Author: Karel Kerezman

  • Double Mocha Qwerty

    I thought I’d left these calls behind me for good when I was dumped from my old job…

    “Hi, my keyboard doesn’t work.”

    “Really.”

    “Yeah, see, I spilled my coffee on it.”

    “Yep, that’s why it doesn’t work.”

    “How can I fix it?”

    “You can’t. You got coffee in your keyboard.”

    “But I dried it out!”

    “It died the moment the coffee hit it, I’m afraid.”

    “Really?”

    “Really.”

    “Are you sure?”

    “Really sure.”

    “But I liked that keyboard…”

    What’s worse, she’d snagged some other keyboard (I shudder to guess from where) and plugged it in without powering down the PC first, and the “new” keyboard isn’t USB, so… she damned near fried the computer’s keyboard connector, never mind the whole motherboard of the PC. So far so good, though: Rebooting got the “new” keyboard working, though not before the client could regale me with five more minutes’ worth of “I’m not a computer person” and “I wish you could make my old keyboard work.”

    Sigh. Oh well, you take the bad with the good, right?

  • Shelf Spacing

    While Kylanath and I were out and about yesterday we picked up a set of shelves for her (“What do you get the girl who loves books?”) and a set of shelves for me. Thankfully Ikea now offers $20 65-pound-capable handcarts for those of us who take the MAX to and fro.

    Tonight I assembled my set of shelves…

    …and filled them full within five minutes of assembly. The new one’s on the left. Sadly, the ducks on the right are just for show: I have another box of books to unpack. Eventually I won’t have any books remaining in boxes, they’ll all be shelved! I figure that’ll be about five minutes before I found out I’m moving again, but hey, whatever.

  • The Fifth Sense

    Usually, I can’t smell much of anything.

    I’m not entirely certain why, but it’s a fact I’ve grown to live with. Of course, if something is particularly powerful, it gets through. Too bad that of the strongest odors are actually unpleasant, eh?

    Today is different for some reason. I woke up being able to smell all kinds of things; that ability has remained with me all day long. Now, had this been a weekend I’d have enjoyed this more. Going to work was already unappealing, never mind that my nose and I would be stuck in an office all day long.

    Yes, folks, this is what counts for nose news in my world lately…

  • 2264

    $2264.

    That’s the difference in my gross income between 2008 and 2009.

    Negative difference.

    At least I have a job, yes, I know. But.

  • Stick a fork in me.

    I was going to be posting more often, I really was. And then work came along and got insanely busy.

    It’s kicking my ass, no kidding. I end my workday with barely enough coherence and/or energy to accomplish anything. I’m barely getting comics up in time (compare to my previous standard of being at least one comic ahead at all times). I’m not doing much of anything anymore.

    We need to either get less busy at work or hire someone. At this rate I’m going to achieve total burnout by my birthday. Well beforehand, actually.

  • Clear Your Cache!

    I couldn’t just send out an all-staff email to say, “Hey, I upgraded ConnectWise, you need to clear your cache before signing in, like usual.” Oh, no. Nothing so… mundane.

    No, I sent this email instead:

    With apologies to Howard Ashman

    Clear your cache! Clear your cache!
    Lest your PC you will crash.
    “Try new features,” say the preachers,
    “You’ll be working in a flash.”
    Saving tabs up for grabs,
    We’ve enhancements by the slabs.
    With new trickses and bug fixes,
    Here and there in dribs and drabs.
    So now it’s time for bed;
    This song’s been killed quite dead,
    But clear your cache!
    Clear your cache!
    Clear your cache!

    and that’s about all of “Be Our Guest” that I feel like butchering, late on a Tuesday evening.

    Thank you, and good night.

    Am I a weirdo, or what?