Art and Science of Time Wasting

Hungry Vegan Chubby Vegan Commercial

2007-03-25T12:15:00.001-07:00

Hilarious spoof commercial. I think he gags after the 20 ounce green drink.

Too Many Blogs!

2006-11-29T07:09:00.000-08:00

When will it all end? today I'm checking out the best blogging software which led me to create links for WordPress and others, plus I found Scrapblog which apparently is a beta but could possibly be used for creating weight loss journals

I also created an account at PeopleAggregator.net

XDrive Not Great for Offline File Storage

2006-11-18T14:59:00.000-08:00

I tried XDrive.com as a possible place to keep/store extra copies of files today. To say it didn't work well would be kind. I downloaded the XDrive desktop app to my main computer and from there tried to upload my Library of e-books. I only chose a few files at a time and still it crashed totally twice. By crash I mean, it would not respond, I could not shut it down with Ctrl-Alt-Delete and basically I was screwed. The only option was to completely shut down my computer. Not a big time saver there.

Xdrive was also slow, miserably slow. I went to ride my bike and came back to find an error saying one of the files I was uploading wasn't found. I chose files on my hard drive to upload, so how it's not found is beyond me, but that's progress. I have a pretty short fuse when it comes to things crashing my system, so trying twice and failing twice is all it takes.

I'd take a pass on Xdrive, free isn't worth the aggravation.

Crap on my Desk

2006-10-30T20:36:00.000-08:00

I just noticed a little pile on my desk. I'm doing the "cleaning my desk" routine, but finding I keep setting and re-setting my timer for 8 minutes (that's the time I've chosen, but I never seem to stay on task that long).

I'd take a picture but my camera and cell phone (w/camera) are involved, so there you go. The pile has the following:

1. Mini pad of paper with pen on top in an artful manner.
2. My Med Sun dispenser which I use when I travel and why it's here, I don't know. It's got medications, aspirins, Rolaids, you know the critical stuff.
3. My blue tooth gadget--very cool and fun. Would be even neater if I really knew how to use it.
4. A cheap watch-lanyard (i have no idea how to spell that--it hangs off your belt, anyone care to help me here?) that I got at Walmart for a couple dollars. I happen to have a weird magnetic field that kills watch batteries. If I get nine months out of a battery, it's a miracle, consequently I have a hard time keeping a watch running. So, I got this thing, but I don't really know how to use it either. The instructions are written in about a 8 pt font which I can't read. Whatever.
5. My brand spanking new cell phone, which is my first. So I don't know how to use it either. I'm trying to learn, but cripes, it's got a ton of junk I'll never use cause I'm too cheap to get suckered into paying another $10 or $15 a month just so I can check e-mail on a 1" screen.
6. My real camera, which I do know how to use. So, one out of 8 isn't bad. Actually I know how to use the pad of paper and pen, and I can use my pill dispenser, so I'm not batting as poorly as I thought.

Neat little pile-o-crap, if I don't say. Now, how to organize this mess when I need to have it all handy, but don't want clutter? Good luck, my friendly voice is saying.

So, I took the watch thing to my jewelery box, and put the pill dispenser in the bathroom where it belongs. I plugged in my cell phone and blue tooth, so they're out of the way. I also put the camera in the drawer, where hopefully I'll remember it is when I want it again, so all that's left is a pad of paper with a pen angled just so. How artful I am. ;-)

Website Hosting: What's Best?

2006-10-30T20:30:00.000-08:00

Big question for sure. You want simple, and inexpensive, yet you want features and benefits, not just bells and whistles. Websites seem so complicated, yet they aren't really. One way to find out is get yourself a website host and start playing around; you can easily host a couple websites, one for go and one for show (or for my non-English friends, the real one and the play one).

I totally recommend Servage.net. They are an awesome hosting company, constantly offering more for your money and they are really responsive if you have questions. The link above includes a coupon which saves you $5 (I believe) the first month, or something like that anyway. It'll save you something, okay. Sheesh, do I have to remember everything?

Scour Those Nasty Spam Stains with MailWasher Pro

2006-10-30T20:22:00.000-08:00

Do you get a lot of e-mails that are simply unsavory? Want more tasty bits, and less bitter nonsense? Try MailWasher Pro for spam free e-mail, or at least as clean as you can go. I've been using it for several years and love it.

MailWasher Pro is software you run on your computer--not somewhere "out there" where other "web based" products live in the misty other world known as Cyberspace. MailWasher Pro is an excellent way to wade through your e-mail without fear of anything icky sticking to your toes; you'll also not lose important e-mails via overly aggressive filters--or worse, ISPs (listening Comcast?) that choose to toss your e-mails without giving you the opportunity to say yeah or nay. I hate that.

