Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Learning To Accept The Unacceptable….

Ok, the election is 3 weeks or so away. And the polls are a dead heat now. In fact it seems that some of them have Cheetos-Face pulling ahead. No, I’m not going to vote for him, but there is a very real possibility that he may end up winning the election. I do not like saying this, but this appears to be the reality. But unlike Cheetos-Face, if that’s the case, then I will accept the results. It may not be what I want, but if that’s the hand that we’re dealt, then so be it….

God Forbid.

Been Underway For A Week And A Half….

So, on the October 1st, The Anti-Christ released the .iso’s for Windows 11, 24H2. Normally I’d wait until my weekend to install it, because if I have the .iso file, then I can do a clean install. But having dealt with Windows 10 issues for all of my previous weekend (not the fault of the OS. Epic Games and Spamazon games were giving me grief), I immediately installed it. It took most the week and a half to reinstall everything, but I think I got the move in right this time. So I suppose I can actually now use the computer instead of setting it up. Though there is something to be said about life being more of the journey rather than the destination…..

Saturday, September 14, 2024

What happened tonight?….

So, this past Wednesday night was my Monday (meaning the start of my work week). My supervisor gave me my assignments, and I got to work (I’m being intentionally vague here. Office politics is something to be avoided). Towards the end of my shift, I was detailed with putting some supplies away, which caused me to stay late (don’t like it, but it happens). I eventually hit my bingo, and told my supervisor I had to leave, and he agreed (bus schedules can’t be flexed). And as I was approaching my bus stop, the bus arrived early. And I missed. And then the next bus was a no-show. I got off work at 7, and didn’t get on the bus home till 10. While walking from one bus stop to another and back and forth, I notices a pain in my foot. I powered through the pain, got home, and took my shoes off. I thought I was just on my feet too much and I needed to just rest them. The next day, I was in pain all day. But I powered through it all. Got home, and went to bed.The next morning, got up, showered and realized why I had foot pain. Blisters. So I took one of my lancets and open them. Went to work, and while the foot did hurt, but it was more bearable.Got home this morning, lanced them again, and went to bed. Get up, put shoes on go to work. And as I was walking to the bus stop tonight, I realized I still had a limp.

Long story short, I called off work tonight. Sorry, coworkers….

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

So it’s been 23 years….

It’s been 23 years since September 11. I remember getting up at my apartment in The Hamptons in Puyallup, flipping my nightstand TV on to catch the news, and seeing the first tower on fire then the second tower get hit, and realizing that this was an act of terrorism. In my shock, I realized that life still happens, and the Mrs. Fields at the Westlake Center still needed to open. So I got on the bus and headed to work. This was pre mobile web (I had it on my phone, but it was text only, and it counted against my cellular minutes, so I didn’t use it). And on the bus on the way up, I heard from another passengers that both towers had collapsed. Got there, started to open the store, and asked if the mall was actually going to open. IIRC, just as we were opening, it was announced that the mall was closing, so I cleaned up, and went home. Stopped at the South Hill Mall (only a 20 minute walk from my apartment), and went in to visit my friends at the hobby shop (closed 5 years later). On my way in, I passed by the Radio Shack, and I finally saw the footage of the towers collapsing. So after talking to Bob and Ray, I went home and spent the rest of the day watching the news. Sometime after I went home, the South Hill Mall closed for the day. The other thing I remembered that day, was that the next WWE broadcast went on as scheduled (it decided that the show must go on). Like was thrown into turmoil for a while, but in the coming days and weeks, normalcy tried to return. Some things will never return to what they were, as one can tell if you’ve travelled via air. There was the passage of the Patriot Act, and an erosion of civil rights in the name of ‘security’. And there was the invasion of Iraq…..

Since then, we’ve gotten out of Iraq. We got out of Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden was unalived. There are memorials and rememberances. But I’ve found the best way to show the terrorists that they didn’t win the day is by conducting business as usual. Yes, in a quiet moment, I will remember the day, and all that we lost (especially the innocence). But in letting the show go on, we won’t lose….

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

So the debate’s over….

Watched the debate (see last post). Both sides scored points, but there was a winner overall. Cheetos-Face should be sitting a lot lower in his chair after Kamala Harris handed him is ass.

For the most part, I like to view myself as socially liberal and fiscally conservative. I don’t necessarily fit into nor do I agree with every part of either party’s platform. I will vote for the most qualified candidate. And I try to keep myself non-partisan (especially at work). But I will express my political views where it counts. In the ballot box….

So I’m watching the debate right now….

So, while I’m waiting for my GOG games to finish downloading, I have CNN on the boob tube. It’s debate time. And it’s quite clear that Cheetos-Face is not fit for the office. The points he’s bringing up have already been debunked….

I’m going to continue watching it, but my mind for all intents and purposes is made up. I’m going to vote for Kamala Harris….

Here we go again….

When we last left our hero, I had decided to give the 24H2 release of Windows 11 a try. There were some compatibility issues with a few of my games, but with the application of some Google-Fu and lessons learned in trying to get MechWarrior 3 to work, I was able to resolve the issues. Next up will be an attempt to clean install it, but that will have to wait until Microsoft releases it. Until then I went back to Windows 10.  It’s days are numbered, but it still works….

Tuesday, September 03, 2024

Here we go again….

So a while back. Like back when I still had my HP towers, I used to run the Windows Insider Program. Mainly to get the Release Candidate Preview of Windows 10. When I wasn’t switching between 10, 8.1, or 7 that is.

