LaserBlog.com

Bloddy Hell. I have to BE across town for an appointment at a specialist at 8:30am tomorrow morning, says the girl who routinely stays up until 3:30am. How the hell am I going to pull this off? Maybe I’ll just stay up and then sleep in the late morning. ACK!

Great new show: The guy (Morgan Spurlock) who made the movie documentary “Supersize Me” has a tv show now, “30 Days” where he lives different people’s lives for 30 days at a time.

Tonight’s (premier) episode was he and his fiance trying to live on minimum wage in Columbus, Ohio.

Good show.

I don’t like to talk about religion on my blog, because it’s almost always inflammatory. I hear a “but” coming. But I just wanted to share this website that I like alot:

http://www.beliefnet.com

It has some neat forums, articles, and quizes, and it’s not aimed at any one religion.

I often take the belief-O-matic quiz, I took it for the 3rd time today. It’s interesting that since I was raised Catholic, that my results today came in as follows:

[[Click below to read more...]]
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I’m trying to honor myself by making time to do the things I enjoy, instead of just dribbling the time away with work and surfing.

I want to make more time for reading, writing, and photography.

Yesterday I finally grabbed my D60 to take a picture of a fish in the lake out back before it disapeared, but, f*ck, I HATE Florida, my camera TOTALLY fogged up and STAYED that way as soon as I went outside. It’s in the high 80′s by 10am, the high tomorrow is supposed to be above 90. We keep the thermostat at about 75 inside. So when I walk outside w/ my camera, it becomes soaked. And being a $2100 digital SLR, I panic when it gets wet like that.

So no recent DSLR photos.

But today I talked to a girl who is also a photo nut and maybe she’ll be a photo pal. We exchanged numbers and may go photo shooting together soon. Ironically her first and last name are my cat’s name and my Pug’s name. How odd.

I’m also trying to make time to write. I don’t know why that’s the hardest. I guess because I’m trying to be creative, but fiction is not my thing. I’d much rather write a tech article than a short story.

And reading… I’ve been trying to catch up on my reading. I have reading ADD and tend to never finish a book, ever. I went around the house the other day and gathered up a pile of books that I intend to [*deja vu] either finish reading or start over reading and this time finish. * I have a feeling I’ve written this very thing before.

But yeah, so there’s a stack, and I’m working on it, including two books from the library on writing, including Stephen King’s “On Writing”. What I do is I read one book for a while, put that down and pick up another. I’ll take a pic of my stack. In fact, I think I’ll take one pic of a different bookshelf in my house each day, just to keep it interesting. There’s got to be a flickr meme in there somewhere.

(with notes)

Oh yeah, I just found the BookShelfProject Flickr Group!

My NERDS 2.0.1 book came today and I’m so happy! I wanted that book so bad back around ’99 and finally bought it in hardcover, and then the book got lost when we moved into our house, never to be seen again. So I finally broke down and ordered it off of AbeBooks.com. Add that to my stack. *sigh*

Listening to “Hindi Songs, Bollywood” on Live365.com. That’s a neat website, it even tells you what’s playing and gives you a link so you can buy it or see more about it.

Hi. I want to write in my blog but I have to go to the bathroom. I’ve had SUCH digestive problems lately. Aren’t you glad I shared that with you? If I were writing this on my laptop while on the toilet, would you want to know?? We named our home wifi network “CanNet”. Can you guess why?

I had written in detail before about M’s new iPod car stereo, including a description of how in MY car I had an aux cord run from the stereo, under the center console and it comes out in the console storage compartment. I can then plug that jack into any device’s headphone jack, laptop, cassette walkman, ipod, any mp3 player, etc.

When I listen to my ipod thru this the sound quality is incredible, MUCH better than an fm transmitter, which M had in his car until he got the iPod stereo. I can control the volume thru the stereo and everything.

I hated the sound of that fm transmitter, but the Aux cord is GREAT, and I like it much better than, say, an iPod jack because I can plug ANYthing into it, not just an ipod. And there’s nothing in the trunk, I hate the idea of going to the trunk to mess w/ CDs, etc.

