Get Real. Get A Life. Get Blocked.

I copied a  post on Facebook recently that said that a mask is better than a ventilator, home is better than the ICU, prevention is better than the cure. One of my supposed ‘friends’ replied “99.9% survival rates, get real and get a life”.

Guess what we’re no longer friends. And I’ve blocked him. It may seem too extreme, but I figure if he has a right to his opinion, then I have a right to shun him for it. I’ve made it a point not to unfriend or block anyone for having a different political opinion than mine (because the diversity of peoples’ opinions is one of the many things that make America great). But I will block/unfriend/shun you for attacking others who have a different opinion. The same goes for hate speech. And I’m adding Covid is a hoax/conspiracy and masks are oppressive to the list.

Take your Covid hoax conspiracies/masks are oppressive crap and go shove it. Covid is real. Don't believe me? Ask you nearest Healthcare worker what his/her last shift was like. Try getting a hospital bed in South Dakota/North Dakota. Think masks are oppressive? Try being intubated.

If you're still peddling conspiracies and/or whining about your rights being taken away, then go shove it up your ass. These are tough times for everyone. We're all in this. Together. Selfish whining is not the solution. With rights come responsibilities. And we're in this mess because too many if you are being irresponsible...

He’s out!

Though he may not realize it. Cheetos-Face is out! Even Fox News is projecting Biden as the winner of the 2020 election. Of course, there’s going to recounts, lawsuits and other nefarious tricks, but he’s just fighting the inevitable…

Biden is in, Cheetos-Face is out.

It’s election day today….

And it’s still not too late to vote for Pedro….

Actually I voted for Biden (like I did last March during the primary). Clearly he is the more qualified of the two candidates. He hasn’t openly glorified sexual assault. He takes the covid-19 pandemic seriously.

But regardless of who wins the election, we still need to be civil about it. One the things about being in a democracy is you have to sometimes accept that your candidate won’t always win…

Since my last post…

Yes, my SSD failed, and I had to replace it. Replacement arrived and installation was quick and painless. Aside from the rat’s nest of cable behind the tower that keeps getting worse and worse. I think it their mating season. But with the new SSD, I also ordered a SATA power ‘y’ adapter so I could add the third hard drive. I’m mainly going to use it as an internal backup (in addition to my usb external backup).

I voted last week. Defnitely not for Cheetos-Face. Of all the candidates this year, Biden is the most qualified. He has also not gone on record for openly glorifying sexual assualt. Whatever happens next Tuesday night, I’ve done my part.

The weather has definetly cooled off. I took down my AC for the season a couple of weeks ago, and last week, I started turning on the heat. That reminds me, I need to pay the electric bill….

He has it...

I'm not going to denigrate the office of President Of The United States by even associating any party of it with Donald Trump....

So now even Cheetos-Face has Covid-19. Abs free was even hospitalized for it (though I think that may be more his handlers realizing that the holder of his office is also the leader of the free world, and there must needs be more caution involved....

Yes, Cheetos-Face has it. She I wish him a shoddy recovery. I completely disagree with his policies, and I'm definitely not voting for him. But I want him to leave the White House in handcuffs, not feet first... 

So many have passed...

Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Bill at the Pro Desk (from my previous job at Home Depot). And tonight, Eddie Van Halen. Hold your loved ones closer now, they may be gone tomorrow.... 

A Hard Drive Failure tonight….

It appears as though my SSD has bitten the dust. The one that I bought back in May. and unfortunately, as part of the trouble shooting, I wiped both of my other drives (thank The Flying Spaghetti Monster that I did have a recent backup from a month ago). But still, it’s a pain in the ass. But lesson learned. Replacement drive has been ordered. And I made sure that it’s compatible with my motherboard. I’m stepping down from a 2tb to a 1tb drive, but the interface is going from SATA to PCIE 3.0x4 so it’ll be faster. I just can’t run Linux on it anymore….

RIP Western Digital Blue 2 tb m2 ssd. But did you have to take down my whole system with you?

And I know it was a hard drive failure, because in frustration I booted into Gparted and tried to wipe everything, and I could even wipe this drive.

First debate is in the books…

Sorry, I know it’s been a while since I’ve been here…

The first debate between Joe Biden and Cheetos-Face is in the books. And to be honest, I slept through it, so I’m watching CNN’s post debate coverage. Actually I did catch one scene of it. And I promptly switched to the Science channel. I wanted to see the candidates’ stands on the issues. Not personal insults and outright lies. Either give the moderator control over the candidates’ microphones, or just have Don King hype them.

The first debate is in the books. And Cheetos-Face is dangerously under-qualified for the Oval Office…

I bought it…

Since April of last year, I’ve used a Samsung Galaxy Note 9. It’s primary drawback is that I can’t root it (actually there is a confirmed root for it, but imho it’s too risky for me to try it. But still, props to all you developers out there). Anyway, I bought the phone on the Samsung for life plan (like Sprint’s iPhone for life), wherein you lease your phone and at the end of your lease, you can return your phone for an upgrade, or they give you the option to buy it. I’m sufficiently happy with my phone, that I decided to buy it outright. I was thinking about the Galaxy Note 20, but in the end this phone works perfectly ok, and it has a headphone jack. So I’ll stick with it.

I got so excited about the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, that I finally bought it. After 18 months…

It’s the middle of my weekend…

And I’m feeling so lazy that I don’t even want to put on my shoes to go to 7-11 (which is literally on the corner of my block) to get a diet coke…

Oh well, water is good…

Fun With The Cable Company

Comcast sucks. Comcast sucks hard. Case in point, last week, I decided to address a chronic issue that I’ve been having (namely whenever I downloaded something big, my TV pixelated and stalled). Basically because my main tower and my cable box were both wi-fi based. And because the cable box was wi-fi, the cable modem had to be on the same outlet as the DVR. Basically, I needed my wired cable box back. So I packed up the old box and took it to the Cable store in Federal Way (also called upon Mrs, Fields and did a bank run for the owner). This was the high point of the caper. My cable box return was accepted, and I received a wired box (and after previous misadventures, verified as X1 compatible). Get home, hook the box up to the outlet in my room. And unable to connect (same issue I had last fall). So I sent them a message on Facebook. And waited. And waited. And waited. And then I called them out on Twitter. And finally I got a response. To send them a DM (which I already had, since experience has taught me that it’s the same team that handles Facebook and Twitter). Finally I broke down and sent them another direct message, with the first paragraph already including all the information that they ask you (you know, like name address and phone number). And their initial reply after already telling them that was to ask me for my name and phone number. And I told them to stick it. Sorry, but if you’re not even going to bother reading my complaint, then don’t waste my time. At the time, I told Comcast to consider this to be their notification that I would be withholding payment until the matter was addressed. And then I sent out an Executive Email Carpet Bomb. It wasn’t until after over 12 hours from the time I sent my initial request for help that I got an answer. And I replied. And I didn’t get an answer for 2+hours later. (this all went down on my day off). I went to bed and got woken up by a phone call. Comcast corporate office (apparently they’re incapable of using the ‘reply’ key when they get an email). I let voicemail handle it.

While struggling to go to sleep, it occurred to me that I already had the solution. When we first moved in, I had a third cable box installed in my brother’s room, and the outlet that was being used was in my room. So I had the installer snake the cable all the around my room along the wall into my brother’s room. That didn’t last long, the box was returned, but the cable line stayed. It was out of the way, so why move it? So I go to work, still getting Facebook messages from Comcast wanting to reset my boxes and my modem. I finally told them that I was work, I’m no longer taking personal messages while at work, and they had plenty of time to address already (remember they didn’t answer my initial message for over 12 hours. Get home from work, pull the cable out, hook my box up. And everything works. Ended up moving the cable modem into my room. It has Wi-Fi 6 so my brother will still have internet access. Upshot of that is that my tower can now connect with a physical cable, and that is always faster than wi-fi. As for the cable’s routing, it had go across a hallway, and over a closet door, so a $7 bag of cable staples from Spamazon later, I had under control…

So back to that Executive Email Carpet Bomb. I sent them an email. And they tried calling me. I called them back (Sprint has a service to transcribe voicemail. I highly recommend it). And somehow I ended up being bounced back their regular phone tree. Comcast’s executives basically told me to go pound sand. Let that sink in.

