Weblog 214
March 14, 2010~ 12:00am
(Really, it's earlier, but Daylight Savings Time has started and I've already sprung ahead.) Dang. We lose an hour's sleep tonight, but on the bright side, it'll stay light longer each day, and that tends to boost folks' spirits.
Everywhere, people are waiting for SPRING! -and oh yes, flowers. The delicate wildflower kind that pop up everywhere overnight and delight the eye...we need some good stuff. God, I'm so weary of hearing about wars, wars, wars...it makes my heart tighten and clench. It saddens me so much.
I makes me think about human nature as well.
Are we really innately warlike?
Do we truly have, knotted inside, deep in our bellies, the desire to make war on each other? Are we born to want to seize and vanquish? Are we so tied to things and ideas that we need to rush at other humans, guns blazing? The world seems to get more and more volatile, more and more unstable- and it's disheartening and frightening to me. I like to think there is a GREATER impulse to want to extend a hand...
or why then, amidst news of fighting and suicide bombers and military drone planes, do we also show such massive, immediate response to tragedies like the earthquake in Haiti, in Chile? Why do we annihilate as easily as extending humanitarian aid? It always puzzles me, that contradiction. I can't deny the truth of either extreme, and it's dizzying.
On a local note, this was the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in Pittsburgh. (No, I didn't go, and haven't seen it since I was a child) but apparently it's the second largest in the country. (My sister was chosen for the the Court of 'Miss Smiling Irish Eyes' and got to ride in an open car, waving to the crowd back in the late 50's --I remember how excited we were, and we DID go to see that one!) Kathy received a corsage and a car coat. LOL!! (She was very proud of that coat)- and I have lots of fond memories of my dad's 'Kiss Me I'm Irish' pin he always wore -and how my mother had to re-dye his green shirt with 'Rit' every year in the stationary tubs in the basement. (I always wore the same little pipe-cleaner green shamrock with white plastic clay pipe- and yes, a freshly dyed 'white-to-green' blouse.) Didn't they sell green shirts back in the 50's? Ah....memories.
And despite this ominous picture on the online Post-Gazette (albeit gorgeous as well) of the morning of March 12th, titled, 'Morning Before The Flood'-
- the rivers have thus far, caused only minor flooding in some very low-lying areas that have gotten more than their share of mountain run off from the huge snows we had in February. Nothing in town....and it certainly didn't keep people from lining the streets and making their way in to see the bands marching, and all that green, green, green everywhere....(I did see one enormous lady in the supermarket with a florescent green vinyl jacket on, with a sequined shamrock stuck to her right cheek. LOL!) I'm guessin' she went to the parade alright!
Saturday evening, Wayne and I watched "Goya's Ghosts"- a Milos Forman film that had gotten poor reviews from the critics, but I enjoyed it. (In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I'd kept it from Netflix since I watched it on my own while marooned here in February's blizzard-- and enjoyed it even more the second time around.)
I guess if you like 'action' films or films that are pulled along strictly by plot, you might find this not to your taste because it is slow moving and strictly character-based, but I've always loved a lush historical drama, so this was my cup of tea. Forman's attention to detail in recreating Spain at the time of the Inquisition, then on to the invasion of the French under Napoleon, and finally the invading English who ousted the French, is magnificently rich. Each frame of this film is lit like a painting itself--
--and with a cast made up of Stellan Skarsgard (of 'Breaking The Waves' fame) playing Goya-- to the always fascinating Javier Bardem
(who plays a scary, fanatical monk who lusts after a young woman of wealth who's a favorite model of Goya) the cast is remarkable.
By the Dominican Father Lorenzo's own design, Portman is thrown to the Inquisition, only to find herself at his mercy....(poor kid.)
Bardem's soft and oily Spanish accent is deceptively non-threatening: he savages lives with his crazed religious fervor, but it's a zeal mixed with a wagon load of unadmitted raging appetites... for beauty, art, enlightened philosophy --and the pull of the flesh.
I think Natalie Portman as the doomed Inez is terrific in her role.
