Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Tablet Review (again)

My new tablet is pissing me off, so I already want a brand-new one. I'm willing to buy it as a replacement for my primary laptop. That is if I can also get a docking station or even just a laptop holder that would put it at a good slant for viewing while using the wireless keyboard. We'll still end up losing a good chunk of change over it though, and I doubt the Hubs will like the idea. I won't have to get used to a tiny screen like the one I have now (10.4'') if I get a 12.1'' and use Hubs' old monitor we have in the office when I need larger. I was dumb to get 10.4'' anyway, because the case is the same, just with a smaller screen area.

--Fan runs too loud and too often, without maxing out the processor, even when doing the most basic tasks and even when not warm. It does, however, get warm after awhile of doing next to nothing. It is nothing short of ridiculous. I'm willing to deal with the annoyance if it were only me, but I already get slightly annoyed looks from my classmates, and I'm not willing to be rude.

--I have an indoor display, which is supposedly best if you aren't using it in the brighter light outdoors. However the glare off the classroom lights means that I can't reliably see what I'm writing most of the time. Perhaps an Indoor/Outdoor display will be better, or perhaps this is just a bad example for an Indoor display?

--I can't get the pen calibrated in portrait mode, so I'm touching nowhere near where my pointer is actually hitting. This plus the bad display means that I can't hit the scrollbar for fresh paper in the middle of writing. Bad. Somehow landscape is better, but sometimes I need to write in portrait, period.

--I'm torn on using it as a graphing calculator, because Duh! these and later professors probably won't let me use my tablet on tests, but there is a fair likelihood of using the TI-84 on tests. So I might as well get as much practice as possible using the TI-84, and just dream about all the cool stuff I could do with MathJournal on the tablet. :(

The only good thing I can say is that the battery life on my tablet is amazing, 7+ hours! Reboot only takes about 10 minutes off the remaining power.

Week 1 Update

Is the first week really only halfway through???!!! Oh well, its the tough half that's through, so I'll take it. Sorry this is kind of long and rambling. I should post more often.

The Bad

As a follow-up to the sneezing episode a few weeks ago, the skin around Rigel's eyes now has faint spots of pink. I called the vet, missed the return call from the Dr., and now I have to wait until tomorrow to talk to him. He'll probably call while I'm in class.

Nothing makes me fell more dumb and worthless than math, nay Calculus.
--Three of my 4 courses, and of course both labs, require Calculus.
--I couldn't do the review of Cal1 tonight. I mean I feel really dumb right now. I'll have to go to the Math Lab for tutoring tomorrow afternoon, but that won't protect me from turning in a pathetic homework assignment first. :(

My Schedule
--Monday was the first day for 2 classes, which means stress.
-- Tuesday was the first day for my other 2 classes and its also Chem Lab day, which is 4 more hours and equals more stress and a birdy all alone all day. This makes me sad.
-- Wednesday is Physics Lab day, 2nd longest day of the week. Lonely Bird but I come home for 2 hours for lunch. Theoretically.
--Thursday and Friday will be wonderfully relaxing after that, right? Please?

My Tablet PC is pissing me off so much that the description got too long. Tablet post to follow later for those of you who are interested.

My right shoulder is killing me, and its not even from carrying around a giant bag of books. It started before Monday. I think it has to do mostly with how I sit with my laptop, and partially with writing hunched over a desk.
--Yesterday I downed 3 Tylanol at once, put a Tiger Balm patch on it, and still no relief. --Then before bed I took 2 Aleve that helped a little, and kept the patch on all night.
--Of course it hurts again now, I only took 1 Aleve after school today.

The Good

My physics professor is great, and she's also my adviser. The other two females in class are pre-engineering or chemistry majors, I think. But hey, they're there so I don't feel surrounded! Alas, this class is the reason I had to get the graphing calculator, and I'm not at all comfortable with it. :( I should have splurged for one when I started Cal1 in spring, but I didn't want to buy it and realize I needed a nicer one for Physics. Oh well.

Thank the FSM for British Lit. I think that course is going to be a fun diversion from math torment. The professor is very energetic and chatty and really made the classroom comfortable for us to laugh and contribute to the conversation. I left class feeling very upbeat, and not just because the girl who sits in front of me is a Whovian. (yay!)

Monday is Labor Day!

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Petco and Petsmart

The Petco here where I got my birdie was the only pet store in town until today. I've been eagerly awaiting the opening of a Petsmart in this town and it opened today and I forgot to go. Petco's toys are so boring and I am too impatient to buy online, and to buy without holding things in my hand first.

