Lists

1. I love my family. I love that as we get older we have much more in common than we did as children. I love that my parents will drive from the Bay Area to Redding just to see me, Peter and any brothers that show up.

2. It's amazing how one day can change how I feel about my job. I really enjoy it.

3. I don't have much to say, can't seem to make it very far into this list for now.

Hope and Change, but without the Change.

Change is bad. Very, very bad. Allowing change opens up the door for people asking for more.

Give an inch... they smother you with requests for kilometers.

Arg. Not a happy day.

My voice is my passport. Verify me.

Imagine visiting your best friends blog and hearing her read her latest post to you. Imagine visiting CNN.com and hearing Carl Kasell of NPR fame reading news stories. Imagine opening your email and hearing your Grandmother read you a bedtime story. Now imagine Chuck Norris reading your Twitter feeds to you. We know that it is possible to make an audio file of a voice recording and transmit it via email or post on a website to be downloaded or played. We can also use a text to voice service or plug in to read to us. I imagine the future of the internet includes personalized automated synthetic voice applications becoming widely available. Using a hosted service or plug-in, hear anyone say anything.

Note To Self: Blog subjects

Yes, I'm using my blog to remind myself of books to read and now subjects I want to post about one day...

* Bumperstickers

It's safe to like dogs again

A book may be compared to your neighbor: if it be good, it cannot last too long; if bad, you cannot get rid of it too early.
-- Rupert Brooke

First, the legend:

Family #1 - Neighbors directly to the left. Father likes to drive his jeep offroad in the desert, break it, come home and fix it with Father of Family #4. Mother was close friends with the Mother that used to own our house. Boy and girl kids are ~7 & 9.

Family #2 - Neighbors directly to the right. They have the barking dog.

Family #3 - Neighbors two to the left. Father is a US Marshal and Army Reserve. Mother is all up in the neighborhood news. Oldest son is 15. Younger son is ~12.

Family # 4 - Neighbors three to the left. Father owns a pool cleaning business and likes to break his jeep out in the desert with Father #1. Don't know anything about Mother and kids.


Turns out Mr. C and I were correct about Family #2. They are renters. I should say... They WERE renters. They're moving out. We're very happy about that. They kept to themselves, which was nice, but they didn't keep up their front yard and.... the dog. We don't have an HOA here, thankfully, but there is an unspoken rule to keep a certain level of maintenance. Family #4 has even offered to let us borrow their pressure sprayer to clean the dirt off the stucco on the house from the last rains.

We were talking to Mother #3. She told us that most of the neighbors have called the police about Family #2's dog multiple times. The owner of the mobile home behind us has also called the police. Apparently the rule is to call the non-emergency line and get the incident number.

Now we know.

The family is moving. Now a new family will get to be trained. Hopefully they'll be nice.

Management Memes

I love when my boss brings up interesting articles in team meetings. A few weeks ago it was a very dry NIST article on patch management which has lead to a huge project. This week she brought up an article that revealed 10 things your boss hates about you.

1. Lateness/absenteeism
2. Lack of initiative
3. Too much initiative
4. Bitching and whining
5. Disloyalty
6. Lack of passion or interest
7. Trying to be their best friend
8. Petty lying
9. Childishness
10. Wanting their job

I'm trying to not read too much into it.

In other news, more proof that dogs are far superior to cats.

You can't blame me

One of the best disclaimers I've read in a long time, courtesy of Clue Wagon

I am not a lawyer. I’m an ex-HR person. That’s not even close to being the same thing, because lawyers make more money and don’t go around telling you not to wear flip-flops to work. Also, only idiots take legal advice from some blog they found on the internet. If you get sued, “The internet told me it was okay” is not a good defense. So before you go around talking smack about someone you used to work with, talk to a real lawyer, okay?

Later she writes "Not being a weenie is a good strategy on pretty much every level." Now there are some words to live by.

License Plate Spotting - 6HNN

6HNN

It has taken a while. Car sales have indeed slowed.

License Plate Spotting

Newest so far: 6HJY

Doing More Before 11am Than Most Do Before 2pm

Some days it's a bad sign when you forget to turn off the alarm and wake up thinking you have to get up for work. This was not one of those mornings.

Around 5am we grumbled if we should sleep in or go crowing. Mr. C told me all about his wacky dreams. I mostly slept through his story telling.

We ended up sticking to the original plan. I set the coffee robot to make us our tasty beverages and started putting on my gear. Today I rode the motorcycle on the highway for the second time. I took the scary offramp that's a 270 degree turn with a posted speed of 20 MPH.

