2013-09-26:

First up was the modem. Naturally it didn't work. The first time I installed a 3rd party cable modem the guy took the info and said "it'll be working within the hour."

The second time I stayed on the phone while the guy did his thing and he got it working right away.

The time I couldn't see the lights because the person I was working for didn't have any cordless phones in the house. Huh. So after a very short "yup it's all set" I went back into the room to find the lights blinking weirdly. Called time warner back and they tried various things, but nothing came of it. So we put his old modem back on. Great, that was an hour wasted, and I don't even know if this modem actually works. I offered to try the other one, but the RR person said it probably wasn't that? I guess?

Came back home, started the re-re-reload of the desktop, and the reload of the laptop with the SSD.

Then out at 1:00, most of her issues were nonexistent. But I updated everything and made sure she wasn't infected.

Back to check on the systems, (It was on the way) neither one has hung up, so… yeah.

Then to a tuneup. Added some RAM, oiled the power supply fan, done.

Saw my parents, and came back home. Still running.

Then did the IV game, missing one person for quite a while, because his dorm had a fire drill. (Like an hour)

But we got the whole key, and headed down to the locked off area, where hey, there were still people living. How about that?

Systems still running just fine, it's so bizarre.

Sat:

Went and put in the keyboard I had gotten yesterday. Normally you just pop a cover off and take out a couple of screws. Not so with this one! Had to take a bunch of screws out to take out the whole bottom (which is fine, it gave access to everything so I wouldn't mind more companies doing things that way *apple*) and then got the top part off with a bunch more screws. Then even more disassemble the top part! Sheesh.

Finished up the desktop sans SSD, as I had called the guy and he said the 1TB drive was fine. I gave him a good deal on it. Also agreed to give it back tomorrow at 10:00, just because I've had it so long.

Waited around until 4:00 when I left for Sean's and the DgH game finally!

No one had made their characters, of course, so I got to be "bored with friends" which was cute because I thought I had friends. We had our first adventure, which went pretty well, with Sean taking away the first thing I did almost immediately, which was totally expected. Also we met "scumbag" DeVille, who said "I won't immediately throw you into combat" and then immediately threw us into combat. At least he was there, failing his rolls despite being like a million years old.

Sun: Brought back the PC at 10:00 and finally got rid of it. Of course I had to install an HP printer, which took a good long while, and he admitted to using AOL Desktop, which I didn't think anyone under the age of 80 did. Actually, I haven't run into anyone lately that uses it. Huh. So I had to download that, which normally wouldn't be an issue but his DSL was so slow it took about 20 minutes to get it. So I left a little after 11:00. He was kind enough to give me a bonus, which I was thankful for.

My Buddy is back in the hospital, Strong this time rather then Highland. What a character, eh? He wants his stuffed animal and his bible and two books. And an apartment is still "end of October" uh huh.

Going to be a busy Monday, four places to go. The hotel, drop off the backup drive, then my 3ed and 4th are a wonderful 40 minutes away from each other. I love it when that happens.

No happy medium, this job, you know that?

Mon:
So we start a fresh week off mostly okay. Bunch of shopping but didn't need many groceries.

I had forgotten I told the hotel guy I would see him at 1:00 when I told the lady I was dropping the HD off for I would see her at 1:30. Whoops. So I went over there early, at 12:00 and went looking for him. I wandered into the office of the lady that usually calls me, and there he was! Was that great timing or what?

He was having trouble with his left machine, and wondered why he needed a left and a right machine in the first place. (He took over for a guy) I told him the pervious guy had a reason that he explained to me, but I didn't exactly remember what it was.

So I moved the stuff from his left machine to the right machine and left the left machine in pieces. That left me time to get to the 1:30 early. Hooked up the second drive, shoot I was going to take her original one and sell it. Forgot all about it. Oh well. Anyway, got that done and it started backing up.

Then over to see a lady who either screwed up her email, or frontier stole her address, or something. Still not too clear on what happened. I offered her what advice I could, sold her 1gb of RAM and that was that.

Drove the 40 minutes to the last one. His one machine he said he was having trouble with just that day, it was hanging on boot. Like, 3 seconds in.

