So as a result of the recent therapy (on the fence about whether it's helping or not), I decided that I need to do SOMETHING even if it appears to have little chance of making a living. If I just sit here, nothing's going to happen anyway. If I go on the criteria that whatever I do must result in making a full living, I'll never get anywhere because I have no viable options.

BUT if I remove that from the table, then I have more options available. I arrive at a place where I can do something that I want to do with the criteria that it could possibly EVENTUALLY make a living, but it's not mandatory. If the criteria is, "what can I do that I could spend 40 hrs a week doing and feel as if it meant something to me", then the answer was immediately clear.

So I'm resurrecting the sci-fi novella magazine project that I was going to do just before we were told the REC was closing. It's not going to be "The Terran Conspiracy", but it will be the same project under a different title. Since I actually did file LLC paperwork and had to scuttle it, I think I should change the names so as to avoid confusion. Instead, I'm planning to call it "The Sidereal Times."

This time, I'm actually going to try to do a business plan. And I've ordered new desktop publishing, website making and photo editing programs that look to be somewhat more capable than MS Publisher. I've bought a new computer.

I've been here more than a year now in Jonesboro. I'm honestly tired of not being able to plan for the future, and I just said the hell with it. I'm tired of my life being on hold, so I'm going to assume that I'm going to be here a while and get on with my life. If I'm not, if I get excessed next week or a month from now or whatever, oh well, change all the addresses and carry on. This superstitious thing that the minute I put down roots they'll be ripped out has to stop.

In light of that, I've also put in for a week off in September. I'm going to ConStellation. I'm done with fafiating. I'm going back to fandom, and I'm going to find new friends.

Finally got around to fixing the netbook. When Ubuntu NBR updated the last time the wifi stopped working, and the video and sound had never worked. So I decided to try another Linux distro. I downloaded gOS Gadgets and installed via a USB install. Video and sound worked immediately, wifi with the addition of the old Linksys USB wifi dongle. Internal wifi still doesn't work but this seems to be a common problem for HP Minis.

So far it works very well. gOS is based on Ubuntu, so I don't understand why Ubuntu doesn't work. The Gadgets part refers to Google Gadgets. It's heavily based on cloud computing.

Got a new 4gig SD for it as well, so plenty of open space. Now to fill it up.

Okay. So the Dell debacle is over.

Apparently (according to Dell) the reason they haven't been able to put a estimated delivery date on the order status is because there's a shortage of LCD screens right now. So I told them to cancel the order and refund my money. They've got a week to 10 business days to do so. I'll be watching.

Then I got dressed, got out of the house, and went to Best Buy.

I am now writing this on a HP Mini 1116. It has approximately the same stats as the Dell I was trying to get, with the added advantage of a keyboard that's actually typable. I'm still getting used to it but I'm able to touch type on it fairly well so far.

Had a bit of a mix up in getting Ubuntu NBR installed earlier. I'd already prepared a 2 gig USB drive with NBR -- or so I thought. When I tried to get this new machine to boot to it to install NBR, it wouldn't despite having switched it to USB as the first boot drive. I plugged it back into Galileo to check it since the NBR image file had checked on MD5 and loaded without any problem on the USB. Upon looking through the files I found all the file names in symbols and gibberish. Turns out the USB was formated for FAT16, not FAT32 as it should have been. I wiped it, reformated to FAT32, and re-wrote the disk image file. Plugged it into the HP and it loaded perfectly and installed without a hitch.

I think subsequent installation of Adobe AIR, Twhirl or some plug-ins for the browser may have knocked out the webcam though. Will have to look into it as it was working earlier and now is not.

Well. It's almost 8 PM now and I need to get home. Enough showing off for one night. :)

Update on the Shiny Shiny debacle: It's been 5 days and I've made 2 calls to the customer service rep I talked to on Friday. I've gotten voice mail both times and no answer to either voice mail. When I look on Dell's order status site there is no estimated delivery date. On the first order there was an estimated delivery date from the day after I placed the order. They've already debited my account for the payment (on 5/11). Sent an e-mail to the customer service dept. this morning. Or rather one last night that got me the automated response and another this morning to get past the automated response to (hopefully) a human.

