2015–Another Strange Trip

New Years Day is right around the corner. Due to my work schedule (I have to be up and dark thirty tomorrow morning), I will probably be well asleep by the time the evelator goes up the Space Needle…

When I comes to New Years Resolutions, I only have one this year: not to have any. If I need to improve, I ought to be doing it right away, not put it off till the next holiday. I also need not publicly state my resolutions. There are just some things that need to be kept to themselves.

Much happened this year:

• My employer put me on a fixed schedule. I don’t know how long it will last, but I will enjoy it while it lasts. Sometimes good things happen when you just show up. While I’ve tried transferring to a location that’s closer, that’s not going to happen. But I just have to make the best of what’s around. And what I have is a good thing.
• I got the Xfinity X1 operating system. This in an of itself was the subject of a few entries. But in the end, it works.
• I learned the hard way that if you go full time enroll in the company health care plan while you still can. Paying full price for health insurance is no fun.
• I went through 5 pairs of shoes. On at least more that one occaision, I had to call in sick because of foot problems. Not really diabetic related, but more because of ill-fitting shoes. I can find a good pair at Wally World for a cheap price, but they would only last for a month. Finally last September, I went to Famous Footwear and two pairs of not cheap shoes. And I haven’t had any probems since. And with two pairs, I can alternate between shoes if I get my feet wet.
• I tried my hand at applying for another job, and even got an interview lined up, only to have to cancel it due to aforementioned foot problems.
• Discretion is still the better part of valor. Some things I wanted to say here, but I held my peace.
• Working 12 and 15 days straight. But my former boss got to see Disneyland. And I realized I still like Mrs. Fields’ Cookies…

What am looking for this year:

• Enrolling in the company health insurance. For most of the past year, I was paying full price for a Bronze level plan. And in addition to the full price premiums, it took me over 6 months to pay off a 20 minute doctors check up. With my current employer, the gold level plan will cost less than what I was paying for Bronze. I’ve heard some gripe about the level of coverage provided, but then again, I’ve gone without coverage at all (no fin if you’re a type I diabetic).
• 2 weeks’ paid vacation. I only got 7 days’ vacation this year, because my promotion to full-time was in the middle of the fiscal year, so my vacation was pro-rated. All apologies to my former boss, but my vacation this year will be me sitting on my ass…
• Maybe the Mariners having a winning season….

Stuff I’m planning on this year:

• Picking one operating system for my computer and sticking with it. Which means Windows 10, most likely.
• Paying down my credit cards. Life in general is better when you’re debt levels are down…
• Cleaning my room. I have an easy chair in my room. Once upon a time, I used to sit in it. I need to take my chair back….

Yes 2015 was a strange trip. Were it anything other, though, and I would be seriously concerned. Here’s to 2016 being another strange trip…

Two last Christmas presents

I know I posted a week ago that I was done with my Christmas shopping. I was wrong.  Christmas Morning, my brother wanted me to check the Sprint account to see if his line was upgrade eligible. It was. He then was talking about going to Worst Buy to get on the iPhone for life plan. Unbeknownst to him, I went to the Sprint website, and ordered his iPhone 6s Plus, and set the appointment to pick it up. Abd be just got it today. With the iPhone for life plan, whenever a one comes out, he can go in and get it. It is a $23+ a month payment as we're leasing the phone. But he's happy, and I made sure he has enough memory (64 gB).

While I was out and abøøt today, I also found a copy of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the Gene Wilder film). I was looking for it before Christmas, but I couldn't find it. I know who they're going to....

It is over….

Not Christmastime. I traditionally celebrate it through the New Year. I’m Old Skool. I don’t gear up mentally for Christmas untill about 12 days before, and then up to 12 days afterward, gradually winding down around New Years. The madness of Black Friday is a part of Thanksgiving (which lasts until the turkey runs out)…
But I digress. What’s over? My vacation. This week, I took a vacation day on Christmas Eve to allow for travel to the Big Bryant Family reunion (I carpool to my siblings on Christmas Day). And after Christmas Eve and Christmas day, I took another vacation day to recover (this was all planned out in September, and approved in December).
So for Christmas Eve, at the Big Bryant Family reunion, there was much food to be consumed. An aunt brought her seven layer dip (one year she didn’t, and I think she almost got disowned). There was the one cousin who’s forehead I have to polish for good luck. And lots of food. About 3 insulin shots’ worth…
Christmas morning, we went to a sisters house. There were cats (this sister is the designated Crazy Cat Lady, but Rufus and Princess Bernice didn’t mind the attention). And the hyperactive dogs in the backyard. All of whom were very happy to see me. And much food. And much leftovers that I’m still munching on…
For the first time since 1998, I actually put a present under the tree for my brother. I got him a gift card to Worst Buy, and a desk lamp. He got me a complete bedding set (2 set of sheets & pillowcases, and a comfortor). I think he wants me to make my bed. Christmas Eve at the Family reunion, we do it white elephant style. I put my present under the tree, drew my number and waited my turn. My turn came, and I got a serving tray. Which I traded to a cousin for hot cocoa set and a coffee mug. At my sisters, I got:

• 2 Target gift cards. This is what I usually get from my parents. Either this or Wally World. I don’t mind a bit. I can put these away, and get what I need later.
• A lego minifig. I haven’t touched legos in well over 25 years. I need to rectify that.
• My Festivus hat. Forget Christmas. Festivus is where it’s at. Though my brother insists on an actual Christmas tree, so no Festivus Pole. And this year, the only chance I got to Air the Grievances came in a Twitter troll of Brother Charles. Maybe next year. A donation has been made on your behalf to the Human Fund…
• Gloves. That are touchscreen compatible. They will come in handy.
• A copy of The League of Regrettable Superheroes: The Loot Crate Edition. I think I may have to sign up for Loot Crate. But that will have to wait for January’s finances to resolve themselve first.

For giving gifts this year, I cheated. Everybody got gift cards to Best Buy. Except my brother, who got the aforementioned lamp. And come Monday, he’s getting a shiny new iPhone 6 Plus.
I hope you enjoyed your Christmas/WinterPaganHoliday/DayOff/Festivus/Hanukkuh…. Just remember it’s not over yet. There’s still New Years….

Christmas morning has begun….

Christmas morning has begun. Not because we realized that Santa came last night (not really, more on that later). No, Christmas morning has begun because I have my coffee. And my insulin shot.
So, after the Big Bryant Family reunion last light in Olalla, we all went our separate ways. I hitched a ride home with a cousin. But late last night, as my father was cleaning up, he heard a burglar on the roof. He attempted to come in through the chimney. I was a rather tight fit, as the would-be crook was rather obese. So, while he was struggling with the chimney and the flue, my father did the only thing that you should do when somebody tries to enter your house on Christmas Eve through your chimney: Call the pollice. They responded. And by the time he finally got into the fireplace, they greeted him with guns drawn. Needless to say, he got the cuffs slapped on him and he got his ass hauled off to jail. He had a bag of goods with him, obviously stolen from all the other houses in the neighbourhood. And he kept saying “Ho, ho, ho”. Obviously he was also some sort of street pimp…
In an unrelated story, there were no presents underneath my tree this morning, and I hear my father had to call animal control this morning. Something about 8-9 reindeer on his roof….

So, if you’re wondering….

It’s raining outside. It is close to midnight on Christmas Eve. So your chances of getting toys tomorrow morning are in serious jeopardy. Mainly because Santa has to go on visual flight rules this year, since Rudolph no longer has a red nose.
On the bright side, Rudolph is now sober…

Off to Grandma's house....

On the bus to Grandma's for the big Christmas Eve family reunion. Pulled the tablet out, remembering that I still have data service on it that I hardly use....

So if I'm not online the next couple days of so, let me wish you and yours a merry Christmas. Or, if you're not into Christmas, a happy holiday, whatever it may be (many, if not most of the world's religions and /or cultures celebrate a winter holiday, abd it need not be Christmas ). Or if you're not celebrating any holiday, there's a good chance you have tomorrow off, so enjoy your day off. Failing that, then have a nice day...

It is finished!

I was out the door at 5 yesterday morning. At work by 7. Worked my 8 hour shift, and got out of there by 3:30. Then I went to the mall. The mall I chose s the Commons at Federal Way. Didn't get out of there until 6:30, but I can now say for sure that my Christmas shopping is done. All of it. And I even got a spare present in case there's a lady minute addition to the family reunion...

At last, it is finished. At least until next year. Most people don't realize that the most important part of guy's Christmas shopping is the procrastination. The closer to Christmas eve you do it, the more sporting an experience it becomes. And doing it before Black Friday is just plain unsportsmanlike...

Still the Worst. Customer. Service. Ever.

