Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Fun fact:

Giraffes have blue tongues.  Their tongues are so long and skinny that giraffes can sometimes lick their own ears!   

First off...

"Tiger" = OS 10.4
"Leopard" = OS 10.5
"Snow Leopard" = OS 10.6
"Lion" = OS 10.7
When OS 10.8 is released next summer will be named "Mountain Lion."

Confusing but what the heck are we going to do?  ;)

I suggest checking all your software updates.

Go to APPLE > Software Update... to see if your system has any updates waiting.  Allow your system to download and install them.

You might need to install an update for Java.  Check this page to see if you do:
http://support.apple.com/downloads/Java … _Release_9

I agree with Karen, somewhat.  You should check your plugins.  Make sure they are all up to date.  Yes, Flash is one of the plugins that causes the most trouble.

However, I think you should check to make sure that those plugins aren't messing you up.  Some plugins block cookies or other important features that you need to access certain websites.  If your cookie blocking plugin is stopping cookies from a certain website, it might not let you in.

I get onto plenty of websites with OS 10.3, one generation OLDER than yours.  I also have OS 10.6.
Neither of my computers has problems getting onto 99% of all websites I want to see.

+1 on the "creepy!"

We would never have any Teddy Bears whose heads come off in this den.   :/
That's too much like Marie Antoinette!     Macabre!   

To change a Bear's head into a rabbit?  That's just wrong.   

I've been thinking about this overnight.

Maybe your Mom wants you to come over to her house to sew.

I have known elderly people who refuse to get computers, not because they don't know how to use them, but because they would rather have people call them on the phone and come to visit their house.  They believe that, when they get e-mail, people will just send a message instead of coming to visit.  There is some unfortunate truth to this belief.

I am guessing that your mother doesn't give up her machine because of two reasons.
1)  Her memories like we talked about above.
2)  She wants you to come visit her.  If she gives away the machine you will have no reason to visit anymore.  If you don't visit anymore, she WILL lose her memories.

I think I'm going to double down on my suggestion.  Ask your Mom if you can come over to her place to sew a Bear.
Tell her that you might like some "help."  This doesn't mean she has to actually sew anything.  She would be your "adviser."
You do all the sewing but, when you finish a section, hold it up and ask, "How does this look?"

It's the same reason my mother-in-law refused to leave home even as she was lying on the floor in a puddle of her own p*** because she was unable to get up off the floor and go to the bathroom.

The sewing machine represents the familiarity and security of old times gone by and memories of the way things were.

It sounds ironic to say that somebody with Alzheimer's Disease can keep her memories but that object, somehow, forms a root from which other memories still cling.  If she loses that machine she looses her root.  If she loses her root she feels like she's losing all of her memories.

Is there any way you can go to her house and sew on the machine with her still being there?

Don't contrive the situation but act like she is teaching you or, better, like she is your "Chief Technical Advisor."  ;)

What's important, here, is that you show her that your interest lies in her and not in the machine.

If you play your cards right, she might just give you the machine.

With people who have Alzheimer's, it's all about the PEOPLE in their lives more than the things.

My best camera is a year older than that:  Rolleiflex Automat model 2.8C.  Made in 1955.  (Verified from the serial number.)  It works as well as the day it was new and it'll beat the pants off any digital camera you can put up against it!

Older equipment is often the best equipment but the Rolleiflex is a lot like the Bonis sewing machine.  You have to know how it works and you have to be trained how to use it before you can make it work right.

I have never used a Bonis but I have messed with one that wasn't running to see how they work and I have watched people use them.  Yes, they are a different animal!

They don't have a flat bed.  You hold the materials to be sewn vertically and run it between two pinch rollers.  The needle moves horizontally.  There's a "dancer" arm that pulls the thread around to make the overlock stitch.  They have two speeds:  "Off" and "fast."  They are definitely not an item to be used without training.

They are, pretty much, a standard in commercial/industrial operations that sew leather, fur or other heavy materials.

The neat thing about them is that they have guides to set the width of the stitch.  There are attachments to push the fur out of the path of the needle as it sews.  There are air blower attachments that blow the fur out of the way so the user can see where he's sewing.  They are all metal, they are rock solid and they'll run twelve hours per day for fifty years without missing a beat.

They also make models specifically designed to sew plush material or faux fur.

While I don't think anybody here would run out and buy one, I mention the Bonis for academic purposes.  I think, with the number of people at this website who work with fur, leather and plush, these machines are something that people might be interested in seeing even if they don't end up using one.

Been haunting the Garment District, I presume...   

The Singer Sewing Machine Company was bought out in 2004.  Now they are owned by the same company that makes Pfaff and Husqvarna/Viking.  I'm willing to bet that Singer machines are now basically "cookie cutter" copies of the Pfaf and Husky machines only with different labels on them.

