Dad seems to be getting better. His coughing fits are less frequent, but his white cell blood count is still very low. Here is a picture of Mom and Dad today.

Today was the Parade and first actual game play.

The Dodgers won the first game! Justin is seen above rounding third base, heading home.

Click picture for larger size.

I don’t know whether or not this image has been photoshopped, but it does make an important point l: looking at the world through a lens can blind you to more interesting things close-up. Always have your camera ready, but use your eyes first.

Click on picture for larger size.

Dad’s diagnosis is pneumonia in both lungs.

He will be treated with high dose antibiotics. The x-rays didn’t show anything but the cat scan did.

Dad was admitted into Huntington Hospital yesterday afternoon. Lonnie of Squirrel Forums fame drove Dad to his appointment for a routine blood test, but ended up being admitted instead. He has been exhibiting the following symptoms: Really bad coughing for months, which has gotten to the point of making it difficult for him to breathe, Extremely Low blood counts, Low red blood cells, platelets, low immune system.

This episode answers the question for once and for all : Do Pretty Girls Fart?

Mozilla releases Thunderbird 2

Open Source foundation Mozilla has announced the availability of their email software application Thunderbird 2. This new updated application comes loaded with several new features.

Some of the major new feature additions are:

a. Support for tagging: Thunderbird users can now apply tags to specific messages to group them together for easier management.

b. History support: Thunderbird now comes loaded with message history navigation. This enables the user to move around from one message to another like a web browser next and back button.

c. Improved search: Thunderbird 2 comes with improved searching capabilities.

d. Webmail support: Thunderbird 2 offers quick and easy access to several webmail services including Google Gmail.

Of course, Mozilla Thunderbird already supports the add-ons in a similar fashion to Firefox. This would enable the user to add more features to their email client as per their requirement.

Mozilla Thunderbird 2 is available as a free download and it supports several platforms including Windows, Mac and Linux.

All spring’s harbingers were on display on Saturday afternoon — gorgeous blue skies, budding flowers, birds fluttering through the trees, an alligator sunbathing by a Huntington Village pond.

Wait a minute.

“Generally speaking,” said Roy Gross, chief of the Suffolk County SPCA, “alligators are not found in ponds in Long Island.”

Yet there it was — 30-inches long, toothy and leathery green with yellow stripes — sitting on the side of Pauldings Pond, a small pool of golden reeds at the intersection of Southdown Road and Tanyard Lane.

To be exact, it was an American alligator, 3 years old, gender unknown, native to the South and illegal in New York State, Gross said.

Suffolk County police and two SPCA officers captured the alligator about 3 p.m. after a woman who leads a nature group discovered the reptile an hour earlier, authorities said.

Now the SPCA is looking for its owner, offering a $500 reward to anyone with information that helps convict the person who released the alligator. The owner could face 1 year in jail and $1,000 in fines if convicted on charges of animal cruelty and illegally possessing the alligator, Gross said.

“It’s definitely animal cruelty,” Gross said. “It’s probably been raised in captivity from since it was a baby. It doesn’t know how to hunt. And though today was warm, it surely would have died next winter.”

Gross said the number of cases involving illegal possession or release of a reptile in Suffolk had tripled in the last year to almost 90. He urged those who want to get rid of their constrictor snakes, alligators, crocodiles and other illegal animals to call the SPCA. “We won’t prosecute if you turn them over,” he said.

The Windows Home Server beta continues to progress: build 06.00.1371 was just released for beta participants (including yours truly! I’m downloading it right now.). If you missed out on the earlier beta sign-ups, but would like to participate, there’s a survey to fill out right here. With full backups of all computers on your home network, Windows Home Server is a compelling product for many homes, but even more so for mobile computing users. Having full access to your home files on the road or remote controlling a home PC while away is the “killer feature” of Windows Home Server in my opinion. Yes, there are plenty of on-line backup services and remote clients, but I expect the all-in-one native nature of WHS to be very compelling.

Guns don’t kill people, The one pulling the trigger does.

Video Games don’t kill people, it’s the person playing the game that does.

I’m disgusted by what the media does to society and our way of life. Before long we may all be wearing straight jackets so as to not hurt anyone.

Get a grip people! People should take responsibility for themselves, and not point the finger everywhere else.