Welcome to my web site where we kick off our tennis shoes (or perhaps an occasional "Python boot"), put on our favorite Jimmy Buffett CD and proceed to change our minds. In the theme of the Poet Laureate from Key West, we are sorta "Havana Daydreaming" our lives away.
It's that little bit of Walter Mitty in each of us that makes us interesting to ourselves and to others. Over the years we all develop many and varied interests that keep us looking forward to tomorrow, and each of my interests is usually shared my many thousands of others in my own country as well as from outside Texas. Since 1996, I have had web pages dedicated to my personal computer consulting business, music and whitewater canoeing interests, and have used those pages to share my love of these activities as well as war stories about events that have happened, especially on the rivers! And, I have used these pages to provide many links to other related sites where you, as well as myself, might also want to venture from time to time.
One of my favorite pasttimes is playing golf. It was 1975, at the age of 27, that I first played golf (I don't count all that miniature golf I played as a boy growing up in Oak Cliff). My best friend, Mike Evans, duped me into taking up the game because he needed somebody to beat, and for a couple years he beat me resoundingly - that has been rectified, and he seldom does that anymore, especially now that he is living in North Carolina where they don't have any real golf courses (just kidding, of course!)
Over the years I have aspired to be a professional golfer, but I got started too late to ever make it on the PGA tour. So, I changed my goal to making it on the Senior PGA tour. I almost shot par once! Last year, playing the blue tees at Stevens Park in Oak Cliff, I shot a 1-over-par 72, and just missed my first hole-in-one by less than 2 inches on the par 3 number 11 hole of 207 yards. I have hit some good shots with that 3-iron, but none as good as that one. If that gnat had not landed on my left elbow just as I started my forward swing I am certain I would have aced it!
Anyway, I have about given up on the idea of playing on the Senior tour. After all, look at all those old geezers who are about to be heading that way - Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite, Nick Faldo and Nick Price, just to name four who would be more competition than I ever cared to face when the money is on the table. So, I just play for the fun of it, and I do love the game. It is the greatest challenge I have ever faced in terms of controlling the outcome of my efforts. My golf life, like that of most amateurs, can best be summed up by a cartoon I saw in the Dallas Morning News many years ago.
In "The Wizard of Id", the King was a golfer. One day, he took his trusty knight, Rod, to the golf course to caddy for him. Standing on the first tee the King proudly proclaimed, "Rod, this new golf ball is guaranteed to add thirty yards to every drive." The second frame showed the King hitting the ball off the tee. The third frame showed the King and Rod walking in the woods looking for the ball.
The fourth frame showed Rod leaning out from behind a tree and saying, "Sire, this is thirty yards deeper than we have ever been before!" That about sums it up, except that my problems are not so much hitting into the woods as they are controlling the position of my second and third shots. Once I get to the green I waste no time and few strokes getting the ball in the hole.
You can click the Lemming golfer above to go directly to the PGA home page where you can find out everything you ever wanted to know about amateur and professional golf in the US and around the world. Get the latest scores on tournaments in progress as well as news about upcoming events in your area or on television.
Another of my favorite things to do is taking still and video photography. As a child I received a 620 "box" camera, and started taking pictures of Boy Scout and church outings and places we went as a family. In 1981, I got a little more serious, and acquired a Canon AE-1 and an AE-1 Program SLR bodies along with numerous lenses, a couple flashes, a motor drive for the Program and a power winder for the AE-1, and a few other accessories every photographer needs.
For several years I combined my love of flying with that of photography. For a time I shot videography and some still photography while hanging out the side of a Bell Jet Ranger. Now, hanging out the open door on a helicopter is scary enough, but looking at the ground through that viewfinder was something else altogether! I don't do that anymore! But, I did spend a lot of time at air shows shooting both static and aerobatic demonstrations, and if you want to see how badly I got hooked, then just look at the escalation in Eastman Kodak stock values since 1981!
Today, I almost always carry one of my cameras downriver with me when I go on camping trips in my canoe. Some of the most beautiful scenery on the planet is unreachable by most people because it can only be accessed from the river, which generally means by canoe, kayak, or raft. I use a Pelican case to carry all my gear because it is airtight and will float 55 pounds! It also protects from the rocks when I smash a boulder while running the white stuff.
Eventually, it is my intention to scan and add some of my photographs to these pages. For now, that remains a future update idea, as I have not had the time to browse all those photos for the ones I would want to use, and besides, those images take up a lot of hard drive space. It is getting time to invest in some CD recordable components and start saving those graphic images to disk rather than hard drive. With 100X CD-ROM drives already on the market reading big files is about to get a lot easier, and most photo development centers now offer the option of having your photos placed on a CD, as well as on print or slide formats.
Canoeing has been a love of mine since 1975, when I first met the Illinois River coming out of Lake Tenkiller, near Tallequah, Oklahoma. I paddled flatwater lakes and rivers intermittingly over the next 18 years, then about four years ago I got into serious paddling - running Class III whitewater in an open canoe! The thrill of actually staying upright after shooting a 4-foot drop into a facefull of river is much more fun, to me, than paddling those quiet streams. I guess it just comes from a love of living life on the edge, or something like that. I paddled the Illinois again in 1999, 2000 and 2001 (see photos of the Illinois River trips here.). In fact, I set a new personal record by paddling 768 miles in 2001, and hoped to break that record this year, but with low water that is unlikely to happen. I was shooting for at lest 1,000 miles.
