It’s been a frustrating couple of days. Yesterday, B’s computer started playing up, with crashes and corrupted files. After spending all day trying to diagnose the problems, it became clear that the old Win 98 OS was falling apart. So, we agreed to reformat the drive this morning and install XP.
Well, it sounded like a good idea at the time. I naturally backed up all his important files and documents. That only took an hour; our computers aren’t networked, we are low on recordable CDs and his machine doesn’t have a DVD drive, so I had to take his drive off, cable it into my machine and copy the files over onto my drive.
Then I put his drive back, and the fun part began. Formatting the drive was easy, and something i always make a production number of, with a loud dramatic countdown to “Format C: /s Y/N?” (“YYESSSS!!!” I cry, stabbing the keyboard.)
But installing XP? No…. that wasn’t fun. On the first try, it got part-way through setup, then simply sat there, with an unmoving progress bar for over two hours. Trawling through the internet for answers, i only found a suggestion about using another set-up disk. I tried that, and started getting BSOD error messages. Starting again, with a fresh format produced the same results.
By teatime, I’d decided to throw in the towel and install W98 instead. It was getting obvious that, despite the hardware compatibility report not showing any confilct, B’s machine just couldn’t deal with XP
The W98 install went very easily. Until I started installing the programs. Then it was one crash after another. I’m wondering if there’s some fundamental hardware problem that causing all the crashing. The CD drive is old – maybe that’s the problem, though we’ve never had a problem with it before. Or maybe it’s the BIOS – several of the setup error messages mention adjusting the bios settings.
I’ve now given up for the night. Some programs have installed, on the third or fourth attempt; B only needs one more program to install and he can get going again. But I’ll leave it until the morning.
It’s late, I tired; my knees are aching from going up and down the stairs all the time to find program disks and download drivers. I’m anticipating a bad night tonight, so some painkillers are in order.
…is always worth pinching, I say. So here I present my answer to Dawkins’ “Scarlet Letter” (see previous post): the astrologers’ “Sky-Blue Letter”! If you’re an astrologer, feel free to copy it and display it on your blog or website, linked to your local astrological group’s site.
For Astrological Association members, I’ve also designed a T-shirt (in white, black or grey) to buy, with profits going to the Association.
Go on – be out and and proud about being an astrologer!
This is the logo of the Out Campaign; if you’re an atheist, you display this on your blog or website.
I don’t define myself as an atheist – I’ve put it up because I really like the design. It’s bold, striking and simple; it also deliberately references the classic novel The Scarlet Letter, where the heroine is forced to wear a big scarlet letter ‘A’ as a punishment for adultery. Altogether, it’s a way cool logo!
It’s the brainchild of Richard Dawkins, who wants atheists to be out and proud. I’ve no problem with that. In fact, I’ve no problem with Professor Dawkins, unlike a lot of my fellow astrologers. Anybody who feels that his criticisms (some of them justified, I regret to say) will collapse everything they believe in should find a stronger set of beliefs.
I say I’m not an atheist, but I wonder if that’s quite true any more. I’ve been thinking about my personal spiritual beliefs over the past few months; no dark night of the soul drama, just a quiet reassessment of what I believe in. I’ve been reading up on Buddhism; I’ve not even attempted to unravel the deeper theological complexities of it, but the Eightfold Path seems to be a pretty good guide to how to live your life. Earth-centred Paganism is what I shall still always strive to follow. But as to whether there is a Creator (or even several Creators)… I don’t really think so; I’m coming to the view that we create our own Gods. So I suppose I should now call myself a Pagan Buddhist Agnostic.
And yes, I know that “Buddhist Agnostic” is (probably) tautologous. But what the heck……
Over a week ago, I ordered a graphics tablet on eBay. It was second-hand; I checked the price of the new model and it costs £25 – £30. So I wasn’t surprised that the asking price for this was only £4.99.
It arrived this morning – without a stylus. Checking the item description on eBay (which I’d only skimmed before), I noticed that it read “Comes without a styles.”
Now, ‘styles’ is NOT ‘stylus’. As I said, I’d only skim-read the complete description, and if it had said ‘stylus’, I would have picked up on that. ‘Styles’, I’d assumed, was part of the software.
One annoyed email sent off to the seller. Will report the result. Am prepared to name and shame!!! Grrrr.
Remember that landscape painting I started back in January? Well, I struggled and strugled with it, repainted it again and again. But it just wouldn’t work. Nothing came right.
So, the other day, in a fit of anger after a final futile attempt, I got a tube of white and smeared it all over the canvas with my hands.
It suddenly started looking promising. So I got a couple of other colours out, put them on my fingers and started working the paint in.
I like it. It’s called Eye of the Storm.
