2012-10-25:

Robert Z Style!

As we near the end of October, I can't help but think, "What great weather we're having today."

And almost as nice tomorrow, perchance?

So saturday was kind of boring, I got XP loaded onto that gaming system the lady gave me. I slipstreamed the drivers onto an XP disk so I wouldn't have to go through all that crap I went though the last time, and it didn't work. Then I slipstreamed the right drivers onto the XP disk so I wouldn't… you get the idea. Who knew the floppy in that drive wasn't the right one? Well, I did, but only afterwords.

Then over to Sean's. Nearing the end of the wrap-up, I think we can see the finish line from here, and it's going well.

Sunday I cleaned up around here. Watched the 3rd episode of Red Dwarf X, and wrote chapter 1 of the new story. If/When we ever start the new Demongate game, I'll be ready. Quite a different tack then previous books- because we're being thrown in with no knowledge of powers, and have to sort of work it out as we go, I thought why not have the "narrator" in the same boat? So basically this alien shows up who's super powerful that sometimes guides worlds towards a brighter destiny. He's watching Earth to see if we're worthy of his attentions when something supernatural going on catches his eye. So the book will basically be watching what the characters are doing and trying to figure out what exactly they are, even as the characters struggle to answer that question for themselves. Any cards played that warp reality (like the "missed me" or "Lucky Break") will be him nudging reality to keep them safe so he can continue to study them. I thought it sounded interesting to do it that way. 

I know, I know, I should work on No One To Blame but I just can't seem to start on that one again. Maybe someone reading my earlier stuff like they were supposed to months ago would light that fire again?

It's possible.

Moved more stuff to dropbox, like my bankbooks and business stuff, as hey, my house could burn down, I guess? So a lot more will be safe "in the cloud". I've got all this space after all.

Then borderlands.

Monday the cats seemed to start making up for lost time, getting on each others nerves. I put Tinker upstairs again a little while to cool them off. Be civil guys, you're going to be living together a long time!

Did the shopping, and got a good bargain. The days before Staples went nuts and sent out like 20-30 emails in a couple of hours. As an apology they sent a $20 off $50 or more coupon. I wasn't sure I could use my ink rewards with it, but I thought, let's replace the on fire UPS with that before it expired, as the ink one was still good for weeks. Well, the cashier took both, so I got a $70 UPS for $33. Sweet.

Work wise, spent 3 hours or so getting the two machines going for the mortgage place. Stupid Toshiba. Their website lists "no drivers" for the model of printer they had. And a bunch of others, actually. But some had bunches of drivers. So figure that out! Finally found them online someplace, and they worked.

Then a couple with, I kid you not, five machines. I don't even have that many active machines, what are you doing?

Added a new function in the database, or started to, at least. It came to me that  with the new left click function I could record how many times someone clicked on each thing, and log it. So if someone wanted to see if there was, for instance, a skill they hadn't used, or one they used a lot so they should improve it, they can look at the log and see exactly how many times they've used each one. Neat huh?

Tuesday I brought home a laptop with a failing HD, ordered them an SSD. Worked on the database. Then over to set up an airport. Those things are so tiny now! Still hate them. 

Replaced a keyboard for a few minutes. 

Wednesday was an odd one. She supposedly copied her pictures to an external drive, made sure they were there, and then erased them from her main hard drive. But only the folders were there on the external, not the pictures. She had stuff all over, so I at least got her machine a little less crooked. 

Called one person but what she wanted from me wasn't what she thought, so…

Then the expensive motherboard came in, so I figured, why not, and went out there to change it. That went well. Enjoy AOL dial up again, oh ancient one. AOL must lose more members to death then any other company on the planet. Well, short of nursing homes, I mean.

Finished the database changes, and the SSD system. Now… what do I do wit it?

Today I started at 11:00 with Boris, who somehow duplicated his Documents folder into his Applications/Utilities folder, about 15 times. And he had certain documents in each of these bizarre folders so I had to go hunting for what he was looking for. Also straightened out his number system, fix the names, etc. How he does this bizarre stuff is beyond me.

Then two more, at 1:30 a "simple" getting a system to function after a move. It was beeping, so I figured it was just the RAM got nocked, so I reseated it and that was fine. But she had a new keyboard/mouse combo, and didn't have the old keyboard or mouse. Of course windows helpfully started the "new hardware wizard" requiring me to HIT BUTTONS with the mouse or keyboard it was trying to add. And this… passed quality testing? Microsoft? Really? 

I ended up totally reloading her OS… to add a keyboard and mouse. 

Wow. Just. Wow. I sold her the monitor I got from the ABC sale and went back to using the CRT monitor I moved into its place before. I like money better then a bigger monitor, I guess? Should have bought the other one too. Oh well.

Then the last, plugging her printer in, cleaning it, plugging in her router which she had somehow unplugged, Juno madness (give it up already). 

Then home!

Have two for tomorrow at least right now. One of my most favorite customers, who actually just recently sent a mail to apparently her address book, asking if anyone knew a good plumber. I decided not to inflict her upon my father, for which I shall expect my karmic reward soon. Anyway, she just wants her gmail backed up into mail, a process clearly documented on the gmail website, but I guess following directions just is too difficult for her. Then a BSOD, which I'm sure will be a barrel of laughs. Seeing Mom. 

Then we hope to finish up the wrap-up at 9:00 when Neil gets home, then Saturday is Shadowrun over at Sean's.  

No word from the roof guy.

Corsair put a tracking number up for the replacement SSD on the 22nd, but UPS still insists it hasn't been shipped.

Leaves starting to fall around here. Probably next week I'll have to do the first chopping.

Less then a week till candy day!

Only 8 weeks until...

oh, you didn't want to hear that?