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Hey! I live! Sort of. I relenquished doing anything enjoyable whatsoever for weeks in favor of studying like a fiend for the exam I took today. Nonetheless am not feeling happy about my performance. Now that I've got that out of my system, let's change the subject, shall we?

I am writing this post from our household's "new" laptop. Oh, the joys of having computer people in the family! How we gladly accept castoffs and scrounged things! I've made the kind offer to help them out of any chemical synthesis issues they may encounter in return, but somehow don't think they'll take me up on it. Their loss.

I hasten to add that even free computers are not without their headaches. The computer itself is fine. It's the existing antiquated system and lack of hardware that stood in my way. To wit:
We've had a wireless router sitting unopened in its box for over a year. There was no reason to install it, as there was only one desktop computer in the household.
In the course of my studies, I was having trouble printing out some PDF files (Turns out the problem was ink cartridge related instead, but you can't blame me for assuming it was the pesky PDFs. We hates nasty pdfses.). I got the brilliant idea to transfer the files to the laptop for greater portability.
Right. Just plug this wireless router into....um...nothing. The desktop was ancient enough to not have an ethernet port, nor a wireless connectivity device.
Plan B! I'll just transfer the files onto floppy disks....and figure out how to get the floppy drive in the laptop.
Have I mentioned I'm not one of the computer people in the family? Couldn't get the other drive out to put the floppy in. No problem - we have a cd burner. I'll just burn these pdf files onto a cd and transfer them that way.
Only that's not really possible with said pdfs. They stubbornly refused to allow me to save them as anything but an e-mail attachment. Fine! I've got Outlook! Will burn the E-MAIL files to the cd, then transfer to the laptop. Happy files all burned nice and cozy on their disk. Pop cd into laptop. Open file.
What?! "Outlook has removed the following potentially harmful attachments from this e-mail: thefileyousodesperatelyneed.pdf"
Grumble. A quick websearch (on the desktop computer) revealed that this is a FEATURE! A security FEATURE! Thank you, Microsoft! Quick googling also instructed how to modify the registry to get around the feature. The registry edit didn't work. But I could download a handy fix! If only the laptop was on the internet! Which it wasn't! Which was the source of most of the misery in the first place!

Ended up using a much simpler file transfer device: paper and pencil. And swearing. Much mental swearing.

Here I am today, exhausted from pulling a late night last night (see exam, above), posting away because I'm tickled that I actually got the ethernet card installed, hooked up the wireless router, and a mere four hours (and one chat session with a linksys tech person who tried, but failed, to be helpful) later have everything communicating as it should be. I rock. (Steve - don't laugh at your sister in her ineptitude, and don't ask what security settings she's using just yet. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.)

And since I'm rambling and writing half a dissertation on my pointless computing adventures, I will be more random and change the subject.
Knitting progress: One sock finished (okay, I have to bind off, but I want to finish the 2nd sock first to make sure they come out the same because I was getting awfully close on yarn at the end of sock #1).
Household update: Never did mention that the porch got rebuilt (for the most part - piddly finishing things yet to do, but no one will fall through it now). Must post pictures, am very happy with added curb appeal.
Baby: This baby is MEAN. Mean, evil, naughty baby! Bad baby! The outside of my insides HURTS. Baby delights in torturing me, and appears to be attempting to exit by climbing out the top of my rib cage. If internal activity is any indication of external personality, we're in for it. Seriously - people think kicking babies in tummies are so cute! Yeah? Have someone prod your delicate innards in the same spot as hard as they can for three months and tell me how cute it is. The good news is the rash cleared up, so I don't think it was PUPPs. Just routine hives. 5 weeks (give or take) until eviction day!

Hey, it's just Rashada. The site/blog looks nice. Okay, bye.

Glad you got the wireless working. Did I mention, I'm pretty sure I did, that you could call for help with the wireless? I know, "I'll do it myself" must have kicked in.

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  • I'm Sarah
  • From Pittsburgh, United States
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