I have been taken from my mother by strange men to kiss me.
I have been called names.
I have been frowned upon.
I have been disbelieved.
I have been disenfranchised.
I have been laid low.
I have been made fun of.
I have been disrespected.
I have been hated because of my religion.
I have been ignored because of my gender.
I have been slapped on the butt by my boss.
I have been underpaid.
I have been without scholarship.
I have been without health insurance.
I have been convinced I was dying.
I have been undiagnosed (sic).
I have people tell me I am going to hell for my beliefs.
I have been given bad grades for saying what I truly think.
I have had people take my hand away from the phone while talking to my boss.
I have had people call me fat.
I have had friends who lied to me.
I have had husbands who cheated on me.
I have had dear ones who died.
I have seen my political leaders shot in the head.
I have been poor.
I have been in the minority.
I have been living in the United States of America all my life.
I have been residing in Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico.
I have been afraid of living in a ‘third’ world country.
I have been afraid that Republicans would deny me my rights.
I have been sixty-two years old.
I have been retired.
Who am I?
Author: altWducI
2015-06-06 Time to review the condition I am in
Every once in a while I have to do a condition statement. Yes, it’s a programmer’s joke. If I could ever finish all these household projects, could I spent at least half a day writing? Would I want to or would I just get lazy (and fatter) instead of just older? I have looked at lots of ways to make things simpler, but in the end, after all the tools, it just take time. I have to go back through and read to catch up with myself every time I leave off for a while. Still, the output improves is better, because I took the time to think about it and I enjoyed it more. Ah, maybe I will get it done someday. In the meantime, I have household stuff to take care of. Lucky me. Seriously.
2016-06-06 Win 10 Refresh USB ISO
Yesterday, we downloaded an ISO file for a “bootable” USB of Win 10 (for recovery) of the HP Pavillion that doesn’t want to boot anymore. We managed to get it up and running (the PC) and I tried to get the USB loaded on my chromebook, but it failed to work. (Error on the download at the last of the 15 minute download.) So I used the machine to download and left on the flag to make it include machine specific requirements. I had planned to use on other machines, but I have decided that they need one of their own. It only needs an 8 G USB Flash Drive (64 bit OS), so I can do that. This is the link the to web site:
[What does ISO mean in this context: Image file.]
Everything went well with the prep, which took only about half an hour in total time to create, but we have not tried it on the machine yet. It can be used to refresh the Win 10 copy, which I suspect on this machine is Win 10 corruption problem because the machine has a boot menu that sometimes comes up and sometimes doesn’t. We also had some viruses on one of the external hard disk, which have been repaired, but I would not be surprised if the boot error is occuring as a part of the virus attempting to reload itself. Sometimes the machine sits and says it is “loading the boot menu” which it is obviously NOT doing. After powering off, the setup CMOS managed to get it loaded. I hope this is not a hardware issue, but we are on the lookout for a replacement desktop.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO
The machine does not have a CMOS option to boot from USB, so we redid the ISO on a DVD and this works. It allows the bootup of the operating system from the DVD and you can work normally from there. Obviously, there may not be a full load, so if the operating system had actually failed, there may be some features not available. We are satisified that there may be some circumstances where this could prove useful.
P.S. I created a USB bootable for the other Win 10 desktop, but have not tried using it yet.
2016-05-09 Treetastic
Now these are so tall and lasting so long this year with the good weather and rain. Much better than the dry, dusty drought we had, though I doubt those who suffered through this year's floods and storms are of the same mind. Loverly, though.
2016-05-09 Win 10 Installed
Everything works better and start up and shut down is fantastically fast. However, from mid March until today I have NOT BEEN ON THE INTERNET. So, I can’t wait to see how long my updates take and how many of them there are. I can confirm that Win 10 (another upgrade from Win 7) went as smoothly, though they were struck with a bad virus in the early days of working on it and we had to work to get the virus off. Hours and hours of AVAST repair. It is working, though we discovered old hard disk with errors and I have this feeling that this is a common occurrence. I recommend copy all of your most precious data files (movies, photos and books), to an external hard drive (we use passport) so if the worst happens (tornado, flood, etc.) you can carry them in your bug out bag.
2016-05-09 Is Bio X4 Working?
I have been taking these pills (3 times daily) for coming up on 30 days now and I can report that my digestion is much improved. I am not convinced that it is entirely due to these pills, but most changes in my digestion (diet, food types, etc) have shown their true colors around 10 days in. So far I am pleased that I can tolerate them, because having gas, bloating and IBS symptoms is just not much fun when it gets to be all day, every day. I am much improved, though I do not know whether to attribute all to the new pills, I have not changed much else. I have been exercising more regularly, and taking my “vinegar cocktail” which used to really add to the gas, so I guess that is proof that it is working. I don’t know about the long term effects of these type of additives, especially the “appetite suppressant.” I have never taken an appetite suppressant before and I didn’t want one now, but what can it hurt? I have less cravings for chocolate and salt lately, but that could be less stress. I am not dropping poundage, but I didn’t want to get loose skin anyway. I want to gradually lose as I maintain cognition (see I can still spell that word) and high energy levels, more muscle. While the verdict is still out, I am leaning on the positive side.
