Musing of a Proud Dad

Yesterday was a surreal experience as my wife and I dropped our 10 year old son off at a local college to attend classes. Walking around the school we had both graduated from some twenty years ago was rather odd.

We parked in a parking garage that wasn’t there when I had graduated, and walked him across campus to a building that wasn’t there when either of us had completed school. On the way we passed many mature trees that were planted about the time we had left.

We are both proud to have a son that has good enough academics to be part of the special classes that he was attending. So sporting a new cell phone and a sack lunch we left him to his first day at college.

He reported in as we had asked. Later he said he really enjoyed eating lunch at the benches near his second class. He was on time when we waited to pick him up. We invited him to go to the pool with us afterwards but he said, “No” because he had homework.

Our son has had a busy summer and hopefully will carry some good memories with him for a long time.

Glenrose Texas

During our road trip last month, we took the Texas back roads from Abilene to Waco. We went to Glenrose. Glenrose is a tiny town with a creek flowing through it and it has one of the most unique geological features in the world. In the bed of the creek, you can find dinosaur foot prints which is cool but what puts it over the top is that human footprints are also found in the same rock strata.

Yep, humans and dinos left their footprints together.

Photo from Creation Evidence MuseumIf you needed to see in order to believe that Darwinism and Evolution is BS then this out of the way place should be first on your list. Right down the road from the Dinosaur Valley State Park Dinosaur Valley State Park is the Creation Evidence Museum.
Creation Evidence Museum
Ken Ham is not the only guy with a Creation Museum. This one is smaller but has some neat stuff in it.

Some artifacts in the museum were reproductions of things I’ve seen in books before but some are the genuine article. Reproductions are clearly labeled as such. Typically they are castings.

Besides the human footprints intertwined with dino prints, I got to see the London Artifact. This is a fossilized steel hammer with wooden handle.

 

London Artifact photo from Creation Evidence Museum

The museum is the work of Carl E. Baugh. Baugh is credited with the first hyperbaric biosphere. He was there when
we visited but I had no idea who he was at the time. His paper Crystalline Canopy Theory (linked on the museum
website) is an improvement on the vapor canopy idea popularized by Whitcomb and Morris in their book Genesis
Flood (1961). Whitcomb and Morris posited the vapor canopy using the research from the International Geophysical
Year (July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958).
The Baugh paper is an interesting read and attempts to answer the question of what the pre-Flood world looked like.
Genesis makes it clear that prior to Noah it never rained so any explanation of this era must explain how plants were
watered. This circles back to the hyperbaric biosphere.
Some things at the museum I did not photograph due to their shape or lighting. Phone cameras are not great for low
light conditions. Here are the photos that I took.

 

Image of Stegosaurus

 

Inca Burial Stone

 

Inca Burial Stone 

 

Holes

This year has been a weird tapestry of non-sense perpetrated by the Just Us Brothers.
We are halfway thru 2015; two fronts still haunt their departure from CRA. First is the membership records and the other is the money.

Membership Records
After several email threads and lawyer letters, former Membership Secretary, George Park, finally sent a paper copy of a list to his replacement, Carl Brickey. The file was printed on security paper so it could not be scanned. Later three zipped files with the same information were sent to Brickey. The records that Park sent were heavily edited and frankly worthless.

Here are some examples of their dubious nature:

• Park claimed that his beloved Placer County Republican Assembly had four members. This list is a far cry from the 105 members he and his brother had been claiming earlier this year. He lost 101 members from his own club?

• Sacramento RA was showing 54 members on Park’s list even though they had reported something closer to 20 prior to the convention. All the bogus Igor Birman members were still on Park’s list for SRA. He should know which ones were inactive since he was the one that added them in the first place.

• Several active chapters were missing in their entirety. Most of these seemed to be in one of two categories. Either they were groups like Yuba-Sutter that were assumed would follow the Parks into CIR or groups that George didn’t like so he just unilaterally purged them from the CRA rolls.

No chapter bylaws, territorial maps, or historic data were given to Brickey. Park claimed this data loss was due to computer troubles in March. I guess this is why Park then deleted all the records stored online in April and then closed the Hightail account. Park also had originals of these documents—mostly in paper form. Termites maybe?

Don’t forget that a month after this supposed loss of records that George was able to provide his brother with membership lists, membership applications, and of course cancelled checks just so Aaron could publish the information on the Internet.

