28 tweets for 2009-3-10

In the last 24 hours, I posted the following to Twitter:

• Monday, 0133: OK: boxes of mostly-books on box with convertible loveseat are all stuck on the shelf; the shelf is shelving away happily.
• Monday, 0134: Air quality according to the Ruckus MM 2211-DZ Wireless Access Gateway: 2 bars. (woo!)
• Monday, 0136: @oakandsage needs to filk 500 Miles about gender reassignment.
• Monday, 0141: There is tape on boxes not-so-quietly unsticking itself, and I am alone in the apartment. I will survive. I will also need sleep.
• Monday, 1106: @Lgs92 I see you've already met the twitter-spammers. Most people block them on sight.
( read the other 23 )

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A day!

Woke up late (in the relative scheme of things that say the workday starts at 9). In brushing out my hair, was startled at how long it is getting. (I seem to be in a permanent state of surprise over that, but this is longer still.) Wrestled with faily internet. Called insurance place; reported to office that I have the policy, I have the number, and they cannot fax the proof until Tuesday or Wednesday, but here is what I have.

Called ISP with my findings about the one bar of signal and my suspicions that this is due to physics and not something I can easily upgrade. (The apartment has an eastern-facing glass patio double door. That is it for windows. It is also on the ground floor, with concrete above, and a hill, with concrete on it, and pretty much no place to put the device to get a good signal.)

A maintenance guy came in to see about the outlet problems. I started un-boxing books, as there was really no easy way to continue to wrestle with the internet.

He checked out the outlet that would not allow three-prong plugs first. He put a little probe up to it; it bleeped and flashed red. "No, the plug will not physically go in," I clarified, and grabbed a handy power strip to demonstrate. He tried, failed, and broke out the screwdriver.

I continued with my book un-boxing, but looked over at just the right moment. "You don't mean to tell me it was upside-down!" I exclaimed. Indeed, the outlet in the wall under the cover plate was oriented opposite from what the cover plate had been. He put the cover plate back on, correctly.

The other problematical outlet, the one that pulled out from the wall, had a box that was just plain broken, with a screw-holder that did not screw. It will have to be replaced; they don't have that part in.

( Fireplace, books, ISP, and other domestic tranquilities. )

Chair and other forms of adventure!

I woke up late again, but with the unimaginable luxury of sleeping on a surface that was not the floor. I got off to a late start, first getting a call from the office, then calling the insurance company, who were finally able to fax the proof of insurance to the office. I called back to let them know that the incoming fax was on the way.

Next, I called the dude who had been recommended regarding internet, and got stuff set up there. The appointment is on Thursday morning; I'll have to get back from the farmers' market in time to make that.

Then I compiled a shopping list and went out. I'd been planning to go to Fry's Electronics, IKEA, and Target. I wound up only going to Fry's, but that twice over. I got a cablemodem/wireless router combination (Linksys) and some batteries and a laptop cooling pad. They did not have office chairs at that location (western themed), but re-directed me to Sunnyvale (Golden Age of Electronics/waveform themed), which did, the very model I'd been so happy with before. They were selling the floor model of a bread machine, but it was as-is and missing the paddle, so I gave that a pass. :(

It's very interesting to navigate a Fry's Electronics with a very large chair box in your cart. Things got more interesting when I got the chair mat in there. I may have to write something like that someday for the disaster potential. I accepted the nice young man's offer of help getting it in my car, and brought Vash around. Two strapping young men (ok, so they looked a little wimpier than I actually am, although my endurance sucks) helped out, and we played Car Tetris. The chair box wound up in the back seat, blocking the rearview mirror. The chair mat wound up rolled up and stuffed on top of the chair box. I wound up sporting a pair of nicely matched scratches from the spikes on the chair mat. I'll probably contract some more getting it out.

I called norabombay on my way home in the middle of the traffic jam, and we had a good old gossip. This was interrupted by me driving into the garage (tons of concrete), and then by me sitting too far back on my couch (I live in a wireless hellhole), and then by my phone just plumb losing signal in the middle of the living room. There was also some nice young man knocking on my door and starting what sounded like a magazine sales pitch. I closed the door on him, despite his assurances that he was not violent and would not hurt me; Nora objected that he was exactly the sort of person who would need to hear the Epic Essay on Why You Shouldn't Date Batman (or Bruce Wayne) [essay may or may not be forthcoming].

Wound up in the lounge after a while. There were problems with getting the door open; my nice neighbor Jeff and I both had problems with our electronic keys vs. the door; so had the lady who opened it for us. Dawn called just as I was getting settled in with my laptop. We had a nice chat. I had a bit of a chat with Jeff, who is not much of a computer person.

I may wind up in the lounge even after I get my home internet working, because it's nice and lively, and I like places that are happening where I don't really have to interact.