I’d really like it if I could get the Averatec laptop to sell on eBay without being won by a Nigerian identity theif. Luckily, four ebay identities have been freed and returned to their rightful owners. Unluckily, I have had to list the laptop for sale for the third time.
But, Plan B has been fulfilled, and I now have a laptop that will play the new hotness. :)
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You should make Feral Cheryl your role model. She’s the anti-Barbie–a pierced, dreadlocked, tattooed doll. She owns no stiletto heels, designer handbags, or cheerleader outfits. Her only accessory is a stash of homegrown herbs. A student of spiritual anarchy, she’s a free-thinking activist who rejects all “isms.” Be like Feral Cheryl, Taurus. APRIL FOOL! I’d never try to talk you into regarding a 13-inch-tall plastic doll as your role model, no matter how cool she might be. But I do suggest you adopt some version of Feral Cheryl’s motto: “Love simply, live amply, run wild.”
Today has been a day of happiness.
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I have turned around the problem with work, and am paying attention to it with much diligence, so that it will not become a problem again. They have made the statistic in question transparent to us, so that we may monitor it directly, and that makes me happy. Easy access to monitoring my own statistics lets me put faith in the system in a way that wouldn’t exist if it were solely in the hands of the supervisors and managers.
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Myst 3: Exile came in, and I picked it up. It’s a little strange playing it on the PS2, but whoo boy! It’s not quite a full 3d environment yet. Instead of the still images with embedded quicktime video, it is a series of quicktime VR “images” that allow full 360-degree viewing, that shift as you move much like the images did in the first two Myst games. Holy cheese, the detail is amazing!
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I am bald again, thanks to the best barber shop in Lansing. :)
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I ate fast food on the way into work, and I can definitely tell that my body has gotten used to not having to deal with that crap. Note for future reference.
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Go go gadget auctions!
So, after I had gotten into a good mood, I had a review at my job.
Not so good, this review.
Now that it’s had some time to sift, there’s some contradictory information that’s been handed to me, that I intend to follow up on until I get some plain, straightforward answers. I don’t think it’ll be quite as bad as pulling teeth.
There is some good that has come of this. Certain aspects of my life and my motivation have seriously gelled, and in a way that would not likely have come to pass without the double-thwack that I received yesterday.
Oddly enough, they moved me to a bigger desk. My only real response has to be… more Transformers!
Work is work, and I am going to fix the problem. There’s no need for me to be performing poorly in any way whatsoever, and that is within my ability to change. So, I’m changing it.
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Plan B is in full effect, y0. Tested, verified, and confirmed. It is the new hotness, thanks to
Quickest way to feel a little less bad about being a jerk – stumble upon someone who is FAR more annoying than you. Dear gods, his valley girl voice is getting through my noise-canceling headphones! Volume UP!
I even frustrate myself sometimes with how the method in which I wake up can shadow my whole day. Thanks to working second shift, I usually go to bed around 3 or 3:30 in the morning, and wake up between 11 and noon. This is pretty much my natural sleep schedule. Phone was vibrating from 8 AM to 10 AM, when I finally acknowledged that yes, someone called, and no, I didn’t want to listen to the voice mail right now. This completely negated any good I did by going to bed early last night (around 1:30), and put me in the mindset of just wanting to sleep. Then, from 10:30 to 10:45, I was woken up three times by the dog whining and yipping out the window at someone or something that he really wanted to go and meet. He has no concept of whining softly. NONE. So, there was yelling at the dog (and the associated guilt) and then rolling over and going back to sleep. And then he went crazy again, because
And then I destroyed her good mood. She had bought me shirts. In the hazy frustration, anger, and petulant irritation, my mind tried to tell me that she was trying to dress me. I knew, and know, that this is not the case. She bought three shirts, all of which I like. The reality of the situation is that she’s paid attention to what I like well enough to shop for me, which is something that she likes to do, and I do not. And she accidentally bought them all one size too small. Instead of taking that as a compliment (She thinks I’m thinner than I am! Cool!), I let the mind weasels have some air time (I am going to look terrible in those, unless I walk around all day sucking in my gut).
I showered. I took my pills. I brushed my teeth. My mood slightly improved. She started cleaning the living room, and I packed up and wrapped an auction item. And then the passive-aggressive bile that lives in a bad place in me spewed forth with reckless abandon. Instead of thanking her for doing some cleaning, I shared my opinion that you could never really fully clean a house that old. I tried shutting my yapper and took the trash out. I couldn’t keep it closed for long, because she was cleaning the bookshelves now. We found the extra copies of my novel from the last signing (it’s a good thing that there are only two), and I was switching music for her. Then, my OCD ridiculousness about books being stacked on top of books on shelves, and CDs doing the same thing twinged me, and I did not keep my mouth shut. And then I bitched that she kept buying stuff, when we are trying to get rid of extra stuff.
That was the end of her patience. Really, it should have cut me off long before then. I realized that I was being passive-aggressive, and I came here, to Gone Wired.
Yeah, I screwed up. I was mean. I undermined all of the positive stuff that she was trying to accomplish. I was the person that I can’t stand in others. This is not an apology. I’ll do that in person. This is a warning to myself, primarily, that I need to keep fighting against being that guy.
This is worthwhile watching material:
I am fat. I have been my whole life. You’d be surprised how many women dig a comfortable guy. ;)
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Do not forget – this Saturday, 7PM, our house,
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I really, really need to catch up on my email replies. I think I’ll do some of that tonight, between packing things up for ebay, cooking, and catching the Daily Show.
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I’m really hoping that Plan B isn’t needed, and so I’ve emailed GameTap about the discrepancy between their advertised graphics card requirements on the Myst Online site and the video cards listed on their main GameTap site. Even if it turns out that I can just play Myst Online on the laptop, and not have access to the rest of the GameTap content, I’d be fine with that. Otherwise, they’re in some deep shit for this kind of bait-and-switch.
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I am accomplishing much, and feeling much better for it. I have to let myself acknowledge my accomplishments without minimizing them, no matter how trivial they may seem. I am getting things done.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): It has been too long since you visited the Middle of Nowhere. You’ve been a fixture in the heart of a well-defined Somewhere for quite some time. But now, Taurus, you need the enriching confusion of the Cosmic HUH?! it’s prime time for you to wander out into the fertile chaos of the WHAT THE HELL!? zone. Have fun! Don’t forget to writhe! Now please repeat and repeat and repeat after me, slowly building from a smirking giggle to a cackling belly-laugh: WHERE AM I AND HOW DID I GET HERE?!
I finally have a reason, a desire, to acquire newer technology than that which I can easily find used. It needs to be a wee bit better than the super-cheap, eco- and conscience-friendly methods that I have employed in the past. It doesn’t need to be new, but that wouldn’t hurt.
GameTap does not work with a VIA UniChrome video card, even when it’s cranked up to its max shared memory.
So, I must move on to Plan B. Never fear, dear readers, Plan B is also of the nifty.
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I have begun to write down my daily accomplishments, however small, in order to acknowledge them as such. Like many who commented in my last post, I do thrive on a sense of accomplishment. I have worked around using lists, checking them off early, questioning the value of each check, etc. So, instead, I’m making the reverse list. Not what needs to get done, but what has gotten done. I need to recognize that I AM doing things, even if they’re small, to have the confidence to accomplish greater things. Another thing that my father (and mother) used to tell me was that I could do anything. Damn right. I can.
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My wife loves me very much. And though some of you don’t see it in ways that you might expect to, I have proof. I got a can of this today, and it was DELICIOUS.