I Don't Want to Hear Any More

I have a feeling I am not the only one who doesn't want to hear or read any more about misbehaving celebrities, namely Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, etc. At least I certainly hope I'm not the only one! I especially don't want to hear any more about O.J.

The media seems to think we are all avid to hear about everything these people do, and I guess there is an element of the population who has nothing better to do than hear about celebrities and celebrities who have fallen from grace.

I suppose it is a sign of the times. Many Americans do not know who is the Vice-President of the United States or the name of the Speaker of the House, but they can tell you who wore what at the latest Hollywood bash.

I can only hope that they will eventually grow up, but I am beginning to have doubts. Perhaps one day they will 'get with the program' and one can only hope those who will vote in the next elections will stop fawning over the pathetic lives of celebrities that are alcoholics, druggies and certainly shouldn't be role models for the segment of the population who seem to be insatiable about following the media flap.

Maybe I just am too grumpy! I think I need to find some 'fun stuff' to write about.

By the way, Happy New Year!

Martha

Why Do They Want to Ruin Christmas?

Why are some people so mean spirited? They want us to not say 'Merry Christmas'. They seem to think 'Happy Holidays' is more politically correct. Guess what, you meanies! If it weren't for Christmas, there wouldn't be a Happy Holiday for the majority of folks.

I have even read that some people don't want the mall Santas to say 'Ho, Ho, Ho'. Now I know that there is a slang word that rappers use to denigrate folks of the female persuasion. But I fail to see how anyone with an iota of intelligence can think Santa is using 'Ho, Ho,
Ho' to insult anyone. There are must be some folks who must lay awake at night to come up with stuff like this! Santas have been saying that for many years, long before the rappers decided to say their insult.

Some cities have elected not to put up Christmas decorations for fear of insulting someone. I do feel sorry for the people that have been deprived of the beautiful Christmas decorations in those cities. There are some cities that have decided to put up the decorations in spite of the few who are against Christmas. Hurray for them!

I guess it is a sign of the times we live in. One of these years, if this trend keeps up, 'Merry Christmas' may just go away. However, I am in hopes that the 'majority by far' will rise up and take back our favorite holiday expressions and tell the PC crowd to 'stuff it'.

Since this is My Blog, here is what I have to say, "Merry Christmas to all who celebrate the birth of the Christ child".

Have a 'Happy New Year' as well. I just hope there aren't any people that want to do away with that as well.

Martha

Buggy Bits in Vista

I like Vista. I didn't like it at first, but once I managed to find stuff and where to make changes, Vista is OK. I have gotten used to the UAC (User Access Control) and it doesn't seem so much in my face as it did at first. My Vista isn't as slow as a lot of folks say Vista is for them, but I keep my Start-up lean and that does make a difference.

What I don't like in Vista is the buggy replacement for Outlook Express known as Windows Mail. They removed the only redeeming feature that made it worth while for me to use OE, Identities. ( I have a number of email accounts and I like to keep them separated.)

The layout in Windows Mail is fairly similar except for the Address Book, now known as Contacts. After you use Windows Mail for awhile, you can't empty the Deleted folder. Buggy! At least with Outlook Express if a folder started misbehaving you could delete it and Outlook Express created a new one the next time you opened it.

Microsoft knows Windows mail is buggy. They made a replacement and called it Windows Live Mail. Just what is it with Microsoft that they can't come up with totally different names for stuff? First it's Outlook and Outlook Express, then Windows Messenger and Windows Messenger Service. Now it's Windows Mail and Windows Live Mail. There may be some other things with almost the same name, but off hand I don't know for sure.

When I couldn't empty the Deleted folder in Windows Mail, I downloaded and installed Windows Live Mail. I won't use Windows Live Mail much. It's buggy as well. When I tried to mark a spam as 'Junk', I got the same error message I got when I tried to empty the Deleted folder in Windows Mail! Buggy! Funny though, after I installed the new mail program, the Deleted folder in Windows Mail will now empty.

The layout for Windows Live Mail is very different and folks seem to have some problems finding what they need. One user reported her Inbox disappeared. I suspect it is still there but hiding for some reason. Buggy! This just shouldn't happen.

I am recommending Eudora for folks who need help with Windows Mail or Windows Live Mail and need a free email program. Another really good option is Mozilla's Thunderbird.

Another buggy program is Internet Explorer. A lot of folks keep getting the message that Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and has to close. I haven't had that problem, but then I don't use Internet Explorer very much. I know they made some security changes, but why did they have to move the familiar things around so you have to hunt for them? And what happened to the ability to use copy for a web address? Control + C works, but why is 'copy' greyed out when I want to copy a web address from the Address bar? I know Firefox has spoiled me, but sometimes I have to use IE and it just aggravates me!

Martha

To Eat or Not to Eat

In the midst of the Holiday season that includes Thanksgiving and Christmas, I am sorely tempted!

All those goodies that go with holidays just keep calling my name! My problem is I just like food. I mean I really like food, especially the really fattening kind of food. I like it all with one or two exceptions. (I don't care at all for green bean casserole and I am not real fond of turkey.)

Baked ham, pies, cakes and baked anything, I generally like it. I have always had a 'sweet tooth' and this time of year there are certainly a lot of sweet goodies to eat!

So I am in a quandary. I need to lose some weight. OK, I need to lose a LOT of weight. I didn't used to have this problem about weight. I could eat just about anything I wanted and if I gained a few pounds it was easy for me to lose it.

Not any more! If I gain a pound it doesn't want to leave! Someone told me once that getting older sometimes has this affect and for me it is certainly true. I am not sure it is age that caused it, but I sure would like to find a way to 'fix' this problem. I know, I know, diet and exercise will work. That's easy enough to say, but putting it into practice is another thing.

I just don't seem to have any will power. I know that's not true because I quit smoking cold turkey after having been addicted for thirty years. That was almost five years ago and I haven't smoked even once since then. Hmm, that's when I started gaining that weight I need to lose.

So okay, I will give myself a heavy does of will power and lose that weight. But not until after the holidays!

Here's to Happy Holiday eating!

Martha

TXU is Spamming Me!

My electric company is TXU, which was recently sold to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and TPG, formerly the Texas Pacific Group, both are private equity firms.

The sale is supposed to make our rates go down, according to all the hype during the transitional period when the sale was in the process of being approved by the powers that have the option to approve such transactions.

Deregulation took place in Texas several years ago. Deregulation was supposed to be good for consumers and make prices go down. Except it didn't happen. Before deregulation Texas has rates that were among the lowest in the US. After deregulation we now have the highest rates in the Nation. Two years ago TXU's rates jumped 25% within a two month period! All the new electric companies raised rates as well, so where is that competive price option to save us money?

The rates have come down a bit since then, but nowhere near 25%. The 'new' TXU is offering some new plans that will supposedly save consumers money. The only problem with the plans is they are so confusing it is hard to see how they will save any money. One is offering a 3% cash rebate. Now those folks who know me know exactly how I feel about rebates! I may be looking for a new electric provider.

The icing on the cake, so to speak, came in my inbox this AM. Spam from TXU! Two spams to be exact! One was wanting me to 'refer a friend' and I don't remember the other one but it was something about wanting us to sign up for a new plan .I signed up years ago to get a notice when the electric bill was available online. (Our local postal service may or may not deliver the bill by snail mail.) I signed up for the notification only, not to receive spam! Furthermore, there was no option to remove my email address to prevent these spam messages! So I just blocked future messages using my trusty spam filter.

I went to TXU's website to review their Privacy Policy and nowhere does it say they will or will not send me messages other than the one I signed up to receive. Not only that, the site is hard to read, with a light gray text on white background. I had to copy it all and paste it in to notepad in order to read it! However I am slightly outraged
and I will be checking offers by some of the other electric providers in Texas. (I really, really hate spam!) The only problem with other companies, how do I know they won't spam me as well?

Martha's Web
Martha's Place

Flu Shot

Every year I get a flu shot. I get this flu shot for several reasons; the main one being I don't want to get the flu.

Everywhere I look for 'senior' stuff the advice is to get a flu shot. Medicare pays for the shot; there is no co-pay for flu shots! They figure the cost of the shot is much cheaper than paying doctor bills, medicine, hospital bills, etc. that will incur if someone gets the flu.

Back in 1993 I got pneumonia. It was the worst kind of pneumonia and I nearly died. After I recovered my doctor told me to get a pneumonia shot and to get a flu shot every year. Since I had no desire to get that sick again I took his advice and every year without fail I get a flu shot. One good thing, since I started getting flu shots, I never get a bad cold anymore. Maybe those awful colds I used to get were not colds after all, but were the flu!

This year I found out I needed another pneumonia shot so when the local Walgreen's had their annual flu clinic I decided to get both shots and be done with it. This was a mistake. By nightfall, my arm was hurting. I don't mean sore, I mean hurting! Bad! I had a headache as well. I don't usually have headaches so I figured it was a result of the shots, took some Tylenol and went to bed early.

Sometime during the night it got really cold. Then it got really hot. By morning I thought I might be dying. It went on this way for two days. My arm hurt so bad I couldn't even raise it up. Fever came and went. I felt so bad I didn't even read my email. Folks who know me would have been really alarmed by that! My son wanted to take me to the emergency room. I didn't want to make the effort.