Before I got Rigel there, I would go pretty often and get my heart set on one or another bird but didn't have the money/lifestyle to buy yet. I would see them degrade from happy bouncy new arrivals to quiet and unhappy little things. They even had a yellow parrotlet who was there for over a year whose bonded partner died of a sickness and eventually started plucking and was still on display until a few months ago. They have two beautiful linneolated parakeets that I wanted but were $400 each, still there 8+ months later and in the last 6 months I haven't seen them move from the same perch cuddled together looking fluffy. I visited again this week and they look double their previous weight and still sit on that same perch.

I got little Rigel there because I saw him and knew the time was right for me and if I didn't get him, he would sit in that place his whole unhappy life.

I finally went to the new PetSmart today, and its great! Open atmosphere, greater selection of toys and food, and the birds seem happier. They have mostly finches and budgies, and two quakers. All except the quakers (i think) were unclipped and flying around in their enclosures. Each cage did seem a bit small for each group of budgies, but they had nice natural wood perches and fruit out in each cage in addition to seed. They were all very active and it was so refreshing to see them flying around and not hopping from perch to perch or just sitting on the bottom.

I really regret that my baby was so severely clipped before he could fledge, but he is adventurous and likes to jump so I think he will do well when they grow out and can be clipped a bit kinder.

Also, I was being silly and couldn't find many good lolbirds, so I made some myself. Not that they're any better than what's out there already of course....



Friday, August 24, 2007

Detecting a Happy Trend



You scored as Babylon 5 (Babylon 5), The universe is erupting into war and your government picks the wrong side. How much worse could things get? It doesn't matter, because no matter what you have your friends and you'll do the right thing. In the end that will be all that matters. Now if only the Psi Corps would leave you alone.

Babylon 5 (Babylon 5)


88%

Heart of Gold (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)


88%

Serenity (Firefly)


81%

SG-1 (Stargate)


81%

Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica)


75%

Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)


69%

Moya (Farscape)


69%

Enterprise D (Star Trek)


69%

Deep Space Nine (Star Trek)


69%

Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)


56%

Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)


50%

FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files)


50%

Bebop (Cowboy Bebop)


44%

Which sci-fi crew would you best fit in with? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

GoBinder Lite, too lite for me

Someone on another forum told me the GoBinder lite install "only" allowed 1GB databases, and this is what I replied with:

1GB would be good enough, but according to the splash when it loads, my GoBinder Lite maxes out at 10 MB! Based on that I took a closer look at Microsoft Journal and decided it was equal to or even superior for notes. It lets me adjust the space between lines, the color of the lines, and the size of the page without that weird button to push to extend the page (which I kept missing slightly and hitting the "new tab" instead). It also has flags and a greater variety of pen thicknesses and easier to change the pen color, IMO. Also, Journal seems to not blank out on me in the middle of the notes like GoBinder. Yes I need a tablet with more processor power, I know.

I decided GoBinder is just inkable Outlook plus Journaling plus a file system. I kept it for the Outlook type functions, use Journal for notes, and I'm all grown up enough to organize my own folders.

I haven't read much on OneNote, what really are its advantages? The one thing I would like to do is have it insert basic shapes (triangles, squares, circles, arrows) which Journal doesn't really do. If I go to OneNote down the line, will it take in my Journal files and make them searchable just like notes taken directly in OneNote?

Artsy

The other day I commented on a friend's blog and it helped her more than I realized it could. *Hugs*

Although I bet her painting is much better and artistic than mine, I will share this one that I finally made using my tablet PC's painting program. Of course its of my little birdy, because I have pretty much nothing else interesting to do or see these days.

Click for larger view (I think)
Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

Anyways, I'm going to go back to transcribing old math notes, or at least pretend to.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Tablet Review

Things that annoy me:
First, I would appreciate if the fan didn't run almost constantly.
Second, the painting program froze/crashed twice when I was almost done with a picture of my birdie.

Anyway, it does seem to be pretty useful. I downloaded the Education Pack which has GoBinder Lite. Using that, I put my course schedule into an Outlook-type calendar. It also creates a tab for each class where I can add notes documents and store relevant web clippings and handouts downloaded from Blackboard. Sure, XP Tablet comes with a Journal almost identical to the notes in GoBinder, and I'm smart enough to manage folders myself, but hey its nice to have it all bundled in one program and its free anyway.

