We seem to be making progress. I see yesterday’s comments still are with us, although older comments are nowhere to be found. I have learned they’re out there somewhere, and when I have time I’m going to look for them. Until then, I think we can manage, don’t you? Remember Freecell? Of course you do. You probably remember paying AOL to go online. As for today’s comic strip, it admittedly was one of the last drawn during an uninspired week. However, I can say it is based on a true story. Remember the olive trees? I made a big deal out of planting them last spring. Both of them are dead. They did not survive an uncommonly harsh Zone 8 winter. I remain convinced they’d have survived 9 out of 10 winters here, and if they’d had a few years’ to grow prior to this year, who knows? However, luck was against us.
Red on Black, Friend of Jack
By Jimmy Johnson
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122 responses to “Red on Black, Friend of Jack”
remember Freecell?! I play it every day!
How odd you say that. “one of the last drawn during an uninspired week” We don’t have olive trees, but when I saw todays, it truly hit home, my wife can really relate to the defeat/despair of things that should come back not coming back
Hey Johnson, butts. Flavors of cabbage and melted sphincter. Together at last.
Good work, keep your chin up champ, we love it.
Love,
PB & Janis from West Dakota
We suffered the same fate a few years ago with a lime tree. It did well, even producing some fruit for a couple of years, but then a cold winter got it. We are still waiting to see how a couple of palm trees we have had for years made it through this past winter.
I can’t help but feel today’s retro was posted as a type of back-handed homage to what you are currently going through, Jimmy.
I like it!
Today’s current strip compels me into gardening pedagogy mode. The key to growing perennials, especially trees, in a hardiness zone below the recommended is micro climate. Planting in a good location can add a zone or more to one’s normal USDA zone. Plant warm climate trees like citrus (or olive) in a southern exposure near masonry walls. A corner with eastern and northern protection is ideal as long as it still gets full sun for much of the day. The protection decreases quickly as the distance from the brick or stone increases. In my environment any effect is pretty well lost after about 10 feet.
Funny!
http://www.glennbeck.com/2014/04/03/putin-asks-palin-who-to-invade-next-in-hilarious-tonight-show-sketch/
I too like today’s strip. Well, not like, exactly, because it’s so sad. But it sure does have that Jimmy’s-peeking-into-my-life feeling.
*I* remember playing Freecell with real playing cards years before I found it on a computer. And, I too play it daily.
Doesn’t everyone play Freecell?
@sideburns: since previous comments are floating around somewhere in space, can you tell me again what operating system to use instead of XP? I “was” going to make a note of it…
Linux. My recommendation if you’re new to it is some form of Ubuntu, because it’s very easy to learn. In Linux, there are a number of different “Desktop Environments,” also known as DEs. The default for Ubuntu is Unity. You can also get it with KDE, Xfce or LDXE, in versions known as Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Lubuntu, although “under the hood,” they’re all Ubuntu. In all cases, you can download .iso images that can be burned to a DVD (too big now for a CD) or flash drive and boot into it to try it out without needing to install it. And, if you’re still not sure, you can set up a dual-boot system so that you can either go back to XP if needed, or at least have full access to all of your old files.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention: it’s free.
Galliglo: Don’t tempt me. I’m already a standard[?] cptr. solitaire addict.
I agree, Ubuntu Linux. It does pretty much everything Windows does and it’s free. It took me a while to get used to the Unity desktop, but I kind of like it now. Browser, office tools, email, image editing, and music and video tools are all part of the basic package. My last Windows machine died about a month ago and I haven’t replaced it. Oh – and there is a freecell game in the solitaire app.
I didn’t notice that my user name was blanked out on that post about Linux…
Was it a Freesleepercell that awakened?
I will confess I don’t play freecell any more; instead I am playing Snoopy’s Candy Town.
sideburns and Anonymous:
I plan to go with Ubuntu, too, or Zorin (which is based on Ubuntu). Bill Blinn’s podcast this past weekend on Techbyter Worldwide had a great spot about it.
