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Equipment Failures!
Dec. 20th, 2014 06:15 pmThis has been the vacation of equipment failures.
My laptop started acting flaky on the first day I was here. Graphical glitches and blue screens of death began popping up with increasing frequency. A few reboots would usually get it going again, until Windows bluescreened with a video-related error and I started the process over again. Yesterday it gave up the ghost pretty much entirely.
Fortunately, Danae's parents had an old Windows XP-era machine (that is, of an age with my failing unit) sitting around. It's problem was a dead hard drive. Danae and I took a drive out to a computer store where I spent $50 (Canadian) on a 500GB hard drive. It's bigger than I need, and I could have gotten one cheaper through mail-order, and I probably even had an extra 80GB or 100Gb one one sitting around at home, but I really didn't want to be without a computer until the 24th. I installed XP with the computer's recovery disc (they keep all their software in a place they could find it!), spent four or five hours doing updates while playing a game of Eldritch Horror, and have a working computer again. A somewhat slower one, but I really don't care for what I use it for.
Today, I tried to use Danae's dad's tools to replace the coil packs on her Honda fit. A chronic and intermittent engine misfiring problem seems most likely to be a problem with the coils and they looked really easy to replace. Two of them were, in fact, trivial. On the other two, the bolts had apparently been cross-threaded by the dealer who last worked on them. I managed to break a bolt off in the block and was unable to remove it with vice grips. Danae and her dad are outside of the window right now with the tow truck driver who is loading her Honda onto a flatbed to go to the local garage. I am a bit embarrassed at having been optimistic enough to think that anything on a car would be as easy to fix as it ought to be. I'm newly reminded of how grateful I am that bicycle repairs are easier, and how much I dislike trying to do work on automobiles. It really should have been simple!
I've been sleeping a lot since getting here. I've probably been sleeping ten or twelve hours a day. I'm a little self-conscious about that, but maybe I need it? That, plus reading and some board games, are about all I've done, so I need to start digging into school applications again. I do want to apply to an MLIS program or two as a fall back, and the ones at UW-Milwaukee sound perfect for me. Especially the combination MLIS / Masters of Urban Studies program, which would function as a stepping stone to a Ph.D in urban geography if I still wanted to do that after a couple years.
Danae and I taught her mother how to play Dominion last night! That was a lot of fun, and it made me happy to include her in a game.
My laptop started acting flaky on the first day I was here. Graphical glitches and blue screens of death began popping up with increasing frequency. A few reboots would usually get it going again, until Windows bluescreened with a video-related error and I started the process over again. Yesterday it gave up the ghost pretty much entirely.
Fortunately, Danae's parents had an old Windows XP-era machine (that is, of an age with my failing unit) sitting around. It's problem was a dead hard drive. Danae and I took a drive out to a computer store where I spent $50 (Canadian) on a 500GB hard drive. It's bigger than I need, and I could have gotten one cheaper through mail-order, and I probably even had an extra 80GB or 100Gb one one sitting around at home, but I really didn't want to be without a computer until the 24th. I installed XP with the computer's recovery disc (they keep all their software in a place they could find it!), spent four or five hours doing updates while playing a game of Eldritch Horror, and have a working computer again. A somewhat slower one, but I really don't care for what I use it for.
Today, I tried to use Danae's dad's tools to replace the coil packs on her Honda fit. A chronic and intermittent engine misfiring problem seems most likely to be a problem with the coils and they looked really easy to replace. Two of them were, in fact, trivial. On the other two, the bolts had apparently been cross-threaded by the dealer who last worked on them. I managed to break a bolt off in the block and was unable to remove it with vice grips. Danae and her dad are outside of the window right now with the tow truck driver who is loading her Honda onto a flatbed to go to the local garage. I am a bit embarrassed at having been optimistic enough to think that anything on a car would be as easy to fix as it ought to be. I'm newly reminded of how grateful I am that bicycle repairs are easier, and how much I dislike trying to do work on automobiles. It really should have been simple!
I've been sleeping a lot since getting here. I've probably been sleeping ten or twelve hours a day. I'm a little self-conscious about that, but maybe I need it? That, plus reading and some board games, are about all I've done, so I need to start digging into school applications again. I do want to apply to an MLIS program or two as a fall back, and the ones at UW-Milwaukee sound perfect for me. Especially the combination MLIS / Masters of Urban Studies program, which would function as a stepping stone to a Ph.D in urban geography if I still wanted to do that after a couple years.
Danae and I taught her mother how to play Dominion last night! That was a lot of fun, and it made me happy to include her in a game.
