I Heart My G-Note!!

I'm eating lunch on the go and had to notate something to myself while reading on my Kindle. Damn this is smooth.

Let the dead rest in peace, dammit. Zombies suck.

I did not know typing my thoughts could make this happen.
(Silverlight has been crashing on me for the last 12,000 years
without fail, so this is definitely not from that. Sigh.)

You know when you think about contacting someone from your past because doing so would be very relevant to your very hopeful immediate future job, even though you haven't spoken in years and the other person likely hates you because of not understanding "friend trying to help you not screw up your life even worse" and you shouldn't have to explain that but then you do, and as soon as you finish typing your thoughts you see your computer screen turn green and pixellate, and it locks up so much that when it's restarted you get a notice that your overclocking failed so you have to go into the BIOS to fix things? Yeah, I hate it when that happens.

As I'm a pantheist (Zen Pantheist Skeptic more than anything else, even though I love me some Catholic liturgy), I think I'll take this as a subtle hint from the universe to keep not talking to him, even though this job I want would entail working closely with someone in a very similar way to how we'd worked together, and I want him to give me proper props like he said he'd do but I kinda want to make sure but now the making sure is not gonna happen because my computer is a bitch to begin with and I don't want to aggravate her further. Balls.

The universe tends to get my attention in a big way when I think about being a nice more-than-decent human being and shouldn't even bother, or when I want to do things I know I shouldn't do. I'm generally way too nice to people to begin with (like Bjork, I err on the side of generosity), but sometimes I get forced to pay attention to what I'm thinking about (or trying to not think about), and that's always interesting. 

The last time anything noticeable like this happened was about a year and a half ago, when I knew hubby and I should've just stayed at home in Dallas one weekend. However, there were exciting things going on, so I pushed myself to attend said exciting things even though I knew better and even with knowing I'd be extremely worn down afterward from having pushed myself in similar ways then-recently, but some of these things interested hubby so of course I wanted him to go too, so yeah, hot messes happened. 

We had a very (literally) crappy weekend out of state while doing a few college homecoming things and museuming as usual when in the area. It was nice to see some of my classmates after 15 years, and it was awesome seeing a kickass production of "Antigone" there, but it was not so nice to be surprised by a wrong way driver heading straight for us on a back road highway. (Yay for being able to get my swerve on while thinking about how incredibly awful I felt.) We should've stayed in our hotel room the first night instead of hitting the big shindig done by the school of music, since hubby's gut was agitated and mine was getting that way, but nooooo, I had to insist on going and had to get Imodium so all would be fairly well. I now know that this was wrong. He felt better the next day, when I missed out on museuming thanks to being in the bathroom for like an hour and a half in literal gut-wrenching agony. 

Naturally it occurred to me then that these things could've been avoided had we just stayed home (especially as the driving scare happened about 20 minutes before getting to said museum). There wasn't anything life-changing going on that we would've missed out on, aside from my really getting what the chorus of a Greek play should ideally be like, and aside from seeing a "Clerks" reference in context in real life, but even those things don't compare to the crap that happened.

The first thought that came to mind when seeing this:
"I'm not even supposed to be here today!!"
Well played, universe. Well played.

Of course, we could've just felt bad from food poisoning, but my gut would've exploded within 4-12 hours as usual instead of waiting 40 hours, so I kinda think not. Still, I continue to not buy chicken from Target, just in case we did have bad chicken the night before we left, even though I know this all was really a gentle prod from the universe to get me to take even better care of myself. Then again, it could be both. It really doesn't matter. None of this matters, except that I really hate when the universe course-corrects me in a big obvious-to-me way.

Okay, I'm really going to the arboretum soon. Today. Because I've been wanting to but changed my mind about it on Monday and yesterday. And because I don't want the universe to kick me anymore for not getting out to enjoy it like I should. (And I apologize if my reposting this a zillion times right now screws up your feed but the text is all fubar and it is driving me nuts, and yes, I know how that all sounds after what I just said. Balls.)

