Not even close on the lottery

Once again, I missed all of the numbers on the lottery. I'm having doubts about my spiritual guide. It's probably something I'm doing or not doing. I lost my favorite pendulum, so I used my new crystal one. I probably needed to charge it or something.
I felt sick last night. I had pain in my lungs so I took a couple of aspirins. I feel a lot better now. I'm well enough that I may have to mow the lawn.
I couldn't get my computer to work with the internet at Java Johns, this morning. I may have to load a proprietary driver for my wifi card. It works everywhere else, though. I loaded ndiswrapper on this machine so that I can use other cards. That will only make sense to other hard-corps Linux users. It didn't seem to work so I'll reboot and if that doesn't work I'll reload it

Loading 9.04

I'm at Cafe Magpie loading the lastest version of Ubuntu. I lost all of my bookmarks and such. It took a while to get all the needed drivers to work. For a while Ubuntu only saw what was on my hard drive. It refused to search the web site for packages. Only Linux users would know what I mean by that. After running updates, it saw all of the other packages.
I'm pretty happy with 9.04, but the main reason I loaded it was to have the latest and greatest version on my machine. There is something about having the newest.
I gave Alice her machine this morning. It beat me. I loaded Windows 2000 and failed to get the updates. It wouldn't work. I guess Windows gave up supporting 2000 entirely. I got my wifi card to work on her machine but I couldn't get her wifi card to work on mine. Lucent doesn't support their cards on their website.
Anyway, I told Alice to get a USB module from Belkin which I know works with Windows 2000. I hope she gets out to Wal-Mart before they're gone.
After she left I had an idea of where to get a driver. I was thinking about driversguide.com. I used to use them a lot when I worked on old laptops. I'll have to see if they are still around.
I should go home and mow the lawn but the neighbors are having a party. I might not get to it until tomorrow.

Iowa City

I went to Iowa City this morning. I thought that it would take 3 hours but it only took 2 to drive there. Everything went well until I came home. I got out early and spent the morning at Barnes and Noble leafing through books and drinking coffee.
On the way home, part of my tailpipe fell off. I got to Dan's and he said that it needed a muffler as well as the tailpipe. It's going to set me back hundreds.
I then went to work on Alice's laptop. It's getting worse. I couldn't get the wifi card to work. the sound card doesn't seem to work with Linux either. Tonight I'm going to try loading Windows on it. I'll get it up to Windows XP. If that works, maybe I'll be able to transfer a copy of XP to her so she can use it longer than 30 days. Bill Gates is after world domination. He makes it so that things only work on Windows.
It's possible that the sound card is failing. I don't think it is, because on some of the older Linuxs it worked with the cd player.
I've got to go home and mow the lawn.

Still in old laptop hell

I'm still trying to get Alice's laptop to work. The newer Linux's work fine with the wifi card but mess up the sound card. I have to find something that works with both. Fortunately the wifi card is so old and common that most of the operating systems will work with it. I've only found a couple of systems that work with the sound, on the other hand. When I do find something that works I have troubles getting it to load. A lot of my CDs are made with re-writable media. There is something about those disks that make them unreliable.
I need to mow the lawn but I don't think I'll get to it since the county Democrats are meeting tonight. I should have enough time to run home and see if I got my latest operating system to load. Then I'll run off to the Democrat meeting. Maybe I'll try to get something mowed since I have to go to Iowa City tomorrow.
I have an appointment to see my shrink. I'm taking my car since the van makes it an all day deal. I'll have to spend half a day as it is.

Back to old laptop hell

My friend Alice has an old laptop (thinkpad 390x) which locked up because Windows 2000 insisted that she should change her password. She didn't remember her password so it became useless. I sold it to her about a year ago so I offered to repair it.
My first effort was to load a relatively new Linux (Mandriva 2006) on it. It worked except for the sound card, which produced garbage. I then tried Suse Linux 10.0. It had the same problem. I then went back to Windows 2000, after having to load Windows 98 to get 2000 to load. 2000 works pretty well with the wifi card and the sound card.
The wifi card won't work at Bookends and Beans which is only 2 houses away from her home. Bookends uses a password protection that Windows 2000 isn't up to.
I think I'll concentrate on getting Windows 2000 to work. It will take a day of downloading updates, including 4 service packs. Oh well, I guess I needed a project for a rainy day. I think I'll hang out at Magpies and use their wifi since it is the fastest around. I'm at the co-op now and theirs might be almost as fast.
I'm tempted to download some newer operating systems and seeing if I can get that sound card to work with the latest Linux. I can't use Ubuntu, which I really like, because Alice's machine only has 190 meg of RAM. The latest Ubuntu needs 256 meg.
I think I'll download the latest Mandriva now and see if I can get it to work. I've got it on one of my desktops and I'm pretty happy with it.
I made progress with my camera the other day. After enhancing some pictures I had something I wouldn't mind uploading onto this blog. After I fix Alice's machine I'll do that.
That all for now

