BillD and ferrara

Subject: BillD and ferrara
From: Lorraine
Date: 23 May 99 - 01:12 PM

News flash Bill D and Ferrera are once again experiencing computer blues. They'll be thinking of all and sending good wishes to the controller of computer magic in hopes she strikes their machine with healing songs.-Lorraine

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 23 May 99 - 02:05 PM

Sounds like Bill and Ferrara might need to upgrade. I don't know how many times I told Bill that running Windows 3.1 on his 40Mhz IBM clone meant the rest of the world would soon leave him behind. Of course his 12.2 Baud Modem meant he can turn out two or three of his wooden creations while he waits for those 100+ threads to load. At least he could get some work done in the midst of his Mudcat addiction. **grin**

Big RiB

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 May 99 - 07:26 PM

Thanks, Lorraine, for keeping us posted. We're a little fragile around here at the moment, when it comes to unexplained absences:-)

Dear Gawdess of ALL Infernal Things Electronic:

We give thanks to thee, that thou hast brought upon our brother Bill, and Sister Rita's beloved and infernal "pewter" the blessings of thy vast power and capacity for perfect workings of the innards of all things related in the perfect outworkings of said 'pewter. And, that they are blest, once again, with thy secure and constant presence overseeing the machinations of their right and perfect electronic trappings. May they experience and enjoy a swift and painless return to this, thy humble servant's most favoured realm of consciousness, where we can be One with thee, in thy heart, mind, and soul of Cyber-Creationdom. We most humbly beseech thee to hear and honour this plea and guide in the healing of this most grevious matter.

Isis! Isis! Ra! Ra! Ra!

katronica elata, humble servant (NOT!):-)

katlaughing

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: BK
Date: 23 May 99 - 10:19 PM

Wow! Sounds great, Kat - kinda Unitarian - to me... We all should be glad that long gone are the days when they extirpated the Albegensians.. (I hope!)

Cheers, BK

ps: maybe they should try Linux. The box for Redhat Linux 5.2 ($29.97 @ Sam's) says it'll run on abt anything - "older 386 models to the newest Pentium II's" & I'm told it is dramatically more effecient than any Windows programs.. Of course, other than that I don't (yet) know a *&^%$#@** thing abt it.. (Just bought it, haven't had time to organize loading on my other machine yet, 'n won't have time for a while.)

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 23 May 99 - 10:53 PM

Dammit you Cats, speak English!!

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 May 99 - 01:15 AM

Aw, ya Canadians! Do ya rally ken wot guid Englais is, now mon? **BSEG**

kat

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Night Owl
Date: 24 May 99 - 01:23 AM

OK....I'll bite.....what is "**BSEG**"????

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Mark Roffe
Date: 24 May 99 - 01:30 AM

It's a kind of grin that's big, and smelly 'cause of what it was eatin'.

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 24 May 99 - 01:34 AM

I'm still reeling over "Isis! Isis! Ra! Ra! Ra!" What kind of Egyptian metaphysical pep-rally hokum is that? Be careful Kat, you'll not only wake up B and F's computer, but every slumbering Mummy from here to Cairo (Illinois) with that stuff. Sheesh. Hey..What's that scratching sound at my window!?ARRRGGGGHHHHH........

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 24 May 99 - 01:38 AM

Jeesus, that's disgusting. Forget I said anything. Go back to talking computers. At least I know how to <A HREF=dohttp://www.madmartian.com/jello.htm>do this now</A>

Like hell he does...
-Joe Offer, who's been giving him private lessons-

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 24 May 99 - 01:40 AM

Oops, guess I don't. Trust me, it was funny.

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 24 May 99 - 01:43 AM

Maybe this here

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 May 99 - 01:51 AM

Ewwww! Rick! That is truly gross!

kat

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Tony Burns
Date: 24 May 99 - 01:54 AM

Jell-O-Rama? Rick, you have way too much spare time.

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Mark Roffe
Date: 24 May 99 - 01:59 AM

That reminds me, kat - you once said "LMAO" to me. What's that mean?? Go ahead, tell me. I ain't scared.

Mark

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Night Owl
Date: 24 May 99 - 02:00 AM

Thanks Mark.... I've learned two good lessons ....#1. DON'T ASK!!!! #2 I don't need to click on EVERY one of Rick's maroon "clicky thingies"!!!