Technorati Tags: Comcast

You may have read about my issues with Comcast here and here. But I have now fixed my issues for good. Here’s how I did it:
After my last post on the matter, Comcast finally cancelled my home phone service. I still wasn’t thrilled with my service at the time, but it was somewhat bearable. I could live with it. I didn’t have a DVR in my room, but if I used the TV Remote Android app, I could have a DVR function. Fast forward to December 4 when a Comcast salesman came door-to-door. BTW, it is posted no soliciting/no trespassing at my apartment complex. I was at work at the time, but my brother was at home, and made it clearly known that it was my account, and I was the only one authorized to make any changes to it. This salesman made some entries on his iPad, ostensibly to update my address, and went on his way. I didn’t know anything was up until I came home from work, and saw his business card on my mail pile. I didn’t think anything of it until the following Saturday when I got an order confirmation emailed to me, regarding my ‘new’ order, along with installation fee. I hit the roof.
Needless to say, the next Monday, I went to the Federal Way cable store (given my previous experiences with the reps, perhaps this wasn’t the best of choices) and asked for the manager. And I was told he wasn’t there. So I left. I then reached out to Xfinity via Facebook, and finally got someone with more than two neurons. They had to do some research, but they discovered that my account had been closed and reopened (most likely the door-to-door sales moron had churned my account to make his commision). But in doing so, he knocked out the TV service in the living room, and took out what little DVR I had in my room. Fortunately, Comcast was able to recover my account. And they gave me a $100 bill credit (something possibly also to do with being billed for 4 months for phone service after I returned the equipment). Anyway, I still didn’t have any DVR whatsoever in my room, and it was finally decided to dispatch a tech to see what’s wrong.
And that was this morning. Cable guy came out. First thing I mentioned was the possibilty of a filter (something a friend of mine who is a Comcast installer mentioned). Tech checks out the Comcast box, and lo! there is a filter there that shouldn’t have been. So he took that out (had that not been there, I would’ve never had any of these problems with DVR issues to begin with. Then he troubleshot why my box wasn’t DVR’ing, and it turned out he just needed to reset it. With the filter taken out, I could’ve gone back to a satellite box, but I decided to keep my second master box, mainly for the voice operated remote. And the clock…
But my service is now working again. I’m happy with it. I’m definitely not happy with the trouble that Comcast put me through, though. If the first phone call I had placed was not routed to an offshore call center (or even if that first rep that I called spoke English), if the rep at the cable store had not given me the high-pressure sales pitch, orhad he not treated me like trash when I decided that I didn’t want home phone service. Or had they cancelled my home phone service when I returned my equipment, instead of telling to call the loyalty line (which, btw, when I did finally make the call, they were unable to do). It’s like what the tech said when he came to my house, if they just gave the customers what they wanted, instead of trying to sell them what they needed. Comcast has some very good services. But their downfall is their customer service….

So I was listening to real Christmas music last week…

So, last week, I was listening to Handel’s Messiah. Fired it up on the bus to work. And I fired it up again on the way home from work. By the time I got off the bus, it was over. I noticed that there were at least two drunks thrown off the bus. And I didn’t notice the drama at all, and I didn’t care.
Maybe I should listen to more classical music on the bus…

The weekend has begun….

It is Sunday now. The first day of my weekend. I have today and tomorrow off, then I work two days, then I have 3 days off (work is closed for Christmas day, and I’m taking vacation for Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas). While most full-time employess at my job are gettint 32+8 (meaning they’re working only 4 days this week and getting paid for Christmas, as it is a company holiday, and we’re closed that day. But I’m scheduled an extra day this week. I went to HR, and I was told that I’m one of the few who are scheduled for 40+8 this week. Ok. I can deal with this. I’ll just have to make do with the extra 8 hours’ pay in my next check. I can deal with it. It is nice to know that I’m that important to the workplace in the eyes of management. Though in my opinion there are others at work that are just as good as me, if not even better, and they’re not getting the same recongition…..
First thing’s first. Cable guy was out here at ten this morning. Long story short, I now have a working DVR with Xfinity X1. But there will be more on this later…
Next up be to watch Johnny Football get his ass handed to him by the Seahawks. Then there’s a Sunday Night game…
Tomorrow’s agenda will be to finish up Christmas shopping. And to bring the laptop up to my former employer and help him set up a couple of presents that he’s getting for his kids. And to finish mine. The big family reuinion we do out christmas gift white elephant style, but still, I want to out some effort into it…

Hello Friday

So there's this new Star Wars film opening this weekend. Apparently Luke Skywalker is defending Sto'Ko'Vor from Xur and the Ko'dan Armada....

Actually, I've never seen it, but I've seen the Wikipedia article on it, so what really happens is Luke Skywalker teams up with Elvis to save the galaxy from Major League Baseball and Rodan....

But seriously, I'll tell yoy how the movie ends:

The credits roll...

Hello World!

Windows Live Writer is dead. Long Live Open Live Writer. Window Live Writer will no longer be updated (last version was released in 2012). It is still in pre-beta, but it does support Google’s new authorization (which is also why Scribefire will no longer work, unless it is updated). THere are still bugs to work on, (like no speel check, or the ability to add catagories yet).

But it’s still a beginning….

Ok, so I started listening to real Christmas today....

I finally broke down. I finally fired up my mp3 player and put some Christmas on to play. No, this wasn't the Black Album. Though Enter Sandman is a necessity to keep my sanity after hearing The Little Drummer Boy and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer ad nauseum. There are a few other Christmas songs that I can tolerate and even like, though I'm intentionally limiting my exposure to them to keep it that way...

Anyway, I'm listening to Christmas Music. And religious music at that. I'm listening to The Messiah: A Sacred Oratorio. By a Mr. George Frederic Handel...

With about 10 day to go till Christmas...

With about 10 days to go till Christmas, I find myself listening to Christmas carols. I avoid them like the plague at work. I can only listen to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Riendeer and The Little Drummer Boy so many times before I go insane. But I find myself listening to them again. Not just any. But there are some that I can listen to without going insane.

I'm very much against the Christmas Creep. Many years ago, when I worked in the Malls, I saw the signs on Nordstrom that they wouldn't set the stores up for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. But I'm taking it a step further. I'm no longer even think about anything Christmas like until at the most 12 day before Christmas. So I will indulge myself in a Christmas carol once in a while.

Note: I did buy my copy of the Black Album during December, so it counts as Christmas....

So, I was watching TV last night....

So I was watching TV last night, and a new trailer came on for the new Independence Day movie, coming out this summer, I assume. My only question is will the aliens still be running pre-Mac OSX compatible hardware, and will Rico's Marauders protect up from Xur and the Ko'dan Armada?...

An experiment in just pushing the middle word in SwiftKey....

Hello World from the library and I will not be received by UPS or the shipper directly if you have any questions or concerns about the actual job and Bob has the loudest car horn and I will not be received by UPS or the shipper directly....

The preceeding is what happens when you just go with first word in SwiftKey Flow prediction....

Until further notice...

Since I have to use either the blogger website (which is not the WYSIWYG editor that Windows Live Writer was) or the blogger apps for Andriod, owing to Open Live Writer not yet having Blogger support, all spelling/grammar mistakes shall be left here intentionally.

Actually, I'll try to correct them. But, especially when using the Andriod apps, auto-cowreck is going to be an issue...

So there was a shooting in California recently...

I'm not post any links to the San Bernardino shootings. Violence is inherently evil. Even more so in the name of religion. What happened was a senseless act, perpetrated by a radicalised lone wolf, imo. I'm not really going to say what I think about it,  mainly because I've posted it before. But what I find just as disturbing has been sine of the responses. First of all is the blame all the Muslims response. The shooters were inspired by ISIL. People who would blame all the Muslims need to understand that the majority of ISIL's victims are Muslim themselves. There are those who would ban Muslim immigration and the refugees coming in from Syria. I've seen one post on Facebook try to pull a law out of context to make it seem that Islam is illegal, never minding that the 1st amendment to the constitution specifically guarantees freedom of religion. I may not agree with the faith that you practice, but I will defend your right to practice it.  I've seen enough anti-muslim posts on Facebook. I've permanently filtered a couple of people. Maybe I should start unfriending people, and reporting posts as hate speech. ...

I'm not trying to justify the shootings. But blaming all of Islam fit the actions of ISIL is like judging all of Christianity for the actions of the KKK or Westboro Baptist Church.

I guess it boils down to being the price of freedom. You have the right to free speech. It also means that people with different opinions can express them. You have the right to practice the faith of your choice. It also means that your neighbors can worship according to their conscience as well. I'm free. You're free. Our neighbors are free. We don't have to be the same. We just have to get along....

4 in a row...

The Seahawks are now 8-5. The Vikings got their heads handed to them last week. And the Ravens got the well-deserved beating this week as well. If the season ended right now, they'd be in the playoffs. Let's hope they keep it that way....

Taking a step back...

So, A couple of weeks ago, I posted that I was going to Windows 10. I have a confession to make. I went back to Windows 7. There are 4 reason: MechWarrior 4: Vengeance, MechWarrior 4: Black Knight, MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries, and MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries MekTek. I could get them to install into my WinXP vm on VMWare Player, but there were issues. Starting with the slowness of the graphics. Eventually, I will go to Windows 10. But I don't think I'm quite ready yet for that now.

BTW, this is why I haven't been posting anything of late....

So I was going to sign in....

Ok, apparently Google has decided not to let Windows Live Writer access blogger anymore. Apparently in the name of security. Anyway, Windows Live Writer will never work with OAuth 2.0, which is what Google is now using for login.

But there is hope on the horizon. It's called Open Live Writer. It is a work in progress. So far, I can't get it login to Blogger yet, but they say they will support it. Eventually. But for now, I'm writing this from Google Chrome...

Happy Holiday To All….

No real message here. Just a lame excuse to post One by Metallica. My favorite Christmas carol….

Way to go!

Way to go Brock Osweiler! The New England Patriots are no longer undefeated. And Tom Brady now has received his Well-Deserved Beating… At least if Payton Manning doesn’t come back, the Denver Broncos have a viable option….

At least, we know the reigning Super Bowl champs are mortal….

The Plus Sides of Windows 10….

