... and in with the new.

Just in case you link to my blog directly, and not through my website, this message is just to let you know that from here on in, my blog will be hosted at Blogspot at:

http://2catsdesigns.blogspot.com

Make sure to update your links.

See you there!

Sue

It's been one of 'those' weeks, so I can honestly say Thank God it's Friday!  I'm just about all typed out for the week, and am looking forward to spending some quality time in the studio over the coming days.  I finish my typing job at 12.30 pm on Fridays now, so that means that this afternoon, I'll be spending time making beads.  However, as I mentioned in a blog entry from earlier in the week, I'm not sure I'll have any time left over to put together any beads for eBay.  I have 3 custom orders to try and get through this weekend, so it all depends on whether or not I have any time left over after I've completed those.  If you're a regular reader, you'll remember I'm now giving preference to custom orders over eBay, so if you see something YOU like on the custom orders page, make sure to shoot me off an email.  And speaking of the custom orders page, I hope to update it soon and add a few more sets - I'm also thinking of removing a set or two (probably starting with the 'Irish Eyes' set), so if you have a particular liking for those, you might want to think about placing your order now!

Tomorrow night one of our friend's daughters is having a 21st birthday party, so Russ, Farid & Yvonne & I will be heading to their house for that (at least I *think* it's at their house, though it could also be at the restaurant they own - I'm not very organised when it comes to this party as we only received a sort of 'last minute' invitation so I guess I better check on that before tomorrow night!).  Other than that though, I don't have any other plans for the weekend, except for working in the studio.

Well.. time for me to grab some breakfast before I start my typing job at 9.30 am.  Have a great weekend, thanks for checking in.

GRRRR... I hope your day is going better than mine.  I've only just started my medical transcription job for the day, and I have a work pool full of dictation from one of the single WORST dictators on the planet.  He's one of those doctors that likes to dictate with the mouthpiece as close to his mouth as possible, and if that isn't bad enough, he dictates in what sounds like a crowded hospital room, mumbles continously and has this totally annoying habit of dictating "just say", "just say", "just say" - that phrase is generally about the ONLY thing I can actually understand - and of course, it's the only thing he dictates that isn't actually SUPPOSED to be included in the report.  There's only one thing I want to "just say" to him right about now.. (hint: the first word is "go", the 2nd word starts with "f", and the 3rd word is "yourself") and I figure I wouldn't be too popular if I included that in his reports.  So now I have 7.5 hours of transcription to look forward to, whereby I'll be lucky to earn $30.00 for my efforts thanks to him.

Days like this make me want to turn off the computer, sit in the corner and cry.  But.. life goes on, right?  Maybe I'll win the lottery tomorrow night.

Hope YOU'RE have a good day.. spare a thought for me, 'kay?

I finished off a set of beads today, so come tomorrow morning, they'll be going up on eBay.  So, come back then and check them out if you'd like.  After I list that set, I'm not sure if I'll have anything new to offer you until perhaps the end of *next* week, as I have to spend next weekend working on a few custom orders.  I'll try my hardest to put together one set for eBay, but I can't promise anything.

Okay, that's it outta me for the day.. in between my typing job this morning and spending the rest of the day making beads, I'm beat.  I also didn't sleep very well last night, thanks to the arthritis in my neck giving me hell, so I think I'll have an early night.  Plus thanks to the Easter break, Desperate Housewives isn't even on tonight, so not much reason to hang around to watch anything exciting on TV.  Have a good night, and catch you again soon.

As I spent most of the day in the studio, there'll be a new set of beads up on eBay tomorrow.  There must be something in listening to the MP3 player while making beads - most days when I make beads, after I've made a few, I get up and wander around for a while, but today I found myself sitting in the studio for 2 hours at a time.  Anyway.. whatever the reason, I was very productive for a change, so make sure to drop by tomorrow if you want to check out the new set.

That's all out of me for the day - I'm off to grab some dinner and then DH Russ & I are heading over to Farid & Yvonne's house for an Easter drink.  Catch you tomorrow. Sue.

So much for not becoming addicted to MP3s.. I've now spent the better part of 2 days on Limewire downloading about 10 zillion songs.. everything from Glen Miller to the Uncanny X-Men (an Aussie band I was TOTALLY addicted to in my youth) to the Black Eyed Peas.  I am totally addicted to Limewire now.  I think I may have to re-evaluate my opinion on using the MP3 player in my studio.

Oh.. and I've changed my shifts with the transcription company, so starting next week, I hope to dedicate a few hours each Monday and Friday to making beads, so that should mean I will have at the bare minimum two sets of beads to offer you each week.. though it could possibly be 3 sets.  Stay tuned.

In the meantime, have a Happy Easter, and if you're driving.. be careful on the roads.  Sue.

PS.  Further to my blog entry from the other day about that Lisa chick from the MP3 player company -I'm still waiting for her to return my call.  I'm really glad I don't run my business like this company.  And I wasn't going to mention their name, but since their customer service is so shitful.. I'm going to mention it.  It's Lennox.  Perhaps you ought to think twice before you purchase anything from them.

So I finally succumbed to the MP3 player craze.  I didn't want to go all out and purchase an iPod, since I very rarely listen to music on my PC, and I don't even use an MP3 player in my studio, like so many other beadmakers seem to.  In all honesty, I find it totally distracts me.  Yeah.. that's just me.

