The Blog of Todd

Monday the 13th

2012-02-13T18:59:00.001-06:00

Drove to the Barton Creek Mall about 15 miles from here. For us, that's really close. Then again, we came from somewhere that 15 miles is a "short trip" to the grocery store for snacks. :-) An actually city was an hour away. Now, that's too far.

After we got home we went to the front office of the apartment complex for a couple of cups of Choco-Coffee (coffee & hot chocolate combined. Delish!), and cookies. Angelica had hot chocolate and cookies. While there we talked to a neighbor who lives upstairs, for a while. From there we walked to the gas station and got a few bottle of soda and came home.

Came back to the apartment, checked email, tried to wake the boy who stayed up all nite to ask if he was going to workout with his sister and I (he didn't) because today was workout day. We, as a family, go and walk on the treadmills, do the exercise bikes, and lift a few weights on the weight machines (the ones you put a pin in under the amount of weight you want to lift).

I wasn't going to take a shower today because I hadn't been sweaty enough to make it necessary, but now I'm going to have a shower. Then I'll make supper (yes, I'm now a cook!), watch TV, do a little reading for my classwork, then go to bed. Speaking of bed, I went to bed last night at 10:30 PM (usual bedtime is midnite-ish) and stayed in bed until 10:30 this morning. I don't why, other than I was feeling a little melancholy (not really depressed, just a little down & thinking about missing Rain/Renee') when I went to bed last night.

Ta ta for now!

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Flickr : Barton, Creek, Mall, exercise, workout
Technorati : Barton, Creek, Mall, exercise, workout

2012-02-09T19:58:00.002-06:00

Is still adjusting his vision with new glasses.

Our day at the park

2012-02-07T21:46:00.001-06:00

This is the walkway/bridge we crossed to get into the park's play area; one of them.

As we were crossing the walkway.

The park on the other side of the bridge.

The waterway we had to cross to get to another area of the park.

I think this is where the park keeps equipment, or something. It's not a bathroom like I hoped. lol

This is the river on the side of the park we were on after crossing the waterway.

A few feet from the above spot in the river/creek.

Close to the same spot as above.

Not sure what this is for, but it's not for public use. We're thinking it's something for firemen, or the national guard or something. I wanted to walk around the top.

A zoomed close-up of the above.

Our car in the parking lot; while in the park on the other side of the bridge.

A golf ball that found in the park. We had a good time exploring today.

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Flickr : day, park, parkday
Technorati : day, park, parkday

Rain

2012-02-06T22:23:00.001-06:00

You know Renee' had been using her nickname (Rain) 4 a while? Tomorrow will be Texas' 8th day in a row of liquid rain. GO FIGURE. She was a 'rain bringer' 4 sure.

Help for the financially challenged

2012-02-06T19:00:00.001-06:00

Talked to someone who answers the call when people who are financially challenged dial 2-1-1 (877-541-7905) here in Texas. Called to find out when we should've gotten our SNAP (food-stamp) card. Should've got it last week. I also had him update the application since we've now had an electric bill. Hopefully we'll get more than the currently approved amount of $68 per month for a family of three whose sole income is SSDI with our rent being over $850/month. Should know in up to 30 days, hopefully sooner. Meanwhile, I have to call the Lonestar Card (EBT) to find out where our food card is. *sigh*

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Flickr : 2-1-1, food, foodstamps, low income, poor, snap, stamps, texas
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Mango and Twitch - cat pictures

2012-02-04T10:53:00.001-06:00

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Flickr : cat, cats, feline, mango, photo, photograph, picture, twitch
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Settling in

2012-01-27T10:42:00.001-06:00

Despite everything that's happened since Dec. 21, 2011, we seem to be pretty much settled in to our new place/city/whatever. All the services (food stamps, Medicaid, Chip for the 16 year old) that we can apply for have been applied for.

Now we just need to find out what there is to do around here, during the daylight hours, that's either free or very inexpensive, and teenager friendly. We went to the LBJ library last week and checked out the exact replica of the Whitehouse. I thought it was alright, 16 year old son seemed pretty bored. Can't *really* say I don't understand. I've never been all that interested in things political either. I just thought it was something to do, and it was. We've been to a couple of parks. One where the kids could use their roller-blades. One with a gazebo at the end of a short walkway that looks over the large pool in the middle of the "river". I put that in quotes because that place looks more like a lake to me, but according to my researcher daughter, it's actually just a wide spot in the river. Shrug.

We now have Texas license plates on the car. Yippee! lol. All we have to do "officially" now is... I have to get a TX driver's license. 19 y.o DD wants to get a TX i.d. Does anyone from Texas, or someone who lives here, know if someone who needs bifocals but only has reading glasses, can take the eye exam at the license bureau wearing the reading glasses? Any input will be greatly appreciated.

School. Current grade percentage in Web Scripting = 98%. Percentage in Rhetoric In Contemporary Culture = 98%.

Later, y'all!

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Flickr : austin, college, contemporary, culture, itt, rhetoric, school, scripting, tech, texas, tx, web
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Comfy Mango Kitty

2012-01-22T10:39:00.001-06:00

This is our cat, Mango, relaxing and watching out the living room window.

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com/

Flickr : Mango, austin, cat, feline, kitty, photo, photograph, picture, texas
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Releasing_Renee_to_the_spiritworld_1957-2012

2012-01-20T15:00:00.001-06:00

This woman was the absolute best thing in my otherwise ordinary life. She made it fun, exciting and beautiful, just like her. I will never forget her. We will meet again one day! Count on it!

Renee' has passed away :-(

2012-01-19T16:07:00.000-06:00

Just came from the hospice where Rain (Renee') was moved to yesterday from the hospital. She appeared to be a lot more comfortable there, they even had several pillows under her for added comfort. The words from the hospice nurses is that she will most likely pass away there. At least she's more relaxed now.

In fact she's even more relaxed than ever. Renee' passed away peacefully at 3:35 pm on January 19,2012

Flickr : care, center, hospice, hospital
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Pics of our park day - Jan 2012

2012-01-17T20:39:00.001-06:00

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Flickr : austin, duck, gazeebo, lake, park, photo, picture, pond, river, rollerblades, texas, tx
Technorati : austin, duck, gazeebo, lake, park, photo, picture, pond, river, rollerblades, texas, tx

2012-01-13T23:49:00.001-06:00

While we there, she opened her eyes 3 times, 1time after the morphine.

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2012-01-13T23:45:00.001-06:00

She said that was AFTER life support was removed.

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2012-01-13T23:42:00.001-06:00

Rain's vitals were good all day today. The tech told us she had awakened after 3 weeks. Dare I hope?

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A lot of Museum pictures

2012-01-11T14:10:00.000-06:00

Some pictures I took on the day we visited the museum in Austin, TX. Click em to enlarge em. (actual sizes are 640 pixels wide X varying heights)

I have more, but they are from when we were outside the museum.

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

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A little more about Renee and us

2012-01-10T19:55:00.001-06:00

There has really been no changes since she was moved from the ICU into a private room once life-support was discontinued. She's being given Ativan when it appears she's having seizures (twitching, restlessness, moving of her head from side-to-side, etc). She's also being given Morphine if she appears to be in pain (wrinkling of her forehead and obvious discomfort, etc). As of right now she no longer has a feeding tube and is not being given water to hydrate her. All she gets now is the aforementioned medicines and enough oxygen to keep her breathing from being labored. We (Angelica & I) go and visit her every day, but usually don't stay more than about 15 minutes because Renee' is usually sleeping (can tell because she snores). So we talk to her. We tell her we love her, miss her, and a little about our day. Sadly, I don't think she knows we're even there most of the time. She's still in a coma, still unresponsive to anyone. It's heartbreaking, to be honest. She has hospice workers that visit her every day as well. They just make sure she is being kept comfortable and if not they recommend more medicine or whatever. If she's still alive when a room at the actual Hospice Facility opens up, she'll be moved there for her final days on earth.

