Sunday, October 04, 2009

WHAT'S MORE CONFUSING THAN A COMPUTER?? TWO COMPUTERS!!!!

DSC_0008 TOOK THE RAINBOW PHOTOS TO-NIGHT AFTER A SHORT HEAVY RAINSTORM  (Click any photo to enlarge it)

We travel with one computer & that is our Toshiba laptop. That means for nearly half a year most of our correspondence is stored on the laptop's hard drive.  Same thing for files, websites, photos, etc.  Problem with that is the other half of the year we use our desktop so now that means we have 2 separate hard drives & locations for summer time & winter time.  I try to create files & keep things in order to transfer back & forth but it generally doesn't take long for my own internal brain hard drive to mess up.  The computer has the ability to precisely remember things forever & I do not & this is where I sometimes lose track of fellow bloggers & RV'ers.  The past week I have been transferring new summertime desk top people to our laptops wintertime people.....or something like that.  I came across folks in the last few days who I had intended to respond to in the laptop but had totally forgotten about.  When folks are interested enough in the Bayfield Bunch to email us I always try to send them a reply but I know I have missed some folks:((

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I sometimes receive credit for computer smarts via emails or comments where credit isn't always quite due so I had better fess up to that here.  No, my name's not David Letterman.  We have two people here in our computing world.  Yes, I do the blog & photo things plus the creative stuff but it's Kelly who is truly the smart little person with the computer especially if & when we have problems.  She has the patience & smarts to track problems down & solve them. And she has a good memory of how they were solved so is quick to resolve it if it is something solvable.  I'm the one who likes to try out new programs & things but she is the one who bails us out if we run into any serious stuff.  She is very good at figuring out connection problems & doesn't hesitate to get on the phone to Verizon or whatever system we're dealing with at the time.  We kind of work back & forth & sometimes I have the answers to her computing problems & sometimes she has the answers to mine.  To-gether we seem to get through things OK & make a good computer team.  Much easier having two heads working on this stuff that's for sure.   GYPSY is having some computer challenges at the moment & I know  it's so much harder for a single person to figure things out.

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It's that time of year so I began gathering up the outside summer garden ornaments to-day.  Harsh winter temperatures along with snow & ice are not kind to clay flowerpots & ceramics.  Liquids like paint, fertilizers, & car cleaners, have to come in the house as does the power washer, hose nozzles, water pumps, etc.  Forgot to bring in a lava lamp last year & the cruel winter temperatures shattered it!!  We are leaning to-wards leaving some heat on again this year as opposed to totally shutting the whole place down & letting it freeze like an Arctic tomb.  I know lots of people do shut the water & everything off but that just doesn't seem right to me somehow.  We do have a fellow who comes in a couple times a week & checks things anyway.

GATHERING UP THE GARDEN ORNAMENTS I've heard it said the best time to weigh yourself is after you have a shower. I agree with that because I am generally a pound or two lighter afterwards & that is always a feeling good thing.  What's a little disturbing about that is.....where in the heck do I pick up that extra pound or two of dirt everyday!!

LIKE FATHER - LIKE SONHad a comment yesterday about advertising on the site & co-incidentally I had just been mulling that over the past few days.  We've had 3 emails lately from ad agencies wanting to place advertising on our site.  One of the ads alluded to something about a Casino so I hit the delete button on that one.  I do not want to junk our site up with glitzy dumb pop-up ads & all that stuff & I certainly would not put anything on our site that we didn't personally believe in.   We did have a small Google Ad-sense ad on for awhile about a year ago but it seemed to disappear one day.  Like anyone else we could sure use a few extra dollars coming in but at what price!!  I certainly do not want to sign up for something & then lose control of the site by having some company dump in a whole pile of cheap-o crappy ads all over the place.  Anyway, just something that's been rolling around in this sometimes big empty head of mine lately:))

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GROANER'S CORNER:((  And how come it takes so little time for a child who is afraid of the dark to become a teenager who wants to stay out all night?

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS  http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

6 comments:

  1. Hey Al, one of the bloggers suggested and you then figured out how to center your header picture. Can you leave me a comment on my blog as to how to do that? Please!

    Rod

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  2. You've covered a fair amount of ground in this post, Al - I enjoyed reading every bit of it. Your computer skills and knowledge seem pretty good to me and I really admire your willingness to experiment and try new things - that's a great way to keep improving.

    When we head south, we don't 'shutdown' everything either. If the kids aren't staying here, a neighbour checks in a few times a week, but we leave our furnace set at 50F and have lights on timers in a few rooms as well. We turn the hot water tank off, but leave the water on.

    As for advertising, I don't mind Google ads as long as they aren't billboard types, and I don't see anything wrong with other ads either especially with the conditions you stated. No one's going to get rich at this, but anything that helps the 'toys' budget is more than welcome as far as I'm concerned!

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  3. I have two computers and have twice the problems, plus about half the connection! I'm tempted to buy a copy of Windows XP, but since I haven't installed an operating system since Windows 95, I'm afraid I'll end up with nothing.

    I have mixed feelings about the ads - on one hand it doesn't matter to me what someone else does, and on the other hand I find them annoying. With more folks being on the internet rather than reading magazines, it won't be long before Google will be placing ads for the pharmaceuticals - the "Ask your doctor if *** is right for you" kind.

    Can't help you with the "To leave the water on or not to leave" question as I no longer have a house, although I'm beginning to wish I had!

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  4. Al, I'm OK for Google ads gently inserted, like the one at the bottom of your blog today, but I certainly don't like the blogs that are full of ads --- or a lot of cutesy, glitzy stuff, even the stuff that is not advertising, just somebody's idea of cute.

    We were approached recently to allow a few ads, assured they'd be very reasonable and related to RVing, but we turned it down - even giving up $150 per year. I don't want to inflict that on our dear readers.

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  5. I agree with Rick. I don't mind ads either. If you check the expense Blog of Tioga George http://blog.vagabonders-supreme.net/ you'll see that his income from advertisements is over $1000.00. That is a pretty penny. It buys quite a few "toys" I wonder how it would be taxed for you though. I hate complications at tax time.

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  6. Good Afternoon Al, You're post today was so full of many things... We too are equally balanced in computer skills and can usually figure things out... I have the program skills and my husband has the technical skills...

    As far as advertising it doesn't bother me at all on other blogs but I choose not to do it... Some of the ads on some sites are helpful...

    Last but not least we have no home to close down... So I am of no help to you at all on this one.

    Have Fun & Travel Safe
    Donna

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