Year: 2012

Discs N Taters and Gallery Test Two

Friday I managed to make a pot o beans. I mixed up a few different varieties heavy on the Cranberry beans. I soaked them over night so I was pretty much committed to making them. I started with adding a splat or two of mustard and then a tad of this and that. While I was looking at the counter I spied the bag of dried cranberries we had picked up at the fruit stand – ummm – cranberry beans and cranberries – made sense to me. So I grabbed a hand full or so and dropped them in.

Taste, and taste again. Hummm, these sure would be great baked! Added a bit of molasses and cooked them down. Popped the Dutch Oven into the electric oven and baked them. Ok, not to toot my own horn but they were delicious.  It has been awhile since I have gotten the old Dutch Oven out and made a pot so I was pleased.

This evening we used them in our taco’s. It was an interesting taste. Sweet baked beans and all the usually taco fixings.  I was rather skeptical at first putting sweet baked beans in a taco but they were not all that bad – not super great but tasty.

I sat down late this evening and made another video.  Sometimes I just come up with some silly hair brained idea that I think might be funny or entertaining. If nothing else it give me something to do.

 

So here is the video:

 

 

Ok another try and another test trying to find a good plug-in that will allow me to place to photo galleries in one post. Since the last update of WP the method I had been using stopped working. So tell me what you think of the method?

This should show only the ducks and geese

this one should show only the Gulls

Zero Nuisance Visit Value

A short chat yesterday with someone brought up a subject that got me chuckling to myself. While I do tend to be over cautious on the safe side of web identities in the past few years I have become more open than in prior years. I am very aware that with all the tracking that services like google and yahoo and social networks like facebook do the cyber powers certainly know just about anything and everything about this domain, my personal browsing habits, what sites I visited and how long I stayed there, what I watch on cable, who calls my cell and home phone (yeah i still have one of those land lines). It is concerning to myself (and I am not alone in this) how intrusive the government and private organizations have become – it really is 1984’s Brave New World.

What started me chuckling was in the short conversation we had (I know you know who you are LOL – so don’t take offense here) the person mentioned that someone visit ing their had been clicking on commenter s links on their blog) LOL since I had just done this a few days ago on their blog I started thinking well yeah DUH that is what people do. It is a great way to read other blogs, find something your read but don’t remember where . … I actually did this on several other blogs as I was working on the cleaning up of my reader – any way –

Then my squirrel cage brain started spinning. Seriously? With all the tracking going? Yeah I have one of those counter deals on the bottom of the blog that tracks how many visit the site, I have checked the traffic monitor thingy that WordPress has in the blog dashboard a few times just because I think it is funny that my top visit s come from a post written long ago about model ships. But that is it. In this case I am pretty sure I know why the person does this and it is not to spy but to monitor traffic in order to improve their hits to their blog to improve it’s readership and tailor their topics toward those who visit regularly .

Next thing I know I am logging into Google analytics to see what is new there. Oh my I can actually track just about anything and everything to do with who visited this blog, how they landed here, what they read, in what order . … and I had to ask myself why? It it necessary for a personal journal blog to give a crap about this visit stuff? I had forgotten that I even had this thing set up. I feel like I am now the privacy invader.

Domain Name: KMILYUN.COM

Was Created on…………..: 2003-01-12 01:12:04 GMT

It’s prior name shall remain undisclosed.
It is a subdomain of ???? LOL
It has a 73.33% New Visit hit rate (apparently the ship posts and pontoon boat posts) and a 26.67% Returning Visit rate (that would be my current readership folks from the looks of it.

Now why in the world do I need to pay attention to this? More importantly why do many blogs that are “personal” journals feel the need to know what posts I visit ed and where I clicked?

Is it not enough that the big services and the government are tracking us? If there were a way to not help them out with all the tracking stuff here it probably would just be a drop in the bucket as I don’t over estimate my nuisance value.

Well visit away!

Oh yeah if there is a particular topic you find interesting or a post you would like to read here I will do this old fashioned way – suggest a topic or just ask me in a comment while you visit!

Dis, Dat, and the other thing.

I guess this is another catch up post. Lots going on that  I thought about writing about but never got around to doing so.

First I am getting over a UTI.  Many of us know all about that subject – so enough said . …  Webster @ halt stop forget relax has a great post up today that covers the B and B problems much better than I ever could  that you should all head over and read.

