Colleen Cahill

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:00:41 GMT

Have not been very active here, so time to change. I pledge to read daily and post weekly; let's see if life agrees with that. :-)

Just got back from the World Fantasy Convention; as ever, it was a great deal of fun. This year I only sat in a few readings (my fault), but enjoyed Jeff Ford, Kij Johnson and Kim Vandervort. Next year in Columbus, Ohio will be different, I vow! Got some good books both in the goodie bag and from the dealer's room. Am especially enjoying Booklife by Jeff VanderMeer, a writers survival guide. While not an author, I am finding there is lots of good advice for the non-writer in this work, such as how to deal with people, the Internet and life in general; I recommend it to all.

Was suppose to go to work today, but am still recovering from California time and being on airplanes for over 7 hours. I had to literally run between flights as I had only 30 minutes between them and OF COURSE had to go from one terminal to another. Otherwise, normal boring, uncomfortable flying.

Lots of things arrived while I was away, including our Wii Fit Plus disk. The $20.00 upgrade is worth it, in my opinion (if you don't have a Wii fit yet, buy the Plus as it has everything the old system does with more). There are a few more yoga and strength exercises, but a lot of new balance and agility games. I like the Segway race and the bike riding game, although I am bad at them so far. Here is another goal; I will use the Wii at least 20 minutes each day to keep myself limber-er.

So now I will try to deal with the mountains of papers on my desk and also get in some house work.

Remember, I am watching you all now. ;-)

After 2 years, my cats finally sleep together

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:51:42 GMT

Or at least they are on the same bed, which is a big change.

The other day they were "playing" and Pyewacket (the small whiter one) was hissing up a storm. Of course Dorian is twice her weight and about 1/2 her age, so it could be bullying or just that he is going to win no matter what. She certainly starts most of the "romps".

Not an exciting Labor Day weekend for me; I got a cold starting Friday night and am still suffering running nose and such. But it was good to be off work as I could just lay around as I wanted to, not spreading any germs. Dennis gave this to me, as he was sick earlier last week, so we are assuming he is immune. Time will tell on that one. :-)

Time to go make a cup of tea; think I will have gun powder today.

Wedding entrance dance

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:15:44 GMT

I am sure that most of you have seen this already, as it has gone viral. I had several thoughts on this:

1. What fun!
2. This must be somewhere in the midwest US; everyone is white
3. No parents were involved in the entrance

None of this is meant to be judgmental, more just things I noticed.

New Simon's Cat on Youtube

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:28:08 GMT

Yes, I can see my cats doing this!

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:03:51 GMT

On the recommendation of PCWorld magazine, I downloaded Secunia Personal Software Inspector. It's job is to look for insecure software on my system and recommend updates and patches. It does the job, catching two such needs on my computer and also helping me find fixes quickly. Very painless and easy to use.

Computers!

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:14:06 GMT

I broke down and pre-ordered the Always Innovating, Inc. Touch Book; there is a good demo of it at http://www.demo.com/demonstrators/demo2009/165388.html. It is due to come out in July and I hope to get the email that is out every day. This is to replace my Palm Z22, which is not only showing it's age, but getting hard to read with my old eyes.

My old desktop PC is also showing its age. Firefox and IE are crashing regularly, but my virus scanning software says I am ok. Thought about a rebuilding from the ground up, but decided to get a cheap new computer instead to save my time and stress. TigerDirect has a machine with XP Pro and even after added memory, a second hard drive and upgrading the video card, it is a very reasonable price. So that will be coming in soon, too. I am thinking of scrubbing my old PC and turning into storage/backup space for D. and I. Maybe use Linux for that.

What a geek I am!

Very funny!

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:45:51 GMT

I really like Irregular Web Comic; today's was especially good.

