Swine flu.. sorry I mean H1N1 flu has been popping up all over the place.

I even promised myself I would NOT write a post about swine flu but.. when I was on Twitter and I wrote ONE LITTLE TWEET about it, and suddenly I had flu activists tweeting me angrily about how it’s called H1N1 and not “swine” flu any more, because pigs have feelings, no matter how tasty their bacon may be.

I am here to put this to rest, once and for all.

What is swine flu?

Well, these are the Swine flu symptoms, which unsurprisingly, resembles a flu:

• Chills
• Fever
• Sore throat
• Headache
• Fatigue
• Persistent cough
• Body aches
• Nausea/vomiting
• Diarrhea

And being as sneaky as it is, it can actually evolve as it affects a new person even if you have taken all precautions to vaccinate yourself against it.

3 major things I want to stress:

A) You cannot get it from eating pork

B) You should just wash your hands with warm soapy water just as if you are dealing with any other flu

C) It has killed less people than drunk driving or influenza each year, I am sure

Find out more in the site above.

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Now this is a cool, even if you cannot really see its potential at the moment.

Let me explain, it is a perforated metal sheet that “is not just metal with holes”. Hah. Cute.

The patterns first of all, are very cool. And immediately I can imagine a whole bunch of applications for this product, but mostly for designing at home.

Imagine taking a piece of this and doing a whole wall in it? On top of dark wood or a brightly painted focal wall?

You could have a sleek metal meets wood sort of aesthetic. Just make sure there are not any sharp edges for the kids.

Since they can do the metal any way you want, you can choose ornamental patterns if you wanted, so instead of having boring gate where it’s just plain iron bars.. why not have a covering in perforated metal?

Or just have the designer metal (this is what I’m calling it now) run across the top of your fence as decoration? Keeps lazy burglars out (if you put spiky tops on it) AND looks good.

Maybe you could even get this piece of metal to cover one side of a wooden box, mount it, and you’ve got a sleek modern sort of jewelery box to hang earrings on as a display in your shop.

It does NOT stop there – screen doors, floor panels, wall panels… the list goes on.

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You may not believe me but this is my desktop every morning.
This is a screenshot of the ENTIRE desktop / screen, no cropping done on my part.

And it is including the windows taskbar area and sidebars (they’re hidden, more on that later)….

I kind of take Minimalism a bit farther than usual.

BF’s desktops are in the same style, but he has a Recycling Bin and the bottom task bar showing on his Macbook Pro.

I hate stuff on the screen and I’d rather just look at images like this one of Annie Leibowitz’s awesome rendition of Romeo & Juliet for Vogue. (The three images at the bottom are the other images from the photo shoot that I put in the desktop)

So this is how my desktop works as a minimalist’s desktop while being 150% functional.

(All you math geeks are going to be after me now! Ooooo!)

When I mouse over to the right, the Google Taskbar appears

It has my list of To Do (really, FB Posts to write that I haven’t been inspired to write yet) and my Scratch pad.

Google Search on the bottom, but I actually prefer Google Search in Firefox.

Both expand out into full sections so I can type and see the entire list. I like it being hidden, so that I don’t get a headache about what I HAVEN’T done yet.

When I double-click on my desktop, these “windows” I created appear

I did’t have much to begin with in terms of clutter on a desktop, but less is more, with me.

But I still don’t like anything on my desktop. When I double-click I can show or hide what’s on my desktop.

And yes, even if they aren’t in those little teal windows, ALL the icons on the desktop disappear with each double-click.

I used Stardock Corporation’s awesome (free) Fences program.

Download here.

Installation and set up/customization is so easy [insert stupid celebrity] could do it. I can’t believe I never tried to mod out my PC before.

Now I have the ENTIRE SCREEN for my webpages and Adobe Photoshop. It’s a dream. I love space.

And finally, la pièce de résistance!

When I mouse over the bottom task bar, no boring Windows task bar for me…!! I modded it so it looks like Mac OSX’s dock bar.

(It even magnifies to ANY SIZE you want when you roll over it, or it Swings when you mouse over it — whatever you choose)

I put the magnification on low and the scroll speed low because I have extreme motion sickness and even moving icons will make me irritated.

See? Totally cool right? I know. I love that I have the best of the Mac, in the PC.

I used Stardock Corporation’s (free) ObjectDock software (you can buy the Plus version but I’m OK with this one even though it’s missing a couple of cool things).

Download here.

Installation is also easier than stuffing your face with Oreos covered in whipped cream on a bad day.

Oh… and you can’t see it, but I also modded out my Windows Vista Logon to have another Annie Leibowitz Romeo & Juliet image in the background with all the users, before I enter my password to sign on to my user.

This is the image I used:

What about all of your other Windows items?

If I ever need my Windows-anythings, I just use the handy Windows key on my laptop to bring up the Start menu.

Or Alt-Tab to move between windows which is just as handy.

I love, love, LOVE my PC now. Everything is exactly the way I wanted it to be. And I downloaded the programs, and can set it back up any time I want.

I also back up my work frequently, so if I lose anything, I’m not sweatin’ it. (This is something you should be doing too)

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You may want to check out the upcoming Radio Disney Summer Concert Series that will be held in Wildwood, New Jersey at Morey’s Piers starting in June going through August, if you are thinking of a Jersey Shore Beach Vacation, you may want to check out Morey’s Piers to find hotels and motels in Wildwood so that you can go to ……….

THE FREE DISNEY CONCERTS!!

The concerts are actually FREE.

FREE!

I knew that would get your attention.

And many of the Top Radio Disney artists will be there.

I am usually a pretty big fan of amusement parks, but only if no one tries to make me go on the stupid spinning tea cups or things that go in circles (I have extreme motion sickness).

But the cotton candy, elephant’s ears (or beaver’s tails depending on where you live), along with the rollercoasters that make your heart jump to your throat, are all a-ok for me.

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