A Professional Dilettante

I was in my sewing room this afternoon, looked out my window, and this is what I saw in the septic field behind my condo:


Goats!


And more goats!


Hey, lady, I didn't give you permission to take my picture.

The septic field's been something of a jungle for quite some time, and I guess the condo board finally decided to do something about it [g]. They're sure a lot quieter and more environmentally friendly than a bush hog. Not to mention cuter.

And if you're wondering about the subject heading...

This is hilarious. It's what happens when you try to get someone who's never been to the U.S. to label all fifty states on a map.

That said, I'd probably have trouble labeling a map of Europe accurately, too. I think I'd do okay with Australia and Canada, though.

Via jaylake.

Last spring? summer? Britain's National Theatre put on a production of Macbeth. The venue was a -- I'm not sure de-commissioned is the right word, but you get the idea -- lovely old church in Manchester. The stars were Kenneth Branagh and Alex Kingston. One night's performance was filmed.

That film has been playing in select venues on both sides of the pond this fall. It finally made it to Seattle, and tonight I went to see it.

Wow. Just. Wow. It's been so long since I've actually seen Kenneth Branagh on the big screen, and I'd completely forgotten how wonderful seeing him in a part I've never seen him in before is. The whole play was fantastic. I had a few minor quibbles -- one with how one part was played, and one of Ken's stage business choices, but other than that?

That's one of the best evenings I've spent in a good long time.

I hope it becomes available on DVD at some point, because I'd love to own a copy and watch it again. Several times [g].

Not because the Seahawks didn't win, because they did -- 14-9.

But because that was one of their most singularly butt-ugly showings this season. And their standards for butt-ugly? Are insanely high for a team that's 7-1 halfway through the season.

At least they managed to keep St. Louis out of the end zone at the very last second, which would have lost them the game.

Ye godlings.

But they won [g]. And some basketball player who was on during halftime to advertise that their season starts tomorrow says he thinks it's going to be the Broncos vs. the Seahawks in the Super Bowl. I hope he's right about the Seahawks and wrong about the Broncos [wry g].

As I said, ye godlings.

Hi, all, it's your non-tech-savvy idiot again...

Or maybe just tech-savvy enough to get me into a lot of trouble, but not enough to get me back out again.

Okay. I have a website (proudly hand-coded a couple of years ago, after much, much struggle and angst [g], and kept updated since). The domain name was purchased through GoDaddy, and costs me $15 a year, which I just renewed a couple of weeks ago before I realized I needed the second website. The site itself is hosted through my ISP, and costs me $10 a month on top of my regular bill. I have no memory of how I accomplished all this several years ago, except that it was ugly and frustrating and stretched my abilities pretty much to their limit. And exceedingly satisfying once it all finally worked.

For reasons I won't get into here, I really need a second website, with a different domain name. This would entail another $15 a year plus $10 a month if I do it the way I'm doing it now.

I'm told I can do this much more cheaply than I'm doing it right now, and that would be a really, really good thing. Almost $300 a year is way more than I need to be paying for this.

But I have no clue how to find a company that will provide this service at a rate I can better afford, with the amount of handholding I will need to get the domain names transferred and the files uploaded (actually, as long as they'll let me FTP the files using Windows File Manager, which is "open two windows, aim one at the files I want to move and the other to the FTP address, then drag and drop", I can do that part -- it's the setup and transfer that's over my head).

Bluehost was recommended to me, and at less than $30 a year for the whole thing for both websites they're certainly more reasonable than what I'm paying now, but when I went to ask some basic-to-me questions, it became very clear to me that they're not going to be willing/able to help me as much as I know I'm going to need to get everything moved and set up. Especially since I got cut off from the chat session before I was finished asking questions, and some of their own help webpages wouldn't load when I clicked on them.

