I have to stop getting new toys

As I posted previously my faithful dell desktop died over the weekend. It died maybe a half hour after I ordered a net book. Since I had already ordered it I kept the order open, and went and bought a new Desktop too. The net book came today. The timing was almost perfect, as I just finished finagling the desktop's settings to my preferences. I had some new free time to play with my new 10.1 in Acer Aspire one. Yes, it has plenty of negative feedback on Amazon. Oddly enough most of the complaints were about featured that are vital to the machine staying tiny. The keyboard is as you might expect small. It doesn't have an optical drive, and heaven forbid the horribly cheap net book have a shiny cover that attracts fingerprints. I've been playing for a few hours, and overall I like. The keyboard is tiny, but that is to be expected. It's not as fast as my new desktop. I wouldn't expect a computer with a tiny processor and 1 GB or RAM to keep up with a dual core 6 GB RAM desktop, and comparing them is ridiculous anyway. This thing is faster than my old Dell desktop was, so what is every one's problem. The whole point of this machine is tiny dimensions, light weight, and battery life. The goal is being able to stay connected and obsessively check your e-mail. I bought it to bring on vacation to backup pictures i might take, read and write text documents, search the web, and I guess blog. I consider it an improvement over a kindle. it doesn't have nifty electronic paper, but it has a closer to full size keyboard, plenty of storage space, and isn't useless for anything but reading books. I bought in because including the 6 cell (7-8 hrs projected) battery it still weights less than 3 lbs. It weighs less than my camera bag with three lenses in it. So far it's silent, the battery has lasted about 3 hrs, the keyboard isn't messing me up any more than my normal keyboard does, and the stupid mouse pad thing mostly works. If only I could get the CAPS LOCK to play that tone when it's clicked, so far that's my only complaint. it connected to my network within 3 minutes of being turned on the first time, my new Vista box took 2 hours to install a piece of crap (ie cheapest one available) wireless card. It even looks like the keyboard is inset enough that it won't touch the screen at all when it's closed, avoiding the marking problem my mother's 7 lb laptop has. Of course after my spending spree on computers I'm back to buying food for me, food for the critters and gas for a few months. At least the computers work though, and it's not like I have any other expensive hobbies. Next reptile show is in two weeks, here's hoping I don't come home with another $50 lizard. p.s. I went to Moose hill this morning, and might have some moss and snowdrop pictures posted later.

Sucked into Vista

Though my desktop computer isn't dead yet, it wasn't acting healthy again. (It waited about 1/2 an hour after I ordered a net book to crap out.) I've already replaced the hard drive 3 times. As much as I like XP I really didn't want to install it again. It also technically has less memory and ram than the current standard for new net book laptops, so it is I'll admit a bit outdated. So I gave in. Since my computer was acting up I'd just copied everything to discs and my backup drive. Within minutes of finishing my copying XP stopped loading correctly. I gave up and got a Dell box from Best Buy. 6 GB of RAM, and a 750GB hard drive, and almost the only one in the store with no Wireless Card included. Windows Vista 64 bit, and so far only one of my programs doesn't work. It looks like my scanner, and maybe printer won't work either. (Both of those should work on my net book, so it isn't a big deal.) If I have to I'll update to the newest Windows OS when it comes out provided it isn't worse than Vista. WOO HOO scanner works. Yeah, I'm still installing and tweaking. I have to install some kind of backup program that can backup everything including hidden files. The free program that came with my backup drive isn't able to do that, so everything ends up on DVD too. Amazingly enough I got all my Outlook Express e-mails imported into that Window's Mail program, and Firefox works quite well. I'm letting it run the Windows firewall until further notice. After I got rid of all the trays and crap running on the sides of the desktop it isn't that hard to deal with. I don't really like the All programs setup, but I don't use it that much anyway, so it isn't too bad. I didn't like the new Music and Pictures locations, but iTunes didn't have any issues, and seems to function quite well, so I can deal. Even my old Office 97 stuff worked. Overall it seems I waited long enough for the most annoying bugs to be worked out. If nothing else I now have a box that used newer more standard parts at least for a while. As you can see above though I lost some fonts.

Four Hours and Only One Blister...

So, since that 4 foot fence didn't seem to be setting itself up, at four this afternoon I started pounding in fence posts. I blame that first post that didn't have to be repositioned for the next 4 hours. My blister happened after barely 4 fence posts, and I ended up putting in 18. All the other ones had to be moved multiple times for hitting rocks (gotta love New England soil). I only had to return to Home Depot once, though I did run out of fence and have to improvise for the last 10 feet or so. It also doesn't have a gate. The people who were supposed to put the fence up have been told I just need a gate now. Things with moving parts I've found don't agree with me. I'll be leaving the internal fences in for a while (as long as I can stand climbing over them) to see if crazy dog gets past the 4 foot one. I give it maybe a day before I rip them down so I can at least rake the leaves.

