Over My Shoulder

Percy:  I guess this is life in the tech age.  Always having to look over your shoulder to see who is doing what behind your back.

Taylor: So who is doing what behind you, Percy?  I don't see anyone there.

Percy:  I don't mean physically behind me, Taylor.

Micah:  Then where is the cat hiding?

Percy:  There's no cat.  I'm referring to Windows 10.  Remember all the problems with the uninstalled printer this week after Winton installed Creator?  Mr. Doug finally fixed the printer problem.

Cyndi:  So you can stop looking over your shoulder and relax.

Percy:  Not really.  Last night Jan started to prepare some photos for today's Mousebreath interview and she discovered the text in Photoshop Elements was broken.

Taylor:  How do you break text?

Percy:  That's a good question.

Micah:  What's the answer?

Percy:  I have no idea!  But Microsoft managed to do it.  After a period of panic, Jan decided to check the web to see if anyone else had that problem and found a whole host of Adobe photo program users have had the same problem after Win 10 Creator installed.

Rusty:  So "Creator" is actually a misnomer?

Percy:  Right!  We want to let Adobe users know to expect this.  If the text engine can not initialize after Win 10 Creator installs, the solution can be found on an Adobe forum:  https://forums.adobe.com/message/9458385#9458385.  It does work, and when you restart your photo program, Adobe will replace the file. 

Cyndi:  Oh, good, that means we can finish our interview post and sleep well tonight!

Rusty:  We'd like to introduce Chuck from the blog Eastside Cats.  He lives inside with his sister Angel. The "O" Cats, Sweetie and Patty live outside.  You can read The Eastside Inside Outside Cats at Mousebreath.

Taylor:  I'm so glad Percy can relax now.

Percy:  I can't relax.  Who knows what other software Jan will find broken?

Cyndi:  Well, Jan is just about ready for bed as we write this, so you can relax for tonight, Percy, and go back to looking over your shoulder tomorrow.

Percy:  I'm not sure I can do that.

Micah:  Why not?

Percy:  I've been looking over my shoulder for so long I can't turn my head.  Do any of you know a good chiropractor that makes house calls?


We are joining the Pet Parade hosted by Rascal and Rocco, Basil the Bionic Cat, Barking from the Bayou and Owned by a husky.  

The Psychotic Printer

Marcus:  I guess we know what we're thankful for this week!

Rusty:  Yes, we finally get our computer back!

Marcus:  Back?  Where'd it go?

Rusty:  Jan was hogging it.  How quickly you forget.

Marcus:  I didn't forget.  I didn't know what you were referring to.

Rusty:  She tried to print something Sunday and discovered our printer was uninstalled again when Windows 10 updated to Creator last week.   Only this time, no matter what she did, it would not actually install!  It was there but it wasn't. 

Marcus:  Yes, it was the ghost printer - in the queue but not installed.  She would try to print a document and the lights would start blinking and it would start spewing out test page after test page - or some jibberish.  She had to resort to reusing the same paper and it would keep printing multiples over the old test pages.

Rusty:  And then there was the monitor.

Marcus:  What about the monitor?

Rusty:  It wouldn't turn on at first on Monday and then Tuesday it downright refused.  She untangled all the cords and made sure everything was hooked up properly.  Tried plugging it in different places.  Finally climbed up on Buddy's step stool and got the old monitor and prepared to hook it up.  Suddenly the one we've been using came on.  It's working fine now.

Marcus:  This just hasn't been Jan's week. First thing Monday after picking up poop in the dog pen, she tripped over a step and had to do some fancy "dancing" to not fall on the concrete. In the process, she twisted her already bad foot and ankle, so she's been derelict in her duty to play ball with me or to walk us properly.

Rusty:  But the good news is that while she was untangling cords, she discovered our 4 port usb hub was missing the power cord.  It's been missing for so long she found it packed away on the top shelf of the closet.  Evidently it fell off (again!) and when it was found she had no idea where it went and everything worked - sort of.  I mean, who makes a big heavy plug end with a very thin cord?  Even we furries could figure out it isn't going to stay plugged in.  It had fallen out again yesterday, so Mr. Doug taped the cord to the hub.

