Southfork Longhorn

Taken w/ a cheap film camera, then transferred to digital.

From 2000, a trip to Southfork, the ranch from the hit TV show "Dallas", with my big sister Sharon and our British friend "Elle".

Beep! Beep! Beep!

That's the sound of me backing up...well, I already backed up, but the "beep beep beep" sound is still in my head.  Come to think of it, it was in my head a LONG time before I even got a computer.

Yup, I found my brand new but year old external hard drive and hooked it up.  Was really easy, just plugged it in, nothing to install.  It took a little while, but I copied almost* all the stuff I wanted to the HD; my photos, my music, my porn and nearly everything else.

*I say almost because I couldn't copy a folder;  it's my "work" folder I keep on my Desktop.  I create a folder each month, like "Dec-10" and save everything for that month in it, then after the month is done, I create another and drag the previous month's folder into the current one.  After trying several times and getting an error message, it dawned on me that I must have met some limit imposed by Windows, either the number of nested folders or perhaps maxing out the length of a file name due to that.  Doing a little research, I found there is a limit of 65,536 entries in a directory--that's what I found, whether that's the problem could be debatable.

What's not debatable is I am a cyber-pack rat, saving nearly everything and seldom throwing the stupid stuff away. (which is nearly all of what I save)

Whatever, I got my stuff saved now.  Whew.  I would've hated to have lost my photos, although the "best" have been uploaded to Picassa.  What would've made me sick would have been losing my music, especially the six different versions of "It's a Long Way to the Top (if you want to rock and roll)".

Why Didn't I Think of That?

Actually, I have, but didn't figure it would pay.

Man quits job, makes living suing e-mail spammers

I DID have cruel fantasies about chopping off their hands, though.

I Would've Thought "Bah Humbug"

You Are Merry Christmas

You are a traditionalist when it comes to the holidays, and you aren't going to be politically correct about it. You celebrate Christmas, and you don't think there's any reason to hide it. Most other people celebrate it too. You are content to wish everyone a "Merry Christmas." It doesn't have to be a religious thing. "Happy Holidays" is just too generic for your taste. You aren't going to tone down your greeting for anyone.

What Holiday Greeting Are You?

Blogthings: We'll Tell You The Truth... Someone Has To!

12 Creative Christmas Ads

From Odee: 12 Creative Christmas Ads

The first one caught my eye because it reminded me of our dear, departed friend Brad. I think he would've liked it.

(click for larger image)

From the site:

Origami Christmas tree ball made out of newspaper, with a special advertisement for Christmas.


This Christmas all readers of the Almere Vandaag get an extra present. This free morning newspaper for all Almere residents gives away due to this festivity an origami Christmas tree ball made out of newspaper. You have to fold it yourself, of course. Gladly, the Almere Vandaag also provides the readers with a 2-steps folding instruction for beginners. So it's not complicated and you'll enjoy building it.

Strange Christmas Facts

From the archives:

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Saint Nicholas of Myra, the original Santa Claus, was the patron saint of children, thieves and pawnbrokers.

Based on previous surveys, 17 percent of you will embarrass yourselves in some way at your office Christmas party.

A Mongolian wild ass can run 8 mph faster than a reindeer.

It's Donder, not Donner.

Christmas pudding should be stirred from east to west.

56 percent of Americans sing holiday carols to their pets.

53 percent of Americans plan to "re-gift" this year.

1 in 3 men will wait until Christmas Eve to finish their shopping.

1 in 6 men would like to get rid of all the "gift-giving nonsense."

A traditional Christmas dinner in early England was the head of a pig prepared with mustard.

On Christmas Eve in 2001, the Bethlehem Hotel had 208 of its 210 rooms free.

It's "God rest ye merry, gentlemen," not "God rest ye, merry gentlemen."

There are 1.76 billion candy canes produced every year.

Kris Kringel, a man in his 40s, lives in North Pole, Alaska, and delivers pizzas for a living. He drives a 1984 Ford Tempo.

Based on a 1999 estimated population count of North America and Europe, on Christmas Eve of that year Santa Claus had to visit 42,466,666 homes in a 12-hour period -- that's 983 homes per second.