Tore it apart, replaced what I could, still hanging. Thought maybe it was the motherboard. Found one on ebay. Ordered it.
Realized, oh, I didn't check the USB ports, because PCs are dumb like that.
I unplugged everything, and yes, that was it. Some kind of USB port nonsense. I had a 4 port USB card but it seems to also be neurotic. So I have to go back because he said now his original backup drive isn't showing up, when I didn't have any problems getting that one to work. At least it's booting I guess.

His laptop was totally crapped up. Malwarebytes found over 700 things, and that's a record we haven't seen in quite a while.

Drove a half hour back home, at around 7:30, and made a couple of calls. Booked a few across the week, but only one for tomorrow.

Got the replacements for the 2nd desktop with a bad HD, and loaded that up. Got windows loaded, the programs installed, and the updates done. Just need to see what I can get off the old drive. At least it's not hanging up like some other desktop system I could name.

And that's Monday. Was it good for you?

Tues: What's this, a decent day? Where things went right? That's unpossible!

Went in the morning to do a cleanout. Remember when I mentioned 900+ entries found my malwarebytes as being a bit excessive? What about 1049? That's what it found on the machine today. Sheesh. Anyway, got them all cleaned out (and saved them buying kasperski again, as it had expired just days previous) and then came back here.

Finished up the transfer of the clicking hard drive to the shiny new SSD/HD combo and got that back to her.

Even got a check from the carpet guy.

Plus the hospital is doing the right thing and kicking out My Buddy Thursday, as the other hospital should have done. It seems his insurance will no longer cover his so called hospital stays, imagine that. Some faith in the system has been restored! He wants his jackets though, so I washed them and I'll take them to him tomorrow. Enjoy your life back on the streets!

Wed: A busy day, starting with a new setup. Had trouble getting the router to work, I think the ethernet port on my laptop has gone bad! Have to look into that some more.

Brought My Buddy his coats, why did the nurse in his room call him "Mikey" I wonder.

Grabbed a quick lunch because I was running behind, and went to see someone about "email trouble." Of course the trouble was he couldn't log in, and when I went to reset his password it used a phone number he no longer had. So I set him up a gmail account and filled out the form, we'll see if he gets any response from microsoft.

Then out for a "missing driver message" which was of course your friend and mine, the "upper filters" and "Lower Filters" registry stuff messing up the CD drives. HA amazing. Also cleaned out a machine for charity, which was 1.8 ghz and ran like it was about 500mhz. I pity the poor, poor soul that buys that thinking they got a deal, at any price.

Then delivered the laptop and got the money for the SSD. I just now have a spare SSD.

Oh well. Read more of the "Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic" which has run for years, so I didn't even finish.

Turs:
Not very busy today, in contrast. First thing was feeding the cats for my parents, that took about an hour. Then over to the ice cream place to run chkdsk a couple of times. That worked, and the hardware test (the quick test anyway) said his hard drive was fine. I left it backing up to his second drive, just in case. So that didn't take long.

Finished up Y.A.F.G.C or at least got caught up to the present, as it's still going. Also you may have noticed a change- I finally updated my blogging software. I was getting soooo many trackbacks in the reviews blog, that I don't even have linked to the main page! So I don't know how it was happening. Anyway, figured out how to upgrade and *boom* there it is. Been poking around, should be all set, and the search even works! I don't know how to turn the archive on, but that's a minor point. I just hope it keeps those stupid trackback things at bay. I see it has a better way of showing recent ones, and I haven't seen any new ones since the old directory was taken away. So that's a good sign.

Game tomorrow, probably switching away from our current "dual character" and into a more DS9 setting. Whatever.

Talked for an hour to the guy I did the laptop for yesterday. He can't get his email. And shockingly enough he does know his password. The webmail works, so we know his password is in the system, but try and get mail with Windows Live Mail and it just asks and asks. I also installed thunderbird just as a sanity check, and nothing, did the same thing. Is the database entry for the POP authentication different from the webmail one? Doesn't make sense. I left him with just getting it from the website, and he'll have to check in a few days to see if the problem fixes itself.

Sigh.

So tomorrow is one job, then feeding cats, then in the afternoon I have another. I'm not actually sure what the first one is, I guess I forgot to ask, but the second it just slow. More RAM for the win?

I have been neglecting my writing duties. Perhaps I shall finish up chapter 98 tonight?

That's about it for September everyone, hope you all had a good one.