Due to recent changes to the video players on several network websites that I go to in order to watch tv shows (I can't stand 5 minutes of real commercials and prefer 10 to 30 second commercial bits instead) has rendered it impossible for me to watch them on the laptop.

Why you ask? Well the new players just aren't Vista Friendly and apparently the websites don't care. NBC won't even load - not using IE with Service Pack 1 or Firefox. Firefox tells me that the url is going nowhere and that having javascript or cookies disabled might be the issue. I have them enabled.

FOX loads but I can't watch their shows. I can certainly watch the commercials BEFORE the player for the show loads. I even uninstalled and reinstalled the new player they started using. The player either sits there trying to load or it flashes black and white screens at me and then stalls out altogether. I tried using their feedback form in order to tell them the issue but it froze on me when I clicked submit. Obviously that means they aren't going to know about the issue unless I take the time to rewrite everything in an email.

ABC also loads, as does FOX, but again their player no longer works for Vista. Again, I can watch the stupid little commercial before the show but the player sits there with LOADING... across the window and doesn't play. It tries, though, oh does it try.

CBS still loves me and other Vista users. They have redone the video player portion of the site but it's definitely a huge step up from what they had previously. USA also still works and I don't bother with any other networks at this time. USA doesn't even put anything new up. They have old episodes of the shows they offer and it's not worth it to bother checking since they never change them, or they just add the 'New!' symbol to an episode and change it's position in the list. Real innovative, don't you think?

So either the networks don't care that Vista users can't use their website, or at least me anyway, even with the updates, or the team running the website decided we weren't important to the networks. Instead of watching the shows on their websites they'd rather have me go trolling around the internet looking for the shows I want to watch, completely commercial free and sometimes up the same day as it's been shown on tv or the day after. FOX puts House episodes up EIGHT days after the original air date, why the hell they do that when they put others up 1 to 2 days after is beyond me. That's okay though because I can simply go to Google and type in the show and episode and find it to watch online. I'm sure they enjoy losing whatever it is they gain when people watch online.

Any other Vista users who watch tv shows online having these issues? Found a way to solve them? I'd love to know so please leave me a comment!

So far I have removed two items, and I got the error again, so I will be removing a third. I'll just remove things from the sidebar to see if it solves the issue or not. I removed a tracking item from Xtreme Tracking and I didn't get the error for a couple of days. I also cleaned out the cache so that anything there wouldn't effect me loading the site and trying to figure out what is causing the problem.

Since I just ended up receiving the error again, I am going to remove another item. I don't plan on putting back anything I remove either, at least not any time soon. Hopefully I'll find it before I have everything that I like having there gone.

Wish me luck. Laters!

Well mom, wherever you are, I hope you are happily enjoying this day. You had a rough life raising your two kids and it's not like we did much to make it easy on you. Thanks for being there when we needed you and yelling at us when we needed it. Give Dad my love. I miss you both.

I had a beautiful mother's day today. I went out with Honey's mom, his sister couldn't come due to feeling ill, so we missed her during our outing, but we still had a good time. I bought a new plant, orange peonies, they are so pretty and catnip seeds. I got a beaded bracelet kit to make a bracelet for myself (which is turning out to be a lot more work than I thought it would, props to master beaders out there). All in all it was a great day. We walked through a rose garden (professionally grown roses, all different kinds and hybrids) and opted to have lunch at McDonald's instead of waiting in line with a ton of people for a regular restaurant.

I came home to a clean kitchen and living room, which is exactly what I wanted and ask for every year (birthday, mother's day and christmas) and for the first time, have gotten. I guess the Little Lady asked her friends at school what their mom's wanted and it just so happened they all said the same thing: a clean house!

So I got what I wanted and I hope all the moms out there that take the time to stop by and check in on me got what they wanted as well. Happy Mother's Day, on this oh so beautifully created Hallmark day, but in reality, every day is mother's day! We are mom's every day of the year and we work hard at raising our children to be respectable and knowledgeable about the world around them. It's more important to raise them properly than to have a huge house and expensive cars. It's the most important job in the world and the hardest because kids come up with new ways to cause trouble, forget to use the common sense we teach them to use and get bombarded with materialistic views of life each and every day that parents have to contend with.

So for those of you mom's out there who do take the time, thanks for raising your kids to be respectable and a prospective member of society. Have a beautiful day.

So once again I am receiving the 'Operation Error" when loading Disillusioned. I can't figure out what it is and watching the information in the status bar as things load doesn't seem to be helping. I removed everything having to do with PayPerPost because I thought that awhile back they were causing the issues. I'm thinking that I either missed some code and that could be the issue or there is something else causing it. Not that I am going to bother with PPP again anytime soon.

