So what are Kilobytes Megabytes and Gigabytes

Can anyone explain whats going on with
the KB, MG, and GB

Here I sit yet again looking out of my goldfish bowl of relative safety into the ocean of life with all its wonders, fascinations and danger. In the last few weeks I have been keeping up with the world events through my laptop. The internet is convenient good to use and a joy and I most certainly feel more connected to people all over the world but what does it cost?

            I received my monthly internet bill and taking a closer look at my download/upload I was at first confused, what, I wondered were kb, mb and gb? And why was it so high. So with more than a little trepidation and in a state confuddlement I picked up the phone. Pleasantly surprised that the person on the other end spoke English, even so, I didn’t understand the words that he was using.

            I explained, the best I could the usage we have in our house for the four machines and that I was worried it was my pictures that I put on my blog that caused the rise in usage. He explained that for my privacy he couldn’t directly see what I was doing but he could get a more detailed print out of what bite usage I had used. I had no idea what this all meant so he explained. Bits turn into bytes. Ok I got that. He then explained a KB = killer_Byte  and is the smallest usage, then it’s MB = Mega_Byte then GB = Giga_Bite. I got stuck on why a Giga is bigger than Mega cos Mega is big! And why doesn’t the Killer kill them all by biting their heads off and that would be an end to it! Honestly why does everything have to be so confusing.

            I didn’t say that though, well not then. He said he would have a look and see what I was putting on my blog and see if he could explain things a little more for me. Now that’s what I call service.

            He rang back and he too was perplexed at the print out. My usage was the equivalent of 27 films downloaded. That’s when I plucked up enough courage to show my ignorance at the whole Mega thing. He had gone far beyond the call of duty and read a piece on my blog and found an analogy that I would be able to understand how the charges work.

            Are ya ready; this is most defiantly a Tilly Moment and who knows you may find it useful too, if not, it may make you smile.

            ‘Imagine you are travelling on a toll road’ he said. Well I was in my Pink vw of course with a flower on the side and the soft top down with my fairy next to me enjoying the ride, it was a sunny day. Are you there yet! Have you the image in your mind? Good. Just for fun I told him too, he took it with good humour.

‘Now you pay us to use the Toll road but you still have to get across and you need fuel for that and the faster you travel the more the fuel consumption and the more costly it becomes. Does this make sense so far?’

            Well my fairy and I were too busy enjoying the ride to really be bothered with the technical stuff but snapping my self of the daydream I asked

            ‘So the KB, MB and GB are the different fuels?’

            ‘If ya like’

            ‘So what you’re saying all this time my little pink convertible vw was taking me along at a steady KB speed reaching a MB speed occasionally but someone was sticking GB fuel in when I didn’t know. I was a little miffed at paying for something and not knowing or not being able to enjoy it.

            The worst thing of all you rarely know how many KB, MB or GB you are using as there is no fuel gage on your computer for you to see. As a consequence you may, like me be using the jet fuel and not realise it. Even worse if a download gets rejected and tries to download time after time the cost would reach giga proportions (this giga thing is not working for me mega is defiantly a better word).

            Anyhow I’m left with the image of a beautiful toll road with me and the fairy in the Pink vw in warped speed (in Tilly’s world this means travelling fast but thinking slow) with our faces a little distorted.

            Have managed to find that if you press Ctrl+shift+Esc go to networking then view press on Colum then add bytes, down load, upload  you can see your usage but it’s a monitor and you have to keep on and keep looking at, so not that user friendly. Then you have to use the Bytes to figure out how many kilobytes, megabytes, and gigabytes that you use. 1024 Byes = 1kb, 1024 kb = 1 mb, 1024 mb = 1 GB.

            Now off to swim for a while, its all got too much!

when a bitch is in pup and the bitch is a much loved pet you become the birthing partner



Tink likes to be by my feet while I work



So how is Tink doing? Oh she is fine it’s me that you need to worry about. There is a lot more to this birthing partner business than you would think.

There are some breeders that have to have full control, with scans and thermometers to predict how many puppies and as the body temperature drops this lets you know birth is going to take place fairly soon. Talking to the vet and reading a fair amount on the internet with everyone’s views duly considered I took the approach that my vet advised me, to have less intervention and closer bonding.

            Tink would not make a fuss at having a cold implement shoved where the sun don’t shine but I know she would sit down a lot while I tried to take her temperature and look round with the expression of ‘Honestly, you really going to do that again, what is your problem’. But I must admit that knowing how many puppies would be an advantage. But from my personal experience scans can only be a guide (I was carrying twins and they could not see the second twin, how on earth can they tell if there are five or six pups?). So the stress for us to have these procedures out weighs the possible gains.

            So, even more than ever I’m tuning into Tink's energy. It really is like the old fashioned radio, you know like the ones with the dials that you keep going back and forth feeling the vibrations until you know you have it right. I’m always on the look out for a change in her frequency.