Then on the third day after I got those shots I woke up and I was me again. I felt great! My arm was not hurting. I could raise it up over my head. No more fever. Life was good again.

Now I wonder, which one of those shots made me so sick? The flu shot or the pneumonia shot? The combination? All I know for sure is I am very glad I won't need that pneumonia shot again!

I will still get a flu shot next year, but I will make sure I have Tylenol that isn't out of date! Sadly I had to throw a bunch of Tylenol away; the expiration date was two years ago! I figure the flu would last a lot longer than the time I was down with the side effects from the shot.

Martha

The Garbage Gestapo

Somehow the words 'garbage' and 'gestapo' don't sound like they belong together, but if you live in my city they fit together just fine.

A number of years ago the City Fathers decided they wanted to make the city more attractive and at the same time start recycling seriously. Both of these ideas are good. However, the plan needs work!

They finally contracted with Waste Management to pick up the garbage and recycle stuff and the fun began. It took awhile for the citizens to get used to the idea of hauling those big containers to the curb on their designated day for trash pickup. A number of them still haven't gotten used to only one day a week for trash pickup.

The idea of using those bins is a good one. The bins come with a bar so the trucks can use an automated bin lifter and dump the contents into the truck, thus saving time and eliminating the need for extra workers to lift and dump the containers. The idea was to make the streets look much neater since the containers are all alike, except for color to differentiate between the trash and recycle containers. However, while in theory it is a good idea, it doesn't always work in real life.

When the bins are placed on the curb by the citizens, they are generally lined up fairly neat. However, once the trucks come by, the bins are strewn all over the street. Sometimes cars have to dodge them to avoid hitting them. For some reason the trash sometimes 'spills' out onto the street so the citizens have to pick it up when they come home from work. Occasionally the bar lifter misses the bin bar and knocks the bin over resulting in trash all over the place.Does the truck stop and the driver pick it up? Not likely in this lifetime! So does this should make the city more attractive? In practice it leaves much to be desired.

Because the trash is picked up only once a week, sometimes the citizens dump the overflow into the recycle bins. This contaminates the contents to be recycled and the whole load may have to be dumped into the landfill. There are larger carts to be had, but since they cost more every month, consumers on a short budget don't want to get one. Some folks with large families just can't afford the extra cost, a fact the City Fathers fail to realize. (Maybe they just don't care!)

Enter the 'Garbage Gestapo'. This is a special crew that goes around inspecting people's recycle carts. If anything is found that doesn't meet the criteria for recycling the poor beleaguered culprits get a fine of up to $250!

Personally I have a real problem with other folks rummaging through the recycle bin. So I shred everything and dump it in the trash. I would like to recycle all that paper, but I don't want my identity stolen so it goes in the trash where the 'Gestapo' doesn't search.

I rather suspect residents of nearby cities laugh about our 'Garbage Gestapo'. I wish I could!

Martha

Shopping in the USA

I am not a true died in the wool shopper. I just don't like to shop. I usually know what I want and I either find it or I don't, in which case I buy it and go home, or go home frustrated because I didn't find what I wanted.

Lately I have seen several articles and news items about people buying extremely high priced items like handbags, shoes, etc. An article in the newspaper yesterday was about a woman who finally realized she was embarrassed to carry a handbag that cost more than a medium priced SUV. I had to wonder what took her so long to get to this point of embarrassment?

Today is 'Black Friday', the day after Thanksgiving and the first official day of Christmas shopping. The term 'Black Friday' originated because this is traditionally known as the day retailers go into the 'black' after being in the 'red' all year until now. Every merchant is counting on the crush of shoppers buying up goodies for Christmas. They offer extended shopping hours and special pricing on hot items to get the shoppers in the door.

I have often been guilty of saying nothing surprises me any more. I always have to take that back as something always surprises me. Some of the national branded stores in this area opened at 4 AM today. I cannot think of anything I could possibly want bad enough to be at any store at 4 in the morning, but there was no shortage of shoppers waiting to get in the doors when they opened. In fact, the lines started on Wednesday afternoon and this is Friday! They spent Thanksgiving Day in a queue waiting to shop. Anyone would think this was the only chance to buy anything needed to survive!

Never mind the temperatures at night were in the 30s and last night we had snow as well. There were hundreds of these folks! Some of them had tents and sleeping bags, but the news showed some of them just sitting on folding chairs. All night in the freezing cold sitting on a folding chair, just for a chance to get a bargain on something.

All I can say is I hope it was worth it. I hope they managed to get that bargain that was worth missing one of the best family holidays of the year. I hope they didn't mind not being with loved ones; for the sake of a bargain for a product that may or may not last until this time next year.

As for me, I am doing my Christmas shopping online. But even if I couldn't shop online, I sure wouldn't stay up all night in the freezing cold hoping to get a 'bargain'.

Martha

Why?

I wonder about a lot of things that are probably trivial to most folks. I suppose someone somewhere has the answers.

I wonder why people will spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a computer and then plug it into a ten dollar power strip for protection. This is true for expensive TVs and other electronics as well.

Someone please explain to me why Daylight Saving Time saves daylight. There are still the same number of hours in a day. You can't save daylight! You can aggravate millions of people who are forced to either set the clocks back an hour or set the clocks forward an hour, but you can't save daylight. They need to call it what it really is, 'Aggravation Time'!

Why do people think it's funny when someone falls down? There are TV shows that show 'funny' videos of folks falling, getting hit in delicate physical places and otherwise being injured. The producers of these shows seem to think these videos are funny. (They make me cringe.)

Why can't the TV networks get together and broadcast their programming at the same level of sound? Viewers who change channels have to adjust sound up or down to achieve the right sound. Seems like a no-brainer, but no one seems to know why. I think they do it to keep viewers from changing channels, but it doesn't work. Everyone changes channels to watch their favorite programs.

On the same note, please tell me why TV commercials are so much louder than the programs? Do the commercial producers think we will be more apt to listen if our eardrums are being pierced? Don't they know most of us have a mute button on our remotes?

Why does my newspaper always wrap the Sunday comics with an ad for a store I won't ever patronize? Do they think it will get my attention so I will rush right out and go to this store? (It gets my attention alright; I toss that ad PDQ!)

Why do advertisers say you can get something 'free' with a purchase? If you have to buy something to get something else, it isn't free!

I wonder about a lot of things, these are just a few of them.

Martha

Gloom and Doom

Lately, everywhere I look I see harbingers of doom, either on the Internet or on TV.

For instance in a recent newsletter there was this little tidbit to cheer me;

"One in 60 older people might have brain tumors: One in 60 older people may be walking around with benign brain tumors and don't know it. Even more may have bulging blood vessels in the head that could burst." Lovely. I am what is known as a senior.

"Peripheral Artery Disease Up Sharply Among U.S. Women: The condition, which is has no symptoms, can lead to heart attack and stroke." Wonderful. I am a woman.

The nightly news is also full of sweet tidbits. A lot of our food is contaminated with e-coli which can sometimes kill folks and superbugs are going to kill us if we get sick and have to go to the hospital. Nice. Hopefully I won't get sick.

We have to take the toys away from the kids. They are contaminated with lead if they were made in China. These days all toys are made in China. Christmas is going to be tough for parents and kids this year. (What ever happened to 'Made in the USA'?)

People are losing their homes because sneaky mortgage brokers let them buy houses they can't afford. I guess those folks who bought those houses still believe in the tooth fairy as well. Why wouldn't they know they couldn't afford that house?

My used-to-be favorite TV channel, the Science Channel is also full of really nice programs guaranteed to keep us awake at night. Yellowstone National Park is really the caldera of a massive mega volcano which could erupt at any time killing most of the people in the USA and changing the world's climate so much that all of mankind and any other living creature will die. It could happen any time according to the experts.

Then there is the chance the Earth will be hit by one of those asteroids the size of Montana that are out there in space. When this happens, (and it probably will sometime according to the experts) the entire planet Earth will erupt in flames and kill all of mankind and any other living creature.

There is an island, La Palma, in the Atlantic Ocean that has an excellent chance of having a large portion of a volcano named Cumbre Vieja slide into the sea. This will cause a mega tsunami that could wipe out the entire east coast of the Americas (North, Central and South America) with waves of water over 100 feet high. The experts say this could happen at any time. Millions of people will die when this happens.

I may have to quit sleeping so I can stay awake and worry about all of the things the news tells us are going to kill us and the things the experts are saying 'will happen someday but we just don't know when.'

Martha

The Bane of My Inbox, Spam!

I absolutely despise spam. I think I hate it more than most and I spend a lot of time trying to defeat the nasty email. Sometimes I think I'm winning, but the victory soon turns to the agony of defeat. I have created, abandoned and deleted so many email accounts I have lost track of the number.

I have used countless spam filters that only half did the job. The filters either were too aggressive or let too much through and they all slowed the flow of email due to the filtering. My ISP has spam filtering, but I don't use it. I would rather read email that has been downloaded to my computer and the spam filters put too many legitimate emails in the Bulk folder. I have to log onto the account on the web and sort through the Bulk mail, find the legitimate mail and move it to the Inbox. The filters are supposed to 'learn', but they don't 'learn' fast enough for me. Once the spam that gets by the filters have downloaded to my computer it is too late to 'teach' the spam filter.

