Well … the time has come. This is my last post on this blog. Don’t despair … I’m not leaving the blogosphere. I’m just moving to a new address.

You see … for a while now, I’ve felt like I needed a change. I’m no longer doing anything with weather (that’s the Wx in WxGal’s World). And I’ve had this domain for quite some time now. I have no intention of getting rid of it, but it won’t be my primary one anymore.

So … without further ado … my new website is … <drumroll … />

High Tech Redneck Woman

So … update your bookmarks and blogrolls.

Along with the new domain … I’m going to try to have a different outlook this time. I’ve been too negative on this site … sorry about that. But the new one, I’m going to try to be more positive. And I’m going to try to post more programming and techie stuff … hell, it is called High Tech Redneck Woman.

So … come on over to the new site, take a look around, and come back. Leave a comment if you feel like it. I know I don’t have that many regular readers, but I do hope that those of you that are regulars come over the the new place. See ya ’round.

Mood: dorky   To Be Fat Like Me (Lifetime movie)

It’s been a while since I looked at the stats for my websites. I know I don’t get a lot of visitors, but it’s interesting to see how the ones who do come around get here and other fun stats. Well, I noticed something interesting about the browser stats for this site …

Click to enlarge image

There are some smart people who come around here …

Mood: dorky   CSI: Miami

Back Story:
When I got the statement for my car loan for December, it said that the total due was $428.60 (which was the remainder of the loan). However it had a ‘Regular Scheduled Payment’ of $249.21. I’ve been sending in $250 every month … a little more than what was due. Since the ‘total due’ wasn’t normal, I called Wells Fargo. The lady I talked to assured me that I could pay the ‘Regular Scheduled Payment’ and NOT be assessed any late fees. And I asked her directly. So, I paid $250 online on December 17th (due date is the 20th).

Fast Forward:
I checked the status of my account online yesterday to see if it had any late fees (I was suspicious of what I was told ) and to see what the payoff amount was (or at least an estimate of it). I saw that I was assessed a late fee of $10. Well … this pissed me off since I was told I WOULDN’T be. So, today at lunch I called Wells Fargo. I was prepared for the runaround, but didn’t get it. The guy who I talked to was VERY helpful. I told him the back story … that I had called, and when I had called, and all that jazz. He put me on hold to check on things. He came back as apologetic as can be that he had put me on hold for so long (it had been a while, but not too long) and said that I was a very good customer. He told me that he was going to put in a claim or something to have the late fee removed from my account. He put me on hold again and again apologized when he came back. Here I was all ready to yell and be pissy, and the guy didn’t even give me a chance … LOL. He said to call back next week Tuesday or Wednesday to check the status … to confirm that the late fee was removed. Yeah … it was only $10 … but it would go on my account as being late … when I WASN’T!!

I guess it pays to pay your bills on time. Yeah … I have a few more than I should (like credit cards), but I’ve always paid everything on time. I knew I had good credit when I got my car back in 2001. The loan officer actually came out and shook my hand … LOL. And this past summer, I got copies of my credit report … thanks to the Annual Credit Report website. Everything was in good standing. That makes a person feel good. The only problem is that my debt to income ratio leans a little too far towards debt … or at least it did a few years ago when I tried to get a loan to pay off my credit cards. I don’t know … maybe it would be better now. I mean, I only have 1 car payment left (and that will be paid on Jan 17th). And the balance on my credit cards have come down. I only use them when I REALLY need to … and only for food or gas. I hit a bump in that road when I was unemployed for a month back in September. But I’m back on track now, and since I’ll have an extra $250/month after my car is paid off … maybe I can get ahead. It sure would be nice to get ahead.

Mood: hungry   30 Minute Meals

I’m probably WAY behind the curve on this. I’m sure everyone has seen these fixes and implemented them. But I just looked ‘em up and applied them. Wow!!! What a difference. One was for Firefox and one was for both Firefox and Thunderbird. And both have made noticeable changes.

To apply these tweaks (if you haven’t already), open up a new tab and type about:config in the address bar.

1. Right-click and select New > Integer. Type in browser.cache.memory.capacity and give it a value of 16384 for 16MB or something else around that.
2. Right-click and select New > Integer. Type in config.trim_on_minimize and give it a value of false.

The second one can also be applied to Thunderbird. Before applying this tweak, when I had Thunderbird minimized, it used over 20MB of memory … just sitting there. After I applied it, it went down to around 4MB when minimized. Right now, it’s up to 8MB, but that’s still quite a bit lower than before. And when I minimized Firefox, I got around the same result. Nice.

Just wanted to share in case there are other people out there who are a little behind the times, like I am.

Mood: okay   GH

My mouse is now working. I did a Google search for it and got a link to the Microsoft site for their mice. I found a link to download the software, so I did. I installed it and restarted my computer. At first, the mouse wouldn’t work. So I tried it in 2 of the other USB ports. It worked on one in the front, but not the other (curious). Then I tried it in back again, and it worked. Woohoo!! I now have a brand new optical wheel mouse. Yeah … it’s not a fancy one, but it’s an upgrade from my old one … which is as old as my computer (almost 6 years).

Now I’m off to Google some more. I’m gonna see if I can find any performance tweaks I can try on my system. I know there’s something about a Firefox memory leak, or something like that. I’m gonna see if I can find that and anything else I can find. Since it’ll be a few months yet before I’ve got the money for a laptop, I’ve gotta make this old desktop work a little longer. Hopefully I don’t work it to death … LOL.

Mood: okay   CSI

Well … I got my memory today. And I was actually home when they delivered it. I really figured I’d have to head up north to pick it up. But the Big Brown Truck showed up about 5 minutes after I got home from work.

I put the memory in a little bit ago and started it up. There was a little burp where I couldn’t get my mouse to work. You see … I got an optical one from work. It doesn’t appear to work. I’ll have to see if they have any software for it. It’s an optical mouse. I’ll have to check tomorrow.

After I got the mouse working, I fired up the computer. I was REALLY hoping to see a noticeable difference in performance. After all … I did double my memory. But maybe the issue isn’t the memory. Maybe it’s just the fact that the system is almost 6 years old. LOL I guess I’ll just have to use it a while and see if the problems I was having before are still there or not. Maybe I just expected too much from the start. I just need to use it a while and see how it goes.

Mood: disappointed   Ugly Betty