Drunken Owls and Other Delights

So last week for the hell of it I looked on the Seagate site just to see if there were any external drive sales going on, considering the one with my music library was swiftly approaching critical mass, even despite my attempts to thin it out. As luck would have it, they were indeed having a sale and I purchased a Ridiculously Large External (14TB, almost double the other big external I have, and for a surprisingly cheap price at that). It's taken a few days and a few snags, but said music library has now been moved with lots of breathing room surrounding it. Right now I'm updating the Plex server so it's pointing towards the correct location so it can be shared again!

Meanwhile, we're finally gathering all the artwork we want to put on our pristine white walls! We've been using a prints-from-museum theme for a while now, so we've been buying a few from the local museums (and a few from the MFA in Boston) and elsewhere. Alas, I've run out of the specific size of hooks I need, so I'll need to swing by a local hardware store to pick up more, but eventually we'll be all arted up!

Well then. For those of you keeping score, I've managed to confuse at least three or four Gateway Support people enough to get it escalated to a higher level team, enough that they suggest I'll have to send it in to be fixed.

I've had PC issues before (like I said, I must be a wizard from the Dresden universe, as I have a knack for causing electronics to do weird things), and in the past I uusally had my techie big sis figure out the problem, but I think this is the first time where a PC had this big of a problem. Not sure what, and though I admit to some futzing with the system to get it to work, I never did it to a damaging degree.

So--tonight, after cleaning up a few last things on the PC, I'll be boxing it up and driving over the local UPS store to send it out to be fixed. It'll be gone for about two to three weeks. In the interim, I'll be using a laptop for writing and online stuff. And maybe actually using a non-PC cd player to listen to some of these CDs that are gathering dust on my desk.


That said...

Perhaps it's time to do a little experiment.

Maybe it's time I unplugged from the internet for awhile. Not cold turkey of course, as I can still access it with a laptop, but basically tone it down a bit. I've been trying to be good lately by not being distracted by emails and LJ and whatnot, especially when I should be writing, but this might help me even more. Besides, I keep griping about not having enough time to write, so perhaps this will open up more time for me.

Perhaps I could also look for a cheapo desk radio, one of those little dinky ones, that I could set up in Spare Oom to listen to instead of obsessing playing around with my mp3 collection. Y'know, listen to terrestrial radio, something I haven't done in ages. [Note: I should probably add that the only goofing around with my collection should be for researching discographies for my Walk in Silence project.]

And even more importantly, write out in the living room on the laptop so I'm not leaving emmalyon out there by her lonesome. ;)

So yeah...maybe a bit of tech unplugging might be in order, get myself removed from all the gadgetry that distracts me too much, and be spartan with that as well as with the programs I put on my PC from here on in. So if you don't see me posting on LJ/Facebook/etc. as much as I have lately, that's the reason.


More on this as it evolves...

This past week of no writing/music/etc due to PC woes (among other things) was actually a nice change, especially since I'm between projects at the moment. It was a nice slow-down, which gave me time to get my act together both work-wise and with life in general.

The past week in general was rather frustrating at first...starting with the PC issues, it went downhill quick with work frustration (including a major client issue that thankfully was taken care of by the end of the day). Which led to that post a few days ago about Carpe Diem. That was the point where I just got so frustrated that it was verging on getting pissed off. And that's usually the point where I go from stressed out to determined, and kick all kinds of ass to get stuff done, including my own.

Suffice it to say, by Thursday, everything was back to normal. Work slowed to a crawl in a good way, my PC is up and running well after a hard drive wipe/restore, and I've even been sleeping well the past few days! So yeah...what started as a craptastic week ended up quite nice. :)

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Today? We rode the F train down to the Ferry Building to stop at the farmer's market, and bought all sorts of goodies, including some chard and other greenery, a few things of strawberries, a handful of very shiny-looking cherries, and of course some cheese from the cheese vendor in the back that we always buy from. Not too much, but enough to keep us for a few days!

Also--shopping at Trader Joe's down the street, in which they stole my 80's mp3 collection for the day, playing the following while we were in the store:
--The Call, "Let the Day Begin"
--Thomas Dolby, "Europa and the Pirate Twins"
--Duran Duran, "Is There Something I Should Know?"
--Split Enz, "History Never Repeats"
--The Cure, "Let's Go to Bed"
Still, bought more foodstuffs there for lunch and later, as well as some local store-owned wine on sale ($3.99! Can't beat that with a stick! :p). Spent a good chunk of money here, but we always end up with a lot of stuff for our money, so it evens out.

Lastly, went up to the local library to donate two shopping bags worth of books (leftovers from the Great Book Purge that no one wanted--we still have about 2 boxes left, mostly hardcovers)...then down to the local B&N where I bought the latest Catherine Jinks book (The Reformed Vampire Support Group) as well as a new copy of Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, which I've had a hankering to read again. And of course, the second coffee of the day was purchased at the Starbucks there.

Now? Hanging out, watching Mythbusters, and not much else. Going to be a GORGEOUS weekend, and we will most likely make the best of it by doing at least something outside at some point.

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Back to the PC for the moment--was able to redownload and update MS Office 2007 to prove that I have priorities--I could have downloaded MediaMonkey first and hope to reupload/redownload a few other things, but I'm choosing to be a bit more spartan this time...I didn't have many programs on there to begin with, but before I did the drive wipe, I realized there were some programs on there I never used and therefore didn't really need on there. This time I'm going to make sure I download only stuff I need, added to the fact that I need to keep an eye out on what's running in the background (that is, what's running silently whether it's on or not), because that's part of what slows my PC down half the time.

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More soon...also, will most likely post something both at jonchaisson (something to do with writing, natch) and edencycle (yes, as promised, Chapter 2 will be up soon!).

Hope everyone's having a good weekend! :)

Bought a few cds at the B&N at the mall, and thought we'd spend some time listening to them. Alas, it seemed that was not to be:

1: PC is playing cds as if the cd is scratched, or as if the disk drive is in dire need of cleaning. Or as if the PC is just not acting right. I'm thinking it's the second one--that it just needs cleaning.

2: Cheapo cd radio thing that's been on our bookshelf for years reads the cd, but refuses to play it. The thing is old and I've had problems playing cds on it before, so maybe it's time we sprung for another one.

3: Big CD/radio thing in the bedroom is not reading cds, when it has in the past. I think that one just needs some cleaning as well, as we rarely play cds on it.



I tell you, this is further proof that I am made of magnets. Pretty much any radio or PC I use doesn't just stop working; it stops working in a strange way, usually while I'm trying to use it for entertainment purposes, which frustrates me to no end. *sratches head*

Yay! Up and running! The restore went well...at the moment I'm still configuring things such as McAfee and IE. I hope to install the printer next.

Which reminds me--ran the Big Fix thing that comes with XP, and noted that they had a message talking about a virus going around that's affecting print spoolers. Hmmmm....

More soon!


ETA: PRINTER SUCCESS! :D Now y'all will stop hearing me whine about it! :p