Life Goes On

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Waiting For The Goods

Here we all sit, doing whatever we do online, waiting for the UPS man to knock on the door. Me, I am waiting for them to call my cell phone to tell me, once again, that they cannot find my house.
I live in a back house that can be tough to find I suppose. While this is a pain in the rear when I order things online and they need to be delivered, I rather like living in back houses. The last house I lived in, for over fifteen years,was a back house as well. The difference there was that UPS could actually find it.
I do hope that the man shows up today. I am anxious to get my hands on my new laptop. So, here the family sits, waiting as patiently as possible. I am not good at waiting patiently for anything, but I am trying.
Keep your fingers crossed for me and my laptop :)

Baby Needs More

Are you a new mother? Want to breast feed your baby but are worried about how to product more breast milk? (Yes, I know there is a typo there, but does it matter?) Worrying about the amount of breast milk can be stressful for new mothers but it need not be.
Breast feeding your baby has always been a wonderful way to bond baby and mother. But many women, especially new mothers, worry that they do not produce enough milk to satisfy the baby. I'm sure this is a normal concern as you want your baby to be as healthy as possible and they certainly need all the nourishment they can get at that stage of Life. How can you insure that your baby is getting what it needs?
There are a variety of things that a mother can do to create more breast milk and the site linked to has many fine suggestions on what to do and how. For instance if the baby does not use up all of your breast milk you should use a pump to get the remainder out of your system. If you do not then your body may think it doesn't need to create as much breast milk and that cannot be good.
Also you need to consider your own nutrition. Mothers with babies need to stay as healthy as possible in order to keep their body producing the necessary breast milk that the baby requires. A healthy Mom tends to lead to a healthy baby!
There are other things that can be done and I urge you to go check out the website and explore them. It will not require that much time on your part but it may be that you will find information that you did not know or no one has bothered to explain to you assuming that, magically, all mothers suddenly know everything about babies and breast feedings.
Remember, your baby needs all the nutrition it can get at that stage so be sure to do whatever you can to produce enough breast milk. A healthy baby is a happy baby.

Long Winter

This year seems to be quite different than past years. Perhaps because I have been hospitalized twice this Winter. But, it's hard to avoid being ill, this Winter has been way too long and does not seem to be ending any time soon.
Right now it is very cloudy outside and windy and way too cold for the time of year. Tomorrow it may snow!What the heck is going on with my desert? It already snowed early on in the Winter, no need for it to do that again. I know that the snow will melt quickly but I see no need for any of it LOL.
I am feeling better every day which is certainly a good thing. I hate being sick like anyone else does but I also hate more having to go to the hospital. The ambulance ride is not that much fun and having the oxygen mask on one's face is NO fun at all.
The one blessing of the last hospital visit is that they did an echo cardiogram of my heart and it appears to be in excellent shape according to the technician doing the testing. Heart problems run in my family so I was very relieved to hear that. I also was amazed at just how fast that heart of mine was pumping! I have always had low blood pressure and watching my heart pump that quickly makes me wonder how fast a heart would pump with high blood pressure. No wonder high blood pressure patients have so many heart problems.
Now I am off to drink some coffee and try to stay warm against these harsh Winter conditions. I wish someone would tell Mother Nature that it is almost March, time to be getting warmer, not staying so cold.

Don't Pop It

We all have, at one point or another been aware that our face is not blemish free. Most people suffer through their hormonal teen years suffering from zits, or pimples. Often they think that the best way to get rid of these pimples is by popping them but that is not true. The only thing I saw as a teen with that is that it just seemed to give the person even more pimples. Not the desired results I am certain!
There are a lot of acne treatments on the market today that all claim to get rid of pimples and clear up your skin. Most of them do not work as well as people would like and many are alcohol based which I cannot see as a good thing for the skin either. But there are products out there that can assist you with your dilemma. Yes, there are effective ways on how to remove pimples.
One of these treatments is called Acnepril. Acnepril is an internal treatment, detoxifying the body and skin, supplementing it with vitamins and minerals, and effectively controlling and regulating hormones within the body so they stop causing excess outbreaks of acne in the meantime. No messy creams or ointments to deal with, just swallow it and let your body do the work from the inside out. This makes very good sense to me.
If you'd rather use creams or ointments, there are some that are effective and you can check those out on the website mentioned. You can also look at articles and comments from people that have used various acne treatments. Customer reviews are always good for me, I know that a company will never say anything truly bad about their own products but real people will.
So, go take a look around the site, read the information and make a decision for yourself. In the meantime, please, please, do NOT pop those pimples!

