one more day of hazy skies

how long til we realize

beauty our blindness denies

sun sets on day of preparation

the Sabbath is in the air

now comes rest from weekly care

let me run the victory lap with you

let me write up the story

of the burdens you carry

I would give chase with you on stony ground

letting bygones be bygones

under the light of predawn

you know you can't win

you cannot begin

to count your troubles

or dig through rubble

of a broken heart

she knows that your sin

will tear you apart

my heart beats strong for freedom

and the echoing anthem

of vict'ry for the kingdom

I know your love has touched me

in ways I cannot see

I am bound and yet am free

Kerouac

Mexico City

is calling

new heroes

to blow the sax all night long

we're singing your song

Vientiane, Laos - Feb. 2013

Today an interesting problem occured while trying to post photos to my blog. I uploaded a photo and was prepared to post the link to the page editor. Instead of letting me open what I wanted to open, the image disappeared when I put the cursor over it. I clicked on the space where the image should be, but nothing happened. It was as if the image was not there. However, there was a little blue box that appeared next to the image, but none of the options in the box were options that met my need. I could post it to anything related to Bing, but I could not do with it what I wanted to do with it.

I do not use Bing. When given the opportunity, I do not use anything related to Internet Explorer. There are better web browsers out there, and they outperform IE in every way. Chrome is my first choice, followed by Safari. Netscape used to be a good option, but it went the way of something else, and became unbearably slow. It is the search engine that can, but it takes a while. I have had limited experience with Opera, but remember that it was not as much fun to use as either Chrome or Safari. Internet Explorer is the one browser that exists today that can be swept under the rug and forgotten about, as it has "jumped the shark."

"Jumping the shark" is a term inspired by Happy Days, one of the programs ABC carried in the late 1970s that was very popular among viewers. In this particular episode, Fonzie (Henry Winkler) thinks it would be cool to jump over a shark while waterskiing. To many, this was an indicator that Happy Days was still lucky to be on the air, as they apparently ran out of good ideas for stories after Ron Howard left the show.

While I was in college back in the late 1990s working on my journalism degree, there was a story that came out stating that MicroSoft IE would no longer be using applets. Not long after that, I noticed that pages loaded, but in the lower left hand of the screen a message came up stating that there were errors on the page. Also, IE lost a lot of its usefulness on certain websites. Even today, there are things I can do on Facebook using Chrome and Safari that I can't do useing IE. It is maddening having to use IE on public computers because Chrome or other, more useful browsers are missing. I have to get things done, and when I can't get things done, then money has been wasted on the computer rental for an hour or two. I do not take kindly to this.

I am currently looking for a new computer. My options are limited. Dell cost me a primary disk and four backup floppies. Acer crashed on me on average of five times a month for 11 months. To date the greatest failures I have faced where computers are concerned have been those running Windows OS. Apple is my only option, but currently is not affordable.

Frustrations continue. I can only say that in the future, I will not be wasting drive space with Internet Explorer and the associated hassles that come with it. Jumping the shark is not cool.