And now for something completely different...

A blog with two noses. - Okay, so this blog post won't have two noses. In fact, I doubt it will have any noses at all, but Monty Python has been silly walking through my head for a couple of days and there doesn't seem to be a better way to let it walk out for a while other than to write about it.

Of late, my life has been a little odd. Going through a divorce will do that to you. Trust me on this one. If you think that divorce is a cake-walk, think again. (Of course, if you've ever tried to walk on cake, you might not think that a cake-walk was all that easy, either.) What I've noticed is that certain individuals seem to take more interest in what I'm doing with my life than they do with their own. (Please note: I am NOT referring to me soon-to-be ex. She has been and continues to be very decent about the whole thing.) These other people, on the other hand, seem to believe it necessary to carry information about me back to my soon-to-be ex. Oh well. I guess I can understand it. My super-interesting life can be hard to resist. I feel the pressures of being a celebrity almost everyday. Any more pressure like this and I may have to hire an agent, set up a time to sign autographs and apply for superstardom. (Please note: For those of you not familiar with the concept of sarcasm, the preceding four sentences are meant to be read in a sarcastic fashion. If you are still having difficulty with this, try to imagine a Valley-girl attitude...like, I am SO sure.)

Get a clue, folks. Mind your own business OR, if you are really interested in my well-being and what I am doing, ask me. The only two from the "old gang"* who have made any concerted effort to be friendly and inviting since my choice of choices have been a recently married couple. Unfortunately, EVERY time they have asked if I wanted to go do something, I have had other, relatively speaking, unchangeable plans. *sigh* Oh well.

*"Old gang" should not be confused with old friends, DA :-)

In other news ... *checks copy sheet* ... never mind, there is no more news. Good night and happy Thanksgiving. We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast already in progress.

Quote

You may call God love, you may call God goodness. But the best name for God is compassion. -Meister Eckhart, theologian (c. 1260-1327)

Ah HA!

Old wives say: Don't crack your knuckles -- it causes arthritis.
"The 'cracking' is actually caused by the bursting of a bubble of nitrogen that forms inside the joint when the joint moves," says John Klippel, M.D., medical director of the Arthritis Foundation. "Popping your knuckles may be annoying to others, but it doesn't cause arthritis, enlarged joints or musculoskeletal problems."
Final verdict: False

To me, this is really good news considering I crack my knuckles frequently. I think that may come from too much martial arts. ;-)

Quotes

Life is an adventure in forgiveness. -Norman Cousins, author and editor -- (1915-1990)

Brasington's Ninth Law: A carelessly planned project takes three times longer to complete than expected; a carefully planned one will take only twice as long.

Efficiency is intelligent laziness. -David Dunham

IP Phones

IP Phones rock, assuming you have a good network connection, anyway. Unfortunately, mine seems to have actually killed my hard-phone. Oh well. That's why it's still in the testing phase.

Removing Content Advisor

I found this delightful URL this evening while attempting to assist my nephew and getting his IE to work again.

http://www.securiteam.com/windowsntfocus/How_to_disable_the_content_advisor_password_in_IE4_5.html

This tells one how to remove the Content Advisor password from Internet Explorer. Just in case the page isn't there anymore, briefly:

To clear the rating policy, open regedit and find the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Ratings
Delete all the keys and values under that key, including all subkeys, then close all instances of Internet Explorer (or simply restart the machine). The content advisor will now be disabled.

*If you don't know what you're doing with the registry editor, I don't recommend this and I am not liable for anything you do to your machine. That being said, good luck. :-)

Quote on War

Youth is the first victim of war - the first fruit of peace. It takes 20 years or more of peace to make a man; it takes only 20 seconds of war to destroy him. -Boudewijn I, King of Belgium (1934-1993)

Grudges

The only fruit bearing grudes bears is more grudges.

Anger

All these thoughts of days gone by go flitting through my skull, enraging me at points, saddening me at others. All this time, all these memories and yet I throw them away like last week's salad. Of course, it's too late now, anyway. The occasional thoughts of such things, of returning to what once was is impossible. What once was cannot be retrieved for three reasons: 1: You can never go back, no matter what. 2: What was there, is there no longer. The river has moved along. 3: And most importantly, it was never there to begin with. It was all illusion. It was all a fool's hope and a fool's dream. The perfect family, the illusionary acceptance of me for who I was and who I am. It's all a joke, of sorts and I could say that the joke's on me, but it was me pulling the strings in my head, letting myself believe in Never-Never land, letting myself see only the good and ignoring the incompatible aspects. Only after repeated blows to my "self" and my "ego" could I see my folly. Now time moves on and the spiral begins again.