Epp! I knew my jacket was big on me, but I didn't realize that it poofed out to make me look like I have a big belly! Oh well. It's really comfortable, pink, and had reflective lines.

We didn't see many crows, but we discovered a new bird that we're calling the red-shouldered dog fighter.



Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell only wishes he could fly like these little guys!

When we arrived home we did some chores and then back out for errands. Overall, a very fine morning.

Post-Apocalypse Skills

1. Driving a stick shift -- Done
2. Operating a motorcycle -- Done
3. Operating a shot gun
4. Basic first aid -- Refresher course needed
5. Sewing -- Done
6. Metal crafting
7. Fishing
8. Farming
9. The skill an electrician has
10. Profit?

Why spy on neighbors when there are crows?

Crow vs Peanut in our front yard. I call it success!



Unsalted peanuts of course. It's much better for them than cheezits.

IHNJH, IJLS...

"you've got trouble with a capital T, which rhymes with P, which stands for pool"


IHNJH, IJLS = "I have no joke here, I just like saying"

License Plate Spotting

I also like to track California license plates. Highest so far: 6GXS...

It's that time again

 
Tattoo time! I'm starting to think about what my next tattoo will be. I'm thinking a medical alert symbol so if I'm ever out without my bracelet medical professionals will still be alert. I'm thinking some variation of this image. Still in the beginning stages. I think the next step is to research the origin of the symbol.

Disaster Recovery - Part 2 & 3

If we were separated, one on the bike(or other car) one with the Yaris, I think it would be:

Sub:

(Go Home) Go home in the vehicle you have
(EFCC) Go to EFCC and stay there
(Stay) Stay wherever you are

To Do:
(Contact) & (Go Home)

If it doesn’t go smooth:

--- No response after 30 minutes
(Contact All)
--- Being forced to leave home, (EFCC) & (Contact All).
--- Forced to leave EFCC or it’s already been designated a “no fly” zone, (Stay – Secondary Office) & (Contact All)
--- Forced to leave Secondary Office, (Stadium) & (Contact All)



If the vehicle does not work/lost/stolen:
(Contact) & (Stay)

--- No response after 30 minutes (Contact All)
--- Forced to leave location, in a safe way (Go Home) & (Contact All)
--- Being forced to leave home, (EFCC) & (Contact All).
--- Forced to leave EFCC or it’s already been designated a “no fly” zone, (Stay – Secondary Office) & (Contact All)
--- Forced to leave Secondary Office, (Stadium) & (Contact All)

"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that."

I think I have a cursed PC. I had this PC. It was one of the first Lenovo’s we received. I stopped using it when I moved to Vista but held on to it. A few months ago I gave it to a contractor to use since I was short on hardware. He lasted two weeks.

I then upgraded this other contractor since she had +5 year old computer. She lasted 1 month.

I have to be careful who gets it next. I think it’s mad that I’m no longer using it.

Disaster Recovery - Part 1

Scenario: San Diego On Fire/Earthquake/Natural disaster/etc, Serena at office, Mr. Container has the car.

(It could be the other way, but I’m thinking this is more realistic.)

What to do:

I stay where I am and call Mr. Container requesting pick up. No reasonable employer would ask him to stay.

Sub:

(Contact) – Call, text, gmail
(Contact All) – Contact both parents & (Contact). Follow up with parents, Serena on the hour and half hour, Mr. Container at :15 and :45.
(Stay - Office) – For Serena stay at primary office – For Mr. Container it is his primary office at HasturCom
(Stay - Secondary Office) – Make way to secondary office and stay there – When reversed, still Serena's secondary office
(Home) – Get ride home from a trusted person (not public transit or cab) and stay there
(Stadium) - Go to Qualcomm stadium, and find parking lot marker for section D1 aka Disaster1, wait under sign & (Contact All)


If it doesn’t go smooth:

--- No response after 30 minutes (Contact All) & (Stay - Office)
--- Being forced to leave, (Stay – Secondary Office) & (Contact All).
--- Forced to leave secondary office, (Home) & (Contact All)
--- Northbound freeways closed, neighborhood under evacuation, (Stadium) & (Contact All)

Go on, take the money and run

The Steve Miller Band song "Take the Money And Run" came on the radio this morning. One of these days I'll write up my take on the song. Mr. Container and I like to talk out how we would handle various scenarios. Sometimes it's parenting. Sometimes disasters. Sometimes just normal day to days things.

