My New Blog

I finally bought the beelissa.com domain name and started a website there. I also added a blog that will replace this blog as my personal sounding board. I'm going to leave this blog here for as long as Blogger will let me, but I probably won't be posting here any more.

My new site, Beelissa.com, is a place for people to learn more about my freelance services. If you came here looking for that information, you can head over to my new site and learn much more than what I have here.

It's kind of sad to drop this blog. The picture above (in the header) is a picture that reminds me of my mother. I imagine she looked much like that as a young woman when she was the secretary of the Vice President of Schenectady Trust Company, the bank that later became TrustCo and which was a well-respected financial institution in Schenectady in the 50s and 60s.

Book Review

A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Ongoing Quest to Bring Justice to China by Chai Ling

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I had the privilege of receiving this book free from the publisher in exchange for reviewing it. However, my opinion is my own.

This book is an autobiographical work, telling of the author's childhood in China and her college years when she was involved in the Tiananmen Square protests. Following that, she came to America and made a new life for herself here. It's probably a spoiler to say that she comes to know Christ, but I think you'd know that from the marketing of the book or you might guess by just spotting the publisher's name.

I identified with the author of this book because she is only a few years younger than I am and she was raised in a home where intelligence and education was valued. But her life was very different from mine: at one point both her parents were away serving in the military and she was placed in a foster home for a time. She was also raised in a society where morals were not passed on to the young. This resulted in more than one unplanned pregnancy during her college years. She relates the experiences dispassionately and it is not clear until later how much choice she was given.

If you are interested in a comprehensive history of the Tiananmen Square incident, you will be disappointed. You might need a bit of background before reading this if you want to completely understand the politics behind the historical events. But if you want a glimpse into the Chinese culture and motivations of the students involved in the protests, then this is the book for you.

This is not a book for kids or younger teens, since the author treats the subject of sexuality and abortion with frankness. It is not explicit in any way, and I did not find it offensive, but it's really written for adults. It's also one that might stir up emotions of anyone who has had experience with abortion.
View all my reviews

Tyndale Contest

Tyndale is running a contest to promote Kevin Leman's new book, It's Your Kid, Not a Gerbil. Click on the link to enter and you might win a copy of the book, a package of books by Kevin Leman or even an iPod Touch.

13 Ways Dish Network is Different than Cable

We just switched back to Time Warner Cable after being customers of Dish Network for two and a half years.


Why did we switch? and why did we switch back? Price.

Both times, we switched to move to a lower price. Time Warner now has a really good price that lasts for a year. But more about Time Warner's digital cable TV in another blog post. This blog post is about Dish Network.

Here are the differences between Time Warner Cable and Dish Network:

