1 January - Here's wishing you and yours everything kewl in 2002! And as a special treat, the following is my New Year's greeting from my friend, Corax, the foremost political cartoonist from Belgrade
25 January - OK, not a real lot new lately -- except my new web site about computers. I actually was thinking for a few years of adding computer stuff as a section of this site, but decided I needed all the room I can get -- and was sort of surprised to find the domain name available! It was registered on 17 January and 2 days later I started putting some introductory pages online.
I have a couple things already on the main index page, and have a couple more in the works. So feel free to bookmark the new site and check in every once in a while to see what is new.
Today I finally got around to finally getting myself a birthday cake! Last year it took me 3 weeks. This time I was just a little faster to decide. It looks yummy enough, and should probably last me 3-4 days!
I also got 3 porgys -- it is a fish that we used to catch as a kid when my Father would take us fishing in the Wildwood area. They are whole, so it means cleaning them and all, and it should be a real delight to savout the flavor of something that I have not eaten in at least 40 years!
OK, delight, did I say? First the fishies were not scaled, and I did not have the old scaler that we used to use in the old days -- it is probably stashed in the basement somewhere -- so I used a knife to get the scales off. Holy shit! For the next week I was brushing fish scales out of my hair and from every corner of the kitchen! Then I actually pan fried the things instead of using the microwave, just to get that old tyme flavour. Well, they did have a fishy taste -- very fishy, as a matter of fact! Although it was tasty, and did remind me of when my Mom used to do them, I think I can forego the pleasure ever again!
Otherwise there is nothing really new and exciting happening with me. After about 2 weeks of NOT putting anything on eBay, I finally got around to adding more goodies, although not at the same pace as during the holiday season -- which was really VERY hectic! I was always totally tired, and am still not back to normal, whatever that might be! I have a lot of catching up to do, in terms of getting things listed to keep up with my bills -- and with a normal sleep pattern! One of these days things have to normalize somehow!
1 February - When I was studying in Germany I discovered Hildegard Knef, a singer born in about 1926 in Ulm. She has a sort of wistful voice, and I fondly remember a lot of her songs about Berlin, which I unfortunately never got to visit while I was in Deutschland.
Apparently she began her singing career in the 1960's, about the time I was in Germany, but she was also a talented actress, having made more than 50 films since the end of WWII, most of them in Germany. Over here, perhaps her best known film roles were in Silk Stockings and The Snows of Kilimanjaro.
I ranked her on a par with Marlene Dietrich, Maria Dolores Pradera, Amalia Rodrigues and Edith Piaf as one of the last of the all-time great foreign female singers, each having her own particular style and repertoire. She died in Frankfurt of emphysema at the age of 76.
27 February - it has been warmer than usual, but the last few days is a return to a more or less typical winter. Last week the strangest thing happened to me. I was sitting at the computer and all of a sudden I started sneezing and my nose was running away! I mean one sneeze after the other, and they kept on coming! It was almost as if someone had introduced something into the apartment to cause this -- the problem was that nobody was here, as usual -- I didn't go anywhere and did not bring anything unusual in. I took a couple cold tablets, and continued miserable for a few days. I must have used 2 large boxes of tissues -- and I felt droopy and unable to do my usual stuff. Although I am better today, I still am not exactly up to par, but apparently getting there.
I DID finally break down and get a haircut last Monday -- I could NOT wait until I might get the inspiration to go to New York, and certainly would not be able to get back to Tenerife -- which are the ONLY two places that do it exactly the way I want it done. So here are the before and after shots --
I am sure that you can figure out which is which? One curious thing I have noticed for the first time in the last month or two is that monster schnoz I seem to have. I do not really spend time looking at myself in any mirrors, and was totally unaware of the size of that beak! Oh, well, I guess it is like that fine painting that just fits on that blank space on the wall above the mantel. It sort of coordinates with the rest of the decor-face! GAWD! I was amazed! It seems more dangerous than an Olympic downhill ski slope! I am also wondering why my hair seems to have changed color within about a week between pics?? Maybe it is the lighting? The hairy pic was taken at mid-day, and the semi-drowned-rat one was when the Sun was almost setting. What a difference! Actually the berries on that tree in the background are really deep red, so maybe it is the lighting.