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:50:53 GMT

Had a mini-vacation in Philadelphia this weekend. It was the first time D. had been there since he was ten. We arrived on Thursday night after a 4 hour drive (lots of delays east of Baltimore). Since it rained all of Friday, we mostly spent the day in the Reading Terminal Market, eating pickles and other things. That evening our friend Edwin joined us and we ate in China Town. All were disappointed when we discovered that Cherry St. Restaurant had closed; we were looking forward to Chinese Vegetarian Kosher food. But there are not lack of places to eat around there, so we did not go hungry.

Saturday we spent on a touring bus, mostly just enjoying the ride. Lunch was found along South Street at an Indian Restaurant. That afternoon we went to the Franklin Institute and tried to watch the new Star Trek movie on the Imax. Tried, because D. and Edwin tell me they saw very little of the film; it was too large to get the whole picture without constantly turning your head. I saw little, as I was quickly motion sick and spent most of the film with my eyes closed. I, for one, will never set foot in an Imax theater again.

Sunday we split up, with Edwin looking at N.J. flea markets while D. and I went to the Swedish American Historical Museum. We had a great time and enjoyed the new display on "Colony to Community: The Story of New Sweden". D. spent an mint at the gift shop (hey, that's my job!). I am guessing Edwin had a good time looking for bling.

Sun, 31 May 2009 12:00:50 GMT

It looks like I have a virus on my desktop PC. Sigh! I am running a scanner on the system AND my backup hard drive right now, but I fear I am going to have to rebuild. Oh well, guess it is time for that anyway. :-(

In the mean time, I am cheering myself up with How to lie about books. The is a bit of strong language here, but I like the idea of the kitten pictures; wonder if this would have effect in some of my work meetings?

Sun, 31 May 2009 00:31:18 GMT

My beloved is almost over his cold; he does not have any fever today. Both our fingers are crossed that I will miss that bullet. To help ensure good health, I have have been "resting" (translation, goofing off) most of the afternoon.

One thing I did this morning was download a password manager and am giving it a field test. So far, pretty good, but I will give a fuller report later.

Trying Chrome

Mon, 11 May 2009 23:53:56 GMT

So I have downloaded and installed the Google Chrome browser. Why, you may ask? Because:

1. I am webmaster for a few pages and want to test them on Chrome
2. Want to see if there is anything better in this browser than FireFox
3. If I have one gmail account open in Firefox, I need a different browser to open my second gmail account at the same time.

True, I could use IE for no. 3 and have, but I thought it was time to give Chrome a try.

Anyone using this yet?

Thoughts on retirement

Sun, 03 May 2009 18:00:58 GMT

Although this is still sometime in my future (or 5 years, 7 months, as I tell D.), I have considered what I would do with my free time when I retire.

-First, just goof off and do what I want for at least a week, maybe more
-Sleep in till 6:00am every day! (we get up at 4am right now)
-Organize my office to peek efficiency

But those are just a start, I also plan to eventually:

-Volunteer on Librivox and Project Gutenberg
-Play with my cats more
-Read all the books in my backlog list
-Go fishing more, especially surf fishing
-Visit National parks I have never been to
-Go to historic sites in the US, such as Shiloh or Braintree, Mass.
-Set up a garden and also an herb garden
-Knit for charity
-Cook more meals at home
-Have more dinner parties
-Actually keep the house clean (for a change)

And speaking of that, I need to go do a few things!

Dennis is recovering from surgery

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 17:06:44 GMT

His belly button hernia is done and he is on the mend, but very sore. The weather is nice again today, so we are planning a little walk later. He has been watching lots of movies and is a bit bored right now. We both watched The Reader, a very interesting film about a young German who has an affair with an older woman and later discovers she had been a guard in a concentration camp in WWII.

I hope to get a review done today; keep your fingers crossed!

Wheat-free, egg-free, dairy-free oatmeal muffins

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:52:04 GMT

I had a request for these, so I am posting here. They are a modification of a recipe by my friend Kim.

Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins, Adapted

3/4 c Silk, soy milk
1 c Oatmeal, old fashioned, uncooked
1/2 c Vegetable Oil
2 tsp Egg replacer
1/2 c Brown Sugar
1/2 t Cinnamon
3 ts Baking Powder
1 c Spelt Flour
1 tb Orange Zest

Preheat oven to 400f.
Line muffin cups with paper liners.
Combine and mix milk and oatmeal.
Add oil and egg whites, sugar and spice and zest.
Stir until blended, let sit 5 minutes.
Combine flour and baking powder, add to mixture, along with orange zest and stir just until blended. Bake 15-18 minutes.

This will not be the fluffiest muffins, but they will be moist and tasty. I also add 1-2 tsp of ground flax seed to make them healthier.

Enjoy!

Embedding images in Gmail

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:20:29 GMT

After much frustration and web searching, I figured out how to embed images in a Gmail message.

1. You must have the latest IE or Firefire
2. Open Gmail and compose a message, but don't send it
3. Open another tab and go to the webpage with an image you want to embed
4. Left click on the image and drag it (a ghost image should move with your cursor)
5. Drag ghost image to the tab where Gmail is open
6. Wait a second and that tab will come forward. Drag the ghost image down into the composition area. Be sure the cursor is in the text area and release the mouse.
7. The image will be in the gmail message.

Try it; it is really cool!

Funny book burning

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:04:02 GMT

I am listen to Rex Stout's Gambit and had to chuckle over the description of Nero Wolfe burning a book he called subversive: a Webster's Dictionary. It seems Nero violently disagreed with some of the things stated there. :-) I do so enjoy Stout's writing!

New audio book player

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:44:45 GMT

I have enjoyed my Creative Zen Stone mp3 player, but there are some issues with it. It has a play time of about 4-5 hours and I am occasionally hitting buttons by mistake, then having to search around for where I was. Audio books have very long play sessions (often 1 hour) and it takes a lot of effort to find the lost point.

So after some checking around, I got a Sansa Express and it is working well so far. With a play time of 15 hours, I won't have it run out of battery in the middle of a day. The buttons are better placed, although I have to be careful not to press the volume buttons when I turn the unit on or off. It did take a while to figure out how to stop the player and have it start again at the same point (use the on/off button, not the pause/play button) and for a while I could not figure out how to disconnect the unit from my computer. The player has a USB plug built in, so I just shove it in a slot to charge and transfer books. After some Internet searching, I found an answer to this on the Sandisk Community Forum and now I can easily remove the player.

I also like that this player, unlike my Zen Stone, will let me move backwards through a section, so if I lose my place near the end of a section I can reserve quickly to the desired point. I am keeping both players for now, as I think I will use the older player for LibriVox books, which have smaller sections.

--Update--
I am very disappointed: I cannot get WMA files to play on my Sansa Express. Strangely, if I put the player in my computer and run the files through the Windows Media Player, they work, but not on the Express. I have checked the Forum and the solutions posted did not work. Sigh! Guess I will use this for MP3 files only.

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:44:00 GMT

Just a quick note for now: have a book review to complete for taping tomorrow. In the meantime, here is a fun bit of sheepish fun!

Thougts on dreams

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 22:15:44 GMT

I am not known for quick insight, which is probably why I just noticed dreams are not a full sensory experience. Never in a dream have I experienced a smell that was not in my "real" room and only then when I was waking up. Nor have I ever had interesting tastes in a dream; in fact I don't ever remember eating in my dreams. After careful consideration, I believe my dreams have:

-plenty of visuals
-lots of emotions
-movements of all kinds (crawl, walk, swim, fly...)

Nor has sense of touch played in my dreams; I don't remember any sharp, soft, or rough sensations.

What I have had are some bizarre ideas. I remember one dream where I came up with the solution to all the problems in the world. When I awoke, I realized what complete nonsense the idea was. It was so good at the time....

