Namaste, Bitches

So, in an effort to save some money, we cut off the cable t.v. Still got teh internets, still got the cable phone because our phone connection is also our modem & cutting off the house phone seemed like too much of a hassle. Just no cable t.v. Turned it off Monday.

In hindsight, already, this was not such a great choice in money-saving methods. Rob's going to lose it soon. He's extremely dependent on that constant background noise and movement. I could live without it, but he's driving me nuts & it's only been like, 48 hours. He's been trying to use the oh-so-awesome digital tuner converter box thingie, and there are a few channels out there actually doing non-cable digital broadcasts. Mostly in Spanish. But, the digital connection is less than ideal, and the sound is skipping. For me, I barely notice it, but Rob is a serious sound-queen. The skipping dialog & music makes him almost enraged. So we've been watching Spanish t.v. with glitchy reception and skipping dialog, and Rob's pissy about the whole thing. When Rob gets to a certain level of frustration, he loses all ability to do anything for himself. Popped The Crow in when I finally got the Windows Media Player to work & it just so happened that the DVD had active content on it, which popped up a Fair Use message. Rob read it aloud to me. All he had to do was click 'Cancel' and the box would go away. Instead he sat there, impatiently waiting for me to finish cooking dinner so I could click a fucking button on his mouse. I don't know if it's some kind of passive-aggressive reaction he's having when he gets like that, or if his parents were the type of people who always took any little task away from him when he couldn't complete it to their satisfaction, but the helpless act makes me angry. I'm going to have to get to the bottom of it, because I tend to take shit away from him or I don't even bother to ask him for help, mainly because I abhor his constant bitching and procrastination.

For the past two nights, I've been trying to get a DVD movie to play on Rob's computer, which was formerly my computer. When I got it, it had Sony VAIO's Media Centre. There's software on that pc that allows you to plug in an actual video-tape-recording camera and edit the film and make movies. When I got it, it would play movies as well. Now, for some unknown reason, it wouldn't play a movie. It had InterVideo 5 on it, along w/Windows Media Player, RealPlayer and QuickTime. Would not play a DVD movie on any of them. So I downloaded the VLC player, the DivX Player, installed codecs, you name it. After much codec hunting, I got sound but no picture. I had hopes when the players would display the FBI warning screens, but then it would either stay on that screen or fade to black. I got it to a point where, with the VLC player, I could watch the movie, hear the background noise, but the main sound track was just gone. VLC is a little too complicated for me. I tried switching all the output settings, using the equalizers, all the bells & whistles included on VLC, including downloading some codecs for it. Sound is still fucked up. Unlike my husband who throws his hands up & pouts when things don't work exactly like they're supposed to the first time, I will figure out a problem like this. I figured if I was able to get a VoIP phone to actually work when I was surrounded by techs who couldn't, then I could figure out a way to make my stupid computer play a simple movie.

After a night and a half of Rob acting completely helpless I paid for a Windows Media Player plug-in. Now it plays the damned DVD movies, and we can watch them on the big-screen t.v. (which is also fucked up, something involving the convergence chip). I uninstalled everything else, including the software that came w/my VAIO for alleged DVD movie playback.

I really couldn't go to bed on time because I was just worked up about his pissy mood tonight. I didn't want to go to bed at the same time as he did because I didn't want to lay down next to him for any length of time. Now, however, my pills are kicking in & I think I can catch 5 or so hours before work.

( Beware: TMI )

It looks almost exactly like IE.

I can live with this.

Chelsie is asleep on my toes.

I honestly don't know if the two are related or not, but last night I dropped by OkCupid because I was bored & needed a mindless quiz fix.

I tried to navigate to my message inbox & IE took a dump on me - and then sysguard.exe popped up on my screen. Now, I'm not saying OKC is the site that infected my computer, but they do have an inordinate amount of crap running on their homepage. I just wanted to slit my own throat because the last time sysguard finagled its way into my computer, I had to do a complete format. I probably will have to do a reinstall of Windows soon because I've deleted my WinNT registry entries & now I can't run Windows update, but I didn't want to do it today.

