Well, a lot has happened in the 2 weeks I was without a computer. In the larger scheme of things, my problems are nothing compared to many others. However, they are still my problems, therefore I will talk about them and other things.

I did get a new hard drive with faster stuff, bigger memory. However, still having problems. You'd think that my XP install disk would actually work. Many, many retries of install before it did so. My nephew installed it originally and I couldn't get many of my files to load, as I seemed to be missing some .dll files. So...wipe the hard drive, re-install. UGH. It took me 2 days to install without, seemingly, any errors. I think my disk is screwed. I'm gonna need a new program. For now, I'll deal with it. It's bitchy, very bitchy. Some programs don't work or shut off on their own. Namely the games shut off, for the most part. They aren't 'essential' so they don't concern me much. My major computer problems are the hard drive crashing, as the drivers for my new stuff like the hard drive itself and the essential pieces that make a computer actually run randomly stop working. My theory is that xp is pissy because the drivers aren't digitally signed. I couldn't get directx 9.0 to install for my Nero program, came with the burner, because it wasn't digitally signed. It simply refused it. However I installed the same damn thing from the driver disk that made xp so pissy as the drivers weren't 'signed'. WTF?! The only programs so far, that seem to be working are firefox, thunderbird and solitaire. I haven't messed with my photo programs, as I'm trying to get my damn open office downloaded. Downloads in .zip files. I've downloaded it atleast 10 times in the past couple of days. No luck. 'error reading .zip file', 'error extracting .zip file', etc. I think xp didn't load the unzip program thingy properly. I'm getting either the errors or it does unzip, but the setup.exe isn't working. UGH! I need it for my reunion projects. I can't get Yahoo instant messenger to install itself properly. After 2 days of trying, it actually installed itself twice. I then had to remove the damn thing manually. It was missing a file that it required to actually open the program. Can't find xxx file. Messenger will only allow me to download their new 'voice' messenger. UGH. I wanted to try to get the old one, see if it's my computer having problems installing or the program. No such luck. I actually need that one, keep in contact with my family. For now it's gonna have to be e-mail. I had to try and try and try again to get my anti-virus installed. I think it must be xp that didn't load properly. I've never had such trouble getting basic programs and drivers installed. Oh, and forget trying to update the damn thing. Windows update is pissy too. It refuses to validate my copy of windows. Fucker validated last hard drive I had. Same damn disk! I just wanted to be able to update certain programs. I let the auto-update do it's thing and ended up in a reboot circle. Load windows...blue screen...rebooted itself, for quite some time. No safe mode no nothing. Blue screen, reboot. Until I get some help, I'm stuck with what I have. I don't want to have to buy another copy of xp. I'm sure it'll be quite expensive. UGH. Damn my conscience for actually paying for programs. Well, most of them anyway. Truthfully, I only have either ones I bought, are open source, or given to me by someone no longer using the program. Just like with music, I believe if you get it you should pay for it, doing things illegally isn't worth the trouble if you get caught.

Enough about my problems, they are minor, on to the next subject. Observations. My hard drive crashed the day after the hurricane hit. I was getting my news from several sources, but mainly the irish trojan and one of the local NO stations live broadcast. The weather channel was only broadcasting what they knew were facts. Every other network on my tv was reporting WHATEVER THE FUCK THEY FELT LIKE. This is pathetic, they were reporting rumors, that were debunked by anyone who felt like doing a little 'homework' on the internet. Like local news sources and official websites. They showed 'safe on their asses' politicians whining about meaningless shit, while the people who lost their homes were trying to recover, find places to stay, etc. And then my hard drive crashed. No ability to find news what-so-ever. Every once in a while, I'd flip to a tv news site and just get more pissed off. A congresswoman sat there on, I think cnn, and whined about how the president didn't give her state money. Whatever, get off your fucking ass, and go to your job and make legislation to fix it. Even the president has to follow the LAW. You don't like it, make new ones, that's your job, that's what your citizens pay your happy little whining ass to do. GO DO IT! Play the blame game later. It pisses me off seeing these people blame the federal government. They whine about too much federal involvement then scream when they don't do enough. Get over yourself and fix your damn problems. You have a brain, use it. If you can't use it, go find a new job, your people need someone better. And yes, I say this from the safety of my little house, in my little town, far away from the disaster. You know, another hurricane hit last week, I think it was. In florida. So not newsworthy, I guess. It got coverage on the weather channel. It wasn't New Orleans, it wasn't newsworthy. I understand why New Orleans is such a big deal. Truly, I do, but there are other places affected too. Hopefully the politicians will pull their heads out of their asses (generalization) and fix the problems. Prevent it from happening again. Wait, oops, you can't prevent a HURRICANE. You can only prepare, hopefully. That's what I wish to see 'them' talking about. How to fix the 'preparedness and recovery whatever' of the aftermaths of hurricanes. What can we do to prevent excess damage, what can we do to ensure that response time is as fast as possible. I've seen some allusions that it wasn't. I wonder. Was it, was it not? Who gets to say that it was, or wasn't? Who is right? I have to say the crap that I've seen on the net after my 2 weeks was discouraging. It wasn't at the blogs I read though. Well there were some moronic, ignorant comments, but in general I just wanna say UGH!

However, I'm making my judgements a bit hastily. I realize that. I will revise my opinion if needed. I will wait for studies and reports to come out. I will wait for facts that can be verified. Can you do that before you play the blame game? Personally, right now, I don't care who's to blame. There are more immediate problems, like the people in, I think, 3 states that lost homes, valuables, family members. Those are the problems that need addressing, everything else can come after that. And no, I didn't donate to any causes. I don't have much money, and winter is coming. In a tourist area, there isn't much money in winter and I have to make sure we'll be able to pay bills through winter and into March and April. If you want to donate fine, if you don't that's okay too. I think people need to remember that. Donating is a choice. Respect other peoples' choices.

If you wanna lecture me fine, do it in a respectable manner. If you want to change my opinion, word your debate/argument respectfully and I will listen. Back up your claims with sources. And under no circumstances quote religious crap to me. I respect your choice to have religion, don't use it to try to guilt me. I am a master at rejecting that shit. I have had guilt laid on me from people much better than 'you' at it. Go elsewhere for it, here it will serve no purpose. (Here I have haloscan where I can delete comments and ban commenters.)

Frivolous(sp?) posting to come at a later date. Pics of the stuff from the Hillbilly Fair to come later when I'm halfway sure that I can get pics up. |