So dreams, as real as they seem, are missing quite a bit not seen in real life.

Of course this still does not make the uncomfortable ones less difficult.

Snow!

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 11:57:35 GMT

It is coming down here in great fat flakes! Soooo pretty! I am teleworking today, so I don't have to go out if I don't want to, but I hope it continues for a while so I cam catch quick looks!

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 15:01:28 GMT

Got a cat on my lap and snow flurries coming down. But it's time to go to church, and afterwords I am doing a review for http://www.fast-forward.tv. Hope to do some snow watching after that. NOAA says 4-8 inches possible here: if it goes over 6, the Metro will shut down where the tracks are above ground. Wonder if the Government will be open tomorrow.

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 05:20:53 GMT

I have been in Denver since Friday, attending the American Library Assoc. convention, which has gone very well. Today it has been snowing and there might be 1-3 inches on the ground Monday. I did not bring boots, but am hoping this won't be to bad for one day. On Tuesday I fly back home and I am sure in Denver that will mean I can fly out on time. Well, I say I like snow: I get to prove it tomorrow.

On Friday, Pyewacket had another great adventure. D. came home and she did not appear for dinner, nor was she locked in any rooms. Only solution is she got outside. He tried calling and looking for her, but she was no where to be seen or heard. He tried several times and sudden Dorian darted out the door, so D. thought now he had two cats loose. Dorian immediately went to the back porch, looked underneath and began to meow. D. looked down and there was Pye, scared out of her little mind. With Dorian back in the house, it took D. 20 minutes to capture Pye and safely indoors. As Pye has not front claws or street smarts, this was a scary event and I am so happy she was found; it also proves what a little four watt brain she has. It is kind of neat that Dorian found her; guess he really wanted her to come home.

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:50:21 GMT

I am finally getting a chance to sit and watch it snow. Really it is more of a flurry than a full snow fall, but beggars can't be choosers. This is the only snow forecast for the next 7 days, but since I am flying out Friday to Denver, that is well and good. Denver has only a slight chance of snow/rain on Friday, which I hope does not form into something more dramatic. I have no wish to be kept from the American Library Assoc. mid-winter convention nor be trapped there after the event.

Yes, another round of thousands of librarians in one place. To us librophiles, this is the place to be; hope I can pick up a few freebies as well as do the job I am being sent on. For those who are curious, here is a documentary about last years mid-winter ALA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td922l0NoDQ. I am in here briefly; my 5 seconds of fame.

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:38:05 GMT

It took a second visit to the doctor and another round of antibiotics, but I am finally feeling much better. This is the first day I can remember not having congestion in my lungs; a good sign. My energy is back and that is good. To rest, I stayed home Thursday and Friday, sleeping most of the time. Good timing as I will be flying to Denver this coming Friday.

The weather forecast is calling for snow tomorrow: oh, I hope it is true! Tomorrow being a holiday, I will be home to watch if we do get some white stuff. This might be my only chance to enjoy a snow fall.

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 16:08:19 GMT

Am on the mend, coughing less and feeling much better. D. is mostly back on his feet, too. My big disappointment is we did not get any of the storm that is in the Northeast; no snow, ice or at this point, even rain. I was so hoping I could sit with a cup of tea and watch the bad weather outside, being snuggy with my husband and cats. We have not had any snow and the forecast does not show any coming up. Sigh!

Today I will finally get the last of our Christmas cards out; I had to buy more stamps. This will hopefully clear all the old stamps out of the house and I bought forever stamps so this will not be an issue again. The Post Office is only selling forever stamps in sheets of 20; no rolls. Don't know what's up with that, unless they figure we won't buy as many and they will lose less money when next they raise the rates. But what the hey, I can buy five sheets and still get 100 stamps.

In keeping with the belated Christmas theme, I am hoping my copy of "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" will arrive today. This is one of my favorite of the TV specials and not shown as much as the others. Bring on the rassleberry jelly!