|
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
At Last, there is Purpose to my Life!
Honey has discovered a new use for me.
She has always liked to have me run my fingers along the side of her mouth (and sometimes her teeth too), but she has recently discovered another use for me:
Honey's Washcloth
*salivate* *lick* *wiiiipe*
*salivate* *lick* *wiiiipe*
*salivate* *lick* *wiiiipe*
She has discovered the Power Wash feature.
I suppose if I'd only learn to lick her back (like mommy used to do) she wouldn't have to go through all this. But I draw the line at that kind of interspecies interaction.
Oh, and as of this weekend, Honey has assumed her Summer Pose:
Posted at 5/30/2006 1:01:11 pm by lifeonhold
Permalink
Monday, May 29, 2006
I've just had almost a real vacation with all kinds of playtime. Five, count 'em, five full days! It's been many years since I've had that kind of time off without any real obligations.
Of course, true to form, the first 2 days (Thurs and Fri) I had a bad back and neck and couldn't focus on my intended projects, but I managed to get the housework and shopping out of the way.
Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were totally devoted to only two things: the first Grilling of the season, and major time working on my neverending Music Project.
The weather was wonderful and the first seafood kabobs and chicken breasts of the season came off the grill. Yum!
But really, the weekend was all about the Music Project. I did the final clean-up on my music files, sorting some stragglers into folders, and then began burning two sets of each mp3 (a Master and a Backup of each).
The Set-Up for my Music Project. The desktop computer is used for the burns while I use the laptop for web surfing and other tasks. I don't dare to anything else on the computer during burns due to the potential for corrupting the files.
So far I've burned the following:
50s Music - 3 mp3 disks x 2 = 6
60s Music - 9 mp3 disks x 2 = 18
70s Music - 13 mp3 disks x 2 = 26
80's Punk Music - 4 mp3 disks x 2 = 8
The total for the weekend is 58 burned disks, all labeled and catalogued.
The cataloguing of the disks was something I've been dreading, but a new computer program has helped enormously. It's called Snag-It.
I originally downloaded the 30-day free trial to try out it's streaming video capture for use on the Big Brother Live Feeds later this summer. It looks like that should work and so I explored it's other features.
It can be used to capture web graphics, icons, text and windows, including scrolling windows so I've been using it to list the contents of folders and cut and paste them into word documents to index the mp3 disk contents. It has made the whole process much easier than anticipated.
Well, back to work. I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day weekend.
Posted at 5/29/2006 10:34:30 pm by lifeonhold
Permalink
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Last night I dialed my fingers to the nubs getting in votes for Taylor *twitch* Hicks, and a few for his adorable sidekick, Elliott Yamin in the hopes they will be the ones to advance to the American Idol finals.
The voting looks very close if DialIdol's prediction results are accurate [click on the link if you want to be spoiled as to how close]. Once the East Coast dialing window closed, the voting evened up, so I'm glad I did my part.
Magpie, who dials and deals with customers for a living, was a reluctant dialer, but she joined the effort on behalf of Elliott Yamin.
I also want a Taylor / Elliott finale, and so threw some votes to Elliott once I came up with a convienient dialing method. I programmed each of my wireless units so one had a Taylor number and the other had an Elliott number; then I clipped the phones to the wire rack I use as my laptop tray and alternated dialing the numbers using each unit's redial button on speakerphone. This worked so well I'm sorry I won't need the dual set-up next week.
Magpie542 (10:22:18 PM): i need a hand'sfree way to do this
Magpie542 (10:23:22 PM): i voted 6 times for e, and once for t
Magpie542 (10:25:01 PM): even mister slippery is voting for elliott
Lifeonhold52 (10:26:02 PM): I clipped my phones to the rack I use for my laptop
Lifeonhold52 (10:26:28 PM): and put the calls on speakerphone so I can hear the results (photo on my blog tomorrow)
Magpie542 (10:26:40 PM): i was just thinking about speakerphone
Magpie542 (10:26:47 PM): and just got another vote in for elliott
Magpie542 (10:27:01 PM): i need to teach the cat to do this
Lifeonhold52 (10:27:04 PM): hahaha
Magpie542 (10:27:15 PM): except she might vote for KAT
Lifeonhold52 (10:27:20 PM): if you can trust her not to vote for KAT!!!!
Lifeonhold52 (10:27:22 PM): hahahaha
Magpie542 (10:27:24 PM): lol
Lifeonhold52 (10:27:39 PM): that's going on my blog too
Magpie542 (10:27:45 PM): she's in her litterbox now showing us what she thinks about all this
The Final Contestants
Taylor Hicks - I've loved him since he first showed up in auditions; the quality of his voice and the style of music it fits the best is my favorite. The spazz ticks, twitches and jerks and his dancing is a little over the top, but he makes me smile. I am entertained by him week after week. I also like the fact that he is anti-Idol material. The Grey Charles website has a mp3 download section of Taylor's music; I haven't heard all on the list yet, but so far recommend Trouble, Somehow, the long version of Georgia, Levon, The Fall, and his audition clip, Change Is Gonna Come. SOUL PATROL, baby.
