• typical computer set up task list:
  partitian hard drive
  format hard drive
  install operating system
  reassign drive letters
  install windows updates & patches
  defrag
  ajust screen resolution
  reconfig desktop shortcuts
  delete previously installed software (on other hard drive) 
  install antivirus
  install antispyware
  delete temporary files
  remove unwanted windows components (outlook express)
  update windows components (such as MSN Messenger)
  defrag
  troubleshoot hardware devices if needed (such as USB)
  defrag
  install applications (Firefox, Office, Dreamweaver, Paintshop Pro etc.)
  reconfig browser bookmarks
  reaarange start menu & desktop
  defrag
  backup / create rescue disks
  add other extras

An  article  that  caught  my  eye  this  morning ...

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'Internet addiction' bad for mental health

Winnipeg Free Press
Wed Jun 15 2005

By Ian MacLeod

There is no official diagnostic classification for a pathological preoccupation with the Internet, but many medical professionals have dubbed the phenomenon "Internet addiction," a psychological dependence akin to a gambling addiction.

The latest study, by researchers at Korea's Dong-A University College of Medicine and the Harvard Medical School, now links the addiction to hostility, obsessive-compulsiveness and other adverse psychiatric symptoms.

But big unanswered questions remain: Are the adverse psychiatric conditions a consequence of excessive Internet use or do they precede it? And does a person's personality predispose them to Internet addiction?

The Korean-U.S. research team ranked 328 senior Korean high school students in terms of their weekly Internet use in the previous month. Sixteen students were classified as excessive users, logging-on an average of about 19 hours a week. Fifty-nine students reported no Internet use. Male students significantly outnumbered female students in both the moderate and excessive user groups. In addition to hostility and obsessive-compulsiveness, the excessive Internet users were found to experience more paranoia, depression, irritability, impulsiveness, anxiety, phobias, psychoticism - a trait related to aggressiveness, anti-social actions, coldness and self-centeredness- and somatization, a chronic condition in which numerous physical complaints are caused by psychological problems and for which no underlying physical problem can be identified.

The study also found that the students who made excessive use of the Internet appeared to have personality traits distinctive from the students with modest and minimal Internet use.

Though that conclusion was far from definitive - the study had limitations including a small sample size and use of questionnaires rather than direct, in-depth interviews - it concludes the Internet, "may be a tonic for people with inner conflicts. Students with such traits may use the Internet to counteract psychological distress rooted in their personality."

That supports at least one previous study that found the Internet is used by some people already experiencing poor social relationships, dissatisfaction with their physical appearance and with poor coping skills.

In 2003, University of Florida psychiatrists published guidelines to help doctors determine when Web use is too extreme to be healthy.

"The only way we as psychiatrists will figure out whether Internet addiction exists as a separate entity from other psychiatric illnesses is if we have consistent criteria to evaluate it," wrote Dr. Nathan Shapira, an assistant professor of psychiatry, in the journal Depression and Anxiety. Shapira devised other diagnostic criteria after conducting psychiatric evaluations of 20 volunteers who identified themselves as having problems with the Internet and 17 randomly selected college students with varying levels of Internet use.

The University of Florida reported that volunteers who called themselves problematic Internet users tended to have pre-existing psychiatric problems, such as bipolar disorder, depression or alcohol abuse. They were online more than 30 hours per week and their non-essential Internet use was 10 times greater than their essential use.

-- CanWest News Service

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~ click here to take a test to see if you are addicted ~

There's more than one way to skin a cat.

So - I received the school's newsletter to put on our website. It comes to me as a Word document, and I have a number of ways I can put this data on the web.

My experience has been that I have greater control over everything when I copy & paste sections into an HTML document.

This particular newsletter includes our June Exam Schedule,  laid out in various tables. Editing these tables can sometimes require a little more time & patience, and often the formatting needs to be tweaked here & there.

For the most part I use Dreamweaver for editing web docs, but occasionally certain elements of a document refuse to cooperate. After trying a few different things, and not having much success, I will close the file and reopen it in Front Page. This gives me another crack at the challenge from another angle.

A change of perspective can often reveal new alternatives, and help us to approach challenges from a fresh place.

There are always choices.  Seeking out available resources and alternate tools around us can help us find solutions we sometimes might not have considered before.

It can be easy to get locked into doing things the same way every time. Keeping an open mind helps us to be more flexible and problem solve more effectively.

Examine your options and don't let problems prevent you from accomplishing your goal.

The opportunity for success is usually closer than you think.

Perseverance and ingenuity will often compensate for lack of skill or experience.

Have a fantastic weekend

: )

"My mind is a raging torrent,
flooded with rivulets of thought
cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives."
- Hedley Lamarr (Blazing Saddles)

It feels good to know that some of you
value a few of the things I say.

