Monday, September 4, 2017

Photobucket Screws Over Its Users

Yeah, I'm sure this is old news by now but a month or so ago Photobucket decided that they would end their free third party image hosting and charge $400 a year for it.  Needless to say, a LOT of people and their websites were affected by this.  For me, it was just the loss of two web counters, fortunately.  For a whole lot more, the loss was their entire site(s).

So here I am looking for third party hosting sites for my two meager little counters, and you'll never guess where I finally landed.  First, I tried Imgur, and that just didn't feel right.  I looked into it and it seemed wrong.  Then I tried a dubious little site called VGY.ME.  Interesting, very simple, yet the url it gave me for my first image didn't work in the Boingdragon counter hosting site.  By the way, that's what I use for counters.  Boingdragon has been around for years, is very easy to use, and is free although they like a small donation.  So after trying the url from the other site and having it not show up in Boingdragon, I thought "Hmmm... let me try Blogger."  So I pasted the url of one of the pictures from one of my posts here, and what do you know, it works!  So now I have to try to actually create and replace my two counters.  One I use right here.  The other is on my art and framing website.  Now to upload my images and see if I can get this thing done and over with.



Saturday, June 10, 2017

The Flying Car/Driving Plane

There is certainly a percentage of our society who can
handle evolution on this scale, but not nearly enough.
It sure will be interesting, though.
          There must be something very comforting about going crazy. I imagine that there are far too few of us who haven't spent an exhausting amount of time keeping a straight face when the world just seems to want so very desperately for us to lose it.

           After all, life begins as a comedy of errors. When we crawl, we don't know why, we just do it. As if lying on one's back staring at the ceiling wasn't good enough. Then we walk, and through countless faceplants into the living room rug (or hardwood floor) we continue until we can make it through a day without the vertical suddenly becoming horizontal. These juxtapositions in life are inevitable, we've been taught that since the beginning. Which is what brings me to this offering from our friends at Terrafugia. In what's sure to change the way we look at technological innovation, they've completely scrapped the concept of making a "flying car". Instead, they're concentrating on developing a plane that can drive. 

           There's nothing wrong with this, after all, moving forward is what we do. I'm just concerned that we as a species will not embrace this and other concepts like it with the proper attitude, in the right frame of mind. This is where going crazy comes in. It's not about the people who design such contraptions, or the poor not-quite-earthbound geeks who will strap themselves in, grin like Cheshire cats and fling themselves skyward. It's about all those who will hear a loud noise in the back yard, rushing out to find half of one of these things tangled in their kids' swingset and the lower branches of that oak tree your Granddad planted, and the other half dangling from the power lines in the next neighborhood over.  Various limbs and visceral remnants assorted and strewn.  A small number of these novelties scattered about the planet is inconsequential, but we all know that isn't going to last much longer. It's at this point when going crazy is going to come in very handy, and those of us who are able to get a jump on it are going to be the ones who will handle it best. I think I'm going to go lay on my back and stare at the ceiling for a while.

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Mike Ehrmantraut from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul

Season three is getting really great, isn't it?  I love the story arc of Mike, Hector and Gus.  Can't wait for every week's episode!  When I watched Breaking Bad, I was able to binge watch it.  Having to watch once a week is killing me!  Wondering how Vince is going to handle the fact that Kim and Chuck aren't in BB.  Well, just have to wait I guess.  More soon, I have a lot to sort through.