No open coffee shops

Its Memorial Day and there are no internet coffee shops open in Decorah. I went to the library where there is an underground parking area. There is an ac outlet next to a bench there. It is close enough to the library that I can connect to the internet there. I also might be able to use my battery and connect at other places but this is working.
I bought a camera yesterday since the pictures from my old one were so poor. I had to convert one of my desktops to Windows 2000 form Mandriva Linux. At least it sees the camera. The pictures are still poor. I may have to spend $100 for a camera instead of $20. If that is the case it won't happen for 2 months since I have dental bills coming up.
I'll experiment with the camera and get back to you on that. I also have to mow the lawn again today.
Catch you later.

Waiting for Lula

Once again, I'm at the co-op waiting for Lula. I saw her yesterday and gave her her computer. She was with other guys so I couldn't talk that much with her.
She said that she had copy of the driver for her wifi card that would work with Windows 98. I couldn't get it from Linksys's website so seeing is believing. If she has one, maybe we could sell it to Alice. She's looking for something better for her Windows 2000 machine.
Last night I put Mandriva 2008 on both of my desktop machines. Now I can get my camera to work on both of those machines. They also write JPEG files for my photos. That is a common format. I found a converter for serial to USB ports. It will set me back $30, but I'll be able to run my camera from the laptop. I may hold off and just get a better camera. The pictures on this one are very grainy to say the least.
I saw Jim today. He is still having troubles with shakiness. They reduced his meds but it doesn't seem to help. I told him that he should buy the bicycle to get around town on. He pointed out that if he went out of town he would have to have a trailer and a hitch on his car. that would cost more than the bike.
I don't think I'll list my lottery picks today. I'm spending a lot of time at the co-op and I'm not getting around to dowsing. I might go home right now and get it done in time yet today. We'll see.
I went home and dowsed the lottery numbers. They are: 5,15,24,37,52. The powerball number is 5.
Once again I'd like to point out that I've yet to win anything on the lottery. My spiritual guide doesn't always tell the truth.

Stood up

Blogger ate my blog again. I really must get into using a wordprosser to write this blog. It turned out that I forgot to plug the computer into the AC. It ran for about an hour before shutting down. That is surprising for such an old laptop.
I went to Dan's to see about my car. He is replacing the light switch. The headlights would come on but not the dashboard light. I couldn't tell how fast I was driving at night.
Lula stood me up yesterday. I waited for her at the co-op most of the day and she didn't show. I got her computer working well. In fact I'm using it now and as long as I keep the battery charged up, it's fine. I might offer her $25 for it I could sell it to Dave for $75. Of course, I've got $32 in the wifi card. She might be happy with it just as it is.

Blogger ate my blog

I'm at the co-op waiting for Lula and blogging. When I posted a blog it evaporated. Once again this shows me that I should be using a wordprosser and then transferring it to blogspot. I haven't figured out how to do that yet.
Anyway Lula's machine seems to be working well with the new wifi module. I don't know when she'll be here but I do know that she spends most of the day here on Thursdays.
I bumped into Dave W. yesterday and he is making progress on both going to school and applying for disability. I'm glad for him. He has trouble seeing that he has a problem. I doubt that he'll ever be able to get another job. He's just too old and heavy.
That reminds me I need to apply for a job at Family Circle. They help developmentally disabled people. With my degree from NICC I might have a chance to get a job. I could use a little extra income.

