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  • Change in the Weather

    Posted on by suguay

    The first noticable change in the weather has occured here and it seem to be something to savour even for me. Don’t get me wrong, I like it hot. Though I prefer New Mexico hot, or California hot, or even Oklahoma hot, all over Florida hot. Though it beats snow.

    So, the first morning we get with just a little crisp in the air, after a long, hot, sticky summer, is truly a treat.
    It’s a time to throw open the windows and air out the house and take just that extra moment over the morning coffee or tea and enjoy. Trust me, it won’t be like this in a day or two. We’ll be right back to the hot and sticky, after all this is Florida and it is only early October. There’s still plenty more heat to be had. In fact, I’m thinking of going to the beach this weekend.

    And still for this one morning the slight (or big for here) change in the weather is something to be appreciated. It even seemed so on the drive in to work. The other cars and their drivers didn’t seem to be quite as rushed as usual. Like they were enjoying the ride in because it wasn’t yet so hot and they weren’t rushing in to the over air conditioned office building just to keep from dripping.

    I’ve had several people say how nice it was this morning. How much they enjoyed the ride in to work. Some where so excited to be able to roll the windows down on the way in. It was just a feel good thing.

    Yes, it was about time for a change in the weather.

    Cheers.

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


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  • This bugs me…

    Posted on by suguay

    Have you ever been to a website of a person or company that says they develop websites and yet there is something off with their site?

    I’m thinking of those sites that you have to scroll down past a big gaping space because they couldn’t take the time to get their spacing right. They want you to buy their services and yet they can’t make their own site look right. I’ve seen it in a couple of places recently. It really bugs me.

    Wait, I know,
    they might be optimized for one type of browser or another. I understand that proper html, css, javascript code and all that doesn’t usually work the same in all the browsers. I have had to write some really good tweaks to make a site look the way I want. And when I do, I think look at the site in at least two major browsers and sometimes four. The machine I’m writing this on has three browsers on it. I have another that has five. It’s not that hard to open your site in all those browsers and make sure the code works.

    Oh, and then, while you’re at it, resized your browser window. Not everyone runs their browser in full screen mode. I know I don’t. It is a very rare case when I do and it’s usually because someone with poorer sight than mine is looking at something with me. Pages that are written for a certain size or a certain resolution don’t look right when they are on a machine that uses different settings. Just because you have a mondo size screen and can run your resolution at 1680 x 1440 or whatever the setting is, doesn’t mean that the rest of us can or even do if we can.

    These things just really disturb me. I don’t think it takes that much more effort to make it look right. And if you are a person selling your skills as a web site developer and your page looks like that…well, I would be thinking really hard about whether I want you to develop my website. And run spell check. I forget to sometimes when I’m writing these articles. If you are getting paid to put something up on the web for someone, run spell check. If your software you use to write pages doesn’t have it then cut and paste it into a word or open office text document and run it there.

    If you are getting paid to write someone’s web page, you are a professional. You should be turning out professional level work and demonstrating professional level standards. That means the site shows up properly in a variety of web browsers, it displays properly in a variety of sizes and resolutions, and you don’t misspell obvious things. (Note: I did look up misspell with the spell checker.)

    As you can tell, this really bugs me. I try not to be guilty of it. I occaisionally miss a word when I’m writing or setting up a menu item. I go back and fix it as soon as I see it, or someone points it out. I try to make my sites show properly in most browsers and resolutions. These are the small details that really make a site look like it was purposely developed instead of thrown out on the web as an after thought.

    I’ll get down off my soapbox now. Anyone else want to step up onto it?

    Cheers.

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


    The Blog!

  • Fritzzing Away Time…

    Posted on by suguay

    I thought about calling this the evils of Facebook. Oh, don’t get all…whatever, on me. I’m referring to the way you can find yourself lost in the land of Facebook and not even realize how much time has gone by. Of course there are other things that have this effect as well.

    I recently signed on to Facebook. Mostly because I was being told that it has some features and functions that would work really well for this site I support for this organization. So I figured I’d better sign up and check it out so I could see what they were talking about.

