Month: January 2009

bookmark_borderGaza Mess

Posted on by PaulaO

I do not profess to be a learned woman, especially about politics. I know some history, but not much. High school civics class was over 25 years ago. I’ve slept a lot since then and my brain has deleted old stuff like that to make room for newer, more important stuff. Like humorous stuff.

So it should come as no surprise that I have learned some history today from a humor site, Mighty Wombat.

1/5/2009 – New toon is up early. Enjoy. I think I’m recovering from December. The delay is all my mom’s fault. She gave me CoD World at War, and I’ve been playing that instead of drawing silly pictures.

On a more serious note, a couple of folks have sent me emails asking me to sign petitions to get the Israelis to stop whooping butt all over Gaza. So I feel I must sound off.

So listen, and listen close. Firstly, Israel does not give two poops about on line petitions, let alone petitions signed by cartoonists. Secondly, let’s explore the situation from a different perspective, shall we…

What if the people of Mexico elected a government that ran on a “Death to America” platform, then starting firing hundreds of rockets into Texas?

How long do you think the USA would sit on it’s hands before it sent the Army south? Israel waited two months.

No, after day 1 the US Army would be playing catch-up to the Texas National Guard, the Greater Dallas Rod & Gun Club, the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders and ten-thousand other pissed off Americans.

So please, keep your petitions to yourselves. I have enough to worry about.

Amen, Wombat, amen.

bookmark_borderFuh-reezing!

Posted on by PaulaO

Okay, so, like, I live in The South. You know, the warm South? Someone left the gate open up at the Mason-Dixon Line and allowed the cold air to come down here. If you look at a weather map that is showing temps with the cool color blobs, you’ll see that the cold air from up Nawth leaks down along the mountains and ends just this side of Georgia. So while others around us may not be so cold, we are.

Here’s proof:

11:41pm on Jan. 16th

2:03am on Jan. 17th

and at 8:36am

It is hard to read (I think the camera was refusing to work properly), but that last one says it is FOUR BELOW ZERO!

Our water froze. It’s been years since it was cold enough to do that. It was the second night with temps below 10F and with highs in the daytime not making it above 30F. We had a lot of errands to run this morning so we took the heater from the kitchen and put it in the cellar (a small, scary room under the kitchen) to attempt to thaw out at least the kitchen’s water. When we got home, the bathroom’s water had thawed, too. We left the heater down there tonight to keep the pipes clear. If the low temperatures stay in the 20s, we don’t have any problems. But when it stays that low and/or gets lower, then the core temperature of the house drops. Our house is “air-ish” and “well ventilated”. Add in the winds we are getting, and it is almost impossible to keep warm.

bookmark_borderDTV and FCC

Posted on by PaulaO

Alphabet soup, anyone?

The FCC chairman has spoken against delaying the switch from analog to digital television signals. Wonder if it is because those who have paid the FCC roughly $19 billion are complaining in his ear?

FCC chairman: DTV delay could cause confusion

By PETER SVENSSON

LAS VEGAS (AP) – Postponing the turnoff of analog TV broadcasts beyond the scheduled date, Feb. 17, could confuse consumers, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission warned Saturday.

Oh, you mean more confused than we already are?

“There are options they can do without having to delay to get coupons flowing immediately,” Martin said. Congress could give the program additional funding, or eliminate the 90-day expiration deadline on the coupons, he said.

And how would that help? Really, how would it help?

“I’m concerned about a delay in the sense that if you can solve that issue other ways, a delay has actually the potential to confuse consumers,” said Martin, a Republican. “All of our messaging has been about Feb. 17 – not just ours – the industry’s.”

The Feb. 17 date has been widely advertised by local TV stations.

(snip)

Democratic FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, speaking at a panel discussion at the show, said he understood the call for a delay.

“This program has been badly mismanaged. It’s not ready for prime time,” he said. “There are so many elements of the preparation that have not been undertaken … We don’t have program in place in the field to help people who need assistance in their homes. The phone banks are inadequately prepared.”

The “show” they mention in the article is the International Consumer Electronics Show. How awful to have to be in Las Vegas, right Mr. Martin? We consumers are wondering, though, just whose money did you put down on the blackjack table?

bookmark_borderPuppy Class

Posted on by PaulaO

Mike and I went to our first Puppy Class. We had a blast! Then we had a bang.

