The Computer Mama

Thank you, Steve Jobs

2011-10-07T13:09:00.000-04:00

For 8 years I supported my family and earned a living on my Mighty Mac.

All this and the Flying Toasters Screen Saver.

It was FUN to discover something new every day.

Any Clues?

2010-10-18T08:50:00.000-04:00

How's That Real Estate Recovery Working Out for You?

2010-10-11T15:25:00.001-04:00

Thinking in Pictures

2010-09-13T08:46:00.000-04:00

The Penny W. Stamp Distinguished Speaker program invited Temple Grandin to Ann Arbor last Thursday, September 9, 2010. Dr. Grandin has become world famous for her work with cows-cattle retaining systems. She is the first autistic woman to give a voice “from the inside.” The presentation has sponsored by the Art School, and was nominally focused on thinking in pictures. I could see the young art students looking puzzled-wondering why they had to go to a lecture and look at cows.

Temple spoke very clearly on how she, as a high functioning Asperger, or “Aspie,” perceives the world as a series of images that she stores, like icons, in categories.

I have always been fascinated by how my mind works. I see pictures in sequence, numbers in color and music in three dimensions. However, I cannot remember the names in a Periodic table or the words in a simple prayer unless I sing it. Autism is a spectrum disorder and Temple's work lets us know more about ourselves, as well as her.

Here is a link to her website: http://www.templegrandin.com/

When I grow up I want to be a...

2010-05-12T17:36:00.002-04:00

When I grow up I want to be a Microsoft Presenter: I have always thought it would be cool to be the Microsoft Evangelist: the star who walks on the stage and demonstrates incredibly rich software. I got my wish!

On April 29th, I introduced Microsoft Office 2010. We partnered with Mott Community College for the official Microsoft Office 2010 Sneak Peek. We used Microsoft Office for what it does best: communicate. The merges included mail labels as well as email blasts. I did the digital wizardry. Doris Stromer, Site manager, served lunch for all of our guests.

As a Microsoft Presenter, you can access the marketing and branded materials for your event. The PowerPoint animations are quite astounding. Someone had a lot of time on their hands and they were very creative….

I showed a few steps in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. The demonstrations went well.

Microsoft Office 2010 is the one. The force is strong in this one.

My Town Monday: Field Trip "Up North"

2010-04-05T13:51:00.000-04:00

Recently, I took a trip "up north." In Michigan, this usually refers to upper parts of the Lower Peninsula (the fingers) or even to the Upper Peninsula.

My trip was a little of both. Originally, the trip up north included one of the few North/ South routes-- first US 127 or US 23. Today, most people take I-75-- the only limited access freeway heading to points up north.

I took I-75 part of the way, but since it primarily cuts through the center of the state, it's certainly not the scenic drive. So, I got off I-75 and stayed with US-23 which still runs it's old route to and along the coast of Michigan, the shore of Lake Huron. (The pointer finger of the mitten. No, I never get tired of references to my state being mitten-shaped.)

This meant that along the way, starting about Tawas, I got glimpses and full views of the large expanse of blue or gray (depending on the current color of the sky) that is Lake Huron. Luckily, while the weather was overcast most of the morning, by our arrival in Tawas, the sky was clearing. The lake reflected the blue, deepening the color of blue as the sky became less cloudy.

The first stop was in Tawas.

Then we went across the bay to the East Tawas Lighthouse. Unfortunately, the end of March is kind really "off-season" for such places. It wasn't closed, per se. It was "self-service." Yeah. We could walk around and take some pictures of the lighthouse and the point.

I read that the point often washes away during the harsh conditions of winter, only to be rebuilt again the following months.

Later, further up the coast, we stopped at a scenic overlook.

And later still, along the shore of Grand Lake. This lake is shortly inland from Lake Huron. It creates the area known as Presque Isle-- which means "Almost an Island." As you can see from the map, the area is barely connected to the mainland. The big white area on the top and right side of the map is Lake Huron...

Grand Lake

Then, we made our way past the Mackinac Bridge (pronounced Mackinaw) and into the Upper Peninsula.

My Town Monday: Brighton's Four Corners, part 3

2010-03-21T21:19:00.000-04:00

The remaining two corners of Brighton's Main Street/ Grand River Intersection are harder to track the history of.

On the South-east corner, across Main Street from where the Eastern House Hotel stood, there is currently a two story jewelry store. (The building itself looks too expensive for someone like me...) I missed my chances to get the last shots of the former building when it was torn down a few years ago.

Before the jewelry store, for a good many years-- back into the 60s or 70s if I'm not mistaken-- this corner was home to Cap'n Corky's (sp?). It was a liquor store-- probably what we call a Party Store around here. The terminology matches what my students use to define a party: not a party without alcohol. Anyway, with the opening of the CVS, as well as a good many other chain stores in the vicinity, it appears that the Cap'n Corky store couldn't really keep up. Add to that the ever-present problem in the downtown: parking.

The store closed. And-- I wish I'd had time to stop and take pix-- the construction crews gutted the buildings. I believe only the two walls that abut the neighboring buildings were left standing. Then they added the second story, the new front facade, and all the fanciness.

I have to wonder how long the jewelry store will last in this economy... especially since a long time local favorite is about two doors down. Or will locals go for the "brand name" over the locally owned and operated place. (Sadly, I'm voting for people to go with "brand name" over local. It's happening in so many other places. But I wish it wasn't so.)

Going back through history, all I can find is that this corner was home to Brighton's Foundry for a while. Though, there's some indication that the foundry was actually not right on the corner. Other records indicate that some part of the time, this corner was a private residence. It's a little mind boggling for me to think of people living in houses on Grand River... in my life time, Grand River has always been the main business drag through Brighton. Only when you get out WAY past the edge of Brighton's business stretch are there houses.

More My Town Monday!

My Town Monday: Brighton's Four Corners, part 2

2010-03-07T20:26:00.001-05:00

Across Grand River from the Eastern House Hotel once stood a grocery store.

Some time later, the building was torn down and a new store opened. Eventually it was the Brighton Drugs store. Later, in 1937, had bought the Brighton Drug store with Baldwin. For some time it was Leland and Baldwin Drugs. Then, Leland bought out Baldwin and renamed it Leland Drugs.

Leland had the second floor of the building removed and large shop windows installed. Leland's Drug Store became the first building in Livingston County to boast a Frigid-aire air conditioning unit. I believe this distinction came in the 1930s.

Tracing the history of a rather unremarkable set of businesses on this corner is quite difficult. The next information I have is that during the 1980s and 90s various eating establishments were attempted on that corner. One of the problems with that corner-- at least in this modern era-- is that parking is limited and not terribly convenient. There is a lot across Grand River, a few parallel parking spots, and another lot about a block away. These are not far or difficult, however, this is Livingston County, not Ann Arbor. Here, people don't like to walk any farther than necessary. (See in Ann Arbor, you don't drive. You find a place to park, and walk the several blocks. That's just "How it is.")

But, in the early 1990s, this corner of Brighton opened a new eatery. A place called Lu and Carl's that has thrived. Thrived to the point where, in summer months, they have seating on the sidewalk. Like, right alongside Grand River where one can breathe in the lovely aroma of car exhaust and listen to the rumble of hundreds of cars rolling up to and eventually through the traffic light. (Um, you couldn't pay me to eat on the sidewalk of Grand River, but anyway.) My never-humble theory as to why Lu and Carl's has thrived while other restaurants did not is slightly cynical: Lu and Carl's is the first eatery on that location to have a liquor license.

My Town Monday

My Town Monday: Brighton's Four Corners, part 1

2010-02-21T23:14:00.001-05:00

Main Street in Brighton intersects Grand River and forms a well-known and ever-changing intersection. This set of posts will look at the every changing buildings.

Today, a CVS sits on the corner, set back from Grand River with the parking lot in front. A Murray's Auto Parts store and a Sushi Zen share the location.

But a hundred and fifty years ago, this location-- on the Northeast corner of the intersection-- was the spot where the Eastern House (or Hotel) sat. The Western House sits by the railroad tracks on the other end of the down town-- all three blocks of downtown. Eastern House sat along the Grand River Trail, where the stagecoaches and wagons traveled, even before their was a railroad.

The hotel was constructed in 1850, the same year that Grand River was made into planked toll road. When built, the hotel was called the Brighton House. It was sold in 1892 and became known as the Eastern House.

Anyway, the Eastern House was more than just a hotel. For many years, it was one of the gathering places in Brighton. It was two stories, plus a basement. A sign out front (hard to make out in the photos) says it's 48 miles to Lansing and 40 to Detroit. Livingston County is the midway between Michigan's biggest city and it's capital.

The hotel building burnt down New Year's Day, 1926.

And something else sprouted in the spot.

My Town Monday: From Farm to Suburb

2010-02-14T20:41:00.001-05:00

Once upon a time, much of South East Lower Michigan was trees. Shortly after that, it was farm fields and small towns. This image shoes the little town of Hamburg. Today, Hamburg itself is still a little town. But it is surrounded by suburbia (or at least a version of suburbia.) Strip malls and subdivisions have replaced nearly all the farm fields in this little area.

This aerial view is from about the 1930s. The number 3 marks the historic church in down town Hamburg. (Still there.) The main street of Hamburg runs along in front of that street (connects #2 and 3). Follow it northerly (to the left side of the photo) through the line of trees and around the corner. The road goes off into farm fields.

By contrast, this image was poached from Google Maps. All developed—well, except the little town of Hamburg. The pink dot is downtown Hamburg.

Interestingly enough, Hamburg was platted to be a much larger town.

But it never really grew, despite having two rail road lines and two train depots. It just never became more than a little farm town.

The Mill Pond (and the Mill) are gone from Hamburg. All that’s left are two streets, and a few houses. Even the little grocery store left (though a new one may be/ have gone in.) Hard for a local little store to compete with one of those big chain stores.

It’s interesting to track the changes over time. Sometimes I wonder what Hamburg was like, once upon a time, before it was just a bedroom community tucked away off the main road.

My Town Monday: Brighton Mall... including the answer to a riddle

2010-02-07T17:32:00.001-05:00

The Brighton Mall is nestled in the corner of Grand River and I-96. Built in the 1970s, it was, once upon a time, a "real" mall, with the shops opening on the inside and you had to walk from store to store instead of the strip-mall (or "open air" malls) of today where people really and truly do drive from one store to another. Sorry. Moving on…

The Brighton Mall was anchored by K-Mart, which had its own entrance. It was also home for many years to the Little Professor Bookstore, a locally owned bookstore. Over time, including by the time I became a resident in the area, there wasn't much to the Brighton Mall. Eventually, it was redeveloped into a Strip Mall. It's now got only a couple big-box stores.

The K-Mart is now a Sears Essential, which is neither a K-Mart or a Sears and I've never found it much good for shopping.(The low number of customers in that stores seems to indicate others share my opinion of this concept. Especially when it's an hour drive, tops, to a real Sears store out in Novi. Distracted again. Anyway, other stores include Marshall's, Jo-Ann Fabrics and a sporting goods store. Two other strip

malls have been added, including one that has Best Buy and PetsMart.