We had an insignificant snow flurry this morning -- but this winter has been just a tad warmer than most previous years within memory. Maybe with a little luck we shall yet get a couple feet of the fun white stuff?
Oh, yes, before I forget, if you are interested in the history of computers, I have a section on the new site about a brief history of chips, computer models and an amazing research report on the first Apple user .
30 March - Another few weeks of not feeling all that well (to put it mildly!), but I sort of get used to it after a while! The weather seems to shift from cold to overly warm -- I even opened the windows a couple times this month! I have not had a lot of energy to keep putting stuff on eBay, which is bad for keeping up with bills and all. Two days ago I went to Sam's Club to get some food because there was virtually nothing left in the refrigerator, and there was only another day or two left of cat food. Bernar did give me two boxes of really good red wine, which I always have with dinner, whether it be a sandwich or the sphagetti and meat balls I made last night -- and I still have enough sphagetti for another day or perhaps two. Also got some green tea at a Chinese grocery store because I did not have any left. I shall try to make a large pot of it every 2-3 days.
I brought the male and female Siamese cats (Goofy and Yakshini, respectively) I kept across the street at my other place (sort of a dump/storage place) here to my bedroom and keep the door closed. They like this a lot better because they see me more often and actually get to sleep with me. The three Sphynx and Devi, my 15+ year old Siamese have the run of the rest of the apartment. I tried to get them all together, but the first attempt was a failure -- I am sure after a few fights and hissing and all, they would probably be the best of pals. I may try getting them together again soon.
Since the Sphynx were used to crawling under the covers with me in the bedroom, and since I do not want them to get some kind of complex or something, I folded a comforter on the floor of the theoretical living room (also a dump/storage area!), put a pillow on one end, and sleep with them every other night (the slight glitch is that during the day I have already tripped over the comforter because I leave it there for them to snuggle-up under). They love it! And the curious thing is that I seem to feel better after sleeping on the floor than I usually do in bed! Maybe a really firm mattress is better for you?
Oh, and my dumb bank cashed a check I wrote out for $420 for a credit card payment (one of six I am still paying for from when I was teaching!) but it was cashed as $920, meaning that other checks I wrote out bounced -- and for each bounce the idiots charge $31!! I screamed and all, but they apparently can do nothing about it. I really have to change banks because First Union sucks, and I have been saying this for a couple years already! ALL of my pension goes for the numerous monthly credit card payments, and I do not even have anything left over for taxes or utilities, which just sit on my desk until I have enough to cover them at more or less three month intervals -- the taxes wait even longer!
Did anyone notice how some very classical entertainment personalities have been dying like flies lately?? Billy Wilder, Dudley Moore and Milton Berle (Uncle Milty) -- do you think their publicists planned it this way to sort of coincide with the Academy Awards?
So Easter is only a day away! Yesterday I got an Easter card from my brother without an invite for munchies -- I assume they are going up to Connecticut to visit their son who is in the Coast Guard Academy? And I guess the only egg I will get is the Kinder (a neat chocolate egg that has some cartoon surprise in it) that a Canadian gal sent me with two cute Canadian bears. Incidently, speaking of Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny who brings them, I bet you would never guess what the connection is? Well I found a pic that sort of explains it all ->>
Today was really warm and sunny, about 70 degrees, and I noticed an old beat-up car parked across the street from my kitchen window. There were two guys sitting in it just soaking up the sun as if they were on a beach! The back seat of the car was piled high with plastic bags of stuff, giving the impression that they were homeless and actually lived in the car! I searched for my Bamm Bunnies (see below) and got two Cokes out of the refrigerator and took a bunny and the drinks down to the car. One guy was white and the other black, and they did not seem all that scruffy or anything.