I think I may have found a solution for keeping spam away from my Inbox. My ISP offers something called AddressGuard™. It's really simple to use; I just create some 'throw-a-way email addresses. I use these addresses for different things. One is just for registering to view content on websites. Once the spam shows up, (and it will, some of those sites lie like crazy when they say they will not share your email address) I just delete the account. I have another just for Yahoo Groups. Once an infected computer owned by a Yahoo Groups member starts sending me spam, I just will delete that account and create another.

If your ISP doesn't offer this service and you would like to have it; there are a number of services that will provide it for a fee. Yahoo Mail Plus provides the same service for $19.99 a year. With Yahoo Mail Plus you can also download your mail to an email client on your computer.

Here's hoping I have found the solution to no more spam for my Inbox! (At least for a while.)

However, if you want to try to prevent spam by using some other methods, you can look at Spam in Your Inbox and use these tips to avoid spam.

Martha

Ugly Houses

There is a business that actually buys ugly houses. You have probably seen billboards advertising 'We Buy Ugly Houses'. A few years ago, they just seemed to pop up everywhere. Apparently a lot of people are selling their ugly houses and investors fix them up and sell them for a tidy profit.

I guess I have led a sheltered life, as I didn't understand what they meant by 'ugly'. I thought they meant old houses in need of repair. I didn't realize they meant neglected, run-down, disgusting, dirty, trashed out houses!

They are having a contest right now about which house is the ugliest. Some of them are perfectly understandable judged ugly just by looking at the outside, but some of them surely qualify by just the inside! If you want to , you can vote on the 'ugliest house of the year'. (I voted!) After looking at these houses, I really appreciate mine!

While surfing around I found a site with a section on what the author considers ugly houses. I have to agree about the color choices and yard decorations. Some of them are quite 'unusual' to say the least. Butt ugly houses of the universe. There is also a saga of the author's van, but that's another story.

I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I cannot believe anyone ever thought Tacoma's Deriugin house was beautiful. According to the site it has been torn down. I expect everyone in the immediate vacinity was relieved!

For some really unusual looking houses (and some really ugly houses), take a few minutes or an hour to explore Unusual houses (and other unusual items) on Unusual Life. It is astonishing to me what some people want to have in or around their domiciles.

I rather imagine every city of any size has some unusual houses and probably most of them are considered ugly. Take for example some of the unusual homes on Seattle Dream Homes. I always say, 'To each his own'. I wouldn't be interested in owning something like this, but obviously someone liked it.

Want to live in a 'space ship'? Just look on Strange Houses Around The World. Some really weird structures are pictured here and some of them, if not most, are somebody's home, even the melting house! (How about that monster!)

Check out the Architecture From Another Planet - 25 Incredible (Real) Abodes Some of the listings here are on other pages listed above, but the strange houses listed here have neat descriptions that tell more about each house. Fun, but not for me!

Martha

Tiny Houses

Little is Good!

TumbleWeed Houses, an alternative to McMansions and a lot less expensive!

I saw an article about living in a tiny house a while back. I really can't imagine living in one of these itsy bitsy dwellings, but then again, it would be a sure fire way to live back to basics!

They seem to have just about everything you really need (except closet space!) and they are really pretty complete. Cute too! The designer of these houses has even been on Oprah, so if you watch Oprah you may already know about these tiny palaces.

There are even some small house communities. The one in Geneva shows some really nice small houses, a little bigger than tiny, but certainly not big. A Tiny House Community

There is a website devoted to tiny houses of all sorts. A Tiny Houses Website. Some of these tiny houses are play houses or fishing shacks. Some are little garden houses and some are vacation houses, but they are all tiny. (And cute!)

You've probably heard at least once in your lifetime that everything is bigger in Texas. This is true even for tiny houses. Tiny Texas Houses look pretty nice and a bit more roomy that some of the other tiny houses I looked at on the 'net. I could afford one of those and it looks like I could just pick it up and move it if I wanted to as well.

These folks built their tiny house for about $6000. A Boat Builders Little House I don't think I am up to that, but if I had some help, maybe!

These little dwellings appeal to me, but somehow I don't think I would really like to live in one all the time. However, I think it might be fun
to try, just for a little while!

There seems to be more tiny houses than I realized! The tiniest houses in New York City comes with a not so tiny price! And not to be outdone, there is a tiny house in Toronto!  There is an email going around that says this house is in Brooklyn, but 'tisn't so.(The price is more reasonable too.)

Martha

Do Blogs Live Forever?

I wonder about a lot of things. Anyone would think that at my age I should know at least some of the answers. There are a lot of things I do know, even about stuff not computer related. But of course there is more I don't know about everything.

For instance, I wonder about blogs. I guess what I mean is, I wonder about the Blog writers. Do they really pour their heart and soul into an online journal on the Internet for the entire world to see and read? Or do they just make up stuff because they think it sounds good?

I have had a blog on blogger for a long time. Most of what I posted there was of a 'gripe' nature, about rebates, hotlinking and just general computer stuff. I wrote most of those posts because I was upset or mad about events in my life. Some I wrote because I thought it might help someone else that could be having a problem with their computer.

I like to read other people's blogs. Some of them are written by people I have met through online Yahoo Groups. Some are helpful blogs and some are just entertaining. There are blogs that tell about their lives, like Ross's Blog. Others are sort of like mine, a bit of rant and rave. I think some blogs are just a way to vent and get stuff out of 'our systems'. I know some of my blog posts are like that. (Think rebates!)

One of the things I have been wondering about is how long will a blog stay on the web? I came across a blog earlier this year that was written by a man who has reached the ripe old age of 90+. Don is an incredible writer and has one of the most interesting blogs I have read. He thinks a lot about life and death and I certainly understand that! While I am not that old yet, I am not a youngster either, so I think about life and death as well although I try not to dwell on those subjects too much, especially death.

Getting back to Don's Blog; he hasn't posted anything since March. Given his age, you have to wonder "Is he still with us? Has he quit posting because of ill health or is he 'gone'?" I hope he is just taking a break from blogging.

That made me start wondering just how long a blog will exist on a site like Blogger? Anyone know?

Martha

Fun With Geeky Toys

My friends all call me a 'geek' because I am just a bit more computer literate than most folks. I don't think of myself as a geek because I know there is so much I don't know about computers. One thing, I am totally hardware challenged. Well not totally, but almost.

I do like a lot of geeky toys, although some of them are just a little too geeky for me. I found some really cool geeky stuff while 'net surfing. A few of them are on my Christmas wish list, like LED Faucet lights. These are way too cool! And affordable as well!

I think this is kind of cool, but I don't think I will add this to my list.
Turn Your CD Collection Into Workspace Art...

I would really like to have one of these! But since it's a tad pricey I probably won't get one.  A Virtual Keyboard!

This could be handy, but I really don't want one of these, I think it's ugly!
Easy to see keyboard from X-Treme Geek.

How about a washable keyboard from Tiger Direct? Coffee drinkers should like this!

Everyone needs one of these, an any key!

Not a Rubik cube! It's an 'Irregular IQ Cube! Since I could never master the Rubik cube I'll have to pass on this one.

Every blogger needs a geeky blog T-shirt!

Most geeks can be sleepy heads in the morning. A sleepy-headed geek needs 'Clocky'!

And then when money is no object:
Top 10 Toys for Geeks who have Everything (Part Two)

Martha

Spider Webs and Botnets

A while back I wrote about Bugs and Spiders that had reference to a humongous spiderweb. Now those spiders are at it again and are busy spinning a second spiderweb across the lake from the first web. It really makes me wonder what the heck is going on with those spiders? Scary to most people, including me, but fascinating to 'spider people'.

Another scary thing that's going on is in the cyber-world, a 'botnet'. This botnet is a web of computers that have been infected by a nasty piece of malware known as Storm. In February the estimate number of compromised computers was over a million. Since February there have been several onslaughts of phishing emails designed to entrap the un-educated into visiting websites that once visited; secretly installed the worm (or Trojan Horse) known as Storm. This storm worm then added more and more of these zombie computers to the botnet.

The problems with this botnet are many. First, no one knows who is behind it, so there is no way law enforcement can stop it. The infected computers can be used to send out spam emails and other nefarious stuff. They can be used to steal the identity of the computer users, who have no idea their computer is infected. You can read more about all of this on Storm: The Largest Botnet in the World? Keep in mind this article was written back in February. It's a lot worse by now!

About two months ago most of us received a lot of messages telling us we had received an egreeting card from someone. The messages varied; the subject could say it was from a school-mate, family member, etc. It could have said it was a greeting card, an ecard, postcard, etc. but every one of the messages told you to go to a website to collect your greeting and if you did, guess what; you got worms! If you had updated anti-virus it may have protected you, but then again, maybe not!

Then came another little jewel in email that went something like this:

"Greetings, Here is your membership info for Cat Lovers."

Then it went on to provide you with a login and password. This little missive was intended to catch more unsuspecting users and give them a little 'stormy' present!

So as much as I fear spiders (and their webs), I am much more afraid of the enormous web known as a botnet! You should be afraid as well!

Martha

Those Wild Claims!

It seems as though almost every maker of almost everything is resorting to claims of how great their products are and why you should buy them.