It also came with a few games to help hone my pen skills*. I do need to re-calibrate the pen because its tough to write with an offset like that. My goal for this weekend is to copy my last Calculus and Chemistry notes into the Tablet, as practice and as a review for the upcoming term.

*at least thats what I tell myself while wasting 30 minutes on a crossword.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

See TJ Write

Hi from Tablet Land...
That took longer than it should have, I wish you could see how bad my handwriting is!
Maybe later I'll do some in paint.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Tablet is Here/Not Here :(

A downside of living in an apartment: packages are not delivered to my door. I just got the little card in my mailbox saying Sorry We Missed You! I can pick it up tomorrow morning at the post office. I'm pretty mad at myself for not checking the box first thing when I walked out, because I saw the postman at the other set of mailboxes. Instead I walked down the block to deposit a piece of mail in the drop box. What was I thinking?!?!

Grrrr....

*** Update: I went to the wrong Post Office. As if I drove clear across town and stood in line for 10 minutes just to waste 2 minutes of her time, I deserved a dirty look and bad directions to the right building.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Busy Morning

Whew. I just sat down after a whirlwind few hours. I woke up a little before 8am to feed little Rigel and wait to be able to call the Vet. Meanwhile I called Mom to get a bit of info and say hi. I finished up with what she needed and then looked up some tomato canning recipes for her. HINT: I would like some Tomato Marmalade for my troubles! :) I got an appointment with the vet for 4pm today.

I made a couple of false starts on cleaning the house before I decided to eat breakfast and shower first. Now the living and dining rooms are rearranged and the birdcage is in the dining room. Its really still the same room, with this open floorplan, and it gives him a bit more peace at night if we watch TV. A portable playstand will be a good idea to bring him in here while we're home and playing. He can still see out a window, and it won't be as hot to keep that window uncovered since it doesn't get direct sunlight. Its also more accessible for cleaning this way. With the birdcage out of the living room, we can go back to a configuration The Hubby is more comfortable with.

Now all I have to do is convince him to let me saw the dining table legs down so we can sit Japanese style. I have been completely unable to find extra-tall chairs that match the table for a good price. Sorry, I just won't buy chairs that cost more than the table itself. It's dumb.

I just realized I vacuumed the whole area before changing the cage lining. Doh!

Well that's enough for the morning. The afternoon will be given over to the new Tablet if it gets here, or sifting through the clutter in the office or bedroom. :(

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Sneezing and Scratching

I just posted on birdboard.com for help with Rigel. Keeping it here as an archive.

Yes, I will be taking him to the vet. Its Sunday, so I'll call for an appointment first thing in the morning.

Rigel has always had this little sneeze he does, and at first I thought it was his "I'm really annoyed, go away" sound, because they sound similar. He has also sneezed and had water shoot out, but that was right after a bath so I wasn't worried then either. I also have seen him scratching his beak, but he is having a new feather coming in on one side so I also wasn't worried.

Today I noticed that he is scratching his beak and his toenail gets stuck in his nare for a second. It doesn't seem to phase him, he doesn't squawk about it or anything. I tried to get video of him scratching, but he was so into the camera that it was impossible. Of course the moment I put away the camera he did it again, and shot something out his nose too. He did take a bath about an hour ago, and I didn't follow the path of the stuff so I don't know if it was just water. He's also been preening and maybe starting to molt? Eating/drinking/pooping/playing fine.

Pictures:


Now I'm worried I didn't put the pieces together. If anyone has seen this behavior before I would appreciate to know what your vet said/did about it, so I know what to expect mine to say. Thanks!

Sheridan

Which Fantasy/SciFi Character Are You?

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

90.03%

An A by the narrowest possible margin is still an A.

I pretty much bombed the Final, with about 130/200 points, plus about 20 for extra credit.

I officially hate Equilibria. (which is spelled correctly even though Firefox disagrees)

Search Terms

Whoa.

I use Google Analytics and it shows a great deal of information, including what searches have led people here. There aren't many, but a recent one caught my eye.

smash mouse up so the blood goes around the computer

I shit you not.

Here are the rest:
prichuto ham pics
outlook quotes "until i type"
kvm mouse doesn't work unless you unplug and plug
dead mouse "computer"
computer wont notice mouse
"went to" palladium imax -showtimes
"sean maher" + plymouth
"mitchell's seafood"
"jane goodall"
its a bit nutty mp3
eureka series "fanfic" adult -anime "scifi"
relic health
"great machine" zathras
right sided low abdo twinge and irregular bleeding
tj chem exam
working late night survey
"ardency rue"

It doesn't tell me what page exactly that it hit on, but I suppose this mouse rant is my most popular.

