Upgrading -> Nitro PDF Pro 6

One of the joys of doing the grad school thing is that I work with a LOT of PDFs … so I have been making good use of the Nitro PDF Professional software that Nitro so graciously provided me after I wrote about their free PDF –> Word converter on this blog. You can use the free PDF –> Word Converter…and now the free PDF –> Excel Converter as well …but you won’t need to if you actually buy the software, which is well worth having.

I downloaded it again while I was away at summer school (using my new-ish netbook which didn’t have it installed already) and this time ended up with Nitro 6…which has even more cool features! I am especially fond of being able to add annotations in notes right in the file; it saves me a lot of time and aggravation when I need to go back and find just the bits I wanted to use. I used to make notes in a Word file all the time - but that was no where near as convenient as having them right in the pdf. Now I can just keep the pdfs I’m working with on my flash drive and move them - complete with all of my notes - between the 2/3 computers I work with in any given day.

With Nitro PDF Professional and Zotero, which is a way cool plug in for Firefox that I should write more about (I’ll do that next time)  - the hundreds of PDFs I end up downloading and working with over the course of a semester are ever so much more organized and most importantly USEFUL!

Tags: Nitro PDF Pro 6, pdfs, SEASR, zotero

Lexmark Printer

Don't let the ad deceive you - the Lexmark printer does NOT print colours at all well.

Next time I decide to buy a printer you can be damn sure that it WILL NOT BE A LEXMARK.

I bought my little Lexmark mostly because it was little - I wanted one that I could easily transport between home and the motel last year. But it has been a pain in my posterior and I am so frustrated with it I do believe it shall soon find a new home in the big green bin at the end of my driveway.

Not only are the ink cartridges for it expensive, the printer is set to revert to using good quality for every print job - even if you don’t close the file at all.

 It irritates me.

And the very expensive cartridge has a lousy output too - I needed to print one long document last week and it went through an entire cartridge to do only HALF of it. Bugger that - my Dell irritates me now because a tiny little bit of plastic snapped off in the lid to the ink holder. it doesn’t MATTER - it CAN and does still print - but there is a sensor in there somewhere that occasionally gets its knickers in a knot and will refuse to even try because, it says, there is a cartridge stall. There IS NOT.

Just now the Lexmark refused to continue my print job because the colour cartridge was empty. What the hell difference does that make when I’m printing in black and white? I don’t CARE that the colour cartridge is empty - and I do not much appreciate the constant alerts about ink levels either - even after I’ve bought replacement cartridges and clicked the damn box that said so. I sould not NEED to buy colour cartridges for the Lexmark because their colour cartridges print CRAP - even brand new ~authentic~ Lexmark colour ink prints washed out looking CRAP that I would never use for anything that matters.

Printers have become increasingly obnoxious, y’ask me. And Lexmark SUCKS.

So …now I’m looking at HP or Canon … recommendations, anyone?

Tags: lexmark, POS, printer

More About “my” heron

New Cottage Country Pest Control Logo

So …the picture I posted in my last article is now being used as the company logo for our new pest control company which will serve Huronia, Simcoe, Muskoka and some of the Kawarthas - all in Ontario for those of you that don’t know.

My youngest managed to cut him out of the picture for me…and made a line drawing as well, that we’re really happy with.

I wrote an article today on our company blog explaining the rationale for using the heron as the Cottage Country Pest Control logo.

Still waiting on some very necessary mail - but aside from that all  is going well with our business startup …. database is developed, and we’ve got business cards, flyers and t-shirts. Tamara (my other kid) is working on some more content for the Cottage Country Pest Control website: the bedbug page will go up tomorrow and then we’ll be onto roaches and ants. Now all we need is some more customers! Oh, and less rain would be good as well.

