Things I overheard while talking to myself

Oh of course, printer, you can just decide that you'll not print anything, even something in black and white, because you've run of cyan. And of course replacement ink is practically highway robbery.

And I haven't even used the thing that much, it's mostly been Kurt. Unfortunately I can't ask him to fork over money since this isn't actually his fault since his stuff has also been in black and white, since he did as I asked and made sure he wasn't using the colors unless he had to. So I have to go get some tomorrow so I can make a copy of our new lease and get it signed and all that jazz.

Lovely Day / Breathe In by DJ N7F

One of the ways I've been amusing myself is learning more about DJing, especially making mashups. I think this is the best one I've done so far, and the songs just went together so perfectly that it was uncanny. I've been using this software and I'm starting to get the hang of it. Just reading manuals for software usually doesn't do it, I need to get down and play with it.

Also, this isn't just syncing them so the beats match (that's part of it) but deciding which parts to emphasize, so that's taken some practice.

And yeah, the DJ name is a Mass Effect reference. DJ N7 was taken, so I decided on N7F (the F standing for female).

We have a running joke at work that I'm partially responsible for, mainly that whenever something weird happens to the database that we can't explain we blame the gnomes. It works pretty well as shorthand for "it's fucked up again" that we can say around the kids that are sometimes in the office.

So today they seemed particularly busy, since I was checking the list of projects and noticed that one was listed in the wrong category. I knew it couldn't be right because I specifically remembered talking to one of the developers for it, and I confirmed this with my notes, so I checked out the rest of that project's entry.

Not only was it in the wrong category, but the comments we put in were from another project entirely. No sign of the originals. I was stumped, and then spent most of the rest of the day putting everything back in that I could get from the paper records we have. That took most of the afternoon.

Even for us, that's a headscratcher. I'm also pretty sure it's not actually my fault this time* since I don't have the necessary privileges to even make changes like that. I told my boss what was going on and even she was stumped, and she effectively built that database.

In short: gnomes. It's the only explanation that makes sense.

* For the record I actually have messed it up a few times, but so has everyone else who works with it.

It would be nice if just once I could upgrade some technology voluntarily and not because the last one broke/got fried by an open water bottle/was lost/got stolen/spontaneously stopped working, but eh, beggars can't be choosers and the very fact that I can replace it demonstrates that I'm not that bad off when it comes down to it.

It's not a smart phone, though they had me look at one that was slightly more that was a smartphone. I considered it until I heard I'd need to buy a data plan, which was the dealbreaker. I'm too cheap. D was (playfully) making fun of me because I was marveling at the bells and whistles on the new one (touch screen! voice commands!), which really are not that special anymore, but since I've been several years behind the technology they're new to me.

And I gave Ammy (the phone) a new wallpaper to reflect her name:

( Under here )

The black bar on the bottom is so the picture isn't covered by the menu bar. I also discovered that the phone can function as an MP3, and unlike the last one it uses a regular audio jack, while the last one needed an adapter that you had to buy. So my new phone makes both my MP3 and my camera (mostly) obsolete. Don't you just love technology? :P

I'm also re-adding my contacts, since they got wiped out with the last phone. I think some may be lost to the ether, but the ones I do lose permanently are from people I'm not in touch with anymore anyway. I did put a post on Facebook asking for numbers, and I've already got a few through that.

I cannot find my cell phone and I want to cry. I know I had it last at the gym yesterday since I dropped it on the floor and the back panel came off, so I had to put it back on, and somewhere between there and home it went missing. I still had my sweatpants on so the only place it could have gone was my purse, my jacket pocket or my backpack, all of which I checked thoroughly. I've torn the apartment apart, gone to the gym to see if someone found it, and tried calling it from Skype (which cost me $10 since I had to buy Skype minutes) in case I could hear it if it was here, but nothing, it just went to voicemail, and it seems the battery's dead since when I first tried it on Skype it rang but now it just goes to voicemail automatically. I even sent a text message through Skype promising a cash reward if someone has it and they return it to me. I don't know if it just fell out of whatever I was carrying it in or if someone took it, but it's gone.

Goddamit. I just fucking replaced this thing less than a year ago, and it's increasingly looking like I'll have to do it again and toss down at least a hundred for a brand new one. And knowing my luck the second I go out and buy a new one the old one will turn up. I'll try to wait until tomorrow at the earliest to do anything in case it does turn up, and when D comes home I'll have her call it and I'll keep calling it on Skype in case someone picks it up. I'm so frustrated that I'm tempted to just go out now, deactivate the current one remotely so people can't steal the information on it and just plunk down the money for a new one.