Meanwhile, we're getting the apartment slowly but surely turned into a home. All we really need-need is some real beds to replace the air-mattresses. Dressers would be nice, but the shelves in the bedroom closets are sufficient until we get them. There is a laundry facility on the apartment grounds, so we don't *need* a washer and dryer. Although a hospice' social worker said she'd see if she could get us one, she can't find any that anyone would deliver. That's not that important though. She did get a few extra blankets to us, that had been donated, as well as some bathroom towels.

School continues for me. I'm only one assignment behind in one of my two classes. Let me tell you though, I'm having a really hard time staying motivated to do the homework. Then I remind myself that Renee (aka: Rain) would want me to keep going. One of the reasons she chose Austin, Texas for her family is because it's high-techy, which bodes well for a person with an AAS degree in Web Design Technology. That'll be me in a little over a year (I'm 7 months into a 2-year degree). That's all I've got.

I just try to see the 'rays of sunshine' every day, and try not to think to much about 'what could've been' now that the love of my life is moving on. That in and of itself is the story of my life. Sad, but true.

Take care,

Todd

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Flickr : Hospice, Rain, Renee, V-Fib, attack, austin, brain seizure, heart, heart-attack, texas
Technorati : Hospice, Rain, Renee, V-Fib, attack, austin, brain seizure, heart, heart-attack, texas

Our Austin

2012-01-04T09:52:00.001-06:00

Was getting ready to run some errands and saw this desk by the apartment' dumpster.

This is me sitting in a chair behind the desk

This is a used sofa that my big sister bought for the kids and I.

A chair my sister also bought for our apartment.

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Flickr : austin, chair, desk, table, television, texas, tv, tx
Technorati : austin, chair, desk, table, television, texas, tv, tx

2011-12-28T21:29:00.001-06:00

Rain's mom and big bro are visiting w her. We're in the waiting room cuz it was 2 hard watching them.

2011-12-28T17:47:00.001-06:00

Updating from cell phone.

Latest about Renee and us

2011-12-23T22:54:00.001-06:00

I first of all want to give everyone who is praying for/sending healing energies/keeping Rain/Renee' in your loving thoughts; a huge thank you. I cannot put into words how much you're all helping.

The latest about Renee' is that they discovered that she started having siezures. I have no idea why, but they told me she is now getting medicine to treat them. Once they get that problem managed, they'll be better able to assess what more can be done to give her more ability to come out of the coma. Compared to the last few days, tonight she looked more at ease and appeared to actually be sleeping. Tomorrow (Sat.) they'll do more scans (catscan, MRI, etc) to figure-out why this is happening (the coma?). She did have a heart attack, but there were no warning signs - total shock to everyone!

We really miss her! Can hardly wait to talk to her, kiss her, hug her. She our everything - and we'll NEVER let her forget that, ever.

Meanwhile, we're trying to stay strong enough to get everythng on a more regular schedule (groceries, houeshold stuff, bills).

Right now we're down to only one computer (Renee's) and currently getting free wi-fi. Once I can get a USB wi-fi connector, I'll be able to do more regular updates. Just keep doing what you're doing; it's truly helping. Angelica's laptop got a virus and we can't seem to figure out how to her her back online using the other
Windows-7 user account. The comput itself works, just can't connect online.

Got a $25 TV today, and have cable television, so at least we don't have to sit in silence anymore.

Tomorrow I need to call a few/some bill senders (car payments, prescription-D, medicare) and let them know that we WILL be catching-up, it's just going to take a little bit longer than expected.

We like our new apartment. It has an ecercise gym, hot tub, and a swimming pool. We're able to get to the hospital and back home quicker now. We can get to Wal-Mart, Target, Walgreens for medication, and so forth. It's hard emotionally, for sure. Angelica & Eldin are being as grown-up about everything as they can. We're hanging in there. Having such awesome friends is awesome.

That's all there really is to update. All we need is love! Furniture (sofa/loveseat, dining table chairs, etc) would be nice, but at least we have air-beds and blankets.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas/Yule/whatever you celebrate this time of year.

Todd

Waiting..waiting..waiting

2011-12-19T12:39:00.004-06:00

Well, we called the apartment (Fort Branch at Truman's Landing, Austin, Texas) this morning to ask if we will be signing the lease today. That was at 9:30 a.m. It's now 12:40 p.m and we've heard nothing except the two times we called them only to be told they haven't heard anything either :-( We were really hoping we didn't have to pay the hotel for yet another night @ $47 because we'd really like to be able to afford to buy air beds to sleep on when we do move in. It's not looking good on being able to :-(

Money woes

2011-12-16T11:43:00.000-06:00

The apartment complex which we thought we'd be moving into today had their printer/fax machine go down. We'll have to stay in this motel until Monday or early Tuesday (which means we're going to have to pay for at least one more night [Sun/Mon]) since we're only paid-up through Sunday morning. *sigh* The problem? Unless the apartment manager gives us a break on the 1st month's rent (halves it), we may or may not have enough money for the entire first month's rent there because we're out of any "extra" funds. I'm sure it'll all work out, it's just really stressful waiting for official move-in approval.

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

The Latest

2011-12-15T18:23:00.002-06:00

We are almost moved-in to Austin, Texas, from Long Lane, Missouri. By "almost" I mean that as far as I know we have been approved by the owners/managers to live in the Fort Branch of Truman's Landing apartments. All we're waiting for now is for someone from the apartment complex to call and let us know that it's "official", tell us what the move-in deposit is (we're hoping that they only charge us half of the 'first month's rent as a deposit' since it's the 15th of December, 2011, since they recended on the original incentive to choose them of 'the first month's free'). See, we don't have a hell of a lot of liquid money because we were counting on not having to come-up with a 'move-in deposit'. Luckily my finance manager (aka: my wife) was smart and withheld payment for this month's car payment and Internet bill "just in case". We plan on (now) having to catch-up those 2 payments in a couple of weeks. We hate that we're having to do it this way. If we have to pay only half of the deposit on the apartment, then we'll use the other half to get a few things. We'll need 4 of the least expensive air beds we can find, a few pots and pans, a used Goodwill TV, dining room table & chairs, loveseat or sofa, and a digital recorder box (we plan on checking Freecycle for this stuff). Then we'll have to give our new adress to the Long Lane post office so that they can send all the mail that's been put on hold for the last couple of weeks. Open a local bank account and contaqct the Social Security Administration so they'll directly deposit our SS. Disability benefits into our new-to-us bank (a credit union). Of course we'll also have to buy a few groceries, put the electic & water utilities in our names, set-up for (most likely AT&T) highspeed internet, and then the girls will start putting in job applications. All we need is a real address and it's a go. We should definitely hear from the apartment people tomorrow morning.

The only thing that is kind of an emergency, is getting the on-hold mail taken care of ASAP because I'm completely out of the LDN I take as a Multiple Sclerosis treatment. I've been out for 2 days and not had a problem. I'm just a little nervous about it though because I really don't want for MS health issues to worsen. I don't!
http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Misery loves company

2011-12-11T14:13:00.000-06:00

For those of you who have experienced sever lower back pain (sciatica nerve region), won't you please send me some vibes that will ease the back pain? Join my company if you can relate.

Yesterday afternoon I was bored, so I knelt down if front of the closet door (which was open) and started pulling bags of items we had packed in said bags and brought with us, just to look through the stuff. No pain. Didn't think I was straining to pick stuff up. Then a couple of hours later I stood up, after laying on the bed watching television. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my lower back and my knees almost buckled. What the fuck? I haven't experienced pain that intense for a very, very long time.

I've tried stretching while laying on the floor. Not much luck, it felt like a vertebra was about to pop out. Took a nice, long, very hot bath. I am taking 3 Ibuprofen every 4 or so hours. Nothing helps. Rain has gone to the store to get some Arnica gel to message into my back, and a hot pad.

I can walk maybe ten steps before I have to either sit down, or collapse on the nearest thing available.

Fuck! It hurts!

In other news... I've turned in 1 assignment for each college course I'm in, and have already received a 100% grade on one of them. I just turned in the 2nd one not long ago. I'm still waiting on a grade for it.

