Category Archives: Personal

Inspiration

Arthur Conan Doyle: 19 things you didn’t know

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

Rachel Ward has written about Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle in the Telegraph.  I did know that one of his middle names was Ignatius, so I guess there were only 18 things I didn’t know about the knight.

From the article:

1. Doyle was one of the earliest motorists in Britain
He reportedly bought a car without ever having driven one before. In 1911, he took part in the Prince Henry Tour, an international road competition organised by Prince Henry of Prussia to pit British cars against German ones. Doyle paired up with his second wife, Jean, as one of the British driving teams.

2. Conan is not part of his surname
It is, in fact, only one of his two middle names. He is Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle. Shortly after he graduated from high school he began using Conan as part of his surname

In 1902, the writer was knighted by King Edward VII. He was also appointed a Deputy-Lieutenant of Surrey. However, he wasn’t knighted for having created Sherlock Holmes. He was made a knight for his work on a non-fiction pamphlet regarding the Boer War.

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General

Happy Birthday, Sherlock Holmes

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

On this date in 1854 Sherlock Holmes was born.

One of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous characters, Sherlock Holmes was a “London-based consulting detective whose abilities border on the fantastic.” Mr. Holmes was famous for his logic, reasoning, and forensic science skills.

All but four of the Sherlock Holmes stories were narrated by Dr. John Watson; of the four that weren’t, two were narrated by Holmes, and two were written in the third person.

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Inspiration

On this date, the 1,000,000th Ford rolled off the assembly line

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.”
– Henry Ford

This wasn’t a recent milestone.  On one of the 25 operating Ford assembly lines, sometime during the day, the one millionth Ford Model T rolled out of the factory and into the light in 1915.

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Goals, Success Stories

NaNoWriMo 2013: And now for something completely different.

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

For NaNoWriMo this year, I tried an experiment. Normally I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking coupled with Scrivener and LibreOffice.

This year, I used Notes, Scrivener, Dragon, and Siri on my iPad and iPhone. I dictated virtually the entire work, sometimes when I was sitting in traffic, or out hiking, sometimes at home, or just wherever (“wherever” includes waiting on annoyingly late dates to show up. I’ve decided that waiting for someone who doesn’t have the respect to show up within 15 minutes of the date isn’t worth waiting for.  No matter how big her boobies are).

My work schedule has been: get up early, dictate while I hike (watching out for coyotes – they’re out in force). Get back home, pick up my computer, head over to get coffee, and spend the hour there organizing everything I’d saved in Notes into Scrivener. Then organizing the Scrivener bits into something reasonably coherent.

I’ve been working roughly 4 hours a day on this project just to see if I’m more productive by using ‘gap time’ (the time between locations, assignments, waiting for the microwave to ding, drive-time, waiting for clients or dates, and down time throughout the rest of the workday).  It isn’t dedication, it’s a science experiment.

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Beagles, Big Bear Lake

Inland Empire: Donation made to outfit pets with microchips

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell
BeagleDogSan Bernardino County’s Devore and Big Bear animal shelters will provide 5,000 animals with microchips at no cost to families. The michrochips are part of a $36,079 donation from the Animals aRe First Fund, ARFF, a nonprofit organization that supports the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health, Animal Care and Control (ACC) Program. Microchips offer a safe method to identify an animal’s owner by using a unique identification number assigned to the implanted microchip. Through this service, the ACC Program can assist in the reunification of lost pets that may otherwise be impounded at animal shelters. The Big Bear Animal Shelter will use their share of the funding to provide thousands of animals with microchips at no cost to pets passing through the shelter. To support a homeless animal this holiday season, please visit ARFF’s website HERE.