Seismic Twitch

Does anyone have any luck having the automated updates from WordPress actually work? I’ve never had any success with it. Every update I’ve done I had to manually do. If no one has any success with the Automation, why do they bother having it at all?

Ok, so I’m not. I lied. I needed a title though, so there you are.

It’s been both busy and dead in my life, depending on how you look at things. Bran’s and my laptops have been slowly kicking the bucket for some time now. His is 8 years old (ancient in terms of computer technology) and though mine still worked the battery couldn’t be counted on for a long time if it was unplugged. So we decided to update ourselves and we each got a new desktop. We’ll keep the laptops for travelling though. Mine is an entry level gamer computer. Bran figured that would be a good choice since I’ve gotten more into photography and photo editing. His is similar but a slightly better version as they didn’t have one like mine made up already.

I was a touch disappointed in my computer when we brought it home. The first thing it did was lock up and then it took multiple hard boots (using the power button) to get it to the Windows desktop. I was less than whelmed. The last straw was when it locked up overnight (Monday to Tuesday). It went back into the shop. There I was told something that I have difficulty believing. I was told that some hardware has difficulty coping with some programs and will lock up. The two mentioned (because they were installed) were Adobe products and Sophos (my virus scan software). I’m sorry. Those programs were written specifically to work on PCs and Macs. My bullshit detector went off, big time. First, I need a virus scanner and Sophos is one I get all the bells and whistles to because I’m an alumna from the U of S. Second, what good is a computer that can’t deal with Adobe? I have need of Adobe reader and Adobe flash, and let’s not forget PhotoShop, right? I don’t want a computer that can’t handle those to programs.

Poor Bran, he was having difficulty holding his temper and looked like he was going to become one of those customers that get kicked out of the store. So I dealt with the guy handling the return. I told him that I was, despite my calm demeanour, quite unhappy about my very new computer locking up. I told him I wanted the computer fixed, if it was a hardware issue, or a new computer if they couldn’t find anything wrong. That’s where it was left. You see, when I pay nearly $1000 for anything I expect it to work and work well. The fact that we not only bought my computer but 3 24″ monitors as well as Bran’s computer (that was being built) made me more determined to get what I wanted as a good customer. On Thursday morning we got the call. According to the repair guys it was a bad ram stick. They fixed it and we went and picked up Bran’s computer that was completed. For the most part things are ok. It does appear to have an issue with my terabyte external drives. When they’re plugged in the computer doesn’t want to start up right. For now they’re unplugged while I’m not using them.

Work has been a whole lot less stupid busy. We have fewer people (due to people leaving on full parole). Crowded work is somewhat of a nightmare. Weekly reports were impossible to get done in one day without having a second staff on duty. Documentation took forever, especially with new people because they tend to be quite needy. Then there’s the added number of rooms that we have to check every few hours. Add to that drama created by having women and men in the same facility and you have a headache. Now we have two residents with health issues. The drama has increased significantly with the decreasing numbers, but the actors in that play are the same ones. Hopefully that doesn’t spread.

The weather has been up and down. Though temperatures have gone up into the mid to high 20s (70s-80s in Fahrenheit) it’s not been too horrible. Everything is green. How I missed green over the winter. There are flowers blooming all over the place. It’s rather pleasant. Yesterday was the first day we considered that the a/c would be a good thing in the window. I suspect that it was partly due to having 2 more desktops spewing hot air into the room. Fortunately it was cooler today. Right now there’s thunder thundering and lightning lightninging and rain is starting to rain.

I took pictures of the Pride parade last weekend. Bran and I went out late Saturday morning. I bought some rainbow stuff (actually it was Bran who paid for it because he was smart enough to bring cash), a couple of flags, rainbow shoe laces, etc. Today I lost the car flag because I was stupid and opened the window it was attached to and it blew away. $25 down the drain. We’ll have to go to the flag shop to get me a new one. I need to have something to separate me from all the other silver small SUV type trucks out there. Have you any idea how many there are that have similar shapes to the Ford Escape? Let’s just say a lot. Having a door flag means being able to find my auto in a parking lot filled with silver small SUV type trucks. I don’t have many photos processed yet. The ones I do have done are on my Flickr account (link in the right column).

Tomorrow is the tree planting that the funeral home does for those people who died in the previous year. I forgot to tell Boy before he made other plans to be with a friend that he isn’t often able to be with. This means it’s just Bran and I going. Since it’s at a little park near Moose Jaw (where I mostly grew up) Bran and I will be taking our cameras. We’ll probably arrive early and stay for a bit afterwards so we’ll be taking photos. I figure I’ll send these photos to the sibling, former sibling-in-law and the nieces. It will be my final farewell to Dad.

Speaking of nieces, my oldest niece is pregnant again, about to burst actually. She’s going to have another girl. She’s naming her Nadege Katherine. Poor niece is rather impatient for her pregnancy to be over. She’s been dropping vague hints like, “I can haz baby now?” and “37 weeks is full term” and the like.

One of our former residents died a couple of weeks back. It was a sudden death and we weren’t expecting it. He wasn’t someone we figured would live to a ripe old age, but no one expected it this soon. There are conflicting possibilities of the cause of death. The family says he had a stroke. The parole office manager (who has connections with the police – imagine that) heard that it was an overdose. It’s possible it was a combination of the two. Tough call with him because not long before he was suicidal. He was having enormous difficulty dealing with the death of his sister from stomach cancer. The saddest thing of all was that he had found someone to love, someone who accepted him for who he was, warts and all. He also had a job with a boss who seemed to understand his mental health issues and was quite generous in accommodating them. He was a real charmer, sweet loved children and wore his heart on his sleeve, but had the attention span of a ferret on meth. Really. His emotions could go up and down multiple times in the space of 5 minutes. I can’t count the number of times his PO would stir him up and the bosses would have to bring him down. He was finally revoked because he threatened a program worker. He was firmly convinced that she lied to him. He didn’t take dishonesty in others silently. When he was next released they sent him to Regina. All of his family is in Saskatoon and within an hour he had gone UAL (unlawfully at large). This was a huge DUH for us and for some reason, a surprise to Corrections. They found him in Saskatoon and then released him again 1 day before his WED (warrant expiry date). He finished his sentence in March this year. I’ll miss him.

I think that’s about it for monumental news from here. Oh, our landlord is selling the house. So far there have only been two potential buyers go through. I think there was another one just a few minutes ago. There was a half-ton truck that came down the street, reversed, sat there while the driver stared at the house and then slowly drove off. He had a truck like ours. I’m hoping the purchaser won’t want to live in one of the suites. Chances are they’d want ours and that would suck.