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Inauguration Invite

I got this official-looking invitation in the mail a couple of weeks ago from the “Presidential Inaugural Committee”.   I have no idea why I got this invitation.  Do they just send out a bunch of these randomly?  I did volunteer for Obama’s campaign, maybe all volunteers got one, I don’t know?   But it sure is nice and a neat keepsake of this historic day.  I only wish I could actually be there in person, but I’m sure Barack would understand that I’d need more than a couple of weeks notice in order to pull together a team to care for the boys while I’m gone;-)

I’m so excited that January 20th is finally here!  I’m also a bit nervous.  I hope all goes well today.  How on earth will the secret service be able to protect him in that huge crowd?  It sounds like a security nightmare to me.  The election of Barack Obama is a giant step forward toward equality for all, but sadly we are not there yet.  There are still some crazy bigots out there.  I don’t know how one person can hold up to all the stress and expectations that Barack is under now and for the next 8 years.

I can’t be there in person, but I plan to watch the events on TV and also do what Barack has asked us all to do, make an ongoing commitment to do what I can to serve my fellow citizens.  For me this is a renewed commitment to offer support and resources for families of children with special needs and do what I can to build a better world for children and adults with disabilities, a world in which people with disabilities are welcome members of society and given the supports they need to live a healthy and productive life.

Barack is such an extremely gifted person and his timing on the political stage could not be better.  We are lucky to have such a talented person willing to serve our country.  But he can not do this alone.  We all need to join him and do what we can to work toward peace, to save our planet, create universal health care, and support the civil rights of all Americans, regardless of race, religion, sexual preference, or disability.  Our country has been moving in the wrong direction for the past eight years.  With so much at stake, now it’s time for all of us to make a positive difference in our community, in our country and hopefully in our world as well.

Happy Inauguration Day!  Here’s to a new beginning!

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Uncategorized | cindy | | 1 Comment |   Barack Obama historic inauguration Invitation January 20 Joe Biden presidential Volunteer

Grafton Community Ice Skating Party

Lake Ripple is one of Eric’s favorite places in Grafton.  For years I’ve been meaning to get him out onto the frozen lake, but I never seemed to get around to it.  Part of the reason is because I’m paranoid about water.  Not for myself, but for Eric.  Putting a kid in a wheelchair on water is like attaching an anchor around his waist.  If anything bad happens it would be just about impossible to save him.  We took him out on a schooner last summer.  He loved it, but I was just glad to get him back on land!

Yesterday was the annual Grafton Community Ice skating Party on the lake.  Since it has been extremely cold recently, I thought this would be a good and safe time to take Eric out on the ice.  The biggest challenge was the rather big, steep hill we had to climb down to get onto the lake.  Aaron and I made it down OK, but halfway down I was thinking, this is really dumb, how will I ever get him back to the van!  But there was no turning back at that point… Luckily, there where plenty of people around and when I was ready to leave, I asked three strong guys who were hanging around the bonfire if they would help me out and they did.  I had Eric in his jogger, which made it easier.   Each one took a wheel and dragged him up the hill.  It was worth it though as Eric was so excited to go “on” Lake Ripple and he will be talking about this for days.

Here is a photo of the twins. Aaron calls that hat his “Fargo” hat!  Of course, Aaron has his video camera with him in order to get some “stock footage”.

Eric could not believe that he was out in the middle of the lake!

A nice bonfire provided by the Grafton Recreation Department.  OK, this fire did make me nervous.  Why doesn’t it burn through the ice?  I went over and asked one of the guys tending the fire and he said, “I have no idea!”  That was not very reassuring.  However, I knew that they did this bonfire thing every year, so I could only assume that we were safe… I tried googling it when we got home, but couldn’t find an answer. If anyone knows why it’s OK to light a fire on ice, please leave a comment.

Getting dark and cold!  Aaron warming up by the fire.

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Family and Friends Local Community | cindy | | 3 Comments |   bissell bonfire Grafton Lake Ripple MA Skating Party twins

twitter

It’s tough keeping up with all the latest trends in technology, especially on the web. So many sites and so little time… and now with the explosion of social networking sites it’s just about impossible to keep up. I try as many new sites as I can and stick with the ones I like, until I get tired of them or until they disappear.

Aside from my therapy (disability-related listservs and message boards), my first real web addiction was TextAmerica (TA), which unfortunately died in 2007. TA was a moblogging site, which focused on uploading camera phone photos. The IT guru from TA has started a new site called fragmob, which I use, but not nearly as much as I used TA. I basically just upload my camera photos to fragmob. After TA went under, I moved my online photos to Flickr, which I like. Most of my TA friends also moved to Flickr, but still it’s not the same as the old TA. I enjoy taking and sharing photos, which is the main draw to Flickr.

