Card is gone!!!

I am sure Ben will be very happy to receive his Christmas card. I thought some of the comments were very insightful. (especially where Bryce said I was brilliant!!) LOL

I will be uploading soon a picture of what the card looked like.

Christmas card for B. Dave

Edited: Dec 19th (added picture of probable artwork). If you have not yet posted..do it soon as I will be finalizing this tomorrow..probably during my lunch break.


Lets all wish Ben a merry Christmas! I think it would be a great idea to write down some Christmas wishes, thoughts etc for Ben here in the comment section..then I would take all the comments and create a custom card for him. I hope to have it to him by Christmas...so I will take whatever comments are posted and mail it next Thursday (Dec 20th) that way it will be close..if not right after.

So...what are the comments?

Kool gadgets for windows XP...

I was looking at a way to run widgets on windows XP. Kinda like the Vista 'Gadgets'. I had used a program called konfabulator years ago..but now yahoo has bought them out and I recently tried it out. It uses only about 8Mb of ram (if you arent running any widgets actively) which is real good. Each widget you are running seems to run between 2-8mb of ram so dont install more than I would say 5 that are 'active'. It pretty cool...they work in 2000 (with service pack 4) as well as Vista and MAC OS. Check it out.

Pony up people!!!

Ok...both my blogs will have the same message. If you havent read my 'anger' blog on blooruin...would be a good time to re-read it (including comments) and get amped up.

Now...I say pony up because yesterday I recieved a letter from Ben indicating that after January 1st they are no longer accepting packages. Soo...he had me order a bunch of stuff that he had been contemplating...but...was going to wait on. Now that no more packages will be allowed...he moved on it. I just spent $150 last night on the few items he had requested...(last month we spent $250 on a new T.V. as his old one broke).

A great Christmas gift at this time would be a donation to recharge the funds in his account. I do not mean send him a M.O. as I already do this every month. We have chosen for all funds to be donated through his site...and then I send out a monthly stipend that he has chosen. If you are interested in setting up a "monthly" donation amount...Let me know..I am working on setting this up and will let you all know when its in place. I want to test it first...as if you want this option..you may need to have a Paypal account, but I am not positive on this one yet.

If 10 people were to donate $5 this recoups $50. so...you get my drift. If 10 people could donate $5 a month...he earns $25 each month...(since I send him $25 per month as he said for now this is plenty).

For the standard donation a Paypal account is NOT required. You only need a debit or credit card.

Local seattle-ite sounds like johnny cash!!!

Did any of you see this on the news? Pretty cool...kids only 15 and has a really good voice. Even has a mypace page. I guess he was on Good Morning America this morning...so even some of you NON WA people might have seen it.

Check out his mypaceto hear his voice. The only video I could find was kinda crappy...so you'll have to visit the mypace page.

Do it now...the power of the great compels you!!!

Edit: 11/30/2007
Found another mypace page that has a song he wrote himself rather than a 'cover song' for Cash. I also found a pretty informative article in the Seattle Weekly.

Radio killed the musician........

So...how many songs have you heard on the radio...that had a good beat...probably a catchy tune...but because the radio overplayed it you now don't like the song? I'm not talking about music that you hated right off...(even if they did overplay it).... but songs that you liked...even contemplated purchasing....until you had audio burn out.
For me (at least the ones I remember):

• Rihanna-Umbrella (she has a great voice...catchy tune..hear it almost every time I turn the radio on)
• Snow-Informer (its been years since I heard this one...was real big in Puerto Rico while I was there...heard it constantly)
• Sugar Ray-when its over (good song...wore completely out)
• Nellie Furtado-I'm like a bird

Now...some music can be over played and we still will like it...thier is much more that I dont remember..if you need to spark you memory. Here is a forum where they are discussing this...and the posters list quite a few.

Settings: Commments, Email and Permissions

Ok...after reviewing some of blogger settings I have decided to raise a post on it to discuss hows/helps etc. Some of you may already be aware of these settings but I do know at least two of whom I have spoken with are not...soooo.....
If your in your settings if you go to the comments tab...you can do a few cool things.

• show or hide comments (i left default)
  
• choose who can comment (left default)
  
• new posts have or don't have comments (left default..not sure what this means yet)
  
• Back links (left default)
  
• back links default (left default)
  
• time stamp setting (obvious setting)
  
• comment form message (haven't tested but appears you can put message by your comment form)
  
• show comments in popup (i left default as NO)
  
• enable comment moderation ( if enabled can input email address..can be blank)
  
• show word verification (i turned this off)
  
• show profile images (default is on)
  
• comment notification address (this sends you email each time you get a comment posted, it appears you can have multiple emails here though I haven't verified this yet)

ON Email page:
You can set if your blog gets emailed to one or several emails. Like I could set it up so every time I posted everyone that wanted would get an email of the post (not the comments..at least it doesn't appear so)
You can make an email address that either PUBLISHES to your blog or creates a DRAFT that you would edit/publish later ( like this one cause then I can send email to the address you create and not have to log in to publish a post) for example email you would see in the settings for email would be 'yourblogname.blank@blogspot.com' the blank you make up..then send an email to yourblogname.whatevername@blogspot.com' and it would publish or create draft depending on your decision. I have not yet tested..though will soon.

