Computer woes..... again (sigh)

If you have sent me an email but haven't received a reply this is the reason.  See the MAILER DAEMON messages?  That's outgoing emails bounced back to me.

Ok, the problem is usually stated in the M-D messages.  So I open a couple to find this.  Apparently my outgoing emails have some type of spam attached to them.  Or maybe ATT is having issues again. 

This computer stuff is really getting irritating!!@  I've been running spy ware and fix ware type programs which take about 3 hours each.  Hopefully, I'll get it working again but first I'm going to wait to see if the problem fixes itself.  Maybe ATT is aware of the problem already.   If you are waiting for an email I'll answer as soon as I'm able.

Still here

Thank you to those who offered suggestions to help with the computer problems.  For the moment I'm still able to get into my blogs.  I've started using Google Chrome but I still have problems.   Sending and receiving mail is not working right.   I'll work with this until I get more time to look into Firefox.  

On a brighter note, my Morning Glory vines were born yesterday.  Aren't they the cutest little things?  The rain helped.  Once these come up they start growing like crazy because they are classified as a flowering weed.  We all know weeds do grow very fast.  I want them to completely cover the front porch.

I have to set priorities this week no matter what I'd rather be doing.  Garden work will have to wait.  Computer work will have to wait.  Cooking will be switched to pre-made frozen stuff I put in the freezer for just this reason.  What reason?  Well, there is this quilt I said I'd have ready by Father's Day.  Normally I could have one this size finished in a couple of days.

When I was ready to put it on the machine I noticed the top is a D cup.  When will I ever learn to check on these before the owner leaves?  It's going to take some concentration and extra time to get it quilted.  Then I will bind it and put a hanging sleeve on it in time for the owner to pick up by Friday afternoon.  

I will keep photos of this one to use as a tutorial on how to handle a D cup top.  My readers may be growing tired of all the garden posts and ready for some quilting.  I sure hope my plants don't die before I get them planted.  

I surrender!

It should be an easy thing to do.... sending a quick email a few minutes before I start my day.  Well, let me tell ya, nothing is ever easy or quick for me.  Yesterday I had sent a message to a couple of people just to confirm that emails are getting through at last.  I've had trouble for several days and I wanted to be sure. 

Ok the test emails go through and I get a reply from them.  I believe that means I can send the emails again.  So I start sending the messages I had spent time typing a few days before.  One is an online interview for a newsletter.  It has attachments of photos of my work to go along with the interview part.  Shouldn't be that difficult.... right?  Attach the photos and send.  An easy process.

No such luck for me!  Just look at all the bounced emails.  I'm glad I sent a copy to myself each time.  What's weird is that I got my copy just fine but the ones going out to others didn't go through. 

Becoming more frustrated I think.... maybe an update for the ATT email would help?  I spend a few minutes looking at the information I find.  It looks safe enough.  I can't do anything with my email the way it is right now so why not?  I click to get the update.  So what happens?

My dang computer freezes after several different frames try to open at once.    I can't close it.  I can't go back.  I can't go forward.  I can't turn off the computer either.  I wait for almost an hour for it to unfreeze..... nothing.  I know I'm not supposed to but I pull the plug from the wall.  Wait a couple of minutes then plug it back up.  It would be no different than if the power went out for a few minutes. 

I go through a thirty minute routine of letting my computer boot up and getting to my email.  The new email should work..... right?  Yeah, well, it still bounces back messages to me.  I keep trying..... and keep trying.... but still get stuff bouncing back to me. 

I try several different ways to send the messages.  Forwarding, re-addressing, etc.... still having problems.

I try something different... can you see the box at the bottom?  I get blank pages opening up. 

Ok, I think maybe I must be doing something wrong or else it would work.  I decide to print the instructions so I can have a hard copy in front of me as I go through the steps.  Well gosh dang it!  The printer is low on ink and prints only part of it.  So now I have to spend time figuring out how to refill the ink.  I've never done it for this new printer.  I decide not to do the ink because I have enough occupying my mind right now. 

I keep trying to send the emails.  I open one of them to check to see if the address is right.  Yes, it's right.  So why the heck won't it work????

I'm still getting those darned things from "mailer daemon".  Doesn't that word look like "demon"?  Well, that's what it feels like to me.... like a demon has taken over my computer. 