I am still mulling the subject of blogging and social networks around in my mind.  I have solved my RSS reader issues with a temporary solution. I made a new folder and put the blogs I consider my fav’s into it. The rest are still in the reader but in a different folder that I can ignore when I am mentally not up to reading them.   I suppose we all have those blogs in our readers? The ones where we just can not delete them but no longer enjoy reading them? I imagine mine is hanging around in a few of them too.   I have finally hit the point where I no longer give a rats arse if my posts are grammatically correct or timely.  I am not sure if they ever were anyway. Muffie @Kaleidoscope Muff has a thoughtful post that ties into some of my thoughts.  And yes, it much better written than I can pull off anymore.

Before I wander off to another train of thought … oops I lost my thoughts there . … you might have noticed my use of links to other blogs so far in this post. Why? Well a long long time ago it was considered a big deal to link to someone else s blog. Back when links provided “juice” to a blogs ranking.  Now we have all the social networks and cross posting that many do that covers most of that business.  So,  consider this: it is a compliment when I do so and I really wanted to share someones post with those of you who read this blog still and might have missed their post.

I have another Big Red Truck story for you all.  We once again (that is the royal we BTW)  played the role of crash test dummy for Billy and headed for the VA in San Francisco.  The trip to SF was uneventful. It was the trip back that got interesting.  The Yolo causeway during rush hour is the areas whatever you do _DO NOT BREAK DOWN- spot.   As we were about half way across we heard a strange noise, the truck started moving funny, and then the smell of burning rubber. OH NO!  Must be a flat? Billy got over into the right hand emergency strip that was not wide enough for the truck to be completely out of the traffic lane and started to try and figure out how to get out and look and see what the problem was. Non of the tires was flat. This is not a good thing.

I told him you better limp off to the next ramp or the police will be here and they will tow you ASAP. He sort of rolled his eyes like give me a break. Well . … he finally got out and started to take a look and  a highway patrol car pulled up behind us.  I admit at this point I was torn. Bad because if he did not get moving off the roadway I knew a tow would be called and good because the patrol car had all those nice lights on making the situation much more safe. Before the officer finished running the plates Billy had tossed something into the back of the truck, waved the we are oK to the patrolman, and got back into the truck and started to drive off.  Turns out the big red truck’s leaf spring had come apart and one of the pieces twisted into the tire. AUGH!! Strange ride home after that as my mind was still stuck on this is scary part. We got home safe and he did whatever mechanics do to the truck . …

Next item. Annie dog slammed the dang front door on my hand – ouch – so glad for numb appendages right now because looking at it I can tell you I bet it really hurts more than it does!  Mr Catfish celebrated his 9th birthday yesterday. Because his diet is restricted now I compromised and mixed in some mashed potato’s into his super.  He was convinced he was king!  Spent most of yesterday after class reading and playing with him on the bed. Not that that is unusual but I did play more with him and read less. 🙂 He now has exceeded the vets estimates of retaining his health so it was especially a good day.  Other than the door thing.

Well covered most of what I intended to cover I think.

Wondering

I think of all sorts of topics for blog post while laying in bed right before I go to sleep. You will have to take my word that some of them are really awesome ideas – then again most of the time I forget most of it or change my mind about posting them.

Really,  nothing exciting or earth shattering goes on around here most of the time. Once in a while I get to go on a road trip.  As for the neighborhood excitement it comes and goes. I am getting much better at ignoring all the crazy and stupid stuff around here. I can even tune out all the loud voices most of the time.

I just finished reading for the second time almost all the J D Robb In Death series. Why not? It was something to do.

After reading a few blogs this morning I started wondering why (just my opinion here) so many people equate acceptance with surrender when it comes  to dealing with MS? Just wondering. …  yeah acceptance – not the legal sense of the term but the state of realizing that something is believable or true and being OK with it.  I sure can not change that I have MS but being ok with it is not the same as surrendering and giving up. Not sure I expressed this well . … what say you?

I have wondering if everyone thinks the same – evaluates the same etc. .  When thinking I can take a linear approach where my thoughts go from point a to point b. Or I can end up in circular thought pattern where when I go from a to b I end up back at a with no resolution like the old chicken and the egg deal.  Then there is open thinking for lack of a better way to express it. Where my  thoughts start at a and go to d, f , g – they ping all around.   Often ending with the conclusion of point b but not always.  I guess I start the process without an end point in mind? A closed system V an open one?  augh so hard to explain really – and truly am not nuts really hahahhhah well at least I don’t think I am.

 

I have been playing:

    ssassin's Creed 2 xbox cover 

Update: since typing this and hitting post  the ghetto bird has flown announcing that they had someone surrounded and they should give up and come out and

I now get to go to a show tonight as Mikeys mom can not go woo hoo woo! I will be in good seats watching The Million Dollar Quartet

so something is going on around here!