The Internet (or Maybe Comcast) Hates Me!

Actually, all communication with the outside world is having a big problem here.

My phone, my cell phone, and my computer all started having problems the other day. I've been trying to fix my phone, my cell phone, and my computer, and then it struck me that all of those three have one thing in common. They're all plugged into the internet.

Since Comcast has created nothing but problems for me with my TV connection, Occam's razor says it's probably them.

I am so fed up with Comcast! And they've made it practically impossible to even report the problem since all my communication seems to depend on them. I really have to find some other way to contact others! I've set my cell phone to not connect to the internet over WiFi, and it seems to be acting a bit better.

Holly says there's a way to reset everything on my phone to factory settings, but I can't find it anywhere or I would have tried it already.

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So, after spending a little time trying to get to my email today, I found a link to this in my inbox! If you click the link, you'll find that Craig Charles spilled the beans, and that there will be another six episodes of Red Dwarf! All I really know is what's on the web page, so I can't really comment except to say that it's the funniest thing I've ever seen on TV, even funnier than The Middleman, and that's saying something!

In with the same email, there was a link to a story about a new show called 17th Precinct, which will be a new science fiction show. Once more, I don't know anything except what's on the page from the link.

I saw a trailer for Medium on last night, and they said to tune in tonight for the series finale. I'm really sorry to see it go!

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Usually, the knitting content comes first, but this time it's last. Sorry, I'm struggling just to get something up here, and it's not easy.

I went to the library on Wednesday, and picked up a fairly new knitting book, Modern Top-down Knitting.



 It's got some really interesting things in it, and it's a must-have if you want to knit dresses from the top down. There are seven slim, pretty dresses in this volume, including the dress on the cover. There are a couple of cardigans and a few pullover sweaters, too.

All these things make sense for knitting from the top down. You can try on the dresses and sweaters and make changes as you go to make the garment truly fit you. That's the whole point of top-down knitting.

But there are a batch of other projects in here that don't make sense to be knitted from the top down, and some that aren't knitted from the top down at all. They're mostly accessories, and while some of them are nice, and I even love a few of them, I feel they should have been saved for another book, and the space they're taking up should have had some more top-down designs.

There's some knitted jewelry, including a ring, plus a belt and a wrap (which obviously can't be knitted from the top down) that are wonderful and innovative, but not top-down. There are some interesting hats, which don't benefit at all from being knitted from the top down. There's one hat which I'm not too enthusiastic about knitting, but would love to own in several colors! She uses pipe cleaners to stiffen the brim.

That's the Annie Hat from the book, the one with the pipe cleaners in the brim.

She also has a beautiful wrap, which is, once more, not top-down. I was going to show you a photo, but can't, due to computer problems.

The author, Kristina McGowan, obviously comes from a sewing background, and applies lots of designer detailing to her patterns. Some of it is useful and welcome, but some is just extra work for nothing. For instance, if you sew a skirt or dress, the hem is a raw edge unless you finish it with something. Hem tape or stretchy lace is great for this. It's really completely unneeded for the same purpose when finishing a skirt or dress that's knitted, though. Yes, it can be a pretty trim that nobody will ever see, but why bother?

She is also really big on binding off, adding a bit of crochet, and then picking up stitches and continuing. Once again, what is the point, except for make-work? Then again, you needn't do any of these except the ones that are actually needed for the design.

One thing I've noticed, is that some of the directions are shown right-handed, but a lot of the photos of sewing and crochet are shown and described for a left-handed person. I'm not sure why they're mixed up like that or if it was intentional, but that's the way it is.

 I'll try to keep posting, but if you don't hear from me for a while, it's because of the communication problems.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Adventure Is Out There!

As you may have guessed, I just saw Up yesterday! I liked it, but not as much as most people seem to.

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Speaking of yesterday, my friend, John put up something he called "his six degrees of separation from Martin Luther King" in honor of the day.

I really wanted to put the photo up here, but everything that has anything to do with both the internet and my computer does not seem to be working right today.

It's a photo I took of John with Nichelle Nichols at our friends Jan and Phil Cox's house. I wish I could show it to you, but Safari seems to have gone on one, so I'm using Fire Fox, which is wonky, and the internet seems to react differently to it.

In case you don't know, Nichelle met Martin Luther King, and he's the one that convinced her to stay on Star Trek when she wanted to quit and be on Broadway.

For instance, I just hit return twice to get a new paragraph, and the curser moved two lines UP!

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I can show you what it looked like out my window today, though.

We seem to have gotten a bit of snow either overnight or this morning. Paved areas, once again, are just a bit damp, but the grass, trees, and some buildings have snow on them.

I haven't actually seen it snow today, but every so often, a breeze knocks the snow off the trees, and then a while later, they look like this again.

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Well, I really want to say a lot more, but my whole computer is acting so wonky that I'm going to quit for now. You may not hear much from me until I get this fixed.

There's a new V tonight!

Have a great evening.

Birthday!

It's my birthday today!

The photos are ones that Malaia took at a fairly recent air show, and they're there because I just like them.

I couldn't get her to answer me about this, but they look like the Blue Angels to me.

Steve just put up an entry on FaceBook that says:

Off to the air show, then a swell party.

I asked about the show, and he said:

51st annual Chicago Air and Water Show, with the Thunderbirds, Lima Lima, Golden Knights, and assorted other team and single displays by civilian and military fliers. It included a flyby of the USAF Heritage Flight, a P-51, A-10, F-15 and an F-16. All were "loud and proud". Sorry, no pix.

This is part of the reason that I felt compelled to put up photos of planes, even though they're not the Thunderbirds.

