Pick up a bunch of clothes from off of your floor and pile them on your dresser to put away. Don’t put them all away immediately, thus ensuring you will forget they are there. Then, when you least expect it, out of the corner of your eye you will catch what appears to be a large figure looming against the wall, and you will freak yourself out wondering who the heck is in your tiny apartment and how on earth he got in there!

Hypothetically speaking, of course… ;)

Posted at 6:55 PM | (1)

Yikes, it seems that the evil spammers decided not to take the holiday off. I loaded up my email this morning for the first time since Friday afternoon and found that I had over 700 messages to download. 99.9% of them were notifications of spam comments on my blog. Good grief!

Luckily most of them didn’t go through, but the most annoying thing was deleting them all. I did batch delete and all that, but you still have to kinda skim through and make sure you’re not deleting anyone legit by mistake.

That’s a lot of spam. Now, if only I got a dollar for every spam message I received, I’d have that new laptop paid off by lunchtime!

Posted at 9:16 AM | (4)

For the long, Memorial Day weekend, the weather has been SO nice. This is great of course, because usually when you have extra time to enjoy the weather, it winds up being crappy.

I’ve spent the whole weekend with Steve, which is nice. Hopefully he hasn’t gotten sick of me. ;) But we went shopping, and watched TV, and briefly attending a little BBQ/gathering yesterday.

While shopping, I purchased a new power supply for my computer, because, that’s right, the fun never ends with my computer. I had noticed while swapping the hard drives last weekend that they were quite hot to touch, and then a few days ago my system rebooted on me when I was doing several things at once, including manipulating several photos in Photoshop. Well, upon closer inspection, I noticed that the fan in my power supply was no longer running. According to Kevin, it is just a matter of time before the thing blows up or something, possibly taking another piece of hardware with it as it surges power through the system in a final hurrah. So, new power supply it is—certainly cheaper than buying a whole new system (which considering I just bought that new laptop would be a bit much for me at the moment).

Hopefully this is as much computer excitement as I’ll have for awhile, but in the meantime I suppose I will go back to enjoying what is left of the lovely holiday.

Posted at 9:22 AM | (0)

But I believe there is a moth in my bowl.

How on earth does this happen?? For the most part I don’t open any windows in my apartment, although I did for a little while a few days ago, and again right now, since it is being unseasonably warm (especially considering all the rain a few weeks ago). Thus, when I went to wash the dishes that have only probably been sitting there for a week, you can imagine my surprise when I found a dead moth floating in a bowl that was half-filled with water.

How did the moth get in? I didn’t see anything fly in when last I had the window open, and I like to think I’d notice some giant insect buzzing around—especially ones that are attracted to lightbulbs (of which I have several of the lovely unadorned, bare variety). And yet, there it was. I would’ve dumped it down the sink, but my sink is such where it wouldn’t have fit through, so I was forced to empty out the water and throw the bug away.

God, how bugs gross me out. I hope it doesn’t climb out of the trash and try to attack me.

Posted at 5:47 PM | (1)

I could not have been any dumber over the weekend. Right before I went to bed on Saturday I managed to infect my computer with some virus. In a panic of wanting to fix it before going to bed, I quickly attempted some solutions which did not work, and the result was a VERY sluggish system that would not be fit to do any work on.

So, I reinstalled Windows, hoping it would overwrite the Windows files, but leave my other programs intact. It worked when I switched my hard drive over to this system, but alas not this time. It erased everything in my documents folders and desktop, meaning all of the work I’d done, as well as random old files that may have some nostalgic value. I tried running a proram to retrieve deleted files, but it kept making my computer restart. I worked on it until 4am, tried to sleep, only to wake a little after 5am all anxious for how it turned out. I then tried swapping hard drives, making the slave the master so I could install Windows on there and try the retrieval again, but it wouldn’t recognize the other drive.

Sunday afternoon, I formatted, deleting all partitions, and now I have a clean install of Windows, though it doesn’t recognize my CD-burner for some reason. I’ll get to that eventually I suppose, but at least I can work. I am a genius for finding a way to break two computers in less than a week. I ordered my new laptop yesterday, so hopefully it ships sooner rather than later. Beause, I’m not sure if I can take anything else going wrong!!

Posted at 8:12 AM | (3)

I think i need to buy a new laptop. The Thinkpad laptop I bought 3 years ago this March (making it conveniently out of warranty) suddenly died on me yesterday.

Well, it’s not totally dead. I am able to boot it up sometimes for a short period of time before it either freezes on me, gets a fatal error and reboots itself, tries to load up and beeps at me, or just makes regular startup noises without anything on-screen. Suffice it to say, all these options are bad. On the bad side, ALL of my work-related emails, passwords, files, etc. were stored on there. On the good side, one of the times I got the computer loaded up, I was able to transfer all the files and settings over to my desktop. On another bad side, I am now constrained to my desk—no more working from the bed or anywhere else.

