September 7, 2008
I don’t suppose I’ll get lucky enough to have Arrington or Calcacanis get in an uproar about my self portrait this week. They gave Ted Murphy, CEO of IZEA, a hard time when he persuaded postie Robyn to give PayPerPost a little banner space on her forehead a while back. Robyn got paid $1000 for complying with the request, so they had some harsh words for her, too - something about selling her soul, I think. Maybe I should have held out for cash, but, what the heck. It cost me five minutes of my time & the Sharpie ink scrubbed right off. Ted and I were on Twitter at the same time and he asked so I decided to play along. Wonder if he’d have paid me $1000 if I’d asked? Guess I’m not much of a businesswoman.
I don’t usually use a recycled photo for Self Portrait Sunday, but I’m in the midst of a cleaning frenzy today. If I stop long enough to shower and get all prettified I’ll lose my momentum and not get anything else done. I’ve got all of my floors swept, the kitchen is tidy and several loads of laundry have been done. I’m going to give Lancie a bath after I finish this post, then mop all of the floors while he’s out on the lanai drying off. I’ll probably have to vacuum after the floors dry. Sweeping tends to leave as much dog hair as it removes. Maybe I should look into Sebo vacuums - my cheapie vacuum from WalMart doesn’t work much better than the broom. I’ll worry about that another day, though. Right now I need to get this posted over at Midlife Musings and get back to work or poor Lance will be wet and freezing when the sun goes down!
Technorati Tags: meme, photos, self portrait
Posted by skeet @
4:37 pm •
Photos,
Meme •
September 6, 2008
I got a knot in my stomach when I saw it in the mail. I’ve never tried to avoid jury service. Despite whatever deficiencies it may have, I believe in our justice system. I believe it’s a right, a privilege and a duty to serve when called. I’ve been called on several times in the past. Several times I spent a few days waiting at the courthouse but never being selected to actually sit on a jury. Once I was selected, but the civil case was settled just as the trial was supposed to start. Then there was last time. Last time I was seated on a jury hearing a criminal case. The man on trial had already been convicted and had already served some of his sentence. There was a question of the constitutionality of his conviction, so he was granted a retrial. As jury members we knew little of this. We didn’t know that the man had been convicted and were told only that this was a retrial and we were not to be concerned with why.
I watch a lot of crime TV. The first adult books I read were detective novels and police procedurals. While there’s a lot of realism in such fiction, it does nothing to prepare one for involvement with our real-life justice system. The proceedings of the court may have a familiar feel - how many times have you seen the same thing on Law and Order? - but the awareness that you are involved in the lives of real people lifts it to a different realm. The case we were hearing involved a murder. The wife of the victim testified early on. She was not allowed to sit in the courtroom once she had testified, but we saw her each day. The prosecutor made sure we did. She sat on a bench right outside the courtroom door. I have no doubt that the peacock blue jacket she wore each day was a device recommended by the prosecutor’s office. They wanted us to see her each time we entered and left the courtroom. They wanted us to be constantly aware that she was a woman who was alone because her husband had been brutally murdered. We all knew that we were being manipulated, but it worked anyway.
It doesn’t bother me when Gil Grissom collects insect specimens from a body on CSI. It makes me a little squeamish sometimes, but I watch anyway. It’s only fiction. In real life, I almost passed out when we were looking at photographs of what was left inside a man’s skull after several days of exposure to insects and the elements. I don’t know if I gasped out loud or if it was something in my face, but the judge asked me if I needed some time - should he give the jury an unscheduled break? It did not feel right to inconvenience the jury or any of the others involved, so I said no. Later testimony and evidence was equally unpleasant, but those first photographs prepared me and I was able to control my natural inclination to react or look away.
I was selected by the other jurors to serve as foreperson once we retired to consider the verdict. It was a no-brainer. The murderer had confessed, so the only thing we needed to consider was whether he was of sound mind when he committed the crime. He claimed it was a momentary loss of control due to emotional distress, but I reminded the jurors that he came to the scene with the murder weapon- a machete - hidden inside a lawn chair. We took less than an hour to reach our guilty verdict.
