Friday, May 30, 2008

We try to solve problems on Fridays.

Fridays are good days in Maine’s Gator Country. It’s not because the end of the week is near simply because the retired folk type activities are really seven days long. If we have something to do, we do it when the mood fits. No, I like Fridays because that’s a day when my good friend, the Fearless One, drops by. He lives a quite a distance from me, but his office before he retired is virtually across the street on which I live. He has a standing Friday “Chowdah” session with at least one buddy and sometimes more who still work there. So, he comes to visit me for a couple of hours before he heads out for lunch.

Good deal for me, too. It is on these days that more often than not my fearless friend (FF) helps me solve computer problems. I mentioned before, as you may recall, that he will simply charge right into about any computer problem whether he knows anything about it or not. I had a couple minor ones that he volunteered to help with this morning. And, to my surprise, he was not 100% successful. This was a most unusual experience.

It wasn’t a big deal that he couldn’t find an answer. The problem should have been simple. I’m trying to figure out how to install Mozilla’s FireFox web browser on my Vista based laptop. FireFox installed easily on my XP machines, actually in less than 30 seconds. But I’ll be darned, and today FF will also be darned, if we can get it to run on the Vista one. The installation gets to within sight of the end, at about the 15 or 20 second mark, and then it just plain stops.

Both FF and I think the solution will be so simple when we find it that we’ll wonder how we could have missed it. We have visited the Mozilla web site but didn’t find the solution. It’ll be there somewhere so I’ll head back in a day or two and take a lot of time to search. Meanwhile, I have FireFox working on two computers and the ever popular IE on the other. Naturally, the other is the one I use most nowadays.

I’d bet a button on FF’s getting the problem solved if I don’t find the solution in the future. I think he simply ran out of time today as he heard those sea creatures calling him to his “chowdah.” I should point he quickly and easily solved my other problem.

A few days ago I mentioned a commercial that had caught my attention. It’s the one where the zombies (boy, I’ll bet Sheepish Annie would like that commercial as she’s heavily into zombies) stare off into space stereotyping the blank folk who cannot go the bathroom without a cell phone planted in their ear as a balloon or bubble of some sort drifts by. It’s one of the few commercials that I notice when they’re on. Not because they’re good commercials but because of the models in them. Someday I may even remember the name of the sponsor.

There are two commercials that I honestly do like. I think the discount surplus store Marden’s, which has several locations around Maine, has absolutely the best spokesperson on television. The “Marden Lady,” who I think is a local actress from the Scarborough area, has captured the image Marden apparently wants to convey in those commercials. She’s so good, you see, that I do remember the name of the company in those ads.

And the other is a public service announcement. I don’t know if it’s locally produced or not, but it is promoting a Stop Smoking campaign by Maine’s health department. I don’t smoke so the campaign itself doesn’t affect me at all. But this particular spot highlights several little kids who “smoke” because their parents smoke around them. The kids are cute, adorable, and just wonderful little actors and actresses. The one I really like best, though, is the last one in the ad. He thought he had quit once, then a close-up as he says he’s got to try again.

I do have one criticism of the ad, though. I have a hearing deficiency and do wear hearing aids. I’ve been listening to these stop smoking ads for quite a while. They tell me to call somewhere and I can get help. I don’t need it as I don’t smoke and perhaps that’s why, after I think a couple of years, I still have no hint whom I’m supposed to call. To my deficient ear, it sounds like “hepple,” but from the rest of the ad that makes no sense.

The weekend will be here in just a little while, and the forecast says we might get some very much needed rain. My lawn needs it. My wife’s gardens need it. And I need it so I’ll have an excuse not to mow tomorrow.

GiM

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