    It’s quite amazing. As soon as I filled in a bit of information I was being suggested to add all these people as friends. Amazingly enough, a few of them are people I know and even some I went to school with. It’s turned out pretty cool too because a couple of them accepted my friend request. I’ve reacquainted with someone I’ve known since grade school. Nice treat.

    I find myself spending a little too much time going through the suggestions of people to add to my friends. I even had to get out a year book or two to see if I know that person or not. What I’ve discovered is that the sight will suggest people from the school you went to from around the same time you were probably there. It’s pretty cool programming and social engineering. 

    Then there are the little casual games. The can get addictive. Especially those puzzle games. Like the gem or jewel ones. Holy cow. I’ve spent way too much time trying to get the highest score. I didn’t know I was that competitive. 

    It’s a great time sink if I’m bored. I can be on there playing a silly little game or surfing through suggested friends. Or looking at the profiles of the people already on my friends list. Hmm. 

    There are other ways to fritz away time. I’ll bet you have some good ones. Things that you do because you just want to do it for a little while and that little while suddenly turns into a big while. Got a favorite time sink or thing you do that fritzzes away your time? Share. 

    Cheers

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


    The Blog!

  • Planning for My Next Adventure

    Posted on by suguay

    After my adventures with vacation in New Mexico and Oklahoma I got to thinking about what my next adventure should be. I’ve been thinking about the places I’ve been that I would like to go back to and then all the places I would like to see that I’ve never seen before.

    There are quite a few choices out there. I live in Florida so a fairly close and short adventure would be to take another trip to the Florida Keys. I’ve been a few times, always with someone. We’ve always stayed in the Middle Keys area and driven on down to Key West to see things. So I’m thinking about taking a long weekend, not this one, and drive all the way down to Key West and stay in a Bed and Breakfast there. That would be cool. I should write that down.

    A little farther away,

    involving more money and time and a plane ticket is San Diego. I used to live in the area. In fact I graduated High School there oh so many years ago. I’ve been back once since then, just for a weekend when I was living in Phoenix. Something I was doing earlier today got me thinking how I miss the Pacific Ocean. Yes, I live near the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Coast. It’s really not the same. Here we have a reef some miles off the coast that keep the Ocean’s fury at bay except when there’s a tropical system passing by. The waves are often small and not very predictable. And along the shore it’s flat with a horizon of mostly hotels and businesses. I remember larger waves and cliffs in some places in Southern California. Oh and COLD water. Here, at this time of year, it’s almost bath water. What is up with that? Hmm. So maybe I’ll make a visit to San Diego again soon. I have no idea where to stay. I guess I’ll have to start doing some research. We’re coming up on the winter holidays season soon so it may have to wait until after the New Year. That should give me some time to get things figured out. I can’t wait to see Old Town and Balboa Park again. They are still there aren’t they?

    I even have a couple of places out of the country that are on my list. Ok. I have a few. Some of which I think others will think are odd. Oh well. So my partial list includes, Sweden, Germany, England, Ireland, Andalusia, Spain, Turkey, Greece, the Carpathian Mountains, France, Denmark, and Italy. I haven’t really give thought to which Asian countries I’d like to visit, nor the South American places or African. Maybe because there are already so many places on my list that I’m not sure I’ll get to them all. I’m sure I’ll be adding to my list and it will include places I hadn’t thought of before. 

    I’m thinking of making Sweden a top priority. For a long time I’ve felt this draw to visit Sweden. I had a Swedish penpal when I was in school and even took Swedish language lessons from a private tutor for a while. I know many people there, or I think many people there also speak English. However, I think it would be good to refresh and improve my Swedish language skills, or at least my vocabulary. I’ll probably only be able to go for a week maybe two at a time so I think I’m going to want to find an area I want to concentrate on. I guess I could find a tour group sort of thing. I have a feeling after I go the first time that I will want to go back to see more. So I could either make the first trip an over-view sort of trip or I could just start in say the southern area or Stockholm and then the next trip see another area. Any suggestions?

    There’s always so much to see and do. I think it’s time I want to start doing that. 

