Questionable

To blog or not to blog

I have to admit that I'm diggin' Facebook. It is an easy way to reach lots of people quickly. And, I really like using Twitter to update my FB status. These two marvelous inventions have contributed to my lack of blogging. It is really easy to dash off a tweet rather than compose an entire post. So, if you like my stuff here, I encourage you to also follow my Twitter feed (or join FB - I'm looking at you, Shan).

Lots of stuff has been happening around here, mostly to do with the move that deserve mention, but are going to get short shrift. But here's a few:

I sold my curio cabinet to a woman who sells antiques and home goods. She showed up to get it by herself, wearing a foot boot/cast. I don't trust myself enough to carry a heavy, glass-sided piece of furniture down my front steps. So, J helped her move with the assistance of my neighbor, who we had to call for help at the last minute. I was happy to get rid of it, but surprised at the woman. She told us she was planning on moving it herself.

As if you didn't know, Craig's List is full of scammers. $300 seems to be a sweet-spot for them. List something for that price or more and you are bound to get an email saying something about a cashier's check. I'm not so stupid, but I wonder how many people are taken by these scams.

Speaking of furniture, are you sure you don't need a big closet/cabinet or a bedroom set?

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We move J into his little studio this weekend. His new position starts next week. I'm hoping this house will sell. We are putting about $4000 into the house just to put it on the market for the same price we bought it for seven years ago. One bright spot is that sales seem to be up and my price range seems to be a sweet spot for St. Paul, but I'm worried. We had the electrician here last week and the plumber here this morning. Next week the handyman arrives followed by the painters the next week. The house is a disaster and I'm tired of living in the mess, but I guess this is how it has to be.

We moved our king bed into the garage this past weekend when I had a bunch of guys over to move things around. So, I'm sleeping on the futon in the guest room and J is in the basement on the bed that will move into our bedroom once it is painted. I can't sleep in the basement because of my allergies. I feel like a college student in my futon.

We've spent the last few weeks really cleaning out the crap and donating lots of nice things to Goodwill. We've also given a number of things away (more to come). And, are trying to sell the rest. It isn't a great time to be selling furniture because everyone seems to be doing it. Bad economy = selling things to make food money. My electrician, one of the highest rated ones in the city, was telling me just two years ago he had a crew of five. Now it is just him. His wife was laid off and they are selling everything in their house to afford college tuition for the kid. He just has no business.

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Finding J's studio in Chicago was interesting. We ended up with a tiny, but very sunny unit right in the Loop a few blocks from his job. One problem was trying to find a place that permitted a six-month lease. That limited our options. We ended up looking at three places in one building and one in another. The building he selected has few amenities, but is cheap, while the other building had everything under one roof, but was expensive. I rooted for the one he ended up picking because it is on a corner and gets cross-ventilation.

He'll be home every weekend for a while because he is teaching a class at the U, which has been move to Sunday nights. It was that or do it via video conference, which the students don't like.

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I am really beginning to feel normal. The more activity the better, but my stamina is still really not there. Moving, cleaning, and packing isn't the best way to get back in shape, so I'm looking forward to walking as soon as it is slightly warmer. I might even get in a short walk later today. One of the biggest problems I'm having (along with just being generally weak and inflexible) is with my feet. The one that I broke a few years ago is back to acting up and the other one has terrible plantar fasciitis. I'm thinking both of these things will go away (again) when I am walking more. I am doing my stretches, which is helping, but I need working feet. After trotting around all day in Chicago, I didn't go out at night because I couldn't imagine any further walking.

Earlier this month I went and visited the kids via the train. It was the first time I traveled by myself or on public transportation since I caught cancer. It was wonderful to see the kids in their own element again. I'll get the pictures posted to Flickr one of these days, but I have uploaded the videos to YouTube. There are a bunch under the username questioningyou. Here is a super cute one to get you started. Note that she has a cold so her upper lip is full of snot.




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Guess what? My entire family, sans J, is going to Disneyworld in October. My brother, the dad, really wants to do this trip so his tax return is going toward paying for their family. He is looking at it as a celebration of health and life. The kids will be 5, 5, and 3. Oatmeal is already suspicious of our plans. We speak in code, but she still figures out we're talking about Disney. She knows more about the place than I do.

