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Hind sight is 20/20

Ms. Babble — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:41:14 +0000

Last night I spent most of my evening transfering files to an external hard drive from my laptop. Recently I started to notice the hard drive of my laptop making a clicking noise occasionally. It’s been happening for at least a week now so I checked my warranty information and saw that I was covered on all parts through the end of December.

I gave Dell a call (or, a chat since I spoke with one of their techs via instant messenger). After an hour of troubleshooting, they determined that they would simply replace the hard drive for fear that it’s showing signs of the “click of death“. (Which apparently is not curable and has been a scourge on the hard drive community since it’s birth. Jerry Lewis should really get on that one. “The Jerry Lewis Telethon to Support a Cure for Hard Drive Clicking Death” has a nice ring to it.)

Five hours later, I had transferred a bulk of my dying hard drive to an external 500 GB drive in preparation for the replacement en route by Dell. (Nearly 80 GB worth of personal files NOT including the O/S or Adobe programs.)

During this process my Dad said to me, “Remember the first computer I got years ago? Things have really changed since them.”

I do remember our families first computer for Christmas many years ago. I must have been only 10 or 11 years old at the time. Maybe even younger. That would put the year around 1990 or 1991. The computer ran on DOS and had only one five and a quarter inch floppy drive. My Dad reminded me of the excitement we all felt when he “upgraded” to TWO five and a quarter inch floppy drives so that we could copy files to another disc. And the hard drive on that bad boy? It was HUGE (cough…at the time). Only 20 Megs. Ouch. That’s less memory than most standard digital cameras have internally WITHOUT a memory card!

That conversation sparked a memory of typing lines of BASIC code that was given to me by my Uncle S. with the promise of a new cool DOS game. The only problem was that I didn’t have enough attention to detail and inevitably mistyped one of the thousands of characters from the 20-page BASIC code print out.

But it was an exciting prospect having the power to type in random letters and numbers with the promise of playing “Lemmings” on DOS.

Later in high school, I enrolled in a True BASIC programming course. It was an experimental class at the time since computers still hadn’t become the social phenomenon they are today. The Windows O/S had already taken over personal computers but we were still only surfing the net via dial-up on AOL (and being charged by the hour for it too). My final project was coding a tic-tac-toe game in True BASIC. It was the most amazing accomplishment of my life at the time. I was 17.

Computers then seemed like a fun hobby. I was in love with the internet, just like everyone else. I enjoyed computers games (Wolfenstein, anyone?), just like everyone else. But I never considered it something to make a living from. While I enjoyed my programming class in High School, I didn’t have enough confidence to continue learning in college. Plus, it required WAY too many math courses for my comfort.

Thus the Liberal Arts degree in English.

Today, everything just clicked with me. Even though I have a degree in English and Creative Writing, I am constantly going back to the computer. I’m learning to scratch an income out of Website Publishing and teaching myself enough to get by on CSS website design. After all these years of the computer being “just a hobby”, I’m realizing that maybe it’s more than that and it should have always been more than that. From the moment we got that old DOS PC on Christmas 18 odd years ago, I’ve been in love with computers.

Maybe it’s supposed to be this way. Maybe I was supposed to learn how to write and think analytically on the liberal arts side before I could couple that with learning how to write and think analytically on the technical side. Perhaps putting those two pieces together are where I’ll finally find that success I’ve been searching for the last decade.

Just as I said, hindsite really is 20/20.

Review of Celebrations.com

American Babble — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:32:09 +0000

The following is a paid review and is completely of my own opinion and is not influenced by being paid. If you’re interested in having me review your site or product, please message me via my contact page.

It’s that time of the year, everyone. Christmas, New Year, Thanksgiving, Hannukha, Kwanza… It’s Christmaskwanzika time! That’s exactly why I decided to check out Celebrations.com for their party ideas.

I’m actually pretty blown away with this site. Let me just start out with the design. It’s super easy to navigate and also easy on the eyes. The most important links are at the top of the page, above the fold, so that new users can get right started on finding ideas for their party.

One of the other great features of the site is the “Party Map” powered by Google Maps. It’s a short cut way to map out that party you’re going to or an easy way for your guests to find your party. Once you create your party online, fill out the location details, date, and time, and Celebrations.com will send an e-invite to all your guests.

My favorite feature are the party ideas broken down by occasion. Click on “Party Ideas” in the top right navigation bar to get some great ideas for the holidays, entertainment parties (like dinners, picnics, and tailgating), weddings, anniversaries, and more.

I’ve never thrown a dinner party before for a lot of reasons. Mainly because I didn’t know where to start and never though I had enough cooking or decorating skills to pull one off. Celebrations actually makes it feel a lot more manageable. They give ideas for pre-dinner games, easy place settings, and tips for invitations. There’s so many great ideas that it’s inspiring me to organize a party for the first time in my life. Who wants an invite to my “Mad Hatter Tea Party“?

