So long no post…
29 March 2007This blog has grown a bit stagnant. That’s mostly because I just had to delete 620 comments — all of them SPAM. Sort of sucks the joy out of things. I’ve changed the blog so that you will have to register to submit a comment. It’s the only way to prevent automated SPAM bots from sending in comments that I have to wade through, and that also clog my email box since a copy of every comment goes there to let me know that there’s a new one.
It’s a real serious PITA. Spammers suck.
Great Blogging Tool
27 November 2006I’m a big fan of the Firefox web browser so I was really happy to find this new extension for it today. I’ve been bad about updating my blog because of the hassle of logging in and editing it in a new window all it’s own. (Okay, so I’m a little lazy about it.)
I’ve been wishing for a while that I had a tool that would integrate into my web browser so that I could blog while viewing web pages. I kind of gave up on the idea then this morning I found this: http://performancing.com/firefox
I’m posting using it right now.
powered by performancing firefox
Bimmer Bummer
29 August 2006I got the parts today for my old car. The old oxygen sensor was really pretty easy to remove but only because I had bought the special tool to remove it. (and through the careful application of a hammer to knock the old one loose. It was wedged tight.)
Unfortunately however my car is running no better. When I check the diagnostic code it now reads 1444 which means “all clear” except that it’s not all clear. If I depress the accelerator about half way instead of a good even 3000 to 3500 rpms my car revs then drops, revs then drops. It acts as though I were pumping up and down on the accelerator when I’m not. It idles pretty good, but start to try to use the accelerator and…
This is “not a good thing”. Fuel line issue? vacuum system leak? shorting wiring somewhere else? It’s starting to look like a job for a real repair shop but the closest real BMW shop is on the far side of Minneapolis. A bit farther than I feel safe trying to drive it right now.
Definitely not good.
Busy Squirrels
28 August 2006I’ve always found almanacs and studying the fuzziness of caterpillars, etc. to be sort of entertaining but not something I would put a lot of faith in. I have been noticing a very interesting thing in the past week or two here in our own neighborhood though.
We have two large mature trees in our front yard and in addition to the lots of other mature trees in our neighborhood, there’s a park across the street with a large wooded lot. Predictably we have a decent number of squirrels.
Here’s where things have gotten interesting this year though… Read the rest of this entry »
Happiness is…
23 August 2006Happiness is a shipping confirmation email for your much needed car parts! I just ordered them last night and they’re out the door on a UPS truck this afternoon.
Vroom-lurch-vroom
23 August 2006I have an old BMW as a second car. I bought it because I thought it would be a good car for the money (well built) and it’s a fast little two door. More than one person has made the mistake of thinking I must have bought myself a status symbol without having seen the car.
It’s got a rust spot or two, the AC doesn’t work, and half the dash lights have gone out since I bought it… I don’t think that counts as a status symbol. On the other hand, and given the couple of mechanical issues I mentioned it’s still very solidly put together for a car with 184,000 miles on it. And it’s quick. Those are the things that matter to me.
But alas, it is 17 years old. Things do go wrong with it. Like the oxygen sensor failing.
Vimeo
19 August 2006I’ve been tinkering a little bit with the Vimeo service - http://www.vimeo.com - and it’s pretty fun stuff. I ran into a little wrinkle though.
When you sign up they give you an email address you can send photos to from a mobile phone. I have a Sprint camera phone so i thought this would be pretty handy. It seemed like it would work like a charm, and it almost did. You just tell your phone to email the photos to that unique email address then go to the site later and add a caption. The Vimeo site automatically converts them to Flash video clips.
Insomnia
14 August 2006Insomnia really sucks… No, really. I have some first hand experience on the subject tonight. I was in bed by 11 and ready to sleep til I have to get up at 6:30. That is until 1:06 a.m. when I suddenly woke up too anxious to sleep.
So I found the cat and paid some attention to him. We’re not sure how much longer he’ll be with us because he’s eating less and less no matter what we do. He doesn’t look well more and more of the time too, even aside from the weight loss. He seemed like he was feeling a little better than earlier though and purred when I petted him.
Then I played a game for a while. Killed some monsters in City of Villains and racked up some more points toward level 35 for my villain.
And now it’s 3:33 a.m. and I finally feel worn out enough that I could probably sleep. That’s how it usually works. I have to get tired enough or I just can’t stay in bed.
104.3
31 July 2006We have a wireless weather station on our deck that transmits weather data to a little receiver in the house. This afternoon about 2:30 pm it said that it was 104.3 degrees on our deck. I checked the ‘offical’ temperature on weather.com and it said it was 101 with a “real feel” of 107 degrees.
REALLY hot. Read the rest of this entry »
Sprinkler bye-bye…
29 July 2006Banner morning for a Saturday. I woke up to the sound of our cat, Al, throwing up. His eating is definitely not what it should be and we think that’s mostly due to the chemo drugs for his cancer. He’s extremely picky when he will eat. We’ve been feeding him tuna but sometimes even that won’t work at all unless it’s a freshly opened can.
But it gets better from there… Read the rest of this entry »
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