1. Dish Network pays sub-contractors to install their equipment. Time Warner has their own installers, at least for the inside of your house (the line from the pole to your house might be installed by subs).
2. With Dish Network, the picture really does sometimes break up when the weather is bad. Not as often as I thought it might, but often enough to be annoying. It can sometimes be "searching for signal" for several minutes, during which you get no picture or sound. Yeah, I know, sometimes the cable goes out, too. After having been a Time Warner customer for probably 15 years, I'd have to say that Dish went out at least twice as often, maybe even more.
3. The channels are mostly the same, but check the lists for your favorites. What we missed most were Time Warner's local news channel and the local digital weather channels run by our local TV networks.
4. The channels are in a different order. Actually, I thought the order and numbering system for Dish was better. All of the kids channels are together, and all of the news channels are together. If you like to surf the channels, you might like Dish's lineup better, but if you have a hard time remembering new phone numbers, you might feel the same when all of your channels are now found at new numbers.
5. They don't always give you an option for where the dish will go. I was certain it would be mounted to the roof, and was surprised to find, after they left, that it was in the back yard, about 10 feet behind my bedroom window. They put up a pole in the back yard and mounted it to that, so the dish itself was about 5 feet off the ground. To give them credit, they did this in very deep snow in the middle of January without complaint.
6. You have to sign a contract when you get Dish, and then you might still have to pay for repairs. We had Dish for over 2 years. We paid $5.99 a month for a service plan (except for the first 6 months, when we got the service plan for free) and what we got out of it was a new remote when one of the kids broke one. The equipment held up well otherwise and didn't need any repairs. I've never paid for repairs, service calls or new equipment from Time Warner.
7. Sometimes, with Dish, the system suddenly decides to update itself and you have to wait a few minutes before you get TV back. Generally, a message comes up and gives you a chance to say you don't want it to do it right now, and it generally doesn't happen during prime time, but still, I know this interrupted my TV viewing several times in the 2-1/2 years we had Dish. Time Warner has to update periodically, but it doesn't take as long and it's scheduled for the middle of the night when you should be asleep.
8. With Dish, If you leave the TV on without changing channels, eventually a sort of screen saver comes on instead of letting you keep watching TV in peace.
9. Time Warner's digital cable boxes can be programmed to turn on the TV at a certain time and to a specific channel. The Dish machines don't have this function.
10. Dish offered us boxes that controlled 2 TVs at once. And the DVR worked on 2 TVs, too. At the time when we stopped Time Warner, their equipment didn't do that. Now Time Warner is advertising "Whole House DVR" though there's a hefty extra charge for this. I think Dish would be a cheaper way to have DVR capability in 2 different rooms, though the farther away they are from each other, the harder it is to control the functions from the room that doesn't have the box.
11. You won't believe the number of cables and the intricate ways the Dish installers will have to re-wire your house in order to make two TVs work with one box. I'm no expert, but what it looked like to me was one wire from the wall to the box, then out from the box to both TVs, and back to the box?  I never saw so many splitters. Our cables were already wired to run across the ceiling of the basement and back up into the rooms where the TVs are. But if your house is already wired for cable, in the wall, you might want to ask how they're going to run the wires before you let them have access, especially if you're not fond of unsightly extra wiring. On the plus side, they didn't charge extra for that, and they used quality wires, according to the Time Warner installer who came to dismantle it all when we switched back to cable.
12. Dish offers a Google TV box. We didn't have one so I can't say if it's any good. You had to pay extra, both up front and an extra monthly fee, so check into the cost of this before you jump. I'm pretty sure Time Warner doesn't offer this, at least not part of their plan.
13. Time Warner has several features that are part of their regular Digital Cable offering that make a DVR almost unnecessary: Start Over, Look Back and On Demand. This doesn't apply to all channels or all shows, but it applies to quite a bit of them. I will be writing a longer review of Time Warner's digital cable that includes more info on these wonderful features.

Two more things you might want to know about Dish:

1. You might not get that free gift they promised you when you signed up. When we signed up, we were told we'd get an iPod Nano after we paid for 3 months of Dish. Turns out, this promise is made by a 3rd party company that tries to get people to sign up for Dish. We lost the contact info for that company once we were Dish customers and they never sent the iPod. So if you're promised a free gift, make sure you know the number you called when you signed up for Dish, which might not be the number of Dish Network itself, since they apparently have other companies doing some of their marketing.
2. When you stop Dish, you have to send the equipment back. They send you a box or boxes to return them in. Yes, they want the remotes, too. Yes, they want at least part of the Dish. Even if you have to climb on the roof to get it. This is when you might be really glad they put it on a pole in your back yard.

This is really quite an interesting blog

I just scrolled down and read some of the blog posts I wrote in 2008 and some of them were quite interesting and even well-written. I'd totally forgotten about the bees flying all around my computer. And though some of the bullets points are rather long, I enjoyed re-reading the one about my love-hate relationship with technology. More recently, there's my short piece on the benefits of digital scrapbooking, which is one of my most popular posts.

I wish I had more time to just write about stuff I want to write about. But today I'm off to write about how to moderate a Facebook group. ::::sigh::::

Easy Pan Pizzas

I make this all the time. It's really easy and delicious!

Dough

1-1/2 cups lukewarm water
1/2 cup cornmeal (or semolina flour)
4 cups flour
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons honey
2-1/4 teaspoons instant yeast

Put all ingredients in your bread machine pan according to the manufacturer's instructions. Set it on "dough" setting. Watch to make sure dough forms correctly, and add a little flour or a little water if necessary while it's mixing.

I usually let it go through the whole mixing and rising cycle, that takes 1-1/2 hours or a bit less, but you can take it out after about 1/2 hour if you're in a hurry.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees (pay attention -- you're going to lower the temperature later).

Divide dough into 2 or 3 pieces with a dough cutter. The number of pieces depends on how many you need to feed and how thick you like your crust. I've also divided it into 2 large pieces and a smaller one (about half the size of the other 2) and made 2 pizzas and a calzone).