Today it was just a quick comment that if he told me to "Go on, take the money and run" I would. But he also said that we would have already had a plan in case we were separated. This lead to another conversation. Long story short(ish)....

I need to improve my upper body strength so I can fight zombies with a shovel.

Looks like?

No, it's not a portal to Narnia

An IT closet is one of the most mysterious rooms in any office building. I have a little closet in which I store my shiny technology. Every time I block the door open to work in there, it's about 45 seconds until I see someone sticking their head in.

Sorry, kids. It's not that exciting. I don't have gold plated keyboards or laptop computers that plug right into your brain. It really is where CRT monitors, computer, keyboards and mice go to die.

Old computers. Some don't even have onboard video. Most are 866MHz - 1.4GB,

256-512MB Ram

A call center goes through keyboards like you wouldn't believe.

From Blogger Pictures

So many keyboards

From Blogger Pictures

Organized Caos

PCHS

Real Estate Loan Restructuring

Procopio International Tax Institute Conference

Apparently the University of San Diego School of Law has a Procopio International Tax Institute. PCHS specializes in international tax issues, especially related to US and Mexico international tax law. They're holding a conference in May.

On a very special episode of PCHS

They're experienced in a wide range of legal specialties. They're a local law firm with a global network.

Rock on.

New PCHS

Today's specialty: Construction attorneys.

Maybe one of the lawyers watched an episode of "This Old House"...

PCHS

I've learned that if I don't post the PCHS message the morning I hear it, I forget. I have a voice recorder I use in choir. I'm going to try bringing it with me and recording the 7:10am message so I can give a more complete reporting of their ad.

So today: International Tax Law

This is proof that I'm not just obsessed with crows. I have many wonderful obsessions.

Caw.

Home Sick But More Productive?

Why is it that when I stay home sick from work I tend to get more done than I do on weekends? It's not a mental health day. I'm legitimately sick. Stuffy nose, sore throat, super tired, etc. So far today I have:

Started a load of dishes
Addressed a bunch of cards I wrote during the week and meant to send out
--Walked those cards to the mailbox
Installed the charged battery into the motorcycle
--Once installed I tired to start it. No love.
--Found the cable I mistakenly unplugged while installing the battery and fixed it
--Started the motorcycle and let it run for 25 minutes
Fixed the sprinklers so it runs three times a week for 3 minutes a day. I like the number 3.
Checked in at work and responded to a few emails
Fixed the link from the family blog to this site.
Added some more links to this site to other sites I like

Ok, it's not much. But it feels like a lot.

Next I'm thinking of starting a family blog for my side of the family. The In Law site is cool. I'd like an Out Law site.

Vocabulary Word: Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. The word referring to this emotion has been borrowed from German by the English language and is sometimes also used as a loanword by other languages.

Philosopher and sociologist Theodor Adorno defined schadenfreude as “largely unanticipated delight in the suffering of another which is cognized as trivial and/or appropriate.”

From Wikipedia

Books Suggested To Me

This is my list of books recommended to me. I thought this might be a good place to store them:

1) The Shelter of Each Other - Mary Pipher
2) Taking Charge of Your Fertility - Toni Weschler
3) Called Out of Darkness - Anne Rice (Autobiography of her return to Catholicism)

PCHS

Their sponser message is given every morning at 7:10, after traffic. Today was a new one.

Pragmatic legal solutions that are fiscally responsible.

Odd Morning Conversations

Mr. Container is reading "Dummies Guide to Freemasons". It's actually pretty interesting. We were talking this morning about the Freemasons allowing Lords into the organization back in the day, like the 1700's, in England. There are only 3 levels, but some of them added more and more levels, like the conspiracy-tastic 33rd or 31st level. Something like that. We starting talking about how the Lords were probably not the ones to start this as they already had weird ceremonies and levels, like the 4th Duke of Burkinshire and Barron of Paddingtonbearvilleinshire. Too many Dukes, Barons, Marquesses, Earls and Viscounts. (Thank you Wikipedia for those titles.)

Mr. Container busts out with, "When you wear the crown of Aqualonia upon a troubled brow it might be nice to lay those troubles aside from time to time.... But I don't think Conan would ever join the Masons."

I love my Geek.

Psalm 40:2 (New International Version)

² He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.

Homographic Homophonic Autantonyms

If you can't see it all, click on the picture. It should show the full image. Taken from: http://www.qwantz.com/

I wonder if this is true

The verb “cleave” is the only English word with two synonyms that are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.