The move to Texas has been good so far. Still waiting on the result of the move-in application at one apartment. The signs (numerology #'s 11 & 22 [room # 1122) say it's meant to be. "New beginnings" (#11). I can't remember what the #22 means, but it fit and it was good when I heard it.

http://ramblemns.blogspot.com

(pic) Mango in the recliner

2011-11-27T19:54:00.001-06:00

If he were the same color as the recliner it would be very hard to see him. It's like he's part of the chair.

Actual size: 640 X 179 (.jpg)

Flickr : cat, lazyboy, mango, recliner
Technorati : cat, lazyboy, mango, recliner

Time Remains

2011-11-27T19:18:00.001-06:00

There's only about 10 minutes until the Sunday Night, NFL football game starts, so I don't want to spend enough time on the computer to write a long post. But as you can literally see (as opposed to not really seeing? lol) that 'the countdowns' have begun. The left is until my birthday. Well, they're labeled, so I don't need to tell you. It's going to be weird once/if people start buying the big stuff like the fridge, oven, sofas, computer desks, and the like. The Mega Moving Sale begins on this coming Thursday at 9 am to 4 pm. Happens during the exact same hours on ~~Thursday~~ Friday. On Friday we start packing the car with everything that'll fit, and wait for our friends to visit (depending on the weather (which is supposed to be "not bad"), and whether or not there is anything left for them to sell for us once we're out of state. Other than that, we just got to try not to watch the clock. Also going to try and enjoy the end of one chapter with happy anticipation of beginning the next, in Texas.

Todd

Flickr : austin, countdown, garage, garagesale, long lane, missouri, moving, movingsale, relocation, sale, texas, timer, timers, yard, yardsale
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High price of diesel makes truckers rethink their work

2011-11-22T18:59:00.000-06:00

Is it just Greed? "Until a few years ago, diesel fuel — a *byproduct* of oil — was generally *less* expensive than regular gas." High price of diesel makes truckers rethink their work

Failure of The Economy

2011-11-22T18:48:00.001-06:00

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Flickr : Contributor, Economy, Major, The, To, U.S, cash, cashflow, depression, economics, energy, fuel, gas, money, oil companies, petrol, recession
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Major Contributor To The Failure of The U.S's Economy

2011-11-22T18:41:00.001-06:00

Flickr : Contributor, Economy, Major, The, To, U.S, cash, cashflow, depression, economics, energy, fuel, gas, money, oil companies, petrol
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Cat-toon funny with live cats: "Cat won't look up"

2011-11-22T18:02:00.001-06:00

Flickr : cartoon, cat, cattoon, humor
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Cat-toon funny with live cats: "Cat beds"

2011-11-22T18:01:00.001-06:00

Flickr : cat
Technorati : cat

Our moving process

2011-11-22T16:38:00.001-06:00

We're pretty much ready to move. All that really left to do is collect the move-in deposit (obviously we have a buyer), have a yard sale to sell what our friends don't want/need/need to sell for us, put in a change-of-address in at the post office, and of course cancel the phone, Internet, and electric services. Those last three won't be done until the day of our move-out. We've got the motel we'll be staying at in Austin, TX, while we look for an apartment/house to rent, reserved. We have a place to stay out of the wind and rain once we get there, so that's good. My prescription-D (Medicare prescription) drug plan is national, which means I'll just have to give them a new address to send statements to. That'll be easy enough. Besides, I've got until December 7 to choose a new plan if I need to. We've got time.

==> Both cats have had the Texas, animal, required rabies shot now. Next we'll need to get them used to wearing their harness's and having a leash attached to that, so we can stop and give them restroom breaks on the way there. Hopefully they'll get on a stop-schedule similar to ours, thus reducing the amount of stops needed.

==> My school book(s) and/or software should be here before next Saturday. All I'll need to do is give the school our new post office box number. Since it's an online-only course, that's all I hope needs to be done. Speaking of school. It's an interesting feeling knowing you have no more required home-work to do, a week and a half before the end of the class. I don't know if I should feel the need to be learning more about the class, or see what I can learn about my next one. I guess I could do both.

==> There ya go. You now know the scoop on our life happenings. Thanks for staying and reading this far.

==> http://ramblemans.blogspot.com <==

Flickr : austin, buffalo, long lane, missouri, mo, move, moving, relacation, relocate, relocating, texas, tx
Technorati : austin, buffalo, long lane, missouri, mo, move, moving, relacation, relocate, relocating, texas, tx

Cool picture

2011-11-20T19:52:00.001-06:00

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Flickr : blogspot, picture, rambleman, ramblemans
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Beauty

2011-11-20T17:01:00.001-06:00

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com/beauty

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Comfy kitty

2011-11-19T21:08:00.001-06:00

He oozed even more after I took this picture :)

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com/

Flickr : cat, feline, kitty
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Monk Egg_Todds Breakfast

2011-11-19T14:18:00.001-06:00

By the way, that's tea in the coffee cup :-)

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Flickr : Monk, Todd, bacon, breakfast, egg, hamburger
Technorati : Monk, Todd, bacon, breakfast, egg, hamburger

Todd's resume, courtesy of VisualCV

2011-11-18T14:30:00.002-06:00


Hello, I'm sending you my VisualCV with information on my background and qualifications for your consideration. View my VisualCV by clicking on the link. Hopefully you find the information in my VisualCV useful. I would love to hear what you think about it. Sincerely, Todd
Todd Milligan's VisualCV: http://www.visualcv.com/shares/259113?pro=f8a68537a7d84c581a6de64ba338dc77

Employers, did you know you can post jobs for FREE on VisualCV? Learn more...

My latest creation

2011-11-15T19:49:00.001-06:00

Here's my newest blog Header

http://ramblemans.blogspot

Flickr : blog header, blogspot, ramblemans, todd
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Love is everything

2011-11-15T19:01:00.001-06:00

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Flickr : fact, love, ramblemans
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You know a class...

2011-11-14T16:49:00.001-06:00

...is more up your alley. That you're enjoying it a lot more. When you have 5 assignments due this week...

...and You Are Done With Three Of Them Already. And it's only Monday.

Woot!

Ramblemans.blogspot

P.S. Another thing that says This is my kind of class is that although I set up a schedule to make sure I don't burn myself out, I don't feel the need to worry about how much time I am actually spending on my classwork. Not only that, but the work is enjoyable and almost seems a bit too easy. I'm not saying it won't get more difficult in these last 3 weeks. I'm saying that I'm looking forward to them, no matter how difficult they get.

Flickr : InDesign, Typography, class, college, homework
Technorati : InDesign, Typography, class, college, homework

Current life

2011-11-10T20:37:00.001-06:00

It's been a fairly emotional week. The decision to actually move to Austin, Texas has been confirmed. We're doing this. A little scary because I really don't like changes in a big, life altering way. However, I understand completely the reasons for our change, and I'm okay with them. 100%. We want change, and yes, I know that's cliche, considering the political crap that's been going on for almost 5 years now. I say 5 because I'm taking the time of political campaigns that brought the idea that people feel that change is all part of evolution. As much as I don't deal with drastic change great, I understand that the quote that says, "The only true constant in the universe is change." School continues. Right now I'm enjoying learning all about typography and it's history. I do not know what my next class, starts in December, will be. Should be interesting, I suspect.

Later.

Flickr : austin, current, itt, life, tech, texas, update
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Trivial Answer

2011-11-09T22:29:00.001-06:00

There are 20 raw Almonds in an ounce.

ramblemans.blogspot.com

Flickr : almond, raw.20, trivia, twenty
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Yard sale-Online

2011-11-09T15:08:00.000-06:00

This is a virtual yard sale. ALL items will HAVE to be picked up in Long Lane, MISSOURI (Dallas County). If necessary we can deliver as far as Buffalo, MO, but absolutely no further. All prices ARE negotiable :-) So make an offer.

Bench seat from a full size Chevy Conversion van. $25 O.B.O.

