Am I really a member of this family?

So anywho, I am preparing for a short trip, if you can call it that, soon. I need someone to watch our dog. The cats will do OK on their own, set up with water and food. The dog is another matter.

One sister can't watch her because she claims she's allergic to our dog. The other sister says she can't watch her either because one of my nieces is suddenly now allergic to dogs.

Who are these people and has anyone gotten a 2nd opinion and treatment???

So I'm faced with having to allow one sister to come out and take the dog for walks and make sure she's fed.

I was hoping to have her out of the apartment for the weekend and almost everything turned off.

I'm not allergic to cats or dogs. I don't know why they are all of a sudden.

DVD Flick, aggravating at times but still works

So anywho, today I want to make a DVD with DVD Flick. 6 files are AVI,
and I want to stick a short clip as an FLV (or maybe it was MP4) at the
beginning. I set it all up and get DVD Flick going.

Just as it's generating menus, I get an annoying error box. The number
is error 91. I try to find out more of this error, and I don't get much.

I rarely get errors from DVD Flick. The software sometimes exits after
saving a project file which I have to reload DVD Flick and re-load the
file (if it got saved completely - otherwise I have to re-do the project
again).

Annoyed, I find myself exiting the software and restarting and reloading
my DVD project. I think. Otherwise I just removed the short clip I
wanted at the start of the disk. This time my disk gets generated and
DVD Flick finishes.

I should see what version I have installed and see if the latest fixes
these sorts of problems. Newer versions are supposed to handle MKVs
better. That would be nice if I got only SRT sub files, but I don't. I
have to pull things out as a separate A.S.S. sub file and an AVI and
then hard code the subs.

I wish I knew what caused problems. If I can't recreate it, I can't
figure it out. The odd thing is the clip I was going to use had been put
on another disk some time ago without any problems at all!

Travel Channel, I am Disappoint

So anywho, that semi-annoying Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel has
this series of 8 episodes of her travelling around Asia, which if you
checked your map, includes Japan. I've been waiting weeks for her show
in Japan to air. According to Travel Channel's website, that was
supposed to be TONIGHT, 8/23, at 8 pm EDT.

Instead, they aired Anthony Bourdain in Saudi Arabia. You can't believe
how pissed I am at this. I like Tony's show; I'd love to go to Japan
with him and or Zimmern in tow (Sapporo anyone?), but when I get told
about and expect a show about Japan to air that I've not seen yet and it
doesn't when it's supposed to, I get really mad. WHEN IS IT REALLY GOING
TO RUN, TRAVEL CHANNEL?? DON'T YOU LIKE JAPAN?

There's a repeat set for this coming Sunday at 8 am. I'm going to find
out what they elect to run instead. What was the major malfunction that
they just tossed out their well-announced ahead of time schedule???

SUCK IT, TRAVEL CHANNEL. STOP TROLLING PEOPLE LIKE THAT. I EVEN GOT A
VIDEOTAPE READY TO RECORD IT. YOU WASTED MY ENTIRE EVENING THAT I WON'T
GET BACK!!

BTW: Zimmern's 3rd show (2nd entirely in Japan) is on this Sunday as
well. This is the one where he visits Nakamatsu-sensei, inventor of the
floppy disk, and tries his hand at being a horumon chef.

At least that's what the schedule says NOW.

Cultural Reference in Occult Academy

I think it's in Episode 2 (maybe 3) of Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin (Occult
Academy) where Abe-sensei tries to compliment one lady on her
dango-style hairdo. He says it suits her, and she takes it as a
compliment, complaining that the kids make fun of her hair comparing it
to "that song." A brief image of "that song" even gets shown in place of
her hairdo with one part missing.

"That song" by the way is Dango San Kyoudai, otherwise known as The 3
Dango Brothers. I have a scan of the CD single, as well as a translation
here:

http://community.webtv.net/MrShoujo/Dango3Kyoudai

How did I know this? A Japanese penpal I briefly corresponded with
around the time "Dango 3 (san) Kyoudai" was hugely popular in Japan
(around 1999 if I remember right) told me about it. She heard it
everywhere and frequently. It was a popular song from a children's TV
show, and like everything in Japan that becomes popular (like a song),
it was covered many times over. I bought my copy, a CD single of the
original version, from CD Japan. There was a CD album of various
versions by different artists.

I think I saw another cultural reference in another episode of Occult
Academy, but I can't seem to remember it now. Oh well.

The other bit I was posting about was I translated another song from
Sailor Moon for a friend for an upcoming wedding. I got to realizing
that I hadn't transferred all my translation work off my Atari 8-bit
disks to 3.5 inch floppies using a friend's Atari 1040ST and null modem
setup. There was a song by Chibi-Usa that I worked on that I called
'Don't make fun of my dream' that I'm missing from my translation
archives. I worked on a good number of other Sailor Moon songs, and
perhaps a few Ranma 1/2 songs. My translation for a Sailor Mars image
song definitely made the rounds on the net.