            Well it came to last Tuesday night (8^th March 2011) just under seven weeks gestation and I noticed that Tink's posture had changed, not uncomfortable but more unwell. I looked at her gums and they looked paler, skin of a salmon, normally they would be a pink candy floss colour. Well I went straight to my laptop and googled, there were three possibilities. Low blood pressure (would go with pregnancy and due to give birth, though this was a little early) the reflux in her gums was good though (when pushed down they soon went back to original colour) so I ruled that out. Preeclampsia, due to too much calcium given in the diet, I was told by the vet to give her puppy food and cottage cheese, well there were a lot of scare stories on google etc. about how wrong this is. I took the view that dogs are as individual as people are and for some they may need this and some it may cause problems. It didn’t feel that this was the right explanation though. The third possibility was dehydration, this seemed more likely, so there I am on the floor at nine at night feeding a reluctant Tink ice cubes. Once she had taken the first one there was no stopping her and I knew I was on the right track.

            The Next day I bumped into the Owner of www.happydogdays.co.uk which I do quite often when out walking and asked her advice. She immediately put my mind at ease and gave me some advice on how to get Tink interested in food again. So I rushed home and made rice with broccoli to keep the iron in her diet but not the calcium. Not any old rice, oh no, not for my Tink ;-) but wild rice to give texture and aid digestion none the less. I gave a little home cooked chicken (so no added salt will be given) and pushed it into the rest of the food as Tink is partial to my lemon and garlic chicken. Kev was looking forward to his chicken sandwich which always follows a roast and was bitterly disappointed, he’ll get over it, eventually.

She warms my feet

             Well six very small meals later with ice each time and the colour has come back a little and Tink has a little of her old spring back; was going to say spring in her step but she can’t manage that due to being too big. Now everyone, animal or human is treated this way when they come into my care and for those of you that have kept up with my blog and know me as a writer or personally, will be waiting for the fluffy fairy bit as my flight of fancy takes off. So here it is.

             

            Well talking to two friends the other day who were asking how Tink was getting on, I thought I would have a little bit of a laugh, recounting some of the things I find myself doing from time to time for the welfare of my little fluffy pooch. There is nothing better than seeing friends laugh. I then recounted happenings of last year that I keep threatening Kev with, a dog’s buggy! Let me explain.

            We were walking along Felixstowe prom one summer last year when Kev did a double take and exclaimed some people take things too far. Looking around to see what caused this reaction. I saw a Pug sitting proudly in a blue dog’s buggy, with its owners like proud parents pushing it along. Taking in the full scene, I noted the couple were elderly and had three other small breed dogs trotting along with them. On closer inspection I saw the Pug was old but obviously getting a great deal of pleasure from sniffing the air and being out and about. I said nothing and just smiled.

            A little later we sat eating our ice creams when I told him I could see no wrong in having a buggy for a dog. His expression was priceless as a mixture of, you need a reality check and where oh where did that come from, burst from his face as he chocked on his ice-cream. Just when you think you know someone his eyes told me they go and say something outrageous.

            Look I said as the elderly couple went slowly past. The poor old pug would never be able to keep up with the others I explained, what choice do they have? Leave the old one home alone? Or put it in a buggy and just as I said this they took the Pug out and let it have a little wonder. It was everything a Tilly moment should be and will keep it as a little treasure to get out when we are old.

            ‘Well’ I said to my friends but they already knew what was coming.

‘Your not’ said Judith, Sue was looking at me giggling.

‘Well’ I said ‘it would make sense, wouldn’t like to leave the pups behind and Tink needs her walks.’ At this point I was joking but now I come to think of it until the pups are 12 weeks, they should not be put on the floor for the fear of them picking up Parvovirus disease before they can be vaccinated, but need good socialising. The children at Angus’s school would love to see her pups and Tink loves to see the children, so perhaps I should give this some thought and invest in a dog’s buggy, what do you think?



She is sooo worth it x



Contemplating marriage and bring up children do I have a right to be grumpy?

Contemplating marriage and bring up children after being told I was just full of frills on my puffed up fairy life and that I had no understanding of reality (I took this as a compliment I have to say) I watched the Richard Dimbleby Lectures given by Michael Morpugo (my hero of gentle thought) and was inspired. His ‘The Butterfly Lion’ gave me faith in how I look at things and as soon as I can I’m going to buy ‘The Kites are Flying’ that he based his lecture around. His books are written for children but defiantly have adults in mind.

I woke up grumpy one morning this week and by hook or by crook I want to stay grumpy. I deserved at least that, don’t I? I have a right to be how I feel, don’t I??  I feel surly and cantankerous, wizened and old and life-just don’t ever play fair!! My children are always saying this when they can’t get what they want and what is good for them is also good enough for me, so there!!! All I want is five minutes peace.

But my fairy just won’t let me be she fly’s around my thoughts and always lands at some point as a smile upon my face. You might say this is a good thing, that being grumpy is a bad thing to be but sometimes you need to vent and people definitely need to know you also have limits but The Fairy just don’t see it that way. My fairy is a beautiful flight of fancy with frills and a puffed up attitude to life, you just have to read some of my poems and stories to see that. She sees life in such a fanciful way with no basis in reality or that’s what I was told the other day. Is this true? Or is there a large dose of reality in her fluff and frills? So what was making me grumpy and why on earth did I want to stay in that state? Do you know, I can’t remember, so lost was I in another flight of fancy of Michael Morpurgo.

There are people right now starving, hiding from danger watching as others suffer so the rich can thrive. There will be many; who will be given bad news about a disease, that fighting will not cure. Some will be harmed through another’s hand. All these things have touched me and may others, indirectly or directly. For all of you out there that face these issues I pay homage to your tenacity to smile and your ability to hope.

I have no right to be grumpy, do I?