No business person should be using Comcast for e-mail, period. They throw away your e-mails and you don't even know. They blacklist thousands of companies including your doctor and lawyer and they are simply clueless about commerce. Plus, you still get plenty of spam via comcast servers so they can't even police themselves. Pure crap, and I strongly suggest if you are serious about running a business you get a Gmail.com address or some other address, anything but Comcast. Send me a message if you need a Gmail invite and I'm happy to send one along.

MailWasher Pro allows you to scan your e-mails, mark those you want to toss and even reply, all without downloading anything. When you're ready you can download the messages you want to keep. No more viruses, no more junk, unless you've okayed it first. It's great.

They have a trial and free version. The paid version gives a few more options but isn't a requirement. I've used the paid version because it's only a few bucks and so worth it, I want to support the developers. Try MailWasher Pro and send your e-mail woes packing.

Way Too Many Things, So Why Do I Add More?

2006-10-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

Buried, as usual. We're rearranging the house, again. It's going to be awhile before it's all straightened out since we still haven't moved Chuck's stuff up.

I think I worry too much about being able to find things, so it takes me longer than it should to file things away. Solution ideas:

1. EFT on worrying about finding things

2. EFT on "it takes me longer than it should."
How long should it take? Is that really my issue, or is it, "I just want this shit filed and it isn't getting done so I need to blame someone"?

Let's work on that.

Too Many Windows, Not Enough Time

2006-08-25T07:55:00.000-07:00

I'm facing my Firefox loaded presently with nine windows. Some of them are work I'm halfway through, some are things that caught my eye. Trouble is, I want to reboot my computer so now I'm stuck having to make favorites or write lists or some other means of keeping track of what I need to do.

Here's Where I am Today:

Matt Cutts: Oh, I'm a gadget lover, that much is for sure. Any blog about gadgets and you'll find me happily wasting hour after hour reading. Too many words, not enough time should be my motto.

FeedDirect.com - I saw something I liked at a website, checked the code and saw it came from FeedDirect.com. That led me to monkey around with it for awhile. Nice. If someone would pay me to do this, I'd love it.

WhiteWaterPix.com Our annual trip white water rafting on the Deschutes out of Maupin, Oregon was the third weekend in August. Awesome time. Many deaths and drownings this year which has caused business to be low, but it's not the river's fault. Pair up drinking, rushing water and no life vests is one recipe for disaster, and heart attacks will happen anywhere. It's not the river's fault, nor should people shy away from Maupin. Pay attention to the water level, if it's high then water is rushing faster but there are less rocks to worry about.

I just hang on for dear life as all my photos can attest. Everyone else is smiling and laughing and there I am looking like a statue carefully posed. No way I'm falling out of that boat.

So I was going to find our photos from this trip and naturally couldn't find the little slip of paper where I wrote down our roll numbers; you track the time of day and can easily find the pics but don't keep that and you're in trouble since trying to find yourself amongst hundreds of boaters isn't easy.

Paypal in a window. Boring, I know. I'm supposed to send money to someone, but who wants to do that when there are other fun things to do?

Bank of America Sucks and is a thorn in my side. I'm purposely trying to create a link so they'll find it and send me a letter or something about this.

Here's the deal: I closed a business account eight months ago but someone keeps sending a $5/monthly charge to the account and good ole Bank of America keeps reopening the account without my authority, then sending me an overdraft notice for $33. What ass wipes. I swear. I've already gone once in person and called four times for them to knock it off, but it keeps happening. I hate Bank of America. I cannot imagine they can legally reopen a closed bank account but there you go. They are sure doing it. Over and over and over. It's a rough row to hoe for a procrastinator like me since I'm having to do a chore that I hate over and over.

My folks are selling their 5th wheel trailer, so anyone needing a 5th wheel, check it out at Trailer.OneMoreBite.com. They lived in this trailer, and traveled the country in it as well so it's sturdy and built for live-in comfort. They are willing to take any offers at this point since they no longer have a place to park the rig, so now's a good time.

So, that's all. Now the windows are closed and I can restart the computer. Nice.

Useless Wanderings or Important Business? You Decide

2006-05-17T05:45:00.000-07:00

Here's where I was yesterday, still left open in my browser this morning:

Checking OneMoreBite-Weightloss.com my EFT weight loss program's site stat's at Google Site Maps.