Windows won

Out of desperation I loaded Windows XP on Lula's machine to see if it would work with the wifi card. It does. Now I know that the card and the software I downloaded for it are good. It just won't work with Windows 98 because it requires Internet Explorer 5.5 or later.
I bought another wifi card that says it will work with 98. It set me back $32. I'll have to ask Lula if she will spring for it. For such an old machine that is a lot of money.
I think I'll try to load Mandriva Linux and see if the new card will work with it. That would save having to load Open Office and Mozilla from a wifi connection. It would also work better and avoid viruses.
I selected new lottery numbers today. I used my new pendulem. They are: 12,16,34,43,53. The powerplay number is 16. I think the payout is high since a lot of people seemed to be playing.
Like I've said before I've never won anything with these numbers yet.
I couldn't get the new Ubuntu update to work because it presumes that you have a working internet connection when you first boot up. It runs a boot routine and goes straight to the website. Unfortunatly it doesn't give my laptop time to get connected to the wifi server. I'll have to see if I can upgrade the old way. I think I tried that and it didn't work. I just tried it again and had no success.
That's all for now.

Old Laptop Hell

I'm in old laptop hell. I've been trying to get the wifi card on Lula's laptop to work. I've tried at least 5 different forms of Linux and most of them won't load after spending hours trying to. When I get one to load it won't work with the wifi card. I'm tempted to go back to Windows and swap my wifi card with hers. I have the commercial disk that came with my card. I don't know if I can get her software to work on my machine.
Before I do that I'm going to try Mandriva Linux. It's from 2006, which might be old enough to work with limited memory and yet new enough to run the wifi card. Its worth a shot. If that fails I'm going to try to get her wifi card to work on my machine and then convert her's to Windows.
Its a plan. I was up until 3:00 in the morning, working on this machine. If either of us had money it would make more sense to buy a new machine.
The coffee machine at Bookends and Beans is down. It gets all gummed up with the limestone water that we have here. John said that they use a couple of big filters in the basement but it still limes up.
Well back to old laptop hell

Lula's Solo

I've been working on Lula's computer. It's a Gateway Solo. I've been trying to get the wifi card to work.
I downloaded the driver from Linksys.com. The trouble is that it requires Internet Explorer 5.5 or better to run. It has 5.0 in it. Since I didn't have the wifi card working I couldn't download 5.5 or 6. I may try to get it on my Linux machine. I didn't think of that. Now I'm too late since I'm trying to load Linux (Ubuntu) on Lula's machine. It's having trouble with the ram. The distribution that I'm trying to load requires 256 meg of ram and Lula's machine only has 16o meg.
As long as I'm online I may as well try to get IE 6 from the Microsoft website. Then if I have to go back to Windows I'll have it. I'm tempted to just buy another card and load Windows. I'm a little short of money so I don't think I'll do that.
I might go to Suse Linux if I can't get Ubuntu to work. I really prefer Ubuntu but if it won't load then I'll have to try something else. I also have an old copy of Mandriva.
The day hasn't been a complete waste. I got my bicycle tires pumped up. Other than that it's been something of a waste. I've got laundry in the washer and dryer, but I didn't get around to mowing the lawn again. I'm spending too much time going to and from the computer.
The co-op notified me that the new pendelum is here. I'll pick that up tonight. It's here in plenty of time for the next lottery.
At least Lula's machine is working better than it was. It helped to charge the battery. Then Windows hung up and I ran Windows 98 setup. It still wouldn't see the wifi card. Lula said that she would look for the driver but I won't see her until Thursday. I downloaded what I thought would work, but had no luck.

I'm at the Co-op working on Lula's computer. It's biggest problem was that the battery was totally discharged. I had to reboot it three times to get it to work. It has Windows 98 on it and is really slow. I couldn't get the wifi card to work. I downloaded the software from Linksys's site. I'll try loading it at home. If that doesn't work I'll load Linux and go from there.
My dowsing the lottery failed again. Why do I think that my spiritual guide has any better idea of what the lottery numbers are. I'll keep at it and try a crystal pendulum. Those are supposed to work better.
I went for a walk up Trout Run Trail today. I only walked about a mile but it was very pretty.
I tried to get my digital camera to work. I had to load Windows 98 on one of my desktops to work with the software that came with my camera. It worked but now I have to get the pictures on to the internet. I was able to use a cd writer to make a disk with some pictures on it. I will have to experiment with the blog site to see if it will take my images from my camera.