Very used Adirondack chairs $5 each, O.B.O
-

Ancient skateboard. FREE to whoever wants it.

http://www.ramblemans.blogspot.com

Flickr : adirondack, benchseat, chair, conversion van seat, flea market, must sell, skateboard, vanseat, yard sale
Technorati : adirondack, benchseat, chair, conversion van seat, flea market, must sell, skateboard, vanseat, yard sale

Superfast Broadband Development Still Going Slow: Internet News

2011-11-08T21:02:00.000-06:00

Superfast Broadband Development Still Going Slow: Internet News

Anyone know just how widespread & how fast the high speed internet is in Austin, Texas?

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Mango picture

2011-11-05T19:44:00.001-05:00

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com/mango-picture

Flickr : cat, feline, harness, kitty, male, mango, orange, photo, photograph, picture
Technorati : cat, feline, harness, kitty, male, mango, orange, photo, photograph, picture

Used bicycle and snowboard sale

2011-11-05T10:01:00.001-05:00

If you are willing to drive to Long Lane, Missouri, USA and make us an offer for 1 or more of these bicycles, or the snowboard. Christmas could be very happy for someone.

Every one of these will get bigger (to 640x480) if you click.

This is my 10-speed. Works great, just needs new tires.

Just needs new tires. It's a 12-speed.

1-speed with 26 inch wheels. Kid decorated!

Just needs the seat fixed so it doesn't tilt forward or backward when landing after a jump.

Just needs new boot locker inners, but would work with these as they're just cracked on the back.

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Flickr : 10-speed, 12-speed, 26-inch 1-speed, bicycle, snowboard
Technorati : 10-speed, 12-speed, 26-inch 1-speed, bicycle, snowboard

Pics of a Very comfy kitty

2011-11-04T21:30:00.000-05:00

Sorry about the blur, I couldn't find my tripod and I tend to wobble. Anyway, this is Mango, whom we should probably have named something more like 'The Oozer', or 'Mr. Limbo/Laid-back/Chillin' or somerthing.

(click to enlarge)

(clikk 2 largen :)

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com/

Flickr : Mango, cat, feline, kitten, limber
Technorati : Mango, cat, feline, kitten, limber

41 more outside pics of Home for sale

2011-11-04T21:11:00.001-05:00

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1596350885129.47494.1726708328&type=1&l=5e9dc5e4b2

Flickr : 2011, long lane, missouri, owner financing, pictures home, sale
Technorati : 2011, long lane, missouri, owner financing, pictures home, sale

Proud 2 B A Liberal

2011-11-03T22:37:00.000-05:00

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Flickr : liberal, proud
Technorati : liberal, proud

Home For Sale - Owner financing!

2011-11-02T17:38:00.001-05:00

For $1500 you can move in and get all the appliances (electric cook stove/oven, refrigerator, heavy duty upright deep freezer, microwave, washing machine, dryer, 3 window air conditioning units). For only $500 more ($2000 total), you can move into a fully furnished home (2 full-size sofas, of which one is a pseudo-leather fold-out sleeper, 2 queen size beds, 2 computer desks w/chairs, a Lazy Boy recliner, 2 solid oak tables (1 round, 1 that seats at least 6)) PLUS all of the appliances.

Then you sign a contract agreeing that you'll be pay us $500 a month to BUY the house on 9.44 acres, with your own well. Then in an agreed upon amount of time for us to move out, you can move in.

Or you can get your own home loan to buy it through a bank at any time. Current balance owed = a little over $60,000.

Comment on this blog or on Facebook if you're interested.

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com and http://facebook.com/toddlius

Flickr : long lane, missouri, owner financing, sale
Technorati : long lane, missouri, owner financing, sale

Slower DSL since Fri night

2011-11-01T19:07:00.002-05:00

We have had DSL going on 4 years. Have had at least 4 different technicians come to our place over the years and check things out. Not *once* did they say we needed to have phone line filters on our phones. Same when talking to DSL technicians on the phone. They always ask if we do and I always said no. Today, after we got our new modem (technicians could not find anything else wrong), I called to tell them that the new modem did not change our DSL speed. The phone tech said that he believed that after we put the filter(s) on our speed would magically be what it's supposed to be (1.5 Mbps). Apparently nobody thought it important to mention that we should have filters on the phone lines, now I see that is because we don't need them. *sigh* By the way, the last speed test showed results of 0.95 Mbps a minute ago. Earlier I was getting speeds of 0.35-0.49 Mbps. Frustrating.

What a drop in interest...

2011-11-01T13:25:00.000-05:00

...of my blog. I mean, according my monthly Google Analytics report for last month, I only had *3* visits. Yikes! Good thing I'm not in it for the money, eh? :-)

New class MO better

2011-10-31T17:41:00.000-05:00

If you can recall how I felt while attending the last college course of Programming Using Visual Basic 2005, you know I did not enjoy it. I don't feel I really learned much from that class, other than it's looking like programming is not a career I want to specialize in. I don't know what the reasons were, but for some reason I just did not feel able to remember to coding rules of Visual Basic. Yeah, I'm told I will probably need to know at least some basic programming, which I do, very, very basic :-) In the end I recieved a grade of a C+, desipite failing the final exam miserably (per the grade and how I felt after taking the test). That is over though.

Currently I am enrolled in the next class towards my degree. It's called Typography for the Web. It's basic how to use the program InDesign CS4 to create any type of written materials (books, magazines, etc) to convey meaning in type. I'm enjoying this class a lot more. Granted I've just began the 2nd week, but still. I'm grokking it much better as I'm a visual learner, hence why I'm majoring in Web Design (technologies), which looks odd when I see it written. I like how things look more than needing to know how they work (in general anyway). So far I'm getting an A. Yay!

My DD's birthday

2011-10-29T15:41:00.000-05:00

Her cake was a 2-layer, round meat cake, which I can't find pictures of. It looked like the usual kind of cake, but instead of sugar-frosting, it was covered with mashed sweet potatoes spread like frosting.

http://ramblemans.blogspot.cpm

A thing we attended in Buffalo

2011-10-29T15:08:00.000-05:00

that I cannot remember the name of. Families picked a country to represent food-wise so we could taste foods from other countries. These are the pictures I took.
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http://ramblemans.blogspot.com.

Thank the gods it's over!

2011-10-23T23:09:00.000-05:00

With the last assignment today (before midnight Monday), I sent the below question to my teacher last night. His "answer" is in red. Needless to say, I won't get a good grade, if any, for the assignment I turned in. As for the final exam, I don't want to talk about it. Seriously.
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Question I asked about the course's last assignment.

I'm at a loss. I know nothing about office accounting. I'm trying to research what kinds of expenses a company's offices would have. I've never worked in a an office. They would need printer ink, paper, pens, pencils, and stuff like that, right? Basically I don't know where to begin, but I also don't want a "0%" for the assignment, so can you help get me started somehow? Video, webpage links?

Teacher’s answer:

You have summarized some expenses. that is fine. The goal is not that you have a magic list but that you can accomplish the project requirements. Please proceed.

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Last Visual Basic assignment and I'm clueless

2011-10-23T00:34:00.004-05:00

Keep in mind, I've never, ever worked in an office, therefore I have no experience to draw ideas from. Unless someone can give me a very quick explanation on how to create this application/form in Visual Basic 2005, I'm going to get an "F" on this assignment. Just sayin!

Wagner Cable Company would like for you to write an accounting application that must report the day of the week when a bill must be paid. If a bill would be due on a Saturday or Sunday, it should consider that bill due on the previous Friday. What code will you use to meet the requirements? The data about the due date of the bill will be read from a database you will create.

They would also like for you to write an application in Visual Basic that will display the number of expenses for each office. The expenses should be broken down by category. They want to provide users with a visual display, using both bar graphs and pie charts. They also want users to be about to print the output. The data about the expenses will be read from a database you create. Make sure you have multiple offices and multiple expenses as data in the tables.

•How will you color-code each category in the bar chart?

•What method will you use to draw the bars?

•How will you color-code each category in the pie chart?

•What method will you use to draw the pie chart?

•What method will you use to label the charts?

•What object controls the color of the labels?

•How will you allow users to print the graphs?

•How will you allow users to select a printer?

•What can you do to optimize code reuse?

Submission Requirements:

Write the code to create the applications and submit a zip file of the project folder created by Visual Basic.