There are the myriad weight loss products and each of them promises to make you lose those unwanted pounds. They all make it sound as though all you need to do is use the product and the weight will come off 'guaranteed'! But if you read the instructions you will find that in order for this product to really work, you need to follow the 'included diet plan' and 'get regular exercise'. Now maybe I am missing something here, but if you follow a diet and get regular exercise, why would you need their product?

If you haven't been annoyed by all those NutriSystem ads, lucky you! They promise you will lose weight by eating their 'delicious' meals and if you order NOW, you will get two weeks of food free. (Nothing is free if you have to buy something to get it.) Well, my theory about this and others of a similar nature is you spend all your food money on this product, it tastes so bad you can't eat it, so you lose weight. It seems as though I may be right according to someone else on 28 Days of NutriSystem.

A follow up for the above, NutriSystem: Day 5

One of the wildest claims I've seen in quite a while is for a 'memory pill'. This pill is so wonderful, it stops Alzheimer's in its tracks. It will make your memory so much sharper it's amazing! This pill will make you 33% smarter and even wake up 'dead' brain cells. I received a brochure in the mail for this fantastic pill. I can order a six month supply for only $269.70! Uh huh.

You can't read a magazine or watch TV without seeing commercials for extremely high priced medications. They are supposed to help you get better from conditions ranging from insomnia, 'restless leg syndrome', tummy aches and allergies to name just a few. Some of them are advertising products that would have been censored when TV was young. (I wish it was still like that!)

They show happy folks who have used/are using these outrageously priced drugs and supposedly all will be wonderful if you will just 'ask your doctor' if this product is right for you. (I would expect my doctor to know without me asking, but that's another story.) Then comes the disclaimer telling you about possible side effects. Just about every thing could be listed as a possible side effect, up to and including death!

Other commercials promise you such convenience to use their products. If only you take this drug for osteoporosis, you won't have to set aside time every week to take a pill. I wonder just how long does it take to take one pill?

What about all the car commercials! There is one showing a pickup truck hauling a boxcar out of a steep canyon. Well, maybe, but I have my doubts unless of course the boxcar is made of balsa wood or some other substance almost lighter than air. Another shows a truck stopping an airplane and not a little one either. I rather suspect the pilot has something to do with stopping that plane.

There is supposed to be something called 'Truth in Advertising'. I think the real truth is 'Don't believe it'! (But maybe I should order that memory pill!)

Martha

Natural

I read the labels when I shop for food. Unfortunately some of the labels require a degree in chemistry to determine what the actual ingredients are in a large percentage of supposedly edible food available in the local supermarkets.

One of the most misleading terms for ingredients listed on some labels is 'natural'. Natural for what? The food and drug industry seems to think that telling us everything is natural will somehow convince us that their products are good for us. When a label proclaims the product has 'all natural ingredients' my skeptic sense perks up. If there is anything listed that I have never heard of, I have to wonder who determines if it is natural or not.

I can tell you that although some things may be 'natural', it doesn't mean it's necessarily better to eat or drink. Take for instance bottled water. Well, it is all natural, but is it better? The water from every faucet in my house is also 'all natural'. A very well known purveyor of bottled water has recently confessed the water they sell is tap water, although they claim it has been filtered. Since I have a filter in my fridge for water and ice, is the bottled water better?

To really get nit-picky, bacteria and germs are 'natural', but I don't plan to knowing consume some of them known to kill people. Animal waste is 'natural'. A great many poisons know to kill humans are 'natural'. There are minerals that are 'natural', like lead and mercury. These natural things can kill you!

There is an entire industry of 'Natural Health' products. More than likely some of them are better for you than many of the 'Ask your Doctor' medicines that are being advertised in every conceivable way. However the only thing we know for sure about some of these 'natural' medicines is the fact that every alternative medicine purveyor is trying to get you to purchase them with some very outlandish claims that include everything from curing cancer to world peace. (OK, I made up the 'world peace' part, but you get my drift.)

I just wish that the word 'natural' could be replaced with this phrase, 'naturally occurring and maybe it is good for you or maybe not'. Pay your money and take your chances!

Martha

Strings

I thought about strings the other day. (I need to get a life!)

Have you ever noticed how many things seem to develop strings at the wrong time?

This can happen when dressing to go someplace, especially when you are in a hurry. You check yourself in a mirror and "Egads! There's a string hanging from the hem of my skirt!" ( I imagine you'll say something besides 'egads' but I want this to be kid friendly.)

Now you have to find the scissors to cut the string because if you pull it, chances are the entire hem will come undone!

Then there are the strings that suddenly show up on brand new towels, bath mats, etc. Funny, they didn't show strings when I bought them. I don't buy the most expensive of these, but I don't buy the real 'cheapies' either.

'Strings' have more than one meaning too. If you aren't really careful when talking about strings, someone may think you are talking about something other than what you mean.

Some musical instruments have strings, like violins, cellos, guitars, etc. If you mention 'I cut a string' to a violinist, he/she may think you are damaging a violin!

There is something called 'strings' in computer language as well. My friends all know I don't write computer programs so that is one confusion that doesn't happen to me, but I suppose it could happen to some folks. There is something called 'String functions' in web site pages as well.

There is something called String Theory. I haven't the vaguest idea what that is, but there are web sites about String Theory. I think it has something to do with Physics which has never been one of my strengths. Since I've been reading that you should never stop learning new things, maybe I will check into this later. My older son has a degree in Physics, so maybe he can explain String Theory to me.

My younger son said that if you pull someone's string they might fall apart!

Last night while playing with my dog, he got really wound up. My son said "Mom pulled his string!"

I imagine if I looked hard enough I would probably find more things named string or strings, but that is enough of stringing you along today.

Martha

Going 'Green'

There are a lot of articles in the newspaper, various magazines and news programs on TV about going green to help save the environment. This is good; we do need to do all we can to prevent greenhouse gases from increasing the advent of global warming. It is very good to recycle glass, newspapers, magazines, etc. If each of us can do our part to save some trees and save some energy, this is a good thing.

My family replaced all of our incandescent light bulbs with florescent last year. This was supposed to save money on the power bill but since we have a power company that keeps changing the rates it is a little difficult to tell how money we're saving, if any. The bulbs are supposed to last longer, but they do cost quite a bit more to buy.

We have recycled ever since it was an option to do so. Sometimes I wonder whether washing out the icky sticky cans and jars are really helping; it takes water and we have to conserve water as well.

We have a very small lawn and use a battery powered mower/trimmer and recently my son has used a push mower when the grass isn't too high.

Trips in the car are mostly for my son to go back and forth to work (no way to avoid that!) and shopping and errands are consolidated as much as possible to save gas and $$.

Today in my newspaper (If you have been following my blog, you knew that was coming, didn't you?) is a story about how four families are going green. Most of them are doing the same things that we are doing and since they have children, they are teaching them to be responsible and go 'green' whenever possible.

This is all good and I admire them for all their efforts but for one thing. I am NOT going to keep a bucket under my kitchen sink for vegetable scraps and earthworms to make compost!

And furthermore, I am not going to 'pickup' any furniture from the landfill! (The story showed a family sitting on a broken down sofa in the landfill.)

Martha

Candy Corn and Jelly Beans

I have a great big sweet tooth. (One of the reasons I don't seem to be able to lose weight!)

This time of the year the stores are already stocking the shelves with Halloween goodies and I just don't seem to be able to resist them. All the chocolate goodies, candy corn and jelly beans just seem to be calling my name as I walk down the candy aisle!

I don't dare buy my Trick or Treat candy too early or else I will have to buy more before Spooky Day arrives.

I have been reading food labels and making a real effort to buy food with healthy ingredients. It is hard sometimes to find food that doesn't
include plastic (partially hydrogenated oil) or high fructose corn syrup. Both of those ingredients are really bad for humans (the food industry is poisoning us), but I had been doing pretty good until that candy appeared on the shelves.

I am now almost broken hearted; I just read the ingredients on one of my favorite sweets, candy corn. It has the dreaded partially hydrogenated oil listed as one of the ingredients!

So now I have a real dilemma, enjoy with guilt my candy corn or suffer withdrawal while those around me indulge in my favorite sweet treat!

At least the jelly beans are OK even though they do have oh so much sugar in them.

Martha

Almanacs

I learned something the other day! There is more than one Farmers Almanac! There is the 'Old Farmer's Almanac' that was started way back in 1792, according to the newspaper. And there is the 'Farmer's Almanac' (without the 'Old' in the title) that was first published in 1818. (I wonder if there are any other publications going back that long ago!)

Both of these publications have lots of stuff in them, supposedly what farmers need to know about just about everything. They are more famous for the weather predictions.

The 'Old Farmers Almanac' is predicting a warmer winter with less snow and a hotter than usual summer. (In Texas that would be really hot as it is always hot in the summer time in Texas!) But the 'Farmers Almanac' (without the 'Old' in the title), is predicting a very cold winter, below normal and tamer and wetter weather in the summer.

Both of these publications are newsy and interesting. But viewing on the web is limited for the Old Farmers' Almanac unless you are willing to pony up some $$. You can get weather predictions on line for $4.98 each. Print editions available for the Old Farmers Almanac; 3 YR Subscription $24.95 each. The Old Farmers Store offers calendars, cookbooks and of course the Old Farmers Almanac.