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 24 May 99 - 02:01 AM

Probably true, but I wonder why I picked that word and then typed it into metacrawler. Could I have been thinking "jello wrestling, or Bill Cosby," or was I just hungry. Help me Dr. Freud.

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 24 May 99 - 02:08 AM

Is this a thread or a Twilight Zone episode?

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 24 May 99 - 02:09 AM

Oy, I just read my "jello" link. It IS revolting. I thought it would be recipies or something! Didn't wait long enough. Sorry.

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Banjer
Date: 24 May 99 - 06:09 AM

Mark, *LMAO* = Laughing My A*s Off
It probably wouldn't hurt to make up a special Mudcat Anagram Reference, if someone had the ambition and time. Then folks that don't know could respond to (TIC) remarks with (NOI) and cause many more *BSEG*, *BG*, *LMAO*, *BAG*, replies from those who otherwise wouldn't say anything. Banjer *CTM*

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Night Owl
Date: 24 May 99 - 10:43 AM

Banjer...great idea. It could be called the "Abbreviation Reference Guide" /AAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGG.

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Mark Roffe
Date: 24 May 99 - 12:13 PM

"CTM" is puzzling enough, but "AAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGG" ???

btw, "TLA" stands for "three letter acronym"

mdr

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: catspaw49
Date: 24 May 99 - 01:57 PM

To any new readers out there:

Here at Mudcat we have a strange way of taking a thread in some tangenital manner (No, I'm not talking about your genitals...or mine for that matter; I did however, recently bring up the square root of Joe Offer). This happens in two ways.

THREAD CREEP: This is not some lurking pervert, but a gradual slide over time from one subject to another and often to several others. Generally speaking you can trace the lineage with a little work, although the subjects are unrelated.

THREAD BLOWN ALL TO HELL WORLDWIDE: This takes place when the topic changes, and often repeatedly, for no conceivable reason with no linkage or lineage to be found.

This thread is an example of the latter. Please don't be intimidated. Simply take this chance to jump in and express your views on any subject you like, such as the motivational factor of hemmorhoids on increased factory production. Just go for it!

catspaw

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 24 May 99 - 02:10 PM

What will Bill D & Ferrara think of this thread when they eventually get back on line and read it?

Sorry I missed your birthday, Bill. I was in NJ. Dealing with Talmudic texts. As I was looking at the Talmud, I realized that the tradition of thread creep is centuries old!

--Charlie Baum (IITYWIMWYBMAD)

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Banjer
Date: 24 May 99 - 06:02 PM

CTM = Chuckling To Myself

(IITYWIMWYBMAD)?? IHNI!!

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Bill D
Date: 25 May 99 - 01:52 AM

Ich bin SEHR bemused!!,,,offline 1 1/2 more days...and LOOK what they do!! Can't even have a serious moment of silence for our absent selves without abject and gratuitous silliness abounding!!

(huh?? whadeesay??)

uh...Rick...you know, they have Spam carving competitions, too, if you are reaaly bored....

and Roger..my computer system is top-notch!...guy at the store said he'd never SEEN a TRS-80 powered by steam actually GET online before!...Now if I can just find that old box of vacuum tubes in the closet, I can route the whole thing thru my 1962 Hoffman TV set and get Mudcat on channel 2!!....

....and katlaughing...that was a wondrous prayer...except that it didn't have a specific plea for the necessary concentric bi-morphous difugleties necessary to put Windows back together will ALL its (hers? his?) parts intact!...folks, as near as I can tell, I am running Windows with NO Windows directory and missing most of the files..it is like that old Candid Camera episode where the car drives into the gas station and they find no engine under the hood! ......do I sound silly? well, I have now spent 4 hours reconstructing my desktop/program manager from scratch!!and installing an anti-virus..(which SAYS it finds no problems..hmmmpff!)..whatever I did...we are online...at least temporarily...

(*mumble*...should been with Charlie, reading Talmudic texts...mighta made more sense than the DEEP internals of Windows software!).....

....so....what it all amounts to, is...we shall see...duct tape is a magnificant product, and I will not be denied my access to all this insanity...see you all later.....

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 May 99 - 12:13 PM

Welcome back Bill and you'll be happy to know that coal is still plentiful even though strip mining is on the decline(but you gotta' watch those mothers). You might try increasing the size of the firebox and banking the fire in the P.R.R. manner which took max advantage of the supersteam concept.

catspaw

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Bill D
Date: 25 May 99 - 01:47 PM

"...his head was against the firebox door, the flames were burning high..."

firebox size seems to ne irrelevant if the damn train keep derailing!!...and when I get it back on the track, the cars are out of order and contents and couplings are damaged.....

