Saturday, April 17, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Cars, Banks and taxes
Not quite the only things that are for certain are:
Right: Taxes and Death.
Well, Friday night my car ran, Saturday afternoon it didn’t. Good thing I didn’t have to be anywhere important. Was taking my parents out to lunch and the car wouldn’t start so we took theirs instead. No big deal from the standpoint of missing or being late for something. The big concern was whether it would be the battery or the charging system (alternator). After putting the battery on a charger for an hour the car started right up which was nice. I drove around a little and then when I got home turned the car off and waited a minute before trying to restart the car. Turned over just fine. Didn’t need it so I thought I would simply wait and try again on Sunday to see if it was just a run down battery. No joy. Sunday and the battery is dead again. I didn’t want to deal with the weekend crowds at Sears so Sunday night I put the battery back on the charger so that on Monday morning I could rush down to Sears and get the battery tested (so I knew for sure it wasn’t the alternator). This morning I took the battery to Sears and had it tested, the battery was bad so I spent $86 to buy a replacement. Car is running, now to hope that the charging system didn’t cause damage to the battery.
While at Sears I decided to hit the Apple store and put my greedy little paws on the iPad and see if it was really as magical as Steve Jobs said and the over-hype machine plus my Apple Fanboy status made me think it would be. I wasn’t awed! I know! Odd, I did enjoy the look of it and the extra size will still make it do what I want of it at home (IMDB while watching a movie or TV), Words With Friends (WWF), Facebook and Net searches all while on the comfortable couch away from my Mac Pro desktop in the other room. I did try the iBook reader and I like the color and function but the iPad is an ultra smooth and slick surface making it hard to hold still while holding like a book (plus after time its 1.5# does get heavy). When using as a eReader you will definitely need a case. Next was using the virtual keyboard for serious typing. On my iPhone I can thumb threw short messages pretty quickly which is good for Facebook, Tweets and WWF but the iPad is too big to hold and use your thumbs for typing (in either orientation) and unlike the iPhone because of its size you want to put it down to do serious typing for email, Pages and blog entries like this. I was instantly in trouble as a touch typist I always keep my fingers on the keyboard and with a virtual keypad this results in constant key presses. I was out of control with all the extra keystrokes and spent more time correcting mistakes than actually writing. The iPad and other full or near full-sized virtual keyboards will require relearning to type without any constant contact or key bumps to home on. I also played the demo version of Real Racing HD which found me to be a Hot Mess in the beginning but a pretty stable driver by lap six. Games, video (TV, movies and web video) easily make this an ideal Train, Planes and Automobile gaming device and video viewer.
I am still going to buy one a few months out, maybe the price will come down as the WePad from Germany and the HP Slate get close to release and their feature sets and pricing are set. I have already downloaded 20 ePub books from Project Gutenberg and Google Books as well as used Lexcycle’s Stanza desktop client to convert a PDF version of Will Wheaton’s Sunken Treasure which I purchased off Lulu into an ePub version. I then added all these ePub’s to iTunes and they are now ready to roll only my iPad when I purchase one as well as my iPhone after OS 4 (with iBook) is released this summer. I have also converted some MS Word school text documents into ePub. This will be an ideal reading and note taking device for high school and college students with the annotation features that are available. Plus saving the costs of physical texts or renting textbooks as many universities and colleges now make available.
I was just reading over the Lulu site and their authors are already available in the iBookstore on the iPad and if you’re a Self Publishing author and choose Lulu as your digital home they will aid you in converting your work to ePub format and getting listed in the iBookstore. Now if only iTunes had a section for Local Artists and Self Publishing musicians to help out the small guys. Maybe Apple’s Lala will do the same thing (I can hope right?).
After my moment with the iPad I went to the credit union and corrected a CU error from 23-March which created much consternation in my financial world and believe me, my financial world cannot tolerate any additional consternation.
Now that I’m home I have been updating my online life, restricting some access but linking all my disparate identities together. This will hopefully make it easier to find me but will provide the necessary security to protect me from the ravages of Netizens.
Next: Taxes, 2009 taxes, wont take long fortunately and then once they are submitted I will have to fill corrected 2008 Federal and CA State taxes :’((( (that’s a really long face).
Right: Taxes and Death.
Well, Friday night my car ran, Saturday afternoon it didn’t. Good thing I didn’t have to be anywhere important. Was taking my parents out to lunch and the car wouldn’t start so we took theirs instead. No big deal from the standpoint of missing or being late for something. The big concern was whether it would be the battery or the charging system (alternator). After putting the battery on a charger for an hour the car started right up which was nice. I drove around a little and then when I got home turned the car off and waited a minute before trying to restart the car. Turned over just fine. Didn’t need it so I thought I would simply wait and try again on Sunday to see if it was just a run down battery. No joy. Sunday and the battery is dead again. I didn’t want to deal with the weekend crowds at Sears so Sunday night I put the battery back on the charger so that on Monday morning I could rush down to Sears and get the battery tested (so I knew for sure it wasn’t the alternator). This morning I took the battery to Sears and had it tested, the battery was bad so I spent $86 to buy a replacement. Car is running, now to hope that the charging system didn’t cause damage to the battery.
