My Favorite Tony Stewart Autograph

Anthony Fox

In 2012 my son and I went to Build-A-Bear and picked up a couple of new friends. The Fennec Fox is the smallest fox in the world and is easy to recognize by its very large ears. It was his ears that attracted me to this little guy at Build-A-Bear. At the time, the shop was donating part of the proceeds from the Fennec Fox to the World Wildlife Federation to help animals. So when it came time to give him a name, Anthony Fox just seemed like the perfect name in honor of my favorite NASCAR driver Tony “Smoke” Stewart.

Tony is a philanthropist who focuses on funding organizations serving children who are critically ill or physically disabled; animals at risk or endangers and drivers injured in the sport of motor racing through The Tony Stewart Foundation.

A few years earlier, a friend sent me a promo picture of Tony in a very dapper 3-piece suit. It’s one of my favorite Smoke pictures. And that picture inspired the attire for my new friend Anthony Fox.

Each year NASCAR comes to the Richmond International Raceway for a spring race. Last year in 2015, Tony was available for an autograph session at the shop. So of course I had to take Anthony to be signed. I asked Tony if he remembered the promo picture. He giggled and said yes. So I told him that picture inspired my ‘bear’ that we named “Anthony Fox”. Tony giggled and signed his vest “To Anthony Fox, Tony Stewart”. It is my MOST favorite Tony autograph ever!

Anthony Fox and 3-Time NASCAR Champion Tony Stewart

Today on Tony’s Facebook page, I shared my favorite autograph story and someone asked for a picture. You can’t post pictures to Smoke’s page, so I decided this was a good time to share our 1st meeting with Tony here in Richmond. It was exciting and Smoke was very nice too!

More About Tony, NASCAR and Racing

NASCAR & Racing ~ My Racing Musings (with more on Tony)

Next On The Ænigma Project – The Men In Black

May14

The Ænigma Project
Mondays 8 PM Eastern

The Ænigma Project – Mondays 8 PM EST

The Ænigma Project is a discussion group focused on the realm of the supernatural, paranormal and mysterious events that sometimes take place in our lives. Through multiple view points and experiences, we seek to enlighten our listeners and elucidate that which has become hidden beneath the many layers of misunderstanding and fear.

Join Paul Cagle and his co-hosts Sushi and Springwolf as we share our research, knowledge, insight and humor of the spiritual and paranormal. Be part of the Ænigmite Crew and play “Truth or Tale”, see if you can tell the stories that are real, from those that are made up. And find out what the latest strange or paranormal is being talked about for the week as we discuss the “News of the Day”.

Tune in tonight for our LIVE broadcast. The radio link on our ListenLIVE page will update for tonight’s show as soon as we go LIVE. You will see the Listen bar change and update for tonight’s scheduled topic. This is your queue to tune in, sit back and enjoy our discussion.

To get into the chat room, scroll down below the radio Listen Bar and you’ll find our new chat room. You can join in the chat to share your perspective on our topic or ask questions for the panel to contemplate and address. You can also sit outside the room and simply watch the discussion. No need to sign-in if you don’t want to. Our chat room regulars are always posting pictures, sharing some laughs and even having thoughtful discussions on their own.

Continue reading →

Happy Friday the 13th, 2016

May13

It’s A Lucky Day for Some

It’s another occurrence of the 13th falling on a Friday. And to Pagan’s that’s a good day!

Fear of Friday the 13th is known as triskaidekaphobes.

While the mainstream Western World runs in fear from Friday the 13th, many pagans should shed those made up connotations and revel in the day as one to be celebrated with joy and excitement. It’s a time to let go of the old that maybe holding you back and welcome in the new. It’s a day to honor the Divine (whatever that is to you) and connect with spirit for progress, and positive transformation. It’s a good day to create new ritual tools, such as carving a new wand, fashioning a new broom or even simply cleaning off your altar and re-organizing your supply closet.

Whither you’re Pagan or not, we would like to send out our wish for you to have a Wondrous and Happy Friday the 13th!

Learn more about Friday the 13th:

The History of Friday The 13th – A Good Day For Pagans
June 13th 2014 – Friday the 13th and the Full Moon – What’s In A Day?
How Rare Is “Full Moon Friday the 13th”? – June 13th 2014

By
2016

Next On The Ænigma Project: Ghost Brothers

May9

The Ænigma Project
Mondays 8 PM Eastern

The Ænigma Project – Mondays 8 PM EST

I mixed up my calendar days and posted next weeks topic (The Men In Black) for tonight’s show. Sorry for the confusion!

Continue reading →

Windows 10 Malware from Microsoft

May6

Microsoft Is At It Again

A few weeks ago I shared a method for getting rid of those annoying Windows 10 upgrade reminders that Microsoft installed on your pc, whither you wanted it or not.

Well it seems Microsoft has written a Malware program to get around that fix. Even if you’ve told them you don’t want Win10 and you’ve hidden the updates from future installs, they’re going to ignore that and reinstall the “Get Windows 10 app” (KB3035583) again. It’s more than annoying, it’s unethical and pisses a large number of people off. Including me.