2015-12-23 Christmas Gift Book Box
I have all these crafty people in my family and the if the perfect gift forces them to make something for themselves, so much the better? Well, they may not think so, but I have so many ideas about things they could do that I cannot decide for them what they would like. So here are some of the ideas I came across, just in case.
Source: PrettyHandyGirl.com
How to Make New Wood Look Old and Weathered
…supplies:
Valspar Antiquing Glaze in Asphaltum
Valspar Translucent Color Glaze in Mocha
Valspar Clear Mixing Glaze
Minwax Early American Stain
Rustoleum Sunbleached Stain
Rubber Gloves
Rag
Wide flat brush
…
Weathered boards have a warm gray color. To create this color I stained the boards with Rustoleum sunbleached. Then wiped off the excess.Next I added a little Minwax Early American and wiped it off.The results are the blue-gray weathered look. For more dimension and detail try adding the glazing technique described below….
Valspar Antiquing Glaze in Asphaltum
Valspar Translucent Color Glaze in Mocha
Valspar Clear Mixing Glaze
Mix 4 parts clear mixing glaze with 2 part mocha glaze and 1 part antiquing asphaltum glaze.
Mix thoroughly. The resulting color should be a very dark chocolate color. Adjust your color by adding more mocha or more asphaltum.
Dip your flat brush into the glaze and drag it over the wood. The glaze really accentuates the grain in the wood.
Shake or tap the brush on a stick to give your lumber age freckles.
For more uniform color, brush the glaze over the entire board (don’t forget the ends of the wood.)
Rub the glaze into the wood and wipe off any excess.
[images no longer available]
And another idea for treating the wood. Be careful about treating the wood with glaze, finishes or oil based products if you plan to use paint. I do not like the smell of paint, so I use wax or stain underneath.
[images no longer available]
Also, I thought you could treat clay like a ‘leather layer’ by adding a picture of a book cover to it. This has some ideas: https://www.ehow.com/how_8387659_transfer-images-polymer-clay.html
In addition here are some pictures of projects out there.
[images no longer available]
Actually, chalkboard paint would be cool, then you could easily change as you like. Merry Christmas.
2015-11-10 Chromebook for Christmas
I got a great deal on a Samsung Chromebook (through Amazon). Merry Christmas to me.
Updated 2015-12-23
I got a new chromebook with my christmas money and I love it. The battery last longer, the usb ports are easier to get to and it is a little faster. All the settings/apps and everything from my old chromebook (google+) account is exactly the same. I set up another account on the old one and voila I am in business again with out a hiccup. The problem is that everyone else I know is so used to windows world, where they sit and wait and wait and wait, that they do not want to use the old one. Well, there is a bit of a learning curve. It’s so great to be able to turn it on and seconds later be on the internet and not have to worry about security and updates so much. Don’t get me wrong, updates do happen but they are so not intrusive, I barely even notice. All my ‘data’ is on the cloud or on flash drives that I swap in and out. I am planning to update my Win7 desktop early next year, to Win 10. I am enjoying the peace of having a nice holiday with out UPDATE headaches.
2015-11-10 Virgin Mobile Top Up Card
We have an old cell phone that we barely use, but it is easier to hear on, simple big buttons and we were getting 90 days with $20 top up cards. Of course, we had to keep over $100 on the account and every time it says that we will have so many days, it backs up a few days when it comes to renewing. Recently, unable to find any top up cards at $20 for “Virgin Mobile” in town, I found a supply of ecards at Walmart. I should have ordered more, but I ordered one and a few months later, here I am unable to order more. They say it’s good, then Walmart cancels the order. Amazon has $20 cards for much more than $20 plus shipping. I guess we are going to have to go to $25, but I do not want to WASTE $5 per month, so we will probably review cell phones entirely and see if there is an alternative.
Update: Unwilling to give up, I searched all the local stores, including the bottom of their card shelves. I found cards at Market Street and I buy in pairs way before I run out. Wonder how long it will be before these go away too?!
Updated 06/13/2016: Cards still available at Market Street. Be sure to confirm on the receipt they have been activated.
2015-08-08 Win 10 Update
I had a conversation with Lenovo today and I will get Windows 10 for my “desktop” machine soon! Finally found a way to get an answer quickly, without having to search around the manufacturer’s website. Bravo, Lenovo!
”
*** D: Thank you for choosing Lenovo Chat.
*** D: Good morning, ***!
****D: How are you today?
*****H: You’re welcome. I have Lenovo ThinkCentre M93p with Win 7 downgraded from Win 8.1. I want to run Win 10? Will I be able to?
**** D: yes
*****H: Ok! Should I wait for notification from Lenovo or check with Microsoft?
*** D: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
****H: Thanks for your help. I love my machine.