Why I hate dieting

After 2 weeks of serious tracking and exercise I have lost - 0 - lbs.  That's right.  I weigh exactly the same.  Though I feel better, I expected to see at least a little progress with shedding the extra lbs.  Frustrating.

Online vs software for financial management

Microsoft is discontinuing MS Money, which I have used for years. When the online features of Money 2004 expired, I just deactivated the online features and manually exported my accounts into the program. Though I can probably use Money 2004 indefinitely without the online features, Microsoft recommends using my own bank's features or Bundle.com. My bank does not offer interactive features. Quicken is another option, or Intuit's online program Mint.com.

I tried both Bundle.com & Mint.com, and I think Mint.com is much better

Advertising

I have to choose an advertisement and write a psychology paper about the ad.  I try to tune out advertising to whatever degree I can ignore it, but for this assignment, I have to actually pay attention to ads. Thankfully, there are plenty of YouTube ad videos available. A classmate suggested that I pick a product I like and find an ad for it.  I'm going to use a cat food ad, target audience: women over 35 who are pet lovers.  I could easily write about what annoys me with internet ads. I wish someone would invent a "rollover blocker". Especially for the ones that roll out when you get close but don't actually touch with the curser. I liked the Kodak printervention rollover. It did not rollover until I actually put my curser on the ad. The video was a parody of an infomercial/intervention reality show and the other tabs used a side by side comparison between the Kodak model and an HP model.  I could relate to both the high cost of printer ink, and, as an addictions counselor, the parody of intervention strategy.  It got bad reviews, though.  Most people saw a wannabe infomercial announcer and the environmentally negative "ink sink".  I agreed with the reviewers about the ink sink.  I would like to find a similar comparison with the cost of using a Canon printer.

Windows 7 Back up & Restore

Before I upgraded to  Windows 7 I found a decent free disk image back up program called Macrium Reflect, though I did not reinstall it after the upgrade.  The Windows 7 Back-up & Restore appears to have more features than XP Back-up & Restore, including the ability to make a disk image and a restore disk.  There may be no need for a 3rd party program.  My 80 gig external hard drive does the job, but with only enough storage to hold one image & back-up for the desktop & laptop.  

CD Labeling Kit

I had the Neato Labeling system a long time ago, but I rarely used it.  I usually preferred just writing on my CDs with a Sharpie, and I have no idea what happened to the Neato labeler or my labels.  Because presentation was important, I needed to make both the label and Jewel Case insert for my portfolio. I bought the Avery CD Stomper system at Office Depot and I was very disappointed with it.  The software that come with the program was not ClicknV (which the directions called for), but Avery Design ProV. Though it had blank templates for the CD Stomper, there were no pre-designed templates. I called Avery and was told that the ClicknV software was discontinued and I was directed to use the create online templates from the CD Stomper website, with very limited graphics.  I eventually figured it out and made what I needed.  I like the base, which is like the Neato base I couldn't find; however, the software problems made it difficult to use.  I paid too much for what I got.

Dr. Scholl's Footmapping at Walmart

I started wearing heel inserts when I was working in the salon to relieve knee pain.  Then I had trouble with heel pain. My doctor took x-rays and I did not have a heel spur.  I did the exercises she suggested to relieve plantar fasciitis and the pain went away.  Now I have a sharp needle-like pain at the side of my heel when ever I put certain types of pressure on my foot, most often when I reach down to pick something up.  Though this pain is different that the last time, my doctor thinks it is a recurrence of plantar fasciitis, so I am doing the exercises again.  My shoe inserts were old, so I went to Walmart and tried out the Dr. Scholl's footmapping machine.  It identifies the pressure points for each foot and recommends a custom orthotic insert.  These inserts are a bit more expensive than regular Dr. Scholl's inserts, so I hope they work  

http://www.footmapping.com/ 

CLEP for IFSM 201: Introduction to Computer-Based Systems

I looked over the course objectives, and felt that, although it would be an easy A, there was no reason to take this course, except that it was a General Education requirement.  At first I was going to include this class in my portfolio of prior learning; however, I was told that my experience and training were "too informal".  One of my classmates is an Information Assurance major, and he suggested I CLEP instead.  I've taken 2 practice tests and getting scores above 75.  I only need 50 to pass.  I can do this!  CLEP will be much less work than trying to portfolio, and much more cost effective.  