Found on the Gifted Typist

PCHS

Diversity and long-term team-oriented relationships from Punchopio today.

Sunday Adventures

Today brought another adventure.

We drank coffee at the shop again. They're very busy on Sundays. We sat out front this time. It was nice, but just a bit cold.

I did more programming, learning loops for the first time. Exciting!

Yesterday I wanted to ride our motorcycle. It's been a while, I've been trying to get over the fear and back into the "I love it!" feeling. The bike won't start. Our neighbor and I agreed that it sounded like the battery. I looked up instructions online on how to jump start a bike. Turns out it's the same as jumping a car. If you're jumping from a car battery, you don't start the car. It will ruin the bike's ignition system because the car battery is more powerful.Today I got out our jumper cables, figure out how to expose the battery on the bike and hooked it up. No love. So I went down to Escondido Motorsports and bought a battery charger. I spent the next 30 minutes following the instructions in the manual on how to remove the battery. I think I've conquered a bit of my fear of electricity. Progress!

The battery is now charging in the "mud room"/laundry room.Every weekend I also try to do a little house work. Yesterday I figured out how to change the code on the garage door pad outside. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought. I just needed to find the make and model and Google it.

The internet is amazing. You can find anything from how to jump a motorcycle to how to change your garage door passcode.

Rock on Internet!

I'm super proud of this

My most complex application so far. I'm proud of this. It's taken several revisions, many after I submitting it for grading... :)

This application calculates a grand total of sales based on the following:
A) User input of quantity sold of each of 3 software packages
B) Input is checked to verify positive number and not text and display the appropriate error message.
C) Each package has a different cost (3 costs)
D) Discounts taken based on quantity sold (5 discount levels)
E) Individual package sales and grand total sales is displayed
F) Check box option to only show the grand total
G) Buttons to clear the values and exit the application

Once I figure out loops this week, the program will probably shrink. In a few weeks I'll learn arrays which should shrink it even more.




Public Class frmSoftwareSalesv2

Private Sub btnCalculate_Click( _
ByVal sender As System.Object, _
ByVal e As System.EventArgs _
) Handles btnCalculate.Click

'Declare constants for discounts
Dim constLEVEL0_DISC_RATE As Decimal = 0D 'Qty 1-9 discount
Dim constLEVEL1_DISC_RATE As Decimal = 0.2D 'Qty 10-19 discount
Dim constLEVEL2_DISC_RATE As Decimal = 0.3D 'Qty 20-49 discount
Dim constLEVEL3_DISC_RATE As Decimal = 0.4D 'Qty 50-99 discount
Dim constLEVEL4_DISC_RATE As Decimal = 0.5D 'Qty +100 discount

'Declare discount ranges
Dim constRANGE_0_START As Integer = 0
Dim constRANGE_0_END As Integer = 9
Dim constRANGE_1_START As Integer = 10
Dim constRANGE_1_END As Integer = 19
Dim constRANGE_2_START As Integer = 20
Dim constRANGE_2_END As Integer = 49
Dim constRANGE_3_START As Integer = 50
Dim constRANGE_3_END As Integer = 99
Dim constRANGE_4_START As Integer = 100

'Declare constants for error messages
Dim constERROR_WHOLE_NUMBER_A As String = "Quantity of Package A Sold must be a whole number"
Dim constERROR_WHOLE_NUMBER_B As String = "Quantity of Package B Sold must be a whole number"
Dim constERROR_WHOLE_NUMBER_C As String = "Quantity of Package C Sold must be a whole number"

Dim contERROR_NEGATIVE_NUMBER As String = "Negative numbers are not allowed."

'Declare constants for total text
Dim constLABEL1 As String = "Package A: "
Dim constLABEL2 As String = "Package B: "
Dim constLABEL3 As String = "Package C: "
Dim constLABEL4 As String = "Grand Total: "

'Declare constants for retail cost
Dim constRETAIL_COST_PKG_A As Decimal = 99D 'Cost of Pkg A
Dim constRETAIL_COST_PKG_B As Decimal = 199D 'Cost of Pkg B
Dim constRETAIL_COST_PKG_C As Decimal = 299D 'Cost of Pkg C

'Declare Variables
Dim intASold As Integer 'Qty A packages sold
Dim intAGrossSales As Decimal 'Pkg A gross sales
Dim intADiscount As Decimal 'Pkg A discount
Dim intANetSales As Decimal 'Pkg A gross less discount