    Cheers

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


    The Blog!

  • Dog Loose [Again], Officer Dispatched.

    Posted on by suguay

    And when we left the story of my vacation we were driving back to Albuquerque from White Sands…

    The next day was the trip to Santa Fe. It was punctuated with calls from the craftsman trying to get my mother to find a different way to get him money or a money order, (he had not bank account). We took a side trip in Santa Fe to stop at a Post Office only to find that that wasn’t going to be an option. And then we were off to find the part of Santa Fe that my Dad remembered and wanted to see. First we found a Farmer’s and Arts market that were just closing down. Getting parked to explore it was a challenge, the twists and turns for the underground parking were tight and blind. We were trying to find my Dad a hat and some sunscreen. The sun was really getting to him. We ended up in an REI store to find hats and his sunscreen. It was still tourist as we don’t have them in Florida, at least not Orlando. With hats and sunscreen in hand we headed back to the car. This wasn’t where we wanted to be.

    We found a couple that were able to tell us where the downtown area was from where we were and how to find parking, once again, underground. The nice thing about that is it’s a little cooler. So we find it get parked and go hiking to the main square. There we found the peddlers selling their wares, and something going on in the park. It was lunch time so food was on the agenda and we found it at the Cafe. I don’t remember it’s full name. The portabella burger was way better than I expected and as it’s New Mexico, dessert was Sopapillas. You must try these. Open a hole in it, pour in the honey and chow down. Oh yum. 

    It didn’t take long for us to see all we had the energy to see in Santa Fe and then there was the hike back to the car. There was the adventure with the automated parking machine. It’s one where you put your card in, it calculates and gives you a receipt if you want and you pay it not the attendant. Don’t ditch that card yet, you have to give that to the attendant to get out. And back to Albuquerque we go. But not yet.

    We didn’t go directly back to the hotel. We stopped at the San Felipe Pueblo Casino. Ok, I think it was called the Hollywood Casino or something close. I managed to walk away with $10 earned from a Penny slot machine. I like penny slots you can play for a really long time for little money. Noted here was that there were tribal members working in a variety of positions in the casino. It was doing what we thought the casinos on tribal lands should. It was employing people from the tribe. There are problems with this as well and some of the people were open to discussing some of the good and bad that has come with the casinos. And then back to the hotel and finding food. 

    The next day was our last full day to do anything in New Mexico. We finally settled on a trek back up towards/to Santa Fe and a place in the southern part called El Rancho De Los Golondrinas. It is a 200 acre living history museum. Look them up at: www.golondrinas.org. We got there on the last day of Mexico Days and so there was a Mercado setup with vendors from Mexico. We had a great time wondering around and seeing the buildings that were used for so many centuries. Some a part of the original ranch that was operational into the 1900’s and some that had been brought in. There was a compound that included living areas and cooking and worship and lead to the stables.

    If you wondered further from then entrance and down the hill you found the working mill. They can’t use the grain but it does work. And they demonstrated it. If you took the time to ask questions of the volunteers stationed in the various rooms and facilities you found out not only about the ranch, you also found out about them and that several of them have been volunteering there for years. If you go even farther back you can see the fields where they grow food crops as they would have when the place was functional. Also I found the tanning shed, a second mill, a carriage house, and a second coral or pen. I didn’t go up to the chapel It was a much farther hike and we were getting close to closing the place down as it was. I did get a view of it from a distance.

     

    It was our last day in New Mexico and it had been the best of the outings. We enjoyed everything we saw and were happy to get to see what we did, revisit some places and see new. In all it was a really nice stay. It gave me the chance to figure out why my memories of summer or my youth do not include very many days of sweltering heat that you just didn’t want to do anything. New Mexico, while in the mid to upper 90’s didn’t feel as hot as Florida at 90. Oh, yes, it is a dry heat and that helps. The other thing that helps is the near constant breeze. It make such the difference.

    Our visit to New Mexico and especially to the ranch reminded me of the trips we took when I was a kid. We stopped at Forts and National Parks. We looked at cool historical places and natural wonders. I’ll have to do more of that it was fun.

