Remember that old song - "It's three o-clock in the morning," is how it begins. I don't remember now any more of the lyrics, heck, I don't even remember the melody to more than that first line either, but it seems to be a favorite number of my little prince grandson's here! It's become a rare, really very RARE, night now that he doesn't pay a visit to the downstairs of the house between 2:30 and 3:30 a.m. -usually hits almost like clockwork at very close to 3 a.m. when he wakes up his mother, who brings him downstairs and hands him off to me! Meaning Grammie has to stop her solitaire game or blog surfing or reading the regular blogs she visits, or e-mailing or writing the next post to her own blog!
And, tonight was no exception to the rule either. Almost on the button of 3 a.m., I heard him starting to wail and within five minutes time, his mother and he appeared and she handed him to me. Which move is then followed by a couple minutes of his groaning and growling noises - and a few that are a lot above that on the decibel level too - as he squirms around trying to jockey for a good position (for him, not necessarily for me) to snuggle up and tell me how terrible the world is treating him - apparently. Tonight - or this morning (whatever you prefer to call it), he polished off the last 3 ounces he had refused to ingest around 11 p.m. before Mommie had taken him up to his bed and then, immediately snuggled up against Gram's shoulder, eyes so heavy and conked out again! To be on the safe side that this sleep is now for real -and to avoid another trip back downstairs again - he and Mommie are now on the couch, reposing and hopefully, this will be just enough to knock him out for the duration of the night!
I know, I know - raised three kids of my own and yes, I can say "spoiled" too!
The only bad thing this morning with his visit, is that I was ready to write a post to my blog but his interruption here has made whatever topic I had in the back of my mind just up and fly away!
But, let me say this - many of those who read my blog frequently or regularly (whatever), have commented about my issues with the computer since I got it a mere three weeks ago today now! Since it is Friday a.m. I guess it is safe to say I've had it for three week -minus a few hours to the actual time of delivery and minus the several hours it spent on Monday at the Computer Hospital Emergency Room getting treatments for whatever it was that ailed it.
A few have suggested that I should have the Computer guy replace this unit and well, I haven't yet ruled that out completely. But actually, right now - unless it goes into another major hissy fit in the next few days or weeks or so - I am more inclined to think perhaps the problem began with the CD that was used to install XP on it! Since it was not accepting it on Monday morning before the techie came and picked it up to take in his "ambulance" to the shop, but once there, the XP cd they used zipped right through and installed with now issues whatsoever. My cousin had told me before all this happened that he had problems with his computer when he first got it about a year or two ago with IE 7 and had to remove it and revert back to IE 6. Now, when the techie was here about 10 days before this big breakdown this past Monday, he had done that and it had cleared up some of the issues I had ongoing with that move, I think that the IE7 software may have been an instigator too! Upon reinstalling XP, they didn't bother putting IE 7 back on here, went straight to IE 6 they said and so far, it has been running smooth as silk for me! Cross your fingers and hope that cured everything. For sure, it did iron out the kink I was having when I would open my Eudora program (which some have pointed out to me that I am probably the ONLY person still using EUdora for their e-mail program - sorry, but overall, I like it!). Previously, when I would open Eudora, the screen would briefly go black, the Eudora e-mail logo would pop up and the colors around my "start" button would go fuzzy as would the rest of the screen on my desktop. For some reason, opening Eudora would make my screen resolution drop from 32 bit down to 8 bit but it no longer does that either! Yippy skippy on that correction too ya know!
