Photo printing help?

Drat. About to dash up to Kendal to get my Terrocs. Would normally be fun but there’s too much going on here ATM so it’s just a faff. Has to be done, though.

In the meantime, can any of you PC geniuses help with what feels like a really stupid question? I’m trying to print out some photos to frame and put on my father’s wall. However, the printer/Paint Shop Pro (can’t work out which) insists on leaving a margin of about 2mm on the left of the page and one of over a cm on the right. I can center it horizontally but nothing I’ve tried (and I’ve tried everything I can think of, over a period of about 4 hours split over two occasions) makes any difference. No matter what paper size I tell the printer I’m using, and no matter how wide I tell it the picture is, that margin is always there.

This is driving me mad. My father’s moving to a new care home tomorrow and I want to print out old pictures and have them waiting for him on the walls. I don’t want them to look a mess, though.

If you can help then I’ll be eternally grateful. My printer is an HP Deskjet of some sort, my graphics programme is Paint Shop Pro and I’m aiming for A4 sized paper. I don’t want to have to start trying to cut off a strip on the right of each picture. I’m sure there must be a simple way!

BFN ♥

Painting — How to do it…?

Peeps,

I’m thinking of brightening up some of the paintwork around the house e.g. window ledges, door frames etc.

They’re currently painted with gloss paint. How should I go about it? Should I rub it down with sandpaper first? And do I need to apply matt paint before new gloss? Oh, and is there such a thing as paint that doesn’t come with the puke-inducing lingering overnight smell?

It’s all so complicated…

Help!

I had email working on phone before I left home but suddenly it won’t send outgoing messages. Seems to have downloaded some mails peeps sent me couple days ago (thanks peeps) but won’t now let me get Word attachment to one of them which needs 2 B downloaded.

message tells me it can’t send my message and asks me to check that I have network coverage (must have as I can blog and use internet) and that my settings are correct. Have checked ISP email setup settings (username password pop3 server settings etc) and they’re correct. Is there some other setting I should look at? This was working perfectly 5 days ago and I’ve changed nothing *sob*

Another question… blogging on the go?

I’m totally ignorant of all the cunning wee devices now available to help people to blog on the go. Any suggestions for something inexpensive to run, efficient and light, but easy to type on? Something which incorporates, or for which it’s possible to get hold of, a fold-out keyboard of some sort would be particularly welcome.

Thanks for any help, peeps!

Edited to add: I’d also like it to come with GPS so I can take my Quo maps and do digital mapping… otherwise Piglet and I may never return!

Cleaning down sleeping bags and jackets

Wow, it’s expensive! I’ve just rung Classiclean from Harrogate, who are mentioned on the PHD site as doing a good job, but it’s £35 per down sleeping bag (which includes postage). Phew…

I haven’t got a tumble drier so I’m not keen to have a go at home. Does anyone know of anywhere less expensive, but still reliable? I’ve got a smock and a gilet to do as well. And a second sleeping bag, but that can wait as it hasn’t had quite so much contact with my Sheewee…

Aaagh… how to heat the heat shrinking peg sleeving?

I found some of this in the cupboard and thought I’d apply it to my pegs, but a blast with a hairdryer hasn’t done the job.

How should I do it? Do I need to persist with the hair dryer? It’s been in the cupboard for a year, I reckon. Might it have perished?

*is a techno ignormamus*

Yes, this is a serious question…

So! How d’you fold those sheets that come with ready-made elasticated corners? I bought some recently, and I thought ironing them was the apogee of sheet-related hell until I tried to fold the blasted things. They’ve been sitting in what can only be described as a ball on the kitchen table for two days now, while I try to work out how to unscramble them.

Any ideas, peeps?

Help! Name this tune…?

This is driving me mad!

I heard a pop tune from (I think) the 80s when I was in the farm shop yesterday, and I can’t get it out of my mind. I can’t remember what it is, though. A young woman was singing it, and the tune to the chorus goes as follows. Sorry for the naff rendition, but I couldn’t think of another way to get it across. It’s a very upbeat sort of thing: fast, catchy, infuriating… *g*

Click here for MIDI rendition of the chorus

PROBLEM RESOLVED! Eternal and undying gratitude to Gayle for identifying it for me ♥ It was Rush Hour by Jane Wiedlin 🙂

Help! Product safe to use in reproofing my Laser Competition?

Being the organised sort of person I am, it occurred to me this morning that maybe the time was right to wash and reproof my tent. Less than 72 hours before I leave for the Challenge… A spray down with the hose didn’t get rid of the nasty Corsican dust, and there are the skeletal remains of many thousands of nematodes clinging to the bottom, I’m sure…

I’ve washed it in the bath with pure soap flakes, but I can’t find anyone near me who has the Terra Nova tent reproofer. Does anyone know whether I can use one of the Nikwax products, or another good one? I’d like something I can wash in, ideally. I see in the info sheet that the flysheet. groundsheet and inner are made of nylon, but I can’t seem to find anything more detailed.

Please help if you can. Otherwise I may have to buy a new tent! *cough cough*

Edited to add: I see a product on the Nikwax page called ‘Tent & Gear Solar Proof’ which is a spray-on waterproofing product. It’s the one they suggest for nylon products. Being a total techno-ignoramus, though, I’m just not quite sure whether it’s okay for the Competition or not.

So, are all piglets this stupid, then?

Sometimes I wonder how I manage to get out of bed and navigate to my clothes in the morning.

I somehow missed out on microwaves. My father had a little one in the corner of the kitchen, but none of the rest of us really used it, and I’ve never caught up. A few years ago I thought I’d better get one, just in case. I thought it would be useful for defrosting home-made chicken stock. It seems it wasn’t, though. I think the stock is still in the bottom of the freezer.

Anyway… a couple of days ago I wanted to use some butter straight from the fridge. It was solid, and it occurred to me to shove it in the microwave for 20 seconds or so. I did, and a few seconds later the microwave started making terrifying electrical flash things, and there was smoke, and loud noise and popping, sizzling noises. I was tempted to run, but I grabbed a tea towel and made a frantic poke at the Off button. Fortunately it stopped. It seems there must have been metal in the butter wrapper. How extremely scary it was! Shouldn’t butter wrappers come with some sort of warning?

And now today I realise that I’m too stupid to be able to work out how to use the zoom lens on my clever new D-SLR camera. With my little point-and-shoot I just pulled a lever thing that rested conveniently under one of my fingers, and the flower or insect dashed in close. There doesn’t seem to be such a lever on the new camera, though. I think perhaps I’m supposed to turn the housing on the lens, but in my Canon EOS 400D for Dummies book I was told that manually turning it might damage the lens, and now I’m terrified to touch it. And when I look up ‘Zoom’ in the Dummies index there’s nothing there 😦 I’m stuck…

Edited to add:
Okay, so I think I’ve sussed the zoom thing. It seems there’s a difference between the zoom barrel and the focusing ring, and it’s the focusing ring I’m not supposed to turn unless the camera is set to Manual Focus. Phew!