So I knocked on the car window and gave them the Cokes and the Easter Bunny, and they thanked me. Watching from my kitchen window, the dude on the left side of the car was wiping his eyes and placed the bunny on the windshield. They remained parked in the sun until when it started going down. Shortly thereafter they left, and after I took one of my snoozes, I checked again and they were back -- this was about midnight and I was starting to make some sphagetti and meat balls. It occurred to me to invite them to share the meal when it was ready, but by that time they were gone again.
So, I guess it is time again to send you all my warment wishes for a Joyous and Peaceful Easter. May your day be merry and bright (gawd, no, that is another holiday already! Sorry about that!)
And, since the baseball season is beginning, I thought I would let these players add their festive wishes too!
1 April - Visitors - Well yesterday was just about like any other normal day for me. I got an email in the morning from Kyra, the gal from the post office whom I mentioned a couple times already in previous posts. She said that she wanted to bring me an Easter dinner, and asked for my address and all. She lives in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, just across the river. I was quite surprised, needless to say, and of course, accepted.
That led to a cleaning frenzy! I vacuumed around the apartment, mopped the floor in the kitchen, my study, the bathroom and what is clear of boxes in the living room -- then took a shower. I also worked on cleaning and organizing my desk, filing loads of stuff that had been sitting there in neat stacks for over a year. I then called her to see what time she would stop by, and she said the ham was still in the oven, and that it would be around 5pm. Great, so it gave me time for a brief snooze again!
She arrived with her two teenage boys and girl, and did she ever bring me goodies to munch on! Three cans of soda, baked ham, yummy chicken thigh in mustard sauce, home-made macaroni, green beans, collard greens (had not made them in years already, and I love the stuff!), cake she made and some bread! They stayed a short while because she was taking the kids to the movies at 5pm. Each got a Bamm bunny, they visited Hillary and Bernie, the tarantula and ball python, saw what a really messy apartment looks like, enjoyed the cats, and I gave the boys a bunch of sports catalogs, and all three kids two different-size silicon wafers that they might be able to use in a science fair project at school.
What a totally unexpected delight! When they left I started on the meal, which was fabulous, saving half for tomorrow. The cats even got some bones and stuff to munch on!
I called my brother later that evening to wish them a happy Easter, and he said they only had a special family breakfast, but not the usual dinner feast -- the reason he did not invite me over. Peter, did not come from school but was visiting the home of some friend from the academy in New England. After all it was a lot easier than the several hour trip to NJ, and I assume his break was not all that long to justify the round trip.
I later managed to get a batch of eBay goodies together and listed -- after about a week of not feeling in the mood because I was was not feeling too well.
So my Easter was enjoyable, I had visitors, which is way too infrequent, and I did some things that were on my long list of stuff to get done.
Oh, yes, and today I changed banks! Another thing I had put off doing for several years already! Bernar suggested it because he said he had heard and read great things about it -- one of which is that they are open seven days a week -- which is extremely rare for any bank. The Trenton branch is not really that close to me, and I may check out the one they have in Morrisville, which is less of a drive.
4 April - Weird - Hey, many people always use the expression Mother Earth when referring to our planet. Early this morning I read that satellites have made a very accurate image of the relative gravity field of the Earth, and it sure as hell does not look like anything female that I have ever seen! So just maybe that other expression, It's a man's world, might be more valid? After all, el mundo in Spanish means world and it is masculine -- they knew it all along!
When I first saw the image, I thought it was an ad for some tattoo artist. I wonder if the gravity research was funded by Bill Gates? It sure looks like it would make a really kewl new logo for his MicroFlacid operating system!
20 April - Weird Weather - Is this spring or mid-summer?? How do days of 90+ degrees sound to you? I started out opening all the windows to get some fresh air, but when I began sweating all day long and the cats just lay on the floor looking like little flat fuzzy rugs, I decided it might be best to shut the windows again! Although it is way too early for air conditioners, I did turn the one in the kitchen on for a couple hours to bring the inside temperature down to below egg-frying temperature! Hey, and I even got out my bermudas, and for the last week or so they have been my main wearing apparel, along with light-colored t-shirts; I started using a bunch of computer-related t-shirts including some from Apple, Silicon Graphics, cgi, Sun, among others.
