Adventures in Renting #533: Didn't feel well Wednesday and decided that I should put myself down for a nap when... and IF... I ever made it out of the can. But as I was still sitting wishing I hadn't taken that Imodium the last time I 'wasn't feeling well' a few days before (it's one of those medicines that's absolutely necessary at the time one takes it, but that messes one up for some days afterwards, or at least when I'm driven to take it it does), it began to rain -- and a dreadful wailing arose from somewhere else in the building. As it sounded Quite Urgent, rather like a smoke-detector in character, and went on and on without any sign that anyone was in attendance to see what it wanted, I dragged myself out to investigate. I couldn't pin it down as to where in the building it might be coming from, and I even asked the shop on the corner if it was their burglar alarm perhaps? But no: so I decided that since the only other thing it could be, around here, was a smoke-detector, I called the fire department. What the heck, it could have been a little old granny collapsed over her toaster, eh?
Burly, and cute, men arrived and began tromping around the building. I went out to gawk, just as they were determining that the Sound was emanating from an apartment somewhere right above mine (which would explain why it was so loud in my bathroom, I suppose). They charged in to investigate, and found...
...That someone had propped a window open with their smoke-detector.
I hope the city charges them for the fire-truck's gas, or something. This is why I live in fear of the intellectual capacities and deficiencies thereof of my neighbors....
In other news, I am now in surprised possession of DSL access. This is what the recent delay in communications was about, since I didn't want to (and as it turns out couldn't when I did try Monday) set up Formerly with the old info just to go through it all again a few days later... So, what caused this turn of events, you ask? Well, the phone company has developed the charming habit of sending us red-notices every couple of months whether we actually deserve them or not (it appears to be some hangup with whoever's entering the payments into the system so far as we can make out), and the last time we called them to point out, quite politely, that if they want to cash the checks they could at least jot that fact down somewhere, it came out in the course of the conversation that a deal was on offer whereby, if we trusted them to consolidate our local and LD service et al with them, the math worked out that we could switch to their DSL service, they'd throw in the equipment free, and we'd end up paying a total of $8 - $10 /mo. LESS than what we were being charged to do everything piecemeal like we were. So, having come to despise the old ISP with a rare conviction, we jumped at the chance to shake off our spammers for a couple of months. So I have been sitting around since Monday trying to find the strength to move around furniture to get at the one phone jack in our flat, and then to sit upright long enough to plod though the setup process... The old ISP is paid through the 8th (I think it's the 8th, around then anyway), so I have about a week longer to sort out the details of who I am where before my mail starts wandering off into the ether. I'm not entirely sure I am who I am with the DSL just yet (see below RE 'DSL company's website, software req's of'), so it will probably be Monday before I get things nailed down enough around here to start recontacting the donor list as I mentioned in a previous post; IOW, panicking will be premature until and unless the old email begins bouncing and I haven't gotten to you yet...
The DSL access involves a lot of software-updating-juggling-around on top of what's already on my plate from the change of computers, so a certain amount of confusion reigns at present. For example, the DSL company's site would rather that I had Netscape 5 or better, so I went to fetch it (and I mus also find the firmware update that will make Formerly's CD drive not do the 747-engine thing that iMacs of his and Griff's vintage are prone to, it must have got lost in the shuffle when he was being prepped to come to me) -- and discovered that I seemed to need version 6.5 of the StuffIt engine to unStuff anything I wanted to download from here on in. And, interesting paradox, one needs the 6.5 StuffIt engine to unStuff the 6.5 StuffIt engine... What eventually worked, although I still don't really understand why, was to drop the archive with the 6.5 engine in it onto, get this, an old copy of DropStuff that I found lingering amongst Griff's effects (so I couldn't have done anything I'm doing tonight before I extracted Griff's HD, and I feel rather vindicated in my decision to wait on the DSL setup until I'd got Griff sorted out) -- and for whatever reason, that converted the .sit file into a .sea that could open by itself. It remains to be seen whether I can stay sane long enough to try out unStuffing stuff with it in place...