Vegetables and Me

I feel I should admit this. I don't eat anything that I grow in the garden. I'm not a salad person, I've been unimpressed with tomatoes unless they're in sauce and most of the fruit I eat is tropical. I'd have quite the garden in say Florida. This year I'm trying again to grow cantaloupe melons, because it's the only thing I am likely to actually eat from the garden. I've tried sweet potatoes for several years, and it just never works out. We don't have a long enough period of frost free days to let them get bigger than red roots 1/2 an inch thick. Keep in mind I start the veggies inside in March, and keep them alive until late September or October. I do a ridiculous amount of work for something I don't even eat. My mother gets all the benefits of the garden, with almost no work on her part, beyond buying things like 4 foot fencing... Apparently I just like growing things. In the last 4-5 days I've planted about 200 seeds, some outside under cover, but most are in seed trays in the basement joining the peppers that have been there for almost a month. I'm experimenting with starting pepper seeds very early and maybe getting some peppers out of them before October unlike last year. This year I'm trying to concentrate on the more expensive plants, so tomatoes, organic lettuce, and peppers are the main point. I'm keeping in some radishes, some carrots, scallions that overwintered, a few beets, maybe some peas, and french green beans. I'll also be trying Cucumbers again, though it seems I refuse to water them enough to get good fruits out of them. I also hopefully planted all the tomato seeds I'm going to need. Who really needs 30 tomato plants anyway?

Planning and Plastic

In my quest this year to make the most of the vegetable garden I started my obsessive planning early this year. The calendar pages go from March to October with approximate frost dates and weeks to and from them to hopefully time planting to it's best advantage. I was going to start some seeds under cover this weekend, but we're re-fencing the garden first, so the dogs definitely can't get in it. Over the winter they figured out how to jump the fences, and it's been decided if I do all the work and in August one jumps the fence and eats everything I'm going to be hard pressed to not chase that dog to kingdom come. That is why our garden is going to have a 4 foot fence around it, same as the fence around the yard keeping the dogs in. It has also led to a more complete effort for a row-cover type of solution to plant as early as possible. Sadly it took me so long to make the real benefit will be much later, but I'll be trying it out as soon as the new fence is up. Here's my sketch and the final product covered with a cheap plastic 3mil drop cloth (needs some trimming). I might need to add wood bracers running the whole length, but until then, the $1.25 pvc pipes seem to be holding, provided it doesn't snow....

Childhood Memories for Sale

In the process of getting rid of useful things I don't need I finally sold my Sega Saturn. OK, it was technically only half mine and I had to split the money, but I got rid of it. It took nearly 4 months, and I had to settle for $30. (Seems like people buying games on craigslist are rather flaky.) I'm pretty sure the person who bought it will be reselling it for more anyway, since he really just wanted the games we had. Doesn't matter though. We didn't waste anywhere near as much time playing with it as we did with the Genesis. I think we bought three of those because they kept dying and we had lots of games, even though you couldn't really save so every time you wanted to play you started over. After the Saturn was gone I found our Game Gear, which was used even less than the Saturn. We only had two games for it. I checked its worth on eBay, and it isn't even worth selling. Something like 5 bucks for it and the games, even though it works. I guess I won't be selling it. Sadly enough for all that time I wasted in my childhood on video games, I only ever beat one game. Ecco II: Tides of Time on Game Gear. I only beat it because each time you beat a level it gave you a code to return, so you didn't have to start over like with the old sonic games, which I was pretty bad at. I now have about 12 PS2 games stuck at one point or another. I managed to beat Okami, which I find to be one of the best games I've ever played (though it took 72 hours), but I really like games where you aren't a person.

Everything is a Choice...Everything

A few months ago on my drive to work I had an epiphany. I don't HAVE to go to work. I CHOOSE to go to work. It is my life and if I chose to I could just go home and go back to bed. Now obviously I didn't do that. I went to work, but I found the fact that I chose to interesting. Yes, there would be repercussions if you don't go to work. Someone else might get your job because you didn't show. However no one is forcing anyone else to work. It might be a job you loathe, but you do choose to go there everyday. You may feel you have no other option, due to money needs and some such, but it all boils down to you choose to go. Remember that. So if nothing else when you think I have to go to work remember you don't HAVE to do anything you don't CHOOSE to do.

SF Gardening

This winter has been killing me. Daylight Savings Time finally ending was a salvation. I hate driving home in the dark and after months it's no longer a problem. This weekend it was even warm enough to call it maybe spring, or at least a nice prequel. When I first set up our vegetable garden 8 foot pieces of wood were the cheapest, so I made a 8 foot by 8 foot box. Quickly I decided it needed an aisle, or we were never going to be able to harvest the center. We lost about a foot in the middle. I then found The Square Foot Gardening book. I read it lightly a few years ago, and tried to follow the ideas with mixed results. Thanks to the economy this year I'm trying to get the most out of the garden, so went back to all the books I read previously. I found Square Foot Gardening again.

