escape yourself and gravity

So the tech guy came out today to fix my computer. He ended up having to take it with him because they didn't tell him what model it was and he didn't have some tool he needed. So he ended up calling me a couple times during the course of the evening. First he said that he'd replaced the motherboard and that didn't fix the problem. He asked if he could run the recovery discs. I said yeah, I'd backed up all my critical data. (I didn't wail about losing all my screencaps, wallpapers, icons, and banners until after I hung up.) The second time he called, he said that it was the video card I installed in February that was failing, and he was going to connect the motherboard to the preinstalled graphics card, and would probably ship the computer back tomorrow.

So why didn't I try switching back to the old video card?

I THOUGHT about it, you guys. I honestly considered it, then dismissed it because the display wasn't GONE, it was just getting tired. I thought it couldn't be the video card.

So instead of going with my hunch and trying it, I've lost all my screencaps and everything.

My writing is safe. I made a point to back that up before even trying to fix the computer. My music is on the external hard drive, so it's safe.

But my GRAPHICS! And I haven't been brave enough yet to hook the external hard drive up to the netbook and see if I've lost all of Season Five of CM yet. I record the show on my computer because that's where my TV signal comes in, but I can't remember if I saved it to the internal or external hard drive. I have a very bad feeling that it was all on the internal and I've lost season five until my DVDs get here. *cries*

So my recovery CDs arrived today and I finally called the tech support people since they were supposed to call me last week and didn't. (I'd been putting it off since I had trouble getting the recovery CDs.) When I called the tech people, I discovered that the warranty people (Office Depot) hadn't submitted my service request. The tech people knew nothing about it. I ended up having to call the warranty people back and explain everything to them. Fortunately the claim number they'd given me was still in their system. It just wasn't actually finalized. So they are sending that to the tech people and I'm supposed to get a call tomorrow.

Of course, what happens when the tech people calls is that they're going to ask some more questions and try to figure out what pieces of hardware they might need to order. Then when the ordered stuff comes in, they'll come out here and work on the computer. So apparently I've got another weekend with just the netbook to get me through. Argh!

I'm very glad I stopped at the store and picked up a USB keyboard last night, and even more glad that I figured out today how to make my usual monitor work with the netbook. Using a full-size keyboard was great but I had to hunch over to see the tiny screen, since I was a full keyboard away from it. LOL!


In other news, our power was out for almost twelve hours Monday night. We had horrible storms go through at 10:30 (when the power went out) and then again at 2:30 (when it was still out and the house was very hot). For those of you not familiar with country life, in the country you get your water from a well. The well has to have a pump in order to get the water to your house. When you have no electricity, the well pump doesn't work. This basically means that no electricity = no toilets or shower.

On top of that, we have two large freezers that are full of food. Mom had plans for Tuesday and didn't even want to ask her sister if we could use her freezer (which is EMPTY I kid you not). Dad insisted, so at 6 am we woke up Aunt B. Dad and I went over there with a carful of food and ended up being almost two hours late to work. Dad was furious, but apparently it's all smoothed over now. But it definitely made for a grouchy Steph yesterday, when I'd had four hours of sleep, no shower, had seriously nasty hair, and have more time to make up at work. Then last night before coming home we deliberately called to see if we needed to pick up food while we were at the store. Mom said she didn't need anything. When we got home, she had nothing to feed us, and claimed that she didn't know we meant to get something for supper.

WTF. She blames it on her cell phone, so guess who's getting a new cell phone this weekend whether she likes it or not? LOL She's on my plan, so she'll use the phone I get her. *G*

BTW we ended up eating pizza for supper. I don't expect her to cook for me every night or anything, but Dad does (the man can warm up microwave meals and DiGiornos, but seriously he was never taught to cook), and we had specifically offered to bring home supper. That's what had us both mad.

Okay, downloaded again, and this time I've successfully started it on the desktop, and am using the LiveUSB deb to create a bootable live USB stick to install it on the netbook. Though I'm a little concerned, it doesn't seem to be doing much at the moment...