Anyway, I settled on a cheap no-brand 2GB player.  Since I really only need the player to listen to various meditation and/or self-help files, I figured $79.95 was more than enough to pay.  It arrived this morning, and ever eager to load my meditation music onto it, I opened the box, popped the software drivers in my PC, and received an error message saying it can't load the drivers on my operating system, so, I check what version operating system I'm supposed to be using (I use Windows XP).  It turns out, the software is ONLY compatible for Windows 98 (which now leads to the obvious question - why create an MP3 player in 2007, but bundle it with software for an operating system that's almost 10 years old?).

Sigh.

That should have been a sign that things were only going to deteriorate from here on in, and I wasn't disappointed with that assumption.

That really wasn't a major hassle.. since the software was only to transfer the music from my PC to the MP3 player, and there's other ways around that, so I moved on to actually firing up the player.  I mean.. how difficult was it going to be?  There's only 2 buttons on it - a "Mode" button which slides from left to right and a "Play/Pause" button.  Uh huh.. yeah really simple, right?  Wrong.  I turn the MP3 player on and 4 little icons appear on the screen - and sliding the Mode button left or right only moves the cursor to one of the 4 icons and the Play/Pause button does nothing - except if I press it for 3 seconds, in which case, I receive a delightful little "Bye Bye" message on the player and it switches itself off. 

Sigh.

So, by now I'm feeling like a complete moron.  In my other life, I was in IT.  I have numerous computer programming certificates.  I was a network administrator.  I handled both hardware and software issues for a number of prominent firms, and yet, I can't get this stupid little piece of crap to work.  Okay, so admitedly, I've been out of the loop for almost 10 years, but still.. I'm not completely stupid when it comes to technology.  However, I guess it's time to admit defeat and move on to the user manual, hoping to shed some light on the matter.. and this is where I totally lose control.  It's written in "Engrish" - obviously originally written in Chinese and translated directly to English, resulting in complete nonsensical crap.  Here's an example:

"Pass to press "Mode" key can enter to all level menu. the menu is divided into main course single (the ceasing is to grow to press into), broadcast of submenu (short press into) with submenu (short press into) that stop the hour".

(Punctuation and grammar errors all courtesy of the manual.)

WTF??????????????????????

Sigh.

So after much cussing, and threats of throwing the player over the back fence for the neighbour's dog to destroy, I decide to call the company here in Melbourne.  And wouldn't you know it, I receive a recorded message from some person named Lisa who tells me "she's either on another support call" (you're kidding me?  You mean there's OTHER people out there who can't decipher "Engrish" either?) or "she's away from her desk" (more likely she's slashed her wrists after spending 8 hours a day listening to screaming abusive customers), and if I'll just leave my name and number, she'll call me right back - that was 2.5 hours ago and still no call.  I can only assume my latter assumption about her is correct.

Sigh.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I seem to have finally figured the damn thing out -- what the manual doesn't tell you is that the "Mode" button that slides from left to right, ALSO pushes down.. which I figured out completely by accident.  For the moment, it seems to be working, but.. I'm not going to press my luck by saying I have it COMPLETELY figured out.  After all, the day is still young.

Sigh.

Like I said, technology is a b*tch.

If you're a regular visitor to my blog, you'll remember my entry of a few days ago when I mentioned my stepdaughter, Lauren, was looking after half a dozen kittens for a local animal shelter.  Well, the kittens are almost ready to return to the shelter - now however, she's taken on the responsibility of looking after a young wallaby.  She's over here for dinner this evening, so I managed to grab a few photos to share with you - click the pictures for a large image:

She's camera shy ...

Isn't she adorable?

Lauren has to work on Sunday, so it looks like DH Russ & I may be looking after her this coming weekend, so there may be more photos to share with you later.

Hope you enjoyed the photos! Sue

Just popping in briefly to say howdy before I head into the studio.  I'll be making a start on a new set of beads today, and with any luck, they'll be ready to go up on eBay either tomorrow or first thing Monday morning.  I had hoped to have 2 sets ready to offer you for next week, however, our best friends Yvonne & Farid are having a "jam session" with Farid's band at their house this afternoon, so we'll be popping two streets over to their house a little later today to listen to some great music, eat junk food (we are actually back on our low carb way of eating, but occasionally everyone has to indulge), and maybe have a glass or two of bubbly.

It will be great to catch up with Farid & Yvonne, as we haven't seen them for at least 3 weeks.  Which is really weird - since we moved into this house in February last year, we've seen less of them than when we lived further away - and now we only live 2 streets from them!  And speaking of Farid's band (in which Farid plays the bass), the drummer, Chris, has auditioned with "Crowded House", who are apparently thinking of regrouping, and the lead guitarist is Graham Davidge, of the 80's rock band, "Goanna".  My Aussie friends may remember the huge hit they had, "Solid Rock".  Graham's a nice guy.. fairly quiet, and his wife is just THE nicest person.. it will be good to catch up with them again.

Anyway.. time for me to fire up the torch.  And I better pop a bottle or two of bubbly in the fridge to chill too.  Thanks for stopping by, and have a FABULOUS weekend! Sue

Unique:

* An item of which only one specimen is known to exist.

* In art, this term is applied to original artwork. All original, one-of-a-kind pieces are unique works.

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I am really so sick to death of people who seem to have not an ounce of originality and/or shame regarding their actions.  So, for those of you who believe that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - here's a heads-up - it's not.  All it goes to prove is how lacking in integrity and non "unique" you really are.

Right.. well, I feel much better having got that off my chest.. now back to our regularly scheduled programming.