Yesterday really, really sucked

Jan 17, 2007 06:59

Tuesday, 8:47 AM
Well, this is just fantastic. In the sense of not really. I'm writing this from school, but I'll have to post it when I get home, because, after nearly an hour of running around from the reference desk to the computer lab, to the media center where the techs hang out...

...my network card is too !@#$ing old to connect to their wireless network.Fuck. I disconnected Anna and all her accoutrements, packed her and the minimum of stuff I need for my Psych class, into her case, and hauled 10 lbs of laptop, plus said accoutrements and school shit, into the library, all around the huge reference room, down the looong hall to the computer lab, across the hall to the media center, where I sat playing with things and swearing at them for a while till the techs got in... talked to a guy who seemed to know what the problem might be, and it was one I knew how to fix, so I did that, and... he took another look and told me the bloody network card is too bloody old.

My shoulder is already killing me, and I'm going to have to haul all of this crap half a mile to the freaking bus stop, lug it onto the bus, and lug it the several blocks home.

At which point I may have time to get it plugged back in and check my email, before I have to get ready for my dentist appointment.

Because, you know, this day didn't suck enough, already.

Oh yes, and I'm sitting at the far back table in the library, with the sun in my eyes- slowly rising, so it's getting a bit easier to see what I'm doing- because the library only has plugs scattered along the walls. Why, you ask, do I need a plug, since I have a laptop? Because Gateway sucks.

No, really, I mean it. That's why. Every computer I've ever bought from them has had battery issues. The first one, the battery never charged, and they had to send me a new one as it was still under warranty. Unfortunately, by the time I figured out the new laptop, Anna II, wasn't so much better off, her warranty had expired.

I guess she's only half as bad off, technically. The battery is supposed to have "at least" a 4-hour charge. It has maybe 2 hours, probably less, and they go pretty fast. It was down to 60% or so while I was working on it while waiting for the techs to show up, and I was praying the charge would last long enough for them to help me.

*facepalms*

I honestly don't know why this surprises me. Things like this never seem to go my way, particularly when we're talking about school related stuff that involves me going out of my way to do stuff, such as carrying 10 lbs of laptop all over hell's half-acre. I don't even want to think about how much fun it's not going to be to carry this thing to the bus and home again. In a word, ugh.

Other than that- oh, and having to go for my annual checkup/torture session/cleaning at the dentist, hah- it's been a pretty good day so far. Yes, this makes me feel a lot better, too.

Seriously, though, why does this stuff never occur to me? It's not like Anna's state of the art anymore- she's from 2002, at least according to Windows. Newer than Mom's laptop, Morden, or Kosh, our ancient desktop, but that's not saying a lot. And Anna's perfectly good for what I use her for, though I think her keyboard is starting to fall apart- among other things, the space bar has issues, and that stupid SysReq key I broke a few months back is kind of hanging on by a thread... but she's a good computer- and I think I'm kind of used to thinking of her as state of the art, whether she really is or not, because she's lightyears ahead of anything else we've got in the house.

But the upshot is, she's too old, so I'm sitting here, running AdAware, typing this, and listening to the work crews doing whatever the hell they're doing outside on the quad between the library and Admissions & Records this time- though it could be the guys working on the Admissions & Records building, too. They were supposed to be done last fall, but maybe they've finally figured out that they'll be a year behind if they don't finish by the time this semester is over.

I'm really starting to think the college hands out contracts like these to the lowest IQ-score bidders.

I didn't do much more than toss some spam out of my inbox this morning, because I figured that I'd have all of this time to kill at school, and I could surf LJ and other things at my leisure. Hah! So much for that plan.

Oh well. At least this answers the question of whether I ought to trouble myself with bringing Anna to school again. (And the answer would be, not unless I have a deep burning desire to do some typing that can't wait until I get home.)

I need to do some writing for AL, among other things, but I'd kind of planned on having the prompts accessable to me. Which, for obvious reasons, I don't, because they are online and I am not. I've probably already made this more than clear, but this annoys me.

I seem to be sitting right in a draft, too. Either that, or they have the AC on. Hell, as screwed up as this place can get, nothing would surprise me anymore. Even that. At least it'll be warmer upstairs, at 11:00 when my class starts. If I can make it that far and not die of boredom, which seems rather possible right now.

I guess I could always- ooh, isn't this exciting? - copy out my Psych notes so they're a little less chickenscratch, a little more legible.