I’m under a contract with Comcast. Notwithstanding they have still raised my rates, and cut channels. Their customer service is abysmal. If you have a problem, even their executives don’t anything to do with you. They’ll gladly take your money, and the god forbid you should actually try and use the service you pay for (oh, they did offer me a $40 for my troubles, but I declined for ethical reasons. I didn’t have the heart to explicitly tell the executive team into which orifice they could stick it)…

Comcast, you suck. Go back to ignoring your customers.

Fall is upon us….

Last night at work, it was my turn to go out and clean up the parking lot. Usually when I go outside it rains. This was no exception. It was just a light misting, but still moisture was coming out of the sky, and I had to be out in it. Temperatures are cooling off to the point that my AC compressor is now cycling off (and in fact, I’m routinely turning it off). And in addition to the sh*t-load of pumpkin spice k-pods I got a couple of weeks ago, 3 liters of pumpkin spice coffeemate arrived today.

Fall must be here. Bring on the No Fun League.

So, my birthday was yesterday...

 It was my birthday yesterday. Got lots of well-wishes on Facebook (the high point of my birthday). Bought my own present (the new Flight Simulator. See the previous post). And my brother was going to make me a birthday dinner (or at least he said he was when I said I was ordering pizza). So I woke up last night (I sleep during the days because I work overnights), and was greeted by a stack of Domino's gift cards. You might have your opinion about them, but they deliver, and I hardly have a problem with them. More importantly, unlike grubhub, doordash, or uber eats, when they deliver, they know which driveway to go up. I can't tell you how many times I've had to go running after delivery drivers... And Domino's pizza is also cheaper than even McDonalds...

New Flight Stimulator is out...

 Finally. After over a decade, they released a new Flight Simulator yesterday. And it was my birthday. So I went over to Steam and bought it. And then spent three+ hours downloading it. So far there are issues with my joystick controller, but I'm impressed with the graphics. While troubleshooting the controller, I ended up messing the software installation up so much that I decided a rebuild was warranted. I know what's going to happen. I'm going to end up getting the new Airbus controller. But given that price, and the $132+ that I just shelled out, that's not going to happen for a while. And then there's the video card I've been eyeballing. The card I put in a year ago is now the bare minimum for FS 2020.

Yesterday was also the first day of the Caribbean Premier League. Hooray West Indies (which is also the cheer I give whenever Pakistan plays)...

OK, about last night…

It was most likely dehydration, caffeine withdrawal, and something I ate. Headache and nausea eventually went away on their own after a cup of tea. So, I’m going to cut back on my coffee (note: sleep is suitable substitute for caffeine, especially on a day off). And I should probably watch my overindulging…

Ugh…

Woke up with a headache. And nausea. Figuring caffeine withdrawal I fixed myself a cup of coffee and drank it. And 10 minutes later, it tried to come back up. I don’t need to be barfing on the bus to work, or while at work, so I called out (applying the mantra to stay home if you’re sick).

I actually wanted to go to work tonight, but I also don’t need to be tossing my lunch on the job either….

Ok, we can stop panicking now...

The power is back on. Now to turn the AC back on and go back to bed... 

A nice warm day....

It's going to be a nice warm day today. I was all set to chill in my air conditioned room. And the power just went out... 

So this past weekend…

I was at work this past weekend, and I got a text from the Mrs. Fields store owner. One of our early morning regulars passed away July 3. RIP Duane. You will be missed.

Yesterday’s experiment….

Ok, I just had to try Windows 7 again. I thought I’d have better results with an MBR boot drive than a GPT one. But with my other hard drives being GPT, I was having issues. So yesterday, I did a complete external back up. Then I booted off the Windows DVD and went straight to Diskpart, and used the ‘clean command to wipe everything completely. And I was able to initialize my ssd as a MBR drive and I installed. And then when I went to set up my other hard drives, I realized the problem. The windows installer had initialized one of my hard drives as MBR as well. Apparently Windows 7 doesn’t really want to recognize m.2 ssd’s. Learning my lessons from previous attempts, I went ahead and put the Windows 10 DVD back in, and it’s back to the drawing board….

Sometimes, the only you’re going to learn is to go ahead and make the mistake. But that’s why we have backups…

Hooray West Indies!

West Indies won the match Sunday morning. Next match in the series starts Thursday morning. And I will be at work all 5 days…

Just finished reinstalling all my software yet again. Between Epic, Steam, Origin, Uplay, Gog, and Amazon, I have way too much crap installed on my computer. But all I seem to do is play Flight Simulator X. On August 18 (my birthday btw) , they will be releasing Flight Simulator 2020. I think I know what I’m getting for my birthday. And since it’s being initially released through the Microsoft store, it’ll be a good reason to keep Windows 10 installed for more that a week. Speaking of which, I had a hunch about why I kept getting bluescreeens in Windows 7, and looked it up. Though about trying it out again. But in the end, it was going to be the same thing, and I’d end up wiping everything and starting over for nothing. So I left it at that.

And the winner of the match is...

So last night/this morning I've been watching the first day of the West Indies/England Test match. Abs the winner of the match so far is the English weather. Start was delayed due to rain. Abs they've barely been able to get in 4 overs. They're now on their second rain delay.

Hooray West Indies... 

Ok, so it's official, again...

Tried Windows 7 again this morning. Abs it lasted all of 6 hours. After the first round of updates from Windows Update, it bluescreened on the first reboot. Lesson learned, back to Windows 10. At least I know it works... 

Happy Birthday, Sir Richard Starkey!

Ringo Starr is 80 today. No real reason due me to post this, I just wanted to post some good news in my blog for once. 

Ok so while I was dealing with other issues this morning....

(Note: see the last post).

So, while I was busy dealing with the mess I made of my tower this morning, I checked my phone and noticed 3 emails from Bealls Florida. Somebody had used my name and email address to order some shoes to be shipped to Ocala Florida. I did not recognize the credit card number in the order, so I gave them a call. A 35 minute phone call later, abs the order was canceled, my name and email were purged from their system, abs the store credit card that was used was flagged as fraudulent.

Not a way to start the morning.... 

Here we go again

Again I fell to temptation and put Windows 7 back on my tower. I thought I could get around my issues with bluescreens and reboots by making my ssd an mbr formatted drive. Turns out, that while Windows can work with it, you're SOL with Windows 7. But the damage has been done, so I'm going to give it another try. I figure I'll be back to windows 10 and square one within a week, most likely 12 hours.

And international cricket returns tonight, with the first Test match of West Indies at England. Hooray West Indies... 

I wanted some pizza a couple of weeks ago…

I came home from work, and I was hungry. So I pulled out my phone and ordered some Domino’s. Actually, I was on the bus, but I selected future delivery and I was home by the time the driver delivered. When I was ordering on the app, I noticed that there a was pay with PayPal option, so I tried it. I signed in, selected my checking account, and placed the order. Got a confirmation email indicating that I was paying with PayPal.

And then the driver came, and said that I still needed to pay. Apparently I was never charged. I didn’t have the cash on me, and I’m not going to take stuff that I didn’t pay for so I declined the order. And I then called the store back, and explained to the manager what happened and I then paid for my order with a credit card. Basically because my ethics and my conscience answer to a higher authority. And I did order it, so I’m obliged to pay for it.

So that was the end of that. No use in bitching out the store personnel since this was beyond their control. But I took it to Twitter. I messaged Dominos with all the details, and I just wanted to know why they’re not taking PayPal when they give it as an option to pay. And their response was to just ask me for more personal info that they don’t need. I also called out PayPal, but I’m not going to bother with their response as they’re just a ‘bot. Dominos just doesn’t know how to read…

So last Saturday I again ordered Dominos. This time, applying the lessons learned in previous weeks, I paid with a credit card. Driver showed with and extra order of cheesy bread and a Diet Coke, saying that his manager added these because of the problems with my last order….

Moral of this story: Never use PayPal for ordering takeout/delivery and always tip generously….

3 years ago yesterday….

3 years ago yesterday, I was at my previous employer. I got The Phone Call to go to the office. Getting fired sucks. But I’ve landed on my feet, and within a month and a half I was back to work (with my current employer). But still not a fun experience….

12 years ago today….

And 19 years ago today, I moved. The first time I moved was from Meridian West Apartments to The Hamptons. Literally just across the street. Bigger apartment. Rent was about 1.5 times what we were paying. And my room was smaller. Less than a year into this apartment, I was diagnosed as a diabetic, I had lost my job, and I had lost my health insurance. But I overcame.