On the subject of birthdays, I really got a haul this year. The computer I've been saving up forever to buy is finally bought, shipped, and has arrived. I now have to configure it to utilize the internet, and then add software for the things I want it to do. John called me and told me about a pile of software that I need to install immediately to avoid viruses, etc. It sounded all very complicated. I need to get him to write down the list of what has to be installed.

Before I can do that, though, I needed to get an internet connection for it, and I looked to T-Mobile to provide it. They currently have two deals to do that. One is a USB dongle that connects your computer to a 3G cell phone line. It's an elegant solution, but the monthly charge is a bit pricey, and there's a limit on how much use for each month.

The other one is a really great deal. Start-up costs include about $40 for a combination converter for a phone, wifi, and T-Mobile hot spot that plugs into your existing broadband connection, plus a $35 installation fee. Monthly fee is $10. For that you get an unlimited connection for a landline phone inside the US. If I'd wanted to call overseas, I could add $5 additional. Also, unlimited wifi and/or hotspot.

I had been planning for a while to get the $10 a month unlimited phone service for a while. The new hardware also includes wifi at no extra cost, and since I'm about to set up the computer right now, it seemed the perfect time.

Of course, that also means that I need an actual phone. Holly chipped in $22 of the total price to buy me a really nice phone, rather than the cheapest one from WalMart that didn't have all the features I wanted. The one I got has everything I could possibly want in a phone: volume control on the ringer, with several different ringer sounds that I can really hear, and that won't sound like the phone on a TV show; volume control on the handset; it's cordless; 50 name/number phonebook (this is what I need to program); and I can plug in the headset I already have!

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I got this far in my post, and Lynn called to wish me a happy birthday. I told her all about my new phone and gave here the number and her cell phone battery ran out, so she called me on the new phone! My first call on the new phone was my sister, to wish me a happy birthday! How cool is that?

She also had some news that was a little less happy. She's been diagnosed with a macular hole in her eye, and had surgery for it on Wednesday. She's off from work for a while, and at home recuperating. If everything goes the way we hope, she'll have all her vision back in about 6 months. As of right now, she can't see out of her right eye. So far, everything seems to be going perfectly. I'm glad that it's fixable, and that it looks at this point that she'll be OK, but I feel bad for her that she had to go through it. At this point, it's a major nuisance, but that's so much better than losing the vision in that eye. It would drive me crazy, though, if I had to go through it, so I feel really feel bad for her.

I told her that from time to time I feel sorry for myself that I'm losing my hearing (especially since I really believe that I don't need to, but that doctors don't care or feel I'm worth bothering about), but then I think that if I had a choice between losing my hearing or vision, I'd definitely want to keep my vision. Lynn said I need to get another eye exam soon, and I'll have to investigate that, and plan to do it in September.

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There will be two episodes of Merlin on tonight, and if I'm not mistaken, these will be the end of the season for the series.

Also, The Chronicles of Narnia will be on tonight on ABC Family. Naturally, with two good things, they'll be on at the same time (at least for part of the shows).

I hope you're having as much fun as I'm having!

Oooops!

In my last post, I said several things about the future that did not come to pass.

Sorry!

I was looking at the wrong day when I said what would be on TV. It was not, in reality shown on Monday night, but on Tuesday night.

And I intended to put up something biographical yesterday. But I seem to be suffering from terminal shyness.

Also, computer problems.

When I got my iMac, it was a present from a friend, and it was not brand new. The keyboard would sometimes type two letters when I hit a key only once. The mouse would sometimes jump to a totally different location on the screen just as I was pressing the mouse button.

Now, it periodically locks one key on, and just keeps typing the same key. The key isn't stuck down. I don't know what's wrong with it, but it's an occasional challenge.

And the mouse has gone from a mild annoyance to almost impossible to deal with. I'm using the keyboard for scrolling and stuff as much as possible. It quit working at all (once in a while) until it was unplugged and replugged in months ago. Then that happened with increasing frequency. Now it's to a point where I have to unplug it and replug it in each time I want to point and click. Sometimes I have to replug to point and then again to click.

If you don't hear from me for a few days, it's because of input problems.

I am taking steps to replace the keyboard, and, more urgently, the mouse. I'm amazed at how expensive replacements are, though.

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I was amazed that I got some feedback from the last post!

The supernova I provided a link for is 190,000 light years away. Without thinking about it, it seemed like it would be a long time until we could possibly have any effects from this. But when I actually stopped and thought about it, it seems like it must've happened 190,000 years ago since we can see it. So, the question is, how fast are these effects traveling? If they were traveling at light speed, they'd already be here. The next question is, will there be any noticeable effects here on earth?

The article didn't answer either of these questions.

There is a link on the article, which will take you here. They didn't answer the questions, either, but the article has some incredible photos of supernovas. There's an article here about the birth of a different supernova. The photo above is Kepler's Supernova, and you can find out more about it, and other supernovas here.

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I talked to John yesterday, via instant messaging chat, and he sent me some of the photos that he'd taken at Comic Con.

This first one is of Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jamie Kennedy signing autographs.

The next one is of one of the power girls at the con. John said that there were many, many power girls, and I think there's a whole page of power girls that were just at SD Comic Con, but John said that he particularly liked this one, both for her costume, and for choosing a costume that was perfect for her body type.

Unfortunatly, he didn't get the name of this lovely lady. If you know who she is, give us a shout. We'd love to credit her with having such great taste.

And we have yet another mystery photo. John swears that the person on the left is "somebody famous," and is sure he knows who the person is, but is suffering brain freeze. And I can't say that I am any better at the "name the famous person" game. So, if you know who this is, let me know in the comments, and you'll be putting up a credit for the photo.

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There's a thunderstorm getting ready to strike, and I want to get off the computer right away, so I'm going to stop posting now.

Have a great evening and don't miss Leverage!