Cloggs and Bloggs

From time to time I get into fixing my friends computers. (Not that I am a computer expert, I am just foolish enough to tear into someone else's computer.) Usually it is after they have completely given up on the system, and were going to take it to a shop, or have already taken it to a shop and they have given up. At that time my friend(s) feel they have nothing to loose. (I often wonder if they secretly hope I cannot do anything so they can justify the purchase of a new system.) Anyway, I enjoy fooling around with the computers. I guess some folks like to work on crossword puzzles, I like to tinker around on hopeless computers. I have actually saved a few here and there.
My favorite experience, was a friend's wife worked at home for a big company. Her hard drive had crashed. Of couse she didn't have one bit of it backed up. She took it to a hardware specialist and they declaired it hopeless. Gary asked if I thought I could do anything. I figured what did they have to loose? So I fooled around with it for about 2 weeks, and was able to capture all the data. They were shocked, and it saved her months of time re-entering the information. I hope she learned to back up her data, but knowing human nature.......

Experimenting with Picasa 3

I am experimenting with Picasa 3. A friend of mine, Ziggy Quirk, suggested I upgrade. It seems to work very well. One thing that was inportant to me was that it would send to the blog the edited image I created in Picasa. It seems to have done so. Now I want to see if I can post a web link from my blog to another web site. Finally I will want to see if I can add material from other websites into this blog. Still this is not as good as my old TagWorld web page. That was completely customizable, but so far I like the look and feel of this. It is definately better than my 1UP page, which is over run with all the stuff they put before the blog sections. There, they need to put all their junk, AFTER the blog sections. Then those that maybe interested would scroll down when they wanted.

The picture on the left is of our little Dogwood tree just before the leaves fell to the ground. It is completely empty now, but looked great then.

Of Tasks and Time

Scott helped me move the leaves in the yard today. I appreciated the help. The piles had frozen and were a little harder to move. It gave us a little time to do something together and talk a bit. I guess my mother in NJ has already had a yard full of snow, but not here. We don't really get anything like that. It was funny, as I was working with Scott, I was wondering, "How will the things I do now, effect the person he will become? What things that are normal for me, will become tradition for him?"

Reflections of Christmas 2008

I cannot say I am a big Christmas person. But this year with my wife now working full time, I am trying to help around the house more. She asked me to help put up the Christmas decorations, (which I loath to do). But I tired to not let it show that I would rather be doing something else. Much to my surprise, I had a good time. We put up the tree, then the lights, and the other stuff. (Pam wants to wait to put the glass globe things until our daughter gets home from college) It does sort of look warm and homey. Now I just need to start a fire in the fireplace and start drinking eggnog.