She breaks my heart... especially in the final scene. There are so many interesting faces in this movie! And it's perfectly lit to catch a panoply of human vices and the social classes of that time. It highlights royalty... beggars... harlots... cardinals... with each scene as rich as can be. It's a feast for the eyes-- I'm so glad I watched it a second time. Once was not enough to truly study it. I recommend this film to anyone who loves an opulent, historical drama. You won't be disappointed.
Oh! and I found another link that tickles me right down to the ground. How about some
BILE BEANS!!! LOL!! That delightful picture is from an entertaining site full of old magazine "TIPS for ladies" from back in the 50's and 60's. I'm MAD for it! Prepare to be entertained every time you dip into the wacky pages of Gypsy Creams, a completely delightful blog that will have you chuckling and clucking your tongue at the weird stuff passed around as 'gospel' from that era.
And don't forget to turn those clocks ahead. 'Tis time.
March 14, 2010~ 8:15am
A word here about computers. STOP ALL THE HIDDEN PIRATING OF YOUR PRIVATE INFORMATION. Unless you want everyone to know your business... your likes and dislikes, what sites you frequently visit (thereby making you a prime target for marketing... or more nefarious enterprising) for heaven sake, turn off cookies and javascript.
Remember... all sites have those cookies built into them, which are images stored as small, invisible 'gif files'-- and unless you have the cookie jar firmly closed, SOMEONE knows where you've been, what you've been looking at -and how often you go there.
If you want to make GOOGLE (and it's partner now, Firefox) even richer, by all means, keep your Adobe flash functional, keep images and javascript enabled, and remain an easy target for every snake salesman or mortgage company that tells you "We can lower your payments by 50 PERCENT!"
Why do you want to see every ad out there loading when you visit a site? I browse without 'em, and it's lightening fast. Enabling those dread cookies makes everything stick in glue- (and yes, I know Internet Explorer will tell you without cookies you probably won't be able to navigate most sites, but that's a lie- you'll go faster.) Using an old version of Firefox and DISABLING updates, I'm the one in control -not the other way around. (I became suspicious of FF when I saw that its version 3.2 was automatically loaded into a Vista-based PC I'd gotten at work. WTF??? Wasn't Firefox supposed to be the free spirit, maverick browser that allowed you sovereignty over your online experience?) But think about it.... Firefox is now economically partnered with Google and THEY WANT YOUR INFORMATION BECAUSE IT'S REVENUE. Get rid of the newer versions.
Believe me, if you're browsing w/o images or javascript, you have almost ZERO chance of picking up viruses and malware. When you want to see an image, right click, choose 'view image'. Wonderfully simple. Install CCleaner on your machine and use it after every startup and at the end. Delete everything it finds. Do a defrag EVERY DAY. Use CCleaner to check for changes in your registry and DELETE anything new. Enable DMA in your hard drive. (It's not enabled by default, and of course, that makes me suspicious. (What is DMA, you may ask?) According to Microsoft:
Keyword there, is monitoring. Passing through the central processor, you leave footprints. GOOGLE, Internet Explorer- and yes, sadly, even Firefox now.....LOVE FOOTPRINTS.
If you do all these things and most important, DO NOT VISIT 'questionable' sites (porn, etc.)- you can further increase your browsing speed (even on an old clunker system like mine) without the BIGGEST system hog of all.....your anti-virus program. Yes, yes I know you'll think I'm crazy, but I use none, and I know that's heretical --compares to sex without a condom, but I have no problems whatsoever. I never clink on email from people I don't know, never click on any email that begins, "Re:--" if I know I never sent an initial email to that person or organization regarding anything.
My latest bitch is this 'Buzz' that Google is trying so hard to force people to use. Each time I log into my Gmail account (if I have javascript enabled because I've just been on a trusted site that requires it, and I've forgotten to turn it off) I get a page that I have to click through declining this new 'service'. What a pain in the butt! What is Buzz? It's one of those idiotic, trendy 'connect instantly to everyone you know at every minute of the day' things, and it's Google's attempt to rival things like Facebook and MySpace. Dumb. (But oh, for GOOGLE, what an opportunity to get to know your better- and hear the coins clicking with every cookie.) Point here: when images and javascript are NOT enabled when I visit Gmail, I pass under their radar and go right to my log in page. Tells 'ya something, doesn't it? (And of COURSE....I use only an old, BASIC, html version of Gmail in secure mode and yes...it's greased lightning configured that way.