It has taken awhile. And I kept switching from Windows 7, Windows 8.1 Pro Pack, and Windows 10 but I’ve finally settled on Windows 10 Professional. It has been said that The Anti-Christ skips every other generation when it comes to OS development. Windows 98 was the first really good operating system. Windows ME was the bastard child of Windows 2000 and Windows 98. And it sucked. It was call Windows Millennium Edition, but it should've been called Windows Malfunctioning Edition. I’m not counting Win2000 in this, as it was not developed for consumer use, and I never used it. Windows XP was great. I used it for the longest of times. Over 10 years. In fact, I still have a Virtual Machine of it for when I have to run something (like a really old game), and it won’t run on Win10. Then there was Windows 8. It was so bad that when Microsoft developed it’s successor that they skipped a number to distance it from Windows 8.

Anyway, here’s what I like about Windows 10:

• The app store. Google Play has it. Spamazon has it for Android. Why not Microsoft? This way, apps distributed by Microsoft (like calendar and email) can be updated without windows update.
• The apps. With Win7, for example, you could Netflix through Windows Media Center. With Windows 10, Windows Media Center is gone, but Netflix is available as an app from the app store. As is Hulu (I myself have upgraded to the ad-free Hulu Plus). And there are a few other video apps. There are also other apps. Like CNN, USA Today, several news organizations…..
• Facebook and Twitter have Windows 10 apps. Which means I no longer have to fire up my browser to respond when I get trolled on Facebook. Though as a side note, I’ve found the best thing to do when you do get trolled is absolutely nothing. They will go away if you just don’t feed them. Something I learned from Usenet…
• The calendar and mail apps. I just realized today that all I have to do is put my Google account (where I keep my contacts and my calendar) in, and now my Google contacts and calendar are automatically populated. Even with the latest version of Outlook 2016, I still have to use a third party app (I use GoContact Sync) to sync my Google Calendar & Contacts. Whereas with Thunderbird, it takes a couple of extensions, but once I install and configure them, I don’t have to do anything else…
• ISO support. During my misadventures on the internet, I’ve downloaded .iso images off the internet, and in the past, I’ve used Gizmo Drive to mount the .iso file like an optical drive to browse what I’ve needed (especially when I’ve installed Visual Studio Express). With Win10, windows explorer supports .iso images natively. Which is good, as I only have Nero 2015, and won’t be able to afford Nero 2016 for a while….
• The start menu. I liked the start menu in WinXP and Win7, and the ability I had to reorganize according to my tastes (and I had my ways of organizing it). With Windows 8/8.1, the start menu was replaced by the metro start screen. I hated it. With Windows 10, a compromise was reached. I have the start menu now. And though I can’t set up and rearrange the folders like I want, I can rearrange the Metro Style tiles as I see fit. And with the November update, there is extra space for tiles to make Windows 10 my own…

All in all, I’m still ‘moving in’ to Windows 10. I haven’t installed any of my Flight Simulators, or any of my MechWarrior games, though I think my Combat Flight Simulator and MechWarrior games will be destined for my WinXP virtual drive. It’s not something that is going to be done overnight. But I have all my hardware drivers installed, and Firefox. So, it’s a work in progress. But I’m still using it.

A winning record….

The Seahawks finally got a winning record today. Defeating Pittsburgh 30-39 today at the CLink. What has happened this season is when the Seahawks get to .500, they immediately go and lose at least two games. Which they then win again. Then they’ll lose again. But the streak is over. They won today.

They also won recently against the Forty-Whiners. At home. If they had lost that one, then there would have been calls for Pete Caroll to commit seppuku….

Ate too much….

Went to my sister’s house today for Thanksgiving. And I ate too much, as is standard procedure for Thanksgiving. And I made sure to make an extra trip to grocery store to be sure that I have enough fixin’s for the mandatory Black Friday Turkey sandwiches (not to necessarily disclose who my current employer is, but my current employment is retail related). I just had to have not one, but two gravy volcanoes.

But the high point of Thanksgiving at my sisters wasn’t the food, or the family. Tonight was the very first time that I posted a cat picture to Facebook. I don’t own a cat, but Duecie stepped up to the challenge and was the stunt cat….

On Grattitude….

Well, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Supposedly a day to celebrate gratitude. I could go on about Pilgrims, Native Americans, and Soylent Green, but I digress. So here’s what I’m thankful for, in no particular order:

1. Family. Only one’s family can understand one’s insanity.
2. Co-workers (and my job). At work, it’s like a family. Almost. There are some that I don’t want to come home with me, but we all have each others’ backs.
3. My job. Hey, my bills aren’t going to pay themselves. And it’s a job that I like. And with recent developments (like have a set schedule), it has become something that I’m really grateful for. Oh, and the paid vacation, sick leave, and health insurance are nice, as well (there are some who would grumble about the insurance, but I remember not having any for many years…)
4. My friends. I have friends in Real Life. I have online friends. And they both mean a lot. Sometimes they’re friends both online and in real life. Then there are those that I can longer reach. But I’m still thankful that I got to know them when I did. Maybe someday I’ll connect with them again. But if that is not to be, then I still wish them well.
5. Health. Yes, I’m a Type I diabetic, and there are issues with that. My teeth aren’t in the best of shape. But I still wake up in the morning. I’m still vertical. And I still make it to work.
6. The future.

There is always room at the top….

More on the recent events in Paris….

After my last post, I’m still compelled to write more about it. We must not condemn Islam for this. I’ve seen too many ‘kill the Muslims’ posts on social media. To judge Islam by the actions of these terrorists is like the world judging Christianity by the actions of Westboro Baptist Church. We shouldn’t go blaming Muslims in general. I have friends who are Muslim. And this isn’t them.

When I was growing up (in the Cold War), I was a War Hawk. I wanted the Russians to be blown to smithereens. I never thought about the consequences, only the here and now. It wasn’t until Operation Desert Storm that I realized that with war, there is the aftermath. Even for a victor. Through the years, I’ve come across the spectrum, and now I’m a dove. War is evil. Violence is evil. Especially in the name of religion.

Before you go saying ‘go kill the Muslims’ just remember what the Good Book has said: Judge not lest ye be judged. Take a look in the mirror. If you’re so set on killing someone because they’re not a Christian, then you’re no better than ISIS. Historically more atrocities have been committed in the name of Christianity than Islam.

But having said that, it doesn’t make the terrorists’ actions in Paris right. Nor does it make any terrorists’ actions right. Nor any violence in the name of religion. Can’t people just get along.?

Neither should we be blaming the Syrian refugees, as I have seen again on social media. This is the same violence that they’re fleeing from. And people are blaming them for it?

More on this later. I have so many thoughts on this, but I have to clear my head…

Liberté, égalité, fraternité!

I’m not going to post any links to the recent tragedy in France. If you can read this, you probably have an internet connection, and you can probably find more current information than I can provide. Needless to say, violence is evil.

There is something fundamentally evil in the use of violence, especially in the name of religion. Just because everybody else uses it doesn’t make it any less wrong….

My thoughts are with the French people at this time. And with all the victims worldwide. There are times when I wonder in the words of Rodney King “Can’t we all just get along?”…

EDIT: yes I did rewrite this. The first post really just didn’t match my thoughts. And there are times when it’s really difficult to make out what you really want to say, yet you have to say something….

Another season is over….

The Sounders FC were in the playoffs. Notice how I used past tense. After winning the game at the Clink, they had to go to Dallas (in the MLS playoffs this year, the second round at least are in a round robin format). And they lost. By the exact same score, which means that based on aggregate goals, they were tied. And so it went to overtime. And they were still tied after overtime. And so they went to penalty kicks, which Dallas won.

So, the Sounders’ season is over. But every year since they’ve been in MLS, they’ve been in the playoffs. Something the Mariners and the Seahawks can’t say they’ve done. Though, I’d say that the Seahawks still have a chance…

Another sports season is over…..

The Kansas City Royals just won the World Series. In 12 innings. Given my past opinions regarding Major League Baseball, or The New World Order (Mind-Control Division), one would think that I really don’t care. Especially since the Mariners suck. But one should still consider the fact that it’s been 30 year since the Royals have won it all. And I actually remember the last time they won it. I was at my grandmother’s house, and the game was on the tv, and I just happened to be watching the last play. And even then, I wasn’t really interested in Baseball.

Maybe next year. Now begins the off-season. I know the Mariners will be doing some wholesale shit-canning  (as they call it ‘rebuilding’) in order to maybe not lose 100+ games next year…

They pulled it off

If you can’t tell, I’ve spent an aweful lot of time siting on my ass in front of the tv today. I can’t help it, its my day off…

Anyway, the Sounders FC just won 2-1 vs. FC Dallas in the MLS West Semifinals. They’re not advancing yet, since this part of the MLS playoffs are in a round-robin format. But we’re heading into Dallas with a 2-1 lead, which means we win with a draw in Dallas…

I’m feeling better

After my post last week, I went to work on Thursday and Friday. Both days, people noted that I looked unwell. Mainly it was the cough that was causing me grief. So, I call out again yesterday. Due to the hours of my scheduled shift, I would’ve had to get up at 1 in the morning, and that’s not something I want to do when I’m sick. Though I’m not really sick. The cough is just really annoying. It seems like it’s only in the middle of transaction does the coughing fit strike, and a cough drop doesn’t help it.

If you wouldn’t send your kids to school if they have the same bug that you do, then you should probably not go to work as well. I don’t know where I got the cold that started this all from, but I know which co-worker I got the cough from….

We’re Average! We’re Average!