Maybe I could get it repaired, but as has been pointed out, shelling out money for these fixes still means I have a 3 year old laptop. Something else could go wrong next. As it is, the internal wireless DID die late last year (for which I bought an adapter card so I could resume using wireless), and it has been running a bit sluggish. It is probably time for an upgrade.

It has served me well considering it received VERY high usage—it was on pretty much 24/7, only in standby mode when I wasn’t home. I have also used it with system-intensive programs such as Dreamweaver and Photoshop, often with both open at once, in addition to 10 other things.

Although I researched this system to death, I think I am going to just quickly buy a replacement. Both before I change my mind, and so that I won’t have to go any longer without the laptop. I LOVE laptops. How the hell did I live without one??

I think I’ll be able to get everything off that I need and put it onto a new one, and when that time comes, I shall go give it a proper burial at the electronics recycling center. Tis a sad day, though not as sad as if I lost all my data. I almost cried when I thought I couldn’t get it back.

Posted at 11:10 AM | (2)

I drove home Saturday night around 7pm, getting home around 9pm. On the last leg of my trip, just as I was about to go from the 210 to the 605, my sister called, asking if I wanted to go to Dave & Buster’s. Pretty random, but I said sure. It might have made more sense for me to just go to her place, since it’s right off the freeway, but my mom bought me ice cream that would be waiting for me to come home and eat it, so I went there first.

As I was taking the surface streets home, I saw my sister and Dominic pull up behind me, as they were headed to my parents house to come get me so we could leave. So we went and my sister got me addicted to this game where you drop tokens in the slot and try to push other tokens off one ledge, which in turn will eventually push some off another ledge. Any that fall off that second ledge earn you tickets, which you redeem for prizes. My sister, though she professes not to go to D&B that often, was upgraded to a gold card and has over 18,000 points with which to obtain prizes.

Sunday my family stopped by my grandma’s place to see her and wish her Happy Mother’s Day, before dropping her off at my aunt’s. We then went to eat at the Cheesecake Factory, running into one of my mom’s old friends. After waiting for 90 minutes we finally got to sit down and eat. After getting back, I hung around for about an hour and a half before heading back to SB.

What’s up with the weather, by the way? Totally hot on Sunday in LA, but still all cold and overcast in SB. Lame.

Posted at 9:22 AM | (1)

Done with the all-day Saturday class. I feel sleepy. I think it’s because I had to sit and explain everything to this older lady who had never done anything with Dreamweaver before and was normally a Mac user. I had to walk her through everything, and while I was very nice and patient, I think it made me tired. At any rate, I talked a lot.

The instructor took me to lunch and paid for me, woo. Another guy came too, and there wound up being 4 of us, as the 4th guy went to see his girlfriend who works there. We went to the Natural Cafe. I had never actually been before, probably because it has the word “Natural” in the title. I ordered a hamburger with cheese only. It was ok. The meat didn’t look like normal meat though, so I’m thinking I’d rather not know what I just ate, hehe.

Stan, the instructor, also bought a brownie for all 4 of us to share, which was good once I removed the nuts.

Anyway, I told my mom I’d come home for Mother’s Day, and I’m debating when I should leave. Should I leave now? Later? Should I nap? So many choices.

Posted at 5:23 PM | (0)

The class went well, I thought. Most of the time I just stood there, sorta off to the side, so I wouldn’t be in the way. Stan, the instructor, mentioned that I could sit and/or check my email or something if I wanted, but I sit and check my email all day. I wouldn’t have gotten any new messages, and I figured I should take advantage of a reason to stand and walk around.

I helped people with a few technical difficulties—and in the instances of truly strange things (like the keyboard refusing to respond) the solution was to switch computers. It was interesting that there weren’t as many older students as when I went through the program. Generally there was a sort of mix—some older working people, maybe a retired person, some college grads in their mid-20’s, and maybe 1 or 2 people still in school. This time there seem to be more people in their 20’s, which is interesting. It also means that in general, they probably won’t need the kind of help that the older folks who didn’t grow up with computers will require.

This Saturday we have an all-day class, which I may opt to sit for part of the time. A lot of stuff is supposed to be covered, so we’ll see how busy that keeps me!

Posted at 8:16 AM | (3)

In half an hour I will be standing in front of a small group of adults and acting as a Teaching Assistant. I am going to be helping out UCSB Extension’s Beginning Web Design class for the first half of the session, while the normal TA is on vacation.

This class is taught by the guy who thought I was totally awesome when I took those courses for the certificate program. He is also the guy who put in a good word for me around town, resulting in the freelance work I got, as well as the full-time job I currently have. So, when he asked me to help him out, how could I refuse??

It should be fun. I guess I might be a tiny bit nervous—not because I won’t know the answers (I always made sure to help out the people sitting next to me in class if they were stuck), but because I haven’t really “taught” anything. Granted, I won’t be doing much talking—I’ll mostly just be going around helping people who are having trouble with Dreamweaver and stuff like that.

