This weekend, my girlfriend and I installed Windows 7 on her laptop. It was a lot easier than I expected. We backed up her important data, got the Windows 7 disk, booted from it, reformatted the hard drive (finally doing away with the 2 separate partitions it had, making it into one), and installed.
So far it's gone flawlessly and I have encountered no problems as of yet. I messed with the control panel and tweaked some performance options, balancing how pretty we want it versus what we don't need; for instance, drop shadows of any kind, I dislike and find to be a waste of resources. On the other hand, smoothing screen fonts is great. We installed Trillian, and Firefox, and some basic stuff.
I'll enjoy seeing how this goes.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Cruel Hearted Man
I am not one that is very fond of insect or other pests. Ants, mice, earwigs, it doesn't matter, I would not like them in my home. I am unfair to these creatures, because once they are in my home, I am begrudgingly willing to kill them.
I am also a pussy sometimes. Today was one of those times. I spied several bugs in my room. A spider, an earwig, and a daddy long legs. The daddy long legs I did not care about, because I don't think they are very good at biting. The earwig I was worried a bit about, so I cruelly, though quickly, ended its being.
It is unfortunate so much as I would not like to be ended in a similar way, but I fear that insects would escape only to find me in the night and strike.
The spider though, it had me very nervous. I had noticed it and then watched it move its abdomen from side to side in a very concerning way, like a cat about to pounce. With spiders, I always worry a little about the possibility of them being able to jump, and so this little bit of body language had me in sheer nervous terror.
Upon looking back, I think it was actually working some webbing about, but at the time I tried to find the best way to deal with it from a comfortably safe distance. I tried several things which did not satisfy me with their length if the spider were to run and jump at me:
A cane
A giant pencil
A long vacuum hose
Throwing sandals at it
Still, I was intimidated. Then I grabbed for my airsoft gun. I got a good distance and fired. Missed, but not by much. I pulled the trigger again. Jammed.
This is something that happens with my airsoft gun. On single fire it will occasionally jam. Luckily the solution is quick and easy. Switch to auto fire, and the problem is solved.
I switch to auto fire and fire a fair amount of pellets at the spider one at a time. I hit it. Some of its mass moves one direction, apparently on web. Some jerks but remains in place, also on web. From here, it looks like the spider is dead, but I worry it's merely planning its counter assault.
As an aside, it was not doing any such thing, as it was, as I was soon to discover, fairly thoroughly dead.
I approach cautiously. The spider does not move. I discover one of its legs had broken away along with some other bit. Still worried I turned the vacuum on and used the long hose to suck up the spider. I left it on probably longer than needed, for caution's sake. After which, I disassembled the hose, checking each piece for the spider. Then I put the vacuum away.
I wouldn't want it to happen to me.
In other recent happenings, I had a dream, part of which was about a softcore pornographic gunfighting anime with supernatural elements.
There was a part where I was in an FPS and an enemy killed himself by smashing a computer which ran the FPS, to which I said he was "Meta-dead".
The last part I was outside a large house which was apparently mine, overlooking a large, beautiful city with my girlfriend. Out of the sky I saw two red flares heading toward the ground in the city. One of them hit on the edge out by the water and caused an explosion. I didn't see the second hit. There were apparently a bunch of other people around and they started panicking and running. Ayla and I were not exceptions to this as I grabbed her thinking we would need to find a better shelter. I made arbitrary navigation decisions as we ran, mostly to avoid running into people, when I spot my friend Tamlin coming toward us. He says something I don't remember to the effect of knowing where to go and we start following him. He leads us to a small hatch that leads to a shelter and the dream ends right before I get into the shelter, but I was pretty confident I was going to make it. I wake up.
I am also a pussy sometimes. Today was one of those times. I spied several bugs in my room. A spider, an earwig, and a daddy long legs. The daddy long legs I did not care about, because I don't think they are very good at biting. The earwig I was worried a bit about, so I cruelly, though quickly, ended its being.
It is unfortunate so much as I would not like to be ended in a similar way, but I fear that insects would escape only to find me in the night and strike.
The spider though, it had me very nervous. I had noticed it and then watched it move its abdomen from side to side in a very concerning way, like a cat about to pounce. With spiders, I always worry a little about the possibility of them being able to jump, and so this little bit of body language had me in sheer nervous terror.
Upon looking back, I think it was actually working some webbing about, but at the time I tried to find the best way to deal with it from a comfortably safe distance. I tried several things which did not satisfy me with their length if the spider were to run and jump at me:
A cane
A giant pencil
A long vacuum hose
Throwing sandals at it
Still, I was intimidated. Then I grabbed for my airsoft gun. I got a good distance and fired. Missed, but not by much. I pulled the trigger again. Jammed.
This is something that happens with my airsoft gun. On single fire it will occasionally jam. Luckily the solution is quick and easy. Switch to auto fire, and the problem is solved.
I switch to auto fire and fire a fair amount of pellets at the spider one at a time. I hit it. Some of its mass moves one direction, apparently on web. Some jerks but remains in place, also on web. From here, it looks like the spider is dead, but I worry it's merely planning its counter assault.
As an aside, it was not doing any such thing, as it was, as I was soon to discover, fairly thoroughly dead.