I'm so confused (but not really).

I'm eagerly hoping that the DNS propagation thing finishes quickly so my website can resolve. Um, the website that I'm consolidating everything under, like photography and writing and social media and whatevs. I decided to pay a little extra for an easier interface and I am flipping out still. I'm so used to DirectAdmin that cPanel so far is seemingly shockingly suspiciously easy to work with, or would be when I figure out where everything is. It's confusing. I'm not used to my interface opening every single thing-I-wanna-work-with in a separate tab. It is freaking. me. out. big time. but I'm sure it'll get easier.

I'm mainly curious as to if it'll be easier for several of my peeps to work with since I'm aiming to transition web work to them. Like, will my kinfolk be able to grok which feature does what? Will my small business owner friends be able to pick things up more quickly with this interface or the other one? Like I said, hopefully my site will resolve soon so I don't get error reports and can actually see what the page looks like live. I'd be able to see what it should look like if I were using DirectAdmin, so I'm sure the feature is in cPanel somewhere but I haven't found where yet. This is confusing me way too much, for something that should be easier to work with. Then again, one of my mottos is, "Why do things the easy way when you can do them the hard way?" so *shrug*.

One of my Facebook friends shared a text photo that says, "Missing someone isn't about how long it's been since you've seen them or the amount of time since you talked. It's about that very moment when you find yourself doing something and wishing they were right there by your side." I commented, "Very true. Some days, like today, it's pretty sucky, but for the most part it's great when this happens. :)" Today's a private anniversary day for me (when there is celebration of something significant in one of my past lives within this life), and this one has me not as nostalgic as past years but more frustrated with lack of overall communication with a person related to this day. I'm not going to describe this as well as I'd like because I don't have the perfect words, but I'm a bit sad that I can't talk with this person as I used to. There were years of friendly banter and these conversations of greatness that would occur, and for some years there's been nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero. (Okay, maybe 1 or 2 brief things if whatever subject was interesting, I guess.) And that's fine, really, since life changes, but to me it's such a shame when people don't maintain friendly relationships even superficially (like dropping a random note a few times a year). I'm on friendly speaking terms with people who've been way more involved with huge intensely messy parts of my life, and most of them are not as nifty as the person I'm thinking about, so I'm all "what a waste" right now. Sigh.

That said, there are somewhat equivalent people in my life I'd rather not hear from more than once or twice a year (and I'm sure I'm in this category with said person above), but I'd still love to hear from them and catch up with them about life things. There are also people I converse with on Facebook a bit more superficially than that (dropping random comments whenever, and sometimes sharing various media bits), and I miss them and they know it. That's how things should be. Most times they miss me too, and that's always neat. I haven't seen any of these people I'm talking about in for-freaking-ever, but that's okay. Now I'm a little confused on what my point is, besides that I wish I heard from some people more often and like before, but some things are too much to ask from life, and that's sad. It's like, some people are idiots, and they can't help but be idiots, but they could at least try to not be so idiotic. (See, not a good description, but you know what I mean.)

Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance.

Blah blah update

I think I'm done adjusting the look of this blog, with the fonts and colors and nachos and car keys. The background photo is one I took earlier this year. I need to prep it for sales but today is not that day. Today is the day for thieving a generic Vicodin from my husband, who has a few left over from wisdom tooth surgery from a few months ago. It's only a 5/500, so will only make my stiff muscles feel better for about 30 minutes. Mrawr. I need it today though - more later on that.

I'm pretty convinced that my router is working fine and dandy, but because I have better things to do with my time, I'm going to get another one and start a new setup for everything. I'm looking for a good wireless dual band gigabit router since I won't have to worry about overlapping surrounding networks or equipment upgrade-this-and-that for years. I'll get right on that, eh, probably tomorrow. So far the new-to-me iPad has only dropped 3 times, but I haven't been on it as much as before (yet).