The Farmers Almanac has a lot of stuff to view for free. There is a free newsletter as well. I signed up for the newsletter (I love newsletters!), and should start getting them before long. They have print editions as well; a 3 YR Subscription costs $14.99. The Farmers Store offers several interesting items including the Farmers Almanac.

Who to believe? I suspect regardless of what these publications say, it will be cold in the winter some place and hot in the summer every where!

Martha

Decipher This Please!

(or I can't read my own writing!)

I sometimes take notes when I am reading so that I can write about the subject later. Sometimes I get ideas that need to be jotted down someplace before I forget them.

The problem with this note taking is this; unless I use notepad in my computer, I may not be able to read what I wrote. Just today I was going through my notes and decided to write down everything I did when setting up my wireless network. I did take notes, but not in notepad.

I usually write stuff up within a day or two of writing it down, but this time I neglected to write it up right away. So I decided to write up before my notes got lost about a week later. At the very beginning there is a reference to 'central pond'. Hm, what the heck is central pond? After trying to figure out more of my illegible note and seeing a reference to 'wrkgrp' (probably workgroup), I decided that central pond was really control panel.

By this time I started to remember the exact step and just wrote it all up from memory.

What really has me wondering though is how do pharmacists read those really bad chicken scratches that doctors write on prescription pads? If I can't read my own scrawls, how do they read the doctor's?

Martha

Fun With USB

(or stuff I don't need, but think it would be fun to have)

You probably thought USB stuff was for computers, but you were wrong; I know I was. There are web sites that have almost anything you can think of for those USB ports on your computer.

Some of us still insist on keeping our favorite drinks handy while using our computers even though we know liquids are not good for keyboards. If you are like me, you may forget to drink your coke while it is cold and warm coke is 'yucky'. What could be handier than a USB mini fridge to keep it cool!

Or how about a USB mini vacuum cleaner to get all the crumbs out of your keyboard? (Eating while sitting in front of the computer is really not a good idea)

Do you work in an office where the boss or whoever is in charge of the thermostat wants the temperature just slightly above freezing? You can get some USB gloves to warm your hands.

You can get a lava lamp or maybe some retro lamps. How about a motorized ashtray if you are a smoker?

A bigfoot cam, a pencil sharpener, FM radio and a host of other USB Toys are all available; just waiting to be plugged into one of your USB ports.

There is one thing that really might be handy, a CD destroyer! I have stacks of old CDs that were used to back up data. This could be the answer on how to get rid of them!

Martha

The Blob

Steve McQueen starred in a movie back in the 50s called The Blob. The 'Blob' was apparently an alien creature that was very hungry and every time it 'ate' someone by rolling over them and apparently absorbing them; it got bigger. When it got loose in a movie theater it got really big!

Last night on my local news there was a segment about mysterious blobs being found on and near the shores of a local lake. The pictures shown looked like a miniature of The Blob as in the movie! Icky!

Oh my, what strange things are happening here in Texas! First it's the humongous spider web with thousands of spiders and now it's the blob!

Well, it turns out the blob isn't going to eat anyone and get bigger. (So they say! But Lake Grapevine is closed to the public! Are they really just trying to protect us?)

In a press release, the City of Grapevine said each one "is a colony of millions of tiny organisms (freshwater invertebrates called moss animals or 'zooids'). The colony exudes a protective gelatinous material that makes it resemble a big ball of jelly."

Mysterious Blob

They cause no harm, and their presence signifies good water quality. They actually clean the water by eating microscopic plants.

When they dry up, they turn into a paper like substance that crumbles and disintegrates.

I think Steve McQueen had to trap his big Blob in a diner and freeze it to stop it. Then they flew it to the Arctic so it wouldn't thaw and start eating more people. Hm, with global warming do you think the blob will come alive and start getting big again with the polar bears?

The spiders have rebuilt their giant web again after the last rain. It's not just one kind of spider either; at least twelve kinds have been identified. What's going on here in Texas?

Martha

Old News From the BBB

(Very old)

In our newspaper today there were two very large notices. One was about preventing identity theft and it contained a lot of very good information.

But the other notice leaves me wondering, 'who wrote this and how long ago was it written?' The notice/ad was about buying computers. It started off by telling folks who were considering getting a computer for the very first time how to decide what to get, depending on what they planned to do with the computer. So far, so good.

Then the notice went on to say they could save money by having a custom built computer. Uh, no, they can't. This was true several years ago, but not now. The price of new computers for average personal use has dropped to unbelievable lows. Unless a user is into editing high end graphics or graphic intensive games, a very decent computer can be purchased for a whole lot less than one can be built.

It got worse. The writer told the buyer of a custom built computer to run diagnostics on it as soon as they picked it up from the shop where it was built. Now any computer builder worth using would do this before the customer picked it up, but that is not the worst. The writer went on to say 'Use a diagnostic like Norton Utilities for Win 3.1, Win 95, Mac. etc.' What time machine did this writer step from? Win 3.1? Oh dear! And I am pretty sure you can't get a Mac built by anyone except Apple!

This writer had absolutely no idea what he was writing about! However, I suspect this was a re-cycled article from archives.

See, you can't believe everything you read, even from sources that are usually reliable. While all of the above was probably true at one time, it sure isn't true now!

Martha

TV Guide Has to Go

I got my new TV Guide today. I am appalled! There is a series about the 'ten hot' new shows. There is one I might watch out of the ten. After reading the reviews, They would have to pay me to watch them and I doubt they would pay enough. So if this lineup is what TV Guide thinks are 'hot', then I no longer need TV Guide.

I recall someone saying that TV is a vast wasteland. It becomes more so every year. My list of programs to watch gets smaller every year.

Even the news is getting to the point I don't want to watch. Most of the news media is to the 'left'. A few are to the 'right'. I wish there was at least one that is in the 'middle'!

The local news is filled with depressing stuff, like a father making his son live outdoors under his mobile home to punish him for not completing laps fast enough. Or some poor deranged person has forty starving and dying cats in the house. Every day there is either a murder or attempted murder, home invasions, road rage, etc and the list goes on and on. There doesn't seem to be any good news anywhere!

Martha

Educate!

I wish I could wave a magic wand and educate computer users! I really just wish they would use their brains and read about security before they blindly connect to the Internet and click on every link on every page and every link in email.

Admittedly, the news media is a 'bit' slow warning about new schemes to entrap computer users.

I guess I am day dreaming about educating folks who just don't read because they can't be bothered. Some are like an elderly relative of mine who once told me "They couldn't print it if it wasn't true" and believed everything the media printed or said, regardless of the source. These are the folks who buy from sp*mmers, and believe all of the hoax emails they receive. These are the folks that keep the Nigerian scammers in business.

Please, please! Follow these rules!

Never connect your computer to the Internet without a virus scanner! NEVER! (Yes I am shouting, I have to get through to you somehow!)
Make sure the virus definitions are updated!
If you think you must use Internet Explorer, TURN ACTIVEX OFF!
Use spyware scanners, at least three! Everyday!
Use a firewall! One that will tell you if something is trying to 'phone home' (spyware). This means a third party firewall. Windows firewall in Windows XP will NOT do this.

Keep Window updated! Microsoft doesn't send out security updates to aggravate you, they send them out to close security holes that let scumbags get in to your computer.

When reading email, do NOT click on links in email from people you don't know. NEVER! NEVER! I repeat, NEVER!
There are hundreds, maybe thousands of 'Zombie' computers sending out emails hoping you will click one of those links and if you do, your computer will probably be a 'Zombie computer as well.

Delete unopened emails from strangers! Delete emails with attachments from friends, unless you are expecting them.

In case you don't know what a 'Zombie' computer is, it is a computer that has been infected by a worm that enables spammers, virus writers, etc. to take over a computer and cause it to send out more emails to unsuspecting people that will click on links and you guessed it, turn their computers into 'Zombies'.

If you fell for the latest scam and clicked the link in the greeting card (post card, ecard, egreeting card) email that is flooding in-boxes every day, you probably have a Zombie' computer already. Have fun re-installing Windows and I hope you have a backup of all your important files.

Martha

Martha's Web

Ruining chocolate

I used to think you couldn't ruin chocolate. I was wrong.

There was an article in the newspaper recently describing this abomination!

How can anyone be so cruel as to cover bugs with perfectly good chocolate! What a terrible way to ruin chocolate!

Some so-called gourmet folks seem to think that it's OK to waste perfectly good chocolate to cover ants, worms, roaches and other yucky things. I can't imagine eating even one of those chocolate covered ickies! Even though I consider myself a chocoholic, I still draw the line someplace and that's the line, no bugs!

Not only do these people who desecrate chocolate sell these so called treats, they even have recipes so you can make your own. Ewwwww! A Google search for 'Chocolate Covered Insects' got over 800,000 hits!

Sometimes I think I really must quit reading the newspaper, but it's such a good source of stuff to write about!

Martha

If Someone Makes It, Someone Will Buy It

I know people can do some pretty dumb things. I see that every day on the news. I see it in the newspaper all the time. Sometimes I see or read something that just leaves me flabbergasted.