Misappropriated Money
Then there is the money that they have misappropriated. Just in the first six months of 2015, the Park Brothers have (by my count) taken over $34,000 from CRA and its chapters. The bulk of this is from the Placer Republican Assembly. In addition there is the CRA Business Round Table, CRA Convention and Placer RA PAC. They also had access to the funds of the Statewide CRA under John Briscoe for about two years. The seed money for their new organization—CIR—could very well have come from CRA funds. Fruit of the poisoned tree anyone?

As more information has come to light, we are slowly learning of some unreported Park campaign activities that may be of interest the FPPC.

Many want to light-up the Just Us Brothers like Roman Candles but Tom Hudson has been reluctant to do so. In the end, I think to protect the CRA that Hudson will have to bless some sort of legal action.

Other outside parties may jump into the litigation arena in their own good time. The Just Us Brothers present such a target rich environment that somebody will go after them eventually. They have calculated that the cost/benefit ratio of their malfeasance is not enough to pursue. They have risked much; including their insurance broker license.

There are times when men should “mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor” but to make such a pledge when you have no honor is pathologically stupid.

These guys are way over the cliff and those of us with signs reading, “GRAVITY” are just being laughed at…for now.

Just Us Brothers Unveil CIR

The Just Us Brothers have quietly rolled-out their long delayed Impact Republicans website. The website is weak on content and substance. In four months one would think they could have put something better together.

The home page proclaims, “Your Vote Counts! Join Us!” which is ironic because a member organization—such as their group claims to be—has no membership application or way to join on the website. You can only sign up for email updates. Also no Bylaws are available for viewing.

Several statements on the website are ironic when given the previous conduct of the founding members of this group.

Now
“The CIR is committed to recruiting Conservative Republican candidates for local office, training and equipping leaders, fundraising, and endorsing candidates for public office based on a different metric than other Republican groups have used in the past.”

Then
“Maybe what we are doing … will be ground-breaking. If you advertise here – it means an endorsement.” Previous statement by Aaron Park.

Current website
“Our senior officers are elected through a unique process, ensuring that the CIR remains in the hands of the activists.”

In their Bylaws, CIR has the following restrictions:
• In order to serve as President of the CIR, the candidate for this office must have been a member of the CIR for a minimum of 3 years.
• The Administrative Vice President must have been a member of the CIR for 2 years before becoming a candidate for this office.
• County Commissioners and Senate Directors must have been a member of CIR for 1 year before becoming a candidate for this office.

OK, so how does this square with this claim from the website? “Every CIR member will have a voice by being eligible to be a delegate to the CIR yearly convention.”

“you may not realize it – but once we get expelled, it is going to set off a mass exodus.” Aaron Park May 20, 2015

The reality is that CRA has added about ten chapters since the departure of the Just Us Brothers. No chapters have voted to leave CRA and follow the Boys to the Promised Land “free of the drama and the debating society”.

Also on their website, “The CIR will be presenting its credentials for consideration of a charter at the California Republican Party Convention in Anaheim in September.”

Chartering by CRP will require that CIR has chapters in ten counties with ten members each and an overall membership of at least 200. With no mass exodus from CRA and the limits imposed on being an officer, how do they get thru the review process of the California Republican Party. Per their Bylaws, CIR will need a year before new folks can lead at the bottom rungs for their Board. Lastly, why seek chartering by CRP at the same convention that they will vote to gut the social issues from the Party Platform? CIR is a little late to the dance.

Clearly CIR’s idea of leadership involves a chasm between the sheep and the shepherds that cannot be easily bridged.

Perot Museum

Ross Perot, T. Boone Pickens, and others from Texas have crafted a nice museum in downtown Dallas. The Perot Museum is five floors of exhibits plus the ground floor and a basement. Each floor has its own themes and it touches on history, geology, geography, animals, and electronics. The whole family spent a day there recently.
Perot Museum website

Attached are a few photos. My favorite were the dinosaur skeletons. My only gripe was the constant pushing of everything being millions of years ago.
Yeah, right.

Fossil on display

 

Triceratops skulls

 

 

Mammoth skeleton

 

 

Prescott AZ

Our first stop was in Prescott, Arizona to see some old friends. We went to All Saints Church that Sunday. I thought of the song by Larry Norman

“Country church, country people
With their eyes upon the Lord
Built a church with a steeple
As a place to hear His word”

Travel Fun

In June, our family went on a two week trek across the southwest. I plan to blog more about the trip later but there were three goofy things that I felt deserved mention on the blog.