Twelve year ago, I moved into this apartment with my brother. This move was literally from one building to another. I’ve lost two jobs since moving here, but I’ve always landed on my feet. And I still have health insurance…

When I moved in here, I had T-Mobile for phone service. In 2012, we switched to Sprint. Due to a recent merger, we’re back to T-Mobile….

Yet another weekend under way….

And I did something stupid. I decided just from a one-off Google search, that my issues with Windows 7 were because of a couple of hotfixes (because my boot drive is now an SSD). Nope. I was an idiot. I put Win7 back on my tower, and I still got the Blue Screen Of Death. THough this time I was less of an idiot and looked up the error codes. It appears as though it’s a hardware driver, but since Windows 7 has been end-of-life for at least 6 months, it is probably best that I stick with Windows 10.

Back to the drawing board…

But on the bright side, I know that the 2004 update of Windows 10 will work. I’ve been running it since the Release Candidate….

And tonight, I did text my manager that I was calling out. I wonder how long it’ll be before he realizes that I was off anyway….

Finally

Finally, I finished reinstalling everything in my computer after buying the 2 new hard drives a few weeks ago. It took a while since I gave into temptation a couple of times to try running Windows 7 with the new ssd. And while my system was very much faster than with the old rotary hard drives, it was very much more unstable. It would blue screen and crash just by opening FIrefox. I think there may have been issues with a driver, but we’re moving forward. Windows 10 is still fully supported, and all the drivers work, therefore that’s what I’ll run. Now I just need to remind myself of this everytime I decide to go retro….

So it's my weekend again...

Category: posts written from my phone....

No, that's not really a category. But I'm writing this post from my phone...

Anyway, it's my weekend once again. Tonight, it's another Netflix abs chill night. Once again, it's Captain Underpants. I'm up to season 3...

Yes, I know it’s been a while…

Yes, I know it’s been a while. About 3 weeks ago, the world watched as a white police officer murdered a black man. Much has been said about George Floyd’s character, but ultimately, his criminal record and what he was accused of were not captial crimes. And yet he was executed anyway. Without a trial….

Black lives matter. Just because your skin color is different doesn’t mean that you life is forfeit. I would say that All Lives Matter, but that is is being misconstrued into something inflammatory. So, I’m going to keep silent on this. I know my opinions on this matter, and this is a case where I should hold my peace for now…

So much going on…

It all started on Memorial Day. 4 officers have been fired and have been charged. I have much more to say about this, but not at this time….

Sorry, I’m still trying to sort my thoughts out on this one…

So that’s why that’s there….

Leaned back in my office chair tonight, and it went too far back. Like it was loose. Looked on the carpet, and saw the screw that had worked itself loose. And then there was the other screw that I saw on the desk that had come loose. So I went to put them back in, and my screwdriver wouldn’t bite. And then I looked at them and realized that they were hex heads. And then I looked on my desk and saw the hex key wrench that I used to assemble my chair to begin with. Office chair is back together again…

If you can handle it…

When I built my computer last year, the motherboard I picked out had two M.2 slots for ssd’s. At the time, I went with regular hard drives (though I had 2 hard drives at the time). Then a week and a half ago, I finally decided that I had run out of space on my main hard drive. So I ordered a bigger one (albeit slower). About a day later, I realized I could afford one, so I ordered a new boot drive (2 TB M.2 ssd). The hard drive arrived Saturday, the ssd arrived Monday. Tore the computer apart, and then I realized that the SSD didn’t come with any M.2 screws (they apparently exist). Fortunately, my tower came with a case of extra screws, and I found one that fits, and the motherboard already had the right riser installed in the proper slot). A drawback was that I had to remove my video card to install it (my experience is that if I have to remove a part, there’s a real chance it won’t get put back in properly). But I reassembled my tower, and everything was reinstalled properly.

My tower has enough slots to hold more than two hard drives, and my motherboard has enough SATA ports, too. The one catch was my power supply. I didn’t have enough power couplings. So I’m going with only two HDD’s (a 4 tb and 8 tb). Plus the 2 tb SSD. My ssd isn’t the fastest around. But it is so much faster. Last week, when I turned on my computer, it took at least 2 minutes to reach a desktop, and then it still took even longer to finish loading everything. Now it’s a fraction of the time.

If your motherboard can handle an M.2 ssd, I highly recommend one.

Getting ready to move…

No, not that move. Last weekend, Square Enix had virtually their entire Steam library on sale for 95% off, and all proceeds benefiting charity (I can’t remember which one, but I know there was one). Including the prorate for everything that I already had, it came out to about $35.00 for 47 or so games. So I went for it. And it was a 247 gb download. And after I downloaded it, I realized I’m running out of hard drive space. I currently have 2 7200rpm 4 tb hard drives. On Newegg, I found an 8 tb hard drive that I could afford, but it was only 5400 rpm. But I went ahead and ordered it. And a couple of hours later, I realized that if I played my finances right, I could also get a 2 tb M.2 ssd. So I ordered one. They should both be here by me next day off. And I have another used 2 tb hdd that I’m going to put in the tower just to play with Linux on (so I can avoid repartitioning my hard drive every other day). I guess this means back everything up today, and get it on to the external hard drive.

But when this is all done my setup will be:

• A 2 tb ssd drive to boot up from.
• A 8 tb hdd to install all my games on.
• A 4 tb hdd for my documents. And
• A 2 tb hdd to play around with Linux on.

The 4 tb hdd that I will be pulling from this tower will be going into my other tower that I currently use for my media center/blu-ray player…

Was starting to warm up…

For the past couple of days, it’s been getting real warm. Warm enough that my heavy coat has been retired for the season. And more importantly, it has warmed up enough that I set up my air conditioner. Since I work overnights, that means I sleep during the day, and it’s hard to sleep during the heat of the day. During the night, when I have it on, it’s still cool enough that just the fan runs, but in the afternoon, it does warm up enough that the compressor kicks on.

I should say it was starting to warm up. But today, there is just a little bit of rain coming down, so it’s not as warm as it’s been. And as I wrote that the AC compressor kicked on again…

So far on Mageia…

Ok, yes I know I’m writing this in Windows. But Mageia is still installed. And I’ve already made further progress this time than I’ve ever had with OpenSuSE on this tower. I’ve already configured Firefox and Thunderbird. And I’ve even set up my primary adblocker: the HOSTS file from mvps.org.

The potential issues that I see from this setup are the TV tuner (and that’s a moot point right now, since my Tuner Card doesn’t have a signal coming to it), and the ability to play a Blu-ray. But I can Netflix on it.

There is a drawback: I’ve set the bootloader to boot windows by default, but when I boot into Linux, it resets the default back to Linux. Until I find a fix for it, I guess I have to watch the menu when turn my computer on.

This week's misadventures....

I will continue to dink around with OpenSuSE, but only on a virtual machine. But I'm still going to experiment with Linux on my tower, not that I've figured out partitioning and the bootloader. Unfortunately with OpenSuSE, once I've installed all the apps, I'm unable to login as root. Now, I'm going with Mageia. When I first started tinkering around with Linux in 2004, I first started with SuSE, which was a no-go at first, but I had also downloaded the install set for Linux Mandrake. There were some issues with it, but I was able to install it. Albeit with no printer and no 3d graphics at first. I think it lasted for about 3 days to a week before I wiped the whole tower again. Mergers and bankruptcies happened, and SuSE became OpenSUSE, and Linux Mandrake (or Mandrake Linux)'s descendants were Open Mandriva and Mageia. I'm running Mageia right now. And so far, it's usable...

More adventures with Linux

Ok, I can install OpenSUSE and run it side-by-side with Windows 10. But ultimately what happens is that I run into some difficulty, and while I could solve it when running windows in my sleep, Linux is so different, that I take the nuke it form orbit approach, and wipe the partition. Now this constant repartitioning of my hard drive isn't good for my computer (my second hard drive was refurbished). So, for now, I'm going to stick with vmware player. What this also means is that I can also play around with Fedora, Ubuntu, OpenMandriva, and FreeBSD as well (this also includes my vm's of Windows ME and Windows XP as well).