While at Sears I decided to hit the Apple store and put my greedy little paws on the iPad and see if it was really as magical as Steve Jobs said and the over-hype machine plus my Apple Fanboy status made me think it would be. I wasn’t awed! I know! Odd, I did enjoy the look of it and the extra size will still make it do what I want of it at home (IMDB while watching a movie or TV), Words With Friends (WWF), Facebook and Net searches all while on the comfortable couch away from my Mac Pro desktop in the other room. I did try the iBook reader and I like the color and function but the iPad is an ultra smooth and slick surface making it hard to hold still while holding like a book (plus after time its 1.5# does get heavy). When using as a eReader you will definitely need a case. Next was using the virtual keyboard for serious typing. On my iPhone I can thumb threw short messages pretty quickly which is good for Facebook, Tweets and WWF but the iPad is too big to hold and use your thumbs for typing (in either orientation) and unlike the iPhone because of its size you want to put it down to do serious typing for email, Pages and blog entries like this. I was instantly in trouble as a touch typist I always keep my fingers on the keyboard and with a virtual keypad this results in constant key presses. I was out of control with all the extra keystrokes and spent more time correcting mistakes than actually writing. The iPad and other full or near full-sized virtual keyboards will require relearning to type without any constant contact or key bumps to home on. I also played the demo version of Real Racing HD which found me to be a Hot Mess in the beginning but a pretty stable driver by lap six. Games, video (TV, movies and web video) easily make this an ideal Train, Planes and Automobile gaming device and video viewer.
I am still going to buy one a few months out, maybe the price will come down as the WePad from Germany and the HP Slate get close to release and their feature sets and pricing are set. I have already downloaded 20 ePub books from Project Gutenberg and Google Books as well as used Lexcycle’s Stanza desktop client to convert a PDF version of Will Wheaton’s Sunken Treasure which I purchased off Lulu into an ePub version. I then added all these ePub’s to iTunes and they are now ready to roll only my iPad when I purchase one as well as my iPhone after OS 4 (with iBook) is released this summer. I have also converted some MS Word school text documents into ePub. This will be an ideal reading and note taking device for high school and college students with the annotation features that are available. Plus saving the costs of physical texts or renting textbooks as many universities and colleges now make available.
I was just reading over the Lulu site and their authors are already available in the iBookstore on the iPad and if you’re a Self Publishing author and choose Lulu as your digital home they will aid you in converting your work to ePub format and getting listed in the iBookstore. Now if only iTunes had a section for Local Artists and Self Publishing musicians to help out the small guys. Maybe Apple’s Lala will do the same thing (I can hope right?).
After my moment with the iPad I went to the credit union and corrected a CU error from 23-March which created much consternation in my financial world and believe me, my financial world cannot tolerate any additional consternation.
Now that I’m home I have been updating my online life, restricting some access but linking all my disparate identities together. This will hopefully make it easier to find me but will provide the necessary security to protect me from the ravages of Netizens.
Next: Taxes, 2009 taxes, wont take long fortunately and then once they are submitted I will have to fill corrected 2008 Federal and CA State taxes :’((( (that’s a really long face).
Diary vs. Blog
Is there a difference between an online diary (eDiary) or a blog? According to Princeton University’s wordnetweb (wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn):
a daily written record of (usually personal) experiences and observations
a personal journal (as a physical object)
According to the all-wise Wikipedia a blog:
(a contraction of the term "web log") is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
Really it sounds like the main difference is that a diary (due to its initial presentation as handwritten notes in a journal) is in chronological order and a blog is in reverse chronological order and must be online.
So, starting today, I am going to update my blog/eDiary more frequently and it will contain elements of both. Short notes that are important to me, such as today’s post about 100 trips to take before ecological change makes them forever disappear; mixed with longer notes to my readers (currently zero followers) that will speak to the events in my life as well as the activities that occupy my time.
For a couple of reasons that compounded each other, my life has been pretty darn static for 3 1/2 years now. Well, that has changed - THANK the POWER(S) and so I will have something to write about and a way to express some of what happened that lead to that lull in my life and where I am headed now. (maybe I should be glad there are zero follows ☺).
a daily written record of (usually personal) experiences and observations
a personal journal (as a physical object)
According to the all-wise Wikipedia a blog:
(a contraction of the term "web log") is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
Really it sounds like the main difference is that a diary (due to its initial presentation as handwritten notes in a journal) is in chronological order and a blog is in reverse chronological order and must be online.
So, starting today, I am going to update my blog/eDiary more frequently and it will contain elements of both. Short notes that are important to me, such as today’s post about 100 trips to take before ecological change makes them forever disappear; mixed with longer notes to my readers (currently zero followers) that will speak to the events in my life as well as the activities that occupy my time.
For a couple of reasons that compounded each other, my life has been pretty darn static for 3 1/2 years now. Well, that has changed - THANK the POWER(S) and so I will have something to write about and a way to express some of what happened that lead to that lull in my life and where I am headed now. (maybe I should be glad there are zero follows ☺).
http://bit.ly/bDBjPr May seem a set back, at least all groups in CA will now be working toward a '12 ballot & we have 2 yrs to get there
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