Yesterday I took Starr & John to see Avatar - the 2D version, not the 3D version, they stopped the 3D in favor Alice in Wonderland 3D. I'm one of the one tenth of one percent of the millions and millions who saw the movie and didn't like it. From the very start I didn't like the fact the audio was sooooooo loud it gave me a headache - I do not like loud as many of you know. I guess it could have been worse ...it could have been loud rap noise! The story line is so old and warn out in my opinion - you know, good vs. bad etc. Secondly, the whole movie was one big metaphor of the history of native American Indians - they even yelled like Indians do in cowboy movies.

The visual stimulus was good and the technical aspects of the production was good but way take almost 3 hours to produce a modern cowboys and Indians movie? It was way too long IMO. It was interesting to see creatures in the movie which were futurist versions of creatures I've seen in Africa or while scuba diving...like warthogs, rhinos, jellyfish, and coral Christmas trees. So there were some things I found interesting except the story itself. Except the fact the movie was violent and cost so much, I'd expect to see it on the Cartoon Network. Bottom line for me is it was an old tired movie line in an adult cartoon with loud noise. Someone must like it to gross over $3 billion!

Last evening I went to a small dinner party hosted by Gene & sherry Waddell - classmates of mine from my 12 years of school in Vero Beach. The soiree was held for Collins & Barbara Cavender who were visiting from Minnesota - they too were classmates of mine. In fact, I used to date Barbara Clay in high school before she married Collins. There were 10 of us all together for an evening of 'remember when' - no one talked about their lives after Vero Beach High school. I would have liked to learn about their kids, their businesses, etc. Nonetheless, it was fun even though I couldn't remember some of the teachers and events they were talking about - guess I killed off those brain cells storing that memory.

John is headed back to Tallahassee for a couple days of work before he goes with a small group to Key west on Wednesday until Sunday - long trip for such a short stay but that's what kids do. John asked me what I was doing this Summer - he brought up to me that he'd love to go to paradise again this year. This is the first time he's brought it up especially so far in advance - John usually makes decisions a couple weeks ahead of time unless someone like me or his mother pressure him. If he wants to go, I'll be happy to make the arrangements. I've not talked to the Barnes - Brennan clan about another Islamorada trip but if I were to guess, I'd guess they are all in.

Remember I said Walt my landscaper wanted me to change the language in a new Gateway laptop? What I did is what I always do.... research the procedure which lead me to the conclusion the language could not be changed unless the operating system was Windows 7 Ultimate meaning a costly upgrade. After reading through lots of forums and technical sites I discovered there may be a way after all. I found a dude in Slovakia (if you don't know where it is look it up) who has create a small utility which can assist in changing the native language in Windows 7 Home Premium. The programmer did put this warning on his website:

This program is still under development, please be patient if it doesn't work for you right now. In case of problems to start up Windows after language change, please have installation DVD ready and use System Restore to restore registry

There was a time not so long ago I would not have even attempted it because I was afraid of something going wrong without a clue on how to fix my mess. Now that I've worked on several computers my confidence has dramatically increased because now I do know what to do. I'm not saying I'll get it right every time but if something bad happens I think I can recover. So with my new found boldness I tried installing Spanish on this laptop - it worked beautifully! Now all the text is in Spanish with the exception of the text on some program's GUI (graphic user interface aka. program console). Walt was very happy as was I - I'd hate to have to recover if it didn't work.

Now I was interested in how it worked so I contacted the programmer Slovakia to ask about that. In the simplest of terms, the dude wrote a small utility (less than 1 MB in size) that "fooled" the Windows 7 Home Premium installer to believe it was a Windows 7 Ultimate installer. I bet Microsoft is not all that happy because they want to charge a user more for the Ultimate version. BTW, the program was free and the Spanish language package I downloaded from Microsoft. Cool, huh?

Yesterday I watched a movie I thought would be funny - it really sucked. The movie was "In the Loop". There was nothing funny about it. Who came up with the script for the movie doesn't know what humor really is or has a distorted view on what others will think is funny. Don't waste your money - if I'd gone to a theater I'd want a refund.

