World Enough and Time

An odd day... bizarrely stressful, most of it, but I'm feeling all right now. I had an emotional breakdown that embarrasses me - I don't usually lose control, and didn't want to, then. But I did. A disappointment that should have been manageable triggered way too much distress. I felt so fragile. Is that a consequence of the surgery?

I went to work for an hour or so. I was tired and upset, but working helped me focus a little.

Then I went to see my doctor, my regular GP, who had been getting regular, somewhat alarming, reports from the hospital over the period of my surgery. She said that from the reports, she expected me to look far more sick than I do now. This was rather reassuring.

To my disappointment, none of the reports she received actually mentioned the number of gallstones I was harbouring, so I still don't know.

I then went home and discovered my new computer was not working. I couldn't turn it on. That distressed me further. I napped.

The I went out for dinner with a bunch of friends at a local pub. That was terrific, and they made me feel much better with their concern and friendliness. They even gave me a nice card. Because I was feeling jittery from a tough day, I had a drink I discovered online, called "Sex With the Captain". You can see why that would appeal to me.

( Sex With The Captain )

When I got home, I consulted Sheila, who advised me on how to fix my computer. So it's fine now. Still... I'm not too happy that it does that at all: I had the same problem a couple of weeks ago. Lil thinks I should return it to the shop.

I meant to do my housework today - that vacuuming thing that crops up every now and again, when the budgie feather are knee-deep and I can't stand it any more. No, really, I like my floor to be pristine to do yoga.

But now said floor is strewn with boxes and bits of styrofoam and plastic because I bought a new computer and spent the evening setting it up - copying stuff from my other computer onto it, installing my favourite programs - VLC, Irfanview, Open Office, Spybot, that kind of thing.

It's bigger and faster and better than my other computer, so it's a joy. But really, I was fed up with all the registry problems in my old computer, which I'm not discarding or anything - I think it will be a joy to have two computers. Or three, if you count my little Acer notebook.

This is the computer, if you're curious. See, maaseru got one, and just using hers, I wanted one. So I got it. Income tax refunds are lovely things.

I haven't had much of a chance to explore the programs that came with it. Microsoft Word with ads - will that be annoying? We shall see. Maybe I'll use it to write my apa, just to test it out. Or maybe not - I've already started writing it in Open Office on my old computer.

What's Windows Live mail?

And how does one get a decent free solitaire game these days?

I'm thinking of buying a new printer. My trusty old HP Laserjet 4+ died last summer - well, actually, something jammed, and I pulled the paper out and killed it. So I replaced it with a reconditioned Laserjet 4, which was even older, but cheap and serviceable.

Or maybe less than serviceable. I've had a lot of problems with it, and it really just isn't up to printing much. It can't handle my apazine, for example.

I don't like Inkjet printers. The ink gets used up almost immediately, or dries out, and costs a fortune. And they seem kind of... tinny. Lightweight.

lunacy_gal told me about her beautiful new Brother Printer that prints on both sides of the paper and is $99.99 at Best Buy. I don't know exactly what model she has but I'd guess it's the Brother Laser Printer HL-2270DW. It looks good to me. deakat recommends it, and says she's heard that people who have it really like it.

I browsed at Staples on my way home, and saw they are selling the HP Laserjet P1102W for only $79.99 till the end of the month. Great deal. It doesn't do anything my current printer doesn't do, except be wireless, which isn't a big consideration - though it might be handy. I don't have a lot of experience with wireless electronics. And the Brother is wireless too.

I asked my trusty computer guru Sheila from Computertamers and she said I should phone our mutual friend Bobbi at Integrated Lasers - from whom I bought the HP Laserjet 4 - and ask her advice. So I did. Bobbi said that the Brother, besides needing toner cartridges, needs a new drum from time to time, which makes it expensive. She suggested an HP model that prints double-sided and costs about $300. I told her to research it more completely and get back to me; my thought is basically that it would be nice, but I really don't have $300 to spend up front on a printer, and don't want to wait to save up for one. And I might have more faith if the printer I bought from her last year wasn't a bit of a dud.