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I liked the changes at the Oscars, particularly when the old winners came out and said nice things about the nominee. I also liked the first and later musical numbers. They were fun. And, I loved Kate Winslett's dress.

When we were in Chicago we watched Milk via on demand. I liked this movie far more than I thought I would. Two thumbs up for this one.

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J needs a new computer (he is using a laptop that I got almost seven years ago). So, I got a new MacBook Pro (bought with his student/teacher discount) and he is getting my old one. The coolest thing ever is how you can connect the two laptops and just move everything from one to the other.

Stupid T-Mobile, Stupid G1

I've been buzzing along having an okay time with my G1 up until the last two weeks. Or, should I say, up until I actually felt good enough to really do some things with it.

Problem #1
I can't blog from the fucking thing via MMS/SMS. Anytime I text from the phone to the blog, instead of words, I get two squares. One square is a darker color than the other. Each square links to a separate page. One page displays a T-Mobile logo, while the other one routes to a blank page. If I happen to include a picture with my text message, I still get the two squares in addition to a very small version of my picture, but still no words. What is the point of a smart phone with a keyboard if I can't blog from it?

Problem #2
All of a sudden, when I send a picture message to J, my brother, or to my email addy (that's all I've tested so far), the message appears to the receiver as if it is coming from another phone number. This is an ongoing problem that is being talked about on the T-Mobile forums, but there is no fix yet. Do you know what this means? People receive these messages and think they are from a stranger. When they reply to the text, it goes back to the stranger and then there's lots of confusion. Some G1 users are complaining of lots of random messages from all kinds of different people. What a disaster!

I know that I'm supposed to call TMobile to discuss, but I don't have the energy. I'd have to talk to first line support before my problems got moved up the food chain and I don't want to hear about removing and replacing my battery. I just want my phone to work. As soon as I have a better option, I'm done. Damn AT&T. I live next to the U. Why can't your service work here?

So annoying - this is what you get when you text from my phone to this blog

Nine down, three to go

Gahhh, this is starting to suck. I want to be done with chemo. Knowing I'm in remission is a double-edge sword. I wish I could sleep for the next eight weeks and wake up and have it all be over. And, my body is really not liking the chemo now. Up until now, my blood counts have stayed within the normal range on the day of my infusions. Yesterday, they were not as happy. My total white blood count was very slightly under normal and one other count (the most important one) was just over normal. If this trend continues, I may have to put more than two weeks between treatments or I may have to go on a bone marrow building medicine. Fortunately, I really don't have anything planned for the month of December, so I'll just roll with the punches. Why does this happen? Who knows? Each chemo drug hits its nadir seven to 14 days after receiving it. Last Wednesday when I had my CT, my blood counts were very, very good, so I guess one of my drugs swung low this past weekend. If it hasn't happened before, why now? Hard to say. It could be that just like the rest of my body is having a hard time popping back up after chemo, so are my white blood cells. Or, maybe, it is the after effects of my cold and UTI. I guess we'll just see what happens.

After having such good news last week, J and I decided to go away Saturday night for our annual trip to see the tundra swans. This maybe wasn't the best decision we've made. I was tired and really achy (which probably points to my low blood counts) and having a hard time walking any distance (I mean like 6 blocks) and we had a car accident. But, we've always been able to do something a little more strenuous on my second weekend in the past. This is when we've had people over or gone socializing to other people's houses. I'm not sure we'll be doing this in December. Anyway, the sights and food were great and we stopped at all our usual haunts. Unfortunately, our three month old car suffered over $8,000 in damages after a distracted Winona student ran into us for no apparent reason. We were just driving down the city street when she swerved into our lane and hit us. I saw her coming about two seconds before John did. It seemed to me that she was weaving back and forth like she wasn't paying attention and then couldn't get her car back onto her side of the road. Was she texting/playing with her ipod/retrieving something off the floor? Who knows? She immediately apologized and later, when talking to the cop, blamed the accident on the sun. Did you go outside on Saturday? We had about 5 minutes of sun. I'm not sure how the sun could be the cause of just randomly driving across the line of traffic into another car. And, J did what he could to avoid the accident. He swerved as far to the right as he could and turned the car somewhat so the driver's side wheel corner took most of the hit. This accident was not at all our fault but with Minnesota's weird car accident laws, we'll probably get some of our deductible back, but not all of it. Fortunately, we're both okay and other than wasting two hours waiting for a cop and arranging a rental car, everything worked out fine.