There is going to be a remake of that classic SF film The Day The Earth Stood Still.
With Keau Reeves as the alien Klaatu.
Ack. This could possibly be the worst remake of a classic film since the 2006 mangling of “The Wicker Man”.
As you may have noticed, I have now installed Skype (I refuse to use “I’m Skyped!” or some other some horrible mangling of the language). So any of you with a Skype connection can now talk to me online.
You may also have noticed the new ad for my astrology service – yes, I am now offering consultations via Skype. It’s a Skype service – I charge the client either so much per minute or a fixed rate, get paid via Paypal, and Skype take off a third for their cut.
I don’t like doing telephone stuff – I could never be a telephone reader, where you have to keep some desperate soul on the line long enough to pay the company its wack. But we ourselves are rather desperate – we need to find money for a new printer and the car is coming up for MOTting and taxing. So it’s time to get stuck in.
But at least I’m feeling a lot better now. (Ta to those who sent messages – very much appreciated). And I’ve finally finished the Oakleaf Circle site makeover, after weeks of procrastination. It’s only a new CSS design – I’ll get around to putting in a proper CMS at some point.
I’ll also be getting on with some digital artwork – I have a graphics tablet on order and can’t wait to try it out. Hopefully, I’ll eventually start selling some of my work on RedBubble. And then I can afford to get a decent camera…..
…is what I’m feeling today. Had another tachycardia attack last night, just after I’d got to bed. Spent an hour lying there, willing it to stop, then went downstairs (very quietly, so as not to disturb B) to get a beta-blocker down my neck (Doc G has told me this should do the trick, if all else fails). Getting down a flight of darkened stairs at night isn’t usually too difficult for me; but having a heartrate of 180+ BPM does rather mess up your balance, cognition and coordination somewhat. I comforted myself with the thought that a tumble all the way downstairs would probably cure my tachycardia.
Spent an age finding the packet of pills (still trying not to make any noise), finally found it, sat down to neck one. And my heart decided that was the right moment to go back to normal service. So Doc G’s advice seems to work, if not in the way he meant.
With my sleep thoroughly disrupted, I had to spend another hour watching some rubbish horror flick on Film4 before thinking that bed might be the better option.
So today, I’m feeling like a canine’s day-old excreta. B is out for the afternoon and there’s lots of things I should be getting on with. But really, all I want to do (and intend to do) is lie on the sofa reading the paper and doing a few soduku puzzles. Having somebody bringing me regular cups of tea and telling me how beautiful, talented, inspiring and thoroughly wonderful I am, as well, would be nice.
But one can’t have everything.
….since I bought these earphones for my ‘puter, I’m discovering all sorts of wonderful music. I’ve never had sound on my machine before; I had speakers for a while, but could never get the sound to work, then Son borrowed them for his machine and broke them… Anyway, I can’t believe what I’ve been missing.
I’ve been listening to just about everything that Bob Dylan and Michael Nyman have ever done, and discovered lots of other gems too.
For instance:
Or how about this unusual treatment of a Beethoven favourite.
There’s lots more to choose from – the internet rocks!
Just sent off Transit to the printers. Spent yesterday and this morning getting more and more frazzled. I was trying to put the magazine together, discovered that a regular contributor couldn’t make it. So I had to delete four pages and rearrange the rest of the magazine. Then discover a couple of items that I had forgotten to include, and rearrange the layout a second time.
In the middle of this, B informed me that our main laser printer – the one we do all our heavy-duty printing on – had just gone to the great recycling dump in the sky. Could I please get on the web and hunt down a suitable replacement, like yesterday?
Yes B, of course I can do it. Very simple – just type “laser printer” into the search engine. Oh, and yes, of course I can print out the full tech specs for each one – not forgetting the VAT-inclusive prices and delivery charges. But I managed all that, the ink in my deskjet kindly not running out until I had finished it all. And I carried on putting a magazine together, as well.
This morning, an email reminding me that Transit had to be at the printers NOW – but I’m still waiting for a last inclusion to arrive. It’s another regular contribution, and always takes up two to three pages. So I’ve set aside three pages for it. At lunchtime, it arrives – a very short effort that I’m going to have to stretch to fit even one page.
So, that’s two pages I have to rearrange and fill with something. Using my DTP-fu, I coax one section to stretch over into an additional page without it looking grotesque; unfortunately, that means having to go through it to tidy up the orphan lines thus created. But there’s still one page empty! So I go through the back issues and find a page of jokes from two years back – hopefully, very few readers will remember them from the first time around.
Then a last visual check-through, hit the ‘convert to PDF’ button and email it off.
Phew!
Now, all I have to get frazzled about is finding some way of paying for a new printer…..