I don't remember what all I worked on as far as song lyrics - I do
remember working on songs from a Sailor Moon musical. My bigger projects
all got transferred before we had to move in 2003, but sadly it seems a
bunch of my Sailor Moon (and other) lyric translations didn't make it
over. I'm really hoping they did and I just hadn't gotten to the
floppies yet (which I thought I had when making my Archive CD) - if
they're still readable. I have them all stashed away securely - it's
just a matter of finding time to go through and find a drive to read
them, which I definitely have.

I JUST REMEMBERED THE OTHER BIT:

There was an Urusei Yatsura reference in one part where they try calling "Space People" by doing the famous chant.

Changing computers 1 Gig at a time

Recently, my younger sister was able to get funding for a RAM upgrade of
her Dell desktop. I found out it can run faster RAM than was in it when
they bought it years ago. Maybe in 2004 256MB was plenty, but not
anymore.

Here's the interesting bits. The RAM in it was DDR PC2700 2x128 Dual
Channel. Dell put in the cheapest, slowest RAM the motherboard would
support.

In it now is 1 kit of 2x1Gig, 512MB per slot at DDR PC3200 Dual Channel.
And the motherboard has another pair of slots for more RAM, up to a max
of 4Gigs. The Latency and voltage were indicated on Kingston's stickers
as 3 and 2.6, but after checking online, the motherboard will adjust
automatically since there's no BIOS setting for RAM voltage.

I fired that thing up and it really cooks. My Bro in law had some
friends over playing some CCG and I can tell a noob now. One guy asked
if it had been defragmented lately, and my bro in law said it had been,
and I was quick to point out that defragmenting does only so much, but
the real speed boost is in more RAM, not to forget faster Dual Channel
RAM.

From clicking on a user's account icon to hearing the welcome sound is a
mere 59 seconds. Less if you just log off from one user to another.
Google Earth pops into memory. I had some minor things to clear out. An
updated Spybot S&D took around 49 minutes to do a 1.2 million item scan.
That's pretty Fast! Did I forget to mention I had VLC play a couple of
saved video clips at the same time as the scan went on - with no
jerkiness?

I found a few annoyances to clear out. On my Bro In Law's side of the
system, I had to remove a few toolbars that crept into Firefox for some
reason. Also had to delete Yahoo! cookies so that they could log into
Yahoo! mail successfully. Somehow a cookie got blocked, and I fixed
that.

Then there was some bullcrap called Pando Media Booster. It shows up as
a process called PMB.EXE. It kept accessing the net. I don't know what
it's for but after installing Comodo Firewall and seeing what it was
doing, I didn't like what it was doing so I disabled it for now. I don't
know what it's used for but as much as it was doing, it was better to
turn it off and find out later. It may eventually get removed.

I've seen 2 XP systems get some surreptitious install of McAfee Security
Scan. Probably a drive-by install when something else went in. I've
uninstalled both cases since the stuff I've put on those systems takes
care of McAfee's crap that doesn't need to be there at all. Why it
showed up I don't know, but it's not necessary!! Unless it came from a
CDrom in this case, it's probably a trojan. Oy vay. When you have AVG
Free and Spybot S&D as well as Comodo Firewall (as well as some of my
favorite tools), you don't McAfee or Norton anything.

However, I would recommend that you buy a license for AVG when using it
on a business computer. I saw one laptop with the Paid upgrade of AVG
and it's rather nice.

Annoying woman at Big Lots

Make your purchasing decisions before paying ~ not while paying!

The problem with Recycling

Recycling is a good thing. If you know what you're doing you can
actually make money doing it. I did it some years ago with aluminum pop
cans.

The reason I bring this up randomly is that I got the latest thingy from
the local region Solid Waste Management District. It talks about all the
stuff that can be recycled or reused, what they don't recycle at this
time, and then in the back, some pages on places that accept items to
recycle. There was some odd bits like margarine tubs, regardless of the
plastic, weren't being taken for recycling, and the things that they
said you don't or can't compost like animal fats or vegetable oils. I
guess I'll have to look that up.

Only problem is, much of the time, they CHARGE you money to take an item
to recycle, instead of the right way, PAYING you for the items you are
taking to them.

That's how it used to work! I bring you 500 pounds of crushed aluminum
pop cans, you give me so much per pound and we're both happy, because I
know you're going to take those pop cans and resell them and make back
the money you paid me and then some.

I want money back for all the inkjet cartridges we've bought. Some
places used to offer some amount when buying new ink cartridges. When
bought online, some sellers put in these plastic postage pre-paid
mailers so you can send the empty cartridges back in to some place to
recycle them. But this is done anonymously. You don't get any
recompensation for the cartridges. Have I sent any back in this way?
Hell, no. Compensate me dammit.

