The planned service

The service has been planned, although some of it is dependant upon items being available. Also, I probably have some of this wrong.

1. They'll play a recording of my MIL singing an aria she recorded (on a 78!) when she was young. She was an opera singer in her heyday. Then they'll play the flipside.
2. The pastor will speak.
3. The family will get up and sing "I Shall Be Released" click that link to hear the song.
4. More pastor
5. Dave (my BIL who is a pastor) will sing The Lords Prayer. (I didn't link this one since I think everyone who reads this knows that song.) Dave has a beautiful tenor.
6. maybe others will speak?
7. close with Let the Weeping Cease. Click the link and then click on #13 to hear this beautiful song.

I'm pretty happy music will be so prominent. The family is so musical. I'm basically the only one who doesn't have a voice. Oh, I can sing on pitch but I'm not a singer. Everyone else is. I hope everyone can keep it together.

Jean: April 11, 1924 - June 29, 2009

My MIL Jean died yesterday. She was 85. She was my friend, the grandmother of my children and a great mother in law.

She had the biggest love for her family and doted on every one of us. She was the glue for the entire family that's for sure.

The last 5 years were tough on her. Having Parkinsons was tough. She lost a lot of control in her life because of that disease. It was tough on all of us and all of us dealt with it in different ways.

From the very first time I came into the family I've been a part of it, that's how much she and Chuck loved their kids. Me and my BIL always felt like we were a precious part of the whole. I know so many people who never have that closeness and that is a sorrowful thing.

She's got the most incredible kids. I know, I married one and am SIL to her other kids. We ALL get along. Our children have always had a great relationship with her, they'd be lesser people without her influence.

I can't say enough about her. She was the nicest, sharpest, funniest woman and I'm proud I was her daughter in law. I wish all of our parents were still with us, each one of them gave me and mine something I won't ever get again and I miss them all.

I know she knows how much we loved her. I know she's finally free of the restraints Parkinsons put upon her. I know I miss her, have missed her since she fell ill the last couple of months. I'm really, really happy I got to talk to her last week when she woke from her semi-comatose state. I'm glad I got to tell her I love you and she got to tell me that she loved me.

Hug your mothers, hug your in laws, think of them often, they know whether you're physically there or not that your love always holds them dear.

xo Jean. I love you.

Created landscape

I made this pendant using a magnetic strip, paper, dried rose petals, acrylic paint, alcohol inks, and gel medium. I quite love it. LOL. I need to add tar gel and I'll be done with it (other than figuring out what kind of necklace to use for it. Hmmmmm, ball chain? Ribbon? Beads?

A chance encounter

Many years ago me and the boyfriend (who is now my husband) lived in a 2 story victorian house with 2 roommates. I think I lived there from the time I was 21.5 to 23 years old.

Rob and Patsy were their names. They were not a couple, they had their own rooms while the hub and I shared a room.

For the most part we all got along.

I don't remember what happened when we got into some kind of row with Rob. The hub says it was over us being messy and kicking us out. I don't have any idea anymore. I guess it wasn't important to me. There are other things I remember about the house: sitting on the couch that faced the fireplace, the glass front window, little window latches on the windows, the bathroom that had a window into the hallway, our upstairs bedroom. I also remember alot of situations with people in the house but don't remember the arguement.

Whatever, we moved out and got our own place. I don't remember talking to Rob after that. I'm sure we saw him around town but we apparently kept all the friends at the time and he sort of faded into the past.

Yesterday we went to a party. For a woman who has been here in town forever. I met her about 10 years ago because she's the mom of a very good friend of mine. We've noted that we know alot of the same people from 25-30 years ago but only in the last 10 years have we gotten to know one another. It's funny how sometimes we are out, we see someone we know and that person knows both of us from way back when.

Last night I'm sitting there talking to a table full of people and a woman walks up to me and hands me a napkin with a name and phone number on it. It's Rob's name and number.

OMG! The woman tells me she recognizes me and the hub from photos taken 28 years ago. She says she's known Rob since he was 15 and he always talked about us and always wants to know if she's seen us at various parties when she comes back to town. She tells me: Call him.

How funny that he's been trying to keep tabs on us for all those years. How funny that he still talks about us to this woman. How funny that my friend knows the woman who gave me the number who knows Rob so well. How funny that she recognizes us from photos from when I was a youngster in the big scheme of things.

We live in a town of 300,000. What a small world that we'd be at a party where a complete stranger to me would make this connection.

Pretty wild.

Jury torture

Jury duty today was torture. I'm good if I get into a court room but if I have to sit around all day, it's torture.

Only 150 of us called today (a big change from the reported 1,200 on Monday). There are 2 large room that the potential jurors can hang out in and it was not full today with only 150.

A large group of maybe 50 got chosen to go to a courtroom on Monday. So they left about 10 a.m. but they have to report back on Monday. The second group called had to fill out a survey so the court knew how long their work paid for jury service.

We had a 2 hour lunch. I went home since I'm only a few miles away from the courthouse and it saved me money to eat at home.

The next group of people were excused. The room is thinning.

The next group of 50 is chosen for dept 33.

The next group I'm called for dept 56 but they don't have word when we'll get into a courtroom. We have to wait for word.

The group of 50 for dept 33 is excused. No actual courtroom for them. They cheered when they left.

Now there are 25 of us. My butt is tired from sitting. I've got 2 books with me. I finish one and start the other. This is what the one room looked like after most everyone but the 25 left.



