Apologies for not writing about this guy sooner. Back in late September, I got a new kitten. He is a silver mink spotted bengal boy from Bengal Companions / Rowan Bengals. He is just over 6 months old and already 8.5 lbs.
Like all my cats, he started out tiny and adorable and a fan of Valve Software.
And then he grew into a mighty young snow leopard and is currently learning to be cranky from Scieszka.
I haven’t updated in a while, but something pretty neat happened and I wanted to share it.
My photograph of the Art Museum at sunrise, just a couple of posts down, will be appearing on the cover of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary Society calendar for 2011. These will be available in June, I believe, at their 2010 convention in St Louis. The 2011 convention will be in Milwaukee and features a Great Commission on the Great Lakes theme, which is why a Milwaukee Lakefront photo was selected.
I am quite honored and excited to see the final product. When information is available on how to acquire a copy of the calender I will post it here.
Never made a knitting pattern before. Kinda proud of these. They’re about palm-sized and according to some, make excellent cat toys. If for some strange reason you find this and want to use it commercially or sell these, let me know and we’ll talk. Pattern below.
The USS Milwakuee Art Museum sets sail.
Good morning, Milwaukee
birds and clouds and stuff
a nice crooked sunrise. I'll fix that later, maybe.
Sometimes sunrises are worth getting up for.
Then there’s that whole… it’s 7am on a Saturday and I’ve already been up for 2 hours.
Been trying to learn HDR photography. I’ve probably shot 100some pictures and here are three that kind of worked. I only have the trial version of Photomatix so the largest I can “save” is what I can take a screenshot of. I’ll play a bit and see if I want to spend the money on the software.
mom's flowers
Milwaukee at night
dad's trucks
I don’t like to resist technological advancement, but the problems I have encountered with the switch to digital television have made me realize something: television is obsolete, at least, in my life. Paying for service like satellite and cable should be obsolete for everyone.
I’ve been just fine with free broadcast analog for a good part of my independent life. I honestly don’t watch enough television to justify the expense of cable or satellite subscriptions. When stations started putting out multiple digital channels, and I learned that more “free stuff” was available to me via the converter box, I picked one up. This was last summer or so, well before the switch was imminent. However I’ve struggled to actually use the free technology because of signal problems, and in searching for solutions I’ve realized some things.
I’ve struggled with reception of any kind since moving to my house. My first clue was on a final inspection before closing. My realtor hadn’t arrived to let me in yet, and I decided to make a phone call to my father. I could barely hear him and dropped the call about 3 minutes in! About 1 block in any direction of my house restores my signal (AT&T) to full bars, but at my house I have 2 or 3 at best.
AT&T never knew what to do with me. They claim my reception should be just fine and showed me the map of towers. Eventually all they could suggest was “get a better phone.” I had a freebie Samsung something-or-other at the time that did everything I could possibly need a cell phone to do (call people) and was only 6 months into a contract. No help on their end with discounts on an early upgrade or anything. I ended up getting an iPhone. It has nearly solved my ability to not drop calls, although I admit to being lured in by the idea of pocket internet.
With regard to television, I went without for about a month when I moved. Couldn’t get much reception with my scavenged rabbit ears no matter what I did. Somehow I ended up with one my mom’s old black and white TVs that she never threw out. Wooden side panels and dials and everything. Oddly enough, this thing had crystal clear reception. It always did back home, too, which I think is why we still have it. So I watched TV in black and white for maybe 4 more months.
Here’s where I tried to switch to digital the first time. Got a converter, medium priced UHF/VHF antenna, and attempted to rejoin society. No good. The digital signal was over the cliff. I’m only about 8 miles from the broadcast towers. Ok, so the TV was in the basement. However, the antenna made analog watchable so I could use my color TV again at least. Just a bit of snow in the picture, but the audio was fine.
In fall 2008 I finished remodeling the living room and the basement was becoming too cold to comfortably exist in for winter, so I moved my color TV upstairs in hopes that I might be able to get watchable anything. No dice. In fact, even analog reception was worse upstairs! The digital signal was still worthless, but a couple of clothes hangers and pieces of tinfoil later, I could get in a couple of analog stations. Strangely, unplugging the antenna gave me better reception on a few different stations. Good enough.
This brings us to today. The analog signal from the stations I actually watch went off-air at noon. I’ve given the converter box another try with no improved results. I had hoped maybe the signal would be boosted with the stations no longer having to power to broadcast in both digital and analog, but absolutely none of them are coming in.
The next step up of antenna would set me back upwards of $100, and I’m not convinced it would be a solution. I thought about maybe just getting a new TV so I’m not going through all the rigmarole and I’d have one less remote to keep track of (TV, box, stereo, DVD player, wiimote, so on.) But I’d probably be stuck with the same problem due to the apparent invisible force field around my house. And, well, why are TVs so expensive? I thought the point of technology was that things get cheaper and more people can afford them. Not that long ago, an average tube TV was about $200 (I paid $100 for mine). Now an average TV is $700 or so and you can’t even find acceptable TVs at the lower price. I do not understand why such a device with one limited purpose is so expensive!
(and why are we all watching broadcasted 4:3 in 16:9? am I the only person who goes crazy seeing everything squashed all the time?)
Anyway, you can build a pretty slick computer for that kind of money: a computer to access the internet and watch shows at any time you please. While cable and satellite offer some limited capabilities to automatically record things for later viewing, I have to wonder, why exactly are television and the internet not one in the same? What is the advantage for broadcasting companies to only show things via television broadcast and not online? I’d really like to see the same kind of programming available online. The technology is there, so why am I having to by another device of similar cost to take advantage of it?
Answer: because of how much money the television stations pay for the programming, and how they recoup the costs by making me sit through commercials. Meanwhile the consumer is left to subscribe to two services using two different $1000 devices for the same technology. I understand the usefulness of free television (not that mine works here in the middle of Milwaukee) since the internet isn’t quite universal yet, but why do cable and satellite still exist? Internet and paid programming should somehow be one in the same.
For now, I’m going without television. I have the device to output video games or watch things from my computer on a larger screen. I have to wait an extra day to see the new episode of Heroes or Dollhouse until it makes it online. I think that’ll be just fine.
These are old news but since I’m relaunching the site I might as well have some content. I got some copic markers in the colors of my cat. I’ve never used these before but they seem pretty cool.
I don't know what I'm doing nor what my cat looks like
best of the three
doesn't really look like her
It’s been a while since I managed to use beewee.net for something. Mostly, it served as some hosting space to throw things I needed to access online. I’ve decided to start using it again, but attempt to make it somewhat more interesting and creative. I kept websites written up entirely in notepad for ages, but unfortunately a lack of time kept me from keeping them updated, since I spent more time troubleshooting browser compatibility than actually creating content.
I’m using Wordpress and I have to say I am delighted by it thus far. Can’t wait to see what I can do with the layout here.
-Abby