Dim intBSold As Integer 'Qty B packages sold
Dim intBGrossSales As Decimal 'Pkg B gross sales
Dim intBDiscount As Decimal 'Pkg B discount
Dim intBNetSales As Decimal 'Pkg B gross less discount

Dim intCSold As Integer 'Qty C packages sold
Dim intCGrossSales As Decimal 'Pkg C gross sales
Dim intCDiscount As Decimal 'Pkg C discount
Dim intCNetSales As Decimal 'Pkg C gross less discount

Dim intGrandTotal As Decimal 'Grand Total


'Check Package A Sold for integer
Try
intASold = CInt(Me.txtQtyASold.Text)
Catch ex As Exception
MessageBox.Show(constERROR_WHOLE_NUMBER_A, _
Me.Text)

With Me.txtQtyASold
.SelectAll()
.Focus()
End With

Exit Sub
End Try

'Check Package A Sold for negative numbers
If intASold < intbsold =" CInt(Me.txtQtyBSold.Text)" intcsold =" CInt(Me.txtQtyCSold.Text)" intagrosssales =" intASold" intbgrosssales =" intBSold" intcgrosssales =" intCSold" intadiscount =" intAGrossSales" intadiscount =" intAGrossSales" intadiscount =" intAGrossSales" intadiscount =" intAGrossSales">= constRANGE_4_START
intADiscount = intAGrossSales * constLEVEL4_DISC_RATE
End Select

'Find discount for Package B
Select Case intBSold
Case constRANGE_0_START To constRANGE_0_END
intBDiscount = intBGrossSales * constLEVEL0_DISC_RATE
Case constRANGE_1_START To constRANGE_1_END
intBDiscount = intBGrossSales * constLEVEL1_DISC_RATE
Case constRANGE_2_START To constRANGE_2_END
intBDiscount = intBGrossSales * constLEVEL2_DISC_RATE
Case constRANGE_3_START To constRANGE_3_END
intBDiscount = intBGrossSales * constLEVEL3_DISC_RATE
Case Is >= constRANGE_4_START
intBDiscount = intBGrossSales * constLEVEL4_DISC_RATE
End Select

'Find discount for Package C
Select Case intCSold
Case constRANGE_0_START To constRANGE_0_END
intCDiscount = intCGrossSales * constLEVEL0_DISC_RATE
Case constRANGE_1_START To constRANGE_1_END
intCDiscount = intCGrossSales * constLEVEL1_DISC_RATE
Case constRANGE_2_START To constRANGE_2_END
intCDiscount = intCGrossSales * constLEVEL2_DISC_RATE
Case constRANGE_3_START To constRANGE_3_END
intCDiscount = intCGrossSales * constLEVEL3_DISC_RATE
Case Is >= constRANGE_4_START
intCDiscount = intCGrossSales * constLEVEL4_DISC_RATE
End Select

'Calculate Net Sales
intANetSales = intAGrossSales - intADiscount
intBNetSales = intBGrossSales - intBDiscount
intCNetSales = intCGrossSales - intCDiscount

'Calculate the Grand Total
intGrandTotal = intANetSales + intBNetSales + intCNetSales

'Display the Results
If chkGrandOnly.Checked = True Then
lblSalesResults.Text = constLABEL4 _
& intGrandTotal.ToString("c")

ElseIf chkGrandOnly.Checked = False Then
lblSalesResults.Text = constLABEL1 & intANetSales.ToString("c") _
& ControlChars.NewLine _
& constLABEL2 & intBNetSales.ToString("c") _
& ControlChars.NewLine _
& constLABEL3 & intCNetSales.ToString("c") _
& ControlChars.NewLine _
& constLABEL4 & intGrandTotal.ToString("c")

End If

End Sub

Private Sub btnClear_Click( _
ByVal sender As System.Object, _
ByVal e As System.EventArgs _
) Handles btnClear.Click

'Clear the form, reset the check box, set focus to Package A.
txtQtyASold.Clear()
txtQtyBSold.Clear()
txtQtyCSold.Clear()
lblSalesResults.Text = String.Empty
chkGrandOnly.Checked = False
txtQtyASold.Focus()

End Sub

Private Sub btnExit_Click( _
ByVal sender As System.Object, _
ByVal e As System.EventArgs _
) Handles btnExit.Click

'Exit the application by closing the form.
Me.Close()

End Sub

End Class

One of my favorite comics

Weekend Adventure

This weekend we're trying something new. Since moving to Escondido we've switched coffee joints. We'll sometimes go to our old drive through coffee joint in Rancho Bernardo, but more often we'll make our own or we'll go to Safari Coffee. Today we're camped out by the window playing on the internet and I'm working a bit on my programming homework. They recognize us here. We're trying this "social" thing. It's interesting.