One of the interesting features of the Brighton Mall, though, is that it's below grade. To enter the Mall from Grand River, there is a rather significant ramp. Here's a shot with Panera Bread showing just how high Grand River is over the Mall parking lot. Curious. Not something I ever really though much about. It was just How Things Were. Until one day, while I was reading through some local history snippets, I found the reason why.

During the 1960s and early 70s when I-96 was being constructed, the road crews came through Brighton. Since Grand River was (and is) a major thoroughfare, of course the decision was made to build an overpass so I-96 would go over top Grand River. Well, that's an awful lot of dirt to pile up. Can you guess where this is going?

>Yeah, the man who owned the farm there sold the DIRT to the state for construction of the I-96 overpass. They dug it out and left something of a hole in the ground. Well, this hole in the ground did not prevent the soon after sale of the LAND to a company interested in building a mall alongside the new entrance/ exit ramps on I-96.

These sort of stories are exactly why I LOVE local history.

My Town Monday: Pokemon City Championships in Brighton

2010-01-19T10:47:00.000-05:00

Every winter, there are city championships for players of the Pokemon Trading Card Game. (If you don't know what it is, ask your kids. They'll know.) This year, Brighton was able to hold a city championship tournament-- one of 9 in the Michigan/ Indiana area.

As a Pokemon Trading Card Game player, I travel-- with the Hubby-- to as many of the Michigan/ Indiana Tournaments as I can manage. And I have to say, the five minute commute around the "block" to the Brighton City Championships was my favorite commute yet. Beats even the 45 minute drive to Okemos and certainly better than the 2 hour drive to Angola, Indiana (just south of the Indiana/ Michigan border off I-69).

The local paper almost covered the event in a sad little paragraph.

One might notice how crowded the room was. And it was packed. There were about 34 "big kids" as I call us... you know, the kids who are over 16 or so and still play Pokemon. I'm one of those. (I don't even have the excuse of "my kids play" like some of the other players who figured they'd play while the little ones battle it out.) And 16 of the medium sized kids. And about 12 of the little kids. That adds up to 62. We'll kind of overlook the fact that the room capacity was 62-- after all the half-pint kids only count as half a person, right? No? Well... um. Turn out was good at least, meaning there's a good chance there will be another tournament or so held in Brighton.

Oh, how did I fare in the competition? I made Top Cut-- meaning I was in the Top 8 players at the end of battling cards all day. (Though it was some uncanny luck and the fact that another player dropped at the last minute that put me in that spot.)

Yeah, that's me in the black sweater. Nice pic...

Since the library closed, we scooted over to Mancino's Pizza and Grinders. (OMG, Yum!) There, the Top Cut finished battling out. And this is where I lost. Badly. As I expected since I have played my opponent before and nothing changed in our games since the last time this player whooped me.

Brighton Library is a nice place to play, I must admit. Though, apparently, whoever designed the building is a dumbass. The room we are in is connected by ventilation directly to the quiet study carrols. (Yeah-- 62 players in a small space, it's gonna be noisy. Plus, word is one could have yoga in that room and it would seem loud to the other end of the ventilation.) And the hallway outside our room ends in a coupula by the door, which echoes all sounds, such as those spilling from the room and the players who head out in the hall after ending their current round. I'm surprised the lady who organized it isn't banned from the library for life.

Good fun, though. Next tournament-- Michigan State Tournament in Okemos. (And one of the nicethings about the Pokemon game is that you can go to every tournament even if you didn't place or even play at all in the previous one. For some of us, we just go to play for fun, even if we don't do well. (Well, I prefer to win more than I lose, but will take a spot on Team 50/50.)

Pics compliments of Missy (and her husband), one of the Poke-judges and a Poke-mom.

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My Town Monday: Dark and Cold

2010-01-04T23:25:00.001-05:00

Short post since I'm mired in grading.

It's about this time of year that people start turning off and taking down their Christmas lights. It's "too late" to leave them up.

But I wish they would.

Fine, fine, take down Santa and the creepy reindeer skeletons. But leave up the little lights. At least in places like Livingston County, Michigan.

See, it's January here. The sun rises about 8am and sets by 5pm. Yeah. The sun only works a 9 hour day this time of year.

So, seeing those little twinkles of white or colored lights is rather nice in the middle of the afternoon when it's already dark out. It provides a little bit of cheery light to contrast the cold, gray/white snow and the bare trees and the gray cloudy skies.

Who decided, anyway, that Christmas ends so early? It's okay to start Christmas festivities a month before the actual event, but less than two weeks afterward, one can be hated by the neighbors for continuing to have their lights on?

It's cold and dark. We really should be hibernating. Since we can't, how about leaving some cheery little lights on, to ward off the winter blues.

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Best New Technology of the Decade

2009-12-27T08:51:00.003-05:00

When is a mouse not a mouse?

When it is a guitar! The idea of creating a drum or guitar out of a mouse controller is one the best ideas of the new century.

Entertainment games, like Guitar Hero http://hub.guitarhero.com/ and Rock Band http://www.rockband.com/ , always lead the way by thinking "outside of the box."

The software that generates the video players in Rock Band is called Reallusions. http://www.reallusion.com/

It is available to animators and video producers. It works like Adobe Photoshop: you capture pictures or video with your camera, outline the images, and use various filters to edit the images.

Tell me you didn't see that coming: a mouse that looks like a guitar. Who'da thunk it?

The Handmade Christmas

2009-12-16T09:43:00.002-05:00

Dame Dragon is a cartoon I wrote when I was young. Eric and Clair were just knee-highs. The hand drawn cartoons were video-taped in the 1980s. My friend, Alex Wheddon, WLLN News, transfered the videos to digital format and uploaded them to Google Video a few years ago.

Here is a link to that video on Google:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5459310382883888296&q=Handmade+Christmas#

The best gifts are handmade gifts, from the heart.

love, eBeth

My Town Monday: Hiatus

2009-12-07T20:26:00.003-05:00

I debated long and hard today, but I decided to take an official hiatus from My Town Monday posts until the new year. I'll be working on some new material though, in part because next semester I'm teaching a Michigan & Local History class to my lovely students (assuming I can get enough of them interested in it!)

I'm hoping to have a few posts along the way, but it's entirely possible that the lights will dim on this blog over the next few weeks. I've got a lot on my plate both personally and professionally at the moment (the price of working too many jobs, methinks.)

See you in the new year!

My Town Monday: Dark Alleys and Streets

2009-11-30T11:57:00.001-05:00

The alleys in movies look nothing like the alleys that we have around here. In fact, the alleys in Livingston County, what few we have, are hardly ominous.

In movies, alleys are always dark, narrow, and secluded. Around here, though, our alleys are short both in length and the height of the buildings (seeing as how are tallest building is 4 stories, with most being about 3).

Our alleys are also wide, well-lit, and fairly clean. Some of them are kind of charming.

So, as a writer, it does leave me without any real dark alleys for final showdowns or something. Especially since our little towns have this dreadful problem with illuminating a radius eight miles larger than the town itself (more or less) in all directions with the abundance of street lights. Street lights on otherwise empty, dark streets.

Now, I'll admit that I don't much see the point of most street lights. Downtown, sure. Though our local towns could turn off half their street lights and still have enough light to illuminated any person who happens to be out. Especially about three in the morning when there are NO shops open and about 1 or 2 cars driving within the entire city limits.

Once outside the city, what do we need lights for? Certainly not pedestrians as there aren't sidewalks much past the last building in town. My car comes equipped with headlights, and I believe this is standard. So why are there so many street lights here and there throughout Livingston County? They're blocking my view of the stars! And they screw up my night vision when I pass through the cone of yellow-blue light and back into darkness again.

I've got no dark alleys and lights on what should be dark streets. I suppose that's why I fit in here-- I'm as quirky as my county.

Windows 7: I wanted simpler, now it's simpler. I'm a rock star.

My Town Monday: Invasion

2009-11-23T12:38:00.000-05:00

The Soviets came to my little town. In fact, they were just around the corner. More or less. Near Mt. Brighton (which I can see out my bedroom window), a scene for the upcoming remake of Red Dawn was filmed. It included scorching a stand of trees along the front of the parking lot.

There's still evidence of the charred trees last time I drove by Mt. Brighton. Most of it had been bulldozed into a pile for clean up.

There have been quite a few movies and scenes that are being filmed in Michigan, part of the tax breaks for filmmakers. The idea is that it will bring business and dollars to Michigan to be spent, thus helping our staggering economy. (Except the economy isn't staggering. It's comatose.)

This is actually the second movie that was right near me... and I didn't find out until after the fact. (What's that saying-- if I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all?) The other movie was some small film that included a high school. It was filmed last summer at the local high school-- where I was teaching summer school. One of the teacher's took her class down to spy on the filming at the lake behind the school. Or so I heard the next day when the crew was gone.

Aside from meeting Barrie Summy last week, this is as close to fame as I tend to get. ;-)

Windows 7: I wanted simpler, now it's simpler. I'm a rock star.

My Town Monday: Livingston County v. Ann Arbor

2009-11-16T21:32:00.001-05:00

The little country mouse left her country home and ventured into the city this weekend. I went to see Barrie Summy at Aunt Agatha's bookstore in Ann Arbor. Meeting and chatting with Barrie and the others was great. Driving into Ann Arbor, not so much.

See, where I come from, the tallest building is 3 stories high. And that's only in the one or two blocks of the downtown in Howell and Fowlerville. Most of the rest of the buildings are single or maybe two stories tall. No towers blocking out the sunlight.

Where I come from, we have spaces between most buildings. Occasionally there's a stretch or a strip mall where buildings are pressed up against each other. But usually, there's a space, a parking lot, or even grass. Not masses of buildings all squished together, block after block.

Where I come from, nearly every establishment has a parking lot. And they're free. Not so in a city like Ann Arbor. I only park in parking structures. And the parking structures in Ann Arbor are taller than our tallest building in Livingston County. Though, I did, for the first time in my life get my parking validated. The country mouse can learn new tricks.

Sadly, where I come from, we don't have very many bookstores. And we certainly don't have a bookstore as awesome as Aunt Agatha's with it's overwhelming collection of used and new mystery, detective, and crime books. Yes, I was drooling.

Where I come from, there's less traffic, less people, and fewer businesses to overwhelm the senses of a simple country mouse. As much as I enjoyed my visit to Aunt Agatha's for Barrie's signing, I was SO glad to get out of the city and back where I belong. Now, if only Aunt Agatha's wasn't in Ann Arbor...

Windows 7: I wanted simpler, now it's simpler. I'm a rock star.

Wordless Wednesday: All in a day's work

2009-11-11T08:04:00.001-05:00

Wordless Wednesday: No More Swing In Its Step

2009-11-04T13:17:00.002-05:00

Pumpkins

2009-11-03T08:28:00.008-05:00

Pumpky Pumpkin is a happy pumpkin, And do you know why?