The Seahawks won today, 13-12.This was the second win in a row. ANd in fact it was the second win on the road. There has been much improvement. First of all, we now have an offensive line. And we are finishing games. All 4 games that Seattle has lost this year have they have had the lead in the 4th quarter, but they just couldn’t finish it. It was a little bit scary at half time when Ricardo Lockette was sretchered off the the field. They said it was ‘just a concussion’, but ‘just a concussion’ is still pretty serious. I remember Jim McMahon leading the Chicago Bears (with the Super Bowl Shuffle). Now he has dementia from all those head shots. Bernie Kosar (from that same era), sounds like a drunk, but it’s from all those shots he took. But he’s not paralyzed, and he’s not dead.

For the first time since they’ve been in MLS, the Sounders FC have gotten past LA in the playoffs. Although last year, it was San Jose who sent them home. Anyway, they’re past California. They’ve been in MLS since 2009. And they’ve been in the postseason each time. The Mariners can’t put a winning season together. Unless King Felix can work 163 games straight….

I feel terrible.

I feel miserable. Sick all day.Went to bed fine last night, but woke up at midnight with a cough that wouldn’t quit. I had to call in sick. On short notice. It was well before the company minimum of two hours’ notice. But still too short for my tastes (I always like to call out the day before if possible, just because it is so difficult to get a hold of the night manager). My stash of sick leave hours are dangerously low. But I had enough to cover this.

While I was out of action today, I did make it to the store to get some cough medication. So this will be my last sick day. I’ve been fighting a cold for past week and a half, and I’ve mainly just been trying to sweat it out…

Just don’t feel easy….

I feel uneasy. I really don’t know why. It could be because a couple of my co-workers were fired recently out of the blue. Whenever that happens, I always have to stop and take a look inward and ask myself if I’m next. Even if I’m doing nothing wrong, my anxiety is raised, though really for nothing. If it’s to come to me next to be fired, then so be it. I shouldn’t worry about it. But I do. The greatest fear there is is fear of the unknown…. I guess I have to should just look it down face to face, and put my worries to rest.

Or it could be my bills. I don’t think it really is that. I just need to pay them. And I should remind myself that I still have a roof over my head, tucker in my cupboard, and my lights are still on…

Or there is some other matter plaguing my subconscious that is causing my anxiety. Possibly in time it will resolve itself.

But until then, I feel uneasy….

Ok, I can deal with this…

It took over 4 months to do it, but Comcast finally stopped charging me for the modem I returned. In May… And they finally cancelled my home phone service. Now, it took 3 visits to the Comcast store, one escalation to @comcastcares on Twitter & and extended chat on Facebook with Xfinity to do it. There are still privacy/dvr issues…

What happened was last week I went up the cable store in Federal Way for the last time. I had already indicated my intention to return the Xfinity X1 boxes and get two legacy DVRs. I got to the store and explained my predicament to the clerk. He just happened to be a bit more knowledgable than average, and he saw the type of box that I needed in the back. So, I just needed to exchange one box and I got another X1 master box with component out. I got home, and set my boxes up, and re-paired my remotes (which also took care of one of my other concerns, a remote that woudn’t pair up with my tv…). I was able to dvr 1 program (an episode of How It’s Made). I’ve tried recording a couple of games, but I haven’t seen them yet (I think my roommate might be cancelling them). We’ll see on the DVR issues. If I can’t resolve that issue, then I will have to return them for legacy HDDVR boxes again.

Did I mention that Comcast has horrendous customer service?

Another week….

Another week, another 4th quarter meltdown. Last week, the Seahawks had a 17 point lead in the 4th quarter and let it go. I thought I could let it go, as it was an away game and all…

But then today, they had the home field advantage (the 12th Man is a definite factor), and a lead in the 4th quarter again. And they still lost to Carolina. And take a wild guess about who lost this week…

But on the bright side, Beast Mode is back.

How does Russell Wilson take his eggs? Scrambled…

They just stunk today….

The Seahawks lost today in overtime. After they had a 17 point lead in the 2nd half. They had this game. And they lost. Back when Holmgren was the head coach and the ‘Hawks were going through Dire Straits, I thought that a pillory should be erected at the CLink for him. Maybe the same should be set up for Caroll…

The season ended for the Mariners recently. And they’re on there way to Shit-Canning McClendon. I kinda liked him. Under his leadership last year, we actually had a winning record. Maybe next year, they’ll be contenders in The New World Order (Mind-Control Division)….

Worst. Customer. Service. Ever.

<Note: I posted this in the Comcast forums tonight. I’m posting this here as a warning to anybody who would do business with Comcast. It is a follow up to here>

When I started this year, I had two HD-DVR boxes with high-speed internet provided by CenturyLink. My contract with CenturyLink went up, and I went back to Comcast for internet. My first mistake. I went to Best Buy, and bought a cable modem. Took it home, and that's when the fun began. I had to order high-speed internet. The first time I called, I got the offshore call center, and I got some rep who could barely speak English. She tried to upsell me to the Triple Play package, and then berated me to the point that I had to hang up when I said no. Let that sink in, I call in to order more services (to pay Comcast more money), and Comcast's greed at upselling me drove my away. Eventually I was able to make another call, and got someone who wasn't offshore and I was able to order internet. But there were suspicions about that call, too (because the rep had somehow found a 'promotion' for me. I've been around the block long enough to know that no Comcast rep will voluntarily 'take care of me'....

So, I have high-speed internet, 2 hd-dvrs and tv service. I'm still suspicious that shenanigans were played with my account, and so I head to the Federal Way, WA. cable store, and I speak with the rep there. He pulls up my account, says that everything is kosher iwth my account. Then he starts into the high-pressure sales pitch, and I finally bite. I get the Xfinity X1 operating system and home phone service. And I explicitly made sure that I wasn't under contract, and he said I could return the equipment if I didn't like it.....

I got the X1 boxes set up, and I immediately realize that I have no DVR on my box. I can set my box to record, but it goes to the other box. And I have no access to my recordings. As for the home phone service, I'm immidiately beset by collection calls for the previous holder of my phone number. I could live without the DVR in my room, but I decided to cancel my phone service. So when I returned my hd-dvr boxes, I also returned my voice/internet modem. I set up the modem that bought with my own money, and went to the Federal Way, WA. cable store again. The rep who helped me made it pretty clear that I wasn't welcome there. He took my equipment, but refused to cancel the phone service. Basically, he said I have to call the offshore call center, and put up with another high-pressure sales pitch.

So, I reached out to @comcastcares on twitter, and they said they'd fix it. I was even offered a free premium channel service (which I declined for reasons of personal ethics). This was back in May. I was also told that I was on Triple Play with a contract, which wasn't true. So, I didn't think anything of this. Until this weekend when I realized that I was still paying for the voice/data modem rental. So another trip to Federal Way, WA. cable store, and this time I took back my X1 box w/o the dvr....

So today, I told the rep at the store that I was still paying for a modem that I had returned in May. He looks into it. I asked about my box, and I asked for a box with a dvr in it. I have privacy issues. I don't want what I record being available to everone in the house (basically, when I set a recoding, it was sent to the box in the living room, and wasn't available to my box). I was told that I could only use an X1 box now, and a 'master'  box was available for $20.00 a month extra. So I got one. Only problem was that my TV only has 1 hdmi port, which is being used by my Blu-Ray player, I needed a box with component output (basically the 5 rca plug cable). Idiot clerk tried explaining to me that I could use the video output (which specifically said 'sd video'). He then said that I could use the hdmi 'input' on the box and daisy chain the components. Not the case. The hdmi input doesn't work. I can't program the voice remote for my tv. But that's not the worse part. The worse part is when I told the clerk about still being charged for voice/data modem that I returned in May, all he did was disconnect the modem that I was using! So, I come home to no internet service!
Once again I had to make another call. This time I specifically asked for somebody not offshore based, and I was ignored. Most of what he said I couldn't understand (if Comcast is going to outsource it's call center, you could at least make sure English is spoken...). I ended up pulling out my laptop and activating it myself.

And I apparently still have home phone service, despite all my efforts to cancel it....

Not quite ready yet,

Yes, I put Windows 10 on my computer last week. I wasn’t really ready for it. But I want to move on from Windows 7. My computer came with Windows 8.1 preinstalled, and I immediately put 7 on it when I got it. It served well, but when The Anti-Christ, announced Windows 10, I decided to get with the times. I wanted to get 10 pro, but my computer came with 8.1 (the plain version). So I decided to by an upgrade key to 8.1 Pro, which is good, because if 10 didn’t agree with me, I could still have Windows Media Center. So right now, I’m going with Windows 8.1. Eventually I’ll go to Windows 10, but not quite yet. I do have the installation media ready for when I’m ready to make the jump….

Listening to my subconscious….

Ok, so yesterday I remembered to load my coffee maker. And this morning when my alarm went off at 1:30, I hit the brew button. I got my coffee brewed, and I even had it properly doctored. And then I set it on my computer desk, got dressed, and went to work. Without my coffee….

I think my subconscious is telling me I need to address my caffeine addiction….

Must. Have. Coffee

If you’re not running around screaming that The Underpants Gnomes are after your shorts then you haven’t had enough coffee yet. If you start to feel a draft, then they’ve gotten your shorts, and you should switch to decaf. I myself don’t need any coffee if I can make it past 10 am (after 10, work gets so busy that I have the stress to keep me awake). But before 10, I’m a zombie.

