Sunday, November 30, 2008, 10:48 AM - Dumb Happenings
Indigo Incarnates
If you're ever wondering how long it takes to do a complete reformat/reinstall of Vista after an unrecoverable system failure, I can now tell you. The answer is FOURTEEN HOURS. That's right, boys and girls: it took fourteen hours of automated machination between the time I put the Recovery disc in the drive and the time that I was able to select an adminiatrator password. Wow. On Windows 2000 or Windows XP, I could reasonably do a reformat/reinstall in 90 minutes or so. The Vista recovery process literally ran all night and finally finished up when I was drinking my first cup of coffee the next morning.
It's bad enough that the operating system crashed my Blackberry this weekend, but with the Windows OS failing later that same day, I no longer have my contacts and email backed up for that device. that means i'm going to have to manually repopulate the replacement phone by hand when it arrives next week. What a friggin' drag.
Fourteen hours for a system recovery. I just find that unacceptable.
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( 3 / 1882 )Monday, September 1, 2008, 03:37 PM - Dumb Happenings
Indigo Incarnates
So... the scooter idea is out. My backup plan is to get a Honda Rebel 250 motorcycle next year. I already have $500 saved, since I didn't buy the scooter. I have an Add-On CD at my bank that automatically shuffles $75 per paycheck into a CD. So I think this is going to be the plan. A motorcycle would be more effective than a scooter anyway, since it is highway capable and still gets 75 MPG.
I'm still pissed off at Doug's sister's loser-drunk boyfriend, since I wasted all that money on renting a cargo van to get a scooter that he broke and didn't bother telling anyone.
Speaking of backup... I was unable to back up my RealAudio music library. The company switched from RAX to MP3 format and then announced they are shutting down their RAX registration servers. This gave me a whopping 30 days to convert 535 tracks from RAX to MP3. But it turns out that I can't even do that. RealPlayer functions so POORLY under the dreaded Vista that it basically crashes 2-out-of-3 times when burning a disc (which ruins the disc, of course). On the latest crash, it has somehow come to believe that I am no longer the registered owner of my music, despite that the RAX registration server says that I am. :::fuming:::
This has NOT been a good weekend!
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( 2.9 / 1933 )Sunday, August 31, 2008, 11:38 AM - Dumb Happenings
Indigo Incarnates
So... Doug's mom offered to sell me her 50cc scooter for $600 since she doesn't use it -- ever -- and it only has 303 miles on the odometer. So I rented a cargo van to drive up to Erie to pick it up. But... it would have been REALLY NICE if she would have told me that the damned thing doesn't work. What she had told me was that it works perfectly and only needs a new rear reflector. Well, I could handle a rear reflector. But then I get up here and Doug's mom said, "Oh, by the way, Heather's unemployed, redneck, boozer boyfriend drove it around recently and said he had a hard time getting it started. Hard time, it turns out, means the scooter is dead and can't be started by any means. It's broken. I spent a lot of money to rent a cargo van for the weekend so I could pick this scooter up. I also had to burn two days of vacation. This situation just plain sucks. I would have greatly preferred honesty. If she would have said "I have a dead scooter in my garage and I don't know what's wrong with it", I could have said "I'm sorry to hear that" and left it at that" Doug said, "Oh, just transport it to the repair shop in Pasadena". The trouble is I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S WRONG WITH IT. So I have no idea what the repair cost would be -- even if it can be repaired
This weekend is a total bust.</p>
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Edit:
Apparently it seems that Heather's redneck alcoholic boyfirend told Doug's mom that the scooter still worked but now confessed that it has been broken for several weeks. Nice. So the blame is apparently that of a 38-year-old drunk that can't even hold onto a job that involves pushing a broom.
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( 3 / 1689 )Thursday, July 10, 2008, 03:38 PM - Dumb Happenings
Indigo Incarnates
Well... the past few days have been uneventful, so I actually have time to vent about a certain person that I shall simply refer to as "the lazy coworker". Lemme tell ya: She is a person of morbid curiosity to me since I have never seen a lazier person somehow continuously hang onto a job year after year.
At my workplace, it's a standard workday to process 5-6 cases each day. Basically, the process involves compiling a complete criminal history for the defendant, doing a 6-page standard interrogation, escorting the defendant to the lab for drug testing, and writing the initial case notes for the file. Yeah, it's a long, drawn-out process and that's why 5-6 cases per day is the norm. I also write warrant petitions for non-compliant defendants.
Well, the lazy coworker completely drags her heels all day long. So on a day that I do six cases, she typically does four. On a day that I do five cases, she ends up doing three. On those 7-8 case days, she never does more than five no matter how busy it is at work. I had a ten case day once and she still did only five. She chit-chats with the defendants for long periods of time. Then she chit-chats with co-workers. Then she calls her sister on the phone and talks and talks and talks. Around noon, she starts getting calls from bill collectors and she argues at top volume with the various people with whom she has a past-due balance (she bought a house and I'm guessing she bit off more then she could chew).
