my new gpa ... and happy 1st birthday katelyn rose!

GPA might also be translated to:  Google Plus Addiction - LOL!

I owe y'all big time!

Please forgive me for neglecting to put on my blinders this week, but something bit me and I've been under it's spell for the past several days!  Yup, I would be referring to Google+!

I am not a technical writer, but just wish to let you know why I am really liking Google+, even better than Facebook.  It is extremely user-friendly, much more private (in my opinion) and you can communicate with groups of people in the circles that you put them into.  In other words, and unlike Facebook, if you post something to your status in Google+, you have the option right then and there as to who you wish to see it.  Let's just say it's like incorporating a private messaging system and a public one all in the same place rather than having to open a separate window or being taken away from your current page.

I am so loving the circles concept!

For example, I have created separate circles for scrapbooking, family, news, photography, technical stuff, etc. (not necessary the titles of my circles, but to give you an idea!)

If I wish to post a link, photos, a random thought, etc. and don't wish it to be seen by some who might not be interested, I can post to only those circles that I add in via the click of my mouse and this way I won't be bombarding everyone with my posts.  By the same token, I can arrange people into different groups that like to share a lot of links, previews and such, so that rather than wading through them to find something I might really be after at the time, I can simply choose the circle or circles of the streams I wish to view at any given time.

While Facebook has a lot of good features, I really, really like the simplicity of Google+ in being able to effectively communicate with others.  Plus, at this point, no games!  Just good quality communication and feedback!

My head is swimming with all that be done via Google+ and it will take me a few weeks to really determine how I wish to integrate it into my business and personal life.  I, personally, love the ease of mixing both my business and my pleasure on one page.  Although, I've always considered my business and pleasure to sort of be one and the same!  LOL!  Yah, I love y'all all the time!

I would love to have you come and join me there!  It's a great place to hangout (this allows 10 people to come together for a video chat/conference), to voice chat, type chat, or to just sit back and see what others are up to!  Oh, and when I say it is more private than FB, I really like that you can log on, stay logged on and no one knows you are there unless you are streaming your status publicly or to all of your groups.  The way I see it, G+ puts us in more control of how we wish to communicate with others in a safe, time effective manner without getting overwhelmed by all that is being posted by everyone else - unless, of course, we choose to!

For those already on Google+, I would love to hear your thoughts thus far.  If any of you are in need of an invite, leave your email address in the comments section and I will send you one as they are still in beta and looking for lots of good feedback (what you like and what you don't like) before opening up to everyone.

You can find me here:  Linda Walton

Have an awesome weekend everyone and I hope you will come and take a look around at G+.  If you have any questions that I am able to answer, I am more than happy to.

We will be working with our furbabies this weekend, so I hope to have Part Two of *Getting Your Brush On* uploaded by Tuesday with, perhaps, an extra goody included for your patience with me!

Happy "1st" Birthday to our precious little granddaughter, Katelyn Rose!  I will share some birthday pics as soon as I receive them from one or both of my daughters! :)

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stuck in a "graphic" jam to india and back!

Photo is of a VisionTek Radeon HD4350, courtesy of Dell.com

Happy Friday y'all!

Hope to find everyone happy and healthy and enjoying the spirit of the season! What have you been up to? Please share. I'm feeling a bit disconnected and need to get up to speed with y'all!

I could write a book on the events that have taken place the past few weeks! Long story short (He, he, now you know better than that, don't you? LOL!), I had the opportunity to upgrade my graphics card in the midst of purchasing a second monitor, something I've longed to do to help make my designing a wee bit easier on these aging eyes!

I know Dell is not everyone's favorite, but they've been really good to me the past six years and it is what I can afford, when I can! LOL! I used Dell's on-site analyzer to find which graphics card would be appropriate for my computer while I was purchasing the monitor and a few other goodies. I was so excited to finally be able to see clear, crisp edges on my embellishments and, especially, on the shapes I create! I mean, such a simple thing to create a shape, however, mine would always have jagged edges and it has become disheartening in my designing to not see what y'all might be seeing.

My new graphics card arrived in two days. I had already rearranged my office space, moved my older computer, cleaned out both CPUs and was just waiting to put that new baby in and start it up! My SIL arrived back home so I was back-and-forth while installing the software and drivers, came into the room to find that two portions of the install had failed. UGH! I was looking at identical images on both monitors, but found that my CD-ROM drive was not working after the initial installation. I called Dell and the tech I spoke with apologized when I told him that I had contacted AMD directly and was told that I was one of several phone calls received each week due to an improper graphics card recommendation for a slim CPU.

Y'all make think me strange, but I always look at these obstacles as learning experiences and this trip, soon to be trips, was no exception! We ordered a proper card for my slim CPU and I was equally as excited to receive it so that I could get a move on, only I was a little disappointed to have to give up 1MB of memory on the first card for 512 MB! Lessons learned thus far - call to order parts rather than online and never again will I purchase a slim CPU for convenience! ROFL! Ha, ha, ha, ha, HAAAAAAAA!!!

Two days later. New card arrives! Weeeeeeeee ... UGH! Installed. No graphics! On either monitor! Help!