Update:
After removing the Win10 updates when I found the BetaNews solution on April 24th, I discovered Microsoft had reinstalled the “Get Windows 10” app (KB3035583) on May 6th. Even when I said I didn’t want it. Once again I removed the app update and again told my system to hide it from future installs. Once again it was reinstalled on May 26th!! Once again I have removed the app and hid it from future updates. This is getting ridiculous! STOP IT Microsoft!

The method to uninstall the Win10 updates had been provided by BetaNews who shared a great step by step article to help you with this annoying issue.
See Remove unwanted Windows 10 upgrade files from Windows 7 and Windows 8.x

The original fix from BetaNews still works thankfully. It’s simply frustrating that you have to remove the app update over and over. Only one file is re-downloaded to your system KB3035583.

So find that and remove it as BetaNews suggests:
..for preventing the files being downloaded again,
go to Start > Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall or change a program.
Click View installed updates on the left.
Use the search box to locate the following updates:
– KB3035583, KB2952664, and KB3021917 (Windows 7) or
– KB3035583 and KB2976978 (Windows 8).
Right-click each one and select Uninstall.
When done,
go to System and security in the Control Panel,
select Windows Update > Check for updates.
Right-click each of the above updates in turn and select Hide update.

Weekly Observations For – May 7th

May4

Weekly Observations

What We Saw This Week

Some of my observations from around the social media networks. Comments I made, events I shared. Stories with some laughter and some concern. Some news stories that created annoyance with politics or moments of joy with a few good news stories too.

May 13th
Pat McCrory
May 12 at 6:23pm ·
The White House just announced that it won’t pull federal funding to North Carolina while we take them to court. Sometimes the only way to stop a bully is to stand your ground and stare them down.

May 13, 2016 2:27pm
If standing up for equal rights is being a bully, then I think the U.S. Government has the bigger balls. You however are a disgrace pandering to the ignorant few with taxpayer money that should be going to the education of NC’s future. Continue reading →

Weekly Observations For – April 23rd

Apr30

Weekly Observations

April 29th
My FB Post:
April 29 at 2:48pm ·
Folks, I appreciate the concern about my Migraine the other day. But the 42 messages telling me how to cure migraines was not helpful. Each of you made a couple of assumptions;
1. that I told you everything about my medical condition (I didn’t and never do on social media).
2. That my brand of migraine is like your brand of migraine or like the common variations of migraines. It’s not.
Normal migraines have 3 triggers,
1. Food which can include vitamin deficiency.
2. Stress
3. Weather.
These do not affect the type of migraines I get. I’m touched that so many of you want to help. But you can stop now. Continue reading →

Weekly Observations For – April 30th

Apr30

Weekly Observations

May 6th
NPR
May 6 at 9:06am
Boaty McBoatface will live on as the name of one of the high-tech sub-sea vehicles on the main ship.
– Boaty By Another Name: ‘Sir David Attenborough’ Is Chosen For British Research Ship

May 06, 2016 4:20pm
My son has been telling me about this for, well it has to be months! Cracks me up. But I think they should have stuck to the voted name and not vetoed the popular vote. I mean, what was the purpose of the submission/voting in the first place.

Boaty McBoatface will live on as the name of one of the high-tech sub-sea vehicles on the main ship. Continue reading →

Getting Rid of Windows 10 and Weird Directories

Apr24

Recovering Space & Running Your PC Faster

Everyone wants their PC to run as fast as it did when you first brought it home. But trying to maintain that clean processing power means you have to keep up with updates and maintenance on your machine. That can be time-consuming, but it can also be daunting for the novice user.

Well there’s help! So don’t give up. It’s easier than you think.

Removing Unwanted Windows 10 Files
Let’s start with Windows 10. Microsoft downloaded the upgrade to your system, whither you wanted it or not. That’s great if you want to upgrade. But if you’re happy with your current version of Windows, having Microsoft constantly ask you to upgrade is annoying. Those update files are also taking up a fair bit of space. But how can you get rid of all that? Continue reading →

NASCAR – Shortens Xfinity Series Race

Apr23

NASCAR Mobile App – Notice the 0/250 Laps

With No Explanation, Fans Lose 40 Laps

NASCAR Fans generally love racing at Richmond International Raceway in Virginia. It’s a short track, has a lot of action, drivers love the track and RIR really knows how to put on a good show!

The sanctioning body decided some changes were needed to improve the spring weekend of racing at this venue. So last year they announced the night races would be moved to the day time. The Xfinity Series race moved from Friday night to Saturday day. The Sprint Cup race moved from Saturday night, to Sunday day. A lot of people really liked that idea.

But then NASCAR decided that wasn’t enough and the 2016 ToyotaCare 250 happened going from a 250 lap race to 140 lap race. And that isn’t a good thing. Any time you decide to shorten a race, you’re taking action away from fans.

NASCAR decided to change the qualifying format for the Xfinity Series race starting at the spring Bristol race on April 16. The series would now qualify for starting positions in 2 heat races. Not many people were a fan of this idea, but ok, let’s give it a shot. Some folks believed the shortened Main race was better at Bristol than years past, and attributed that to the heat races. Others thought it was merely coincidence. After all, it’s Bristol. Continue reading →