I like M’s car iPod sterero beecause it charges the ipod, you can control the ipod (not just volume) w/ the stereo, and when you turn the car off the ipod goes to sleep. I may actually get the same car stereo he got, BUT even if I do, I’ll STILL have an aux cord run so that I can plug in any mp3 player, cassette walkman, laptop, whatever.

Here are some camera phone pix of my aux cord:

If I promised you a vimeo.com invite and you didn’t get it, let me know. (If you want one, let me know.)

I posted this to a couple forums:

Is there any way to create a mod where I can use my bluetooth headset w/ my ipod mini?

I use this bluetooth headset w/ my cell phone:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000246XQE/

I listen to tons of tech podcasts while in the car over my car sterero and use the bluetooth headset in case I get a call on my cell phone.

But while I’m out of the car, like shopping, running errands, in the waiting room of the doctor’s office, etc., I’d like to use the bluetooth headset for both, even if I can’t use it for bot at the same instant, i.e. I’m sure the headset can only be connected to one device at a time, and that’s ok.

But it would be nice to get out of the car, and then listen to the podcast thru the bluetooth headset. Why this is better than headphones is because I like one ear free while walking around in public, waiting for my name to be called in dentist’s office, etc. Using my earbuds w/ one earpiece dangling is cumbersome, and it’d sure be easier to just leave the bluetooth headset in my ear and just disconnect the phone and connect the headset to the ipod.

Any thoughts?

…. Since posting that I found these links, but am not sure they are available yet and/or in the U.S.:

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/portable-media/ipod/ipod-bluetooth-dongle-036032.php

http://icombi.nanzzang.com/product_02.asp

http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=icombi+wireless+stereo+iPod+dongle&btnG=Search+Froogle

OOOOooo and:
http://store.yahoo.com/semsons-inc/dibblhafor3g.html
“The iBlue Bluetooth Handsfree for the iPod bridges iPod and Bluetooth enabled mobile phone seamlessly. When phone rings, with a simple push button, the music shuts off and phone call starts. When call ends, the music will resume automatically. All is done without changing the earphones.” AND they make one for the mini too:
http://store.yahoo.com/semsons-inc/dibmiblhafor.html

A Poem for TooBitz:
“I miss the ol’ twit comments,
those were fun days,
when throttling is over,
we can commence the poem daze.
Your poems are awesome,
your writing is grand,
my writing is ameteur,
but that’s where I stand.
At least I try to write,
no matter how pithy,
but at least I can strive,
to be as good as the fishy.”

A Poem for Nala:
“My favorite plastic crack addict,
keeps me in stitches,
he’s one of the world’s
most beloved polish american bitches.
Should an upcoming trip
to the great white north,
take me on wheels,
past the polish porch,
I’ll be sure to stop by,
and maybe I’ll bring a pie,
but either way,
I’ll be sure to say HI.”

Can u tell I’m bored? M had to go to bed early again, i.e. just after dinner. He’s getting up at midnight to go into to work again. So here I sit. Surfing. Waiting for TWIT 9. I’d go sit on the couch and read but then I’d fall asleep, and I don’t want to do that because then I’ll be up all night.

And I can’t have coffee because I’m already suffering from some pretty bad, uh, digestive problems, and I’ll spare you the details.

I just got off the phone w/ M’s mother, she’s really anxious for us to get back up to Toronto for a vist! SO AM I! I totally LOVE love love LOVE Toronto. M is from there and he promised me long ago we could live there, but his job here is just too good to give up for no good reason.

I love it up there. I’m dying to go. We used to go up about twice a year but then you stop going and years go by and surprise you. M went up this past December when his dad was sick (he’s ok now) but I had to stay home because of logistics (a new puppy who didn’t have his shots yet and was sick, too late to get pet sitter, etc.)