Spray two or three cake pans with non-stick spray and set aside. (I like to use an oil mister that I can add my own olive oil to, rather than the aerosol can sprays you can buy in the store.)

Roll out the dough into 3 circles. Each should be an inch or two bigger than the diameter of your cake pans. Put the dough circles into the cake pans and stretch them with your fingers so you have a bit of dough going up the edge of the pan -- how much and how far really depends on your preference.

Topping suggestions:

Crushed tomatoes (from a can) mixed with minced garlic and italian seasoning

or

Diced tomatoes (petit diced work well)

or

Regular jar of pizza sauce

Cooked bite-sized meat of your choice (sausage, bacon, mini-pepperoni)
Shredded mozzarella or your choice of cheese

Anything else your heart desires

Add tomato concoction of your choice and toppings. Place pizzas in oven, close the door and immediately lower the temperature to 400 degrees. Set a timer for 10 minutes.

When the timer goes off, rotate the pans. If you cooked 3 pizzas and they have to be on separate racks in your oven to fit, you may want to swap them to the other rack at this time also. Set the timer for 10 more minutes.

Take the pizzas out of the oven and let them cool a couple of minutes before cutting them. I remove them from the pan right away. For crispier crust, you can leave them in the pan till it's time to cut them.

(Hint about timing for pizzas: if you're not sure, set the timer for less time and check them. Ovens vary, and cooking will also vary depending on the quality of your cake pans. As my mother used to say, you can always cook it longer, but if it's burned, there's no way to go back and un-burn it).

If you use this recipe, leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Why Cell Phones are a Waste of Money -- Anecdotal Evidence

I discovered that, despite having mammoth tires, it's not all that hard to get a Jeep Wrangler stuck in a snowy driveway. Apparently, the 4-Wheel-Drive has to be turned on, and if you don't, it's off.

I looked down and scrutinized this thing that looks like a short gear-shift with a diagram that doesn't really help me know how to get the vehicle into 4WD.

Enter the cell phone. I call my husband. It's his Jeep, after all.

He answers. While I'm explaining my predicament, I jump out of the Jeep and walk behind it to see which tires seem to be stuck. We live in the sticks, and cell service is variable. Apparently the driver's seat of the Jeep has a cell signal, but behind the Jeep does not. The call is dropped.

I go back and stand beside the driver's door, and call him back. But he's calling me back, so I get his voicemail.

I hang up and wonder -- should I call again or wait for him to call? We both wait, and then I call again and this time it just rings and rings and rings. I hang up and get back in the Jeep, handing my phone to my son who is in the passenger seat.

The phone rings, and my son manages to push the wrong button and hang up on his Dad.

Finally, my husband calls back and explains how to put the Jeep in 4WD. If you're counting, this is the 5th call, not counting however many times my husband tried to call me.

This is why I hate paying for a cell phone.

Fortunately, I have a Tracfone so it doesn't cost me too much. Because most of the time I want to throw it out the window, or flush it down the toilet. One day I may do just that, but it cost me $9.95, so it wouldn't be a great loss.

Proof There's Something Wrong with our Healthcare System

We go to an independent local pharmacy for our prescriptions. It's been in business about 20 years. The owner was a pharmacist at a couple of local pharmacies before starting his own store.

It's in a really busy location, and this location is going to grow even busier due to some new businesses that are coming in the next year or two.

This pharmacy is really busy all the time. I've never been there when it wasn't busy.

But they can't stay in business. They're not making enough money. The owner sold out to a local grocery store that has pharmacies in the store.

There's something wrong with a system when a provider who is busy and has plenty of customers still can't make ends meet. Somehow, I don't think Obamacare will fix it.

9 Reasons to Try Digital Scrapbooking

Digital scrapbooking is the art of making scrapbook pages and books from digital photos and digital "paper" and elements. It works very similarly to paper scrapping, except you do it on the computer. There are many reasons I prefer this method to paper scrapbooking:

1. All the "mess" is contained inside the computer. Nothing to get out or clean up or buy storage items for.
2. Nothing is permanent. I can make a page using a photo, and then make a different page with the same photo.
3. I can re-do pages for different sizes if I want. Like if I made a bunch of square pages and then I found a coupon for a book with rectangular pages, I can tweak the square pages to make them rectangular.
4. You get your money's worth when you buy kits because you can re-use them endlessly and never use them up.
5. It's easy to find free supplies, and even free software, so it doesn't have to cost a lot of money.
6. You can do neat effects with digital photos that you could never do on paper.
7. You can still get them printed and made into beautiful books.
8. If you really like a book you made, you can make a copy to send to a friend or relative, with hardly any extra work.