I've learned a little about anti-virus procedures since then, but I'm still pretty pissed off at McAfee because it didn't catch it. Neither did Lavasoft's AdAware or HiJackThis. At least McAfee has this nifty feature that locks down the firewall, which effectively stopped sysguard, but I still had to get rid of the fucking thing.

I tell ya something, if I don't get fired, once I'm cleared of my 'Personal Improvement Plan' I'm taking a vacation from computers.

For all my technical savvy, I do still sometimes fuck up. I downloaded a malware product the other night, so now whenever I open Internet Explorer it starts opening other IE windows advertising Adware/Spyware/Malware cleaning & blocking programs, which are all probably viruses. It's also slowed my cable connection to a crawl. It's worse than when I was on dial-up. I've been on a seek-and-destroy mission for the past 2 days & it's still in there, somewhere... probably lurking in my registry.

So, all my morning dragon updates are on hold & the only place I can do my schoolwork is here at work. Which blows because I keep getting interrupted.

Ah well, either I'll find it & destroy it or I'll have to format my computer - again.

What makes me less unhappy today?

Hmmm. It's casual Friday & that's always a good thing!

Well, someone claiming to be Lamont messaged me here & left me his phone number a week or so ago... I've procrastinated & procrastinated contacting him because, well, I hate the phone. I hate talking on the phone. I also feel awkward calling someone I haven't spoken to in 20 years. But anyway, I finally mustered up the nerve to text them (ah, yes, the wonders of technology) and after a game of 20 questions, they told me it was a wrong number.

I had a very busy weekend... I actually went outside and did yardwork on Saturday, planted some stuff in jiffy pots. (Yes, all poisonous, except the lavender, heh). Supposed to go see the doc tomorrow about my hair loss.

Restored from Draft:

This was Saturday:
Bought a little mini-barbecue a coupla weeks ago & finally ventured out in the back yard to set it up. I had relinqueshed the back yard to the scorpions over the past year or so. It’s gotten bad out there - some of the weeds out back were progressing into bushes. Anyway, I swept and killed weeds & removed dead weeds, cleaned Ed’s old tank for Nessie and Rob & I assembled the barbecue grill.

As I was cruising the landscape, I noticed a strange hole in the planter out against the wall. It looks like we’ve either got a true tarantula living out there or some other fairly large funnel web spider. It’s a good sign because burrowing spiders won’t normally choose territory that’s infested by scorpions. With all my cleaning and sweeping nothing turned up except dead spiders and crickets.

We also did some running around getting more adapters and cables for Rob’s new computer. We’ve been working on that thing on & off all day, trying to install his game controllers, fighting with the general no-new-programs-or-hardware allowed attitude that Vista has.

All in all, I’m tired. I called in sick at the Excalibur - said ’fuck it’. It puts me at 5.5 points so I’m not quite getting suspended.


This was Friday, around 1:30a.m. :

Rob, with all his static, managed to fry his computer. Literally. Wednesday night he turned his computer on & his mouse was frozen. I got to messing around with his machine, trying out some of the other USB ports. I kept seeing this little tiny flash of light, but I was thinking maybe it was the network card or something, and then as I’m fumbling around with the plugs in the back, it felt like something was stinging my hand. So I stuck my head behind his computer & it looked like a very tiny sparkler was spraying from the problematic USB port. I said, as calmly as possible concerning the fact that I had stuck my face up real close to the sparks, "Sparks. Rob, sparks. There are sparks coming out of your computer." So he got back there & confirmed that yes indeed, sparks were pouring out of his USB port. There was also a definitive burning smell emanating from the computer and the game controller cord that had been plugged into said port was quite hot to the touch.