There are some days when I have to be up at 1 in the morning to get to work. So I have a small coffee maker in my room, so I can fix my travel mug of coffee in the morning. I usually drink right before I leave for work, or I fill my thermos mug and drink it on the bus.

I was a zombie this morning. Somebody put his thermos in his locker yesterday. And left it there. And didn’t realize it until last night right before he went to bed. And I fell asleep on the bus, and almost missed my connection.

Needless to say I have my thermos, and coffee will be ready tomorrow….

One of the perks of my job….

Yes, I have a paid vacation. Paid sick leave. Performance bonuses. Supervisors who’ll let you step away to take a leak when nature calls. And more importantly, supervisors who know when your blood sugar is low, it needs to be taken care of right away. And my employer has also made deals with other companies, so I can get discounts. For example, I get 25% off of my bill at Sprint for working here.

But there is one fringe benefit that my company offers. It doesn’t matter what company health plan you’re on, or if you’re full or part time. My employer offers free flu shots. Which is actually more profitable for the company, when you think of all the lost productivity from sick calls during flu season (like when I called out last year, most likely due to the flu).

I got my flu shot today. For free…

To Judge, Or Not To Judge, Part II…

<Note: This is my second attempt at writing this post, hence ‘part II’…>

The Good Book councils us to “Judge not, that ye be not judged”. I try to follow that. Who am I to sit in judgment against my fellow man. Even when people are accused of heinous crimes, I can let the judicial system run its course, and let them decide a defendant’s guilt or innocence (in a related story, I take my jury duty very seriously). If they are guilty I let the courts handle it. If they’re found innocent, then I rejoice in fairness of the judicial system. There are occasions when someone is obviously guilty gets off free, but I would rather a guilty person go free than an innocent person go to prison.

But events of late are putting me to the test. I just want to tell people to their face that I can see through their maskirovka. But what if there wasn’t anything nefarious? So I give the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps there are facts & circumstances that I’m not privy to. So I hold my judgment. Sometimes, like with very recent events, it’s very difficult to not jump to conclusions. Other times it’s really easy.

Having said all of this, I can say, that it is far easier to not judge someone when they’re just a defendant that you see on TV. When they’re detached from you it is far easier for me to let the judicial system runs its course, and let them have their day in court. When it’s people you know who are playing the games, or are being played as part of somebody else’s games, then it becomes really difficult not to judge. But you have to take a look at yourself, and ask if you’re really any better than they are. And who are you to judge?….

Way to go Seahawks….

Ok, the Seahawks finally won today. Shutting out the Chicago Bears this season. 26-0. Though it was done for the most part without Beast Mode. But here’s to a speedy recovery.

The Science Channel has been showing Dirty Jobs reruns recently. The series was cancelled some 3 years ago, but I still find it entertaining. Especially the word ‘poo’.

Since I’ve installed Windows 10 on my tower, I’ve discovered that I can use my keyboard and mouse to control my phone, when I pair it with my tower via Bluetooth.

I should also add that this wasn’t my first experience with Windows 10. About a month and a half ago, I installed Windows 10 on my laptop. It makes for a pefect back-up when my tower is down. It’s also prety handy to reset the lexmark printer (which being normally setup for network only, is set up without a compter nearby)….

My younger brother is away till Wednesday. Which means I’m watching TV out in the living room. On his TV. Yes, I have a bigger set in my room, but there is something about watching football from the living room couch….

Screw it!

So no more of this upgrading straight from Windows 8.1. I'm just going to do a clean install of Windows 10. And I'll just pay the $15 for the Microsoft DVD player. But because I bought the 8.1 Pro Pack and upgraded to 10 from that, I'll still be able to install Windows 10 Pro.

The time has come to go with the current operating system. If I have software that won't work in Windows 10, I still have the Windows XP disk that my previous computer had. And I've already made the Virtual Machine for it. And I made sure that is big enough to accommodate all of my old games...

Just like my last post, I'm doing it just because I can...

Because I can

I really don't know why I did it. Windows 7 was working so well. But I discovered that I can resize the Windows partition in windows 8.1, and I can delete the oem recovery partition. So I can I can do a factory reset on my tower, which reinstalls 8.1. I can then upgrade with my pro pack key, which installs 8.1 Pro and Windows Media Center. I can then delete my recovery partition (which I don't need since the first thing I did was burn the recovery set to DVD), and resize my windows partition to allow space for Linux. Which I've done. And now I'm upgrading to Windows 10. I could've done just a straight install (I have the flash drive with the installer),  but since I'm upgrading from 8.1 Pro with Windows Media Center, I'm getting the Microsoft DVD player in 10. Of course, I also have Nero,  but this defeats the point:

I'm doing this because I can....

So I went to HR recently…

For those of you who were fasting a while back, Eid Mubarak. Yes, it’s a day early, but I don’t think I’m going to be near a computer tomorrow…
I’ve been full-time since last fall. And that’s normally meant that I had to have open availability. Which means I can be scheduled anywhere from 6 am to 10 pm. That was the trade-off, but it was worth it, so I took it. And I’ve always made sure to be there on time for my shifts. There were some times when I couldn’t make it, but that’s what sick leave was for. This spring, management called me into the office when it was realized what I was going through to close one night and open the next day. But that was the only compromise that I asked. My official position was I will work when I was scheduled.
Anyway last week, I was going over my schedule, and checked my hours of availability, and I realized that they had been altered. Certain days had been given fixed availability. So, yesterday, I asked HR about it, and they confirmed that my schedule was being fixed. Because they needed someone with my skills who was dependable (which I’ve apparently demonstrated).
So, no more changing schedules. And I’m full-time still. But who cares about that? It’s football season. And I now have Sundays off…

I’m only going to explain this once

I’m only going to explain this once, so listen up:

‘Black lives matter’ is irrelevant. ‘White lives matter’ is irrelevant, too. It is ‘All lives matter’. All life is precious. Your skin color is irrelevant. You have a life. Your life is precious. Your life matters.

All lives matter.

Any questions?

Back to work tomorrow….

Another weekend has come to an end for me. I did as little as possible for that past two days. Other than flash a ROM to my phone (which actually took 3 tries to get it right…). The actual flash was the easy part. It was the moving in afterwards that took all day, with installing all the apps, and re-signing in to everything (for reasons of simplicity, I prefer to set my phone up as a new phone every time. Though I do have Titanium Back-Up (and the Pro key, too), should I choose to do it the easy way….

I did enjoy the Monday Night Football doubleheader last night. Both games were still games into the fourth quarter. Too bad the Seahawks lost to the Rams. That’s just as bad as bad as them losing to Tim Tebow…

But tomorrow morning, I rejoin the work-force.

And people wonder…

People wonder why I never trust the police…

Last Wednesday, I was walking to my bus stop (actually the 512 Park & Ride). I was very early in the morning (normally the Route 1 runs by my apartment, but I had to be at work so early that it wasn’t running). I’m walking on the sidewalk, minding my own business. This was a public highway. Ten minutes into my walk, a sheriff’s deputy pull up behind me and puts his lights on. Two deputies get out, one with his hand on his gun, and they ask me where I was going. When I told them where I was going, they said there was no service at that time. Bullshit. Route 574 runs from 2:30 in the morning northbound to 12:30 at night southbound. As I handed him my I.D., I asked why I was being stopped, and he said basically I was free to go. So I left. And I wasn’t even jaywalking.

Why was I stopped? Am I violating some unwritten curfew? Am I on double-secret probation because I live in Parkland? Or am I just beneath the protection of the law in general? It doesn’t really matter. According to the eyes of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, I’m a suspect. Even if they don’t have any evidence of a crime, I’m a suspect and I can be stopped at will. Even if I’m just a pedestrian trying to go to work. There has been a lot said in the media about cops killing unarmed suspects, and cops getting killed. I still say that violence is inherently evil, and I will not stoop to that level.

But the trust is gone. And it will never come back. I will no longer think twice about calling 911 if I’m a witness or a victim to a crime. I just won’t call. Period. Why should I? When I’m more afraid of the cops than I am of the crooks, it is pointless.

To protect and serve, my ass!

About last week…

Remember last week when I said I was switching to the Badboyz ROM? About that….

I use my phone as my wake-up alarm. It’s convenient. I can set a different alarm for each day, which comes in handy when you’re working a variable schedule. Unfortunatly this was also the deal breaker for me with the BadBoyz ROM. Last week, I had to open at work, which meant getting up at zero-dark 30 in the morning. Right when your alarm is going off is not an appropriate time for the phone to crash. Which it did. And the alarm never went off. So I got up almost an hour late. Fortunately, I was able to haul ass, and I made it to work on time.

Also, during that past week, I also was able to address the issue with being unable to sign on venomroms.com. Since I was able to re-sign on, I went with the Venom ROM again. This time, I also haven’t had any problems with my phone so far (thanks to flashing current firmware). When I previously attempted Lollipop ROMs, I was never able to use the Sprint Zone app.

End of the weekend

There was another shift in my schedule, and I got a three day weekend. It has come to an end. This weekend, I bought 2 pairs of shoes (hikers, not work boots), and I broke both of them in. Today I was going to take a journey. Mainly to kill time and break my shoes in, & to seek an answer. But I didn’t leave the house today. There are still some issues that I need to resolve in my head. Perhaps I’ve been given my answer, and I just need to see it. Or maybe I was just to broke to buy lunch.

Either way, I’ll learn wisdom from this….

Now to load the Coffee maker.

New feet. Again.