When M and I met he moved down here because he has dual and if I’d gone up there I couldn’t have worked. So he came down here “for one year to see if we get along in real life” and we did we’d go back to Toronto together. We did, obviously, but he unexpectedly got such a good job here that we stayed here, in this festering cesspool of boiling heat, mosquitoes, old farts and no culture. I’m doomed to live out my youth in a town where the older set flocks to run out the clock! Somebody save me, please!

I love it “up north” so much I can bring myself to tears just thinking about it. I grew up in New Jersey and Pittsburgh, Pa. I love hills, “real trees” (florida has plasticy palm trees and other trees that never change color or shed their leaves), “real grass” (Fl. has hard plasticy grass that you’d cut yourself on if you ran in it barefoot… and FIRE ANTS)… I love old brick homes (in this area of fl, old homes just get older and that part of town then becames the “bad” part of town)… I love different cultures, ethnic restaurants and grocery stores, city streets, coffee cafes, unique stores, everything that this part of the country lacks.

This is a retirement town. I remember being just out of high school, looking great, feeling great, at a red light, windows down, radio up, I feel someone looking at me, I look over… and it’s an old fart w/ one foot in the grave. This town is SO OLD. I mean, wheeling an oxygen cart behind you, “old”.

I remember one time I went to Toronto for two weeks. Actually it was Hamilton, about an hour west of Toronto, but we went into the city almost every day. On my last day there we were at a restaurant and this REALLY OLD couple walked in and sat down. I did a complete double take because it hit me that I had not seen ANYBODY that old in the two weeks I’d been in Canada. I got tears in my eyes then, realizing that in less than 24 hours I had to get back on a plane to Retirement City Hell, U.S.A.

Anyway, M’s mom is anxious for us to come up and I’m with her. Although I do want to see her and the rest of M’s family, inluding his awesome sister, and his brand new newphew that I guess I am obliged to go see and smile at… (babies, ick) but more than that I just want a change of scene. I want to see people of DIFFERENT ages, different ethnicities, go to some cool pubs and restaurants, shop shop shop, and more than anything else, GO PHOTO SHOOTING. Maybe I can even get a group of Torontonians off flickr.com to go photoing togther while I’m there. Oh how dreamy. And to think that people LIVE there and take it for granted every single day.

I wonder if Call For Help has an audience during taping like the Screen Savers did. I’d do just about ANYTHING to get into a taping of Call For Help. HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE?!?!? Well, I can always stand outside the building and lean against the brick. Oh WAIT, what’s that song???
“standing in the rain,
with her head hung low,
couldn’t get tickets,
it was a sold out show,
heard the roar of the crowd,
she could picture the scene,
put her ear to the wall,
then like a distant scream,
she heard one guitar…

No wait, that’s about a rock ‘n roll band, not a show like Call For Help. =:D

I’m punch drunk tired, I’m going to bed!

lmao

Going to a pug meetup at a restaurant by the beach. Check moblog!

This is the shirt that I (and just about everybody else) wore at the Linux Lan Party today. 2 other guys had ‘em but forgot ‘em.

OH MY GOD I am wiped out.

I don’t know what changed.

The last time we held a Linux Lan Party/ Install Fest/ Barbeque at our house, we spread the word and few geeks showed up w/ their towers and laptops in hand, and had, well, and install fest and it was great. My dream-gathering: guys, computers, wifi, food, caffiene, music.

This time, the house was overrun with families and kids.

I… just don’t know why it was different this time. I told the same people and spread the word thru the same venues. The geeks couldn’t stay as late because their wives and kids were here and “had” to go, you know how it is.

Maybe word just got out this time and “barbeque” sounded like “family cookout, bring the wife and kids“. I wasn’t prepared for that, food wise, kid-proofing the house-wise, cleanliness-wise. I was expecting 7 or so geeks with cartons of Mountain Dew under their arms like last time. Not special eating utensils and questions about why we don’t have any kiddie DVDs in our house. I’ve got Rocky Horror… and Full Metal Jacket… and Clerks. Will those do?

