Random Thoughts

What?

2012-01-17T22:37:00.000-05:00

So blogging is becoming popular again? I've gone in spurts over many years. It seems to be gaining popularity among the crafters and the cooks. I dig through recipes when I have time. I have a few blogs drop into my inbox and I skim through them as I have time. I save recipes to SpringPad and when I'm feeling adventurous, I might try something new. I DVR Hungry Girl and try to watch them before they get overwritten. I have a 14 month old daughter. She keeps me pretty busy. Admittedly, I'm not the best at managing my time. It's mostly lack of motivation. When I come home from work, I'd rather just play with my daughter or do something mindless like watch TV or play Cityville on Facebook. My biggest wish right now is to be a stay at home mommy. I enjoy my time so much more with my little one when I don't have work hanging over my head. I don't mind cooking, cleaning, shopping, when I don't have 20+ hours worth of work to cram into the small amounts of time that I have when she naps or when I send her to the sitter. I love that she gets time with her aunt, but she won't nap there. It throws her schedule off and that throws my world out of whack. Funny how I used to say I hated schedules. But honestly, especially with a little one, they make life easier.

So, in a nutshell, that's what this blog is about... just ramblings of a multitasking geek mommy. Did I forget the geek part? That's not like me. Yeah, I can build a computer. Or at least I could a few years ago.... I'm not exactly on top of all the new technology. I can add a new hard drive or RAM to your laptop, and possibly get rid of a virus, but please don't ask me to do much more than that. I'm still a gadget girl. I love my ANDROID phone and I'm looking forward to a upgrade in a few months. If you're an iPhone, I respect your choice.... but if you're a Crackberry... puhleeze. LOL.

My Christmas Card 2011

2011-11-28T22:19:00.001-05:00

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

I need more...

2011-09-08T11:13:00.000-04:00

Time.... money..... chocolate..........There's never enough time to accomplish what I want to do. Admittedly, I could manage my time better, but I also lack the energy to do that. I have a new router that's been sitting in a box for over a week. The old one has been behaving so I haven't made the time to install the new one. I have a pile of work staring at me. That's nothing new. I generally have a pile on my desk. Then my mind wanders and I end up doing something like this... blogging. Though, I rarely blog anymore. I play Farmville and Cityville. The latter is a huge time suck. But, it's relaxing... kinda. Usually when I feel like working, the baby is awake and demanding attention. I'm not complaining. I love my daughter and ultimately, I wish I could scrap the pile of work and play with her all the time.Yeah, this post really has no point. I was thinking about talking about my desktop PC and the debate that I constantly have with myself about why I need one. I could virtually get by with a laptop dock. I like my big monitor, keyboard, mouse for work purposes. I have lots of hard drive space on the desktop and it's run to my TV. I can download and watch shows, etc. It can serve as a decent media center PC. I wish I had the resources to update it. Ya know... time, money.....

Quipsty

2011-07-15T15:53:00.002-04:00

Official Gmail Blog: 10 Gmail gadgets to try

2011-06-22T19:08:00.000-04:00

Official Gmail Blog: 10 Gmail gadgets to try: "Posted by Martin Gruau, Consumer Operations There is a powerful but little known Gmail feature that lives in Labs called “Add any gadget ..."

EVO app update problem

2011-04-26T09:50:00.000-04:00

I've been having trouble with some application updates for a while now. Sometimes, if I moved them to the phone storage then let it update, then move back to SD card, it would work... but that's a pain. Angry Birds Rio wouldn't install. Bejeweled wouldn't update, I uninstalled, then it wouldn't re-install. So, after some research, I guess there's a rogue file that needs to be killed off...

First, hook your phone to a computer with a usb cable - need to have your phone in "disk drive" mode. Open the new drive that will appear on your computer (which, of course, is actually your phone's sd card).

Next, locate the file folders named ".android_secure" (it should be near the top of the listings).

Click on and open up this ". android_secure " folder and look for a file named "smdl2tmp1.asec"

Delete it! Destroy it! Kick it out of your life! It's what is causing the problems!

Unplug your phone. Phone will say something like "preparing sd card." It could take a bit but after that you can update all the apps including those on your sd card and angry birds and download Rio hassle free.

As there a a whole bunch of threads on this issue, please pass the fix on.

Multiple Online Cloud Storage Services for Free and Organized Backup

2011-04-05T20:59:00.001-04:00

Use Multiple Online Cloud Storage Services for Free and Organized Backup

I've been using Dropbox for a while. I find it very useful. It doesn't give me enough space to backup everything, though. I added Sugarsync to backup my photos. It gives more space and I almost like the interface better. Looks like it'll automatically backup/sync my mobile photos. I've been wanting something to do that. Just hoping it doesn't kill my battery.

4/15/11 Edit: Sugarsync is pretty cool, but not something that "just works". It requires a lot of tweaking and digging. Dropbox is more reliable by far!

iTunes Unused Balance

2011-03-30T10:54:00.000-04:00

I received an email from iTunes reminding me that I have an unused balance. I used to have an iPhone and bought a few apps here and there. I turned in a large change jar to a Coinstar machine a couple years ago and used it towards iTunes credit. I have since switched to an Android phone which I like much better. I always hated iTunes even when I had an iPhone. I called iTunes when I switched to the Android to see if I could get my money out of this account. For the record, it's $40 and some change. They told me to call Coinstar. Yeah, that got me nowhere. I just set it aside and hadn't really thought of it much until I got this email reminding me. So, I emailed them hoping that there's something that I can do. I get an email back from someone named Arman (of course). He's no help. Can I at least transfer my balance to a friend who will get some use out of it? Nope. Can I use it to buy a gift card? Nope. So, I guess I'll (reluctantly) install iTunes on my desktop PC and buy some movies or something. Did I mention I HATE iTunes?

Bullying

2011-03-10T12:05:00.000-05:00

All this media about bullying kinda gets to me. I hope things improve for these kids. I really hope that my daughter never has to deal with bullying. I was teased like you wouldn't believe. I was always 'the fat kid'. I remember walking by a girl in middle school mumbling "heffer, heffer" under her breath, and a full bus of trailer park kids chanting "Mary Hanna lose some weight..." No kid should ever have to deal with that. Needless to say, my self esteem was not so great. Middle schoolers can be awful. The funniest thing to me is later in high school, some of these people actually grew up and became relatively nice. I'll never forget after returning from a competition event (my only extra curricular activity and it was through the tech center, not the high school), I walked over to my car and lit a cigarette. A group of these girls that had previously been absolute bitches to me invited me over to smoke with them. I had lost 50-60 pounds junior/senior year and was more confident and by that point couldn't care less what they thought. It was nice to not be the outsider anymore, though.

For what it's worth, the two girls I remember having the most problems with way back when are actually on my Facebook friends. That's why I've bit my tongue so many times when I see something posted about bullying. One of them has actually said that her kid is having trouble with bullys. No matter how horrible she was back then, I feel bad that her kid has to deal with anything like that. But, I can't help thinking that it's Karma working in some way. In no way was it just these two girls, they're just the two that stand out most in my memory. The second of these two found God and as far as I know, they both became decent human beings. It's not like I'm really holding a grudge, it's just not something that's easily forgotten.

Another part of this story is a class I was forced to take in 8th grade. "Skills for Adolescence"... Um yeah, that was the biggest effing joke. I think I got a 'C' (I was a straight 'A' student). We all had to take this class - I looked at it like group therapy. I was supposed to open up to a class of kids that were straight up evil to me? Um, I don't think so. We were asked what the one thing was that we'd change about ourselves. Well, obviously, I'd lose weight. I said I had big feet.

Old Posts

2011-03-10T11:40:00.000-05:00

I was looking back at some of my old posts. I've had this blog since 2005... it's been moved from blogger, wordpress, my own server, and I kinda can't remember where else. It's funny to read some of the old stuff I wrote, slightly sad that (most) pictures didn't make it when the blog moved. Some stuff is fragmented and makes no sense, but oh well. It's still fun to look back. A lot of my posts are about computers - kinda interesting to see where the technology in my life has gone in 5 or 6 years too. I wish my archives went back even further. I don't remember when my 'first' actual blog started. I had one back in the days of AOL, but no record of that... bummer.

Btw, I moved my domain forwarding so geminidreamz.com should land here now. And, I updated my twitterfeed so any new posts should tweet.

4 Months

2011-03-09T23:24:00.001-05:00

Click here to view these pictures larger

2011-03-09T09:15:00.001-05:00

So I guess I can blog via text message too.... cool.

Mobile post

2011-03-09T09:03:00.001-05:00

Just a test post from my phone to see how it comes out...

2011-03-07T15:48:00.001-05:00

I haven't blogged in a while. I may start again. I don't know. Just a thought. Just a place to record random stuff. Not that I expect anyone to read it. I've moved my blog so many times that the old posts are fragmented, missing pictures, etc. I just imported it from Wordpress (note to self: move domain forwarding to blogger)... hmmm.

Or not... maybe I'll stick with Wordpress... either way, it needs some updating and tweaking....