Cuz he's a Jack-O-Lantern instead of being a pumpkin pie.

My Town Monday: Something Fun To Do

2009-11-02T10:23:00.000-05:00

One of the common complaints from Livingston County Youth is that there's nothing to do. I think they're just not trying hard enough. There's lots to do.

Livingston County is home to several parks, including Kensington Metro Park, which boasts a water park along with beaches, dic golf, nature center and trails for walking, biking, and skating. There's also the Hudson Mills Park which has disc golf along with trails beside the Huron River. And the Lakeland Trail, which is a linear state park. Plus there are several beaches.

Hartland Consolidated Schools has a fancy new pool with water slides, lazy river and other things since, when building the new high school and it's accompanying facility, the community was in favor of making it a community center. Non-residents are welcome, for a small fee of course. Most local schools have open swim for a nominal fee.

There's a couple miniature (or putt putt) golf courses in the area, including one in Howell and one in Hartland. I believe Golf-o-Rama, the indoor putt putt golf moved into Great Escape, which is a one acre indoor attraction featuring putt putt golf, bumper cars, go carts and more. And it's all indoors, so even in Michigan's lovely winter months, there's a place to go play. We can't forget Rollerama, the indoor rollerskating rink that's about as old as I am. More recently, for the extreme sports folks, a skate park was constructed behind Meijer in Brighton.

There are two movies theaters in Livingston County (well, more or less...) the large MJR theatre with 20 screens and movie tickets that cost more than the hourly minimum wage. There's also a small historic, two screen theater in Howell that is currently supposed to reopen, likely showing dollar movies. Oh, and not far away, South Lyon's historic theatre also shows the older flicks for a dollar. (That's a price I can deal with!)

For the younger kids, there's the Imgaination Station and Castaway Cafe. The former is a massive castle and play structure on the Mill Pond in Brighton. The latter is a large indoor play-place-- like the McDonald's play place, but on steriods and away from the intoxicating scent of McD's food.

For the more extreme, there's Hell's Survivor's Paintball Park. I never saw the appeal in amassing bruises, but I'm told it's great fun. There's also skiing and snowboarding in the winter months at our own Mt. Brighton. Plus summer includes rolling a giant hamster ball down that same hill.

One of the state parks in Livingston County is a riding stable, where you can 'rent' a horse. (That doesn't seem like the right term!) There's hour long trail rides and if you're like me, you learn that the hours can tell you're a pansy...

There's also the usual assortment of fairs and festivals... honestly, I think there's something about every two weeks in one town or another in this county. Hamburg's Railroad days or the Balloon Fest or the Melon Fest or the Summer Fest or Fowelerville's Fair or something or other going on.

Fall includes the Terrified Forest in Pickney and a slew of corn mazes, haunted or otherwise.

Most of the attractions are fairly inexpensive. If you can't find something to entertain yourself in Livingston County, you're not trying hard enough. Besides, it's less than an hour drive to Lansing, Ann Arbor, and Flint, all of which boast their own set of attractions. We've kind of got the best of both worlds here-- small town charm and close proximity to the attractions of the city.

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My Town Monday: Metro Detroit... and beyond

2009-10-26T09:19:00.000-04:00

Most of the population of Michigan is the area known as "Metro Detroit." It consists of Detroit and the areas surrounding it, until one gets about to Novi... or 20 some miles East of me. (Okay, technically, Livingston County is part of Metro Detroit, but really, it's so far out that the designation is, in my opinion worthless... see the red circle on the map?)

Now, believe me, I'm happy not to live in "Metro Detroit" because I'm NOT a city girl. But there are some problems that comes with not being part of that congolmerate of urban life.

My TV commercials are all geared towards those who dwell in Metro Detroit-- or at least have little aversion to making an hour plus trek out of the sticks and into the concrete covered land. Time and time again, there are advertisements for stores and restaurants that are miles and miles from where I live.

Take for instance my recent trek to find and purchase a new winter coat. Being a picky bugger and not into this years "hip" coat fashions, there was discussion about how and where to find one. My husband was also looking for a jacket and suggests going to Burlington Coat Factory. Supposed to be great selection and good prices-- according to the commercials.

Okay... google google. Oh. The nearest locations is... an hour away. And pretty much all the locations are in places that are foreign and terrifying. We finally picked a location-- one at the gigantic mall Great Lakes Crossing. This was selected because most of the journey is on roads I'm now familiar with. And, I know the mall is RIGHT off the e-way. (We were successful procuring a new winter coat for me. And then we missed our entrance ramp and ended up taking a different route home, but it was all good, because, like I said, I knew the roads.)

Most of the chains have never made it out to the sticks. And in recent years, oddly enough, several chains that had spread out this way actually retreated back into Metro Detroit. We lost our Dunkin' Donuts and our Little Ceaser's locations in Livingston County, for example.

We're not Metro Detroit, but we're not small enough to be a small town. We're kind of a strange in-between. If the folks here weren't so keen on driving miles and miles to get to the chain stores, we might just have better luck nurturing more home grown stores. But, being so 'close' to Metro Detroit (and Ann Arbor) we've got a bit of a problem with being a bedroom community.

It's good... and bad. It's those people moving OUT of Metro Detroit and trying to bring the live they left with them out here that ruins it.

Wordless Wednesday: Maybe It's A Seeing-Eye Ad...

2009-10-21T12:15:00.002-04:00

What do you want to be when you grow up?

2009-10-16T09:59:00.009-04:00

My father had several different careers before I got out of school: soldier, electrical engineer, even a lawyer. So, I've always had an understanding that I could reinvent myself if I wanted to...or if I had to.

I get to teach people how to earn a professional certification in computers. Passing your Certification exam means more you can earn more money. Consider the following: Microsoft Office is used in over 97% of all businesses worldwide.

● Sixty-nine percent (69%) of office jobs require some beginning skills and many need advanced expertise in the use of Microsoft Office.

● Students who pass the MCAS certification exams earn more (about 12%) than employees who are not certified.

In addition, 82% of the students who get certified report getting a raise upon completion.

● Many employers consider certification in determining who to hire – MCAS can be the difference in whether or not you get a job, or get a better job.

What do you want to be when you grow up? Would you need to computers to achieve your goals?

Memo to self: the Trolls are from Clair's collection. I have a few Trolls that I got when I was a kid in the 60's.

All This Technology...

2009-10-14T12:24:00.004-04:00

I got me some mad Word skillz. I can format, fix, and fancy-up all sorts of documents.

I'm slick in Excel. Formulas and logic functions and all that so all my required reports calculate and print automatically.

I can find anything on the web.

Download, upload, install... even some registry hacking.

But there's no undo command for catching a cold. No reverting to the previous saved version. Not even a "clear all" so I can start fresh. Nope. All I can do is cozy up with some orange juice, chicken noodle soup, and the internet until this nasty virus is gone. Maybe I should Google upgrades for personal virus protection...

Wordless Wednesday: Lost the Satellite Signal

2009-10-13T22:56:00.002-04:00

(See the metal piece... without a dish? And it only stayed like that for three weeks.)

Where do I get these ideas?

2009-10-13T12:31:00.008-04:00

The Ginks

A long time ago, in 1978, I made 12,000 flour and salt Ginks for American Greetings Corp.

Here is how you make the Gink dough:2 cups flour1 cup salt1 cup water (more or less).

Start with a little less than one cup water and knead the dough until it is smooth. If it feels dry and crumbly, add water a tablespoon at a time and knead some more.

Bake in the oven at 180' F for hours and hours.

The Ginks are done when the bottom of their feet is hard like a baked crust.

Each of the faces were hand drawn.

Here's looking at you, kid!

My Town Monday: Getting Out of This Godforsaken Town

2009-10-12T22:56:00.000-04:00

Actually, the title is misleading. Unlike so many of my classmates-- and most of the young people in the county, from what I can tell-- I had no burning desire to get the hell out of the Livingston County area.

I never really minded the area. And growing up in this sort of mostly rural area made me rather averse to cities of any real size.

To this day, I still hate driving in Ann Arbor. Or anywhere that could be considered Metro Detroit. I prefer my roads with two lanes, maybe three.

I never really thought about where I would end up living once I reached adulthood. It all just kind of happened without much consideration beyond "for now." I got my first job at a local retail center... and proceeded to work there for 11 years. I went to college in Ypsilanti (about a 40 min drive to the south). And so, commuting to said college, I stayed put.

With family in the area, I didn't mind staying in the area. (Especially since my oldest bother maintains my car.)

Then, when I got my teaching job, it was in the same county. And so I stayed. We bought a house last year.

I think we've pretty well put down roots. It's kind of odd to think that I'll likely be raising any kids here. It's a nice place to raise a family. Not too busy or bustly. Plenty of shops and a fair amount of recreation opportunities that don't require me driving to places that have too much traffic or roads too complicated.

I don't feel trapped. I feel settled. I still don't want to leave this place. It is the quite, quaint, unexciting sort of place that's perfect for me.

Friday Feast

2009-10-09T10:20:00.005-04:00

The garbage can sounded kind of funny....

We had a guest....

Bon appetite!

What are you having for lunch?

Wordless Wednesday: Makes Sense

2009-10-06T23:06:00.001-04:00

Box Elder Bugs... on a Box Elder Tree.

My Town Monday: Grand River Corn Maze

2009-10-05T09:00:00.000-04:00

Being that the western part of the county is still largely rural, it's not surprising that there are a couple corn mazes in the area.

Hubby and I have been going to the Grand River Corn Maze for several years now. Each year they have a different pattern. And for the last couple years, the Grand River Corn Maze has also included the Slaughterhouse Haunted Corn Maze. There was a haunted house, but it was shut down this year (amongst rumors of tension between the powers that be and the family that built it.)

Last year's theme was the Olympics. There are signs in the maze-- I'm not sure, but I think that if you're still finding signs than it's a clue that you're on the right path. The maze is always quite tall, and there are two patches of trees. (We used to think there was only one patch of trees... that was a problem.)

We usually make pretty good time in the maze. My family happens to be born with a pretty good sense of direction. Combine that with good observational skills, and we're usually out of the maze in a half-hour. Hubby has no sense of direction... I worry sometimes that he won't be able to find his way home. He's one of those folks who couldn't find his way out of a paperbag with a map, a flashlight, AND a pair of scissors. But he has other redeeming qualities that some day I'm sure I'll find. ;-)

Hubby and I go to the corn maze during the day time. Preferably during the day on a Saturday when there's less people. I don't do the whole 'wandering around in the dark' thing. Flash light or no. I still sleep with a nightlight because of my overactive imagination. (Good for writing, not good for trying to fall asleep when it looks like the shadows are moving...)

Needless to say, we do NOT go to the haunted corn maze. Nope. Not happening.