Anyone have a webhosting company they love that can give me fast champagne help on a slow beer budget, and not get impatient with me when I politely hint that they're talking Swahili to me? I'm dubious about using GoDaddy for hosting as well as the domain name. No, I don't know why, but I am. I suspect it's the "we need to sell you a whole bunch of stuff you don't need" spiel every time I go to pay my annual bill, but maybe not.

Help?

This forcibly reminds me of the time I went to the Henry Ford Museum and ran into a machine that made light bulbs. I stared rather dumbfoundedly at it for several minutes.

I guess I'd always thought they just sprang fully-formed from the head of Zeus or something.

http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Note-Technology.html

One of the neat little side effects of getting a new computer last spring is that all of a sudden the scanner function of my old three-in-one (printer, copier, scanner) started working again, after about seven or eight years of non-functionality (it never stopped printing and copying -- it was just the scanner that didn't work).

I suspect the whole problem was a goofed-up driver or something in the old computer, but still, it's nice.

I'm in the process of scanning all my film photos in now, a little bit at a time.

We have a government for another three months.

Yay.

This child of the seventies has just had her non-faith in government renewed once more (when the president is forced to resign just as you're taking civics in high school, it leaves a scar).

Now don't get me wrong. I love sunny days as much as the next person. But these are not sunny days.

We're back in that time of year when a weather forecast that says "sun" means the following.

1) Foggy until mid-afternoon.

2) Hazy sunshine at an angle so low it's just glare for the two or three hours until sunset.

3) Air stagnation advisories if it lasts for more than a couple of days.

I'd rather it rained, thanks.

Especially as this sort of weather keeps me in a continuous low-grade sinus headache until a front blows through and clears it all out. Medicating it makes me basically useless so far as concentrating on anything goes.

We've got a forecast for "sun" for well into next week.

Bleargh.

First, there's a reason that the only reason I have Comcast for my cable is because I have no other option besides snow.

Take today, for instance, when I tried to install a new cable box on my fifteen-year-old TV (which still works fine and which I can't afford to replace right now even if I wanted to which I don't). All I wanted was a digital converter box that would let me record one show on my VCR (to get a DVR I’d have to triple my cable bill and subscribe to a bunch of channels I don’t want) while watching another show at the same time, so I can watch both Murdoch Mysteries and Bones, which air at the same time. The lady at the Comcast store handed me a box claiming that the contents would enable me to do this, no problem.

What was in the box was a new, slightly larger cable box and an ultimately non-functioning remote that looks like it could pilot a lunar lander (the non-functioning part was determined after half an hour of escalating frustration on the phone with someone whose first language is decidedly not English, and an hour and a half of at least being able to communicate with someone on live chat). So I’m paying $15 to have the cable guy come out tomorrow with a replacement remote and to set it up and show me how to do what I want to do with it [wry g]. That wasted most of my afternoon.

There’s a reason I don’t have my internet with those folks. I wouldn’t have my cable with them, either, except that they’re the only game in town (condo regs prohibit satellite dishes and antennae).

Then, for some masochistic reason that makes no sense to me now, I decided to sign up for an account with my state's health care exchange, so that I could ask some questions before I choose a plan (as you know, Bob, I'm self-employed, and my current bare-bones contract will be going up about 180% as of January 1st, and I'm pretty sure my income level will allow me at least some reduction in my premiums, although since I can't find anything anywhere that tells me how to calculate my income for the purpose -- not everyone has a simple paycheck and nothing else, people -- I can't be sure).

Only to find out that I can't sign in with my legal name (first initial, middle name, last name, which is what's on my Social Security card) because the form insists on a first name with at least two letters (and, no, punctuation doesn't count). Then I call the 800 number, only to be told that they're overloaded right now and can't even take my number for a call-back, which the website assured me they would do.

I waited two weeks to avoid the crowds. I guess I should wait some more?

But it would be nice to have this settled. Oh, well.

I think I'll just watch some TV tonight. Oh, that's right. I'll have to hook my old cable box back up first. Sigh.

On the bright side, I did get over 1000 words on Ghost Light this morning...