Last of all, make
https://ssl.scroogle.org/
your HOME PAGE. Surf and search from there. Cookies are deleted every 48 hours-- they save no information on you, and what I love about them is they GET IT. They HATE Google as much as I do. LOL!!
I don't like being spied on... don't like being a 'mark'... don't like being reeled in by gimmicks. I like things simple and fast and CONTROLLABLE. With a little common sense, you can make the changes that don't leave you hooked into the big fat machine. If you're like me......investigate some of those tweaks I mention here, and always....use caution on the net. It's not the big friendly puppy it pretends to be. It's King Midas in a puppy suit----- and you're the bone.
March 15, 2010~ 5:45am
It's the IDES of MARCH....and guess what? My hand-crafted, silver EYEBALL ring came today from Etsy, exactly one week from when I purchased it online....
and I'm tickled to pieces! It fits like a dream, and is SO COMFORTABLE! I feel like it's always belonged on my finger. That strange light hazel is so stunning...it looks like a topaz eye. Here's another shot, muted and dreamy-looking with my computer screen wallpaper in the background
The artist is Blue Bayer, from Tennessee originally, who now lives in New York City....(btw, best wishes on that first baby coming. I've been sending lots of good thoughts your way.) Everything Etsy is exciting. What a great place to shop. Nothing ordinary...most items either vintage or hand-crafted, and with more imagination than you'll ever find in a mall. Please do visit thebillyblue22 Featured Seller site, then browse through Etsy and see all the terrific items for sale there. I get lost in those pages, over and over. (I also have a unique necklace coming, so there's something else to look forward to as well.) What a great way to start off the work week. One more look....
...(don't mind the old hands.) Say! They kind of 'go with' the witchy ring, don't you think? LOL!!
***
(Return To Weekly Archives)
(Really, it's earlier, but Daylight Savings Time has started and I've already sprung ahead.) Dang. We lose an hour's sleep tonight, but on the bright side, it'll stay light longer each day, and that tends to boost folks' spirits.
Everywhere, people are waiting for SPRING! -and oh yes, flowers. The delicate wildflower kind that pop up everywhere overnight and delight the eye...we need some good stuff. God, I'm so weary of hearing about wars, wars, wars...it makes my heart tighten and clench. It saddens me so much.
I makes me think about human nature as well.
Are we really innately warlike?
Do we truly have, knotted inside, deep in our bellies, the desire to make war on each other? Are we born to want to seize and vanquish? Are we so tied to things and ideas that we need to rush at other humans, guns blazing? The world seems to get more and more volatile, more and more unstable- and it's disheartening and frightening to me. I like to think there is a GREATER impulse to want to extend a hand...
or why then, amidst news of fighting and suicide bombers and military drone planes, do we also show such massive, immediate response to tragedies like the earthquake in Haiti, in Chile? Why do we annihilate as easily as extending humanitarian aid? It always puzzles me, that contradiction. I can't deny the truth of either extreme, and it's dizzying.
On a local note, this was the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in Pittsburgh. (No, I didn't go, and haven't seen it since I was a child) but apparently it's the second largest in the country. (My sister was chosen for the the Court of 'Miss Smiling Irish Eyes' and got to ride in an open car, waving to the crowd back in the late 50's --I remember how excited we were, and we DID go to see that one!) Kathy received a corsage and a car coat. LOL!! (She was very proud of that coat)- and I have lots of fond memories of my dad's 'Kiss Me I'm Irish' pin he always wore -and how my mother had to re-dye his green shirt with 'Rit' every year in the stationary tubs in the basement. (I always wore the same little pipe-cleaner green shamrock with white plastic clay pipe- and yes, a freshly dyed 'white-to-green' blouse.) Didn't they sell green shirts back in the 50's? Ah....memories.