Once, when I was young, foolish, and brand-newly wed, Hubby and I went to a haunted house. I'd never been in one, having been to few carnivals in my younger days. So, we spotted one on ~~Tourist Trap~~ Clifton Hill at Niagara Falls on our honeymoon. Hubby suggested we go in and I (foolishly) agree. Then, Hubby, being the sweetheart that he is insists that I go first since my eyesight is better.

Overactive imagination. Tension from the knowledge that something is going to jump out of me. I should have left Hubby in the haunted house. No one would notice one more "dead body." I still don't let Hubby forget that one. No haunted places. No things jumping out at me. At least when it's one of my brother's I can punch them for scaring me.

But the corn maze is fun. In the daytime.

Wordless Wednesday: Murder in the Men's Room

2009-09-30T09:41:00.003-04:00

Honestly, is there anyone who wouldn't think that after seeing this at the local JCPenny's?

Storage by Any Other Name

2009-09-29T09:35:00.004-04:00

Flash drives.
Jump drives.
Thumb drives.
Pen drives.
USB key chains.
USB key.
USB memory stick.
Dongle (though this has a slightly different meaning.)
TravelDrive
Cruzr
USB memory key.
That thing I plug into my computer that provides removable storage.

Many names for the same device. These handy little things provide removable storage, like a floppy disk that lasts longer and is less prone to corruption.

The most commonly used name is Flash Drive. (Or USB Flash drive.) The two main components of such a device is the USB plug that sticks in the port on your computer. USB ports are the same on desktops as they are on laptops. Flash drives hold your files, movies, music, and pictures so you can transfer them, use them on another machine, or back them up in case the computer runs its last RAM.

Flash drives come in large sizes now. As of this writing, the smallest Flash drive I could uncover is a mere 2Gig drive. And there were only a few of those, crowded out by the herd of much larger Flash Drives.

Flash drives are convenient. In an era when many computers no longer come with floppy drives, Flash drives are a universal storage media. There are no moving parts in a Flash drive, so they last longer and are less prone to failures.

Some flash drives come with programs on them (instead of the program coming with CDs). Others can even run a program off the Flash drive, for example, it's possible to get an email client or a web browswer (with all your settings and favorites in place) to run off a flash drive.

Wonderful little devices. I wholly recommend them for storage and file transfer.

Images from WikiMedia Commons

My Town Monday: Backroads

2009-09-28T09:15:00.000-04:00

In Livingston County, there's usually more than one good route to get from one town to the next. Some rural areas have only a few routes between areas, but much of Livingston County is connected by paved (more or less) two- lane (ish) roads.

The older and more curmudgeonly I get, the less I like the main roads of Livingston County. I don't like driving on Grand River for long stretches between Brighton and Howell. Too many idiots in their fancy cars with their fancy phones distracting them from the overspending they've just done at one of the too many retail centers in the area. I've checked my car and it doesn't appear invisible to my eyes...

So, I'm learning more of the "Back roads." Growing up, I knew there were at least three ways to get into Brighton from points south--Brighton Rd, Brighton Lake Rd, and Rickett Road. Rickett's the most fun since it's completely straight. It's also a deer magnet. And the site of the my impact with said quadraped.

<-Rickett Road On the back roads, I can relax. I don't have to worry as much about being run over by someone who fails to notice the little car in front of them. I can listen to my music, talk ~~to myself~~ out dialogue for the next story, and just enjoy the drive. There's no rush. I can look at old architecture on the houses and take in the scenery.

And yet, given the opportunity (and excluding peak traffic times) I'd just as soon get on the expressway than wind through most the major roads of the county. I also don't care for dirt roads-- too much sliding of the car.

I don't like spending too much time in the car. But if I'm going to be there, I may as well enjoy the drive, one way or another. Preferrably with some good tunes playing and no other drivers trying to play Monster Truck Rally with me.

How do you like to get about your town?

Wordless Wednesday: We Have a Budding Pyromaniac

2009-09-23T19:07:00.003-04:00

Ooo... pertty fire.

My Town Monday: Hamburg Elementary

2009-09-21T18:17:00.002-04:00

This post is a little ranty...

Now, economically, things have been rough in Michigan for quite some time. We lead the way into recession years ago.

One of the casualties of the failing economy in Livingston County is the schools. The number of students has been dropping in all the local schools. This compounds another problem, which is that the Livingston County schools get the bare minimum of state funding, in spite of increases in student body and tax-base. It's a political thing... and it's hard on the local schools. We're suburban these days, but the we don't get funded like a suburban school. We get funded like small-town two-cow rural schools. We're totally four-cow towns, at least.

So, the school districts look for places to cut. One of the places was a little elementary school in Hamburg. Hamburg is a tiny town anyway, and the elementary school had about 300 students. That's it. It was the smallest school in the Pinckney school district, but it was also the most cherished. Logically, it made the most sense to close this one elementary and shuffle the students into the other area schools. It's regrettable, because, honestly, this is how an elementary (hell, any school!) should be. The staff knew all the students, there's was an incredible sense of community, and it was an integral part of the community around it.

Now, forgive a little more political ranting, but if Pinckney was a smarter school district, instead of boarding up Hambrug Elementary, they'd have that building making them money. How? Well, they'd open up their own alternative/ adult education program. Pinckney schools hemmorages high school students, most of them heading to another alternative ed program in the county. These students are non-traditional and most of them hate the way that Pinckney High School is run. (I should know... I was one of the students that couldn't fucking leave Pinckney fast enough. I made it 2.5 years of high school.) In other districts, a well run alternative high school program is AT LEAST self- supporting. At best, it can actually make the district money, as, allegedly, the program in Brighton does.

The size of Hamburg Elementary is about perfect for a small alternative school-- or even half the building would suffice. It would put the building to use instead of leaving it boarded up. So far, there's no vandalism, but it's really only a matter of time. Someone will have "fun" trashing the place and then it'll end up like the closed schools in Detroit-- too much money to repair.

Now I'll admit my biases. I think Pinckney schools has a dreadfully mismanaged high school, still. (I think it's an identity thing-- they still act like a small cow-town rural school when they are not. They are a suburban school.) I also work for an alternative high school that is run well and is financially solvent. I also hate to see this wasted opportunity. There are far too many places boarded up in Livingston County, too many casualties of money and poor planning.

I love my county. Really. But it's hard these days. Maybe my students who think that the Great Depression has to do with needing Prozac aren't so far off the mark...

Thoughts on Thursday

2009-09-17T09:21:00.012-04:00

I use lots of pictures to illustrate over 2,000 pages of computer training. I had an opportunity to drive around My Town on a beautiful afternoon.

O my poor Michigan. The Depression began here in 2001. This album is named after a song by Jethro Tull: It was a new day yesterday, but by God, it's an old day now.A few years ago, this little community was alive and well. Plainfield, Michigan is a farming community with good people, good weather, and good services. Where did the town people go?

This was a rich man's farm house in Byron, Michigan. Now the trees grow through the front porch.
Look at the details around the window and roof. This is still excellent farm land. Why did the farm fail?

Where did the farmers go?

Durand, Michigan hosted the Union Rail Road Station. Four or five roads lead from town to the depot and the warehouses. This was the place to get a job if you didn't work on the farm. Where did the trains go?

This is the train named, "Last Call."
Seems to fit: a big, powerful piece of hardware standing quietly forgotten in a little fenced yard.

Wordless Wednesday: Spying

2009-09-09T20:58:00.001-04:00

Looking through the slats of venetian blinds always makes me feel like a spy.

My Town Monday: McPherson Hospital

2009-09-07T11:17:00.000-04:00

Not really a good topic for Labor Day weekend, but having spent a few hours there this weekend, I decided to do my post on it.

Yes, my little county on the edges of suburbia has it's own hospital. Still. Once upon a time, an area like this might have a small, or two. In fact, like airports, Livingston County has two hospitals. Brighton Hospital has no emergency services, which, admittedly, was completely mind boggling to me for many years. The other hospital is a more traditional, if undersized hospital.

McPherson Hospital is in Howell and it's real easy to find-- just follow the blue H signs. (Now, I'd really appreciate if hospitals also had a few signs leading, oh, say BACK to the major road ways...) McPherson hospital was originally started in 1920, operating out of a house donated by the McPherson family. It had 18 beds.

Later, land was donated for the construction of a proper hospital. It is only three stories tall at the tallest. It's small. And, while still a good hospital, it certainly isn't the same caliber as, say University of Michigan Hospital about 30 miles to the South in Ann Arbor. And not far to to east of UofM Hospital is St. Joesph Mercy Hospital, Ann Arbor (aka St. Joe's.) While sometime it's a toss up between which hospital is closest and which is more high tech etc, I'm partial to the cute little one. It's like miniature hospital...

And, as I found out first hand this weekend, they have some good staff there. In fact, my visits there the other day were each shorter than the visit to urgent care the week before. See... the thing is my cat bit me when I tried to catch him to put flea medicine on his flea riddle body. Bit me bad. Hence the visit to urgent care, which included a lot of scary stuff about cat bites and infection and boogey monsters before they could give me a couple drugs a splint for my finger. Except one of those drugs had it out for me. I think it was paid off... maybe someone doesn't want me to finish the novel.

Since it's been about 8 months since I last developed a new allergy, I guess it was time. Unfortunately, by the time the symptoms manifested themselves in enough severity to conclude something was very wrong, it was late Saturday night. So, I made a field trip to McPherson Hospital... okay, techinically, it's now called St. Joseph Mercy Livingston or some such ghastly moniker, but local yokels call it by the right name, McPherson.

Anyway, I'm doing much better now. Almost have use of all ten fingers again. And the offending medication turned poison in being evicted as I write. Though I don't have any good pictures of the building.

Sitting in the hospital room for a couple hours, waiting, I came to the conclusion that hospitals should get local art students or something to paint "Where's Waldo?" style paintings with a selection of little guys (like 10) to hunt out on the walls while waiting. It's about the mental capacity likely available to anyone who happens to be in the ER... and it would be more interesting than unsuccessfully tying to hear what's going on in the hall.

Visit The My Town Monday site for other towns.

Wordless Wednesday: Spuernatural Phenomenon?

2009-09-02T08:20:00.001-04:00

Maybe the sandhill cranes I was trying to photograph used some magic...

What do You do on the Computer? (A look at Netbooks)

2009-09-01T22:21:00.003-04:00

I admit it. I'm on my (or at least 'a') computer most of the day. It's my preferred location, reinforced by events such as today's "Adventures in Lawn Mowing" wherein our hero ended up with an angry, buzzing lawn. (Okay, so my youngest bother was actually doing the mowing, but, man, there were a low of hazard-striped flying things stirred up! My lawn currently has a mohawk until the lawn does some anger management.)

While on the computer, I do a great variety of things. MSWord is my favorite and most used program. I nearly always have a document (or three) in prgress and open on my computer. Novels, assignments, scripts, and other projects are some of the things I do. I admit that mainly, I type. Not too much fancy, in spite off all the nifty things Word can do. I totally underutilize this great program. (It's worse with Word2007!)