She always complains about money, but she does the bare minimum to keep her job. But if you end up each review period in "Needs Improvement" status, you don't get a raise. You have to get at lease a score of "Meets Standards". She, I'm sorry to say, rarely does.
Then there is the problem of her calling our sick all the time for the most trivial of reasons. Her sick leave use always seems to coincide with a very heavy case docket. After working for the State for 10 years, she has only 28 hours of sick leave! I have 288 hours after 2.5 years.
To add insult to injury, she actually BRAGS about being lazy! She has told me repeatedly about her various methods of drawing out the time on case processing so that other people will end up carrying part of her duty load. Yeah. But I'm one of the "other people". Geeez! She's actually proud of having figured out how little is the bare minimum to stay employed. She won't do less than the bare minimum, but she certainly won't do one whit more.
Just to put into perspective, she was just starting her second case today at the exact moment that I was *finishng* my third case. But she and the defendant were just yucking it up in her cubicle. ::sigh::
It just gives me a headache sometimes! That's my venting for today. Egads!!!
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( 3 / 1587 )Sunday, June 29, 2008, 11:52 AM - Dumb Happenings
Indigo Incarnates
Jeff and I always get season passes for Six Flags each year, but I think this is the last year for doing so. the amusement park seems to have been in a three-year-long decline and yesterday's misadventure was the last straw.
I like roller coasters a lot (as does Willow) so we were really looking forward to going on some cool rides. Alas, it was not to be. Jeff and I arrived there only to find that seven of the major roller coasters were not in operation (maintenance problems, anyone?) The park was packed solid, too, which means that there were very long lines for what few rides were working. Part of the water park was closed as well, which, again, meant extremely long lines for the attractions that remained functional. The administration also raised prices on EVERYTHING. It now cost $15 just to park (er... kinda defeats the purpose of a season pass, doesn't it!) A soda was $4, a snowball was $4.50, and a scoop of Dots ice cream was $5. ::sigh:: So, we certainly didn't eat of drink anything there, despite the fact that it was 95 degrees that day.
Well, we finally got to go on ONE ride. Guess what happened? That ride decided to break down while we were riding it! So we were trapped in the restraints for half an hour. Lemme tell ya something about changeling physiology: we DON'T like being involuntarily confined -- not at all. The discomfort quickly grew from "annoyance" to something close to "panic" over that half-hour period. It didn't even have to be half an hour, if it was not for the fact that the ride attendant had to call for maintenance THREE TIMES before anyone responded.
So... did anyone from management apologize? Nope. Did we get any coupons or any other token for our inconvenience? Nope. Apparently having a bunch of broken rides has become "business as usual" at Six Flags. We left after that. It was a real waste of a day. It cost us time, money, and gasoline and we got ZERO amusement from an amusement park that is apparently falling apart.
Next year, we're doing Hersey Park!
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( 3.1 / 1643 )Tuesday, April 22, 2008, 05:13 PM - Dumb Happenings
Indigo Incarnates
This week hasn't bee good for our cars. On Sunday, I must have run over a branch or a rock or something during the torrential rain on Sonday. The aerodynamic shield on car is now in tatters and is dragging along the ground. I can't afford to fix it. I also plan on trading my car in for something else next year. Urrrg.
Doug got sideswiped by some goofball who wasn't paying attention. Doug isn't hurt (that's the most important thing). But the car is scraped down the entire side and the mirror's ripped off. URRRRRGGG!!!
It's been overcast/rainy for three days. I need some sunlight.
Halo wants to cut but I am resisting that urge.
My useless coworker called out sick AGAIN which mean I had to process extra cases.
I worry that my Christian friends won't like me anymore because I'm practicing Wicca in addition to Christianity.
Not a good day today. :(
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( 3 / 1645 )Thursday, March 27, 2008, 06:40 AM - Dumb Happenings
It just never ceases to amaze me how fundamentalist Christians are so frequently cruel and closed-minded. Over the years, most of my fundamentalist friends have abandoned me (usually over the homosexuality and/or dissociative issues). At present, I have only two fundamentalist friends. My other friends are all liberals or pagans.
Well... the thing that really pisses me off is that my friend Jeff was mean to Thistle last night. Geez! How can anyone be mean to THISTLE of all people?! Of all the entities out there in human or spirit form, I cannot think of anyone with a kinder or more loving soul than Thistle. And yet, Jeff verbally attacked him and was really mean to him.
Thistle has feelings that can be hurt. And his feelings were hurt.
Fundamentalists really are some of the least-loving people I've ever met.