I am writing this from the 3rd complete re-installation of Windows...and it ain't over yet!...stuff is not where it is supposed to be in the directories..and copying has to be done in DOS, where the visual representation of your stuff is non-existant...it is like every time you open the door to your house, all the furniture has been rearranged...and you are required to turn off the lights to move it back...(mediocre metaphor, but this is not my forte')

so...if there are long pauses while we sort this out...(or trade in the 17 year old kid on a Pentium..*grin*),don't fret...we will figure out something...

so...lets goo see if I can figure out how how to get c:\windows\system back under c:\windows...instead of under c:\system!!...(where IS that DWIM..[Do What I Meant] key?)

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Bill D
Date: 25 May 99 - 02:18 PM

Actually this is Ferrara. I don't dare close Netscape and open it again. I told Bill I was too busy to look at Mudcat and he said at least I had to see what Katlaughing had dragged in ... I haven't laughed so hard since the damned thing broke! -- Lord, we miss you people and all this silliness (although having Lorraine within local calling distance assures that we'll never totally run out of silliness....)

Bill says I'll be OK as long as I don't close Windows. Well, maybe. We'll look for a bigger hammer and try again to fix it. If you don't get any news, you'll know we probably clobbered the wrong nail. - Rita Ferrara

By the way, we had fantasies of a monster 60th birthday blast for Bill, but sanity prevailed and I just fixed his favorite dinner for us, our son, and as many people (five!) as we can fit around our table. Wish you had all been there. - Rita

(He still has fantasies of doing a late monster un-birthday party sometime when there's a "ha-ha" free weekend.)

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 25 May 99 - 02:27 PM

I was talking to a guy this morning who was having similar problems, Bill. His buddy said some "hidden" file was "probably corrupted." He then suggested my friend copy everything he wanted to keep onto floppies, reformat the hard drive, and start from scratch. If that ain't a bigger hammer, I don't know what is.

Sorry, truly, to hear about your struggles. I am glad, however, to hear you upgraded to steam. Them gerbils were looking awful tired since you found the Mudcat. I look forward to your contributions to the insanity.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 May 99 - 08:01 PM

Yeah Bill, but I think I see your firebox problem. See you're quotin' FFV which takes place on the C&O and my suggestion was to go the Pennsy design instead.

In all seriousness, I too miss hearing from you guys so crank out your biggest hammer!!!!!

catspaw

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Bill D
Date: 26 May 99 - 10:22 PM

Ok...here we go again...my sweet, meticulous wife, who spent more years than she cares to think about using DOS and mainframes, spent a good part of the day cleaning up files and clearing directories so we could copy in our backup copy of Windows in proper order...so far, so good..(but we got 5 days the last time!)

I am running Dr Solomon virus checker...backing up important files...chanting katlaughing's prayer in 3 different languages...replacing the back-up gerbils with ferrets..(have you SEEN those things go?)...caulking the boiler....etc.....

we WILL prevail!!...

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 28 May 99 - 11:26 AM

Bill,

An idle thought has come to me. Is it possible one of those recent Mudcatter photos fried your computer's brain. I mean, some of 'em were scary for me (not you Alice or you Alison). Maybe that's your problem.

Who might be that culprit?

Big RiB (who was one of the first pictured and who therefore assumes he is innocent)

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 May 99 - 01:05 PM

Also innocent here as I ain't sent doodly squat.....but the RiB probably has it right. Have you checked on Banj? I could see that being a huge problem.

catspaw

Subject: RE: BillD and ferrara
From: Banjer
Date: 28 May 99 - 04:52 PM

I'll 'fess up. I believe I probably hold the record for number of cameras destroyed. My magnificent countenace is just more than mere mortal equipments can handle, I suppose. Perhaps if you were to install a filtering device of some sort to control the radiant qualities it may help to be able to view it without doing permanent damage, much like observing a solar eclipse through a special lens! All who gaze upon me are left speechless it seems. BillD reported that he tried putting my picture on the garbage can to repel bugs, as I suggested, but all it did was attract the little critters; even they know majestic qualities when they see them!

Gawd, somebpdy bring me a stool and a pair of boots, it sure is gettin' deep in here!