Later today I'm going to a movie in a theater for the first time since Syp, sandy, and I saw Jurassic Park in August of 1991. Yes boys and girls, I've not been in a theater to watch a movie in over 19 years but I thought I'd break the drought. With my ability to get movies online and watch them on my big screen TV with surround sound, I've not seen a need to go to a movie. Why now you ask? My psychiatrist gave me homework on my last visit - the homework was to see Avatar. I can't get 3D on my TV yet so today I'm planning to go and drag Starr & John with me. Sound be interesting. Do movies still cost $3.00?

JUST DAMN!! My American Express card has been compromised again! This happened just 3 months ago in December requiring my old card to be cancelled and a new one issued. The same procedure will be followed again - my card is cancelled and I'll get a new one in the morning. Of course I'm not out any money but it is a pain in the a*s to change my accounts which use my American express for payment - accounts like Comcast, The Wall Street Journal, Direct TV, etc. Then I have accounts were I buy things which will require a change in my card - places like Amazon, PayPal, Newegg, Buy.com, etc. The good news is I didn't lose anything except the time to change of accounts.

This morning I finally published GG's Fine Food to the internet. The site is not finished but this a good beginning for Linda - you can see here site here: GGsfinefood.com . The colors used were given to me by GG - they are special New Orleans red and green. We didn't put a shopping cart on the site but yesterday I suggested to GG that she set up eBay pages for her initial 4 products with a "buy now" set price. Using eBay eliminates a shopping cart because PayPal is there. I'm sure I'm not through with this site so stay tuned for additions.

Finally I got Walt's (my landscaper - see picture) computer fixed, cleaned, updated, and ready to go - he took it home yesterday. I put a new power supply in so it will boot then ran all my usually cleaning/scanning utilities. then I updated the operating system, removed lots of old programs and then doubled the memory. This machine is not like new but it is 1000 times better than it was. Walt is very pleased - this is the second computer of his I fixed.

Walt bought a nice laptop for the daughter of his supervisor who's from Mexico. The daughter graduated from high school and is headed to college so this is a wonderful gift for a young in a rather poor suburb of Mexico City - probably all suburbs of Mexico City are poor. Walt brought the new machine to me to "get it ready" for the girl meaning uninstalling crap that comes on a new computer then installing AVG, Malwarebytes, and Windows Office 2007. Now comes the "problem" - this morning Walt called to ask if I could change the language from English to Spanish for the whole computer. After my usual research I discovered the language could not be change unless it was Windows 7 Ultimate - it's Windows 7 Home Premium. I did find a site that suggests we can work with Home Premium using certain tools - Walt will be back soon so we'll try. This should be exciting - maybe I can cause the machine to melt down!

The haircut I got last week is 'growing' on me - it's short but I like it. For me, it seems the longer your hair when you're balding, the more the balding is obvious - what do you think?

I've got more to say but I've got to get started on this new laptop because Walt will be here soon. BTW, it is a beautiful cloudless day here in Vero but it is still cool.

It's raining here in Vero this morning and it looks like it's going to be one of those nasty, overcast, gray days. The temperatures are moderate but are forecasted to get much cooler tonight and into the rest of the week. This is the kind of day I usually work on a computer issue or watch a movie from my growing movie library. Because I just finished a computer project at TB's office this morning, I think I'll watch a movie.

Yesterday I installed more memory in the Dell computer I set up in Tommy's office - this is the computer I got from Kathryn to clean up for TB. Now he has 1GB of memory instead of 516MB which should be enough. That computer is clean, has Quick books 2010 installed, and connects wirelessly to the LAN at the office. I've set up the computer so TB's office manager can work on the Quick books program from her home - Sally is thrilled.

While I was there yesterday, Sally could not get her computer to boot. She told me it often took 30 minutes to an hour before that old antique would boot - this has been going on for about 6 months according to Sally. What waste of her time waiting for the computer to start each day so I checked out what was happening. It took me about a nanosecond to identify the problem once I looked at what was happening - clearly the power supply was bad. What to do?

There were a couple options available to me to immediately resolve the problem - I could get the power supply out of TB's computer he never uses to put into Sally's computer or I could put Sally's computer hard drive into TB's computer. I decided to change out the hard drives but also found I needed to exchange the network adapters too. And While I was trying to make one good computer, I also took half the memory out of Sally's computer to add it to TB's computer - there was only one available slot. After straightening a few pins I bent, the exchange work as expected. Now Sally has a machine that boots quickly with 50% more memory while keeping all her installed programs - she is very happy but Tommy doesn't know yet.

