Go sell crazy elsewhere...

/em is deafened by the feedback!

So, um, yeah. I haven't posted in ... (I refuse to look). Let's have a run-down, then.

I am still working on my PhD. Passed my comps (or at least the committee thinks I did, so I'll take it). Still have to write the damn thing, and since I'm reworking the entire concept to a more Linguistic bent (what I wanted to do anyway), I may have to shuffle my committee some. Fun times will be had by none, let me tell you what.

I am officially living by myself now. Hey, I'm 30, it was time. ^^ Anyway, nice 2/1 apartment literally just off-campus. I'm looking forward to being able to walk to work in the fall. This summer? Not so much. But it's a lot more convenient than the previous place, as it was pretty much off in the boonies. And it's nice, having my own place, where the furniture is where I want it, and any flaws in the place are my fault, which means I'm not as neurotic about what other people are doing to my comfort zone.

Still teaching. They forget to tell you it's addictive, your first day. Still teaching in Journalism, and isn't it so much fun, what with the department becoming its own college. But when I consider the options for jobs out there...

I am still perennially single. A complete lack of knowledge of where to find a dating pool doesn't help. Or even newdifferent people to talk to. I value my current friends. A LOT. Why some of you have yet to kill me, I do not know. But my collection of friends here in Denton that I spend any great majority of time with is down to two. Twegen. Duos. This is not a good thing.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to replace friends. But I'm bored. I want to meet new people, get out of the apartment, actually maybe live.

Do I have any how? Not a one. I started going to fellowship, partly cause I needed to, partly to meet people, and I value every minute of it, but I'm in sort of a gap age group. And as for putting myself online in some fashion? I just dunno. And since Denton seems to be allergic to 24-hour coffee shops now, and the only gay bar in town is kinda sorta a dive? Not really good places to meet people, let alone hang out.

Blah. Old rant. I could probably block-text search that last paragraph and find it in an earlier post. SS, DD, and I'm not talking floppies.

Glitch (n.) — “an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error”, from GMSV

Do I buy it? Not completely. Is it a rational, reasonable excuse? Yes.

As a reminder to everyone drawing a W-2 from UNT, all campus addresses changed - make sure you correct this if you use tax software!

You want a reason to not smoke Marijuana? How about the boys?

Clicky for the YouTube, if you're curious. A little bit of SNES nostalgia has been resurrected. And I solemnly swear, I am not rick-rolling you - that would be here.

XP SP2: liveupdate: O
XP SP3: liveupdate: X, d/l and patch: O
30 other security files: ...

I thought the point of service packs...

So my CPU video card and thermal unit on my main laptop are melting down. The corner fans aren't moving enough air either, and the video assembly sits on top of the wireless card/antenna. I'm debating pricing a new laptop, since it may will be less of a cost/hassle than trying to replace the video card/thermal assembly of a 2-3 year old Dell laptop. And maybe the wireless card too.

My desktop is still in full OS meltdown since I haven't gotten a Linux distro yet to boot it (thank you XP SP3 for completely crashing my Windows install).

My old laptop is old. And as cranky as you can make a 6ish-year-old install of XP.

Until such point that the gods of technology aren't pouring some liquid on my head, my presence online at home is as much a factor of luck as anything else. Fair warning ;;

Willing to bet this would be a fighting game you'd be all over...

Katie, I have no idea how you like those computer-destroying bastards. I have *never* had this sort of thing happen on a Mac. If it weren't for some of the games I play...

Anyway, need some tech advice from the audience. Windows Update decided I needed XP sp3 on my big box. Like a flipping n00b, I said "uh, sure."

Windows installs don't take four hours and freeze your box.

So I pray to god and power-cycle. The computer restarts.

And restarts.

And restarts.

Ad stultum for an hour?

Okay, here's the choice. I have an XP Pro disc, but do not have an ASR disc. I can try to be smarter than the Recovery Console, or I can drop a clean install of Windows into the primary partition of the hard drive.*

Now, cause I'm stupid and don't remember, installing won't force me to repartition the hard drive, right? I know I'll have to re-install the programs, since their Registry entries go boom,** but I've a fair amount of actual data on the second partition, if I remember correctly.

The irony of this is, the only reason the computer was on long enough for Windows Update to get its claws into it was that I was recovering data from a hard drive of Becca's that died.

*it's been five years - may want to on general principle anyway.
**considering that the setupact.log kept bitching about missing registry entries, "go boom" may be the wrong tense.

Okay, so I've been watching the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. At the end of the hour, she has a three-minute segment with just a bit of culture news.

So her correspondent is talking about a study that listening to one's favorite music dilates the blood vessels and improves heart health. So he asks Rachel if he can some of his favorite music. She, apparently not having spent enough time online, says sure.

His "favorite" music?

Never gonna give you up,
Never gonna let you down,
Never gonna run around,
And desert you...*

Rachel Maddow got Rick-rolled. On her own show. With the actual music video. By her own culture correspondent.

*Aren't you glad I didn't find a video link?

Bill, it's so thrilling, seeing your hats.

was reading a blog on a Obama reality check on the next 100 days.

"don't ask, don't tell" (i.e., "lie and hide")

I like that term. Blog's posted on del.icio.us, for those of you who know how to find me.

Presidency (Gobama!): score 1-0
Connecticut Convention: 2-0

Florida Amend. 2 (Marriage 62/38): 2-1
Arizona Prop. 102 (Marriage 56/44): 2-2
Arkansas Init. 1 (Adoption 57/43): 2-3

California Prop. 8 (Marriage 52/48): ... (There's already two lawsuits filed)

Final score: 2 good, 3 sucktastically bad, one back in the air

1) Fail my class, due to not handing projects in.

2) Retake my class.

3) On the first project due, do not put your name on the project.

I hate to say it, I like her. She's a very natural speaker. She really is a hockey mom.

Now, she's left out a lot of information about Obama's tax plan. Namely, the portions that would experience the tax increase.

But overall, she makes the platform sound reasonable. If the platform's stand on abortion and GLBT rights was so idiotic, I'd even consider the idea of voting Republican.

But not this year.

So I just got off the phone with Charter Tech Support.

We solved the problem the cable was having in 15 minutes, including resetting the cable box. She was very polite and patient and stepped through basic troubleshooting without making me feel like an idiot. She didn't put me on hold the entire time.

She was a voice-prompt computer.

Screw outsourcing, we're cybersourcing now.

aol account management blows chunky goat balls.

...that is all.