Tags: ant, Barrie, bat, bedbugs, Cottage Country Pest Control, environmentally responsible, Honey Harbour, Huronia, Kawartha, mice, Muskoka, Orillia, Port McNicoll, Port Severn, roach, Simcoe, spider

Why We Love Living on Georgian Bay

This morning while I was waiting for it to be time for my nontraditional student friends to come to my place for lunch, hubby pointed out that “our” heron was back …

 Is he not the most gorgeous bird?

I took a lot of pictures of him - also a video which was cool because as I was filming, one of the many carp that are spawning on our front lawn right now swam through and I ended up with video of him as well. And a picture - see him? or her? I don’t know how you tell with a carp.

I can hardly believe that I’m leaving this for 4 out of the next 5 weeks. What was I thinking?

Tags: Georgian Bay, Ontario, Victoria Harbour

About Me - Meme from Creative Arts Anonymous & Ask Me Anything

1. My uncle once:
Came into our house (where I was sleeping on the couch) drunk and wouldn’t leave.

2. Never in my life:
hmmm… I’m having trouble with this one.

3. When I was seventeen:
I thought I was HUGE - now when I look back at pictures, I can’t imagine why.

4. High School was:
Lonely. I really didn’t play well with others - still don’t, actually.

5. I will never forget:
Uh - I have the memory of a sieve … so I couldn’t possibly claim anything here.

6. I once met:
Bunches of Canadian authors at the Leacock Festival in Orillia every year. Oh, and several Toronto Maple Leaf players - only because my kid was determined.

7. There’s this girl I know who:
is a rocket scientist - and a damn good writer who should be published  (and I get free signed copies just because I whine). Oh yeah, and she (and her hubby) make very cute kiddies.

8. Once, at a bar:
Some twit tried to pick me up with the line “I play hockey” …and when that didn’t work, “I breed fish“. He tried the same combo on my sister and friend as well.

9. By noon, I’m usually:
Halfway through my Entrecard drops.

10. Last night:
I did laundry, had a late supper and went to bed.

11. If only I had:
Gone back to school sooner! I could have been done by now.

12. Next time I go to gym/church:
I’d be shocked by my presence at either.

13. Susan Boyle:
Haven’t heard her sing - I only know who she is by having read blog posts.

14. What worries me most: 
The fact that we STILL don’t have wills and if something were to happen to hubby I’d be totally screwed.

15. When I turn my head left, I see:
My very grumpy and somewhat inebriated hubby (he had a bad day at work)

16. When I turn my head right, I see:
A pile of junk on the couch beside me.

17. You know I’m lying when:
I am confident about school.

18. What I miss most about the eighties:
Working with messed up kids.

19. If I was a character in Shakespeare, I’d be: 
Cordelia in King Lear

20. By this time next year:
I will be finished the first year of my doctorate in Canadian Studies, and finished my YA novel and sent it off to publishers.

Tags: ask me anything, creative arts anonymous, meme, rocket scientist

Lots of hummingbirds

The hummingbirds are back.

They showed up last weekend, and are visiting one of my two feeders every evening.

I also went shopping with a friend yesterday and bought bunches of new hummingbird stuff. Well, I didn’t buy all of it - she bought some for me (wedding gift - even though gifts were not required and the wedding was a year ago). Haven’t got pictures of those yet… but here is my wall hanging - it’s going in the kitchen to cover the fuse box panel.

Isn’t it pretty?  I love hummingbirds. I chose flit as an online name because it was the name of the hummingbird in Pocahontus.

Tags: flit, flitting, hummingbirds

MyVie Win

So ….I signed up for a new site this evening - it is called MyVie Win and is a social networking site that, like Gather.com, pays you to participate… including, right now, a $5 bonus just for signing up.

You earn credits for writing blogs, interacting, etc… and the minimum payout is $50.

Since I only joined it today - and so far only have one friend *sad* I have no idea how long it takes to earn $50 …but what the heck …I figure if nothing else, I can use it to build backlinks for my other blogs.