lottery numbers

Its Saturday and time to give out my picks for powerball. They are: 11,23,27,36,51. The powerplay number is 11. Like I've said before, none of my picks have won anything yet. With my luck maybe you should simply pick anything but these numbers.
I went to La Crosse this morning. I picked up a book on making lists. It got me to thinking about things I need to get done.
I got kicked out of Bookends and Beans because they close at 4:00 PM on Saturdays. I went to the gas station and entered my lottery numbers. From there I went to to Co-op with its glare problem. It's not too bad today because the Sun is hitting at a good angle.
One of the things I need to get done is to send pictures to my blog. I've been stymied by my old digital camera (Polaroid 320). When it was built they were using Windows 98. My XP machines won't work with it. I tried Linux and 1 version had me select the camera from a list. When I did it still didn't work with it. I'm tempted to load Windows 98 on my slowest desktop and take it from there. I'm using it as a server for my network so it will get involved. I guess that I need a project anyway.
Another project I should get going on is prospecting for gold. It would be a way of bringing in some income without being employed. I'm afraid that it might get expensive. I would need three major expensive items: 1. a four wheel drive vehicle ( preferably an old Toyota Landcruiser) 2. A small pop up trailer 3. A metal detector.
The Landcruiser would be a major project in itself. I would have to get a junked vehicle and rebuild it. I prefer Landcruisers for their stability. They were also built like tanks.
Another thing I was thinking about was to get the bicycle out and go for long trips with it. I watched a group of bikers on the way to La Crosse this morning and I felt a bit jealious. I need to get out there.
I just bumped into Lula. She is from Eithiopea. She's a refugee from somewhere in that area. She works at Opportunity Homes. They help developmental disabled people.
She has a laptop that doesn't work and she is bringing it to me to fix. I suppose that it's a bad battery. They always go bad on laptops. It could be the hard drive. We'll see when she gets it here.
That's it for now

I got up rather late and I don't feel like blogging much.
I decided to cancel my trading my GM bonds for stocks. It looks like they will be bankrupt so I would rather have bonds in a bankruptcy. They were too slow to do the actual trade. Apparently it won't happen until June the 30th. I left my phone at home so maybe I can get it done this afternoon.
I finally got the lawn mowed. The back yard is a mess. I don't like the way the satellite tv guys just left their cable out in the open where I can hit it with a lawn mower. Anything would have been better.
I found a gold pendant that I used to use for dowsing. Maybe I'll dowse with it and then dowse with the pendulum and see if the same numbers come up. They should.
That's it for now.

lost the lottery

Well, to nobody's surprise but mine, I lost the lottery again. I only had one number that was close. I'm disappointed with my spiritual guide. I ordered a new pendulum. I've read that clear crystal is supposed to work better. Maybe it has to do with my technique. Is it possible that dowsing is just another form of delusion? No, perish the thought!
I listed the house with a realitor yesterday. He said that I should be able to get $30000 for the place. I hope he's right. I need the money.
If I get that much I may have to hide the money so that I'm poor enough to live in my rent assisted apartment. I think I can just keep it in a low interest account until I qualify for the apartment, Then I'll put it into a junk bond fund on margin. I should be able to make close to 50% a year.
It rained yesterday so I didn't get the lawn mowed. I should be able to get to it today. It's partly cloudy and somewhat warm.
Knowing that I'm selling the place is encouraging me to clean it up a bit. I've got a long ways to go, but I intend to do a little each day.

lost the lottery

It's Wednesday and it's time to break out the incense, go into a trance and call up my spiritual guide. Yes, its time to dowse the lottery numbers.
Even though I've never won even $3.00 doing this, I still feel that its worth a try.
Today's Powerball picks are:4,16,33,51,57. The powerplay number is 8.
I intend to list these every Wednesday and Saturday. I missed last Saturday simply because I didn't feel inspired to dowse that day.
Yesterday my big project was paying the DirectTV bill. I finally wired it from my checking account. For some reason my automatic credit card payment didn't work. I'll go through the same hassle next month.
Today my major effort will be to list my house for sale. I'm getting close to the time that I'll have a retirement apartment. I also need to get rid of some furniture. I need to get rid of both of my desks. Also, I need to get rid of a lot of tools. Maybe I could give them to Nate's dad Nick. I think I'll have to get rid of my refrigerators. The place probably comes with its own that will be better than mine anyway. I'll try to keep the deep freeze because I may still get into hunting deer and I'll need a place for all that meat. Fishing on the Mississippi is also an option. One or two of those big catfish would fill it up.
I'll have to ask Jim if he'll take some of my furniture. I already asked Lula and she said that she was thinking of leaving. I'll miss her.
That's all for now.

