Hello again, it's been a while...

Hello again, it's been a while since I wrote. New job is going well, I hope. Due to scheduling, I had to make the 4 1/2 mile walk that I've last made 6 months ago. And my feet let me know. Blisters. Plantar Fasciitis. It will be a while, but my feet will adapt. I also have a $100 famous footwear gift card that will go torwards addressing the matter.

Dad's in the hospital. Had at least two strokes. He was still in it enough that he drove himself to the Emergency Room. Right now, they're talking about lots of therapy. He was/still is my grandmother's caretaker for the past 20 years, so he's leaving some very big shoes to fill...

Don’t spill coffee on your keyboard!

A couple of weeks, I took a day off from my now successful job search. And I brewed a pot of coffee in the big coffeemaker in the kitchen. And so I brought a big cup of joe into my room and sat down to the computer. During my misadventures on the internet, I had to get up (probably to pee). And in doing so, I turned around my big office chair. And knocked over the cup of coffee. It spilled everywhere. My desk took most of it, and being over 16 years old, it just added to the patina. some of it splilled on to the tower, but by then I had grabbed the paper towels, so damage was limited to a slightly sticky power button. It still works. Right underneath that was my Blu-Ray drive, and there was no damage there.

And then some spilled on the keyboard. Several of the keys were very sticky, and I pried one of them off to clean it, and when I stuck it back on, it just sounded differently when pressed. Needless to say, it was time to replace it. I didn’t need to upgrade it (I use the logitech cordless wave), in fact I didn’t want to. So, I had to bite the bullet, log on to Newegg and order a replacement. Which arrived today. The one good thing about doing an exact replacement in computer hardware is that there no new drivers to deal with…

So, I finally got to celebrate today….

My birthday was Friday. I got all the well wishes posted to my Facebook wall. And there was a text or two. But I also started my new job last week, and I had to work that day, so I kept it low key. Phil offered pizza, but given the schedule, it was agreed to postpone it till today (actually yesterday since I’m writing this at 1:00 in the morning). We got Papa Murphy’s. And it was good. He also gave me a gift card to Famous Footwear, because I’m going to be doing a lot of walking at work, and then there’s the commute. And I can always use a good pair of shoes. I don’t thing my feet will ever get used to the Sketchers. I think I’ll go back to my Columbia’s….

But I also saw the Mariners game today. And I’m still disappointed in it. You can’t have it all…

My first weekend in a long while….

Started new job last week. And I just finished up my first work week there.  So I have the next two days off, and then I head back to work. I said this before that I’m going to like it here. And I still am.

There was this solar eclipse this morning. I got up early to observe it. At peak totality, it was only slightly darker than normal. I didn’t have the special eclipse glasses, so I didn’t directly look at it (vision is so undervalued)… If you don’t have the proper eyewear, eclipses are best watched on CNN…

I can tell this already…..

I can tell this already. I’m going to like my new job. Though circimstances dictate that I not mention my employer on this blog, just know that I’ll be having a blast.

Here’s to the future…

It was a good day today….

The Seahawks put the beat-down on the Chargers. 38-17, IIRC. But this was only week 1 of the pre-season, so that just says our second stringers are better than their second stringers. But this is still a result. It shows that they’re learning the skills in practice. More importantly, in the more likely than you think event that one gets cut, the other teams are seeing this performance, too…

The Mariners on the other hand. After all the effort to get over .500 and get into position for post season play, they get swept at home by the Angels. We need a healthy King Felix. We need a healthy James Paxton. Better yet, we need healthy pitchers, period…

I start my new job on Tuesday, and they want me in bright and early. Not as early as my previous job, but given the fact that I’ve been sleeping in really late the past couple of weeks (since I’ve been treating this as my vacation, too), and I need to get into get up early form.

The return of an old friend…

Tonight, an old friend came back. It was almost two months since this friend had left. And come to think of it, when my friend left, I first enjoyed my friend’s absence. But as the summer wore on, I began to miss my friend….

But tonight, as I was in the kitchen preparing a bite to eat, I looked out the windows. And I saw the rain. Welcome back. You have been missed. Just please don’t make me have to commute through you….

How to reinstall an operating system….

