A very Happy New Year to all the folks that stop by here now and then and to all others as well. May the next year be a warm and happy one for all of you. 2008 is destined to be great. Or at least very interesting. 
I just did a CSS job to Sixty’s WordPress blog. Actually I just made some changes to an add-on style sheet (vader.css) for the K2 theme so the text and such in various areas was readable which is always a good thing to do for one’s readers. They don’t really like it that much when they can’t read the thing. Sixty did the header image and a few small changes of his own as well.
Anyway, it came out so horrible good looking I just thought I’d do some bragging about it. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no expert when it comes to PHP and CSS but I can make it work when I apply myself. Go on…take a look for your self. Tell me how much you hate it. 
Now I’m going to have the title theme to the Godfather movie running around my head all night.
Remember way back when surfing the Internet meant a 14.4 kb modem and just about every website had "Best viewed using Netscape" tacked onto to it somewhere? Well, as of February 1, 2008 that old and venerable browser/Internet suite that’s been around well over 12 years will fade into browser history when AOL finally shuts down all support and development of this old man of the virtual sea.
An historic name in software will effectively pass into history in February as AOL discontinues development and active support for the Netscape browser, according to an official blog.
AOL will keep delivering security patches for the current version of Netscape until Feb. 1, 2008, after which it will no longer provide active support for any version of the software, according to a Friday entry on The Netscape Blog by Tom Drapeau, lead developer for Netscape.com. The Netscape.com Web site will remain as a general-purpose portal.
Source: PCWorld: AOL to End Support for Netscape Browser
I didn’t use Netscape all that much even back then but it always sat on whatever PC I had at the time like some faithful old friend that was just waiting for the chance to do whatever job I asked of it. As soon as Internet Explorer 4 came out, I dropped Netscape altogether. Still, the name "Netscape" has always been synonymous with surfing the WWW almost since the WWW first came into existence. Anyone remember a browser called Mosaic?.
Those who still use this piece of Internet history can take a bit of heart though. Although the browser, which lately has been an open source, Mozilla based affair, is headed into the virtual afterworld, There’s the Netscape theme and Netscape extensions for Firefox developed by the Netscape Add-ons team and the browser will still be able to be downloaded form the Netscape archives. Be aware though as of February 1, 2008, there will no longer be any security update support for the browser and that means increased vulnerability as time goes on.
So goodbye Netscape. The young ones may not understand what this means but us older folks will tip our hats in respect as the browser that was there in the beginning goes wafting by on it’s way to greener pastures.
Grandad tagged me with this meme several days ago and since my answers really didn’t fall into the holiday spirit of things, I waited until now to tackle it. This plus the fact it just plain took three days to finish it. I don’t know why it took so long but sometimes it’s best not to question these kind of anomolies. So without further ado I present to you THE GREAT CRAZY EIGHT MEME.
8 THINGS I’M PASSIONATE ABOUT
1 – Honesty, common sense on how to use both at the same time.
2 – My home and privacy thereof.
3 – My most wonderful lady.
4 – Friendship
5 – Freedom and the right to shoot anyone who tries to take it away.
6 – Drunk/drugged out drivers who should be shot on sight but aren’t.
7 – Child abusers (both male and female) who should eviscerated on sight and then shot but aren’t.
8 – More.
8 THINGS I SAY OFTEN
1 – ##@@!!
2 – &^%$#$#$!!
3 – I can’t remember.
4 – I still can’t remember.
5 – Have you seen my glasses, keys, hearing aids, pills, wallet, etc, etc.
6 – What?
7 – What??
8 – It wasn’t me. It was the cats.
8 BOOKS I RECENTLY READ
1 – Sea Hunters II – Clive Cussler
2 – Desperation – Stephen King
3 – Fevre Dream – George R.R. Martin
4 – All Things Wise and Wonderful – James herriot
5 – I read too much.
6 – I can’t remember.
7 – I still can’t remember.
8 – ditto
8 THINGS TO DO BEFORE I DIE
1 – Grow old.
2 – Finish Breathing
3 – See to it that my honey finds her dream.
4 – Tie up those damned loose ends.
5 – Jump out of perfectly good airplane.
6 – Hang glide at least once
7 – Learn to tango–Okay, I’m only kidding.
8 – See the rest of my country before there’s nothing left to see.
8 SONGS I CAN LISTEN TO OVER AND OVER AGAIN
I was a sound engineer at one time and a good one at that. I have forgotten more music than I’ve ever learned which was more than I can remember. I was also a Cold War submariner. My hearing was damaged during that time in the service and the damage was self progressive. Now I’m legally deaf and no longer able to enjoy listening to music. For this reason, I abstain from answering this question.
8 THINGS THAT ATTRACT ME TO MY FRIENDS (some of these are Grandad’s answers. Some I would have put down myself and indicate so).
1 – Honesty (Yup)
2 – Humor (Yup)
3 – The ability to forget themselves (Yup again)
4 – Untidiness [tidy people scare me and minimalists freak me out altogether]. (Note: Unbelievable slobs are right out though.)