Visiting Skype.com again. I signed up, tried it, didn't work well, quit, now i'm looking again and again... Anyone having great success with Skype? I found some people I called said they couldn't hear me well and that doesn't bode well for business calls.

Yahoo Calendar. Is this worth bothering? Why do I constantly try to work with different calendars anyway?

Checking into moving some sites to Westhost.com. I had a note from a year or more ago in another "to do" area, so here I am again. ;-)

Visiting and reading Techworld.com. These tech sites can be time wasters, that's for sure. Too much to read on a million subjects.

Checking into my own Unicity site for Bios Life Complete; that's the fiber product that lowers cholesterol, stabilizes blood sugar and reduces appetite. Still haven't figured out how to market it since it does so many things and all would appeal to my clients at One More Bite Weight Loss. If anyone wanders by who wants to make secure income from their websites, let me know. I'm looking for a couple more partners.

Back to Flickr.com. Now I came across Food Porn, via another blog about food and it took me straight back to Flickr.com. Now I, myself, have not posted any photos so this is sort of silly, but hey, you gotta start somewhere, right?

Visiting PostSecret.com -- now this is a great site but I spend way too much time here. People send in homemade post cards with their innermost thoughts. I'll bet this turns into a tabletop book, if it hasn't already.

So, that's all I have open in this browser anyway. I also have on my desk:

1. Editing Session 5
2. Misc stuff for my Weight Loss Newsletter, Bits-n-Bites For People Who Chew, late as usual.
3. I need to join a local women's organization because I'm going to the first meeting tonight.
4. Few misc. items also for my newsletter, mentioned above, including the Ultra Fabo, Fat-Free French Fries cooker. Dumbest cooking tool I've seen in a long time, BTW.

Books scattered everywhere, as usual. I picked up 15 on hold at my favorite place, the Fort Vancouver Regional Library, a couple days ago and there's more waiting now. Egads. I've got through about four of those already though.

Finished reading a great book, Loser Goes First, by Dan Kennedy. First picked it up because I thought, Dan Kennedy, you know the marketing guru? But, no, I don't think it's the same guy cause this Dan Kennedy never says boo about marketing or sales or anything like that. Instead he tells stories from his childhood about becoming a rock star any day now just as soon as he gets some instruments, learns to play, writes some songs, gets the songs listenend to, and so on. How certain writers are able to go back and pull memories with so much rich detail is just beyond me.

Read Loser Goes First. It's serious funny.

Okay, to work I go. Got up at 5 AM, it's now 6:08 AM and this is what I've done so far:

Listed what I did yesterday. Sheesh.

Where I've Been Today...

2006-05-11T11:11:00.000-07:00

Everywhere but where I should be, which is working. LOL

Who else doesn't get a damn thing done ever since the Internet was invented by Al Gore? Thanks Al. Gives me one more reason to hate you.

Today it's still early but let's take a look at what I've been up to:

Hobby Ideas. I have no time for hobbies so I'm constantly looking into ideas to start a new one. Present themes are gardening (I love flowers) which leads to photography (close ups of flowers); making glass beads with a torch ah, moulton glass you haven't lived until you've splashed some on yourself -- this is fun really. I've started to actually learn this but I don't have time to do it often so I'll likely always be really shitty at it.

What else? Growing things that normal people shouldn't try to grow. I found a link to a kid's essay on how she grew her own chocolate and eventually turned it into a candy bar. Neato, I'm thinking. I want to do that, so off I go looking for where to buy the Cacao plant. That was harder than I thought.

Obviously a tropical plant might have a rough time in the Pacific NW, but what, me worry? Nah. I've also ordered a Hoodia plant (also a dessert grower), and recently bought a ton load of roses and assorted other plants I'm sure to kill in a year or two. I was told it's hard to kill roses, but yes, I killed two bushes last year. They disappeared. Either that or someone came and stole them, but I seriously doubt it.

My foray into the photo realm lead to me looking into digital cameras for taking those micro close-ups. I still don't know much, so I'm sure to spend tons more time there.

My husband bought us a new lawn mower the other day. I told him, "Good thing you didn't give me the assignment because by now I'd have about 50 links, tons of reviews, been looking into blogs, maybe joined a Yahoo Group or two and so forth, plus I'd still be no closer to choosing the best lawn mower of all time because it probably doesn't exist.

I swear, I've turned into my father. He used to drive everyone crazy because he'd want to go to five different stores since one had the best price on nails and another a good deal on milk, but here I do it too. Dang.

All this, and it's not even 11:30.