Why do I have such bad luck with technology lately? I got rid of the Vonage phone to save money, but that'll more or less be erased by the price of a new one. I guess it's time to be a grownup and charge the emergency credit card, even though I hate doing that, but that's why I have the damn thing and since my cell phone is now my only phone at this point I don't seem to have a choice in the matter since I need to be able to call people and they need to be able to call me.

Shit shit shit shit shit.

Edit: Fuck it, if the battery's dead the odds of someone finding it and getting it back to me are next to none, so I'll just go out and get one before the store closes at 7. Not like I have a choice.

Some jerk apparently hijacked my email account and used it to send spam email to all the contacts in my online address book. I use Thunderbird and have all my main contacts there, but this jerk sent messages to my minister and therapist advertising Viagra!

I already contacted Yahoo and changed my password and sign in key, and when I get home I'll do a malware sweep on my laptop. I doubt they did it using my computer because of the Thunderbird thing, but it's still frustrating.

So apologies if you got an email from me like that, if I ever find who did this I'll throw them off a building or something.

So I was thinking that now I have this LJ, a Twitter and now a Tumblr and about how I'm going to set the three up in terms of how they interact. Without really meaning to I think I've got a pretty good setup.

The Tumblr is for the most part random images or links I come across, most of which are pretty irreverent, which then get sent to the Twitter, which is for the most part short little thoughts about stuff happening in the present. The Twitter then ships to the LJ, which is where I go more in depth and talk more about my opinions and day to day life. I don't think I'll ever go into detail on politics on my Tumblr or my Twitter, but I often do that here.

So essentially it's a hierarchy of how much thought I've put into stuff, and also how personal I get with each thing I put up, and they all at some point end up back here, the homebase, so to speak, since this is more or less my website and I've been here since 2004 (which is kind of shocking when I really think about it since it's over a quarter of my life).

For the record I've completely cut my Facebook out of this process, since I don't really like Facebook in general and I don't really want them to overlap, though there are a few people who follow me on both. And yes, part of it is that Facebook has my real name on it, so it's much more my public face.

I also noticed that these days nearly everything I have online that gives information about me doesn't bother to hide the fact that I'm a lesbian if not outright stating it. If I don't say it on a particular thing it's more because there's not an easy way to do it more than me wanting to hide it. If I was even trying to pass as straight these days I'd be doing a pretty shitty job, and maybe as a result the amount of crap I get about it these days is close to 0, most being some form of "Oh, you're gay? Cool."

I sort of want to chart all this now, since it does seem very interesting sociologically when it comes to label negotiation.

Yeah, it's official. The old cell phone is kaput, if only because the keypad no longer works, which is kind of a problem since it means I can't make phone calls or do much of anything, including turning the damn thing off without manually popping out the battery.

After a while wrestling with the AT&T website I found out that I'll only be able to keep my current number and balance if I buy a new phone at one of their stores, wrecking my plans to do it online since I don't want to have to buy a new plan since I'm so incredibly cheap. I'll probably go over to one of their stores tomorrow or sometime soon to do that, probably by the weekend. Until then I just have to survive without a phone, and even though I've plastered it all over my Facebook wall I just know someone who didn't get the message is going to try to call me.

Luckily I get paid tomorrow and the money from Suffolk should (emphasis on should) be showing up Friday, so it's not as big a blow as it could be. It's still irritating.

(Shizuo icon intentionally chosen to represent my feelings on technology)

Well, my phone is on and the SIM doesn't appear to be damaged. Looks like the rice did the trick. Still, I could have gone without that.

I'm glad, since I really didn't want to have to spend the money I've been waiting on for a month to replace it. Now I probably will have to replace it sooner rather than later, but now I can do it at my leisure.

Cheapness prevails!

(I currently do a pay-as-you-go card because I'm too cheap to sign up for a plan, and I really don't use it enough to justify spending even $40 a month on it. That and I hate phones. With a vengeance. Unless I'm talking to someone I actually like, at which point I'll tolerate them, but in general I still hate them.)

What. Is. With. These. Fucking. Musical. Ads. That. Start. When. You. Open. The. Page?!

*installs Adblock Plus on Firefox*

Now usually I'm all for supporting sites with ad revenue, but after the third time that happened today I'd had it. They keep getting me on several sites I go to and either scaring the crap out of me or breaking my train of thought. God, I thought pop ups were bad, but at least with them you usually knew where the offending window was, but if you use tabs like I do you have to search around for it get it to shut up!

And if you're listening to music it's even worse. Nobody interrupts Eric Clapton for some shitty cleaning product! Nobody! Especially if you're Charlie Baker, who is not getting my vote anyway, and I have to click him away just to read the goddamn news!

Whoever came up with these ads gets my nomination for "Should be dragged out into the street and shot."