I first learned how to reinstall my OS back when I got my first computer. It had Windows ME on it. The manufacturer installed setup lasted 4 months. What happened was my system stopped being able to burn Audio CDs, and tech support told me to wipe it. So I did. And then while doing it, I blew out my modem and my sound card. And that was the first time I cursed out tech support. They really didn’t appreciate that. But a couple of hundred dollars later (since I had to replace the components), and a couple of days, I was up and running again. Burning audio CD’s were always an issue, but considering how I was running WinME, Norton, and a flaky cd burner… The issue with burning audio CD’s wasn’t really successfully addressed until I upgraded to Windows XP, and I had to buy the then current version of Easy CD Creator from Roxio. But I dgress:

I soon added a second hard drive, and became adept at backing my data up externally. Today, I just use an USB hard drive. Anyway through all the years of experimenting with different configurations (various versions of Windows, Linux, and dual-booting), experience has taught the best, most painless way to rebuild your system:

1. Nuke it, and then reinstall the OS of your choice on a clean partition. All ‘upgrading’ is going to get you are problems. If you’re old OS is going to give you drama, expect it to carry over to your next OS. I learned this from WinME.
2. Once the OS, is installed, then the next thing is to reinstall your network drivers. Because you need an internet connection for activation and updates. Some of my network devices had native OS support, others I had to install the driver. Then, you need to activate your OS, if applicable (Windows 8.1 on my computer is what it came with, and Windows 10 is activating via a digital entitlement to my microsoft account).
3. Next, before you install any other driver, is to hit Windows Update and bring your OS up to date. With Windows 10, this actually happens automatically as part of the initial set up. With Windows 7 and 8.1, I actually have most of the needed updates downloaded on to USB drives, so I just update them from there, and then I’ll go to Windows Update and finish it there.
4. Then I install the video card drivers. One of my problems with 8.1 a couple of months ago was that the video card drivers I was installing needed a patch from Windows Update first.
5. Then I install the rest of my hardware drivers. Currently this includes:
• 2 Printers
• a bluetooth adapter. It’s actually part of my network card, but physically it connect to my computer through a usb riser, so it’s a different driver).
• a TV tuner. I’ve actually had one in my computer since 2001.
• 2 game controllers. 1 is a joystick for my Flight Simulator, the other is conventional gamepad.
• A wireless keyboard/mouse combo.
• And the all essential sound card.
6. And after this come the essential utilites. 7-zip, SciTE, Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon Drive, OneDrive (if applicable), Chrome, my HOSTS file, among others. Yes, I use Firefox as my web browser of choice, and I’ll install it later. But Chrome works for now.
7. Then I fire up my external hard drive, and I copy all my files over. All 735 GB’s of it. These are all my documents, music, Steam back-ups, virtual machines, and some other things.
8. After this, is when I install Office 365.

And from here, my system rebuilds take different paths.  Sometimes it depends on the time of day (there are some items that take so much time, that I just leave the computer on overnight. And there are some items of software that are or are not compatible with version of Windows that I’m running. Generally after I install Office is when I install Nero, Cyberlink, Firefox, and Thunderbird. And that’s when I start using my computer again.

Obviously when I wipe my computer, it takes time to get everything reinstalled and moved in again. Everytime I do it, I’m without my Flight Simulator, and my MechWarrior for as long as it takes to reinstall it.

But now, I also have my laptop, so I still access to a computer. And since my laptop came with Windows 10 on it, there really is no option as to which OS to run, so there’s no incentive to nuke it on a semi-daily basis…

So I finally saw Rogue One….

Finally Netflix’ed Rogue One. And I was impressed. It manages to tell the entire story in one film. And it ties up all the details so you can immediately put Episode 4 into the Blu-Ray.  But it also seems like a Shakespearean tragedy in the sense that everybody seems to get killed off on the film.

Having said that, I will tell you how the film end (scroll down to see):

The credits roll.

The other good thing that happened today

Many good things happened today. I got The Phone Call. I had a good cup of coffee. I woke up. It was sunny. I wore pants.

But there's one more thing that happened today that's of significance. Today was the last day of the heat wave. Yes, tomorrow is forecast to be in the 80s, but compared to the 90s that we've been facing of late. I don't mind the sun. But my room window faces the West, and so I have the full force of the heat of the day. Yes, the living room is air conditioned, but that does nothing for my room...

I got the phone call today.

After over a month, I got the phone call today. I rejoin the workforce next Tuesday….

So, I’m not watching football tonight….

It’s Thursday. It’s preseason football. Especially after the post last night, you’d think I’d be watching the games tonight. Nope. As of the first pitch tonight the Mariners were secure in the second wild card place in the playoffs. They’re playing the Angels tonight. So, I’m watching the Mariners. As for preseason football, I’m not worried. NFL Network is going to rerun all the games this preseason. I’ll watch them later….

Watching some job-searching….

One of the reasons why I like the NFL pre-season is the heart the players show. The starters don’t necessarily play much in the pre-season, since their positions are already secure, and no head coach wants to see them get hurt. But the second and third stringers are competing for work. And so you get see players show heart that you normally wouldn’t see. I also like it because every year, the NFL network will show every pre-season game (mostly on tape delay).

