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| In my previous post I wrote the following:
We may have to change to (a) Road Runner account to save money. I
could buy 4 more boxes of Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream (when
it's BOGO) with the monthly savings. Now that is a real incentive. But
I would make the change only if I could keep the same email prefix -
you know, the letters before the @.
Well, after much thought (mostly about the extra Breyers ice-cream I could buy), I have decided to change my primary email account. I will be using my Gmail account as my primary-primary account, and using my Hotmail account as my primary-secondary account. In a few days I will be sending an email to my entire mailing list to inform them of this dramatic change in my life. Many of those addresses will bounce because there are others who have changed their email address and have never notified me of the change (should that tell me something?). Also, in the next few days we will open a new Xanga blog that will keep all my readers informed about the mission trip that Sarah and I will be taking this summer. (and oh, by the way, I love my wife!  ) someone has been editing my blog - I won't give her name but her initials are My Wife of course it is a wife's job to do the things the husband doesn't......  | | |
| Since 1994 I have made a living doing computer work. For a number of those years I did software training, so this post can be considered continuing education for those who read it.
I have had (and still have) numerous email accounts. My very first account was with Compuserve and was a sequence of numbers. Then Compuserve allowed me to have names and I changed to using the name format that I currently use for all of my personal email accounts (you can figure it out from my blog name). Compuserve went to AOL and I went to Juno (didn't everyone at one time have a Juno account?)
Somewhere along the way I opened FREE accounts at Hotmail, Yahoo, and Excite - hey, I'm a Baptist preacher, we like FREE stuff.
When we came to SC we began using Mindspring as our ISP. They eventually were purchased by Earthlink, but did not require users to change to an Earthlink address. After a few years we moved on up to the east side, to a deluxe apartment.... oops, we moved on up to cable access (I still have dial-up at my office). Our ISP is still Earthlink but the service is provided by Time Warner. I found out last week that we are paying $10 more for Earthlink cable than we would pay for Road Runner cable, even though it is the same service. We may have to change to Road Runner account to save money. I could buy 4 more boxes of Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream (when it's BOGO) with the monthly savings. Now that is a real incentive. But I would make the change only if I could keep the same email prefix - you know, the letters before the @.
A few years ago someone that I had worked with gave me an invitation to join Gmail (now you can join without an invitation). It has become my primary-secondary email account.
What, that makes no sense!
This is my blog and it makes perfect sense to me!
It is the address that I use for all non-personal correspondence - bank, credit card companies, newsletters, online ordering, basically everything that is not personal. I prefer Gmail for a number of reasons.
1. It has a better Spam filter than Yahoo or Hotmail. I seldom get spam in my Inbox.
2. It allows me to download into any email application - I use Mozilla Thunderbird (more on that below). Hotmail used to allow downloading to Outlook Express for FREE but changed a few years ago to charging $20 for that privilege as part of a Premium package. I seem to recall that Yahoo allowed that as well but started charging for the privilege too.
3. It works better for my parents. They have a 2 hour dial-up access plan for $5 per month, which means they cannot download mail with attachments. I am able to go to their Gmail account online and delete files, which I cannot do with their ISP. Their ISP email address gets about 300 pieces of junk mail every week. My mother has Portable Thunderbird on a USB flash drive, which gives her access to email when she is at her children's homes.
I still use Hotmail because it is the address I give to my computer customers, and Yahoo for my work as the Missions Coordinator with the International Fellowship of Churches.
If you do not have a second email address, I give you permission to get
a FREE Gmail address (like you really needed my permission). Then send
me an email telling me how much you appreciated this post (I'm holding
my breath while the emails pour in). Remember that you can figure out my email address from my blog name - I don't want to write it
here because spammers will pick up on it.
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Mozilla provides Firefox as their FREE internet browser and Thunderbird as their FREE email application. There are a number of reasons why I use them, but the one that stands out is their use of Profiles. Each user has a profile, which stores all of their settings. The profile can be saved and copied to another computer, or used as a backup in the event of a system crash. There are also Portable editions of each program, which are designed for USB flash drives. The entire program resides on the flash drive so there is nothing left on the computer that is being used. I take mine with me when I leave the house, and can access my email on whatever computer has a USB port. Since nothing resides on the computer I am using I never worry about leaving passwords behind.
p.s. There is also a Portable edition of Sudoku. | | |
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September 1957 | | |
| In Part 1 I told you about the surprise party Gloria planned for me at church. What I failed to mention is that the party was 1 day before she went into the hospital for major surgery. She is slowly recovering from that surgery and so was not able to go with us to FL.
Sarah and I left at 7 on Saturday morning (02/03). I expected that there would be heavy traffic with folks headed to Miami for the Super Bowl. There was not! We arrived at my sister Barbara's house (in Jupiter) shortly after 4pm. On Sunday morning we went with them to church. One of my nieces, Ariel, sang in a ladies ensemble, and another niece, Katie, is a percussionist in the praise band. My other niece, Rachel, (who wants to be cool and groovy like her uncle) tries very hard to speak Jamaican, but my sister refers to it as speaking Ja- fakin!
It rained all day Sunday!
Sunday evening the church had a fellowship time that originally was going to precede the showing of the Super Bowl. But this year the NFL made an issue of churches showing the game, so the church decided not to do what they had planned. There is a TV in the youth room, so we started to watch the game there. When Chicago returned the kickoff for a touchdown I thought the game was about over. We left the church just before Indianapolis scored a field goal, and by the time we got to the house, they had scored another touchdown and were leading. I did not enjoy the game as much as the Colts-Patriots game but was very happy that the Colts won.
Did I mention that it rained all day Sunday?
My parents had been staying with my brother (in Miami) for a few weeks and they drove up Sunday afternoon. There were 13 of us sleeping in the house Sunday night. If you want to go to FL and are too cheap (I mean too poor) to pay for lodging, just email my sister at:
CanIStay@YourHouse.com
and I'm sure she will find room for you.
Monday my brother and I went to a Jamaican bakery for patties. Gloria had instructed me not to return to SC without bringing her some curried-chicken patties. Then we stopped at a Jamaican grocery store and I bought a HTB bun. Originally HTB stood for Hannah Town Bakery, but when folks asked what the initials HTB stood for the reply was always "Hard To Beat." The bun (a loaf of spiced bread with raisins) is now made by Continental Baking Company in Kingston and, in my vast experience, is the best bun in the universe. Two slices of bun with a piece of cheese between is delicious. I also bought a jar of Walkerswood Guava Jelly - they did not have any Orange Marmalade.
Then we stopped at BrandsMart, so that I could walk through the store and see if there was anything that I just had to have. There wasn't. so we left and went to the West Palm Beach airport. Aunt Mary, who is not related, but is my Mother's oldest friend (they have been friends since they were teenagers) flew in from Canada. We went back to Barbara's house for the big party - her graduation (summa cum laude), my 50th, my mother's 85th (which is today), and Barbara's father-in-law's birthday. There were 19 of us for supper!
Barbara and I - don't be fooled by the picture, she is actually 16 months older than me!
My Mother and I - don't be fooled by the picture, she is actually 35 years older than me!
It was overcast with occasional showers on Monday?
Tuesday morning we left FL for SC. The sun was shining and the weather was beautiful (the nice FL weather came when we left). We got home shortly after dark.
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