Based on a couple of recommendations, I decided Ubuntu would be my best choice. Downloaded the Desktop Iso of Ubuntu 8.04.1 Hardy Heron, burned the image to a CD, intending to then install Ubuntu on my USB drive to get it to Escrita the Netbook (because the netbook doesn't have a CD drive)...and failure.

Dr Reid the Desktop will boot from the CD, it lets me choose English, then when I say to "Try Ubuntu without changing your computer" I get "Kernel Panic - Not syncing VFS: unable to mount root fs..." The few Unix commands I remember from my days at Purdue don't help me with this. Googling this error turns up a lot of hits, but none of the answers are written with complete and utter n00bs in mind. Apparently I am expected to know something about Linux before I go installing it on a machine, even to play with it.

Ugh, this is why I have said over and over that I learn best when someone shows me how to do something, rather than trying to read about it and learn it on my own. The one exception to that rule has been HTML, but even there I have been unable to teach myself CSS effectively, as my horribly basic and ugly website effectively proves.

*tears hair* I thought this would be somewhat easier than it has been so far.

And so it came about that innerslytherin's father placed an order with Dell for a new desktop, and entrusted his daughter with the safe receiving of said desktop while he travelled the world. innerslytherin, desirous of knowing when said desktop would arrive (for she was heir to her father's current computer), logged on to the Dell website, seeking an arrival date. But lo! the order status was said to be cancelled! And innerslytherin, misliking this message, called Dell's "help"line. She waited. And she waited. And finally she spoke with a man named Mohammed whose speech was full difficult to understand. Lo, Mohammed blamed the credit card company and said the 36% discount, which her father received as a knight of his great company, would not be preserved. innerslytherin was full wroth. Mohammed did not help her, so she expressed her deep wish to speak with Mohammed's superior. She was assured that Mohammed's liege lord would return her call within fifteen minutes.

During this interrim, she spoke with the credit card company and was assured, most kindly, that the funds were engaged for this purchase, and that there had been no errors made by the credit card company.

Forty-five minutes later, innerslytherin was full wroth. She called Dell again and spoke with Deepak the obsequious, who put her on hold and hung up on her. She called yet again and spoke with Mike, who assisted her in reaching a manager named Ray. Ray was most helpful in speaking with the money lenders and usurers of his liege lords, and then transferred her to the merchants who would assist her in reconstructing her father's order with the same configuration and discount.

It was at this point that innerslytherin again encountered obstacles. It soon became apparent to her that a mere SIX DAYS after her father's order, the configuration which he desired was no longer available. She was again FULL WROTH. After much searching she found the coupon code he had been given. She decided to record for posterity the trials and tribulations she had suffered whilst attempting to preserve her father's order in his absence.

Then she was told that the coupon code had expired, which she knew already. She was told she would be given $100 off the price, which would still be $96 more than the configuration her father had ordered. innerslytherin's berserker blood grew hot and she waxed wrathful on the merchant, telling him that she had wasted two and a half hours on the phone or on hold, and had been hung up on and transferred incorrectly. She insisted once again on speaking with someone who carried more authority.

She heard no response but silence. After some minutes she remarked to her mother, "I think the little bastard hung up on me," upon which she suddenly heard music indicating she had been put on hold again. A few minutes later a woman (AGAIN WITH A FOREIGN NAME AND ACCENT) answered and asked how she could help. The weary innerslytherin expressed a desire to speak with management. Some minutes later an accented male voice came on the line and identified himself as the manager on duty.

With a voice full of weariness, innerslytherin explained to the manager the situation as concisely as she could. He promised to speak with the sales department and then stay on the line with her to resolve the issue. She was again placed on hold. It was three hours from the moment she had embarked upon her first telephone call.

The man came on the line, said he had the sales representative on the line and would be able to help her.

And she got cut off.

At this point, three hours and ten minutes after her first call, she slumped into her chair, eyes full of wrathful tears, and said she was not going to try again.

Her father no longer had a computer.