In real life, I can occasionally lack in the conversation department. While things may seem pretty subdued with me verbally, my mind is a often a torrent of activity. I am glad that I have found an avenue to express some of the things that go on up there.

Occasionally, when time permits, I peek at my stats to see who is visiting my space. I like to visit your spaces and get a glimpse of who you are. It's wonderful to see that people sometimes add me to their bookmarks.

Recently my space was highlighted on http://whatsyourstory.msn.com ,
and it was nice to have the opportunity to connect with a larger audience.

Everyday, I have several possible topics that I consider blogging about. The hardest part often is choosing which one to focus on. Often I may include excerpts from the book I am writing.

If I miss a day occasionally, it is probably due to lack of time, not lack of inspiration. Other commitments sometimes command my attention, and I am forced to postpone my blogging. It shouldn't be too often, though.

Inspirational, informational, motivational… I hope some of the material I post might occasionally help improve people’s worlds in some small way. I want my blog to be useful at least some of the time. If it makes you think every once in a while- great. For me, it is a great way to clarify my thoughts and enjoy an outlet for some of the stuff that’s rolling around in my head.

Your positive feedback is always encouraging.
It brings a smile to my face, and warms my heart.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my appreciation. I am honored that you are here now, reading this, and choosing to spend your time sharing bits of me.

Thank  you !

Have a fantastic weekend!

: )

20,000 hits

I'd like to say Thanks  !

I do read your commments, and really appreciate you visiting !

: )

{ I will be posting something of more substance late Wednesday afternoon }

The big 10 K

Thanks, friends!

So... I noticed that when I access anyone's msn space with my other browser (Mozilla Firefox), it looks a little messed up. That sucks. The browser doesn't crash like IE and allows me to access all my friends sites who have music.

I played music at a wedding Saturday night. CDs skip too easy, and often are unreliable. Last week I had to replace 5 CDs from the music library, and this week it will be 5 more. It doesn't look good when I am playing a nice tender waltz and the song starts to misread, spoiling the mood. AND about 90 minutes before the end of the gig, my batteries die in my PDA. ACK. I use my PDA for reference to look up lists of various songs at functions. I carry spare batteries, but they were dead. EEESH. I had to do the last bit of the wedding without my PDA. So I did. (But next week I will have a hard copy of those lists available.)

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There is a full moon tonight

Full moons always seem to make things, well different. It's kinda like everything is more exaggerated. Emotions run higher, thoughts and ideas seem to be either a little clearer or more creative. It's a force that is mysterious and interesting. Some things can seem very powerful today. I've notice that behaviors of students can be noticeably aggravated in ways during the full moon. It can often be a really good (or really bad) day for some things.

I hope yours is really good

: )

There is a lot of technology in my life that I use daily. My dishwasher does my dishes, my Roomba vacuums for me, my command start fires up my car on cold winter mornings.

Above all, my favorite piece of tech is my P. D. A.

PDA stands for personal digital assistant. They are made by various companies. One popular version is The Palm Pilot. Mine is a humble Visor that I picked up on sale a couple of years ago for a song.

I store EVERYTHING in it. It is never more than 30 feet away from me at any time. It wakes me in the morning, reminds me of birthdays, stores my phone numbers and keeps me organized. I back it up pretty much daily on my computer (just in case).

  My calendar keeps track of appointments.  

  My To Do list keeps track of various lists.  

There is even an expansion bay on the back for modules such as an mp3 player or a camera.

My P.D.A. has become an essential part of my life. I suspect that in time, we may see them become smaller, smarter and more powerful – that’s the nature of technology.

What’s your favorite bit of technology?

It’s amazing how we have become accustomed to the internet. We take for granted that special link to the rest of the world… until we lose it...

Part of my routine most weekdays includes coming home from work late in the afternoon, backing up my PDA to my main upstairs computer, checking my main email, coming downstairs firing up my downstairs computer, checking my yahoo mail, checking my hotmail, composing my blog, checking the message boards on my favorite dating site, and so on.

Yesterday, MSN Spaces was down for several hours, and after a while, I know a few of us were beginning to feel a little worried. Today, I got home to find my internet connection was unavailable.

ACK.

So, I checked a few things on my end, and then called my ISP tech support. They informed me that the problem was theirs, and that they were working on it. I asked them to call me when the issue was resolved, and had some supper.

OK. No big deal.  No chat, no web, no email, no problem.

I reassured myself that it probably wouldn’t be long before things were up and running again. After dinner, I wrote a bit in my book (I’m up to 154 pages), watched a little TV, and went on with my evening.

“I wonder if it’s up now?”    I thought.

“cannot find server???!”    I thought.

I went out for a while- put the snow shovel and the ice scraper away, got the rake out and did a little raking; puttered around in the shed for a little while; cleaned up outside a bit.

“hmmm – how ‘bout now?”     I thought.