NOW on to permissions page
Here you can create 'authors' to your blog. We could create a true 'family' blog (although I think as we have it now is great) each family member would be able to create/edit/delete their own posts...while the 'admin' could do it to any.
You also can set who can 'read' your blog. 'Anybody' (default), 'only people I choose' and 'Blog Authors'. if you want people to choose you just need to know the email address they use to log in to blogspot. Authors are automatically given permission, you can limit reading to ONLY authors...so if you created a true family blog..no one but those who were authors to read or post. you can still have only authors to post..and allow all or a list of people to READ ONLY.

Any setting I left default...has not been verified exactly one it does...that is why I didn't explain them. Well except for posting profile images with comments and word verification...thats pretty obvious.

AHHHH!!! You cant do anything anymore..........

I just attempted to send Dad money....using Western Union Money transfer online. I figured that it would be easier to do than going to the bank..pulling out cash then going to the store...all during lunch...so yesterday I got online and went to complete the transaction. At the end it popped up saying I needed to complete some extra crap and to call 1(877) wesuckrealbad so....I finally did this morning... They ask some basic info...then they wanted to know crap that know one would know. Like:

You got a student loan in the past... who was or is it through? Then they say a name I don't recognize..cause I have no clue who originally had it...only who now has it.

You has someone rooming with you currently or in the past...then some name I didn't recognize..

You worked with one or more of the following employers match them up (whatever that meant).

Five questions went like this... I only recognized one..and that was on of my employers...
So out of five questions I only recognize one answer...HOW STUPID. You want to verify my identity by asking question that I don't know the answer to...
Issues with this philosophy:
1. Loans are usually carried by multiple corporations and bought and sold often...how in the hell am I to know unless I get at least one bill...sometimes the bill you get is a sub-corporation even though the owner is someone else. BAD QUESTION
2. Employers many times have parent corporations and so you might have worked for said company...but tell them 'NO' since the company that you 'knew' you worked for was a different name.
3. The name of who might have lived with me...sounded like a prior resident to a place we had rented in Logan...makes me wonder if someone lived previously in the same location...and didn't change their address...so on whatever dumb ass company holds this data...it shows you living at same address as person you never met... (just a theory..but potential problem)

Frustrating..now I gotta go to the store and have now wasted more time than I originally would have. It would be more prudent to ask questions that we know the answer to..
I have run into this before..usually it was to verify my identity when pulling a credit report...EVERY TIME i get them wrong...EVERY TIME. I have know done test like this around 6 times. So why are they still used? Even Bean didn't get his right when he was living with me....and was pulling his credit report.
I just don't know why I needed it for Western Union... I don't use it for any other online transaction...why Western Union?
ARGHHHHH!!!!

Divorce rate...

I was just thinking (for about 20seconds) on divorce rate in America. I think it all relates to one very simple solution...communication. Everyone who is married has things they don't not like (or even possibly hate) about their partner. Problem is....no one talks..so the partner may not even know you have an issue.
A favourite quote of mine:

"Resentment is like drinking a glass of poison while waiting for the other person to die."

The other side is not even affected by what is eating you up inside. SO TALK!!! After that...well there is definitely differing forms of communications...and if you have communicated...and the other side isn't willing to even contemplate the issue, well that's a whole other issue itself. Yet, if you don't communicate...? QUITCHER BITCHIN!!!

Secondly...most issues are related to YOU. Most people seem to think that if they find another partner ..this will solve their problem(s)...IT WON'T. The same thing that irritates you about him/her will irritate you with another partner...why? because it is YOUR issue...our nation thinks the grass is always greener on the other side...and they keep going over and finding the same grass and wondering why. BECAUSE YOU ARE THE FERTILIZER...

Again...communication is the key element here.. some people get divorced and the second marriage is better...in my opinion the large majority of these cases is due to the other partner understanding (or having the same) communication style as you...so you can work out YOUR issue together. I realize that this is not always the case...cause sometimes you have an 'Earl' that s gotta die....(Dixie Chicks)...but come on people.
NUFF SAID


Disclaimer:
Communication may cause nausea, vomiting, loose bowels, high blood pressure, low blood pressure, blindness (emotional), heartache, fast heart rate, difficulty breathing, difficulty sleeping, too much sleep, lack of money, high occurrence of sexual side effects. Please speak to your psychiatrist before communication takes place. This opinion in no way shape or form is liable for your stupidity or lack of preparation to communicate.

I might be on T.V. !!

The DIY channel is coming to my work to do a show on something. I am scheduled to run one of the tests. So...if you have the DIY (Do it yourself) channel......

Of course this is a 'might' since the show could decide to not even run...or cut out my part...but either way we wont be doing much all day and getting paid for it. Course..this might get boring...we'll see.

First Post!!!

Wow...finally got of my ass and posted. I don't usually do these things...well without writing up something vaguely offensive. Like my personal blog I used to have at yahoo360. Now it will be at blooruin.blogspot .This one was meant to be my 'family' oriented page so I hope to try and maintain that feel. We will see how it goes...cause personality is as personality does...heh.