As I reread it one thing popped out at me. Something I'd ignored the first time. It only really works if you have the grid. If you don't have a grid you're out there trying to measure distance every time you plant something, and it never really works. I went and got some cheap 8 foot strips and then decided the grid didn't really work if you weren't using raised beds. I originally had set out with raised beds in mind, but gave up buying dirt and compost before it really got more than 2 inches high. With those two problems in mind this weekend I dug out one side of the garden and dropped it in the other side. Now I have one finished side with the grid, and one side we need to buy more dirt for. It's quite amazing though how much the grid helps with visualizing the amount of space you actually have. This year I even managed to set out the soaker hose, so won't be carting water like last year, at least not to that garden. The angle of the photo makes those squares look less even than they are in reality. I ended up buying the book when I noticed all the nice charts in the back with planting dated for various plants. I've found similar ones online, but not all next to each other, and I like encouraging helpful books.

Of Grackles and Ibis

I got back Tuesday from 5 days in Disney World. The new Everest roller coaster is excellent, and Tower of Terror is still as good as ever. We went to all four parks. I will say again to my entire family no one is getting me to ride Dinosaur again. I hate it. Every picture at the end is of me staring at the floor because I refuse to open my eyes or look up during it. I don't go to haunted houses for the same reason, I don't care that the wait was only 10 minutes. Back from my tangent though. One thing you can count on at Disney is birds. Huge numbers of tourist fed grackles, ibis and sparrows crowd all the parks. There are noticeable numbers of seagulls and ducks as well. They aren't as common though due to wires strung over eating areas that keep them from overflying. I even once saw a good sized heron on a table at Hollywood Studios. Oddly enough if you don't see the rat baiting boxes everywhere you won't guess at a rat problem. There weren't any squirrels or chipmunks on the tables though, just birds. The birds are so used to humans most of them let you get within a foot before the start checking you for food. A seagull at our resort actually dive bombed someone repeatedly trying to get a muffin. Grackles would sit at an empty chair at a table waiting for you to leave your food unattended. Ducks and Ibis wandered between the tables, and in some sections of the parks flew within an inch of heads. Of course this horrible behavior makes them easy to photograph with non telephoto lenses. My favorite lizard, and the first time I saw a wild lizard in Florida that wasn't an anole. I have tons more, though I'm not sure I'll post them. I also feel I should congratulate my cousin, sister and mother who all completed the Princess Half-Marathon in Disney that Sunday we were there. Technically that was the reason we were going to Disney before it snowballed into a family vacation.

On Bird Cages

I used to work in a pet store. I'll admit that's where some of the early critters came from. Our store policy had what I still find to be a very stupid line about birds. If a customer asked,"How big does a bird's cage have to be?" The answer was "big enough that it's wings don't touch the sides when spread." My answer which was deemed incorrect was what kind of bird? In my mind when I think bird I instantly think of those horrible small finch cages we used to sell, maybe 12" wide. According to store policy that was a fine finchcage. I always thought of it as slow torture for a bird set up to fly everywhere. That said I have a cockatiel named Max. Someone dumped it at that store going on 5 years ago. She was hand tame and friendly and came with a cage maybe 18" wide. I've since upgraded her twice. She now lives in a 36" by 24" by 30" flight cage. Technically it is a flight cage for smaller birds, but she hasn't complained about the space. So far I haven't experienced any negative behaviors even though I don't get her out of the cage as often as I should. I always feel guilty about not getting her out. A few months ago I was at an acquaintance's house and they had two unfriendly cockatiels. Both were in cages that when spread their wings would just fit. They wouldn't be able to flap them, but technically those cages were considered big enough. I suddenly stopped feeling guilty about my cockatiel. No, she doesn't get out as often as I'd like, but she has plenty of space to crawl around, I don't clip her wings and when she does get out she is still as nice as can be.

Spring Lied... We're all going to die by snow

Last week we had a high temp of 53 degrees, and I hoped we'd at least stay above freezing for a while. We only got 8-10" of fresh new snow. Maybe I should go snowshoeing tomorrow.

Cage Cleaning

Yesterday I cleaned out some cages, and upgraded my baby crested gecko from a tub to a tank. Cage cleaning always make the cresties sit in nice photogenic poses while they explore their clean tanks. I cleaned out the frog tank too, but all that does is get me a frog covered in dirt while he explores.

Arrow - Okeetee Corn Snake Juvie

Older Male Crestie

Hatchling, (hopefully female) crestie

Spring is Coming...if it feels like it

So far I've bought two gardening books this month. Hopefully they'll be my only ones of the season. I managed to restrain myself quite well so far about plants in bags, and seeds. I only got one bag of Ostrich Ferns (6 roots for $5) and some pepper seeds. Realistically I already have enough seeds for the other vegetables to last for years. In my seed starting I've started 12 lettuce seeds, and I'm trying to start 12 pepper seeds. The pepper seeds were started almost 12 weeks before planting time since they take absolutely forever outside to do anything, and I have enough light inside to hopefully keep them happy until Late May - Early June. They also give me something to concentrate on while the ice layer in the yard gives way to mud. The muddy sections look kind of like we keep pigs and they've been turning over the soil until you get close and see this. Unless I get sod it will look like this until June, when some annual grasses will emerge in a few sections of the yard. We've tried seed dozens of times and all it gets us is annual grasses. It takes too long, and can't stand up to dogs for well over a year.