Speaking of Sun -- the last couple days has seen an unusually high amount of significant solar storms, with their accompanying effects on the Earth's magnetic field. I even added a kewl solar activity thingy to a couple of my web site pages for those who might want to know what is happening --
Cats - I now have Bernar's Sphynx kittys here with mine -- Fabiola, our first female breeder, and her last 2 kittens, a cute slughtly fuzzy female and an extremely hairless male (whom I have named Bernar!). I may keep Bernar. They seem to have quickly gotten accustomed to their new surroundings -- which are not entirely new to Fabiola (aka Mistenguette) because she used to live with me when I was undergoing cancer treatment a couple years ago, and had her first litter right beside me in bed! I think she remembers because she seems to spend most of the day in the same bed. Bernar kept his favorite, a really fat altered male, Atta Turk, who looks more like a Devon Rex, with their typical curly hair. Now he wants a lot of attention because he does not have any pals to play with! The 2 Siamese are across the street again, all by their lonesomes because they cannot seem to get accustomed to the Sphynx. I find it strange because Devi, my oldest cat -- and Siamese -- gets along with the others fabulously!
Fish Story - When I went to get the cats a couple days ago I stopped at the old canal that runs through Trenton, not far from the Bernar's west Trenton home and saw an old black guy fishing. As usual I asked did he catch anything, and to my surprise, in a large plastic pail was this monster carp -- which must be a good 20+" long and weight a ton! After chatting with him a while, he actually gave me the carp and I took it to the top koi pond at Bernie's, and yesterday it was still alive, swimming on the bottom of the pond -- water too murky to see the thing though, but he did swim around toward the surface a couple times. I shall have to see if I can get the water clearer and take a pic to add, one of these days. Hopefully the heat and no pumps on so far will not kill the monster for lack of oxygen.
eBay seems to be slowing down already -- it always does towards the summer, unfortunately. So my only alternative to my ratty disability pension, my eBay sales, will not be helping very much and I can foresee more stacks of unpaid bills piling up on my desk!
Old Friends - Oh, yes, I also received an email with stuff about how solar activity affects humans from a Warner, at a screen name I never saw before. It turned out to be my old pal, Rev. Warner Sizemore, who used to teach at Glassboro State College, and in whose classes I gave a couple talks on the influence of the Sun's activity on human behaviour. What a surprise, after a few years of not knowing if he was still kicking! He left this area and moved to California some years ago with his family, and is now living in Kentucky. What a delightful surprise!
8 May - The weather has been more or less normalized the past week or so -- I even leave the windows open a little in all the rooms, and the cats enjoy sitting in the Sun at the kitchen wiindow in the mid-afternoon.
Fish Story - I went to visit that large carp today, and I actually could see the monster swimming on the bottom of the pond -- since the filter is working again, a new one, apparently, the water was clear enough to see the bottom.
Accident - About 2 weeks ago I escaped the apartment to go to a country auction about 30 minutes south of here -- had not been there in over a year. So I not only filled up the Festiva with goodies, but also fell in the dark parking lot over one of those stupid logs they have and thought I killed myself. KAPLUNK! Flat on my face -- matter of fact the right side of my nose was dust covered. Although my palms took most of the force of the fall, I still landed on my right side and even today have pain in my upper right chest -- probably broke something, but, with any luck it should heal without the added detail of elastic bands and all that crap. I was actually amazed that my nose was not bleeding, my glasses did not break, my palms did not have much of a scrape on them but hurt like hell, and I was able to get up with the help of 2 people and continue my cheapo bidding on a couple things! They did not have as many goodies as they used to for some reason.
eBay - I decided it was time to put some 33.3 RPM records on eBay -- I have tons of the things, and have not put any up since about July of last year. They do NOT sell too well, no matter what low price they have as starters, and most will probably not even get a bid. I just wanted to try some new stuff and give the auction reference catalogs a rest since the bidders do not seem to be too active right now. It will even get worse during the summer months and I sort of worry about paying bills for 2-3 months when the kids are home from school and everybody is away on vacation. Hopefully I shall be still alive and able to keep at it in September when things start picking up a little towards the holiday buying binge.