I approach cautiously. The spider does not move. I discover one of its legs had broken away along with some other bit. Still worried I turned the vacuum on and used the long hose to suck up the spider. I left it on probably longer than needed, for caution's sake. After which, I disassembled the hose, checking each piece for the spider. Then I put the vacuum away.
I wouldn't want it to happen to me.
In other recent happenings, I had a dream, part of which was about a softcore pornographic gunfighting anime with supernatural elements.
There was a part where I was in an FPS and an enemy killed himself by smashing a computer which ran the FPS, to which I said he was "Meta-dead".
The last part I was outside a large house which was apparently mine, overlooking a large, beautiful city with my girlfriend. Out of the sky I saw two red flares heading toward the ground in the city. One of them hit on the edge out by the water and caused an explosion. I didn't see the second hit. There were apparently a bunch of other people around and they started panicking and running. Ayla and I were not exceptions to this as I grabbed her thinking we would need to find a better shelter. I made arbitrary navigation decisions as we ran, mostly to avoid running into people, when I spot my friend Tamlin coming toward us. He says something I don't remember to the effect of knowing where to go and we start following him. He leads us to a small hatch that leads to a shelter and the dream ends right before I get into the shelter, but I was pretty confident I was going to make it. I wake up.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Super Saver Shipping
So, I pick up this book on Amazon as a gift for a friend of mine. Lots of books qualify for "Super Saver Shipping", but the book is $5.21 short of giving me the option.
"No problem", I think to myself, "I'll find something I want in the 5 to 6 dollar range that's also eligible for 'Super Saver Shipping' ". First I look at dice. Almost no dice qualify for "Super Saver Shipping". I then proceed to look to see if there is a USB keyboard, or USB anything else I can get in that price range.
I find a few things in my price range that do qualify, except that they are being sold at multiple prices, and don't actually qualify at the price range I want after all. I come upon a USB printer cord which I consider because a friend is borrowing mine, but decide that that's stupid because I can just get mine back whenever I want.
I try to find a tabletop roleplaying book I want for the shipping. No luck on anything that peaks my interest. I look at a few toys. I eventually find myself looking in the grocery department.
After combing through literally thousands of search results, I finally find an item that qualifies in my price range that isn't a sex lube or something (this happened repeatedly). Some candy bars. No image available. At this point, it's three in the morning. I add it to my order, and I finish the entire ordeal. Having done this, I would like to offer Amazon some suggestions about their search.
1. Let me filter by "Super Saver Shipping" eligibility
This would have saved me so much time. Hours of time in fact.
2. When I filter by a price range (like $5-$6) please don't ignore those parameters.
Most of the groceries are sold at one price and one price only, yet for some reason, despite filtering by $5-$6, random other items would pop up that were completely outside the range at $10, $20, $30, and even $40 dollars.
That needs to be fixed. During my search, the most frustrating scenario was seeing a product that WAS eligible for "Super Saver Shipping" that was both FAR outside my desired price range, and also something I would never want. This was the majority of "Super Saver Shipping" items. I do not know how these items are selected, but I'd like it if the items selected were less terrible.
Maybe in that little box telling me how much more I'd need to spend to get "Super Saver Shipping" you can have a link that says "Suggestions" that I can click to find items that might finish out my order proper.
Amazon. I love your low prices. I clearly don't love searching for "Super Saver Shipping" items to round out an order.
"No problem", I think to myself, "I'll find something I want in the 5 to 6 dollar range that's also eligible for 'Super Saver Shipping' ". First I look at dice. Almost no dice qualify for "Super Saver Shipping". I then proceed to look to see if there is a USB keyboard, or USB anything else I can get in that price range.
I find a few things in my price range that do qualify, except that they are being sold at multiple prices, and don't actually qualify at the price range I want after all. I come upon a USB printer cord which I consider because a friend is borrowing mine, but decide that that's stupid because I can just get mine back whenever I want.
I try to find a tabletop roleplaying book I want for the shipping. No luck on anything that peaks my interest. I look at a few toys. I eventually find myself looking in the grocery department.
After combing through literally thousands of search results, I finally find an item that qualifies in my price range that isn't a sex lube or something (this happened repeatedly). Some candy bars. No image available. At this point, it's three in the morning. I add it to my order, and I finish the entire ordeal. Having done this, I would like to offer Amazon some suggestions about their search.
1. Let me filter by "Super Saver Shipping" eligibility
This would have saved me so much time. Hours of time in fact.
2. When I filter by a price range (like $5-$6) please don't ignore those parameters.
Most of the groceries are sold at one price and one price only, yet for some reason, despite filtering by $5-$6, random other items would pop up that were completely outside the range at $10, $20, $30, and even $40 dollars.
That needs to be fixed. During my search, the most frustrating scenario was seeing a product that WAS eligible for "Super Saver Shipping" that was both FAR outside my desired price range, and also something I would never want. This was the majority of "Super Saver Shipping" items. I do not know how these items are selected, but I'd like it if the items selected were less terrible.
Maybe in that little box telling me how much more I'd need to spend to get "Super Saver Shipping" you can have a link that says "Suggestions" that I can click to find items that might finish out my order proper.
Amazon. I love your low prices. I clearly don't love searching for "Super Saver Shipping" items to round out an order.
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