Kiddie screams, no SHRIEKS, playing with the LOUD squeeky dog toys. The moms were NICE, I have no problem with them. In fact I wouldn’t mind hanging out w/ them sometime. It’s just, I advertised (for lack of a better word) a LAN PARTY, not a family cookout. *shakes head*.

There were about 7 or so little kids.

In case I’m not very clear, I don’t like to be around little kids, ok? No offense to those that have them and love them, to each their own and I respect you if you have or love kids. But *I* don’t want them and I advertised a geek linux install-fest.

Idunno.

(Remember, this is just my personal journal and you may not always like what I have to say, but it’s my journal.)

I’m really worn out. Last time we had a linux lan party, everyone left and I wish they hadn’t. I coulda stayed up all night learning about linux or whatever.

Even my dog is worn out, and usually he’s rarin’ to go by nightfall.

Well, at least I got Linux running on my Fujitsu P1120 finaly!

Hey, what the f*ck? I just noticed that if I do a “copy image location” for my moblog images it comes out as “mail.worldxchange.net..” NOT textamerica.com… What the f*ck??? THAT’S ODD.

Uh, anyway, so today went ok considering I was totally unprepared in every way for the # of and ages of people who came today.

At one point I went to step over the lattice doorway blocker we have to keep the pug in the family room….

… and I caught my foot, didn’t lift my leg high enough. I fell. HARD. My foot got caught so I hurt my foot. I impaled my tit. That hurt. And did all this while pivoting on my shin bone, and now there’s a huge-ass lump and bruise. Schweeeeeeet.

I’m going to bury my head in some ice cream now.

Today’s the Linux Lan party. Check the moblog because email-to-blog on flickr.com isn’t working right for me lately. I must go clean the house, I only have a few hours left before the peeps show up.

Yeah so anyway we’re having another Linux Lan Party/ Install Fest/ Barbeque tomorrow.

We’ll be having a lot of rain from the tropical storm that is going by in the Gulf, some heavy rain bands will be going over us. I hope the house doesn’t leak AGAIN.

M and I should be cleaning right now, but we’re not. We’re both procrastinating, sitting on the computer, pretending to be too busy to clean. But it has to get done, at least 13 people are coming tomorrow. And I sorta dread it cuz this time KIDS are coming, god knows why. As young as six and a “baby”. Why? Why at a linux lan party, WHY? Whatever. *shakes head*

Hey M, we need to CLEAN!

I made Panang again tonight. It’s my favorite food in the world. Well, so is sushi and indian food, but Panang RULES. I get it so much that the waitress at the Thai restaurant is like “why you always get panang? Panang panang panang panang panang. We have other curries you know.” So I make it at home now too. I got this panang curry paste from the local Thai grocery store, and then they closed down until July so I ordered more online (gotta love the net!) and so tonight we had chicken w/ Taste Of Thai Spicy Thai Peanut Bake (all the grocery stores around here have it in the ‘ethnic foods’ isle) and Panang on Jasmine Rice. I make the Panang by putting the curry paste in the coconut milk, adding a bit of peanut butter, a smidgen of sugar, and some crushed peanutes. GAWD it’s good.

M, we need to CLEAN!

The Pug watching Leo Laport on Call For Help.

Originally uploaded by MiaMyselfAndI.

Chatting on IM in the car and listening to a podcast while waiting for my appointment.

Originally uploaded by MiaMyselfAndI.

Chatting on IM in the car and listening to a podcast while waiting for my appointment.

Thanks to my insomnia, I was able to catch TWIT 8A even tho’ I’m on the east coast, so you can go get a copy here:
mentalbites.com/asecondblog/twit

Man something’s wrong w/ me. I write a post around 2am or so, take a sleeping pill and go to bed. I lay awake for an hour or moer and just can’t take it anymore, so I get up and go to the computer room and turn on the tv and the computer. I’m messed up. I’m not at ALL tired, even w/ the sleeping pill. *shakes head* But at any time during the morning, afternoon, or evening I can fall asleep w/ the drop of a hat if I lay on the couch. I’m tired all day long. But not at night.

I feel a bit sick to my stomach. I think the sleeping pill makes me dizzy, but not tired.

