kincaid / jkinca1@cugkc.cjb.net
The first newsletter of 2008! I hope the December meeting was a success and there were a lot of people there! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
I have not talked to anyone about the meeting so I don’t know what went on. I know the Lacy’s did not go (Les was in the hospital), and I have not been able to get a hold of Ken. So I will leave it up to other people to fill in the details of the meeting.
Next meeting: January 10th at the Plaza Library at 6:30 pm.
No word from anyone on the over 300 Commodore items that I would like to get rid of. Phone me at 816.761.4777, or email me at jkinca1@cugkc.cjb.net.
Financial Report
Balance Nov. 2007 ................... $351.47
Income: Dec. 2007 ................... $ 0.00
Expenses: Dec. 2007 .................-$ 0.00
Closing Balance Dec. 2007 ........... $351.47
by Scott Heider / sheide1@cugkc.cjb.net
The Group meeting for December was held Thursday, December 13th at the Plaza Library. Eight members and guests attended. Kudos to the person who booked us into the Large Meeting Room. There was plenty of space for us to spread out and PAR-TAY! Thanks to everyone who brought food and drink. Also, thanks to Tom Moloney for bringing his C128D system and Christmas music/graphics disks for all to enjoy.
Elections for 2008 officers were held. Prior to the election, Ken Clayton withdrew his nomination for President, which meant that there was no contested office again this year. Anyway, the following folks were unanimously elected:
Congrats to all the 2008 officers, especially to the “new blood”: Mike and Lee. Our new Prez promised to submit a monthly article to Ryte Bytes. Hopefully he kept his promise. I’d like to hear what he has in mind for the CUGKC in 2008.
Finally, a reminder about the next Group meeting. It will be held at the usual place, the Plaza Library, on the usual day, Thursday, January 10th at 6:30pm. I anticipate further discussion about the potential CUGKC-AUGKC merger that I mentioned in last month’s article. See you at the meeting!
by Lenard Roach / lroach1@cugkc.cjb.net
Since Jack is on vacation this month, I thought I would try and fill in for him in my column.
Let’s see... what does he usually talk about? Oh yeah, the weather: Baby, it’s cold outside! Okay, that’s done.
What else? Oh, that’s right... political commentary. Well, I think that the Republican Party has screwed up big time, and they have no chance to win the White House in 2008. America is calling for change, and the Democrats are claiming to be the party of change. Therefore, I think that there will be a Democrat in the White House, but the question is, which Democrat? Okay, I’ll leave it at that.
What else? Oh, the last meeting and how it went: I wasn’t there, so I don’t know.
Okay, then there’s the next meeting announcement: It will be Thursday, January 10th at 6:30 pm in the Large Meeting Room of the Plaza branch of the Kansas City Public Library.
Finally, Jack mentions some of the stuff he has for sale: He’s got a lot of Commodore equipment in his garage that needs to go. Call him or email him about item, quantity, and prices. Sorry, I don’t have either his email or his phone number. Please check a back issue of Ryte Bytes or the club website for his contact information.
There! I think that should cover everything that Jack would say. I don’t know if he would exactly say that, but I might be close.
Now, on to my article. As you already know, I didn’t make it to the big CUGKC Christmas Blowout that is our yearly topper. The following story hopefully will give a full explanation.
Everything was set. The meat and cheese trays were chilling in the refrigerator; all of the Christmas disks were copied and ready for distribution; the CommVEx DVD was set aside along with other paraphernalia that I got from the show; and I made six demo copies of The Envelope Addressor 4.2. There were only ten hours left before the biggest CUGKC extravaganza of the year – the annual Christmas party – and I was ready. Nothing could possibly go wrong, right?
Wrong...
A familiar tone went off in my pocket as my cell phone rang at 9:30 on the morning of Thursday, December 13th. I pulled the phone out and looked at the caller ID to see who would be calling at such an early hour. It read, “Shell”.