But, I'm beginning to wonder if computers and people can get a viral infection simultaneously - one picking it up from the other somehow - a bit of electronic-technological osmosis going on there maybe? THe reason I say that is that last weekend - from Friday through Sunday, early Monday, the two little ones in the house here -especially the littlest "prince" had some issues with what adults would call the "runs." Well the Prince doesn't exactly "run" - he barely crawls so far - but he sure did put a hit on the pampers pile over those days, as did his 3-year-old sister! Then, Monday, the son-in-law (their Dad) came home from work complaining that he had been plagued most of the day with a strong urge to visit the little boys' room there and by Tuesday, the 15-year-old in the house was experiencing some issues along those same lines. The son-in-law even went to the dr. on Tuesday where they did blood work and thought perhaps he might have either bronchitis or mono - or so they told my daughter. I always thought bronchitis was a lung-bronchial tube infection that also left one with a really horrific cough (and he had no cough) but what the hell do I know there. Mono - well maybe. He came home about 5 p.m. Tuesday from the dr. visit and immediately went up to bed and didn't resurface till after 1 p.m. Wednesday! Now, what I don't understand here too is if he had the runs so bad, and our bathroom is on the first floor of the house, how did he manage to stay in bed from 5 p.m. Tuesday till after 1 p.m. Wednesday? That's 20 hours without a potty break by my calculations and the "runs" aside, I don't sleep more than 4-5 hours max without my bladder waking me up to make a visit to the "ladies room." Hmmm. Ok, it's just my thought here but does the term "hypochondria" sound plausible maybe?
The funny thing here is my daughter IS at least a borderline hypochondriac and she had no similar symptoms and I have the system one would think is most conducive to picking up virtually every little thing that comes down the pike and all I had was a strong desire to sleep A LOT the past couple of days. No intestinal problems at all- thankfully!
On a really good note though - well, in my opinion that is - last Friday, I signed up for a Barnes and Noble membership that would give me three different levels of discounts on purchases I make -whether at the store or online - and I went a little wacko after getting the membership and I purchased 7 books online! On Tuesday, one book arrived; today a book and a cd I ordered last Friday arrived too and in the packaging today, was a packing slip telling me the status of the rest of my order - which I had already received an e-mail about the entire order on Monday that stated 5 books were being shipped that day, another was being shipped separately the next day and the other two were back-ordered or something to that affect. Well, according to the e-mail note - and the packing slip - the five books listed today - and then - as being shipped out together on Monday have yet to arrive but well, I did receive one book as I said on Tuesday and another book and a cd today - which according to the information were shipped out after the five that I have yet to get! Go figure! But these orders are keeping the UPS guy busy running here at any rate!
Saturday night, after my daughter, the two little ones and I had attended the Boy Scouts Awards Dinner in Bellefonte - where my older grandson (the original "Prince") got a nice award and prize for selling the most popcorn in his troop or whatever the unit is that he is in - we went up to the Walmart for some necessities. WHile Mandy was perusing and patrolling the isles at WallySmart, I went over to the Barnes and Noble store at the mall there and came home with another book - this one by Tawni O'Dell - "Coal Town" - which I started reading Monday morning. Now, one of the books I ordered in my online purchases last Friday was from the Barnes and Noble "Annex Sale" section and is "Shoot The Moon" by Billie Letts. The purchase price on it was $5.98 so I just figured I was getting a soft-bound type paperback book - or whatever term you care to use there but imagine my surprise when it arrived Tuesday and it is a hard-bound edition of this book that sold, originally according to the cover, for $24.00 and I got it for a mere $5.98! I was really surprised and very pleased too!
And now, since I've come to the end of my topic ideas for this post and since I neglected or forgot or whatever there, to post anything on Wednesday (or Thursday), you're gonna get a whole bunch of catch-up here with the Bushisms - enough to cover my fanny with them till next Monday!
Here's the Bushisms I neglected and after that, some silence on that front for a couple of days!
Wednesday - February 28, 2007
"A small busines owner's outlook is improved when there's a new productg available that says, gosh, I'm meeting the needs of my employees and also being able to better control costs. " Washington, D.C.; March 16, 2004.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
"This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating." - As quoted in the New York Daily News; April 23, 2002.
Friday, March 2, 2007
"Let me tell you my thoughts about tax relief. When your economy is kind of ooching along, it's important to let people have more of their own money." - Boston, Massachusetts; October 4, 2002.
And finally - a too-fer - for Saturday and Sunday, March 3/4, 2007
"Maybe she'll be able to join us in Florida. If not, she can clean out her room." - On the recover of his daughter Jenna, from an appendectromy; December 26, 2000.
NITE ALL!
Showing posts with label Computer issues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Computer issues. Show all posts
Friday, March 02, 2007
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Computer Management!
If you've been following my blog the past couple of days or weeks (even months for some perhaps), you are aware then I just purchased a new computer. It was delivered and set up for me last Friday and since then, my life has been a zoo!
