Lizzie's Couch

Well, I know it’s been awhile, and this one isn’t really so much about Liz as an update in general and my pathetic excuse for being lazy and not writing anything.  The technology gods are after me.  I swear it.

Incident One:  My laptop dies.

My laptop was already on it’s last legs, I hold no illusions that it was about to go.  Earlier in the year I had accidentally spilled milk on it, and while my computer skills had allowed me to take it apart and get it cleaned out as best I could, the keyboard no longer worked and it had to be plugged in at all times.  That said, there were more than a few instances where the laptop cord was yanked out (thankyou Vito), worked loose, or in one case pulled to stop a virus so I could restart and have a chance to combat the thing.  As many of you computer savvy people know, this is a bad thing.  Windows very much hates being improperly shut down.  So, after a few months of this abuse, it finally threw up it’s digital hands, gave me the finger, and refused to start.  Having no spare computer to connect the harddrive to and attempt a repair, I’m a bit stuck.

Incident Two:  The cable fiasco.

Considering the laptop’s demise a sign that I should finally get a decent machine that will allow me to not only finally get some real CG work done, but also let me play the big stack of games the laptop loathed, I start shopping around.  Now, since I’m looking for a desktop, I needed a desk.  Having no room for a desk, I bought some lumber and built a long table to go over the end of my bed, and haul my tv up there to use as a monitor.  I was pretty proud of myself.  I find a guy on craigslist selling a nice gaming rig for 450, contact him, we email a little, and he vanishes.  So I find another guy, selling a better rig for 400, contact him, and buy the sucker.  The new computer is a BEAST.  8 Gigs of RAM, 1 Gig video card, 2 Terabyte harddrive.  I was in love.  The guy selling it asks if I need the monitor cable, and I mentioned I was going to hook it up to my tv. He nods, and I, stupidly forgetting to check the video card’s ports, take it home.

Big mistake.

I get home, and get ready to hook it up.  No HDMI port.  Hrm.  So I grab my VGA cable and try that.  The port is there, but no signal.  Double hrm.  So I run out to walmart and buy another VGA (and a copy of New Vegas because I was excited about having a new computer), thinking maybe my cable was bad.  Still no signal.  I double check the text message conversation I had with the guy, and realize I need a DVI cable.  And everything is closed except walmart…who doesn’t carry them (also turns out the disk was missing from my game).  Well okay, I guess I can wait a day to play on my new computer.  The next day, I get off work, run down to Fry’s, buy a DVI to VGA cable and a case for my laptop’s harddrive so I can try and repair it.  I do all my other errands, including taking back the other cable and getting another copy of my game, get home, take a shower, and try to plug in my cable.
Crap.
Right kind of cord, wrong ends.
Thoroughly frustrated by now, mostly because it’s Texas, in summer, my car’s AC is out, and Fry’s is a good 20 minutes away, I pack up and go BACK out again to exchange my cable.  By the time I get there I’m covered in sweat, I stink, and I’m not exactly happy.  I go back in, and flag down one of their reps to make absolutely 100% sure I had the right cable.  Now, this is hard for me, I consider myself very computer savvy, and having a sales rep talking down to me because I’m ‘some silly little computer illiterate girl’ thoroughly grinds my gears.  He hands me a DVI to HDMI cable, assuring me it’s the right one with a “Trust me, I work here.”.  Siiiigh.  I get home, plug it in, and amazingly he was right.  Okay, but that didn’t mean I liked being treated like an idiot.  But I’m big enough to admit he was right.  Cue a few hours of blowing my mind with being able to click something and have it happen INSTANTLY.

Incident Three:  My phone dies.

So you would think that perhaps this would be the end of it.  Nope.  My phone, which had already been sent in for repair twice for a faulty power connector, decides to break again the next day.  It won’t charge, and becomes a lovely paperweight for the rest of the day.  I get off work, go to best buy, and pay 150 dollars on a deposit for a loaner phone while they send it in again.  The loaner had a low battery, but I figured I could just charge it when I got home.  Yeah.  You can guess where this is going.  I get home, plug it in, nothing.  I go to work, plug it in to three different cords, nothing. So now, I have effectively exchanged one paperweight for another.  I’ll have to go back today to return the thing.  The technology gods are after me, I swear!

Seeing as this is a beast of a post, I’ll wait til the next one to talk about what happened when I got home yesterday.  That one does involve Liz, if only in a peripheral sense.  Till next time!