Haircuts and stuff all around

Today we had a good hair day! Several things happened and all of them were non-mainstream thinking. (I will post some pictures later on.)

• Bridget got her hair cut again. She has another Marine "high & tight". I really like it. She is not as impressed but it looks so good with her face. It is just great.
• Maryann got in trouble for cutting some hair at school. Her teacher is working with us to keep her in line due to her tendency to cut off chunks of hair. If she does it again, we have warned her that she cuts it again, she will get a Marine cut like Mom. She is not happy with that, but we have to do something.
• This morning, Bridget braided my beard. I am not sure why. I look like a friggin' pirate. They have wanted to do it for quite a while so I finally gave in. I am not sure how long I will keep it braded, but it should freak the railroaders out to say the least.

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A Family Constitution

Apparently, Richard was reprimanded for doing this entire project last night. For some strange reason, I was actually home and not sleeping. I had come into the yard to attend some training and was home so we did the whole thing.

The teacher (In Richard's words) yelled at him because he did the whole paper. There were no instructions on the sheet, so we did it all. I thought we had a really good time doing it. It was kind of fun and turned out to be rather funny in itself. We really did think about this one and I thought our solution was rather brilliant. From now on, I will have to surmise that in today's school systems, (or at least in this one) you can get yelled at for actually doing the work you are given. I must assume that a slacker must get an award for their lack of work.

Is this Sarcastic? Sure. Angry at doing a good job and having my child yelled at in front of the other students? Sure. Am I going to the school tomorrow to find out why he was punished for really good work? Sure.

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Our Family Constitution

Preamble

• Goals of the family:


• To provide for the health, education and welfare of the family.

Type of Government: "Self-proclaimed Monarchy"

• Describe the government:  
  
  
  • Upon marrying, Todd (being the primary source of income) proclaimed himself as King and thus created a Self-proclaimed Monarchy.  Immediately following this marriage, Bridget was named Queen.  
  
  
  • Having all the monies of the Monarchy shared equally between the King and Queen, the ruling class is charged with making all financial decisions of the kingdom.
  
  
  • All (three) subjects of the kingdom (Not counting the dog) are treated in the best way possible within the limitations and confines of the Kingdom.

• Responsibilities of each member of the family:


• Rules and Laws:


• All members of the Monarchy are responsible to adhere to all the laws of the land.  This includes government laws, as well as moral standards.


• All subjects are required to follow the laws laid down by the King and Queen (even if the law contradicts with the desires of the subjects of the Monarchy)


• If you make a statement of action, you must abide by your statement.  


• Food:


• All subjects are provided with all the necessary food by the King and Queen.


• A festival is held once a week or so where the Monarchy treats the subjects to provide an extravagance, if the subjectsÂ’ labors are above par. (and there is sufficient funds in the kingdomÂ’s treasury)


• Education:


• The subjects of the Monarchy are educated in the current standards of the land which they dwell.


• Extra tutoring (homework labs) are provided as necessary


• Homework is handled as best possible but is mandatory.


• Work:


• On a rotating basis, all members of the Monarchy are required to partake in the various work needed to keep the monarchy running smoothly with such a small Kingdom.


• Laundry:  All members are required to separate, wash, dry, and put away all membersÂ’ laundry with extra emphasis on the individual assuring their own laundry is completed.


• Kitchen duty:  The duties are split up to the member(s) who have spare time.


• Cooking is ‘mainlyÂ’ performed by the King. (and sometimes the Queen)


• Dishes are done by all members of the kingdom,


• Livestock:


• All subjects are required to “Walk the dog” as necessary.  The subjects are required to handle exercise the kingdomÂ’s canine during daylight hours or in emergencies as needed.


• The responsibility of feeding the livestock falls to the Queen, whose animal this is.  


• This job is normally delegated to one of the kingdomÂ’s subjects.


• Medical Care:


• All subjects of the realm are provided healthcare (and dental) through the KingÂ’s Medical coverage without charge.