If you want to know more about digital scrapbooking, post a comment, send me an email, contact me on Facebook, or actually find me in person and ask me. I'd be glad to show you how to do it.

Today's Trending Topics on Twitter

September 11, 2001

Do you remember where you were that day?

I was in a Bible study. The first meeting of a Bible study at a church where I only knew one person, and not very well.

But it started before I left home. I remember the Today Show. Matt Lauer had a funny look on his face. "We have breaking news . . . no, we're going to commercial first." I was in a hurry getting ready to leave for the Bible study but I made a point to see what would happen after the commercial break.

They came back with a live shot of the twin towers with smoke pouring out of one of them. They still thought it was a small airplane and didn't have much info.

I remember going into the bathroom. We had a small black and white TV in there, on the shelf above the washer/dryer. My husband was in the shower. I turned on the little TV and pulled it off the shelf so I could turn it and show him.

But, I had planned to leave for this Bible study so a couple minutes later I got in the car. The second plane hit while I was driving down the driveway. I remember the local talk show personality talking about it, he'd seen it on TV. "I'm watching a second plane hit the other tower!"

I didn't believe it. I was convinced that the TV people had found someone who had footage of the first plane, and they were showing it. It wasn't a live shot. It couldn't possibly happen that 2 planes would hit the two towers so close together.

It took 20 minutes or so to get to the Bible study. By the time I got there, I was realizing that it was true, both towers had been hit. But I'm still thinking, small plane, burning building, tragedy . . . but not realizing the magnitude of the situation. Maybe because I couldn't see it with my eyes.

I told the Bible study leader about what I'd heard. Most of those attending had apparently not been listening to a news channel on their car radios. We prayed for the people in the towers and started the study.

About an hour later someone's cell phone rang. She went out and answered it, then came back and told us, "That was my husband on the phone. He said that both towers have collapsed and 100,000 people are dead."

I think I felt like you feel when someone suddenly dies. You don't believe it. Denial. This couldn't have happened.

So then the pastor of the church came in. He gave us more details. More planes. The pentagon. There were at least 6 planes, he said. There was a truck bomb at the Capitol Building.

Bible study was dismissed. I went outside and looked up at the sky. Was a plane going to crash into one of the buildings in the small town of Ballston Spa? What should I do? Where should I go?

I didn't have a cell phone then. But I was within 5 minutes from the school my son attended, so I went there. "Take him home," the Principal said when I entered the school office. "All the parents are taking the kids home."

I went into the church office (the school is a private school on the grounds of a church). They had a TV on, and I was able to see a bit of footage, my first visual confirmation of what had happened.

I went downstairs to the 4th grade class. One of the other students came up to me and asked, "What's going on?" They only knew vague details. I was able to answer that I didn't really know much.

The teacher was in a panic. Her daughter lived in Pennsylvania and she was worried the plane crash there could have killed her. I didn't know enough details to be able to reassure her.

I took my son home. The kids turned on some cable children's channel in the living room and I was very glad for cable channels that just kept broadcasting their regular programming, and also for the fact that we had another TV in the house.

My husband had stayed home, once he saw the second plane hit. No one was going to buy anything from him that day, anyway. We sat in the bedroom and watched the coverage. All the hospitals waiting for lots and lots of wounded people, and only a few actually showing up. People holding up pictures of people who were missing.

And the towers falling . . . they replayed that over and over and over. My little guy said, "There it goes again, the tower falling down." I had to explain that it happened once, but they were repeating it again and again. He seemed to understand -- after all, the channels he watched repeated shows again and agian, so he was familiar with the concept.

I remember for the following month, being still in denial. "I can't believe the towers actually collapsed."

I looked up World Trade Center in my encyclopedia. We have the 1972 World Book, which my parents bought when I was a child. The article about the World Trade Center shows a photo of a mostly-completed building. They were built *after* I was born, they were younger than me and they were gone.

Remember all the flags? Everyone flew a flag. We were all united. We didn't have Democrats bad-mouthing Republicans. But now, looking back, that didn't last that long, did it?

I can remember every detail of that morning. But it feels like we've already forgotten.