I also use Excel, PowerPoint, and Picture Manager at least once a week. I use Outlook daily. And Media Player regularly. And a couple other programs for specific purposes.

And of course, the Internet. I love the Internet. I love Google. And I have my list of favorite haunts, places to visit, things to read or enjoy. I could spend days on the internet.

The more I use my computer, the more likely I am to do things on the computer these days.

Now, one of the big issues with computers is what you do-- this relates to what sort of computer you need. My brothers play games on their computer and thus require machinea with some guts and go power. I collect parts and cobble together a machine from "outdated" parts too slow for my brothers' gaming needs. I need something that is fast enough to multitask since I never have less than three programs running. Something with space to store my projects. And good internet access.

One of the hot new trends is "netbooks" which are small laptop-type computers. They're usually pretty small in size and guts. If you're only using the computer for Internet, email, and the occaisional Office application, very well may be the most economical choice, rather than buying a regular computer or desktop. One of the things to make sure of is, if you type a lot, that the small sized keyboard is adequate. Nothing like a crappy keyboard...

Same as the Mac/PC debate, the most important factor is whether the computer does what you need it for. It's not worth the money, even if it's cheap, if the computer isn't used regularly.

My Town Monday: Name Game

2009-08-31T10:40:00.000-04:00

Livingston County, Michigan is what is knows as a cabinet county. It is one of 10 counties in Michigan named for then- President Andrew Jackson and members of his cabinet. There is a Jackson county.

Livingston County includes a town named Brighton. Many settlers to Michigan in the early 1830s were from New York, searching for new farm land. There is a Brighton, New York. Most likely Brighton, Michigan was named after Brighton, New York, as settlers often named their new towns after some aspect of their former residence. When I google anything for Brighton, I type Brighton mi to ensure I'm reading about the right town.

To the east of Livingston County, there is a city named Novi. There's a cute story behind this name. Apparently, on the Grand River Trail between Detroit and Lansing, Novi was Stagecoach Stop Number 6. That was the only name this place had. It would get written using the shorthand for Number, which is No. and the Roman numerals VI. Get some one with sloppy handwritting, leave out a period and No.VI becomes... Novi.

In the southern part of Livingston County is a little hamlet named Hell. Yep. I live just north of Hell, Michigan. There's several stories about how this town got it's name, but the most common is that the guy who first settled there was approached by state officials asking what the name of the town was. Allegedly, the curmudgeonly old feller replied, "You can call it hell for all I care."

Michigan also boasts such fun town names as Climax, Christmas, Paradise, Parshalville.

What fun town names do you have?

Visit the My Town Monday Blog for more links and to share your own town!

Friday Fun: Seven Stages of Grief Video

2009-08-28T07:41:00.001-04:00

Me v. ActiveSync

2009-08-26T12:45:00.000-04:00

Once upon a time, before Palms were big and Laptops were small, I purchased an HP Journada. It was an oversized handheld computer that ran WindowsCE with stripped versions of Office. And-- the reason I picked this little device-- it has a nearly-fully size keyboard.

I loved my little Journada. I named him Snoopy, referring to how the cartoon Snoopy would type away into the night atop his doghouse. And I would type away wherever I was.

The Journada had this "nifty" program called ActiveSync. In theory, it would convert all the WindowsCE versions of files to normal Windows versions. In realty, it resulted in much cursing and finally in me just saving all my files as RTFs and using a flash card to transfer the data. In these early days, ActiveSync was a little buggy and a lot slow. My main problem was that it would refuse to sync, even though nothing had changed in the day since I last cybernetically connected the two devices. It would refuse, refuse, refuse. I'd unplug, plug, curse, kick, pull out hair, beg, clickclicklclick, run the troubleshooter. Then, sometimes, magically, the two devices would connect and sync happily. Sometimes, not. Hence the use of the Flash Card instead. And I didn't have to wait for the files to convert.

Eventually, I abandoned my Jornada. It was the dawn of Flash Drives and the Jornada just didn't have the software to run off a flash drive. With a flash drive, unlike my compact flash card, I could take my files everywhere and always have them ready to go. So, the Jornada was put into a box and the ActiveSync bid a joyful farewell.

Until now.

ActiveSync is back on my computer. My new phone, which has Windows Mobile 6, includes ActiveSync for syncing calenders, contacts, documents and files. Well, it's been a few years, so it can't be as bad as it was. Heh. So I thought.

The good news is, after several hours and some internet research, my ActiveSync is happily installed and, so far, working as intended. Why so many hours? Because Microsoft Products don't play well with Limited User. Yup. I run my computer in Limited User mode to reduce the chances of some data-munching or zombie-making virus. This is a Windows-included setting. But I couldn't install or run ActiveSync on my Limited User account.

My web research (google: activesync limited user) found that in order to install the ActiveSync on my Limited User account, I have to turn the Limited User to Administrator, install the software, then switch the account back to Administrator. Really. Microsoft products... are the worst when it comes to playing nice with Limited User accounts. Which is probably why so many people run as Administrator.

Now, don't get me wrong. I like Microsoft products. But I'm not going to pretend they're perfect. Neither is the Hubby and I still keep him around. ;-)

Word... to Go

2009-08-25T09:35:00.000-04:00

I got a new phone this week. My graduation present for completing my graduate certificate. Decided to get a fancy one. Or rather, I fell in love with the idea of having Microsoft Word with me at all times. Everything else was secondary.

After all, my last cell phone is six years old.

I've never really been interested in the newest or fanciest gadgets. Even the iPhone didn't impress me. Now, if someone had told me that I could have my MSWord with me at all times, that gets my attention.

I purchased the LG Incite. It runs Windows Mobile 6, with Mobile Word, Excel, OneNote, and a PowerPoint Viewer. It also has GPS and internet, but those require the data plan that I'm too cheap to buy. While there's some coolness factor in looking up things online wherever and whenever (esp. to prove to Hubby that I am, indeed correct), it's not cool enough for me to spend much money on. Esp. not $20 or $30 a month of what is, for the cell company, pure profit.

The phone has a camera and a full touch screen interface. It charges off USB and (eventually) AutoSyncs with my Limited User Windows XP Account. And in the first 12 hours, I had my phone crash. It mysteriously shut off and required a soft reset to even turn on. Weird. But then again, my old phone had a habit of randomly taking a vacation day. I'd go all day then go to check my missed calls and see that, oh, it was... off. Besides, it's an electronic device. They require regular appeasement of the technology gods-- along with a healthy dose of know-how.

So far, I love my phone and the possibilities. As a writer, the idea of always being able to write, no matter where I am, are just lovely. While I always carry a pen, I don't ~~always~~ ever carry a purse. And finding places to write in a manner that's legible compounds the problem. We won't talk about how my handwriting, which wasn't great to begin with, has degraded the more I just type things on the computer.

Oh-- the other reason I like the Incite better than the iPhone? I'm a PC. ;-) Not a Mac.

My Town Monday: Dairy Queen

2009-08-24T08:57:00.000-04:00

Posted: 23 Aug 2009 05:12 PM PDT

There are four Dairy Queen locations in Livingston County.

I grew up about 5 minutes from the one in Hamburg. Unfortunately, since it was on a busy road and this was in the days before the Lakeland trail, so I wasn't allowed to walk or bike there. Curses. This location has always been a Brazier, meaning they sell burgers, chicken, and other things along with their ice cream. (Well, one of my friends maintains that that it's not "ice cream," it's "soft serve." Anyway.)

In downtown Brighton, there's a Dairy Queen near the Mill Pond. When they put in the Tridge and the walkway along the edge of the Mill Pond, they wisely connected the Dairy Queen to the path. This seriously cut down on young folks hopping the cemetery fence to reach the sweet treats. This Dairy Queen has room for about 10 cars in it's parking lot and a drive-through with room for about half that before it starts backing up on Grand River. In the summer, it's best to park by the Mill Pond and walk. And it'll burn off those Blizzard calories.

Hartland has a DQ as well, on the main drag. This is the only local DQ that I have not been to.
Hartland's kind of off on it's own, but that's a separate post.

But, overall, the best Dairy Queen ever is the Howell location. This Dairy Queen is located in an old building on the corner, beside the county Courthouse. The building was constructed in 1889 and may have been a druggists shop. Then later it was a jewelers. Then a druggist again. Then a shoe shop. Some where along the way, it became a Dairy Queen.

Inside is small with just a couple tables. And sitting there, you look out on the lovely streetscape of a historic town. Across the street was Howell's hotel.

As I mentioned last week, the county Courthouse lawn is often home to concerts and other events. Howell's farmer's market is nearby. It's right in the downtown, where the shops, the Howell movie theatre, the opera house, and only a few blocks from the library. It's a popular place.

<< Howell Hotel

But my favorite part is the architecture. In fact, I love the architecture in down town Howell. I mean, look at the sloping ground... I love how the building kind of shifts at ground level to step down the hill! They don't make 'em like that anymore.

Check out the My Town Monday site for more links. And feel free to joins us-- share your town!

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Wordless Wednesday: I have a cool stove...

2009-08-19T09:44:00.002-04:00

The problem is my stove knows it's cool.

My Town Monday: The County Courthouse

2009-08-17T08:15:00.002-04:00

It used to be called Livingston Centre. Now, the city is called Howell. It's small, for a city, but still the largest town in the county. Howell is halfway between Michigan's largest city-- Detroit-- and the state capital in Lansing.

It is also the county seat. In the vicinity of Howell is the Livingston County Sheriff's Department, the Livingston County Jail (LCJ for the wiggers who think they're tough after spending a few hours or days in there) and the county courthouse.

The courthouse was originally constructed in 1847. Before that, court was held at the Eagle Tavern, which also housed a bar (obviously), the post office, a grocery store, and the other important county functions. Legend has it, the drunks would be ecorted out in the morning to make way for court session.

The first court house constructed was a wooden building. When constructed, it was not only the courthouse, but housed the jail and sheriff's residence on the main floor. Also, it served as a religous buildings for, as it says in the Howell Bicentenniel, "all but the Presbyterians who had their own building." County and jury rooms were on the second floor. It was replaced several times.

In 1889, the wooden courthouse was deemed unsound. A proposal was submitted to build a new courthouse, at the cost of $30,000. By this point a new jail and sheriff's residence had already been constructed. The new building was constructed on the same land as the old, sitting one block east of the center of downtown Howell (formerly Division and Grand River, now Michigan Ave and Grand River. Howell doesn't have a "Main Street.")

The county courthouse is a grand and imposing building. Those doors really are ginormous. I'm thinking 10 feet tall, maybe.

<< Back view of the courthouse. The cars are parked right next to the building.

The courthouse is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was restored in 1979, with a narrow majority voting to keep the old building instead of tear it down for a new and "better" building, which was the trend at the time.

Beside the courthouse is an open air amphitheater. More county offices are houses int he building next door, as the 1890 structure isn't quite sufficient in size. Though, you can't quite compare with the grandeur of walking into the County Courthouse.

