June 28, 2002

As suspected, the network card for my cablemodem was the bootup culprit. While disabled, I installed a Windows 98 driver for it. Since supergeek didn't call on Tuesday, I used that time to reenable the SCSI card, my printer, and my sound card (since I run my sound for the TV through the PC and since it's Croc Week on Animal Planet, this latter maneuver was important. I know some day in the distant future, I'll look back on this parenthetical aside and laugh).

It was when I re-enabled my IDE controller that I hit an error message and that 5 minute bootup time occurred. AHA! I had Windows update the drivers and it put it into "Dos-Compatibility Mode." With the aid of technogeek on Wednesday, it became evident that the replacement motherboard I own is from a company which no longer exists, and for which there are no Windows 98 drivers for it. If I want to see my good CDROM drive (the SCSI card allows my stinky old SCSI CDROM to work), the ability to restart the PC instead of hang on the wait screen, and animated cursors ever again, I will have to upgrade the motherboard. We agreed this would be an open ticket provided these three symptoms would be addressed by a mofoboard upgrade.

Well, the OS upgrade was the first step of a master plan. I had intended to get a moboard and fast processor (probably to fit in a new tower case) and harddrive. Guess I'll be doing this a bit sooner than planned...

DD 12:55pm EST on Friday, Jun 28, 2002

Well give me a break. It happened before my time, and they never went over the Cold War in my school.

The inappropriate and incongruous words "Under God" were added to the pledge during the 1950's????

Jeez, hardly a glowing moment in our history. So out of paranoia over the commies and their atheistic sensibilities, Christians grafittied our non-sectarian national pledge.

"One Nation, Indivisible..." It actually makes sense and the continuity is flawless. HELLOOOOO!

So they're getting bent out of shape because the pledge is not being altered, but RESTORED???

Do you see what I'm living with here on a daily basis? The kind of insanity? And people think I'm strange...!

DD 7:41am EST on Friday, Jun 28, 2002

June 27, 2002

Well duh!

Took long enough for them to catch up with the modern world, didn't it? As fundies and lazies get pulled into tolerance of all human beliefs - kicking and screaming - they FINALLY realize that the pledge of allegiance was made by people who had escaped from monarchies with dirty little church fingers pulling the strings. So their big move into the modern world was to have one nation under god - that is, in direct contact with divinity instead of a single, omnipotent person under god calling the shots.

So how about one nation under an elected president, with democracy for all?

Hey - no one's paying me to come up with the changes, so don't expect any gems this early in the morning.

DD 9:09am EST on Thursday, Jun 27, 2002

June 26, 2002

There is a reason why Seven timed her visit thus. To explain it thoroughly, I'll give you a little background about my neighborhood... [more]

DD 12:56pm EST on Wednesday, Jun 26, 2002

June 25, 2002

I like to consider myself fairly computer savvy. "Fairly computer savvy" means that I know my way around a computer enough to make most users envious, but not well enough to get hired for a high-paying job. I pride myself for this cusp, because hardcore geeks lack the rapport and ability to enlighten people with what they know, while I have the ability to guide the most clueless and intimidated users into self-reliance.

Naturally, as with anyone who has even an iota of savvy, I possess a disdain for Bill Gates and Microsoft. There are many reason which I won't go into. Suffice it to say, I paid my dues with Betamax, and decided to join the 32-bit revolution - kicking and screaming - in 1997 with Windows 95b.

Other than a couple of stupid mistakes on my part, I've never had any major trouble with Win95. It's never lost data, nothing was ever serious enough to warrant formatting... It's just that over the past couple of years, Microsoft has stopped making upgrades to it. So it's really a question of whether I want to be further oppressed by The System (and I'll leave my rant over Roadrunner's discriminatory tech support policy for another day), or upgrade - kicking and screaming - to Windows 98 Second Edition. [more]

DD 1:07pm EST on Tuesday, Jun 25, 2002

June 24, 2002

Tuvok was sitting on a bottle of water, when Les came over and asked for some popcorn. When I offered for him to help himself, Tuvok took a dive with the phaser rifle and landed on Les' hand. Les yowled and was startled, saying Tuvok tried to take his hand off.

Considering nobody touched the bottle of water or Tuvok, I thought that was pretty cool.

DD 4:31pm EST on Monday, Jun 24, 2002

Well, Seven is back home, Safe in the rural midwest. It was kind of fun having a sister for a week, and it was also fun to run around with her for most of the visit. But if I've learned anything, it's that having a life costs lots of money. [more]

DD 12:51pm EST on Monday, Jun 24, 2002