OK, I've been here awhile and over at the other blog as well. To date, I like the other one a bit better. Don't get me wrong, I like VOX and I think some of the stuff they've done is fantastic, but the things that I don't like are outweighing the things I like. VOX has some nice features, but they are features that I don't have much need for. A book list (sure it's nice, but if I were to list all my books....................well, I'd still be working on it and who really cares? Well, Tony might LOL, but most of what I'm reading right now is his anyway (side note: DAMN BOOKS GOT EXPENSIVE!!!!!)) and posting video (nice feature and I love watching the ones that Ron posts, but I just don't take that much video, so again a nice feature but one I don't really need, if I have the need I can always post somewhere and just link back to it on the other blog.
So, all of this combined with the fact that I'm not super impressed with the layouts here, and I like the appearance of the other blog (the black background just speaks to me more than this white one or any of the others offered here) I am not going to continue to post the same content here as I do there. If you are following this blog please follow it over to Randomonium and book mark that.
Hope to hear from ya!
I was always a fan of Seinfeld. I watched the show regularly and always found it funny, but always thought they were taking a particular quirk or situation to an extreme to increase its funniness. Well, today I encountered my first honest to goodness soft-talker. You would remember her from the Puffy Shirt Episode. She was the one who asked Jerry to wear the pirate shirt on TV and he agreed never having really heard her. Well, their portrayal of that character was right on the money! This "real live" soft-talker works for CVS and I'll be damned if you can make out anything she says. I think I was a mere inch from her face before I actually heard noise coming from her mouth. And I gotta say, when there is a problem with their credit card machine and you are asking questions, and expecting answers to those questions, a soft-talker is not who you need to talk to.
So I was very disappointed with "Who Want's To Be A Superhero?" last night. Yes, I watch and love the show and I'm a sci-fi geek (forever and always!). Anyway, Creature and Lemuria got sent packing last night. Creature was my second favorite with Lemuria being my favorite. Their departure leaves my least favorite character on the show, Fat Momma, who by the way, at least in my mind, proved beyond a shadow of a doubt on last week's show, that she doesn't deserve to be there. Bring Lemuria back and get rid of Fat Momma! I just hope Fat Momma doesn't win. I don't think I could handle a comic book featuring her as well as a sci-fi channel full length movie starring her.
I guess the elimination of Lemuria and Creature bumps Major Victory up as my favorite to win. I really was so hoping for Lemuria to win. Now I'm just hoping for Big Momma to loose.
Since I got my first computer, I've always had an Epson Printer to go along with it. For many years I've sworn by them so when I found a great deal on the CX5400 at BJ's about a year and a half ago I was thrilled. Little did I know that was the beginning of the end.
The CX5400 was a great printer, scanner, copier when I first got it home. Installation was a breeze and I was thrilled with the output both from copying and printing. It was everything I expected from an Epson. Then, about 9 months after I got it, the paper feeder started to jamb up a bit. I thought to myself, ok, than can happen, not a big deal. I called Epson, they shipped out a new one and I sent them the one that wasn't working. Then after about 14 months of using the replacement one, I had to change the ink cartridges again. You use ink, you replace ink, pretty typical of all printers and I've changed the ink on this one several times with no problems. Well this time there was a problem. I started printing again and the output looked strange. So I ran a print head cleaning routine and a printer alignment. That's when I noticed that the magenta ink wasn't printing. Hmmmm, maybe a bad ink cartridge......so I put a brand new one in. Nothing. So I figured I'd do a little research. Turns out that this particular Epson Printer is known for this. Many people have encountered this SAME EXACT PROBLEM. We aren't talking about a "similar problem" or a "problem sorta like that but". We are talking, exactly the same thing. Case after case of the same thing happening. The only difference is when it happens. Most are 14 to 18 months after purchase which of course puts it two to six months AFTER the warranty is up. So, just like everyone else (I'm sure they all went through something similar to this) I called Epson Tech Support. I gave them the serial number and the product number and then was told "I'm