I think I've written before that Domino's delivery is cheaper than McDonalds via UberEats. Though I spent over $50 last night, and I didn't even get one pizza (though a good chunk of that is that I believe in tipping the driver generously...). Tonight, I ordered from the Mexican restaurant right next to my apartment. It was literally a less than ten-minute walk from my apartment, and it took over an hour. I have a note on my GrubHub account that tells the driver which specific driveway to use, so they don't spend all night looking for my apartment. And you'd be surprised at how many drivers don't read....

For those of us who are fasting…

For those of us who are fasting for the next month or so:

Ramadan Mubarak.

So, about last night (TMI alert!)

I had a premonition yesterday morning. Sat down on the throne, and I could tell that there was a round in the chamber, but it didn’t want to come out. I was stuck up. I went to bed, and hoped that it would clear out when I got up. Last night, I got up, got ready for work, and gave it another try. No luck. I had enough sick time to cover my shift, I’d get in less trouble for calling out than if I went in and spent most my shift on the throne (and also I’m more productive when I’m not in obvious discomfort). Kept trying all night long, and finally at 1 am, sweet relief came. A great pressure within me was finally released. 10,000 corks were loosed….

Something tells me I need more fiber…

So I've done absolutely nothing so far....

Well, I did go out last night to 7-11 for Cheetos and Diet Coke. And I had to step out of the apartment to do laundry. But I've stayed home since then. Monday night, my brother asked me what I wanted for dinner, and a double batch of spaghetti later....

Last night, I decided I wanted pizza. So I ordered Domino's (plus the leftover spaghetti from Monday night, remember it was a double batch). I am ordering a lot more Domino's than UberEats, mainly because pizza is generally cheaper than Shari's, Denny's, or McDonald's. Even Taco Bell through GrubHub is pricier. And also the Domino's drivers know where my apartment is, so I can get a contactless delivery. Whereas with UberEats and GrubHub, I have to go run down the driver, since they don't know where in the apartment complex I'm at, so they just park at the apartment office, and then tell me that they're here...

So also Monday morning when I got home from work, I decided to splurge. The stimulus check I got last week took care of all my bills, so I decided to buy another add-on for Flight Simulator X. I got the LevelD 767. I've played around with it for a little bit so far, but it is extremely realistic. I just can't set the autopilot to follow the gps and enjoy the view. I actually have to  fly the aircraft. I'm no way a pilot (if I said I was it'd be kinda like saying I could fly the space shuttle because I've seen every episode of Star Trek). But it's something to kill time on my day off...

I also reinstalled Linux again. Now that I know how to put it on and take it off, I have a little bit more confidence in trying it out. This post was written on it...

So it looks like…

It looks like it’s going to be Biden vs. Cheetos-Face. Even Bernie Sanders dropped out and endorsed him. I liked Bernie. He has good ideas. Not all of them, if any will work, but they can make a good starting point. And he did have enough sense to realize that there was a common foe to defeat.

Biden vs. Trump. Now if we could only get Don King to hype the debates…

So they passed a stimulus package last month…

Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, they passed an economic stimulus package, and one of the things that they had was a $1200 payment to everyone. And I got mine this morning. And it lasted 30 minutes. I’m not worried. I paid my bills. All of them. And I have another paycheck (my regular one from work) coming tomorrow. And since all the bills that were going to be paid out it, it’s pretty much free and clear.

I use my email inbox to keep track of what needs to be paid and when. When I get a statement notice, it stays in my inbox until I pay it when it gets archived. Because of due date throughout the month, there are usually at least two or three bills in my inbox at any given time.

This is the first time my inbox has been bill free in ages. At least until I get the next account statement…

After last week....

After a 'trial run' with OpenSuSE last week, where I figured out how to install and remove Linux from my computer, I put it on again today. It's not going to be my daily driver yet, but it's not going to come off anytime soon.

Success!

I was able to install Linux on my computer is a dual-boot configuration. And even more importantly, I was able to successfully reverse what I did, and also take Linux off my machine as well. That last part was really important, as when I first started out the only way I could ‘unLinux’ my system was to pull out the DOS floppy and nuke the entire tower from orbit. But now I’ve demonstrated how to install, configure dual-boot, and remove Linux.

There won’t be anymore experiments on Linux this weekend (Flight Simulator time now), but maybe next week…

Finally downloading it…

Started the install attempt to put OpenSUSE on my tower. This will be the first time in over 5 years, that I’ve dual-booted, and the first time I’ve attempted it with Windows 10. Not that I have any problems with Windows 10. We’ll find out in a few hours if it works. If not, my backup is current, and I’ll just dick around with Linux in a VM…

Yet another weekend...

Good morning. My weekend started yesterday. So, this would make it about Saturday afternoon for those of us working bankers hours. I've already done and put away my laundry. So, what am I doing? Dicking around with Linux. Namely OpenSUSE Leap 15.1. If this succeeds, it will be the first time I've installed Linux on my tower since 2014. It is slightly more complicated since I now use uefi rather than a mbr. 

But first things first, I'm upsetting my back up drive. Ava if my computer melts down, I still have a second tower...

On vacation….

So a few weeks ago, I put in to take last night and tonight off. And it was approved. And it seems like right after it was approved, the Stay At Home orders were issues. So, I’m spending 4 nights Netflixing and Chilling. Initially I took this weekend off for the opening weekend of the Indian Premier League. But again, that went out the window since India is now on a 3 week lockdown. But still, there is a chance to sleep in and stream where I would otherwise work.

Btw, I was able to find toilet paper today while I was in the store (Wally World). But I decided that Taco Tuesday would be on a Sunday, and so I was procuring ingredients for said tacos, and they were out of tortillas. So, it was Nachos instead. And did I mention my brother is a really good cook?…

Another night on lockdown….

Technically it’s not a lockdown, as you can go out to get some air, as long as you’re 6 feet away from people. Earlier this evening I headed out to the local 7-11 (knowing and convenience stores and corner markets are exempt), and was greeted by a sign that it was closed. My brother’s employer has made the decision to close for now (they could’ve stayed open since they offer take-out), but there is a concern there own health. Mrs. Fields has closed for the duration. So, I’m at home for the second night of my weekend. Another night of Netflix and chill. Or Hulu. Or Amazon Prime. Or Disney+…

Who knew?…

So, last night, I got up from bed (work overnight, sleep during the day), and I told my brother (rommate) that I was going to order pizza, and if he wanted something. Normally he declines, bought last night he wanted a chicken parmesan sandwich. That sounded good, so I ordered one, too. Add wings, a salad, and a diet coke, and it was delivered.

But who new you can order dinner from Dominos without even getting one pizza?

I think I was productive last night….

I think I was productive last night. I did laundry. Filled out the survey for the Census online. Now I just need to put the laundry away…

On lockdown….

So Governor Insley has now issued a stay at home order to fight the spread of the Covid 19 pandemic. Basically, unless you really need to, stay at home. Not me. Where I work is considered ‘essential infrastructure’ so I have to go to work. But such is life. So for my weekend, the task at hand is Netflix and chill. Or do laundry. Or both…

I did have to take a sick Saturday night. What happened was I went to sit on the throne (at about 7 pm) before getting dressed for work, and I realized I was ‘stuck up’. And it wasn’t going to end easily for me. Unfortunately this was one of those times where I would get in less trouble for calling out in the first place than spend half the night on the throne trying to pass a cork (which I was finally able to at 4 am). And I get yelled at enough at work. So, it was barely mentioned last night when I returned to work, and we got on with the task at hand.

I think I need more fiber…

In other news...

Apparently, Tom Brady has left the Patriots. It still doesn't change the fact that wherever he plays, he will still have to wear a Tom Brady jersey... 

EVERYBODY PANIC!

So, apparently the best protection against the corona virus is to build a toilet paper fort… All the stores are apparently out of it. So on my weekend, the agenda to go storm someone’s tp fort. Not really, but you need to use common sense here. In Washington, they’ve closed bars and restaurants, but takeout and delivery are still viable (even Dominos has a great sale going on).

So this is pretty much a Netflix and chill type weekend. I’m not going to go anywhere (I’m still trying to recover from whatever I caught two weeks ago). But I’m feeling better enough that I’ve weaned myself off the cold medication (which people are panic buying unnecessarily now, too). Even, then I notice that when I took it, it would work for 3 hours and then the symptoms would rebound, coming back even worse than before I took it. But beyond the occaisional cough drop, I’m now running natural…

Super Tuesday 2.0

Another round of primaries today. Including Washington State. The Democrat field has thinned down considerably since last week. It’s now basically Bernie vs. Biden.

