So Long IE

Internet Explorer was not giving up. My attempts of downloading Firefox were futile, because each time I started the download IE would catch up. The best I could do was get halfway through the download, so I just gave up and went to the beach.

Upon my return, I tried again, and IE just wouldn't give up on just needing to close, but I tried once more, and success! Firefox is mine! Not only that, but it works five times faster and doesn't close every time I want to do something. I'm writing this on the Firefox browser. I guess there is a moral or a lesson learned here, and I can only hope the problem is solved.

Internet Explorer Has a Problem

Are you serious?

Microsoft Internet Explorer Encountered a Problem and Needs to Close

#?*!

Not again.

I really need to see this webpage, and I don't want Internet Explorer to close. If you get this kind of message, you know what I'm saying. This engrains a sense of denial that no other computer pop up does. It shouldn't be taken personally, but when it happens over and over again, and you work online, it's hard not to go through a series of emotions and, of course, expletives, each time.

Luckily, Microsoft has a resourceful webpage for the self-troubleshooter, like I am. Designated http://support.microsoft.com/kb/293623, it lists a few things to do to try to resolve this.

Check. I tried disabling the script debugging, but error messages related to something needing to be debugged kept popping up; and then, you guessed it, IE closed.

Check. I downloaded the update to the Pdm.dll, whatever that is, and it
installed. The dreaded close message still appears, but less frequently.

Internet Explorer apparently does not like when I close secondary windows that pop up (though not necessarily pop-ups, but closing those triggers IE's dejection of my desire to use it as well).

The next thing I did was scan with Webroot AntiVirus. A few bad boys were found and deleted, though I don't know whether they were working their evil or just sipping a soda or taking a rest along the information superhighway. They're gone at least.

The scan finished late last night, so we'll see if this insanity continues. If it does, I may command my hard drive to sip up some Firefox. Word on the PCB paths is that it doesn't carry as much of a burden. I may be ready to do that any minute now.

Snow and Ice at 70 Degrees

Well less than a week after 'The Megastorm', 5 days to be exact, it was almost 70 degrees outside. This long, cold, arduous, torturous, miserable winter was finally over, not exactly. It felt good though, so I went for a walk in the park. I hadn't walked in Prospect Park for several months. The scenery is always different. The leaves have not grown yet, but it felt like they could any minute. In most places, it was warm, but in others, the air was strangely cooler. Where the ice was it could still feel either way.

I do not like cold nor ice nor snow, but the chance to observe any of those at near 70 degree temperatures doesn't come around often.

Art Show

I often go out, either to play, drink, or explore. On a night I had not expected to even leave the house, I found myself in the midst of Manhattan. My parent;s freinds Billy and Gail know some people who know some people, and we found ourselves at the NFA gallery. It was tough getting there, then we waited on line in the cold. We almost didn't get in because I didn't have a business card. Shame on me because I'm a freelancer. The one time I really needed I didn't have any left. Somehow we got in, how I do not remember.

Anyway, this was the Not Fade Away show, with pictures of The Beatles and Rolling Stones when they were kids. Well not kids, but quite young - the early days, doing stuff that any person with the knack for doing crazy things at that age would do.


These were good pictures. I enjoyed looking at them. I also enjoyed observing the crowd, several members which deserved the honor of having pictures of themselves displayed at an art show. Unfortunately, most of those came out blurry and the ones that didn't, well, I don't want to piss anyone off.

The Megastorm

Labeled by the media as 'The Megastorm', the little blizzard we got here in NY wasn't exactly the worst we'd ever had. In fact, it didn't come close to The Blizzard of '96 or even some big one a couple of years ago. But with thunderstorms and tornados in the Midwest, snow in the South in places that get it once every few years, and the awesome coastal low of a nor'easter, it was pretty much the typical major winter storm.

Schools in NYC closed for the first time in 5 years, a decision that was made at a few minutes before 6am. I would never have gone anyway, if I was still in school.

It wasn't the foot plus that had been predicted, but Central Park got the official 8 inches in, and 9 1/2 were reported in Marine Park, Brooklyn, not too far from where I live.

Each spring, toward the end of April, little yellow flowers pop out of the ground all over. Dandelions are cute, and I've always associated them with the official arrival of spring weather. This also coincides with the peak of my allergy suffering for the year. After all, these life-forms are weeds. Their adorability does not coincide at all with their purpose, which is to mature and spread their fluffy white seed packets through the air.

The yellow flower, made of all these petals, actually closes up at night. I discovered this on wikipedia, since I'd never gone out at night to look for them, but did notice all the little stalks one night along the nearby boulevard known as Ocean Parkway, in Brooklyn.

Interestingly, and oddly, information online says dandelions have been used to make salad, wine, mosquito repellant, and even a diuretic. They contain antioxidants, but there is also caffeic acid, which has said to possibly be carcinogenic; just what a germophobic hypochondriac such as myself wants to hear! So inside the dandelions, there are carcinogens and antioxidants; these plants have it all.

So I guess this hardens the plants to be able to grow anywhere. The garden in front of my house is filled with gritty, dead soil, but they grow there. They even grow out of cracks in sidewalks, and in the polluted grass along Ocean Parkway - millions of them along the side paths from one end to the other. I wouldn’t be surprised if they can even grow out of nuclear waste and survive. In a worldwide catastrophe, I’m sure dandelions will make for a scenic environment for the cockroaches to thrive in – unless they too have allergies.

FCC to Impose Limits on How Long News Can Be Labeled Breaking News

From Embellished-1 News - October 2006

Washington D.C. – In response to rising viewer sentiment, the FCC has proposed a limit on the length of time a network can feature a Breaking News label onscreen, according to a report released yesterday by the Non-Associated Press.

According to the new FCC law, the limitations will require the Breaking News label to be removed once 5 hours and 15 minutes have passed since a labeled major event, such as those related to war and homeland security issues. For minor issues, such as criminal acts and non-major natural occurrences, the time limit is reduced to 3 hours, providing no major breaks in a story really do occur. Additional regulations state that a breaking news item must be displayed directly below the label, which cannot be placed solely for marketing purposes.

News sources such as CNN and FoxNews, among others, have labeled news elements constantly with the Breaking News label, according to a report from the FCC released last week. A bombing in Baghdad earlier this month had been labeled as such onscreen for up to 27 hours after it occurred. Unconfirmed reports have stated Breaking News labels have remained onscreen for as many as 3 days following an event.

A trans-exclusive clause states that “the [Breaking News] Label cannot be displayed without reason defined [in this document] by the laws set forth by this organization for longer than categorically specified, and failure of compliance will result in the highest penalty put forth by this organization.”

“We are concerned about this viewer sentiment in that the American people need to have accurate and honest reporting. The legitimacy of many major news networks is at stake here,” said FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate.

“I honestly don’t know when anything really happens, they just give me things to read and I do,” CNN’s Wolf Blitzer told Embellished-1 News in an exclusive interview.


This and other Embellished-1 News articles and editions can be seen at www.embellished-1news.com