Nightingale

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Posts posted by Nightingale

  1. Quote

    this is the way forward.

    especially good is to get your computer set up the way you want, programs installed etc, then save an image of it onto a spare partition or ext hard drive.

    save your data to somewhere other than the windows partition.

    then if it starts acting fruity you just restore the computer from the image. job done.



    Oooooh! I like! Been meaning to pick up an external drive.

  2. My usual response when dealing with windows errors is if I can't fix it quickly and easily, format it and start over, and grab your personal files from your backups. Usually faster than trying to troubleshoot it and a lot less headache. I did tech support on windows machines when I was in college, and I'm so over it.

    I have a lot less patience with windows than most, though.

  3. Thank you for your service. It's much appreciated.

    Just my take on it from watching some video footage: If a five star general didn't consider failing to return a salute when acting as a civilian CIC disrespectful, I think that says a lot about the situation. Reagan and both Bushes were former military. Clinton and Obama were not. Neither Clinton nor Obama seem comfortable with salutes, probably because they are civilians, and I'm guessing they know that they aren't as sharp at it as the military folks and probably look a bit silly, since they weren't doing it for years and it's not a natural response.

    Reagan asked his military advisor if he could return the salutes of the military who were saluting him, and the response was that he was the CIC and could do what he wanted. So he started saluting. Before that, nobody had done it. Reagan broke a 200 year old tradition of acknowledging that the POTUS was a civilian CIC.

  4. Quote


    Your position is accurate. Some Vietnam Veterans weighed in on Lloyd's blog post with basically the same conclusion. That is, Lloyd is not familiar military protocol and the POTUS is free to behave as he chooses during such ceremonies.



    It's an embarrassment to have someone with such awful research skills call himself an attorney. I found my sources in about thirty seconds on google. If you're going to write an article and post it on the internet for the whole world to see, looking up the military salute protocol isn't that hard, even if you don't have internet access. As this guy's got a blog, I'm going to assume he's got an internet connection and a keyboard and at least some sort of idea how to use them.

    If a former five star general didn't salute when he was president, Lloyd has no business criticizing a civilian for doing exactly the same thing.

  5. The other part of the article seems to be inaccurate too.

    "Obama and the medal recipients walked together toward a large flowered wreath, bearing the words, "Medal of Honor Day," that soldiers carried on a stand and placed between them and the Tomb. Obama then placed his hands on the wreath. As a drum roll began, and Taps was played, the president the four heroes placed their right hands on their hearts."

    http://www.militaryinfo.com/news_story.cfm?textnewsid=2902

    "President Ronald Reagan began the practice of saluting members of our armed forces in 1981. Such salutes are generally not rendered by one not in uniform, even active duty service members.

    No American president before Reagan had ever returned a salute, including former five-star Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower."
    http://www.military-money-matters.com/presidential-salute.html



    A salute is a MILITARY sign of respect. Obama, while the commander in chief, is a CIVILIAN.

    Military regulations appear to state that a salute is not required when one is wearing civilian clothes. Therefore, Obama would not be required to salute, but it appears that as CIC, he MAY salute if he chooses to do so, given the change in tradition made by Reagan. A while back, Obama was heavily criticized by Fox News and some military blogs for doing so during the arrival of a military casket. Perhaps he chose not to do so at this occasion in an attempt to avoid controversy at this important ceremony.


    Frankly, I can't stand Obama, and I think he's one of the worst presidents we've had recently. That said, this is stupid. There are so many legitimate things to criticize him for I don't understand why people continue to make things up. It undermines the credibility of Obama's critics and causes people to stop listening.

  6. When you get home, hug your wife, hug your kid, be glad your daughter's friend broke her arm and not her neck, and perhaps this would be a good evening to order a pizza, stay in, and enjoy your family. From an outside perspective, looks like you've got things pretty good. :)

  8. Quote



    and there will never likely be anything like that "on the market".

    Metal gun pens on the other hand can be easily made and inconspicuous through a security check point... don't really need to be "on the market".

    Not sure that would ever pose a real threat, just sayin. But I bet it wouldn't be too difficult to get ~3 gun pens past screening.



    You might be able to make it inconspicuous, but the bullet is still going to set off the metal detector.

