I could use a hand here!

       

I could use some help.  I am trying to launch the "Pay It Forward" "Nice Matters" idea and I am begining with trying to find a new logo for it.  Can everyone in J-Land please help.  If you have ever given or received the Nice Matters Award, can you please forward this link

 http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/#Entry3328 

and this one  

http://journals.aol.com/attitudeslc/inspiration/#Entry516 

to everyone you know who has gotten the award so that they can join in helping in this project?

Thank You!

~Rosemary

Tags: Help, Inspire, Believe, 5659

The Vine

                 The Vine

                                    By Robert Herrick

I dreamed this mortal part of mine
Was metamorphosed to a vine,
Which, crawling one and every way,
Enthralled my dainty Lucia.
Methought, her long small legs and thighs
I with my tendrils did surprise:
Her belley, buttocks, and her waist
By my soft nervelets were embraced
About her head I writhing hung
And with rich clusters (hid Amoung
The leaves) her temples i behung,
So that my Lucia seemed to me
Young Bacchus ravished by his tree.
My curls about her neck did crawl,
And arms and hands they did enthrall,
So that she could not freely stir
( All parts there made one prisoner).
But when I crept with leaves to hide
Those parts which maids keep unespied,
Such fleeting pleasures there I took
That with the fancy i awoke,
And found (ah me!) this flesh of mine
More like a stock than like a vine.

Tags: Wicked, Blieve, Romance, Hope, Inspire, Believe, 5659

Nice REALLY REALLY Matters!

A while ago Krissy @ Sometimes I Think and my dear friend Veronica, sent me an e-mail that reminded me of the "Nice Matters" award that was going around J-land for a while.  I have an idea developed and am working on it.  For now, read the e-mail below to give you a basic idea of the concept I hope to bring to our friends and family.  For more of the concept you can follow up today at Magic Smoke.

Tags: Nice matter, Believe, Inspire, Hope, Love

aoljpictureUpload, aoljpictureUpload_19

ACTUALLY BACKING UP

This will be the last entry on backing up.  I have some fun stuff planned for tomorrow and on Friday so stay tuned.

Below you will find how to actually back up your documents, pictures and music, once you have them organized.  Choose your method of back up and follow the instructions below.

For CD back up

~Put blank CD in to CD drive.

~A prompt should come up asking you what you would like to do.

~Click on they type of copy you would like to Data (pictures or documents) Music you would back up under your music CD burner.

~Depending on the program there is usually a prompt.  It will ask you what you want to add.  Simply click on the files you want to back up and click on add.

~When you have everything transferred, click Next or Burn.

~Viola!  You have a hard copy.

 

For Flash Drives.

~ Put travel drive into the USB slot that should be on the side of your laptop or on the front of your tower.

~ Depending on the travel drive you may have prompts to help you along.  Follow the prompts to set it up or go to the next step.

~ Open up my documents.

~ Go to my computer and click open travel drive.

~ Drag and drop whatever files you wish onto the travel drive. You may also transfer music files in the same manner.

 

For External Hard Drives

~ The instructions are the same as above unless youwish to have thedevice automatically back itself up on a regular

Back To Backing Up

I left you high and dry last week in the middle of backup procedures, but hopefully that gave you time to clean up and organize the items you want to back up.  There are four ways to back up your files.

The first, and best is by using a CD.

The reason I say this is the best way to back up your information is because it is the closest thing to a "hard" copy that you can get without actually printing out your information.   It is not the most efficient or space saving, but it has no chance of becoming corrupted once it is permanently burned onto a CD that can not be re-used.       

Next, there is the Flash Drive. 

 

This is my choice of back up.  It can hold a lot of information on a very small space. It also allows you to work on multiple computers as it is easily portable.  I do not save anything on my computer hard drive.  Everything of importance is always saved on my Flash Drive.  However, because it can get lost easily and possibly get corrupted (you can lose information stored on this just like a hard drive) I back up my travel drive once a week on to another hard drive.  Additionally, I have separate Flash Drives for my music and photos.  These vary in price range from $15 to $65 dollars depending on the gig.  I have four 2gig Flash Drives that I used to back up photo's and music and another two 2gig Flash Drives to back up my document files. One I carry with me the other stays home in a safe place.

Then there is the External Hard Drive

This is perfect if you only use one computer and you store everything you have on it.  This attaches easily to your computer and you can back up manually or have it set to back up itself on regular intervals.  I use this on my office computer.  If the computer crashes I have a regular back up and can reinstall all the information onto the computer when it is repaired or on the new computer should I need one.