Commentary on national/international news time, since the last month has been frustratingly eventful and I'm feeling pent-up:
California recall back on for October 7th. Is it just me, or have they been showing a LOT of Arnie movies lately...? I hear that there's a blackout on his films in California media markets for fear of having to give equal time to the other zillion candidates, so why are they torturing the rest of us with the sudden 'all Ahnulld all the time' scheduling? I do actually rather like his films, really, but not to the exclusion of all other programming; I'm beginning to feel quite propagandized-to out here... The least they could do is show "Hercules In New York" as well as the slicker stuff, and not just at some freakish time of the morning when I'm the only one awake. (And if you do get the chance, watch "HiNY", it's a hoot, especially since the version that I've seen floating around lately is the one with the original Ahnuld-ese dialogue track that they dubbed-over in initial release for fear nobody would understand what the hell this huge Austrian galoot was trying to say... I'd thought that had been lost, quite delighted it wasn't.)
Not sure yet what I think about General Wesley Clark officially entering the Democratic field. His qualifications look good, from what little I've seen of them, but I'm worried that his appeal is based more in the impulse to seek a 'protector' figure in uncertain times, than in any of his actual policy positions; and history shows us that while the flight towards strong and/or military personalities when the populace is feeling vulnerable can sometimes produce an Eisenhower, all too often what the world gets instead is a Napoleon or a Hitler. Not that I'm comparing Clark to Hitler, yet, it's just that I'm concerned about the odds, historically speaking -- Weird Shit can happen when the military gets itself involved in the civilian governance food-chain. And if there's one thing we don't need right now while we're already unsettled, it would be Weird Shit. I imagine this debate has already been hashed out when Eisenhower ran; Ike did end up doing a good job (it's not Republicans as such that I take issue with, just the psychosis that's set in with the Party leadership since round about Nixon -- I'd feel a lot better if I could get any sense that the two major parties are both abiding by the same set of rules, but so far as I've ever seen in my lifetime, the Republican Party policy appears to be that rules are for the little people), but the idea of a military CinC still makes me nervous -- heck, the potential power of the 'military-industrial complex' made Ike nervous, too. I will be researching this further...
Robert Palmer, George Plimpton, and a member of the cast of 'Leave It To Beaver' are today's entries in somebody's Dead Pool. Is that about a dozen celebs in the past two weeks?
The Cubs are still committing unnatural acts, but at least the White Sox have crapped out. I'm not sure if this makes me feel better or not.
Off now to see how much closer I can come to sorting out who I am online now before dinnertime or a complete psychotic break from all the illogic, whichever comes first... I hope to be up and running by Monday so I can finally settle in for the editing; I would very much like to have the manuscript in presentable shape by October 24th, which has the symbolic value of marking two years that I've been working on this project, and I think it may actually be possible, if my idiot neighbors behave themselves and no further financial surprises pop up to say BOO. So I have some work ahead of me for the next few weeks, wish me luck...
(...propped the window open with the smoke-detector...?!??)
Burly, and cute, men arrived and began tromping around the building. I went out to gawk, just as they were determining that the Sound was emanating from an apartment somewhere right above mine (which would explain why it was so loud in my bathroom, I suppose). They charged in to investigate, and found...
...That someone had propped a window open with their smoke-detector.
I hope the city charges them for the fire-truck's gas, or something. This is why I live in fear of the intellectual capacities and deficiencies thereof of my neighbors....
In other news, I am now in surprised possession of DSL access. This is what the recent delay in communications was about, since I didn't want to (and as it turns out couldn't when I did try Monday) set up Formerly with the old info just to go through it all again a few days later... So, what caused this turn of events, you ask? Well, the phone company has developed the charming habit of sending us red-notices every couple of months whether we actually deserve them or not (it appears to be some hangup with whoever's entering the payments into the system so far as we can make out), and the last time we called them to point out, quite politely, that if they want to cash the checks they could at least jot that fact down somewhere, it came out in the course of the conversation that a deal was on offer whereby, if we trusted them to consolidate our local and LD service et al with them, the math worked out that we could switch to their DSL service, they'd throw in the equipment free, and we'd end up paying a total of $8 - $10 /mo. LESS than what we were being charged to do everything piecemeal like we were. So, having come to despise the old ISP with a rare conviction, we jumped at the chance to shake off our spammers for a couple of months. So I have been sitting around since Monday trying to find the strength to move around furniture to get at the one phone jack in our flat, and then to sit upright long enough to plod though the setup process... The old ISP is paid through the 8th (I think it's the 8th, around then anyway), so I have about a week longer to sort out the details of who I am where before my mail starts wandering off into the ether. I'm not entirely sure I am who I am with the DSL just yet (see below RE 'DSL company's website, software req's of'), so it will probably be Monday before I get things nailed down enough around here to start recontacting the donor list as I mentioned in a previous post; IOW, panicking will be premature until and unless the old email begins bouncing and I haven't gotten to you yet...