So why did I go back this morning? A special program they use which is written in DOS would not open - I was baffled because what I did should not have affected any programs. So I decided to try again this morning but in the meantime I defragged the hard drive over night - it had never been defragged in 10 years! It was a mess greater than any fragmented disk I've ever seen. When we rebooted this morning, the program was working again. Here's the puzzle - why is it working because the defrag should not have made a difference in the program. No matter - it works great today.

I'm still working on the Creole site - we've agreed not to try putting a shopping cart on it now. Our goal is to finish it then publish it to the internet before the end of the week. I'm currently awaiting information from Linda about things I need to complete the site. We will both be pleased when it's up.

I went to a neurologist on Friday to consult with him about my migraines which I discovered are 'normal' for migraines. His assistant put me through some testing then I spent about 20 minutes with the doctor. He wants me to try a couple "new" migraine-specific drugs which if I'm lucky will stop the migraine in its track rather than just trying to ease the pain as Vicodin does. With Vicodin my headaches are still there but not as painful as they would be without the meds. He also gave me an anti-nausea drug he wants me to take as soon as I feel an event coming on to hopefully eliminate the nausea. This drug is so safe he says to take it even if I'm not 100% sure I'm going to have a migraine event. Now I just have to wait to get a migraine to test the drugs - I hope I never test them!

It was a nasty day here yesterday but now it's sunny and bright albeit cool at 50F this morning. Today I'm copying the whole folder known as "Bill" - which is mostly "My Documents" - from my Vista laptop onto one of my external hard drives. Why you ask? Well, it's always a good idea to back-up your files but in this case I'm doing it because I think I'm going to install Windows 7 on that laptop totally erasing Vista from the hard drive. I never liked Vista so with all the good things I hear about Windows 7, I thought I'd give it a go. When talking to one of my buddies in Atlanta yesterday the conversation let to asking why I've not already done it. Huh? That's a good question - maybe I will.

Yesterday I watched one of my downloaded movies called, "The Lazarus Project". It moved fast in the first 10 minutes then was slow until the last ten minutes - I'm glad I was able to hang on because the ending was good. Would I watch it again .....no - I know the ending so the rest of the movie would be dull. I would, on the other hand, watch Star Trek again because it's full of action start to finish. Maybe I'll; watch another movie today.

Last even the Baptist church across the street had a young people's (teenage to early twenties) party with music playing rather loud. Normally that would really piss me off except I liked the music and it calmed down by 10pm. I remember those teenage years when I went to dance parties OT wanting to dance but tried anyway. My secret was to get in the middle of everyone so my clumsy dance moves couldn't be seen by others. You boys and girls remember Surf's Up A Go Go over on Royal Palm close to where TB used to have an apartment. If you do remember, you're old like me!!

Somehow I got onto the Pallidia channel on Comcast's High Definition lineup as I was walking out of my royal bedroom suite into my office. About ten minutes later I heard what surely sounded like Reggae music coming from my bedroom so I walked back in - I do like Reggae and I can blame Syp for that. It turns out to be a band called Jam Band O.A.R. (Of a Revolution) playing a concert at Madison Square Gardens in New York City. I watched for the next 45 minutes because I really liked their music. It was sort of Dave Mathews type of band which include horns. They were damn good and to my knowledge this was the first time I heard them. Some of their songs have that very recognizable Reggae organ beat which I like. Have you dude and dudetts every heard of them?

Tomorrow after coffee I'm going to TB's office to install the additional memory I ordered for him. This will double the RAM from 512mb to 1gb. This should make Quick books easier to run on that machine - it's amazing how much difference added memory can make to performance.

I've bought 5 Dell computers over the years so I'm on their mailing list for sales and that sort of thing. You know I've been thinking about a new desktop with Windows 7 and more horse power but I've not ordered one because the desktop I have is damn good. Simply put, I don't need another computer. But then Dell puts they type of computer I want on sale this weekend at 30% off the regular price and because I've priced them in the past I know what the regular price has been. The question is should I spend the money just because I have a itch for a Dell Studio computer? I've been thinking about it since Friday when I got the e-mail. I've got until the end of this weekend to decide. Stay tuned.