Like today! A famous designer whose name I refuse to mention has made a purse that costs $52,500. No, that's not a typo! Apparently only 24 are available worldwide and at least one of them has been sold to a celebrity. (A celebrity with more money than sense!) I have no doubt that there are 23 more idiots that will buy the rest. I say idiots, because that is what anyone who spends that kind of money on an ugly purse is an idiot! The picture shown in the paper is of a purse that I wouldn't have if it was given to me.

For that kind of money you would think it should at least be gorgeous!

It gets worse! A competitor for this designer is making a bag that will cost $260,150! But at least this purse will have diamonds adorning it. I keep thinking of that old phrase "A fool and his money are soon parted”. In my wildest dreams I simply cannot imagine paying that much money for something as trivial as a purse. If I was rich I could see myself paying that much for a car, (maybe!) but a purse? No way, never, never!

Now I know that celebrities are always doing things to get noticed, including stupid things. That's why some of them are famous. Anything to get more 'press' seems to be the norm. However, being a member of the 'super rich' for some seems to give license to another phrase "I have no common sense".

Martha 

The Monster in the Closet

Nearly every modern home has one. For years this monster lurks, just waiting. Then one day when you least expect it, you are attacked!

If you have a dog, the dog knows this is a devil just waiting for you to let down your guard. The dog will bark trying to alert you; if only you will listen! Sometimes the poor dog is so overcome with fear of this beast he will just hide some place until the monster goes back to his lair, usually in a closet.

The monster in my closet finally showed his true colors one day not long ago. Fortunately I made the right move and escaped unharmed. I will now be on guard and hopefully this beast will not entrap me as it did my poor sister-in-law.

She did escape with only a broken bone in her hand, but now she is suffering from pain and bruises as well as an itchy cast. I think we have all warned her so that now she will leave the monster in the closet.

So for all you unwary owners of the dreaded beast known as a vacumn cleaner, beware! The long tail of the monster waits to wrap around your legs and trip you. (Worst of all, you actually have to use it before it will clean!)

Martha

Persistance Pays!

Sometimes I put minor computer problems off, waiting for the right time to fix.

Guess it was that time. Back in April I got the latest version of Corel's Paint Shop Pro to use on Vista. I uninstalled the trial and then installed the full retail version.

Every time I started Paint Shop Pro, I got a splash screen telling me I had thirty days left on my trial.

Not funny!

Editing the Registry, deleting all the files for Corel I could find was to no avail, every time I used PSP that stupid splash screen came up and I had to click OK to get the program to load. Corel's support just told me to do what I had told them I had already done. 'Support' means different things to different people, and that was not support.

I uninstalled PSP and again, deleted everything I could find with the name Corel on it. By this time I just decided to install it on another computer and forget about it. (Folks who know me will figure out this won't be the end of this.) This was in April.

Fast forward to August. I still hadn't installed PSP on my other computer; it already had an older version installed. By now I have found more of the little nooks and crannies where Vista hides things. So once more I do a hunt for all things Corel and sure enough; I found another Corel folder. It contained that screen that kept popping up telling me about the trial. I deleted it and reinstalled Paint Shop Pro. It installed nicely and now when I open it there is no aggravating trial notification.

Martha

Copycat Recipes

I recently saw an ad for a cookbook containing secret recipes from a number of restaurants such as Red Lobster, Olive Garden, etc.

The come-on to buy the cookbook is how much money you can save by cooking these recipes yourself and not going out to eat.

I suppose you could save some money this way, and it might be nice to see what goes into those dishes you like. But I don't understand something about this.

Isn't the whole point of going out to eat is so you don't have to cook? I know that's the reason I want to go out to eat!

Martha

Scamp

I have a dog named Scamp. Maybe I should say Scamp has me, because he seems to be the boss!



My younger son brought this rambunctious Cocker Spaniel into our lives almost 14 years ago. He was about six weeks old at the time and was already a little scamp, which was why he was named Scamp.

This ornery little pooch wants someone to be with him all the time. During the day he sleeps in his doggy bed placed next to my computer desk. He raises his head and looks around at me and then goes right back to sleep. If, however, he raises his head looks around and doesn't see me, he jumps up and hunts until he finds me. My sons say he's on a 'Mommy hunt'.

This morning Scamp wanted more attention than usual. Early and I do mean early, this morning he woke everyone up whining and scratching at my son's bedroom door. Now if you have a dog and he starts this behavior; you will get up and see what this is about because he probably needs to go outside. So my son got up and let him out. Then he starts barking to come in and mom wakes up. We let him in and all go back to bed.

About 20 minutes later the whining, scratching and barking begins again. So this time I go outside with him. He runs around the patio and wants to go back in the house. It is now about 5:30 AM and I am thoroughly awake, so I turn on the coffeepot and my computer. Before long, Scamp is asleep like nothing is going on.

I am reminded that when my younger son was about six weeks old, he would wake up in the middle of the night and just wanted to be held.

Kids and dogs; love them both!

 

Martha

Bugs and Spiders, Oh My!

I don't like bugs. In fact it is pretty accurate to say I hate bugs. Roaches, ants and bugs in general; I hate them all.

Where I live there are a lot of (shudder) spiders! All sizes of spiders, big spiders, small spiders and even some teeny tiny spiders. I am not sure what kind they are, although I did kill a black widow in the garage a few weeks ago. I am pretty sure most of them are not really dangerous other than giving me the creeps. I even found a scorpion on the kitchen floor the other day!

This is a relatively new housing development; most of the houses in this are are less than three years old. I suppose we have moved into the wild habitat of these little but scary creatures. However, I still don't want to share living space with them. As long as they stay outdoors I won't bother them, but I do NOT want them in the house!

I once saw a really creepy movie about spiders. They invaded and took over everything! Spooky, but I knew it was just a movie.

Now it looks almost like that movie in a park here in Texas! The Internet is all a buzzing about this huge spider web in Lake Tawakoni State Park. It covers several trees, bushes and even the ground in places. It is so scary some people won't go near it. (I would be one of those people!) Web sites like USA Today and a lot more have stories about this huge spider web.

They do say just about anything can have a good side and this huge web is trapping thousands of mosquitoes! Sometimes folks can hear them screaming! (I don't like mosquitoes either!)

Big Spider Web


Martha

Customer Service

Whatever happened to 'real' customer service? If you are old enough you may remember there was a time when the meaning of customer service was that someone would help you if you had a problem.

Merchants would provide this service to customers with a problem, hence the title 'Customer Service'. Years ago, there was also another phrase, 'The customer is always right'. This meant even if the customer wasn't right, the merchant would try to 'make things
right'. Sometimes merchants would even follow up with phone calls or letters to make sure a customer was satisfied with the results of contacting the 'Customer Service' department.

That was then and then there is now.

My newspaper has a column named 'The Watchdog'. The folks behind this column try to help people with problems that should have been taken care of by a now so-called Customer Service' department.

Some of the most frustrating instances seem to involve seniors, who certainly don't need to be punished by the lack of customer service. Case in point, a lady who was billed over and over again for a bill she had already paid. Numerous copies of the cancelled check were provided to no avail. If she hadn't contacted the Watchdog who managed to get the problem resolved, who knows how long this would have continued?

When the Watchdog gets involved, these problems are generally quickly solved. I suspect merchants, companies, etc. don't want to find themselves maligned in print which is read by a great many people. They manage to all of a sudden find what caused the problem and immediately get it resolved.

What I want to know, why couldn't Customer Service resolve the issues? I suspect the reasons may be lack of interest; the representatives have no real power to fix problems, not enough training and the list goes on and on. The real reason is the companies, merchants, etc. don't really care about their customers. Oh they pay lip service as in the infamous line to customers on hold, 'Your call is important to us', yadda yadda yadda. I truly believe they just hope customers will go away and stop bothering them. This is especially true for utility companies as they know there is no other place to get water, phone service, etc.

More about Customer Service later!

Martha

Stuff

I used to have a house chock-a-block full of 'stuff'. Some of it was pretty good stuff, but most of it was really just junk. Mind you it was good junk! I thought I just had to keep it.

A lot of this 'good' junk was acquired shopping at garage sales, yard sales, junk stores and flea markets. At one time in my life I would go through withdrawal if I couldn't go to some kind of junk sale.

Then events happened in my life that made me realize I didn't really need all of this 'good' junk. It started about 21 years ago when I moved from one city to another. While packing up to move, I realized a lot of the so called treasures I had accumulated through 'junk' shopping was really just junk. So I had a massive garage sale of my own and sold a big portion of my junk treasures. I said to myself, "Self, never get this much junk again!"

Ah, how good intentions can go awry! The house we moved to wasn't as big as the last house and some more of my treasures again left through the event known as a yard sale. I promised myself if something new came through the front door, then something old would go out the back door. Didn't happen though.

Two years ago I moved again. This time it was a real nightmare! I couldn't believe how much stuff had been accumulated in those 19 years. I had several months to get ready as we were waiting on the new house to be built and completed. It was a good thing I had that much time as I wouldn't have made it otherwise. Even then it was a terrible time, deciding what to keep, what to get rid of and where to dispose of it all.

A good deal of it went to Good Will, more to the trash and a lot to the local Freecycle Yahoo Group.

Some went to friends and relatives and some to a charitable resale shop. I sold over a housand books. In the end, only really good 'stuff' got moved to the new house. However I have a sneaky suspicion some of what I think is 'good' stuff needs a recalulation and may need to go somewhere else to live.