The courthouse lawn is often used for outdoor concerts and other events. And right on the corner is a Dairy Queen.

<< Courthouse on the right. View of Grand River, Howell, 1908. The trees were smaller then.

I've only been in the courthouse once. That was to get my marriage license. I could have spent all day nosing around that building, which is as spectatular inside as it is outside. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the inside. It is still used today and hopefully will continue to be used in the future.

They just don't build them like this anymore.

Click here for more My Town Monday posts!

My Town Monday: Yum Yum Tree

2009-08-03T20:35:00.000-04:00

Nestled in downtown Brighton, there's a little restaurant called the Yum Yum Tree. It's easy to spot, being painted red brick and having a bright, cheery red and white awning out front.

The Yum Yum Tree is conveniently located right near the Mill Pond. This building stands next to the old Brighton Town Hall.

From what I can tell in my research, the building was built in 1871. Like many things in history, there's no straight line. Especially for a not-particularly important building. According to the 1895 Plat Map of Brighton, this spot was where The Bank was. It's only marked as Bank. In the 1880 History of Livingston County, it states that there was one bank, owned by B.H. Lawson in Brighton. Other historical records show that G.J. Baetcke purchased the bank from Mr. Lawson in 1891. My historical research was severely hampered as the library is only open for a few hours on Sundays. And they won't let me move in and live in the local history room... maybe it's the way I drool when they unlock the door.

To enter the Yum Yum Tree, go around to the side. There's a nice sloped entrance there, replacing the front entrance, which has steps... as it seems was common on old buildings. Inside the Yum Yum Tree, the original wood floor is there, looking worn but nicely so. There's also a neat trap door that I don't have anything but wild speculation for. (A bank... with a trap door in the floor... hmm. Anyway.)

The Yum Yum tree has been around for over 20 years, a staple in Livingston County. They have a full menu, but some people honestly never get past the ice cream counter inside the entrance. Especially since this building is right off the Mill Pond, which, if you recall is home to the Imagination Station playground. There's some other fantastic deserts there, such as the Mount Brighton, named after the local ski hill and the Turtle Sunday (which I recommend. Yum.) They've been voted the Best Desert in Livingston County for 20 years.

The full menu includes some fabulous food, though it's hard to pay attention to food, even if they are delicious Belgian waffles with whipped cream and strawberries. There's two big distractions awaiting patrons as they sit in the old booths.

The first distraction is all the stuff on the walls. My favorite are the historic photos of down town Brighton. It's so cool to see what things used to be like. There's also vintage decorations and warm-fuzzy wood plaques and old advertisements.

The other distraction is the coolest thing I've ever seen in a restaurant in all my days. The train. Near the ceiling, there's a small train that circles the dining area.

It chugs along past little wooden buildings... hey, wait a minute... those look like... yup.

The little wooden buildings even include downtown Brighton. You can see the red building that's the Yum Yum Tree and the Town Hall next to it. Okay, that's too cool for words.

But that's not all. The train goes through a tunnel over the cash register.

There's six trains that are changed out during the year. The little train goes about 3.4 mph as it travels the 140ft of track around the dining area. The train has little whistle. Whoowhoo!

If you happen along in the Brighton area, you have to stop at the Yum Yum Tree.

reposted with permission

Wordless Wednesday: This Is Not How I Roll

2009-07-29T08:48:00.002-04:00

My Town Monday: Summer Weather

2009-07-27T22:25:00.000-04:00

As a Midwest Town and Michigan town, the weather around Livingston County spans a pretty good spectrum. Usually, it stays pretty mild. Being surrounded by a few large lakes helps take the edge of the weather.

So, for a "typical" summer day like today, it's about 73 degrees--which is right within the range of my optimum operating temperature. My AC doesn't even kick on in weather like this. I'd open the window if my paper-covered office didn't flutter about.

We occasionally get temperatures shooting into the 90s and sometimes 100s. Being out here where it's still more green than blacktop, it's always a bit cooler in Livingston County than it is in places like Flint, Ann Arbor, or Detroit.

Currently, we've got some sort of hot and cold air collision happening just West of Michigan that's made for some interesting rain and thunderstorms lately.

I stole this picture off the local paper's website because I didn't happen to have my camera when this happened last summer. I'm sure folks have all seen pictures of busted fast food signs-- I know I have. But every other time I saw them, they were from news footage of Kansas or Florida or something. Not in MY town.

No idea what exactly happen to the sign, but a nasty thunderstorm went through the town earlier that morning, making quite a mess of the area. There's still a few broken signs and other debris. Power was out in the center of town all day-- I was working my retail job and it was quite surreal because we were running on generator. But I was working in receiving unloading trucks, and we had all our lights, power and were otherwise running as normal in our corner of the store. Then I'd turn to go down the hall and it'd be pitch black. Or I'd go to the sales floor where only one out of every tenth light was on. Surreal is the best word for it.

The broken Wendy's sign has been removed, leaving the empty frame. And beneath it, they've got a sign that says "Ouch. Yes, we're still open." I laughed. Even if I am mad that they now only offer fried chicken on their salads instead of the grilled chicken.

Quite a few thunderstorms have rumbled their way through the county lately. Including one that was heading northeast and passed right between Brighton and Howell as Hubby and I drove home the other day. As we're heading down the road, it started raining, then raining HARD, then hailing. Then, we go around a corner and it stops raining. Then, not even an 1/8 of a mile further, we round another corner and it's raining again.

And today. As I was busy at work on the NEW old computer that replaces my old computer (which was suffering dreadfully from narcolepsy) I heard it raining. But, no, because I could see the sunlight glinting off my pretty computer monitor. Though, it sure did sound like it was raining. So I took a peak.

You can see the sun, and the wet ground. It was very much raining. And the sun was shining just a bright as can be.

Of course, I was standing outside with my camera hunting for rainbows. Almost makes me wish Hubby hadn't lost the umbrella by leaving it under a desk at college one day. Except I would never purchase an umbrella.

But once I went back inside as the rain picked up, the rainbow came out. I peeked out the window just to see and there it was in all it's prismatic glory. So I grabbed the camera, ran downstairs, opened the door, turning the camera on as I went. I aimed at the sky, but the rainbow had already faded.

It really is there. Very faint.

I've grown to enjoy summer thunderstorms. I'll admit that I used to be a big scaredy cat when thunderstroms rolled in. But as I've been living much closer to town than I did growing up, I've taken comfort in the proximity of tornado sirens. They tell me when to panic.

So, I finally understand my family's fascination with standing with noses pressed to the window to watch sideways rain and green skies and trees whipping all over the place. In my current residence, I don't even have to worry about the trees. (Scroll back up to the second picture and see just how big the trees are around here. Yeah... I think even the birds scoff at these trees.)

This is summer weather in it's finest in Livingston County. Warm days, a few thunderstorms and rain showers to keep things cool, low humidity, and not much on the itinerary. It all looks great from inside. Where I've happily got most everything back on my computer-- especially my customized version of Word 2003. Yep. All is good.

reposted with persmission

Windows Timeline

2009-07-23T10:29:00.000-04:00

Windows 7 is heading into production, likely to be launched early next year.

So, just for giggles, let's take a stroll down Windows' Memory Lane:

Windows 3.1 is the first Windows Operating System (Versions 1 and 2 never made it to produciton.) Date 1993. Windows 3.5 was released in 1994
Windows 95 updated 3.1 and attempted to add "Plug and Play" features, which in theory allowed hardware and software to be added and removed easily. This feature earned itself the nickname "Shrug and Pray."
Windows 98 was not really an improvement on Win95. It is widely recognized as being buggy and unreliable.
Windows ME was a partial upgrade from Windows 98. ME stands for Millenium Edition. This is pretty much the Edsel of Microsoft. It was realeased in 1999.
Windows 2000 followed. Windows2000 intended to combine the relative ease of use of Windows 95-98 with the security of the business operating system Windows NT. Plug and Play mostly worked by this point.
Windows XP improved upon what was started with Windows 2000. There was increased security, working "Plug and Play" and stability. (I admit that I love my WinXP.) This OS was released with a Professional version and a cheaper Home Version. Why, I may never know.
Windows Vista was plagued from release date with compatibility issues and security problems-- particularly with the security being too tight. As in the OS was trying to protect users from themselves, and perhaps did so too well. Updates have largely removed most of these issues and created a rather stable operating system, however, rumors have damaged Vista. Not to mention the plethora of OS choices.
Windows 7 is the next release. If you count, Windows 7 is not the seventh version of Windows. I'm not sure what the 7 is for.

What would you call Windows 7 instead? What would make it stand out?

(Source: Wiki Timeline of OS)

Wordless Wednesday: The Part I Just Couldn't Handle

2009-07-22T08:17:00.002-04:00

My couch... blocking the shortest path from kitchen to upstairs.
More unacceptable than the deluge from the leaking roof that caused the couch migration.

Printing Unprintable Pages

2009-07-21T09:26:00.002-04:00

So you read a neat article or story some where and want to print it off to share with others or save or something. But when you go to print, the text doesn't show up on the page or hangs off funny or some other weird thing that prevents you from having a print off.

Well, I don't like being thwarted by a mindless collection of sand and metal. Computer... there are ways of making you print!

Method 1:
Copy and Paste
Nearly every program has the commands Copy and Paste. One method to access them is to select the text and press Ctrl-C (Ctrl plus the C keys). So to copy text from a page that doesn't print, select the text with your mouse as you would highlight text in any other document, then hit Ctrl-C. Then, open up MSWord and press Ctrl-V. Ctrl-V is the paste code.

Okay, what? C is for copy, but V is for paste! Actually, it's not random. X is cut, C is copy and V is paste. The three keys are in a row on the keyboard. And Z, if you recall, is Undo.

Now that you've copied the text and pasted it into MSWord, you can fiddle with formatting and print it. I suggest making sure you have the source in case you ever want to go back to the original document.

Method 2:
Screen shots
Some pages don't allow copying from the browser. They're trying to control access to their page. Fair enough, as sometimes people will lift content and pass it off as their own. But say you need to print a page because your Luddite of a boss doesn't visit the link you sent him. A screen shot will capture what you see on your screen.

Navigate to the page you want to capture. Then press the Print Screen button. You won't see anything happen, but buried deep in the wires and capacitors fo your computer, the machine has taken a picture of the screen at that exact moment you pressed the Print Screen button.

Now, open MSWord or Paint. Either progam will work. Pain will save it as apicture and Word will save it as a document. It depends on how you want the picture. Then, his Ctrl-V to paste the screen shot into the open program. This is how I get all those handy screen shots of my comptuer to show you how things are done. It's also a way to preserve things that can't be printed, such as locked webpages or the Internet History files.

My Town Monday: Vocabularly Lesson

2009-07-20T10:10:00.000-04:00

Livingston County is part of Michigan. Around here, we call this:

In Michigan, we also have Faygo. It's a Michigan product. And one of Faygo's products is Red Pop.