One thing about modern machines compared to their older counterparts is that most of them now have plastic gears inside them instead of steel ones.  Yes, the machines are lighter, they run quieter and they are cheaper to make but they don't operate with the same kind of precision and durability that their older counterparts used to.  As much as salesmen claim that plastic gears are "just as good as steel," if you want a machine that will last, you'll need steel.  That's just all there is to it.

If I was looking for a sewing machine, I'd look for a commercial model.

There's also a company called "Bonis" which makes sewing machines specifically for sewing fur.  They look a lot different than most people imagine when they think "sewing machine" but they are the best machines for sewing fur or plush material.

The original stuff comes in little foil packets about 10 cm. tall.
I pay a dollar for five of them in my grocery store.  If you look for them on discount, I bet you could get them even cheaper.
I bet you could put ten of them into a Tyvek envelope and mail them.  They'd cost $2 at retail but I bet it would cost that much in postage to mail them.

For the sweetened stuff, you're paying extra for all the sugar.  Plus, you're paying for the packaging.

Point is, half those unregistered visitors could be bots or un-logged members.
A 5-to-1 ratio of visitors to members isn't so bad.

I don't know how the software that runs this forum works, exactly, nor do I have administrative control so I can't be certain but I can tell you how other forms that I have worked for have operated.

Usually, the software counts all hits from the same IP address received in five minute as one visitor.  So, if a person hits the site several times in an hour but five minutes apart, he might be counted as a discrete visitor even though he is the same person.  Thus, the visitor count is artificially inflated.

Second, I don't know if this software differentiates between "regular" visitors and "bots" or computers that scan the internet for information.  Search engines like Google and Yahoo use bots to gather information about other websites so you can search for the things you want to know and be directed to the right website.

Some bots can hit a website several times per hour.  If the forum software does not account for visits by bots, again, the hit count is artificially inflated.

Third, a lot of people who might be registered users visit the site without logging in.
They ARE members but they aren't counted as members because they haven't logged in.

So...  Bottom line:  Use the hit counter at the bottom of the front page as a rough gauge of how much traffic is visiting the site but don't expect it to be accurate all the time.

The stuff is so cheap! It costs a dollar for five packets.
Somebody could mail you some Kool-Aid and the postage would be more expensive than the product.

How much do you need?

Macavity, Macavity, there's no cat like Macavity,
He's broken every human law, defies the law of gravity.

-- T.S. Eliot.  Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Yes, with 1,000 Bears in the house but only two humans, we often do feel like Gulliver!      

Holy cow!  That's AWESOME!   

I'm not kidding!
If the rest of the Bear looks as good as what you've got there, it'll be the best real fur Bear I've ever seen!   

Taking over the house...  You're getting warm.

When our Bears get miffed they occasionally say, "Don't forget what happened to Gulliver!"

Okay...  If you call it a clubhouse, Us Bears can accept it.

Out of control?  Hardly!  You have no idea what out of control is!        

What did the Bears ever do that they deserve to be put in jail?

I have a better idea.  Put the cat in the cupboard and let the Bears have the rest of the house!

You have an Intel-based iMac.  It's a very nice computer.
Hardware-wise, it is superior to your Dell.

I'm willing to bet that, if you look under the VIEW menu you'll find your answer there.  There are a few options under that menu that can cause what you say.  Further, they can be accessed with command keys.  Accidentally hitting one of those command keys can cause the symptoms you describe.

If you can't find the problem setting, log out of the computer completely, all the way to the main password screen then log back in as another user.  The problem ought to go away.  That will confirm that it is a preference or setting is the problem.

Now, go back and log in as yourself.
Make sure that Safari is shut down.  (It should be if you just logged in.)
Open a Finder window and navigate to Home > Library > Preferences folder.
Trash the file com.apple.Safari.plist

Restart Safari.  Problem should go away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qei_ccdgTMU

"Aah-Aah-Achoo!"

What version of Mac OS are you using and which Mac are you using?

APPLE > About This Mac

You should probably be using 10.5 or 10.6 unless the computer is old enough that running the new OS would be difficult.  (e.g. My old iMac from 1999 is too old to run anything newer than 10.3.)

Glad you got it working!  :)

I assumed that you use Safari.  I don't have access to your User-Agent information so I can't tell from here.
On another website where I have admin rights, I can see that information and I often use that information to help people.
However, in this case, I just guessed.

Anyhow, it is common for people to accidentally hit a hot-key and change the way their browser behaves.  It happens to me, too.  It even takes me a couple of minutes to figure out what key I accidentally hit and undo it.

Cmd-Shift-Backslash is a common key for people to accidentally hit.  That's why I guessed it first.  If that wasn't right I was going to have you look under the VIEW menu to see what settings were changed.

In this case, you were smart enough to guess where the problem lies and fix it yourself.
I'm happy to hear that.  There are a lot of people who aren't smart enough to make that guess and there are a lot more people who aren't even willing to try.

I'm always happy to try to help people who put forth the effort but I tire quickly of those people who don't try.