Bill of Rights

• Freedom to:


• Be patriotic to the nation in which they live,


• Speak their mind (respectfully) to anyone within the family without fear of sarcasm, mockery, disdain, or disbelief,


• Be emotional,


• Express their religious views,


• Be Artistic,


• Learn from their mistakes,


• Participate in sports, music, scouting, etcÂ…


• Dispute the laws put down by the King and Queen (but not to break the same laws)



• Freedom from:


• Excessive punishment for crimes against the kingdom and the lands surrounding the kingdom.


• NOTE: this does not exclude being subject to the laws outside the family,


• Relative(s) oversight,


• Age inappropriate materials (scary movies, etcÂ….)

I will try and post the final project if he does not get kicked out of school for doing the work he was assigned. I am not confident that this will blow over but I am hopeful.




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Password changes

Password changes are essential around here. Bridget keeps allowing the kids access to her login on the computer and that is not a idea I agree with at all.

If your now asking why? Then you either don't have kids, or do not have a computer. Kids are the ones who generally just delete things they don't see as important. Sure, Bridget continually asks me the same thing; "Can I remove this?" Things like operating system essentials, and such tend to keep a computer running when you restart it. At least with Microsoft products it does. Service packs, upgrades and the like are notorious for taking up hard drive space so the continued questions of "Why do we need that?" reappear everytime...

1. I am out of town,
2. When ever she buys a new game,

The ability to make my life miserable by rehashing the same computer questions over and over is taking it's toll on me. Things like, "I just want to play my game, why won't it work?" and "You can't expect me to remember these things.....", and the best one, "What is a browser again?" I think you can get a grasp on a smidgen of what I am saying here.

One way I stop things from changing on the computers we own is to set security and change passwords. That way, it only slows down the eventual onslaught of repairs and hours of frustration.

We currently have 5 PCs sitting on the floor of the living room. None work and the reason being is that I can't stand the bitching I hear everytime I try and fix one. I will not throw them out, but I can't fix them either. Now that I have complied with the demands to "just get rid of that monitor, we don't use it" and "what do we need all those cables for anyway?". Now that all the essential parts to repair the systems are gone, there is nothing to do with the major parts except look at them. A computer tower then becomes a place to stack never used piles of fabric for projects for other people or families, unworked boxes of church related sundries which have been donated by others, for other people, and various crapola which can't be addressed due to "a complete lack of cooperation" in what I call "doing it once and it is done" thinking.

You know what I mean. The "put it away when your done", and the "If you get it out, clean it, and put all the parts together so we can find it next time" ideas. This is a big one here. I have yet to find a cord to the rice cooker I bought while back because Bridget could not take the extra 15 seconds to put the cord back with the device. Now, I get blamed that it is missing and that I need to find it because it should be with a box of cords somewhere that used to be in the dinning room? I don't understand that one but you can get what I am driving at here.

but the fact is, I have 5 good systems which I can't fix because I can't get any cooperation from either Bridget or the kids.

So, I just keep making it harder for them to get in and screw things up. It is the only way I have enough time to get the absolute bare essentials done. Life here is not good for someone who was at the top of the food chain in IT, it is just living day-to-day and trying to keep something running so I can keep reading my e-mail and attempting to keep from going stir crazy from petty retributions.

As a note, I have just changed my passwords for blogger and removed everyone elses accounts to stop the potential of someone deleting my entire blog setup. Yes, I think that could happen if left unchecked. Considering all the questions as to "why is that on your blog" and "I don't see why that is on there", I have special reason to password protect my work.

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Lamp posts?

I am working alot on the railroad and do not have a lot of time to post here. I have a solution, but no one listens.

I want Bridget, Richard, and William to post here. They have tons of really great stories, but the will not take the time to do the typing.

Richard is the worst. He has really great ideas, but when it comes to actually doing the typing, he just sits, cries, pouts and cranks out some really bad work. I wonder if I can get his teacher involved with this?

Bridget is another story. Her life both in and out of the Navy is really worth a book. I am going to keep on working on her to start writing it down. I believe that the only way that will happen, is if by some way, she breaks both legs and can't move.

Hopefully, you will see more later on. I will e-mail the teacher tonight.

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Creating a welcome (or your not welcome) screen for your computer.