My hobby

2010-03-08T06:04:00.000-05:00

Lately I've had an overwhelming amount of computer jobs. I don't want to complain, because normally I enjoy doing it. It's better when I have time to tinker... I don't like rushing through anything. It's funny that it comes in spurts. I wont have any for months and then I'll get like 10 at a time. I have an IBM Thinkpad T20 that the power button doesn't always want to work. I've researched it and replaced the CMOS battery, reseated the memory and CPU. It's working better (I think) but still quirky. I don't think there's anything else I can do for this one. I've had a couple simple Windows re-installs. Those are the easiest. I don't call myself an expert on hardware. I'll mess with it, but no guarantees. I've got a Compaq that I dug into and seems like it's the motherboard. I don't have the time or patience to replace that... seems like much more work than it's worth. My favorite challenge is still the windows xp password. It seems like common sense if you want your computer fixed to either remove the password, or give it to the person fixing your computer. I always seem to have to call the owner for the password... or crack it. It's more fun to crack it.

You Might be a Redneck Geek if...

2009-09-08T17:01:00.000-04:00

Your e-mail address ends in ".over.yonder.com."
You connect to the World Wide Web via a "Down Home Page."
The bumper sticker on your truck says "My other computer is a notebook."
Your notebook has a sticker that says "Protected by Smith and Wesson."
You've ever doubled the value of your truck by installing a cellular phone.
Your baseball cap reads "Apple" instead of "CAT."
Your computer is worth more than all your trucks combined.
Your wife said "either she or the computer had to go", and you still don't miss her.
You've ever used a CD-ROM as a coaster to set your beer on.
You ever refer to your computer as "Ole Bessy."
Your screen saver is a bitmap image of your favorite truck, tractor, or farm animal.
You start all your e-mails with the words "Howdy y'all."

Random Thoughts - from an email fwd...

2009-08-25T04:45:00.000-04:00

Some random thoughts...

I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I cant wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?

Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase "Regards" again.

Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

There is a great need for sarcasm font.

Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the fuck was going on when I first saw it.

I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

The other night I hit a new low at an open bar. I had already hopped on highway blackout when, inevitably I had to find a bathroom. Eventually I decided it was probably on the other side of the bar so I tried to walk over there, but ran into a guy coming the other way. We played that, Both go left, Both go right game to no avail, so I finally put out my hand to guide myself past and thats is when I realized, yup, thats a mirror I just tried to walk through. And the guy on the other side is me. Even cats can recognize their own image.

How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

The only time I look forward to a red light is when Im trying to finish a text.

A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

Was learning cursive really necessary?

I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

My brother's Municipal League baseball team is named the Stepdads. Seeing as none of the guys on the team are actual stepdads, I inquired about the name. He explained, "Cuz we beat you, and you hate us." Classy, bro..

Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

I love the sense of camaraderie when a n entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"

What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

Bad decisions make good stories

Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just arent doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

"Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we werent watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damnit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...

As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

I think that if, years down the road when Im trying to have a kid, I find out that Im sterile, most of my disappointment will stem from the fact that I was not aware of my condition in college.

Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?

It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimate d that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. Theres nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.

Gemini Dates

2009-08-18T17:49:00.000-04:00

This has been a pet peeve all of my life. Get the effing dates right. I'm not a Taurus dammit. This is otherwise fairly accurate.

You Must Obey: The Unwritten Laws of Technology

2009-08-10T06:04:00.000-04:00

You Must Obey: The Unwritten Laws of Technology

Posted using ShareThis

changing gmail accounts

2009-08-05T18:24:00.000-04:00

Changing Gmail accounts is not something I recommend... to anyone. OMG, it's been such a pain. My labels are messed up, my filters are messed up... my AIM won't log in... I used a prog I found online called Gmail Backup. It basically worked - but I have over 7000 emails apparently and upwards of 50 filters and labels. I think I overworked it. I had to delete my labels and filters and I suppose that could use an update anyway. I would have never done this, but I just got divorced and changed my last name. My email happened to be my first and last name @gmail.com. Peachy. So, really that's the only circumstance I'd ever do this. I also had to move my Google Reader and Calendar and Picasa, and create a new Google Profile. I know there's even more that I haven't thought of yet....

Tweaking Gmail

2009-07-14T06:25:00.000-04:00

I had to get used to the new gmail "folders". I made that work (with the help of Greasemonkey). I'm still irritated that they're stuck on the left side. All that real-estate on the right is not being used. My chat is still on the right thankfully, but I wish I could at least move one of my Gadgets over there. I have had Twitter Gadget for quite some time. I just added a Yahoo Messenger gadget too. So, listen here Google, or Greasemonkey scripters at least, I want to move something to the right. Help!

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/five_fabulous_gmail_gadgets_you_wont_find_in_labs.php

Getting Connected

2009-07-10T06:28:00.000-04:00

The wordpress is connected to the twitterfeed which is connected to the twitter which is connected to the mybloglog, technorati, google reader, facebook... and so on. Everything is interconnected somehow or other, mostly anyway. Myspace really needs to release their API. I may forget what's all connected and sell something on eBay or post a video on YouTube and it'll alert everyone on all of my networks and that could be interesting... that's the only trouble with being fully connected. But, then again, that's why I use Selective Twitter on Facebook, etc., if you follow me on Twitter, you're going to see a lot more than you would with Facebook, etc.

New Blog Home

2009-07-10T05:01:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the new home for my blog.

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Cracking a Windows Password

2009-03-01T06:26:00.000-05:00

When most of the people in my life have a computer problem, they come to me, naturally. Not often does it include a hacking challenge. Not that I condone hacking into someone else's computer, but in this case it was necessary. Someone passed away unexpectedly and the family needed access to her computer. I had never cracked a Windows password. Bios, sure - just remove the battery. But Windows - hmmm. I knew there were some programs out there made for this, but didn't know how well any of them would work. Ophcrack seemed the best from what I read around the web. I downloaded & burned the live cd, set a password for my XP system and fired it up. In less than 2 minutes it had cracked my password. Hmm, lets set a longer password and try again... same result. Sweet!

iPhone wifi - after 2.2 Firmware upgrade

2008-11-26T09:41:00.000-05:00

I found that I couldn't connect to wifi after doing the 2.2 firmware update. I didn't have time to mess with it and honestly didn't pay much attention to it for a few days. But when I couldn't update my apps (had 8 that needed updates) over 3G, I figured it was time to do some Googling. I found an article that said "this probably won't work but..." and referred to resetting network settings, resetting the phone itself, etc. I figured before tackling anything more serious, I'd try resetting the network settings. Amazingly enough, it worked. I had to put my WEP key back in and I'll have to do the same next time I go to work and connect to their wifi (slight bummer), but no major deal.

iPhone case

2008-11-21T16:07:00.000-05:00

My iPhone seems to be allergic to this case. I liked the case a lot except the fact that it didn't have a hole for the camera. I was thinking of drilling one though. Too bad I found out it was causing problems. If it wasn't that, I don't know what it could be. I guess it interferes with the accelerometer (motion sensor). I took the case off and it didn't freeze for 24 hours. Then I went to take a picture of the case and email it to someone and it froze again. It really seems to be allergic to the case. It wasn't in the case when I was sending the pic - just near it. Weird.

It's "Griffin Elan Leather Snap-In iPhone Case with Belt Clip" and I bought it on eBay

The Latest in Technology by David Pogue

2008-11-17T10:08:00.000-05:00

This is one of the best articles I've seen in quite some time. Go to the site and read the comments as well.

Source: http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/tech-tips-for-the-basic-computer-user/?em

Pogue's Posts - The Latest in Technology by David Pogue

Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User

Last week, I wrote an entry on my blog that began like this:

“One of these days, I’m going to write a book called, ‘The Basics.’ It’s going to be a compendium of the essential tech bits that you just assume everyone knows–but you’re wrong.

“(I’ll never forget watching a book editor at a publishing house painstakingly drag across a word in a word processor to select it. After 10 minutes of this, I couldn’t stand it. ‘Why don’t you just double-click the word?’ She had no clue you could do that!)”

Many readers chimed in with other “basics” that they assumed every computer user knew–but soon discovered that what’s common knowledge isn’t the same as universal knowledge.

I’m sure the basics could fill a book, but here are a few to get you started. All of these are things that certain friends, family or coworkers, over the years, did *not* know. Clip, save and pass along to…well, you know who they are.

* You can double-click a word to highlight it in any document, e-mail or Web page.

* When you get an e-mail message from eBay or your bank, claiming that you have an account problem or a question from a buyer, it’s probably a “phishing scam” intended to trick you into typing your password. Don’t click the link in the message. If in doubt, go into your browser and type “www.ebay.com” (or whatever) manually.

* Nobody, but nobody, is going to give you half of $80 million to help them liberate the funds of a deceased millionaire…from Nigeria or anywhere else.

* You can hide all windows, revealing only what’s on the computer desktop, with one keystroke: hit the Windows key and “D” simultaneously in Windows, or press F11 on Macs (on recent Mac laptops, Command+F3; Command is the key with the cloverleaf logo). That’s great when you want examine or delete something you’ve just downloaded to the desktop, for example. Press the keystroke again to return to what you were doing.

* You can enlarge the text on any Web page. In Windows, press Ctrl and the plus or minus keys (for bigger or smaller fonts); on the Mac, it’s the Command key and plus or minus.

* You can also enlarge the entire Web page or document by pressing the Control key as you turn the wheel on top of your mouse. On the Mac, this enlarges the entire screen image.

* The number of megapixels does not determine a camera’s picture quality; that’s a marketing myth. The sensor size is far more important. (Use Google to find it. For example, search for “sensor size Nikon D90.”)

* On most cellphones, press the Send key to open up a list of recent calls. Instead of manually dialing, you can return a call by highlighting one of these calls and pressing Send again.