Anyway … if you’re interested in trying it out, do add me - my username there is the same as it is in most places, i.e. flit … I only use flitting when someone’s already swiped MY name…and this time, I got there early enough

Tags: blog promotion, blogging, earning, MyVie Win

Bzzzing About Beechnut Yogurt Nibbles

BzzzAgent sent me bunches of Beech-Nut Let’s Grow products to try. So far all of the adults I have given samples to - for the kids they babysit, mostly - have been very positive about them. But who cares what the grown ups think, right?

And now have it on good authority that Strawberry-Banana BeechNut Yogurt Nibbles are good food.

Hunter was particularly enamoured of the smell and told me several times that I should smell them too …. “mmmmmmmmmmmmm good smell”

Colton didn’t say much - but both kids ate them happily and the bag went with us to the garden centre, the playground and home again.

 BeechNut Let’s Grow products all come with the No Junk Promise:

Beech-Nut has taken out what you don’t want and put in all the good things you do want. Let’s Grow! - good foods to get exited about. Let’s Grow! Yogurt Nibbles are whole grain cereal pieces coated with tasty yogurt that are sure to bring a smile to your toddler’s face. (from the packaging)  

The boys definitely enjoyed them.

Tags: Beech-nut, bzzzagent, healthy food, Let's Grow!, snacks for kids

More about my netbook, since you asked :)

Kelly from 30 Something & Searching and Susan from Uninvited Writer both had questions about the netbook, so I thought I would write another post to answer them (see what a week of filling in on Ask Me Anything does?).

So …to answer your questions, I chose this particular netbook cuz it was pretty

But also because it was reasonably priced at my local Staples store - it wasn’t the cheapest they had, but it also wasn’t silly-priced. The cheaper ones that they had had a much smaller hard drive - mine is 160 GB. I don’t need that much space - but 8 or 16 GB sure didn’t sound like enough. I really didn’t pay attention to the brand - I was more interested in price & features. One thing that I do very much like about this computer is that it runs Windows XP - I am much happier with XP than I will ever be with Vista.

My netbook does everything I need it to do - only a bit slower than my regular laptops (yes, I have 2; I am spoiled - one was badly damaged in a car accident so is used as a desktop with an external monitor now). The netbook only has 1 GB of RAM - my laptops each have 4 - so I do notice a difference, especially when it comes to working with multiple windows and multiple programs, which I tend to do a lot of given my rather limited attention span.

With my laptops, I can easily open 40 Entrecard tabs in a window at once - with the netbook, I do 10 at a time. But it does run MS Office - including Access, now that I’ve added my own software (it came with a student version installed - free 60 day trial, but then you have to add your license key).

The one limitation that you might run into in using it as a replacement for a full size laptop is the lack of a built-in CD/DVD drive - most programs can be downloaded now, so it might not matter, but a lot of us still like to burn our images or whatever to DVDs, right? A netbook with an external drive of some sort - either a CD/DVD or an external hard drive - would probably do quite well for most people though.

My next investment is going to be the Roger’s stick that my kid has - it looks like a flash drive and provides internet access almost anywhere using cell phone towers… if it works with my netbook and allows me to be online while being driven to school and so on I am going to be one very happy geek!

The netbook is significantly smaller than a laptop and is going to be great to take to the conference I’m going to later this month, and on my trip to Victoria in June. And with the stick, I hopefully won’t need to worry about Internet access wherever I happen to be.

Tags: Acer, netBook, rogers stick, saphire blue

Acer Aspire One Sapphire Blue Netbook

My newest toy

The Acer Aspire netbook is a great little machine.

I am very happy with mine. I have had it for about a month, and use it all over the place - in the car on long trips, at our friends’ cottage way out in the boonies (they have satellite Internet), at school, etc.

When I fix other people’s computers, I used to lug my regular laptop along - now I throw the netBook and a flash drive in my purse and I’m good to go. It’s light enough that even walking, it is not a problem - and the battery lasts long enough that I usually don’t even bother to pack the cord.