ABC's new show / Personal rant

So, ABC is starting a new show called "The Great American Dream Vote", where the country (those who watch and vote) can make someone very happy. This is going to sound all kinds of wrong, but I'm frustrated. I'm frustrated that my ex guilted me into paying his taxes. I'm frustrated that I never could manage to get ahead on any of my bills. I'm frustrated that when I was asked for money I couldn't give it to my friends fast enough, but when I was expecting something (tax return, bonus, etc.) it was always *just* too late, and *just* not enough. I'm frustrated that the bills I paid when I did have the money were apparently the wrong ones. I'm frustrated that no matter what I do - it isn't enough. I'm mostly frustrated with myself for making the wrong decisions at the wrong time. I've tried selling things on ebay - it's not enough, I've tried selling my books at the local used bookstore - not enough, I work extra hours - not enough. I don't know what to do at this point. Suggestions are welcome.

Added more tech stuff

On the sidebar I've added some long-neglected links to some of my tech resources. Of course the TWiT network is something I don't go a single day without listening to - at least the Daily GizWiz - and the man who needs no plugs (but gets lots of them ;)) John C. Dvorak's blog. And 43folders. More to come as I get more time to update.

Police, school get failing grade in sad case of Julie Amaro

"Imagine you know next to nothing about computers. You're a substitute teacher for a seventh grade class. There's a computer in the classroom and, knowing you're going to be sitting there for a while, you ask a fulltime teacher if you can use it. He logs you in with his password and tells you not to shut it off because you couldn't get back on."



This hugely pisses me off. For many many many reasons.1. If a school cannot afford the license fees to keep their virus-scanning software updated with the latest definitions, sell some damn candy bars or get some freeware. It's not the *substitute teacher's* fault if a storm of pop-ups floods the screen. 2. Anyone who calls themselves an expert who thinks that every webpage or pop-up *must* be the result of actively clicking on a link needs to get their money back from the Cracker-Jack company, because you paid too much for that certification.3. The witch-hunt mentality that oozes from this case just goes to show that unless people are educated about what internet security really entails, that ridiculous shit like this is going to continue to happen.I'm glad that she's got a new lawyer, and I hope she is cleared soon.



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Sometimes it's the little things...

My co-worker came over to my cubicle Friday morning, and in her sweetest little-girl voice says "How's my favorite person?" I had heard her talking to her husband on the phone a few minutes earlier and I put a few things together, so I asked her, or rather, made the statement: "Your computer's broke, isn't it?"



The answer, of course, was yes. So I agreed to come over and look at their computer. I like fussing with computers, and since I'm not in the field anymore, it's more of a fun if not frustrating-at-times hobby. The basic problem was that the computer would start to boot Windows (XP Home) and just enter into a reboot/crash cycle. That didn't sound terribly good, but I wanted to save their data, and so I brought a spindle of DVDs (note for the future...if you *have* a second drive *use* it for your data!)



Despite being held up by traffic (I'll save *that* rant for another post), I got there, and on the advice of another friend, her husband and I went to our local CompUSA to go get a drive enclosure, and a can of air (the can of air is very important).



We get back - and order pizza, the good kind, lots of toppings, olives, sausage, cheese. Strong Kona coffee - good IT food. My co-worker goes out with another co-worker (our pizza got there before their cab - not good since they live only a few minutes away from the depot!), and I got down to business of backing up 40GB of stuff.



Fast forward about 5 hours, through some good chat, good company, pizza, some cigarettes, coffee, etc, all in all a really good night - just a long and late one. In between backing stuff up, I cleaned out the tower, a small puppy's worth of fur got blown out of it. Did I mention they had a dog? A real sweetie, lots of fur...



About 2:30A.M. we finish. I put the computer back together and fire it up, ready to do a full restore from the hidden partition.



Can you guess what happened? Yep. It fired right up.


We laughed, we had to, what else could you do? Now the power supply didn't sound that hot, and the box is more than 3 years old, they may end up needing a new one. But still, had I just cleaned the thing first it may have been a shorter night. Still, I can't complain, it was a good evening.

Take three...

So, back in October I decided to make a significant change in my life. Let me start by saying I never change jobs on a whim, I've been consistently employed since I was 17 and I tend to develop a high-loyalty quotient - sometimes to my own detriment. I couldn't stay in the job I had so I changed jobs and it was to a field that I didn't have a whole lot of experience in.

A solid month of training and another 4 at this job and I'm doing pretty well. But I haven't had a lot of time for much else. Add to that a host of other stuff - both good and bad going on, and the blog - weeeelll, as you can see, not much has been done with it, but I want to change that.

Bear with me folks - I hope to make a comeback :)

C