Am poised to cancel the order entirely, but am a little afraid they'd get that wrong too and not give me my money back. I could have avoided all this by schleping down to Best Buy and getting an HP netbook off the shelf. But no, I wanted a Hackintoshable Dell...


In other news, my airbed here at the Bug-Eyed Bungalow popped underneath me last night. Spent most of the night on the floor. It's gonna be a long day.

It is Saturday.

I have no new Shiny Shiny.

It was supposed to be here yesterday.

Dell and FedEx both screwed up.

Let me show you it.



You will note -- it states "incorrect address, recipient moved". That I may be able to grant given the nearly empty state of the Bug-Eyed Bungalow. But! "Delivery refused"?!

I called FedEx Tuesday night when there was no notice to come pick it up on the door or in the mailbox. I made arrangements with the guy at FedEx to have it delivered on Friday morning. He said he made a note to this effect on the file for the package. Yet yesterday morning at 10 AM I was getting a little worried that it hadn't yet shown up and checked the tracking. It was at that time being returned to Nashville. I had asked it to be delivered in the morning because of a doctor's appt. at 1:30. Even if it was on a truck coming from Nashville it would take 5 hrs. at best to get here... and the truck left at 8:20 AM.

So I called FedEx, asked WTF is going on here, they said the shipper (Dell) had requested it be returned. So I called Dell and got passed up to a supervisor. This was when I find out there was no note on the package file, no record of my call Tuesday night. And I made certain to emphasize I had not refused delivery, I do in fact live here, the address was correct and I verified it with my apparently non-existant call Tuesday night. The supervisor was obviously silently freaking over all this, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. He got the FedEx manager from Athens on the call who passed the buck saying there was nothing she could do as it was on a truck bound for Nashville.

The Dell supervisor ended up promising to send me a "replacement", and it had better be exactly what I ordered. But he won't know when he'll be able to send it, and I now have no order page on the Dell website to check on the status.

So yeah, I'm a little pissed. To put it lightly.

And I asked them to change the address on the delivery for this one, to deliver it to me at work. If they can't find the Gainesville main Post Office -- which they deliver to at least twice a week -- then I'm fragging canceling the order and getting a Hewlett-Packard at Best Buy. I am fragging tired of this.

In one of those dizzying reversals the computer industry is known for, my new Dell Vostro A90 is due to arrive today. It was listed as "in production" until this past Saturday (5/9) and scheduled to be shipped on 5/19. Then boom, it suddenly changes to "shipped" without the least warning. So it's slated to arrive today. I imagine I'll play tag with FedEx for a couple of days, but still, a week and a half ahead of the date they gave me. O.o

Note this is NOT a complaint. The peanut gallery on Twitter is probably thoroughly disgusted by my going on and on about the "Shiny Shiny" like Golem over the Ring.

Job news: Have been asked to delay the relocation until sometime in June due to short-handedness. So I'll be living here for another month with only the bare essentials. And three computers. And a GPS. Given this, I may go ahead and buy a cheap microwave and some more cooking stuff and some storage things for my clothes. And possibly go ahead and get the dryer and get the washer hooked up. I just have this suspicion that I still won't be moved in by my birthday. *sigh*

Doctor appt. on Friday. Think my BP meds may not be as effective now that I'm moving around so much rather than sitting like a lump all day. As you may expect, this is troubling.

Still no word on what I want to be when I grow up. I may need to consult an outside paid opinion for this. Just that the term "life coach" makes me wince.

Project 2230 now has 3 posts. www.project2230.net

Had to wrestle with the mortgage co. yesterday because I'm a glutton for punishment. How many times can I say "no, I can't pay you people" before they get it through their thick barely English-literate heads? So am spending most of my time now at varying levels of depressed about that. Oddly, being at work provides a sort of escape from that since I can't think about much else at work but work.

Well. Must call Dr. Jones' office and see if they can send my records to the new doctor.

ETA to shipping, May 19th.

Shiny shiny shiny.