Helping Out - I have even been sending box fulls of the auction catalogs -- FREE -- to a couple friends in northern New Jersey, upstate Pennsylvania, Canada and elsewhere, to put on eBay so they hopefully make a couple buckies. I have way too much stuff here cluttering up the apartment and really have to try to make room for just a living space instead of a freekin' warehouse! I never lived like this before and it really bugs me, but I put up with it probably because there is nobody else living here to constantly complain about the mess. Really the ONLY room that is as it should be is the bathroom! Even my bedroom has the old scanner and really old computer I use fo do all my scans on a bureau!
As you can see from the update time, below, I am doing this, as usual, in the early hours of the morning -- my sleep pattern is still not normal and I get the snoozes during the day when playing at the computer. I really should try harder to normalize my sleep/wake schedule a lot more than I have been.
15 May - Health Plan - OK, so I finally went to the doctor's about my still swollen foot/feet. I have to go for blood tests tomorrow, so I assume it will be a couple days until I know anything.
Movie - While there I noticed a current local newspaper that mentioned that the new Star Wars movie begins tomorrow -- OMG! And there will be a midnight sneak preview tonight at the same theatre I saw Episode I at almost 3 years ago, on a Wednesday, at 12.01, 19 May 1999 -- which incidently, I think, was the last movie I went to! So I got in my Festiva-PodRacer and headed on down to see if a ticket was still available -- lucky me, I got one!
26 May - Fuck it all! - My Cube, on which I have all my files for everything, from my three websites to all my eBay files, has developed some bad blocks on the hard drive. They cannot be repaired using the utilities I normally use, and many of my functions have been unable to be used in their entirety (fonts, colors, etc.) for about a week already!
I ordered an external hard drive to copy all the stuff from this Cube, then erase the hard drive and reformat the thing! That is the sort of easy part -- theoretically, at least, as I have never done this sort of major thing in all my years working with these contraptions! The hard part will be reloading all the stuff back, and trying to keep all the preferences I had been using for years already! The external drive was supposed to be here yesterday, but it never showed up. I called ClubMac and they said it would not get here until Tuesday, due to the big holiday weekend -- plus their customer service would not be open until Tuesday for me to demand a refund on the overnight shipping!
Curiously, the lull has given me a chance to vacuum my rug in the living room and organize all the crap on my real desk top -- which had been piling up for months already. Now I can actually see the large desk blotter!
OK, so I have been trying work-arounds to be able to do anything, even on the Cube. I had been switiching between the Cube and my older iMac which is right beside the Cube on another table BUT in a very cramped space! I am now back on the Cube after booting in another OS, and I seem to be able to do most things, but with fewer options for some stuff such as font selection and color options.
After searching for all my old passwords and log-on stuff for my websites, I finally think I have them working again -- and shall try to get this update up within a couple minutes. What I do not have is my entire email list for aol, nor all the links I had saved in my favorite places! Curiously, when I boot in OSX, they are all in there -- which sucks! When I get around to erasing the hard drive I may partition it into 2 or 3 partitions, keeping OSX on one of them, my eBay stuff on another, and perhaps my web site files on the third. I have never partitioned a HD before and really have no idea how the stuff on each partition interacts with what is on the others -- IF they do!
But whatever I finally do, the new external hard drive will be used for FREQUENT back ups of all the shit on this dumb machine! You have no idea how upset I have been since this entire thing started to happen! So many hours lost trying to figure out what happened, then more hours trying to see how it could be fixed, etc.
Curiously, I even have a theory why it happened in the first place. The hard drive uses magnetic media to save stuff. It can be influenced by high electromagnetic fields. I had noticed lately that people would say they cannot hear me too well on the phone and that there was a lot of noise, and it occured to me that the really old dimmer slider-switch that was right next to the phone thing was causing a lot of disturbance. So I moved it to the other side of the desk, which may help. Then, in a flash, it occured to me that I also had the same type of dimmer switch right on my computer table not far from the Cube! So that also got moved, a couple hours ago, to the far end of the table. I do not know if this was the cause of either glitch, but it is a definite possibility -- in theory, at least!