Rob tried one of the non-sparking USB ports and actually kept using his computer until Friday morning. He was sitting here playing WoW & his video card kept crashing. Then he smelled something burning, opened up his case and revealed a small fire on the motherboard.

It’s been awhile since Rob has had a bona fide new computer. He struggles with these chop-shop newspaper classified computers that he twiddles with and tweaks ... and they always seem to literally catch fire and go up in smoke. So we still had a smidge of the tax return left and I took him computer shopping.
He got a pretty decent deal on a new Sony VAIO - Pentium Centrino Duo, 3G of RAM, nVidia 8400 w/256MB of onboard RAM - I don’t like the RAM-sharing most laptop graphics drivers have. Of course, getting one that doesn’t share RAM (like from Voodoo or AlienWare) runs about... oh, $6K.

All the new computers have Windows Vista on them, including Rob’s, and from the little experience I have w/Vista I don’t like it much. I don’t know who the people are who convinced Microsoft that a computer should not allow them to do anything without confirming that they do indeed want to do it, but they should all be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes. Vista acts like you should be content with whatever programs are loaded into it at the factory and you should never have to load any new programs into it whatsoever.

Not only does it have Windows’ own firewall/spyware/anti-virus on it, but Sony added in a Spyware blocking tool and Norton 360. Every single time you access a program, Vista asks if you meant to do that. If you go online, you can’t actually visit any websites because they’re all blocked - you have to change the internet security settings from the first boot-up. I had to install WoW immediately because Rob’s having withdrawals... Even after turning off all the Windows security features, the Spyware blocker and NAV, to install the original WoW, it still wouldn’t auto-install. I had to copy the installation from the discs into a separate folder and then restart Windows in Safe Mode just to run the installation.

If Rob can actually manage to access any online porn, his computer should be completely safe from any number of viruses, Trojans, spyware, adware, malware, you-name-it-ware. Vista is the equivalent of a full-body condom for a computer. Rob’s mom is thinking of getting herself a new laptop - her’s is less than a year old but she’s aiming for something smaller. I may end up with a new laptop - also with Vista. Which means yeah, I’ll have a nice computer I can take anywhere, but if I want to get anything done, I’ll have to use my desktop with XP... the last version of Windows that actually works. Gods, I miss Win 98se so hard!

That’s the first time I’ve ever actually had to use Safe Mode to install a program. I’ve been futzing around with that computer for 4 hours now, but at least Rob can have it back finally. Of course, he went to bed 2 hours ago.

Oh yeah, $85 an hour... Rob's computer took a major dump day before yesterday. It's been heading that way - either the mobo is bad or his video card is dying, or something. To 'troubleshoot' he ran out & bought a stick of RAM on sale... Apparently, his motherboard didn't like it & started beeping. So he diddled around w/the RAM & got Windows to boot at least - but it booted to the sign-on screen - with no user to click on. By Ctrl+Alt+Del'ing, I got it to a regular Windows log-in box & tried good old 'Admin'... & was told I couldn't log on due to account restrictions. Well, his computer at least has a POST screen so I managed to get into the Recovery Console & attempted a fix I found online involving backing up & repairing the registry. Windows booted, finally, with no log-in screen, but it seemed to have been lobotomized - no drivers, no programs, no nothing. So I tried the 'Repair' function on the WinXP disc - and it formatted the freaking computer. Gee, thanks, Bill, I don't think I could have done it better myself. So, hours & hours of WoW update downloading, WinXP updates, driver updates, porn, music & the errata that is Rob's digital life - all gone to wherever unrecoverable data goes.

Well, I got Windows re-installed, got his mobo drivers reinstalled, his basic video card driver installed... and could not, for the life of me, get the computer back on-line. Even got Cox to send me a guy out (I've asked for guys from Cox before with no success, but since this problem involved teh internets, they finally complied with my request) & he got the computer to tell him there was no driver for the Ethernet card & Win wasn't recognizing it for whatever reason. So we went out & bought a new card w/its own drivers. (If you need a new Ethernet card, CompUSA has 'em on sale right now starting at $12.99 - half of what Office Depot's offering.)