Tomorrow I'll also look at new mobile phones in more detail. I have the iPhone 3GS and am thrilled that it's working again (guess who dropped it in the Apple store the other day and caused it to not be able to shut off or snap screenshots?). However, I surf less on that since I downgraded to a cheaper data plan, plus I'm on the computer or iPad more often. It makes and receives phone calls plus gives me access to quick checks of email, and I'm good with that. I don't use many apps so no biggie there. The 4S would be nifty but pre-order fulfillment is at 21-28 days (last time I checked, anyway), and the 5 should be out by next June or October... another year at most to wait, anyway. I have a separate "real" compact camera and separate iPod classic and separate Kindle so don't need to waste the phone battery for pics and entertainment and books (oh my). It's great while out and about, but for full time non-stop use, eh, kinda weak.

I will be vegging for the rest of the day. Seeing my LMTs and chiropractors this morning helped with wellness, although I have to go back in 6 days (next Monday) because I'm still jacked. I feel 60% improved overall compared with last week, when my main chiro squeeze for the last 9 years couldn't move anything at all, but I saw a different guy today and he had better luck. Everything was pretty much back to normal except for the neck. C4/C5 moved on my right side, but that was it. He told me that I impressed him very much, since my neck was being very resistant to him using more force than usual. I don't think he's experienced this with anyone else so far, based on his amazement at my bulletproof Cardassianish sternocleidomastoids. My SCMs aren't usually an issue, either. My usual involves the trapezius, rhomboids, scalenes, omohyoids, supraspinatus, infraspinatus, and I'm probably missing something. Occasionally there'll be gunk with other muscles, but only occasionally.

For the record, my chiro peeps are not woo. They work with evidence-based science and promote nutrition with exercise instead of simply trusting energy waves to do physical work for them. They are also very highly trained in Active Release Technique and 20 minutes of ART helps me more than a 110 minute sports-type table massage. Really, it's literally that awesome. I know there are cases of people being seriously injured with chiropractic care, but these people work on local tri- and other athletes and Olympic medalists, so I trust them, especially as they're not woo. I think woo chiropractic harms more than helps, and is probably the cause of why injuries happen. (I don't know this for sure; research is needed, but I wouldn't be surprised.)

Speaking of science, I got put on the e-stim machine at the end again, for the 4th visit in a row. This has not been a normal thing for me. I'd much rather do my 2 minutes on the VersaClimber before getting iced, thankyouverymuch!! Today I got a heat pack instead of the usual ice packs, and it helped. Next week they're moving me from the initial hydrobed therapy straight to the e-stim and heat, and then the usual work. Yay. Oh yeah - the e-stim and heat relaxed my muscles enough that I went back to bug the chiropractor to check to see if I had a rib out on my left side. He felt around, said he didn't feel anything, then got me into position for a reset. Sure enough, I had one out on my left side, which is unusual for me. Ribs 2-3 on my right side have gone in and out so many times over the years (aggravated by repetitive motions like housework or filing or breathing) that I think I may have popped them back in this morning on my own. Yeah, deffo getting that Vicodin (aka hydrocodone/APAP) now.

Use the right kind of protection.

This art "has been commended as being strongly
vaginal, which bothers some men. The word itself
makes some men uncomfortable. Vagina."
(Maude Lebowski) 

Yesterday I went back to the local Apple store with the replacement iPad, which was also wonky in the same way (dropping wifi every few minutes). The store is in a mall and this year's Canstruction is in full swing. Some of it is nice. Some of it is great. One art was so Lebowskian that I had to snap a pic.

Frustrated 3rd techie to work with me/it that day walked off after 15 minutes trying things. He then brought me another new one. All replacements have been iPad1, 32 GB with wifi since that's what I had. He suggested WPA / WPA2 personal instead of WEP security, and I'm like duh. (Turns out he has hacker friends who could hack into WPA-protection in an hour but can hack into WEP in 10 minutes, and hackers like quick and easy so there you go. I giggled to myself since the canned vagina was still in my mind and he was talking about protection. Insert your own joke here.)