Photo credit: Library of Congress

Cash Registers of the Future

As I went through the self-checkout lane at my local grocery store, I realized something.

When I was a kid, most gas stations were full service. Remember those? If you're under 40, you might not. Here's how they worked: you pulled in, and a person came to your car. You rolled down the window and told them what kind of gas and how much you wanted. They pumped it and then you paid them. If you wanted to pay by credit card, they had a little plastic tray that hooked onto the partially-open window of your car. The tray contained a multi-part sales receipt and had a slot for your card and a pen. Once you signed the receipt, they took their copy and the tray and left you with your copy and your card. If you wanted to, you could ask them to check your oil and water levels, among other things.

Then came the Energy Crisis and gas prices doubled. To reduce costs, many stations started letting you pump your own gas and save some money by doing it. Within a relatively short time, most gas stations went to most or all self-serve pumps. Now, I can't tell you where there is a station that has anyone who will pump your gas for you.

But the grocery store clerks still man the cash registers. Stores have a few self-serve lanes, but most are manned by a real person.

I'm wondering when someone will realize they can promote lower prices if you scan your own groceries. It might put the cashiers out of a job, but I'm thinking that by the time my children are my age, they'll say, "I remember when grocery stores actually had a person who scanned your groceries and took your money. Now all of the stores have only machines and I don't know a single store that has cashiers."

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Pet Peeves About Other Drivers

Here's the way it works, people: If you're driving down the road, and something is blocking your lane, you have to check to see if there is any oncoming traffic before you just veer into the other lane to go around. You see, the driver who is driving toward you is in her own lane. She has the right to drive in that lane. And yes, you can go around the obstacle, but you have to wait until the other lane is clear. You can't just veer into the path of an oncoming car because there's something in your lane.

I'm sure all of my readers understand this principle, but there seem to be a large number of people driving around out there who don't. That's all I'm saying.

Another thing: if you're pulling a trailer, there are some places you just can't try to park. A small convenience store parking lot is one of them, especially if it's a busy holiday weekend and most of the parking spots in the lot are already full. And if you make a mistake and pull into a small parking lot with your trailer, don't sit there wondering what to do next and block traffic while you decide.

I live in a small, relatively rural town that is on the way to a lake that is popular in the summer. Several organizations take advantage of the extra summer traffic and use it as a way to raise funds for their activities.

Now when I say small town, I mean small. Village, actually. One traffic light. Speed limit 35 mph. One of those blink-or-you'll-miss-it towns. During the fund raisers, they have between 1 and 3 people standing in the middle of the road, on all 4 side of the intersection. Today, one of these was a pregnant lady. Often they have teens doing this, too. Apparently they trust that no one will hit them. It makes me crazy, and I never give to them because I don't want to encourage this behavior. They should send a letter around in May, saying "How much will you give it we promise not to stand in the road and block traffic?" I bet they'd make more money that way.

Things I've Learned by Cleaning a Building that's Open to the Public

You can learn a lot about human nature by cleaning up a location where humans have been. For instance:

• Lots of people don't use the door handles, but push the door open by pushing on the glass.
• People don't think about what happens to things after they put them in the trash can.
• A surprising number of men and boys believe that urinals are self-flushing.
• Women use paper towels and toilet paper at a faster rate than men.
• The cleanest bathroom is the one used by the littlest kids.
• Just like at home, some people clean up after themselves, and others leave a mess behind.
• An amazing number of people leave items of value behind and never come back looking for them.
• If you even breathe near a stainless steel surface, it will leave a mark. So imagine what it looks like when you actually touch it.
• The state of a classroom after the class has left is a reflection of the teachers who use that classroom.

Photo by Zsuzsanna Kilian

Would you like an image with your search?

The answer, apparently, is no. We users don't seem to want a background image on their Google search page. The web is a-buzz today with people wanting to know how to turn off this new feature.

Google took a leaf out of Facebook's page, opting users into something they did not want. Google must feel that Bing is a threat, despite the fact that Google is still well ahead in market share. Bing shows users a different image each day, complete with easter eggs.

I have long thought that

• People would love the image part of Bing without the search.
• Bing has gained market share due to being the default search engine in Internet Explorer.