You know what would be nice? A bluetooth thingy that I sorta thought up in my head today.

I have a bluetooth headset for my phone. I use it all the time when driving or running errands. I wore it today when I headed into town for dinner, and when I got to the restaurant, I had to wait for a table by myself ’cause M was still at a funeral (or wake). I hadn’t brought my headphones, and I wanted to keep my bluetooth headset in for when he called to tell me he was done w/ the wake.

I was thinking how cool it’d be if they made a bluetooth adapter for the ipod that looked like the iTrip or iTrip Mini or something like that, where when you put it in the headphone jack it didn’t take up too much space but then you could hear the music or, in my case, the podcast, in your bluetooth earpiece that you already have in your ear. Then when the phone rang you’d just pause the ipod and answer the phone and hear the caller thru the same earpice. The quality would be good enough for talk, i.e. a podcast. It would be for standing in line or waiting at the doctor’s office, not for reproducing top-quality music sound. I’ve often had just one of two earbuds in my ear while using the ipod. One example is sitting at the sushi bar alone. I can still answer the sushi chef when he talks to me, but for the bulk of the time that I am sitting there alone, I can listen to my music or podcast.

Idunno. Just a thought. Maybe they even make such a thing, but I must get to bed. So I’ll look later.

It’s 2:53am, not 1:53 am. I wonder how long the time’s been off. I have the time zone set right and I don’t see a thing for daylight savings time. Huh.

Today was a good day. I slept in a bit (as usual after having stayed up ’till almost 4am). Took care of “the farm” (2 cats, 2 dogs). Surfed.

Then I went to the mall… [click below to read more]
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M and I were talking about how we’ve literally lost track of the number of computers in our house. So I decided to compile a list, mainly for ourselves, but I might as well post it here, too. The list is up to 15…
[Click below to read more...]
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This pisses me off:
Wal-Mart won’t print digital photos that look “professional”
(from digg.com)

I’d heard this before. With so many people getting better and better at photography due to the ease of digital cameras (snap as many as you want then throw away the garbage), I can see this becoming a bigger and bigger problem every year.

Good Morning. Yeah, it’s almost 11, but I went to bed at around 4.

Just a reminder, my IM and email info is on the sidebar (w/ the email you’ll have to type it in, spam avoidance). I have a million email addresses, but that’s because I use spamex.com to generate different email aliases for everything. They all go to the same inbox, so it doesn’t matter which email address you use, I’ll get the email.

This week I’ve been in writing mode, [click below to read more...]
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FAKE TEXTAMERICA phishing.
I got one of these today:
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/s/spammers.htm

A different phishing scheme that I didn’t even recognize at first, and I’m usually QUICK w/ this stuff!

A perfect fake of the textamerica site:
if I follow the link from the email.

BUT if I just type in textamerica.com and log in and go to “images waiting approval” (rather than following the link in the fake email), I get a DIFFERENT screen:

Damn these phishers are SLICK! Bastards. (yes, I just changed my password… several times.)

Amazing, they did an Episode #8 already! I figured they’d put it off a week. Those guys are just too dedicated.

Leo posted a list of mirrors in his ep7 post here:
http://thisweekintech.com/node/3791
Some of the mirrors he listed already have episode #8 up. Be sure to check them all.

Also, I’ll put a copy of it here: www.mentalbites.com/asecondblog/twit/ for as long as I have bandwidth to share. I’ve got plenty right now, so go for it.

I’m also seeding the torrent, just doing my part.

TWIT, or “This Week In Tech”, with Yoshi Deherrera, Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose, Yoshi, Robert Heron, David Prager, Roger Chang and friends, from the original Tech TV, The Screen Savers and Call For Help.