And despite this ominous picture on the online Post-Gazette (albeit gorgeous as well) of the morning of March 12th, titled, 'Morning Before The Flood'-
- the rivers have thus far, caused only minor flooding in some very low-lying areas that have gotten more than their share of mountain run off from the huge snows we had in February. Nothing in town....and it certainly didn't keep people from lining the streets and making their way in to see the bands marching, and all that green, green, green everywhere....(I did see one enormous lady in the supermarket with a florescent green vinyl jacket on, with a sequined shamrock stuck to her right cheek. LOL!) I'm guessin' she went to the parade alright!
Saturday evening, Wayne and I watched "Goya's Ghosts"- a Milos Forman film that had gotten poor reviews from the critics, but I enjoyed it. (In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I'd kept it from Netflix since I watched it on my own while marooned here in February's blizzard-- and enjoyed it even more the second time around.)
I guess if you like 'action' films or films that are pulled along strictly by plot, you might find this not to your taste because it is slow moving and strictly character-based, but I've always loved a lush historical drama, so this was my cup of tea. Forman's attention to detail in recreating Spain at the time of the Inquisition, then on to the invasion of the French under Napoleon, and finally the invading English who ousted the French, is magnificently rich. Each frame of this film is lit like a painting itself--
--and with a cast made up of Stellan Skarsgard (of 'Breaking The Waves' fame) playing Goya-- to the always fascinating Javier Bardem
(who plays a scary, fanatical monk who lusts after a young woman of wealth who's a favorite model of Goya) the cast is remarkable.
By the Dominican Father Lorenzo's own design, Portman is thrown to the Inquisition, only to find herself at his mercy....(poor kid.)
Bardem's soft and oily Spanish accent is deceptively non-threatening: he savages lives with his crazed religious fervor, but it's a zeal mixed with a wagon load of unadmitted raging appetites... for beauty, art, enlightened philosophy --and the pull of the flesh.
I think Natalie Portman as the doomed Inez is terrific in her role.
She breaks my heart... especially in the final scene. There are so many interesting faces in this movie! And it's perfectly lit to catch a panoply of human vices and the social classes of that time. It highlights royalty... beggars... harlots... cardinals... with each scene as rich as can be. It's a feast for the eyes-- I'm so glad I watched it a second time. Once was not enough to truly study it. I recommend this film to anyone who loves an opulent, historical drama. You won't be disappointed.
Oh! and I found another link that tickles me right down to the ground. How about some
BILE BEANS!!! LOL!! That delightful picture is from an entertaining site full of old magazine "TIPS for ladies" from back in the 50's and 60's. I'm MAD for it! Prepare to be entertained every time you dip into the wacky pages of Gypsy Creams, a completely delightful blog that will have you chuckling and clucking your tongue at the weird stuff passed around as 'gospel' from that era.
And don't forget to turn those clocks ahead. 'Tis time.
March 14, 2010~ 8:15am
A word here about computers. STOP ALL THE HIDDEN PIRATING OF YOUR PRIVATE INFORMATION. Unless you want everyone to know your business... your likes and dislikes, what sites you frequently visit (thereby making you a prime target for marketing... or more nefarious enterprising) for heaven sake, turn off cookies and javascript.
Remember... all sites have those cookies built into them, which are images stored as small, invisible 'gif files'-- and unless you have the cookie jar firmly closed, SOMEONE knows where you've been, what you've been looking at -and how often you go there.
If you want to make GOOGLE (and it's partner now, Firefox) even richer, by all means, keep your Adobe flash functional, keep images and javascript enabled, and remain an easy target for every snake salesman or mortgage company that tells you "We can lower your payments by 50 PERCENT!"
Why do you want to see every ad out there loading when you visit a site? I browse without 'em, and it's lightening fast. Enabling those dread cookies makes everything stick in glue- (and yes, I know Internet Explorer will tell you without cookies you probably won't be able to navigate most sites, but that's a lie- you'll go faster.) Using an old version of Firefox and DISABLING updates, I'm the one in control -not the other way around. (I became suspicious of FF when I saw that its version 3.2 was automatically loaded into a Vista-based PC I'd gotten at work. WTF??? Wasn't Firefox supposed to be the free spirit, maverick browser that allowed you sovereignty over your online experience?) But think about it.... Firefox is now economically partnered with Google and THEY WANT YOUR INFORMATION BECAUSE IT'S REVENUE. Get rid of the newer versions.
