Thursday, June 19, 2014

HomeAgain Update

The other day, I wrote a rant about HomeAgain. I'm not going to explain it all over again, but you can read about that here. I promised that if I heard from them again, I would post an update and so I am.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Microchipping, dog tags and why HomeAgain is the last company I recommend.

I spent money to have my dogs microchipped and before I go further on this, let me give a small lecture here. Please do not rely only on one method of finding your dog. Don't rely on only a collar tag and don't rely on only microchipping. Be sure to do both.

It is obvious why tags are beneficial, of course. While on that, I highly recommend Boomerang Tags. Those are the most durable tags I've ever seen. I bought one for my dog years and years ago and while the color (I got plastic) may have dulled, the lettering is quite clear. That thing will last her entire life!

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Weird Searches 3

Yesterday I binged watched a ton of old song videos. Some from the '70s some from the '80s, some current or fairly recent.

My favorite band of all time is the Eagles, that's right, IS. It is a single band. Anyway, I think "Hotel California" is one of the best songs in history. I can listen to it over and over again and I never tire of it. What I was surprised to learn yesterday was that Don Henley actually dated Stevie Nicks. I can't believe I didn't know this! Of course, I'm not one of those groupie fans who knows even the DNA sequence of the object of their affection.

Friday, June 06, 2014

Open Line, Say Anything!

I have written OpenOffice Templates, I've posted things elsewhere and this is the page where you can just comment for whatever reason. If it's template help, feel free to explain here. Also, you can veil your email address like whoiam at gmail dot com or whoiam at gmail dotting com (remove ing). Whatever you feel comfortable with.

Cheers!

Thursday, June 05, 2014

Proof that the Library of Congress' Card Catalog search absolutely SUCKS.

So it should have been a simple task. All I had to do was look up this book. I photographed the LOC page of the book and using the number, I thought it would be very easy to find it.

WRONG!!!! Ben Franklin would be very disappointed. I mean, we all know that he would LOVE to live in today's world of technology (not so much seeing how this country has twisted the laws he helped set forth). He even founded the lending library system and would so not be happy that the public couldn't find what it was looking for.

Tell you what, how about I copy/paste exactly what I reported to them as the problem?
Your search is useless. I have visuals and since I took the time to do this so you could see the problem, please reciprocate by taking a look and fixing the problem.

Here is a book page that clearly has your catalog number on it:
http://goo.gl/IKKXwp

Here is search #1 that should have found it since it is exactly as written:
http://goo.gl/LnHNqx

Okay, fine. Maybe it can't read hyphens... it SHOULD, but whatever. Nope, wrong again.
http://goo.gl/oDyDwO

Well maybe those first two digits are for something else. They should still be "findable" but again, whatever. Let's try it with those first two digits. UGH! It still didn't work because the book I'm looking for is in freaking ENGLISH!!!!
http://goo.gl/ytZzPG

So this obviously needs fixing. Really. It does.

SERIOUSLY????!!!! My session timed out right in the middle of writing this and I've only been on this page for two minutes. TWO MINUTES!!!!!

I was forced to rewrite this entire thing in Wordpad then copy/paste it in your stupid email.

Look, this is for the public. Make it public friendly. Okay?

P.S. I'm posting this on Blogger, so others can see that they're not insane. Here's the link:
http://goo.gl/JvGWDT
Yep. To add insult to injury they had the nerve to even time out my session, which should have included the click to the feedback submission page. They should know that it takes time to write up problems accurately.

SHAME ON THEM!!!

Sunday, June 01, 2014

Ancestry: My Best Frenemy

I love genealogy. Always have. I remember as a little girl, reading about my ancestors that my Great Aunt Virginia researched. I dreamed of what it was like for my ancestors and found myself sad for not knowing them personally.

I'm always on the lookout for new things. I'm getting ready to join DAR. There is little I have to do. My Aunt Virginia did most of it for me. I just have to prove up to my great grandfather, which isn't much. Still, what is odd is that I can even find marriage records for great great great great grandparents (no, I'm not kidding) but I cannot find my great grandparents' marriage record. ANYWHERE. I have the date and everything. It's just not found.

We KNOW they were married, so it's not like a skeleton in the closet or anything. In fact, they were pillars in both the church and the community. Their marriage date is a fact. I just wish I knew where my aunt found the record because I can't seem to find it.

Anyway, that's not the point of this post. The point of this is to demonstrate why Ancestry gets on my nerves... part I, because there are many.

Take this...

Notice on the left, I have "male" added as a filter? Then why are the first two hits a woman named Mary? I don't know about you all, but I've never heard of a man named Mary before.

Point is, be careful with that. There is a lot of the new search that needs fixing.