March 2007

Gatekeeper DesktopX Skin

rmiles7721March 16, 2007Technology

Another one of my favorite skins that needs to be updated is my Gatekeeper theme for Desktopx. I ported this with permission from a skin for the Explorer replacement called Talisman. It has areas that are animated, and is just a pretty darn cool skin. That’s one of the reasons I ported it for use. It’s also my second most highly downloaded skin.

gatekeeper.jpg

All of the little knobs and doodads in the lower left are switches that open little windows just to the right with menus inside. That’s the start menu replacement. There are some other animated areas as well.

I did this one in September of 2000, so it is in desperate need of an update.


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Ganymede Windowblinds

rmiles7721March 16, 2007Technology

I am considering updating my port of the Ganymede Enlightenment theme. I originally did this one for Windowblinds and DesktopX (as well as a few other skinnable apps) back in 2000 and updated it on 2001. Over the last six years, Windows has come a long way, as have video cards, and the programs that use them. Here is a screenshot of it:

ganymedess.jpg

Hard to believe that is Windows. I originally did it under Windows 2000, although by then I was probably running XP beta. It’s been awhile so I am not really sure. I may take some time to update all of my skins at that time. I have gotten a bit better with Photoshop since then, and there is a lot more stuff that can be done with anti-aliasing and transparency. All of my skins are up for download at http://dethnite.wincustomize.com/ and http://dethnite.deviantart.com.


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Today Sucked…

rmiles7721March 16, 2007Site News

…although I suppose it could have been much worse. The girl that I had cooking with me today was not feeling very well, so I did not get very much time off of the grill. Since this is my weekend off I had to get all of the prep finished for the weekend, make my deposits, buy change, make schedules, order next weeks food, and finish a boatload of paperwork, as well as do audits and inventories…AND cook.

I managed to cook, get the prep done, and buy my change. That’s it. I needed a break, so I have been home for about 30 minutes. I’ll just go back at 7 PM or so and stay until 10 or 11. It kind of sucks to start my days off that way, but sometimes that’s the way it works out.

That nasty looking bug that I caught on my phone earlier was hanging out on the wall outside my walk-in cooler at work. I had stepped out for a quick smoke and that damn thing was crawling up the wall. Big old fat body, little bitty head. Kind of like my 3rd shift. Maybe it was looking for a job.

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rmiles7721March 16, 20071Site News



0316071029.jpg

Originally uploaded by rmiles.

Nasty bug

Blocked

rmiles7721March 15, 2007Blogging

I need to do some posts and just can’t get my head around it tonight. I didn’t get very much sleep last night due to work and I am bone tired.

The started calling me about 10 PM or so. I had scheduled a company to come in a clean the hood (exhaust fan) around 10 PM or so, and even wrote it on the schedule so that they could see. The called me anyway because they are to stupid to read the schedule. Then they called me around midnight, and again at 1 AM. Most of the stuff in my store is on GFI circuits, and any kind of moisture whatsoever will throw the breaker. I guess that according to code the exhaust fan has to be included in this, so my exhaust fan was out from 10 PM last night until about 9 this morning. We spent the great majority of the day cleaning it up. Anyway, when the fan goes out, for instance when there’s no power, we prop open the front and back doors and deal with it.

The first call I told them to check the switch and make sure it was on, and then check the breaker. About 45 minutes later they called to tell me it wasn’t working and asked what to do. I told them to prop the doors open and keep working. The finally called again, the last one at 1 AM. I explained what was wrong and that there was nothing to be done except to just keep on working.

The restaurant looked like crap when I got there, as if having the fan off was something that would keep them from actually performing their jobs. I sent them home and we cleaned it up. Our damn construction guys are too cheap to fix something like this, so the maintenance man rewired everything for me this morning so that it wouldn’t happen again.

I also had a waffle party to do today for the day care right down the street for me. The have pre-k classes there as well, so we did two pre-k classes, and then RePete’s class. The kids had a ball. Waffles and OJ and coloring pages for all. I was a nice distraction from work for a couple of hours.

The meeting wasn’t too terribly bad today. I managed to get out of there shortly before 5 PM and here I am. Pretty tired but none the worse for wear I suppose.

I really need to find some people with half a brain to work my night shift.

Nothing Particularly Spectacular…

rmiles7721March 15, 2007Site News

…going on today. I am getting ready to go on in a few minutes early. I have a ‘waffle party’ to do for about 70 pre-k kids today. That’s where we go in and cook waffles for the kids and their teachers and give them hats and some coupons and they have a pretty good time all around.

Then it’s wonderful meeting day of course, it being Thursday yet again. Have I told you how much I despise our meetings. Three hours of paper pushing with about five minutes of actual productive meeting time. Blah.

