Love In The Asylum

 
OH GUYS I AM SO IN LOVE WITH MY NEW COMPUTER.

Like, I don't think I realized just how bad things had gotten with my old laptop until I started using one that actually functions properly, because things that had become run-of-the-mill to me -- the 30 minute start-up time, the constant browser freezing, the fact that I couldn't download/run anything new because I was afraid it would overload the system - isn't true any more. I've got all of my programs installed by now, and everything still runs wonderfully, unbelievably fast. *heartsheartshearts* And I now that I finally have a computer capable of running a good browser, I'm kind of falling in love with Chrome - it is so shiny and fun! And I have spent all afternoon fiddling with themes and add-ons!

(When did Windows add the dock to their interface? I'm used to it on Macs, but my old computer definitely didn't have it. It is very neat though - my desktop is cleaner than it has been, and I like being able to see my background.)

I've been stressing out ever since I bought the new computer that the problems with my old one were fixable somehow, and I was spending money I didn't really need to. But now I'm feeling a lot better about that. I had to get my RCC to help me register my connection last night, and when I was telling him about the problems I was having, he agreed they sounded like Very Bad Things. And if they aren't - I'm going to reinstall the OS on Max tonight with the disk that came with, and if it resolves things, my mom expressed some interest in buying him off me, since she's been planning to buy a computer soon and doesn't need anything high-end. So that's a bit of a relief.

And just so you know: New Computer has been officially christened Spock. 

Bit the bullet and bought a refurbished Dell Inspiron 15 for about $400 (Anyone who tells me OMG DELL SUCKS YOU SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT X COMPUTER will get a metaphorical baseball bat to the face. I went with what I am familiar with and can afford and I am OKAY with that). It has twice as much RAM and 4 times as much hard drive space as Max, and I'll be able to upgrade to Windows 7. And it's black. So that's cool. My dad and I agreed that as my Christmas present he'll pay for half of it.

I'm getting it shipped directly to my dorm, so hopefully no problems with the post office this time, and I should have it at the beginning of next week with all luck. In the mean time, back to the computer cluster I go. I'm starting to think I should just move in  - god knows I spend enough time here. At the very least I should get a sticker saying that this computer (I always use the same one) belongs to me, so you little freshmen can keep your hands off.

Still alive. Still don't have a power cord. Am flat-out furious at the post office - when I pay twice the cost of the item I purchased to get two day shipping, I expect to get two day shipping, not LALALA MAYBE YOU'LL GET IT IN A WEEK OR SO IF WE FEEL LIKE IT. Laura Gibson last night was completely fantastic, and totally worth the migraine I ended the night with (although if I'm going to be at a performance with a migraine I could do worse than Pacific Northwest-style folk, aka the mellowest musical genre ever). Lack of computer is forcing me to actually be productive and useful this weekend - I've already gone grocery shopping, and my plans for tonight include doing laundry, reading a Victorian novel about bigamy/murder, and doing a deep treatment on my hair. EXCITING.

...the stress about not being to write/study/do reading/get class work done is bad enough. But I think the thing that's upsetting me the most is that I'm missing this week's Merlin.

The power cord for my laptop just stopped working. GODDAMNIT MAX, WHY IS IT ALWAYS DRAMA WITH YOU.

I've got a new power cord on order from Amazon, and hopefully I'll get that in a day or two (for $18 in shipping I damn well better get it in a day or two!) but until then I'm stuck working in the comp cluster - and of course I have a presentation on thursday that requires staying in internet contact with my presentation partner. And a quiz on friday in stats with all the practice problems online. And online reading for two different classes. OF COURSE. (and my battery doesn't last for anything, I'm amazed I've got this long after my power cord went phhht)

Thank goodness for Amazon, though. I ordered my power cord there for $30, including shipping - on the Dell website it was $70 even without the shipping costs, and that about sent me into a panic attack. $30 is already more money than I'm really happy spending. Man, I really hope I get the money for theat call center job soon. And my paycheck for the last couple of weeks. I am getting very stressed about the state of my bank account.

SEE YOU IN A COUPLE DAYS. DDDDD:

Posting from the computer cluster (this is the first time I've gotten in here, since I have no dorm key. I also can't get into my room if the door is locked. FAIL.). I'm got here yesterday morning and am officially all unpacked and moved in. My dorm is awesome, tons of people I knew freshman year are back in FLoMo and it's great.

ResComp can die in a fire. Their stupid registration tool doesn't work, which means I haven't been able to get approved to get online. Also something weird wrong with my computer that makes it not start right, I don't even know. I may have broken the entire internet. My RCC is baffled and I am ready to start knocking heads together. May be online later tonight. Or maybe not.

ETA: Rescomp can still bite me, but my RCC is amazing. He's been sitting here with me trying to get my computer fixed for the last two hours. (It hasn't worked, but at least he's trying, goddess bless him). I may have to reinstall my OS or something though.

I'm really not tech-inclined at all, but I rarely have unsolvable computer problems. I figured out a long time ago that almost any problem I have, someone else more knowledgeable than me had, solved, and posted online about how they they did it. Google has saved my life (and my mp3 player) more times than I can count!

