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technology wrestling
December 22, 2010
Well, I'm doing my best to deal with the new computer. I spent hours on it last night, trying to get it current as to all the updates for MS and HP and Java, installing a new touchpad driver, trying and failing to get Flash to work properly in Firefox, finally resigning myself to IE8 (bleah), and then dealing with trying to get THAT set to my liking. Damn thing wouldn't even let me import my bookmarks en masse; had to do the damn things one at a time, re-create each of the sub-folders, and organize it all from scratch.
It made Spouse happy to come home from school and see me at it--I think he was pretty well aware of my distaste with the gift in general, and all the hassles that followed. Seeing me pottering away at it eased his mind a bit. And that's kind of why I made myself do it--even though I would have much preferred to just sit down and relax with my little Dell and breeze through my blogroll, Pet Society, and FarmVille. I really don't want him to feel bad for getting me this gift. I really do appreciate the thought and the generosity.
Speaking of Spouse and school, last night was the one last of the semester for him. He had his math and technical writing finals, and those were the last two. And he actually had his math grade already at 5:00 this morning. So far he's pulled an A in Mechanical Skills II, and Bs in both psych and math. No word yet on the technical writing; fis final went very well and the team got the maximum points, plus two extra credit points, but there isn't any telling what you could end up with when the teacher is a nut-job like her.
There has been absolutely no consistency in her teaching or her grading all semester, excluding the fact that she doesn't appear to be aware that there is a grade higher than C. And she's completely out of touch with today's business world. In a world where billion-dollar deals are negotiated via Blackberry, rules on how to write an email that reads like a business letter are kind of...irrelevant. Still, he did get some stuff out of the class, not the least of which was the experience of working on
a really good project team, and getting to enjoy the success that comes with that.
So. Christmas. Kind of over it at this point. We enjoyed the cookies (both baking of and partaking of), we have purchased all the gifts, we have even exchanged some of them. A few social and familial obligations to deal with, but not many, and not too strenuous. Instead of the usual Christmas with P&E, we are going to have brunch with them at the Boerner Botanical Gardens on the 26th, instead. Spouse and I pushed for this arrangement so that P&E (who are both recovering from accidents and keeping busy work schedules) would not kill themselves over entertaining us. This way, no one has to knock themselves out--except maybe the The Bartolotta Catering Company.
And we'll pop in the Wheatland crowd sometime over the weekend to distribute the presents--don't know when, yet, but it'll work itself out. Always does.
As for Christmas Day itself, Spouse and I have no real plans, other than having a Southern-style dinner of ham, biscuits, corn pudding, sweet potatoes, and banana cream pie (I was holding out for banana pudding, but he went ahead and ordered a pie from his buddy Pete at the cafe.)
All our gifts to each other have been "exchanged" already, we don't do church or trees or stuff like that, so what's left? Nothing's open, so we will probably just turn on the electric fireplace, stick one of our many still-to-be-unwrapped DVDs in, and have a quiet day. I'll probably even do some laundry. (I'm telling you--Christmas the Day just ain't that special around these parts. Its chief value is as a day off of work--and this year, it's just another Saturday, only without the shopping.)
And I'll proabably try--and fail--to install some of my games on that 64-bit nightmare.
Today was miserably long. Spouse drove me in to work, as he lives in mortal fear of me driving when the weather is bad, and last night�s freezing drizzle made for some slick spots. When he heard on the early morning news that there had been a 13-car pileup in the next county, it was pretty much certain I would get chauffeured. Not having to drive myself = nice, but having to participate in a conversation all the way there = not no nice.
And since this was my last workday before another 4-day weekend, naturally it dragged something dreadful. Doesn�t help that it was a tomb�with the day off, people coming late, people leaving early. I felt trapped. Still, yesterday was almost as bad, and I didn�t even get my mid-day smoke. My AVP took my boss and me out for a holiday lunch. I believe I�ve gone on record once or twice as being against such things. Food was very good though--we went to her favorite little trattoria and had sausage & peppers.
But anyway--tired now. As much as I'd like to enjoy my evening, stay up late, maybe watch a couple movies--can't do it anymore. I have a feeling I will be in bed by 8:30.
Reading: Hobby--"The Triumph of Virginia Dale" (1921), by John Francis, Jr. I know the main character is young, sheltered, naive, and not particularly well-educated, but I have a sneaking suspicion that she's also dumb as a stump. Other annoying things--the racism issue is not only present, it is horrific at its worst, and nauseatingly patronizing at its best. Not unusual for a book of the period, but not pleasant--and front-and-center enough to be a constant disturbance to the reader. Also--her father is a dick. And the town population is about half imbeciles, half assholes. And with some considerable overlap.
Really, it's a poorly written book. Horrible writing style, caricatures instead of characters, and if it has a plot that extends farther than meandering through the title character's life, it hasn't kicked in yet. I'm seriously wondering how it's going to produce any sort of a "triumph", as promised by the title.
General--I finished "Maryann In Autumn" (2010), by Armistead Maupin. Wow. He really...wrapped up a loose end or two. Won't say any more for fear of spoilage. I haven't moved on to a new general title, though. I suppose I'll have to go through the two hours of hell all over again on the new machine, just to use the library site.
Surfing: .
Listening:
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