Once again, beware the Idiots of March…

Feeling like crap…

I was scheduled to work tonight. But last week, at least two co-workers had colds. And by the time I had gotten off work Monday morning, at least one of them gave it to me. It’s not the Corona Virus (the symptoms just don’t match up). But I did spend my weekend feeling like crap. Woke up this afternoon, and I decided I’m in no shape to go to work, and so in compliance with the memo posted by the breakroom door, which said if you feel sick then don’t go to work, I called out. I have enough sick time to cover this tonight, so I’m going to spend the night drinking tea and watching cricket, and hope I feel better tomorrow….

Beware the Idiots of March

It's Super Tuesday today. We may know who the Democratic candidate may be tonight. This past weekend, Buttigieg, Klobachar, and Steyer all threw in the towel on their respective candidacies, with the former two endorsing Joe Biden. While Sanders and Warren do have really good ideas, especially with regards to health care, my main concern is getting President Cheetos-Face out, and going all the way to the left isn't going to help. So my vote in the primary is going for Biden. But even if he doesn't get the nomination, just remember all the Democratic candidates are more qualified for the White House than the current incumbent....

I know that Super Tuesday isn't on March 15 (the Ides of March), but still beware the Idiots of March...

Cable Bill just got a lot more expensive…

So, Comcast normally has a 1 TB limit on it’s internet service. Problem: whenever I rebuild my system, my Twitch Prime and Epic games have no way of being backed up, like in Steam. So, I have to redownload them all (about 700 GB right there). And then there’s streaming (why else would I reset up my old tower to hook up to the TV)? So, today (actually yesterday) I ordered the unlimited internet option. It’s gong to be much more expensive, but I have no choice. Comcast is a monopoly. They know it. The rates keep going up, but the service keeps going down. I’m supposedly in a contract (since last fall), but they’re already dropping a channel from my service and raising my rates, notwithstanding the aforementioned contract (which apparently means that I’m the only one locked in).

It sucks, but I have no choice….

No laundry tonight.

Normally, I do laundry on my weekends. But it's been in the 20s both nights. And I have enough clean clothes to last another week. Laundry can wait.

Went to Puyallup today. Objective: Haircut. I do like having long hair. But then again as I was looking in the mirror recently, I am aware that I have significantly more forehead than my high school years. And it gets in the way. A lot. So I got a haircut. Went from Rockstar long hair to Marine Corps boot camp. At last, all my hats fit again. 

Another weekend underway….

So, another weekend has started. Agenda: absolutely nothing. Aside from some Flight Simulator. And maybe some streaming. And definitely sleeping…

2 in one night…

Finished setting up my second tower. It will be used as my Blu-Ray player/streaming box on my TV. But it also has a current version of Chrome/Firefox and Office so I can use it as a back up tower in a pinch.

Also finished setting up the laptop. And I brought it out to the living so my brother can use it too (I even created his own account on it).

All this trouble so I can stream ESPN+ to my TV…

Updating on Rendering Unto Ceaser...

My tax refund was approved. It should show up later this week. NOt as much as past refunds have been, but it's still better than having to pay.

Celebrated by ordering pizza tonight...

Setting up my 'new' Blu-Ray....

I think I said this a week or so ago, but my old 'smart' Blu-Ray has become rather dumb of late. First, the Hulu app expired. And last week, the Crackle app went. Then I realized that I could replace it dirt cheap. All I had to do was order an internal Blu-Ray drive for my old tower. Which I did. Then pulled out the Windows 8.1 system restore DVDs (going with Windows 8.1, since I have Windows 8.1 Pro with Windows Media Center). So I'll have a Blu-Ray player (I stall have a valid copy of PowerDVD for this tower, since I bought another when I built my current tower). And thank to Google Chrome, I'll be able to stream. And surf. And email. I'm not putting a TV tuner in this tower, since it's being connected to my TV anyway. Nor will I be gaming on it (not enough space on the hard drive)...

For some reason or another….

For some reason or another, today just seems to be a good idea today. Happy Birthday.

And if it’s not your birthday, happy Thursday and cake is still a good idea…

Render unto Caesar, 2020 edition….

Did my taxes online last night. Still getting a refund, though not as much as I thought. But it’s still better than paying….

Ordered a new wireless keyboard and internal Blu-Ray drive. My old tower is going to be recommissioned as my smart Blu-Ray player. I still have my Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center Key for it. And I’ll be able to stream ESPN+ to my 55” TV finally…

Snow. Again…

As I was about to end my shift this morning, the white stuff started following. Get off work, get on the bus home, and by the time I get home it was sticking. But it’s my weekend, so I’m not going to miss any work for this…

Ok, today's agenda....

Normally, I sleep during the day, and I'm up at night, because of my work situation. But due to taking a sick day Sunday night (funny really want to get into that here), I got most of my day off chores done a day early. So last night,I decided to take a three hour nap. End result: I have a day off on an actual day. Normally my Tuesday morning errands are done as soon as the buses start running in the morning. But today I'm going to take my time, start out late (for me anyways). First stop, Puyallup...

Snow…

I should’ve titled this post ‘Cocaine…’

Anyway, the white stuff came down last night. Actually it started early Monday morning (and since I work overnights, to me it was evening). Anyway it wasn’t really sticking yesterday. That much. When I woke up last night, it was sticking. And it was still snowing. For most of last night, it snowed. I stayed home, ordered pizza, and watched AB De Villiers make his Big Bash League debut (yes, I like T20 Cricket). Then I played some Flight Simulator. And it still snowed. Sometime last night, I also decided not to make my traditional Tuesday Morning Trip up to Mrs. Fields. And I also decided my traditional errands that I normally run today can be put off as well. It’s my weekend. The roads are treacherous. I’m staying inside.

20 years ago, I bought my coat from Target (or was it Mervyns?). I’ve had other coats since then, but I’ve always used this one. Until Friday night, when the zipper finally broke. I tried borrowing one of my brother’s coats (props to him for literally offering my anything in his closet, save the one he was wearing at the time). I’ve order my replacement coat (from Target, naturally), but it’ll be about a week before it arrives. Correction: UPS says it’ll be here Friday.

But for now, I’m going back to staying indoors….

Finishing up my holiday shopping….

Yes, all the Christmas presents that I bought were given away. But, on Christmas Eve, I took a look at my finances and realized that I could now afford something that I’ve been looking forward too for a while. When I built my computer, I spent the most money on as much motherboard that I could afford, and put in a lower end CPU. Christmas Eve, I realized that I could now afford an AMD Ryzen 7 2700X. So I pulled the trigger. And I also upgraded the RAM to0 (I’m now at 64 gB). Yes, I know that my components are a couple of years old already, but I’m not going to spend 4+ figures for top of the line parts, only for them to be obsolete the next week. Well, not obsolete, but still the deprecation in price will be worse than a car.

As for performance, the best stress test, I can think of is Flight Simulator X. So I crank up all the display settings to their respective maximums, and I still got a decent framerate. But then again, some would say that it’s already obsolete, but it works even better than I had before, so Im not goin to complain…

Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot, 2019 Edition

2019 was a trip. In no particular order,  here’s what happened…..

• Took about 2 weeks from my regular day job to cover the owner’s vacation at Mrs Fields.
• Discovered Willow TV, and the sport of Cricket in general.
• Built my first PC from scratch. And I just upgraded the processor (but that will be an entry in an of itself).
• Bought 4 pairs of shoes, all at once.
• Bought a new coffee maker. I usually do it by the k-cup, but there are times when a full pot is called for, and this one does both.
• Experienced new levels of frustrations with UPS.
• Decided my cable service needed to be adjusted. This led to multiple visits to the cable store, 2 tech visits, and now I can no longer use the TV tuners in my Tower and/or my laptop. But my internet service is now much faster, and I can admin the Wi-Fi from my phone.
• Got ripped off at Jack In The Box. Complained. Got 2 form letters, and a not-so-subtle SLAPP threat for my efforts.
• Discovered UberEats. It’s pricy, but then again, I can have Shari’s delivered….

A lot did happen this year, and I’m sure this is just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s to 2020….