Ok, now what do I do?  I can't email the people to tell them I can't email them.  A couple of customers are waiting to hear from me.  Margaret is waiting for an interview reply.  People have sent comments on my blog.  And I can't let anyone know I'm trying.... really I am.  So the only thing left for me to do is admit defeat and say

I SURRENDER! 

Technology has finally gotten the best of me.  I'm not sure I want to keep trying anymore.  It would not be so bad if sending emails was the only problem I had right now.  Nope, I have trouble with all kinds of things.  I have a camera I know nothing about except to point and click like the old film type cameras.  I have an mp3 player I've never been able to make operate.  I have a fancy new house phone, yet I can't figure out how to make the answering machine in it operate.  When I simply plug up my camera to put photos on the computer, no less than 7 different photo storing software programs all open up at once.  I can't get them to stop fighting with each other.  I'm trying to create patterns for portrait quilts and can't make heads or tails out of my notes to go along with Photoshop Elements software which I don't understand how to use.

Ok, the list of technology problems would take up way too much time for me to describe them all.  I'm at the point of deciding whether or not I should close down my blogs and give up the internet.  Along with getting rid of anything technology based too.  No fancy phone, no mp 3, no tv.... and most of all.... no computer to mess with my mind.  I've spent all my savings on garden stuff so there is no money for taking the computer to the 'puter doctor.

I say it again.... I SURRENDER!  Hmm.... if you are waiting on an email or a comment reply from me and happen to be reading my blog... I'm sorry.  I'm trying, really I am.  Ok, maybe updating to Foxfire or Google or something instead of Internet Explorer would help?  Does anyone know how I can get that?  

I think I'll turn off the computer and go eat a gallon of chocolate ice cream. 

How strange

Thank you everyone for letting me know my post showed up.  I find it a little strange that I wrote this post a few days ago then couldn't get it posted.  It's a follow up to the last post.  I usually write a post then leave it for a few hours before going back to proof read for errors.  When I came back to it, I couldn't sign in. 

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I've been corrected.  It wasn't a Y2K "virus" but was a problem with the calendars on computers that was the threat back then.  That's the problem with a senior memory.... we don't always remember the names of things correctly.  What I remember was the "idea" that we could all loose the internet as well as other things.  That was what my last post was really about.  The "what if" thought of loosing the internet that so many of us depend on today. 

When I was young, women in the city talked to each other over back yard fences as the laundry was hung out to dry or visited the neighbors over cups of coffee and tea.  Men talked to each other at the town square that surrounded the court house or as they helped each other with tasks.  People actually sat down with pen and paper to write letters to distant friends and relatives.  When the phone came along it meant people could talk with each other over long distances.

Women in the country shared recipes and planned events at quilting bees.  Men talked about the price of crops and planned barn risings while getting supplies at the seed store.  All of the communicating was done without the internet and the phone.  Families that did have phones most often used it only when it was necessary to reach someone really quickly.  Our family's first phone was one of those that required us to turn the crank in order to reach someone else with a phone.  We turned the crank to reach the operator and she would connect us to the person we wanted to talk with. 
When I heard about computers in the 1970s, I immediately became fascinated with them.  This was in the days when computer programming was done with "punch cards".   A few days ago, when I was telling my daughter about the punch cards, she didn't know what I was talking about.  Punch cards were about the thickness of a file card but wider.  We loaded them into a machine and typed our programming code on a machine which punched little square holes into the card.  The computer read the cards and performed the tasks we had designed.  We made stacks and stacks of these cards because each card was one bit of information.  Some cards were to run the programming and some were the data.  I learned computer programming which was called...... ?.... hmm, I can't seem to recall it's name right now. 

Well anyway, I spent hours and hours with a pencil, paper, and a template while writing programming.  The template had squares, triangles, arrows, hexagons, and other shapes used for writing the different programs.  Instead of drawing the shapes freehand we could take a shortcut by tracing the outline of the shapes.  The shapes represented tasks the computer would perform.   For example:  one line for one punch card might be represented by a diamond shape with an arrow coming from one point.  The question would read "If yes, then go to _____" which would be another punch card with another instruction.  The punch card behind that one would read "If no, then go to ____" which had another card of instructions.

I was pretty darned good at writing programming back then but I can barely remember the tools today.  Ok, I've gotten way off subject here.  Sorry, sometimes trips down memory lane take over my mind.  My point is that I've seen many changes to technology in my lifetime.

Today, the internet is our connection to each other.  It's not the only way but it sure is a very big part of many lives.  I can type-talk a question to someone in Australia or Ireland and get an answer in a matter of seconds.  The internet has become our "backyard fence" and the "town square" where we share with each other. 