So if you want to take in a regular tube type TV to recycle for whatever
reason, some places charge you money to take the item. We know they're
going to make money again on what they pull out of the TV, so this makes
no sense to me. It sounds so much like a scam.

Also some communities force people to separate their trash for
recycling, but I wouldn't do that unless it guaranteed a reduction in my
trash collection bill. If you found a market for recycling my trash,
that means you found a source of revenue. Stop charging me so much to
haul off what you're going to bury. Pay me for my time to do your
goddamn job!

The story is different with Car Batteries. Usually. Some places will
offer a discount on a new battery when they take your old one. I've seen
this happen a few times and this is good thing. It encourages business.

But if you tell me it's going to cost me $50 or more to get rid of an
item, screw you I'll keep it or figure out another way to get rid of it.
Pay me $50 to take it off my hands, and you've got a deal.

Some places used to take old newspaper for making money on recycling.
There used to be something called the DeMolay Paper Barn here where I
live. It was more or less a charity thing. They collected paper for
recycling and made some money doing it. Though paper recycling goes into
the realm of tons of paper before you get any substantial money...

There used to be some place in town where people could "drop off" their
recyclables, but nobody there to pay you for it. The company that hauled
this thing away each month was likely laughing all the way to the bank.

Then there are places that suddenly decide they're not accepting stuff
from people but instead focusing on large companies for recycling. That
means they found rocks in a crushed up pop can. One guy who used to live
behind us in town did that. At least until he ran out of gravel from the
alley he lived next to and the alley got paved over.

Pay people to recycle and you'll see more of it going on. Nothing
motivates like money.

The router works

I got the router plugged in and working last night. In one way, it does
matter which cable is plugged where. I tried to leave the original cable
modem cord plugged into the computer and use that on the blue ethernet
labelled port, but the software for managing the network wasn't
detecting the internet connection to the router. So I turned off the
router and cable modem, swapped cables, and plugged them back in and
powered up.

Internet connection detected right away. I could put my other P4 tower
on the net again, but I'm not using it for doing that. My P3 with
Win98SE doesn't have the driver for the NIC yet, but I wasn't going to
get on the net with that one at all.

At least it's there for a wireless access point (or wired) when I work
on people's systems and don't need to turn off the cable modem when I
switch connections.

I have security on that as much as I could. It's got WPA2 turned on, and
the SSID is not being broadcast. I could even turn on MAC filtering. I
do not allow remote or wireless access to the router's management
features, and yes, the default name and password to the router have been
changed. In fact, I changed it a 2nd time to something harder to figure
out and I wrote it down. When using the HTTP interface, I had Firefox
remember the password.

The network manager software can detect intruders, but without the key,
they're not getting in. If they spent the time and effort, they might
figure it out, but by then I might have it changed and they have to
start all over again.

Uneasiness over adding a wireless router

My older sister wants to share the internet connection here and in order to do so, it means adding a router with hopefully both wired and wireless connections. Even though I'm CompTIA A+ certified, I am anxious over this. I do not want to see a change in the use of the net with the computer. I don't want to have to deal with problems a router can present, some of which involve rebooting the device and such. I'd rather have a network switch if it's all the same. I'd like to be able to set it up so that it doesn't even present itself at all - I don't want it to filter anything, I don't want it to do ANYTHING except just decide what connection and what traffic goes through. I also would like to make sure that if I need more bandwidth, then I get priority.

Networking is something I haven't had much experience with, and in many cases it can work well when it does. This is again one of my problems with having Aspergers - a change in routine. Things are fine the way they are now, and I don't need a problem cropping up that creates stress.

Yes, I know, this can be a learning experience. With what I've learned and experienced so far, I'm anxious.

Good days and bad days

Since October, I've tried my best to deal with things. I'm glad to be
getting counseling. I'm afraid of the future, though. I had hoped to be
working or something by now.

I saw mom's caseworker for Caring Hands about a week or so ago. She
asked me how I was getting along, and I told her. I have good days and
bad days. The bad days are when I wake up completely tired even though I
had enough sleep. I sit in front of the TV and get very little done. I
usually fall asleep. I get sad and I cry. I lose entire days because of
Mom not being here right now. I ask Melody when mom's coming back. I do
that from time to time, tell myself Mom's coming back- she's just in the
hospital.

The phone is largely quiet. Very few phone calls for my mom in some form
or another. I still need to call back the Neurocare center and tell them
what they need to know. I'm sure they noticed she missed her appointment
last November.

I want to hear her call for "Coffee, please!" when she wakes up after
dealing with her morning medications. To move her mattress back over. To
bitch her out over spending money she doesn't have. Take her to her
appointments. That responsbility fell to me at some point.