So, Christmas was a week ago…

So, Christmas was a week ago. Christmas Eve was the Big Bryant Family Reunion. Much food was consumed. I had eaten Mickey Dee’s earlier in the day, and that afternoon it had come back up to haunt me, so only had one plate (which I kept down, btw). Then there was the gift exchange. As usual, it was white elephant style, dispersed by drawing. I’ve found a new tradition. I’m now wrapping my present just by putting it in my most recent McDonald’s bag. Worked last year, and it worked this year. All it means to the recipient is that there will be a good chance that there will be a packet of salsa in there as well. Fun was had by all, and I made it a point to give an extra Target gift card to one of my cousins (said cousin has been known to make a bee-line straight for my gift if it is known that brought a Target card, and I just wanted to do something special especially for this cousin). Because of my day/night schedule at work, by the time I got home, I had been up for close to 24 hours, and I went straight to bed (normally I watch Midnight Mass from St. James Cathedral on TV).

So I slept in on Christmas Day as late as I could, and then we went to my younger brothers for Christmas. We had a Taco Bar. Everything is even better with a Taco Bar. I brought a 2 liter of strawberry soda as a tribute to mother. Then gifts were exchanged. Nieces and nephews got their gift cards to Target (yes, that’s where I did most of my Christmas shopping this year), and siblings got their coffee. And I even got something for my nephew’s girlfriend (another one of my traditions is the Spare Present).

This year, I did 9/10’s of my shopping at Target. I ordered most of my shopping online from my phone on my way to Mrs Fields one day. From the items I received, the one that stands out the most was the three cans of SPAM my father gave me. I was to receive them last year, but for some reason they were forgotten. I quick check of the useby dates, and they’re still good. I also got a flashlight/worklight, some shoe gel inserts, and an Atari Flashback 8 Gold. And I’m just as thankful for the 3 cans of year old SPAM that I am for the video game console.

RIP Buzzard Face

One of the memories of my childhood was my mother’s uncle, Earl Abney. I remember being at his house, playing pool. Then as I hit my teenage years, the teasing began. And the jokes. There was the name calling. He called me Chicken Lips. And I called him Buzzard Face. Whenever he visited, or we visited him, there was going to be a laugh….

It has been almost 30 years since I last saw him. Life happened and we grew apart. But I had the memories. Last week, his battle with Alzheimer's finally ended.

Rest in peace, Buzzard Face. You will be missed, but your suffering has ended.

Ho, Ho, Ho

Just boarded the bus to go to Grandma's house for the Big Bryant Family Reunion. Happy Christmas to you and yours.

Yes, I'm saying Happy Christmas this year. I just like the sound of it better than Merry Christmas...

Finally!

Ok, so Monday night, I wiped my laptop with the system restore feature of my laptop. Which put it back to Windows 10 Home 1511. It took a day and a half to get it to Windows 10 Home 1909. And I just now got it to Windows 10 Pro 1909. It took a running of sfc /scannow get from home to pro. And way too much time on Windows Update to get to 1909.

But I’m there. Finally.

Holiday decorating is done...

I'm ready for the holiday. Come for the Airing Of Grievances, stay for the Feat Of Strength... 

So I wiped my laptop last night….

Well, I started it. Using the system restore set, because of drivers. Unfortunately, it leaves me with Windows 10 1511, and for some reason I can’t just throw the 1909 install flash drive in it (like my Tower’s last rebuild). So it’s off to Windows Update for 3 hours, and I got it to 1809. Maybe tonight, I’ll get it to Windows 10 Pro 1909 (like my tower). And yes, I have paid for the upgrade from Home to Pro…

But on the bright side, I have also backed up my documents onto my external drive, which I haven’t done since June (I have two hard drives in my tower, and one drive is my storage drive – it is never formatted. The ‘C’ drive which is my installation drive is).

But while my laptop updates itself I think it’s time for my now-weekly Target run. Probably the last of my Christmas shopping, which is easier to budget for since I paid all my bills last night.

So like I said in the last post…

I said in my last post that I was going to watch the Big Bash League - in a nutshell Australian Cricket’s equivalent of The New World Order (Mind-Control Division). Tonight’s match was the Brisbane Heat vs the Sydney Thunder. An entertaining match, though my preference is more towards the Royal Challengers Bangalore (in the Indian Premier League). Or if it’s International Cricket, I’ll root for West Indies. Mainly because my boss at Mrs. Fields is from India and saying Hooray West Indies is lot safer than saying that Virat Kohli is really Captain Underpants….

Another Weekend...

I was supposed to work last (Sunday) night. But I was feeling a bit under the weather, and I had enough sick time accrued to cover my shift. So I called out...

So my weekend actually starts tonight. And I paid my bills. And I still have enough left over top live off of, and finish my Christmas shopping...

Tonight's agenda: wipe the laptop, and watch the Big Bash League (yes, I'm now a Cricket fan).

What is wrong with us?

I've seen screw ups and frothing from one side to another. I think Cheetos-Face does deserve to be lawfully removed from office. But will it happen? Probably not. The impeachment trial will be a partisan farce.

So my hope will be in 2020. Cheetos-Face will most likely be running, but openly glorifying sexual assault is an automatic disqualifier (remember the Access Hollywood tape)? Not to mention the raging narcacissm, and the racism. And then there's the intentionally separating families and caging children. These are people, not animals. We're Americans. We're supposed to be better than this. 

My weekend is underway

Home from work. Computer is fired up. 

And as you can see, I'm busy doing the most important weekend task: Flight Simulator X. I hear there is a new version in development though. But this version is sufficient for now... 

I know it’s a little early, but….

Happy stuff bread up a turkey’s ass day (also known as Thanksgiving). Since My work week starts tonight, and goes all the way through to next Monday morning, for me Thanks giving will be just Thursday. But I did celebrate it last night. Didn’t do turkey this year. Last year I did it with Red Robin takeout. This year, I did it with pizza. You don’t need a Turkey dinner with all the trimmings to show gratitude. Gratitude is something that ought to be done all year round. In addition to all the usual suspects that I’ve written about in previous years I’m thankful for:

• Different political opinions. Every coin has two sides. Every issue has at least 2 sides (some have multiple). Very few people have the same opinion as I do, and we can still be friends, too…
• My job. It may not be the best, but the bills are getting paid, and I enjoy it for the most part.
• My health. It’s not the best, but each day, I’m up, I’m conscious, and I’m wearing pants….
• Then there’s the roof over my head, the food in the pantry (and/or available for delivery on UberEats).
• The future: things can only get better….

In an unrelated story, I noticed that 3 pairs of my shoes were wearing out. So I replaced them. I’ve had previous issues with plantar fasciitis, and one of my strategies for dealing with it is multiple pairs of shoes, so I can rotate them frequently, and not have the pressure on the same spot every day. Though the drawback is I have to buy three pairs of shoes at the same time…

A month’s worth of misadventures….

I’ve gone through 4 cable boxes in 3 weeks. It all started one day when I noticed a service package with a lower price and faster internet. And I decided to return my second DVR box. Went to the website, and it was treating it like I was placing a new order. So, I thought I’ll just go in to the Comcast store and take care of everything in person. Because the speed of the internet service I was ordering was faster than what my modem could handle, I was going to have to rent the modem from the cable company….

SO I go to the store, and basically the only thing that went as planned was the returning of the redundant DVR box. A point was made to give me a receipt for it. Got my new modem, and a replacement cable box, and went home, and couldn’t activate them. Numerous tries, and I even called 1800comcast, and realized why I still don’t like their call center (it’s outsourced overseas. I have no problem with the call center employees personally, but the accent on the line is so thick that it’s a language barrier in and of itself). One chat session on Facebook messenger was fruitless, so I slept on it. 2 hours later, I initiated another chat session, and this time I included the serial numbers and MAC addresses of both my box and the gateway. And they were able to get my internet service up and running right away. As for the cable box, a tech visit had to be scheduled. So I scheduled my next day off. And waited. In the meanwhile, I just streamed it to my phone, or I watched TV in the living room.