    The thing is, all of this is security theater. It's not going to accomplish anything, simply because we don't pick the target. They do. If we make our planes more secure, they're just going to blow up everyone waiting in line at the security checkpoint.

  9. It looked like they were implying that they were using the x-ray because current technology was insufficient to detect various things, guns being one. I was just saying they can cross guns off the list, because a metal detector will find those just fine.

  10. About 20 minutes before I have to leave.

    I pack really light. When I went to Italy for 9 days, I had two travel dresses (made from a special fabric that can be washed in hotel sinks and dry wrinkle free!), a dressy scarf, a light jacket, underwear, my choir dress and music, walking shoes, performance shoes, and my music, a toothbrush, hairbrush, lipstick and eyeshadow (and I only brought the makeup because I was performing. otherwise it stays at home). And the yoga pants/tank top I wore on the plane. It all fit in a carry-on bag, and it was still half empty.

    I learned a long time ago that if you pack it, you have to carry it, and when you overpack trying to plan for everything, you don't use 90% of the stuff you bring.

    My roommate heard that it might rain when we were in Italy. He brought a raincoat, umbrella and boots. It rained for about an hour, and his rain stuff was back at the hotel. I bought an umbrella for five euro. He got wet because he refused to buy one because he had one back at the hotel and was too stubborn to share mine. :D

    When I went to Hawaii, I carried everything I needed for a week in my school backpack. My mom had two suitcases. I made her put everything out on her bed and got it down to one suitcase (you do NOT need six pairs of shoes for a seven day trip to hawaii! You need two. sandals and walking shoes). She still didn't end up using 2/3 of what she dragged with her.

  11. Quote

    Quote

    Quote

    plastic or ceramic guns



    Haven't we been through this before? The damn things don't exist.

    .



    What makes you think that?




    While there may be some bizarre prototype out there that nobody's ever heard of, there's nothing on the market today that would even remotely qualify as a "plastic gun" that can pass through a metal detector.

    Most people think of Glocks when they think of "plastic guns", but while parts of the frame are not metal, the slide, barrel, spring, firing pin, and many other parts of the gun are definitely metal, and this also goes for other "tupperware" type guns like Kahr and H&K. While the plastic frame is nice because it makes the gun lighter, it certainly doesn't make it invisible to a metal detector.

    Plastic and ceramic knives, on the other hand, do exist.

  12. Quote

    FYI: Unless you pay the extra fee per month ASPCA will not cover a condition when you renew. It is now considered a preexisting condition.

    My Pup has been insured since day one and I wouldn't go a day without it unless I had a substantial amount of money that I could go without. Yes it is a cost, but it provides piece of mind that I can provide her the best medical treatment available (Including genetic and hereditary problems such as hip dysplasia or a PTLO)



    I know. We have the continuing care option.

  13. Quote

    Hope your cat is doing better. But as a Vet, apart form relieving the urethral obstruction and some fluids the rest of the procedures you described were helpful but you could have waited to see if they became actually necessary before paying to have them done. If you ask most Vets what needs to be done now and what can wait, they will tell you.

    Hopefully they also told you that you need to keep your kitty on a urinary diet like Science Diet C/d. That problem usually reoccurs. One other option that I didn't see mentioned in controlling expenses is that you could always marry a Vet. Worked for my wife:)



    That post was from 2004. The bulk of the cost was the procedure to unblock him, the late night emergency vet visit, and the bloodwork since we didn't know how long he'd been blocked as I'd been out of town for a day or so before that. I don't remember the actual cost breakdown, but we're in a pretty expensive area of CA, so everything tends to cost more overall, also, since rents are higher. I'm not sure they even charged me for the x-ray.

    He was on CD until we lost him to cancer in 2008. Was a happy, healthy cat right until the cancer and we never had a recurrence of the urinary tract problem.

  15. Quote

    Anyone a musician here?

    What's the best way to learn music theory? Get a book? Sign up for classes? Find a college that has structured classes?



    Assuming you don't already play an instrument, take piano lessons. You will learn how to read music, both treble and bass clef, you will learn time signature, key signature, and rhythm. All of which will translate to pretty much any instrument you want to play (yes, even guitar... if you understand keys and notes, learning to read tab and how chords are put together comes much faster) and give you a very solid grounding in basic theory.