Answer the questions listed above in Microsoft Word.

P.S. It's due before 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern time tonight (Sunday night)

Hoping I do well enough on the final exam today that even with an "F" on the last assignment, and a current grade of 86%, that I pass the class. Whatever.

Living in the past, way back pictures

2011-10-22T20:50:00.000-05:00

Going through pictures to decide which ones to take on the move with us. Just sharin :)

Just chillin'

2011-10-22T12:32:00.002-05:00

It's the day before the end of my hardest class to date. All I'm going to do between now and taking the final exam tomorrow is just whatever I want to. Serious-er though, it's all good. I've stopped obsessing about being an expert at programming with Visual Basic after only 6 weeks. See what school does to some people? It stresses them out. That being said, I've stopped stressing about it, for the most part. I mean, you know, I want to get good grades in all of the classes. I just have to remember that just because I'm not an expert at
one thing doesn't mean anything. I don't have to be. I'm good at many other things.

Not looking good

2011-10-12T15:57:00.000-05:00

Wish me luck everybody. My computer crashed last night w all my school programs, shortcuts, and everything. It's all gone. Was just able to connect to the internet around noon. Everything I do on it as far as new installs seems to be a pain in the ass. Only 5 hours to go and Windows Service Pack 3 will be downloaded. Hopefully I'll be able to get Windows updates once that's installed. PS I'm using Angelica's computer right now, in case you care. Finally signed into my class a little while ago. Seems the homework I turned in last night was not rite by the time the teacher got it, so he wants me to resend it. Unfortunately I don't have it anymore. I'm downloading a program I need on A's laptop rite now, but our connection sucks today, so it's going to be a while before I can do said homework. Hopefully the 50th hour (it seems) of writing the fucking VB programming will get me better than a 25% grade on attempt #2. Yes, that's what he gave me on the last assignment. That leaves my overall grade at 68% for the course with this and next week to go, and I'm 4 assignments behind, not counting this weeks. I may just fail this stupid class! Maybe I'm not cut-out for Web Design Technology college work :-(

Intro To Programming using Visual Basic

2011-10-03T15:14:00.001-05:00

In my case, VB 2010, but the text & workbooks for the class were both written for VB 2005 software. Now I don't know exactly what the differences are between the 2 versions, but I do know there are some. Included in those "somes" are different screen layouts, and little differences with some of the buttons on the toolbar on top. Some of the menu items are different too. I thought that there was (is) enough things in common that I could just read/do the stuff in the workbook and cross whatever I learned about VB 2005 when I started actually using the 2010 version to do programming. Now I'm not so sure. It may just be me though. Not making a huge deal out of it, but I'm starting to think that the main reason I just do not seem to be getting this Visual Basic stuff is because of the ongoing effects of my last MS exacerbation of dizziness and nausea (and possible MS brain fog). Rain agrees that those things may indeed be causing me to struggle a bit to grasp the programming language. As much as I just want(ed) to "power through" it, I'm not doing so well in that regard. Although I'm currently carrying a 96%(4.0) grade point average, I don't feel it's a true 'A' grade. Know what I mean? I have sent an email to my college teacher and updated him on what's happening with my MS. He said he is familiar with MS symptoms, which is great to know. He asked me if I thought the symptoms would 'stabilize' within the next 3 weeks of class and I told him I didn't know. Don't really expect much in that regard as it's only been 3 weeks and exacerbations typically last 6 weeks or so for me. I also asked what he suggests I do in this situation. I haven't heard back yet, but I did just send that email a couple of hours ago. I also sent him an email explaining that because I'm not only having to learn the programming language itself, but I'm having to also learn the Visual Basic program too, so that may be a reason for getting a little behind with my homework. He hasn't wrote back with anything about that either.
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I really did mow for the last time this season. Even doing that was a bit of a struggle though. Even making big circles around the place, I had to keep a tight grip on the steering wheel so I didn't get dizzy and fall off. LOL.
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Now I'm in the process if uninstalling some of the programs for school that I don't need at the moment, to increase the processing speed of the VB program as well as the computer overall. We shall see.

Todd out.

Rambleman

Follow-up on Potential breakthrough

2011-09-26T18:24:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to ad an addendum, also known as a P.S.? Anyway, I just decided that I'm not going to let school rule my life. I'm going back to how I originally started. I started with a schedule of how long to do things like reading the textbook, class online, and now programming. Even my time while at the computer doing my own things is going to be on a schedule. Reading the textbook will be done in 30 minute increments, then a 5 or so minute break, then read for another 30 minutes. Being online at the 'classroom' is also going to be in 30/5 time tables. As a matter of fact, I think I'll do the 30/5 whenever I'm on the computer doing anything (personal or school). Last week was just stressful. Last evening I just decided that I'm not going to let school/stress kill my ass. I simply have got to remember one reason I need to stay on SSD is because I have MS, and stress is Horrible to MS sufferers, especially the stressed out kind I was a couple of weeks ago. That obviously happened, but I knew/know better and should've "taken a chill pill" before the exacerbation (MS flare-up). Okay, I'm all better now. Later, Tater!

Potential breakthrough

2011-09-26T14:27:00.001-05:00

It's a new week so I just know that we'll be covering the chapter that is last week's last one, +1. I read a few parts of the next chapter (5 in this instance) and may have discovered why I was getting so frustrated last week. To put it at the most basic level... I was doing it wrong. However, it was just me writing the right code and thinking it was supposed to do something other than I was trying to make it do. Right code in the Wrong spot type of thing. Yes, I'm having a 'slap myself on the forehead' moment. I have a feeling this week will be better for school understanding and program writing practice.

Week Two's homework

2011-09-25T15:01:00.001-05:00

If I wanted to watch my Sunday, NFL football without also being on the computer working, I need to write 2 pages of assignment answers, tweak one computer application, and create another one in, oh, the next couple of freaking" minutes. LOL. Well, looks like I'm going to have to continue with my multitasking practice. See ya later!

Todd

Did I mention that all 4 of those college writing and application assignments are due within the next 7 hours? Just me being me though. No worries, mate!

Awesome home and 9 acres for sale

2011-09-25T12:22:00.001-05:00

(only $74,900 U.S. dollars)

Lots of trees that could be firewood.

Private well.

9.44 acres.

2 bedrooms (1 with walk-in closet), 1 full bath, with 1 Small upstairs room.

All appliances (cook stove, microwave, refrigerator, upright/heavy duty freezer, washer and dryer, 3 window air conditioners) stay.

4 ceiling fans.

Porch wraps around half of the house.

24' x 24' octagonal above-ground pool.

Round trampoline.

Large front and back yards.

Large (approx. 2 acres) hayfield that you can get bails of hay from 2-3 times a year.

Outbuildings with electricity.

1 could be used as an unattached bedroom/craft room.

1 is currently the tool shed.

1 large (garage sized) shed with a cement floor and has a 3-sided animal shelter attached. There's a riding mower inside that stays with the house.

Seasonal pond in a 1 acre (approx.) fenced field.

Small year around pond (larger than the one above).

Apple tree, persimmon trees, wild cherry trees, walnut trees, wild plum trees.

Lots of trees (fruit, nut, etc)

Weeping-willow tree/hedge in backyard.

You can also get high speed (1.5 Mbps) DSL

Questions welcome.

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Beautiful home 9 acres sale

2011-09-22T11:20:00.001-05:00

* You can also get high speed (1.5 Mbps) DSL

* Lots of trees (fruit, nut, etc)

* Ask for details in a 'comment' and we will answer it.