* When someone sends you some shocking e-mail and suggests that you pass it on, don’t. At least not until you’ve first confirmed its truth at snopes.com, the Internet’s authority on e-mailed myths. This includes get-rich schemes, Microsoft/AOL cash giveaways, and–especially lately–nutty scare-tactic messages about our Presidential candidates.

* You can tap the Space bar to scroll down on a Web page one screenful. Add the Shift key to scroll back up.

* When you’re filling in the boxes on a Web page (like City, State, Zip), you can press the Tab key to jump from box to box, rather than clicking. Add the Shift key to jump through the boxes backwards.

* You can adjust the size and position of any window on your computer. Drag the top strip to move it; drag the lower-right corner (Mac) or any edge (Windows) to resize it.

* Forcing the camera’s flash to go off prevents silhouetted, too-dark faces when you’re outdoors.

* When you’re searching for something on the Web using, say, Google, put quotes around phrases that must be searched together. For example, if you put quotes around “electric curtains,” Google won’t waste your time finding one set of Web pages containing the word “electric” and another set containing the word “curtains.”

* You can use Google to do math for you. Just type the equation, like 23*7+15/3=, and hit Enter.

* Oh, yeah: on the computer, * means “times” and / means “divided by.”

* If you can’t find some obvious command, like Delete in a photo program, try clicking using the right-side mouse button. (On the Mac, you can Control-click instead.)

* Google is also a units-of-measurement and currency converter. Type “teaspoons in 1.3 gallons,” for example, or “euros in 17 dollars.” Click Search to see the answer.

* You can open the Start menu by tapping the key with the Windows logo on it.

* You can switch from one open program to the next by pressing Alt+Tab (Windows) or Command-Tab (Mac).

* You generally can’t send someone more than a couple of full-size digital photos as an e-mail attachment; those files are too big, and they’ll bounce back to you. (Instead, use iPhoto or Picasa–photo-organizing programs that can automatically scale down photos in the process of e-mailing them.)

* Whatever technology you buy today will be obsolete soon, but you can avoid heartache by learning the cycles. New iPods come out every September. New digital cameras come out in February and October.

* Just putting something into the Trash or the Recycle Bin doesn’t actually delete it. You then have to *empty* the Trash or Recycle Bin. (Once a year, I hear about somebody whose hard drive is full, despite having practically no files. It’s because over the years, they’ve put 79 gigabytes’ worth of stuff in the Recycle Bin and never emptied it.)

* You don’t have to type “http://www” into your Web browser. Just type the remainder: “nytimes.com” or “dilbert.com,” for example. (In the Safari browser, you can even leave off the “.com” part.)

* On the iPhone, hit the Space bar twice at the end of a sentence. You get a period, a space, and a capitalized letter at the beginning of the next word.

* Come up with an automated backup system for your computer. There’s no misery quite like the sick feeling of having lost chunks of your life because you didn’t have a safety copy.

What are your favorite basics-that-you-thought-everyone-knew? Let us know in the comments for this column at nytimes.com/pogue!

Jumping through the hoops of AT&T

2008-10-29T14:55:00.000-04:00

We've been with AT&T Wireless for a few years now, and I've always said they've been great. About a month ago, I became eligible for a cellphone upgrade. I looked and looked and narrowed it down to three phones (two really). Knowing the iPhone has a restocking fee if I decide to return it, I chose to get a Blackberry Curve. I wasn't sure if I'd like it. I even told the salesman that I wasn't sure and he assured me that I had 30 days to return it if I didn't like it. Let's back up for a minute though...

We have a "Premier" account because my husband gets a military discount. I was told with Premier, I have to get my upgrades through Premier via their 800 number. I've since learned that's NOT TRUE. Then I was told by someone else that I could take my Blackberry back to an AT&T store and get my iPhone. Again, NOT TRUE. Had I wanted any other phone, I could've returned it at the AT&T store. Now, to get to this tidbit of knowledge, I've talked to no less than 6 people over the phone (getting different answers from each), including a supervisor and gone to 2 different AT&T stores (stores I was routed to by the morons on the phone). So with Blackberry in hand, I went to get an iPhone. Well, now the folks at Premier won't let me return it to the store (after being told I could by at least 2 of their poorly trained employees). I can't get my iPhone until I use THEIR label to return it to THEIR department which takes probably about a MONTH.

Where do I stand now? The tracking number on the label informs me that the package was delivered 2 days ago to the "returns processing center" (that part took a week and a half). When calling the Premier people, all they can say is that it hasn't been checked into my account yet and may take another couple weeks. I'm just glad I can still use my old phone in the meantime. Not to mention that everytime I call, I have to go through this whole story and some of them still think that I could've taken it back to a store. One really stupid lady today after all this "oh that's why I can't find it, the iPhone goes to..." Hey dumbass, I sent you a Blackberry. I want an iPhone which you can't send me. For some other RETARDED rule, I HAVE to get that in a store. WHAT?!?

What have I learned? That this company that is supposedly "up-to-date on technology" is completely backwards. Each department seems to have their own rules. Don't order anything over the phone or internet and think you can return it to a store (not if you want to replace it with an iPhone anyway). I should have gone to the store in the first place the old fashioned way (don't forget, I was told that I couldn't). The gal at the store tried to help (the 2nd store - dude at the first store was stupid too) - talked to the supervisor at Premier - didn't get anywhere though.

So at the end of the day. I like that AT&T has rollover and the people I call the most are on AT&T so it's free, and I get a signal when other people's drop out, so I'm not going anywhere. I guess they realize this so they think they can treat customers like crap and get away with it. They're sure doing a great job of it.

Internet Addict

2008-09-13T18:28:00.000-04:00

You Are 75% Addicted to the Internet

In your opinion, life without the internet is hardly worth living.
Could be, but you probably need a bit more fresh air and sunshine to think clearly.

Are You Addicted to the Internet?

Follow me...

2008-06-04T20:21:00.000-04:00

My blog: http://www.geminidreamz.com/wordpress

Myspace: http://myspace.com/lunargeek

My website: http://www.geminidreamz.com

Project Playlist

2008-05-29T08:21:00.000-04:00

I just love Project Playlist. I have my playlist embedded in my Myspace, Facebook, and now on my iGoogle and here...

Rules for Cats

2008-05-26T17:40:00.000-04:00

I. DOORS
Do not allow closed doors in any room. To get a door opened, stand on hind legs and scratch the frame. You may also reach under the door and pull clothing towards you; silks get the quickest reaction. Once door
is opened, it is not necessary to use it. After you have ordered an "outside" door opened, stand halfway in and out and think about
several things. This is particularly important during very cold weather, when it's raining or snowing, or during the height of the
mosquito season. Swinging doors must be avoided at all costs.
II. CHAIRS AND RUGS
If you have to urp, get to an overstuffed chair quickly. If you cannot manage this in time, get to an Oriental rug. If there are no Oriental rugs, shag is a good substitute. When urping on shag, be sure you project; it is a must that it stretch for as long as a human's bare foot.
III. BATHROOMS
Always accompany guests to the bathroom. (See Rule I) It is not necessary to do anything - just sit and stare.
IV. HELPING
If one of your humans is engaged in some semi-closed activity and the other is idle, stay with the busy one. This is called "helping";
humans are known to refer to it as hampering". The following are the rules for "helping": a) When supervising cooking, sit just behind the left heel of the cook. You cannot be seen and thereby stand a better chance of being stepped on and then picked up and comforted. b) For book readers, get in close under the chin, between eyes and book, unless you can lie across the book itself. c) For knitting projects or paperwork, lie on the work in the most appropriate manner so as to obscure as much of the work or at least the most important part. Pretend to doze, but every so often reach out and slap the pencil or knitting needles. The worker may try to distract you; ignore it. Remember, the aim is to hamper work. Embroidery and needlepoint projects make great hammocks in spite of what the humans may tell you. d) For people paying bills (monthly activity) or working on income taxes or Christmas cards (annual activity), keep in mind the aim - to help! First, sit on the paper being worked on. When dislodged, watch sadly from the side of the table. When activity proceeds nicely, roll around on the papers, scattering them to the best of your ability. After being removed for the second time, push pens, pencils, and erasers off the table, one at a time. e) When a human is holding the newspaper in front of him/her, be sure to jump on the back of the paper. They love to jump.
V. WALKING
As often as possible, dart quickly and as close as possible in front of the human. Especially effective places to strike are: 1) On stairs,
when they have something in their arms; 2) In the dark; and 3) When they first get up in the morning. This exercise helps with improving their coordination skills.
VI. BEDTIME
Always sleep on the human at night. If there are two (or more) of you, book end the human putting off the greatest heat. They will try and squirm but your sheer numbers and inert bodies will effectively keep them pinned.
VII. COMPUTERS
1: Only show interest in computers that are turned ON, the operator will need your help. 2: Monitors are bad for human eyes. It might ruin your owner's sight and cause them to buy less cat food. Always get in between the monitor and the person operating the computer. For best results, stands as close to the monitor as possible. If you are removed, go and sulk in a corner for a minute, then repeat. Look as innocent as possible. 3: Keyboards are great to lie down on. Make yourself as comfortable as possible. Marching over the keyboard several times is fun too. Practice aiming at alt-F4, N, and ctrl-alt-del. 4: Always chase the mouse. Your owner can't blame you for this, since it's your feline instinct to chase mice. 5: Floppy disk make great scratching posts. Nothing beats floppies when it's time to sharpen your nails.