He advised to set this iPad up from scratch as a new device instead of restoring from backup. If it doesn't work, I should call the router people. Even though there's only 4 wireless connections at the most at any given time. Even though several others haven't had problems connecting, that I know of, anyway. He also suggested someone may have hacked in and is using my line and bumping a device off, so to check number of devices the router can handle. Besides having WPA2 personal security in the first place, most of the time only the desktop and Wii for Netflix are using the wireless connection, aside from the occasional iPad attempts. I use my iPhone on the home wireless when I remember to take it off 3G, and I have it set to 3G because I don't trust public wifi.

iPad with full bars and no connection.
Every 5 to 20 minutes. ANNOYING.
Oh, and this is the article I mentioned
yesterday. Please think before you pink.

I haven't surfed on iPad 1.3 too much, but so far I have 2 screenshots of THE SAME THING HAPPENING. I haven't even connected it to my computer at all and haven't downloaded any apps from the app store app, so it does appear to be a straight iPad issue. I'm currently looking for router info, and I found a page that actually addresses iPad wireless connection with the home Buffalo AirStation router since the router is AOSS-equipped. Yay! Except for one small detail. The page is in Japanese. I don't know Japanese. Can't read it, can't speak it. At all. Aside from "arigato" and "domo" and "sushi" and "sashimi" and "Genki-kun."

Grr. Arggh.

Thanks to Google translation magic, it looks like they're compatible and that I need to input the router info manually. Which I have done. Many many many many times over. I'll deal with this later though, as I am declaring it to be naptime. We FINALLY have rain going on, for the first time in 5,000 years. We'll still be in a drought for 9 million more years, but at least this is something.

Well then.

Bringing my iPad1 to the Genius Bar at a local Apple store was a nice experience. The whole Apple Store experience is great, with the minimalist zen design, many friendly staff, customer-oriented service, etc. I showed a guy screenshots I took of my being fully connected to home wifi and not being able to connect to the internet via friendly auto-message from Safari saying it couldn't connect to the internet. I explained to him how I'd tried everything, reset the router, got a new router, redid security settings, blah, how everything else on the home network worked just great, blah, and he ended up replacing it with a new iPad1. Score!

But. *sigh*

I found myself a bit worried when syncing the new iPad with my iTunes backup, since it had the same "not charging" in the upper right corner. There's been no problems with charging at all so I've figured it should've said "now charging" instead. I guess. Anyway, iTunes told me that this iPad had been synced with another iTunes library before and did I want to back up from my backup? My brow furrowed while I thought, "Great, I wonder if this had or has the same issues as the last one." Sure enough....

Looking online again, scouring more Apple forums and support boards, I came across some poor sod who went through this 9 times. With 9 different iPads. Holy. Crap. I did see a suggestion that I'd not tried, so I'm trying it now and hoping for the best. I'll go back to surfing on it for a bit before going back to the Apple store and hitting up Genius Bar Guy again, but it'll be trippy if turning the auto-brightness to off is what fixes the dropping wifi issue. Really, HUH??? (but it was an official Apple suggestion, so I'm trying it)

In other news, my chiropractor wants to see me again in 5 days (on Tuesday) because my neck is so jacked. My SCMs on both sides are practically bulletproof, they're so tight. The usual Active Release Technique treatments helped, but only a little, so I got sent to the e-stim machine again. (For the third visit in a row.) After 3 different guys worked on me. For about 30 minutes total. My throat feels way swollen but I think it's half due to the muscle tightness, half due to allergy drainage. If this sounds like fun to you, I want to know what drugs you're on, because this sucks. Hubby has developed visible allergy bumps on the inside of his eyelid again, and this hasn't happened in a few years so the allergy misery is being shared by many others here, I'm sure. The orange level ozone alert days don't help either, and of course the chemical plant that blew up this week 40 miles from home isn't helping either.