Over the last couple of months I've seen many so called "glitches" on various sites I visit regularly.  I've seen many complaints on blogs and other types of journal sites about internet troubles.  I've had my own troubles sending and receiving emails which also seems to be reported as "glitches" and "issues".  I pay for two different photo holding sites.  Webshots and Picassa.  Yet, I'm listed as being only a "free" account and several of my photos are missing.  Now why would I continue to pay a fee if I'm not getting the services I pay for?  Why should I continue to pay for internet email if I can't send or receive email? 

As more and more technology and more and more internet services become available it means we become dependant on them.  We add them to our daily lives.  Many young people can't even imagine what it was like without phones and computers and tvs and video games.  These things are a part of their lives just as the early days of computers was of mine. 

So I ask you again to think of what it would be like if those things disappeared today.  How would we communicate?  How would our daily lives be changed?  What if some massive virus or glitch wiped out our internet?  True, this may not ever happen but something sure is going on.  There has to be a reason so many "glitches" and "issues" are showing up in so many places. 

Could it be "they" are not communicating with each other?  "They" meaning the writers of the programming that so many of us pay for.  Do the webshots owners talk with att about new stuff they are adding?  Does blogger talk with other computer related companies before making changes?  Do the owners of yahoo and the owners of google talk to each other before introducing beta stuff?  You get my meaning? 

OR....

Could there be other possibilities?  Here's a very scary thought  I heard about on the tv news the other day.  What if one really evil person, with a lot of computer knowledge, decided to wipe out all of the internet with a nasty virus?    Think about that for a minute.  It seems many of us are as dependant on the internet as we are on electricity.  Banks, security, hospitals, grocery stores, etc all depend on the internet to some degree.  So how do we do emergency preparedness for that situation?

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Ok, that's the post I had written a few days ago.  Then all of a sudden I couldn't use my internet.  I keep getting 404 errors and email messages from mailer daemon.  You see why I find it very strange? 

Test test test

Checking to see if I can blog again.  Would someone please let me know if this shows up?  I believe I will be able to see it but I'm not sure anyone else will.  I've kind of gone around to the backdoor in order to access my blog.  I'm hoping it works..... I miss you guys.

Do you remember?

Does anyone remember the Y2K threat about the internet going dark because of some kind of virus?  Does anyone remember that when it didn't happen then suddenly someone popped up and said it wasn't supposed to happen in the year 2000 but much later?  Like 2011?

Well, guess what?  For the last couple of weeks it has "felt like" it has finally started to happen.  I've read time after time people complaining about not being able to make comments..... even on their own blogs.  I've had the same problem here too.  Also, I can get some email, some of the time.  I can send emails, some of the time.  Other times I can't.

Some bloggers are thinking they may give up blogging because no one is commenting to them.  If you are not able to send me comments.... it's ok.  I can't always send comments either.  For the moment I can't answer comments even if some do get through to me.  I wrote a grouchy post about it a couple of days ago.  That was before I noticed so many having the same problem all around the world. 

No, I don't really believe that the Y2K virus.... that was later predicted to happen in 2011.... has finally come.  But, the problem sure must be one really big headache for the owners and workers of Blogger right about now.  Can you imagine them all huddled around a computer screen trying to track down the problem? 

Some of the issues may be related to weather problems too.  Many places have lost not only power but whole buildings in storms and floods and fires.  How many of those places are connection points for the strings of the world wide web?  If the web breaks, it takes awhile to get it built back. 

I can't help but wonder..... how many people relying on the internet would become lost if it suddenly did shut down completely?  How much communication would come to a halt?  Many of us have formed small internet communities as we read the blogs of others or they read ours.  Many of us belong to email lists and have many friends there.  There are other friendships formed on things like twitter and facebook and other ways.

If everyone woke up in the morning and there was no more internet what would we do?  Would you be able to contact your long time internet friends the old fashioned way with a pencil and paper?  I don't think I would be able to contact more than a couple of people.  Would you go through an internet withdrawal?  I probably would because I read several blogs.  Not all of them every day but I get to each of them every few days. 

Ok, my thoughts are starting to get a little too deep and scary for me.  Thinking "what if" doesn't do much good except for emergency preparedness.  For now, I'm just going to keep on writing and keep on reading.  There will be plenty of time for comments when the issues have all been cleared up.