Elliott Yamin - he also has a beautiful voice and is very sincere as a person. His best night was Elvis night, a week ago. Unfortunately, despite is great vocals, his performances don't tend to be that memorable. I think he's probably calling it a show tonight. I might be interested in his music someday, if he picks the right songs.
Katharine McPhee - she also has a good voice, at least sometimes, on some songs, but she bugs me. Here again we have IdolBot material. She smiles through sad songs and doesn't seem to connect with the emotions and she has a 'beauty pageant contestant' personality. She will probably have a good career even if she loses tonight, but the songs she will go on to sing won't interest me.
Posted at 5/17/2006 9:05:37 pm by lifeonhold
Permalink
Friday, May 05, 2006
You know your company is going out of business......
When the President wants to change fundamental business accounting, sales, and production practices so the numbers look better and provide more info.
I've just come from another battle that sprung up with the Prez over a whole new way he wants to handle deposits on jobs that would mean a significant change to fundamental accounting practices and make our computer software that manages accounting, production and inventory do something it wasn't designed to do. That means that at least 4 of us will have to keep track of these oddball entries and track their impact all the way from Sales, Order Entry, Production, Inventory and Accounts Receivable. We will have to make adjustments to our work systems to accommodate this new procedure, adding another level of complexity to our work.
It is also a system that is fraught with the possibility of error and result in further inaccuracies and another huge financial mess.
What the Prez needs is a non-system method of gathering the info he wants. I've already worked up part of the solution in an Excel spreadsheet that could be updated monthly from standard reports. He liked it, but did not understand how it could be a large part of what he's after. Then the most informative portion of the spreadsheet [from my point of view] was dropped by A/R because the data wasn't meaningful to her little world.
I am soooooo glad it's Friday. I just want to walk out of here and not look back. It's quite likely I'll get to do this some month in the near future.
UPDATE: I've tried to post this update since Friday afternoon with no success; seems there has been a problem with blogdrive.
After lunch on Friday, the Prez and I had another meeting where we went through all of this again anf, finally, with the light of understanding reaching both our minds. He was not trying to manipulate the books [whew!] but what he was trying to do, and his solution, did create problems, which he finally understood. We re-visited my non-system spreadsheet solution and he understood that it would give us what we were after; the solution was very simple and even elegant, really, once we talked it through verrry carefully.
I later told him that I appreciate being able to be part of the process. He said in return that what I said changed his thinking on the approach.
Posted at 5/5/2006 1:09:12 pm by lifeonhold
Permalink
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Recently a friend answered this meme question with my name: "Who is the least likely to respond to this meme?
She knows me well.
I like the floatsam and jetsom of e-mail humor, cartoon, photos, prayers, and other stuff as much as any bored-out-of-their-friggin-mind employee dealing with a dull day. However I have some reasons why I don't pass much along, or at least not in its original format.
First, my life, both in the temporal world, and also my e-mail basket, sort of looks like this:
By the time I even open the obviously passed along e-mails it could be weeks since it was sent. I tend to address this stuff on rare Saturday mornings over one or several cups of coffee.
Second, I dislike superstitious promises or guilt trips that often get tacked onto prayer or inspiration or friendship e-mails. You know....'pass this along to 5 friends and in 48 hours your wish/prayer will come true' OR 'I expect this e-mail back to show we're friends', OR the worst, 'Send this along if you're not ashamed of Jesus'. WHO comes up with these endings?! Or, is this a template in Mircosoft Word, Spam Edition. [Add Tag template dropdown].
Third, I dislike all online petitions. I don't agree with them. I am ALWAYS the breaker of the petition. If you believe in the cause, keep me out of the loop.
Fourth, some justify spam by saying it is the way, in this e-mail age, that people show their friends and families that they're thinking of them. I think of it a different way. When I receive a FW: e-mail I think that my friend's mailing list has been thinking of me.
If you get a FW: from me, I try to be selective, and usually edit out the offenses at the end.
I think I'm done on this topic.
Now send this to 5 of your friends in the next 48 hours. Good things will happen. And Comment, or you're no friend of mine. Or something......
Posted at 5/4/2006 12:40:03 pm by lifeonhold
Permalink
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Want More Stress? Sure You Do!
It's been a while since I visited the Photoshops over at Fark.com, but I managed a visit last week. My award goes to kiyote for his/her entry on the What Does This Button Do? thread.
Posted at 5/3/2006 12:45:20 pm by lifeonhold
Permalink
Monday, May 01, 2006
Happy May, everyone.
Lifey had a good weekend on ye old music project. This is the second stage of a huge project that began several years ago, about 2002. At that time I converted all my albums and tapes into mp3 format and burned 2 sets of mp3 disks (master and backup master). I also ripped a lot of music from my CDs. That was Stage 1 which was completed about 2003.