Another Laptop

One of the things they yelled at me for (again) while I was in the hospital is my bony butt and bad back. They want me to stop sitting so long in the chair with my computer. They want me to move my position every hour or so. This would be okay if I was not such a computer addict lol
So, in order to help myself carry out their instructions I am buying a new laptop. This will enable me to go sit in my over-sized chair in the living room and sit at an angle to relieve pressure on my butt and back. And I can still do what I need to do online :)
I went to the same company I bought this desktop PC from as I like their service, their quality of product and, of course, their prices.
This laptop has the same specifications as my desktop PC, one gig of RAM and a 40 Gig hard drive. The only difference is that it is portable and has a smaller screen. The price was good too for a laptop, only $199. Money made from writing this blog and a few other odds and ends from the internet that I do on a daily basis :)

Sleep?

My first night back from the hospital was not as pleasant as I had hoped it would be. Yes, it was very nice to be home with my family and online with my friends doing things on the computer.
I plugged in the mattress warmer to help me stay warm, that part was nice too. It must have been nice, I had trouble getting my wife to move over to her side of the bed! lol
The doctor gave me 4 prescriptions to get filled. Two were pills and two were inhalers. Of the four I could only afford to get one filled. That was a pill so that was okay. The other pill, an antibiotic, was well over a hundred dollars! No way I have that kind of cash laying around. The two inhalers, Spiriva and Advair, I knew I couldn't begin to afford them either so I wasn't concerned with their cost. But, wow, a hundred bucks plus for the antibiotic? What world do these doctors live in? Certainly not mine.
I went to bed thinking how nice it would be to sleep back in my own bed, warm and comfy. The bed was warm and comfy but I could not fall asleep. I coughed only a couple of times so it wasn't that. I did doze off and on but it wasn't restful slumber. Finally around 5 a.m. I fell into a nice deep sleep and stayed that way for quite some time. I got up around noon because I really had to empty my bladder. Otherwise I might have stayed in bed longer.
One thing that I do well (normally) is sleep. When that sleep pattern is disturbed I am not a happy camper. I love to sleep! Hopefully tonight will be a better night.

Dark Circles

There are a lot of terrible things in Life and one of them is getting older. You cannot escape it, no matter how hard you try. There are creams and pills and "magic" elixirs galore to help you control what happens to your face, your skin, your whole body but still we age. One of the terrible things that can happen to us all though is dark circles under our eyes. You wake up from sleep looking like your face has been left with crop circles and they are not pretty. The problem is not with the dark circles though. the true problem is how to get rid of dark circles under my eyes.
For my dark circles, and yours, of course, we need a cream that will assist us in ridding our face of these malicious circles. Even if one is older no one wants these circles. these are not like laugh lines that give you character. These are just unsightly things that we must get rid of and as quickly as possible. I like people to notice that I have (or at least I have been told I have) beautiful eyes. It would be hard to notice those eyes if all a person sees are dark circles.
But, which cream is the best for you? Not every skin care product works the same on every face. We know that already from years of living and trying different creams for different things. If you are like me you want the best but you also want one that will work on your skin not someone else's.
You could spend countless hours doing research either on-line or off to find the best cream. The problem with that is that it would only wear you out, tire your eyes and, more than likely, give you more or darker circles under your eyes. Not the best idea.
Your solution is to check out the website that has already done the research for you. Look at the products that they recommend, find the best fit for your skin, your problem, your pocketbook. Much easier on the eyes, making this the right solution from the very beginning.
Don't go through any more days than is absolutely necessary looking as though you have been visited by aliens that have crop circled your lovely face. get help now and be prepared for compliments about your own lovely eyes.

