My super cool TV remote that I got for myself back on my birthday brings me much joy. It's the first universal remote that I've actually used as a universal remote. In the past I've only gotten other remotes to replace a non-functioning component remote, and I've generally used said replacement remote for that component only. This time, it was a little different because my goal was to get a universal remote that I would actually use as such, thus getting rid of the 3 or 4 remotes that I found I kept on the end table. Plus, I had grown to despise the TV remote. Scroll wheels for channel surfing and volume control aren't as nifty as I originally thought.
My favorite feature of the Logitech remote I got is that it's programmed through the PC. You hook it up through a USB connection, connect to the Logitech website, and then go through a wizard where you select your components which in turn programs all the appropriate buttons. Easy as cake. Afterward, you go through a wizard which sets up 1-button macros. For instance, there's a button for "Watch DVD", which goes through the process of turning the TV on, setting the TV to the appropriate channel and aspect ratio, turns on the DVD player, and automatically presses play. As much as I use my TV for watching DVDs (just finished watching my 100th episode of Star Trek Voyager last night!), I thought that would be a pretty handy button.
But it's an annoying button.
Somewhere along the way pressing the "Watch DVD" button cycles the TV to the next language in the language list. It's not that important. The only hting I usually see n the TV are the channel number and volume level. But the thing that bothers me is how hard it is to change the language back to English. Once the language has been changed to French, German, Spanish, Klingon, whatever, I have to remember that the language menu is a sub-menu under another option - an option that is not readily apparent when presented in a foreign language. I've gotten to where I remember "next to last menu option, then select the last option for languages".
The odd thing I've noticed is that the language selections are in the language that is currently selected. If I'm in Spanish mode, I have to remember that Spanish for English is Inglés. Shouldn't the language selections be listed in the native language? I would have to hate to have to pick English if I was stuck in Manadarin. The Logitech site lets you properly select your language. I've been scarred to change the language of my remote to see if it has reasonable language changing syntax for fear I can't get back.
Maybe I just need a smarter TV. Can you upgrade the RAM in one of those things?
Did you ever have one of those weeks where you have a lot to do, and actually it's a lot that you want to do, and the one thing that seems to get in the way is work? I think I'm going to end up having one of those weeks.
Last week I made a list of things to do over the course of the week, including the weekend. When I made the list, I looked at it and said to myself that even while trying to be reasonable with the time I had allotted, there was no way I was going to get it all done. In fact, there were notes by some of the tasks that said if I get around to it.
I've taken to making a list early in the day to try and plot out the things I want to accomplish that day and a plan for the next couple of days. It sounds like a Jerry-ish thing to do, what with his list-making obsession and low tech stack of index cards, but it works. At least it works better than nothing, since if I go to the trouble of writing something down, especially multiple times over the course of a few days, I'm more apt to try and get it done, or at the very least decide it's not worth doing right now and should be rescheduled for later, as opposed to not thinking I've got anything to do as I plop down on the couch and watch Star Trek all weekend.
I managed to get a lot of the little things done I've been putting off for a while, most of which were little tweaks or fixes for various websites that I'm either maintaining or working on. I haven't gotten the headway I've wanting on making the big switch from Paint Shop Pro to Photoshop. I've got some Poser projects that need some file organization before I can really get started there. I've committed myself to either finally learning Flash (I get stuck at about the same point in any of the 4 or 5 Flash books I've got) or I'm just going to give it up completely.
So today I will write out a new list. Some of the items from the old list will fall to the wayside. Some will get pushed off until next weekend. A few get marked off as DONE! Part of me wants to make this an administrative web tool, but I would have to schedule the time to write it on my list. How's that for a quandary? Or is it more of a conundrum? I could always just use what's out there, but where's the fun in that?
It's been a while since I got a good piece of spam to amuse me.
Dear Friend,
I'm a friend of a bank manager! In Africa!
I am the manager of Auditing and Accounting department of BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A) here in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of US$15m dollars (FIFTEEN MILION US DOLLARS)
I wonder if there was this pile of money just laying in the floor?
in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer (MR. ANDREAS SCHRANNER from Munich, Germany)
Looking at Google, this guy gets around...
who died along with his entire family in Jully 2000 in a plane crash.
It's best to not fly in Jully. Or Junne.