Ethnic Food

2008-03-10T04:59:00.000-04:00

Ya know what's kinda funny? I'm Irish - almost completely, at least to my knowledge... but to me, there's almost nothing more disgusting than Irish food. There's not many meals that would gross me out more than corned beef and cabbage. Eww.

Camera

2008-02-19T08:16:00.000-05:00

I gots me a new camera! So far, I am really liking it.

Canon PowerShot SD850 IS 8.0 MP Digital Elph Camera with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom

Gingerbread

2007-12-26T05:37:00.000-05:00

I didn't want to build a gingerbread house. I had been dreading building this damn thing for as long as I've known about it. It was a competition between everyone in my husband's family. But anyway, here it is... I think we did pretty good. It took about a day and a half to do. This was a lot of friggin' gingerbread.

VSO Image Resizer

2007-12-07T15:23:00.000-05:00

One of the major annoyances of Vista is lacking a couple programs that I used religiously in XP. I have found a replacement for my image resizer powertoy though! It's free and works essentially the same as the XP powertoy.

http://www.vso-software.fr/products/image_resizer/

Christmas

2007-11-25T15:07:00.000-05:00

I'm not a big fan of the holidays. I'm extremely thankful to be closer with my family this year though. Anyway, I put up my Christmas tree. This is probably the 3rd or 4th time in the last 10 years that I've done so. I bought the silver & blue decorations a few years ago. I used them once before now.

Sex I.D. (do you think like a man or woman?)

2007-10-24T11:47:00.000-04:00

I apparently think like a man. I'm not surprised with these results.

Take the test yourself at http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sex/

The Citizen - Article about Michigan

2007-10-23T13:45:00.000-04:00

George Bush doesn't like Michigan People
by Don Rush (The Citizen - Sherman Publications)

September 12, 2007 - Recording artist Kanye West was wrong when he said something to the effect, "George Bush doesn't like black people."

George Bush doesn't like people of any color if they come from Michigan. It seems clear to me the future of Michigan (near term) is murky at best -- and we can thank, in part, United States President George W. Bush. As a lifelong Michiganian (We are not Michiganders -- that was a term thems in Ohio coined for us. History buffs will remember, as we were becoming a state, we wanted the Federal government to make our southern border down-round Toledo, Ohio. The Feds didn't give us that, instead we got what would become the Upper Peninsula. Since we squawked like geese, Ohiahooligans gave us the Michigander label. But, enough of history . . . ) I see a trend that is scary.

I guess I am squawking.

I'm just calling it like I see it, and I see this administration does not like Michigan. I don't know why. Maybe the prez, a graduate of the real, one and only Harvard, is whizzed off because the University of Michigan thinks of itself as the "Harvard of the West." Maybe he doesn't like fresh water, which we are surrounded by. Maybe he simply prefers gloves to mittens. Like I said, I don't know why. I do know every time this damn-depressioned state looks for a boost from "W", we get one in the form of a Texas-sized boot, applied directly to our posterior.

In August, Michigan (the most economically straped state in the US) applied for a Fire Management Assistance grant to help cover the costs of fighting the UP Sleeper Lake fire. Costs are estimated to be about $6 million. The state was turned down for the grant by FEMA on August 9th. Criteria for funding includes whether or not the fire was threatening lives, a large amount of personal property, and critical infrastructure. Apparently FEMA considered the Sleeper Lake fire to be a remote, wilderness fire that didn't meet these criteria.

When folks in charge of protecting the Great Lakes told the administration it needed $8 billion to protect and clean the world's largest surface freshwater system, $34 million was budgeted -- that was in 2003. For 2007, $70 million was budgeted, a mere drop in the proverbial bucket, when you consider 30 million Americans depend on the Great Lakes for fresh water.

This past year, when the president wanted to talk about fuel efficiency and "green" vehicles, who did he schedule his first press conference with? Foreign automakers, that's who. Weeks later, crumbs were throw this way and Bush lauded U.S. auto makers on their similar efforts.

Last month, the U.S. Health and Human Services opined in its quarterly newsletter, e-mailed to 67,000 Federal bureaucrats (with American-taxpayer funded wages), should buy eco-friendly vehicles. A noble cause, if left at that.

Unfortunately, the brainiacks under George Bush's leadership umbrella, listed 12 vehicles our workers should consider. Not one American car was listed -- Hondas, Nissans and Toyotas are the beltway favorites. Now, I know it is a free country and you can say what you want, but come on, shouldn't there be a little love shown to those who at least pay taxes here (read: American auto companies and Americans who work for the American auto companies).

You would hope a Federal employee would at least say, test and compare with our American brothers. You would hope this, when you consider Generous Motors has 23 models that get over 30 miles per gallon -- the most of any automaker. The 2008 Ford Escape hybrid gets 32 mpg.

Can you imagine a Japanese bureaucrat telling 67,000 other Japanese bureaucrats to buy American cars? Somebody's head would roll. There would be a nationally televised Hari Kari ritual. It wouldn't happen. And, it should not have happened here.

Our state is now the weak-link in the Union and we can't get any help from the Feds. Why? The way I see it, either George Bush doesn't like people from Michigan or he doesn't like the Canadian leading the people from Michigan. In either case, it ain't pretty here.

Which leads me to a joke I received.

Four doctors were golfing one day, discussing their countries' medical advancements.

The Japanese doctor said, "Medicine in my country is so advanced that we can take a kidney out of one man, put it in another and have him out looking for work in six weeks.

The German doctor said, "That is nothing. We can take a lung out of one person, put it in another and have him out looking for work in four weeks."

The British doctor said, "In my country medicine is so advanced that we can take half a heart out of one person, put it in another, and have them both out looking for work in two weeks."

The Canadian doctor, not to be outdone interjected, "You guys are way behind. We took a woman with no brains, sent her to Michigan where she became governor, and now half the state is out looking for work."

Another horoscope

2007-10-21T17:37:00.000-04:00

Today's horoscope is another one that makes sense to me. I start my other job tomorrow that I don't know if I want or not. Ugh. Why can't I figure out my damn life?

You may think that you know what needs to be done, but making it happen could be difficult. Don't blame anyone else if you feel frustrated. With Mercury retrograde, it's a good idea to think about a past action that has contributed to your current dilemma. It's hard to stay focused though, so don't struggle if you cannot put it all together yet.

Confusion

2007-09-25T07:10:00.000-04:00

Someone recently said to me

Confused is a good state of mind because a decision is about to be made.

I'm sure that's not word for word, but however it was said made a lot of sense to me.

Horoscopes

2007-09-13T07:21:00.000-04:00

I'm not a big horoscope reader, but I do have it on my iGoogle. It's funny how it's made a lot of sense lately.

Today: It's hard to find a pace that works best for you these days. Although you are doing better than you realize, you might think that you are moving either too fast or too slow. Concentrate on slowing down enough to sustain your forward movement without burning out and without running roughshod over anyone else. There are still challenges ahead, so conserve some mental energy for later.

This whole myspace world...

2007-09-05T16:47:00.000-04:00

If you know me, you know I haven't felt like I've had much family in a long time, especially since I lost my mom. I would call a couple people once in a while, but a 10 minute conversation 2 or 3 times a year doesn't exactly make me feel "included". My family tree isn't exactly um... pretty, and though it's not my fault, I'm the weird branch that makes it complicated. Anyway, to make a long story short, I've been hanging out with some of my family the last couple weekends and it's been nothing short of amazing.

Out of boredom today, I did some searching and found a coworker from my last job, my cousin down south, and a couple other relatives. Tom, I give you serious props for coming up with this whole Myspace world.

Ah Pikdid Me Sum Wahturmelonz

2007-08-17T15:17:00.000-04:00

Hubby and I have our first garden this year. It got quite over run with weeds and looks like hell right about now, but still, we've gotten some good stuff out of it. I picked my first watermelon tonight. It's yummy. Dan's gotten one tomato so far - the rest are just starting to turn red. We've got jalapeno's and chili peppers like crazy. The cantelopes are close. I think I'll probably pick one next week.

It's cool growing your own stuff. The watermelon is super-juicy and full of seeds like we used to eat before we all got so damn lazy.

wallpaper

2007-08-15T15:28:00.000-04:00

It had been quite a while since I did any serious wallpaper hunting. That's so 5 years ago, right? Trouble is now that I'm sporting a good sized laptop with a 17" widescreen at 1440x900 resolution, my collection of 1024x768 wallpapers is a bit obsolete. I have been surfing through InterfaceLIFT for a couple days now and have gotten started on a shiny new collection of widescreen wallpapers. It's definitely worth a look - wallpapers are available in widescreen and regular screen sizes.

Also, here's a useful article at Lifehacker:

Top 10 Free Desktop Wallpaper, Fonts and Icon Sources

How to case mod a beaver - in 29 easy steps!

2007-08-13T12:26:00.000-04:00

The CompuBeaver

Los Angeles-based conceptual artist Kasey McMahon packed a full PC into the body of a taxidermied beaver. "What better creature to house the busiest of machines--the machine that has sped up our lives and made us captive to a constant flow of information?" McMahon says. (Want to make your own? Check out McMahon's instructions.)

From PC World: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135092-page,6-c,desktoppcs/article.html

iGoogle

2007-07-26T05:29:00.000-04:00

Wanna see my iGoogle? I thought it would be cool to save a screenshot (ya know just in case). Not that this shows everything...
Header shrunk with a greasemonkey script. Beach theme (looks better in the evening).