Oh, and I haven't asked a question lately, which is something I wanted to do at least three days a week when I started this blog. But, I did today, so be sure to answer it. Maybe when chemo is over, I'll start cross posting my questions to Twitter. Speaking of Twitter, can someone go over the word forms for me. I know the verb is to tweet, but what about when I say, "I will direct tweet her." Or, "I will tweet him." Is that correct? Or, should I say, "I will twitter her."

Comments about the G1

So, I've had my G1 (T-Mobile Google phone) for almost two weeks and overall I'm quite pleased. I haven't used it as heavily as I will once I actually leave my house more than a few times a week, but I loved having it at chemo this morning. I could text, IM, check email, and browse. I've found the 3G service to be blazing fast. I know it is rolled out in only limited locations, but I've had great luck with it. I expect this will get better as T-Mobile continues to install this faster network around the U.S.

I read about 10 different reviews of the phone as it was released. I'm also subscribed to the developer's forum and follow the T-Mobile "Help" online forum. So, I feel like I'm a pretty educated consumer about this phone. A few observations:

Every single review compared it to the iPhone. You know what? I would have preferred an iPhone, but even last week two different friends could not get a consistent AT&T signal in my house. I live next door to a fraternity. You would think AT&T would rectify this. Since I knew an iPhone wouldn't work here, I've not played with one much. This means the reviews were partially meaningless to me. I don't care what the phone does and doesn't do compared to the iPhone. I only care what it does or doesn't do, period.

The Android Marketplace is really becoming interesting with good new apps being added daily. Unfortunately, I've only downloaded one app because the phone comes with a 1G memory card by default. If I want to go higher, I have to buy a different card. This is how T-Mobile keeps the price $20 under the iPhone (with a two-year contract). I don't want to download a bunch of stuff and then change cards. I'll get around to ordering a higher capacity card this week.

The most contentious thing about the phone is the battery life. I've had great luck because I keep some of the services turned off during the day. Why run WiFi when I'm home on my laptop and not using the phone for Internet access? I also keep the GPS turned off in the house. What's the point? You can't see the satellites from the inside anyway. But, I've also read about people having really, really terrible battery life and T-Mobile not releasing spare batteries yet. From reading the forums, it almost seems like there was a batch of bad batteries, because some people are doing what I do and getting only four or five hours battery life. I've had over two days (when I browse minimally) or an entire day when I'm on it all the time.

I love typing on the little keyboard and have become quite good at it. Opening and closing it all the time makes for a weird user experience, but I've gotten used to it.

There are also some other glitches on the phone where things don't behave consistently in every situation. However, marketplace apps have mostly made up for these shortcomings.

The camera, while 3.2 MP, is the slowest thing I've ever tried and terrible in low light. I'm not sure how much use it is going to get.

All and all, I'm really pleased. And getting happier as I continue to use it.

Television equiment information and survey

I read a very interesting article about what's going to happen in February after the switchover to DTV. Apparently, with the exception of local channels, analog cable is going away. Comcast, in particular, is going to start removing channels from the analog packages to force people into the digital packages. This doesn't matter to me because right now all I have are the local channels on my cable. It costs $8 a month. But, people who enjoy some of the basic cable channels like ESPN will have to switch. Also in this article is the news that the government is only forcing cable companies to keep around an analog signal for the local channels for three years.

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I'm taking a survey among readers of this blog to find out what you do to receive television into your homes and what other television technology you use.

Cable v satellite?
Internet?
Recording device? (TIVO/Comcast/Purchased)
DVD Player or recorder? Standard or HD?

I bought a new TV for our living room about a month ago. Right now it is connected to old rabbit ears J found in the basement. We can get all the local channels, but we have to move the antenna around to make that happen. I'm trying to figure out what to do next. Should I sign up for a digital cable package? Or, should I just get a better antenna so we don't have to move the antenna? I'd like to be able to record from this TV. If we get cable, I would probably just rent one of the Comcast boxes. However, if we stick with the antenna, I'll need to do something else. Any suggestions? I'd also like to watch DVDs on this TV. Should I buy a DVD player that includes BlueRay? What do you all think?