sorry, that isn't under warranty." I explained that I've done research and this is a known flaw in this printer. She acknowledged that she had heard that, but still wouldn't help me. So I asked for a supervisor. They weren't much help either. They refused to let me talk to anyone higher up than the supervisor explaining that I would get the same answer regardless. Of that one fact I have NO DOUBT. It was the one truthful thing I heard during my entire conversation with Epson. They'd be willing to help me, but it was gonna cost. They weren't the nicest people to talk to either. I'd rather talk to some outsourced Indian who was polite than these Epson people again. Anyway, after asking one last time if they were gonna help me with this problem and having them tell me NO again, in no uncertain terms, I told them thanks a lot, so much for standing behind your product and so much for customer loyalty and then I told them that I would do my best to make sure nobody ever bought Epson again and that I was done with em. Funny thing about that is that she seemed genuinely confused about why I would feel that way. They put out an inferior product (a piece of crap printer) and then don't stand behind their product and then they are surprised when the customer isn't happy? At least car manufacturers realize there is a problem after a certain amount of similar occurrences and complaints and then do a recall. I wonder if anyone ever thought about a class action suit? Anything to teach them a lesson. I have done my part though, and whenever I'm in a Best Buy, Comp USA or similar store, if I happened to walk by the printer aisle and see somebody looking at an Epson, I feel obligated to share my experience and do. I've seen several customers move over to HP and Cannon after telling them my story. If you are interested you can read the reviews for it over at Amazon.com.
On a brighter note, I recently purchased a Canon MP830 and I can't say enough good things about this one. I absolutely love it. Let’s just hope that it's still printing 14 months from now.
Thank god it's over!!! Savanah's 5th birthday party was this past Sunday and all in all everything went well. I did forget the candles for the cake, but a quick trip to 7-11 took care of that and very few were the wizer. The kids had a blast at the JCC playground at the first party and the annual cook out was fun for both the adults and the kids. We set up a table for the kids with pens, glitter pens, fuzzy pom pom balls, googley eyes, foamies and glue and laid out some poster board with a picture of Savanah in the middle and let the kids go nuts decorating it. That kept them busy for a long time and they seemed to enjoy the project and it turned out a lot better than I expected. You can see pictures of them decorating it over at My Flickr. (I'll get the final posted soon!) Uncle Mike, Aunt Stacy and Annie Ann all went out of their way again this year to make the party that much more special for Savanah.
While the turn out for the Kid's Party wasn't as great as I'd have liked it, it did turn out to be better than I expected. With 9 kids showing up (out of the original 25 invited) they all played together rather than splintering off into groups as is typical of any large group. I would have liked more kids there, but what can you do? August is a bad month for birthdays. Camp and other summer activities ended this past week and school starts in two weeks, so if you're gonna have a family vacation during the summer, you are left with little choice as to when it will occur. All things considered though, I'd rather have the August birthday and have the option of an outdoor party and cook out, than risk the winter weather and be forced indoors. So far we've been lucky with Savanah's birthdays and the weather. Last year was a bit hot, but bearable and this year you couldn't have asked for a nicer day. The previous three years were were just as nice as well and you just can't beat a gathering of good friends and family on a nice day.
There will be some occasional updates to My Flickr as I get more photos from the others who were taking pictures at the party, so keep checking back.
To all of you who made it, thank you for helping make it such a special day for my daughter and for those of you who couldn't make it, you were missed but in our thoughts. Thanks again everyone!
Well it is 1:14 Sunday Morning (or Saturday Night depending on how you look at things) and my daughter is 5 (well at 10:14 PM this evening she will be officially 5, but if you start counting from when Kahty's water broke, she was 5 an hour and fourteen minutes ago). I'm pretty sure we have everything organized for her party. Just have to print out a picture, get the hot dogs from the freezer and pick up the cake in the morning and we are set to go (I think and hope LOL). I'll let you know how it went after the parties!