Believe me, if you're browsing w/o images or javascript, you have almost ZERO chance of picking up viruses and malware. When you want to see an image, right click, choose 'view image'. Wonderfully simple. Install CCleaner on your machine and use it after every startup and at the end. Delete everything it finds. Do a defrag EVERY DAY. Use CCleaner to check for changes in your registry and DELETE anything new. Enable DMA in your hard drive. (It's not enabled by default, and of course, that makes me suspicious. (What is DMA, you may ask?) According to Microsoft:
"DMA (also referred to as bus mastering) is a technique that some components and devices use to transfer data directly to and from memory without passing through the Central Processing Unit (CPU). DMA reduces CPU overhead by providing a mechanism for data transfers that do not require monitoring by the CPU. The number associated with DMA indicates the direct memory access channel that the component or device uses to transfer data to and from memory."
Keyword there, is monitoring. Passing through the central processor, you leave footprints. GOOGLE, Internet Explorer- and yes, sadly, even Firefox now.....LOVE FOOTPRINTS.
If you do all these things and most important, DO NOT VISIT 'questionable' sites (porn, etc.)- you can further increase your browsing speed (even on an old clunker system like mine) without the BIGGEST system hog of all.....your anti-virus program. Yes, yes I know you'll think I'm crazy, but I use none, and I know that's heretical --compares to sex without a condom, but I have no problems whatsoever. I never clink on email from people I don't know, never click on any email that begins, "Re:--" if I know I never sent an initial email to that person or organization regarding anything.
My latest bitch is this 'Buzz' that Google is trying so hard to force people to use. Each time I log into my Gmail account (if I have javascript enabled because I've just been on a trusted site that requires it, and I've forgotten to turn it off) I get a page that I have to click through declining this new 'service'. What a pain in the butt! What is Buzz? It's one of those idiotic, trendy 'connect instantly to everyone you know at every minute of the day' things, and it's Google's attempt to rival things like Facebook and MySpace. Dumb. (But oh, for GOOGLE, what an opportunity to get to know your better- and hear the coins clicking with every cookie.) Point here: when images and javascript are NOT enabled when I visit Gmail, I pass under their radar and go right to my log in page. Tells 'ya something, doesn't it? (And of COURSE....I use only an old, BASIC, html version of Gmail in secure mode and yes...it's greased lightning configured that way.
Last of all, make
I don't like being spied on... don't like being a 'mark'... don't like being reeled in by gimmicks. I like things simple and fast and CONTROLLABLE. With a little common sense, you can make the changes that don't leave you hooked into the big fat machine. If you're like me......investigate some of those tweaks I mention here, and always....use caution on the net. It's not the big friendly puppy it pretends to be. It's King Midas in a puppy suit----- and you're the bone.
March 15, 2010~ 5:45am
It's the IDES of MARCH....and guess what? My hand-crafted, silver EYEBALL ring came today from Etsy, exactly one week from when I purchased it online....
and I'm tickled to pieces! It fits like a dream, and is SO COMFORTABLE! I feel like it's always belonged on my finger. That strange light hazel is so stunning...it looks like a topaz eye. Here's another shot, muted and dreamy-looking with my computer screen wallpaper in the background
The artist is Blue Bayer, from Tennessee originally, who now lives in New York City....(btw, best wishes on that first baby coming. I've been sending lots of good thoughts your way.) Everything Etsy is exciting. What a great place to shop. Nothing ordinary...most items either vintage or hand-crafted, and with more imagination than you'll ever find in a mall. Please do visit thebillyblue22 Featured Seller site, then browse through Etsy and see all the terrific items for sale there. I get lost in those pages, over and over. (I also have a unique necklace coming, so there's something else to look forward to as well.) What a great way to start off the work week. One more look....
...(don't mind the old hands.) Say! They kind of 'go with' the witchy ring, don't you think? LOL!!
(Return To Weekly Archives)
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