Tag Archive | science

Celebrating A Milestone..or Two

2001 Ford Mustang

Two Great Milestones Happened Today!

The first is a personal milestone..my little Pony Car and I reached it together this morning, 170,000 miles. I love my Pony car! We’ve gone through a lot together.

When I’ve been down, faced emotional brick walls and monumental challenges, I could put the top down, take a drive and things always seemed to get better.

She represents my freedom from an abusive ex-relationship and my independence; realizing I have nothing to prove to anyone but myself. I love my little Pony car. She’s always gotten me home safe and sound.

She hit 170,000 miles today and I had to mark the occasion. She’s been a great little car and at this point, I plan on keeping her for years and years to come.

The second milestone of the day……I received my very FIRST fan letter. All the way from Norway! From a great and talented lady! Thank you Rebecca for kind words and wonderful gift! It made my day!!

At the beginning of 2013 I set my motto for the year:
“I attract and acquire more happiness and financial abundance than I know what to do with“.

I got the Happy down….now…the financial abundance can start happening any time now..please. 😉

Our Blog Was Hacked

Jan29

Re-installation & Configuration

Is a total pain! On top of it, the backups I’ve been making haven’t backed up images or their placement. So after I waste the day fixing everything, I’ll have to research if there’s a way to make a full back up!

Then I have to figure out how it happened in the first place. Because the first thing you do when something like this happens, is to scan your pc for a virus and I’m clean. So how did this happen?

I’m so annoyed! I don’t have time for this.

An Update:
So it seems the xml backup works and does indeed capture the images. The problem is with the upload. Now get this…the upload changed the link to the images. It didn’t change the image file names, it changed the link on the posts to the image. WHAT? It added an ’11’ to the end of each src=”image” tag. If that isn’t the weirdest thing to do.

Now I’m on a search to find out if this was a unique issue, or if this has happened to others. And more importantly…is there a solution!!

Your 2012 Year In Blogging

Jan8

Blog Analytics

If you have a WordPress blog and you use Jetpack check out the Annual Report they put together for you. The report is private, but you can check it out and make it public.

We all put a bit of ourselves into our blogs and it’s nice to know that others find our posts helpful, interesting or entertaining. You can discover what people are searching for and if you’re so inclined, write more about the popular topics you’ve already shared.

Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of internet data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage. In other words it helps you understand what visitors are looking for, how to increase traffic, maximize your marketing budget and resources. Continue reading →

Evil Through the Looking Glass

Dec30

Through The Looking Glass

Dealing With The Black Screen Of Death

My Queen’s hard drive went deep six on the day after Thanksgiving. It’s been that kind of year for us. At first I thought that it was simply that the OS got borked, because I put in a Knoppix disk and could see the hard drive. In fact, from Knoppix she backed up her important files. What ensued next is my odyssey through the looking glass to reinstall Windows 7 on her machine.

The first thing you do on a factory install of Windows 7 is to attempt to boot to the recovery console, check the disk and repair the OS from the backup copy on the drive. Unfortunately, the option did not show up for us. Booting every other possible way, safe mode, safe mode command prompt, minimum display resolution, etc… they all resulted in the same condition. A black screen with a movable mouse pointer. I know that there will be people searching this later so I wanted that phrase in the article. If they come here first they will know how to fix this and they will know just how screwed they are. Continue reading →

Tracking Santa 2012

Dec18

The Official NORAD Santa Tracker

They’re up and running and have been for a few weeks now. The NORAD website that helps all kids, young and old to track Santa’s journey across the sky on December 24th.

You can receive updates from the North Pole and to discover new surprises on Santa’s Activity Page.

And even more important, you can find out how you can help make this Christmas very special for those who serve our nation with Operation Good Will.

Oh and don’t forget to check out their Facebook page, or down load their app for Android and iPhones!

Prayers & Sympathies To Newtown, Connecticut

Dec14

Our Deepest Sympathies To The Community Of Newtown, Connecticut

Our hearts and prayers go out to the families, friends and the community of the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Words seem inadequate to express the sadness we feel over the tragic loss of so many young innocent lives. Our sympathies, love and support we send out to all families and friends of those have been taken from this world too soon. We pray that the GreatSpirits welcome them with love and compassion. And that each and everyone touched by this devastating tragedy is illuminated and comforted in Divine Light. May you find the strength to endure and live on to hold their memories in your hearts.