Because this is Michigan and we call it Pop.

We're also likely to pick up our Pop at a Party Store. Apparently, people in other non-mitten shaped states would go to a Party Store to pick up paper plates, hats, balloons and streamers. Our party stores mainly sell Liquor. And overpriced Pop.

You can return your empty Pop (but not Soda) bottles, along with your empty beer cans at the Party Store to get your deposit back. Carbonated drinks have a 10 cent deposit in Michigan. You pay the extra 10 cents on carbonated drinks, but you get the money back when you return them. Unfortunately this does not apply to water or juice, even if it comes in the SAME bottle as, say, your Pepsi. I hope legislation will change this, but, well, probably not since they are legislators. The idea behind the deposit was to keep litter down and help recycle. 10 cents is enough to get most people to return their bottles.

Growing up in Michigan, it's not at all uncommon to go hunting for bottles tossed out car windows. It was a few bucks to spend on candy.

Or Better Made Potato Chips.

Another Michigan brand.

Like Vernors. Another kind of Pop. Apparently some folks never drank Vernors. Makes your nose feel all fizzy. I mistook a cup of beer for Vernors when I was young... that was very disappointing.

Around here, you'll find quite a few folks who head "Up North" for vacation, usually to hunt. They may or may not make it across the Mackinac (that's pronounced Mack-i-naw, of course) Bridge to the UP (or Upper Pennisula.)

Or they might travel to the "Big Lake." Yeah, in a state surrounded by Big Huge Lakes, everyone who goes to one of the Great Lakes really does just call it the Big Lake. My family usually went to Lake Huron-- that was our "The Big Lake." And we always brought pop for the trip.

I know the obvious Michigan words, but some of them surprise me. Apparently the rest of you don't say "Doorwall" for a sliding glass door.

We say 'kitty korner' rather than caddy corner. We usually say freeway or expressway (or eway) but not highway. And apparently the rest of you thaw or de-ice while we dethaw.

Around here, you might cry alligator tears if you're losing bad at Euchre while outside there's a toad drownder going on.

Or at least in some regions we do.

But we still drink pop. The only soda we have is baking soda.

Because this is Michigan.

And if any of you guys (not youse guys) know any other words that are uniquely Michigan, please, let me know! As a life long Michigander (do NOT say Michiganian!) I would love to hear what we say that you don't!

reposted with permission.

Office 2007 and beyond

2009-07-16T09:01:00.003-04:00

I hear a lot of complaints about Office 2007. The main root to all the complaints is "DON'T CHANGE IT!" Other complaints are "It's too different" and "They moved everything" and "I can't find it!"

With all those big buttons and labels and you can't find what you're looking for? If you say so... I found it easier to find things than previous versions of Office, actually.

On an unrelated note, I bought a new house this winter. It took me MONTHS to get used to the new locations for the silverware and the fact that I have stairs and other such things. I had to figure out where to put my furniture that worked, since the layout was very different from the old place. There are somethings that bother me because they aren't how they used to be. And there are somethings that I would like to change because they just don't work. Maybe it is related... Buying a new home is an awful lot like a major face-lift for software.

Perhaps the difference between buying a house and buying new software is choice, as people often don't choose (or they choose to be unaware of the differences in) the new software. Many people I know who upgraded bought new software rather than using their old discs and installing the old, familiar software on their computers. Interesting... when I got a new desktop, the first thing I did was put my old programs back on it. This also saved money on buying programs, since I didn't need new versions. But I'm cheap that way.

I encourage people who HATE Office 2007 to give it a chance. All your buttons are there. In fact, they're even easier to find than before because they're not hidden away. There's also a lot more toys and features in the new versions of office. You've just bought a new house... take a little time to explore it-- with an open mind.

And remember, argue for your limitations and they will be yours... if you insist that you can't use Office 2007, that's it too hard and too diferent, then, you will be right. You won't learn it. Now, I'm going back to messig with the picture tools. Just don't tell the boss that it took four hours for that brochure because I was playing...

Wordless Wednesday: Upgrade

2009-07-15T10:28:00.002-04:00

Old and Busted...

New Hotness!

Finally!

Next up... the 9 year old cell phone.

Undo

2009-07-14T09:12:00.000-04:00

These days, just about every program has an Undo Command. This is the helpfulest of all computer commands, by far.

In Microsoft Office 2003 (and earlier) Undo is under the Edit Menu. Right above the Redo Button.

It's also the backwards-looping arrow on the toolbar. If you keep hitting Undo, the computer will continue to undo each successive thing.

In Microsoft Office 2007, the Undo command is on the Home Ribbon. Still works the same way.

But, did you know that Windows Explorer (you may know it as My Computer or the My Documents Folder) ALSO has an Undo command! Yep. For WindowsXP and previous versions, if you go to the Edit menu at the top of the window, you will see and Undo command. It will refer to the last thing you did.

For my screenshot, my computer shows that "Undo Delete" is my option. It will put the last file I deleted back where it came from. You can also Undo a Move (so if you're not sure where you actually moved a file to, Undo it and it'll pop back to where it came from.)

Neat!

Word of caution though. There does become a point when changes are permanent (unless you have Uber Computer Geek skills, like hacking and behind-the-scenes skills. Those are beyond MY capability!) So, do be careful with what you are doing. Undo is like a pair of Water Wings. Useful, but there are limitations.

My Town Monday: Field Trip! Sleeping Bear Dunes

2009-07-13T14:17:00.003-04:00

Field Trip! These summer months are great for seeing the sites around Michigan. So today's field trip is to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake Shore.

The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake Shore is located up here... the fingertips of Michigan. Right about here.

Or for those of you not used to using your hand as a map, here.

The Dunes are ever changing because of the wind that comes of Lake Michigan. Then, as plants take root, they hold the sand down, for a while, evolving into a different type of landscape. If sand buries the plants, it may become sand dune again, rather than supporting growth.

Here's a web album from my trip with Hubby (June 2006, our five year anniversary.)

If you don't like tear-jerker stories, then you totally don't want to know the story of why it's called Sleeping Bear Dunes. I'm no softy, but this story traumatized me... It's the italicized part, for easy skipping.

The Legend of Sleeping Bear Dunes:
A long time a go, there was a fire in Wisconsin. A mama bear and her two cubs were forced from the forest. They got to the edge of Lake Michigan. They would have to swim. Mama and the cubs began swimming. It was a long swim. They swam for hours and hours.

Finally, Mama Bear reached the shore of Michigan. She looked back into the water and she couldn't see her cubs. She lay down on the shores of the lake and watched. But the baby bears never came. They had gotten too tired and drowned.

But the Mama bear kept waiting. She was certain her babies would come. Eventually, she fell asleep. Sand swept over Mama Bear, burying her on the shore where she waits to this day. The Great Spirit was impressed with the Mama Bears determination and faith. The Great Spirit raised two island, North and South Manitou Islands, to commemorate the cubs.

Here's a nice Aeriel shot of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake Shore and North and South Manitou Islands.

You can take a ferry to the islands. And Empire Michigan, the town nestled along the National Lake Shore, is only a short distance from Traverse City. Well, "short" in "upper Michigan" vernacular, which is a little bit longer than "short" in busy places. It's worse in the U.P., where us foreigners read a sign that says "Museum Just Ahead" and not realize it's "just" ten miles. I was ready to admit I'd missed the turn...

Visit the new My Town Monday site for links to other posters.

Make Your Own South Park Characters

2009-07-10T08:08:00.000-04:00

Over at South Park Studios, you can create little people that look like the characters on South Park. Neat little people with all sorts of clothes and stuff. It's like paper dolls on the computer. Or just plain fun.

I made these when I should have been working:

Note: Because many games are made with Flash, some blocking programs will block South Park Studios because it, too, is a Flash program. So you may not be able to goof off at work like I can. =)

Your Computer's Make and Model

2009-07-09T07:18:00.001-04:00

I get requests to trouble-shoot MSWord from time to time. I'm always happy to help, but first we have to be on the same page. Preferably the same page in the same book...

So I ask what version of MSWord you are running. With the release of Word2007, it is imperative to know the version. Commands and instructions that are good for Word2007 are meaningless for Word2003, as well as other issues. No big deal-- I have both versions. I just need to know whether to give instruction set A or instruction set B.

You answer: "Vista."

Vista is a version of Windows.

Windows Vista runs your computer. Microsoft Word is what you type your document into. One's a plant and one's an animal. You wouldn't ride a tulip into town any more than you'd type a document with just Windows.

Your operating system maybe Windows. It will usualy say which version it is while booting, but you can also go to My Computer, right click and select Properties from the Menu. Hey, looky there, it tells you what version operating system you are running. And other neat details.

Okay, so, we still need to figure out what version of Word you have.
Method #1, find the Icon. Whatever you double-click to open the program. Does it say... Microsoft Word 2003?

Method #2: Open Word. Go to Help... About Microsoft Word. The top line will tell you what version you are running. My desktop has Word 2003.

So... what version of Word are you running? What operating system do you have? If you're going to get the right help, you need to ask for the right information. Luckily, the computer knows what it's using, and is happy to tell you.

Wordless Wednesday: Someone Turned Gravity Up

2009-07-08T09:38:00.002-04:00

From Bo Fexler, PI

That explains why it's hard to get out of bed.

Google It

2009-07-07T18:50:00.002-04:00

Everyone Googles. But not everyone Googles well. It's kind of like dancing. Some people shouldn't dance in public, but we all groove from time to time. I have my own special "clean space" dance, reserved for those infrequent times when clutter accepts its eviction notice.

The best tip I have for Google, is to type in exactly what you are looking for.

For example, looking for that song you heard on the supermarket radio? (Earworms, all of them...)
But you only remember a single line?

Try thi: type in that one line, plus the word lyrics.
For example: how to save a life lyrics

Once you have the lyrics, you can get the song title. So, in my example, "How to Save a Life" happens to be not just the words in the refrain, but the title of the song. With that, I also know that the group that sings the song is The Fray.

And with that, just to confirm , I can Google "How to Save a Life" The Fray and get the YouTube videos. After listening to the YouTube Video, I can confirm that it is the song, and perhaps go buy it from iTunes.

This also works with movie quotes, lines from a poem, and other things. Type in the line you remember. If perchance you remember incorrectly or misheard something (also called an eggcorn) try taking out the parts you're not sure of. See what happens.

Similarly, if you're looking for how to reattach the zipper that lovely, wonderful husband pulled off, I might search for "Repair Zipper How-to" or "How to replace zipper." (No quotes.) For some strange reason I do, um, Google as Yoda talks.

When you Google, ask yourself what is it, exactly, you are trying to find. Only if that fails, then get a bigger net and try broader terms. Just know that for certain types of people, Google can be addictive. It's like a freaking drug, man. My next cell phone will have internet just so I can Google things when away from my computer. Need my fix, man. Need my Google.