You can create a message that will appear when you log on to your computer. One of the reasons you should do this is to display a message to everyone who will be atempting to log onto your computer (or computers). My main reason is to warn everyone to keep their paws off my computer. OK, if your not familiar with the registry editor, you probably should not do this. NOTE: I will not be responsible for you screwing up your computer due to inexperience or lack of training. But, if you have the balls to do it, here is how to start up your computer with a message.

If your running WindowsXP, your absolute first step is to do a system restore "backup". If you do not know how to do this first step without help, I recommend you do not persue this change any further.

If your still willing and able to do this change, then continue with the following steps.

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. In the Registry Editor, drill down to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
3. Right-click LegalNoticeCaption, click Modify, type My Windows XP Machine, and then click OK.
4. Right-click LegalNoticeText, click Modify, and then type your message.
5. Close the editor and your new message will appear at every log on.

This tip applies to computers that are part of a domain. For stand-alone or peer-to-peer networks, the custom screen appears just before the Welcome screen.

You may need to have an administrator account on your computer to make changes to the registry. Incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system. At the very least, you should back up any valued data on the computer before making changes to the registry.

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Removing hidden XP Stuff (again)

I get this question at work all the time. If I did computer work at the railroad, I would get paid for it. I get paid for working on everyone's PC so I will just post this one again and let you do it.

Everyone wants to uninstall everything WindowsXP doesn't completely need to run optimally. Problem is, some programs you don't want taking up space hide away. They're next to impossible to find, much less remove.

Don't worry, because there is a Windows tweak that'll help you immediately. I found it back in November 2001 on a TV show called "The Screen Savers". I found it and posted it in my family blog back then, but I thought I should tell you again.

NOTE: This is not a total geek task, but if you have questions, just call me or instant message me with the link in the side frame. I will be happy to help you do this. I just am not really into fixing it if you screw it up without asking for help first!

1. Navigate to C:\WINDOWS\inf

2. Open the sysoc.inf file in Notepad or another plain text editor. If you can't find the inf directory, it's probably hidden. Unhide it.
   1. Click Tools and choose Folder Options.
   2. Under View, enable Show Hidden Files & Folders.

3. In sysoc.inf, look for the section called "components" in XP or "old base components" in 2000. What looks like a bunch of gibberish is actually pretty easy to read. You'll see a component name, followed by an equals sign, followed by a list of parameters separated by commas.

   For example: Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,HIDE,7

4. The deal: the "HIDE" between the two last commas indicates a hidden component. Remove "HIDE" to unhide the component.

   For example: Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,,7

5. Unhide any component you want.

6. Save the file.

7. Reopen the Windows Component Wizard to see your new Add/Remove options!

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I said, "Please!, don't throw it away."

I had previously bought one of the catsup bottle that squirt out of the bottom. They make thing much easier when trying to prepare lunches. The initial purchase of said bottle with contents is about the same as one of the huge bottles you get when you are supplying a small army. So, my reasoning is that I keep the expensive bottle clean, when empty I wash it thorughly and refill it. Thus, everything is clean, inexpensive and a real "non-burdon" for something so trivial as catsup.

Well, about the last time two times I found the bottle in the trash, I pulled it out, cleaned it up, and refilled it. I also told Bridget to please not throw the bottle away since I wanted to refill it. That, and I wisely sitpulated that she would not have to do anything except just tell me if and when it was empty.

Well, once again the bottle is gone. Now I hear "You never told me that" crap again. It is getting really bad when she throws it away then tells me I am a liar.

I feel that my only option at this point is to either record every conversation we have, or write down everything I say to here and give it a a date-time stamp.

I think she would probably find the book, throw it away too, then forget that I ever had a book only for this reason so maybe posting to this blog will be the best way to keep track of things like this.

First I have to remove her access so she can't delete this too.

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Now I don't get this one.

There is now a site, (not that I understand it) but it is for women who get their vehicles stuck, then trying to get them back out.

www.carstuckgirls.com

I was sent this by a woman friend who was pissed. She was mad that they were making fun of women, but it is not a funny or make fun site. If you see it, the site is actually some kind of 'stranded woman in trouble fetish site. I don't get it, but someone must. And all this time, I thought that getting your vehicle stuck was a bad thing.

You know, this might be a fantasy site for 'Tow-truck drivers'?

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