I hope the following articles help those looking for ways to cope:
1. When Tragedy Strikes: When Bad Things Happen To Good People
2. Dealing With Trials and Grief

Springwolf holds a Doctorate in Divinity and a Doctorate in Philosophy in Spiritual Counseling. She counsels families and women of abuse.

Happy Holidays

Dec9

Tony Stewart’s Reindeer #14 By Springwolf

From Our Family To Yours

May you all have a blessed, abundant and joyful Holiday Season!
This time of year is for good cheer, peace and compassion between all people.

It’s the time for Pagan Yule, which begins at sunset on the Winter Solstice (for 2012 that’s December 21st) and ends at sunset on January 1st.

It’s also Hanukkah,which starts on the Hebrew calendar date of 25 Kislev, and lasts for eight days. This year Hanukkah begins in the evening of December 8, 2012, and ends in the evening of December 16, 2012.

It’s the time of Kwanzaa begins December 26, 2012, and ends January 1, 2013.

And it’s the time for Christmas which is celebrated on December 25th, 2012.

Whatever holiday you celebrate, we all will be cheering on December 31st to ring in the New Year.

Whither that’s Merry Yule, Happy Holidays, Merry Solstice or whatever you want to say. Allow the feeling of peace and unity to spread on through you and let it grow in strength and compassion.

So Merry Yule to one and all. I hope your chosen holiday is a bright one filled with joy, peace and abundance through all the days to come.

When Your Kid Becomes Smarter Than You

Nov17

Just Give Up Now

It’s Going To Happen To Every Parent

This week the little Prince, who’s 9 wrote his first blog post on our family Pirate101 fan site. He really made a pretty good Captain’s Log chronicling his character’s progress.

Now this kid has been teaching himself how to program for the past 2 years. If he wants to know something, he reads the “man” pages or Googles for instructions then does it. It not only has improved his reading (the 4th grader who is reading on a college level); but it has taught him how to problem solve and resolve. Considering Dad and I are both techno-geeks, it’s something we’re very proud of and even impressed by.

In praising him, I mentioned the slide show he added to his post and how that was really neat. I asked how he learned to do that.

He responds: “I found a button“.

Making this even worse….I can’t find the button and I’m actually looking for it!

From The Edge Of Hurricane Sandy

Oct30

Touched By Sandy In Central Virginia

Even in the midst of disaster and challenge our little Prince looked at the storm raging outside with the innocence that only a child could have.

He opened the bedroom window and felt the full force of a misty wind gust blowing through the screen.

He came to me and said:
“Momma, I opened the window and got kissed by the hurricane.”

Hurricane Sandy wasn’t the most powerful hurricane to hit the east coast, but it was an unusually large one in area. NASA posted this picture on Sunday October 28th, 2012 to show just how big it was.

Here in central Virginia it wasn’t the catastrophic storm the news had been making it out to be. We were lucky compared to the coastal areas and especially New jersey. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who suffered damage and loss due to the storm.

The History of Samhain and the Evolution of Halloween

Oct30

Photograph by Mukul Soman
National Geographic
on Springwolf Reflections

The Celtic New Year

It’s the start of the Celtic New Year and honors the year that has passed. It is the time when the veil of forgetfulness is lifted between the physical world and the spiritual world. Where the dead are honored and communication with spirit can take place more than any other time of the year.

An article by the Library of Congress states:
Pagans divided the year by four major holidays. According to their calendar, the year began on a day corresponding to November 1st on our present calendar. The date marked the beginning of winter. Since they were pastoral people, it was a time when cattle and sheep had to be moved to closer pastures and all livestock had to be secured for the winter months. Crops were harvested and stored. The date marked both an ending and a beginning in an eternal cycle.

With the coming of Christianity in the 800s AD, the early Church in England tried to Christianize the old Celtic festivals. Pope Boniface IV designated the 1st of November as “All Saints Day,” honoring saints and martyrs. He also decreed October 31 as “All Hallows Eve”, that eventually became Hallow’een.

Scholars today widely accept that the Pope was attempting to replace the earlier Celtic pagan festival with a church-sanctioned holiday. As this Christian holiday spread, the name evolved as well. Also called All-hallows Eve or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day).

Visit Springwolf Reflections and learn more about the History of Samhain, a widely celebrated Holiday. Whither you follow the traditions of Samhain or the non-secular celebrations of Halloween; we hope you have a fun and safe night!