Having had long hair pretty much all my life and having worn that hair in a pony tail for probably about the past 10 years I must say that I'm really not thrilled with the direction Hair Ties are going. The powers that be have apprently decided that long hair for men is out or that they just aren't going to put products out there for those of us who have long hair.
It used to be the common hair tie was that little colored band-like thing with the gold colored stripe in it and the metal connector. These hair ties tended to last quite a long time (at least in my experience) and did a damn fine job. The only drawback to these was that every so often your hair would get caught by the little metal connector and you'd end up yanking a few hairs out. OUCH! but it was over quickly. The colors were pretty basic....black, yellow, brown, red, blue, white and green. These hair ties have now become extinct. Nowadays, you have a much greater selection of types (thick, thin, woven, smooth, corrugated (at least that's what I call em) and a much greater selection of colors (pink, marigold, chartruse, purple, neons, pastels, etc etc etc) none of which are very masculine past the black and blues. The one thing that all of these have in common is that they aren't very taught. It used to be that I'd wrap the band aroudn my pony tail 3 times and I wouldn't have to touch it the rest of the day, regardless of the day's activities. Now, however, I find my self wrapping the pony tail 5 times minimum just to get it to stay up and lord help me if I happen to need to run, jog, move quickly, sneeze, or even shake my head yes or no. All of those activities usually require a fix to the pony tail. They just don't hold your hair like they used to. The other thing they have in common is that little metal connector is gone. Apparently this is to make them "ouchless."
Now some of you may be saying "Well, you are getting older, are you sure your hair isn't just thinning out?" to which I must answer yes, I am sure that isn't the cause. I actually found a few of the older ones (the ones with the metal connector) and low and behold, still just need the 3 wraps maximum to hold the hair up. The length and condition of my hair is still as it was when I first started wearing it up.
These "ouchless" hair ties don't seem to stand up to much wear and tear either. After about a weeks use, it is time for another one cause it's lost its elasticity.
My other problem is these new colors. I don't want a pink hair tie or any of these other pastel girly colors. I can live with purple, but that's about as far as I'll go. So I can either buy all black (which is pretty much what I've been doing) or buy a pack with some colors and give Savanah and Kathy most of em, leaving me with the 5 or 6 that will work for me or switch to rubber bands........uggg and ouch!
I want the old ones back, with the little metal connector. They worked, they were the right colors, and they lasted a month or more per band before unravelling.
Well, I've been here for a few days and I like it well enough. A lot of nice features, but still lacking in some that I've come to expect, so for the time being, I'm gonna be posting at both until I can make up my mind. It will be the same content both here and there.
So I am starting to believe that my cat (Jesse) is out to get Kathy. In the past week he has managed to sneak up on her and get under her feet on at least two occasions that I've witnessed. At the beginning of the week he tried to give her a heart attack by sticking his tail under her as she came in the house carrying bags so that she couldn't see him and when you aren't expecting it, that screech that he gives when his tail is messed with can scare the crap out of you. Especially considering that his normal mode is one of complete silence. For the longest time I thought he was mute cause he'd open his mouth and you could tell he was trying to meow, but no sound came out. So when he does make a noise, it is surprising. On the second occasion he actually managed to trip her causing her to jamb her baby toe. Maybe the second attempt was actually pay back for the tail incident. To add insult to injury, however, after he made her trip over him, he would come up to her on the sofa and rub his head across her feet right where her jambed toe was, causing her further "discomfort."
Annie was over last night and we packed the goodies bags for Savanah's Birthday Party. In the process several of the glow sticks that I had gotten for the kiddies snapped and as we all know, when you snap a glow stick they become activated. By the time we were done Annie had two necklaces and 4 bracelets on. I pulled out my camera to get a few shots and then decided to see what else I could do with the camera and it's night settings. We took about 40 pictures or so with the only light source being the glow sticks and in a few we added a Disney light toy and out of those 40 or so picture we actually got a few really cool shots. There is a total of 6 that I felt were Flickr worthy. Check out My Flickr to see the rest.
Yeah, I didn't realize you couldn't have a set of favorite links on the side - that is weird, that's... read more
on New Home?