2000:  The Drawer
2001:  No entry--in England
2002:  Casting the First Stone
2003:  Faded Photographs
2004:  High Chapparal
2005:  Oh Say Can You See?
2006:  Boozing It Up

IN MY OPINION
"Annie Get Your Gun"

Books Read in 2007

Updated 5/3:
"Paula Deen"

FUNNY THE VLOG



Mefeedia Video Archive

WAY COOL!

10 May 2007

Well, today was the very first day since this whole computer hell business started that I began to see a pinpoint of light at the end of the tunnel.

Last night I sat up watching Dancing with the Stars and Idol while sitting at my computer, doggedly backing up the files I want to be sure not to lose.

This morning I moved lots of videos to CDs and by early afternoon, I had reached a point where I know that I will lose a lot of stuff, but I think that everything that would have been "devastating" is now saved.  I'm still waiting for the Geek Guy to call me, but I'm ready for being without the computer for a few days.

However, I've been using the new laptop and the thing sings.  It hums.  It's quick as a wink, even on dial-up.  While hooked up to AOL, I was able to do most of the stuff that I normally do on my DSL.

But the thing is that every time I start the laptop, it kind of flickers and tells me that one of my neighbors has a wireless set up, but that it can't make a connection.

Well, mid-afternoon I got to wondering what would happen if I moved the laptop out to the patio, where there are no walls to block the signal.  I decided to try it.

BINGO!  There was the neighbor's network (only one in this neighborhood, apparently) and in an instant I was connected.

[I'm still not so sure about this wi fi business.  Somehow it feels like stealing something, like the old days when people tapped into their neighbor's TV cable connection.  Someone please reassure me that I'm not a bad person and that it's not costing my neighbor anything!]

Anyway, connected to a wi fi network, I was able to check all the usual pages, pick up my e-mail...and discover, to my frustration, that I can't SEND e-mail through my server, Davis Community Network.  Two phone calls to DCN revealed you have to actually be logged into the DCN network to send mail through it.  It's a protection.  They don't want anybody using the network to mail spam.  So I can receive DCN mail and reply through G-mail.  It's not perfect, but it'll do.

What's more, the dogs had a wonderful time wandering around outside instead of all fighting to try to get into my lap.

I finally decided to come inside.  Later, when I was working at the kitchen table again, ready to connect to AOL again, I began to wonder if I could access the signal by sitting in my recliner, with only a window between me and outdoors.

I could!

I sat in the recliner for an hour and a half, watching MSNBC, happily connected through my neighbor's wi fi signal and getting everything done I needed/wanted to do (including watching this WONDERFUL video that you must watch.  It's on the Olympia Washington newspaper's web site.)

Later, when I was talking to Walt (his mother is stable, but he is probably going to go back to Santa Barbara next week because they think she has yet another fracture in her spine), he sounded as unconvinced as I feel about the legitimacy of using someone's wireless signal.

Old scruples die hard!

With the major files safely burned to CD and with the desktop getting flakier and flakier by the minute, I actually took time out to sit down and read!

I am on the staff of SeniorNet and someone asked me if I'd be interesting in getting a review copy of this book, to read and write a review (so I was sort of working).  I'm having a difficult time with the book.  It's about an out of the way club in Studio City in the 1970s, where a lot of big show biz names got their first break (Jay Leno, David Letterman, Robin Williams, among others). 

The problem with the book is that it's self-published, sorely needs an editor (grammar errors are blatant), and will appeal to very small segment of the reading public, those who knew the Bla Bla Cafe and very few others.

My difficulty in being overly critical is that as I read it, I recognize that I am reading the BlaBla equivalent of the Lamplighter history that I wrote.  It will be interesting to see how I manage to write this review!

But now I'm going to connect back up using my neighbor's wireless and post this, because I now also have FrontPage on this computer too. I am getting happier and happier.

[BTW, the "stealing wi fi" is a short term thing.  Walt has finally, after my encouraging him to do it for three years, has agreed to get a router installed here, so he can use my DSL line...and my laptop can use it too!]

PHOTO OF THE DAY

(More or Less) Happy Camper.
If the temps stay in the low 80s, I'll continue to be (more or less) happy

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