That was my last involvement with the justice system. Despite my feelings about duty, I had hoped it would be my last ever. I still do. Since I don’t have a doctor I can’t provide the court with a medical certificate, but I’ve written them a letter asking them for special consideration. My medical condition would make it extremely difficult for me to serve. That’s legitimate, but I’ll admit that I think I would be reluctant even if I were in perfect health. I think the courts should make a special allowance for people who have served as jurors for cases involving heinous crimes. Once in a lifetime should be enough.
Technorati Tags: criminal justice, jury duty
September 5, 2008
I told y’all two days ago that using my new laptop has already caused a bad flare of the tendonitis in my hands and wrists. I’ve been gripping tools and using them to bang on the structures I inspect for almost thirty years now. That led to a condition called DeQuerveins, a repetitive motion injury to the thumb. Trying to accommodate the DeQuerveins caused me to grip things awkwardly and I developed carpal tunnel syndrome and tennis elbow. I then tried to work left-handed for a while & the result is that I have all three conditions on both the left and right sides. I work carefully these days and my hands and arms haven’t been giving me trouble until this week. Right now my new laptop is sitting on my desk. I don’t have a wireless setup yet, so I’ve had to place it where I can plug into my cable modem. The top of the desk is too high for keyboard placement, so my hands are giving me fits once again. I bought a wireless mouse and a slant board/cooling fan yesterday, hoping they would help. They haven’t. I need to get myself set up with some truely ergonomic computer accessories that will allow me to return to proper posture and hand positioning. Going wireless will help - I’ll be able to use my laptop at a more comfortable level - but what I’m most concerned with is supporting my wrists and positioning all of my equipment in a way that will reduce risk of injury. I’ve found several solutions at iShopErgonomics.com. That’s the Bakker Elkhuizen Ergo-Q 330 up there at the top of my post. It will pack up and go wherever I take my laptop so I can always have a wrist-friendly ergonomic workstation, no matter where I use my computer. It’s a thing of beauty. I like it. I want it.
You may not have any repetitive motion injuries that require special accomodations. Good for you. Now you need to do something to insure that you stay injury-free and pain-free. Check out iShopErgonomics for all the accessories you need, for your home or office work station and for portable comfort when you’re on the go. It’s the smart thing to do.
Technorati Tags: computer comfort, computers, ergonomics, ergonomic work accessories
Sorry folks - no winner this week. Silly me, I thought the photo snippet was a little too obvious & that the puzzle would be solved quickly. If you haven’t been keeping up with my blog (except on Tuesdays,) here’s how we got to Tuesday Teaser this week: A couple of weeks ago I opened a link on what I thought was a “trusted site” & got badly burned. The virus that downloaded kept replicating until, at one point, there were over 2700 “infections” in my system. My poor hard drive couldn’t take it. I managed to reboot several times last week, then on Sunday everything went kablooey. I lost everything: photos, documents, address books - everything. I had taken twenty or thirty photos last week of garden decor and harbor scenes and a few other things among which I had hoped to find our puzzle. With all of them gone I had to select a photo that I already had on Flickr - one that I used in a Four Foods on Friday post a few months ago. The current version of the photo editor I use is quite different from the one I had, so I had a heck of time doing a photo cut & finally just had to go with what I considered the best of several edits. Every time I looked at it I could clearly see that it was the crimped edge of a microwave popcorn bag, but I guess it wasn’t really that obvious. I can only tell you that I gave you my best effort and will try even harder next time. I hope you’ll give me another chance. I’ve got an agenda for the weekend that includes a few fun places that might yield your next challenge! Oh, and I’ll work on improving my skill-set with the new computer and new programs, too. Wouldn’t want to make things too easy for you, ya know?
Technorati Tags: contest, photo puzzle, popcorn, puzzle, Tuesday Teaser
Shoot, shoot, shoot!! I pasted the link & copied the quesitons yesterday for Four Food on Friday then totally forgot to write my post last night. I may already be too late, but here ya go:
#1. Artichokes. Love em or leave em?
I don’t dislike artichokes but I’ve never seen what all the hoopla is about. Tedious to prepare and for what? A few tablespoons of rather bland flavor?
#2. What’s your favorite kind of bean?
Hmmm! I like beans, though I don’t eat them very often. I think the baby navy beans are my faves - or maybe butter beans - yeah, butter beans!
#3. Share a recipe for any kind of cake.
There’s only one cake I ever bother making from scratch anymore (mixes are just too easy!) It’s the 1-2-3-4 Cake my mom used to make & taught me to make at a very young age. Definitely not like anything you’ll ever find in a mix! Here’s the recipe.