I had no idea that Eureka already has "adult fanfic" and I just have to wonder how sad that person's life is. Yes I like Fanfic, but Eureka?

I hope whoever was looking for medical info found what she needed.

Oh yeah, Ardency Rue is the best.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

This is me

I hate how I do this, putting off studies because I'm afraid of not understanding it. Its just so incredibly counterproductive.

I drank 2 cups of coffee, but my eyes still feel sleepy. I'm "too tired" to study, but I'll be lying in bed worrying about the Final until the wee hours of the morning.

Its multiple choice, 40 questions, comprehensive but weighted toward material from the last exam (which does not make me feel good). I need roughly a 75% in order to maintain an A in the class. Chemistry has given me a whole new outlook on multiple choice tests though. They used to be my strong suit, but now they are killing me. There's no margin for error, no points for getting it mostly right but forgetting to move the decimal point. One mistake is 5 points down the drain.

And here I am just trying to find something else to type so I don't have to go back to studying.

I hate how I always do this.

Government

Does this count as studying for Finals?

I was over at Shakespear's Sister joining a bit of Utopian Discussion. Here's my contribution:

Make the House of Representatives like Jury Duty. Each person is registered by their profession and chosen randomly at a national level and serves 6 year terms. They make the laws. People with Law Degrees would not be voting members of the House, because their jobs would be to draft appropriate language for new legislation. I see writing it and then voting on it as 2 votes.

The new President will be a popularly elected Ambassador. Responsible for negotiating treaties and acting as ceremonial leader of the nation. No executive, legislative or military powers. All treaties or executive agreements would have to be approved by vote of the Senate.

Give all those powers to the new Senate. No law is proposed in the senate, they merely have the president's veto and executive powers. Elected for 8 years, single-terms. Leadership of the Senate would be only for those who are 2 years or more out of their term. The 2 years act as a preventative to campaigning while still serving. They would then serve a single 4 year term.

Emergency military actions (in case of imminent attack) would be in the hands of a 3 person group within the senate, which the Senate Leader would not be part of. After the emergency passes, further authorization would require a joint vote of the entire Senate and House.

All of the above officials are paid the average of what all the serving members of the House would have made in their regular jobs that year.

Gravatar I forgot the Judicial Branch. In order for them to accept this new constitution, lets not change them except to apply the same pay rules and they would be nominated differently. (not sure how)

I agree with several things others pointed out. There is no need for the Electoral College anymore, so lets get rid of it. Limit how many months a person can campaign prior to the election.

Friday, August 3, 2007

Tone-deaf Geek

I bought 25 or so Geeky tracks from iTunes today. Plus some that aren't geeky but I just wanted them, and two parrot-related tracks. Is it bad that I want my parrot to learn the theme songs to my favorite SF shows? I didn't think so. I also wish to point out that Chemical Calisthenics is the funniest geek-rap I've ever heard. No, I don't know that geek-rap is a genre, or that there are more like it. Begone.

1969 - Apollo 11: Take Off and Landing Man on the Moon
(The Voices of American Astronauts Recorded in Space Flights)


Archer's Theme
Enterprise (Soundtrack from the TV Show)


Chemical Calisthenics
Blazing Arrow


Clockwork TARDIS
Dr. Who (Original Television Soundtrack)


Doctor Who Theme
Dr. Who (Original Television Soundtrack)


Doomsday
Dr. Who (Original Television Soundtrack)


Enterprise First Flight
Enterprise (Soundtrack from the TV Show)


Farscape
Themes


Gravity
Continuum


Jungle, Parrots, Busy, Loop Sound Effect
Dog Pack: Jungles


Little Polly Parrot
Favourite Nursery Rhymes (English)


Main Title
Stargate SG-1 (Soundtrack from the TV Show)


Main Title
2001: Space Odyssey


Modern Physics in Five Easy Verses
It's All Relative


New Enterprise
Enterprise (Soundtrack from the TV Show)


New Horizons
Enterprise (Soundtrack from the TV Show)


Quantum Leap (Main Title)
Quantum Leap (Soundtrack from the TV Show)


Red-Winged Parrot
Animal & Bird Sounds


Rose Defeats the Daleks
Dr. Who (Original Television Soundtrack)


Space Oddity
Best of Bowie


Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Fantastic Television!!