Since I am only TAing for the first half of the classes, I am only doing 4 classes (although one IS all day this Saturday!). At any rate, I shall soon see how it goes!

Posted at 5:28 PM | (1)

I’m sure most people have heard the expression “April Showers Bring May Flowers”, but apparently Santa Barbara has decided to reinvent the motto. We did indeed get a lot of showers in April, which I’m sure has made a lot of flowers bloom, but that’s not all May has brought our way.

Our motto, it seems, is “April Showers Bring May Gloom”. Not nearly, as catchy, I agree. And yet, it seems to be true! It’s hard to tell if there are pretty flowers around if you can’t see more than 10 feet in front of you. The fog and gloom that are normally associated with June (hence the nicely-rhyming “June Gloom”) in California, and most of the summer in SB, has decided to make an early appearance. I guess you could say we are overachievers.

Of course, it’s hard to wake up when you can’t tell that the sun has been out for hours already. Granted, the weather was actually QUITE nice this weekend—it just took until the afternoon for the marine layer to burn off.

Wow, I just realized I’ve written a whole post about WEATHER. I suppose you could say it is a fluff piece—as fluffy as a billowy white cloud floating in the sky! :)

Posted at 9:41 AM | (0)

I’ve seen a lot of people blog today about how it is Cinco de Mayo and how this holiday is NOT Mexico’s Independence Day. This of course makes me wonder how many people DO think it’s the Mexican Independence Day.

I remember back in like 4th or 5th grade we had some special lessons to learn about the holiday, and we even learned a little poem. I don’t remember all of it, and wouldn’t you know that it doesn’t show up on Google, but it went something like:

Cinco de Mayo,
the 5th of May
Is not Mexico’s Independence Day
(which is September 16th, by the way)
….. Um, something about the French here
and how Mexico kicked ass, I think.
…..
And taught the world what they did not know
That Mexicans would fight for their Mexico.

Cute little poem, it’s just too bad I don’t remember it all. Of course, I’ve been out of elementary school for a few years now, it’s probably a wonder I remember any of it. Although, I do still remember some of the lines from the play we performed, “Snow White and the SIX Dwarves”. (Yet more proof that I’ve memorized so much random stuff that I have no room to remember important phone numbers.)

But, as usual, I digress. I mean, I learned that today wasn’t Independence Day back in Elementary School (and thanks to the spiffy poem also simultaneously learned when the actual day of independence is!), but I am afraid to think of how many people might not know this. These are probably the same people who can’t do things like point out Louisiana on a map (quite sad if you live in this country).

Now, I don’t necessarily expect that everyone knows the whole history of today, and I know I don’t, but if you’re going to use today as an excuse to go drink a ton of margaritas, you should at least know what you’re celebrating!

Posted at 2:41 PM | (4)

I’m such a dork sometimes! So, today at work I was instructed to call someone at 1pm their time in order to talk about their web hosting situation and any special sort of access I would need. Well, I call at like 1:03 pm and got the guy’s voicemail. No big deal, I just leave a voicemail.

So, I start talking and leave the basic professional spiel about who I am, why I was calling, etc. And then I get to the part where I say “You can call me back at…” and then I pause. Crap, I can’t remember my phone number! I got set up with a business line as part of the whole working from home thing (paid for by my bosses, of course), and as a result, it’s a new phone number. I haven’t had to remember a new phone number in ages, what with me only using my cell phone—my number hasn’t changed, and I also don’t know anyone else’s number since I store them in the phone. Apparently, my phone number memory in my head shut off after about 2002—no longer accepting new entries!

So there I am, pausing, when I should be rattling off my number like old hat. I realize that the longer I pause, the more ridiculous it will seem, so I frantically go through my sent email folder, looking for a business email I recently sent that might contain a signature file with my phone number. Upon finding such an email, I just sorta say “sorry” and then give my number, say I look forward to hearing from them, and hang up.

I guess next time I should make sure I have the number handy to read off just in case, because you just can’t count on people to be at their desk when they should. Of course, I guess I COULD try to memorize it…

Posted at 4:59 PM | (5)

Yesterday Steve and I had a late breakfast at our favorite locale, and since it was a nice day, we walked around a tiny bit and headed to Borders so that he could return a book. When we arrived, we noticed that there was an event going on—a reading of some sort. We asked what was going on and were informed that Oprah was going to speak.

So yea, we randomly went in there and then stuck around like all the other curious people to see Oprah talk about a book someone wrote. I guess it’s not too much of a stretch that she came down here to speak about it, seeing as how she has a huge house in Montecito and all.

I guess this isn’t really all that exciting, since it’s not like we MET her or talked to her or got her to sign anything. Basically we just heard her voice and caught a glimpse of her through the crowd of people gathered to hear her talk.

But hey, it’s something I guess. I pretty much never see famous people, though I readily admit I am not exactly the most observant person around.

Speaking of observing things though, I notice I didn’t post so much last month, but I will blame it on the fact that I went on those two trips and didn’t have computer access. Yeah…

Posted at 10:20 AM | (5)