were you in a club?

I was asked recently if I have ever been in a club or on a sports team. Presumably they meant in high school or college, since it should be obvious to current friends that the only thing I might be good at is competitive reading. I actually did try to join the cross country team in my freshman year. Got shin splints, but did enjoy the running for quite a while in my youth. The main problem with this or any club was that I lived so far away from my high school, and both my parents worked. There was no public transportation, so I either ride the schoolbus at its designated time or my parents could maybe pick me up after their work, like say, when dark fell. It just didn't work out. For a while, I resented that I couldn't do those things. In my senior year, I tried to start a science club. That would have been pretty cool, but, like most clubs, it required that someone do a hell of a lot of legwork to make it happen. I was clueless and had no help, so it fizzled. It didn't help that I still wasn't driving even though I was 17. This time, I only had myself to blame. I think I was a lot easier on myself than on my parents!
Now days, with a daughter of my own, I rethink the necessity of clubs, sports and other organized activities. If you are (or have) a child that enjoys doing something, great, you should make time for it, even sacrifice some. BUT, if you don't enjoy something, there doesn't need to be some social stigma against you. You shouldn't have to part of an organized anything to show that you are a 'good person', as in the requirements of most colleges for extra-curricular activities. What is wrong with hanging out with friends, having a garage band, or hell, being a loner? I was more of a loner, which probably explains the olympic-level reading I was doing. If you're a hiker, why do you have to join a society and be a card-carrying member to prove it? And why should it matter if you do? Or don't? Why the hell is it anyone's business but your own?! I guess I resent the intrusion of the question.

windows xp on an eee

Okay, so you know by now how much I like those little netbooks, particularly the Asus brand. I have played with installing ubuntu, and it works very well for web browsing, email (only tested gmail, but it works), picking up wireless with aplomb. Sometimes, though, you just long for windows. I have games that only work on windows. Sure, I did find linux versions of the game, but it is like playing atari pong instead of a wii. And then there is the mp3 and wma issue. Yes, I like my music, but even more, I like audiobooks, which I can download from netlibrary and overdrive, populate my portable device (I prefer Creative players) and listen to just about anywhere and anytime. That does not come easily on linux, particularly if it is only windows media files. I haven't tried WINE, just heard horror stories of trying to run windows programs on linux.

So I got a second eee, windows xp home version, and it is nice, but at only (*only* because I just got rid of my 386 desktop that ran win95 by way of electronics recycling) 8 gigabytes, there just isn't a whole lot of space leftover from the O.S. Still, I managed to fit the Media Player 11 on it, and iTunes, and with an SD card, could actually fit a book. And it still surfed the web, but it was slow. The half-speed processor, and the half-gig of ram definitely showed up in long boot and shutdown times and long times to start big programs.

Bigger is better, right? So I got a Solid State Drive in the 16gig size. I finally got it to work with updated BIOS from ASUS' website. Now, how to install windows on the big one? Well, first I had to experiment with getting an install of XP pro on the smaller one.

First I looked into "microXP" which is a pirated, stripped down copy of the real thing. It supposedly has Browzar, a browser that will allow you to download Firefox (for free). First, it was hard obtaining a zip file of microxp without having to shell out some money to hosting sites or answer a bunch of 'offers', second, my copy of microxp only had a shortcut to Browzar, not the actual program, so I was stuck! Couldn't get a browser to get a browser. It did work otherwise, and had a much smaller

watch out for Ubuntu updates!

I saw updates were ready for my ubuntu eeepc, so I downloaded them as usual yesterday. When I got back from shopping, one piece had not updated properly, but I gave it no notice, and followed the recommendation for rebooting.

And then, my firefox wouldn't work. At All! I could click on it, it would give me the little clockface symbol (like the annoying microsoft hourglass it mimics, its appearance is often bad news). And nothing, no window, no nuthin. A reboot didn't help.

Since I couldn't search the web to find an answer, and I verified my connection to internet was working (in fact, I could get and send email, but still no web browsing), I decided to try the ubuntu software center.

I tried to unload firefox in order to reload a fresh copy. That didn' t work at all. I tried Synaptic Package Manager to reload firefox, and it gave me errors. Most of the errors were with xulrunner, and I tried to redownload it as well, and the errors persisted.

Finally, I had to remove firefox, all its subcomponents like ubufox and branding, and xulrunner.
Then I went to the terminal prompt to do the command line: sudo apt get install firefox-3.5. With it came the ubufox, branding and xulrunner.
And it worked! Firefox now works again, even retaining my bookmarks and search history.

I don't know what went wrong other than I got a non-working xulrunner for some reason, but a fresh copy fixed it, as long as I removed the bad copy first.

Sudo - the command that does it all. Its as powerful as a sumo doing judo. Sudo.

midway to my skokie station

I would take the L (CTA) train
first the Orange line to the loop
then the Red North
then the Yellow to Skokie aboard the Howard Swift

This may need to be edited for accuracy

radio stations to listen to in the Philly area

104.5
88.5 Penn
93.3 mainstream rock (alternative, heavy)
102.1 pop
94.5 pop

new years resolution

I already have my resolution for 2010.

I resolve to perform at least one hour of yard work per non-rainy weekday, every day that I am home. (can't promise it if I am out of town, sorry).

Between raking, mowing, composting, and removing weeds, this shouldn't be too difficult. The only hard part is sticking to it. I started today even though it was Saturday, it was a great day to start.

In other news, dear daughter and I rescued 13 earthworms from certain death in the gutter. The heavy rain last night was enough to drive a bunch of worms out of the ground, and many ended up drowning in the collected water. The baker's dozen I got surely would have perished when the rainwater dried up. Now they have a comfortable home in my worm bin, eating apple cores, banana peels, orange rinds and bread crusts. Yay worms!

how am I doing?

Pretty good actually. I got my book club book on Monday, and had it finished by Wednesday noon, six hours to spare for book club. Not only that, it was WOnderful, and I never would have picked it on my own, but that is WHY I love book club so much, because I get introduced to these great reads. This one was Sleeping with Schubert by Bonnie Marsden and it was about a woman who becomes co-inhabited by the spirit (mind?) of Franz Schubert. I like some classical music, love music in general, so the premise was appealing, the characters were well-drawn, not always like-able, but realistic, and the writing was very good, fast paced, II never got bored. Do I believe in spirits coinhabiting one body or a 'walk-in' phenomenon if you prefer? I have no opinion to its validity. It hasn't happened to me or anyone I know, but I cannot discount its possibility.
The christmas present acquisition is going slow. I have become reclusive, and so that means I haven't been going out to shop. I know I need to, but I may have to torture my housemates (husband and daughter, not cats) by bringing them along, just to get enough energy to do it. I could use the help. However, I did order stuff on-line, and I did wrap what I have at home, so I am doing well, I think.
I unpacked from the last trip and washed all the laundry. didn't necessarily put it all away...but I just have to pack again anyway, so why NOT let it sit on my bed another night or two rather than having a fun sleepover in the drawers. Think of it as camping...for clothing. Weird, I know.
I did do some fun things: I watched a DVD I have had for two years, and now I finally saw it. I also put on my Vince Guiraldi (Peanuts Christmas) CD because it is the ONE that makes me think of the upcoming season with fondness, nostalgia, and the true meaning of giving gifts. May that peace be with me (and you!) as we shop in the next week...