You know those days when it seems like you can’t do anything right?
And by “days” I mean “weeks.”
At least my laptop’s Windows 2000 reinstall is going well… so far. (Yes, 2000. The machine ain’t beefy enough for XP, and Linux seems to dislike it rather strongly.) Other than that, though, the suck just keeps on coming.
Since I’m not prone to writing actual reviews, I’m renaming the “Reviews” category to simply “Media.” That way I can talk about movies, games, music and what-not and have somewhere to put such specific (yet still pointless) ramblings.
What? This is the sort of thing I lose sleep over, folks.
Anyway. I just thought I’d mention that Peter Schilling’s “Major Tom” is one of my all-time favorite songs. I like David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” too, of course, but that song isn’t on my portable music player. There’s just something perfectly 80’s-pop-music about “Major Tom” (aka “Major Tom’s Return”) that suits me right down to the ground.
As it were.
I guess the good news is that it’s Monday night so I guess it’s not so bad.
Friday night: Was date night, though Lil’ and I were basically dead tired the entire time. Still, we had some good food and the usual excellent company. We amused ourselves by window shopping at Best Buy (well, kind of… ahem) and taking bets on whether the generally-unattended small child would set off the alarm by trying to go through the emergency exit at Outback.
Saturday: Was a bit of a blur, punctuated by housework, followed by Alexander’s one-act play night. We stayed for the first half of the series of plays (which included his, naturally), and left at Intermission because there was a tired youngster and a couple of not-so-perky oldsters to take care of. Alex was very good, even though he had only a few lines. Unfortunately he got stuck in the play that made me cringe the most out of the three we watched (which is saying something, considering the one that came after). While I generally agree with the sentiments expressed, a political diatribe is the fastest way I know to bring an evening’s entertainment to an abrupt cessation. I’m sure I wasn’t the only audience member cringing. Luckily the play’s end was amusing enough to make up for that somewhat, though I’m still not sure what to make of the fact that my son had a rather good-looking young lady draped against himself as the lights fell. (If I tell you about the dialog, I suspect my son will implode from embarrassment. I certainly wasn’t expecting it!)
Sunday: Was more housework, shopping, a trip to go work on an old friend’s computer equipment, at the end of which I ended up with a used laptop. (Dell Inspiron 8000, 1GHz CPU, 256 MB of RAM, 20 gig HDD, now wiped clean and freshly installed with Kubuntu Edgy. In case you’re wondering. Oh, and it weighs a freaking ton. But, hey: Free.) Followed by retrieving Kyla from the train station and a night of gaming.
Today: Was work, punctuated by blustery wet weather, followed by some City of Villains and…
Sleep. Shortly. G’nite, everybody.
This afternoon was one of the few chances I’ve had to work from home when I’m not also feeling sick. I spent the morning at a client’s site giving them training in our managed services software platform, and my boss gave me the option of spending the balance of my workday at home instead of in transit to and from the office. Sweet!
Well, kind of. My home computer is orders of magnitude less “cool” than my office computer, and it lacks a few pieces of key software that I would normally have access to at my normal workdesk. Some of the software is available via Citrix, but that’s a) slow as molasses and b) prone to failure. Add in the slower processor and the single, smaller display and it’s a recipe for a less than fun workday.
Still, I did accomplish a few things here and there so it wasn’t a total waste of time. And, hey, I wasn’t wearing shoes the entire time. Bonus!
If I’m doing to do much more of this telecommuting business, I need some upgrades. I wonder if I can talk my boss into helping out…
Dear Lady In A Hurry, In Hillsboro:
Please allow me to clear up a misunderstanding between us. You may be under the impression that just because I was wearing a long black coat that I’m some sort of juvenile delinquent. You may also have interpreted the fact that I backed out of your way as I was crossing the street as some sort of defiant gesture. I can’t imagine how, mind you, but I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. However, I’m fairly certain that it was thoroughly unnecessary to stop in the middle of the crosswalk, roll down your window and tell me in a nasty tone of voice that, “It would help if you wouldn’t wear black.”
Why, yes, I know I was wearing black. Have you any idea how few good-looking non-black trenchcoats there are out there, let alone coats as warm and comfortable as mine? I also know it was a dark intersection. This is why, when I saw you swerve onto the main street from the side street at considerable speed and then turn on your blinker, I backed away from your most probable path. I like to think of this as using good survival instincts, since I’m not very visible under those conditions. You might even consider it an act of courtesy that I didn’t insist on crossing the rest of the street as I actually had the right-of-way to do. I’m a nice guy that way. And, I like not being run over in the dark by stupid people driving at high speeds.
In conclusion, please save your vitriol for someone who actually earned it. Thank you.
Yours, etc,
The Little Grey Duck In The Warm Black Trenchcoat
Now’s as good a time as any for a silly meme, seeing as how I haven’t done one in a little while, and also seeing as how I seem to be all out of posting inspiration. Call it the post-BloPoMo slump. Call it Eloise for all I care, really. Anyway, here goes:
Post the first sentence from the first entry of each month this year.
JAN: “I set myself a modest goal, three hundred sixty five days or so ago, of posting entries on at least 95% of the days of the calendar year and getting the overall site posting rate up into the upper 60 percent range (at the time it was at about 63%).” (Remember when I accomplished my personal goals? Ah, those were the days.)
FEB: “I didn’t set out to spend a week avoiding my writing duties.” (Thus begins one of the most-commented-upon posts of my entire journal, in which I detail my experience with an IM spammer.)
MAR: “I went to several minutes’ work to create this little monstrosity for a comment on a LiveJournal entry, so by golly I’m going to inflict it on I mean, share it with my adoring fans.” (I filked, sort of. This is back before I lost my job and, thus, any desire to create much of anything.)
APR: “Twice in the last twelve hours I’ve called the (polite, efficient, helpful) Dedicated Hosting support techs at Infinity Internet (our new hosts!) to reboot this webserver.” (It took moving to yet another server, several months later, to make the worst of our website problems go away.)
MAY: “To Whom It May Concern: Perhaps your company or similar organization requires someone of considerable skill with computer technology.” (The “please hire me!” posting. I was sliding rapidly toward complete despair at this point.)
JUN: “Because Lil’ did it, and because I haven’t posted in a while, and because well, meh.” (It was a meme post. Go figure.)
JUL: “No more “unenjoyment” for this little grey duck!” (This may be the happiest post in my entire year.)
AUG: “If you catch the killer, red-handed even, and it’s a hot day in late July, and you gun him down (you’ll figure out how to make it look like self defense later) does that make it a summer-y execution?” (As George Carlin once quipped, “These are the thoughts that kept me out of the really good schools.” Yes, I think of stuff like this all the time. You’d see more of it here if I could remember any of it long enough to get to a computer…)
SEP: “Via collision detection, I bring you the results of my recent fiddling about with the Official Seal Generator.” (It’s a fun toy, what can I say?)
OCT: “I flaked, oh yes indeed, on the real-life update thing.” (Understatement of the decade.)
NOV: “Wait, what? It’s November already?” (One exclamation, one sentence. So what?)
DEC: “So, after a solid 30 days’ posting, I decided to take a few days off.” (The first sentence in the previous post, no less. Heh.)
And because I adore you people, I’ll crank out another posting later on today. Who rocks the Casbah, baby? (Speaking of which: Do people actually have problems with that line from The Clash’s most famous song? Because, you know, I keep hearing an idiotic commercial on the radio, and, huh? If you think they’re singing about a catbox, you need professional help.)
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | ||||||