I Am Back Again

Just got home from the hospital after another four day visit. Not as bad as December when I had pneumonia, but they kept me there anyways.
This time they are blaming my breathing trouble and the terrible coughing attacks I had that sent me to the ER on my COPD. Nice easy way out for them since they could not find anything wrong LOL
There was one bright spot in the entire thing though. I got the doctor to check my ears to see if there is a reason that they are still plugged up. He looked into both ears and says there is nothing wrong with the ear mechanisms or whatever. They are still plugged because my sinus system is still plugged. He is certain that, once I finally get rid of all the phlegm in my sinus system that my ears will return to normal. If that does not happen he suggested I get a hearing test.
Oh well, at least I am home with my lovely wife and daughter. And, I really love being home. I am not a patient person and being a patient in a hospital just drives me up the wall. I am a crabby patient :(

Have You Ever?

Many, many years ago there was a Creedence Clearwater Revival song that asked the question "Have you ever seen the rain coming down on a sunny day?" It always made me chuckle because I had seen such a thing!
I saw the same thing this morning too. Looking out the kitchen window I could see that the sun was out, there were some scattered clouds here and there and it was very windy and looked rather cold outside in spite of the sunshine. Then, all of a sudden, with a burst of wind here came the rain falling from the sky. It was still sunny and bright but it was raining!
One of the things I enjoy about the desert is that Nature just does whatever it wants to do. It rains when it is sunny. When people throw their old trash out in the middle of it, Nature grows things around it, through it, wherever it wants. The desert is amazing that way. No matter how much we build things here I seriously doubt that Man will ever figure out how to completely destroy this desert.
Now, I ask you, have you ever seen the rain coming down on a sunny day?

Stuffed Or Unstuffed?

Back in very late November I got sick and by the beginning of December I had already had the "pleasure" of an ambulance ride to the Emergency Room where the ER doctors figured out I had pneumonia. It is now February and I still had not fully recovered from that sickness and my sinuses have been pretty much plugged up the whole time. My ears are still out of whack.
My daughter came down with another cold a week or so ago (this is how I got sick in the first place) and, of course, I had to get sick again. If there is a loose germ floating around this house my body will find it, I guarantee that!
This time is different though as my nose is, most of the time, running like there is no end to the mucus to get rid of. I cursed my stuffiness and now am ready to curse at being unstuffed. Some folks are just hard to please.
I do not like being ill, I know I don't have much of a life but that doesn't mean I wish to spend my days in front of a computer feeling lousy! Yesterday the cold had settled in my eyes and they wouldn't stop being teary. Hard to look at a computer screen like that.
Anyway, I am sick again. I am hopeful that this will at some point in time unclog my sinus system so maybe, just maybe, I can get back to some sense of normalcy. I would really love to have my ears pop and get my hearing back.

Carrying Your Baby

In an earlier post I talked about buying fashionable clothing for your baby so that people can see your baby is looking great. Today I continue with the baby theme, not with clothing though, but with an ergo baby carrier.

As you can see from the picture it looks like a backpack. But it isn't a backpack at all, it is a carrier for your baby. No, I am not implying that you toss your baby into any backpack and carry it around, this carrier can be used to carry your baby in the back, yes, but it can also be used to carry the baby in the front of you so that you can always have an eye on it. Most parents I have known would like to keep an eye on their baby at all times.
If you have a little bundle of joy and need to carry it with you, these carriers are the way to go. Check these things out, it is made of lightweight breathable materials, it has generous padding on the shoulders and waist belt for your comfort and it is machine washable which is probably the top idea here. You know babies are prone to sudden messes, you need to be able to wash that carrier.
So, take a look around the PeppyParents website and check these carriers out for yourself. See how nice they look with photos of parents actually using the carriers. Grab one of them for yourself and get back outside and show off not only the nice carrier but all those fashionable clothes you bought for your baby.