I did some research: a Brother HL-2270DW cartridge prints about 1400 pages, and you're supposed to get a new drum every 12,000 pages or so. A toner cartridge costs about $55. A drum costs about $200. The HP toner cartridge costs about $95.00 and has about the same output. That doesn't look like all that much difference to me; at $40 less per cartridge, I could buy a drum every 5 cartridges for the same money. (You'd tell me if I messed up the arithmetic, right?)

So the Brother's looking good. I could buy it at Best Buy for $99.99, and they deliver, but I hear their servicing is poor. I could buy it at Staples for $119.99, and they have a decent 2-year warranty. I could buy it at Amazon for $105, and they deliver too.

So: do any of you have helpful advice? Which would you buy, and where? Is there a decent printer that I'm overlooking?

A friend who knew I'd be interested sent me a link to pictures of a Steampunk Computer Desk.

Now I want one.

I particularly like the action figures on the console.

Yesterday maaseru lost her net connection, and I spent some time crawling around on the floor under her desk fixing it for her. I succeeded and was most self-congratulatory.

Today after watching Supernatural's season-ender at her place, I came back to my place all full of glee and joy over the show, and ... discovered I'd lost my net connection. Guess what I've spent the last hour doing?

Yup. Crawling around on my own floor under my own desk fixing my own internet connection.

If you are reading this, I succeeded.

Is the universe trying to tell me something?

I have my computer back. Oh joy and bliss. Access again!

Many friends helped me, especially maaseru, who let me use her laptop during the hiatus and drove me to pick up my machine. The power supply had died - they said they managed to recover all my data, and I hope they are right. It seems just fine. It's even reset to my old Captain Jack desktop wallpaper. Those Gamepower boys work miracles.¹

iclysdale helped me set it up, which was much appreciated, too. I can do it. Really, I can. But he did it so much faster and better than I can.

And commodorified proved what a lovely guest she can be. While we were sitting around my living room, eating spaghetti, drinking tea, and watching Due South ("Starman"), we used up all the milk in my fridge and had to use canned condensed milk in our tea. A while after everyone left, there was a tap on my door. It was commodorified, who had bought me a litre of milk and walked back to give it to me, so I could have milk with my breakfast.

I'm so very tired... It's been a long and stressful day. Week. Whatever. But the things that happened to counteract that make me smile.

~ ~ ~

¹ It amuses me no end that most of the guys who work there seem to be named Tim, though they hired a Philip recently. Possibly an oversight? Or a pseudonym?

A busy day, which started out with going for breakfast with maaseru at the Mayflower on Elgin, then we went to Costco and PetSmart. At Costco, I bought myself a cookbook, How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. By coincidence, this afternoon my friend Lil mentioned it as one of her favourite cookbooks - not knowing I'd just bought it. Cool.

Then I had a nice chat on the phone with walkingowl.

Then Lil came for a visit from Montreal, and after lunch at Harvey's we went shopping at, among other places, Ikea. I found and bought a pillow and reversible comforter-cover set that I loved, called ALVINE BÄR. It's in black and white and reminds me of some of the nicer Laura Ashley prints.

Then we went shopping in other stores and I bought Christmas presents for various people, some of whom read this, so on more details of my shopping spree my lips are sealed.

For supper we had pizza at the Colonnade, wonderful as always. Then we went back to my place and talked about photography - and her new camera, and income tax (ugh). Someone had discarded a computer monitor downstairs so I retrieved it and we plugged it into my Linux computer. Now all the Linux needs to be completely independently functional is a connection into my modem for Net access.

How'd the weekend go by so fast?

Lionel came over this evening to try to get Linux working on my old computer. It does, in fact, work fine - except it won't connect to the Net. We tried everything we (well, he) could think of and got nowhere.

Stymied.

I'm just starting, just learning, to use iTunes.

I see it has a list of radio connections, listed by genre. "Showtunes" is my favourite genre, closely followed by "Soundtracks". But those things aren't in the list. I don't see a search function. How do I do an iTunes search for radio stations playing showtunes?