The Captain

Adventures in Italian-ness / Italian Citizenship

Italian Citizenship: A Giant Leap

March 15, 2016September 19, 2019 - by The Captain

Well, I have managed to book an appointment with the Italian Consulate in Houston to present my claim to Italian citizenship. If you follow the way the Italian government handles these things, getting this appointment is itself no small feat. In fact, “word on the street,” so to speak, was that Houston was not even booking citizenship appointments. So I am pretty thrilled about this. I was thinking this was going to be the most …

Random Thoughts

Freedom of Speech and Donald Trump

March 15, 2016September 19, 2019 - by The Captain - 2 Comments.

I am no fan of Donald Trump. But the man has the right to express his opinion just as much as you do. So do the people who agree with him and support him.

If you disagree with Trump, fine. Organize a protest. Write letters to the editor. Post on social media. Speak out in public. You, too, have the right to express your opinion.

But charging the stage is not expressing your opinion. Picking …

Adventures in Italian-ness / Italian Citizenship

Plodding Toward Citizenship

March 4, 2016September 19, 2019 - by The Captain

Well, the process leading to recognition of my Italian citizenship continues to move forward. (See this post for some background information, if you don’t know what I’m talking about.) Last week I received a nice batch of documents (birth and marriage certificates) from the state of Delaware, which constitute a fairly decent percentage of all the documents I need. But I still need a few things from Pennsylvania, Texas, the federal government, and the town …

Random Thoughts

Mommom Said, “Eat Dirt!”

February 11, 2016September 20, 2019 - by The Captain

When I was growing up, we lived in the country, right next door to my grandparents. I remember one day when I was only about five or six years old, Mommom and I were in her back yard.

It was late in the afternoon, and we must have been the only two around, because we were preparing to have our own little cookout. I don’t know where everyone else might have gone, but for this …

The Super Bowl Commercial You WON’T See!

February 6, 2016September 20, 2019 - by The Captain

Here are a couple of videos. The first one is the Super Bowl commercial that you WON’T see. The second is probably a good explanation of why you won’t see it…

Funny Stuff / Random Thoughts

Playing Straight Man to a Phone

January 29, 2016April 21, 2020 - by The Captain

For the past few days, I have been “auditioning” virtual assistants for my phone (although what I really need is a new phone, but that’s another story…). Haven’t found any suitable yet. But I have found one which, while not quite up to snuff as a virtual assistant, is quite the conversationalist. Her name is Jeannie (you can find her at the Google Play Store), and this is the first time artificial intelligence has ever …

Random Thoughts

It Shouldn’t Be This Hard…..

January 25, 2016September 20, 2019 - by The Captain

Just to get it on the record here…. Setting up this blog has in a few ways been a real pain in the butt. And most of the pains have, I think, been because I am using the Blogger platform to do this.

To be honest, I prefer WordPress over Blogger as a blogging and site management tool. I’ve built a couple of extremely complicated sites in WordPress, including one that contained a full-fledged ecommerce …