Marcus:  It's been that kind of a week.  But things did improve yesterday.  Mr. Doug came by to take Jan somewhere important and afterward he sat at the computer, read some online Microsoft printer tech stuff, and in a while we had a printer again.  It actually prints real words and stops at one copy.    *sigh*  It's almost boring now that the lights don't flash and Jan doesn't have to catch all the papers spewing from the printer.

Rusty:  Thank you for fixing the psychotic printer, Mr. Doug!

Marcus:  Do you think we should thank Jan, too?  She did do some things right this week and she has been entertaining.

Rusty:  Dancing With The Stars on TV is entertainment.  Dancing on the steps or tangling herself in cords is part of what Jan signed on for when she adopted us.  But, yes, we're thankful for her too.


On a different note, we mentioned a while ago that service cats Dezi and Raena's mom Audra has some dental needs. She has found a dentist to do the work and could really use some help to go forward.  Those who know Audra and her cats through her blog or Facebook know her story.  Donation information is in her post.  If you can't donate, please share her fundraiser.  Her blog is DezizWorld.


We are joining Brian for Thankful Thursday.

Boxing on Box Day

Percy: Hooray, it's Boxing Day! I get to box Micah's ears.

Buddy: No, it's not Boxing Day. It's International Box Day.

Percy:  I can still box Micah's ears, can't I?

Buddy:  No, but you can admire him as he sits in a box today.

Percy:  Booooring!  I want to box.

Buddy:  Why do you look sad, Micah?  Percy won't bother you today.

Micah:  Percy isn't bothering me.  It's that we were planning to do a big box post today but I guess now I'm the whole post. 

Buddy:  It's Jan's fault.  She hogged the computer yesterday and we didn't get the computer until bedtime so we had to hurry, but it was more that stupid Winton (Windows 10) Creator update that trashed the post.

Percy:  Yes, Jan got quite the shock when she tried to print an Amazon order and discovered the printer had been deleted again. 

Buddy:  Hours and hours of boredom as we waited our turn.

Micah:  Jan wasn't bored, though.  I'm sure I saw steam coming out of her ears. 

Percy:  That must be why her glasses steamed up.  I thought it was just from the heat.

Micah:  Well, Winton did something more than uninstall the printer when it upgraded this time.  It's been reinstalled numerous times but it doesn't work. 

Buddy:  Percy, if you really want to box someone's ears, forget about Micah.  Please, box the daylights out of Microsoft!

Percy:  Okay, has anyone seen my virtual boxing gloves?

Micah:  Where would you find virtual boxing gloves?

Percy:  Microsoft is trying to take over the world, so they have an app for just about everything.

Buddy:  You mean they have a virtual boxing app?

Percy:  Not yet, but they will after they read this post and realize they're going to have to protect themselves from Percy, the Funny Farmer with the mean right cross.

Micah:  I believe you, Percy, but you've lost a little weight, and it will be hard for anyone to take you seriously if your trunks fall off.

Race You To Sleep

Buddy: It's so late I cant think of anything to be thankful for this week. Can you?

Micah:   I can. I'm thankful for my red scratcher.

Buddy:  But you don't have that scratcher any more.  You shredded the top.  Jan turned it over and you shredded the bottom. 

Micah:  It doesn't matter.  I'm still thankful for my red scratcher ... the one I deaded with my shredding claws.  It was mine, all mine.  None of you had any interest in it.  In fact, I miss it.

Buddy:  Why are you fixated on an old scratcher Jan threw out some time ago?

Micah:  Because I'm tired, you're tired, Jan is so tired she's sliding down the seat of the chair.  We have to be thankful for something! 

Buddy:  Why didn't we do this earlier  when we were still awake?

Micah:  Because Microsoft waited until we were ready to write our post before it suddenly announced it was ready to shut down to upgrade us to Windows 10 Creator.  Now that it has finished and Jan has given it a once over to see what's new, none of us can stay awake long enough to remember what we planned to post.

Buddy:  But surely there must be something more recent to be thankful for.

Micah:  Okay, I'm thankful the upgraded operating system will boot without a hitch after a good night's rest.  At least I hope I am. If not, it's going to be embarrassing when we don't show up in Blogville today.

Buddy:  First, you're thankful for the past, now you're thankful for the future.  Don't you have any current good news?

Micah:  Yes, I'm going to hit publish now and then snore the night away.

Buddy:  Good idea.  I'll race you to sleep.