You could practically hear crickets. There are more people than what is shown in the cell phone pic, we were all spread apart. We're told we must fill out a questionairre.

Dang it, it's a dozen questions about sexual abuse. I am not happy about that. I'm ok with sitting on a jury but not really wanting to do a sexual abuse case.

We sit and wait some more.

45 mins after we filled out the form, we're told we're excused. We've done our 1 day of service. Huzzah.

Now that I've served county this year and federal back in Oct I won't get called for another year with county and 15 months for federal. Huzzah.

Vultures

If the neighbors house burns down in a fire and you go to bed after watching it go up in smoke and then you go to bed...don't be surprised if in the morning you see a kajillion cars parked in front of the house.

The story: We were not home, we were out seeing old friends. We get a call from my daughter friend saying the house 2 doors down from us was on fire. We rush home.

By the time I got home the house was fully engulfed. Smoke is streaming towards our house (It's about 10 p.m.) It's hard to see the fire from the street there are lots and lots of trees in the front of their house and their house sets almost as far back as ours does.

Here I am standing on the hood of a truck (in our driveway) to get a better shot. The smoke is coming over my head.

This is a color corrected photo above.

This is the crowd watching the fire. The hubbub lasted until after midnight. The saddest thing was watching the 22 year old son come home and start crying, "My house, my house." and when his knees buckled, it made me feel sad.

What made me mad was the next morning. Cars everywhere, all over the street. Blocking every driveway for 4 hours on either side of the burnt out house. Parked everywhere.

The husband found out later that morning they were all contractors. Hanging around trying to get business. Ok, so I know people have to work but dang it I'm pretty sure the insurance adjusters hadn't been there yet. Some of them even asked the girls down the street if they had their number. The girls wisely told them yes, they had the number but they weren't giving it out. As Jen told me, "I might be young but I'm not stupid."

Good for the girls!

The happenings

Jury duty today.

2 doors down the house caught on fire night before last. An electrical fire, nobody was home but the entire house (but one room) is gutted.

Post and pictures later.

3 days down

So far I haven't made it to jury service. I called Sun, Mon and tonight and each time the recording tells me to call the next night. I'm fine to go in, work is so boring.

So am I so off I go to read my book.

2 things, one is huge: the MIL

Ya know I can talk to about anyone. So I do.

Today some youngster, in his mid-20's guy asked me out on a date. I am not kidding. Bwhahahaha.

I don't look young, I look like a 51 year old woman. Exactly as I am. Hilarious.

Ok, totally different subject. The home where my MIL is going thru hospice called saying that the MIL woke up and was talking.

She's been in a semi-comatose state (not really comatose) but unable to communicate, not even with her eyes. She hasn't really opened her eyes in about a month or maybe more. A few weeks ago we thought maybe she was going to die. And I mean we thought we were sitting at her deathbed.

The husband and daughter drove out there. I called and I talked to on the phone. She sounds terrible...like she's got a horrible sore throat...but some of what she said I could understand. And she understood me and responded to me. I asked if she was going to sit up and eat some ice cream. She said, "Not right now". Her voice is very froggy and slurry but she's not moaning and grunting or speaking gibberish. It's like she's got a mouth full of cotton. Then I told her I'd have the hub bring her a nice cold coke with lots of ice (her fav) and she said "That would be nice." I yelled a few more things, she answered a couple of other times (sometimes the daughter had to translate), all in all, a whole conversation.

The daughter and hub said she wasn't really very understandable when they were talking to her but she started to respond when I started talking to her. I think it's my higher voice and the hub said I was talking louder than he was. Which is hard to imagine as his normal speaking voice is about 3 times my normal volume. But his voice is substantially lower than mine and when she was ok she always had a hard time hearing both boys but could hear my voice.

So it was nice, it was fab to have the MIL sort of appear back in this reality. I don't know for how long but we can hope she's gonna be able to communicate with us again.

Wow.

Dear Oprah

Did you see this story about Oprah? Click.

Dear Oprah, do you need a researcher in California? Do you need anyone to do anything at all out here in financially strapped California? I'd be willing to do whatever.

Not for a trip to the Mediterranean. I simply want a job where I feel like I'm part of something. That what I do matters. Where maybe, if I raise my voice someone might hear. Where I am empowered to shoulder some responsibility.

Just leave me a comment and I'll be sure to send you my resume. And my phone number...and my address...whatever you need.

Review

Last night book club, the book: Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.

I didn't really like that book. Sure, lots of twists and turns but ahhhh, it was unbelieveably simplistic in it's complexity. The characters: an academic who could solve puzzles in an hour that were unbreakable since the time of Da Vinci. The lovely female scientist who discovered how to extract and contain anti-matter but needed the academic to explain some concepts to her (as a vehicle to explain to the reader). Such as I did just now. bhwhahahaha. There were some things like a regular man on the street that knew what a symbologist was but others, science guys didn't. Why Brown feels like he has to explain every exposition is beyond me.

Cell phones that had dial tones, broadcasting camera feeds when underground, racing around Rome and the Vatican without any traffic to speak of during a papal conclave, protagonist surviving being beaten, nearly suffocated, jumping out of a helicopter and using a tarp as a parachute while antimatter blows up (enough to blow up city blocks), getting taken to the hosptial, examined and then getting back to the Vatican pretty much in one piece (and still being able to see and hear after the antimatter exploded) was just too much for me to swallow.

In any case, I didn't really like it. Did I mention all of this (plus more) took place between 5:00 a.m. US time and a couple of hours after midnight Rome time? Oh yeah, and the protagonist flew in some kind of plane that got him from the US to Switzerland in an hour.