Being social has never been a strong point for us. If we have kids, I don't want them to inherit this tendency from us, so I want to break the habit now. We'll see how it goes.

Maybe working on the computer sends the wrong signal, but "Progress Not Perfection."

Thursday's PCHS

I missed today's ad, but yesterday is was a repeat of their Economic Cycles pitch at 07:10am.

Today's Procopio Specialty

Mr. Container caught today's specialty and sent it to me:

Today's Procopio specialty:

- being around since 1945
- fostering long-standing relationships with their clients through a team-based approac

What Procopio Believes In

According to today's commercial, Procopio believes that a diverse workforce at all levels leads to more innovation.

What did they learn this week?

A regular sponsor of our local NPR/public radio station is the law firm of Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch (http://procopio.com). I think it's wonderful that they still sponser the station. Their sponser "commercial" changes regularly, unlike the one fo the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, or other sponsers. It almost seems that the lawyers at this San Diego firm go out and study something new each week. "Now we can say we specialize in this!" Everything from real estate law to intellectual property issues, and more. I've been meaning to track it. So now I will.

What did they learn this week?

They now can "guide through economic cycles".

I don't always love dogs

Our neighbors got a dog at the end of last year, or maybe the beginning of this year. Every night they put the dog outside, and boy, does he not like it. The barking starts at 7pm. Some nights it continues until 9 or 10pm. At first I thought, "Poor puppy, but he'll get used to the routine."

It's been at least 6 weeks. I'm going to start documenting when I hear the barking. I'm not sure what I'll do with the information yet, but I need to record it.

I know I should talk to the neighbors, let them know that it's bothering me, but I hate confrontation. I don't want to jump right to calling the police or animal control.

Being an adult is hard work.

Day 2 - As The Crow Flies

Source unknown. May be 'shopped, might be real.

As the Crow Flies?

Mr. Container and I find this phrase to be hilarious. Have you ever watched a crow fly?

According to The Phrase Finder "As the crow Flies" means "In a direct line, without any of the detours caused by following a road." The origin refers to "The allusion on this expression is obviously to the ability of crows to fly directly from A to B, without the encumbrances of roads and landscape features that man is hampered by."



The person that wrote the origin also spotted the absurdity of the idea. It continues, "Crows are perhaps an odd choice, as, unlike many birds that migrate over long distances, their flight isn't especially straight. Crows normally fly in large wheeling arcs, looking for food."

The aerial acrobatics crows perform are amazing, but it rarely results in a direct flight from Point A to Point B.



**Graphical illustrations courtesy of Microsoft Paint and a little too much time on my hands**

Super Awesome Crow Paintings

Physician, heal thyself

On a fairly regular basis I deal with a computer that has decided to take advantage of their 401k and head off to Florida. Sometimes the motherboard dies. Dell SX270s have a known issue with a bad capacitor. The brown goo you see below is not good. Dell even extended the warranty for a year. That time has come and gone.

Other times the hard drive dies. If it’s just a corrupt Windows system file, it can be repaired. If not, I can “slave” the drive to a working computer and get to the files that way. When it’s a hardware failure and the drive won’t spin, you’re usually out of luck. It is very expensive to send the drive to a data recovery company.

So I rant and rave for people to back up their data, if not a bit by bit image of the drive.

Yeah, you can see it coming already.

The weekend of January 31st my Vista laptop starts behaving badly. Freezing. Nothing I can do, I do a hard shutdown, killing power. When I boot it back up, errors abound. Despite my best efforts, it gets to the point where it passes POST, but nothing more, not ever getting to the Windows boot screen. Blinking cursor in the upper left hand corner. Master Boot Record error that could not be repaired from the OS disk. It saw the Dell recovery partition, but not the C:\ drive. When I tried to use the recovery partition, that failed too. If I had my tools from work, I could have slaved it to another system, but I was lazy and did not want to go into the office.

This is the weekend I had to take my final Business Law test for my online class. And my online Visual Basic class was due to start on Monday. Sure, Mr. Container has his computer so I could work off that if I needed. This is a fairly new Dell Studio laptop. It shouldn’t have this kind of problem.

Guess who hadn’t backed up her data in over 2 weeks?

After a few hours, I gave up. I was getting tired and a little cranky. I slept for about 4 hours, than got up at 3:30am to tackle the problem again.