I hope I can get this update up and working! I guess we shall find out quickly enough!
Oh, yes, before I end, HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY! This is the official start of the summer beach season here in New Jersey.
29 May - HARD ON! - OK, yesterday my EZQUEST 120 GB external FireWire hard drive (=HD) finally arrived. I will not go into all the details of what I have been doing with it except to say that I think all the files on this Cube are now copied onto the external HD. Using a utility that came with it, I found that the problem with the Cube HD is a bad section at sector 76750, and that it cannot be repaired. Theoretically, when I get the nerve to erase and reformat the Cube HD, the reformatting will designate the bad parts of the drive as NOT TO USE, which should avoid my having to take the entire Cube to an Apple dealer to get the HD replaced, as it is still under warrenty.
For the first time since I have been using computers I formatted the external HD into three volumes (= partitions), each of which will contain different things. When I reformat the Cube HD I shall probably partition it into 2 volumes, if all goes as well, as I hope it should.
Health Plan - Do you remember the blood tests I had done on the 16th? Well I still have not heard from the stupid MD about the results. I called the MD yesterday and the girl said he would get back to me -- still waiting!
On the 17th I called the telephone number to get a referral to my oncologist to finally go in for a checkup after some 3+ years of neglecting to do it. It should have taken 3 days for the referral to be available -- nothing yet, so yesterday I called again and complained that their new automated system sucks and I need the referral because my appointment is for 31 May -- this Friday! She said there was no record of my request and that she would see what she can do! This is NOT what health care/preventive medicine is supposed to be all about, and they better start changing things asap before everybody simply dies waiting to be attended to!
Incidently, the swelling on my feet/ankles seems to have sort of disappeared, although not completely.
Weather - The weather has become much warmer and more humid. I hope the summer will not be excessively hot because the apartment is not insulated and the heat becomes unbearable even with the very old air conditioner working -- I tend to become very lethargic under those circumstances.
1 June - Today I got the CD with DiskWarrior from my friend, Amaury, in NY. I may see if it can fix the hard disk problem I have been having later this afternoon.
Surprise - Yesterday I got another surprise package from Joanne, my dear friend from Canada who has been a Beanie contact for like years already. She has her own way of wrapping the stuff, which is always a pure delight -- even though the GRAMPA thing on the Easter package seemed a little extreme!
She must have the largest gummed label collection in the world, and her creativity never ceases to amaze me. Just feast your eyes on the herd of critters in the two parcels! From older Attic Collectibles to some Canadian exclusive Beanie bears! SMOOCHES!!
2 June - Fix Hard Drive - This morning I used DiskWarrior to check out my hard drive (duh! The one on my computer!) and apparently whatever was wrong is now fixed, and almost everything seems to work as it did before. At least I did not have to erase my HD and start all over, which was a consolation. I played around with trying to reorganize all my preferences for several programs, and only have a couple minor inconveniences at this point. PageMill only seems to recognize a handful of the many dozens of fonts that are in my font folder, and my Netscape Communicator links are not there, but with any luck I may find the things because they do have to be on the machine's memory somewhere.
So with an effusive pile of thanks to Amaury, who will probably never have the time to read this, I am once again a happy camper.