I will be going though everything on the sidebar again to see what may be harrassing me and my visitors again, hopefully I'll find it. If anyone has any clue, I'd appreciate a comment or email. Thanks!

Yep....

Here I've been gone for a little over a month yet I don't feel as if I have anything to say really. I haven't been doing anything new. Watching my shows, playing a game now and then, taking walks, reading voraciously (I'll be posting new reviews soon on Chelle's Reading Corner), looking for a job, trying to figure out a way to make more money with LinkWorth, attempting to create a personal intranet for all of my information and trying to figure out in which direction to go with a professional site.

I've taken some new photos and a few videos. I'll hopefully post those soon as well. I do have photos up on my personal picasa. If anyone wishes to see it, here is a link: http://picasaweb.google.com/mnlghtrose?pli=1 - This will open in a new window.

So one of my favorite shows will not be continuing. No surprise there, a lot of them won't be and I finished watching it today (The 4400 if anyone is interested). The ending was very open and very intriguing and extremely upsetting since they aren't continuing the series. I enjoyed it and was hoping it would stick around. I wish networks who aren't geared for sci-fi would stop creating shows and then killing them. Perhaps if sci-fi was left to the sci-fi channel (yes I know, USA and SciFi are owned by the same network) they wouldn't be cancelled so quickly. I like Eureka, but I loved the 4400. That show had SERIOUS possibilities. USA screwed up somewhere and it got cancelled and I don't know why. I think if they moved it over to SciFi it would be around for another 6 seasons. Stargate SG1 made it for 10 (I wish they were around longer) and Atlantis will be around for 10 and a new leg of Stargate will be coming out as well. I understand these networks want to get some ratings from the sci-fi fans, but since they keep screwing it up (I'm being extremely nice by not using the F word) they really need to quit and stick to what they know: fake reality tv and horrible drama and comedy shows.

I wonder if Fox would have kept the 4400 around? I love House and I'm interested sometimes in Bones when I don't have any other options. I don't care for Canterbury's Law all that much, though. And there aren't any other shows I care for that Fox shows. I'll watch the Simpsons, Family Guy and American Dad with Honey now and again but I can only take so much.

I like the ideas of shows that show possibilities. I enjoyed the 4400 because it showed what the human race may become someday, but they used our current timeline and that made it all the more intriguing. I enjoy House because I like his attitude. I know, he pisses a lot of people off. I probably would as well if I didn't control myself so well.

The CW (used to be WB) has Smallville and Supernatural. I enjoy Smallville. I don't care for Supernatural anymore though. Smallville has made it this long and now they are going to get new writers on season 8. I hope they don't screw it up.

Somehow this post turned into a rant about tv and I don't know how that happened. Perhaps I'm tired of the shows I enjoy getting cancelled and reality shows that aren't real (you know they aren't, don't try to deny it) keep getting new seasons or they keep coming up with a more stupid reality show ideas. I can't tell you anything about them and I won't listen to anyone talking about them, I walk away or tell them I don't care to watch.

The job hunt is going horribly, there just doesn't seem to be anything to fit what I want or me to fit what the position is or it gets filled and I don't get a chance or I don't get called. So I will make an attempt at trying to create a great personal intranet that people can easily turn into their own personal intranet system to keep track of things. It could be anything from recipes and chores for the kids to bills and account information to photos and schedules. I was thinking it would be great for stay at home or work at home parents. Anyone out there who wants to perhaps beta test something I come up with it would be much appreciated. It wouldn't be anything major. Some files would be placed on your computer for you to add information important to your needs. It would be easy to do using notepad or a web editor. All I would do is create the base files and I'd wish to have input back on what you like and don't like, what could be added or taken out, etc.

Ok well I am off for now. I should be back to posting regularly again but no promises. Laters.

So I posted my recreated resume that I did for school up on Careerbuilder and Monster and applied for a job in Santa Rosa through CB and through Manpower. It's a marketing/web design job and I'm not entirely sure that I'd be fit for the position but I'm applying anyway. I added the information for my portfolio site and decided that I am going to do all of the tutorials in the Photoshop Classroom in a Book for CS3 since we didn't touch it in class and do all the tutorials in the Flash 8 book I have since we only did a few in that class so that I can create a new portfolio. I also plan to do a bunch of tutorials that I found at Planet Photoshop. They have a ton of great video and text tutorials for Photoshop and some in Illustrator. I have watched all of the video tutorials but I haven't done any of them as of yet.

Then I'll create myself a new portfolio site (I have the final portfolio up at the site I got in order to display work) so that I can display everything I have done. I don't know what else to do regarding showing work. I plan to work on a personal intranet to assist me in keeping track of things (chores, accounts, passwords, birthdays, etc) in order to get myself organized.