I'm considering making a blog that is sort of "Bing without the search." You'd see an image, and get some interesting information and links associated with that image (similar to the mouseover links on Bing, like where it is found, the history behind the location, etc.). Each day, I would post a different image. The images I'd choose would not be as PC as those displayed on Bing. If you would visit such a blog on a regular basis, post a comment telling me so.

Did you hear who died today?

I don't watch the news anymore.

Don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't care about what's going on in the world. But since the most recent presidential election, I just can't stand to hear about it.

It's not like I don't have a clue what's going on in the world. I live with a news junkie. So, the news is on a lot and I generally know about whatever big events are going on.

But the fact that I don't stay right on top of the news has alerted me to a flaw in the way the news media covers the deaths of those they deem famous enough to mention. Somehow, it's easy to miss the death of a famous person if you don't watch the news every day.

I heard Art Linkletter died. But I didn't know Gary Coleman died. They must not have thought it was important enough to mention it beyond one news cycle.

Unless a person is a legend, like Michael Jackson, they don't rate being discussed for more than a few hours on a single day. If you miss it, tough luck.

I just think someone's life deserves just a bit more recognition than that.

New Year's Resolution

I'm going to make a blogging New Year's resolution. When I add a post to one of my blogs, I'm going to post a link on Facebook and Twitter.

I've been too shy to do it before, but if I ever want to get anyone to visit my blogs, I have to let them know about them, right?

I have 109 friends on Facebook and 41 followers on Twitter. Most of the Twitter followers are random people I don't know, people who have followed me, I think, in an attempt to get more followers of their own. I don't automatically follow those who follow me, and I hardly ever tweet, so these people may get a big surprise when they start getting regular links to posts about the Bible and Creation Science and stuff like that. :-)

I've got a sort of secondary resolution. Maybe not a resolution, exactly, but a goal. My goal is to start several more blogs this year. I have this blog and my creation science blog, Dinosaurs on Noah's Ark, and a blog where I very occasionally tell stories about ancestors I've "met" along the way on my genealogy research, called I Love to Tell the Story, and a couple of other blogs that are now abandoned. I want to start other blogs about some of my interests and hobbies:

• Digital scrapbooking
• Knitting
• Bread baking
• Genealogy
• Writing
• Graphic arts

Which one would you like to read?

Happy New Year!

Firefox: "The Most Disruptive Technology of the Decade"

Sitepoint has listed the Top 5 Web Technologies of the Decade, and Number One is Mozilla Firefox.

Their reasoning is that all of the Web 2.0 innovations were enabled by the tools Firefox provided.

"Without Firefox, Web2.0 may never have occurred. It changed the industry’s perception of what a browser was and what it could achieve. It deserves it’s place at number 1!"

Wow, I'm impressed. I've been using Firefox for years, but I never realized how important it was. Still more amazing that it can be the technology of the decade and be celebrating it's 5th birthday. So it's been around for only half of the decade.

I wonder if Chrome will have the number 1 spot for the next decade?

My Pet Peeve about Gas Pumps

I have a pet peeve about the kind of gas pumps where you pay by swiping your credit card.

Actually, I have several pet peeves about these devices, but I'll concentrate on the main one.

Why does it have to display the previous transaction amount until after you've swiped your own card. Every time I use one of these things, I feel sure they're going to charge me for the gas the person before me put in their car.

It seems to me that it would not be a difficult thing to have these machines programmed to zero out the amount once the previous person's card has been successfully charged.

As it stands, I'm always afraid that maybe the person before me drove off without paying and I'm going to get stuck with their gas being charged onto my card. Now, I know that most of these machines make you put in the card before you can pump gas, so I guess it would not be possible for the person to drive off and leave a balance that would be charged to the next person's card. But it also just seems possible that they could zero the amount out and not leave it up there till the next person starts to pump their gas.

This problem happens with several different gas companies, so it's not limited to just one brand. And it doesn't seem to matter if you press "pay outside" before you put in your card, the amount of the previous transaction is still displayed and you can't make it go away.

Am I the only person bothered by this?

I got my wish -- Chrome history

I just blogged about wanting a drop-down mini-history attached to the back button on Chrome, such as Firefox has. I like being able to see the recent pages and go back several in one jump, rather than hitting back-back-back-back all the time.

So, today, I clicked on the Chrome back button in a leisurely way and held it there a bit longer than normal and there it was -- a list of my recent pages! I don't know if this is another new feature of the beta of version 4, or if I just didn't ever happen upon this before, but I'm really excited about this feature!