Click images for desktop size: "Castro Gold Sea" by Marcus Of Full Reason Yesterday didn't go anywhere like I'd planned it. That's not a bad thing. Plans going awry let you improvise. Best parts of life come from spontaneous improvisation, I think.
What through me off was discovering that DSL modems now are MAC addressed by the provider. How foolish. It does nothing to benefit the consumer. It just makes it easier to void net neutrality and do advanced traffic shaping, which are all detrimental to the consumer who is already saddled with a grossly over priced service. Maybe it helps them prevent theft of service some how. I don't really know.
I mean I figured that a better DSL modem would just plug in and that I'd use it and my router until the new DSL service kicked in. Then I could just have a nice seamless transformation. It seems I'll know when the new service kicks in when this one stops working . . . maybe not. The new carrier promises no traffic shaping and guarantees net neutrality. Maybe the old modem will just send the signal on unimpeded. Who knows.
Anyway, since everything connected and was looking right I was flummoxed as to why the internet it said was there was inaccessible. I tested everything before I figured I should try and see if the modem was somehow being blocked. It was. I confirmed it.
I didn't take a nap watching a mediocre movie. (I like mediocre movies almost as much as I like good ones and half as much as I like great ones but only half again as much as I like bad ones. I only loathe movies like "Pirates Of The Caribbean 3" that opened with unnecessary cruelty to a child. Hitchcock, that erstwhile hack, knew 80 years ago you don't harm a child in a movie. It becomes the apogee of emotion in the film. In "Pirates" it was just for the shock and added nothing, except to make me uncomfortable and wonder where this was leading in a kiddy flic.)
The rest of the day was taken up in the house hold junk. Broke, flat before payday. Using credit cards that have been trying to pay down and eradicate to buy essentials, like gasoline and dog supplies.

Click images for desktop size: "Marilyn Monroe" Had to get the dogs their flea stuff. It had an immediate effect on them. A lot less scratching, except my puppy who has developed a way of running and scratching her tummy with her hind leg . . . she has sores there. I might have to wrap her to let them heal.
My little blind dog has allergies. His scratching may or may not be related to fleas. His blindness was most likely an allergic reaction. He wears clothes to keep him from scratching himself up. He's torn a hole in his side. He bit me when I accidentally touched it. Not hard enough to hurt, just to startle. I guess he was startled.
Like a fool I spent 4 bucks I don't have buying them some dried salmon treats. It never seems like wasting money when its for the dogs or friends.
Then discovered about 2 gallons of vegetarian chili had gone bad. That was planned for dinner and for about the next 3 dinners, so that was a blow. Had plain rice instead. I guess, at least, that's healthy.
I'm still not sleeping well. Got up twice during the night and still got up for good about an hour before the alarm clock went off. Can't blame the puppies for it this time, even though they enjoyed having me up and around.
The new update for Mac OS X was released yesterday. 10.5.3, which are a lot of numbers to type. I haven't noticed any real improvements so far. It was a large 500 meg update so I assume I'll notice them sooner or later. The main thing I have noticed is that the address Book app (that I use primarily to remember my own phone numbers) now has built in sync service for gmail, Yahoo and the overpriced dot mac service.
One thing that bugs me. Aperture is the Mac pro photo management tool I like it much more than iPhoto, except all the added cameras it supports are the over $1,000 ones! Which means my little low end Fuji RAW pix have to be handled through LightRoom. I still use Aperture for the jpg's I shoot with my little compact Olympus and I like it plenty for that. Except I am such a poor photographer, in every way, that I need the tools and exposure latitude in RAW files to get an image that's viewable (except for that happenstance good pic I sometimes take).
I dislike this money based elitism Apple is showing here. Part of the hassle is that the camera manufactures all use a different standard for the mosaic RAW format. But the issue is also that Apple keeps the reading of image files as part of the OS infrastructure. In some ways this is a superior method in terms of speed and color management, but it means guys like me who can only get our little cameras are treated like second class citizens.
I never thought I'd be grateful to Adobe to be able to see my pictures that way I dream of them being.
Click images for desktop size: "Untitled" by Eric Drudwin(We can forget about me trying to take better pictures. I try and learn but I seldom even think of taking a picture when I'm looking at something, then when I do remember its in such a rush panic that its amazing I get anything. I depend on software tricks to get something good looking or at least visible!)
As for today, I want to take a long walk with my dogs. I need it to take out the pain and kinks in my body and maybe to wear myself out enough to sleep.
And I plan to watch "The Machine Girl" and watch it at an obscene volume level. Its the new Japanese flic that's hot right now. About a girl who loses an arm when her family is murdered by yakuza ninjas (!). She has the arm replaced with a machine gun! School girl murderess!
Its supposed to be colossally funny and supremely gory. Just the way we like 'em.