Archive for September, 2005
Podcasting? Me?
September 28th, 2005. Published under General. No Comments.
I bought another domain: podkitten.com
I bought it in case I decided to do my own podcast.
The problem? What in the hell would I do a podcast about? I’m certainly not a tech expert, nor am I an expert at anything else. I’m not a writer, I’m not a comedian and I am most definitely not that interesting.
So why did I do it? Who knows.
I still keep trying to snag designkitten.com too, but someone already has it (and made quite a cute blog out of it). Dammit.
Well this turned out to be a whole lot of nonsense for this post!
…
On a side note, I’m really enjoying Netvibes as an alternative to the Google Home Page (no, not the search page). You can add your own custom RSS feeds to it, and I love the clean interface. Groovy, baby.
Seriously, what the fuck?
September 28th, 2005. Published under General. No Comments.
Sometimes, I wonder what the hell is wrong with people.
By nature, I’m a cynic. I’m a skeptic. I don’t naturally trust people.
I was deeply saddened by the disasters that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita brought to the Southern United States.
But I’m disgusted by many things after the storms left. Putting aside the debacle that our government played a part in, there were many stories that sickened me. The looting, the raping and the killing. There was probably much more that the news media didn’t see (as shocking as that may be) that was just as bad, or worse.
What is really pissing me off, however, are the greedy motherfuckers that are coming out of the woodwork to leech money off the generous people of this nation.
This story in my local newspaper today really pissed me off.
Alleged hurricane victim takes $15,000 from Minnesota agency, disappears
Associated Press
September 28, 2005AUSTIN, Minn. — Police were investigating after a woman who claimed to have been displaced from her Alabama home by a hurricane received $15,000 from a relief agency — and then disappeared.
The woman visited the Mower County chapter of the American Red Cross on Friday and said she was from Atmore, Ala., police said. She presented documentation showing that she had four school-age children.
The agency gave the woman a check for $15,000, which she cashed at Community Bank in Austin. But when Red Cross workers tried to follow up, they couldn’t locate the family at the Austin address or phone number the woman provided.
Local police called Alabama police and were told the name and Atmore address the woman provided didn’t exist.
This greedy fucking woman basically lied to get $15,000 from the Red Cross and then disappeared. FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS. And how many more cases of this kind of theft will arise in the next weeks and months? I don’t want to know. But, it only strengthens my resolve to not donate money to these causes. I’ll donate my time, food and clothing for these unfortunate individuals when the opportunity arises, but not my money.
*sigh*
I was hoping to write something funny today. That may not happen now.
I’m such a geek girl.
September 21st, 2005. Published under General. 2 Comments.
In my pursuit of getting things done, I’ve been trying to implement the GTDTiddlyWiki for use at work to keep all my shit in order.
The problem with it? The firm will only allow IE (*gag*) on my work machine, and the tech guys will know if I have “unauthorized software” on my machine. The “only IE” is important because of the bugs and pain in the assedness of running the wiki on IE.
Long story short - it does not work. At all. It works brilliantly in Firefox.
(My rant about not being able to use Firefox is for a whole other post.)
I’ve been geeking out and reading up on the whole “portable” programs being used on a USB stick drive. And for the longest time, there was a program called PortableFirefox that will run on a USB stick and be able to skirt any hardware/software firewall issues. Sweet.
Problem is, it was for PC only - I needed to be able to go back and forth from my PC at work and my Mac at home.
I noticed on Digg that someone developed the PortableFirefox for the Mac!
Works great…better than great. I loooove Firefox.
Now I noticed that there are other programs for the “portable” media: Thunderbird, Sunbird, OpenOffice! I think I may have to check into that too.
I’m such a geek.
When I’m Down
September 15th, 2005. Published under General. No Comments.
Lately, I’ve been down.
Lately, I seem to be slipping further down.
Why all the morosity? Because I’m feeling particularily morose today.
I wish I could sit here and post that things are wonderful - all sunshine and roses - but I can’t. I try to be positive. I try to find new interests and things to keep me out of proverbial trouble. I’m doing the things necessary to keep my mental state healthy.
But all it takes is one little thing to send my mental and emotional house of cards crashing down around me.