    Learning theory in the abstract is very difficult. When you're learning it as you learn to play, it's much easier to absorb naturally, and when you get the explanations a bit later on in more advanced classes, it'll be kind of like when you learned subjects and verbs in elementary school. You already knew how to speak, so when someone gave you the rules later on, they made sense because you had something to apply it to.

    If you already play an instrument, take a composition class, for the same reason. If you really want a solid grounding in theory and you already play, this is where to be.

  17. Quote

    how to fix my problem?


    It is a thermostat fight again and I am tired of playing the damn game of I make it cooler and she makes it hotter. A medical office should not be 80 damn degrees!! >:(



    Just out of curiosity, is there a reason doctors offices are always freezing? The patients aren't always in a position to put on more layers.

  20. Quote

    I got free insurance coverage for 3months through the AKC when I bought and registered Boomer (my 4month old English Bulldog). It covers accident/injury stuff but not general/preventive care.I'm socking money away here and there for all his expenses but I might look into insurance after the AKC coverage runs out.Whether its insurance or just saving up out of pocket it is very important to be proactive for your furry friends.:)



    My roommate and I both have ASPCA insurance, and we've been very happy with it. They have plans that start at just the accident/emergency coverage, or plans like the one I've got that covers routine care too. While I don't really need them to cover routine care, I picked that plan because the limits were higher on the accident/emergency coverage.

  21. Quote

    And does she actually become Queen? I thought it was some other title since she's not a blood descendant.



    Okay, if I've got this straight (and probably not, I'm American, so if someone can correct/add, it would be appreciated), her title would probably be Queen Consort, which means she is queen (king's wife), but does not inherit the throne upon the death of the king and doesn't have any military or political power. A Queen Regnant (a queen in her own right) would inherit the throne upon the death of the king, or rules on her own to begin with. A queen consort is never queen in her own right, but sometimes she can be a regent and control the kingdom if her husband dies and her child is still a minor.

    The husband of a reigning queen is usually referred to as Prince or Prince Consort, because he will not become King upon the death of the Queen. They are sometimes called King Consort, but this doesn't seem to be quite as common.

    There are always exceptions... Queen Elizabeth II's husband, while he has the title of Prince of the United Kingdom, has not officially been designated as either Prince Consort or King Consort, IIRC, and Charles' wife Camilla will be known as Princess Consort, not Queen Consort, when he is king.

  22. Quote



    So, by your above statements, one can easily come to the conclusion that you agree or, at least, do not disagree with what the atrocities that the muslim community has taken part in.



    Looked to me like his point was that NONE of it was okay, no matter what deity people claimed was on their side.

  24. With the recent advances in vet care, $1000 doesn't go very far. Turns out that the kitty I posted about above was considered "uninsurable" by VPI due to the above problem. I didn't know better and didn't keep looking, and he got cancer later on, which was totally unrelated. It had an odd presentation and was difficult to diagnose, so it ended up running me somewhere around $10K. Most of the cash went to diagnostic stuff over a period of about two months, and only the last $3K or so was getting the final diagnosis and treatment. If I'd done my research beforehand, ASPCA insurance would've covered 80 percent of that for me. $2000 is a lot easier to handle than $10,000.

    When I got my critters, I took on a responsibility to them, and when doing what's best for them conflicts with doing what's best for my wallet, they win. If insurance helps me make sure that I can do what's best for them, that's what I'm going to do.
    As the above post said, my point was mainly that people need to plan ahead because vet care is a lot more expensive than a lot of people realize until they see the bill.

  25. Quote



    My advice would be more one of "When in doubt, check it out." My angel seemed to be using his CatGenie more often than usual, but he was otherwise acting normal. It was not until the evening we spotted a very muted pinkish spot in his bowl and--after Googling male cats and the possibilities--we were not going to wait until morning for our regular vet to open.





    We have a cat genie too, and the only downside to it is that you can't monitor for changes because the cat genie takes care of it. So, once every month or so, I put out a pan of this stuff, as a bit of a checkup.

    http://www.petproductnews.com/industry_profiles/health-meter-cat-litter.aspx