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Unexpected results

2011-09-21T14:19:00.001-05:00

If you remember last week, I had a major stress attack about the new class. Even this week I feel like I'm just barely "getting" programing using Visual Basic. Also last week I turned in an assignment and got a 70% on it, which is a C-. :Luckily he allowed me to re submit the assignment, which I received a grade of 85% on. The last assignment of last week I got an 'A' one. As unsure of how to program I am, it turns out that I'm getting an 'A' overall in the class. I just feel like I'm winging it. Guess that's working though LOL

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com/unexpected-results

This school week so far

2011-09-14T19:05:00.001-05:00

...has been a stressful one since starting the new class (Web Design Techniques). Our first assignment for the week is about Microsoft Visual Studio, visual basic specifically, creating an "order entry application" using Visual Basic. 1st problem I've had: I don't have any Windows Visual Basic program to install on my computer. 2nd problem: The site the school sent me to, to download the program, has it, but the download just error's out. So no download. I downloaded a 30-day free trial of Windows Visual Studio 2010 Express yesterday, thinking I could get a little of the homework done. The textbook for the course teaches "VB 2005", which is different (I think) then VB 2010 Express, so I am totally unsure that what I'm trying to do is even possible with what I downloaded & installed. I talked to a support person at my school about not being able to download the program that the textbook says I need, but he knew nothing about any such site. I kept trying with a different browser, but the download failed the same way with it too. I digress, sorry.
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So anyway, I happen to be on a Facebook group with other Missouri ITT Tech graduates and students whom I told about my download issues. It was suggested that I go to a site called Microsoft DreamSpark, where students can get free downloads of software after they verify they are a student. It doesn't take long to get verified as long as you use a school (.edu) email address from one of the schools they list that qualifies for the program. So anyway, I'm in the process of downloading Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 but it's taking some time since it's a 2.19 GB download that is 25% (532 MB) d.loaded so far. We only have a 1.5M DSL connection that 4 people share, and one of those people is an online video gamer.
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Anywho, I got side-tracked again. Back to the school issues this week. Besides not having a program that I need, I'm a little stressed out because when I read the assignments for the week it seems like they're geared toward people who have at least a little experience with Visual Basic and/or coding, which I have zero, and it's already Wednesday afternoon/early evening and I have none of the homework done. Granted they're not due until Sunday night, but I got used to having one class's homework completely done by mid week, and most of the other class's. So being mid week with none of it done is causing me to wig-out. One more thing... I don't feel a connection with the instructor for this class. I sent him emails using the school email system on Monday around noon about my software issues but didn't hear anything back from him until this morning. He sent an announcement on Monday saying that he'd be in his office for a couple of hours on Mondays and Wednesdays. He said that he'll monitor his school email when he's not in his office though. I feel intimidated since in another introduction-announcement he told how he has something like 15 years (or more) of engineering and programming experience and I've go NO programming experience whatsoever.
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Wish me luck!
_

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Trippin' Home From Buffalo, MO in Sep.2011

2011-09-10T22:51:00.000-05:00

Just thought you'd like to see more than a road/highway while riding with us. - - Watch on YouTube at http://youtu.be/VM6QFY9bPTk http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Buffalo, MO. Celtic Faire 2011 byTodd

2011-09-10T20:57:00.000-05:00

On Youtube: http://youtu.be/1qp_gpp6oY8 http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Mango and Latte sleeping weirdly

2011-09-10T18:43:00.000-05:00

This is a short picture-video of the title-mentioned cats sleeping weirdly :) http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

School-Chores-Spider-Celtic-Fest

2011-09-09T16:33:00.001-05:00

I have been on summer break from college for the last two weeks. The 1st week was officially still a school-week, but I had done everything required for the 2 courses so there was really nothing that I needed to do, so I took a break for life. This week is the 2nd week and we're (ITT) in between quarters so there were no classes, at least not online for me. Starting Monday (9-12-11) I begin 2 more classes, possibly only 1. The class that I may have to take (college mathematics 1) is a class that I have already completed and was given a 'transfer credit' for. I called the school this afternoon and asked why, if I'm going to be required to, do I need to re-take the class. The only reason I can consider would be because the year I completed *that* course was in 1983 from the college ITT Tech *says* I got the credit from. I say, "says" because I only did basic math and a psychology class at that college, whereas from the college I took college algebra at is a different college in a different state. ITT says I got credit for composition from Pikes Peak Community College. Although I had taken a 'technical writing' course there, the most recent was the 'college algebra' which I got an 'A' for. Anyway, the support person I talked to at ITT was going to send a query to the registrar to look into whether or not I will be required to take that math class, then they're supposed to call me afterward. Still waiting for that call. No biggie, I plan on being home all day.
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Yesterday I finished the last yard mow of the season, I think. Granted it's only September. You know weather, it could change and the grass could grow enough for 1 more. I'm not expecting that to happen though. Call it a hunch.
_
A couple (few?) days ago I got out the electric weed-eater and also the small-branch cutter for some too-thick-for-the-weed-eater-cord weeds. While I was whacking the weeds I just happen to look up and saw a beautiful 'Orb Weaver' spider and her/his web. Of course I came in and got the camera. The following pictures (already full size) are of said spider.

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I was trying to get a picture from below as a face-shot, but couldn't contort well enough.
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No sure why there seems to be 2 of the same picture with different backgrounds.
_

An enlarged view of the picture(s) just above this one.
_
Todays happenings, other than talking to the college was just your average chores. Vacuumed, load of laundry, shower, litter box clean, and computer play with music on. Tonight it appears as though we plan on going to The Celtic Festival's 'calling of the clans' in Buffalo, MO. Tomorrow we go back to the same place for the paid version of the festival in which many vendors and Irish athletes will perform. Here's a link to last year's calling of the clan's video , another video-link from the 2010 lighting of the firepit for the calling of said clans, and a video of us walking from the car to the fields at which the festival was in, in 2010.

Driving betwixt Lebanon and Long Lane Missouri USA - YouTube

2011-09-09T00:08:00.000-05:00

This is the twistiest stretch of Hwy. 32 on the way to Long Lane from Lebanon, Missouri, USA

Driving betwixt Lebanon and Long Lane Missouri USA - YouTube

*I do not own nor claim any rights whatsoever for the music playing during this video. It's Beethoven's Symphony No. 9"

FringeFolkFarm's Channel - YouTube

2011-09-08T19:31:00.000-05:00

An almost 4 minute, fun filled ride in the car to Buffalo, Missouri, USA :-)

FringeFolkFarm's Channel - YouTube

How to interview like a pro

2011-09-08T15:45:00.000-05:00

Excellent article on how to get ready for That interview and get the job.

http://stlouisopensource.blogspot.com/2011/08/interviewing-tips.html

Playing with backgrounds, banners and words

2011-09-03T22:22:00.001-05:00

Okay. I was going to post just the below picture things, knowing that what I should include is something a bit more substantial if you will. Today there is no NFL football on any of the channels that we receive through our Digital Television Box. It's really not that big of a deal. It's not like I can't find anything to do that I'd probably be doing anyway while watching football. So, TV is still off so we're listening to Internet radio via Accuradio dot com on the Classic Rock Channel.

I could be playing with the program Adobe Dreamweaver, practicing building web sites. The problem is that I don't have anywhere to upload a test site to, to test it. However, I am pretty sure I could use 'local:host' (?) which is this computer, as a server. I'm just not sure what to put on a test site and or page. Perhaps I could work on a page for after I graduate, offering profession web sites. After Rain gets a degree in hair cutting I could plug her business. I could make a site advertising both, even 3 things if my 18/19 year old daughter gets a degree in Pastry cooking. If we ever get to a city closer than an hour away where she could work in a hair salon, I could advertise that too. You see, I'm having trouble "advertising the future" for some reason. One could say I've lost the ability to dream/think big/look forward to better times. I don't know. Perhaps I just need an attitude adjustment, which I suppose wouldn't hurt even if I didn't technically need-need it. LOL.
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HOME on 9.44 acres 4 sale

2011-09-02T20:38:00.001-05:00

* You can also get high speed (1.5 Mbps) DSL

* Lots of trees (fruit, nut, etc)

* Ask for details in a 'comment' and we will give them.

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Utterly baffled :(

2011-09-01T17:25:00.001-05:00

I spent the last two days getting the hoses installed under the bathroom sink so that they don't leak. I went, grabbed a bar of soap from the kitchen. Got to the bathroom, turned on the hot water and there was just a trickle. Turned on the cold water, also a trickle. With them both on? Yep, just a trickle. What the fuck?! I checked every other faucet in the house and their pressures are fine. I don't get it :-( Any ideas? I'll take the damn thing apart tomorrow because it's too damn hot in the bathroom, plus I get dizzy and nauseous if I have to get in and out from under the sink.