So fast forward to when I built my tower, f*cked that one up, built another one, and Windows 11 came out. And for the most part I stuck with the mainstream releases.

Fast forward to today, when I got sufficiently curious enough about the forthcoming 24H2 release of Windows 11 that I joined the Windows Insider.

I used Windows Insider Previews before. Here we go again…

An eventful few weeks….

On a political front, both parties have had their conventions, and the tickets are set. i”m not voting for Cheetos-Face, that I do know….

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago. Got all the well-wishes on my Facebook wall, and I tried to respond to them all. Brother got me a Seattle Mariners coffee mug and a Seattle Seahawks hat. And meatballs for dinner. No cake though, but there were doughnuts…. Earlier that day, I did my Target run with my older sister, and we made a pit stop at Wendy's (a birthday just isn’t a birthday without at least a Son of Baconator)….

Last week, on Sunday night, I got up to go to work. Took my insulin shot. Showered. And while I was getting dressed, mu\y blood sugar bottomed out. I was so incoherent that I couldn’t even put my pants on. I had my supply of candy nearby (procured in the aforementioned Target run), so I was able to recover and get my pants on. But then I looked at the clock, and I realized I’m going to miss the bus. Another call-out from work then…

I make no excuses for not writing here sooner. Sometimes life just gets in the way….

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

So after I wrote the previous entry….

So after I wrote the previous entry, I got an email on my phone (I was making a Wally World run at the time). And it was from a Comcast recruiter. Wanting me video interview for a retail store position. Thing is the last I applied for any job was 7 years ago, and even then Comcast/Xfinity was not on the list of applications I put out. I think they scraped my email from the recent Executive Email Carpet Bomb I sent them. Which indicates Very Bad Form in handling customers’ information. Anyway, my reply to them was if their customer service is such a piss-poor disaster then I would never work for them, let alone apply in the first place…..

Comcast still sucks.

Some Nerd Talk with Thunderbird....

I use Mozilla Thunderbird for my email and calendar (and newsgruops if I ever go back to Usenet). When I first started with it you just needed your user name and password to sign into account (and before they had the isp server database, you also needed the servers' names)....

Noawadays, there's 2 factor authentication, Ave passkeys. Recently, I formatted my hard drive, so I had to download Thunderbird. Since I downloaded the most recent version, it recommended that I rebuild my user profile from scratch. So I did. I no longer needed the two extensions to use Google Calendar and Contacts since Thunderbird now supports them natively. Of course when I set my accounts up with Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo, there was a lot of back and forth to my phone because of 2fa. I get it. Security is paramount.....

Then came my 2 Xfinity email account. Set up the first one, and it sent me the authentication code to the Xfinity app on my phone. No biggie. Then came my next address. Put in my username and password, Ave it kept saying it couldn't connect. Used my Google-Fu and it came with fire my second Xfinity account, I had to use the 'normal password' signin option.

I guess that when I was able to get all equipment replaced and set up without a problem a couple of weeks ago was the exception to the  Comcast/Xfinity experience. I guess it's just piss-poor service by default. 

Tuesday, August 06, 2024

I hate to admit this….

Comcast. Their customer service is usually a piss-poor disaster. It seems like every time I reach out for support, I either have to call an offshore call center, or get a high-pressure sales pitch for a service that I don’t need. And if I say no, I become persona non grata to them. Reach out to them on social media, and they don’t actually read your email. Go in person to the cable store, and they give you the wrong equipment, which means at least two tech visits, and multiple online chats (but I eventually got my cable box to work). And not even the Executive Email Carpet Bomb will work anymore. When I send an email, I expect an email in reply (there are some things that need to be done in writing, based on the principle of if it’s not in writing, it didn’t happen). Instead, I get phone calls. That go straight to voicemail.

So anyway, I’ve needed to replace my cable modem since January 2023 (apparently Comcast now recommends replacing it every three years so your equipment keeps up with your speed). And I needed to replace the cable boxes (every time I rebooted mine, I got an error code about a missing sd card and I was unable to pause and rewind live tv anymore). So this time I went to them on social media (twitter to be precise) and asked if I just bring the equipment in to swap out. And this is where I started to realize that hell can freeze over. They answered my question in the first reply without asking me stupid questions that I had already answered in the first paragraph of my message.

So the following Monday (if you’re keeping score at home, it was last week, not yesterday) we headed out to the Xfinity store, I dropped off my equipment, and got it replaced. Right at the door. I was told to activate the modem first and to use the Xfinity app on my phone. And it didn’t hurt that I got the right equipment the first time. So, in and out in 5 minutes….

Got home, and since all the cable runs already checked out (a result of all the multiple tech visits from the last time I tried this), got the cable modem activated. And then both TV boxes (even the one in my room, which was usually the problematic one). For some reason or another it took multiple chats with customer service and/or service calls to get everything working.

For once, equipment replacement with Comcast was not and exercise in frustration…..

Waltzing with Walz….

I’m going to link to any news story for this. Use your Google-Fu to look it up if you have to….

Biden stepped down. There were concerns about his health and his age. I would’ve still voted for him on the principle of voting for the most qualified candidate. And being convicted of 34 felonies says your not qualified for the Oval Office (or any elected office). And Kamala Harris picked up the torch. And this morning, she chose Tim Walz as her running mate.

Like I’ve said I will vote for the most qualified candidate. And with Tim Walz, Kamala Harris is even more qualified than Cheetos-Face and JD Vance….