Computers suck!
Sep. 4th, 2003 09:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganursulaI have spent the last four days working on my
After getting completely frustrated with my web browser installation (which was getting flakier and flakier, had stopped getting email, produced error messages every five minutes, and read fewer and fewer pages) i decided it was time to upgrade the software on my computer at work. Upgrading the OS seemed like a good idea for security and performance reasons, upgrading my browser was obvious (and apparantly non-trivial with the old OS, as i had tried that and failed before), and upgrading Matlab held a promised land of high speed looping capbility.
I was convinced into installing a fresh system, instead of updating the old one, and set to work last Thursday. Of course, nothing worked according to plan. I had a million problems with getting two hard drives to work, a few misteps along the way, and a lot of frustration. Making matters worse was the conviction that i had followed directions correctly, and that people on my hall who had done a similar process in the last few weeks had non of the problems that i was having. I hate computers. I hate the way they are not actually predictable, and i hate the way that non of the documentation ever seems to help, and is probably incomplete anyway, and i hate the fact that its is easy to hit a wall and not know what to do next. This is why i put up with things not working, and error messages - i find dealing with that less frustrating that trying to fix it. I'm really not much of a computer person, i guess.
That said, i had some amount of fun, and learned a lot. I've spent a ton of time fooling around with IDE cables and jumper settings. I've learned commands like fs and dd. And i have now, amazingly, a system that looks like it is going to work, and which still has my data on it. I also have a spare hard drive now, onto which i can make back ups. The solution turned out to be some obscure fstab editing, and was finally enacted by begging my across the hall neighbor, who has much save-disk foo. I think, all in all, the experience wasn't too bad, until the last day, when i started to fear that i would never get back to work, and had really reached the limit of my brain capacity to figure out the problem.
All i have left to do is somehow manage to import my mail into my fancy new browser, and somehow get Matlab (for which i followed the installation instructions to the letter, mind you) to work. Oh, and recompile all my code with the new gcc. And then i can do real work. at least, if i can get motivated to that level i can do real work.
On thing, even fooling around with something so nasty as a computer was more interesting than doing the work i should have been doing.
(which consists of things like the 3 hours teleconference that started at 7 am yesterday!)
. I've also been to Spokane to visit Josh's
JOsh's sister Susie, and her fiance William, were on the west coast, so we went to Spokane on Friday to visit Josh's family. It was a good trip - we should really get back more often, as I think Josh's parents would like to see him more often.
Susie and William are both nice, and think the weekend was mostly relaxing. The highlight for me was being able to spend time in Josh's parents' pool... i could live like that! It is in a nice private backyard, and was clear and beautiful. Someday maybe i'll have a pool of my own.
Also this week we did quiz night (we did miserably, so much for the Irish Emigrant being easy!).
, and been working in our
Our basement room is actually progressing. We have called it quits on the mudding, although there are still poor seams and rough areas. Some of the areas are probably beyond repair anyway, and, as for the rest of it, mudding totally sucks and we're ready to be done with it. I am really hoping that once the paint and texture and stuff are on, the walls will look not bad. The exciting news is that this means we are on track to be able to move the couch in in time to use the room as a guest bedroom on the weekend of Heidi and Cory's wedding.
We spent the last few days debating about colors, discovering to my dismay that Josh and i do not seem to have the same vision for what colors would look nice. Ack! I think we finally agreed on something we both like, and are going to go pick out a carpet this afternoon. Cross your fingers and hope that this will not be another fiasco that we hate in six months.
I guess this weekend we will sand, scrub walls, and prime, and start on the painting. Its sort of exciting. Other bonuses of finishing the room include being able to reinstall the entertainment system, and moving the piano into the living room.
. All in all life is not bad, though i somehow am still
I'm feeling stressed in general today, and i'm not sure why. But, i actually have some concrete things that are bugging me.
I'm starting to get worried about school. I still need to find a new advisor, and i'm hoping to take the quals this fall. Takings Quals is entirely scary. And what happens if i fail?
I also have a shitload (technical term, there) of stuff to do in the next month. Whenever i start thinking about it all i get kind of stressed out.
Finally, Josh is still looking for a job. I wouldn't really care, except that no one is hiring, at all, and so it seems like this limbo could last indefinitely. We've started into my savings now, which gives us approximately 5 more months before we have do something drastic. I find myself being very frustrated that i've worked so hard to amass some savings, and now they're all gone. All the money set aside for things like new windows, new carpeting upstairs, landscaping, gone. Not to mention the money that Josh had set aside for redoing the kitchen. Not to mention (perhaps worst of all) my own terror at just not having that money set aside. Perhaps that is stupid - why is it set aside if not for times like this?
I'm really angry at the guy that Josh was working for. I know its a start up, and there just isnt' money, but i feel like he has been jerking us around (he keeps dangling the prospect of money in front of Josh, he just hasn't come through with it).
Josh feels badly about all this, and has been really stressed out. (I think the recent performance of certain baseball teams is exasperating matters, too.) He is antsy, and i don't know how to make him feel better. I keep trying to assure him that we'll be alright, money be damned, but i know its not much of a consolation when you're sitting around sending out resumes all day.
Finally, we have stuff on the agenda (new paint/rug for the basement) -- can we really afford that? I think if we were really wise we would put off finishing the basement until there was no longer this threat hanging over our heads. However, i don't think either one of us is really willing to do that. It is important to us to get this project done.
On the other hand, i guess if we manage to do well on this financial footing, it bodes well for me being able to take my own sabatical one of these days.
.
