Mail Storage Wars: Gmail Vs. Yahoo!


Okay, so I finally decided to get a Gmail account for IR Haven. I had the "irhavenblog" account at Yahoo -- and that already had 250 MB of storage, promising to go up to 1 GB in May -- but Gmail, of course, offers 2 Gigabytes of mail storage.

The ultimate, ultimate question anyone can ask is: who on Earth actually USES two GB of mail storage and HOW would you do it? Would you make special folders just for Spam and actually save every last e-mail?? Would you send messages to yourself, just so you could save copies to self twice? Would you have to write all your friends with Gmail accounts and ask them to send you all their MP3 as ZIP attachments? And after all of that, would you still have more than about 200 MB? I wonder...

No, my deciding factor was more personal. At Yahoo, I can only have "irhavenblog" (long story, don't feel like telling it right now) and at Gmail, I can have "irhaven."

And I like "irhaven." Less is more.

Unlike Gmail...or Yahoo or MSN (but hey, 250 MB beats the old 2 MB limit!) or -?

Best Wishes,
Allen

More Site Design Changes

I decided to do away with the changing color background. It was a novelty two years ago but I think it was also adding to the load time and causing other glitches. For now, it's just going to be these background colors and if I want to, I'll shake things up again later (with the colors).

Please give me your input on the site design, I appreciate all feedback.

Best Wishes,
Allen

Some Site Updates

I've taken out a few things and shrunk down a few site graphics in an attempt to make the blog load faster. I mean, if the Blog Explosion people spend 18 seconds waiting for the page to load, that only gives them 12 seconds to look at the content. It's a no-brainer.

I really tried to do a complete design makeover but well, it just wasn't happening tonight. Maybe I'm just getting a little too ambitious at this stage. I remind myself of the old saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." The page-load time was kinda broke, so I'm trying to fix that, but design itself isn't bad. I don't get complaints that the site is hideous or e-mails with nothing but laughter concerning the look of the site, so that's encouraging...

I think if I ever have time or unbridled ambition, I'll make the move to Moveable Type, but till then, Blogger is just fine.

Best Wishes,
Allen

HEADLINES, ANYONE?

Okay, so no sooner do I audioblog than a few interesting headlines pop up!

Woman's Biracial Nephew Opened Her Eyes To A Hole In The Toy Market

IR Haven has been a supporter of Real Kidz since last year.

Alicia Tries Different Key: Performer To Star In Movie About Biracial Musician

Thurmond's Biracial Daughter Denies She Will Challenge Estate

I was going to put in a Mariah Carey interview but it was just too silly. How many times can you use the word "bling" in an interview? *sighs* I liked her first album...



Best Wishes,
Allen

Vacation update # 4

Okay, so here are some pics of some of what we did on our vacation at Cove Haven, a Caesars Pocono Resort in Pennsylvania. Of course, we met a lot of interesting people and went to some interesting places but we didn't take a lot of pictures of people and I wouldn't post those, in the interests of those peoples' privacy. These pictures were from March 19, the day after Angel's and my 10th wedding anniversary.

This is my first time using Picasa2 and Hello in association with Blogger, but I think I finally got the hang of it. You can click on any of the pics below to see larger versions of the pics.

I may give try some narrative of the vacation experience in my next entry. In the meantime, enjoy the pics!

Best Wishes,
Allen



Me taking a shot at indoor archery (no pun)

Angel and I had a great time learning and practicing indoor archery

Having survived the 80 mph trip up the hill on a snowmobile, I prepare to tube down the hill

Me snow tubing

Angel goin' down the hill!

The chalet where we got the tubes. They also had a fire and marshmallows for roasting there.