Modern Bed Warmer

Do you remember reading about how folks would warm their beds before the advent of electric blankets? They would use a bed warmer which was a pan filled with coals from the fire put under the covers before getting in to bed. Later, hot water bottles or even baked potatoes would do the trick. This week I put a new spin on the bed warmer.

I went to a conference held on the campus of a very nice Christian College in Georgia this week. It was hot and humid but the dorm room was nearly frigid, having had the air-conditioning on to welcome me. I didn't find it a problem until I tried to go to sleep.

I found the AC controls and started turning knobs. I turned the temp to warmer but couldn't detect a change. I clicked the fan knob over toward off but the fan didn't seem to change speed at all.

I was still on California time but it was after midnight Eastern Time, so I couldn't call Conferences Services for help. But I've been colder than this before, so I figured I could deal. I just put on my warmest clothes (which were not very warm considering I packed light for hot and humid weather) and double socks, pulled the summer thin breathable "blanket" over my head and tried to get warm. After a couple of hours, I was was still so cold I was in pain. I was having charlie horses! I thought about opening the window, but there weren't any screens and I was on the ground floor in a strange place so I decided against it.

Finally I had an idea. I opened my laptop and put it on my feet. The machine warmed my feet enough so I could sleep and the picture on my Desktop of my husband and me posing in front of the Bed and Breakfast where we spent our honeymoon almost 27 years ago warmed my heart.

Twelve Days of Ranting before Christmas

If I had an Internet connection over the past three weeks I would have been blogging this rant in stages. But when I have to rely on free public wi-fi hotspots (yay Starbucks, Panera Bread, and Corner Bakery) or borrowing bandwidth from work after hours, I have to limit my time online to the essentials. I am amazed at the things that I have come to view as online essentials -- making appointments with my HMO, online registration for classes, transfering funds from my savings account to checking, paying bills, etc. How many times do you now hear, "Visit us at blahblahblah.com online?" Can you even find a phone number for some businesses?

To make an excruciatingly long story short, suffice it to say that I have gone round and round with Earthlink technical support until we finally cancelled our service with them altogether. But not until my husband and I both got so frustrated with their lack of credibility that we each actually yelled at two different customer support persons! Anyone who knows us, knows that had to have taken quite a bit.

It turns out that their Engineering Department "somehow" got an order to cut off our DSL line (no one could explain it, but they admit it was not our fault). Apparently their tech support personnel could not see that when we called the first several times. Then they could not "reprovision" the line until the old one was completely disconnected which, of course, takes some time. (Excuse me, but I thought that's why I called -- it had already been disconnected for almost two weeks!) And, they could not reprovision a new line without us agreeing to a new one year contract. Hmmm...

Tomorrow we are expecting to be reconnected through AT&T -- with a higher speed DSL, for the same price, and without a one year commitment.

What's your Dewey Decimal Classification?

Robin Hartman's Dewey Decimal Section:

294 Religions of Indic origin

Robin Hartman = 852948180314 = 852+948+180+314 = 2294


Class:
200 Religion


Contains:
The Bible and other religious texts, books about the general philosophy and theory of religion.



What it says about you:
You don't mind thinking about the unknown or other very big ideas. You will never feel like your work is finished. The 200-series is dominated by Christian topics, so you may feel like you're constantly surrounded by Christians.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

The Matrix Runs on Windows

"I just have to wait for the hourglass to go away." Right now I'm waiting to CHAT with Symantec support because I made the mistake of responding to a prompt to install Norton Internet Security 2009. It downloaded and then it prompted me to delete Norton Password Manager to continue with installation because it's incompatible. Why would they make a product that is incompatible with their other products?

Why am I here?
Sooner or later we all encounter an error, Neo.
You will have to make a choice, to send an error report
or not to send one.
But... is there a difference?

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Google Docs

Google docs is cool. With it I can upload & edit, share & collaborate, and even publish a word document, spreadsheet, PDF, or slide show presentation on the web. I have used it to share my movies spreadsheet with family and friends so they can browse and borrow. I allowed my husband and daughter to be collaborators (to edit the file online) and invited certain friends and family to be permitted to view it. (But now I've published it for all to see.) I have even used Google docs for an online timecard for an employee who worked at home!

I recently discovered I can share my link with others and do a live chat along with the slide show like a personal webinar! (I don't know when I'd have a need to do that but it's cool that I can!) I can even embed it into my blog. Here's a presentation I made with Powerpoint for 4th, 5th, and 6th graders at Palm Lane Elementary School in the Anaheim City School District. I modified it a little because the slide transitions don't work the same online

Does it Blow? or Does it Suck?

When my daughter was in elementary school she entered the Science Fair with a project studying Bernoulli's principle called, Does it blow? Or does it suck? I thought it was cool how blowing on something created an unexpected reaction. I hadn't thought about that for years until my office trash bin recently startled me. I don't pretend to understand it, but my fan was blowing low in its direction and the recently emptied bag was apparently lifted by the aerodynamic forces Bernoulli observed. I noticed it when I felt something rubbing against my leg. When I looked down I could barely process what I was seeing.

I imagine that Daniel Bernoulli was not any more facinated by such things than I am. But instead of doing further scientific study, I just took pictures to share -- to amuse and amaze -- just another remarkable mystery of daily life.

Do you speak tissues?

I went to Mexico on vacation for a week in November 2001. It was awesome! I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. But by the end of the week I started to feel a little too confident in my ability to communicate. I don't know why. Earlier in the week I told a shop owner that I was waiting for "mi esposa." She looked confused and then clarified, "¿esposo?" My turn to look confused, and then embarrased. "Si!"

Anyway, I had a cold in paradise so before leaving for the airport I stopped at a convenience store to stock up on tissues for the trip home. I went in by myself - sure that I could handle it.

When we were on the plane I turned to my husband to tell him how proud I was of myself for being able to go into a store and buy tissues without help. Ready to encourage me, he asked what I had said. I was no longer proud when he began to laugh and tell me that I had told the lady that I spoke tissues! Well, apparently the store clerk also spoke tissues because she found what I was looking for and was very nice about it.

I think I actually said something like, "¿Su hable tissues?" Which, according to Google Translate comes out, "His talk tissues?"

I came away with a new appreciation for the patience and grace of people serving foreigners for a living. God forbid I go to a country whose people are not so forgiving!

Now, check this out. If you want to translate anything on this page into Spanish or almost any other language, you can just click on the dropdown menu here and choose your language and my page will speak to you! You can add this Google Translate Gadget to your webpage, and offer instant access to automatic translations of that page.
Now try this one... Click here to hear what I was trying to say!

¿Hablas español?