2010-02-16:

That's right, I said piddley. Is that even a word? So anyway, I had gone over to the lawyers place at 4:30 but they had all gone home (must be nice) so I had a 10:30 I had to get to, so I got over there at 9:30 because he was just complaining about a noise and I figured I could at least diagnose. Of course I walk in and there's no noise. Why would there be? But the guy said he wanted something done with his home machine, so could I come at 12:30. I could. So my 10:30 is setting up a printer, a job that a six year old could probably accomplish, given the packaging being open and someone else to lift it. I was amused by the tiny little USB cable they provided, which would be perfect if your machine and the printer were situated back to back. Otherwise, not so much. Came home. Checked websites, ate lunch. Left again. Said 12:30 was "solitaire crashes the machine when I open it." Kids, your parents want you to get an education for a reason. That reason is to, like them, become qualified for a job you'll hate even though it may seem like a good idea at the time. Don't listen to them! Run away and become a hobo, because that's the only way you'll be free. Sure, you'll be cold, wet, miserable, and half dead, wait, maybe that's not such a good idea. Humm... have to think this one through some more. I'll get back to you. Anyway, reloaded the video driver because apparently, windows is SO slow, they need 3D acceleration for their solitaire game. Right. Back home again. Did two records, only have three left! And then another whole box and then a couple of book/album/thingies. Went out again. His problem was the proxy settings were "mysteriously" turned on, making IE unable to see the internet. Has no software developer at Microsoft thought that, maybe if the proxy settings don't work, try connecting WITHOUT them, and then tell the user that, hey, your proxy settings seem to be wrong, would you like me to turn it off for you? I suppose not. Another 1/2 of work for me. Yippy. Came back home. Keep in mind, all these appointments I am driving to the exact same way. Literally, down the exact same streets. (to a point I mean) but really, put together and without all this tedious "moving through space" stuff the whole day would have taken me 3 hours. Anyway. Ate dinner. Went out again for my 7:00 call. Hate darkness. Another gripping tale as "oh, my wireless isn't working" so I did the unthinkable and pressed the on button which miraculously activated it and got him online again. Seriously, having an on/off switch for the wireless just seems like a universally bad idea, and everyone but Apple seems intent on creating new and innovative ways to allow people to accidentally shut it off and wonder what the smeg happened! Also installed OpenOffice because MS office was acting up and he had no disks as usual, and taught him how to scan into picasa and hit the email button.