July 21, 2004
Temporary Escapes from Cyberspace
Sometimes I wonder why I bother to put out flowers that will only be gobbled by nasty little buggie things. 
Japanese beetles shred anything they can eat, snails turn my lilies and hostas to lacework and then there are the ever present white flies. *sigh*
But then the hummingbirds start their midsummer mating rituals on the back patio and the butterflies and dragonflies start to wander in. Suddenly it begins to feel like it was worth planting and picking at plants that will withstand full, hot afternoon sun in Tennessee.
We have had the most adorable little male ruby throat take over our patio as *his turf* in the last few days. He buzzes me when I am by the study window and I can't decide if he has been flirting or fighting. If he was flirting, I am afraid I have been tossed away for another woman, because as of this morning, there has been a small green, lady hummer inspecting what he has to offer.
Our little James Bond Birdie has been graciously letting her inspect his bug supply, feeders and the plant that seems to have her most fascinated. That would be a rather strange and scraggly looking plant with small, salmon colored trumpet flower clusters that smells heavenly. An Agastache Acapulco Orange ... whatever in the heck that might be. I saw it, I liked the smell [and noticed that the butterflies and bumbles liked it in the Home Depot garden shed] so home it came to replace the white petunias which were frying in my hot sun basket.
Potential *Mrs. Bond Birdie* must have inspected every tiny trumpet on the plant this morning. I was picturing her as having tiny white gloves, running them across *his* pad to see if she could rescue it from it's bachelor mess. And somehow, I don't think she cares a bit that Mr. JB Birdie might be a bit of a rouge. I think she's one of those ladies who wants an afternoon of wild sex, followed by flowers galore and sweet treats to eat.
Hopefully, we will be summer hosts for her and her little family soon, and those horrid Japanese beetles will head back underground for another year so my hibiscus blooms won't be pretty only in the mornings and gnawed full of holes by midafternoon.
This too shall pass, I hope. Someone please convince the bluejays that they might be a tasty treat!
One of these days I might even come back to cyberspace, I've just been enjoying *being away* for a bit. We shall return from the garden and other non-computer related activities, soon enough. Right now, I think I might go watch the ritual and squish a few bugs while *THE* Cat soaks up a bit of sun.
Farron
[and a porch-bound, sun worshipping _^OO^_ ]
July 17, 2004
UNniversary #10
Lookie! Sweetie brought home an armload of flowers tonight for the 10th UNniversary of our very first date.
He did that on our first date, too. *grin*
Farron
July 16, 2004
Which Font Are You?
I love fonts, so when I accidentally ran acrose a quiz to find out which font I really was, I had to give it a spin. Here was my result.
test yourself at fontlover.com!
Feel free to report your results here.
Farron
[and sleepy _^--^_ ]
July 12, 2004
Christmas Shopping in July?
Aaaaahahahahaha,
Does anyone else want to buy a case of these to hand out as Christmas gifts?
I know I have a nice long list of people who need to have them appear in their holiday stockings. *smile*
Farron
July 08, 2004
Out D**Ned Spot!
More on monitoring:
When on a site with a black background after posting here last night. I spotted [gasp] dead pixels! Back to the store it went. Of course, there was not another 1760 to be found on a shelf in the area. I did spot the 1765, but hated the look of it on the spot. I could not endure staring that ugly thing for five minutes. Let alone hours on end.
It did look fine in pictures, but not *in purrrson.* Search and destroy was on. I refused to go home without a new monitor.
Ended up with a ViewSonic VA721.
First order of business when I arrived home was to test with solid black and then solid white page in full screen [F11] mode. Passed close inspection.
Again, nice crisp, bright display. So I think all is well here and I can stop obsessing on this issue. I've only wasted three of the four days in this post holiday week on monitor death, purchase, return & repurchase.
My only regret is that I had to go to one of those *big stores.* I would rather have purchased from Computer Renaissance where I knew they would take good care of me if any issues arose. Unlike the super store policies. But they just didn't have another flat panel I liked available right now. [sigh]
It's tough finding pixel purrrfection on the cheap. haha
Farron
[_^..^_ is over it!]
July 07, 2004
Causes, Campaigns & Coding
In doing just a wee bit of that blog surfing I planned to blow off the rest of the night. Ran across a few spots that seem to be trying to spread the word about issues near and dear to my coding and computing heart.
First, here's one the students will love. A new *sticker* to strut on the pages they are creating with their new found coding skills:
This *sticker* button links to information about why table layouts should be avoided and the value of table free design.
And how about spreading the word that messIE6 is [ahem] not the ideal choice in browsers? It's about time some of the superior and more compliant browsers like Mozilla/FireFox and Opera started getting more attention and use:
Commentary from scottandrew.com:
http://www.scottandrew.com/main/ie-psa
Several links to articles like this one are included.
Internet Explorer is Too Dangerous to Keep Using:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1617931,00.asp
And last, but not least, what about these notes on an unfortunate step backward in time from Apple and the Dashboard project?
http://jking.dark-phantasy.com/log/?post=91
http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2004/07/07/wrapped-in-canvas/
Okay, I'm pooped now. Enough for tonight. Time to snuggle in with a fella, a pillow and THE _^..^_.
Sweet dreams all!
Farron
Monitoring the Latest Crisis
Yesterday afternoon, I shut down as it appeared there might be another of our summer thunderboomers coming through. After taking care of a few odd errands and chores, I decided to fire back up as we seemed to have escaped the boomer which has become all but a daily occurrence here lately. Plug in, click power switch. Black screen. Usually annoying Windows theme song came and went. Still black screen. Check power switch for monitor. Light is green all systems are go, but I still have, you got it ...black screen.
Cables are checked, dust critters cleared way. Reboot. Try disconnecting monitor from computer to attempt to get the diagnostic box that tells me it is not connected. Black screen. Arrrrrggghhh. My pretty, just under two year old flat panel is doornail dead.
With my ancient lappie [lovingly called the *Runt*] fired up, I did some [slow!] window shopping. I had already spotted an NEC sitting in a row of flat panels at one of the local office superstores recently that had a show stopping display. Walked all over everything around it. Checked some reviews and prices. Owners were raving about pretty much everything except the fact that the display option buttons are a bit hard to see at the bottom of the monitor. Narrowed myself down to two choices, NEC MultiSync 1760V or 1765V. I'd have loved to spring for a 19", but not this week.
Headed to my favorite local computer shop [one of the fabulous Computer Renaissance franchises, which just happens to be closeby] this morning for a quick check to make sure I wasn't losing my mind and the monitor was really working, but I had bumped some setting. Nope, still dead. Tower got a quick check, all seemed well there.
They don't seem to believe any sort of power spike caused my issue, but there may have been something happening and I just hit my last shutdown/restart. Good news is that it's still under the 3 year limited warranty with AOC and from what I was told, they are really good about honoring those. Bad news, expect it to take a month or a wee bit less to either have a new or repaired monitor or word that the issue was non-warranty related.
And more good news. There was ONE bright, shiny new NEC 1760V sitting on display with a price I already knew was comparable to the one at BestBuy. Warranty possibilities or not, I had to have it. No way I was waiting around for a month on the dear old Runt, and not much sense in spending even a little on a used, throw away CRT to get by until I received word.
So I may end up with two nice flat panels and a good excuse for an extra tower, or a dual monitor setup. We shall see. Wallet may be a bit lighter, but I have a big grin. And a poppingly bright new monitor with which to catch up on some blog reading I have been meaning to do.
TaTa for now,
Farron and Indifferent _^..^_