Lorna and I had decided it was Feed Your Own Damn Self night. While I was gone, Lorna would make something disgusting (usually egg and/or mushroom related) and I would pick something up while out. On my way home, I debated the various places and decided Wendy’s was the least dangerous to my exhausted system. Ha. First, I did the drive-thru. I got a #8 (bacon/chicken/cheese sammich with fries and a coke) and pulled into a parking spot to eat. Problem was, the chicken was their spicy (which Lorna says isn’t spicy at all but my delicate mouth disagrees!). I figured I could eat it anyway but didn’t get very far. I went inside and got another, making sure it was not spicy. Went back out and finished eating. Mike discovered french fries and decided he liked them. After finishing the sammich, I drove around the place to get in the exit lane. In front of me was a big-ass Ford truck. We waited a short while and then….the truck started backing up.

I laid on the horn but it was too late. We were only a few feet apart anyway. The truck was so high and the Subaru so low that all it did was hit the hood. We pulled to the side and checked everything over. Since the hood opened and closed just fine, we all decided to just go home. Meanwhile, the woman was smacking the snot out of her husband. “You will NEVER talk about how bad my driving is EVER again.” (smack) “EVER again!” (smack) She had me laughing and him wincing. Their kid was playing with Mike through the window. The man had his wife drive instead. As they pulled away, she was hitting him again. Mike, meanwhile, had eaten all the fries.

bookmark_borderAnalog to Digital

Posted on by PaulaO

I have long thought that the switch from analog to digital television signals was a mistake. Somebody is making money from this. Why else do it? And that group making the money is the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) which has made roughly $19 billion (yes, billion) from the sale of the wireless frequencies analog television occupies. The FCC has been auctioning off spectrum slots/sections. A local example is what happened to a rock station here in Asheville a few years ago. WZLS had the rights, allotted by the FCC, to a radio frequency. However, the FCC later auctioned that frequency and WZLS and its friends didn’t have the funds to keep it. After a lengthy legal battle, the station was forced off the air. What this means is that only those groups or individuals with the funds can be assured of frequency allotments. Public radio has also suffered as high income church groups buy up their frequencies and push them off the air. (we all know Satan is heavily involved in the public radio segment, right?)

Then came the news that the coupon program (the gov’t offered coupons to help the purchase of converter boxes for people who use antennas) has run out of money. They were allowed only $1.34 billion to go toward those coupons. (19 – 1.34 = 17.66) The FCC has given grants toward educating the public (roughly 10 million in-house for their call center and 8.4 million for 12 groups such as the AARP). So subtract 18.4 million from the 17.66 billion (no clue how to do this myself) and you can see that there’s still nearly 17 billion US dollars available….somewhere.

Source for data: Coupon woes are only part of digital TV concerns

bookmark_borderIs This Microphone On?

Posted on by PaulaO

The fun with WordPress continues. I’ve never had this much trouble before. Never. And when I did, it’s because I messed something up, not a problem with the software.

Anyway, I can’t even log in with IE anymore so it’s not a Firefox problem. Still working on getting some help but not getting very far. Either no one knows or I am the only one, which I doubt.

I’ll keep everyone updated, if I can.

bookmark_borderTest Post

Posted on by PaulaO

Whilst connected to the website via IE (another shudder), I went to the user section and changed a user (just another persona of me I created to view the website a different way) from member to administrator. I can now log in and do all sorts of stuff as HR (short for HolyRoller) that I have not been able to do as PaulaO.

Freaky, eh?

Anyone have any ideas?

bookmark_borderProblems with WordPress….Again

Posted on by PaulaO

I am having to use IE (shudder) to log into this site and post. I have tried all sorts of remedies with WP itself but am now thinking it is a Firefox problem. First time ever I have had a problem with Firefox, if it is the culprit.

The problem is this: the log in page reloads. If I enter the wrong username or password, it gives me the error message, as it should. But if it is right, it just reloads. Repeatedly. If I click a bookmarked link to the admin section, sometimes I get in, sometimes I don’t. And when I do get in, usually I am kicked to the log in page whenever I click a link within the admin (or when the program tries to autosave the draft of a post).

I’ve tried a wide variety of things to try and solve this problem.
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/226628 (someone else’s post but I contributed some near the end)
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/222737 – this one is resolved but I tried it again with no success
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/229521 – yet another one for this latest problem
https://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?comments_parentId=243812&forumId=1 – support page within Firefox to see if I can get help there.

Anyone have any ideas? This is driving me nuts. It is a consistent problem with this site and is a regular problem with the others. And with various versions of WP.