Are you thinking about those new televisions?

If you're anything like me, you still own your really old, junky television you bought over 10 years ago. And you might be thinking that you'll have to buy a new one, or get some sort of antenna and tuner dealy to comply with the television changes happening in 2009. One part of me is just hoping that my tv dies so I am forced to buy a new, shiny, thin, pretty one. But the frugal part of me realizes I don't want this to happen.

This weekend, as we started talking about moving a bunch of furniture around and considered moving our television, I got to thinking about what it would take to buy a new TV. I realized I know basically nothing about them.

Plasma vs. LCD?
720 vs. 1080?
I vs. P?
If I don't move to digital cable, then what?
If I chose to just use an antenna for HD, how do I record the shows?
Are all channels going HD or just over the air channels?
What brand is best?
Are cheap brands really that much crappier than expensive ones?
Will I still be able to use my current DVD player or VCR (yes, I still use a VCR to record. I reluctantly bought a DVD player last year when I could no longer rent movies on tape)?

How about you? Are you asking yourselves these questions?

On the plus side, my parents can talk to my brothers about tech support for their televisions/recorders. I'm off the hook.

A few more random thoughts and a question

When I got my new laptop, I also bought an Apple Bluetooth mouse. It is set so that if I click on the right side of the mouse, it is supposed to act like a right-click on a two button mouse. There is something magical inside that can detect which side of the mouse I am clicking to determine if I want to left-click or right-click. It doesn't work about 10% of the time. That's too high a failure rate for me. But, what am I gonna do? I use it. It is a mouse. I love that it is Bluetooth (don't have to use a USB port).

Yesterday, the Strib wrote about a number of "unwords" (neologisms) submitted by readers. I have a few favorites from their list:
Snowman's Land - A small stretch of sidewalk between two businesses that neither is responsible for shoveling.
Prepologize - Used when you're self-aware enough to know that you will err before you act.
My mom is famous for her fake words. Some of my favorites:
grafruggle -  When something is twisted up. Ex. This yarn is all grafruggled.
schluck - to sip/drink/swallow. Ex. Can I have a schluck of that?
schnutter - to talk a lot (usually a kid). Ex. Quit schnuttering. Dad and I are talking.
To be fair, my mom's words come straight from German. She was surrounded by GerEnglish as a kid and those words have infected her speech (there are far more examples than just these). Of the above, verschlucken is German for something similar to to swallow so schluck is really close to its original meaning.
What is your favorite "unword"?

Yesterday's Strib also had a feature on videos from MN that have gone viral. I don't get the Chocolate Rain fixation and had I seen it pre-craziness, wouldn't have passed it on. (And I also really don't find the drunk squirrel that compelling, even though I am predisposed to like silly animal videos).

Some comments on yesterday's post. Read Christopher's comments first.
I completely agree with him about an electronic device that does a little of everything - phone, camera, email, web browsing, book reader, etc. When something like this exists, I'll get it. The iPhone gets close, but even if I wanted to spend the money, I can't get an AT&T signal in my house. Preferably this magic device would be open to any phone SIM card.

More on time with the twins - a while ago my brother started counting naps (both afternoon and nighttime) as a way of expressing time. So now Oatmeal will ask, "when do we go to Aunt LaLa's?" And she will start to figure out by counting naps. If it is Monday morning and they are coming on Wednesday, she will (sometimes with help) get that she has three more "sleeps" before they visit.

Speaking of Oatmeal, she is having a tough time right now. SIL has started a new job (no more working nights and weekends which is good for the family), but means she is out of the house one day a week. They found an excellent day care but Oatmeal struggles with it. Reportedly she does okay when she is there - plays with the other kids, naps when she is supposed to, etc. But, she talks about not wanting to go. She generally is a nervous and worried kid anyway and change is harder for her, so this has been an adjustment for her. The heart breaker - this past weekend she told my mom (her Grandma B) that she didn't want to go to Sarah's. When my Mom asked why, she replied that, "I want to be home with my mama." Awwwww.

