Grass and Sky

I called Radio Shack this morning and found out that I was eligible for a phone upgrade. So off to the shops I went and got myself a new phone. Unfortunately, they didn't have any that I really liked, so I had to make some compromises. I wanted both a touch screen and a slide out qwerty keyboard and they didn't have any AT&T non-smart phones that offered both. I decided that the keyboard was more important, so I have a keyboard but no touch screen, which my rational brain understands but my reflexes haven't caught on to yet. So I keep touching the screen and getting frustrated when nothing happens. I'm slowly catching on to how to use it, but it's a slow and painful process.

I ran into another snag when I realized that none of my contacts were saved onto my simcard. I'm not sure how that happened, but there it is. Since the old phone doesn't work anymore, it's too late to do anything about it and I'm in the process of rebuilding my contacts. This is complicated by the fact that I haven't figured out how this part of the phone works, yet. I thought I had entered a bunch of contacts, but when I tried to use them, I received an 'invalid entry' message or something like that. I know that I'll eventually figure it all out and using this phone will become as reflexive as the old one was, but I hate change, so I'm not thrilled at the moment.

On the plus side, I have figured out a temporary solution to the dead computer. I dug out my old laptop, which I haven't used in almost a year because the fan was super clogged with cat fur and wouldn't run anymore, and lo and behold, a year of idleness seems to have helped with that problem. Good old Puddlejumper is running sooooooo slowly, but he's running, so yay for internet access. Even more importantly, yay for being able to recharge my ipod!

Okay, time to put on some tunes and get a little bit of housework done before I have to go babysit.

I may have a dead fan on my computer. It's not running at all; last night my computer overheated and shut down two or three times before I figured out what was going on. Luckily, I'm still under warranty, but it seems likely I'll be spending Saturday morning on the phone with tech support for several hours trying to convince them of the problem, and then I'll have to wait another week before they can send someone out to fix it at a time when I'm home. So it might be a while before I have reliable computer access at home. Boo.

Things accomplished today:

*one load of laundry (all but the folding and putting away part)

*six hundred words of original fic world-building and conceptualization, while hanging out at a cafe with eve11

*purchase of dvds (season three of Las Vegas and season five of SGA) and a book (The Three Muskeeters)

*read at least half of another book (The Stupidest Angel, by Christopher Moore)

*removed a nasty trojan virus from my laptop - well, spent almost three hours on the phone with a Dell software support person letting him remove the nasty from my laptop (the reason I stopped at six hundred words of world-building and conceptualization, also probably the reason my IE went all freaky on me last week)

The virus thingy sort of hijacked my plans for the day but I did not despair. Instead I went shopping and stocked up on books and dvds in case my computer was down for the count, lol. Of course, once I talked to the guy at Dell and found out that my warranty only covers hardware problems and I'd have to pay through the teeth for the software support, I sort of wished I'd had more self control at Barnes & Noble, but that's okay. It's payday this Friday and I'll just have to be a little more lean in my spendings next month.

( Computers, I will never understand them )

It has, honestly, been a kind of crappy week at work. I seem to be stepping wrong with everyone, despite my best efforts. In an effort to console myself, I started an SGA Robin Hood AU.

( Wee snippet of SGA Robin Hood AU, raw, rough and unfinished, spoilers for season three plotlines )