Hmm.... just in case.... let me say how much I appreciate each and every one of my readers! 

ARRRRR!!!!

I wish the HECK google and yahoo would work out their differences and start to play nicely with each other!!  I would say harsher words but this is a family friendly blog.  The internet gets more crappy each day.  If I'm doing something on my blog first then I can't get to my email.  If I open my email first then decide to view some of my favorite sites I can't make comments.  ATT email is a yahoo run thing.  Blogger is a google run thing.  The two simply don't want to play nicely together for the convenience of users.  I'm beginning to think maybe I should give up the internet all together.  I'm not sure it's worth the headache anymore.

Still here

If you've been wondering where I've been the last few days I've been at the quilting machine full time. 

I've still got problems with my internet.  I may be right in the middle of typing a post when I'll get messages like this one. 

I might be trying to log onto the internet and I get messages like this one.

When I try to sign up as a friend, on the blogs I want to follow, my internet connection blips off.  I try to read some of the posts done by the bloggers I've got listed on my other blog.  I click on the link and my internet blips off.  I've found the only way for me to follow blogs these days is to bookmark them as favorites.  It can get very frustrating constantly going through the process of reconnecting to the internet over and over again each time I click on a link.

I've got more quilting work to be finished this week.  Three deadline quilts.  I hope to get back to my organizing and regular posting next week.

Organizing my blog

Excuse me while I type talk to myself a little bit this morning.  You're welcome to follow the conversation I have with my organizing self.  I'm making it as a post so I can refer back to it whenever my senior memory acts up.


I really like to have my stuff all organized.... easy to find, easy to use, easy to put away.  This includes my blog.  I want my blog to be easy to find what the reader is looking for (find), easy to read (use), and easy for me to post (put away).  Just like with my fabric stash or my studio.... if it isn't organized, it bothers the heck out of me.

I've been playing around with the look and the features of blogger.  I've put some of the features on the blog just to see how they work.  Some will be removed once I decide on which I like best.  It's kind of like testing different kitchen or fabric organizers to see which is best before narrowing it down to only one or two.

What I really want is for my blog to read sort of like a book.  You open the book and find the index.  The index has chapters.  Under the chapters can be sections.  Yes, that's what I want.  This will be good practice for when I actually do write a book.

What could be the index page on my blog?  Hmm....

I have "buttons" at the top.  I'm limited to 10 buttons.  Clicking on one of these will take the reader to a linking page where I can list an unlimited number of other linking pages pertaining to the catagory. 

I have a "helpful stuff" section on the side bar.  I can put an unlimited number of chapter links there.  Each one could be a link to a page on my blog where I can include more links to individual pages.  Or, I could put links to other sites that I believe could be useful for my readers.  I can have more than one of these "helpful stuff" sections.

I could just use the "labels" feature which is sort of like the same thing as those two.  A person can find what they are looking for using the labels.  The nice thing about the labels feature is that it tells how many pages there are with that label.  I would need to narrow those down to a limited number so the labels list doesn't grow enourmously large over time.

Thinking about chapter titles (labels or links) has my head spinning.  There are so many possibilites for every post.  One post can have different things which means it could link to several titles.  Yet, if I'm going to get this blog organized I must choose a limited number of labels. 

Whatever way I choose to list my chapters for the reader, it's going to take quite a bit of time to put all 180 links into their proper place.  Plus each new post page.  Kind of like organizing stash fabrics.  So many organizing possibilities for every fabric.  By color, value, theme, yardage, etc.  I guess some previous posts could be deleted.  When a quilter organizes their fabric stash, some fabric gets tossed out because it no longer holds interest for the quilter. 

I want this blog to be a little less personal stuff and a lot more instruction oriented.  Just like it would be if I were writing a book to sell.  My other blog is for all the personal stuff.  At the same time, the stuff I write about on this blog is actually stuff I do so that's personal too. 

After all, the whole purpose of me starting a second blog was to be able to show step by step instructions for my friends and keep it all in one place.  Beginning machine quilters should be able to find instructions on how I deal with issue quilts or machine problems by choosing the right links.  Readers interested in constructing cardboard furniture should be able to find the step by step instructions simply by clicking on a link. 

A reader told me how she made her blog look so pretty.  (thank you Linda)  I thought about adding pretty stuff to this blog and then decided against it for now.  As I always say when I'm creating, it doesn't need to look pretty, it just needs to work.  This includes the blog.  First I'll make it work easily for the reader then decide if it needs to be fancy looking.