Even tho I read tons of science fiction and fantasy I expect things to work differently. I expect to be told the "rules" of whatever universe and I can accept that's the way things work in that universe. I cannot bend the rules to accomodate the things Dan Brown wants me to accomodate in this book.

Neal Stephenson does breaking code better in Cryptonomicon. And he doesn't treat the reader as if they're stupid. Brown panders to readers who'd rather not think but have someone tell them in couched conversations so they feel like they're smarter than they are.

If you want to breeze thru a book and not think that much, this is a good book. It will entertain you. But if you want something meaty, you'll find yourself snickering while reading and wondering what other stupid thing will come up so you can make fun of it. Sorry, one more: Droll quip by the female scientist who is tied up tighly by the hassassin yet at the zero hour, while the protagonist is hanging off a balcony with one hand that is about to smashed so he'll let go and fall to his death...the female brands the hassassin and they both push the bad guy off the balcony to his death. When the protagonist asks how she got out of her bonds she says (I believe possibly with a twinkle in her eye) "he's never tied up a someone who does yoga." or something to that effect. As a yoga instructor I do not know how one unties oneself from bonds like that.

Ok, that's it.

Tanked

What the hell. Today we were told that the budget is way more out of control and everyone will get either twenty one days of furloughs, or a pay cut of 8 percent or a combo of twelve furlough days plus a 3.6 percent pay cut. Which did we prefer?

I don't want any of them. If you think about it there are 20 business days in a month. We are getting our financial means cut by one month of pay.

All three choices come out to about the same amount of pay. The only one that works for me (which doesn't really work) is taking all furlough. Because at 3% raises it would take just under 3 years of perfect reviews to get back that 8% of pay and that would be AFTER California gets back on track...say 5 years to get the economy back to levels that are less than freaking broke. So a total of 8 years to get back to the pay I am making today. Which, btw, is not enough to live on if anything happens to the husbands paycheck.

I MUST find a way to make money. Or get a different job. Now that all paid holidays are taken away (and btw, you are not allowed to use vacation time in lieu of furlough) there isn't anything there that keeps me there. The furloughs will not accrue vacation or sick time and it also affects our retirement. Not that I am vested (I've only been there 3 years and you need 5).

I am feeling badly for my friends who have both paychecks that are paid by the state. One couple I know both work for state run agencies so their income is going to be affected by 2 months, not just one.

I'm just sick about it.

substances

Have you ever noticed that if you tell people that your 17 and 20 year old kids don't drink alcohol or smoke or do drugs they look at you oddly and say things like: "...as far as you know." and wink or something?

I know what I got away with when I was a teen and I know why I got away with those things.

My kids don't do those things. They just don't. We taught them very early the dangers of those things...experience is a great teacher but not everyone needs to have the experience to know. All of my friend who know my kids know they don't do those things either but try to explain that to others.

It's kind of odd.

I don't kid myself they may, at some point in their lives, try these things. But for now, they're pretty vocal about how idiotic they are (although my son does hang out with friends who drink) but they themselves see what is does to people long range. They know they have relatives who've had substance abuse problems (my uncles and cousins, my hubs grandfather) and they understand there is a genetic predisposition for things like alcoholism. And I think it helps that we didn't drink when they were little...ever. The hub now has a drink in front of them if we go to dinner but I don't and I always drive if he has even 1 drink. My kids have never seen me tipsy. I don't think they've seen their father tipsy either.

It's a good thing they didn't know us in our 20's.

So we've seen the aftermath of strong drink and I think that helped us guide the kids so they aren't drinkers or druggies.

I hope no parent ever has to see their child not able to function and I wish no child ever had to see their parent drunk.

Thoughts 34

I'm laughing because at 5:26 p.m. the big boss told me I might as well go home because there wasn't anything happening.

Did I mention I normally get off work at 5:30?

New Topic:

I have book club in 3 wks. Am looking around the yard trying to figure out what I can do before then to make it look better. Hmmmmmm.

New Topic:

I tried to go to Staples so I could buy a black printer cartridge. The train (which was sitting on the tracks when I got home from work (4 mins early!) was still sitting on the tracks when I left for the store 30 mins later. Needless to say I am cut off from the other side of the tracks. I returned home without a printer cartridge.

New Topic:

I have to read Dan Brown's book: Angels and Demons by Friday evening. I read 68 pages last night. Don't like this one so far. Might have to fight myself to finish it by Fri.

New Topic:

My son called last night (I think it was last night) and told his dad he climbed Half Dome. I looked at pictures and it made me sweat. Doesn't help I've read articles about how dangerous it is and there is no warnings or rangers there to supervise. I guess I'd rather not know what he is doing if it involves anything dangerouse.

Related Topic: Over the weekend the son took the car and visited his girlfriend who lives about 40 miles away. He came home about 3:30 a.m. and told he he'd gotten pulled over and was given a breathalizer test. Apparently he drifted into another lane so the CHP thought he might be drunk. The son does not drink (or do any drugs) so he was safe from that and of course passed. He admitted that he was tired but now I worry because he still didn't seem that concerned that he was tired enough to drift into another lane. He did not get a ticket for drifting and I have no idea if the cop lectured him for driving while tired. I hope he did.

That's all my thoughts for now. I wonder if that train is gone yet?

Too tired for words

So getting up at 4 a.m. does make one pretty tired by about 9 p.m. The hub went to Trader Joe's to get something to eat but it's so late now I think I'll skip food and go to bed.