#4. What’s your favorite dairy product?
Oh, tough one! Dairy offers so much to love! Cheese - almost any kind of cheese - would have to be my favorite dairy, but I’m also quite partial to milk, butter and ICE CREAM!
I’m still getting used to my new computer and the replacement programs I’ve downloaded. I’ll try to slip a picture in here later, but such things are going very slowly for me right now, so I’ll go ahead and post with no image.
Technorati Tags: food, food blogs, recipe
It’s time for me to quit moaning about computer viruses and expensive new laptops that hurt my wrists and whatever else I’ve been complaining about lately. The fact is that my life is filled to overflowing with good things. I know that, but I don’t share that part of my life with you guys often enough and I really should. I’m going to start doing more of that and I’ll kick it off by telling you about one of the blessings that has followed me most of my life. I have been so very fortunate to have spent most of my adult life in three port cities. That’s meant exposure to the diverse cultures that such environments breed, but I’ve shared many stories about that with you already. Today let’s talk about another blessing . Having had the wonderful opportunity to live near New Orleans, San Francisco and Honolulu has meant that I’ve always had access to the freshest seafood available. Growing up in a New Orleans kitchen fostered a love of fresh seafood that I was able to satisfy in San Francisco and that I still cater to here on Oahu. Sometimes I create a seafood meal at home, but I’ve also taken full advantage of always knowing that a great seafood restaurant is nearby for those days that I want someone else to tickle my taste buds. Seriously, I’ve wondered how people who can’t get fresh seafood can stand the deprivation! Well, today I learned that a whole bunch of you aren’t deprived at all because The Oceanaire has restaurants all over the US. What is The Oceanaire? It’s fine dining on fresh seafood which is flown in every day from the best seafood sources around the globe. The menu at each location is rewritten daily to reflect the chefs choices from among all of wonderful bounty he or she has found that day. Today The Oceanaire’s fine dining restaurant Washington DC has mahi mahi and ahi tuna that’s as fresh and succulent as it would be if you strolled over to Waianae Boat Harbor with me and bought it right off the boat. They’ve got seventeen other fresh seafood delights to choose from, too, and that’s just today’s menu. Other specialties are available seasonally, so there’s always a wealth of fresh choices. Want to savor the best seafood Minneapolis has to offer? Look no further than The Oceanaire! You don’t have to live right on the ocean or in a major port city to enjoy exquisite dining on fresh seafood because The Oceanaire gets their seafood delivered so quickly the gills are almost still puffing in and out when the chef begins preparing your meal. Seriously, I can’t imagine life without fresh seafood. If you can’t either, don’t despair! Make a reservation at The Oceanaire. “As sleek as a 1930s ocean liner, yet as relaxed as a dinner on the shore … ” Doesn’t that sound heavenly?
Technorati Tags: fine dining, food, The Oceanaire, restaurants, seafood restaurants
September 4, 2008
It must seem to you like I’ve done nothing but deal with computer problems for the last two weeks. It’s felt like that to me, but I have done a few other things. Last Friday I did a termite inspection for a home right up the coast from me. I enjoyed a little “talk story” time with the very nice local couple who own the home and they introduced me to their pets. That’s Poomba and Wilbur up there, who behave more like puppies than pigs one generation removed from feral. They were pushing their snouts through the fencing to try to check me out, but that made it hard to see their faces. Their papa stepped in and rattled their food bowl so I could get a picture. First thing I noticed about them: they didn’t stink. I’ve been around pigs before and this was a new and different experience. I’m thinking that their pen must be cleaned every day. There’s plenty of mud in their pen for them to wallow and cool off in, so they were muddy, but not smelly at all.
Feral pigs are a real problem in Hawaii. They’re quite destructive to our forests and have contributed to the loss and/or endangerment of indigenous plants and habitats. Hawaii has no indigenous mammals, so all of them that exist here now are intrusive in our fragile environment. Feral pigs are controlled mostly by hunters, a solution which works well because pork plays a big part in local diets. Many of my neighbors are hunters and most of us benefit by having local pork in the freezer year-round. Poomba and Wilbur were found after a hunter took their mother. Not wanting to leave the piglings to fend for themselves, he brought them to my clients, who have been great foster-parents to them and won’t be turning them into kalua pork.
