Welcome to FoxVox

Let’s say you have two really old computers, and then you find two slightly newer computers. Let’s then say you try to create two relatively newer computers from these old computers, while keeping your old data intact and accessible. Let’s also say that all four computers have strange quirks about what kinds of cards they will recognize, where their screws go, and whether or not they really want to communicate with that OTHER computer at the momoment, and that you’re learning more about how useless and even misleading many MS error messages are. In conclusion, let’s just say that I hope today isn’t as LONG a day as yesterday was. And also, thank you to our phone tech. support dude – I think your very pariticipation counts ten times as much as your tech. skills, which are also immense. *grin* And kudos to John, who has an innate ability to NOT get as frustrated as I do with this stuff. 🙂

I just gotta share this – sorry for the shameless plug! *grin* Dreamhost is now having a terrific sale on their shared hosting plans for their 8th birthday. The first 888 customers to sign up (new customers only) for a one-year or two-year term using the promotional code “888” will save 80% off the first year of their hosting. But the REALLY cool thing? You can now host an UNLIMITED number of domains on your account! That comes with unlimited MySQL databases too. This is really BAD – LOL – we already have too many sites and we used to be limited to 15 with our account plan – egad! (And of course, if you sign up, feel free to throw me a bone as a referrer if you like – ‘foxvox’.)

Milestone. I guess I’ve hit an important point as an artist – that elusive point when someone thinks your work is good enough to steal and slap on other products on ebay without your permission – LOL! Thanks to a good friend (who’s art is GORGEOUS and who was ALSO ripped off by the same person) I was able to report the infringer and hopefully their auction will soon be no more. Bleh.

I thought of this t-shirt design the other day when I was happily bouncing from doing watercolor painting, to creating stuff online, to making homemade half-moon cookies (black and whites, for you NYC people) “Obey the Muse”. *grin* I mean – I’m at my best when I don’t get in my own way – it just makes sense, hard as it is to actually do it sometimes – LOL. (Click the image to see all the shirts and tote bags and framed tiles and such.)

Well, we went to the Condor release. Our expectations were, shall I say, set incorrectly by the news article and the web site. Mostly the idea that a shuttle would take us to the viewing area. Technically, the shuttle dropped us off about two MILES from the viewing area, which wouldn’t have been so bad if I’d been wearing the right shoes, because I hadn’t planned on a hike – probably my fault, ultimately, as I should have known better. I might have been willing to put the pain in my heels and arches aside though, if the viewing area had actually been NEAR the Condors. At all. The ‘viewing area’ was halfway up the side of a hill, and the condor pen was at the top of the hill across the way, approximately two miles away. At least. There were a lot of little presentations, explaining the whole event, and then we waited. After a few minutes, there was a black dot moving on the roof of the pen. People oohed and ahhed as expected. After a while the condor took off and promptly flew off down the opposite side of the hill, completely out of sight.

Even with the binoculars the couple next to us graciously let us borrow for a moment we couldn’t see much more. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the need for separation from a bunch of goggling humans, but we’re still wondering why the heck the condor people didn’t set up some kind of inobtrusive camera at the pen, broadcasting a line of sight feed to the viewing area where they could have set up a monitor. They had a few condor feathers and skulls on display too, but the skulls turned out to be fabrications even. *sigh* The only photo I took showed nothing but a huge hill with a teeny metal shed on it – it’s not worth posting.

The hike back to the shuttle pickup spot was hot, sandy, and buggy, which did nothing to ease our sense of having wasted most of a day. The one bright spot was the nice conversation we had with the couple sitting next to us on the bench (Hello again if you’re reading this! *grin*)