I've been trying to add in software I used on the other computer, rebuilding my e-mail address book, keeping up with my incoming/outgoing e-mails, maintaining my blog, adding new software I couldn't put on the other computer as well as my normal day-to-day stuff like watching the two little grandchildren, cooking the main meal of the day for the family and often, being the one getting stuck with cleaning up after cooking supper too. (The latter, although there is a 15-year-old here who is supposed to at least "occasionally" wash dishes and clean up after supper but often just happens to forget about little tasks like that!)
One bit of software that I got loaded in here on Sunday was my Family Tree Maker program. I have four family trees I have been working on for the past 8 years - on a computer - and as such, had a lot, and I do mean A LOT of data on them too. I had saved four of the trees about a year ago to cd with some help from my next door neighbor's son so yesterday I thought I would try to get that data from the cd's and placed into the program on my computer so I could be able to return to it and work on it easily then - doing additions, changes, etc., to them.
Boy, what a hassle that simple little project is becoming for me!
Try to comprehend what is meant by the words "export" and "append" with respect to a family tree and a cd in the D drive and what do you think they mean? Export, to me, would mean taking whatever data you are working with and sending it elsewhere - don't 'cha think? "Append" indicates to me that you are taking data and adding it to previous information or files. But, apparently I do not think quite the same way as whoever designed this aspect of working with family trees!
I do know -learned this the hard way a couple years ago - that if I "export" my files -either to put them online for all the world to view and use - in the process of doing that one must create a "GEDCOM." And, a GEDCOM is a file that is supposed to be compatible with virtually all family tree type software and with the area online where you can submit these files.
However, what the creators of the GEDCOM don't tell you is that if you do build one of those things and ship it to the great family tree database in cyberspace, that the little old GEDCOM will take any data it finds that give an indication of the person's age and it will obliterate it for the big database in cyberspace. It also doesn't tell you that it will ALSO go directly into YOUR computer, to YOUR files there and it will obliterate the same data there too!. Years of work entering dates of birth, marriage dates, etc., will be wiped out in one fell swoop! And it will create a lot of ranting, screaming, crying, gnashing of teeth and a very blue air in the area where you have your computer and these files stored too! Trust me on that - I know from first hand experience!
And, suppose another member of your family is working on family tree stuff too and would like you to share what data you have in your files with him/her and you follow their simple instructions to export that data to your other family member. Well, it will do the same thing to your files in that action too! Wipes out any dates that the programs perceive to indicate a person who could still be alive today!
Now, what sense does that all make? Be darned if I know! I can understand when you publish your tree online that to protect the privacy of some family members who don't want the world to know how old they are or when they got married, that it obliterates that data there - not a problem. But, for that software to double-back and dip into MY FILES and remove the data I worked long and hard to gather and enter there - well that is just plain WRONG and non-sensical. Also very mean-spirited too on the part of the person who developed that part of the software in my opinion!
But anyway - it seems I can't figure out how to move the data I have saved on my cd here of my family trees over to the computer and the program waiting to receive it.
It appears that now I am going to have to print off copies of each tree (saved in rich text format) and manually re-enter all that documentation to FOUR, not one, not two but to FOUR family trees! At least one tree has well over 1,000 people named in it, another has almost 700 family members and the other two have close to 1,000 people in them as well! It could be YEARS before I complete this task at hand now! After all, it took me 8 years to get it in there to begin with.
Of course, a lot of that time was spent in research mode too - but still, that's a lot of work all apparently going down the drain because of lack of simple instructions in how to reload data in to the trees when you purchase a new computer as well as their obnoxious behavior in obliterating some of the user's valuable data too!
ARRGH!
And, with all that said and done - before I sign off - here's the Bushism for today!
"The fundamental question is, 'Will I b e a successful president when it comes to foreign policy?' I will be, but until I'm the president, it's going to be hard for me to verify that I think I'll be more effective." - Wayne, Michigan; June 28, 2000.
Gee- that almost sounds like it could apply to me and my family tree issues, doesn't it? Will I be a successful author of four family trees by having to re-enter all this data, search for missing birthdates, marriage data,etc., etc.,...