I reinstalled Vista from the CD provided by Dell. But I can’t find the CD with the drivers and Vista does not recognize either the wireless or the wired NIC. Major problem! Mr. Container also has a Dell and I know where his CD is! Pow! I install the drivers from that one and it’s close enough. I can now get a wireless connection and download the drivers from Dell’s site.

From there I install the other utilities and AV. Ah, it’s nice to be back where I wanted to be. A few issues to resolve here and there, but all good. It took several days before I could get the fingerprint reader to work, but it is happy now too.

Immediately I ordered Norton Ghost 14.0. Now I have a bit by bit backup of my drive. Never again.

I just have to remember to take an image regularly.

So many memes, so little time - 25 things

This is a FB meme. Cross posting for fun.

1. I was named for my paternal Grandmother "Serena Ellen (Wise) LaRue". My middle name is from a friend of my mother "Leah Marie".

2. In 8th grade, I graduated Jr. High with honors in Mathematics and Sewing. I had even sewn my graduation dress. In high school, I was awarded the “Cupertino High School Gold Award” in Computers for Business.

3. When I married, I kept my maiden name as part of my middle name. Serena Marie LaRue Araujo. Even though it started as a joke, I actually considered changing my last name to “Larujo”. For a few minutes, at least.

4. I am working on my Associates degree in Computer and Information Science. I want to get a Bachelor's from San Diego State University. Eventually I'd love to get a Master's degree in Library Science from San Jose State or U-Dub. I just finished a Business Law class with an A. Yay! Now I’m working on Visual Basic.

5. Mr. Container and I found the local roost for the crows. Around 5:20pm hundreds of crows gather in the Sears parking lot on Via Rancho in Escondido. They then go into Kit Carson Park for the night. At 6:15am they wake up and crow-mute to areas of San Diego, Escondido and San Marcos. It's amazing.

6. My first "real" job was working as a clerical assistant for the ROP office in Cupertino, CA, after school during high school. Other jobs included working in the Cupertino High School cafeteria while I was a student there, JoAnne Fabrics, Stacey's Books, Hollywood Video, a technical/mathematical book publisher in Sunnyvale, a company in Santa Clara that did ion implantation for chip manufacturers around the world, Global Village - makers of Macintosh modems (at&f1w2s95=44), Onsale.com/Egghead.com, Yahoo!, SimpleNet.com, and now a pharmacy benefits processing company in San Diego.

7. I have three tattoos, four if you include one that's been covered up by a bigger and better one. I’m thinking of getting another, but have to find the perfect design. That’s the hardest part.

8. I will no longer use any illegal or unlicensed software or music. As overpriced as I think many applications are, it's still stealing. I do enjoy many freeware apps, like OpenOffice, Thunderbird, FireFox, etc.

9. When I was in 7th grade, my little brother Ben and I were playing around and he gave me a hairline fracture in my thumb. It’s the only broken bone I have ever had.

10. When I was a little kid (4 or 5?), my big brother Nathan hit me in the head with a 4x4 he was swinging like a bat. I had to get stitches on the bridge of my nose by my left eye. I still have a scar.

11. When I was about 8, we were playing baseball. I was pitching. Nathan it the ball and it smacked me in the head. I think. Maybe it was Ben. Maybe I was 10 or 12 years old. Or maybe it never actually happened. I don’t remember too much about it. J

12. My first car was a 1986 VW Jetta (Burgundy). Nathan and I bought it together when I was 16, he was 18. Nathan crashed it before I learned to drive a stick shift. My next car was a 1976 VW Bug (Orange) that Ben and I bought together. Ben crashed it on a rainy morning while we were driving him to school. After that, my parents helped me get my 1998 Ford Escort (Blue-Green). It lasted +100,000 miles without being smashed.

13. I want to have a baby this year. Mr. Container is enthusiastic about it too. We’ll see what happens.

14. Did I mention I like crows? When we lived in the Rancho Bernardo apartment, I would put Cheez-Its out on the “patio” ledge. They would fly down and eat them. Very amusing. They also like baked Parmesan cheese rounds. They’re cheese slices baked into cracker like rounds.

15. I have passed IT industry recognized certification tests for CompTIA A+ (IT Technician), Network+ and Security+. Next I’d like to work on the Microsoft certification tests.

16. Mr. Container and I took 4 motorcycle riding training courses and both passed our DMV exams for a motorcycle license. We own a 2007 Honda Shadow. It’s very fun to ride. The goal is to get comfortable enough on it to ride it to work. I’m still working on that. It’s a slow journey.

