Technophobia

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

I can’t get past the first password screen. I talked with my boss and logged in as him with no trouble, so we think my password expired. However, it shouldn’t have expired already because I had just changed it a couple of weeks prior to going on bed rest and I believe it’s a 90 day password cycle. Regardless, the laptop is useless to me until I can get past that first log in screen.  *sigh*

The good news is that he gave Beau a lot of small items from my desk that I thought I would have to battle to get, so he intends for me to do real work (as opposed to the busy work he mentioned on the phone this morning). Just need to get past the security hurdle.

Friday, December 15, 2006

All this week when I’ve tried to read The Thinklings page during the day it’s all hosed. But in the evening it works again.

What’s the dealio?

Friday, December 08, 2006

So it’s much better being at home, but it’s still really tedious. I’m happy to be in my own bed and using my own bathroom. And to be eating Beau’s cooking - he’s so much better than the cooks at the hospital. Although as hospital food goes, most of it was pretty good.

We brought the home computer up from the basement yesterday. Not knowing how much longer I’ll have to wait for the laptop from work, I reached the point where it was worth it to me to bring it up for this short time. So Beau unplugged the cable from the wall to add the splitter and when he replugged it we had no signal to the cable box or the modem. A quick call to the cable company confirmed that there was no signal at all and we were assured that a cable guy would come to the house between 3-5pm.

I have to admit to a mini-meltdown at that point. I was frustrated and feeling so useless and all I wanted was access to the internet so that I could the simplest things like manage my bank account, online Christmas shopping, and email. I snapped at Beau, who went downstairs in retreat and then I took a shower where I cried out my frustration. Beau came back up when I got out of the shower, I apologized and explained why I was crying. He just hugged me, which was the perfect response.

Anyway, I felt better for the cry and whiled away the next couple of hours playing a CD in the computer and finishing up our Christmas letter. I was looking at the pictures stored on the computer when the cable guy arrived at 3:30. He checked the signal to the house, which was fine and then went into the attic to discover that the wiring up there was sketchy. He fixed that and then the cable outlet in the bedroom and we have a better signal than we had before. He was amazed we had a signal for as long as we did. And now I’m connected and happy as a clam.

I get out of the house every other day for an outpatient iron treatment at the hospital for the next couple of weeks. Turns out I’m so anemic that this is the required treatment. I’m being given Venofer, which I got as a diluted IV drip when I was in the hospital, but as a syringe push as outpatient. I had the first treatment on Wednesday and it took a little longer than it should because I had a serious hot flash. The tech stopped pushing the drug and paused for several minutes to let me cool down with a cold cloth and a cup of ice water. I’m hoping today’s treatment goes better now that I know what to expect. Oh, and take a look at the vial on the website linked - that stuff is coal black in the syringe.

Baby is doing well - he’s still really active and busy in there. Beau is a prince among men. And we have gotten so much support and volunteer assistance from the folks in our small group. I talked to our next door neighbor for a while yesterday - she’s going to come sit with me while Beau is at the small group shower on Sunday. We’re being well taken care of and are so grateful for how God has provided peace and comfort as well as great friends and family.

Thanks to you all who have been and continue to pray and for your encouraging comments on the earlier posts. Beau printed them and brought them to me in the hospital - it was an encouragement to see how many people were praying. Thanks to Jaynee, too, for posting my ramblings left on her office voice mail in the middle of the night.

Monday, November 27, 2006

Picture removed because it’s hee-yoog. Click here to see the collage of celeb women picked by the face regognition software that supposedly look like me.

I cracked up when I saw the ladies chosen. Way too funny. And not that accurate, imho.

[via Thinkling Jared]

I don’t know why the Yahoo Avatar wasn’t working. I decided to check into things and in the process discovered that they do have pregnant options. So I’m now properly preggers in the oh, so accurate avatar at the right.

They have options with baby, too, so you know that I’ll incorporate that feature when the time comes.

Friday, November 17, 2006

I discovered this morning that my TiVo machine wasn’t able to dial up for updates and as a result nothing has recorded this week. Fortunately, the only thing I had recording on that machine was Dancing with the Stars - I have the whole season recorded on the TiVo in our bedroom for when I’m on either bedrest and/or maternity leave. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the final dance off and finale episodes.

Anyone have those episodes still that could record them on videotape and send them to me? I have a tape that I can mail to you along with a SASE. Leave a comment or send email to jenspeaks[AT]gmail[DOT]com.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Our internet is down today. I managed to get in for a couple seconds to post this. No clue if I’ll be able to do anything more later.

Frustrating!

Friday, September 29, 2006

One of our deputies has “volunteered” to take on the task of managing the district website. He asked if I could help and I said sure, thinking that my meager experience with the blog and my mother’s business website would be enough to give some assistance.

Turns out the website is done using MS Front Page.

I’m sure that software makes it much easier for newbies to negotiate the creation of their first website, but for me it’s so easy it’s too hard. I sat with him for about an hour and my head started hurting. I told him that I’m used to actually writing HTML code and that I’ll need to see if I can get Front Page loaded on my computer so that I can click around to learn how it works before I will be able to be of any help.

Hilarious was that the little bit of geek speak that I rattled off elicited the blankest look.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

I never cease to be amazed at the number of forwarded emails I get from coworkers (my boss is the worst offender) with phony alerts and warnings. The latest was this one:

Claim:  Service station customers are getting stuck by HIV-loaded syringes affixed to gas pump handles.

Status:  False.

A simple check at Snopes.com before you decide to forward the message will save a lot of people the hassle of checking it out themselves or living with some irrational and unfounded fear. It is the first thing I do when I get one of these messages. Almost all of the time it’s a false warning or fake story.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

OK, so I like a lot of the functionality of LibraryThing. However, the one thing I wish I could manipulate for the blog widget is to show what I’m currently reading, just finished reading, and plan to read as opposed to whatever was most recently added to the list or a random list.

I’m leaning toward just having the permalink to my Library list in the sidebar until they have that functionality, because I don’t really want to show the most recently added books to the list, which right now happen to be books that I read years ago and added in order to rate/review.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Via Steve the Llama Butcher, comes LibraryThing - a resource for online cataloging of what you’re reading. It looks like a very user friendly system, so I’m sure I’ll add already read books to my list and the books I plan to read as well.

What I haven’t figured out yet is the blog widget, but maybe you have to pay for that service? Anybody know?

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

For whatever reason, those two YouTube posts still keep hanging up my page. So I’ve closed them again for now. The kitty post below seems fine though, so enjoy that one.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Since YouTube seems to be having technical issues today, I’ve closed the recent posts with embedded videos.

[LATER]: They are working again. As such, I present the following cuteness:

[via cute overload]

Monday, August 14, 2006

Another reason to love YouTube.

OK GO, On Treadmills

[Via Jaynee, by way of Fluid Pudding]

Monday, July 24, 2006

So late on Friday, my phone rang and it was Jaynee. She had arrived back in South Carolina and was calling with a desperate request for some Tivo activity on her behalf.

Seems that all things are slower in the south and they won’t have cable or internet until Aug 7. I couldn’t do it.

However, I am happy to record her shows for her on the upstairs Tivo, which doesn’t get a lot of action. It happens that we have a VCR set up there, so I’ll be able to download the shows to tape for her easily. I think she has our mother recording shows for her, too.

So know that the Cooties are doing well - all out of the NJ house, closing is complete, moved into their apartment in SC, and she already has a job interview this Thursday at the law firm of one of her college buddies. She has posted a couple of updates, but regular posting at Cootiehog will resume on Aug 7, I assume.