How do I know things are bad today? When co-workers ask me “is something wrong?” when I thought I was hiding it pretty well. Nobody at work knows what’s going on with me, and I don’t plan on telling them.
How do I stop my house from getting blown down? How do I stop other people from manipulating me and screwing with my emotions? How do I stand up for myself? How do I save myself?
I wish I knew. Life, unfortunately, is not that simple. Life is one huge gray area with no black and white to be seen. I don’t want perfection. I just want to be worth something to somebody.
- - - - - - - - -
There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.
Political? Me?
September 13th, 2005. Published under General. No Comments.
I don’t try to get political. I believe what I believe, but I’m not prepared to debate on the topic. In fact, I loathe it. If I’m talking to people who have the same viewpoint as I do, fine. If they’re not and they want to argue, I’m not interested.
I’m not the type of person who is going to be persuasive enough to turn you over to my point of view.
With all the political storms raging around the administration (and rightly earned, I say), I’m staying out of the discussions for the most part. I’ll grouse with people I know who share the same opinions that I do - otherwise, I’m just not going to get into it.
Regardless of what you may think about me, I really do not like to argue. I have opinions, and sometimes they’re quite strong ones, but that doesn’t mean I like to argue my opinions to others.
Why am I writing all this down? Who knows. It’s the end of the day and my brain has already left the building.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Best quote I’ve read all day:
To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
The wonders and hazards of computers.
September 9th, 2005. Published under General. 2 Comments.
What most of you may not know about me is that I have a Mac (OS X Tiger) at home and a PC (WinDohs XP) at work.
(can you tell which OS I prefer?)
There are some items that both amuse me and annoy the hell out of me going back and forth from one operating system to another.
1. “Home” and “End”.
On the PC, you use the standard “home” and “end” keys to go to the front or the end of a line you’re typing on, respectively. On the Mac, it is Command + left arrow to go “home” and Command + right arrow to “end”. When I get to work in the morning, I’m constantly hitting the Windows key and arrow to go “home” or “end”. As the day goes on, I retrain my feeble brain to use the actual “home” and “end” keys on my keyboard.
Then I go home. For a few hours, I keep hitting the “home” and “end” keys repeatedly with no results. I then swear and again have to train my feeble brain to use the Command + arrow keys.
2. Ctrl and Command shortcuts
To do simple keyboard shortcuts in WinDohs, you use Ctrl + (key for shortcut - “c” to copy, “v” to paste, “z” to undo, etc.). In Mac Land, you use Command + (key for shortcut). The command key is not in the same place physically as the Ctrl key.
I use a universal keyboard at home, so my Command key is actually the “windows” key.
Again, like the “home” and “end” saga mentioned above, each day I go through this lengthy process of retraining my feeble brain to use the correct key strokes. I constantly hit the “windows” key + c to copy something and I swear when the WinDohs Start Menu pops cheerily up. Same thing when I go home and continually key Ctrl + v to paste something that I copied using Ctrl + c and swear when nothing happens because I didn’t copy anything in the first place. Frustrating.
3. Nifty programs versus crappy programs
I admit it, I’m a Mac geek. I love the interface and I love the fun (and mostly free!) programs and other items that you can use on the Mac: Dashboard, iPhoto, etc.
I’m well aware that I could install Konfabulator on the PC. I would love to install it! However, my work machine will not allow “unauthorized programs” to be installed on my computer. I can’t even install iTunes! I know this because I did install iTunes so I could listen to their radio stations during the day. When I started my computer the next day, a warning popped up about having iTunes installed and that I needed to uninstall it or set up an appointment with our tech guys to have them uninstall it. Yikes.
Needless to say, I uninstalled it.
But that isn’t my biggest gripe. My biggest gripe is that I cannot install or use Firefox at work. I’m stuck with using IE only. ONLY IE! It’s maddening. I am a tabbed browsing freak. I hate having 8 different windows open on my browser - give me one window with 8 tabs, please. I’m so used to using Firefox at home that when I’m at work I keep hitting Command (windows key) + t to open up a new browser tab.
And the infernal Start Menu pops up. Then I swear at its boldness. Stupid WinDohs.