My question, though, is this: Because I don’t visit porn and other questionable sites, along with not clicking on links in emails, is switching from XP necessarily vital?
sideburns, Jack et al: The machine I was considering continuing to use past the XP EOL is a Dell Mini 10 with an Atom Z530 processor at 1.6 MHz; Intel US15W chipset; and 1024 MB of (non-expandable) memory. (I know, but it’s cute and portable and handy to keep in my car as a backup.) Is your feeling that some version of Ubuntu would be a viable option to run on it?
And Rick, good question.
GR6:
Thanks.
How old is your Mini?
My tower is about seven, and my laptop is about nine.
Both run XP, and both are running fine.
Rick, I actually ordered a Mini 9, but the very next day Dell DC’d the Mini 9 and shipped me a Mini 10 instead. This would have been in the summer of 2009, as I recall. I also have a Dell 15.6″ laptop which is even older and, other than being slow by today’s standards, also is working fine.
My understanding — and I know I’m going to catch hell for this — is that Unix and Linux and Linseed and all those other “free form” operating systems have virtually no graphics to help navigate across the realm and that it requires almost a programmer/hacker to set things up and make them work. I may or may not be wrong about the level of expertise required, I’m just sayin’…but I’m really not in the mood for anyone to try to kill the messenger.
Rick and GR6, even if you don’t visit iffy sites, the various sites are going to be set up to run on the new software. The more obsolete XP becomes, the harder it will be to access the internet with it. The windows 8 does have a compatibility setting that will help some older programs run on it so you don’t have to toss everything you have, but most of my game programs that I bought for XP won’t run on the windows 8 machine. I saved my old hard drive though, and am thinking of installing it into my new pc just for running the older software. Any of you tech-savvy people, should I do that, or not?
Mindy, why so defensive, hon? No one here has killed you yet, have they? 🙂
Well, if worse comes to worse, I can always…
1. Use my netbook as a portable DVD/audio player.
2. Use it as a paper weight.
3. Use it as an exhibit in my own Computer Museum.
Debbe 😉
Ghost, Unity is something of a resource hog, and KDE can eat a lot too; I’d go with either Xubuntu or Lubuntu because they’re both very lightweight.
Mindy, the basic graphics system for Linux, often called X-Windows, goes back to 1984, and It Just Works. You install Linux, boot, and it comes up with a GUI, just as Windows and OSX do. As an example, I bought a new monitor last week because my old one was on its last legs. I shut down, swapped monitors, booted and Linux recognized it and reconfigured itself for the new configuration without my having to do anything except shift a few icons to a more convenient location. There was a time when Linux/Unix/BSD were, as a friend likes to say, a way to keep gurus employed, but that was over 20 years ago. Now, it’s even easier to use than Windows is because you don’t need any anti-virus, anti-malware or anti-spyware programs. And, in over a decade of using Linux as my only OS, I’ve never needed to defrag because Linux almost never gets fragmented enough to notice.
Good morning Villagers….
Terry, thanks for the info on that article and slowly, I’m getting over this “congestion disease”.
Gal….I didn’t mean to ‘infer’ anything derogatory about the learning of hens…this city girl has learned a lot in the last two years of employment at the poultry house. I do love my job. I don’t have to dress up, no make-up, just old jeans and sweatshirts with turtle necks for the winter, and same old jeans and T-shirts for the summer. Which reminds me, I need to go shopping at St. Vinnie’s (St. Vincent’s) for some “new jeans”. They only cost about $2!!!
I’m going to have to have Ian read the above comments regarding replacing my XP, if my old Dell can handle it. I mentioned that XP would no longer be serviced by MS after 4/08, he said he knew that. I said “you did”…..he responded “why wouldn’t I?” He said I had nothing to worry about. Smarta$$, but that’s my boy. I’ll pull a few tears on him so he will read the above comments….mother’s tears always work.
It’s done nothing but rain here for the past 48 hours….and it’s still going to rain all day today. Beats snow 🙂
Gotta go….
GR 😉 as always! My playlist should be “Who’ll Stop the Rain”
Ya’ll have a blessed day.
=^..^-
Oh, and I play solitaire in the morning too….wakes up my reflexes 🙂
DJJG….May have to check out Snoopy’s Candy Town …where can I find it?