“the page cannot be displayed???!!”    I thought.

Even though I expected a phone call when things were fixed, I couldn’t help but check for myself every once in a while. lol

“wonder if it’s up yet?”    I thought.

“HOW MUCH FREAKIN’ LONGER!!??”    I thought.

It’s funny how cut off one can feel when they are without ‘net access. Email, blogging, and message boards have become a daily part of my life. I have come to rely on my cyberfix. It is part of who I am. It is access to friends and information; a source of news and community for me.

The internet has become as important (if not more important) than the telephone in my life. Information technology has become integrated into my daily routines, and at no time is this is more evident than when technical difficulties disrupt. It has become a vital link with friends, associates and clients that I depend on daily.

finally... 6 hours later - connected again                whew!       : P

Can I do without it?  Sure.   (for a while, anyway)

Do I want to?  NO.        lol

: )

Blogging is not for everyone.
I suspect that many of us do it for different reasons. For the most part, we must be pretty vocal people. I doubt many private people or wallflowers blog. On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised to find that this particular form of communication might a welcome, comfortable means of expression for certain people who are more comfortable with computers than they are with people in real life.

After doing this for about half a year, I can't help but think that many of us are exhibitionists of a sort. We share parts of ourselves with the world for all to see.

Glimpses of joys and triumphs, of pain and loss, of insecurities, hopes, dreams, and snapshots of each others lives. Facts, opinions and poetry.
The births, the deaths, the angst and the ecstasy.

We get to know each other and bond more, post by post. Communities are formed, friends made. We support each other, often we learn and are richer from it.

Sometimes we see who's visited.  Much of the time our blogs are like a one way mirror for any and all to silently peek in on.

Silliness, sadness, seriousness, sexiness... We see it all.

Occasionally, when I get the chance, I love surfing random blogs of people  I have never visited  before. You never know what you may come across. The little girl who tells of her father's pain and doesn't know what to do; the newlywed bride who shares the anticipation of her wedding and honeymoon plans with us. The humor, the anguish.. it's all out there.

Entertainment           Information

Insights into other worlds.

I'd be curious to see the demographics of cyber communities. I wonder how many of us are married, single, disabled, single parents, employed in information technology...

Does the show change if there is an audience? You bet.

The internet is a powerful medium with the potential to change lives. Its influences can be far reaching and life changing. Any technology that enhances the exchange of information can change the world. It may be in an unexpected way, it may be on a small but powerful scale.

For me, (when I have time) I love the opportunity to write. To be read brings with it the chance to share. It can help me clarify ideas, and it's great to meet other intelligent life in the universe.     : )

It can be a forum to vent, or a useful means of soliciting opinions. Blogging empowers everyday people with a means of communication unlike any other.

As time goes on, more and more people are blogging, and we will see information technology evolve. Change is inevitable.

The world is listening...    What do you have to say?

Why do  you  blog?

The house I live in is 100 years old.

Living room (about half of it anyway)

part of my messy office

another part of my messy office

When I was house hunting a year and a half ago, most of the houses I looked at started to look the same.
When my realtor showed me this place, it stood out.

It used to be a corner store. It was unique (and I like unique).
The previous owners did a nice job in converting it into a residental dwelling.

If I am not visiting your space, it is likely because my IE is probably crashing when I try to visit it.
**sigh**

I'm guessin' it's sites with MUSIC that are culprits.

In honour of computer surroundings day
here are a couple of pics...

my downstairs 'puter

my upstairs 'puter

: )

Doing a little research can make a big difference.

Resources like the internet can be a very powerful tool. A search on a topic you are curious about can turn up all sorts of valuable information.

Investing a little time and energy to learn something new can often payoff over and over again in the future.

Knowledge once learned enhances your possibilities; it arms you with the ability to make better choices.    

I've been blogging for over 3 months now. I am used to having more power, more options and control when I create web pages. So- finally, I took the time to do a little research and improve my capabilities. After googling msn spaces tips, I hunted down a few new options.

--> I am still learning about graphics & placement control ! <--

        Investigate… Explore...
Do your homework!

It seems like today, computers and I are at odds. I have been having trouble with email, browsers, word processing here, there and everywhere - all day long.
At one point I had just finished writing this big long email; clicked on send and... crash.

ACK!

On different computers, with different programs, my day has been a little frustrating at times. I work with computers daily, so I'm no stranger to information technology. It's almost as though my computer karma is kinda out of sync with the universe today.

I am in the habit of saving often in most cases, but with the increased use of web-based blogging and email lately, crashes and hangs are deadlier.

freakin inferior technology

I think most of us have this illusion that computers for the most part are dependable and reliable. In reality, they can be an exercise in frustration far too often.

Maybe I'm expecting too much?

There are times that I am amazed at how they have enhanced my life, but there are moments that remind me of how undependable they can be.

eesh!