Last there are online systems that will back up your hard drive.  I have never used any online service so I can't help you out with how to use it or its safety and security, but I would be remiss if I didn't let you know of it's existence.  Here is the link if you would like to explore AOL's version http://premiumservices.aol.com/fbcenter/index.jsp?p=main

Tomorrow I will go over how to get the information from your comptuer to your backup of choice.  It's SIMPLE!

Balance

 

                 

You may have noticed I have been "gone" for a couple of days.  Last Wednesday I had an emergency call from the police department that they needed help.  Not being one to ignore my civic duty I of course obliged.  This left me unable to post on Wednesday.  On Thursday I had an entry almost complete for Inspiration as well as an entry for Magic Smoke.  Just as I was about to click on "save" my computer froze.  This meant I would have to re-write both. I restarted the computer and went to sign on to AOL and I had completely lost Internet service.  So, I was unable to post on Thursday.  After that things got really crazy so the weekend was a total wash.  I took a bit of a break to balance out and re-group and here I am again!

Speaking of balance... Now I am sure you are wondering what could the police department possibly need me for?  This is special!  They needed me to get drunk.  Yup!  You read it right.  They needed four volunteers to come in and start drinking at nine in the morning so that by one in the afternoon the recruits could test their knowledge on field sobriety tests.  So, at 8am my bottle of champagne and I were picked up by a police officer and driven to the police academy.  I got to ride in the front seat and without handcuffs.  I got to ride home in the same manner! When I arrived an officer did a nystamus test and breathalyzer test.  This breathalyzer test was then repeated every hour.  After my second drink and before I blew into the machine I told the officer administering the test that at this point I would not drive.  Thatwas a good call on my part because I blew a .08 which is the legal limit in NY for arrest for DWI.   Apparently however, I am a very good drunk.  The poor recruits had a tough time with me.  Before I entered the room to be tested I blew a .15 which is well over the legal limit and had I been driving I would have been arrested. 

Here is how it works.  If  an officer pulls you over and believes that you may be intoxicated there are three tests that you will be asked to perform.  These three tests are (1) the walk and turn [WAT] test, (2) the one leg stand [OLS] test, and (3) the horizontal gaze nystagmus [HGN] test.  The officer will explain in detail and show you how to perform each test.  This is actaully the a test as well, to see if you can follow and remember the directions.  If you can't, then it is the first sign you may be intoxicated.  If you have been drinking the nystagmus test is almost fool proof and it is also the first test that will be preformed.  The officer asks you to follow a pen with your eyes.  If you have been drinking your eyes will begin to twitch.   Now I have a natural nystagmus which means that my eyes will twitch whether I have been drinking or not. This was a very happy thing for me to learn about myself.  My husband, who is a Highway Patrol Officer and highly trained in DWI has done this test on me a number of times.  On a number of occasions after only one glass of wine he would perform this test on me and say I was drunk.  I would then swear up and down I wasn't.  Turns out, I wasn't!  I have a natural twitch.    The next test is the walk and turn.  This is where you have to walk the line turn and walk back. You must walk nine steps one foot in front of the other with your hands at your side, turn taking a series of small steps and walk back in the same manner. The last test is the one leg stand.  You have to raise one leg, hold your foot level to the ground, look at your toe and count 1/1000 2/1000 and so on.  Apparently I am very good at the latter two tests no matter how much I have been drinking, because if those were the only two tests that were to be preformed then they would have let me go.  The nystagmus test was the only "solid" proof of my intoxication.  

 

 

Tags: DWI, Champagne, Police Officers

Back Up Continued

Yesterday we started talking about backing up your hard drive.  Many of you are computer savy, but for those of you know to computers or those of you who know people who are, these entries are for you.

 

When you are done tidying up your "My Documents" folder move over to the "My pictures" folder.  As you go through the pictures make certain that you delete any duplicates.  Pictures take up a lot more memory then document files.  While this may not be so important when you are storing files on your hard drive, it will be important when you are backing up the files you want to save.  As you go through the pictures delete the duplicates or the unwanted pictures and  rename the ones you want to keep so that you will remember what they are by their file name.   Once the pictures are renamed it is important to organize them in to folders.  Whether you organize them by date, occasion, location, or subject is not important, it is however important that you are fairly consistent and name the folders accordingly. 

 

Music files are also very important to clean up.  Music files take up a lot of space as well so make certain that you delete any duplicates.  You may want to cleaning up your music files until AFTER you create a back up.  It isn't as easy to tell duplicates with music files and many of your files may be unnamed or improperly named.  Working with music files can be very time consuming, if you have a lot of files and very little time, create the back up first, then clean it up later.

 

Tomorrow I will cover how to do actual back up and what types of formats are availble.