Further bulletins as events warrant.

That is all.

So yeah, the Dell is dead. Long live the Dell.

And it wasn't even the Ubuntu crash that killed it. The tech at Affordable couldn't get into the BIOS either, which he said indicated some far worse issues than just a OS crash or whatever. I took it in this morning thinking I'd just get the HD replaced and start over, but after confirming that he couldn't get into the BIOS in any way or fashion he said I could probably send it to Dell and they could fix it.

So I thanked my lucky stars I've been flush these last few weeks, and bought another computer, on which I speak to you at this moment.

This one is another Compaq, an Evo N610C. 2gig processor, 40gig HD, 512mg RAM. 14.1 screen. After mistakenly installing Feisty Fawn (where I was looking at 150+ upgrades) I had a Homer Simpson moment and dug out one of my copies of Gutsy Gibbon. I still had quite a few upgrades to chew through, but it's mostly done now at least for the basic system stuff. I have yet to get my extra stuff installed (Liferea, XChat, Zim, Scribus, Open Arena, etc), but I figure I will take those in more piecemeal fashion. I have yet to even config Evolution, but will do that next. Not that anyone ever e-mails me, but it's the principle of the thing.

It set me back $513.

But damn it, I hardly ever indulge myself in anything. I collect USB drives and laptops, given the times is that so weird? And anyway, I only have 2 functioning computers. I know people who at last count HAD 11 FUNCTIONING COMPUTERS at one time.

I might at some point spend the time and money to get the Dell fixed, and if so may give it to my mother or one of my cousins or some other worthy individual.

As I told somebody last night on #boingboing, I collect stray computers. My first IBM compatible computer was a laptop, and I've liked them ever since.

Well, I need to get to work on Evolution and getting XChat up so I can go on #boingboing and lament the day's madness.

I think I killed the Dell.

As is apparently usual with all Linux distributions, when it went out it went out with a blaze of glory.

Was playing with it just this morning, attempting to acquire the next update on one of my programs (Zim, as a matter of fact) and had finally found a repository that had it and had added it to my update manager. I got on the Synaptic package manager, downloaded it, installed it, no problem. Then the update manager (different program) comes up with the icon saying I've got updates waiting. This is usual. It does so every other day or so, usually no more than a bug fix or some incomprehensible thing known only to Ubuntu developers. Takes no more than 5 minutes at most. Woo. This time, however, it came up with 643 updates. 643. After picking up my jaw from the floor and exercising my entire Leet vocabulary by saying "WTF?!?", I trepidaciously hit "Install".

It did so, but was not able for whatever reason to install ALL the marked updates. I don't know why. It just didn't. And it took a couple of hours just to download everything. It seemed like every program on the computer updated.

I was really looking forward to that Open Arena update.

Then the computer froze.

It seemed a little hot, so I figured it was overheating a little from all that chewing threw package data. So I turned it off.

A few minutes later, I came back and turned it on again.

It hung about a milimeter into the progress bar for starting Ubuntu.

Then a few minutes later it comes up saying "initramfs" and won't accept any commands.

Okay, I think, I'll restore from the Ubuntu CD. Put it in the drive, rebooted.

It promptly didn't boot from the CD.

I had to come in here to Copernicus and look up how to get into the BIOS to change the boot order, thinking it wasn't set to boot from the CD.

Contradictory reports had it either as F2 or F12. I tried both. Neither worked. I can't get into the BIOS. I don't know how to do this with Grub, the Linux boot manager. All I get from Grub is the options to boot from the kernel with either normal or recovery mode, neither of which work.

So I have no options left.

Except either buying a new used laptop (there's a nice Compaq Evo at Affordable that I wouldn't mind having) or getting a new hard drive (also an attractive and far cheaper option) and starting over.

Until I get this resolved, I will be WITHOUT MY ENGADGET, EEESITE, UMPCPORTAL, ECOGEEK AND WRAITHBAIT FEEDS. So be advised and use appropriate caution when dealing with me. I am NOT a happy camper!

And damn it, I was really looking forward to that Open Arena update...