The DSL access involves a lot of software-updating-juggling-around on top of what's already on my plate from the change of computers, so a certain amount of confusion reigns at present. For example, the DSL company's site would rather that I had Netscape 5 or better, so I went to fetch it (and I mus also find the firmware update that will make Formerly's CD drive not do the 747-engine thing that iMacs of his and Griff's vintage are prone to, it must have got lost in the shuffle when he was being prepped to come to me) -- and discovered that I seemed to need version 6.5 of the StuffIt engine to unStuff anything I wanted to download from here on in. And, interesting paradox, one needs the 6.5 StuffIt engine to unStuff the 6.5 StuffIt engine... What eventually worked, although I still don't really understand why, was to drop the archive with the 6.5 engine in it onto, get this, an old copy of DropStuff that I found lingering amongst Griff's effects (so I couldn't have done anything I'm doing tonight before I extracted Griff's HD, and I feel rather vindicated in my decision to wait on the DSL setup until I'd got Griff sorted out) -- and for whatever reason, that converted the .sit file into a .sea that could open by itself. It remains to be seen whether I can stay sane long enough to try out unStuffing stuff with it in place...
Commentary on national/international news time, since the last month has been frustratingly eventful and I'm feeling pent-up:
California recall back on for October 7th. Is it just me, or have they been showing a LOT of Arnie movies lately...? I hear that there's a blackout on his films in California media markets for fear of having to give equal time to the other zillion candidates, so why are they torturing the rest of us with the sudden 'all Ahnulld all the time' scheduling? I do actually rather like his films, really, but not to the exclusion of all other programming; I'm beginning to feel quite propagandized-to out here... The least they could do is show "Hercules In New York" as well as the slicker stuff, and not just at some freakish time of the morning when I'm the only one awake. (And if you do get the chance, watch "HiNY", it's a hoot, especially since the version that I've seen floating around lately is the one with the original Ahnuld-ese dialogue track that they dubbed-over in initial release for fear nobody would understand what the hell this huge Austrian galoot was trying to say... I'd thought that had been lost, quite delighted it wasn't.)
Not sure yet what I think about General Wesley Clark officially entering the Democratic field. His qualifications look good, from what little I've seen of them, but I'm worried that his appeal is based more in the impulse to seek a 'protector' figure in uncertain times, than in any of his actual policy positions; and history shows us that while the flight towards strong and/or military personalities when the populace is feeling vulnerable can sometimes produce an Eisenhower, all too often what the world gets instead is a Napoleon or a Hitler. Not that I'm comparing Clark to Hitler, yet, it's just that I'm concerned about the odds, historically speaking -- Weird Shit can happen when the military gets itself involved in the civilian governance food-chain. And if there's one thing we don't need right now while we're already unsettled, it would be Weird Shit. I imagine this debate has already been hashed out when Eisenhower ran; Ike did end up doing a good job (it's not Republicans as such that I take issue with, just the psychosis that's set in with the Party leadership since round about Nixon -- I'd feel a lot better if I could get any sense that the two major parties are both abiding by the same set of rules, but so far as I've ever seen in my lifetime, the Republican Party policy appears to be that rules are for the little people), but the idea of a military CinC still makes me nervous -- heck, the potential power of the 'military-industrial complex' made Ike nervous, too. I will be researching this further...
Robert Palmer, George Plimpton, and a member of the cast of 'Leave It To Beaver' are today's entries in somebody's Dead Pool. Is that about a dozen celebs in the past two weeks?
The Cubs are still committing unnatural acts, but at least the White Sox have crapped out. I'm not sure if this makes me feel better or not.
Off now to see how much closer I can come to sorting out who I am online now before dinnertime or a complete psychotic break from all the illogic, whichever comes first... I hope to be up and running by Monday so I can finally settle in for the editing; I would very much like to have the manuscript in presentable shape by October 24th, which has the symbolic value of marking two years that I've been working on this project, and I think it may actually be possible, if my idiot neighbors behave themselves and no further financial surprises pop up to say BOO. So I have some work ahead of me for the next few weeks, wish me luck...
(...propped the window open with the smoke-detector...?!??)