My first phone call to Dell last Wednesday and my second trip to India! It was a pleasant visit with an equally pleasant gentleman bending over backwards to help me. I think we'd been on the phone an hour and 45 minutes when we were disconnected and I realized that he did not have my phone number to call me back. I decided this was a good time to take a break!

My next call to Dell proved very productive and also what a novice I am! HA! The new graphics card had two short connectors, placed fairly close together, whereas, the first card had one short and one long connector. So, why were my monitors not showing any graphics? Any guesses? LOL! Well, The first card was perfectly proportioned to fit in the PCI express slot and the new card ... well ... uhm ... it just did not look like it fit into the same slot, but I found one right beneath it that had exactly two short openings and it did fit!

After unplugging everything and making sure there were no issues with connections on the outside, etc., the tech asked me to remove the graphics card and to re-install it! Okay, sounds good, just to make sure it fit snug into the slot. This would be easy! *wink*  I then mentioned to the tech that that this card's connectors were quite different and that I had installed it into the slot beneath the original one. Mind you, I am upgrading from on board graphics so my first time to use one of the graphic slots! The tech gently says to me, "no ma'am, you need to install it into the same slot you did previously". Ah, the light bulb goes off and into the correct slot goes my new graphics card. I reconnect everything, fire it up and voila, I see graphics! WOOT, WOOT! LOL!

This wonderful man was so patient with me. I don't think I have ever had anyone spend that much time helping me correct my own mistake and remain so calm! Funny thing is, he kept stopping every once-in-a-while to thank me for being so patient and telling me how most customers just are not as patient as I was being. Having worked Customer Service many moons ago, I totally understood what he was saying. Of course, I just had to tell him that I believe this was one reason I was given six children! Not much of anything ruffles my feathers, except for injustice. That is my button and my only button! LOL!  

So y'all, seven hours later, I'm fairly good-to-go! YAY! I still had one issue and that is when we found that the optical drive on my CD-ROM is not working and the tech helping me found malware in my registry. This was also my first time to give any one remote access to help me resolve a problem. Very cool!

I will have to order a new CD-ROM drive, but have to wait until one last item from my original shipment has arrived before I can obtain an RMA. I can live without the drive for a week or so! Just so happy to be able to see graphics on my monitors again! WOO HOO!

And after all of that, I awake the next morning not feeling good and I spent three days in bed for most of the day, except to take care of a few chores. I've just not had the steam, until late last night, to sit down at the computer to attempt a post. Please forgive my long absence.  I have so much to catch up on, including my Christmas decorating here at home (we just got our tree inside and decorated earlier this evening), so I hope to be able to complete the two scrap kits I've been working on and get them to you ASAP! 

I've added a Christmas Playlist on my sidebar for your listening pleasure!  I think I collected around 72 tunes to keep me happily singing and scrapping/designing along.  I hope you'll find a tune or two you'll like as well!

Thank you for your patience.

Wishing everyone a bright and beautiful holiday season! 

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thought i had a slipped "disqus" ...

But, I do believe that all is well y'all! LOL!

I wanted to give you a heads up to my new commenting widget by the lovely Disqus!

I have had an account with Disqus since last year as I frequent many techy type websites that use Disqus, however, what I did not know, until renovating my blog, is that one can use the Disqus widget on Blogger too!  WOOT!

I hope that you all will find this user-friendly and understand why I have chosen to go with Disqus rather than Blogger's traditional commenting system.  I can now reply to you personally! YAY!

I've chosen my long-time and good friend Carole's comment as an example to how I am able to reply back directly beneath your posted comments:

I do believe this will make for an incredible method to my madness of trying to keep up with all of you lovelies and with a very personal touch.  It has pained me not to be able to do this in the past.  Honestly!

You can post using your Facebook login, Twitter, Disqus (of course!), Yahoo and a few others.  The only downfall that I have found thus far is that you cannot use your Blogger ID, but you can sign in anonymously if the need be.  Just make sure to sign your name so I know who I am replying to or, you can sign up for an account with Disqus! *smile*

I love that Disqus keeps track of the comments we leave out and about as we peruse the Internet too.  That is, if the site/blog we are visiting is also using Disqus - very cool!

If you are not signed in, the window below will open and ask you to identify yourself, but you must have already typed out your comment otherwise, Disqus will ask you to!

If there is ever a particular thread of comments that you would like to keep up with, or to see when I have replied to your questions, requests, etc., you can subscribe here as well.  There are a couple of options for subscribing to comments.  You may subscribe by email or by RSS feed.

If you have any questions or find anything out of sorts, please feel free to post them in the comments section so that I can reply to you immediately upon checking for new comments.  How cool is that!   

I'm still tweaking Disqus as I find a couple of things are not showing up that I asked for, so keeping my fingers and toes crossed that I do NOT end of with a slipped "Disqus" after all!  ROFL!

I'm SO happy ... *big grin*

Now, off to finish creating my goodies for the blog train and to work on my new siggy!

Learning brings about growth, which brings about change.  I love it!

What is something that you have learned recently that has led to growth and change for you?

Until we meet again ...

Love and hugs,

Linda

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