We're joining the Thankful Thursday blog hop at Brian's Home.

Weapon of Mass Mowing

Percy:  Well, we would have had a post for today, except Jan moved a picture and then spent the next hour searching for it, tried to move it back, and searched again while muttering some no-no words at Winton.

Buddy:  You remember Winton (No Problem).  Oh, how Jan wishes we had reverted back to Win 7!

Percy:  It seems Winton only likes to play on his terms.  Otherwise, he packs up his left click Start menu and right click taskbar and leaves in a huff. 

Percy:  Jan says he's a bully.  She's very happy with the programs we use and doesn't want to use MSN apps to coordinate with other devices.

Buddy:  We don't have other devices.  And we've been talking to ourselves without help since long before Winton arrived.

Percy: We suggested Jan take some karate lessons so she can kick Winton's butt, but she said she swings a mean grass whip to mow the lawn so he'd better watch out!

Buddy:  I wish you hadn't said that.  Now I have this mental vision of Jan racing - slowly because she can't breathe when she walks fast! - down the street after a faceless bully while waving a lawn and garden tool.

Percy:  I can't thank you enough for planting that image in my mind too!

Buddy:  Happy to share with you.  Oh ... you were being sarcastic.

Percy:   Yes.  It's time to shut Winton down for the night.  If I see your legs waving in your sleep, I'll know you're chasing after Jan and her weapon of mass mowing in your dreams.

No Problem

 

Rusty:  Hey, come closer so I can tell you a story without Jan eavesdropping.  Yep, I'm going to tattle on her.

Merci:  Can I help?  I love to tell stories too.

Rusty:  Do you remember the post we did the other day on Winton causing Jan so many problems downloading and IDing her photos?  (Winton in the Doghouse)

Merci:  Winton?  Oh, you mean Win 10, Microsoft's lunatic operating system.  Yes, I remember.

Rusty:  Jan is a bit stubborn and she really fought to download her way - to Picasa on the computer - except Winton absolutely refuses to recognize the computer card reader.  And she found a workaround to ID the photos her way.

Merci:  It's been a bit tense around here since Winton arrived, so we're all relieved.

Rusty:  Monday night she finished the latest batch of photos so we could do a review today.  She was so proud of herself.  And then -

Merci:  And then Jan, who could manage to shoot herself in the foot if she had a gun, discovered some of the photos for the review needed to be re-shot.  No problem.

Rusty:  She moved some things around to make room in the bedroom, grabbed her little camera and ... well, it would look a lot better if she was level with the object.  She doesn't bend well any more, so when she tried to sit on the floor, she fell.

Merci:  No problem.  Now she was at the right level.  She picked up the camera, turned it on and before she could aim, it went dark.  Great.  She crawled across the floor to pull herself up on the bed, found the battery cable and plugged it in to charge the battery.

Rusty.  No problem.  She'd just use the big camera.  But first she had to scoop the litter pan since it would be in the picture and Micah had decided to christen it.  No, she didn't want to try sitting on the floor again.  She pulled over Buddy's 2-step stool and sat down, picked up the big camera, turned it on and -

Merci:  A banner popped up saying "Battery depleted" and it, too, went dark.

Rusty: No problem.  This camera has a spare battery.  She changed the battery, took the photos, downloaded them to the computer, ID'd them, cropped and slapped our name on them, resized them, uploaded them to Picasa online-

Merci:  Where we wrote most of our review post, until Jan suddenly yelled," Stop, we forgot something!"

Rusty:  It's now after 11 PM and we have to wait on something for the review, so we have no post for tomorrow (then) /today (now).  What do we do?

Merci:  No problem. We write about Jan since this is all her fault.

Winton in the Doghouse

Marcus:  Is it safe to come out yet?

Percy:  Not yet.  I'd wait a few days for Jan to calm down if I were you.

Marcus:  A few days?  I could starve to death in here.  And what about when I have to pee and ... um, you know?

Percy:  You might want to hold it.

Marcus:  Hold it?  Hold it where?

Percy:  You're taking your life in your hands if you come out.

Marcus:  But you're out.

Percy:  Ah, but there are more places I can run and hide where you wouldn't fit.

Marcus:  How long do you think it will take Jan to calm down from this weekend?

Percy:  Oh, I'd give it a month.