Life is peculiar enough that you don’t need to make stuff up. Here’s a little proof of that.

Road Sign
On Interstate 40, just before you enter Kingman Arizona, is an exit that probably has a great backstory; I don’t know what it really is but you can’t help but speculate when you see the exit to Shinarump Road.

 

 

For those not so good with syllables it breaks down as “shine-a-rump road”.
I thought San Francisco was the leader in social decay but to see this sign welcoming you to John McCain’s backyard is weird. I guess what happens in Kingman stays in Kingman.

Window Sign
From New Mexico is this peculiar juxtaposition at the UFO Museum in Roswell.

 

The sign in the right-hand window is the last thing I expected to see in a place where “Aliens are among us” was regarded as true.

 

OK, I don’t know what Primitive Baptist is either but it does make you wonder.

McDonald’s Sign
This entry from rural Texas really grated on the nerves of my school teacher wife.

Decimals are placeholders or values or something important like that. Anyway, somebody missed the lesson.

 

Park Pandamonium

Many years ago, I saw an episode of the Tonight Show where Johnny Carson took the microphone into the audience to let them ask questions. This was rare for Carson to do. One man asked Johnny, “I know that you recently got a divorce. Can you recommend a good attorney?”
Carson responded, “No, but my ex-wife can.”

So far this week, we have been treated to two posts regarding lawyers on Aaron and George Park’s Right-On-Daily blog. CRA’s resident attorney was surprised when I rightly predicted that the letters he sent would be posted on Aaron’s blog. This seems to be their practice. Post the lawyer letters and then mock the senders for their weakness.

I was confident in my ability to rightly assess the Park brothers until yesterday. Two separate things happened that peeled back yet another layer to their behavior that I had failed to properly observe. The first was a scanned copy of a lawyer letter sent to Aaron Park last year. It arrived in my IN box yesterday. I don’t know where it came from but I know it is genuine. The second was an offhanded comment by the Sith Lord.

First the letter.
As northern California has swung more into the Democrat column, Aaron has turned his attention more to the south.  In 2014, Aaron became involved in the 55th Assembly race. This is a solidly Republican district. Aaron was hired by candidate Phillip Chen to help combat Ling Ling Chang. Ling Ling had better name recognition in the district. To counter Ling Ling, Steve Tye came into the race as a stalking horse candidate.  His presence in the race was at least in part to divert support from Ling Ling.

There is no active CRA chapter within this district so per the Bylaws; the endorsement vote was scheduled at the CRA endorsing convention held at Knott’s Berry farm. At the CRA Convention it looked like Ling Ling would win the endorsement until she was asked about abortion. She failed to give anything close to a CRA approved answer. As a result, many flipped to Phillip. Right before the vote, Aaron took to the podium to speak in support of Phillip Chen.

If you will recall, Phillip came up one vote short of endorsement on the second ballot. On the third ballot, I flipped from Ling Ling to Phillip and he was endorsed. As soon as Chen was pronounced as the winner of the endorsement, Aaron came over to me and said he owed me a lunch because I was the decisive vote. At that point I learned from Aaron that he was working for Phillip.

Part of “helping” Phillip was attacking Ling Ling on his blogs. In addition to Right-On-Daily, Aaron was also posting on OCPoliticsBlog.com; these posts resulted in a terse letter for Ling Ling’s attorney.

The post referenced in this letter was published on May 24, 2014. It contains an audio file that is supposed to be from Ling Ling and contains some colorful metaphors. The attorney letter was sent May 25, 2014 and then the original post was modified on May 26, 2014.

Aaron apparently lit-up Ling Ling in harsh terms. Here is the lawyer letter.

Update: Faster than an April data breach, Aaron deleted the Raging-Panda.wav audio file once he figured out that I was linking to the copy that he posted on his website on May 24, 2014. For now, the lawyer letter is still there. Oh and here is the audio file.

Here is the revised May 26, 2014 post.

Ling Ling then used the blog attacks in a mailer to which Park responded to on May 30, 2014.
Here is the May 30, 2014 post.

By June 16, 2014 all entries were scrubbed from his blog.