Yesterday one of my neighbors had a garage sale and all at once the old yearning to prowl through someone else's stuff came over me. I watch the Antiques Road Show and still hope one day to find a real bargain on an extraordinary treasure! I looked through all of the offered goodies and admired some of them, although no valuable treasures jumped out at me. I was very good. I bought 3 books which will go to Half-Price Books once I read them.
Martha

A Flaming Mixer

I just know I need one of these, a flaming mixer! Now it doesn't really have flames; it just looks like flames!  You know, like the flames painted on 'hot' cars! I suppose I could get by with something else, but those flames just look so cool. Apparently you can buy stickers to put on your mixer, according to an article in the paper.

A lot of other folks are making their mixers look like something they aren't, like some of the folks in the *"Bling Your Mixer"* contest. I think I would rather have the flames though, they look pretty cool.

Now if only those 'blinged' mixers could mix on their own and make delectible goodies, I would be all for having one.  However, I think you still have to put the stuff in the bowl and turn on the mixer and then pour it into the appropriate recepticle to finish it up. Sigh! One of these days they will invent a kitchen robot that can be programmed to do all that kitchen stuff. Then I will get excited!

In the meantime I think I will pass on the stickers and just leave my mixer in the pantry. Out of sight and out of mind.

Martha

Enjoying it While it Lasts

I have a new email address. It really isn't new, because I have had it awhile, but didn't use it. I checked it today and there was nothing there except two emails that were very old. No spam, no new messages and the spam filter was turned off. Oh boy!

I am so tired of all the Phishing emails! A new phish is introduced at least one a month and there must be a cajillion zombie computers out there, sending all of the phishes on command from whoever is running that malware scheme! I am so tired of all those emails trying to sell me stuff; especially for parts of anatomy that I don't have!

I don't expect the clean in-box to last very long, but I will enjoy it while it lasts. Someone (or several someones), on one of my many email lists has one of those Zombie computers! The sad thing is, that someone has no idea what is a zombie computer and is just wondering why the computer is so slow.

I am working on a plan to keep this email clean for a while, but it probably won't work. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained! Anyway, I am enjoying it now!

Martha

Carbon Offset

Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon about 'going green'. Generally speaking, I think that is a good thing. We need to conserve our resources, water, energy etc.

However, this idea of 'paying a carbon offset' is a bunch of hooey! All it amounts to is someone has figured out a way to make money from 'going green'. You send them money to assuage your guilty conscience about using so much energy. They put the money to use and then sell what they do to people with more money than sense. There may be some of these folks who are really trying, but if you put ‘carbon offset’ into a Google search field, you will get almost two million hits. Figure it out.

Supposedly if you drive your car to work every day, go on a road trip or fly to your favorite vacation spot; you can 'pay' a carbon offset to make up for the pollution your car or airplane ride puts into the air. Nuts! I don't care how much you pay, the pollution is still there. You can pay all you want, no one has yet figured out a way to get paying money will remove the carbon that modern life has filled our atmosphere. True, there are projects that are trying to find ways to clean up the junk, but you can do your part by using some common sense.

Go green by turning off appliances when they are not being used. This includes lights and TVs. Replace your light bulbs with energy saving florescent bulbs. They do cost more, but last a lot longer and don't burn nearly as much energy. The old incandescent bulbs give off heat. If you live in any area that is hot and you have air conditioning, that heat just makes your cooling unit work that much harder.

There are so many ways to conserve energy. I won’t list them here, but nearly every utility company has a website with tons of ways to save energy listed.

Some of the projects that are supported by the ‘carbon offset’ sites include planting trees and shrubs. This is a good thing; planting trees and shrubs is always good. I think there is a society that has been practicing this for a very long time, The National Arbor Day Foundation.

They will send you free trees to plant. Just read this article The Carbon Neutral Myth! It is pretty large pdf file, but worth reading.

Martha

The TV

I think I want my money back! The TV is not showing anything good anymore! An article in the paper described some of the new fall lineup for TV and now I know what is meant by a 'vast wasteland'.

What happened to the good shows? I guess those little jerks in TV writer-land think all of the mature people in the world don't watch TV anymore and guess what? We don't!

Is it really entertaining to watch a so-called comedy show that consists of no plot, sexual innuendos and put-downs? Not for me; and my family and friends all agree.

And what about all those Reality shows? Tell me, do you really like to watch people eat worms or try to get the other people thrown off the island or where ever they happen to be? Is this what people really find entertaining?

I recall reading sometime ago that once a writer hits the 30 year old mark; they are considered 'too old' in Hollywood. Well if that's the case maybe that explains all of the drivel being displayed on TV these days.

If it weren't for the Science, Learning, Discovery and National Geographic channels, I wouldn't have anything to watch! Except of course, my favorite sport, FOOTBALL!  (Guess I'll keep my TV for now)

Martha

Do the Paperwork

Today in my newspaper there is an article titled "Do the Paperwork and Get Your Rebate Money".

The article goes on to tell folks 'How to get your rebate'. Follow all the instructions, make copies, yadda yadda yadda. It also tells you what to do if you never receive the rebate. (Better mark this one for a follow-up!)

I have much better advice! Just don't buy anything that has a rebate! Just look what you will gain by following this advice. A huge time saving consisting of the following items. Unless you need it today, sooner or later someone will put it on sale without a rebate.

No trying to read the tiny print telling you what to send.
No cutting out all the tiny UPC codes, locating serial numbers, etc.
No having to make sure you beat the deadlines for sending all the required stuff.
No making copies and filing them away because you will undoubtedly need them later.
No checking the mail in vain looking for a rebate check.
No making calls (if you can find a phone number) to find out what happened to your rebate.
No getting denied your rebate because of a 'mistake' in what you sent. (One rebate center tried to tell me I mailed it too late. I mailed it the day I bought it! Eventually I did get the $$, but only after many calls and threats!)
No writing letters of complaint to the Attorney General of your state or anyone else you can think to write, because you didn't get what was promised.

Rebates have to be the best consumer rip-off ever conceived. They are legal (shouldn't be) ways to make consumers think they are getting a good deal and the sad thing is the fact that consumers have to jump through too many hoops to (maybe) get what was promised.

Whatever happened to just putting something on sale?  If people would just boycott those rebate promises, pretty soon they would go away and save consumers a lot of grief!

I'm still reading the paper. Where else would I get such good material to write about?

Martha

The Dress Code Re-visited

I am appalled! It's no wonder school kids think it's OK to go out dressed like they are going to a ragbag party! Their moms go out wearing their pajamas!

A front page spread in a section of today's paper showed how moms can leave the house in their sleepy-time clothes looking stylish! The title of the article was 'The Slipper Club'.

Please tell me moms don't really do this! Since all of the pictures of the 'cutesy' dressed moms in their jammies gave information on where to buy all of the so-called outfits, I thought maybe the merchants in the article were behind all of this drivel. But I am afraid that wasn't the case.

The article started with the reason why moms don't dress before they leave the house to take the kids (I hope the kids are dressed!) to school.  The poor mommies don't have time to dress!

Now if this isn't the worst reason why moms don't dress in the morning, I have yet to hear it. Don't have time? Then get up just five minutes earlier. I am not suggesting they have to put on makeup, panty hose (I bet they don't wear panty hose anywhere!) or dress like they are going to the opera, but how long does it take to put on jeans and a blouse?

Most children learn from their parents more than any other way. What they learn, good or bad, depends on what examples are set before them.  Not taking the time to dress properly before leaving the house certainly is not the way to set an example for kids.  I wonder how a mom would feel if she was involved in traffic accident and the police talked to her in her jammies? I would hope she would be so embarrassed she would never leave the house again unless she was properly dressed.

Perhaps the schools should also publish a list of what moms should wear while delivering their kids to school.  Maybe then the kids wouldn't need to be told they can't wear pajamas to school. This was one of the items on the list of 'not allowed'.

I really have to stop reading the paper!

Martha

The School Dress Code

I'm afraid! I think this is a sign of the times, and it 'ain't' good!

This week in the Sunday paper there was a big article about going back to school and the article included the School Dress Code.

There was a list of what is acceptable and another list of what is unacceptable. By the time I had read that list; I was fuming! Good grief, what are parents thinking of? If I had a school age child, he/she wouldn't even own some of the things on the unacceptable list!

Schools shouldn't have to be responsible for what kids are wearing to school! This is what parents should be doing! Parents should make sure their daughters don't look like they are going out to work on street corners. They should make sure their sons wear pants with belts so the bare parts of their lower anatomy aren't showing.

I can't imagine what parents who try to do the right things must be going through these days. There seem to be a lot of kids whose parents give in, don't care or otherwise are not involved with how their off-spring appear in public. I can just imagine the fights and arguments that parents who don't give in, who do care and are totally involved with how their off-spring appear in public, have with sons and daughters.

I looked at some of the store circulars in the Sunday paper as well. Oh my heavens! If I had a daughter I wouldn't want her to see that crap that passes for fashion! Those teen-age models look like trollups!

Again, parents are responsible for the stores sell. If parents wouldn't buy that tacky, revealing and otherwise awful stuff, the stores would not have it for sale.

I think I must have been born 40 years too soon and I also think I may have to quit reading the paper, my blood pressure may not take it.