I found the Ulpan Gordon Hebrew book

Ms. Babble — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:44:41 +0000

I was cruzing around Amazon a few days ago and came across the (very distinctive) Hebrew study book they had all the Aleph level students use at Ulpan Gordon! It was one of those, “Hey! I know that book!” moments and made me smile from thinking about my months in the ulpan.

Hebrew from Scratch:

I was shocked to discover that they have two parts available but I’m not quite sure if higher classes at the ulpan are actually using part two.

They don’t have the “Search Inside” feature yet on Amazon to see what the pages look like, but if you’re a future Ulpan student and want a sneak peak, send me a message and I’ll see what I can do!

It’s really fun reading what other people are saying about the book since I was both amused and tortured with it in Israel. Apparently I wasn’t alone!

“While my family was in Jerusalem, some of our friends there were in an ulpan (Hebrew language school for new immigrants). They were using this book! So I was very excited to see it here! I have been using this book on my own and like it very much. I was glad to see that you can get CDs to go with it and will probably get those next! By Shimrit A. Hanes “ontheroadagain”

“There are no vowel marks throughout the book. Even for me, someone who has studied Ivrit for several years, and can read Torah which has no vowel marks, this book is a struggle on my own. While it is true to how modern Hebrew is written and spoken and used today, it doesn’t make it the best or easiest way to learn.” By Whimsy Taylor “artist and avid reader”

“Presenting vocabulary and phrases a person will actually use on a daily basis (along with trendy Israeli slang), this book is a great guide to learning contemporary Hebrew” By Langxpert

Even though I’m not in Ulpan Gordon right now, I’m trying to retain what I learned those three months I was there by studying now with the Rosetta Stone Hebrew course. Maybe if I knew the workbook also had a CD, I would be using that too. But they didn’t offer it at Ulpan Gordon and I simply continued on with Rosetta Stone afterward.

Anyway, it was nice moment to reminisce and a reminder for me to keep at it!

Quote of the day [family addition]

Ms. Babble — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 19:18:54 +0000

I was talking to my brother via IM and we were trying to trouble shoot why he couldn’t delete some pictures off of his hard drive. While we were waiting for him to download the new Norton Anti-virus, we started talking about how sick everyone has been lately (including myself who has felt like dog turds for a week now).

Then he wrote:

“I wish they had Norton for humans!”

He nearly made me spit out my coffee. Seriously, where can I download that!?

Suprise, Nebraska!

Ms. Babble — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 01:06:20 +0000

Wind mills somewhere in Iowa

I woke up last Thursday with a nagging thought. I hadn’t seen my Mom since arriving back in the States and since my plans to visit during Thanksgiving were dashed (work interference, dammit), I didn’t have any solid plans to see her and my step father in Nebraska.

Nebraska is close enough to Illinois to be manageable, but just far enough away to require several days off. My days off were soon going to be in short supply with a pending re-employment to my favorite Chicago based retail company, “Straight and Narrow”. cough.

So when I woke up on Thursday morning, I realized that the coming weekend would be my last full weekend for the foreseeable future. With every sip of coffee that morning, the thought of traveling to Nebraska seemed more and more appealing. I though to myself, “I can leave tomorrow (Friday) morning… spend all day Saturday… and then drive back Sunday!” I can usually make the drive from Illinois to the center of Nebraska somewhere between 10-12 hours.

But the big question rattling around in my head was if I should call Mom and let her know I was coming?

Think about it. I haven’t seen her since last winter. I’ve been overseas for six months. Should I drive 10+ hours to knock on her door as a surprise?

Hell yes! My deliberation didn’t last very long.

Fast forward to the next day (Halloween) after driving 10 hours through Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska.

I arrived at her door around 5pm on Halloween (Friday) just when she was supposed to get home from work. When I knocked, the dog barked, but that was the only movement I heard. It was a GORGEOUS day in Nebraska with blue skies and 80 degrees. I decided to sit down on the (new and gorgeous) deck to enjoy the afternoon and wait for her to come home.

Then I heard the toilet flush inside the house.

hmmm…. so I got up and went to my car to get my cell phone. I walked to the front door again and called the house phone. My Mom answers, “Hello?”. And I play it cool, “Hey Mom. How are you? How was your day?” I’m trying to decide how to make this a surprise still without having to ask her to come to the door so, I knocked again. HARD.

I knock so hard that now I’m certain I came off as an intruder of some sort. Not to mention, the dog started barking like crazy. And the whole time I could hear the scene being played in stereo through the telephone as I was standing at the door.

I knocked once. I knocked twice. But still no one would answer the door even though I clearly had her on the phone with me. It took me having to press my face in the window (I know, also kinda creepy) and yell, “Answer the door, Mom!” before she let me in.

At which point I yelled, “Trick or Treat!” to her screams of disbelief. Hugs and kisses and a great reunion ensued! I wished that I had a video of the scene but my memory will serve me well for it. And I have a feeling it’ll be a memory that will stay in me for the longest.

americanbabble.com

Hind sight is 20/20

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