The seasonal heat is back, and already lingering after sunset. Iced tea I make by the gallon and sip by the half-gallon. Seriously, I plunk a straw into my big measuring cup so I don’t make four trips. I’d still rather be riding my bicycle than either walking or driving. Skip today if you want fireworks, it was a boringly quiet Tuesday. Nothing happened, so from here on it is filler. First of all, some computer talk because I had an extra hour to review the blogs with high ratings and other general stuff.The top blogs are becoming very professional. Add in high-budget, some of them are produced by degreed photo-journalists with $15,000 cameras. I judge blogs strictly on content and presentation (except categories that belong elsewhere) and what’s left over has come into its own as astonishingly well done. I heard that--you want to know which the categories I eliminate. Okay, blogs are public, but that does not mean I want to read about “missing” children (get a milk carton), on-line businesses (use eBay), and politics (which should be outlawed).
My blog is primarily prose because I know people will rarely look at a picture a second time unless it lands in front of them. I’ve only included pictures for effect in recent years. (I have thousands of pictures, just not here.) This blog descended from a larger than normal email, meant to be printed up and read later. You may have noticed each blog is the right size for a 15-minute coffee break. For that email, in turn, came from an earlier newsletter format designed to eliminate repetition back when the Internet was pay by the minute. How about that?
Symantec is the anti-virus I’ve been recommending and that is about to change. It seems that Symantec has taken upon itself to install its own brand of spyware on your computer whenever you use their anti-virus application. Furthermore, the company CEO has stated that he considers it necessary for Symantec to judge whether a given user is or is not “dangerous”, and sell this information to other parties so that they can take measures to “protect” themselves. I don’t know about you, but I expect my anti-virus company to prevent such activity, including from their own.
I have been testing [a product called] AVIRA with good results. It does a deep, if slow, search and produces refreshingly clear reports. The basic product is free; the full version is twenty bucks. I’ll be testing the basic for several days. So far, it seems fine. It is a rare anti-virus application because it does not alter your system registry the way others do. Others like Kapersky, AVG, and of course, Symantec.
Summer is upon us, so I applied for an indoor job. Nothing fancy, just working in a small crafts office that advertises on the Internet. My letter to MyFlorida [a complaint against phony job listings] last year may have borne fruit. Their on-line postings have cleaned up the work-at-home scams to the point of one or two per day instead of scores. How many millions of people must lose their money before the government steps in? Sigh. Even Avon is cranking up their campaign to prey on the recently unemployed. Which is okay by me because I own stock, but you get my drift.
Have you seen that oft-re-run documentary on the History Channel about how they make sausages? I finally watched it and the segment on bologna in particular. I don’t hate bologna but nor have I eaten it for an incredibly long spell. I bought a pound to give it another chance. When slathered with mustard, mayo and lettuce, it can actually pass for food. Did you know Elvis Presley loved fried bologna sandwiches? Not that you could tell by looking.
Let’s close with some trivia. Most people know Carrie Nation as the woman who liked to bust up Kansas saloons with a hatchet. What you don’t know is that she also wanted to “eliminate” short skirts, foreign food, and all Masons. If she ever comes back, the anatomically male population of Key West will drop 110%. She as well had this thing against nude paintings and girdles. So do most people who resemble Carrie.
Return Home
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