Sith Lord Comment
The Sith Lord said to me yesterday that he thought some of Aaron’s posts were missing. Just for fun I checked. What a shocker. As it turns out, Aaron is missing more parts than Bruce Jenner.

My only question was why?
The first thing that popped into my head was a lyric from an old Eagles song:

Did you do it for love?
Did you do it for money?
Did you do it for spite?
Did you think you had to, honey?
—The Long Run 1979

Either he is trying to do his version of Extreme Home Makeover: Blogger’s Edition or someone like Doug Ose finally found a barrister willing to crush him like a tiny insect.

Most posts are related to Igor Birman v Doug Ose but a few are related to CRA and previous legal fights with Karen England. We also know from his blog that he deleted one entry concerning Ron Givens.

Remember this quote from Aaron?

To that end – I can be retained at a quite reasonable rate or for “projects”. I assume you’re both familiar with my work (ask Doug Ose or Meg Whitman how effective it is)…

Why delete your manifesto?

Below is a partial List of deleted entries.
Some URLs are good and some are broken but might be found elsewhere on the Internet. Reading the titles will give you a feel for the subject matter.

01. doug-oses-contempt-for-republicans-started-before-1998
02. bs-campaign-claim-alert-1-vote-for-doug-ose-to-repeal-obamacare
03. doug-oses-contempt-for-republicans-part-2-bribery-per-diem
04. freedomworks-endorses-igor-birman
05. doug-ose-liberal-republican-avenger
06. the-ca-07-race
07. gun-owners-of-america-endorse-igor-birman
08. sacramento-bee-does-a-drive-by
09. bs-campaign-claim-alert-1-vote-for-doug-ose-to-repeal-obamacare
10. rumor-john-boehner-to-endorse-doug-ose-host-fundraiser
11. sacramento-bee-goes-on-rampage-against-placer-county-republican-party
12. team-ose-vs-team-mcclintock-round-two
13. the-tale-of-the-three-little-dougs
14. cra-wins-major-legal-victory
15. insider-info-on-the-dave-cox-seat-ca-sd-01-update-and-then-there-were-three
16. republican-activists-to-doug-ose-dont-run
17. doug-ose-the-grinch-that-stole-your-tax-cut
18. bs-alert-2-teamboehner-member-doug-ose-claims-he-opposes-budget-deal
19. teamboehner-doug-oses-legislative-achievements-tried-to-subsidize-the-solyndras-of-the-2000s
20. doug-oses-contempt-for-republicans-part-3-the-coup-detat
21. birman-bags-major-slavic-community-endorsement
22. its-reagans-birthday-today-and-ca07-candidate-doug-ose-is-no-reagan
23. madison-project-adopts-ca-07-on-behalf-of-igor-birman-with-massive-independent-expenditure
24. campaign-bs-alert-3-doug-ose-op-ed-in-elk-grove-citizen-exposes-the-real-doug-ose
25. candidate-doug-ose-social-engineer-before-it-was-in-style
26. candidate-doug-ose-the-un-republican
27. doug-ose-2-0-hits-a-major-technical-glitch
28. doug-ose-gets-a-taste-of-his-own-medicine
29. ask-doug-ose-if-he-opposes-the-abortion-mandate-in-obamacare
30. ask-doug-ose-if-he-supports-the-contraception-mandate-in-obamacare
31. millionaire-liberal-former-congressman-doug-oses-farm-welfare-payments
32. nothing-sums-up-the-ca07-race-better-than-this-ose-aligned-pac-attacks-ted-cruz
33. fraud-doctor-update-when-feeling-vulnerable-swing-wide-left
34. doug-oses-war-on-american-families
35. like-high-gas-prices-doug-ose-did-his-part
36. like-high-gas-prices-doug-ose-did-his-part
37. under-god-doug-ose-said-no-way
38. did-doug-ose-recruit-art-moore-ca04-ca07
39. wanna-have-lunch-with-doug-ose-250-and-a-3000-mile-plane-ride
40. there-is-a-reason-why-the-nra-gave-doug-ose-a-d
41. the-tale-of-two-campaigns-ose-twitter-spams-people-and-igor-gets-endorsed-by-rand-paul
42. will-ose-be-going-to-the-ritz-carlton-to-hang-out-with-the-union-backed-mainstreet-pac
43. doug-oses-vision-for-america-5-50-a-gallon-gas
44. look-at-all-the-dems-and-unions-funding-ose-founded-pac
45. from-the-floor-of-congress-doug-ose-pledges-undying-allegiance-to-the-epa
46. doug-oses-repeated-votes-to-make-gas-prices-skyrocket
47. nothing-sums-up-big-government-doug-better-the-tie-breaking-vote-to-increase-debt-limit
48. doug-oses-obsession-with-taxpayer-funded-abortion-overseas
49. doug-oses-support-for-sanctuary-cities
50. clone-andor-kill-attack-of-the-clones-doug-ose-style
51. mailer-bs-update-doug-ose-mailers-deceitful-and-misleading
52. 5-times-doug-ose-tried-to-derail-the-unborn-victims-of-violence-act
53. doug-ose-in-the-news-1998
54. doug-oses-extremist-views-tried-to-gut-partial-birth-abortion-ban
55. doug-ose-thou-shalt-not-cut-government-spending-ever
56. ex-congressman-doug-ose-busting-the-federal-piggy-bank-big-time
57. fraud-alert-sportsmen-for-doug-ose
58. doug-oses-greatest-hits-immigration-edition
59. ami-bera-likes-ruling-by-decree-bureaucrat