Health - Oh, yes, I tried using my oldish Sharp blood pressure-pulse monitor with printout (c.1991) after I went to the MD a couple weeks ago and they found a very high blood pressure. I discovered that the cuff leaks, so I had to look for another monitor. Checked at a couple places and they were mucho caro! So I bid on a couple on eBay -- unfortunately I did not see more than about 3 out of 180 that printed the results -- and finally won a smallish Samsung model and it was shipped so fast I got it the next day, which was yesterday -- hurray for *PayPal* ! And it inflates automatically and has a memory for the last 8 readings -- no printout though. I have already taken 4 measurements, and my average results are - 145/82 and the pulse 66. Curiously my readings were very similar to those of 1992-1993, which are the last ones I found in the sheets with the old monitor. If I can find a replacement cuff for the old one, I will get it to have a backup apparatus -- one never knows. Plus it also prints the date and time, which is neato if one likes to keep exact records, as I do, for no other apparent reason that I can think of except just I always was a data packrat!
eBay - So now back to getting a small batch of goodies ready for eButt -- I was almost amazed that I put up 4 cookbooks, sold 2 (one for a whopping $23.27) and one of the latest 2 also has bids on them! Come on now Linda, if I can do it, anybody can! Incidently, cookbooks do not seem to be hot sellers for some reason -- unless they are unusual.
13 June - Computer - OK, so I now have all my fonts and aol favorite links and address book for emails. What I cannot find are all the links saved in my Netscape Communicator browser, and I spent hours looking for them. My next chore is to check all my invisible files to see what they are and where they came from. There are loads of them but I have to somehow get them to change to visible to actually see them and get info about them. There are application programs out there that do exactly that and I shall eventually check them out. There are way too many sneaky ways for others to see what one does on their computer and to even see what is stored on it, and although I do not have anything that sensitive on mine, I do not like things I do not know about. You might want to check out what invisible files are on your puter, just to know.
AppleBytes - I had a bunch of files related to MP3 music files, iTunes and the iPod located on various WWW locations and consolidated them on the AppleBytes site for convenience -- and added some lnks to other sites which offer neato things that one can do with their iPod, including how to use it on PC/Intel machines. I still have to switch many files on Kardas.net to LaAtlantida.net, but that takes time, as does updating all the stuff before I actually switch them.
eBay - I put a bunch of goodies up that start at $1 for Father's Day specials, as I frequently do for holidays and such. I got somewhat sentimental and changed the format somewhat to just include the basic details and added a pic of my Father's Dad and his large family, as well as 4 different closing personal notes to my Dad who died in 1970 --
#1 - HI DAD - I still miss you after all these years - thanks for teaching me photography, plumbing, papering, electrical and painting skills - how to SURVIVE through HARD WORK and doing it RIGHT the first time! FATHER'S DAY will soon be here - as a tribute to DADS everywhere I am having a SPECIAL THANK YOU sale starting at a measly $1. I'm NOT asking for a higher bid - just do something EXTRA SPECIAL for YOUR Dad while he is here. You WILL miss him when HE is gone!
#2 - Dear DAD - it's almost your SPECIAL day again. How long has it been since I saw you? 34 years? Although I don't THINK I am any older than I was then, things are just NOT the same with me somehow. YES, I am still surviving, just as we always did as a family - through PERSEVERANCE. You told us that money isn't everything - that SHARING was kewl. Is it any BETTER where you are now? Do they have an eBay there on a higher plane? I can send you a TON of stuff - I don't think I can bring it with me - it's something about excess baggage on those small ferries on the River Styx - they tend to get crowded sometimes.
#3 - Dear DAD - Remember the long rides to the shore - you would ALWAYS see the deer along the road before we did? The violin lessons - fishing + crabbing trips in the rowboat? How you said that TV was the damnation of the world - but we ALWAYS had one? You NEVER spoiled us, and we never expected MORE - unlike kids today. You would have loved COMPUTERS and would probably have been as good at fixing them as you were with CARS. Tell MOM I said hello.
#4 - Dear DAD - You worked in a factory to provide for us all. Your parents wouldn't let you study aviation engineering, what YOU wanted, but you allowed us to - we three became teachers. You didn't want me to study in Europe and NEVER wrote to me - OR told me you had cancer. Thanks for the virtual visit THAT night - you knew I didn't have enough money to return home from Spain for the funeral and it showed that you understood and wanted to say goodby. Please stay with me, I still need you!