I'll just call today my diet day. I didn't go the grocery store this weekend to get lunch items so I took a package of cream of wheat for lunch. Not very filling but whatta gonna do when you don't think about going out over the weekend to shop?

Whatever he gets me I'll just take for lunch tomorrow.

Oddly I was very busy at work today, doing end of the fiscal year stuff. Boring financial stuff but it has to be done RIGHT NOW.

Ok, so I am so tired I have to go to bed RIGHT NOW. Maybe if I get a whole night of rest I'll have something interesting to post. Or not. lol.

blink

Noctural. That's what I am. Insomniac. I'm that too. I'm up and I guess I'll stay up.

Bored and hungry

Today I was just plain tired. Read, slept, read, slept. Tried to get out for dinner but picking up the daughter (not me, the hub) bringing her home to get her stuff and then having to take her back up the hill destroyed those plans.

I think it's the weather and the fact that during the week I am strenously doing nothing at work. It's the doing nothing that creates a languishing meloncholy. I suspect if I were going hither and yon all day long I'd have more energy. The longer I'm employed there the duller I get. I can't even use the words: "The longer I work there" as I do no real work. This would be me sitting at work staring.

The weather is gray, it's overcast, sometimes cool, sometimes humid hot. We haven't had a sunshiny day in weeks. Maybe I have SAD.

But I'm not craving sweets like that link says. And really if I have something fun to do, something that piques my interest I'm far less lethargic. I am craving some foods tho. I want:

1. Steak with mushrooms, onions and A1 sauce.

2. A whole pile of grilled veggies.

3. Summer fruit sliced up in a bowl.

4. Al dente pasta with pesto and parm cheese.

5. More grilled veggies. I'd even settle for roasted veggies. Don't want any steamed veggies tho.

Oh well, tonight I'll settle for going to bed, it's too late to think about going to the grocery store!

I sure am random tonight.

Nova Development Customer Service is just plain bad - FAIL

OMG, Nova Development, the company that owns PhotoImpact has one of the worst customer service ever.

I use their automated "Ask a Tech" customer service form to ask for help. I used PI 10 on my XP pc and I got an error "Not enough memory" every time I tried to align objects. No other time, just when I'd try to align things. I figured at the time it was because my computer was old and was having a tough time. I just stuck with PI7 figuring when I got a new computer I'd install 10 and leave 7 in the dust. When I got my new pc, it was loaded with Vista.

I installed PI 10. Works fine, except for the freaking Align function. Same issue: "Not enough memory". How can I have "Not enough memory" with a pc with enough RAM to choke a sheep? I've got NOTHING running but PI 10 and that same function won't work. Hmmmm, something fishy. I check around the web and it seems it's a known issue but I can't seem to find anyone who's posted how to fix it. Which is why I went to Nova Dev's support page. And then I found out exactly how bad their service is to customers who've paid for full versions.

1. Ask for a fix - get a response that PI 10 doesn't work with Vista, purchase an upgrade which is ver. 13. I do not want to buy a 40.00 upgrade. I'd rather use my XP pc and get the fix which I assume they must have done. I respond that I'd like a fix response for my XP version and not a response to get me to buy an upgrade.

2. I get a nice response from someone who tells me if I want someone to troubleshoot the issue for an XP machine they'd be happy to help me.

3. I give them the same issue, saying I want to use it on XP.

4. Within 2 hours I get a response back telling me I need to upgrade to ver.13. No help, no troubleshooting.

5. I write an email pointing out I want a fix for XP and that 2 emails 2 hours apart have 2 different responses.

6. The next email doesn't respond to me personally, it's just a denial that they support version 10 at all.

7. I go to their automated Technical Support Quality Survey page: http://www.novadevelopment.com/Support/Email_Survey.aspx and they don't get a good rating for technical help but I do give them high marks for quick responses. I used to be a CS Manager so fair is fair, but bad service is bad service even if one piece is good. Is the customer satisfied? Is the issue resolved to the best outcome? No, in this case they're blowing me off and doing some kind of bait and switch because I must assume they NEVER fixed the Not Enough Memory issue and expect I have to pay to get a fix.

So I'll blog about it, anyone else who looks for a fix for this will likely stumble upon this post. And if you do, good luck. At the moment I don't have faith that they'll give me a fix because I don't believe they ever fixed it. And I'm not spending 40.00 dollars for a fix because I DON"T NEED THE EXTRA'S THEY'VE ADDED INTO LATER VERSIONS. I use this program for it's vector drawing functions not the photo enhancement functions. And as far as I can see they're enhancing digital photo functions not paint and drawing functions. As an aside, they're missing the mark, going after a market that can use PSP (about the same price) or PS Elements (again about the same price) to do photo enhancements. What those programs DON"T do is have vector functions. You have to buy big ticket programs like Illustator or Photoshop or Corel or XaraX. And PI does vectors as well as the big boys and it's a fraction of the price.

/end rant for now.

Below is the chair on emails, read from the bottom up if interested. btw, identifying pieces have been removed.

This portion is what I wrote in the tech support survey:

I appreciate fast customer service. What I don't appreciate is inconsistancy and a lack of helpfulness. I do not consider telling me to upgrade to fix a problem with a version that has never worked and is well-known and documented by users. I do not appreciate the CSR telling me that he'll troubleshoot the issue I have on XP but in the next email again tells me to purchase a new version. Nor does he ever address the second question.