I discovered that each post title is also the internet link.  Back when I first started blogging, I used some long titles.  Putting the links in their proper place will take a long time because of this.  It requires several steps to find the unique link information, then write it down, then go create the link under the chapter.  I tried copy and paste but that didn't work.  I must be doing something wrong.

Photos?  A whole new set of decisions.  I pay a yearly fee to webshots.  I pay a yearly fee to picassa too.  I pay webshots because that's where I started storing photos several years ago.  When I reached my limit of photos for blogger I deleted 3 or 4 years of posts on my blogs just so I could make more room.  If I keep my blogs going I need the photos.  I must decide what to do with the webshots photos then give that up.  I can't afford to keep paying for what I don't use anymore.

In order to get the best use out of a paid picassa account I need to learn how to use it.  Which means I should also learn to use the photoshop software I have on my computer.  The two probably work best if used together.  This also reminds me.... what will happen to the photos and my blog if I can no longer afford the fee?  Should I include an advertizement on the blog so that I earn enough to pay the photo storage fees?  I don't like advertizements on my blog but it might become necessary.

This is all I can think of for now.  My blog will change slowly because I do have a life away from my computer.  Time for me to get into the studio or maybe I should head to the kitchen first.  I have some apples that need to be put in the freezer and a roast to put in the oven.

Hmm.... what happened to the spell checker?  The updated posting screen doesn't do spell check!  Bummer.  Readers will have to put up with my bad spelling.  How embarrassing.

Lookie at what I did!!

I learned how to put buttons at the top of my blog.... Yippie!  None of them are complete yet because I have lots more work to do.  At least I know how they are done now.  (providing my senior memory behaves itself) It only took hours and hours and hours of

reading blogger help and testing when I should have been cleaning house, or posting, or quilting, or something else.  With the thing called "pages" which I call buttons I can put all labels in one catagory (button or page) for the reader to look at only what interests them.  In other words.... more reader friendly. 

Go ahead... give one of the buttons a try.  Like I said, it's not complete yet but the button will work.  Please let me know what you think about the changes.   Will these buttons be helpful?  Or more confusing to the reader?

Just testing

Today I'm spending a short time testing what blogger calls its new post editor.  I tried this feature once before and didn't like it.  I'm giving it another try because I want my blogs to be more reader friendly.

Changing the blog

I'm experimenting with changes to my blog. I'm adding buttons at the top with specific labels. Hopefully, it will be easier to navigate and easier to find just what you're looking for when visiting. I had hoped to have more time this moring to play around with the changes but I may not get it all finished until I've studied everything a bit more. Also, Ladybug and I will be together most of the day. Geeze, I can hardly wait until she turns 3 and can explain all about computers to her Na Na. I can almost hear her now..... so easy even a senior can do it Na Na.

This is soooo wrong!

I'm having troubles with my computer. I keep getting messages that my att internet access and my blogs and my email are blocked until I pay for Microsoft security software. So far I've

been able to get around this by closing things or by unplugging the computer. I will be contacting ATT to see if they can help me figure it out. It seems that Microsoft doesn't want me to access my ATT webmail or Widows Exporer accounts or my Google blog accounts anymore until I pay for the Microsoft security software. I DO NOT want this software and certainly don't intend to PAY for it. I think it totally wrong for Microsoft to highjack a computer until the owner pays for their security software!

I have one more post scheduled for in the morning but if I don't post for a couple of days after that it's because of the computer problem. I'll fill you in later on anything I get quilted.

Why do they leave?

Yes, I've have been playing around on the computer almost all day. Taking a machine quilting break gives me enough time to reorganize my thoughts so I can write better blog posts. I noticed I lost one of my followers. I can't help but wonder..... why?

Did they get bored with my blog? Are they giving up the internet? Are they looking for something different? It's sad when someone leaves. It's like having a friend move out of state and never see them again. Hmm.... I guess I need to learn to not take things so personally when a friend decides to unsubscribe to my blog.









Well anyway, I came across some of my frugal quilting thoughts when I was putting my tickler file together. Here's what I used.

Next I got out all the bits and pieces of paper and sorted them into categories.

Whew! A couple of hours later and my memory tickler is all organized.

Ok, now if only, if only, I can keep up with the organized habit of my tickler file. It's very tempting to just start jotting down notes and sticking them someplace. I decided to get rid of the little note pads and place file cards all over the house. If it's written on a card it will be easier to file it.