Signed,
Baffled, confused and frustrated in Missouri

Spherized Mango

2011-08-30T22:54:00.001-05:00

Also known as Mango in a bubble :) I found a new button!

ramblemans.blogspot

Mango's Sphere Face

2011-08-30T18:55:00.001-05:00

Yet another try. Is this better?

This is Mango. This didn't turnout as well as I'd hoped, but still not too bad for a rookie :)

www.ramblemans.blogspot.com

Mango's Sphere Face

2011-08-30T09:38:00.001-05:00

This is Mango. This didn't turnout as well as I'd hoped, but still not too bad for a rookie :)

www.ramblemans.blogspot.com

Complete: First three college courses

2011-08-29T17:42:00.002-05:00

1) A/100%: Technical Professional Strategies 2) A/100%: Creative Problem Solving 3) A/93%: Introduction To Web Design. Not a bad start, if'n I do say to myself :-)

Catnipped Cat

2011-08-28T14:33:00.001-05:00

Is your cat just too hyper for his own good? Here's proof that Mango really calms down if you give him a catnip leaf. LOL

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Hi eye c you

2011-08-28T14:26:00.001-05:00

This is me

Kodak (non) Customer Service Chat

2011-08-25T13:55:00.001-05:00

Kodak Customer Service Chat

8/25/2011

Todd: I want to change the color of the text to something other than 'black & White'

[All of our specialists are assisting other customers. We apologize for the delay and appreciate your patience. Please continue to hold and your chat will be answered by the next available specialist.](12:56:36 PM)

[You are now chatting with Anurag S.]

Anurag S (12:56:43 PM): Welcome to Kodak, my name is Anurag . Please wait while I review your question.

Anurag S (12:57:10 PM): Please tell me the model number of your printer?

Todd (12:57:28 PM): Esp-3

Anurag S (12:57:42 PM): If I understand you correctly you want to print color of the text in other than black & white.

Todd (12:57:56 PM): Yes

Anurag S (12:58:01 PM): I will help you in this issue today.

Todd (12:58:13 PM): Thank you

Anurag S (12:58:29 PM): Please tell me the Kodak Service Number for your printer? You can find this number by opening the printer access door like you are going to change the ink cartridges. This number will be located on the left hand side.

Todd (12:58:52 PM): What does that matter?

Anurag S (12:59:25 PM): In order to help you i need to capture some detail for the record.

Todd (12:59:28 PM): Why, actually.

Todd (1:00:03 PM): Okay, hold on

Todd (1:01:24 PM): *******

Anurag S (1:01:52 PM): Please tell me month, year & place of purchase of the printer.

Todd (1:03:42 PM): I don't know what month it was. It was about a year ago and I don't have the receipt. We got it at the Lebanon, MO Wal*mart Supercenter.

Anurag S (1:03:55 PM): Thank you for all the information.

Todd (1:04:08 PM): You're welcome.

Anurag S (1:04:20 PM): Please tell me what document are you trying to print.

Anurag S (1:04:29 PM): Is it a word document or something else.

Todd (1:04:55 PM): Plain text on plain white printer paper.

Anurag S (1:05:20 PM): Ok

Anurag S (1:05:40 PM): Please open Microsoft word on your computer.

Todd (1:06:03 PM): opening...

Todd (1:06:49 PM): Ready

Anurag S (1:07:25 PM): Please open a new file in word document & type something on the page.

Todd (1:08:23 PM): done *

[in a new doc at the time I wrote: Want this text to be green by default]

Anurag S (1:09:14 PM): Now select the typed text with the mouse cursor & chosse the color of text other than black & white. (Hmm, I sense frustration)

Todd (1:09:46 PM): I Want this text to be green by default

Anurag S (1:10:49 PM): Please select the text color on the word file.

Anurag S (1:10:57 PM): And print.

Todd (1:11:38 PM): I know how to change Word default settings. I want go change just printer settings.

Anurag S (1:11:54 PM): Ok.

Anurag S (1:11:56 PM): Please give me a few minutes to research the answer. I will be with you shortly.

Todd (1:12:06 PM): Thank you.

Anurag S (1:17:25 PM): Thank you for staying online , i appreciate your patience.

Todd (1:17:42 PM): You're welcome

Anurag S (1:18:17 PM): Todd i have checked for this issue. you can set the default setting to print every time in color however you have to select which color your want to print in.

Todd (1:18:46 PM): That's what I want to do.

Anurag S (1:18:49 PM): Or you can set the default setting on the word document to type every time in Green color.

Anurag S (1:19:08 PM): Select The text color as green as default.

Anurag S (1:19:13 PM): In the word.

Todd (1:20:19 PM): I want everything I print that has text to have green text even if it's a scan-and-print job. Not everything I print is a 'Word' document.

Anurag S (1:20:41 PM): Ok

Anurag S (1:21:31 PM): Todd for that it may require some advance level of technical support & if you want you can speak with our voice support team at 1-800-421-6699 9 A.M. to midnight, Eastern Time, 7 days a week. your case no. is *******

Anurag S (1:21:48 PM): Voice support team will be able to help you with this.

Todd (1:22:03 PM): Ok, I'll do that. Thanks for your help.

Anurag S (1:22:13 PM): I appreciate your time & patience on this chat session, Is there any other support I may provide you with today?

Todd (1:22:58 PM): Nah, I'm good. Enjoy the rest of your day and don't let cranky people annoy you too much.

Anurag S (1:23:37 PM): Thank you for contacting Kodak. Appreciate your coopertion ,You have a nice day.

Sigh! I know it can be done. I just can't remember how I did it the last time. LOL

Todd

Vist Russia!

2011-08-25T11:49:00.001-05:00

This was my last assignment for my Introduction to Web Design class using Photoshop CS4 Extended version. I got an "A". *shameless plug*

It does indeed enlarge upon the clicking of it :)

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

My online PDF Portfolio

2011-08-25T10:35:00.001-05:00

If you ever want to see all my class PHOTOSHOP, completed assignments (and just personal picture playing), you can see them (in .pdf format) at http://www.visualcv.com/toddwmilligan

Dismantled Bathroom Faucet

2011-08-24T14:20:00.001-05:00

Have you ever wondered what the inside of a bathroom faucet looks like? Awesome then I can show you. This is the one that broke and needs replacement. I decided this morning that I am going to have to take it out when we get said replacement, so why not do it today. After getting it separated from the sink I decided to see exactly what caused it to stop functioning and perhaps fix it. As it turns out I don't think I can fix it since I don't have any welding tools nor am I a welder. Would super glue work? Hmm...

This is it, completely taken apart.

This is the part that I *was* attempting to get off of the faucet to clean. It is completely clogged with lime from the water. Looking at it I am surprised any water at all came out.
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Another blurry view of the clogged screen.
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This is what the part with the screen in it attached to inside the faucet. The silver part below the gold-colored part is what was supposed to unscrew. Instead it had been long enough that lime had fused them together.
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The top of the pipe pointing up is what the thing in the picture above would need to be spot welded to, unless you think super glue would work. Do you?

Fetching cat

2011-08-23T14:07:00.000-05:00

Normally he'll bring the ball of paper back several times in a row before he quits and I have to go get it to throw again. lol. Like most animals do when I have a camera, he didn't do it like he usually does.

Scheduled blog entry and homework picture

2011-08-23T12:09:00.000-05:00

Are you wondering what the crap I mean by scheduled blog entry? See, after I started college in June I decided to keep my blog updated more consistently. I set the calendar program in Thunderbird to remind me to write in my blog every 2-3 days. Sometimes I do. Today is one of those days.

Today is my big brother's birthday. He lives in England. I sent him an email, and also wrote "Happy Birthday" on his Facebook wall. I probably won't get an acknowledgment, but that's alright, I didn't do it for me. So why mention it? A question I have no good answer for.

