Recently in Computers Category

I was told by some technically inclined friends on the local forums, that if I had a  vga cable with audio cord, that I would be able to connect the tv to the internet, and then I'd be able to watch stuff like youtube videos, on the tv,  and do other stuff on it too.
I know that we have widgets on the fios that allow us to use things like Twitter, although I haven't quite figured out how to use it yet.
I admit that it totally confuses me, but I would like to hook up the tv to the internet and be able to do stuff on it, Ive seen it hooked up at friend's houses, and it looks awesome.

One of the reasons that all of the half-siblings and Sebastian thinks it is so great to be at dad's house is because of how cool and fun he is, how much stuff he has, what he does.
He is a singer in a rock band, he has a lot of tattoos, he owns a tattoo shop, he plays on an airsoft (pellet guns) team and has all kinds of gun and gear that he lets the boys all play with, and he has, from what I have heard, has all of the latest game systems.

He has an Xbox 360, (we have that one) and Wii, and a playstation 3, and he has all of the coolest and latest and greatest games to go with them, so all of the boys can sit around and play video games all of the time and not be bothering each other because he has 3 different systems and a computer.

He gets to be the fun parent now that all of the hard work of raising them is over with.
All of the years of potty training, school stuff, field trips, bullies, lost teeth, nightmares, all of the hard parts about raising kids, it's all over with now that they are teenagers, he doesn't really have to do much, they are already used to going to school, they've lost all of their baby teeth, they pretty much don't have nightmares anymore, they are definitely potty trained, it's all done and taken care of so he gets to be the cool and fun parent, it's all fun and games there now.

Why lived with the parent who has rules, makes you do chores,, has some strict rules, when you can go live with the fun parent?

I love playing with my Sims in Sims 3, and now that I have added a better video card and upgraded from 2GB of memory to 4GB of memory, I can get the expansion packs at some point once I've paid off some bills and some other stuff that needs to be paid off by August 23, 201.

Anyway, I love playing with my Sims and one of the things I enjoy doing more than actually playing with the Sim people, is building and decorating houses.
I am really good at it if I do say so myself.
I LOVE building and decorating houses, I can get as wild and as crazy as I like making some houses perfect for my rockstar Sims, or I can make houses extremely elegant for other Sims.
I go all out too, I decorate every single room, I start in one room, and I don't move on to another room until that room is completely decorated, all the furniture in and in the perfect place and position, planst, paintings on the walls, windows, curtains that match the decorations and colors in the room perfectly.
I always start with the bathroom, and I decide what the color scheme is going to be, and I put in the toilet, and because in Sims 3 you can change the default colors and patterns to be any color and pattern that you like, I can even change the color of the toilet, and I usually do.
In one of my rockstar homes, the girl has an all purple colored and themed bathroom.
The toilet is a deep royal purple, the shower is dark lavender with very light pink trim, the sink is a medium purple with the same violet colored chrome faucets as the faucet and shower-head as the shower, the tiled floor is a mosaic with the colors of the toilet, sink, and shower.
I add the lighting next, and I change the lampshade and light fixtures to match the rest of the fixtures and items in the bathroom.

I do that same thing in every room, decide on the color and theme, and then work on the room, going over every inch of the room until it is absolutely perfect, and you know the room is perfect when you click on play and allow your Sim to see the house.
They will walk room to room, go to the items like plants and paintings, and either applaud or make an angry face, and in their mood mete, it will show a happy face along with a painting and a chair, and both items will have like a sparkle image on them, and when you hover over it, it says that your Sim loves their home and nice items, and this will keep them in a good mood when they are at home, and every time they walk into the house from being outside or at a downtown location, their mood mete instantly goes up.

Speaking of outdoors, I even decorate their whole property.
I start in the front yard and work my way around the whole property adding bushes, trees, swimming pools, lawn furniture, I get them an awesome car and park it in their driveway, and I also add lighting, and the game even has some lighting that just looks like brinkmann lights, so I place those to the outside of the house and some more lighting in the yard as well so they can have parties outdoors at night.
Have some friends over for a pool party, grill up some burgers, invite everyone to sit around the picnic table to eat, and then when it gets darker, sit around the fire pit and roast marshmallows.

The teens and I have so much to do before we go to Maine, so many things to take with us because of how long we'll be there, so many things to take care of here at the house too, that it feels like I should just hire a long distance moving company to help me pack and organize it all.
I have to go to a store and buy myself a pair of jeans, I don't own any, I wear shorts or cotton capri pants all year round here, or I have been borrowing Mark's jeans when it's cold and I need to go somewhere.
While at the store, I need to get a few t-shirts, and a package of tube socks for the 3 of us to share.
I have to get help putting on my socks and boots while in Maine, but it's better than having freezing feet the whole time.
I need to make my list of everything that I need to take, medicines, personal care items, I need to get all of my medical cards ready for the airport, that's always so much fun going through security, so I just make sure that I have everything in my hand to show them.
I need to make sure that the teens have enough warm `clothes and socks too.