Once again, I had to buy new shoes. You may remember the last time I had to buy them. The pair I got before them lasted 2 months before they literally fall apart and I had to replace them. I think my problem is Wally World. Yes, the shoes are cheap, but I was getting what I was paying for. This time I went with another retailer and got something more name-brand ish. Yes, I paid through the nose for them. But I’m hoping I can put an end to the sore foot shuffle at work….

And btw, there was a sale, so I got two pairs today…

Once more, an attempt….

When I first got an HTC One (M8), I initially tried a Lollipop ROM (namely the ViperOne Series). I initially went with this, as it was what I was using when I had my HTC One (M7). It had it’s issues, and in the end, I ended up going back to KitKat and using that. It wasn’t the latest and greatest, but it worked. Recently I updated my phone’s firmware, and went to give Lollipop another try. And this time when I downloaded and installed the ViperOne, I was unable to log into my VenomROMs account (which is needed to download all the extras that the developers offer). And I decided to try another ROM. This time, I went with Bad Boyz. It’s not as customizable as the Venom ROM was, but it works. Bells and whistles are good, but the more pipes you have in your plumbing, means it’s easier to plug up your drain. I have noticed that the battery does drain a lot faster than what I’m used to, but this is also why I have a 10000 mAh external battery (though it does take a while to charge it when I use it)… I’m hoping that the phone will settle down in a couple of days (as has happened in my other ROMs/Phones…).

Did I mention that I now have Sense 7, too?

The turning of fall

Last Friday was the last hot day of summer. The rains returned Saturday. Fortunately, I was home by the time the first big storm hit, and Elmhurst Mutual Power & Light does a really good job at power line maintenance so I didn’t have my power go out. Sunday it was sufficiently stormy that I took my windows fan down, and I don’t think I’ll be putting it back up. The window in my room is still open, but I think I’ll close it tonight.
The rains have returned. They are very much welcome, with all the wildfires that we’ve had this summer. But the one drawback is that they’re reminding me of something I don’t want to hear about: I need a new pair of shoes again…

So I was going to post something today

And then I thought about what I was going to write. I’ve been thinking about this post for the past several weeks. But in the end, discretion is the better part of valor. And so I’ll hold my tongue. Words, once spoken, cannot be unspoken. Always tread carefully, lest you offend or embarrass someone close to you…

A comparison of shipping (and other things)…

For the past couple of months, I’ve upgrading my computer. Nothing big, just making sure that when Windows 10 came out, I’d be ready for it. First, it was extra RAM, then it was a larger bard drive. Then it was a new TV tuner, and a couple of other items. Among other places I ordered them from Worst Buy, Spamazon, Office Depot, and Newegg. Things were shipped brown, dhl, Fedex, and the US Postal Service.

Office Depot delivered there item to me in an Office Depot box truck, via a uniformed Office Depot employee. The next day….

With Spamazon, I have Amazon Prime, so as long as I ordered it by two, it’ll show up in two days. Usually it’s via UPS, but they’ve been know to us the Postal Service. My opinion with them is do not use overnight shipping at Amazon! The last time I did it, I paid extra for shipping, and it was misrouted and over a week late with no explanation from Amazon. But they do have a very wide selection, and like I said I have Amazon Prime. The free shipping pays for itself…

Best Buy does offer free shipping if your purchase is over a certain amount. Depending on the item, and whether or not you’re buying off the marketplace, it’ll be shipped UPS Fedex or USPS. I remember ordering two different things from them one time, and they both arrived via different carriers….

Newegg has great customer service. Their Android app is just like the website. If you’re say looking at a specific tv tuner model, they’ll tell you if they have a newer one on hand. When it comes to shipping, they usually ship via dhl, who then hands it off the the local post offcie for deliveries. Not a bad thing, if they get the right post office (ups does the same thing, but I’ve noticed) that it takes a couple of extra days.

Probably the best online shopping experience was with Office Depot. Like I said, send overnight to my doorstep via Office Depot and delivered by a uniformed Office Depot employee. I was so impressed with them that I actually went back and filled out a job application (if they’re that good, then that’s probably a company you want to be a part of), and they actually called me for an interview. But I had to pass on it, due to a nagging foot injury (I’m not really worried yet. I’m happy where I’m at, and other opportunities will come. Perhaps it was just the fates decreeing that I shouldn’t work there…)

The end of another weekend….

Due to a schedule shift, this weekend was only going to be one day, but foot problems led me to call out. This past week at work, especially Sunday was stressful. But a new day starts tomorrow. And a new workweek. And more importantly, my foot is better (sometimes, I need to just rest it. Previous experience with trying to work through the pain has been rather counterproductive….).

All for a cheeseburger….

Today was my day off. I was scheduled to work tomorrow. And I wanted a cheeseburger. Not that much of a big deal, as there’s a McDonalds and a Jack(ing off) in the Box right down the street from my apartment. Wanting volume over quality, I decided on the $1 cheeseburger at McDonalds (and a considerable quantity, too…). I walk over there, and I get my food. On the walk home, I realized I was limping on my left foot (the same foot that I hurt a while back). It wasn’t the same injury as before, but it was on the same foot….

Back to being scheduled tomorrow. If I can’t walk to the local McDonalds without pain, then I probably shouldn’t stand for 8 hours at register tomorrow. I’m now even more grateful for paid sick/personal time that my employer offers…..

Another year older, another year wiser (I hope)

Today is my birthday. I’m trying to keep the celebration low-key, even to the point of telling my roommate that I was cancelling it this year. I’m not really cancelling it, I just want to celebrate it with a day of contemplation. I don’t anticipate any cake this year (for the obvious reasons of Type I diabetes). But I’m enjoying my day off with NFL preseason football (The NFL network is showing reruns of every preseason game). And putting my computer back together (I’ve finally decided to stick with Windows 7, with some space partitioned off for Linux down the road).

I’m another year older today. Hopefully, I’m wiser than last year,,,

I don’t know what it is…

Twice I’ve sat down to write something, and both times as soon as I started, my mind just drew blanks. Perhaps the posts aren’t ready yet. I suppose I could sit here, and force them out, but I think it’s better to let them write themselves when they’re ready.

Maybe next time…

Another try at it….

I installed Windows 10 last week. I wasn’t ready for it, so I put Windows 7 back on. But this is progress, I must adapt or perish. Not really perish, but 10 is the future. I’m sure that not all of my games will run on Windows 10, but I still have a Windows XP disc, and I know how to set up a virtual machine. I still have a Windows ME virtual machine, mainly as an exercise in system administration….

And yes, I do have space left on my hard drive for Linux.

Could you check your spam folders, please?

So I check my Gmail this morning, and I look in the spam folder, as I do on occasion. And I noticed a spam mail from me (nothing unusual in an of itself, as this is a common spammer tactic). But what concerns me was the other addresses that it was sent to. They were all my contacts. At first I thought my google address book had been compromised, so I immediately changed my Google password, and my yahoo (not that hard of a feat, since I'm in the midst of a system rebuild). But still I fear the damage has been done, and my address book is 'out there'. But then again, I only noticed it from checking my spam folder.

Btw, if you get an email from purporting to have been sent from my iPhone, know this: I don't have an iPhone. Never have, never will.

Anyway having said this, could you check your spam folders, and let me know what 'special offers' I have sent you?

Underway on Windows 10

Ok, I’m now running Windows 10. This was the straight upgrade from Windows 8.1. Right now, I’m redownloading it to a flash drive, so I can do a ‘clean’ install. Normally, I’d just stick with the upgrade, but I want to do a clean install so I can repartition my hard drive so I can play around with Linux. With the System Restore from HP, I can restore my computer to factory condition, but that also wipes out any partitioning I’ve done….

And now on the next adventure: I’m out of ink for my printer….

Opportunity knocks, but I have to pass….

Yes, I have a commute from hell. Yesterday, it was a 4 1/2 mile walk just to get to the bus stop, and then another mile and half to two miles to get to work. Needless to say, my feet were in agony. Normally, I get home, and I can rest my feet, and be ready for the next day. However, last night I tried on a different pair of shoes. And they literally rubbed my feet the wrong way.

So I wake up this morning, and I can’t move my left foot without pain. I look down, and I’m greeted by a horrendous scab. So, orders today are to stay off my feet. Which means that the job interview that I had today is cancelled. And I’m not going to reschedule it. My philosophy is if I (or any other potential candidate) can’t make it to initial interview, then it’s not going to pan out. Besides, notwithstanding the issues I have with my current employer, it’s still a good place to work for…

The Knock Of Opportunity...

A week and a half ago, during my misadventures on the internet, I applied for a position with another company. I noticed that there was an opening, and I applied. More of a spur of the moment decision. But it represented an opportunity. A chance for advancement. So I applied. And I didn't hear anything about it. Oh well. It just made me feel all the more grateful for my current job.

And then this afternoon, I got a phone call. They want to interview. Perhaps this will be my next break. My opportunity to move up the corporate totem pole. Then again, maybe it won't. The worst thing that can happen is I can be told no, and if that be the case, I will still learn wisdom from this.

Opportunity is knocking. Wish me luck.

It's getting hot again....

They say that this summer will have broken the record for number of days of more than 90 degree weather. I think this may call for drastic measures again. Yes, another gallon of Arnold Palmer. That has become my favorite beverage of choice. Aside from Diet Dr. Pepper, which btw has been mislabled. It should be labeled what it is: The Nectar Of The Gods....

Monday Approaches….