Timing & Vista & Stuff

2007-07-24T14:12:00.000-04:00

Every once in a while life gets overwhelming. Sometimes I have several weekends in a row when I don't get to truly relax. I get frustrated and mentally exhausted. When my 'to do' list piles up with things I haven't found time for, it drives me crazy. I become grateful when I get an extra couple days to 'catch up'. That was the case this weekend. The circumstances are not the best - hubby having his seizures. However, it gave me some time to start reading the new Harry Potter book and catch up on other stuff. It's stressful in other ways, but all in all, it gave me the break I needed.

I am now using Vista on my laptop. I spent a good portion of yesterday customizing lappy. In some ways, I like it a lot. In some ways, it's irritating (the Mac vs. PC commercial where the PC keeps saying "continue" sums it up perfectly).

I had to completely rebuild my Firefox (kinda sucked). Restoring a profile from XP to XP is no biggie, but Vista puts it in different places (yea, places). I had gotten it to work kinda half-assed, but at that point, I decided I'd just rebuild it cuz I had bunches of add-ons I didn't need anyway... so kinda like spring cleaning.

Not Fair.

2007-07-20T12:10:00.000-04:00

The highly anticipated final book in the Harry Potter series comes out tonight at midnight. Yeah, technically, I could go brave the crowd at Meijer (or whereever) and be one of the first ones to get ahold of it. As exciting as that sounds, it would just be taunting myself. I would absolutely love to stay up all night and read it. But, that would make for a tough day tomorrow. I have to go to an all day birthday party for hubby's grandpa who is turning 80. Gawd, I wish it was one of the 'regular' events with the people we see all the time so I could just not go. Not just for the sake of the silly book, but because I could really use a day completely to myself. Between birthday parties, weddings, baby showers, family vacations, and whatever else, I'm just so drained. It always leads me to feeling sorry for myself. I love the inlaws. But, that's what they are is inlaws. I get depressed that I don't have my own family. And I am 28 years old and don't have kids and I have to wait until I'm 29 before I can even start trying again. I can't seem to get ahold of my half-sister. I talk to my aunt about twice a year. Those are two 'families' that I'm 'related' to. But let's face it, I'm not exactly a golden branch on anybody's family tree. If I were them, I probably wouldn't make any extra effort to talk to me either.

Sorry to the readers who say I only complain and bitch in my blog. Yeah, that's what I'm doing today. At least I didn't crosspost this one to Myspace.

Simpsonize Me

2007-07-19T07:17:00.000-04:00

Hey look, I'm a Simpson... (Simpsonize yourself at http://www.simpsonsmovie.com/main.html).

The Family Computer

2007-07-15T09:34:00.000-04:00

I was at a family event yesterday and was told that bro-in-law's computer is effed up (again). These things don't surprise me. I'm not sure when I'll have time to get over there and get it running again, however. They've been in their new house for nearly a year. They own two additional computers, which aren't hooked up yet (older, but usable). The idea when they got this newer one (which I built), was for it to be the 'adult's' computer. Um. Yeah.

Now, don't get me wrong here. I love kids. I especially love their kids. But ya think for a second that when I have kids they are going to touch "my" computer? Dun think so.

Kids + internet = coughing, gagging, spyware & adware laden needstobeblownouttwiceayear computer. Again, don't get me wrong. I think kids should be able to surf, experiment, and ultimately learn. Just for goodness sake, not on the 'adult's' computer (yeah, some adult's aren't much better).

If you don't have the option of a second computer, then here's some advice. Not that it will completely prevent the needstobeblownouttwiceayear syndrome. Do this anyway. Do it on ALL of your computers. Do it.

Get a decent virus scanner (I currently recommend avast free version).

Download, UPDATE, Immunize, & run Spybot Search & Destroy once a week.

Stupid Effing Fireworks

2007-06-30T19:10:00.000-04:00

I swear my dog is going to have a heart attack. It doesn't usually bother the cats, but they were so loud and close tonight that the cats freaked out too. Yeah, even Merlin. Lydia was the only one that didn't run and hide. Peanut is shaking so bad the whole damn couch is shaking.

Presidential Humor

2007-06-08T18:06:00.000-04:00

If you've seen lolcats, etc... you gotta see this...

"Even his staunchest supporters admit that George W. Bush is a President
prone to verbal blunders and awkward moments. "LOL President" is a
hilarious blog that does not limit its presidential lampooning to our
current leader, but is bi-partisan in its ribbing of past
Commanders-in-Chief including Nixon, LBJ, Taft, Teddy Roosevelt, Herbert
Hoover, Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and "Bush 41"."

http://lolpresident.com/

Michigan Man Charged for Using Free WiFi

2007-05-24T07:41:00.000-04:00

I guess if you're going to use a coffee shop hot spot, you better buy a cup of coffee. This seems a little harsh, don't ya think?

"Sam Peterson II was charged with unauthorized use of computer access for using a coffee shop's free WiFi. He is facing a 5 year felony charge and a $10,000 fine but apparently got off lucky and received only a $400 fine and 40 hours of community service because he was a first time offender. 'it seems few in the village of Sparta, Mich., were aware that using an unsecured Wi-Fi connection without the owner's permission--a practice known as piggybacking--was a felony. Each day around lunch time, Sam Peterson would drive to the Union Street Cafe, park his car and--without actually entering the coffee shop--check his e-mail and surf the Net. His ritual raised the suspicions of Police Chief Andrew Milanowski, who approached him and asked what he was doing. Peterson, probably not realizing that his actions constituted a crime, freely admitted what he was doing ... [the officer] didn't immediately cite or arrest Peterson, mostly because he wasn't certain a crime had been committed.'"

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/119049832/article.pl

So sad

2007-05-21T09:04:00.000-04:00

My algae eater died. On my birthday. So sad. I've had him for several years.

LOLCATS

2007-05-19T08:03:00.000-04:00

These are so fun... I've got to start taking more pics of my cats...
If you've got some time to blow, check out icanhascheezburger.com

A good night for idol...

2007-05-16T17:04:00.000-04:00

I'm pleasantly surprised. Next week will be a hell of a finale!

Dear Tech Support

2007-05-15T11:11:00.000-04:00

This one is old, but one of the best forwards out there...

--------------------------------------------------
Dear Tech Support:

Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0. I soon noticed
that the new program began unexpected child processing that took up a
lot of space and valuable resources.
In addition, Wife 1.0 installed itself into all other programs and now
monitors all other system activity. Applications such as Poker Night
10.3, Football 5.0 , Hunting and Fishing 7.5 , and Golfing 3.6.

I can ' t seem to keep Wife 1.0 in the background while attempting to
run my favorite applications. I ' m thinking about going back to
Girlfriend 7.0 , but the uninstall doesn ' t work on Wife 1.0 . Please
help!

Thanks,
Troubled User.....

______________________________

REPLY:
Dear Troubled User:
This is a very common problem that men complain about.Many people upgrade from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0, thinking that it
is just a Utilities and Entertainment program. Wife 1.0 is an
OPERATING SYSTEM and is designed by its Creator to run EVERYTHING !!!
It is also impossible to delete Wife 1.0 and to return to Girlfriend
7.0 It is impossible to uninstall, or purge the program files from the
system once installed.

You cannot go back to Girlfriend 7.0 because Wife 1.0 is designed to
not allow this. Look in your Wife 1.0 manual under
Warnings-Alimony/Child Support . I recommend that you keep Wife 1.0
and work on improving the situation. I suggest installing the
background application "Yes Dear" to alleviate software augmentation.

The best course of action is to enter the command C:\APOLOGIZE!
because ultimately you will have to give the APOLOGIZE command before
the system will return to normal anyway.

Wife 1.0 is a great program, but it tends to be very high maintenance.
Wife 1.0 comes with several support programs, such as Clean and Sweep
3.0 , Cook It 1.5 and Do Bills 4.2

However, be very careful how you use these programs. Improper use will
cause the system to launch the program Nag Nag 9.5 Once this happens,
the only way to improve the performance of Wife 1.0 is to purchase
additional software. I recommend Flowers 2.1 and Diamonds 5.0 !

WARNING!!! DO NOT, under any circumstances, install Secretary With
Short Skirt 3.3 This application is not supported byWife 1.0 and will
cause irreversible damage to the operating system!

Best of luck,

Tech Support

And all was right with Idol...

2007-05-03T06:01:00.000-04:00

.... for now.

Ok, I would've rather seen Lakisha go home than Phil, but if it had been that way, he would've went home next week. Just glad Jordin's bad Bon Jovi week didn't send her packing.

At this point, I think any of the top 4 could be a successful winner. Last year was just ridiculous with Taylor. I still can't imagine how he came to win.

It's official, Dell to ship Ubuntu loaded PCs this month

2007-05-02T10:21:00.000-04:00

Wow, a step forward in the mainstream pc market....

"Rumblings and rumors surrounding pre-installed Ubuntu on Dell machines have been flying over the last few days, and it looks like the rumors are true. According to Desktop-Linux, Dell will begin shipping systems with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed, and -- finally -- without Windows (or the cost of a Windows license).

Ubuntu senior support engineer Fabian Rodriguez wrote,
"Many people have been involved in this and I can only say I am excited
to be a tiny small part of it: Ubuntu will be officially supported on
Dell computers. Any other details will come on www.ubuntu.com, check it for the official press release, but we can now all put the matter to rest and go about our normal lives - or can we?"

