Muscatine, IA
After embarking on the patio, I found that the shed looked a bit trashy. I mean really, the patio looks great and the shed looks like it’s going to puke all over the patio. So what used to look like this:
and 
Now looks like this:
September 30, 2004
I do not like green eggs and ham,
I do not like them, Sam I Am.
But I do like this
Man, is it Thursday Threesome day already? Here ya go:
Onesome – Against: Is there anything you are vehemently opposed to? Or just something that gets you up on your soapbox? I’m really against conscious stupidity. It is sort of the opposite of ignorance. Ignorance is a form of stupidity that is based on you not knowing something; once you learn and you still act stupid, THAT is conscious stupidity. When you consistently make a stupid choice and KNOW it’s a stupid choice, that’s conscious stupidity. I faced a lot of that when I was teaching. Kids who normally were quite smart had certain prejudices (learned from their parents) that wouldn’t allow them to really see something and would be consciously stupid.
Twosome – All: Is there something that you have to give all or nothing to? My wife. I give her all my love. (Yeah, kind of sappy, but that’s all I can come up with for this one!)
Threesome – Odds: Are you a gambler? What would you bet on and for how much? No way. I work too hard for my money to gamble it away. All gambling is set up so that “the house” wins; otherwise, why would “the house” host the gambling?
September 29, 2004
Tonight I followed my own advice and downloaded and installed Firefox. Man, what a browser! It seems to be more nimble than Mozilla; it renders pages faster, but with the same base rendering engine as Mozilla. I like the fact that the tool bar is smaller and has a Google search blank on it. Very handy, indeed!
I also downloaded Thunderbird to handle my mail, this allows me to do away with Mozilla. It’s not that I don’t like Mozilla, it’s just that the download sizes of both Firefox and Thunderbird when added together are smaller than the download for Mozilla. Going on that logic, I can safely assume that the two programs together are taking up less hard drive space than Mozilla was before.
Installation was painless. Firefox allowed me to import all of my bookmarks, password settings and toolbar settings from Mozilla; it will do the same for the Internet Exploder as well. Thunderbird allowed me to import all of my mail settings and my address book from Mozilla; it also had options for importing from Outlook and Outlook Express (both of these are spam-enriched virus farms in my opinion) as well as Lotus Notes and Pegasus. Both also have ways to import from menu items on their menus.
Once configured, I went to get all of the extensions and themes for Firefox and Thunderbird. I now have the Firefox extensions AdBlock and User Agent Switcher. Adblock does just that: blocks any type of ad. User Agent Switcher will allow me to disguise Firefox as Opera or the Internet Exploder so I can go to sites that only allow access via those browsers. Heck, you can even go to Windows Update using the User Agent Switcher! Then I got the Thunderbird extension Contacts Sidebar, which allows a frame on the main window of Thunderbird that holds your address book for easy access. I also installed Macromedia’s Flash Player plugin for Firefox to complete the installation. Now I’m ready to browse with speed and security; something the Internet Exploder can only dream about doing.
Found this at Dizzy Girl’s. Don’t even know how I got to her site. I tried to figure it out but I couldn’t. Anyway, a list of 200 things; some of them I have done.
September 28, 2004
Here we are again at Tuesday. You all know what that means: TV Tuesday!
It’s true that human’s are creature of habit and we’ve all got our favorite shows, celebs, movies, etc, so this week we’re going to examine your favorite channels!
1. It’s off to an easy start, what’s your favorite channel?
The two channels I spend the most time on are SciFi (Science Fiction Channel) and IFC (Independent Film Channel).
2. What shows are on your favorite channel?
On SciFi I like the movies (of course) and the Outer Limits, and I REALLY like Tripping the Rift. On IFC, again I like the movies but I also like the show Dinner for Five.
3. Does your favorite channel change often or are you a loyal watcher?
The reason we first got digital cable was so I could get SciFi. Now it’s part of the analog system here, but in the mean time I’m hooked on IFC as well.
~Bonus~ How much of a creature of habit are you? Do you have a daily or weekly viewing schedule? Is your TV or Cable programmed to switch channels even if you’re not there?
I don’t really have a daily or weekly schedule. I’ve got some shows I really like watching, but I don’t center my life around them.
Like this is news. Come on, Reuters, who answers the spam for Viagra anyway? I don’t know about other guys, but I have not needed to resort to Viagra.
Now THIS is customer service with a real twist! I mentioned this to my boss and he said, “How do you know our message DOESN’T say that?” Well, I don’t!
September 27, 2004
Yep, that’s right. Another meme, this time it’s 50 Questions. Found and ripped off from Misty.
September 26, 2004
It was a busy weekend as KC and I traveled to Des Moines Saturday to see family. We stayed with her mom (I replaced a light bulb and also advised her to get a new VCR or DVD player). We went to Redfield for the Hanging Rock Run, a 5K road race whose proceeds go to a non-profit. In the past the funds have been donated to the Leukemia Foundation. The original road race was set up by KC’s brother Doug to donate money for KC’s brother Randy who has been leukemia free for over six years now. Afterwards there is a nice little celebration at the Redfield Legion; this year there were walking tacos, cookies and drinks free for all the participants in the run. I didn’t participate so I had to pay, but it was a nominal amount for pretty good fast food.
Sunday we went to church with KC’s mom. After church we met KC’s brother and his friend, ZDog and J at the Drake Diner. I really like that place; they have good food and it is a really nice atmosphere, especially since we were sitting: on the screened in porch. After eating we picked up our stuff at KC’s mom’s place and headed home. I did some primer painting and some cleaning up in the garage and we make it to here.
Just where, exactly, did my weekend go?
September 24, 2004
I had changed my site so that I have category images, right? You see them, don’t you? If you have Firefox or Mozilla or Opera or Konqueror or Nautilous or ANY other browser than Microsoft’s Internet Exploder, the images appeared on the upper right and had what is known as a “transparent” color. You see the issues with Internet Exploder are twofold:
- First, it doesn’t render tables inside DIV tags properly. That is, if a DIV tag is limiting the width of output and you tell a table to take up 100%, in Internet Exploder it starts inside the DIV tag left margin (which is proper) and extends to 100% of the SCREEN WIDTH, not the available width from the DIV tag. In all other browsers, setting the table width to 100% makes the table take up 100% of the DIV tag limited output. Stupid Internet Exploder! Stupid Microsoft!
- Second, it doesn’t allow transparent colors in PNG graphics files. PNG files have supported transparent colors for quite a while, but PNG is an open graphics format. While Microsoft supports transparency in GIF files they do not in PNG files. Granted, GIF files have been around much longer but PNG is a widely accepted standard in internet graphics. Stupid Internet Exploder! Stupid Microsoft!
I solved the first issue by including a small javascript that first detects the browser type and if it is Internet Exploder it queries the open window width and sets the table width based on that value less the width of the left and right columns. Really strange that I had to do that, but it works — well it works until you resize the screen, then you have to refresh it before it looks right. In all other browsers, it just works.
The second issue I have to take some time to convert the PNG graphics to GIF format so that MS Internet Exploder can do what it is supposed to do for PNG graphics: allow a transparency color. I should be able to finish that after work tonight.
September 23, 2004
You’ve probably already noticed; I have category images now. It is an image that represents the categories I’ve selected; it appears in the upper right of the entry. Changed a few things around to make it more like what I wanted. If you’ve got WordPress, go to Scott Reilly’s site and get Category Image…. well, what are you waiting for? GO!