A couple of years ago when my most recent laptop died I got a refurbished Dell because I was a little short on funds and didn't want to shell out for yet another new laptop (I swear, planned obsolescence is a thing). It is a sturdy little thing and does what I need it to do, although the keyboard is rather narrow and unlike my previous laptop doesn't have a number pad, which is a little sad for a person like me who enjoys using alt codes for French accents. Overall, I am happy to let it chug along and do its thing.

It does, however, have two irritating foibles. The first is that the keys on the keyboard very randomly stick. It's never the same key, and it's never for the same amount of time. It usually varies between 24 and 72 hours, but it's been both shorter and longer on some occasions. I don't know why the keys stick--I've tried cleaning the keyboard, examining it for damage, what have you, but there is nothing wrong that I can see. Today it's the space bar, which is super annoying for obvious reasons.

The other foible is--I think?--a software issue of some kind, because it only happens on webpages with "infinite scrolling." I have a touchpad mouse, and for whatever reason, when I am scrolling, the moment I stop it will "snap back" (for lack of a better term) to the spot where I was when I started scrolling. I have Googled and found no answer as to why this happens. I have fiddled with every setting on the trackpad, to no avail.

These are both minor complaints, but nonetheless, they are irksome.

I am going to bed now because it's already pretty late, but I will tune back in tomorrow with some exciting work front developments! :)

My computer bit the dust about three weeks ago. More specifically, the keyboard. I took it to Best Buy, they shipped it to Toronto and told me I'd get it back within a week. This, obviously, was not the case. I'm happy to have it back, and what a difference a new keyboard makes! I hadn't realised just how worn the previous one had become, but typing now is a far sight easier than before, as the keys are much more responsive than I'm used to. So, apart from the fact that it was rather expensive (thank you, Apple) and took three times as long as I was told it would, I have no regrets.

I happened to notice, especially after I'd brought my computer in for repairs, that my social interactions of late have been very one-sided. Apart from a few friends (I can count them on the fingers of one hand and have fingers left over), I am always the one to initiate any kind of interaction. People don't speak to me, I speak to them, and then they answer. People don't invite me to do things together, I invite them, and then they answer.

While my computer was in the shop, I decided not to post at all on social media (I'm not talking about LiveJournal, because I am the first to own that I have neglected this space for years) and see if anyone actually wanted to talk to me without my initiating the conversation. Crickets. Loads of crickets. No one so far has even noticed I was gone for three weeks (not counting the people I speak to live, like coworkers and my parents and one or two friends who aren't on social media much or at all, so they couldn't actually notice my absence for practical reasons).

At first, I got seriously miffed. I mean, full-on pity-party miffed, even though I personally hate it when other people perform arbitrary "tests" of friendships like that. It's a test that people are guaranteed to fail, after all, and the only person who really gets hurt in the process is the one who initiated said test. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, right? It allows you to collapse on your fainting couch with the back of your hand plastered to your forehead and declare mournfully that it's obvious no one loves you. I knew this going in, but what can I say? It's February, I'm stressed and overworked and depressed, and so it seemed like a good idea at the time. Spoiler alert: it wasn't a good idea.

I spent a few days this week nursing my miffedness. Yes, that's a word. Because I said so. Anyway, after nursing my miffedness to the heights of self-pity, I had a different thought today. Why am I thinking of friendship as a two-way street? Why is reciprocity so important to me? I've had friends stick by me in the past when I wasn't reciprocating, after all (you know who you are, and I will be forever grateful to you for that, by the way). Right now, many of my RL friends have young families and stressful jobs and mortgage payments. Others have major life events happening. Others might be going through things I have no inkling about, because they have chosen to keep those things private, which is entirely their right. Others are hibernating, because winter in Canada is a bitch.

I have always viewed myself as a Good Friend™, which is problematic in and of itself. Because, sometimes, I'm not a good friend. I get wrapped up in my job. I go through periods of intense introversion. I get caught up in my own problems. I often don't notice when people stop posting on social media until they come back, and then I'm happy to see them again. "Hey," I realise, "I haven't seen that person in weeks! How nice to see them again!" So it's not like I don't know that my little experiment was the height of hypocrisy.

In short, this morning I both had a realisation and came to a decision. It's probably not a coincidence that this happened as I was on my way to Meeting, which is always cause for reflection and self-examination. I decided that I'm going to work very hard on no longer demanding reciprocity from my friendships. I have no control over other people's emotions or actions, only over my own.

Therefore it is my role, in my friendships, to be as good a friend as I can be, and not to expect friendship in return.

The power adapter for my laptop just died a tragic death. Yay, another unexpected expense. I've ordered a new one but it'll take several days to get to me, and if it hasn't arrived by Thursday I'll have to go to Ottawa without my laptop.

So if you don't hear from me, that's why. I will be checking in on Twitter by phone, but that's probably it.

I forgot to pack the power cable for my laptop. So I'm going to run out of battery very, very quickly. I shall perhaps be able to check in from work tomorrow, but perhaps not. Luckily I'm going back to Montreal Tuesday evening, so I won't be completely cut off for long. It was bound to happen sooner or later, because my brain is mush these days.

I shall return Tuesday, or maybe Wednesday, with scintillating insights into humanity. Or, you know, maybe just a small life update after Christmas. Tom-ayto, tom-ahto.

See you later, LJ!