Source: http://feeds.downloadsquad.com/~r/weblogsinc/downloadsquad/~3/113273816/

Desktop Calendar

2007-04-21T14:43:00.000-04:00

I just read an article on Lifehacker that is friggin' awesome. I love having a desktop calendar... I haven't had one since I switched to Google Calendar. As it turns out, I can sync my Google Calendar with Rainlendar which is a nice little desktop calendar.

http://gcaldaemon.sourceforge.net/usage2.html

Free Speech

2007-04-13T16:04:00.000-04:00

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death
your right to say it." -Voltaire

What the hell happened to that attitude? Take my previous post about the Dixie Chicks for example - they said something negative about the president and ended up having cd's burned and received death threats. Now, most people agree with them.

Don Imus just got fired after he called some female basketball players "nappy headed hoes". That to me translates to "ugly bitches" - how is that racial? And his title, "shock jock" - doesn't that mean he can pretty much say what he wants? How can someone be a shock jock and not be able to speak freely?

ha! what a geek

2007-04-09T15:25:00.000-04:00

This was super easy. I learned how to create my own gadget for my Google start page. I used it to put my Meez on my page. It can be used for anything... feel the power :-). LOL! Feelin' geeky tonight.

(Idol) Another favorite gone

2007-04-05T02:58:00.000-04:00

Jordin, Blake, ~~Gina~~, ~~Sundance~~

From People.com April 2- "Ryan Picks Jordin to Win Idol - Seacrest says Sparks could win because "she's a great singer and a pretty girl"".

Hope he's right.

From People.com April 5 - "The emotions spiked unexpectedly high because 24 hours earlier the
judges a) were clearly bored out of their gourds with Phil Stacey; b)
seemed more impressed by Haley's dress and legs than her actual
singing; c) were actually quite complimentary of Gina's subdued
performance. She really deserved to stay longer – and Phil should be
gone – but ultimately she never had a style that fit naturally on the
show: Did you ever buy her as an authentic rocker, even with the
pierced tongue? One sneer from Pat Benatar would have demolished her.
But singing those old standards took too much of a deliberate effort
from her. (That was Chris Daughtry's downfall last season.)
"

So sad that Phil, Haley, and Sanjaya are still there and Gina is gone. She should've stayed a few weeks longer.

LOL, don't use Hotmail to apply for a job...

2007-03-29T08:37:00.000-04:00

Ooh, I love this...

"Hotmail users deemed too dumb for employment at firm

A guy, who works in the department of a Human Resources consultancy
company, says they made a selection process in which, among other
things, they asked for a person with ample experience in using the
internet (navigation, searches, formats...).

They received 50 candidacies, from which 30 came from Hotmail-directions, all of them erased as they entered.

The reason: You can't pretend being an internet expert and use a Hotmail account at the same time.

Heh. Definitively no "internet expert" would use Hotmail as the default e-mail application."

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/104980649/hotmail_users_deemed.html
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The Top 10 Worst PC's of All Time

2007-03-22T17:04:00.000-04:00
My first computer falls at #5 on this list. It was only 12 years ago that I got it. I bought it second hand from a friend of my mom's. It wasn't so bad for someone pretty computer illiterate as I was at the time. I sure dissected that sucker to see how it ticked. Could've been worse - I could've been stuck with a Packard Bell (#1 on the list) as were several people I knew.

The PS/1 was IBM's second stab at creating a consumer PC for the masses, following the disastrous PCjr (#13 on our list of the all-time worst products), but it wasn't much of an improvement.

Among other brilliant moves, the original PS/1 featured a power supply inside the monitor, which made swapping out displays impossible, and it couldn't accept standard ISA cards, preventing upgrades. (Later models were more compatible.)

In 1994 IBM abandoned the PS/1 and tried again to capture the consumer market by introducing the Aptiva line, but this too was largely a disaster. IBM gave up the whole Aptiva idea in 2000.

Digg

2007-03-19T06:37:00.000-04:00
I don't use Digg, nor have I done more than glance at it. I was reading an article on PC World's website about the 50 most influential people on the web, and check this out - Kevin Rose started Digg - he comes in as #32 in that article. How cool is that? The same Kevin Rose that was on Tech TV - on The Screensavers before it became Attack of the Show and went completely to gaming... and don't get me started. Kevin has some great web shows - Systm and The Broken. I had no idea he was behind Digg. I will have to give it more of a chance.

Recommended Movie

2007-03-18T05:45:00.000-04:00
I wanted to see this movie since it first came out. I finally watched it last night. It's one of the better movies I've seen in a while.

"Karen Effiel is an author writing her latest novel about an isolated
man named Harold Crick. What she doesn't know is that her fictionalized
character is real. The real Harold Crick is an IRS agent who has lived
a dull existence and one day begins to hear Karen's voice as she
narrates what she puts on paper to what Harold has and is doing.
Because of this Harold enlists the help of a literary professor to find
out what is happening and ends up changing things about his life
including beginning a relationship with his IRS client, a
government-hating bakery owner named Ana Pascal. Harold, however, finds
trouble when he hears that Karen plans to kill him."

Burned Out

2007-03-15T16:37:00.000-04:00

You Are 74% Burned Out

You are very burned out.You need a huge break from your responsibilities, starting as soon as possible.And you need this time to reevaluate what you really want out of your life.

Because you're working hard and going no where... and that would burn anyone out!

Are You Burned Out?

This season's Idol n' stuff

2007-03-09T06:04:00.000-05:00
I finally decided that my blog didn't have to be in the wrapper of my main site - so I'm using this cool new template. Guess I should've done that in the first place.

Watch Idol? Who doesn't? Who the hell votes for Sanjaya? I know Sundance had some rough weeks, but Sanjaya has been crap since he got there.

My picks:

Gina, Jordin, Blake, ~~Sundance~~

Yeah, I know they won't win - the chick from Flint has a better chance, as do a couple others that I don't like very much. But, that's who I'm voting for. And, I have a Cingular cell now, so I am actually voting.

Daylight Savings Time

2007-02-20T09:41:00.000-05:00
I bitch about it every year (well, every 6 months). I hate daylight savings time. Now, this year they're changing it. What about all the devices that change automatically like VCR's and pocket PC's? I keep seeing articles about Pocket PC's and how to fix it - but it's more than a 2 step process. Stupid Microsoft doesn't just send auto updates like they do with PC's. I have alarm clocks that auto update. What about those? Argh. I think they changed it just to piss off and confuse people.

"This March, Daylight Saving Time (DST) changes for the United States,
starting the time change 4 weeks early. Congress in its infinite wisdom
changed DST in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Other countries such as Australia have followed suit. For most people,
this will come as an early relief from winter doldrums, but for IT, the
DST change is a major headache. After Year 2000, IT vendors were smart
enough to start using 4-digit date codes, but DST changes are still
hard-coded for the 1st Sunday of April and the last Sunday of October...." entire article here.

2007 DST is from March 11 - Nov. 4

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Chicks

2007-02-11T16:20:00.000-05:00

Wow. I'm sitting here tonight and just saw the Dixie Chicks win song of the year for "Not Ready to Make Nice". That is so incredibly cool! It's just so sad that they had to go through what they did back when Natalie said what she said about that moron in the White House. Americans can be so damn two-faced.

UPDATE: The Dixie Chicks swept all five categories in which they were nominated, including song of the year, album of the year and record of the year. (Woohoo!!)

Reba

2007-02-07T17:27:00.000-05:00
Damn CW. Reba is being canceled because it 'supposedly' didn't fit into the demographic of viewers it wants. The desired demographic is from 25 to 35. Last I checked, I fit almost right in the middle of that. It's one of their highest rated shows even though its been in a piss-poor timeslot. Oh well, let's be honest... I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did.

"Reba's" end comes in spite of ranking as the
CW's most-watched comedy (3.67 million viewers), ahead of all four of
its Monday entries - "Everybody Hates Chris" (2.92 million), "All of
Us" (2.67 million), "Girlfriends" (2.71 million) and "The Game" (2.45
million). Source 1, Source 2

Lasik Update

2007-02-06T12:33:00.000-05:00
I went to the doc today for my 2 week follow up. Things are looking good. My left eye is nearly perfect. He says my right eye looks like it will change a little yet. I was told to use the eyedrops for another week and come check in with him again. I can't tell ya how glad I am that I got this done.
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Lasik

2007-01-24T03:54:00.000-05:00
Thanks to everyone for all the well wishes for my long awaited Lasik.

It was one of the weirdest experiences I have ever been through, but also one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life. I'm sitting here this morning and I can see just about as well as I could before with my contacts. I'm told that my sight will fluctuate over the next few days. I was a little concerned last night because of the amount of blurriness I was experiencing. I thought that I may have to have my eyes adjusted which really would've been no surprise and it's covered in the price I've already paid for the whole procedure. I took off my eye shields this morning and was very pleasantly surprised. I've always felt that having horrible eyesight has been one of the things that defines me. It's wonderful to finally be able to change that.

The surgery itself was relatively painless. All I felt was some pressure and I had to try to stare at a blinking red light. I saw the things they were moving over my eye. There were a lot of eye drops. Each eye took no more than 5 minutes from start to finish. The next couple hours were the worst. My eyes were draining like crazy and it kinda hurt to open them. They were extremely light sensitive. I came home and got comfy in the recliner part of my couch and went to sleep for a couple hours. When I woke, they weren't draining nearly as bad and it just felt like I had a up-side-down contact in each eye (basic discomfort). I dosed off a couple more times in the evening. I watched Idol and closed my eyes during the commercials. This morning, my eyes are relatively dry. I see myself using the artificial tears a lot today. I have two other types of drops that I have to use 4 times a day for 7 days.