Update on my computer woes: I bought a cooling pad and a wireless mouse today. My wrist is already inflamed after only a couple of days of using the flat keyboard and touchpad on the lappy, so I’m hoping the more ergonomic design will help with that. I also found my tech geek this morning. He’s a guy I’ve known for a while, but I only found out today that he specializes in rescuing damaged hard drives. I’ll take my old computer to him sometime soon & see if he can extract the documents, photos & other data that I can’t access right now.
Technorati Tags: computer accessories, computers, feral pigs, feral animals, Hawaii, environment
September 3, 2008
How did you spend your Labor Day? I was supposed to have lunch with the Table of Contents, including two members who moved a while back but are here visiting. Instead I spent the morning at Office Max. That nasty trojan virus I thought I had defeated a week or so ago? That dragon was not slain, merely resting. It came back with a vengence. At one point there were over 2700 instances of it installed on my computer. I kept cleaning & updating virus definitions & running scans, but on Sunday my poor PC had had enough. The hard drive gave up the ghost. I had done a termite inspection of Friday & hadn’t been able to generate the report that two realtors, an escrow company, a buyer and a seller were waiting on. I needed a new computer immediately. Since I’m going to be traveling soon (for the first time since I got online eight nine years ago) the timing was right for me to buy my first laptop.
I didn’t have time to run all over the island comparision shopping. I’d have done some online research before going out, but … oops! … no hard drive! Office Max is where I’ve been buying office supplies for all the years that I’ve owned my business. They know me there & I trust them. They’re also closer to my home, by at least half an hour, than any other place that carries computers. I bought my last computer and my printers at CompUSA (which was in the same shopping center,) but they’re long gone. Office Max is not an electronics store, so I didn’t have a lot of choices. They only carried six laptops. I liked the one above & was ready to buy it.
When my sales guy (who was also the store manager) went in the back to pull my selection he discovered that he still had this bundle available. Very similar laptop, slightly smaller, but with an Intel Centrino processor (which someone had told me I should get) and also came with some other goodies. I decided to go for it. Sales guy didn’t want me to take his picture, but Priscilla, who brought my stuff to the register and pulled the extra USB cable I wanted (she’s on the left) and the gal who gladly relieved me of a large sum of money (right - don’t remember her name) thought that making an appearance on skeet’s stuff was just fine. The price shown on the Office Max promo was not available to me (things always cost more in Hawaii.) By the time I added Office, the extra USB cable and a super-duper warranty (I always go for the super-duper warranty on electronics) I spent almost exactly $1200. Money I wasn’t planning on spending, but what you gonna do?
Since my sis stubbornly refuses to read my blog it’s safe to tell you this. I was buying her a printer for her birthday. Was actually in the process of ordering it online when one of my crashes occurred last week. The printer that came with my new lappy is an upgrade from what I was planning on sending her. I figure that the only way I’m ever going to see pictures of my two great nieces is to make it easy for her to print photos that she takes with her new digital camera (she’s crawling into the 21st century just a little more slowly than me.) Someday soon I’ll buy some premium photo papers in several sizes and pack this thing up for shipping to Texas. I have an HP Officejet for my own use and didn’t need the extra printer, but it was cool to get a really nice one for Sis in my bundle - two birds, one stone.
My bundle also includes a very cool gear bag. This is probably supposed to be a back-to-school bundle for college kids, but I think it turned out to be a pretty good deal for me. I have an attache’ style lappy bag, but this one is nicely padded and has pockets for all the stuff you need when you go portable. Remember I told you I’ll be traveling sometime soon? I want my new toy well protected from bumps & bruises, so this is how she’ll travel with me.
There she is. As you can see, I shoved everything on my desk aside & set her up there. I suppose I’ll add wireless to my service someday soon, but right now she’s tethered to the desk by a power cord, a printer cord and a USB cable connecting her to my cable modem. Some of the clutter you see behind her has already been cleared away, but I’ll finish tidying up today. I was in a hurry to get things set up so I could get my report out. I finally did that yesterday, three days late. It’s a good thing my clients love me!