If there's a plus side to this, I'm finally learning how to use my TouchPad. Or TrackPad, or whatever the hell you call it. It's really touchy, and I don't like it much. I use a mouse at home- I brought the mouse, and if I were online I'd probably use it, but I'm too lazy to dig it out at this point. It's not like I'm really doing anything of major concequence here. Just hanging out, watching the AdAware scan crawl its way through the temporary internet files- I ought to clean those out again, I suppose- and occasionally glancing over at the guy who sat down a little bit ago at the opposite end of the table. He kind of looks like David Tennant as the 10th Doctor- or maybe it's just the clothes, which are sort of preppy, and the hair which is kind of brown. Or at least I think so. Sun's still kind of in my eyes. But, you know, it's something to talk about, at least.

9:45 AM
I've killed almost another hour playing around with this. Still annoyed. Still bored.

9:54 AM
David Tennant lookalike dude is gone. Sigh. My shoulder hurts, half from hauling the damn laptop around, and half from hunching over the damn computer so I can see what I'm doing to type this oh-so-important document. I have no Advil, ibs, or any other kind of painkiller on me. If I wanted non-asprin, I could hike way the hell over to the nurse's office, currently residing in Bungalow # something or other, also known as the village of portable classrooms way the hell and gone almost to the edge of campus.

In short, no thanks.

For some reason which I really cannot fathom, the security alarm at the entrance to the library has gone off every time I've walked through it. The last time I came back in here, the kid at the front desk looked at me, asked if i had a laptop, and when I said yes, waved me on through.

I wonder if they'll want to search the bag when I leave. They're welcome to, nothing in there but Anna, her mouse, two notebooks, a paperback (Babylon 5: The Shadow Within) my Psych syllabus, my iPod, wallet, keys, and a couple of pens. Oh, and a makeup bag with pads in it.

Anyway, they've got signs posted everywhere saying they reserve the right to search bags and/or persons- there werent' as many of these signs last semester, so they must've had some problems with book theift. People are idiots. But, you know, whatever. As long as they don't make me late for class or hurt my baby, I don't really care.

I've never had my bag searched before, so it would be a novel experience. Though I guess it'd happen if I ever took a plane anywhere. I haven't flown since way before 9/11- we're talking mid-1990's, here. One of these years I'd like to travel. You know, if we ever win the Lotto or something. We play, but we never win.

The Apprentice has a contest where you can enter to win 10,000, and I entered that last week. Didn't win, though,but I'm not surprised. I entered online, and we all know how fast Anna's dialup connection isn't.

10:02 AM
Things to do, if I a.) ever get Anna home; b.) survive the dentist; c.) ever remember that this list exists.


Defrag hard drive. Do This First.
Run Norton. (This really really REALLY needs to be done. The full virus scan, not the pittance 'clean out the cache' thing I've been doing a couple times a week.)
Back up web, writing, & picture files. (Also really REALLY needs to be done. I'm not sure I've backed anything up since mid-summer.)
Call Dr.'s office re: prescription refill. Whee.
Add dates of tests, meetings, appts, ect to calendar.
Pick up house b.c relatives are coming from Mass. Ahhhhh!
Scrub teeth really really well, floss like crazy before dentist
Eat lunch, THEN do the above
Eat lunch, period.
Pick book for Psych paper- remember, book title needs to be in by the 25th
Fix Amaranth icons
Finish fixing Ethan icons
Finish fixing Lil icons
Balance checkbook
Pay bills
Do art meme (Star, Isoline, something for Alex too)
Buy missing B5 script volumes
find Ravenclaw t-shirt, scarf, etc
buy the above
check eBay - Snoopy ornaments
check eBay - something else I can't remember right now
Redesign Urbandruid B5 site, b.c it really, really needs it.
Finish redesign of Alias pages (deep cover- backstory on J/I/Abakan/etc AU)
Finish redesign of HP Ravenclaw pages
Update fic count for Dreaming Road
Clean out crappy old icons
Redo icon pages with stuff that does not suck quite so much
Poke Rox again re: new SWG board/site hosted at Urbandruid- think hotmail is eating my email
see if I fixed DVD capture aspect ratio
clean out old screencaps
clean out other people's icons folders- getting WAY out of hand. Again.
update Amazon wishlist
do some shopping
research external hard drives
resarch new computers- starting to look like Mom's not the only one who needs one.
Look into new purse after you have cane.
Sunglasses. 'Nuff said. How many years has it been,and you're still going, "I really should..."
Call Saber re DSL, or make Mom do it. Soon. Very soon.
search out new OotP pics
clean out old pic files- let's face it, some of them really suck.
give some thought to Getty issue; talk to Isoline about this

computer, to-do lists o'doom, internet, my craptastic life, ow.., school

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