My Town Monday: Cross Roads

2009-07-06T09:06:00.001-04:00

Livingston County is along three major crossroads in Southeast Lower Michigan. (For those not acquainted with the Mitten-shaped state, we here do tend to use 'lower' Michigan to differentiate from the Upper Peninsula.)

Don't mind my map. I "borrowed" it from the Livingston County webpage and made some alterations and labels and stuff.
I-96 runs from diagonal across the county. To the west it heads to state capital, Lansing. To the east, it goes to Detroit. Mostly, I-96 is three lanes. I don't like when my travels along I-96 take me beyond M-59 or US-23. Between those points, 96 is a pretty decent drive. You won't usually get run off the road or find your little car ready to be mounted by some massive and over-eager vehicle coming up from behind.

I-96 has several distinctions. It is the only two digit InTRAstate interstate. It only exists in Michigan. I-96 from Brighton to Farmington was part of the first "freewayization" and was built in 1957. This stretch was one of the first limited access freeways in the area, when such things were new and fangled. (source: http://www.michiganhighways.org/. )

(Picture: I-96 opens in 1962. Photo "borrowed" from Howell Bicentennial while it was checked out of the library. Hey, I'm totally not old enough to have been there!)

Before I-96, Grand River was the major East-West route between Lansing and Detroit. Once the limited access highways went in, Grand River became just the major local road. It runs through the centers of Brighton, Howell, and Fowlerville. Grand River has it's own neat history, but that's for another post.

US-23 runs North-South through the east side of the county. This major thoroughfare is a mere two lanes. To the south, it goes to Ann Arbor. Last I heard, US-23 south between Brighton and Ann Arbor was "at capacity" during rush hour. Which apparently means traffic slows to a twenty mile per hour crawl... on the good days. To the north, US-23 eventually goes to Flint. 23 North is a better drive, I think because it's a longer drive to get anywhere so folks just settle in for the trip.

Running parallel to US-23 is "Old 23". Occasionally, there are signs marking this as "Whitmore Lake Road", but it's really just Old 23. This was pretty much the route of US-23 before US-23 was shifted and turned into a limited access freeway. The surface road remains (mostly) and is called "Old 23." I think the signs actually say "Old US-23."

Next is M-59. Through most of the county M-59 is a 2 to 5 lane road. As it leaves Livingston County, it becomes a divided highway. Somewhere later, it becomes an expressway (or limited access highway). And I think it ultimately leads to Detroit. I swear, all E/W expressways in this part of the state lead to Detroit. I think it has something to do with the Metro Detroit area having a huge portion of the population or some such silly reason... ;-) M-59 is also labeled as Highland Road. Which, gets confusing, especially at certain intersections, like the one at M-59/ Highland Road and Michigan Ave by Howell. As far as I can tell, at M-59, Michigan Ave changes names to become Oak Grove Road. So the road sign at the corner has four road names for two roads!

Oh, yeah, almost forgot M-36. This little mostly 2-lane road meanders across the southern part of the county. It sees a fair amount of traffic since it's one the primary routes to take folks from Pinckney and Hamburg out to US-23, which they then take to 96, 94, or other routes to their work destinations.

A last route I'll mention is D-19. It's not on the map above, but if your drew a more-or-less straight line south from Howell to Pinckney, that would be D-19. It's another winding 2-lane road. In Pinckney, travelers can pick up Dexter-Pinckney Road and travel onwards to Ann Arbor, but since these are winding, two-lane roads, they are not the primary choices. Talk has been had over the years of making a major North-South thoroughfare through the western side of the county to help develop it. I think that part of the county is just fine the way it is.

Aside from these major roads, there are, of course, plenty of ways to get around. Many of the roadways in Livingston County are dirt... or, do to lack of proper maintenance in these, ah, lean times, some of the paved roads are reverting to dirt. It's like when you place SimCity, but don't fund the transportation department well enough, your roads disintegrate into rubble. Many times paving of dirt roads is voted down because the residents want to maintain a "country" feel. But they sure do want to get excited about the CVS going up on the corner next to the Walgreens in front of Wal-Mart and Meijer... as a lifetime local-yokel, I would rather drive ten minutes-- or even twenty minutes!-- to get to a grocery store or pharmacy than have even one one every damned corner.

But, I'm one of those strange creatures who lives and works in the same county. It's not a bad place to call home.

Shoot, I've even set my stories and novel in this part of the world. There's enough people here, and enough variation, that I could write pretty much whatever I want.

I'd invite you all, but the truth is, I think we got enough people around here. =)

Reposted with permission.

Windows Really Good Edition

2009-07-03T07:09:00.000-04:00

New version of Windows? Nah. Just a good joke.

Now, I admit, my favorite jokes are the ones that go after the things I am most familiar with. And this one does a pretty good job poking fun at problems in Windows.

When you click the link here for Windows Really Good Edition, it'll take you to another site. NOTE: Once you launch the Flash video, it may be full screen. If it "takes over" but you can hit alt+F4 to end the video and get back to normal. Deep breath.

And if you play with this, really, you've got to explore all the nooks and crannies. Like opening "Word" and "Go Online." The error messages are amusing (and yes, it starts with a whole slew of them. ;-)

I like the option of selecting "Crash" from the Start Menu. Have fun. Have a little giggle. It's Friday!

Mac or PC?

2009-07-02T08:28:00.002-04:00

I always thought those Mac and PC commercials, with the middle-aged boring guy as the PC and the young hip guy as the Mac, were pretty cute. Somewhat skewed, but so are all commercials.

Personally, I think whether a person picks a Mac or PC is kind of like picking your type of undergarment. It doesn't matter to most anyone else, but you sure better be comfortable with the choice.

I'm a PC. (No, I'm not going to tell you my underwear choice!) My biggest factor is price, and PCs tend to meet that need far better than Macs. I don't need processor power for much more than handing a large (very large!) MSWord document or maybe streaming a video. My current desktop computer is the Holiday Inn Express of computers-- it's not fancy, but it does the job rather well.

I've used Macs. The skies didn't open up for me. (In fact, I got tend to get frustrated because all the commands I'm used to are missing or moved. That problem is compounded because when I'm on a Mac, it's usually to troubleshoot an ill-intentioned device.) But I have nothing against the little cuties. ;-)

Some users have less trouble on Macs-- particularly with viruses. Fair enough. But the only virus I've gotten in the last ten years was from my ~~stupid~~ pirate brothers downloading a game crack that was infect. That reminds me-- I still haven't thanked them for that... To me, all computers are comparable. It's the user that is the biggest equation. What do YOU want from your computer.

I have more time than money, so I'll buy the cheap machine (or cobble parts from friends and family to make a Frankenputer ). Then I'll use my time to learn how to make sure it obeys. The occasional sacrifice of a goat or small animal to the computer gods doesn't hurt.

Wordless Wednesday: I Got Away!

2009-07-01T08:20:00.001-04:00

And I won't go back...

Getting Around

2009-06-30T08:00:00.001-04:00

Your computer has files and folders. Depending on what sort of user you are, you may store everything in the My Documents folder. Or maybe, on your work computer, you save everything in the network folder.

There's more than one way to get around a computer's folders. And once you get that down, you'll have all sorts of new ways to save and sort things on your computer.

First, open up My Documents or My Computer. By default, the My Documents displays only the folder. The left side of the window gives you some options for the folder or the things in it. Great. Now, let's change the settings. If you've never played with this, it's going to look huge and scary and overwhelming at first. Relax, do as I tell you (heh, that's always good advice!) and it'll be okay.

On the top of the My Documents window, there's a button labeled Folders. (BTW: You are using Windows Explorer to view My Documents.) Click the Folder button. Now, the left side of your window will show ALLLL the folders and drives and everything on your computer.

Deep breaths. Lets look at the list-- what are we really seeing? Well, at the top is Desktop. As far as Windows Explorer is concerned, the Desktop is the root of everything. If you clock on "Desktop" you will see everything on your desktop, but as little icons inside the Explorer Window. See-- it's just a different way to see the same stuff.

Okay, what else do we have here. Under Desktop is My Documents. See the little plus sign next to it. Squint! Ah, there it is-- circled in red. This plus sign lets us Expand the folders. So, if you click it, the folders that are inside the My Documents folder will expand. You won't see any files on the left-- only folders (and drives, which are like giant folders.) Click the expand button.

(An expanded folder has the inner folders showing and a minus sign, circled in blue)

Notice how the view on the right didn't change? Why make the computer load all the images... this is one way Explorer is faster for getting around.

Now, you can see the folders. You can select a folder or another plus sign. When you get to the folder you want, you can select it by clicking on it once, and the contents will load in the right side of the screen.

You can nest folders almost limitlessly. And name them anything you want.

And, another bonus, if you need to go to another folder, you can simply click on it on the left. You don't have to go "Up" or "Back." Just find it and click. Quick and easy. Try it, click around. And if you think you've moved or clicked something wrong, you can always Undo.

My Town Monday

2009-06-29T08:51:00.001-04:00

My little part of Michigan, happens to be still mostly rural, with a swathe of so-called civilization (or at least population) running along the middle where I-96 carves it's path between Detroit and Lansing.

According to the last census records, there were more people in the city of Ann Arbor than their are in all of Livingston County.

A lot of people allegedly move here from the Metro Detroit Area. For me, the "Metro Detroit" area is pretty much anywhere east of, say, Novi. But, I'm a local yokel. The hustle and bustle of downtown Brighton or of the Latson Road interchange is more than exciting enough for me.

With the mix of rural life and city life, I get to see pristine Hummers and beat up pick up trucks with mud up to the mirrors and grass stuck in the grill. Which do you think actually went off-road?

Like Michigan's weather with it's range of possibilities, I find that Livingston County's range of life rather interesting.

In addition to the mix of suburbia, small cities, small towns, and farmland, it's a less than hour to get to Flint (north), Lansing (west) and Ann Arbor (south) where large cities dwell with even greater possibilities. Oh, and Metro Detroit to the East. Beyond that is Canada (which for Michiganders, hardly seems like another country at all.)

I've lived here my entire life, or at least all the parts of it that I remember. That counts as far as I'm concerned. This is my home. I plan to stay. (Crappy weather, potholes, and wretched economy and all.)

Reprinted with permission.

In the Beginning...

2009-06-05T13:01:00.006-04:00

There was the Computer Mama. Elizabeth is "too young" for bifocals, has racing stripes in her hair, and loves all things computers. If she's not too old to learn computers, than neither are you.

But what happens when a Computer Mama has a daughter? Well, that's were Computer Kids come from. Clair is happiest at any one of her computers with a glass of Diet Pepsi at her side. She actually likes troubleshooting computer problems.

We're both longtime residents of Livingston County, Michigan. Where is that? Well, hold out your right hand...

... right about here. More or less. (This is one of the best parts about living in Michigan. ;-)

Welcome to the Computer Mama Blog, part of the Comma Project. Here, we'll talk about the things we love best-- computers and Livingston County. But no techno-babble. We want you to enjoy as much as we do. Okay, okay. Maybe half as much as we do.