Updates and breaking news!

I am home today and am enjoying the weekend. The colorguard camp ended Saturday and it went very well. They kids learned so much and were a blast to work with. Now I am ready for some rest this weekend and to make some progress at home!

N and I looked at a Winnebago Saturday afternoon that was another great option for us! It was in great condition and was at a reasonable price! We are strongly considering it as our “winner” but are planning to have it inspected by a certified mechanic first.

We spent the afternoon trying to get stuff done for the yard sale and the move. N painted up some of our older gardening furniture and planters for the yard sale.

I thought it would be a good idea to sell the gardening bench and plant holders with some of our smaller plants and some cuttings included. It will make us some extra money and will help us have less to move!

So he was a painting machine and I spent time transplanting herbs, taking mint cuttings and planting stuff to sell. We could really manage to get rid of some plants, especially the ones that aren’t bulbs since those are going to be the heaviest to move!

Here is just a glimpse of the plants we have on the porch, as you can see there are too many!

I guess there was a major helicopter crash in town today at the hospital… Here is the footage from today.

Also, a major fire started today south of us and just north of my parents, out near crown king. N might be heading out that direction tomorrow. It is so sad when awful things happen like this, they seem to come in waves too. Both the crash and fire happen today and I just hope tomorrow is calmer. Hopefully the breaking news will calm down soon!

N needs to get some time off at the end of the week, he has been sick all week long and his sister is visiting us for the 4th of July.

Oh and Blogger hates me today! I am trying to make the blog rounds and am attempting to comment but I keep getting this silly error:

Here are the comments I was going to leave:

@ louceel: “What a lovely description of the relationship you have with Francis and a touching story.
I am sorry you are losing a friend, it is always a difficult thing.”

@ pipper: “I totally had the same type of situation happen to me. I wrote my opinion about something that happened at my old high school, someone didn’t agree with my opinion so they tried to get everyone all fired up about what I wrote, just to cause problems. Some people are just not strong enough or open enough to be able to hear/ read someone else’s opinion and accept that it is their own right to share it.

My blog is like my “this is how I want to be all the time” reminder. I try to write positive stuff and I reflect upon the hard times to see how it all got me to where I am now. I generally have a tendency to be negative if I am not careful how I view things. I do have a separate blog for my ranting and bitching, everyone needs to be able to get that stuff out too! ;-)”

@ hyphenmama: “This is a superb blogging topic and I am absolutely LOVING the photos and the little pee pee star! This is greatly educational for me, when I finally have kids I’ll have all the potty training answers!”

@ over-thinker: “Nice blow up doll, now did you have to suck harder with the penis straws? Those photos of your sight seeing are amazing! I have never been to any of those places. Maybe during our week long journey to Indiana we can see some interesting stuff.. You have inspired me now.”

@ xbox4napyrash: “Awesome sauce, ha, ha… Love it! Keep us posted on the outcome after your 2 week wait. I am crossing my fingers and toes for ya.”

Filed under Moving out of state, colorguard & winterguard, personal stories, technology | Comments (10)

What is different on a MacBook (a pc user converts)

If I don’t go very slow I will get brain overload and have a melt down! Going from PC to Mac is not as traumatizing as I thought it would be. It is still a work in progress but I think I have managed to learn lots since I got my MacBook. Here is what I can share:

Key Strokes/ Different strokes for different folks platforms-

The first thing I had to learn is that the ctrl A (to select all), ctrl, c (to copy selection) , ctrl v (to paste copied stuff) and the ctrl t (to open new tabs) are a bit different on a Mac. Instead of the ctrl key you use command key. This is true for both Safari (the Mac web browser) and mozilla firefox.

Doing print screen on a mac is also different. On the MacBook keyboard there is no print screen button and many wonder how print screen can be done. There are many programs out there for the mac that have this ability but with a simple key stroke you can still print screen on your mac without downloading any programs. Press command + shift + 3 (all at the same time) and a screen shot will be taken and saved to your desktop! Try it, it works.

How do I navigate without a mouse? Track pad differences on MacBook-

The other thing that I had to learn about was the right click ability on the track pad. I read a post about this today. Basically under system preferences you can enable double clicking on the track pad, under keyboard & mouse select the track pad tab. Check the box that says “for secondary clicks place two fingers on the track pad and press the button” and you are all set for right clicking on your MacBook! Oh, and the two finger fast scroll thing is great also!

Find Mac compatible programs for your computing or use dual platforms-

I am trying to get an appropriate versions of Windows XP (bootable, 32 bit with service pack 2) so I can run “bootcamp” on the Mac and get the dual platforms installed. That way I can also run my “NOT Mac compatible programs” like Microsoft Money, Frontpage and all that good stuff. Anyone have an old one they want to donate to me?