[sniff]
22 June - Computer - I was always trying to make a simple graphic that would change automatically, sort of like a slide show. I had seen complicated programs using a software application, one called DreamWeaver, and could never get it to work. Then while I was sort of bored I checked out the ME page of a German I won something from on eBay, and he had a couple pages of tricks and useful stuff. I forgot about it for some days, then on the very night I wanted to crawl into bed before midnight, I got this flash of intuition to try the thing.
So I made a couple smallish banner-like jpegs and plugged them into his javascript code and everything worked except the 3 buttons he had at the bottom to stop/start/reverse the order of the pics -- so I just eliminated them. By this time it was already daylight and I thought, why not try it again, this time on something larger -- so I spent the next couple hours making the graphics and they also worked! I am sooooo proud of myself after all these years, and it was really easy to do. I guess I never really looked in the right place before.
The above is the first one I did -- basically eBay-related. The second one is slightly larger and is on the About This Site page of my 3 web sites, and has to do with web page design
Next, it occurred to me to try to make a more modern form of an index page for AppleBytes. Up until now I had been using either a pic-map for links to other parts of the site, as in Kardas.net (the site you are viewing), or word links in a table, as in LaAtlantida.net and AppleBytes.info. The word thing is very simple, but never really excited me all that much. So I made a bunch of individual buttons, each corresponding to a linked part of the site, and a duplicate in a different color for when the viewer is actually on the linked page. Sort of a simple work routine and not that difficult -- just time consuming. I had to experiment with different fonts to see which one would show up the best in the limited space provided, among other little details.
I loaded the new format and actually it does look way kewler and more modern than what was there before -- plus it is more compact than the old one and I can now get a couple more links into basically the same space. Now I have to change each of the linked pages, which are still in the old format -- I can do that when I get bored with other things, I guess.
So I finally got to bed around noon, 12 hours after I wanted to -- it always happens like that! Now, due to all the time spent on the above, I am a few days behind on my eBay stuff and have to try to get some goodies ready to list tonight.
24 June - Meeting - You may recall Marion, my holiday exchange partner from last December? Well, she, her hubby (Walter), one of her granddaughters (Paige) and her newly adopted miniature poodle (Maggie) were making a trip up north to visit family and friends, and was in my area, driving through. I spent yesterday mopping floors just in case they might decide to come to the apartment -- it had been a while since the last cleaning. It was a hot day and I almost chickened out at the last minute because I even had difficulty breathing when I put my head outdoors, and could just imagine the stiffling hotness of my little Festiva wih no air conditioning.
She called me at home from the Statue of Liberty saying they were on their way south. It was decided that we would meet at the Turnpike exit near Bordentown, at a large truck stop where I thought there was a McDonalds. Well, it turned out to be a Wendys, and poor Marion and entourage had to drive all over the place searching trustfully for a McD's. I made a couple urgent calls to her cell phone, which I had enough foresight to take with me -- but was only able to leave voice messages both times. To make a longish story short, somehow they found me, after driving all over the place -- I was sitting at a corner table inside a nice climate controlled Wendys, slowly drinking my usual coffee and wondering how I could be so absent minded.
For people who had driven several hundred miles over a few days, all of them, Walter, Marion, Paige (and Maggie), looked and seemed in way better spirits than I used to after only driving to Philadelphia, which only takes about an hour! And check out the size of the pup (about 8 months old)! She is the sweetist small dog I think I ever met -- most of the others had Napoleon complexes or something and were obnoxiously loud and annoyingly agressive. Maggie was licky and came right over the table to me, and we both did the smooch thing.
Since our actual meeting was about 2 hours later than anticipated due to my errant location directions, we really did not have that much time to chat at length and all, as they were continuing on to Maryland. I was thrilled to have finally met only the fourth person I actually had real contact with in all my years of online connections -- and this meeting was way too brief! Maybe I should get out more? For more about this story -->>
28 June - Weather - it has been sort of excessively HOT lately, with a thunderstorm thrown in for variety. The cats are always flat as a board where ever they think the surface is coolor. Heat makes me lethargic, so I really have not been doing too much of anything lately. I did do a couple batches of laundry in West Trenton, but little else of any merit.