Correspond in a consistent manner, be honest about what can be done instead of giving non-answers. All I got from the chain of emails is irritation and a bad feeling about a product I love. If customer service is this bad for all customers it doesn't surprise me you can't take over a better market share. Fix the issue or give me a free upgrade. I cannot believe this company never worked on a fix for a function that worked perfectly in previous versions. So either the company didn't fix it or they did and this CSR won't give me the fix. It feels like some kind of bait and switch forcing customers who bought in good faith a product that has such an obvious defect.

The email chain:

Re: RE: User Support Request From Ask a Tech <<#id number#>>‏

From:	Alan V - Nova Development (support1@novadevelopment.com)
Sent:	Thu 6/11/09 3:28 PM
To:	vo

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Nova Development Technical Support.

Unfortunately, we no longer support either Photo Impact 8.5 or Photo Impact 10.

Photo Impact Pro 13
PhotoImpact Pro 13 is the ideal choice for digital photography, creative design and web graphics – all in one powerful suite. You’ll get everything you need to organize, edit, manage, and share digital photos – and so much more!
Vista compatible.

Photo Impact Pro 13
$99.95

If you are interested you may call 408-886-6383. Any of the Customer Service department can set you up with an order.

We offer a 30 day money back guarantee on our products.

Thank you,

Alan
Email Support Representative

Nova Development
23801 Calabasas Road, Suite 2005
Calabasas, CA 91302-1547

Phone: (818) 577-2443
Web: http://www.novadevelopment.com

The Technical Support department strives to provide our customers with quality technical support. We are always looking for means to improve our services. Please take a moment to respond to the survey found below.

http://www.novadevelopment.com/Support/Email_Survey.aspx

*********************************************************************************

--- Original Message ---
From: V Is Me
Received: 6/11/09 3:19:47 PM PDT
To:
Subject: RE: User Support Request From Ask a Tech

Unbelieveable. Look at the previous email that you guys sent to me. Just a little over 2 hours between responses and you people do not have consistent answers.

You said:

(From: support1@novadevelopment.com
To: vo
Subject: Re: RE: User Support Request From Ask a Tech <<##>>
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:42:03 -070)

"I apologize that version 10.0 has not worked for you in the past. Version 10 is not Vista compatible, but if you are still trying to use it on a Windows XP based PC, then would be more then happy to trouble shoot any issues you may have. Just let us know exactly what happens and if you are getting any error messages. "

So when I respond, you respond back saying this:

(From: support1@novadevelopment.com

To: vo
Subject: Re: RE: User Support Request From Ask a Tech <<##>>

Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:36:40 -0700)

"Unfortunately, we no longer support Photo Impact Pro 8.5 or version 10. "

ALL I WANT AT THIS POINT IS A FIX FOR PI 10 RUNNING ON XP. THIS PRODUCT HAS NEVER WORKED CORRECTLY, IT SHOULDN'T BE TOO DIFFICULT TO SEND ME A FIX UNLESS OF COURSE, YOU NEVER FIXED IT AND SOLD A DEFECTIVE VERSION.

*********************************************************************************

From: support1@novadevelopment.com

To: vo
Subject: Re: RE: User Support Request From Ask a Tech <<##>>
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:36:40 -0700

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Nova Development Technical Support.

Unfortunately, we no longer support Photo Impact Pro 8.5 or version 10.

Photo Impact Pro 13
PhotoImpact Pro 13 is the ideal choice for digital photography, creative design and web graphics – all in one powerful suite. You’ll get everything you need to organize, edit, manage, and share digital photos – and so much more!
Vista compatible.

Photo Impact Pro 13
$99.95

If you are interested you may call 408-886-6383. Any of the Customer Service department can set you up with an order.

We offer a 30 day money back guarantee on our products.

Thank you,

Alan
Email Support Representative

Nova Development
23801 Calabasas Road, Suite 2005
Calabasas, CA 91302-1547

Phone: (818) 577-2443
Web: http://www.novadevelopment.com

The Technical Support department strives to provide our customers with quality technical support. We are always looking for means to improve our services. Please take a moment to respond to the survey found below.
http://www.novadevelopment.com/Support/Email_Survey.aspx
*********************************************************************************

--- Original Message ---
From: V Is Me
Received: 6/11/09 11:39:21 AM PDT
To:
Subject: RE: User Support Request From Ask a Tech

Please see the original coorespondence that shows exactly what the problem is...the exact same error happens whether I use XP or Vista. Be aware that ALL other functions but the align function works just fine with either XP or Vista. I've searched the web and this issue is long standing...before Vista was even released.

Can you please tell me how to use the align function without getting "Not enough memory" error when it the pc has nothing running but PI 10.

*********************************************************************************

From: support1@novadevelopment.com
To: vo
Subject: Re: RE: User Support Request From Ask a Tech <<##>>
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:42:03 -0700

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Nova Development Technical Support.

I apologize that version 10.0 has not worked for you in the past. Version 10 is not Vista compatible, but if you are still trying to use it on a Windows XP based PC, then would be more then happy to trouble shoot any issues you may have. Just let us know exactly what happens and if you are getting any error messages.

Thank you,

Victor
Email Support Representative

Nova Development
23801 Calabasas Road, Suite 2005
Calabasas, CA 91302-1547

Phone: (818) 577-2443
Web: http://www.novadevelopment.com

The Technical Support department strives to provide our customers with quality technical support. We are always looking for means to improve our services. Please take a moment to respond to the survey found below.
http://www.novadevelopment.com/Support/Email_Survey.aspx
*********************************************************************************

--- Original Message ---
From: V Is Me
Received: 6/10/09 2:27:41 PM PDT
To:
Subject: RE: User Support Request From Ask a Tech

This version didn't work on my previous XP pc either. I was hoping that you guys had a fix for it rather than asking me to upgrade and spend even more money for one thing that should have worked in the first place as it does on other versions.

