too good to be true

This is great. I just got a bill from my bank for some unpaid interest on my line of credit. It just so happens that I paid it down completely last month, but somehow I have been charged interest on monies owning for some small number of days. I owe the bank... 11 cents. Yes. Eleven cents. Ten cents plus one cent. A dime and one penny. Two nickels and a dime.

You get the point.

But wait, it gets better.

Last year, I believe right after the wedding, someone tried to hack my paypal account. Long story short, the credit card associated with my paypal account (a VISA card through guess who, yes. my bank) came up for renewal at the same time. I didn't activate the new card so my paypal account would be useless, and now the account is dormant. Well, I just got a notice from the VISA-Bank people saying they screwed up in August last year, and they overcharged me by the breathtaking amount of.... 15 cents. Yes. 15 whole cents.

So do the math. I am ahead 4 cents.

So now try to figure out if I will ever see my 4 cents. I am betting 'no way in hell', but... read on.

The way I see it, I won't be able to pay the 11 cents I owe online because I think the minimum amount you can move around is $1.00. And the credit card with the 15 cents owed to me is dormant. So even though I should reap 4 cents out of this deal, I expect it will cost me $80.00 to reactivate the credit card, and at least $1.00 to pay the 11 cents online.

So is it worth it to go to all the effort?

No.

But, I am going to go into the bank and make a serious attempt at getting my 4 cents. Hopefully I won't get arrested...

kittens kittens kittens

Someone sent me a link to this website. The graphic at the top left is really cute. And alot of the pictures are of course cute. Needless to say, I had to upload a pic of Edward the Cat to see how well he would contend in the KittenWar. Right now he is winning more than he is losing, so I guess he's doing just fine!

http://kittenwar.com/kittens/41033/

this is too funny

I love goats. I don't know why, but I do. But this, this is just too funny:

http://www.qarxis.com/Fainting_Goats

konfabulator no more!

Well the konfabulator is now the Yahoo! WidgetEngine.

Whatever.

What is cool is that with the new release there are some neat new features I haven't got a clue how to use yet. But it gives me something to do and keeps me off the streets.

I do know that going forward my widgets will require version 3.0, so if you want to use them, go get the new version from here.

i hope i look like this guy!

Damn! That is one fine-lookin' Donkey!

another knofabulator widget

This widget connects you up to all the Canadian CBC Internet radio stations. When you first install and run it, you will see a blue bar. Just right-click and select 'Widget Preferences'. You can set you radio station and your font preferences. Close that and it will connect. To disconnect (and reconnect) just double-click the widget.

Get it here.

the konfabulator

A coworker sent me a link to something called the konfabultor yesterday. Being the mindless drone that I am, I followed the link.

Turns out this konfabultor thing is pretty cool. First, it's made by Yahoo! and isn't spyware. Second, it is a small shell-like application that sits in your System Tray that runs 'widgets'. These widgets are like little applets that run different little utilities and programs. The cool thing about konfabulator is that it runs on XML and Javascript, so you can write your own 'widgets' and use them within the konfabulator shell. There is also documentation provided by the konfabulator team to show you how to create your own.

There are lots and lots of widgets made by other konfabulators, so you might not have to lift a finger. On the other hand, if you like to mess around with things, you can probably find a widget that is close to what you want, then you can customize it for yourself. I customized a widget designed to retrieve headlines via RSS from BBC Technology so that it would retrieve headlines from the CBC.

You can download my CBC TopStories RRS widget here. My web space provider won't allow the .widget file extension, so just save the .zip file to your widget folder, and rename it with the .widget extension (e.g. CBC TopStories RSS.widget).

Here is what my widget looks like when it's running:








I know it doesn't look like much, but once you see some of the features built into it by konfabulator, you might change your mind.

more about root canals

Well the whole job is done, now. Well, mostly done.

I had the temporary filling removed, and a more permanent filling placed. Unfortunately, I had to have a small post installed in the tooth to provide more structural integrity for the tooth. All this was done of course with local anaesthetic, so I didn't feel a thing.

Next year I will get a crown fitted on the tooth. Not sure why that isn't happening now. On the other hand, I have had enough of being in the dentist's chair for now...