5 – The ability to laugh at themselves
6 – Posses the ability of holding a decent conversation for more than a few seconds without having a seizure.
7 – Hypocrisy not allowed unless they’re prepared to be called on it.
8 – Animal lovers (absolutely)
8 THINGS I LEARNED IN THE LAST YEAR
1. Things never, ever stay the same.
2. My lady contradicts the above statement bless her wonderful heart.
3. I’m really not indestructible.
4. That love means sticking together through the bad times.
5. The best used vehicle that you can buy in the USA is an old Jeep Cherokee.
6. That I can’t properly water the plants no matter how hard I try.
7. I really enjoyed the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogies (I always did like swashbucklers).
8. That I’m overjoyed at the fact this is the last question of this meme.
8 FOLKS WHO ARE GOING TO GET TAGGED WITH THIS MEME.
Well, I’ll tell you. I’m not going to tag anyone with this meme. I’m lousy at this part of it which is something else I learned in the last year so you can add that to the list too. Instead, I’ll be a complete fuddy-duddy and just invite anyone who happens to stop by and wants to give this a try to please do so and leave a link to your attempt in a comment. If I get enough, I’ll post a list just for the fun of it.
I’ve never done this before but since everywhere I turn during the past few days, there’s a new set of predictions for the coming year. So I decided to come up with my own list. And here it is in no specific order or validity.
Disclaimer: In the case that any of the above predictions actually come true, I hold myself completely blameless in any and all cases (unless, of course, good things come about, then I’m a genius).
Thank you for listening…er…reading.
Welcome to the 6th edition of the JT Evening News (published whenever I feel like it). All the doings at Just Thinkin’ that you really don’t care about.
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The Crazy Eight Meme Not fit for the holidays…I’m working on it.
Grandad seems to have picked me out as a sacrificial victim for these crazy memes he keeps getting tagged with by his so called friends (actually great people but don’t tell ‘em I said so). He seems to be like me in the fact that he just can’t seem to bring himself to tag too many (if any) folks with these things so he picks on me instead. He knows that I’m just whacked out enough to take them on.
I did start on this meme but after the first two sections I realized that my answers weren’t appropriate for the holiday spirit of things plus the fact that my brain kept locking up after every three questions so I decided to put it aside after I found that most of the answers were either "##@@!!" or "I can’t remember". Soon I say, soon!
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PHP 5, Where Art Thou?
My host was supposed to be switching over all their servers to PHP 5 (now 5.2.5) by the end of this year and I’m still waiting. I think they passed my box right by or for some reason is saving it for dead last since server numbers that are higher than mine are already done. This is all fine and dandy except I’ve had a WordPress based shopping cart that supposed to be part of my wife’s quilting business waiting in the wings for the last month and a half. I really don’t want to have this shopping cart populated with every one of my lady’s finished products and take the chance of having the whole thing wiped out when they make the switch, never mind my blog here (they’re supposed to put in a "PHP switch" and leave my site on PHP 4.4.7 so I can do the changeover myself but I’m not going to take that chance). In the meantime…back up, back up, back up.
I like my host just fine but man! Get on with it!
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The Future Bringeth?
Great googly moogly, 2008 is right around the corner and I’m already into my third year as a blogger. And what have I accomplished in that time? Let’s see now…
So what is 2008 going to bring as far as Just Thinkin’ is concerned? More of the same I reckon. If I’m absolutely stupid enough to list all sorts of "New and Improved" type things that I’m going to put forth in a thorough rework of this, that and the other thing…It ain’t never going to happen.
As always, this is me…enjoy it as you will.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone from me to you where ever you may be.
I thank all my readers for stopping by this year to take a gander at what I’m thinking about and of course those special folks that take the time to leave a comment or two. You’ve all made a hard year for me go easier.
All my hopes go out to those soldiers over in the middle east and other areas of conflict that you’ll all be able to come home soon so you can be with your families and one day be able to carry on without carrying a gun. Keep the faith.
And to my wonderful lady for unfailingly staying by my side while I work and deal with my disabilities and for her undying love and support. I couldn’t have possibly asked for more.
There’s many more of course so consider yourselves Merry’d and Happy’d. Have a wonderful holiday all!
I meant to post about this earlier than this but a snow storm got in the way but better late than never I always say. Well, I don’t really always say that but it seems to fit the occasion this time.
Now I don’t know how or why I earned this one but like my first ever SOB award, I found it by perusing around my Technorati links in my Admin dashboard (via the TIL plugin that puts them back where WP 2.3 initially took them out). I’m certainly not going to question it though since my mindset of late probably wouldn’t know if I was posting good content or not. That will change as soon as I get more used to this home bound situation of mine plus make some progress with the VA and such. Until then I’ll take this award as an indication that I’m still doing something right.
Outstanding Blogs at Orbit Now
This is one heck of a list and it must have taken a good long while to put together so give it a look. You might just find a few blogs that you haven’t read yet.