I've been trying to get in touch with a girl (now a young woman at this
point) I used to spend time with some years ago. I found her online, but
she's trying very hard not to get in touch with me. I don't know what I
did years ago other than being a complete idiot. I want to re-establish
a friendship that for some reason just fizzled. I really liked her then,
I find I still do now. I just didn't realize it and was lacking the
skills to show it, I guess.

That would brighten my day if I could talk to her again. She gave me her
phone number(s) and I don't know why I didn't call. I should have. After
some point, like after mom got laid off, things just got f_ing crazy
around here.

Liz, whatever it was I did or didn't do, I'm sorry and please call me.
I'm easy to find!!! I can prove I know you with stuff you should know
and is not posted online!

Refridgerators need this feature

I don't know what happened with the fridge last night, but it apparently
didn't get shut just quite right or it popped open a crack. I don't
know. I came down this morning and when putting the butter aka margarine
on my toast, the stuff in the container didn't have its usual cold
stiffness that margarine right out of the container from the fridge
should have. What the heck. I have one of those thermometers and it's
registering well above 50 degrees F. Uh...

At first, I think the thing's busted. I immediately turn up the coldness
setting in the freezer and in the lower fridge part. Now, usually some
units when you do this sort of thing, it immediately kicks on. Not this
one. Instead, my stuff in the fridge languishes a while more before it
turns on. In those waiting moments, I'm freaking out.

What refridgerators really need is a Emergency or Suddenly Cold
Override. A button you press to force it to turn on when the temperature
inside is clearly not where it should be.

What really struck me odd is that it wasn't running already. Any other
unit when you leave the door cracked open, it's running like mad to
compensate.

I wanted a button to get this thing to turn on out of cycle and just get
things cold again. Now I'm putting a chair against the door when I go to
bed.

Egg rolls... dozens of them

Well, yesterday I was out and about with my older sister and my dad.
There was a number of things to accomplish. One was to see about the
glasses I'd gotten recently. Apparently the lenses were "progressive"
but they weren't sitting on my face and nose right, so they were able to
change the nose rest thingy. I still don't like them.

I needed another storage bin thing for the records I pulled out of a cat
pee stained cardboard box. I have something that's for neutralizing
litter box odor being used for cleaning the items stained during the
urine seep, and it's almost used up. Unfortunately in our goings around
yesterday during which we ended up at Ollie's, they were out of the
product I wanted to get more of. So I'm using it sparingly on the stains
that it appears to be removing.

We went to Aldi's for a few things, and dad picked up some flowers for a
couple relatives he wanted to visit in a nearby rest home. Aunt Bernice
and her sister, both of whom appreciated the visit. After looking a bit
there, I am DAMN F-ING GLAD my mom was NEVER in one of those places!!!!
It's not right she's not here right now and I'm still depressed over it,
but everyone better stop saying things that pretty much blame me for
what happened.

After that we were on to visit a couple Indian / Asian food stores. I
had printed a map for my older sister for 3 stores, 2 of which I
recommended. The one my friends and I like a lot was closed on Mondays
which I didn't know, but the one on Whipple was open and she bought some
things there. I found the place had frozen taiyaki treats and I bought a
couple along with some nattou and a cookie treat called KANCHO. I sh_t
you not!! I should post a picture of the package.

We also paid a visit to Sam's club which my dad has a membership for. I
can beat their prices on Memorex DVD+R media anywhere else, as well as
thumbdrives. I don't know - it seems a waste to pay to shop somewhere
only to pay higher prices on things. He offered to pay for a few things.
I guess I should thank him. It was only when I got home did I get
reminded I had 2 packages of egg rolls in the freezer already, and the
stuff gotten from Sam's club wasn't going to fit unless I took out a few
items and threw them away and removed everything from the boxes.

So I ended up with 30 egg rolls in my freezer.

4 were from an Aldi's package. 8 were from a Taipei package. Both I
already had but for some reason I completely forgot. (That is a problem
I have because of my Aspergers.) 20 were from Sam's Club.

I have a freezer full of Asian-type food. I need either a bigger freezer
in the fridge or a small chest freezer. Or a dinner party of some sort -
if I can neutralize more of the pet smell.

I was so wiped out that during the night while I was waiting for DVD
Flick to finish a project, I let our dog out to pee when she asked, and
forgot - ending up leaving her outside the entire night! I'm so sorry
about that!!!! T.T I hope she got asked to go inside next door with my
sister anyway.

Best value of the day: 32 oz Frozen Coke at Speedway. $1.09 before tax.
These are bigger than the Burger King $1 Frozen Cokes.

Aunt Bernice?

After spending time with my older sister and my dad visiting an aunt in a nursing home. I'm glad I kept my mom out of one!

WebTV Fail

That's not how you spell it.