I posted too soon. We had the system doing updates (including kernel updates). Nick pointed out that the kernel update might delete the driver so we held our breaths and waited. The system rebooted and gave me a login prompt. And then a pretty cursor and then nothing but a black screen. Nick, luckily, was still here and was able to help. We did some research and found things that might have been...
Continue reading...September 2013
Little cuteness has Ubuntu
After many many hours of trying to install Linux Mint on the Acer Aspire V5-122p, I enlisted the Linux Mint expert at work. (Wave at Nick!) We spent additional hours after work trying to get Mint to work and failed. Horribly. He was as perplexed as I was as to why we couldn’t get Mint to work. (Maybe it had something to do with secure boot or EFI?) So… we tried Ubuntu 13.04...
Continue reading...Free lunging Kasane
When Kasane and I do serpentines free-lunging, I usually only have my carrot stick (4′ stick used for cues with a six foot lash). You are right in that most of the cues she is working from are body language and voice commands (walk, trot, reverse, etc.). You know how you can feel when your horse is hooked on when free lunging? It’s like that, except we are in the big arena and...
Continue reading...New little cuteness
I took the little Acer Aspire One D150 to gaming on Saturday night. I had spent hours on Friday night trying to figure out what was wrong with the computer and concluded that it wasn’t able to charge any more from the power cord. So. Several of the guys at the gaming group are sys admins, so I let them look at the D150 too. They concluded that it was dead as well....
Continue reading...Little netbook is dead
My little Acer Aspire One D150 has officially died. Can’t get it to boot and not sure what’s wrong with it. It’s dead dead dead. I’ll have to pull the hard drive and RAM and reformat it to remove any old data. I’m just glad that I don’t use anything local. It’s all backed up on cloud storage. I’m kinda annoyed because I spent a lot of quality time with it lately. Once...
Continue reading...Visiting the mares
On the drive out to the barn, my headache of two days went from mild to bad to worse. I get sinus headaches with migraine-like symptoms (light and sound sensitivity especially). My head was way too sensitive to go riding. I still went out to the barn since I hadn’t been out all week and it was driving me crazy not seeing my girls. I walked into Kasane’s field and out to her....
Continue reading...Dealing with resistance when riding
It is easy to feel frustrated because I don’t know what to do when Kasane says “no I don’t want to do this.” I know how I used to ride: I’d insist that she do something. With Isis, if I insisted and she wasn’t clear on what I was asking (or more likely I wasn’t sure of how to ask her to do what I wanted), it would end up escalating. Where escalating...
Continue reading...Adventures when riding with contact
I usually ride English so I’m riding in a loose ring snaffle bit. Kasane has a Herm Sprenger KK Ultra 4 3/4″ snaffle with small losenge like piece in the middle of the snaffle. Rajiyyah’s bit is a similar design, except it has a copper mouth piece. When I ride Kasane, we usually ride with light contact so there is a direct line from my arm to her mouth. The connection is made...
Continue reading...Redemption: Old Eyes Tell Tales
The barn where I board is full of wise old eyes: half of the horses are over 20. My old girl, Prize, is 28 and still teaches people (myself included) about riding and jumping. She’s a bright bay Arabian mare with three white socks, a snip, and a blaze. She’s not typey for an Arabian (most people think she’s part Quarter Horse), but she is fearless and enthusiastic. The riding instructor at the...
Continue reading...Trail ride report
On Sunday morning, Tara invited me to come with her on a trail ride around the farm. The trail ride was fun and enlightening. Kasane was pulled out of the stall, saddled, and away we went (instead of working her in the ring first). Tara rode Rooster (Friesian/Paint cross), Carmen lead Geronimo (standardbred/QH cross), and I was on Kasane. We headed out down the road and past the pastures, and then along the...
Continue reading...Saddle fitting in the morning
Tomorrow morning we’re taking Kasane to have her saddles fitted. It’s been over a year since I purchased the Prestige Venus K monoflap saddle. It was fitted to her when she was butt high and she is now level (even slightly up hill). Because the saddles aren’t quite adjusted properly for her new physique, my lower back hurts when I ride in the saddles. The all purpose is especially hard for me, so...
Continue reading...Saddle fitting
Kasane had her saddle fitting yesterday and there were some pretty big surprises. First off, instead of being butt high, she’s leveled out. When the saddle fitter saw her, he said “Oh my!” at how much she has changed since the last time he saw her. At the saddle fitting last summer, her right side was a saddle width narrower than her left and her rump was considerably higher. This time Kasane turned...
Continue reading...Playlist for stories
I tend to create playlists for stories I’m working on. I have a playlist on Rdio that I created for Lady in the Tree (novel) and also use for Ride Softly (short story). I was helping a friend with her writing project yesterday and we started discussing play lists we make for our characters. Here is my play list for what I’m currently working on. Related Images:
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