I don't find asking a customer who's purchased full versions to pay to get a fix stellar customer service.

*********************************************************************************

---

From: support1@novadevelopment.com
To: vo
Subject: Re: User Support Request From Ask a Tech <<##>>
Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:01:38 -0700

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Nova Development Technical Support.

Unfortunately, Photo Impact Pro 8.5 and version 10 were not designed to work with Windows Vista. However Photo Impact Pro 13 is compatible with Windows Vista.

Photo Impact Pro 13

PhotoImpact Pro 13 is the ideal choice for digital photography, creative design and web graphics – all in one powerful suite. You’ll get everything you need to organize, edit, manage, and share digital photos – and so much more!
Vista compatible.

Photo Impact Pro 13
$99.95

If you are interested you may call 408-886-6383. Any of the Customer Service department can set you up with an order. Ask to see if you qualify for the special upgrade price.

We offer a 30 day money back guarantee on our products.

Thank you,

Alan
Email Support Representative

Nova Development
23801 Calabasas Road, Suite 2005
Calabasas, CA 91302-1547

Phone: (818) 577-2443
Web: http://www.novadevelopment.com

The Technical Support department strives to provide our customers with quality technical support. We are always looking for means to improve our services. Please take a moment to respond to the survey found below.
http://www.novadevelopment.com/Support/Email_Survey.aspx
*********************************************************************************

--- Original Message ---
From: vo
Received: 6/8/09 9:25:47 PM PDT
To: support1@novadevelopment.com
Subject: User Support Request From Ask a Tech

Dear Tech Support:
The following information was generated from a user request made at "Ask A Tech"

User Supplied Information
--------------------------

Time: 6/8/2009 9:25:18 PM

User Name: vo
Phone Number:
E-Mail Address: vo
Computer Make/Model: hp
Operating System/Version: vista
Hard Drive Space Available: 162 gb
Amount of RAM: a bunch
Printer Make/Model: hp but don't really use it.
Nova Product in question: PhotoImpact Pro 10
Purchase Place: Best Buy

--------------------------
Description of the Problem:

1. When trying to align objects get Not Enough Memory. I have plenty of memory, brand new computer, running no other programs it still give me the error msg. Even if I have a small graphic and try to align 2 items I get the error msg. Please do not tell me it's my computer problem. I can run Photoshop 6, Outlook, 4 browsers and still not use up the memory for weeks.

2. Need to know how to use new brushes....you can add a brush to the Easy Pallette and there is even a little brush icon that appears when you use the add function when designing a brush but I cannot figure out how to USE the brush. I can send a screenshot if necessary.
---End of message---

Graduation night

I have to post about the babygirl daughter graduating from high school tonight...but I'm tired and must go to bed. Just know for now, I'm astounded that she's graduated because I cannot believe it's been enough years! Time flies.

Tomorrow, I'll post.

It's tomorrow: She was beautiful and radiant and so poised. I spotted her in the line pretty early, I know my babygirl and her walk. And she got a migraine right before she was to walk. Her choir teacher found out and gave her a granola bar which oddly enough did help her a little.

Almost 700 graduates walked last night. Pretty impressive. We got to see her come out of her row to sing with the choir a couple of times.

We sat at the top of the stadium so we'd have a wall to lean on instead of getting poked in the back by other peoples knees. We had a perfect view. The people in front of us had air horns...eeek. They got yelled at..."I'll kick you all out if you use those horns." said the woman. Our new air horn friends honked their horns for our daughter when we began yelling for her. LOL, normally I hate air horns but since I wasn't pushing that button it was ok. bwhahaha.

Afterwards we ate sushi, I took her back to school to get on one of the 7 chartered buses. They drove to an after hours nightclub (open only for her HS grad night) where they apparently danced the night away.

I woke up at 3:3o or so and texted her, asking if she had fun. Yes, she replied. I tossed and turned the rest of the night thinking about her being out of HS and wondering what she'll be doing for the rest of the summer.

I can't even believe we're out of the HS student phase. OMG.

Creative econ

The state is broke and where I work there will be deep cuts. 16 days a year furloughs. Basically all of the paid holidays are being taken away. Not the holidays mind you, but you will not get paid for them. You'll take them off without pay.

That's half a month of no pay. It's helpful that it's spread out over the year but it's still 1/2 a month of pay.

The bright side is the furloughs are supposed to help keep layoffs at a minimum. But there will still be layoffs. A few years ago (maybe 7 or 8) this company laid off a huge number of lower level employees rather than go for the higher paid employees. This time our big guy said he'd be gentler to the lower paid employees and go for high paid employees. It sounds good (and that's because I'm a way lower level emp) but I've been thru layoffs at other companies and what they say and what they do are 2 different things.

I've had to lay people off (my old job was in managament, I was one of the higher level employees) and our priorities were: Get rid of whatever you wanted as long as you got to X number of dollars.

I detest being paranoid about losing my job, it literally makes me sick. Am hoping writing about it will keep the paranoia at bay. Maybe it'll be the thing that kicks my butt into creatively figuring out how to make some extra money.