I also need to get the netbook and stuff ready to go, that will be in my carry-on, not in a suitcase, not even going to risk it.
I need to finish programming all of my contacts into my new cell phone, and learn as much about using it as I can, take the manual with me anyway.
And then I need to have Mindy come over so that we can go over everything about the cats feeding and stuff because she's watching them and the house for us while we're gone.

There's so much more too that I can't even remember right now, but I will, and then as soon as I remember it, I need to add it to the list so I don't forget it again.

I have a PayPal debit card, a State of Florida child support debit card, and an Amscot card.
They are all used for various things, like Paypal is for work payments, the child support card is for obvious reasons, and the Amscot card is for my SSDI to be direct deposited.
I had to get both my SSDI and my child support checks direct deposited to cards, because someone once stole a child support check from my mailbox, and even though it was a piddly little $21.05, I couldn't risk someone stealing those every week as it's court ordered, (not that he pays every week as court ordered) and I certainly didn't want to risk my SSDI checks being stolen.

I can deposit any kind of check or money order, in any amount, deposited to my Amscot card, but I can't always get there, so I usually have to wait until I can get a ride there to deposit things like that.
If I get cash, it's the same thing, I can deposit it, but I can't always get there to do so.
I don't like carrying cash with me, I don't like using cash, it's really dirty and I already wash my hands (OCD) a lot so yeah, I don't like to carry or use cash unless I absolutely have to.
I also don't like banks.
I take great issue with the government being able to access all of our private financial information if they feel like it, if they decide that you or I are a threat, or have possible ties to terrorism.
I don't like that banks require so much of your personal and private information to open an account, and for you to update your information so that they comply with the regulations of the governments "protect the home front" policies.
None of the cards that I currently use, have ever asked me for the same kind of information that banks do, as a matter of fact, I think several of the cards only have my name, date of birth, and phone number(s).
Banks also charge crazy fees for every single transaction that you do no matter how small, and now some even charge you a fee (I've heard this fee can be as much as $10)  for physically going in to the bank and interacting with a human teller, whose job it is to help you deposit or withdraw your money. 
So when I had some cash this week that I didn't want to carry with me, have it sit in my wallet driving me crazy that I can't get up to Amscot to deposit it, so I decided to try a new pre-paid debit card that I can get re-load cards from right at 7 eleven.

I bought a Green Dot pre-paid Visa debit card at 7 eleven for $4.95*, and a money pack re-load card, also for $4.95*
I gave the cashier the amount of cash that I wanted to load onto my pre-paid Visa debit card, and he added that amount through the cash register's POS systems card reader.
I came home, logged onto the Green Dot website, entered in the Visa debit card number, the expiration date, created a password, and logged in to load the card.
Loading the debit card from the money pack was really easy, and now I have all of my cash, all of my income sources, on debit cards, 2 of them are pre-paid, and 2 are not.
I only have to touch cash when absolutely necessary, when I get it, and when I hand it to the cashier, so now I don't have to be grossed out by the thought of handling very dirty paper money for too long.

Once I've used the Green Dot card for awhile, I will give it a proper product review, but so far, it gets 4 out of 5 stars for it's ease of use, fast money transfers from the money pack to the debit card, (the time it takes you to type in the numbers from the debit card and money pack) and the fee refunds.
The only downside is that they are not available everywhere yet.
While they can be purchased at over 50,000 retailers nationwide like CVS, 7 eleven, Kmart and Walgreen's, it will/would be really nice if they were also available at grocery stores as I go to Publix far more often than I go to 7 eleven, and I hate that place because while convenient, they charge excessive prices on almost every single item that they sell. 

* The $4.95 that you pay to buy the card and the money pack re-load cards, are credited back to your account (refund!) in about 1 business week, and the only fees for using the Green Dot pre-paid card is a monthly service charge of $5.95, and fees if you use an ATM, and those fees are just .50cents per transaction.
I don't plan on using any of those, so just $5.95 per month to help me control my OCD is ok with me.

**EDIT
My first fee (bought on 3/2/2010) refund was posted to my account today, 3/6/2010.

 

Our little mini netbooks that is.
I was so sick, like OMG I think I'm dying call an ambulance sick, for like 2 and a half weeks, and all I could do was lay on the couch, run to the bathroom, lay on the couch.
I didn't eat, I didn't sleep, and I barely drank anything either, as anything that went into my body, came right back out.
But anyway, I totally forgot that we had the mini netbook, if I had remembered, I could have at least tried to get some work done, tried to respond to emails and stuff.
I just didn't even think of it.
I will blame it on being sick and not me being stupid.

Mark was not in the mood today to talk anymore about school and getting his online degree, but I went and kept looking around anyway. I
 found that he could get an online IT degree, and a bachelors or master in IT security, if he wants to.
I also found that WGU, Western Governors University, is extremely affordable and offers financial aid as well.
Basic tuition for most of their programs is just $2,890 per six-month term.
They charge a flat every 6 months so that you're paying for the time, not the credit hours.
WGU is also a non-profit, and generally more affordable than other online universities, and  it's a fully accredited online university too.

It's another option for Mark, I just keep looking because there will be one that he wants to go to, he will make up his mind eventually.
He's accepted the way his life is, now he just needs to make up his mind how he wants to proceed and what he wants to do with the rest of his life.