    And finally, on a plane to Oklahoma City. 

    Yes, Oklahoma City. Ok, wait, they do have the Cowboy Hall of Fame. Oh and there’s the Cherokee Nation. More than that though, there is family. We went to see my Grandfather. It’s always fun to visit with him. He’s in his 80’s and goes dancing several times a week does his silver sneakers exercising, goes golfing with his buddies and I’m not sure what else. We got in around lunch time and he was waiting lunch for us so as soon as we got unloaded we went out for food. Aside from visiting we didn’t do much else with the day and that really was ok. This was the relaxing part of the trip. I rented a Chevy Aveo, it was smaller than what we had in New Mexico. Figured that should be ok as we weren’t planning on doing as much driving. We had to have something though, Grandpa drives a little pickup. 

    So after food I called my Father. Seems he didn’t know I was coming. He knew my Mother and Dad were. Yes, the family relations sound a little strange and I’m not going to explain them. Anyway, my Father teaches computers at a Tech school and he has suggested before that I should take a trip out and come speak to his class. And my Step Mother had not been doing well but should be better in a day or so. We were planning on going out to Cherokee Nation the next day. Mom was looking for something and we thought the Indian shop there would be good. So the meet up with my Father would take place the day after the trip out east. 

    The day comes for us to head out to Cherokee Nation. We’ve got Mom’s GPS and it and Grandpa help us get headed in the right direction. I keep being amazed at how disconcerting the freeway system in Oklahoma City can be. Then again, I didn’t spend many driving years there so I still see it through the eyes of a 16 year old new driver. And finally we’re on 40 headed east. And we’re driving, and we’re driving and we’re stopping for a drink, and we’re driving, and we’re driving and we’re stopping for a bathroom and we’re driving. Yes, it was supposed to be 3 hours. I think it was. I didn’t think it had been that far the last time I made that trip. Oh well. We went through several reservations, the Sacs and Fox, the Muscogee (who are either Creek or Seminole) and several others. I saw signs for Creek and Seminole that I didn’t expect. And then the Cherokee. Cherokee Nation is a sovereign nation inside the state of Oklahoma. The issue their own drivers license and license plates. The capital is Tallequah. I have yet to go there.

    After the visit to the Indian Store we stopped at the Casino. As in New Mexico, several of the tribes in Oklahoma have casinos. Unlike in New Mexico, in the casino we stopped in, it did not appear that there were many tribal members employed. I don’t know if my Mother asked them about it. We played penny slots again. Mom did well this time. The trip back to the city was longer as we had to stop for some dinner and then the bathroom a few times. And we made a stop at Wal-Mart for Grandpa to get a few things and for us to get him something.

    Several years ago my Mom and Dad stopped through and got my Grandpa setup on a computer and we set him up on the Internet. Later my Father stepped in and  made repairs and upgrades and now he helps out my Grandpa with the computer. Well we noticed that he still had a 17″ CRT monitor. The big monitors that take up so much space and not a lot of screen space. We decided that a good birthday gift and thank you would be to upgrade his monitor. He now has a 22″ flat panel monitor. Everything is so much bigger and he has more desk space. He’s loving it.

    More visiting and stuff the next day and lunch with everyone and my Father and Step Mother who is feeling better. Then Father goes back to teach the night shift and I head over to speak to his class. I had to sign in and get a visitor card. When you sign in you have to put a reason for visit. I hope the read them. I put Shanghaied for my reason. I spoke to his class about real world IT work and they had some questions and I hope I was able to give them some information that will help them be better techs. 

    The next day was the head home day. We spent extra hours in the Oklahoma City airport, by choice. And we spent 4 extra hours in the Houston airport, not by choice. 

    What this vacation did for me was remind me of how it used to be no big deal to drive for a long time to get to something you wanted to see. It’s made the idea of going to places on the weekend that may take an hour or better to get to, not so overwhelming. It’s made me at least thing about being more willing to make those types of trips at home on the weekends. I may start to see more of the places near where I live now. There is adventure to be had at home if you look and are willing to take a little longer to get there. 

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


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