Made me laugh... shit in a box

2007-01-11T08:49:00.000-05:00
In a rather unseemly new interview with Life Style Extra, braindamaged rocker offspring Kelly Osbourne reveals that her mother used to force her to defecate in a box, which Sharon would then send to her enemies in the media. Say what you will about Kelly's candor, but this story fills me with a fuzzy feeling of nostalgia for my own youth, specifically those perfect Saturday mornings when my mom would drag me away from cartoons long enough to poop into an empty kleenex box that she would later mail to Sally Jessy Raphael for not taking a tougher stance with all those heathen teenagers.

Source: http://www.bestweekever.tv/2007/01/11/sizzler-kelly-osbournes-sht-in-a-box/

Global Warming

2007-01-01T14:09:00.000-05:00

This picture was taken on Christmas out a window looking at my back yard. Reminds me of winter in TN. That was a great winter (except for when we got stuck in an ice storm trying to drive back to MI).
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Weird Al

2006-12-21T11:46:00.000-05:00
No, I'm not a closet Weird Al fan. I AM a Weird Al fan. I went to his concert 2 or 3 years in a row. I miss those days.

Wasting time on 'Best Week Ever' today, I surfed into a site where someone listed their top 10 favorite Al videos. That led me to the realization that even though I knew some of these songs rather well, I had never seen some of the videos. White & Nerdy is still my favorite, but there are some other great videos.

Assuming Al does a tour for 'Straight Outta Lynwood', PUNK, we are SO going!

Link to behind the scenes of White & Nerdy.
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Holidays

2006-12-14T14:20:00.000-05:00
I hate the holidays. That's no big surprise. It seems like it gets harder every year. People don't get it. Holidays are for kids. Guess what. I don't have any. And, I'm definitely not a kid. I don't have parents. So holidays are just damn depressing. I find it an unnecessary chore to put up the stupid tree. I didn't bother this year. We put up a couple strands of icicle lights outside, but there are a lot of dead bulbs and one section died all together. Hope someday I'll get back into the holidays, it used to be fun.

I think I got it to work...

2006-12-09T10:02:00.000-05:00
Ok, looks like I may have had some luck in the blogging department. I love Firefox. And I love geeks who make extremely useful extensions for Firefox. I now have an editor right in my browser which I can use to dual post to my blog and to Myspace.

It wasn't completely painless - I had to change my blog over to WordPress because Sblog isn't supported by this extension. That's something that I was going to have to do at some point anyway. The transfer/import was rough in a few places but I think I cleaned it up as much as I needed to. Only trouble is that my comments didn't transfer. And if you comment my blog or myspace, it'll only be at one place.

Main blog is now located at... http://www.geminidreamz.com/wordpress.

Even though I'm not having the best week in life in general, I'm having a great week as a geek.

On a side note, I found a really kickass service called goosync which will sync my PDA calendar with my Google calendar. Woohoo!!! No more Outlook!!!
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Not a happy Mary

2006-12-05T12:15:00.000-05:00
As it turns out, the doctors office doesn't own the equipment - it gets brought in 1 day a month to do surgeries and they wont do it for less than 3 patients cuz it's a whole ordeal to set up and tear down... and a couple people canceled so that made me the only patient for Monday.

So, 6 more weeks. It's not even the waiting that pisses me off so much... it's the fact that I have suffered in glasses for two weeks only to have to start all over again next month. I don't see well out of my glasses. I have no peripheral vision. The glare is atrocious at night.

That's life I guess. Or at least that's my life.

Update: Come to find out that one of Dan's sisters is pregnant. Isn't that the icing on the fucking cake.

Mondays

2006-12-04T14:51:00.000-05:00
The only good thing about Mondays is TV. There's only two days a week that it's even worth turning the TV on. That would be Mondays and Thursdays.

- Free Shit!!

2006-11-30T10:06:00.000-05:00
This site offers a free download of one free software every day. Full versions of software that will normally cost you.
"Basically, every day we nominate one software title that will be a Giveaway title of that day. The software will be available for download for 24 hours (or more, if agreed by software publisher) and that software will be absolutely free. That means - not a trial, not a limited version - but a registered and legal version of the software will be free for our visitors*.The software product will be presented in its full functionality, without any limitations save for those mentioned in Terms and Conditions."

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com

LASIK - WOOHOO!!

2006-11-29T15:49:00.000-05:00
-
My eyes are still dilated so staring at this monitor is rather unpleasant. Driving home was no fun at all... I left the eye doc just as it was getting dark. As soon as I got off the express way, it started raining. I felt worse than driving drunk. Ahh well, I made it home and assuming the surgery goes well, it's all worth it.

Zune

2006-11-26T09:52:00.000-05:00
I was almost considering one of these. I've never been a fan of anything Mac so I really tried to avoid the iPod. Not that I like Microsoft or anything, but I figured it'd be more to my liking than the alternative. The only reason I want a MP3 player is to be able to play MP3's in my car. After doing some research, I found an adapter so I can use my Pocket PC to do just that. I'm fine with my 2GB SD card for now. As soon as SD cards get bigger and cheaper, I'll just get a bigger one. The more stuff I can do with my single device the better. I do hope they get a good combination of Pocket PC and cellphone one of these days.
Cory Doctorow from Boing Boing: Writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, Andy Ihnatko unloads on the Zune with both barrels, calling it a "complete, humiliating failure" and a "colossal blunder," because Microsoft has taken the user out of its design considerations and put the music industry (in the person of Universal's Doug Morris, "a big, clueless idiot" ) in their place. Yes, Microsoft's new Zune digital music player is just plain dreadful. I've spent a week setting this thing up and using it, and the overall experience is about as pleasant as having an airbag deploy in your face.

"Avoid," is my general message. The Zune is a square wheel, a product that's so absurd and so obviously immune to success that it evokes something akin to a sense of pity...

The Zune is a complete, humiliating failure. Toshiba's Gigabeat player, for example, is far more versatile, it has none of the Zune's limitations, and Amazon sells the 30-gig model for 40 bucks less.

Throw in the Zune's tail-wagging relationship with music publishers, and it almost becomes important that you encourage people not to buy one.

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- Personality

2006-11-21T09:47:00.000-05:00
As if it wasn't obvious, I'm an ISTJ personality type.

ISTJs are often called inspectors. They have a keen sense of right and wrong, especially in their area of interest and/or responsibility. They are noted for devotion to duty. Punctuality is a watchword of the ISTJ. The secretary, clerk, or business(wo)man by whom others set their clocks is likely to be an ISTJ.As do other Introverted Thinkers, ISTJs often give the initial impression of being aloof and perhaps somewhat cold. Effusive expression of emotional warmth is not something that ISTJs do without considerable energy loss.

ISTJs are most at home with "just the facts, Ma'am." They seem to perform at highest efficiency when employing a step-by-step approach. Once a new procedure has proven itself, the ISTJ can be depended upon to carry it through, even at the expense of their own health.

ISTJs are easily frustrated by the inconsistencies of others, especially when the second parties don't keep their commitments. But they usually keep their feelings to themselves unless they are asked. And when asked, they don't mince words. Truth wins out over tact. The grim determination of the ISTJ vindicates itself in officiation of sports events, judiciary functions, or an other situation which requires making tough calls and sticking to them.

ISTJ = Introverted Sensing Thinking Judging
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10 Years

2006-11-14T14:59:00.000-05:00
10 Years Ago...

I was a senior in high school.
I was 17 years old.
I was looking forward to moving out of my mom's trailer.
I was working 2 jobs.
I was partying at any opportunity.
I smoked cigarettes.
I drove fast.
I got very little sleep.
I was envied.
I was on top of the world.
I felt invincible.
I couldn't wait to get older.
I hated my friends' curfews.
I thought the crew would never die.

- Lasik

2006-11-09T08:40:00.000-05:00
I'm going to try again for Lasik. The more I've thought about it, the more I realize that I owe it to myself to get a second opinion. I have a coworker that had eyes worse than mine (hard to believe) and got Lasik, so I got the name of the place that he went to. I have an appointment in a couple weeks at this place. I'm not holding my breath, but I'm hoping for the best. I only have to be out of my contacts for 3 days before this appointment... I can handle that.

- Pandora

2006-11-01T11:32:00.000-05:00
- Pandora and I've quickly become a fan.

"Can you help me discover more music that I'll like?

Those questions often evolved into great conversations. Each friend told us their favorite artists and songs, explored the music we suggested, gave us feedback, and we in turn made new suggestions. Everybody started joking that we were now their personal DJs.

We created Pandora so that we can have that same kind of conversation with you."

Even cooler is Open Pandora - it's a stand alone application for Pandora instead of listening in your browser.
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- Finally

2006-10-29T14:39:00.000-05:00
Guess What! I finally unpacked my shotglasses.... and I've only lived at this house for 15 months. That's longer than the entire time we lived at our last house tho.

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- Flying Toasters

2006-10-23T08:04:00.000-04:00
I'm a screensaver freak. I was a huge After Dark fan, but after Windows 95, it just caused problems. This cool site has a clone of the popular "Flying Toasters" saver.
http://uneasysilence.com/toast/

- Hypoallergenic Cats

2006-10-07T07:48:00.000-04:00
-
ALLERCA has produced the world's first scientifically-proven hypoallergenic cats. These cats allow some of the millions of people with feline allergies to finally enjoy the love and companionship of a household pet without suffering from allergic symptoms.