Auto Insurance in Mexico

rmiles7721March 14, 2007Travel

A couple of months before my wife and I were married, she and a friend along with their respective mothers took a trip to Mexico. My son has also been a few years back, but as of yet I have not had the chance to visit. Sooner or later I will remedy that. While they were there they rented a car of course. When I do end up going I will either drive mine, or rent one here to drive there. If you’ve been around here for awhile you know that I am deathly afraid of flying and after that last fiasco on a commuter jet I decided that there was just no reason for me to leave the perfectly good ground.

One thing I was not aware of when my wife went that I wish I had is that Mexico does not recognize auto insurance from the United States. This means that if you get into an accident and don’t have Mexican Car Insurance you might end up in jail, or held personally liable for any damages, whether it was your fault or not. Just as in the U.S. if you get in an accident without insurance, they can hold you responsible. You might even end up with jail time over something as simple as a fender-bender. In addition, they will hold you in jail until they have received FULL payment.

Another thing to consider when going is health insurance. Quite a few U.S. Insurance companies will not cover you when you leave the United States. This means that you need to get some kind of coverage that will take care of you and your family while there.

There is a pretty good article here about why your insurance may not be enough on a trip to Mexico and why you might want to find out exactly what is covered. The Mexican Insurance Store has a lot of valuable information about Auto and Health coverage while in Mexico. They’ve been in the insurance business for 29 years and offer the best emergency medical assistance services in the industry through Assist America. That’s the same service that the AMA gives THEIR employees and families when they travel outside of the United States.

You can actually purchase your insurance online and print out your insurance certificate right at home OR you can call them and give them your information and they will fax or email the information right back to you.

They also offer some extras as well such as programs with fixed deductibles and a $25k Bail Bond Service, which might not be a bad idea in Mexico. I have heard horror stories about people getting locked up out of country and it’s not pretty.

Timing

rmiles7721March 14, 20072Uncategorized

Isn’t that what it’s all about? Every day at 3 PM or right around there, I have the great need to take a dump. I was thinking about this the other day and wanted to post about it, but completely forgot until 3:11 this afternoon, as I was keeping my regular date with the porcelain god. I guess being regular is a damn good thing. Better than the alternative anyway.

It doesn’t matter where I am. I am not a picky shitter. Home, work, Walmart, it just doesn’t matter. I try to schedule it where I can be at home, but occasionally it doesn’t work that way. If at work I just try to sneak back into my office and hope nobody else goes in the men’s room for quite some time.

Nine More Shopping Days…

rmiles7721March 14, 2007Home & Garden, Travel

…obviously not until Christmas. My vacation. I have gotten to where I am counting the days now. Kind of expected since I am a couple of months overdue for this one. Other than a get-together I am planning to have on the 31st that I have yet to send out any emails about (well, maybe one) I am just going to hand at the house and do some yard work. My yard looks like crap coming out of the winter and needs some TLC.

I need to clean out the goldfish pond and mulch the flower beds. I may put in another small garden, but I haven’t really decided about that one yet. Most likely just a few containers of tomatoes and peppers this year, maybe with some cukes as well.

I also need to decide what I am going to plant in my great grandmother’s flower boxes. They still need to be cleaned up a bit, but I have the heavy ass things out on my front sidewalk just waiting for something cool to be planted.

Here’s some pictures I have posted over the last couple of years.

That’s the pond (duh)

Here is the area right around the pond. This must have been taken a bit later in the year. My pepper plants were getting pretty damn big.

That’s the area right around the bottom of my back porch. Those suckers get bigger every year.

Here’s another shot of the pond from two years ago if I recall. A friend of my wife’s was moving and didn’t want to hassle with her pond, so we picked up a bunch of Koi out of her nasty ass pond. All of them are dead now. The only fish that seem to survive here year in and year out are the 10 cent goldfish that I bought at Walmart when I first put the pond in.

I thought I actually had some more pictures up. There seem to be some missing, and there is no telling what category I filed them under. I managed to clean up the categories last month, but there are bound to be a few lost posts in there.

It’s about time for me to get off my ass and get ready for work. It will be pretty busy today, and then tomorrow I actually get to leave for awhile. We are doing a Waffle Party for three different classes tomorrow, about 70 kids. They always have a blast, and it generally doesn’t cost the schools anything. All three and four years olds tomorrow, so that will be cool.


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Gravatar

rmiles7721March 13, 2007Blogging, Technology

Does anyone know much about Gravatar? There’s not shit for help files at their site, and some of them show up here in the comments, but some don’t, in particular mine.

I downloaded a WordPress plugin to use mybloglog icons in the comments and have been trying to hack around that to use it with Movabletype, but I have been unsuccessful so far. I did notice over at their blog (which is at typepad.com) they ARE using them, so I know it has to be possible.

Over all I suppose it’s no big deal, but I would like to get one of the two working properly, and mybloglog seems to be getting a lot more use than Gravatar now anyway.


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