Schroedinger's Power Supply has made a comeback, after I put it in the corner to think about what it had done.

To celebrate, I give you a Supernatural clip with one of my favourite quotes, ever! It's got a teeny tiny mild spoiler for early Season 5, but nothing that will give away major plot lines or mytharc stuff. Basically it's pretty safe. It's only seventeen seconds long. You know you want to watch. :D



EAT IT, TWILIGHT!

\o/

(Yes, I learned that emoticon from the Supernatural fandom. I'm a lost cause.)

I think I need a new tag for this LJ. *adds it*

Firefox tells me I use that subject line a lot. Dunno what that says about me.

So the happy new external hard drive I got myself as a birthday present is already malfunctioning. COME ON!

It keeps "ejecting" itself, and now 90% of the time it doesn't register when I plug it in. Highly annoying, especially since I have a LOT of stuff on there, including new episodes of Supernatural

Bah, humbug.

I think that I ought to start looking into copying some of this stuff onto CDs or whatever. Trouble is, I have NO idea how to do that. :(


In related but less frustrating news, does anyone out there in LJ land know how I would go about recording an MP3 on my computer? I mean, a recording of my own voice. I'm thinking of a birthday present for my mother, and I'd love to be able to record something for her that I could either give her as a computer file or maybe burn to a disc, or something. I have no idea where to even begin, but I'd like to avoid the complication of a hand-held recorder which I would then have to somehow put onto the computer and... uh. Yeah.

Help?

Schroedinger's power supply has come back from the dead, after spending a night in the corner thinking about what it did. I have no idea if it'll last, but past experiences are allowing me a fair amount of optimism.

Today is the last day of vacation. *sigh* I actually awoke at 05:45 today in a panic, thinking I was late for work. Umm, no. That's tomorrow. My supervisor actually called yesterday to ask me if I wanted to come in for overtime today, but I wasn't home when he called, and when I called back to say "no" I was informed that they'd already found someone else. So, score!

ashforestwalker is coming over today to get started on the painting! I am very excited. He's doing the two front rooms today, which will leave the rest of the place for the week of Canada Day. Woo! I am finally going to have my yellow kitchen, which makes me very, very happy.

I got terribly sidetracked this week, and got very little done of what I had originally planned. So today, once I get home from doing stuff this morning, I am going to go grocery shopping, and then come home and do scads of cooking for the next week or two. The office has decided that I am no longer allowed to have statutory holidays ever again (that's my sarcastic voice), so I'll be working both on June 24th and on July 1st, but luckily I'll be doing day shifts only, so I should still be able to get out to the very important evening activities on both those days.

This has been a really nice little vacation. Not ultra-restful, but restful enough, and I got a lot of good things accomplished.

If I get around to it, I have a couple of extra entries to write for LJ: one about Cobra: The Musical, and one about the little cat who's been coming by, whom I've nicknamed Miss Blue. Also, I know I owe a few people words from the last meme, so don't worry, I haven't forgotten you. :)

So yesterday around mid-morning the internet shat itself and died. Or, at least, my Sympatico connection did. Never fear, said I to myself, I shall simply try rebooting the modem, then if that doesn't work I'll reset it, and try rebooting the computer.

No dice. After several attempts, and after leaving the computer alone and everything shut down and unplugged for a couple of hours and trying again, I had to concede defeat. I called Sympatico, and tests were done. I asked after the power cord that I ordered back on May 31st, and was told by the sheepish customer service rep that the previous guy I spoke to had shipped it to my old address in Verdun, where I haven't lived for five years. *sigh*

Anyway, the power cord is now moot, to say the least. We did tests, checked all my phones (they weren't the culprit), checked the telephone line at a distance (also no problem), and the techs eventually conceded defeat, and promised to send someone over today between 08:00 and 12:00.

The technician arrived promptly at 09:30 this morning. I was quite pleased, although I have never been disappointed with Sympatico's technicians: they have always been punctual, professional, and efficient whenever they have come. This guy was no exception to the rule, although amusingly I had to lock the cats in the bathroom because he was terrified of them. Wouldn't go near them at all. Poor man, he really came to the wrong house.

An hour later, I have a new modem, and I am WIRELESS, baby! The guy doesn't know exactly what went wrong with my signal, but we are back online, and everything is good. So I have no complaints at all.

*does a Happy Wireless Internet Dance*

It looks like I may be able to run L4D on my Mac after all. That being said, I have no idea how to make this work. Maybe one of my local computer-savvy friends could help me with this one day? *bats eyelashes* I will cook for you and give you booze if you do!

See, it turns out that if I load something called Boot Camp on my computer, and then do something involving partitioning and installing Windows, then I'll be able to do it. This will also give me, as far as I can tell, the ability to run Windows software like Word and others without my Mac being a total pain in the ass about it.

Is there anyone local who can help me? Or can you point me toward a computer person whom I can pay to do this for me? Please please please pretty please with a cherry on top?

Okay, the analogy isn't quite right. This morning, the computer recognizes the power supply. I'm still going to go next week and complain about the "intermittent" problem and see if they can figure out what's wrong with it, but for the most part things appear to be okay.

We'll see how long this lasts. I will be around, but if I disappear, you'll know why.

In the meantime, I have a lot of cleanup to do before the cleaning woman gets here. In order for her to clean, the surfaces have to be clear, after all.

Breakfast first.