Marcus:  She sure was angry.  I had to cover my ears in case she said any words on the bad list that we're not supposed to use.  And when she threatened to throw the computer monitor through the window, I figured I was safer in here than out there.  Who's this guy Winton she's so angry with?

Percy:  Not Winton.  Win 10.  It's the latest Microsoft operating system and Jan said she'd like to make the idiot who created it late.  I think that means she'd like to kill Win 10.

Marcus: I think we should help her do it.  She spent most of the weekend trying to figure out how to download photos from her camera so we could post.  Win 10 won't let her just pop a card into the reader to download photos and trying to download to Picasa, which used to be a snap, now takes a looooooooooooooooong time!

Percy:  She finally found a Microsoft program already on the computer that will download faster - one she wanted to uninstall - but she can't add tags (plural) with it, so she has to use something else to tag.  Then when she tried to move June photos from the May file, all the June photos disappeared and it took a long time to find them.  And the "fun" had only started.

Marcus:  If this was a fun weekend, I must have missed something.  We didn't get to write the post we had planned.  Jan missed dinner and was so hungry she chewed nails.  She yelled at someone named Horse's Rear End because he doesn't understand that NO means NO and she doesn't want the crap trying to be forced on her.  I guess that means we're out of poop bags.

Percy:  Well, look at it this way, Marcus.  There is one ray of sunshine for you this weekend.

Marcus:  I'm trying to hide in a crate.  What could be good about that?

Percy:  For the moment, you're not the one in the doghouse.  That guy Winton is.

Invisible Videos

Cyndi:  Hello, hello, anyone out there?  This is Cyndi reporting from safely within her green cave.

Percy:  Hello, hello, reporting ... green cave?  What language is that?

Rusty:  I think it's Confused.  As in, Cyndi had too much nip after breakfast.

Cyndi:  I did not.  I was just trying to see if anyone was paying attention.

Percy:  You have our attention.  What is there to report?

Cyndi:  This.

Rusty:  It looks like a tree.

Cyndi:  That's because it is a tree.  A lopsided old oak with dead branches sticking out everywhere.  It reminds me of Jan's hair when she wakes up in the morning.  Not dead, just sticking out everywhere.

Percy:  And we're posting this because ...?

Cyndi:  Because Jan likes the tree.  And because we don't have anything else to post today.

Rusty:  But we have lots of pictures to post.

Percy:  Actually, Cyndi's right.  Jan upgraded to Windows 10 Saturday.  It took from 5:22 to 8:02 and then she spent 3 hours trying to close windows and lock doors because she didn't want it to let in the clouds.

Rusty:  I think you mean she didn't want to use the Cloud features so she turned them off until/unless she figures them out. 

Cyndi:  We know a lot of you have upgraded.  How do you like it?  We went from 7 to 10 and there are some big differences.

Percy:  One of the things that has Jan frustrated is that she was used to using Windows Explorer to view her photos and to tag, title and comment on them in batches after she downloaded them from the camera.  Win10 doesn't have that feature and she hasn't yet figured out how to do that again.

Rusty:  We have hardly been able to visit because Jan has been hogging the computer.  She downloads photos into Picasa on the computer but not our new vidoes because they're invisible to Picasa (and to us) on the camera.  Both her Sony cameras can only make HD or MP4 movies.

Cyndi:   HD can be seen and played in Picasa, but not MP4.  MP4 videos are invisible.  She finally found  a photo program installed some time ago that downloaded mp4, but then she had to turn detective to find where it had hidden the videos. 

Percy:  We have had to go without treats while all the attention has been going to the computer.  We would be jealous but Jan keeps threatening to send Win 10 to the shredder. 

Rusty:   If you have a suggestion how Jan can tag and title her pictures in batches again, please let us know or we'll have to keep posting the picture of the tree. 

Cyndi:  I guess we should be thankful Jan hasn't blown up the computer.  Yet. 

Percy:  We're exaggerating a bit.  There are some good things about Win 10.  But ... helllllllp! 

NOTE:  Thanks for the suggestions so far, but the problem I am having is how to tag, etc, photos in batches.  Cortana, One Drive, etc, etc, etc, etc were turned off Saturday night.   I can't believe MS took away that function.  Finding and remembering where things are takes time - lots of time.

Join Pepi Smart Dog and friends for the Thankful Thursday blog hop.