Drunken Owls and Other Delights

PC updatery

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 00:15:36 GMT

WOO! Newest PC is up and running now! I've been spending the afternoon reinstalling various apps and whatnot, and I am VERY happy to say that all of the externals are readable! I may have lost some of my older browser bookmarks, but then again they're probably in need of a very thorough cleaning anyway, so I'm not too worried. The fan on the PC is running a bit loudly, but I believe that's due to the Plex server rescanning all the libraries, considering the drive letters have been reassigned.

It looks like they basically said 'yeah, let's just replace the motherboard and any problematic USB hubs' instead of fiddling with what was in there. And hey, it's at no cost to me, so I'm not bothered by that! :)

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coming up close

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 16:53:43 GMT

Yay! My PC should be here today or tomorrow! Very happy about this, especially since I have tomorrow off which means I can take the time to set it back up again! I am hoping that whatever happened won't happen again because MAN that was a pain in the butt. Although I will say that pulling out the old PC for a couple of weeks did put a few things into perspective for me, and that'll give me a better idea of how to proceed in the new year.

And it's only two more weeks, isn't it? This is very much like last year, where instead of stressing out about Q4 volume I just let it happen and not let it affect me. The Day Job has had its busy moments but nowhere near as stressful.

Oh, which reminds me: I ran into one of my Former Day Job coworkers this past week! I haven't seen her in like two and a half years, having pretty much ragequit that position, but considering she still lives in the neighborhood it was inevitable that we'd cross paths sooner or later. We caught up a little bit, and suffice it to say FDJ is back to work from home status (no big surprise) as they've finally sold off the Concord office (no big surprise there either) and the central office base for my old team is back in downtown SF. [See, now if they'd moved there originally as was part of the plan, it wouldn't have been such a problem. They were just so cack-handed about it all back in 2019 that it had become another reason for my wanting to leave.] Regardless, I'm still much happier where I am now, so I don't miss it at all.

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Spare Oom, writing and health

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 22:59:07 GMT

I have just heard from Lenovo's repair shop and they have (hopefully) fixed my PC and have sent it on its merry way back to me, with an expected arrival of 12/21. Yay, Christmas is saved! Year-end mixtape creation is saved! Plex server is saved! Huzzah!

For the record, I would not be surprised if it was a Microsoft update that got all wonky and crashed it. I'm not sure if they switched out the motherboard or managed to get it running again, but I'm thankful that the turnaround was quick and it wasn't anything too major. [If this crash happens in the future I will make one last attempt at opening it up in safe mode if it will let me. While I might not have the biggest PC knowledge out there, I at least know enough not to do anything stupid like deleting an extremely important bit of software.]

As for writing, I think I'm going to do another soft restart of Queen Ophelia's War. I say 'soft restart' because it won't be a complete revision but just starting over and replacing everything that I still have issues with with my original ideas that I think in retrospect work a lot better. I'm going to focus more on it in the new year. Also in 2024 I think I'll finally get started on my new project Sheila Take a Bow. I wrote an outtake this morning on 750Words just to see how it would work, and work it did! More on that one in the future...

And as for health, Something had me congested over the last couple of days and I think it's probably something at or near work. My store is right at the edge of a golf course, which means there's a good chance I get a pollen allergy every time they cut the grass or do any tree trimming up there. It goes away temporarily when I head into the break room (which is enclosed with no direct outside connection) and when I get home. It's just when I'm working the front end. A Sudafed last night seems to have helped a bit, and I'm hoping it won't return.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

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WELP.

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 04:10:10 GMT

Quite annoyed right now as my PC blue-screened itself at some point between yesterday and today, and I have no idea how it happened. This is my new PC, by the way, the one I bought this past July and have had zero problems with. Originally the issue was that it suddenly stopped reading my externals, and after trying to fix that with no result, I turned the PC off overnight in hopes that it would clear things up. Apparently that was a bad decision, as it won't boot up at all now!! :(

Which means I haven't been able to write the last two days, and that to be honest is what's annoying me the most. The good news is that I've tested all the externals on my laptop and they're just fine, so no problems there. The bad news is that the USB hub no longer works (I've just ordered a new one) so I can't really access much of anything write now.

In the meantime I've pulled the old PC out of hibernation -- it still works fine, thankfully -- and hoping that Lenovo can fix the new one for me. I'm still under warranty so if I end up getting a replacement or have to send this one in, so be it. I'll just be working lo-fi and not having my Plex server available until further notice.

Here's to hoping...

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