So the cable guy finally arrived, and got my box activated. I immediately noticed that I didn’t have any X1 programming interface, nor any premium channels, nor any DVR functions. Another chat with Comcast, and the rep asked me to send pictures of the box. It turns out I was given a DTA box instead of a X1 digital box. So, another trip to the cable to get the right box, and even the clerk there confirmed that I was given the wrong equipment. I was given the right box this time, and went home. And I couldn’t activate it. Another extended chat on Facebook messenger, and another visit was scheduled. So I went without TV for another week, and the tech came out. First verdict was that the cable box I was given was DOA. So she pulled another box out, and it wouldn’t activate either. Some more test were run, and it was realized that between the Comcast box and the cable outlet in my room, there was something interfering with the signal (the little box actually has to talk to the DVR to access recordings). So, that box went out, and the tech brought brought yet another box. This one Doesn’t connect to the wall at all. It actually connects to the DVR box via Wi-Fi (since I’m using the Comcast provided gateway),

So I’m now looking at the rat’s nest of coax cables that are now littering my room. And with this wireless box, they’re all redundant. The only draw-back to this is that the box only connect via hdmi. The tv tuners on my tower and my laptop need a coax cable to connect. I tried to connect them to the wall outlet directly, but they’re all encrypted. So I figure I’ll have to stream the channels through my computer. As for the TV tuners, I’ve ordered an amplified TV antenna.

And I think that my next computer will not have a TV tuner anymore…

The 1-2 hour power-on….

That’s how long it took from the time I turned my laptop on to the time that I could use it. Yes, there were a few patches that needed to be installed….

Anyway, my laptop still works, my weekend is over, and it’s time to go to bed. Goodnight.

Yet another weekend….

Yes, I know it’s been awhile. Sometimes life happens. It happens. I think I found my solution to my chronic urging to install Windows 7. The same thing I do with Windows XP and Windows ME: a virtual machine. At least when I get tee’ed off at it, I’m not nuking the entire computer. Which is good, since I’ve been spending way too much time tearing down the software, and reinstalling everything. And as usual, I got tee’ed off at it again, but I just simply deleted my VM and I still have a fully functioning computer.

Unplugged my air conditioner a few weeks ago. Until next spring….

Haven’t had to turn the heat on yet. I can feel the chill in the air, and my windows is still open, but my computer also had a 750w power supply, and so keeping my room warm is not yet an issue….

So, they’ve now formally started an impeachment inquiry against President Cheetos-Face. It doesn’t look good for him, in my opinion. Although in my opinion openly glorifying sexual assault (the grab them by the p*ssy comment in the Access Hollywood tape) was an automatic disqualifier for being president. The sooner he’s lawfully removed from office, the better…

Yes, it’s September 11….

It’s September 11 today. I commemorated it with business as usual. I’m not going to let the terrorists change my routine. I’m not going to give in to the fear. I’m not going to give in to the hate. Yes, in a quiet moment, I will commemorate the lives lost on that day. But I will also defy the terrorists. And sometimes, business as usual is the most defiant act you can do.

Live free or die.

The last day of my vacation

So I’m now starting the last day of my vacation. What did I do? Absolutely nothing. I didn’t go anywhere. I was going to watch the Monday Night Football Doubleheader (which was the official reason why I took a couple of days off), but I overslept the first game, and I’m that big of a Raiders fan. I was going to watch some CPL T20 cricket (I even tried setting my DVR for the matches) but the listings on WillowTV are messed up, so I missed half the matches.

Well, I was semi-productive. A couple of weeks ago, I got PO’ed at my tower, so I wiped it and reinstalled Windows 10. And Sunday & Monday night, I finished reinstalling all of my games. BTW, that’s a real pain in the ass if you have Epic or Twitch, since the only way to reinstall them is to completely download them again. Over 300 gB’s worth… At least with Steam, Origin, Uplay, and Gog, there are ways to back everything up.

Oh, and I turned on my laptop today. First time in a couple of months. Mainly to run some updates, and to charge the battery…

I guess on my last vacation day I should do something tonight. After all, I still need to do my laundry…

4 day weekend...

Normally, may days off are Monday and Tuesday nights. But I decided I need some mental health time. In the past, I would've just called in and taken a sick day, but my boss had read me the riot act a couple of time over that, and I do value continued employment. But, I put in for a couple of days' vacation. Abs my request was approved. So I'm having a 4 day weekend. Officially I told my boss that I was taking the time off so I could watch the Monday Night Football doubleheader tomorrow. But I think I'll be watching more Caribbean Premier League T20 cricket than football. Abs then there's Battlebots. Ave there's also the Puyallup Fair, too. But I think I'll start it with a little bit of football before retiring...

My adventure this weekend….

So at the start of my weekend Monday morning, I realized that I was running out of insulin. Not normally that big of a deal. Ok, so yesterday morning (aka my evening), I jump on the bus and head to the Spanaway Wally World, and pick up another vial of Novolin R (type R insulin is an over-the-counter drug, but you have to go up to the pharmacy counter to get it, as it is a refrigerated item). So I make my purchase at the pharmacy, and then I decide to get a few items from grocery. I put the pharmacy bag in my shopping basket, and then get my items. Then I check out. Cashier bagged my items up, and I was off. Got on the bus, got home. And then I realized that I my insulin wasn’t bagged. After the customary string of profanity (standard procedure for situations like this). I realized that I had to have this insulin, so off to the bus stop again. I figured I would just buy another vial and just learn my lesson. Walked into the store, and walked by the checkstand that I used to checkout. And my basket was still there. Along with my bag from the pharmacy.

Lesson leaned: look twice before you leave the checkstand….

Why is it...

Why is it that for some inexplicable reason I want some cake today? Oh well. There and things in life that should not be questioned. Happy Birthday. And if it's not your birthday today, enjoy your evening anyway... 

For the first time since 2006…

I used to assemble scale models for a hobby. Before I got my computer, and my first internet connection, it was what killed my time. My two best friends owned the hobby shop in the South Hill Mall. I mainly did 1/72nd scale kits, mainly military airplanes, and Star Trek on occasion. But I bought my computer, and going on the internet started using up more of my time, and I eventually stopped (the last model kit that I assembled and painted I actually never really finished). When I moved to Parkland, all of my paints, thinners, and my assembly tools were put away.

A couple of years ago, my sister gave me a Bandai 1/72nd scale X-Wing from the Star Wars Franchise. I was all molded in color, and no cement was required. There are a couple of other kits from the same series that are now works in progress.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, I was on eBay, and I found a 1/72nd scale Danube Class runabout from Deep Space 9. And I pulled the trigger. Kit arrived quickly, and I new I still had my sprue cutters and cement. And it came time to paint. Problem is, most of my paints are over 20 years old now. I did find a couple of paints that were still salvageable (and no, I’m not going to order new paint quite yet, just for a one-off impulse buy I made on my phone while on the bus).

Long story short, for the first time since 2006, I assembled a scale model. With paint and cement…

A little bit faster.

Since 2011, I've used a 802.11n for my apartment’s Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is a must. In our previous apartment, I only had a wired router, and my brother’s computer was out in the living room (gateway was in my room, and the cable outlet for it was in another brother’s room). So there were a couple of episodes of tripping. When my brother and I first moved into this apartment, he bought his iMac and he also bought a 802.11g router. Which was soon updated to 802.11n, so I could move the cable modem and router out to the living room. In 2011, I got my first 802.11n router from Worst Buy and things were good. In my year with dsl, the modem had a Wi-Fi router built in, and so my router got retired. When I went back to cable, I got a new modem, again with Wi-Fi N onboard already.

When I built this computer, the motherboard came with 802.11ac Wi-FI. So I decided to upgrade the router. Once I got the router set up, I moved everything back out to the living room (I moved the modem back to my room a while back so I could use the faster speed a wired connection provides. And I now have a faster wi-fi connection.

And I unplugged my Echo. And it will not be coming back. Too many privacy issues. It was a Christmas present from my brother, and I do appreciate it, but still Spamazon has privacy issues, and I don’t need them eavesdropping on everything I say…

From 3 to 2

Up until earlier this week I had three lines with Sprint. 2 were for cell phones, and 1 was for my usb modem. I never used the modem. Well, I did on occaision. But for the most part, when I had access to a flat surface to pull out my laptop (a 17 inch model), I could also find a good wi-fi signal. And if I need to use my sprint LTE service, I just pulled out my phone.

Anyway, last night, I realized that not only had I paid off my modem, but I wasn’t using it, and I don’t need to pay the $30+ a month extra for a service I really didn’t need. It took three tries and I had to change my password, but I was able to cancel the line.

Though after I cancelled my line, I did get a survey spam with a specific emphasis on using chat with business (I had used Facebook messaging on one occaision to try this). It was a pretty sketchy spam. So much I reported it as a phishing attack.

