My first (Completed) pallet project

With some old frames I had laying around, some original art by my 13 year-old, and some print outs of last summer's lake pictures. The wood itself is from pallets! The picture angle is a little strange because it's hanging in the bathroom and I can't get far enough away to take the picture straight on.

Google+ First impressions

Being in Google+ is like being in an (mostly) empty coliseum. You can feel the presence of thousands, but you don't see them.

What I like:
* Circles: I like being able to group my friends
* Automatic upload of phone photos via the G+ app
* Set up: G+ is Google, and Google knows all. When I first logged into G+, it knew my previous addresses, work history, and everyone in my contact list. Set up was a breeze.
* Automatic integration with Gmail

What I don't like:
* Mandatory Circles: As far as I can tell, you can't write directly to someone in G+. Unless you make a circle for just them, then write to that circle. Could at least have given me an email link.
* Usability: G+ gave me all my contacts, and I sorted them into circles. Most of those people don't have G+. I went to share a message to a circle yesterday, and it, by default, checked a box that would email my post to those people who don't have G+. Um, no thanks.
* Usability: Automatic upload of phone photos via the G+ app had to be set up twice in order to make it work.
* Usability: The photos links don't refresh the photos. E.g., I click "photos of me" and its empty, just says "Tag yourself in some photos to show up here". So I go tag myself in some photos, go back to "photos of me" and it's still empty until i refresh the page. Same for "photos from my phone".

And finally:
* It's soooo quiet. Nothing happens there because the crowd is on Facebook.

I made an app

Don't stop for a moment

Remember a year ago (almost exactly!) when I said I love my Samsung Moment?


The love has died, folks. I'm not sure what has happened, but the piece of crap is basically a brick these days. It's slow as hell, even though I've taken off all but the most essential apps and widgets. It's been this way for a couple months now. I think the problem is that its outdated processor can't handle the updates of even the few widgets and apps I run. It didn't (and will never, thanks Sprint!) get an Android update past v1.6, and Android is up to, what, v2.3 now?

I'll get a phone call, push the answer button, and have to wait 10 or more seconds for the phone to actually stop ringing and answer. Sometimes it won't answer. Sometimes I won't get the call, even though I've got good signal.

Pandora crashes constantly. Weather channel app crashes frequently. Can't even play Angry Birds, the processor is too slow to handle the graphics.

I went through all the wickets with Sprint and they refused to give me an upgrade or replacement even though I've been a customer for a decade. Time to try a new carrier when my contract's up, or cheap enough to break.


Update11/4/11:
I talked to a customer service rep on an unrelated issue and bitched for a little while before she took pity on me and sent me a replacement Moment. It works *so* much better. I'm happy again!

Still upset with Sprint's treatment of us though. We were going to add a line this weekend to have a 'home' phone, but we decided we didn't want a 2 year contract since we were so unhappy with them at the moment (pardon the pun). So today I need to reactivate the ol' tracfone.

Turbotax 2010 install freezes at 27%

Well, actually, it goes up to 28%, then back down to 27%. Running Windows 7, the problem ended up being that I didn't have write access to the start menu... strange since I was running that install as Administrator.

Verify in the system application event logs.

To fix it I used this awesome little app called, rightfully enough, "Take Ownership"...
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/add-take-ownership-to-explorer-right-click-menu-in-vista/

Father's Day Project

Dev and I turned an old monitor into a snazzy cat house.

A political theory advocating an authoritarian hierarchical government (as opposed to democracy or liberalism)

If you've ever been involved with the Greene County, Virginia, Sheriff's Office and/or court system, you quickly realize 3 things:

1. You are considered a nuisance. At best. At worst, you're an ignorant nuisance.
2. You are guilty until proven.. well, you're guilty if they think you are. Proof doesn't count for a whole lot in Greene County, from what I've seen.
3. There's no real concern about upholding the letter of the law. Upholding the generality of the law is OK, because that way they still get paid.

Case in point:
There's a minor I know, we'll call her 'Kate'. Kate's friend's shirt was stolen. Not while she was wearing it of course, but out of her locker or something.
Soon after, another girl (we'll call her 'Emo girl') was spotted with a very, very similar shirt. Well, Kate and her friends spot Emo Girl's bag with the shirt hanging out of it, and they vote Kate to sneak over and grab it. She does, and it is Kate's friend's shirt after all. No problem, right? At worst, Emo Girl and Kate should get a little talking to about the value of other people's property and personal space.

Wrong. Kate's mom get's a phone call from the resource office (Greene County-speak for on-school Greene County Police) informing her he had Mirandized her daughter. Kate's mom misheard the statement, thinking he was asking permission to Mirandize her daughter. Kate's mom says "Hell no, wait til her father or I are there."
The cop (we'll call him Ignorant Fascist) neglected to elaborate to Kate's mom that he had already Mirandized her daughter, in private, with no school authority present, and had her sign some document.

There are other stories.

Another friend of mine got a call because her daughter (we'll call her M) was driving around with M's boyfriend. Turns out a Greene County cop pulled her over. Why? Well, for driving around her boyfriend, of course. Held her for more than an hour, if I remember correctly. What, you thought this was a free count(r)y?

M and I both got speeding tickets for speeding on the same stretch of road. We were speeding, yes, but we didn't know it, because the closest speed limit sign to the point of the infraction was miles away, and we never passed it on the path we took leading to the road. The cop couldn't prove it in court because he lost sight of us several times in the ensuing 'chase' and had no proof that the car he pulled over (me or M's) was the same one he clocked. The judge literally told me 'Well, you say you were there around the time the officer clocked a car that looked like yours, and he thinks it was you driving, so I have to give the judgment to the officer.' In other words, guilty until proven innocent.

I called the police when a neighbor shot her gun at my kindergartner, who was trespassing on her property. He said "Yeah, there's a lot of good old boys and girls back in there that'll shoot at anything." Since I had already gone and 'talked' to this neighbor, that's how they handled my complaint.

No, really.