For social networking, I’m currently on FaceBook. It is definitely a class above MySpace (which I don’t like at all). I don’t spend a whole lot of time on FaceBook. But these days, having a FaceBook page is almost as necessary as having an email address. And it is a great way to network and reconnect with old friends.

For blogging, I like WordPress. The nice thing about WordPress – in addition to wordpress.com – is that the program that powers the blog is an open source program that can be downloaded and installed on any domain. When I first set up my personal blog back in 2006, the fun for me was figuring out how to install and set up a self-hosted blog. It was a bit of a learning curve, as it involved some PHP, CSS and MYSQL stuff. Once my blog was actually up and running, I really didn’t have much to say. Although when the presidential primaries started heating up, I seemed to find plenty to talk about.

I’m getting way off track. I wanted to talk a bit about Twitter. I’ve been hearing a lot of twitter about Twitter. This service is unlike other social networks, because it limits posts to just 140 characters. Short and tweet!

Why only 140 characters? Because that is the limit for cell phone SMS and the service started more as a way to post text messages to the web.

What can you say in 140 characters? Often times, not much.

The idea is to answer the basic question “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less. The cool thing about twitter is that you can send your “tweets” right from your cell phone, from your desk top or from twitter.com. Your messages are then sent to people who subscribe to your tweets. Another cool thing is that you can have your tweets automatically forwarded to your FaceBook wall or your blog via widgets. My tweets (or brain farts, as I call them) are in the sidebar to the right of this blog.

Is anyone really interested in my daily activities or random thoughts? It doesn’t really matter to me, as long as it’s fun. Will I become a twitterholic? We shall see…

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Technology | cindy | | 3 Comments |   cindy_tc facebook Flickr Fragmob myspace social networking textamerica Twitter twitter.com

Rick Rolled

RickRolling is a fake video link. Instead of getting the video you were looking for, you get Rick Astley’s “Never Going to Give You Up”. This started as a joke. It is considered funny because of the over-the-top dancing in this music video from the 80’s. Now, the video has gone viral (viral video: widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing) and it’s all over the internet. If you’ve spent much time on youtube, you’ve probably been “rick rolled”.

Here’s the rick roll video:

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Technology Video | cindy | | 2 Comments |   lightscameraaaron Rick Astley rick roll rickroll rickrolled viral video youtube “Never Going to Give You Up”

HP all-in-one

About a year ago, well actually 13 months ago, I bought an HP Photosmart, all-in-one printer C5280. One of the reasons I bought an all-in-one was to save space, rather than a separate printer, scanner and fax machine, I have them all in one. The problem with this plan is that if something goes wrong, the whole thing needs to be replaced. That’s what happened to me this week. 30 days after the manufacturer’s warranty ran out, the bulb on the scanner died. Oh how I hate dealing with tech support, but since I thought I was still in warranty, I gave them a call. Like just about all computer-related tech support, they treat you like an idiot. Granted, the average user is ignorant when it comes to computer trouble shooting. I’m thankful that I am able to fix most hardware and software problems myself. But when there is a hardware failure and the product is under warranty, I have no choice but to deal with tech support.

Even though the scanner bulb was obviously shot, they still make you jump through a bunch of hoops before they finally tell you, “I regret to notify you that the issue stands unresolved and appreciate your efforts to troubleshoot the issue. Yes, the issue is with the scanner bulb.” And of course my warranty had just expired; always the way. But, they tell me I can call and get a refurbished upgrade at a substantially reduced price and I can return the broken machine in the same box. Whenever possible, I prefer email support to the telephone, but I had to call to give them a credit card number.

I was happy with the C5280. The ink seemed to run out very fast, but other than that it worked fine, until the bulb went. This machine is no longer available, so they are sending me a refurb HP PS C6280 for $79 with free shipping and a one year warranty (they usually cost around $150). Certainly better than buying a new machine.

So, I call to give them my credit card info over the phone and the girl tells me that if I just extend my warranty for a year, the replacement will be free. Even better $60 instead of $79! She charges my credit card $60 to extend the warranty for another year, then she connected me to the order department to order the replacement. When I get the guy on the phone, he tells me that what I bought was one year of telephone tech support, which does not cover replacements. Grrrr. I don’t need tech support, I need a bulb. Anyway, after going around and around with them, mind you I’m talking to some guy in India on a crappy Internet phone line and I can barely hear him. My credit card gets charged again, this time for the $79 refurb and he will hopefully credit me for the $60 phone support, which I didn’t want. Why is it that the money comes out immediately, but it takes 2 weeks to put money back into my account? I’ve never understood that.

Well, the refurb HP PS C6280 is on it’s way. We shall see how that goes, and if I get my $60 back. If you put a price tag on my time and aggravation, it probably would have been cheaper to just go out and buy a new machine. I hate dealing with tech support.

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Technology | cindy | | Leave a comment |   all-in-one C5280 C6280 HP Photosmart scanner bulb tech support technical support