4. Hot Corners versus No Hot Corners
For those of you not familiar with Mac OS X Tiger, there’s a function where you can set “hot corners”, meaning that when you move your mouse cursor into a certain corner, something will happen. I have my upper left corner set to show/hide the desktop and the upper right to start the screensaver.
When I come to work, I’m constantly whipping my mouse to the upper left hand corner to show me the desktop. And I have to retrain myself daily to use the stupid “show desktop” button on my toolbar.
I had a job once - a job that I absolutely HATED - but the office used Macs. I was in heaven. Ironically, this was when I had a PC at home.
David versus Goliath.
September 9th, 2005. Published under General. 2 Comments.
While checking the latest stories on Digg.com, I came across this story:
Kill Bill: Microsoft’s army of lawyers was no match for a kid from Kent State.
Go read it. It’s a bit lengthy, but a good read on how this college student - a biochemistry major, not law major - fought and won a lawsuit filed by Micro$oft.
Fucking brilliant. It warms my heart to see stories like this.
For all of my friends who are/will be attorneys - I can kinda see now why you’re doing it.
Tears…and basketball?
September 7th, 2005. Published under General. 1 Comment.
I was watching Sports Center…
Yeah. I know.
Anyway, I was watching Sports Center - well, it was playing in the background while I did some work on the blog site - and there was a story.
A story! Shocking, I know.
It was about Stephon Marbury and his reactions to the NOLA disaster at a conference held by the NBA Players Association.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sports athlete that choked up at a press conference. Ever.
A quote:
“When I see all those babies float in the river…I think about the kids…My kids…I just hug my own son….He doesn’t even know why….”
This man broke down TWICE. Read the story here.
But the reason for the post.
Stephon Marbury is going to donate something in the range of $500,000 to $1,000,000 to the relief effort. Just his own PERSONAL contribution.
Sometimes, professional athletes surprise you. I don’t know much about Stephon Marbury, but his generous actions and heartwrenching reactions have made me an admirer.
——
Before I posted this, I did a bit of research and found his bio on the Knicks website:
Longstanding charity work earned him designation by The Sporting News as one of its “99 Good Guys in Sports” in both 2001 and 2002…In summer 2004, hosted ninth annual Stephon Marbury Basketball Classic in native Coney Island, as over 700 children aged 6-18 participated. Marbury’s Classic, held each summer in honor of his former teammate and friend, the late “Juice†Sowell, provides recreational and educational activities for underprivileged children through a six-week program…Joined Jay Z, New York City school chancellor Joel Klein, Senator Hillary Clinton, Caroline Kennedy and Infinity Broadcasting President John Sykes on Jan. 26, 2004 to announce the “Adopt-A-School†program, as Knicks and Cablevision serve as active partners in the effort with the city’s Board of Education and Infinity Broadcasting…Won NBA Hometown Hero Award in August 2001 for his “Starbury Fantasy Weekend” that featured a fashion show fundraiser, youth clinics, a carnival, educational and health informational booths…Holds an all-expense paid four-day camp in the Pennsylvania Poconos for underprivileged and deserving students from New York and culminates with Stephon’s Big Splash at his family’s home in Maryland…Longtime participant in NYC Basketball Classic for Wheelchair Charities held at MSG each summer.
Yeah. Now I know he’s a good guy.
Old school, yo.
September 6th, 2005. Published under General. No Comments.
I so need this product…if I were a type of person to use a headset with my cell phone.
I would love to see someone using that with their cell phone.
Forcing my hand.
September 6th, 2005. Published under General. 1 Comment.
This photo makes me sad.
And the caption irritated me:
FORCED BY AUTHORITIES TO LEAVE THEM BEHIND.
I’m sorry. But if any authorities tried to force me to leave my cats behind during an evacuation, they’d have to shoot me first. I’m not leaving without my pets. Period.
*sigh*
Was on the BBC site this morning to read up on some news and found this article: Multiple failures caused relief crisis.
This quote really shocked me:
But ironically the failure at the Convention Center would have been fairly easy to put right. Reporters drove there without problems. One took a taxi.
A taxi.
Sheesh.
Anyway, I like how the article actually reports news. Not taking sides, pointing out the flaws that everybody had in this whole debacle, and not sensationalizing it. I love the BBC.
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