Time will tell and be the master now, won't it?
I've been trying to add in software I used on the other computer, rebuilding my e-mail address book, keeping up with my incoming/outgoing e-mails, maintaining my blog, adding new software I couldn't put on the other computer as well as my normal day-to-day stuff like watching the two little grandchildren, cooking the main meal of the day for the family and often, being the one getting stuck with cleaning up after cooking supper too. (The latter, although there is a 15-year-old here who is supposed to at least "occasionally" wash dishes and clean up after supper but often just happens to forget about little tasks like that!)
One bit of software that I got loaded in here on Sunday was my Family Tree Maker program. I have four family trees I have been working on for the past 8 years - on a computer - and as such, had a lot, and I do mean A LOT of data on them too. I had saved four of the trees about a year ago to cd with some help from my next door neighbor's son so yesterday I thought I would try to get that data from the cd's and placed into the program on my computer so I could be able to return to it and work on it easily then - doing additions, changes, etc., to them.
Boy, what a hassle that simple little project is becoming for me!
Try to comprehend what is meant by the words "export" and "append" with respect to a family tree and a cd in the D drive and what do you think they mean? Export, to me, would mean taking whatever data you are working with and sending it elsewhere - don't 'cha think? "Append" indicates to me that you are taking data and adding it to previous information or files. But, apparently I do not think quite the same way as whoever designed this aspect of working with family trees!
I do know -learned this the hard way a couple years ago - that if I "export" my files -either to put them online for all the world to view and use - in the process of doing that one must create a "GEDCOM." And, a GEDCOM is a file that is supposed to be compatible with virtually all family tree type software and with the area online where you can submit these files.
However, what the creators of the GEDCOM don't tell you is that if you do build one of those things and ship it to the great family tree database in cyberspace, that the little old GEDCOM will take any data it finds that give an indication of the person's age and it will obliterate it for the big database in cyberspace. It also doesn't tell you that it will ALSO go directly into YOUR computer, to YOUR files there and it will obliterate the same data there too!. Years of work entering dates of birth, marriage dates, etc., will be wiped out in one fell swoop! And it will create a lot of ranting, screaming, crying, gnashing of teeth and a very blue air in the area where you have your computer and these files stored too! Trust me on that - I know from first hand experience!
And, suppose another member of your family is working on family tree stuff too and would like you to share what data you have in your files with him/her and you follow their simple instructions to export that data to your other family member. Well, it will do the same thing to your files in that action too! Wipes out any dates that the programs perceive to indicate a person who could still be alive today!
Now, what sense does that all make? Be darned if I know! I can understand when you publish your tree online that to protect the privacy of some family members who don't want the world to know how old they are or when they got married, that it obliterates that data there - not a problem. But, for that software to double-back and dip into MY FILES and remove the data I worked long and hard to gather and enter there - well that is just plain WRONG and non-sensical. Also very mean-spirited too on the part of the person who developed that part of the software in my opinion!
But anyway - it seems I can't figure out how to move the data I have saved on my cd here of my family trees over to the computer and the program waiting to receive it.
It appears that now I am going to have to print off copies of each tree (saved in rich text format) and manually re-enter all that documentation to FOUR, not one, not two but to FOUR family trees! At least one tree has well over 1,000 people named in it, another has almost 700 family members and the other two have close to 1,000 people in them as well! It could be YEARS before I complete this task at hand now! After all, it took me 8 years to get it in there to begin with.
Of course, a lot of that time was spent in research mode too - but still, that's a lot of work all apparently going down the drain because of lack of simple instructions in how to reload data in to the trees when you purchase a new computer as well as their obnoxious behavior in obliterating some of the user's valuable data too!
ARRGH!
And, with all that said and done - before I sign off - here's the Bushism for today!
"The fundamental question is, 'Will I b e a successful president when it comes to foreign policy?' I will be, but until I'm the president, it's going to be hard for me to verify that I think I'll be more effective." - Wayne, Michigan; June 28, 2000.
Gee- that almost sounds like it could apply to me and my family tree issues, doesn't it? Will I be a successful author of four family trees by having to re-enter all this data, search for missing birthdates, marriage data,etc., etc.,...
Time will tell and be the master now, won't it?
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