“These are a few of my favorite things…”

* M. Who doesn’t have a current website, because he’s… a dork.
* Sasha kitty, who just turned 18.
* M’s fur-pals (kitty and doggie)
* The Pug.
* family, obviously.
* technology, duh.
* My new pet project, a website for locals. (email me if you’d like the link. I set up drupal, a chat room, a message board, and am writing articles as well as just general blog posts.)
* Photography and compulsive camera-collecting (everything from pencams to digial SLRs).
* My teeny tiny laptop that I got for writing in cafes and places other than home.
* My moblog.
* Nala’s blog.
* TWIT
* Flickr, for the community.
* Fotki.com, for well-organized mass storage of photos.
* Spamex.com.
* Anonymizer.
* StuffBak.com.
* The EFF, eff.org.
* vimeo.com, like flickr, but for video. (Want an invite? Email me or comment.)
* Linux Lan Parties & BBQs at our house.
* Playing the iPod in the car, either the way I have it set up, or the way M has it set up.
* Chatting on IM.
* Staying up late.
* Sleeping in.
* ePrompter (checks multiple gmail and webmail accounts)
* Zone Alarm, Spybot S&D, AdAware, AVG Virus Protection (all FREE! and doesn’t bog down the sytem like McAfee and Norton do!)
UPDATE:
* AbeBooks.com, an online network of used books stores around the world. I’ve gotten used books for a dollar there.
* Trillian, lets me chat on Instant Message on AIM, YIM, MSN, and ICQ all at the same time w/ one piece of software.

I had completely forgotten that I was going to re-post about this. I originally posted about this on my old blog, the second to last post, actually. (If you want the link to my old blog, just email me for the link. I generally don’t link directly from here. My email addy is on the sidebar.)

Back in March I was invited to do a radio show on blogs for the local FM NPR radio station. It was A BLAST, especially for someone who isn’t normally on radio or tv. I really enjoyed it.

I was one of two guests in the studio to tell the world about blogs. It was on the local FM public radio station. I had a LOT of fun and I really enjoyed it. But since my family listened to the show, I don’t want to put anything on the old blog (keywords) that will cause relatives to type in those search terms into Google and find that (or this) blog. That’s why I won’t link directly to the radio station or the archive of my show. (See, friends and family don’t know about this blog, except for my better half “M”. I keep it away from them so that I can be as open and [brutally] honest as I want to be.)

We talked about blogs, explained what they are, how they’re defined, how there are many different kinds of blogs, etc. I wore my “I’m blogging this.” t-shirt from Think Geek and the host actually pointed that out on the show, which was great since it was radio and not TV.

I was afraid I’d “mess up” and like freeze up, or stutter, or worse- curse… like I did one time on the Planetarium mic. (That’s another story for another day, LOL!) So I didn’t tell many people about it ahead of time. Like this blog, it’s much easier to “talk” to a bunch of strangers when you know that your mother-in-law or gynecologist is listening to you live. I could relax and be myself, and now they (and you, if you want) can hear the archived recording and it’s too late for me to screw up.

I didn’t screw up though, yay me. But what I did do was have a lot of fun. I don’t know why, but when I left there I was giggling to myself because it was so fun. I’m such a girl.

I don’t know if it was the thrill of being on the radio as much as it was the thrill of being able to talk tech with the world. I love sharing tech w/ other people. Nothing is more fun to me than to show someone how I can surf literally any website w/ my Palm device from literally anywhere using my bluetooth cell phone and Sony Clie, or sharing my insight on why this or that technology is great or horrible.

So anyway, the radio station has an archive of the radio show online, and also M managed to record it on the computer as well. Email me for the link to the radio show if you would like to listen to me. I really had a lot of fun talking about blogs on the radio. I really did.

New Video added to VIMEO.COM:

The Eskie Falls Off Couch (and my evil laugh).

P.S. If you want a vimeo account, just email me and I’ll invite you. (you’ll have to type it in, spam avoidance)

My vimeo files.

M has been touting Live365.com for a long time now, he listens to it at work, and mainly listens to bad 80′s music.

But I got new speakers for my computer last night and so I figured I’d try it out and it’s really neat! I found a station that plays BOLLYWOOD music! I LOVE Bollywood movies and music, so this is great! (The Indian Hollywood.)

Groovy.