For additional information regarding paddling and paddlesports, as well as camping please pay a visit to my canoeing port at Texas Whitewater . This page includes links to river gauges in Texas and several other states, and to paddling clubs and organizations that serve or cater to the paddling community. Please visit these sites and let them know how you found them. And, if you want information about paddling the Hill Country rivers of Texas then visit Hill Country Paddler for links and information regarding the canoe rentals, campgrounds, shuttle services and other businesses that serve those rivers in southcentral and southwest Texas. I have also created another web site to honor the memory of Frank Brown, the father of the Texas Water Safari. Click the banner below to go to Texas Water Safari - The Real Story of the Birth of the World's Toughest Boat Race.
Flying has been a love of mine since my first flight in control of an airplane in the summer of 1969. My uncle, who was my business partner in my rock 'n roll music enterprises, had to return to southeast Texas, then to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and I was going with him in his Cessna 182 Skylane with King Silver Crown avionics. My uncle had partied well into the previous night, and wanted to sleep, so he taught me how to follow an OMNI needle and DG, and turned me loose with instructions to wake him if I got into trouble. It was easier than driving a car, and I was hooked!
I soon got into flying upsidedown, and found it to be profoundly more fun than flying straight and level, except on landings, of course! In less than five years I went from flying a standard class aircraft to doing hammerheads, tail slides and death spirals. Flying is awesome. For the ultimate in flying information pay a visit to the masters at: NASA . These boys and girls know how to really fly! Any pilot worth his salt would give anything for the chance to experience space the way out Astronauts do everytime we launch a shuttle on another mission of critical importance for the future of the country and our world.
Some of my favorite aircraft have been owned by my uncle, and included his DeHavilland DH 125-700 Business Jet (in which I gained about 60 hours in right seat), Cessna P-337 Skymaster (the same plane that took the lives of my uncle my cousin), and his Mitsubishi MU 2-P turbo prop twin. I have also enjoyed many hours in a Citabria and a Decathalon, two really great aerobatic aircraft from those who love to fly upsidedown.
Music has always been an integral part of my life, and continues today to forever hold me in its sway. In the words of the Moody Blues, I am "in search of the lost chord". From Bach to Zappa, I love almost all music as long as it is performed well and is tastefully composed. And, I am equally enthralled by great jazz or classical or blues or folk or some very limited amount of country music as much as the rock 'n roll which shaped my early years and is directly responsible for what I am today. Yeah, it was the MUSIC that did it to me! That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Marc's Music Links describes my beginnings with music and musical performance, and has many links to sites, official and otherwise, of some of my favorite performers. That list would include Ry Cooder, Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, Jimmy Buffett, Dire Straits, and many others whom I revere as paragons in the world of musical performance and composition. Please stop in and then let me know if you have some links that I just absolutely must include. (HINT - please do not send links to punk, grunge, or other esoteric "styles". To me, REAL music tells a story, and if the song has words, then they should be coherent and narrative.
I was fortunate to have grown up in the 50's and 60's, when rock was young and restless, and the medium WAS the message. The Everly Brothers singing "Wake Up, Little Suzie", or the Drifters crooning out "Under the Boardwalk" brings back memories where the words and music were one, and equally important. I guess that is why opera never has been my favorite musical style - I can never figure out where these people are who sing to each other all the time, or who sing in those silly foreign languages, as if anybody really understands what they are singing, but then, maybe that is precisely the point! You can get there from HERE!(Marc's Music Links).
Computers are not only my profession, they are also my hobby. When not working on my computer I am usually "playing" on it. By day (and sometimes by night) I provide a full range of personal computer consultation services from designing and building new systems to modifying, upgrading and repairing existing systems, to software and operating systems support. I also provide Internet connection services and web page development, in addition to Microsoft and Novell network configurations and installations.
CobraGraphics will take you to my professional page where services are described in more detail. The page also includes links to many technical sites where I frequently go for latest information on hardware and technology advances or to download drivers for customers' printers, CD-ROM drives, tape backups, or other components which we are reinstalling and the customer has lost his driver diskettes. Most manufacturers' pages include e-mail links to technical support, sales support and general information sites where you can directly contact them about warranty issues, new product releases, or updated drivers for your existing hardware.
Some of the images used on this page, as well as my other pages, came from the sources whose links are in the table below. I would like to gratefully acknowledge my appreciation of their fine artistic talents, and express my gratitude for their having made these images available without charge. Please visit these sites for great images of all kinds when you are building your own personal web pages, and contact the web masters at these sights for information regarding commercial usage licensing of their work. |
| Andy's Art Attack | Clip Art Connection |
| Randy's Icon Bazaar | Icon Depot |
| Image 'O Rama | Trendy.Net Images |
© Copyright 1997-2004, Marc W. McCord dba CobraGraphics. All rights reserved. CobraGraphicsis the trademark of Marc W. McCord dba CobraGraphics. The textual, graphic, audio, and audio/visual material in this site is protected by United States copyright law and international treaties. You may not copy, distribute, or use these materials except for your personal, non-commercial use. Any trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All original photographs on this web site are the exclusive property of Marc W. McCord and may not be copied, duplicated, reproduced, distributed or used for any purpose except with prior written permission under penalty of US and International laws and treaties. |