I’ve been using my new lappy for about twenty-four hours. The tendonitis in my right wrist is screaming, so I’ll have to figure out the ergonomics of using a flat keyboard. The touchpad is a pain in the butt, but I’m sure I’ll adapt after a while. Right now I’m not liking it at all, so I’ll be adding a mouse for when I’m at my desk. I can’t recover all of the photos and documents & other stuff that I lost with the old hard drive, but I’m slowly downloading the programs I need and refilling my bookmarks and address books. I’m still a technophobe & still hate change, but I’m adapting. I’ll give you an update somewhere down the road & let you know how that’s going. Overall, for right now: still bummed about what I’ve lost, but pretty happy with what I’ve found.
Technorati Tags: adapting to change, computer crash, computers, laptop, shopping
September 2, 2008
Can you identify the item depicted above? Take your best guess and post it in the comments below. If your guess wins, you’ll get a nifty prize. Here’s how it works:
1. Write a comment giving your guess as to what the item is. Be as specific as you can. For instance, indoor “lamp” would be too general as an answer if you needed to identify a lava lamp. Sometimes the brand will need to be specific, as when you identified the Enregizer Bunny and auto company logos. Guess as many times as you want, but put each answer in a separate comment, please!
2. First person to identify the item wins. If more than one person provides the correct answer, time and date stamp will determine who was first.
3. The author of this blog will be the sole judge as to what constitutes a correct answer. Sorry - no hints will be given. I will attempt to respond to your answers at least every few hours, but I am not continuously at the keyboard so please be patient.
4. The contest will end in forty-eight hours, whether or not a correct guess has been submitted.
5. Skeet’s Stuff is a do-follow blog, so you get some link value just for commenting.
What will you win?
1. The author of this blog will write a LINKY LOVE POST (review) about the winner’s blog (commercial sites ineligible.) The LLP will contain the url for your blog plus at least two deep links and will be posted here on Skeet’s Stuff, a PR4 PR2 PR0 (bah google!) Ha! PR3 blog. Skeet writes good reviews. 
2. The weekly winners will be entered into a monthly drawing for a $10.00 gift card from Starbucks or Amazon or a ten dollar payment through PayPal so they can start saving for those sexy new shoes or a gallon of gas.
3. Drawing for the monthly prize will be held on or about September 1, 2008, and will include all weekly winners for the month. There are four Tuesdays in August, thus the maximum number of people who will be eligble is four.
Comments submitted with commercial links will be deleted. If you would like to market your product, service or website through skeet’s stuff I’ll be happy to discuss your needs and my prices. Please submit your request via email.
Technorati Tags: contests, photos, photo contest, photo puzzle
September 1, 2008
I don’t look terribly stressed, do I? I’ve been fooling with my computer all day - well, actually all day, every day for several days. I’ve got Office reinstalled, but haven’t reloaded my report templates or any of the other stuff I have stored on disc. I just reinstalled Flickr Uploader, but don’t have a photo editing program yet. I haven’t been able to make any of my photos reappear, which means I don’t have anything to use for Tuesday Teaser before I go to bed tomorrow night - won’t be able to anyway until I get a photo editor installed. I haven’t fooled with any of the other downloaded or add-on programs that I had before the crash. I also haven’t been able to get my AV to reinstall, and they don’t offer support on the weekend (jerks!) so I’m flying without a net here & probably picking up nasty intruders as I go. The good news is …l well, I’m sure there’s some somewhere, but I can’t think of it at the moment.
Oh, yeah - I did my roots. You can’t tell, though, because I’ve too much build-up of dark brown so I’m going lighter - makes it kinda look like I’ve still got gray roots, but actually they’re light ash brown roots. Guess I’ll be two-tone until the old stuff grows
And that is exactly how far I had gotten (Sunday afternoon) before my hard drive bit the dust. I confirmed today that it was toast. Coming to you now from my brand new lappy. But that’s a story for another post. I’ll end this one by saying that you can visit with the other Self Portrait Sunday participants over at Cass’s place, Midlife Musings, and that I certainly hope you will!
Oh, dear! This is confusing! How do I copy and paste links if I can’t skim my cursor across a line of type while holding down a mouse button? Reckon I’ll come back an insert some links as soon as I figure out how. I’m trying to be a happy camper … really!
Edit: Figured it out, but you would think basic operations like that would be explained somewhere in the
Technorati Tags: computer crash, meme, photos, self portrait
packed literature or user’s guide, wouldn’t you?
Posted by skeet @
3:38 pm •
Photos,
Meme •