Gah, Max is being particularly difficult today. DDDX

Right after I got on tonight, I suddenly kept getting the "Page Load Error" screen every time I tried to go to a site that wasn't Fivethirtyeight, and half the time when I did go there. Sometimes I would get a page to load once, seemingly at random, only to go down again thirty seconds later. At first I thought it was just my internet being wonky; the network at Stanford's pretty good, but it throws random bitchfits on occasion.

But, but, I was still online! The cord was plugged in, the icon on my taskbar said had internet, and most importantly, MESSENGER WAS STILL WORKING. Which I knew because telyanofcelore  was still replying to me being all OH NO WHERE IS MY INTERNET?

Honestly, how does that work? How can I be demonstrably connected to the internet but completely unable to actually view it? *is confused*

Anyway, finally I gave up and restarted, and that seemed to fix things, but it made me all nervous and irritable. So instead of getting anything at all done, I've been working at the de-aging fic, which has been stalled at a particularly troublesome scene for like two weeks. Man, I really really wish I didn't have this thing where I am constitutionally incapable of writing scenes out of order. It would make my life SO much easier.

Max's broken internal fan is all fixed; I got the replacement part yesterday, and today after class I went to the bookstore and bought a screwdriver, and then spent the afternoon taking Max apart and putting him back together. Poor boy's all violated, like, and I've seen his innards as I never have before. I was terrified I was going to screw something up and kill him forever, rendering me laptop-less, which would be catastrophic, but the instructions from the Dell site were remarkably clear and easy to follow once I actually got in there and started fiddling with things. Aside from a minor thing where I forget the first time to plug in the keyboard, it all went off without a hitch. The new fan is working like a dream - no more overheating, hopefully, and no more loud obnoxious grinding noise either. Yay! I am marginally competent!

Politics-wise, I'm still in a post election daze. I was following the election /so/ closely, obsessing over the polls, checking fivethirtyeight a dozen times a day, and now it's all over and I don't quite know what to do with myself. Also, I think what happened hasn't really sunk in yet; I keep being places, sitting in the dining hall, or walking down the street, and it will suddenly hit me - we did it. We won. This Onion article hits it pretty well.
But, in this dearth of election news to obsess over, I have in fact moved on to obsessing over Obama's cabinet. You guys, I think I'm in love with with his Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel. This guy is AWESOME. Crazy angry Leftist Jewish senator FTW. He once mailed an enemy a /rotting fish./  And he's impressively hot for a 48-year-old Jewish senator, and good gods I'm a horrible person but now I want Obama/Emmanuel RPS.
It's not /that/ far-fetched.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have the first season of Supernatural to finsh watching on my totally working computer. :D

After serious thought (read: this just occurred to me out of nowhere) I have concluded that my external drive is named Heero. Why?

1. Totally my hero, because without it my hard drive would be completely full by now and I would not be able to download and watch the slashy goodness that is SGA and Merlin
2. It spends most of its time plugged into Max (and here I snicker like a 12-year-old) and
3. I just picked Max up without remembering that my drive was plugged in and sent it flying halfway across the room, and it still works perfectly fine. Heero is hardcore, people.

WHY AM I STILL AWAKE TO THINK THESE THINGS? PERFECTLY UNNECESSARY ALL-NIGHTERS = EPIC FAIL

A Brief Summary Of The Last Few Days

Wednesday: spent 12 hours in the car with my father. Utah and Colorado were quite lovely to drive through. Salt Lake City seemed cool, for what I saw of it; we basically got in, ate dinner, and crashed. Because 12 HOURS IN THE CAR. Urgh.

Thursday: The salt flats in Utah are hideous. The drive was only about 7 hours, so that was good. There is a very small part of Reno (ie where all the casinos are) that is shiny and fun, the rest is a white trash dump. People kept mistaking me for a trophy wife. WTF Reno?

Friday: short drive again, this time through the moutains in Northeast California. Utterly, utterly gorgeous, if slow-going and a bit nausea-inducing at times (lots and lots of going in circles). I find it bizarre that I was able to read the entirety of Night Watch (Terry Pratchett), which was 400-odd pages, straight through with no problems, but 15 minutes of Japanese studying and I felt so queasy I had to stop before I got sick. We stayed with my uncle, who is neat (and /such/ a closet case), but had no internet and 5 golden retreivers. Enough said.

Today: got to campus around 1 in the afternoon. Moving all my stuff in was surprisngly hassle-free since it was stored literally 20 feet away. Roommate seems like a nice person so far, and reasonably messy, which is good. Two Major Problems.

1. I have no key! The housing office was closed when we got here, so I couldn't sign in and get my room key. Which means I have no way to get into the building until Monday unless someone else happens to be around. Or my /room/. I am very much spazzing about this.

2. When I went to register my computer so I could get online, I found out my wireless card had somehow spontanouesly disappeared. Like, it doesn't work, it isn't showing up /anywhere/, and the wireless utilty program won't open.  It's not a life-ending problem - I can get on with my ethernet cable, and it's even long enough I can get my computer on my bed once I can see it again, but I am so tired and head-achey and frustrated and sick of this stuff it has me about in tears.  I did everything my RCC could think of, including redownloading the drivers, but no go. She's going to ask around the other RCCs, but it might be a hardware problem, I don't know. Just...gah. I don't even want to deal with this now.

There will hopefully be a better, less emo post later, when I've gotten some damn sleep.