Random thoughts

I haven't been able to put together a coherent blog post for a while, but I have a lot on my mind like:

Amazon announced a new book reader thingy in the last week. It is going to compete with Sony's. I've always liked the idea of an e-reader, particularly for crappy fiction, but I can't find a reason to buy one. First, I am not going to purchase $25 books that I can't resell or give away. I want to be able to "check out" a book for a month or so and then delete it. Couldn't there be a library service or maybe a subscription fee? I also want to be able to move web pages or other similar documents to it while I'm sitting at my computer. I often come across blog posts or PDFs I want to read later. It would be great if I could just drag them to my e-reader and then read them from my lawn chair. (Yes, I know an iPhone or something similar could work for web sites and blogs, but then I need a reliable wireless internet connection. What about on airplanes or places without free internet? Or, better yet, make the iPhone or something similar compatible with different ebook platforms.)

You know what I've found interesting lately with the twins' development? I like how they've started to name things without prompting or assistance. And the names generally have nothing to do with books or tv shows they've seen. I also have been curious about their increasing understanding of the passage of time, days of the week, time on the clock, yesterday, today, tomorrow.

J's great uncle had some major thing to do with Somalia (then called Somaliland) after WW2. He is in his 80s and has lots to say on the subject so J is making a quick trip to England later this fall to interview him and put together a Wikipedia entry. In the late fall there are reasonable tickets to England except for the fees which are $200 on that flight.

Are you trying to tell me that the mom in England killed her child, hid her (presumably in a big freezer), waited three weeks, put her in the trunk of a rental car, and then hid her again? Whatever.

Kottke posted a link today to a list of good documentaries found here. Given my love for many of these films, I have new items for the netflix list.

And finally, I found a stick in my morning granola sludge. A STICK! An email to the company is coming.

Mac like

I don't know if it is Mac love yet. I haven't spent enough time on it to really feel amorous. I also have lots to install and things to do to organize myself. But, so far, I am a huge fan. As soon as I can reliably email all my contacts, convert my iPod to Mac, use Word with EndNote, and do significant photo editing, I will be set. So far, I love all the tools and gadgets the OS comes with by default. It really makes me long for the new OS, due out this fall. I did buy an Apple blue tooth mouse this weekend (at Best Buy. The Roseville Apple store was out of stock. Who knew that Best Buy had an entire Apple section?). I longed for right click. This mouse has made things much more familiar to me. I am surprised, however, how much mousing is necessary to maneuver. Having all the commands in the top bar means moving the mouse further than I had to in the past. I supposed I will eventually get used to the keyboard short cuts, but for now, it is mouse, mouse, mouse.

I had trouble transferring data from my old laptop to this one. I copied my data files to an external FAT32 hard drive. I knew enough to use FAT32, but I still couldn't copy from the hard drive to the laptop. I could write to the hard drive. I could open files and save them to the laptop, but I couldn't copy. I put the hard drive back on the PC and used a share to alleviate the problem, but I am kinda disappointed in not being able to copy from the drive. I had planned on using the drive as one form of backup (in addition to Mozy, which I haven't purchased yet). I guess, since I can write to the drive, I could still use it as backup, but not being able to copy from it would be a problem. I am thinking the problem lies in the age in the drive. But, I haven't done enough checking to be sure.

I am also unclear as to the purpose of iPhoto. If I import my pictures into iPhoto, what happens? Does it make a copy of them so then I have two versions on my hard drive? What do I use iPhoto for?

I am just getting used to using the Finder. It is not that it is difficult. It is just too easy. In fact, I think that has been the hardest part of getting used to working on the Mac. Things are just too simple. What I expect will take multiple steps, actually takes only a few. It is in my nature to know how everything works, so I've been spending some time really trying to understand the OS, and again, the simplicity of everything is astonishing. Setting up the bluetooth mouse and my wireless connection were so simple that I couldn't believe they actually worked.

And the silence. I love the silence. This is the quietest computer I've ever used. Doesn't it need a fan? Or is it just a silent case?

Questions for Mac users out there. What do you do about
Virus protection?
Spy/Ad protection?

Oh, and the little built in camera is super fun.