In the far right column of his blog is a list of months and number of entries. This is a comparison of now versus then. It shows a net change of 76 entries From December 2009 thru May 2014. Any changes within the same month would not be included in this total.

 

Yellow item on June 16, 2011 article on CRA legal victory was deleted

My Answer to a Fool

Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.
Proverbs 26: 5

The CRA Board meeting went as expected.

The Treasurer report was illuminating to some that haven’t been following the controversy. It took over an hour. The report covered many points already discussed on this blog.

The Investigative Committee presented their preliminary report. The only conclusive finding that they made was that there was indeed a data breach. The five individuals that had their financial data published on the Internet will be offered a one year subscription to LifeLock.

The “trial” of George and Aaron went well. They decided not to show-up and face their accusers. Instead they found yet another way to violate the Bylaws—more on that in a minute. Carl Brickey presented the case against Sharkey and Grima. I have known Brickey for 20 years and it was his best presentation ever. He covered all the necessary points. To paraphrase Churchill, “It was his finest hour.”

The Parks were overwhelmingly removed from the Board. They got only a handful of NO votes for removal. Even many that later voted against removing them from CRA voted for their removal or remained silent.

Next up was a motion to suspend them for 10 years. It was soundly defeated. Had either shown even a modicum of contrition, they might have been given this or a lighter sentence than they eventually got.

The next motion was to suspend them for life. This was the first time anyone on the Board, except one member (Aaron Park), had publically called for this punishment. The reasoning was simple; Aaron kept asking for it so in the end we were happy to oblige him. By my last count, since May third Aaron asked for a lifetime ban at least fifteen times on his blog.

Their sentence was poetic in a way. Only Karen England and Tim Lefever have ever been banned for life and their sentence was at the behest of the Just Us Brothers.

This completed Act II of the Park Family Tantrum

Act III
This is where we see when and if the litigation that they so richly deserve is meted out to Sharkey and Grima for trashing the CRA shire and a good portion of the Republican Party.

We begin first with the prelude to the final chapter. This was foreshadowed by more Bylaws violations. Lest you take my word for it, the new Bylaws violations were superbly documented by the perpetrators in an email sent far and wide on Saturday morning.

At the duly noticed meeting of the Board of Directors of the Placer County Republican Assembly this morning, the following actions were taken:

• Called to order at 8:32AM.

• Motion to refund all 2015 members their dues approved at 8:56AM on a 3-1 vote (Uhler, Park, Mendonsa – yes; Rowan – no).

• Motion to divide remaining operating account funds between three charities (Lighthouse Family Services Center, Acres of Hope and Courage Worldwide) approved at 8:57AM (unanimous).

• Motion to surrender the Charter of the Placer County Republican Assembly approved at 8:58AM on a 3-1 vote (Uhler, Park, Mendonsa – yes; Rowan – no).

• Meeting adjourned at 8:58AM.

Per the Bylaws, only a two thirds vote of the membership can vote to resign from CRA. So either Aaron has 96 fraudulent members in his club or these guys violated the Bylaws yet again.

Second, donating the money is not allowed. It must be surrendered to the State organization. The last figure that Sharkey and Grima bragged about was that Placer County RA had more than $25,000 in the bank.