Yes, I know tomorrow is Wednesday. But to me, it’ll be Monday. My work week starts tomorrow. My current employer requires that I be available to work open to close, 7 days a week. Note that I’m not scheduled open to close, 7 days a week. I’m full-time so I work 40 hours a week, but my employer would just as soon I keep my overtime to a minimum, which I won’t argue with (factoring in my commute, and I’m out of the house 14-16+ hours a day, easily. But then again, HR at work is aware of my commute, and there is a concerted effort to give me a consistent schedule, which I appreciate….

But then again, I’ll be able to brag to everybody next Monday when they go to work, that it’s my day off…

Yes, I’m evil like that…

Ok, I got them...

This afternoon, I got my Hauppagge WinTV HVR-2250 tv card. I got it mainly because it was compatible with Windows 8.1, 10 and Linux. With my Diamond TV Wonder PCIE 750, it could only work under Windows 7 (or Windows XP, but I'm not going to try that with 24gb of RAM installed). As much as I liked my TV Wonder, it's time to move on. And I want to watch TV in Linux again. Today I also got my Windows 8.1 Pro Pack key. Just enter it, and my Windows 8.1 becomes pro. And I have Windows Media Center. I know I really don't need it, but there once was a time when my computer wasn't right next to a 55" HD set, and I want to be ready if my computer has to become the TV again.

I also got 3 usb flash drives today. It's a lot quicker to format and copy to a flash drive then burn a recovery DVD....

Yet another day off post….

So, it is my weekend now. I was supposed to work yesterday, but due to some other issues I had to call out (thank goodness for paid sick leave). Applying the lessons I learned the last time I tried to work through the pain…

Sometime today, I should be getting my new TV tuner card, and my Windows 8.1 Pro Pack key. I could’ve waited till Windows 10 comes out, but this way I have another option available (besides either way, Windows 10 is going to be a free upgrade). I’m also getting some 32gb flash drives, so I can set up install media & do clean installs for both my tower and the laptop. On the tower and laptop, I already have the Windows 8.1 restore media ready.

It’s my weekend, and it’ll be a fun one. I’ve already been to the store, and I have enough provisions that I don’t have to leave the house anytime soon (unless it’s for the all essential cheeseburger big bite run).

Did you know that Wally World have $5.00 pizzas. And they’re pretty good too…

Making the best of what's around

Sometimes, we don't get the hand we want. And opportunity you were hoping for doesn't come through. Like today at work. My work location is in Federal Way, and I take the bus. And there are times when the bus by my house isn't running, and I have to walk 4.5 miles to the next connection. There is another location that's only a 20 minute walk from my apartment. I've been trying to transfer, and I finally got a hold of management to inquire about it today. And I was told that since I'm full time, I'd have to step down to part time to do it. And that isn't happening. But management here at my current location to appreciate me. And the effort it takes to get there on time...

You can hope all you want for the best, but it boils down to just playing the hand that you've been dealt. Every hand's a winner. And every hand's a loser. Just make the best with what you have...

On the brightness of Hope...

Hope is a strange thing. It can be exceedingly faint. And fading fast. And yet that one faint hope is still bright enough to light up a whole life. To be a compass when one has no other way of going. One must never underestimate hope. In the absence of rejection, it can sustain you. If you are rejected, it can help pick you up...

There will always be a brighter day...

Ok, that's enough for now. My weekend is coming to conclusion, and I have to get ready for work. But while I didn't get everything done that I was planning, I still got things done. My head is now clearer than before. And my laundry got done...

A thought to ponder

Am I truly free? Or am I just further fettering myself with idle dreams of that which never was, and never will be? Is it freedom to continually pursue a dream that will not likely com to fruition, or is it freedom to realize that a dream is only that. A dream. That which will never be a part of reality. Or am I only fettering in myself in idly pursuing it, blinded to the realities of life? Or does freedom come from realizing that this dream will not come to be, and letting it go? Or is abandoning my dream not really freedom at all? Maybe there is compromise between the two. Maybe I should let my dreams and my realities just agree too disagree. Then again, there will come a time when I have to definitely make a choice, one way or the other, or it will be made for me. I just hope its the right choice.

Yes, I'm just another introvert with a blog....

Not as hot today...

It wasn't as hot today as it was yesterday. Went up to the place of my former employer, and we had lunch (ordered pizza), and had coffee. Since I paid for this time, he says the next time it'll be on him. Yes, I did report him to L&I after I left. And by all rights I should've had his ass in court. But there are bigger battles to fight. You don't have to win every battle to know that you're right. And even if you're right, it is still far better to forgive your enemies, and to seek reconciliation with them. I'm not saying you have to bend over backwards to appease everyone who takes offense at you. But you also need to realize that while you may think you're always right, it's not always the case. And it'll be all the more embarrassing when you realize it.

Make peace with your petty disputes now, before they grow into major arguments....

Almost ready

With Windows 10 starting to come out next week, I’m making sure my computer is ready for it. The main thing was to replace my tv tuner card. My previous card, a tv wonder pro 750 was incompatible with Windows 8 and 10 (and not to mention Linux as well). So, I’m replacing it with a Hauppagge WinTV-HVR-2250. Compatible with 7,8.1, 10 and Linux. And hedging my bets against Windows 10 not being my cup of tea, I also ordered a copy of Windows 8.1 Pro. I probably won’t need it, but I can use it to upgrade to windows 10 pro instead of home.

Yes, I’ve posted about hating 8.1 before (if I hadn’t, I do not like it). But it’s time to get with the times. Windows 7’s lifetime is finite. And I know all my hardware will be compatible with windows 8.1 and 10.

But more importantly, I’ll be able to tinker with Linux again…

Just Another Sunday Morning/Afternoon…

My mouse died a couple of weeks ago. I finally got around to ordering a replacement. Yes, I have other mouses in the house, but I just have to have a Logitech M510. Fortunately, this was the laptop’s mouse, and the laptop has a touchscreen on it, so I can manage until it arrives….

With Windows 10 coming out in the next week, and a half, I’ve been trying to get my tower ready. First order of business is to get a compatible tv tuner. I just found out the hard that my current tuner card only works with 7 or lower. So, I’m going to hold off on upgrading until I find one that works (while I’m at it, I’m going to make sure it works in Linux as well…).

Due to a shift in my schedule, I’ve got three days in a row off. And they’re all shot to hell since I wiped my tower last night. Thank goodness for the laptop (used to be my laptop, but it’s mainly in the living room, and my brother/roommate uses is more than I do).

It’s powerfully hot today. I think its time for another trip to the store for drastic measures (a gallon of Arnold Palmer)…

I need three things…

• The strength to change that which I can change.
• The peace to accept that which I can’t change.
• And the wisdom to know the difference between the two…

There are a few extra concerns I have in my head tonight. But I will not let them darken my heart, and I will learn wisdom from them….

Beyond that, it’s best if I not said anymore on them for now…

One of the definitions of happiness is....

Happiness is a 21+ minute conversation on the phone with your grandmother. Seriously. If your grandmother is still alive, get on the phone and tell her you love her. Don't take your family for granted. Never underestimate the power of hello.

It no longer matters…

(I’m writing this from the laptop as the tower is still in the midst of a system rebuild)…

This has been weighing on my mind for a while. The Supreme Court made it’s ruling on the case while I was in the middle of my aforementioned 15 day stretch of working….

I’m talking about gay marriage. After the ruling, it should now be called just marriage. But all kidding aside, this is a rather controversial subject. I have kept my opinions on this and on homosexuality to myself, and aside from this post (if at that) I will continue to do so. Needless to say is gay marriage is now legal. Not just in Washington, but in all 50 states. Praise it, or condemn it, it is now the law of the land.

It no longer matters whether or not you know the difference between teal and fuschia. You may now marry the partner of your choice, for the most part….

The other matter I want to touch on is the Confederate Flag. Once it may have been the symbol of the Confederacy in the Civil War (which it lost). In the Civil Rights era, some states (like Georgia) added it to their state flags as a show of defiance to ‘The North’. In that sense, the Confederate Flag is racist. It ought not to be shown. However, it is also free speech to show it. As much as I condemn it, it is still one’s right to display it and use it. I may not ever agree with it, or the principles it stood for, but I will defend your right to display it. It’s just like Westboro Baptist Church. Everybody condemns them, but they still have the right to say their message of hate and intolerance.

Now according to my Facebook feed of late, the government is going to take away our guns, make us give up our jobs to illegal aliens, and force us all to get gay married. Come to think of it, it’s time to adjust my feed settings.

It’s Been Powerful Hot of Late

When you think of Washington weather, you would normally think of rain. And normally that’s how it is. But Washington does have a summer. It makes a token appearance for a couple of weeks every July/August. Normally summer usually starts on July 5, and it goes to the day before my birthday, when the rain returns….

But not this summer. The 90+ degree weather hit early and hard. I think we’re up to 5 days in a row of heat. This is calling for drastic measures. I now have a gallon of Arnold Palmer chilling in the fridge….

My Day Plans Have Failed

As I previously mentioned, I have today off. And while I wanted to do absolutely nothing, I completely failed at it. With The Anti-Christ releasing Windows 10 at the end of this month, I decided to upgrade my computer. Beefed up the RAM to 24 gB, and I put a 4 tB hard drive in. Since my tower only has space in the hard drive cage for only one hard drive,  replacing the hard drive means nuking the system completely. Long story short, I had to use gparted to set the hard drive up, but I have my windows partition installed, and I now have space set aside for a future Linux installation.