Shell was my second job that I worked to earn extra money to pay the accumulation of bills and to get extra Christmas cash. “I wonder what they want?”, I thought to myself. I wasn’t supposed to report there until late Friday night.
I answered the phone. On the other end was (as I suspected) the manager of the Shell station where I worked. Before I could begin to exchange pleasantries, he quickly explained that the swing shift clerk has a close acquaintance of hers get shot early that morning, and she was taking him to the hospital. It was going to be an all-day event with doctors and police reports, so he was needing me to cover her shift – today – just this once.
My mind raced forward to the festivities of the coming evening at the Christmas meeting. Me, saying hello to everyone I haven’t seen in a year; me, handing out the Christmas disk that I compiled in April; us, laughing at me on the CommVEx DVD as I try to explain the various elements I brought to demonstrate at the convention while trying to hide my nervousness to both the crowd at the show and the camera. I couldn’t miss any of that, so I quickly gave him my answer without even thinking twice.
“Sure, I’ll be in.”
The manager thanked me, and I hung up. A hush fell on my being.
“What the (bleep) did I just do?” I asked aloud. Was I high on cannabis or something? Not only was I going from my 8 to 4 job right away to work 4 to 11 at Shell, I also threw away the best Commodore fun of the year! I had the food, the Christmas disks, the DVD, the TEA 4.2 beta disks, and the demos all lined up at the house ready to go, and I threw all that away to work eight hours at Shell? What was REALLY in my Mountain Dew glass? A mix of caffeine and STUPID? And to make matters worse, I had no way of contacting anyone at the CUGKC to let them know that my situation had changed, and I wasn’t going to be there now. This whole situation blew methane.
So the day wore on. I worked sixteen hours between two jobs and got home three hours after the big CUGKC meeting ended. I sent a collective email to all those of the CUGKC who were on my contact list briefly explaining what happened, but I got no responses. I don’t know how anyone received the news.
So that’s why I missed the Christmas meeting. That is why there was no Christmas disk from me. That is why there was no demo. And that is why there was no CommVEx DVD. Sorry.
So what am I going to do to rectify the situation? There is not much I can do about the food unless everyone wants me to mail them a cheese and salami on Ritz cracker that would be moldy and broken when it got to your home. I can’t make any copies of the DVD since it is copyrighted by the Fresno users. I can’t make copies of the demos I got from CommVEx since they are copyrighted by their respective owners.
But here’s what I can do: Either with this issue or in a separate mailing, I will be sending out to each CUGKC member on my mailing list a copy of the 2007 Christmas disk. On this disk will be both “Twisted Christmas” and “Twisted Christmas II” on a 5 ¼” disk.
As to the beta testing of TEA 4.2, I will make this program available to anyone who would like to be a part of the testing team by just letting me know with either a phone call to 913.299.9048 or an email to lroach1@cugkc.cjb.net. This goes out not only to the CUGKC, but also to other Commodore users who happen to get this article by either exchange or on our website. Hopefully in the meantime, I can work on making the documentation for this disk while I am waiting for responses to this offer.
You can ask my wife Alana... I DO retarded things once in awhile (well, probably more than once in awhile) that upsets the apple cart of plans clearly laid out. I only hope that when we make it to the 2008 Christmas meeting, I won’t be so apt to giving into work, and more apt to getting ready to have some fun with my Commodore crew.
The Commodore Users Group of Kansas City is a not-for-profit educational support group for persons using Commodore computers.
Membership benefits include a monthly newsletter as well as access to CUGKC's library of over 1000 public domain and shareware disks.
Dues are $15 the first year, $10 annually thereafter. Disks of the month and library disks cost $3 each for members.
Meetings are held on the second Thursday of every month at the Plaza branch of the Kansas City Public Library, located at 4801 Main Street in Kansas City, Missouri. Visitors are welcome to attend any meeting. For more information, contact any officer:
Email us at cugkc@cugkc.cjb.net or visit our web site at http://ballz.ababa.net/cugkc. Our snail-mail address is:
CUGKC
6025 Corona Avenue
Kansas City, Kansas 66102