Barb's

Rating:	★★
Category:	Restaurants
Cuisine:	American
Location:	Belington, WV

I have eaten here twice while in WV for a visit and both times I was dissatisfied. Last year I ordered steak fajitas which were greasy, but the cornbread was good. This year I ordered a Belgian waffle since they advertised breakfast any time. I was treated like a goddess - burnt offerings. I really should have sent it back to the kitchen. Other than that, the waitress was nice and the service was good

Cable TV

I have mentioned before that I am very frustrated with my cable provider since they changed to Broadstripe.  The latest problem is a bill that was $30 higher than normal.  I received a "courtesy call" explaining that they undercharged me during the transition.  I would very much like to dump them.  I looked closely at Verizon FIOS, but found there were so many variables in their offer that I would be paying a lot more than cable after the introductory discounts expired.  I bought a digital converter and antenna for the spare room.  It works great and I could live without cable.  So now I'm looking at getting phone & internet only through Verizon, and Dish Network for TV.  Should save at least $40/month.

Flickr vs Picasa

At one point, I had made several albums in Yahoo Photos which was eventually converted to Flickr. I wasn't thrilled with Flickr - especially the limits of the free account, so I hadn't added anything to it for a long time.  Several people had told me about Picasa, but I hadn't gotten around to trying it until now.  Very nice program.  Doesn't do a photostream, but I like the "face recognition" feature.  I fouind Picasa much easier to use than Flickr.  

Using Open Office on laptop

Nice program and it is free.  I've had one minor issue.  I saved the documents in the default (.odt) format, then couldn't open them in Word.  You have to use the option to save as a Word97/2000/XP (.doc) file.

Books

I haven't been doing a lot of reading lately other than the required reading for school.  I didn't finish the last 2 books I got from the library, and had to pay a late fine for one.  There are a couple of books on my wish list, though.  I just ordered The Gathering Storm, which is Book 12 in the Wheel of Time series and part 1 of 3 of the finale.  

Record snowfall and no power

This was supposedly a record snowfall in the Baltimore-Washington region.  We have at least 24-30 inches with higher drifts.  Winds knocked out power from around 6:30 am on Saturday until around 2 am on Sunday.  I live on a dirt road so there will be no county snowplow.  We dug out the driveway & vehicles yesterday & today.  Some of the neighbors pitched in and dug out the road, then one neighbor with a bobcat worked on getting it plowed.  Good thing that whatever knocked out the power was not our our road, or we'd still be without electricity.  I don't have an alternative source of heat, but I do have propane for cooking, though we had to light the burners with a match.  Melted snow to wash dishes & used my campers coffee.  Couldn't use a match for the oven, but we did light the burners for a few minutes every couple of hours.   More shoveling tomorrow, and more snow expected midweek.  We are not used to this.

Shylo

We have a new addition.  Shylo is a 3 year old domestic medium hair white cat adopted from the SPCA in Annapolis.  Right now, she is in the spare bedroom with food & litter & toys.  We will introduce her to Fancy & Little Bit slowly.

Windows 7 Adventures

I would like to upgrade both my Dell Inspiron 9100 laptop and my Dell Dimension E-510 desktop to Windows 7.  I was not unhappy with XP, and skipped Vista all together, but I'd like to stay current.  I'm eligible for a student copy, but missed out on the really reduced price by not ordering before 12/31/09.  I needed a few hardware upgrades -  added memory to the laptop over the summer, and also added memory to the desktop and replaced the DVD-RW on the desktop after the holidays. Like a typical home user, I hadn't backed up since my last upgrade and it was time I learned how to do back-ups.  I got an external enclosure to convert an unused 80 gig internal hard drive to an external USB drive for back-ups and storage.  The XP back-up utility does a pretty good job for backing up documents and settings, and I found a decent disk imaging program called Macrium Reflect - free for personal use.  Once I had a handle on the back-up thing, I installed W-7 on the laptop - because it had the least amount of things to restore should everything fail.  W-7 Upgrade advisor indicated that the system required a custom install, but was compatible.  There were 3 yellow flags and one red flag indicated for programs, but none of them appeared to be important, so I proceeded with the install.  After the install, everything appeared to be OK, except for sound, which was NOT one of the yellow flags. I went to the Dell website for a driver, and Dell indicated that the Inspiron 9100 was NOT compatible with Windows 7 and no updated sound driver was available. At this point, I chose to restore XP using the Macrium Reflect restore (which was flawless - great little program). I spoke to my son and he said that I could use the XP driver for sound. So I attempt the installation again. This time, my CD product key is invalid, so I can't complete the installation. I'm re-installing on the same computer, so I have no idea why my product key is now invalid. The support website that came with the CD says to call Microsoft. I call Microsoft, and a very nice tech informs me that since it is a student copy, I have to contact the educational distributor for a new CD key. Of course, this is a holiday weekend, so I will not be able to get any live help until Tuesday.