Star Trek: Voyager Main Title
Star Trek: Voyager - From the Premiere


The Doctor's Theme
Dr. Who (Original Television Soundtrack)


Waiting On the World to Change (Featuring Ben Harper)
The Village Sessions - EP


What's the Frequency, Kenneth?
Monster


Where My Heart Will Take Me
Enterprise (Soundtrack from the TV Show)



Just in case this isn't enough evidence for my horrible taste in music, I present you the tracks I didn't buy (yet). Yes, I am aware that some of them only have geeky titles. Move On.

Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun Is a Mass of Incandescent Gas)
Oops, I deleted the artist...

The Scientist
Oops, I deleted the artist...


Speed of Sound
Coldplay


Virginia Moon
Foo Fighters


Aurora
Foo Fighters


X-Ray Eyes
Guster


Lithium
Nirvana


Universal Traveler
AIR


Iris
The Goo Goo Dolls


No Sugar Tonight
The Guess Who


Constellations
Jack Johnson


The Horizon Has Been Defeated
Jack Johnson


Parallel Universe
Red Hot Chili Peppers


Countdown
Rush


Black Hole Sun
Soundgarden


Electrical Storm
U2


Stargate Overture
Nicholas Dodd & Sinfonia of London


Chemistry
Semisonic


Overture (From Stargate)
Hollywood Symphony Orchestra


Star Trek (Main Theme)
Star Trek


Main Theme f rom Star Trek - The Movie


Apollo 11 First Moon Landing
Walter Cronkite I Can Hear It Now the Sixties


Behind the Moon
Matt Costa


I'm not sure why blogger keeps ignoring my tabs. Dammit.

Bad Day

Its getting a bit warm, so I guess its time to close the windows and run the AC. :(

On top of yesterday's unpleasantness, today hasn't been great either. I completely blanked out on my Chemistry test, and I'm just crossing my fingers that my guesses keep me above failing. I stayed up so late studying last night that I didn't finish the homework due today, but I meant to finish it after Government. Instead, I forgot and drove home to work out, have lunch, play with the bird, run the dishwasher all before I realized. Its not quite too late now, but I'm done for the week. Oh, upside: 96% on yesterday's Government test, which brings me up to an A.

The crickets have invaded the school. I blame the extra rain, but I'm not ruling out that the biology department lost control of an experiment. I mean a couple weeks ago, it was "Oh, man, there's quite a few crickets running around the halls" and last week it was "Oh man, thats a huge cricket and would people please stop squishing them?" *Blech* Now you can walk up to the building to a racket that sounds like midnight in a swamp, the outside walls are covered in crickets, outside trashcans are overflowing, and you have to actively plan your route down the hallways to not step on the ones people have stomped. I'm sorry, but the only thing nastier than a live bug is a squished bug. PLEASE STOP SQUISHING THE CRICKETS AND HIRE AN EXTERMINATOR OR SOMETHING!

That's it, I need some Sake.

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Dork

Self 1: Why have I had no visitors in the last week?
Self 2: I guess nobody cares about your Rigelbird or your grades or what you had for lunch, duh.
Self 1: That must be true. *sadness*

Days later

Self 1: Still no visitors?
Self 2: Maybe you should have put the analytics code back into your page after you changed layout, dumbass.
Self 1: Doh.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

5 Good Things This Week:

- A Sushi restaurant opened in San Angelo, therefore the city has become livable. I ate there for lunch today. We'll be eating dinner there tonight.

- Labs are completed, so my afternoons are free until August 28th.

- I picked up an Asian Pear at the grocery store, and both the birdie and the hubby enjoyed it as much as I did. Nummy-num.

- Amanda has achieved her 50-pound WW goal, and is super happy about it.

- Commander Tucker spent half an episode in his undergarments in one of Monday's episodes of Enterprise. Sweet Chewy Jeebus.

Other Stuff:

I have a routine medical appointment tomorrow. After weeks of struggling with TRICARE for coverage, and the Clinic about my records, it was refreshing to get an appointment with no snags or convoluted explanations.

Bear with me for a moment. I'm thinking about buying a Tablet PC, so if anyone is interested in buying a Sony VAIO, give me a yell. There's nothing wrong with it, I just want to take notes during class and stuff.

Rigelbird has two new cage items: a Comfy Perch and a Birdy Buddy. He's still not sure if he likes them or not. I still need to put together a real cage cover. The ones at the pet store suck, so I might need to run to the craft store.