I did find some free software that helps me get stuff done on my mac that I normally did with “NOT Mac compatible programs” on my PC. Here is the run down:

How to accomplish photo editing- Seashore

I needed a way to watermark and scale down my images before uploading them to my blog. I found Seashore, a freeware program that allows me to do just that.

Need to chat with friends? - iChat

Oh, iChat (jabber), which came with my MacBook is compatible with google talk, but you can’t video chat with the built in camera on the MacBook. I guess you need an AOL account to use the video chat. I am okay with just typing my chat messages back and fourth for now. I would rather give myself paper cuts between my toes rather not install AIM.

Sending and reading emails - Mail

The Mac mail program, called Mail, easily sets up your mail accounts for you and works just fine with multuple mail accounts. I haven been wanting to set up mail folders and filters for my messages and have not found a way to do this yet. Mozilla Thunderbird is compatible with Mac also, I have just stuck with Mail for the time being.

Building and editing web pages without of MS Front page- Nvu

I read about the Mac webpage builder application, called Nvu, and have begun learning about it and playing with it. Not sure how I like it just yet.

Do you have any MacBook insight or tips you care to share with a new Mac user? If so leave them in comment below and enjoy this puzzle!

Create your own puzzles at PuzzleBee.com!

Filed under technology | Comments (2)

Brace yourselves, a new look is on the way.

Since I am pulling my hair out with techie stuff right now anyway I figured I should just take care of my blog at the same time. I get bored easily so I want to have all my sidebar crap in widgets that I can arrange easily and that wont be lost when I change from one theme to another.. In a dream world right?

So, bear with me some things may display wacky while I am working but once I get my Preview Theme Plugin working you wont have to see the strange looking changes till they are ready to go live! (Preview Theme never did work for me so I moved on.)

I got theme test drive working beautifully so you probaly wont see any strange glitches or funky stuff now. The theme test drive plugin rocks! I am having all kinds of fun testing out possible themes and getting stuff the way I want it now.. FUN!

It is however keeping me from finishing my taxes… Ugh, I will do them before April 15th!

Filed under Blogging, personal stories, technology | Comment (1)

Unable to insert an image after your Wordpress 2.5 upgrade?

I upgraded 3 blogs to wordpress 2.5 today. One of the blogs is having image insertion issues. I found a post called 2.5 Image/Media Uploader problems over at the wordpress support site that talks about the potential fixes for the issue. Things like browser cache, type of browser, old versions of adobe flash player, the Bad Behavior plugin and mod_security are said to be possible causes of this problem. I went through each and every one of their “things to try” and nothing fixed the issue for my client.

Essentially she can upload images via the “add media” button but this error displays:

When she goes to view the “gallery” that clearly shows that is has photos in it this is what happens:

Here is what the “media library” look like:

Here is what blows my mind: When I sign in to her self hosted Wordpress blog to test out adding an image I also get the exact same issues! This kind of rules out a browser or flash player issue cause on my own blog I can do these things fine but on her blog (from the exact same computer) I can’t. Seems to me like a database or compatibility issue with the host.

She is on Apache version2.2.8 (Unix), PHP version5.2.5, MySQL version5.0.45-community and Operating system- Linux.

I am on Apache version1.3.39 (Unix), PHP version5.2.5, MySQL version5.0.45-community and Operating system- Linux.

I guess maybe it could be the apache version causing the problem.?.?. I have no clue! I am interested in any readers input/ experiences with this. Maybe we can brainstorm the issue here and rule out some stuff.

In the meantime there is a workaround for those experiencing the same issue with getting an image to show up in the blog post:

• Simply upload your image using the add media button
• In a new window or tab go to your image directory. It will be something like: http://www.yourdoamin.comwp-content/uploads
• Find the file that you just uploaded. You may need to select the year folder, then the month folder to see all the uploads for that time frame depending on your directory structure.
• When you find the photo you just uploaded copy the file location (the URL) and then head back to your blog post that you are working on
• In the add image window paste the URL you just copied, add your description, select your alignment and select “insert into post”.

You can also click on the image icon and put your image URL in there.

Filed under Blogging, technology | Comments (4)

Do you know what telepresence is?

The word telepresence is defined as “set of technologies which allow a person to feel as if they were present”. Telepresence is present in many people’s day to day life already. Things like webcams or video conferencing are examples of this.

A Company called LifeSize specializes in this type of communication. This is a new/cutting edge way for business people to telecommunicate with contacts in meetings, conferences and more. High-definition video communication is transmitted via broadband, like a video conference but better! I though this was a cool idea and that I would spread the word about telepresence. If you want an “almost real” visit with someone who is many miles away telepresence is the technology for you!

Filed under gift ideas, recommendations, sponsored info, technology | Comment (0)