Alright already - I know I've been MIA for a couple of days but I've been unusually busy helping others with their computer problems and/or websites. I'm not unhappy because I like the challenge of building a website or repairing a computer. In fact, I'm convinced myself when Obama takes my stuff to give it to someone who wants my stuff, I can set up shop and charge for my expert advice.

Thinking of my comment about people wanting my stuff I'm reminded of a philosophy put forth by Atlanta radio talk show host, Neil Boortz. He used to say that if you take all the stuff from people who earned it then give it to those "less fortunate" who want it within a short period of time, the ones who had stuff will have it again because they know how to earn it while those you were given the stuff would eventually lose it. Makes sense to me - how about you? That's one of the reasons why socialism does not work all that well - unless you work and earn stuff, you're always under the control of those in power who can take your stuff to give it to someone else.

Yesterday I got a call from Syp just to say hello and that he was sending some new pictures of his sons, Yari & Djem. My have those boys grown, huh? Of course Syp 7 Sjak see them everyday but I only see them every few months when their pictures are sent to me. Spy reports the boys are growing like weeds (no, not that kind of weed) and they are interested in everything going on around them.It seems that Djem is also blessing Syp & Sjak with some nightly feeding and playing requirements between 9pm and 6am. Just wait until they are teenagers and they'll sleep all the time. Cute kids, huh?

Eariler this week I uninstalled the Quickbooks 2002 I put on TB's computer - this is the program Kathryn gave me. It was too old - it could not be updated. So I installed 2010 on his office computer from my house using TeamViewer. However, I had to go over to his office because Sally couldn't find the model of the computer I needed to order more memory. It turns out poor Sally was looking on the monitor for the model and not the computer tower - a mistake most anyone could make who's uses a computer but knows nothing about a computer. I think most computer users know how to do the things they need to do on a computer but are clueless about the machine and software itself - the exception to this would be your students or other young people who've grown up with computers.

I've decided to take this afternoon off from my computer projects and watch one of the movies I've downloaded. I'm amazed at how easy it is to find movies with the exception of some rather obscure movies in the past like "The Bank (2001)". It's rare that I don't find a movie I'm seeking. Heck, yesterday I downloaded the Sherlock Homes movie which was just released in December. Somehow there are folks out there who have the ability to get DVD's before they are released to the public.

Yesterday Ace came over to do a few things for me to include painting around the light switch in my office, install a new kitchen vent fan, and replace my house water filter. When he went to replace the kitchen fan, we discovered we could just take out the old motor then put in the new one - this saved a lot of additional mess and painting. He took my old water filter out - I was amazed at the debris and black gook in the old filter. This is city water which I know was full of chemicals but I didn't know about the solid matter. The new filter Ace put in is even a better filter than the one removed - I can only image what a mess it will be when I replace it. Jeez!

We've discovered the old QuickBooks software I installed in TB's office computer is so old, it could not be updated. Since Kathryn gave it to me to install I assume it would work. Wrong! In fact, after some research, the inescapable concussion was a new 2010 QuickBook Pro was the way to go - Sally is to pick one up at BestBuy tomorrow. Sally wants to "practice" on the old version for a few days before I uninstall it then put the new version on the computer. This new system will be much more affective than the system currently in place both in price and functionality.

You know how much I love fresh fruit, right? Well the fruit in the markets now mostly comes from Chile. To my surprise, the peaches and grapes from South America are much better than the peaches and grapes I get from US farmers - why is that? One would think fresh peaches from Georgia would be better than peaches from Chile but that's not the case at least for this year. The Chilean peaches are very good - full of flavor and very juicy.

I've been having second thoughts about the Creole lady's website in that I'm getting uncomfortable about the shopping cart. I've never done a shopping cart so I'm really flying blind. What's got me worried is the potential liability facing me if something goes wrong with the credit cards, etc. I don't see that happening but it's still n unknown. I'm beginning to believe Linda and I would both be better off if she actually pays someone to do a shopping cart for her. I've sent her an e-mail and I'll call her soon. This project has grown way out of proportions based on her initial desire for a "simple web page or two". I don't mind building the site but at the same time I don't want to get sued.