only backgroundI'm a wife, mother and grandmother. I'm opinionated. I contradict myself frequently. Most of all, I love my kids. I believe in them. I fight for them. They're weird and wonderful. If you want to know more, here's a bunch of other stuff from my old site.
Archive for the ‘tech’ Category
Notice anything different? Why, of course you do! My dark header and lone dandelion are gone, my sidebars are cleaned up and slimmed down and I’m sporting an entirely new look. So tell me, what do you think?
Christopher Schmitt was asked by the good folks at Izea to make over my blog for the Izeafest Conference last month. What you’re seeing now is the result – a slimmed down and much more appropriate look for My Dandelion Patch.
I must say, I panicked a little over the thought of losing one of my sidebars. I’d become attached to all my “stuff” that I stored there. How in the world would I pare it all down to fit in one narrow space? This was worse than the time I cleaned out my makeup and gave almost everything to my daughter.
The panic lasted about a minute before I realized that most of the stuff on my sidebars was outdated and useless. I could probably tidy it even more but for now, I’ll leave it as is. One little step at a time, as my friend Deb tells me.
So, what do you all think? You can see the original at Christopher’s flickr account, if you don’t remember how it used to look. Better yet, here’s a screenshot that I didn’t know I had.
Can’t wait to hear if you guys like it!
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A few years ago I bought the kids MP3 players and got one for myself at the same time. Boomer and Levi picked out Sansa while Maggie and I got iRivers. The iRiver is great but Jesse was home from Hawaii for Christmas and mentioned how nice it would be to have my iRiver at work. So being the loving mother that I am, I let him take it with him when he returned to Hawaii that year.
Fast forward a few years. Maggie has a cell phone with a built-in MP3 player and doesn’t use her iRiver at all. I have no idea where the one is that I gave Jesse. But that’s okay because it looks like I get Maggie’s by default. This time, though, I’m not filling it up with music. I’m downloading free audio books to put on it so I can learn while I drive or shop or whatever.
This works out much better for me. Honestly, I like my music blaring so the room vibrates. I really don’t want the music piped directly to my eardrums, I want it to surround me. Since reading and driving is not at all safe – and might even be illegal in some states – listening to books this way is a perfect solution.
My only dilemma is deciding which book I’ll download first.
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It won’t be long before HDTV is here in our little hole-in-the-wall town. I think the magic date is February 2009. That gives us less than half a year to replace our TVs with HDTVs.
I really want a TV to hang on my family room wall. The wall is long and would be perfect with a new modular couch surrounding it. The kitchen isn’t that big of a deal since it has it’s own TV ledge and we mostly watch the news in there.
The real challenge will be my bedroom. Right now, the TV is way up high on a chest of drawers. I hate it there. If we get a nice LCD for the bedroom, I’d really like to get a tv lift cabinet, too. If I move the furniture around a little, maybe get rid of one of the chairs, I think it would fit in nicely.
I have a few months to plan this, though. And to save up for the transition
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Two of my sons, my daughter and I all have phones that accommodate a micro sd card. I have a card; they don’t. I know they don’t have these cards. They know I know.
So who swiped my card and thought I wouldn’t notice? Of course, no one will admit to taking it. I’ve looked everywhere it could possibly be and it’s just gone.
I don’t want to buy another card right now and honestly, I don’t really need one. I guess I’m just upset that the one I had is now gone. How do these inanimate objects just walk away from my house?
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I’ve been relying on my laptop this week and I’m realizing it’s time for a new one. That is not what I want to even consider right now.
I really don’t travel all that much. My desktop computer is much faster so most days my laptop just sits there. Using it at my mom’s, right beside my daughter who is on her laptop, I’m seeing that this is just not goingt to work much longer.
Mostly, this old machine just doesn’t want to stay connected to the internet wirelessly. I suppose a new wireless card could fix that but what if it doesn’t? Do I really want o experiment with speeding this up when it’s just too old?
I’ve been pricing a few HP’s, the Lenovo Thinkpad and refurbbed Dells. I’m weighing them out and trying to see if I can afford a new laptop. If I can’t swing it right now, I might just ask for it as a gift for my birthday. This is a big one so maybe I’ll merit a special gift.
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I am absolutely loving my cable internet. The internet is faster on every single computer in the house. I am amazed.
The only problem I’ve had is trying to get my signal booster to work. I still can’t get my network to run properly with it. No matter how I tweak, I end up with an IP conflict. In fact, my laptop won’t connect wirelessly now. It’s fine with a CAT6 Ethernet connection so right now, my laptop isn’t really portable.
Still, my other computers are fine. Maggie is especially happy since she’s able to stay connected to all her friends without getting dropped constantly. Did I mention that I’m happy to be rid of Verizon? Yeah, I am.
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I don’t know why but I just can’t seem to get all my “tech chores” done. I’m feeling terribly overwhelmed right now.
First, I now have cable internet. It’s fast. So far, it’s reliable. This is good. I’ve been able to get the wireless network up and running with a new Linksys router. Problem is, I can’t get the signal booster to work. That’s odd since it worked fine with the old Westell DSL modem/router but won’t work with a Linksys router. Did I mention the signal booster is from Linksys, too? UGH!
So now my laptop doesn’t get a good signal if I’m in my bedroom. I was thinking of upgrading my laptop’s computer memory but now I’m thinking that I should just wait a while and save for a new laptop. Maggie’s laptop has no connection issues which makes me think it’s the wireless card in this one.
Until I decide, I’ll try the range booster one more time. If I break my network again, I give up.
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First, please don’t tell me that you’re still using Microsoft Internet Explorer. Maybe you like Flock or Safari, but please, not IE!
Most likely, you’re using Firefox, right? Yes, of course you are. And it’s version 2.something. But did you know that today is the day that everyone is supposed to be downloading the newest version 3? That’s right. The Firefox folks are trying to set a record with the most downloads in one day.
I’ve downloaded Firefox3 to all my computers and have installed it to one so far. I’m going to test it a little to make sure I like it before installing to the others. So far, everything is good. The site claims Firefox3 is 3x faster than the last version. We’ll see.
Whether you install or not, do download Firefox3 today. Let’s help to set a Guinness World Record!
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I had to take a break cleaning my office. I have no idea how I ever packed so much stuff into a 10′x10′ room. Not only do I have three (four with the laptop) computers running in there, each with its own monitor, but I have three computers in various stages of disrepair and enough spare parts to build a couple more.
Oh, and I just found a brand new (as in never used) video card that I don’t even remember buying! I have no idea which computer it was purchased for but I’m pretty sure it was top of the line at the time, although it isn’t now. Still, I think I’ll put it in my old AthlonXP machine and see what happens. I wouldn’t actually spend money to upgrade that machine but since the card is already there,why not?
I wonder what else I’m going to find in that office. Should be fun!
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When I got home yesterday the FedEx driver was delivering a package to my neighbor Tammie. I was so excited! I knew it had to be the laptop memory stick she ordered. That meant that I’d get to play with some computer innards.
Before leaving for work today, Tammie stopped by with her laptop and the FedEx package so I could get to work on the upgrade. Tammie had been running on 256MB RAM, if you can believe it. Yes, it was slow.
I had a lot of running around to do today but as soon as I came home and settled in, I got to work on Tammie’s laptop. It took about 5 minutes, mostly because I couldn’t find the right screwdriver. The computer booted and recognized the new memory. I can’t wait for Tammie to try it out!
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