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( 3 / 1720 )Saturday, March 1, 2008, 08:51 AM - Dumb Happenings
So... one of the reasons why I don't have much respect for fundamentalist Christians is that they basically talk a strong talk, but they're painfully deficient when it comes to backing up their ethos with actual deeds.
As you all probably can guess, there are times when I am more well and times when I am less well. This is a period when I am simply less well. But I'm doing something about it.
I have a fundamentalist friend who told me last night that he doesn't want to talk to me anymore until I'm in the "more well" status again. It didn't hurt as badly as I thought it would, since he has done this to me before in the past. I expected him to be weak when I needed him to be strong, and so his action last night did not surprise me. It's basically typical fundamentalism in action.I guess I'll give him a call after I've been in therapy for 3-4 months so he knows it's "safe" for him to be my friend again, ha ha ha. After all, isn't mental illness contageous? ::sigh::
Actually, I'm not nearly as unwell as the dark period of 1996. It was then that I learned the hard way just how shallow fundamentalism is. I got told I was possessed, that God was "judging" me for being gay, that God was "testing" me to see if my faith was genuine, that I just wasn't praying enough or reading scripture enough. Whatever. The long and short of it was that every fundamentalist frind I knew back then had a ready and Bible-tested excuse for slamming the door in my face during a really bad period when I needed companionship, love, and compassion while i was in the beginning stages of therapy.They refused and they shut me out of their lives.
And one wonders why I'm not a fundamentalist, ha ha.
I will forgive my friend for his unkind words last night. Besiees, to really be hurt by someone, you have to be vulnerable to that person, and this is a friend that I never really lowered my sheilds against. See, I wasn't really depending on him, since I knew this would happen. I just wish his christian walk was as good as he seems to believe it is. Personally, I just don't see it.
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( 3.1 / 1392 )Friday, February 22, 2008, 10:15 PM - Dumb Happenings
Ever since the power realignment a few weeks ago (when Halo went back to sleep and Thistle increased in power), I've been doing a lot better thinking positive thoughts and dealing with anger better, and not lashing out at people who say hurtful things to me.
Two things really helped me these past few weeks:
-- Jesus' words: "Love God and Love Each Other"
-- Wiccan Reede: "And that it harm none, do as ye will"
Between the two, one gets a pretty complete operating philosophy.
So... I had an experience with someone who turned out NOT be what [he/she] appeared to be. This person was friendly to me in the past but basically reveiled [himself/herself] as some sort of hate-based conservative operative who insulted both my partner and I. But instead of lashing out at this person with words of hate and anger, I calmly asked this person to leave us alone. I think I did pretty well. I didn't curse, scream, or threaten.
Well, for the ultraconservatives out there, I'll say this once: I was created by God, and so I am not a thing of evil. I was created by God, and so God loves me. I was made to be exactly what I am, because God loves me just as I am. I am not a demon, I am a changeling. Thistle is not a demon, he is my companion-spirit. Halo is not a demon, he is a wounded soul who is in a great deal of pain. Ashen is not a demon, he is my watcher-protector. Willow is not a demon, he is a small, innocent child. Indigo is gay, Ashen is straight, but that doesn't make Indigo more sinful or Ashen less so. We are as we were created.
I will not have rage at being judged harshly by someone who knows nearly nothing about me. I will trust that God does know me and does love me. I, too, will pray that God will bless this person who angered me with the gift of compassion and greater love. Love is more powerful than hate; serenity is more lasting than anger.
Anyone who has a problem with that can take it up with God.
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( 3 / 1607 )Thursday, February 14, 2008, 04:11 PM - Dumb Happenings
Well... I suppose this is going to be the final update on a person who had once been my friend but is no longer. To set the story up, let me say that Dana had written a really bad novel that he self-published on his website. It's so awful that it is truely unreadable. Unfortunately, he kept demanding that I read it. I really tried. I got to page 60 about five times, but the characters are so shallow, the plot so implausable, and the dialogue so stilted that it just plain can't be read. So there was a day six months ago when he sent me an email that essentially stated that he was only going to speak to friends who read his book and all others would be relegated to text/email. I had been a damned good friend to him for 15 years, and that decision hurt. It hurt quite a bit!
So last month, I wrote to him and asked him if the incommunicato was going to end anytime soon. Well, he wrote back yesterday and decided to list every fault he thinks I have (some faults are real, some exist only in his mind.)
I decided to tell him that I really don't need anyone in my life who uses as his sole benchmark whether or not I like his novel. There is a difference between a fan and a friend. I wasn't the former, but I was certainly the latter.
He used to have an allied spirit named Amberle that was bound to him -- she was a kind spirit. She was to him was Thistle is to me. But I wonder if she abandoned him, since his behavior changed so *drastically* six months ago. Literally, he became a different person over the course of a few days. He had certainly never been cruel before. So be it. I just can't have someone like that in my life.
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