Yesterday I met with Jim at Bookends and Beans. We talked about investing. He told me that he put everything into a money market account.
I don't know if I believe him since last week he said it was in an energy ETF. He probably knew that I would tell him that he should be in and out of things based on what is happening. Yesterday Hugo Chavez nationalized the oil companies and oil went down hard. He could have used DTO to make money in a down market.
I hope he is in a money market. I told him about TIPS and a junk bond fund. Either one or both would be an improvement over active trading.
We went to a couple of bicycle shops to look for a recumbent bike for him. We found one that was reasonably priced, at the bike shop on College Ave. He had to measure it to see if it would go into his PT Cruiser.
Later I went to La Crosse. I bought a couple of books at Barnes and Noble. I also ate at ham sandwich and had a slice of Neapolitan cheesecake. That was yummy.
I came home too late to mow the lawn so I'll do it today.
Today, I'm having troubles with getting my Direct TV (satellite tv) bill paid. The debit card that I just got didn't work for them. I just used it at Bookends and Beans for a cup of coffee. I also checked my balance at the credit union. I'll have to go back to the credit union and see if I can resolve the problem.
I checked on using Magic Jack for my phone service. It doesn't look like it will work for me since I would need a phone line. All that I have is a cell phone and WiFi from various coffee shops. Maybe Skype will work. I'll look into it.

Hi,
Today I'm at Bookends and Beans. Its a small coffee shop and bookstore. The internet wifi works well here.
I'm meeting Jim S. at noon. He is a retired college teacher who moved from Florida to here to be near his family.
He is investing in an energy ETF. I talked him out of his energy mutual fund with it's high commissions.
I think he is still taking too many risks. Today Hugo Chavez nationalized all of the oil industry in Venezuela. That caused energy stocks to go down. I'm going to point out to him that no matter how conservative he thinks he is, he is still trading.
The way I see it, if you are going to trade, don't fool yourself. Get in there and take advantage of the downturns to make money by betting against things. And you have to watch the news every minute. In fact, I doubt that this move could have been forecast.
I think its time to buy a TIPS fund or maybe a junk bond fund and kick back. We may never see the market move back. After all, we've been shipping our jobs to China. Now might be the time to buy dto of skf. DTO shorts the oil market and SKF shorts the financials. I think it might be better to just get a part time job and curtail spending.
I'm thinking about panning for gold. I'm waiting to get moved into an apartment so I won't have to mow the lawn. I'll also have more money for a metal detector and for membership fees into gold prospecting clubs. I probably won't get that done until next year. I'm on a waiting list for a retirement apartment.
Its almost time for Jim to get here so that's all for now.

Hi,
Its Sunday and I'm at the Co-op again. I was at Java Johns. Their internet was slow and I got kicked off. The Co-op works much better. I'm listening to streaming radio and surfing the net with no delays.
The Co-op has a delicious quiche today. So come on in. The internet has one problem. All the ac plugs are by the front window, so I have to contend with glare from the morning sun.
That may end up limiting my use of the Co-op to evenings and cloudy days. I wrote up a suggestion that they put ac plugs away from the windows. The Magpie is opened on Sundays, now so I may end up there.
I got a free cup of coffee today for having a filled out punch card. That saved me $.75.
I'm tempted to go to La Crosse today. I'm too late to go to church, but I could still go to Barnes and Noble and shop for books. I think I'll wait until tomorrow and see if Jim wants to go with me. It's not too difficult to get a rider since so many of us like to shop at Barnes and Noble. I especially like their cheesecake. It's almost worth the trip even if I don't get a book. Sometimes I leaf through books there and then buy them at Bookends and Beans. Its good to support local businesses.
I think I'll get a newspaper and finish my coffee. It's time to finally mow the lawn. I've been putting it off for about a week. I'm probably offending the neighbors. The dandelions are about to go to seed.
Goodbye for now.

Hi,
I'm Craig and I'm at the Co-op, using their new wifi connection. I've never blogged before and I'm not much of a talker so here it goes.
I live in Deborah Iowa. Its a small college town in northeast Iowa. I'm retired now so I drink a lot of coffee and read many newspapers.
I recently had my internet at home disconnected because it was costing too much. There are several places in town who have wifi so I don't think I'll miss it.
I just lost about 2 paragraphs of blogging. It just vanished. That possibility was pointed out in "Blogging for Dummies". I should be doing my blog in a wordprossesser and then transfer it to Blogger.
I'll do that the next time. I'm just learning now.
One thing I like about the Co-op is that I run into people I know. I just saw Jason T. He teaches classes on internet businesses. That is what got me into blogging. I couldn't think of a business idea so I figured that I could always blog and see if that leads to anything
That's it for now.