17. I had my first cavity when I was in my early 20’s. The only major dental work I had before that was when I had my wisdom teeth removed at age 16. Dr. Pack, my dentist during childhood, let me keep my two wisdom teeth. They’re in a box in the garage.

18. I have only been outside the US once. I went to Puerto Vallarta in 2005. I have never been to Tijuana.

19. For 6th grade, I attended classes with 7th grade students at Hyde Jr. High instead of staying with my 6th grade classmates at Fremont Older Elementary. There were only 12 of us in that “Super Sixth” program.

20. During my Junior year of high school, I doubled up on English and history classes and attended classes at DeAnza College at night. I was able to finish high school in 3 years instead of the normal 4. Most of my friend in the class of ’95 had no idea I was graduating as class of ’94.

21. I really like the TV show “Sports Night”. I like to watch other shows Aaron Sorkin has written and spot characters, story lines, actors/actresses and phrases that were taken from “Sports Night”. For example, “West Wing” has many, including story lines about one character feeling responsible for the death of another sibling (Josh in West Wing, Dan in Sports Night). “American President” was the movie version of “West Wing”. I think “Studio 60” was an attempt to bring back “Sports Night” under the guise of a comedy show instead of a sports show. The potential love interest between Dana and Casey in Sports Night is seen in the relationship between Donna and Josh in West Wing, fortunately toned down. The close nearly mind-reading work relationship between Dana and Natalie can be seen in the West Wing work relationships of Donna and Josh or Leo and Margaret. And of course, Joshua Molina has been in nearly every TV series or movie that Aaron Sorkin wrote. I’ll need to watch Studio 60 again to be able to give examples with that show. Although I remember them making a big deal out of the Studio 60 building, as they did in West Wing for the White House, reciting the history and significance of the location and rooms. Studio 60 also did a story line about a kidnap and ransom scenario, as did West Wing when the President’s daughter was kidnapped.

22. Did I mention I like crows? It all started when Mr. Container and I noticed the crows scavenging around the drive-through coffee joint we frequented. The enjoyed the Carl’s Jr. food that was left in the parking lot or that they “stole” from the garbage can. They really like ranch dressing packets.

23. I enjoy crafts, including sewing, quilting, scrapbooking, cross-stitching, dried flower arranging and candy making. Last year I made candies using a mold from RSA VPN tokens. RSA tokens are little electronic devices about the size of a car key that display a six digit number that changes every 60 seconds on a little LCD screen. You use the number as a password with your computer to allow you to connect to your company’s network, to access resources like files or email at work from home. The candy version did not have numbers that changed, of course. http://www.rsa.com/node.aspx?id=1156

An example of an older RSA token:

Newer RSA tokens look like this:

24. I love socks. I love warm socks, frilly socks, knee high socks, all kinds of socks. Some of my favorites include my newest pair – a hand knitted pair of original, one of a kind, Katy Araujo socks. I also love my knee high pink socks. Related to socks, I also enjoy wearing leg warmers. I was a child in the 80’s, after all.

25. I think “pants” is one of the funniest words in the English language. “So’s your face” is a funny phrase that can be used nearly any time. “Monkeys” are funny. (So’s your face.)

And a bonus, for those of you who stuck around to the end of this:

26. Mr. Container and I have two stuffed animals/plush toys on our mantel. The first is a raven we have named “Chile”. The other is an American Crow we have named “Wellington, New Zealand”. When you squeeze them, they make raven or crow calls (respectively).

And one more bonus, because I’m on a roll:

27. This weekend I learned that “livery” is not related to fish processing and canning. It actually has a number of meanings, including distinctive dress/uniform/colors worn by members of a particular group. For some reason, I had related it to the cannery in Monterrey Bay. Go figure.

One of the many things I love about my family is their grasp of language. Many of them speak at least two languages. Conversation is fast paced and interesting. I love how they express themselves.

Then I go in to work.

Here is an email exchange I had today with a Customer Service Representative (CSR), edited for read-ability:

Me: I have a request to replace your monitor. Please let me know when you are available for about 5 minutes to have this done. I can do it while you are on a break, if that is more convenient.

CSR: Yes I'll be here. My break is until 2:45

(Now I know that they don't get 90 minute breaks/lunches)

Me: So you're available now? Or are you available at 2:45?

CSR: Yes!

Uggh. I want Thumbs!

Thank you all for being awesome writers. You're an oasis in this world.