Martha

Computer Brands

I just hate it when someone starts bad-mouthing a program I use and like. I hate it even more when they start telling me how ‘bad’ my computer manufacturer is.

Recently I was involved in a rather ’spirited’ argument about PCs and Macs. This is an argument that no one is likely to win.

There are a lot of reasons why I don’t have an Apple computer, the first and main reason is price. In order to use a Mac, for what I do on a computer, I would have to pay a lot more money for the programs I use. I would also have to learn how to use the programs as the programs I use are not available for a Mac. Apple programs rend to be a lot pricier than programs for a PC.

The argument that an Apple computer is a lot safer than a PC is quite good, but I have never had a security breach, virus, worm or trojan on any of my computers since 1994. I did have one virus then, and learned my lesson about security on computers. I got the virus from a floppy disk, who knows how it got there. I guess if I was into going to questionable web sites, opened strange attachments, etc., I might have had more problems.

I like HP computers. The reason I like them is I have had four of them and none of them ever caused any problems. They are affordable and I can go to just about any place that sells computers and buy one. I can look at it, test the keyboard, view the display and decide on which model I want.

I hear people say they are ‘No good’, a piece of c**p, etc. Well, if they are that bad, how come they are the number one or two (depending on the current market) sellers of computers? If they were as bad as some folks say they would soon be out of business!

I have some friends that have Dell computers. They are good computers, perform well and I have only had to fix problems for them a few times. The problems were user related, not hardware related. But I don’t like the look and feel of the keyboards. This is a personal thing with me and the reason I won’t buy a Dell.

I have a new HP laptop ordered and it has a 17 inch screen. Dell also has a laptop with a 17 inch screen. But the keyboard on that laptop looks exactly the same as the keyboard on the 15 inch screen and does not have a keypad. Folks, I have to have my keypad! I could get a separate keypad, but with the HP laptop I won’t have to because it has one.

I ordered this laptop with Microsoft Vista Ultimate installed. I have also been in another rather spirited argument about how Vista is ‘bad’. The people arguing have been using beta versions of Vista and I guess they don’t like it, mostly because of what is known as DRM (Digital Rights Management). I have been using my new laptop with Vista Ultimate for about six months and so far I like it! It has a pretty ‘face’ and I do like my eye candy! However, that’s not the only reason I like it. The verdict is still out as to whether I will like it later.

I still like Windows XP and I will not upgrade to Vista on my computer with XP installed. It has always been my experience that upgrades are just not as good as clean installs and are prone to more problems.

Martha

Lemons

Have you ever heard of a ‘lemon’? Not the kind you eat, but a product. It could be a car, a kitchen appliance or in the case of this article, a computer. A lemon in this aspect is a particular item in a line of mostly very good products, but this item has many problems that just can’t seem to be fixed. One problem after another occurs.

There are not as many ‘lemons’ these days, as quality control is much better than in the past. However, there are still the few ‘lemons’ that manage to get sold to a frustrated consumer.

Most people don’t buy a computer every year. When they buy a computer, they usually are influenced by what friends who already own a model of the computer they are thinking about, ads they may see on TV, etc.

If someone has had a bad experience with a particular computer, they will tell the prospective computer buyer, “Don’t get a XXXX computer!”

This may or may not be good advice. There are a lot of reasons why a computer may cause problems, just like there are a lot of reasons why a car, or an appliance might cause problems. It could even be, a lemon!

Unfortunately, a lot of ‘lemons’ are not the fault of the manufacturer, but are caused by the owner of the ‘lemon’. A computer, just like any other appliance requires maintenance. The problem is, computers require more maintenance on a regular basis than just about any other appliance. Depending on how a computer owner uses the computer, this maintenance may be required as often as daily.

A computer is much more susceptible to power fluctuations than most other appliances. A power surge that won’t affect other appliances can cause damage to a computer. A very strong surge protector should be used with every computer item that is plugged into an electrical outlet. An even better option is to use what is known as a ‘UPS’ or Uninterruptible Power Source. This can not only prevent damage to a computer, but can also give users a chance to save their work in the event of a power failure. (Just because you use a laptop doesn’t mean you are safe, if you have the laptop plugged into an electrical outlet your laptop is a risk of a power surge.)

A surprising number of computer users do not use security programs. An unprotected computer can be infected with virus, worms, trojans and spyware. This can cause data loss, an immense slow down of processing power and general all round havoc.

Martha

Side Tracked

Yesterday I really intended to post on my new blog (here) but I got major side tracked! I nearly always read my email before I do any writing. Yesterday one of the emails I read led me to another blog; I clicked on a link there that took me to my favorite web page validation service and decided to check a page on my web site. OMG, what happened to my site? At least a fifth of the pages had ERRORS! Some of them had a LOT of errors! So I spent most of the day fixing code errors. Some were minor, but those can be hard to track down! I think that sneaky Front Page has been adding stuff to those pages; they validated when they were created!

I decided to stop using FrontPage for my site; from now on it will be strictly Expression Web!

Martha 

There Are Blogs

I wonder just how many blogs there are on the Internet? I suspect the number may be in the millions by now. I think just about everyone who uses the Internet has probably thought about making a blog and there are so many places are available to put one with almost no effort. So even if just a small fraction of Internet users have a made a blog, well the number of blogs just about bloggles, I mean boggles, my mind!

I made another blog on blogger.com, but I really don't post there very often. I plan to do better with this one!

I find the older I get, the more I rant about everyday stuff, like fashion (it's awful), the drug companies and a slew of other stuff. So I will vent here.

So here is to my happy blogging!

Martha

A Follow up Mystery on Poor 'jackass'!

Something funny going on here! The domain name 'wallasasa.com' was "Created On: 24-Jul-2007 00:00:00" according to Whois.

Now is this a coincidence? Created on the same day as my original post about jackass@wallasasa.com? Did someone decide to get a domain name that seems to already be out there? Did poor jackass@wallasasa.com just make up the email address so he/she could spam websites? The mystery deepens!

The biggest question for me is why would anyone want a domain name associated with a spammer? Did poor jackass decide to make his email address legitimate at last? Why would he as it would finally lead a trail back to his infinite spamming?

Ah, who knows what wallasasa.com will eventually become? Or will it be just another domain parked somewhere in cyberspace? Burning questions not but it does make me wonder!

Martha

Martha's Web
Martha's Place

And an FYI, wallasasa.com is apparently supposed to be a site for finding other sites that contain records. And unless you really like pop-ups and pop-unders, avoid this site, to find what you want, use Google instead!

Poor 'jackass'!

Who is this poor fellow "jackass@wallasasa.com"?

I first noticed him when he (she?) starting spamming the feedback form on my website, Martha's Web. Being curious about so many user names with all the same email address, I Googled the email address. Wow, over 12,000 hits!

I think he must be very lonely! Maybe he is a druggie trying to kick the habit! He uses user names like 'Drug abuse rehab', 'Substance abuse treatment program' or 'Alcohol and drug abuse treatment center'. Maybe he wants to move! He also uses user names like 'mover houston', 'dallas movers' or 'moving company houston'. maybe he doesn't like where he lives and wants to come to Texas.

Poor 'jackass'! He has way too much time on his hands! He seems to be very fond of website guest books and contact forms. And he isn't discriminating, either. He puts his email address on forms everywhere, regardless of language!

So far I have identified Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Czech, Arabic, Hindu and some other languages I am not sure about. He likes English sites as well, U.S., Canada, British, etc.

He really isn't very original in his user names after all. Since I looked at the various 'hits' on Google, I see he is adopting domain names for his user names.

While he is rather annoying, spam filters are catching his Feedback entries for me. It's just too bad this poor 'jackass' has nothing better to do than harass website owners. Just think, if he had been doing something constructive in the time he wasted 'spamming' web forms, he could have become rich or famous, not 'infamous'!

Martha

Martha's Web
Martha's Place

'Zoom' in Outlook 2007

I am using Outlook 2007. When replying to a message in HTML format, I somehow managed to get into a 'Zoom' mode of only 10%. This made the message totally unreadable of course and I could not see what I was typing. I tried forwarding the message, same thing. I tried another message in text format, same thing.

Since I don't recall ever seeing 'Zoom' in previous versions of Outlook, I had no idea what was going on. A search of Microsoft's Outlook 2007 site was a search in vain. Since I didn't know I was in 'Zoom' 10%, I had no inkling that I should be searching on 'Zoom'.

I am persistent and started looking through every one of the countless menus that are now in Outlook 2007, depending on what you are doing. Menus in new messages, replying or forwarding seem to have 'growed like Topsy'! (As far as that goes, all menus in Office 2007 seem to be a lot more and until I got a tad familiar with the way they are done, very hard to navigate.)

Just about the time I thought the update for Outlook 2007 that I had installed earlier had somehow broken Outlook, I discovered 'Zoom'. I guess it could come in handy, but I sure would like to know how I managed to get 'Zoom' with 10% in the first place, as I certainly didn't knowingly set that in place!

I just wish there was a 'Zoom' for some of the menus and buttons, especially those teeny arrows at the top for previous and next messages.

And FYI, that earlier update I installed was to make Outlook 2007 stop being so sluggish, and by golly it worked!

Martha

Martha's Web
Martha's Place