Even though I didn’t get to install Windows 7, I just installed Windows Live Writer to see if this makes blogging easier.  Not that I’ve blogged much lately.

I’m wondering if I should give Windows 7 installation another try.  The initial attempt had me un-install several programs, including my beloved Kaspersky Internet Security, so I’m not exactly ready to open up my computer to viruses and worms for the duration.  Since the 62% hanging problem did not go away with the new system variable for me and that is the only solution I found online (and through tech support), I am 99% sure that I won’t give another try.  MS people were calling me everyday last week and that annoyed me even more!  I was pissed off as it was for having wasted time on the endeavor & I was in no mood for their persistent calls.  Do they really need my $? 

Windows 7 - before the nightmare

I got the sucker on Monday and boy, was I dumb!  I was pretty excited, thinking I could upgrade to Windows 7 pretty easily since I have Vista.  All the major newspaper articles were pretty much on MS side about the upgrade from Vista and the better functionality of Windows 7 vs. Vista.   Not true in my case.  I tried to upgrade 5 times and all those attempts were failures.  It always got stuck @ 62% completion and I’m not the only one to have had this experience.  Calling customer service was no help.  Some acknowledged that this is a known issue and some acted like this was my problem.  Then, early Wednesday morning, I finally found the answer to my problem. MS REFUND POLICY!  I have 45 days to return this and they will refund the purchase price along with $7.00 in shipping/handling.   So relieved that I can get my $$$ back!  (This might be masochistic but I think I’ll hold off for a few days on mailing the item out to San Leandro in case MS releases a simple solution to the upgrade problem. )

So if anyone is wondering what happens when a car dealer goes out of business, just keep an eye open for auctions, especially GM and Chrysler dealers. I tagged along with my father to an auction on Saturday since he wanted to buy the alignment machine and the Chrysler dealer in Signal Hill closed shop. I’m not sure if the auction house had plants in the group since the folks were bidding up stuff to close to new price levels. The auction had some new stuff but mostly used stuff, like office furniture, tool sets and used automotive lubricants. Personally, I thought the auction house owner was being a dick when he yelled at a guy to knock it off when the guy bid $1.00 for a lot of used stuff in unidentified bottles. And believe me, the stuff looked overpriced at $1.00.

(Really, this post should have pictures but I totally forgot to take pictures with the phone. I didn’t have any coffee or tea that morning so I wasn’t very alert.)

Not much to write about but it’s way past the half point mark of August so I thought I’d share something from my recent reads. About a month or 2 months ago, I saw Super-Size Me and The Future of Food on Hulu and that got me to check out The Great American Detox Diet by Alex Jamieson. She’s the vegan chef who was the girlfriend featured on Super-Size Me and the book is a really easy read. I haven’t tried any of the recipes or tried any of the detox rituals so who knows if her methods really work but I learned about new sources of food for calcium and protein. For example, amaranth is a good source of protein & calcium (1 cup = 16 grams of protein and 240 mg of calcium). Except the book doesn’t explain where you can get amaranth. Is it in the latin supermarket? Health-food store?

I normally don’t troll around the net looking for DNA testing kits but even though this wasn’t what I was looking for exactly, the promotion this company ran made me laugh & wince @ the same time.

Paternity Test Promotion

I wonder if some guys actually waited around until father’s day to order up the test.

I finally saw this movie and since I haven’t read the books, I have no idea if the books cover the vampires’ background in detail. Like, how is the doctor vampire a doctor? Did he go to medical school? Pass the boards? Do the parents receive $ from the county for their “foster kids?” Why is Edward, who is 100+ years old, interested in a 17 year old?

Since it’s obvious I’m way out of the loop in the fiction world, here’s a sampling of my recent borrowings from the library.

Non-fiction reads

These are in the “History” section and I think it’s bit of a misnomer because the book on the right is very tabloid-ish. On the other hand, the books are super clean and even though they’ve been in the library system for a few years, I think I may be the first one to actually read them.

Guess who doesn’t like Google? The car owner below.

Yahoo Google License Plate

When I saw the plate this morning, I couldn’t believe CA DMV let him have the plate to begin with. Isn’t there someone who reads the personalized plate request before granting the request? Not that I can actually picture skinny computer software engineers getting into a street brawl but still. [Because I barely know how to use photoshop elements, this is the best I could do to enhance the picture from a cell phone camera pic. The plate frame reads Do You (top) Yahoo? (bottom).]

To see if post by e-mail works. I have nothing new to post, except that I just ate a PB&J sandwich for lunch.

Another one for the ‘SC folks.

After two cancellations, I got to ride the blimp this Thursday.  Since it was kind of windy, I was counting on another cancellation but the blimp was in the air so my father and I headed down to Carson, CA.

Ground crew - wind socket to aid pilot during descent

Blimp + Ground Crew - Landing

Ground Crew in action

Holding down the blimp

Ballast taken off the blimp

The pilot happened to notice that a guy who was also in our time slot was wearing flip-flops and closed toe shoes are a must to get inside the blimp.  The man and his wife hustled out of the area to buy him a new pair of shoes.

Last Minute Shoes

We headed down to Long Beach and my father was shocked to see all the empty slots at both Long Beach and LA ports.

Long Beach Port - No Ships

We hovered over the area for quite a bit since the wind made it seem like we weren’t moving.  The pilot said we were moving at ground speed of about 12 miles per hour.

Unsold Toyotas

Oil Refinery

Sulfur - byproduct of oil refinery

Everyone in the Blimp

The pilot was intensely focused during the landing.  She was turning the wheel (which looks a lot like the wheel you see in an old-fashioned ship) and pulling the valves to release air and/or helium like nobody’s business for about 2-3 minutes.  Then, the ground crew grabbed the blimp and we stepped out.

Final shot of the blimp

The End!  (Goodyear claims that the rides are not open to the public but I think if one works in the immediate area and becomes friends with the ground crew, you can try to ride the blimp if people don’t show up.  We were scheduled for 5:00PM and I noticed in the release form that in the 4:ooPM slot, only 2 people rode.)