After getting completely frustrated with my web browser installation (which was getting flakier and flakier, had stopped getting email, produced error messages every five minutes, and read fewer and fewer pages) i decided it was time to upgrade the software on my computer at work. Upgrading the OS seemed like a good idea for security and performance reasons, upgrading my browser was obvious (and apparantly non-trivial with the old OS, as i had tried that and failed before), and upgrading Matlab held a promised land of high speed looping capbility.
I was convinced into installing a fresh system, instead of updating the old one, and set to work last Thursday. Of course, nothing worked according to plan. I had a million problems with getting two hard drives to work, a few misteps along the way, and a lot of frustration. Making matters worse was the conviction that i had followed directions correctly, and that people on my hall who had done a similar process in the last few weeks had non of the problems that i was having. I hate computers. I hate the way they are not actually predictable, and i hate the way that non of the documentation ever seems to help, and is probably incomplete anyway, and i hate the fact that its is easy to hit a wall and not know what to do next. This is why i put up with things not working, and error messages - i find dealing with that less frustrating that trying to fix it. I'm really not much of a computer person, i guess.
That said, i had some amount of fun, and learned a lot. I've spent a ton of time fooling around with IDE cables and jumper settings. I've learned commands like fs and dd. And i have now, amazingly, a system that looks like it is going to work, and which still has my data on it. I also have a spare hard drive now, onto which i can make back ups. The solution turned out to be some obscure fstab editing, and was finally enacted by begging my across the hall neighbor, who has much save-disk foo. I think, all in all, the experience wasn't too bad, until the last day, when i started to fear that i would never get back to work, and had really reached the limit of my brain capacity to figure out the problem.
All i have left to do is somehow manage to import my mail into my fancy new browser, and somehow get Matlab (for which i followed the installation instructions to the letter, mind you) to work. Oh, and recompile all my code with the new gcc. And then i can do real work. at least, if i can get motivated to that level i can do real work.
On thing, even fooling around with something so nasty as a computer was more interesting than doing the work i should have been doing.
(which consists of things like the 3 hours teleconference that started at 7 am yesterday!)
. I've also been to Spokane to visit Josh's
JOsh's sister Susie, and her fiance William, were on the west coast, so we went to Spokane on Friday to visit Josh's family. It was a good trip - we should really get back more often, as I think Josh's parents would like to see him more often.
Susie and William are both nice, and think the weekend was mostly relaxing. The highlight for me was being able to spend time in Josh's parents' pool... i could live like that! It is in a nice private backyard, and was clear and beautiful. Someday maybe i'll have a pool of my own.
Also this week we did quiz night (we did miserably, so much for the Irish Emigrant being easy!).
, and been working in our
Our basement room is actually progressing. We have called it quits on the mudding, although there are still poor seams and rough areas. Some of the areas are probably beyond repair anyway, and, as for the rest of it, mudding totally sucks and we're ready to be done with it. I am really hoping that once the paint and texture and stuff are on, the walls will look not bad. The exciting news is that this means we are on track to be able to move the couch in in time to use the room as a guest bedroom on the weekend of Heidi and Cory's wedding.
We spent the last few days debating about colors, discovering to my dismay that Josh and i do not seem to have the same vision for what colors would look nice. Ack! I think we finally agreed on something we both like, and are going to go pick out a carpet this afternoon. Cross your fingers and hope that this will not be another fiasco that we hate in six months.
I guess this weekend we will sand, scrub walls, and prime, and start on the painting. Its sort of exciting. Other bonuses of finishing the room include being able to reinstall the entertainment system, and moving the piano into the living room.
. All in all life is not bad, though i somehow am still
I'm feeling stressed in general today, and i'm not sure why. But, i actually have some concrete things that are bugging me.
I'm starting to get worried about school. I still need to find a new advisor, and i'm hoping to take the quals this fall. Takings Quals is entirely scary. And what happens if i fail?
I also have a shitload (technical term, there) of stuff to do in the next month. Whenever i start thinking about it all i get kind of stressed out.
Finally, Josh is still looking for a job. I wouldn't really care, except that no one is hiring, at all, and so it seems like this limbo could last indefinitely. We've started into my savings now, which gives us approximately 5 more months before we have do something drastic. I find myself being very frustrated that i've worked so hard to amass some savings, and now they're all gone. All the money set aside for things like new windows, new carpeting upstairs, landscaping, gone. Not to mention the money that Josh had set aside for redoing the kitchen. Not to mention (perhaps worst of all) my own terror at just not having that money set aside. Perhaps that is stupid - why is it set aside if not for times like this?
I'm really angry at the guy that Josh was working for. I know its a start up, and there just isnt' money, but i feel like he has been jerking us around (he keeps dangling the prospect of money in front of Josh, he just hasn't come through with it).
Josh feels badly about all this, and has been really stressed out. (I think the recent performance of certain baseball teams is exasperating matters, too.) He is antsy, and i don't know how to make him feel better. I keep trying to assure him that we'll be alright, money be damned, but i know its not much of a consolation when you're sitting around sending out resumes all day.
Finally, we have stuff on the agenda (new paint/rug for the basement) -- can we really afford that? I think if we were really wise we would put off finishing the basement until there was no longer this threat hanging over our heads. However, i don't think either one of us is really willing to do that. It is important to us to get this project done.
On the other hand, i guess if we manage to do well on this financial footing, it bodes well for me being able to take my own sabatical one of these days.
.
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-04 11:29 pm (UTC)Also, I love you. And I understand Josh's frustration all too well.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-05 08:53 am (UTC)I balanced my checkbook last night. We are in slightly better shape than i thought.
I totally understand JOsh's frustration, and i can't think of anything to do to alleviate it. But i wish i could. I like my happy josh.