Stage 2: Accomplished so far [not all this past weekend, mind you]:
- Ripped all the music from all my CDs and stored them on my external hard drive [EHD].
- Searched all my Storage and Trip mp3 discs for any missing music.
- Copied all my Prairie Home Companion mp3s [originally from taped radio broadcasts from the mid 1980s] onto the EHD.
- Prepared a music database of my CDs, Christian, and Classical music.
Stage 2 Yet To Do:
- Copy my Catholic/Christian teaching mp3s to the EHD [originally in tape format]
- Find backups for some corrupted files that would not copy and get them transferred to the EHD.
- Search one final stack of mp3 CDs labeled Best for any missing music.
- Convert a final cache of analog Catholic teaching tapes to mp3 on the EHD.
- Burn a new master set and backup master set of all my audio files.
- Update all my music databases.
If the universe plays nice with me, I hope to get 1 - 3 completed during the week and begin 4 this weekend. I hope to have 5 & 6 done by the end of May.
June? The calm before the Big Brother storm.
Posted at 5/1/2006 12:33:58 pm by lifeonhold
Permalink
Friday, April 28, 2006
Things That Make Me Happy In Life
(just to prove I can think of some things)
Honey, my cat
the wild birds that visit my birdfeeder
waking up feeling refreshed, and it's a Saturday
my friends, virtual and temporal
a day without allergies, headaches or back pains
my apartment, such as it is
music, all kinds of music [but not my neighbors]
my family [most times]
sushi & martinis
making sushi
food, in general
having small get-togethers [would do them now if friends were near]
quiet Saturday mornings in my apartment
weekends when I have energy and get a lot done
my projects: music, photos, computer, sewing, organizing
gardening [but can't do here with an apartment]
my job, most of the time
the people I work for and with, most of the time
Google
losing weight on Weight Watchers
fitting into clothes, looking trimmer
being able to pay my bills
reading books and magazines
chatHT
doing kind deeds (yes, occasionally)
my church & faith
ice water
coffee
the way I have my desk at work
reading my friend's blogs
the whole Big Brother experience: show, Live Feeds, Hamster Time, chat
Reality Shows, particularly with chat
reading in bed at night
living alone
having a short daily commute
inspiring stories about people and animals
the variety of life
being an American
living in the Northeast
changes of seasons
yoga
my Gazelle
my online identity, lifeonhold
grilling in the summer
Arizona
appreciating art, beauty, sculpture, interior design
poetry
summer and fall fairs
NFL football
having good laughs with friends
have a good bitch session with friends
documenting the little absurdities and insults of life
watching Honey sleep or play
good memories
my childhood (mostly)
my good fortune in where I've worked and lived and in friends & family
Well, this isn't complete, but a a little sampling for the skeptics.
Posted at 4/28/2006 1:04:05 pm by lifeonhold
Permalink
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
There is this woman who works for a vanity book publishing company in the same building where I work. We have the occasion to encounter one another in the restroom and when she mooches water and coffee from our company's snack area.
I don't like her.
I've never liked her.
She has a super self-important air to her that makes me want to totally shut down. She often goes to the ladies room with her sister-in-law so she can very self-importantly, and loudly, discuss work so we can all overhear and be impressed.
I am not.
I don't like the airs, and I don't like the entitled mooching.
More than that, I don't like her attempts to be friendly. She doesn't know how to do small talk: Nice weather....Boy the interstate was a mess this morning; did you get tied up in it today?...Is your office cold? Ours is cold. I called the Management.......These kinds of casual conversations that are the first stepping stone to any other possible friendship are TOTALLY missing with her.
Instead, out of the blue, I get things like,"What did you do on the weekend?" and today's over-the-top entry [delivered from inside a restroom stall while I was at the sink], "What is it that makes you happy in life?"
I've given her 'back off/shut up' signals every which way I can. I know she gets them because one day she followed me into my office, and in front of my manager and a co-worker declared, "I feel this negative energy between us."
Damn straight. Back off!
It's been like this for 5-1/2 years. Recently I have tried to be 'neutral' towards her rather than hostile, but I guess that just brings forth forays like today.
*Sigh*
Posted at 4/26/2006 4:15:18 pm by lifeonhold
Permalink
Monday, April 24, 2006
April is almost over and we're in a cold spell this week in the northeast. Cold, and RAIN. Drenching, downpouring, wind-swept rain. Fourties and low fiftys for temperature.
I spent most of Saturday trying to get warm since the heating had been turned off for the season. Thankfully, the landlord came by late in the afternoon to turn it back on. I was still not warm until Sunday.
Campbell's stews and soups came in handy, as did my comforter. Bed was the place to be. That was Saturday.
Sunday was gloom and more wind and rain, but Honey and I were warm. She celebrated our good fortune by having a good sleep:
I just hope our work landlord turned the heat back on. It's going to be a chilly week with more rain.
Posted at 4/24/2006 1:04:15 am by lifeonhold
Permalink
|
|
