Cheryl on the Web

Sad but true: I just don’t usually feel like updating my blog in my free time any more. I thought maybe that I would get back in the swing once I got into more of a regular working-hours routine, but instead I have even less interest in sitting behind a computer after work. Some friends of mine are starting a photo blog - that’s an interesting idea that I’m considering - or maybe I’ll just have to make a less-frequently-updated site here … about something. A website just about me is boring - maybe I can come up with a different, fresh idea - like an interior redecoration! :) Any ideas for a new, renovated, cherylontheweb?

signing off,
Cheryl

Those were Tim’s somewhat aggravated words to me tonight, as we both sat on the couch and he was surfing the net on the Toshiba Vista laptop - or trying to, until when the Doctor entered the scene. Though the suspect Doctor application turned out to be from Toshiba and not Windows, it is symbolic of the mass of minor annoyances that Vista can cause at first for experienced XP techies. We’ve gotten to the point now with Vista that every new window that pops up brings out a sigh of, “not the User Account Control again” or “what now?”. Of course, there are those rare times when Vista doesn’t say enough: you’d think, for instance, Vista would have said something to me about the wireless network connection being disabled while I was trying for ages to search for available wireless networks?

p.s. Yes, of course I know I can turn off the User Account Control - but in the Business-as-Usual state, that’s a feature I want. It’s just not a practical feature for the first 24 hours of using Vista, when everything you want to configure involves that control feature popping up at least twice in the process.

Today the hard drive of my work laptop got sick and died. At least that’s how I picture it. It wasn’t an immediate death, no shot to the head or head-on collision; but it went relatively fast, considering that everything seemed fine on Friday. I guess it was more like a viral infection that came up this morning and quickly lead to a high and fatal fever.

I must admit with some pride that every single laptop I have ever used has suffered hard drive failure. My very first laptop was a Sony Vaio ultra-thin 12.1″, the first of its kind on the market back in ‘99; of all the laptops I have ever had, it was by far of the best quality. It took a good 3 years before I managed to run that hard drive into the ground, and if I would have de-frag’d a bit less often, I think it would have lasted even longer; I learned my lesson. After that I picked up another Sony but sold it within a year; the hard drive on that died on the next owner but I’m sure I contributed to its demise. Then I bought an Acer and - you know the quality we can expect from them - it was in the first 120 days that the hard drive on it succumbed. Two years later, the replacement hard drive I had gotten under warranty also went under. Less than a year ago, the work laptop I had gotten second-hand for work started having issues after about 2 years of use, and the particular laptop that died today was only 6 months old so it doesn’t speak much for the quality of this particular brand.

To the credit of these laptop manufacturers: they are not built for serious hard drive endangerment. And that is definitely what I put them through. On Friday my paging file was over 1.5 GB large because the thing simply doesn’t have enough memory for all the apps I run for my work. Add on top of that all the recompilations I do when programming, and the hard drives probably get 300-500% more use than on average.

Anyway, it just goes to show: they’re hard drives, not hard core.

Today I made mini zucchini muffins, which are - in my variation - no relation to zucchini bread. They are light-colored with a “refined” (read: subtle but sophisticated) taste, consisting of zucchini with hints of parmesan, lemon, and nutmeg. Having made non-sweet muffins now for the first time, I have to say I love them. They are a great substitution for potatoes or rice in meals where meat should really be the main focus, and they are healthier than sweet muffins since there’s no sugar - not to mention that in this particular case each mini muffin contains the equivalent of at least one thick zucchini slice!

I’ve got a muffin recipe book full of recipes for various muffin types, both sweet and non-sweet. The next non-sweet ones I want to try are the pesto muffins, mmm. I liked the zucchini muffins I made today, but they are better with a meal than just by themselves I think, even though we ate them today as a sort of appetizer to our meal. If you want the recipe, let me know :)

No one really believed they could do it. Of the 5 sports analysts on my favorite midnight ESPN sports talk show (Around the Horn), only one picked the Rockies to make the playoffs a few weeks back. And here they are, living the American dream of the up-and-coming underdogs - and giving the Philadelphia Phillies a good beating in the first 2 games of their 5-game playoff opening series. That’s what I’m talking about, I believe in you, go, Rockies!

For those of you looking for interesting Internet surf destinations to add to your list (since I’m humble enough to realize I can’t satisfy all your needs), I’ve added 2 sites to my Blog Roll (in the right-hand column), have a look.

President Bush got a pardon for war crimes since 2001 worked into a bill passed by Congress a year ago? Someone tell me this isn’t true…

CNN broadcast recording posted on YouTube