And in doing so, I’ve hosed my ‘weekend’….

12 Days and Then Some….

When I last mentioned this, I said I was going to be working for 12 days straight. When I wrote that, the schedule for my main job (the one that I’m full time at) hadn’t been published yet. Well, I got a surprise when it was. My schedule was shifted, and I was working where I normally would have the day off. So the official record was 15 straight days at work.  It isn’t the worst though. There was a time when I was the Mrs. Fields up at the Westlake Center when I went 20 straight (it was over 10 years ago, and the franchise has long since folded, so I think it’s safe to mention here where I worked). At 10+ hours each day.

Today is my first day off in over two weeks. I intend to to absolutely nothing today. Though I’ve already failed at that….

I don’t know what to say….

Seriously. This post has been in my head for the past several days, and I know it wants out, but I can’t quite wrap the words around it. I’ll give it my best shot.

This started a couple of days ago when I was walking to work, and it occurred to me that there are some things that should address…

Billy Graham has always had this rule: that the only woman he would ever be alone with was his wife. Period. Which is a good standard to live by, especially considering all the other televangelists who were caught up in scandal (Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart come to mind). Part of it was being faithful to his wife, but the greater part of it was to never even show the appearance of wrongdoing. I don’t follow this rule as strictly as Billy Graham does, but there has been more than one occasion (usually involving me being offered a ride and I politely declined the offer), but in reality I was invoking the Billie Graham rule to preempt the scandal and avoid even the appearance of wrongdoing…

During my walk, I was pondering many things, and it occurred to me that there are others who follow a similar path. Modesty does not simply stop at the way someone dresses. And I should start respecting that position. Like I said previously sometimes you have to open your mouth, but discretion is the better part of valor. Wisdom is knowing the difference…

I hope I know what to say now…

A blast from the past….

My former employer (not really former, since I still work for him) is taking the week off to take his family to Disneyland. And so I’ve been asked to cover for him at the shop. Which meant taking a weeks’ vacation from my current employer (thank goodness that they offer paid vacation, and that I have enough vacation time to cover it being full-time). This morning was only the second time I opened in almost three years. I’m amazed that I still remember how to do things. And customers still remember me…

Lesson learned from this: never burn your bridges. Always make peace with your enemies. You may never know when you’ll need them….

As I was walking to work this morning….

Actually it was yesterday morning. And I was thinking. About a certain matter that I was writing about last year. And it occurred to me that writing about it here, even if I heavily sanitized it of all identifying information is just counter-productive. And I’ve decided to take down those posts. They were seen, and they’ve served their purpose. And I still wish the person I wrote them about well.

Sometimes, discretion is the better part of valor. Sometimes, you have to speak. Wisdom is knowing the difference.

To those of you who are fasting for the next month or so…

I’m not Muslim. Nor will I even to attempt to profess that I’m an expert on the Muslim faith. I was brought up to respect the practices of all faiths, and those who practice them. I don’t necessarily agree with some peoples’ practices or beliefs, but that doesn’t mean I oppose their practice either. I may not profess your faith, but I will defend your right to practice it.

Having said that, with Ramadan starting tomorrow:

Ramadan Kareem….

Another 12 straight…

Recently I did 12 straight days in a row at work. I get to do it again. I’m taking next week off from my main job (employer offers paid vacation, and I’m still full-time). And my second employer (a small business owner) is taking his family to Disneyland. And yours truly gets to cover the shop. I’m taking 7 days off, and he has me scheduled all 7 days.

Yes, I’m working another 12 days. But it’s still enough of a change of pace that it can pass for a vacation…

And to add to the indignity again...

The memory card in my tablet just kicked the bucket as well. Oh well. It was only a 32 gB one. And I have a 64 gB in my phone. I'll eventually replace it, but it's not a high priority matter.

But it does suck....

Edit: Went ahead and ordered another one from Spamazon. The price had gone down since I got my last one.

Well, Fudge It!!!

Tonight, I just realized, I lost about 2/3s of my installed games. I really never played them. They weren’t compatible with Windows 7. But I did have them installed in a Windows XP virtual machine (thanks to Vmware Player). And tonight, I just realized that it wouldn’t boot anymore. No problem, I thought. I’ll just restore it from back-up. Nope. Still wouldn’t boot. So, I now have to reinstall everything into a new VM.

On the bright side, I didn’t have to call Microsoft to activate it again….

So Lazy And Decadent Right Now….

I have a commute from Hell. There has been many a time when I had to get up at 1 in the morning, and be out of the door by two, only to walk 4.5-6 miles just to get to work. On more than one occasion, I’ve been the first one at the building in the morning.  Needless to say, I tolerate none of my co-workers’ complaints when the bellyache to me about how early they have to get up, or how hard they have it to get to work. My employer is aware of this, and they have offered to accommodate this by adjusting my availability. But the only accommodation I’ve asked for is to not open immediately after closing.

So, normally each week when I set my alarms (I have an alarm set for each day of the week to accommodate my variable schedule), at least 2-3 are set über-early in the morning. But not this week. As I reviewed my work schedule, and I realized that I’m not going to be that early this week. I can get to enjoy this mysterious substance called sleep…

Man, I feel so lazy and decadent this week….

Making Peace

I have come to the conclusion that The Voices In My Head on certain matters will never come to consensus. Sometimes this can be a good thing. I can use this interior dialogue to try and see all sides of the issue at hand.

I think that the best solution is one that I’ve used in my various and sundry (mis)adventures on the Internet. In many internet for for fora, not having the same opinion as everybody else can be shall we say an unpleasant experience. And in some places where everyone has a very different opinion, it can seem like everyone is against everyone. First, I realized that the best way to deal with this the Nomex Boxer Shorts state of mind. Just state your peace, and let the trolls and kooks rage against you. In the end, you just have to agree to disagree. To realize that not everybody shares your point of view. They’re usually not going to change your opinion, nor are you going to change theirs. You can disagree with someone. You can do it without arguing with them as well…

So, I’m going to take it one day at a time. If The Voices In My Head can’t come to an agreement, then I’ll let them agree to disagree. The insight and the clarity that I seek will come in time. I just have to be patient until then….

Crisis Averted…

I almost nuked my hard drive tonight. On my last day off, I went to fire up FS 2004. And it hung. I restored it from my back-up drive, and it still hung. I let it go at the time. Later that week, I installed a couple of updates. And tonight, I went to load up Flight Simulator X, and it hung up the system. Preparing for the worst, I fired up my back-up drive, and made sure my back-up was up-to-date. After that was all done, I thought I’d give it one last crack, and I did a system restore to last Thursday. And it fixed it. I don’t know what got restored and/or changed, but they’re working again. I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. If I can avoid it, I’m not going to nuke my hard drive. Once upon a time, I did it on a weekly basis. Not anymore. I actually like to use my computer….

On Virtual Reality

I mainly use Windows 7 on my tower. It’s my favorite daily driver. Yet there are legacy programs that I can’t get to work with it, That’s were VMware player comes in handy. It’s just like have another computer. And it’ll even let me use 3d graphics in Windows XP and Windows ME (actually most of my legacy software is installed in the WinXP virtual machine. The WinME machine is mainly just for screwing around). Long story short, VMware player is great for Windows Guests. But my concern with other OSes (think Linux) was that I could never get VMware tools to install in the guest. I’m going to give  Oracle VM Virtualbox a try right now. I’m currently installing OpenSUSE. If it works, I may try other Linux distros.

If it doesn’t work, at least I didn’t nuke my hard drive over it….

Edit: I was finally able to get Vmware Tools installed in my OpenSUSE guest that I installed in Vmware player. Another OS to pay a around with without having to nuke my drive. Though come to think of it, I may have to do it soon. I can't get FS 2004 to load anymore...

12 days straight...

If you didn't know this before, yes I'm full time at work. Which on occasion it means that the supervisors shall we say strongly 'encourage' to get out of there on time to keep the overtime to a minimum. I normally don't make any special requests for my schedule (with the exception of not opening after closing the night before). So, of late when I've been getting my two days off each back to back, I didn't look the gift horse in the mouth....

This all started a couple of weeks ago. Another coworker had left, and my supervisor had received authorization for overtime to cover the schedule. So I volunteered to come in on my day off to help. It would've been a 6 day week for me, but it was doable. My one day off last week there were enough callouts that they called me in on my one day off (since they know about my Commute From Hell, and yet they still called me, I could tell that they had serious issues). I agreed to come in since my day off errands were near to work. So no days off last week.

But I survived. And I got overtime (and with the Holiday pay) for Memorial Day as well means my next paycheck won't be skinny (I hope). And they are recognizing my efforts. But still it was 12 days in a row.

Don't try that at home. Or at work, for that matter....

OK, this is quite strange…

I can’t post to Blogger from Windows Live Writer in Windows 7. But if I fire up VMWare Player, load up my Windows XP Virtual Machine, I can use Windows Live Writer from within WinXP, and be able to publish to my blog.

Maybe there’s still more work for me to do…

Until then, hello world from my Windows XP Virtual Machine…

EDIT: Apparently this was an API change with Google (the people behind Blogger, which is what this blog is run on). And Google and The Anti-Christ are working together for a solution. I hope so. Windows Live Writer was/is the best blogging program Ive ever used. And with the recent API change, I can’t even use the Scribefire extension on firefox (or chrome for that matter), at least until it’s updated.

But it works for now. If not, then I can also use the Blogger Chrome App…

Edit, Part Deux: And now the Scribefire extension in Firefox is working again....