Crazy Mayor

My wife told me she saw something in her email this morning about our city mayor. Seems he wants the good citizens of his city to be able to hear artificial bird sounds because bird sounds make people happy, Okay, then. Maybe our mayor needs some drug testing done on himself. If he wants to make people here happier there are several things he could do.
First, how about giving the city employees a nice raise? then when folks come into City Hall they will be dealing with happier employees and will feel like being a little less angry about things.
Better yet, how about finding or creating more jobs around here? I saw in my local paper last week that unemployment for the area is just over 17%. Yikes! That's a lot of people out looking for work. That figure doesn't even cover all the folks that have run out of their unemployment benefits and are still out of work. This used to be such a prosperous area with the aerospace industry and all. How about fixing things there, Mr. Mayor?
In the meantime, enjoy your artificial bird sounds. As for me I prefer the genuine article. Maybe you should get outside more often, Mr. Mayor and actually experience real nature.

Promote Yourself

Okay, so you have a small business, online or a real brick and mortar place and you want to promote that business without spending all of your hard earned dough. Makes sense. But, what sort of promotional items will work?
The number one mistake businesses make purchasing promotional products is that they don’t understand how to stand out in the most powerful and memorable way. Most businesses simply do what everybody else does and offer what they saw at the last tradeshow. Keychains, totes, pens, and hats and caps are perennial favorites and are often the perfect accessory for certain events, but there are more options out there that perhaps you have not thought of.
Take a gander at this website that features not only everyday ordinary promotional items but also themed promotional gifts. Gifts that will not only delight you, but your customers and potential customers as well. From apparel to auto accessories to travel and luggage items, this site has a lot to choose from.
Personally I would choose mouse pads, something that will not only get used and not lost like a pen or a hat but also will put your name in front of them continuously. Isn't that what promotions should do?
So, take a stroll through the website, pick some items that you wish to use to build your business and get ready to promote that business and watch your business start to take off.

Still No Luck

Still trying to figure out how to get my game lobby to run with Ubuntu but still no luck.
I have the Wine program that should run it but it refuses to accept Java so I am out of luck there.
Looking more and more like I am going to have to figure out how to run VirtualBox and run Linux and Windows XP at the same time, same place.
Something has got to give, eventually.

At least my computer is working good so I really should not complain :)

Puppy Instructions for Linux

I have been tweaking the linux install & settings in the last few days (actually I have been trying to get NPP to run again on linux for a few months). Here is the way to make it work on Tipsy Puppy Linux. You can download this version from the puppy linux forum, I can send the link if you need it.
Burn the .iso file and install puppy using a full install on an ext3 filesystem for the most stable results. I am using the current version of “unetbootin” to install the .iso to a thumbdrive and create a persistent linux o.s.
You must have “wine” installed on any linux you use for this, tipsypuppy actually installs wine by default with the install.
Verify that you have “winedoors” or “winetricks” installed (this is default using tipsypuppy)
1) from “winetricks” menu, install “gecko”, this will enable full support for html screens & advertisments
2) From the “wineconfig” settings in tipsypuppy or any other linux running wine with winedoors or winetricks you need to make the following adjustments:
a – in the applications tab set the windows version to emulate as Windows 2008
b – from the “graphics” tab uncheck 2 boxes: “allow wm to decorate windos” & “allow wm to control windows”
c – vertex render support should be set to : NONE
d – uncheck Pixel Shader
Save settings and exit
3) Download & install the latest actual “WINDOWS” version of JAVA (this should install and layer into wine fooling the windows program)
4) install NPP – this does not always work so here is the fix:
copy the entire folder from a working installed copy of NPP on a windows machine into the linux “wine” folder ./wine/drive_c/program files/
* you may need to browse to your home folder in puppy linux and select “show hidden files” from the drop down menu to find the ./wine folder
5) now open the NPP folder inside wine and right click on “nopaypoker.exe” then choose the option “open with wine”
The NPP poker lobby should load just like normal with ads & all. My copy using these settings is running flawlessly, but as you are aware various hardware types could create other issues. So far I have booted this puppy linux thumbdrive on 3 different machines and had no issues.

Well, Rats

I did tweak one time too many. Maybe I zigged when I should have zagged. At any rate, I did Ubuntu in :(
So, last night I had to re-install Ubuntu. What a pain. I couldn't get ten point ten to load so I have nine point 4 I think it is. It works just as well for most things.
I still cannot run my game lobby with it though. Bummer. I also cannot seem to find Thunderbird email program that I know I downloaded LOL
Ubuntu is a computer adventure, that is for certain :)