If I had to choose just one word to describe the last week, that word would be TRYING. If I got to choose two words, the second would be FRUSTRATING. And it all boils down to computers.
Last Tuesday my internet connection went down and it's still not working. Yes, that is a whole week that I have been without internet at home. You don't realize how crippling it is to both your scholastic and social lives to be without the internet and email these days until it actually happens. Now, I have (had) a cheap ISP, and every month or two my internet would mysteriously stop working. Usually, an hour or more on the phone with their "internet support" would get it working again. Not this time. In the past week I have received four phone messages from the ISP saying that my "order" for a new modem has been received and that I will receive it in the mail in one or two days. Hahaha. I have yet to receive the replacement modem. But now I don't care; I am changing ISP and telephone companies to the local cable company. It will cost me a bit more, but it will work and they actually answer their phones with a real person instead of a recorded message asking you to wait because call numbers are higher than expected. (I could call at any random hour of the day or night and every single time these guys I'm with now would play a recorded message about higher than expected call numbers. You would think they would clue in and get more service reps, but clearly I wasn't paying enough to expect service.) At any rate, the cable guy is coming by NEXT Tuesday (one week from today) to set up the phone and internet since they both go through the cable line. Since I have no faith that the replacement modem will ever come from this current company (and no faith that replacing the modem will actually fix the problem, since my personal computer dude has already tried that), I am expecting to be without the internet at home for another week.
Now, at the same time that all this started to happen, the Mac PowerBookG4 I had been loaned fried itself. This laptop was about eight years old and my computer dude had it fully tricked out when he got it, so it had been hanging in there pretty well. He loaned it to me about a year ago, so I have gotten some decent use out of it and it has been a huge help. I had been plotting to buy a new netbook at some point this spring or even summer; This plan got moved up by the death of the PowerBook (apparently the hard drive is shot). So, I unexpectedly found myself netbook shopping last Friday and I got a sweet little machine for a decent price and I'm really happy with it and my computer dude, even though he is a hardened Mac fanatic, admits that it's a good machine I got. But the saga doesn't end quite there.
Now a netbook differs from a laptop in two key ways: it is half the size of a laptop (about 10 inches or smaller) and a fraction of the weight; and, because it is so small and light, it doesn't have a CD/DVD drive built in. These are meant to be more of a supplement to another computer than a full-blown replacement, which is exactly what I wanted. I wanted something lightweight and easy to carry that I could use for my schoolwork. The plan was to network the netbook (named Athena, by the way) to my desktop (named Zeus; yes, I am a geek.) Computer Dude had already loaned me a wireless router, so I didn't need to buy that, and since the computer store people would charge close to a hundred books to come and set up my network and drive sharing (so Athena could use Zeus' CD/DVD drive), Computer Dude offered to save me some money and come down and see what he could do.
Which is what this wonderful man did on Sunday. And it's not his fault that Windows "sucks" (direct quote). Despite a trip to Toronto and back and several hours of fiddling around, he could not get Athena and Zeus to talk to each other (perhaps they need family therapy?) and neither could he get my internet working with a new modem. Even though I was not the one doing the actually computer geeking, I did get rather frustrated with the whole situation (but not with Computer Dude, I want that to be clear.) But Computer Dude gets frustrated with nothing and getting to spend the day together meant it wasn't a complete waste of time. During our trip back to TO to his place to test the modem and pick up a replacement one (he has something like three extra ones floating around), I was able to use his wireless internet to download enough programmes to make Athena usable for school on Monday.
But the problem remained: how to get my programmes on discs (such as Microsoft Office) on to Athena. It would cost as much to pay take Athena somewhere to get it done or to have someone come in and set up the network as it would to buy an external CD/DVD drive. Which is what I wound up doing: I spent the money I had saved on my really good deal of a netbook to get the external drive. Still, a little frustrating to have that unplanned extra expense.
I guess it will all work out. I am very happy with Athena and she does well at school. She has a pretty decent battery life, as laptops go, and because she is ten inches long she has a decent-sized keyboard that is comfortable to use. I'm still adjusting to using the touchpad as it's more sensitive than the one on the PowerBook was. And I can easily use my USB drive to transfer files between Zeus and Athena. Once my internet is set up and working again, the wireless router Computer Dude set up will work and I will have internet access on both machines at home. I'm looking forward to that.
Oh hai. I is the qween uv te oshun.
Mai hooman, she try to keep me frum mai ritful plas,
Tese are mai loyal subjects, te fishies.
Tis is te warmest place in te house, on top uf te lite.
Ok, tat is all. You go now.
