As the death count rises, I just want to express my
sorrow and sympathy to the families of the innocent
victims. I would like to think that our world is a
civilized place, but then this happens to remind us that
it isn't. Why can't everybody learn to get along?
Leo
Laporte said he uses Second Copy
to backup his documents from one drive to another. I
decided to try it. They offer a 30-day complete version
free trial. So far I like it. I'll probably buy it.
Since hard
drives fail eventually, having a regular backup is
comforting.
Speaking of which, I bought
a massive photo album and am printing out more of my
photos (or sending them off to Wal-Mart). The
genealogist in me says I can't just keep them in digital
format. Maybe I'll even get into some kind of
scrapbooking. Those infomercials for scrapbooking are
getting to me.
I have kept some 5 & 1/4
inch disks from my Commodore 128 & GEOS days. I regret
never printing out copies of the letters I wrote. I
think they are lost forever since nothing reads those
old Commodore disks except a Commodore. Commodore drives
were nothing like the old IBM drives. I could never
read those disks after leaving Commodore anyway.
On a brighter note, I am going to see Fantastic Four
this weekend. I read those comics as a kid -- oh, if
only I had kept them.
Many thanks to J.C. for
this link to a personality test. Unlike some of the more
popular personality quizzes such as "What Superhero are
You?", this has a scientific basis. It is only a short
version and so can't be considered conclusive. Still, it
does offer some insights. Check it out -->
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp.
I was an ENTJ.
Some of the questions I could have easily answered a
different way so I took the test a second and a third time and came
out as an INTJ
both times.
My sister, D, took it
and her results showed ESFJ.
I
got a new DV camera. I loved shooting little videos with
my digital camera, but in order to get a good edited
movie, it takes a LOT of film, great will power to edit
out most of the scenes, many hours in a day and plenty
of hard drive space. Whew! This is not for anyone with
old computers and little power or space. It is much more
work than photoshopping still images, but it is
interesting. I am gaining experience with it and hope to
produce better movies, eventually.
I have only one complaint.
The DV movies look perfect played in the camera, but
when I transfer the movie to the computer, it is much
darker. I know I can edit it by running a lightening
program over it, but that takes away some of the detail
and contrast.
I am transferring with
firewire and I have lots of power, memory, etc. I don't
think it is the software, either. Has anyone done the
same? Are your movies darker, too? Is this normal?
Here's a link to one of my movies --> Schmidt the Cat.
I hope all of you have a
great holiday. Right now, Mother Nature is putting on a
lightning and thunder show with a little hail, even, but this is summer which
means sudden, unpredictable 30-minute storms, a good
thing. We can use the rain. I took a movie of
the thunder and lightning with my new
Canon Optura 500. Alas, the rain doesn't cool things
down for long. It makes the air even muggier and
encourages mosquitos. Still, the plants need it and there'll be
less grass fires from the fireworks tonight.
My
husband has been on a quest (and I am helping him) to
find the best chocolate mint ice cream. So far, the
clear winner is Baskin-Robbins. Now, we want to find a
grocery store variety so we can take home a
half-gallon at a reasonable cost.
We've tried many brands.
They almost all have one problem -- the chunks are too
big. We hate chewing our way through the ice
cream. Sometimes I am in a mood for chunky ice cream, but
both my husband and I like chocolate mint to be lightly
flaked, instead.
Years ago, we had
discovered a Kroger's store brand with great mint flavor
and fine chocolate flakes. When we went back yesterday,
the exact one we used to buy was no longer there. Alas, times have
changed. We brought home their latest premium no-name
type chocolate mint. It will have to do for now. So far,
Publix's own brand is acceptable, too, but not perfect.
(Still, Publix premium ice cream flavors are fantastic.)
We'll just have to go to
more stores. It's a job (ha!).
My
daughter and I decided to eat lunch at the newest
Italian restaurant in town, Carrabbas Italian
Grill. In this city, new restaurants are
usually filled to capacity so we decided to leave early
to get a seating.
This restaurant is located
at the mall - there's plenty of parking. I was glad to
find a good close spot right in front of the place.
People were walking around and it looked busy. I walked
up to the door and pulled on the handle (the handle was
shaped like a bottle -- very interesting).
The door did not budge. We
finally looked closely and saw the hours posted. This is
a dinner-only place and does not do lunch. Argh! I was
embarrassed to have been seen pulling on a locked door.
I wish they did lunch. They could make so much more
money if they were opened during the day, too. Oh well.
We drove over to Olive Garden. And we kept on driving --
around and around. Olive Garden was completely full!
Being determined to find
Italian food, we took off for Macaroni Grill. It was
busy, but we lucked out. They had two tables left. We
enjoyed a great meal. I even made a little movie of a
waiter singing Happy Birthday in Italian
to someone at the table next to us. (Fortunately, people
don't notice a little digital camera being waved
around.)
I
like H.G. Wells - at least, I liked The Time Machine. My
husband did, too, but in watching the previews for War of the Worlds,
he thought this looked like just another horror/disaster
movie that he had no interest in attending, so I went
without him today.
Tom Cruise is good-looking,
even if he is getting a bit irritating. There's a good
way and a bad way to be fanatical about what you believe
in and I wonder if Tom is doing it all wrong. On the
other hand, maybe his way of belief is getting a lot of
new followers as a result. Maybe there's no such thing
as bad publicity. (Heck, maybe we should all be watching
a re-release of DUNE instead of War of the Worlds.)
My husband was right - the movie was more of a horror
movie (shot mostly in the dark) than anything else with
a kazillion scenes of crowds running in horror, psychos,
people in shock, everything falling apart, death and
destruction all over the place. Whew! It was obviously
well-made, well-acted and well-scripted, though I don't
think I want to go to sleep for a week.
It got high reviews at
RottenTomatoes.com and I have to agree. I was never
bored even though I went to the theater more in the mood
for a nap than a movie and came out very grateful for
lazy summer days and sunlight.
Leo
Laporte said he uses
I
got a new DV camera. I loved shooting little videos with
my digital camera, but in order to get a good edited
movie, it takes a LOT of film, great will power to edit
out most of the scenes, many hours in a day and plenty
of hard drive space. Whew! This is not for anyone with
old computers and little power or space. It is much more
work than photoshopping still images, but it is
interesting. I am gaining experience with it and hope to
produce better movies, eventually.
My
husband has been on a quest (and I am helping him) to
find the best chocolate mint ice cream. So far, the
clear winner is Baskin-Robbins. Now, we want to find a
grocery store variety so we can take home a
half-gallon at a reasonable cost.