The MIL update

I didn't see the MIL today but was expecting that someone would call today and say she's gone. But lo and behold she's more responsive today. Yesterday she had the death rattle going on. Each time she did it we'd all look at her expecting to see that last breath. I think that's what freaked the son out, the sound. It's a terrible sound, one you don't want to ever hear. Donita told us tonight that her dad had that sound for weeks at the end of his life.

I called the hub as his bro was trying to communicate with his mom. She was moaning something but it was unrecognizable to me on the phone. They told me she was swallowing again. As of yesterday she hadn't eaten since Friday (per orders) since she was not able to swallow without choking.

She is still on oxygen. I don't know what the doctors would say if they saw her. Apparently some friends of the SIL saw her and didn't think she was as close to death as it appeared to us. I took a look at her hands on Sat and she has the mottling in her fingers.

It's weird how one can be somewhat clinical in watching the signs...she's not comfortable per se, her poor body just does the Parkinsons movement all the time. She sometimes opens one of her eyes but she isn't seeing anything. I feel terrible that she's not able to communicate and she appears to be so agitated. I've read people close to death can rally right before they die but I'm not sure this is rallying or what. It's so hard to tell if she's in there or if it's just her body doing the Parkinsons thing.

I just want her to be able to relax, it sounds terrible to think death would be a blessing for her but I KNOW she'd rather be all relaxed and laughing if she could. It's difficult all the way around.

I hope she has a restful night. I hope within she is able to get some sleep and rest.

Letting go

We've just returned from seeing the MIL. She's fighting and not letting go. She took a turn for the worst the other day and it looks like she won't be here much longer.

I want her to know it's ok to go but it's not really my place to tell her so. For a few decades now when she's had to fly somewhere she's called me to soothe herself into getting on the plane. There was a ritual we'd go thru, she'd ask me to tell it it was ok, she'd be ok, nothing bad would happen. It'd be over in a short while and she'd get to see her family (or whatever fun thing she was traveling to). She always thanked me for that, every time. She always told me she knew it was silly but without the reassurances she just couldn't do it.

The daughter held her right hand, I held her left. My son sat at the foot of the bed, the husband between the two kids. The boys sang although I could see my son was having a difficult time seeing his grammy that way and hearing her struggle. The daughter is more accepting, she has no problem holding her hand and stroking her arm to help her feel more connected.

It's hard to tell if she is responsive. She makes sound but it's almost always accompanied with a physical clenching. But that can also be she's trying to communicate but her limbs are unresponsive to voluntary movement...she has Parkinsons.

If my son does not want to go back, I won't force the issue. As much as he pretends let things roll off his back, he's always been way more sensitive than most people I know. As he grew to teendom, he filled that sensitivity with confidence but that sensitivity is still there.

As the boys sang songs, some of them having the words death or dying or soul or God, the lyrics take on new meaning while sitting with someone who is transitioning. Even the songs without obvious mentions of passing can be looked upon as having new meaning.

I wish she'd let go, I wish her kids would tell her to relax, let go, be at peace. She's always been afraid of new things but I think this new thing would be joyful for her, we'll all be ok. She needs to know that.

I love you Jean.

Attempt understanding, be acceptance

I know a transgendered person. I haven't been in touch with him for over 5 years. I say he because the last I heard from him he had to move back to Montana with his parents and couldn't live as the gender he is otherwise he'd be killed. But truly he isn't a he, he is a she. I mean no disrespect, I only call her by the gender she is forced to live as, in this first section of my post.

It was hard for him to become a she in public. Even my most tolerant friends find it odd and do not understand the switch if I tell them about his situation. (Not that it comes up often).

I asked my friend a lot of questions when he came out to me about it. He was in his 40's when he got brave enough to do it. In southern California where you'd think he'd have an easier time than he did. I felt gratefulness that he felt I was safe enough to tell, that I could be trusted.

He was vilified. And it was terrible to see and hear. I did the best I could to help others understand but almost everyone (like 99%) of people just couldn't accept it. Wouldn't accept it.

I knew the first time I looked into her eyes that the eyes that looked back at me were the exact same eyes that looked at me when she was a he. There was no difference in his generosity or likeability or human-ness. She was exactly the same person...just packaged a little differently.

Today I was sent an email that came from a friend who also knows a transgendered person. The difference is the news story is about transgendered children. My friend was an adult, who struggled mightily over her decision to be who she was. This article talks about adults who are vilifying children. It made me ill to think of the ill will we casually spread.

All because of differences we choose not to understand. The story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-rowe/krxq-sacramento-radio-hos_b_210637.html

We do too have weather....sometimes

Generally CA doesn't have weather.  Nothing horrible to speak of ('cept sometimes in the summer when it's an oven)...but nothing spectacular.  No big snowstorms, no ice storms, no hurricanes (although we had a very small tornado last year that toppled a few train cars).  Rarely we have thunderstorms.

Today we had a thunderstorm.  Not just a thunderstorm but a THUNDERSTORM WITH LIGHTNING.  All day long.  

I took the boy dogs out this morning at about 6 a.m. Brought them back in about 7:30.  Walked the Zom dog down to the gate (he was leashed) to make sure there was a rock laid in the hole the other dog dug (and got out of the yard).  The weather was pleasantly cool, maybe 72 degrees.  Damp-ish but not rainy damp.

By 8:05 just as I was signing off my email here in the computer room I heard: tink, tink....tink, tink, tink, tinktinktinktinktink.  Hmmmmm, that sounds like rain.  Or maybe something is just leaking?  I open the laundry room door and it's raining!  Not terribly hard but enough you'd have to use your wipers on intermittant and could still turn them off on occasion. 