I shaved my face yesterday. While doing so I felt that the water stream coming out of the faucet when I was trying to rinse the razor blades off wasn't very direct, but I pushed through. After I finally got done (3-blade razor got clogged w/hair, 2-blade doesn't work very well cuz it's a cheap one). I decided to clean the little wire-mesh screen on the faucet. However, instead of twisting just that part loose, I twisted the entire end of the faucet loose. Out of curiosity I pulled that thing (see above) down so that it didn't wiggle at all. Unfortunately, the connection for it inside the spout is no longer attached to it. When I turned the water on for just a second I heard water hitting the floor of the cabinet under the sink. So now we need a different faucet, but that's going to have to wait until 2 Fridays from now after we get paid.

Yesterday I completed a lab assignment for my web class and turned it in online (uploaded it). Unfortunately, I submitted it as the week five, unit 9 exercise1 (should've been Unit 9 LAB1 ), which is a different assignment. Luckily, I have a teacher who understands that mistakes happen and asked if I would like her to reset the exercise so that I can turn in the correct one later. Of course I said yes. I honestly don't know why I did what I did. I swear I double checked to make sure I was turning in the correct assignment. Which I was, but I turned it in for the wrong homework category. Sigh. A couple of weeks ago I turned the wrong homework for the correct category and had to have that reset, hence why I double check everything, or think I do, before uploading my finished assignment. Anyway, below is the assignment I turned in correctly the second time (hopefully). LOL.

Okay, I have written a blog. Now I'm going to go outside and ride the riding mower around the front yard so it doesn't look like we have 2 driveways. LOL. The last time I mowed I left the grass UN-mowed on each side of the driveway so that when that grass there gets taller there would appear to be walls. When my wife came home yesterday, she said she almost drove down beside the driveway because she couldn't tell where the real one was. Today I shall fix that!

clicking enlarges

Pre-owned, heavy duty Jazzy 600 Series Powerchair | eBay

2011-08-21T18:50:00.000-05:00

Pre-owned, heavy duty Jazzy 600 Series Powerchair | eBay It's only 4 years old, but only used about a year and a half. http://facebook.com/toddlius

THEE Relaxation King de Mango

2011-08-20T00:19:00.001-05:00

water cat

2011-08-19T22:45:00.002-05:00

http://facebook.com/toddlius

Elvis Presley poster assignment

2011-08-18T18:03:00.001-05:00

The assignment was to come up with a poster using the style, fonts and colors of a time period in the past of a popular music idol of that time. I chose the 1950's.

8/16/2011 Todd M.

I began the poster idea searching for font styles in 1957 because that's when someone I know was born. Choosing a font style that year-specific was proving to be next to impossible. Just the font style of the '50s was the next idea. Then I did a search for 50's posters. One of Elvis's posters popped up. I noticed that there was a lot of orange, red, and black & white in the posters of the decade. I remembered my mother was a huge Elvis Presley fan. She died a few years back so I went with Elvis as my favored star of those times. I liked him too though. Now I had the idea of who would be my poster's star and began looking for copyright-free pictures. Downloaded several and worked two of them into my poster.

I needed to be able to see what kinds of fonts they used, so I looked for posters with lots of type/copy. They used quite a bit of big, round, plump, and chiseled letters in various posters that I found. I found that they were fond of 'Helvetica' and 'Verdana' fonts, but they didn't seem right to me. Searched for 50's font styles again and found a site with similar looking fonts to the posters. Photoshop didn't have the first one and I didn't like Verdana. I picked the Showcard Gothic font (fontspace.com).

I had one color photo and one black & white photo. After playing around for a while I had chose black with white letters for the type above the black & white picture. I had planned on using orange and red letters below the colorized picture. While trying to get all the background and foreground colors to sync, I tried to change the background behind a picture; I accidently solarized it. I liked what it did and so did my wife, so I played with that and ended up with what I turned in.

References

fontspace.com. (n.d.). Free fonts tagged retro, 1950s. Retrieved August 16, 2011, from fontspace: http://tinyurl.com/1950sfonts

Google. (n.d.). Google. Retrieved August 16, 2011, from Google: http://google.com

Life and School

2011-08-13T11:17:00.001-05:00

Hello, how are you? Yes, I am finally writing a blog and will send it online for others besides me to read. I've been pretty consistent in making Vlogs. I don't know if I will ever post them online though. And that is because it's just my nature to start making them so that they are politically correct. Although, that's not really the meaning I was trying to explain. It would be like writing when I know people online are going to read it. After a while I tend to write for other people instead of myself. Therefore I tend not to get too deep because people would find out how freaky I really am. IE how so very different (not in a good way lol) I am than the so called average person. I really don't know why that should even be an issue, but it is. We have been telling our kids the whole time they've been growing up do not worry about what other people think, to just be themselves. Then I hypocritically try to write and say things that won't upset people (anymore), especially people who really know me in real life. What is real life? You know? people I've talked to in person are definitely real to me. People I've met online though are real as far as I know. No, they are, at least the people I have met online before meeting them in person, which aren't many, but they do exist, or they did at one point. lol.

I turned in the last homework assignment of the week for the Web Design class (ad design for a fictional company). Guess what grade I received. Yep, an 'A' (100%). Only 3 more weeks of this class. I have to look through my notes to remind myself what classes come next. Speaking (typing?) of homework, I have one more part of the Problem Solving classwork to turn in this week. Of course I still need to write it, but that's beside the point. lol. Nah, it'll probably only be a page or two, which won't take too long to write... hopefully. Only 2 weeks remaining in the Problem Solving class. It has been 9 of 11 weeks for that one, whereas the Web Design class is only a 6 week class on Photoshop. I'm wondering if the next classes will be about other Adobe software (InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, etc, in the Adobe Master Collection CS4). If they are, then I am wondering if each of them will be 6 week classes or longer. I'm guessing, definitely guessing that will be the case, but please do not use the first part of this sentence as fact. lol. I'm still trying to figure-out, with Photoshop, if I really need to flatten/merge my image layers to reduce the final file size, or if just starting the picture layout in 72 dpi reduces it in the beginning. I experimented last evening a little with one of my prior projects, but the one I played with was started before I found out about the 72 dpi thing. Shrug :)

This morning has been fairly productive. I've taken a shower, drank a cup of coffee, cleaned the litter box for the kitties, and whacked the weeds down in front of the house . I've also video blogged (Vlogged) and obviously Blogged. What does the B in Blog stand for again? Anyway, I'm going to finish writing this, add a picture and upload this puppy. Later taters!

Self-designed desktop background

2011-08-08T19:36:00.000-05:00

After I designed the "home page" for my web design class, I decided to make one just for me and my desktop image. The first one is in .jpg format, the second in .gif. The .gif keeps more of the original detail, but it makes for a much bigger file-size.

.jpg,jpeg format

.gif format:

www.ramblemans.blogspot.com

'A' for effort and per the teacher too

2011-08-06T17:22:00.001-05:00

I got a 100% grade on this one :) I even created the 'logo' on the bottom-right corner :)

Clicking enlarges -FYI :)

http://ramblemans.blogspot.com

Homework Assignments-Web Design Class for Week 2

2011-08-06T11:28:00.000-05:00

I only got a grade of 94% on this 'montage' because I needed to show more motion, which the 'blur' option in Photoshop would've helped with. That's okay, 94% isn't bad.

Here's another one I did for the "montage" project, but I got side-tracked thinking about my "home page" assignment (will show here after it's graded), thus forgetting what it was supposed to be. lol. This was just me playing :-)

www.ramblemans.blogspot.com

2nd design 4 Web Design

2011-07-31T21:23:00.001-05:00

No laughing, okay? Just remember, this is after only my first week of using PhotoShop. This is a folder cover design. Class, meet my homework assignment. LOL. If you don't have anything nice to say. Dot, dot, dot.

I knew you'd ask, so here is my 1st time (re)design. LOL

Picture of my poll results

2011-07-31T18:57:00.001-05:00

There's no more wondering about whether or not I should run 4 office. ROFLMAO!

--
Todd
"There are no such things as problems, only challenges to be solved." -TM
http://facebook.com/toddlius