May the best applicant get the job…

Another hot day today….

It’s so hot (again) that I was driven out of my room and into the air-conditioned living room. Thank The Flying Spaghetti Monster for laptops….

My job search has apparently come to an end. I passed the background check, and I should be getting a call soon to begin orientation.  Until then, my vacation has been extended.

Paid another round of bills today. I’m down to my last $100. But the utilities and my credit cards are all still current. And I do have a few dollars coming in from Mrs. Fields. The store owner is doing his best, but there are just not enough hours for me there to survive on. Maybe down the road, I can buy the store, but that is one of those dreams to be watched with caution.

I’m just about finished up with installing Windows 10 on my tower. I just need to finish up with Flight Simulator X and DosBox. And then I can try OpenSuSE. Since the laptop only has Windows 10 on it, I have been forced to use it, and have gotten used to it. And this way, when I blog with Open Live Writer, I can have spell-check….

Preseason starts today. Well, there was this Hall Of Fame Game last week. But tonight, it starts for the rest of the league. Here’s to Tom Brady getting a well-deserved beating this year. Figuratively, not literally. I don’t want to see him get hurt. Just embarrassed. Maybe some defensive lineman could give him an Atomic Wedgie….

So, no Hydroplanes races on TV this year…

Today the Unlimited Hydroplanes are racing up in Seattle. Growing up, I looked forward to watching them run on TV, and listen to them on the Radio (the Miss Rock was the loudest boat out there). But there is no TV coverage this year. No Blue Angels show. KIRO should realize that there are greater things that ratings…

However, the Mariners are playing a double header today. Hopefully King Felix can get off the DL soon…

Oh, the humanity!

I was just driven into the air-conditioned living room by the heat. I now have to interact with my roommate now! This is terrible!

Let’s get ready for the heat

They’re saying that tomorrow will be the hottest day of the heat wave. Actually, that would be today, since it’s 12:30 in the morning. I have nothing on my agenda tomorrow (more on that later), and while one is tempted to stay home in the AC’ed living room, I think I’m going to head out tomorrow. I need to get out the house, and there are air-conditioned places that I can go to.

To judge or not to judge, part ii, or something…

I’m going to be deliberately vague on this, so as to not identify specific individuals…. This has happened more that once to me. I turn on the computer, and the first thing I see is two of my friends are separating and/or divorcing. I don’t take sides in cases like this. It’s already messed up without me adding more fire to the drama. And 9 times out of 10 (in fact 10 times out of 10) I don’t know the whole situation. And 11 times out of 10, I don’t need to know. It’s just none of my business. I don’t need to judge. Whether or not to separate is a decision that my approval is not needed or asked for. If people want to talk to me, I’ll listen. But I’ll just keep mum on it until then…

It’s a hot one today…

It’s barely one, and it looks like we’re already at 84 degrees. Some I’m at home. Not in my inner sanctum (my room), but I’m out in the living room, which is where our AC is at. I can’t watch my 55” TV, so I guess I have to settle for my brother’s 48” set. Oh, the indignities of life…

But things could be worse. I remember when the temperature hit 3 figures a couple of years ago, and there was no AC. And they were painting my building, so I had plastic over my window, making it even hotter. And as soo as the sun sets tonight, I can turn on the window fan, and my room will cool down…

So, it’s in the 80’s outside….

I had to run my daily errand this morning. I was hot then. When I got home it got even hotter. My apartment does have air conditioning. We have a gutless portable AC that can keep the living room cool, but not our rooms. Today wasn’t going to be the hottest of this heat wave, but with judicious use of fans, I've been able to stay bearable in my room. But tomorrow, it will be use the laptop in the living room. I guess I’ll suffer. We only get one or so of these heat waves each year. Let’s hope this will be the only one….

Really, really fast….

I relocated the cable modem to my room today. My apartment has two cable outlets, one in the living room, and one in my room. I used to always have the modem/gateway out in the living room, and everything connected with Wi-Fi. And so there was always a compromise in speed. Even with an ‘N’ class router, my speed was always ‘meh’. Then I realized that if I moved the router to my room, I can connect the Tower with Ethernet. And wired is always faster than Wi-Fi. Like 100 megs. So I moved the modem and connected everything. And I noticed that I have a longer Ethernet cable handy, so my laptop has an uberfast connection, too…

Yes, I’ve had my issues with Comcast. But just this once, I will concede that they’re doing something right when it comes to speed. As for my iffy Wi-Fi connection, there was still more than enough to connect 2 blu-ray players, 2 smart tv’s, 2 laptops, 2 towers, 2 printers,and 2 smartphones. Come to think of it, that might have been the issue…