So far I have gotten done two loads of laundry, which need to be put away, and the dishes, which I plan to have the Little Lady do the ones we used during the day (I did the dishes from yesterday and last night's cake baking). I also added more of the coconut bark stuff and fresh water to Jack's tank. She's in reptile utopia, I hope. The bark was still a bit moist, but we put it in there like that before so it shouldn't pose any issues. It does a great job of increasing the humidity in there for a few days. I have her pool completely filled almost to the rim and the fountain running to clean out the nasty stuff she drags in there.

Which reminds me, we need to get filters for the fountain or clean them. Either way, it needs to be done and I will probably end up doing it.

So I am going to go back to working on getting laundry put away and probably start doing those tutorials. Laters.

Before I go... (I know, I keep doing this.) For those of you who are interested in seeing the new website that is going to be displaying my work when it's officially done (since you've already seen the final portfolio I submitted for school) please leave a comment and let me know you want the url. Enter your email address and I will send it to you. For obvious reasons I don't want the new site related to this site. Ok, now I am off.

For years I have found a way to avoid April Fools, except with my daughter, because I simply can't stand the crap that people pull. There was one person who got the bunch of us who talked online really well. He took it way more than just losing his job because of a stupid mistake he made with a girl but to the point that he was so angry and upset with himself that he got into a car acccident as well and totaled his vehicle.

Obviously we all fell for it. Down to the very last line: April Fools!

I have even taken April 1st off from work as a vacation day in order to avoid all the crap that coworkers try to do to each other. Always I am hoping to come back to a desk that hasn't been messed with and have because when you are the receptionist bad things can't happen to your desk that would cause a customer to leave.

Yesterday I didn't even pull a joke on my daughter and normally I do. To be completely honest I forgot. I remember seeing the date being March 31st and then yesterday it did not occur to me that it was April 1st. Hell, I had to keep reminding myself that it was TUESDAY and not Wednesday all day long. I felt 'wrong' yesterday as well. I don't know why, though. I don't have a headache and I'm not sore but I feel as if there is something off with me. Hopefully I'll figure it out. A hot shower didn't get rid of the feeling and neither did an extra cup of coffee.

Well, I've got to jump on the spring cleaning. I'm late, I'm late! For a very important cleaning session. Laters.

Before I leave, make sure you sign up for Kate's new newsletter! I Think Therefore I Blog - The sign up box is in the righthand menu.

Does the cat really win if the mouse is still alive?

This is a question we wish to explore with Dusty, the mighty mouser kitty cat! This morning when I went to go take my shower, only to find Dusty the wonder kitty laying in the shower. Little did I know that he had a friend with him! Being as I didn't have my contacts in I couldn't figure out why Dusty was throwing fits as to me picking him up out of the shower to bring him into the living room. And then, I found out.

I thought he had decided to be mean and take a poop in the shower. It hadn't occurred to my caffiene-deprived self that he wouldn't have been laying in there if he had. So I grabbed some toilet paper and proceeded to pick it up to toss out. It didn't feel like poop and it had a tail!

I was looking at a mouse trying to figure out what it was. Then it twitched in my hand! I freaked and dropped it. Not realizing what it was and thinking it was going to run off I looked for it. Dusty had mangled it pretty good but hadn't killed it during his playtime.

So I bravely saved us from the mangled mouse and picked him up then threw him outside. The cats are currently in the greenhouse looking for mice, which we know is where that one came from.

Let's hope that Dusty has a better wake up call for me tomorrow, shall we? Laters.

If anyone wishes to see what I turned in for my final portfolio, feel free to do so by clicking here: My Final Flash Portfolio - This will open in a new window and it's best to be seen if you press F11 for a full screen 'effect'.

Any comments or suggestions, don't be quick to judge I got some good comments on this final project, are welcome.

So tomorrow I'll be . . . 25 again. Ok, fine, so I'll be 31. 31 and everyone tells me I look 16. Even with hair and makeup done well, I'm told I look 16. On occasion I get carded, but only when I go somewhere they don't know me or someone new is working.

I don't know. I haven't turned yet so I don't feel older yet, usually I don't though, just tired as usual. We are having a family party today. I think I'd like to hang out at home tomorrow. Perhaps go out for dinner if we have the money to do so.

The living room is clean thanks to Honey. He would have done the kitchen yesterday but the hot water tank went out and we didn't know until he went to do it. So the kitchen is a mess. I'll work on that Tuesday. Everyone can fend for themselves until then.

Perhaps next year I'll have a clean house for my birthday. Well, I am off for now. The party starts in about 15 minutes. Should be good, the others all had great parties. Laters.