2013-10-10:

My 11:00, who I never actually spoke to, but said something about a "connection" called at 8:30 to cancel. Apparently everything was fine, which I appreciate knowing about before going over there, let me tell you. So I just had the 9:30, installing RAM in an older iMac.

Then in the afternoon I had two, the first was an ancient machine I think I looked at not that long ago. He just had an add-on in firefox, which was showing him ads.

Then over to see the book guy about his troubles. Somehow the printer believed it was printing, but was not, in fact, printing anything. I took the driver out and reloaded it. That did the trick. As I was just there I said he didn't owe me anything, but he gave me some money anyway. Thanks!

Played a bit of Torchlight and then worked on the next chapter in the Harry Potter story.

No game this weekend, Sean/Stan still unavailable for DgH and I guess our IV people are out as well. Didn't want to do that anyway, so there!

Sat: No excitement, which is good for a change. I called two people and walked them through some stuff in the morning. The second one complained of losing something, but it was right there where I left it when I looked at his screen remotely. Seriously.

I worked on writing, then looked at the surround sound equipment I picked up off the road yesterday. The volume is way too low and when there's a loud part of some audio going through it, it goes into "protect" and shuts off. Oh well, it was worth a try.

Went to collect Sean's gift from dad, as he finished the modification I asked for. 

And then more writing. Got chapter 104 done, and I'm up to 430,000 words. Getting there.

Sun:

Started painting Sean's birthday gift. Well, I tried to start painting it, anyway. There were a variety of technical challenges still to be overcome, the first of which the bondo stuff I bought was not what I wanted. I read it was like a two part clay that you put together and it hardened, which I thought would be perfect. Nope. Turns out it was more like an epoxy, and a foul stuff at that. I still found a use for it, as I broke the one again, and decided I had to reenforce it more. So that had to dry.

As far as the other one goes, hopefully I can get a small amount of quick drying clay and use that.

So I got nowhere on that project, really. Though some progress was made, it was progress to get me to where I can make real progress, which I guess is true of any project.

Played torchlight for part of the afternoon. Digging that game, it's pretty fun.

Then thought about what to happen next in the book. Voldemort isn't stupid enough to rely on Draco, so all his stuff has been cut out. (Also, he doesn't need fancy methods to get into the school, he has Susan's way) There's no Quidditch shenanigans, and she's already got the locket. They've seen Voldemort talk to Slughorn, using Susan's magic, no need for any hand wrangling there. But I want her to have a few more adventures before the big attack, which is really going to be a spectacle, I think. I can't have months pass with nothing happening, after all!

My Buddy called at 6:00, and left no message. Then he called at 6:30 and left no message. Then at 6:56, and left no message. Then again at 6:58. You know I don't answer calls until 7:00, dude, why are you even bothering? Finally at 8:00 he called again to request I once again bring his bible and his stinky bear up to him. But he says they're going to put him in a nursing home next week. That was the totally important thing you had to call me 5 times about?

Not many other calls over the weekend. Didn't reach one person, and the other person has a laptop that won't turn on anymore. She's dropping it off, it may just need a battery, but she was unable to find the model number of the battery to tell me. And Acer model numbers are a little weird. So I wanted to see it for myself.

So no work tomorrow. Guess I can get to painting instead.

Sat and figured out Susan's next adventure, (chapter 105) then went back to playing Torchlight.

Mon:

Shopping, in a different car! It's relevant, trust me. See, it wasn't until I pulled into Aldi that I realized I had failed my luck check to be always prepared. "oh right, I have no bags." Because they were in my car, you see. But I did make my LUCk check to have a quarter, because I had bought the air dry clay and gotten a quarter back from there. So I could at least get a cart. And I had the one bag from Jo Ann's, so that worked out. Apparently RC gets about 27 miles to the gallon, as I went 275 miles and filled up with about 10 gallons. I like easy math.

Straightened up around here, tried the receiver one more time just for the heck of it, and now it's working perfectly. Strange. I had it on its side over the weekend, maybe there's a short in it someplace which gravity sorted out for the moment. More testing must be done.

The clay seemed to have worked perfectly. We'll know for sure when it dries and I can sand it. But it looks pretty good at the moment.

The lady from last night dropped her laptop off. There was the model of the battery, plain as day, just as I said. The biggest thing written on it, actually. Not sure why she had all that trouble trying to find it. Problem is, the laptop doesn't even light up when the cord is plugged in. You would think it would do that, dead battery or not. I'm going to wait until I have my car back, and try another power adapter, if I have one that fits. Otherwise I might order a power cable before a battery.

So My Buddy is being moved to a nursing home "on chili ave" he says, but according to google maps it's actually off chili ave, not on chili ave. But whatever. My question for you, gentle readers, is this: HOW? See, my grandmother paid more then my house is worth per year for the two years she stayed at a nursing home. But this joker, who has nothing, is getting to live in one? And the one grandma was in was not for profit, and she had one tiny room. Now, maybe this place he's going isn't as "fancy" or whatever but still. Why should I bother saving money for a nursing home if I can just stay in a hospital for 5 months, (this coming Wednesday) even though I'm not in need of that kind of care, and then be moved in? Was my grandmother paying for freeloaders like Buddy? Because it seems that's the case.