For more information about the crash you can visit this site:( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm)
I would have put up a link to the bbc page, but it doesn't exist any longer.
Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless some body applies for it
Any type of body will do.
as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidlings and laws but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at the plane crash
I think this was the plot of King Ralph. I never knew King Ralph was a documentary!
leaving nobody behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill.
The banking law and guidline here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after Six years, the money will be transfered into the bank treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of foreigner as next of kin in this business is occassioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabe cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner. I agree that 30% of this money will be for you as a respect to the provision of a foriegn account , 10% will be set aside for expenses incurred during the business and 60% would be for me
Oddly enough, that really is 100%.
Thereafter, I will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentage indicated Therefore, to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you arranged,you must apply first to the bank as relation or next of kin of the deceased with a text of application form that i will send to you when i hear from you,so i will like you to send to me your private telephone and fax number for easy and effective communication and location where in the money will be remitted.
For easy communication, I will receive the text of application form through my private telephone. I think Yoda is really a bank manager in Africa!
Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text of the application . I will not fail to bring to your notice this transaction is hitch-free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer.
I am now free of all fear atoms and him hitch free.
You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this letter.
Trusting to hear from you immediately.
Yours Faithfully,
DR ABUDULAHI ISA,
MANAGER AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT
BANK OF AFRICA.
Over the weekend, and in to yesterday, I had a case of what my grandmother would always call "the crud". It being the 70's, when grandparents were automatically bestowed with an MD on the birth of the first grandchild, I always though of the crud as an actual illness. I felt bad. I was sick. I had the crud. I was given medicine and then I would feel better. Now that I'm older, I wonder just what the medicine that cures the crud is.
I only know I have the crud (maybe it should be "Crud"?) because it's not a cold, not a flu, not an upset stomach. It's some weird combination that, were I to ask my grandmother, she would almost immediately diagnose as the Crud (yes, I believe in this case "Crud" is more appropriate than "crud"). She would then give me the medicine for the Crud, which she would always have in a cabinet. Perhaps the Crud is cured by whatever left over medicine that is present in the cabinet? If so, I wonder if expiration dates are important?
It's been a while since I fell before the onslaught of the Crud. I guess I had gotten to the point of thinking of it more like a childhood malady, such as Chicken Pox, Polio, or the Black Plague. I remember often being diagnosed with "a bad case of the mully grubs" by my grandmother. The only cure I really remember for this was eating cookies at the kitchen table. I wonder if the Crud was immune to the healing properties of the cookie?
Slightly less fatal during my childhood were cases of:
I hope I can avoid the rest of my childhood illnesses. Maybe I need to go raid my grandmother's cabinet for some medicine?
I love playing around with computer graphics (or maybe that should be "graphics on the computer"). I always have. I've never been an expert, but I like to think I'm just a little better than the average person. The majority of my graphics work has been done using versions of Paint Shop Pro. Paint Shop Pro is now up to version 10, and I bought version 7 a couple of years ago and more than got my money's worth out of it - especially after using the trial of version 5 long after was "legally" allowed. With the latest version of Paint Shop Pro, it's changed ownership from Jasc to Corel. A couple of months back I got the upgraded version 10 and played around with it a little, but found myself going back to version 7 more often than not. It seems I just don't like Paint Shop Pro 10.
There's nothing really wrong with Paint Shop Pro 10 (or Paint Shop Pro 7, other than it's a little dated), there's just some subliminal part of the program that turns me against it. I've also been finding that there are things I want to try to do, or learn to do, that are difficult in Paint Shop Pro since all the cool kids are using Photoshop, hence most of the tutorials and explanations are Photoshop-centric.
I've put off diving into the Photoshop world due to the learning curve of getting me to my Paint Shop Pro-level of knowledge, but the more I look at what I would be able to do after that initial learning period is making me ready to commit myself to making the switch. So last night I went out downloaded a trial version of Photoshop to see how painful this is all going to be. Hopefully I'll survive. I just have to try not to fall back on Paint Shop Pro 7 too quickly.
As always, correct spelling is optional in any blog entry. Keep in mind that any links more than a year old may not be active, especially the ones pointing back to Russellmania (I like to move things around!).
Tags have been added to posts back to 2005. There may be an occasional old blog that gets added to the tag list, but in reality what could be noteworthy from that far back?
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