ARTICLE V – TERMINATION OF CHARTER AND MEMBERSHIP

Section 5.06. Resignation. Any chartered Republican Assembly may resign from the CRA by submitting a written resignation. To be effective, a resignation must have been approved by two-thirds of the total membership of such Republican Assembly and shall be certified by its President and Secretary. Such resignation shall become effective only if accepted by the CRA Board of Directors at its next meeting.

Section 5.07. Surrender of Charter. Any chartered Republican Assembly that has ceased to be part of the CRA for any reason, or that is seeking to leave CRA, shall relinquish the name Republican Assembly, surrender its charter certificate to the Membership Secretary, and transfer all of its funds to the CRA Treasurer. The former chartered Republican Assembly shall not thereafter use the name, emblem or insignia of any Republican Assembly or the CRA in any manner.

Not satisfied in digging their own graves until they reach China or the Marianas Trench, Aaron put more nuggets out on the Internet today. Speaking of the CRA majority, “Meantime, the state officers that are part of the coup will be re-elected in perpetuity until the next purge and fight”. Blog Post

Hey Aaron, yet another admission against interest. Your group is the one that says no member can run for office for their first year of membership. Your Bylaws say that a person must be a member for two years to run for a Vice-President slot and three years to run for the “big chair”, el presidente. CRA has never had such rules. Lastly, CRA actually exists and is not a figment of a fertile imagination.

If you thought that the complaints against us were legitimate. Think again – the coup always was about removing us (and John Briscoe who people wrongly thought was our puppet) because they wanted to control CRA. Blog Post

No, Aaron you and your bro, are toxic people.

If you stay true to form, tomorrow you will publish the demand letter sent to you today by a CRA attorney and then mock the feeble attempts of the “Lynch Mob”. This is what you did with Karen England in 2011. This letter has more teeth than Karen’s so we will see if you back down or act as foolishly as I think you are capable of behaving.

Aaron, I’m tire of your stupid games. Let’s go for broke. I’m calling your bluff. Go ahead and publish the entire state membership list. Do it. Then you can unleash the lawyers waiting in the wings to pluck your financial carcass to the bone. The owner of your blog is listed as Park Family Insurance so put your business on the line too. Then after they get thru with you, the State Department of insurance can take a wack at your license.

Your friend—that incidentally you treat like crap—Tom Hudson, is trying to protect you from what you deserve. The least you should do is shut-up, comply with the demand letters, and let him try to help you.

Review: Lumia 640

Finally, I am off Verizon. My contract was up this week-end and I switched to Cricket Wireless. I got on the lowest tier plan from Cricket and now have more data and a lower bill. 2.5 GB for $35 per month.

I chose the Lumia 640 as my new phone. It was $129 plus sales tax and a $25 connection fee. My old phone was HTC 8X with 16 GB of on board memory. While the Lumia only has 8 GB, it has an SD Memory slot. I had already bought a 64 GB memory card from Amazon for $26. The SD Card was put in the phone as it was being set-up at Cricket.

I took the phone home and set it up. After I entered the credentials for my Microsoft Account, I was asked if I wanted to restore from the backup of the HTC phone or start with a clean install. I chose to restore from the backup. This took a while to run—again do this at home. As the backup began installing, my phone automatically switched to my home’s Wi-Fi. All my custom settings except Bluetooth seemed to be installed when finished. Also, all phone apps were downloaded; most without any user intervention needed. Only 4 MB of the data plan was used to setup the phone and close to 6 GB on the Wi-Fi.

Also during the process of setting up the phone, my new SD card was detected. When prompted, I said “Yes” to use the SD card. All music, photos, documents, etc. were automatically set to go to this card instead of using the remaining memory on the phone.

Only maps that were downloaded were stored on the phone memory. I could find no setting to move these to the SD card.

The phone screen is slightly larger than my HTC, but is seems much bigger. I set my HTC phone on top of the 640 just to compare the size. To me it seemed about 1/8” bigger around all four sides.

The phone has fewer physical buttons than the HTC, only Power and Volume. The traditional Widows Phone buttons of Back, Windows, and Search are now virtual buttons on the touch screen. So far, the Lumia is faster than the HCT in booting up and running apps. I have not put the camera thru its paces yet but hope to do that soon.

It’s a great experience. Oh, and the color is Cyan which is bright, happy blue.

Lumia 640 can be viewed here