Now, here's what pisses me off. Everytime my computer gets bumped off-line, I end up having to call Cox & talk to their computerized help system to get back on-line. I mean, every single freaking time - power outage, call Cox. Unplugged the router - call Cox. Unplugged the modem - call Cox. I can do all the steps on my own - cycle the power on the router & modem, release & renew my ipconfig, reboot, reboot, reboot - all to no avail. However, after all the mucking around we've done inside Rob's computer, I had Win install the driver for the Ethernet card & plugged the RJ-45 cable into the router and voila' - he was on-fucking-line. I didn't even have to go through unplugging the router & installing it. Nooooo. Bastard.

Anyway, I'm scared about the drumming class I re-signed up for. I'm going to be in a room full of youthful, artistic & creative people feeling like a complete lump of sun-dried buffalo chips. I want to take it, but then again, I really want to drop it yet again & see if there's an online art appreciation class or something instead.

I also have a gynecologist appointment tomorrow. Heigh-ho, Speculum, away!

As I was waking up today, I was thinking how I ought to get the books for Naked Lunch & Blade Runner & read them. For some reason, as I lay there visualizing the guy w/a typewriter for a head from Naked Lunch, the phrase "Do androids dream of electric sheep?" went through my brain. I knew I had heard that phrase somewhere before - I don't come up w/weird things like that completely on my own. So I google'd it & found out that it's the title of the book that Blade Runner was based on. Which I didn't know but my brain had somehow absorbed without the necessary associations to put two & two together.

Trying to talk Rob into trading computers... I don't need a lot of computing power for school & he's been whining about how his computer won't run any of the games. It's seriously getting on my nerves, because the last thing I need to hear him whining about is how he wants a new computer when he hasn't worked in almost 3 months & I was unable to pay about 4 bills that are due before my next pay period. And gas is up to $3.09 a gallon which means I can't short us this next two weeks to pay said bills unless I really want to take the bus to work... which, in this neighborhood, isn't wise to be standing around a bus stop after dark.

People in New Orleans are a little odd... they held their Gay Pride parade today, and people have been making makeshift tombs for the dead folk laying in the streets & on the roadsides. Life goes on.

Fer giving me "Blood & Gold" by ol' Anne Rice. Made me hafta go to The Book Magician (aka The Amber Unicorn) in search of freaking vampire books. Geez,whaddaya trying to do to me?

I'm also reading, for the first time, "Communion" by Whitley Strieber. I've come to the realization that whenever he describes aliens, I think of children. I'm almost done w/the book, I'm thinking to myself, yeah, children do look like aliens. Weird tiny unformed faces stuck in the middle of oversized heads. Inexplicable, irrational & illogical behavior. Sort of unnerving in a scampering, ratlike way. Aliens bug me at a deep & basic level, but at least I'm not forced to deal w/them in public. At least, I don't think I am. Who knows, maybe they do walk among us, only instead of wandering around nekkid & grey, they're dressed in little pink or blue onesies w/pacifiers stuck in their tiny mouths, plotting the downfall of the world from the safety of strollers? Gods, do I hate the mall & the post office anymore.

Rob's dad survived his hernia operation. After all the testing to see if he could make it out alive, a grape-sized balloon grew to the size of an orange. Nice. But, I can understand all the delays considering how Nevada reams these doctors on malpractice insurance. $300 - $400,000 a year. More if they're unfortunate enough to be an ob/gyn.

I've decided the one last thing I need in life is a cable modem. That's it. Just a working cable modem that's compatible w/my cranky Dell computer. That's all. All I need. Hell, for all I know, happiness for me may actually be achieved the first time I get more than a 4800kps connection to the World Wide Web... I may actually have an orgasm or something.