Now I'm not saying he should live on the street, not saying that at all. He could live in an apartment, he did it before. He just has to have a very good cleaning staff, that's all. Plus, how many others are there in that same situation? No wonder those that can pay, do- and through the nose.

Anyway, he called me twice about bringing his stuff to him. Sadly Arcee doesn't exactly have the carrying capacity of nee-san, which means multiple trips or he just has to wait.

Mixed up the purple goop to make a mold of a cat's tail. We'll see how that goes. (it's for a clock)

Tues:

Not much in the morning, in fact I was happy to get some calls in the evening or it would have been a second day without work. But I did have two in the afternoon. So in the morning I worked on the two tails, which have two problems. Weight and the snap. The snap didn't copy right, so I'm not sure they can be attached. Maybe glued?

Went and bought the router for the lady and then went to the first. Just a cleanout, but IE was still crashing when it opened. Track it down to an nvidea dll file, so I reloaded the driver. Astonishing that a browser can crash because of a video driver file. But that's microsoft for you!

Then the second one was actually someplace I had recently been, she was moving. Well, I thought I was going to replace a router, but her wireless equipment came from time warner directly. Furthermore she wasn't going to need it where she was moving to. So I just moved her laptop into that room and plugged it in directly. Which of course she could have done… So now I'm stuck with the router, which is fine, I sell them all the time. I just hoped to sell this one today.

And then to bring Buddy his stuff. Okay, that place is low rent, and he says he's still looking for an apartment. He says he was "put in with the crazies" on that floor, but some people can't take a hint to save their lives.

The elevator had a built in intelligence test. The buttons were covered by a plastic plate, but I noticed they had holes drilled where the button was. I thought, okay, so I have to find something small enough to stick in the hole? Then I realized there was a chain with a bolt attached to it, so I stuck the bolt through the hole and pressed the button. I are intelligent!

Came back home, started the paint job. I kind of wish I knew what the heck I was doing, airbrush wise. I find no information on the website how thin, exactly, to water the paint down, so I just have to sort of hope it works. It usually doesn't. The compressor seems to kick on a lot, so it's like I'm spraying way too much air and not enough paint. But it's getting there, I guess?

Couple of calls today.

Made three appointments for tomorrow.

With the airbrushing not going so well, I did a trial run on the smaller gift I had cut down just to see how it would look because the longer part looked so bad. (Sorry to be so vague, but it is a gift and though I doubt he reads this there is that chance.)

Anyway, the trial worked and the paint was fine, not going to repeat the mistake I made before with the two different paints. So I just brush painted it. Well, I tried to. It busted in half again. I thought it was secure enough I didn't have to worry about it, but I guess not. I added additional supports and used my new friend Bondo to hopefully put an end to it breaking once and for all. We'll see, I guess. Letting that dry now so more painting to hopefully be done tomorrow. On the broad piece that needs about 10 seconds. Then maybe I can finally start the detail work!

Wed:

Two appointments today, so at least I'm not falling further behind. The first was a curious one, the machine was rebooting itself almost immediately after being powered on, but when the drives were removed, it stayed on. I managed to get it going with just the hard drive being plugged in, as he wants to replace the machine in December anyway. What would cause a power supply to suddenly stop delivering enough power? Set up dropbox so her stuff was backed up (at least stuff - music that was too big) and we're crossing our fingers.

The other was another curious one as well, her wireless switch (my favorite PC laptop feature) wasn't turning her card on. A read a bunch of forum posts about the issue, which seemed widespread for that model. Then I hoped flashing the BIOS, updating the drivers and reseating the card would fix it. It did, so she didn't need an external adapter like some had to buy because it was a motherboard issue. Also ran CCleaner and such as I was there.

Came back, did the painting, gluing the one copy seemed to work, it's back in one piece. We are doing game Saturday, so hopefully I'll have it done by then! Almost finished actually. The paint dries fast, must be dry air around here. It looks pretty good! The other one broke again, of course. I must not have put enough stuff in the crack. Oh well, the other one is turning out okay, I just didn't like one part of it as much as on the other one. So they both have an imperfection, so I have to judge what the smaller imperfection is. Sigh.

And no appointments for tomorrow? Huh? Got some calls, but I need a part from my car for one, the other changed her cable modem and one I didn't reach.

What… why is it suddenly so slow again?

Thurs:

Like today, I called the person back I didn't reach yesterday, and that was the only job. Just answering a few questions and set some things up for the guy.

I do have two for tomorrow, however, and they are 25 seconds away from each other, independently. I mean what are the odds two customers will be right down the street from each other like that? Weird.

So today I finished the painting, I'll have pictures next week, and boxed it up. I boxed it up reaalllll good.

No news on the car. If I don't hear anything I'll go down there tomorrow, see if I can't get some stuff out of it or get news on when it will be done.

Game Saturday it looks like, have to buy cake mix to make Sean his birthday cake. More Demongate High, not that it probably matters to anyone but us.

Now to start working on Christmas presents in earnest!

Hope you all had a more productive week then I did. See you next time.