The Purge, Desktop Edition….

Just did a specialized purge of sorts. Many years ago, when I went to do a system backup, it was to CD (back when I got my first Gateway, which had a CD burner). Then about 6 years into owning it, I got a DVD burner, and started backing up to DVDs. The last back-up that I burned to DVD was 10 years ago, and it was 10 DVD’s long. By then, the size of my back-ups got so big that just started using my second hard drive (in fact, at the time I had burned my last backup set I was already using my second drive). So what happened to all those back-ups I burned? Well, I was looking for something on my cumputer desk, and I realized I had two extremely overloaded DVD spindles of old DVD I burned. So I just went through them. Most of them I threw out as obsolete (like driver cd’s for components that I’ve long since thrown out, like my old Motorola surfboard cable modem, or my really old d-link router). Then there was my old TV tuner that got tossed when I cleaned out my junk drawer. And I don’t think I need my Blackberry CD anymore. Anyway, from over 2 overflowing spindles to less than one. I’m sure I threw out a few blank ones, too, but if it was dirty, I probably wouldn’t be able to read it, let alone write it.

And while I’m going through my old CD’s and DVD’s, I’ve also thrown out a packet of equal (I use Splenda, or at least the house brand equivalent from Wally World. And a bunch of McDonalds salsa packets (yes, I like their breakfast burritos…).

I’ve got a long way to go, and since I have nights off I really can’t do that much (out of respect to my downstairs neighbors who keep a normal circadian rhythm). But there’s a spot on my desk that’s clean again. It’s an obscure, out of the way location, but it’snow clean…

Second three day weekend in a row.

This was my second three day weekend in a row. Last week, on Sunday night (my ‘Friday’), I woke up with a headache which progressed to nausea, and I decided that I’m not going to puke at work. So, I called out. I had enough sick time to cover it. And after a monster and a Tylenol, it went away (probably caffeine withdrawal).

This week, it was planned. About a month ago, I requested the day off &put in for vacation time for it. And it was approved (though approval didn’t happen until after my schedule was written…

So, I finished my computer. Yes, I built it a couple of weeks ago, but there were still a few odds and ends. There was the DOA video card which was replaced, and had to be installed. And then I realized I wanted a memory card reader, so I found one cheap on Newegg. My new computer has more USB ports on the front of the tower than my HP towers had all together. Haven’t yet achieved a framerate in Flight Simulator X that I thought I would it’s still better than before….

So I was playing around with Windows ME last night….

So I was playing around with Windows ME last night. Uninstalled some software, and installed some other software. And then it flaked on me. To the point of not being able to boot. Normally, I’d be upset (more like PO’ed) and I’d end up pulling out my boot disk and nuking it all from a DOS prompt.

But this time it was different. I was just in my virtual machine (I use VMWARE Player). So I just deleted my WinME folder, and re-copied it over from my archive. I’ll try again later….

Hello World!

I built my first computer yesterday. This all started last fall with my most recent attempts to upgrade my tower. First was the computer case (ended up rendering my HP Pavilion 500-214 unbootable at all, and I had to replace the whole computer). Then last month, I tried putting in a new video card (didn’t work at all). So, a week ago, I decided to go ahead and buy the rest of the components and build my own computer. Anyway here’s the lowdown:

• AMD A12-9800 Processor. Could’ve gone with a Ryzen, but this one was initially released only a couple of years ago, and I found one dirt cheap on eBay. I’m sure I could upgrade it in the future, (I made sure that the motherboard was new).
• And cooling the aforementioned processor is an Artic Freezer 12. Since I went the cheap route on the processor, it did not come with a heat sink. And I realized that the cpu cooler I had lying wasn’t going to compatible with the AM4 socket. Fortunately, unlike my Hewlett-Packards, the motherboard didn’t need a proprietary cpu cooler, so installation was easy.
• Motherboard: ASRock X370 Killer SLI/ac. The processor is an older one, but it still works, but I made sure the motherboard was up the date. It has integrated sound, ethernet, wi-fi, and bluetooth. And it has enough open expansion ports that I can upgrade things when I can afford them.
• The case. I went with a Phanteks Enthoo Pro series PH-ES614PC_BK case. I had nothing wrong with my Hewlett-Packard towers. But there was no room for growth. I could only have one optical drive, and one hard drive. Not anymore. I currently have two hard drives in (the first time since fall of 2014) and two optical drives (the first time since I had my Gateway). The two optical drive are siginifcant, because I have a couple of spindle packs of lightscribe media lying around, and I have a lightscribe DVD burner. But I also have a Blu-Ray drive, too and now I can use both.
• As for the video card, it was going to be a Radeon™ RX 570 Gaming 4G, but the reason why I didn’t work when I tried to install it in the other tower was that it was DOA. Fortunately, I realized this when I still had two days left in the return process, and I am replacing it. Props to Newegg for the relatively painless return/exchange process (well I hope it’s painless…). In the interim, I’m running a Gigabyte GV-R725OC-2GI. I know the card is old, but it stll does the job, and I still get a decent framerate out of FSX on it…..
• 2 hard drives. Both 4 tB. And space (and SATA ports) for 2 more….
• And powering this all is a ARC 750W 80 PLUS® Bronze PSU. Especially when I’ve upgraded video cards in the past, I’ve run into problems with the power supply being overworked.
• And of course, my TV tuner (I took it out of my old tower). It still works for what I need it for, I see no need to upgrade it.

Hardware-wise everything works. So far. When I started this build, the only tool I had was my Swiss Army Knife. And yes, it is possible to take apart a computer with only a Swiss Army Knife, I reccomend that you at least get a normal screw driver. On my Hewlett-Packards, there were a couple of star bitted screws in that case that I needed the knife for, but this current case has only philips screws, and a household screwdriver will do the job handily.

The one lesson I learned from all this is DOUBLE CHECK YOUR CONNECTIONS! Got everything put together then plugged it in and turned it on. Ended up reseating the RAM twice, pulling out the video card twice (before realizing it was a dud). The last issue was the BIOS wasn’t seeing a hard drive, and it was because the SATA cable wasn’t all the way in.

I’m running Windows 10 Pro. I bought this last fall, when I thought I would need for my last computer, and due to me not looking at the fine print, I ended up over-drawing my checking account (which has since been straightened out). But I held on it, and it came in handy…

And yes, my new computer is working. After all, this post is being written on it….

Yes, I know it's been a while....

Yes, I know it's been a while since I last wrote here. A lot of it was because I decided to do a system rebuild (becasue I just can't leave well enough alone). And then I decided to go back to what I was running before. And now, it takes two weeks' of days off to get my computer rebuilt. Somebody please remind me of that the next time I decide to wipe my tower....

But with all the work I've put into my HP Pavilion 500-314, I've decided to replace it. I'm actually going with a White Box model (aka, I'm building my own). This all started with my computer case that I got last fall. I tried putting the components of my previous computer into it, (mainly so I could use for than 1 internal hard drive), and ended up rendering my computer unbootable. And then there was the attempt to upgrade my video card last month. Finally, I decided to order the rest of what I needed and get it going....

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to upgrade my coffee maker. I wanted a keurig brewer because k-cups are so convenient for just one cup. But I also wanted the ability to brew a whole pot for the days off when I drink three cups to start my day. I found the Hamilton Beach Flex Brew, on sale at the time at Newegg. The real problem came with UPS. They delivered to an access point (the same one that I've had issues with when I was shopping with Worst Buy). I immediately signed in request re-delivery w/ instruction/permission to leave it at my door.Anybody capable of rubbing two neurons together would've done it. But no, when I thought it was being reprocessed to deliver, it was still stuck at the Access Point. Finally, I had enough and ordered it to be shipped back. Newegg stepped in, and ordered UPS to deliver it to my door, which they did.

Last week, I ordered some new jeans from Wrangler. They left a delivery notice, which I signed Monday morning, and left it on the door. Had they driver bothered to get out of his vehicle he would have seen it. But he just labeled it as undeliverable, and shipped it back. Several back and forth sessions with customer service, and then I got a phone call from a supervisor who finally agreed with me that it should've been delivered, and there are now 3 UPS drivers who are going to be ripped new ones. Which is good because I have a new power supply, motherboard, and RAM being UPS'ed (see the second paragraph of the post).

Weather is really warming up. I've had my air conditioner on since March. And yesterday, my brother set up the AC in the living room....