I'm wearing sandals today and capris.  I check the weather report, it's supposed to be cloudy but 82 and no chance of rain noted.  Hmmmm.  I choose not to change my pants/shoes.

I drive to work.  I'm about 1/2 mile from work when something GIANT hits my windshield.  THUNK!  I jump in my seat it's so loud.  I'm a little confused because I don't see the bird I assume just flew into my windshied.  Then THUNK, THUNK...THUNK THUNK THUNK...HUGE RAINDROPS.

It wasn't a bird at all, it was rain, giant rain.  We don't get FLA rain here, our drops are teeny; when they hit the ground they usually leave a wet spot about a half an inch or smaller as their footprint.  No these were 4 inches in diameter.

No wonder I thought it was a bird, large volume drops smacking my car.   Then I see lightning strikes and hear BIG THUNDER.  Right over my head.

I'm not normally scared of thunder or lightning or rain either.  And I wasn't scared this morning either ('cept for that one giant thump that I thought was a now-dead bird).  ALL the cars slowed because one second we were in relatively light ''weather'' and now we're in a freaking tropical storm.  

All day long we had big rain and big thunder and lightning.  By the time I drove home from work I was once again in the middle of a tropical storm.  I saw a lightning strike in a field near work.  There are fires all over 2 counties because of the lightning.  

And the unstable air mass is expected to last thru Saturday.  

The poor husband had to deal with 4 dogs who were all frightened out of their doggie wits by all the thunder.  He did it, he got them all calmed down or at least in the house so they weren't all freaking out.  I got all paranoid about the Zoms being anywhere near a leash or chain, I didn't want him electrocuted.  My sis in law had a lightning strike her metal dog run and the electricity went thru her house blowing out a few things.  She lives in PA so it's a little more common to have big storms like that and I've never forgotten the story.

I also met with signals that blew out at one point, the hub reported that the computer shut off, I assume we had either a power surge or a brownout that caused the shutdown.  Luckily no blowout.

Weather, when you get it makes you appreciate no weather. 

Reaching for maturity

It's hard to believe enough years have passed that my youngest is graduating from HS.  She's a young senior, she won't be 18 til Dec but she's made her way thru middle school and high school with kids who are older than she (she started school one year earlier than her peers, she's supposed to be a junior).  

When we put her in kindergarten we did so because she was mentally and physically ready.  Thoughts of her being 15 when everyone else was 16 (and driving) didn't really enter our minds as concrete concepts.  We knew she'd face some things being younger but thought she could handle it as she seemed to be able to handle 6 year olds when she was 5.  And at 5 she was taller than most 7 year olds.  

We were right but there were times when I wondered if our decision was not quite as well thought out as I thought at the time.

The most evident time was when she was almost 15 and most of her friends were turning 16.  She became sassy and felt she had the same rights as those who were driving and having curfews later than she had.  She couldn't quite understand how even a year or two of maturity didn't apply to her.  That she was petulant and bratty was not apparent to her, although it was very apparent to us.

She's lucky (although I don't think she knows it yet) that she has friends that are less and more mature than she is.  The less mature allows her to be the more mature one who can help navigate waters she's already been in and the more mature allows her to learn some things a bit early.  

One of her friends (an ex-cheerleader) has been sexually active with her boyfriend for about 6 months.  Her friend is almost 18.  My daughter thinks she's stupid for  getting into something that is probably bigger than she is.  Smart girl.  Who needs the complexity of that kind of relationship when you are dealing with getting out of HS and going into college?

She has a good head on her shoulders.  I can see that she's fine with what others do but when it comes to HER, she realizes she's not willing to add more layers of stuff to deal with.  

That said, she still whines on occasion, wanting to do some things like staying out late with one of her friends that (imho) is less than honest in how she presents things.  Recently the daughter told me with some indignation that her friend needed to get her tonsils out, but her parents refused to pay for it.  Somehow the daughter is young enough to believe her friend instead of trying to understand how she is being manipulated.  

Hmmmm, I told the daughter, it's likely her parents don't have to pay out of pocket for a necessary surgery.  If the doc says it needs to be done there is no reason why she can't use the medical insurance that is provided by her parents.  Basically her story seemed designed to make my daughter feel sorry for her that her parents don't provide for her.  After I gave the daughter the likely facts she had to stop trying to convince me her parents were such ogres.  

But she is growing up and I'm proud of her.  I love my babygirl. 

Ding danged slimy thing

The woman in the iron mask...that's now my nose splint feels.  It's hard plastic that has an adhesive on the inside and the adhesive is good enough to say on my nose but it keeps sliding down.  So I push it up.  It slides down, I push up.  Over and over.  It's feels all slimy on my face and it gets sweaty underneath there.  Ick. 

I'm thinking I'm going to have to tape it to my face.  Insult to injury.  My friend Kim says it's hardly noticeable (ah huh, yeah right) so if it's hardly noticeable some white tape across it will not make a difference.  

Yesterday I went to a meeting with 3 people I didn't know.  I told them I broke my nose (I think the danged thing is like an elephant in the room) and they all laughed with me about my accident.  I'd rather acknowledge the fact that there is something just a little off with my face than pretend it's not there.  Besides it's a way to make people laugh and break the ice.  

I'm still reeling that a little broken nose can cause so much stuff to deal with.  I hope on Friday the doc says I can take the splint off because dang, it's a pain in the face.   That sweaty slimy feeling is gross.