Yes, it is a G3 iMac.

I’ve been setting up a new blog (which is intended to support a new business venture) and while looking through page after page of WordPress themes, I found the new theme which this page is now sporting. I like it, even if it is a bit Mac-centric. As I have previously stated, Macs just don’t get me excited. But the theme still looks good.

We had made a reservation for a spot at a campground near San Rafael for last weekend, and we were so looking forward to going to China Camp State Park. However, we had missed the item on their website that said it was a hike-in site. When we did see the notice the morning of the trip, the website also told us that there would be “wheeled containers” for hauling gear from the car to the campsite. When we got there (only a three hour drive from Jackson) this was what we found we could haul our gear in:

Yes, that is a common trash can.

Carrying an SUV-load of gear up a hill to the back of the campground, under dripping Madrone trees, fighting off the yellowjackets which were looking for a meal was NOT our idea of a good time. I called the toll-free number for ReserveAmerica to cancel our reservation (losing most of the nearly $80 we spent on the reservation).

We did manage to see some of the sights of China Camp, and would recommend it for a day trip, but I would be hesitant to recommend it for a camping trip.

We did also make the drive north on US 101 to the Marin Headlands to see the fog rolling in across the Golden Gate. It made up for the disappointment of China Camp.

While here in San Jose, we journeyed over to Santa Cruz to meet up with Rosvita’s brother, Rick, and to go out for dinner to celebrate mother-in-law Erica’s upcoming birthday. Rick, always in the know for good dining in the area, drove us to Watsonville to a place tucked into a professional building: the Green Valley Grill. If you find yourself in the Santa Cruz/Watsonville area, I cannot recommend this restaurant too highly.

When i checked my email this evening, I got a message from Google that they were ready to give me a Priority Inbox, but only if I was ready and willing. I activated the feature, and was immediately asked to evaluate Google’s first attempts at prioritizing my inbox. I made a couple adjustments, but it was fewer than I had expected. I am looking forward to this experiment.

As we drove from Jackson to San Jose this morning, my phone was a-buzz with news alerts of Steve Jobs’ latest revelations of refreshed product lines, updated software with new features. I’m sorry, but my response is simply a yawn.

I’ve not owned an Apple product since we got rid of the old Apple IIe about fifteen years ago (hey, Castle Wolfenstein on the IIe was a blast! Achtung!) I do appreciate the design and style that Apple products have. I very nearly took a job with Apple (I’ll have to tell you that one some other time) but at this point, I just can’t get myself excited over any of their products. I’m very happy with my mp3 player and my smart phone, and I don’t suffer from Apple Envy at all. I’ll admit that the prospect of a redesigned Apple TV got my attention, but then I was reminded that I would have to run iTunes. Let’s just not go there, OK?

(with apologies to James Cain)

I am anticipating the delivery of my replacement phone when our friendly mail carrier comes by the house tomorrow.

What, didn’t I tell you about my sweet Android phone? It appears to have gone mute. The built-in microphone does not work. I can make phone calls using my earbuds or with Bluetooth, but using the handset no one can hear me speak. Thankfully the phone does have a one-year warranty. The tracking information which AT&T has provided to me leads me to believe that the replacement will arrive tomorrow.  Fortunately, my data will transfer very easily from the old phone to the new. Downloading apps, well, that will be the chore.

I was talking with a friend today about my wife’s online business activities, and he asked the question “What was the most unusual thing she has sold online?” I was quick to respond: pine cones. About the time that Rosvita started exploring the wild world of eBay, we had several trees cut down on our property, including a tall Ponderosa pine tree. When the tree fell, it dropped a ton of green pine cones which had not yet opened. Rosvita remembered the stories I had told her of customers coming into a Mail Boxes Etc. store I once worked at wanting to ship pine cones home. She quickly gathered up as many of the pine cones as she could, and started listing boxes of pine cones for sale. She had no trouble selling all those pine cones, trust me.

And have I ever told you of the time I had to ship tumbleweeds to Texas?

I went and replaced both my mobile phone carrier and phone just over a month ago. Bye bye went T-Mobile, along with the Dash phone that I had been using. Now, I’m not going to bash on T-Mobile, because the service that I got from them was good. It was just that their service area wasn’t quite covering the area that I needed here in the Mother Lode. Besides, the Windows Mobile 6 running on what I used to call my “fauxberry” was really the pits.

My new phone? The HTC Aria on AT&T. I was really keen on getting an Android phone, and I had pretty much resigned myself to going back on the AT&T. The phone got a real work out because within a week of getting the phone, we were off to Minnesota on a two-week vacation. I nearly maxed out my 200MB data plan during that trip uploading photos to Facebook. Yes, I really like my new phone. I even make phone calls on it. Imagine that!

Well, AT&T’s performance has been better that I remembered it to be. The Aria has exceeded my expectations completely. Rosvita has been contemplating upgrading her mobile phone from a Go Phone to a smart phone that could aid her in her business activities. We had also been contemplating what to get our oldest son for his birthday. So, when Wirefly ran another deal on Android phones, we jumped on it. Two more phones are on the way. That will make four phones I’ve bought from Wirefly in the past two years.. I really am happy with their site and service.

I have been experimenting in Linux since 2002, and have had an on again, off again relationship with Ubuntu for the last 2 years or so. So, the release of a new LTS (Long Term Support) version of Ubuntu would definitely get my attention. I’ve been running Ubuntu and several other Linux distros as virtual machines for some time now, but I decided to live dangerously once again, and attempt to dual boot the Lucid Lynx with Windows 7.

Prior to beginning the installation, I invested some time in this article from Lifehacker because the intended victim of my dual-booting desires was the Gateway laptop that I share with my son Jonathan (and heaven help us if the 5 year old be deprived of his Internet fix because Daddy’s latest experiment has blown up in his face!)

I followed my S.O.P. for a dual-boot load, and removed the old hard drive from the laptop, replacing it with another which had been occupying an external hard drive case that I keep around for emergencies. The drive which was in the laptop is now encased in the external case, awaiting my decision to either revert back to the old Windows 7 install, or keep the dual-boot installation in place.

Amazingly, the most hardest problem I had to deal with in the installation of the dual operating systems was getting my copy of Windows 7 to accept the Product Key. (Typical!)