They're about $4000 for these cats, but I'll tell ya something.... if Dan or I was allergic, I'd really consider it.

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- Burned Out

2006-09-22T15:57:00.000-04:00
-
So, of course, I let them see that I'm good at what I do and they wanted more of me. I'm working practically full time at a day job. Exactly what I didn't want. Yeah, we need the money, so I'm trying to just muddle through for a while. Don't get me wrong - I like my job, but lately I feel like it's getting the best part of me and my life 'outside of work' is suffering.

I have this giant 'to do' list that's just staring at me. There's not much more frustrating than leaving things undone for weeks at a time. I haven't done my grocery shopping simply because I haven't found the time.

I'm a night person living in a daytime world.... like my mom used to say "burning the candle at both ends".
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- RSS to Email

2006-09-03T06:08:00.000-04:00
With the addition of more work hours, I've decided that I need to be able to access my email, calendar, and stuff from any computer I sit down at. So, I put a forward on my geminidreamz mail to my gmail inbox. I spent some time organizing my Gmail with labels and filters so I can handle it being my main inbox. I got a great gmail notifier for Firefox and I customized my personal Google page.

Anyway, I love my RSS feeds. There's a couple that really build up before I get a chance to read them. Download Squad is the main one. I know I can look at it on my main Google page, but I want it to stick around and show full articles. I found a free service that will send my RSS to my inbox - http://www.rssfwd.com/rssfwd/index . Now, if I can find a easy way to get my Gcal to sync with my PDA, I'll be happy as can be!
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- Getting Reorganized

2006-09-03T06:01:00.000-04:00
-
I really miss having more time on my hands. I keep thinking back to my year in TN... I guess it was just a long vacation. I actually had hobbies. Hobbies. What a concept. My little part time job has become practically full time. It's amazing when I get a chance to actually clean up my desk and get a few things done. This weekend, I've spent more time in my office than I have over the last month. I'm grateful when I get some "mary" time.

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- LASIK

2006-07-18T14:35:00.000-04:00
I was supposed to have Lasik last week. I was really getting excited about it. I knew there was still a possibility that when I went in for my workup exam on Tuesday, they'd say that my corneas were actually too thin to have the surgery. Somehow, I let myself get my hopes up despite this fact. I know my eyes are terrible. I've been saying for over 10 years that I want to have eye surgery. I had to wait for my prescription to be stable for 3 years. I used to have a dramatic change in my script every year. Now, I'm in my third year with relatively the same script. But, as it goes, my eyes are actually too bad for the current Lasik technology and there's a significantly higher chance that my corneas wouldn't stand up to it. Well, life goes on I suppose. I was so upset when I left the doc's office last week. I look at it now and I know I should be thankful that at least I can wear contacts. Two weeks in glasses (prior to the workup exam) was more than enough.

The (somewhat hopeful) good news is that there's a new device/technology (or something) coming out later this year and the doc said that it's made just for people like me. I'm on the waiting list.

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- eBay vs. Google

2006-07-08T14:52:00.000-04:00
- eBay really needs to get their head out of their ass and stop pissing people off. We all know they own Paypal, but they shouldn't block Google payments - it may be stiff competition, but don't they already make enough money taking a percentage of winning bids?
eBay is banning sellers from requesting payment through Google Checkout. The online auction giant updated its Safe Payments policy this week to add Google's new payment service, Google Checkout to its list of online payment methods not permitted on eBay.

Article at auctionbytes.com
eBay's policy
Payment Services permitted on eBay: Allpay.net, Bidpay, Canadian Tire Money, cash2india, CertaPay, Checkfree.com, hyperwallet,com, Moneybookers.com, Ozpay.biz, Paymate.com.au, Propay.com, XOOM

Payment Services not permitted on eBay: AlertPay.com, anypay.com, AuctionChex.com, AuctionPix.com, BillPay.ie, ecount.com, cardserviceinternational.com, CCAvenue, ecount, e-gold, eHotPay.com, ePassporte.com, EuroGiro, FastCash.com, Google Checkout, gcash, GearPay, Goldmoney.com, graphcard.com, greenzap.com, ikobo.com, Liberty Dollars, Moneygram.com, neteller.com, Netpay.com, Nochex.com, paychest.com, payingfast.com, Payko.com, paypay, Postepay, Qchex.com, rupay.com, scripophily.com, sendmoneyorder.com, stamps, Stormpay, wmtransfer.com, xcoin.com

- Worth Watching...

2006-06-27T11:30:00.000-04:00
- http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8520847761350501823

A former ACLU staffer has produced a great, 40-minute video on understanding your rights when you get pulled over by a cop.This "flex your rights" video which uses dramatizations with actors to illustrate how you can protect yourself using 4th, 5th, and 6th ammendment rights during commonplace encounters with police.

The film seems pretty cheezy, but the info in it is great. The info conveyed in the film is extremely useful to avoid nasty searches, seizures, and mishaps which could land a well-meaning person in jail or just ruin their day.

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- Garfield deserves better...

2006-06-25T10:09:00.000-04:00
-
Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties
Reviewed by: Scott Chitwood
Rating: 5 out of 10

Cast:
Bill Murray as Voice of Garfield (voice)
Breckin Meyer as Jon Arbuckle
Jennifer Love Hewitt as Liz
Billy Connolly as Dargis

Summary:
Despite a cool animated cat, "Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties" is just as bland as its predecessor.

Story:
When Liz goes to London for a conference, Jon decides to fly there as well and surprise her with an engagement ring. Little does he know that Garfield and Odie have tagged along in his luggage. Once there, the fat feline gets mistaken for a missing cat named "Prince". Prince is the heir to an eccentric animal lover's fortune and now owns a large castle and is pampered by a large staff of servants. It turns out that the woman's nephew, Dargis, attempted to dispose of Prince to win the fortune. However, his plans fall apart when Garfield was mistaken for Prince and returned to the castle. After the accidental switching of identities, Prince finds himself dealing with Jon and Odie while Garfield finds himself in the lap of luxury. But what will happen to Garfield and the other animals when Dargis attempts to finish him off once and for all?

"Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties" is rated PG for some off-color elements.

What Worked:
If you liked the first "Garfield" movie, you're probably going to like this sequel. It's more of the same in a slightly different package.

One of the strongest points of the film is Garfield himself. His animation is very good and the voice of Bill Murray is perfectly suited to the personality of the character. Any time he's on the screen, the movie is at its best. And like in the previous movie, he's well paired with the cute live action Odie.

Besides our established heroes, a few additional characters have been added to the mix. Garfield's look-alike, Prince, is well-voiced by Tim Curry. The pampered pet has some amusing moments as he discovers what the real world is like. Bob Hoskins is also funny as Winston, the bulldog assistant to Prince. His constant praise of Garfield/Prince is funny, even when he has a fart delivered to the face. (Yes, there are a lot of farting jokes in this movie.) Other notables in the voice cast include Rhys Ifans and Vinnie Jones.

I'll also add that my kids enjoyed this "Garfield" sequel. While they did get quite antsy in the last third of the movie, it generally kept their attention quite well.

What Didn't Work:
I already mentioned that this movie is very similar to its predecessor. Unfortunately, they repeated many of the same mistakes. Breckin Meyer is still incredibly wooden and boring. There's no chemistry between him and Jennifer Love Hewitt. The film still doesn't hearken back to the best of the Garfield comic strips from the early 80's. And despite a few good jokes here and there, this sequel is just as bland as its predecessor. It's just not as funny as it could have been.

Despite making many of the same mistakes, "Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties" manages to make a few new ones, too. First of all, it uses the tired old plot of "mistaken identity". This story has been done so many times in so many different incarnations and it simply doesn't work anymore. There are also a couple of poor musical numbers. One takes place while Garfield makes lasagna with other animals and another is done to "The Jeffersons" theme song.

I suspect most adults will find themselves bored midway through the film.

The Bottom Line:
Only see "Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties" if you saw and enjoyed the first "Garfield" movie. Everyone, except for children, will probably be bored.

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- Cancelling Service

2006-06-16T07:05:00.000-04:00
- How to cancel a service
After reading posts about people who have had to beg to be disconnected from AOL, J2, and Sky TV, Vodka offers the following advice:

I've worked for a telecommunications company that I would prefer to go unnamed, and I'd like to offer some tips to anyone trying to disconnect a service they no longer want. The biggest tip is to call well outside of normal business hours -- in my company, customer service was open 24/7, but the retention department closed in the evening. If you call, say, before bed, or during the middle of the night, you'll just be talking to a regular CS rep who has no incentive whatsoever to keep you as a customer. It can turn a twenty minute phone call into a two minute phone call.

Second, if you get a rude rep, hang up and call right back. Some reps, especially in commission driven departments like sales and retention, are especially pushy, where as if you call back you might get someone who is right at the end of his shift and just wants to get you off of his phone.

Third, there is one reason for disconnection that will work for almost every service--moving. Tell them you're moving out of the service area, or moving in with someone who already has the same service, and they should be required to cancel everything for you.

Also, it would be helpful to remember that the representatives in retention are paid to retain you as customers--threatening to record the call, asking for their name or ID, or asking for a supervisor will not do anything. All calls are recorded and the representatives have responses they are required to give for every customer question or complaint. The rep who actually gets in trouble will be the one who disconnects you immediately without trying to retain you, not the one who spends twenty minutes using every tactic in the book the company wrote for him.

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