Life Viewed Through an Amber Focus

The computer is going in to be repaired. Again. With the exact same problem it had before, except this time I didn't pour spill water on it. That they supposedly repaired by replacing a part that I am suspecting they did not actually replace, but maybe used a hairdryer to dry out instead. Plus the fan is dead. So who knows when the heck I will get it back. Or my spreadsheets that I backed up two days ago, but not after I made a bunch of changes to them yesterday. And I hate the backup laptop. It does not have a comfortable keyboard, it does not keep up with my typing speed, and the angle is somehow different enough to bug the heck out of my barely healed finger. Plus it is Win8 and touchscreen, both of which can rot in Hades as far as I am concerned.

Also, consecutive viruses (the human kind, not the computer kind) can please be leaving the building now.

/whine

Come on, Best Buy. How long does it take you to recover my documents, spreadsheets, music files, downloads, and photographs? I haven't written in weeks. I want my stories back. Especially the ones I was in mid-chapter on. *sighs* I hate Windows 8. Am ready to be having my Windows 7 back now, please, too. Of course they can't even send my Win 7 computer in to be fixed until they recover my stuff, which they said they could do. They accessed it right there in front of Chris when he took it in. I guess I should try to be more patient. It did sit there for 3 weeks before it even got to the store, but still. 4 days even on a holiday is a long time to recover what is not an extraordinary amount of material.

School starts tomorrow for R and Wednesday for T. R is a senior. T is homeschooling again for 8th grade.

With the computer down I've been reading a ton of novels.

The Host, which I actually really liked, despite the fact that I hated Twilight. Alien parasites have taken over the majority of humanity. Told from the point of view of a parasite whose host's mind does not go away when she is infected.

One Second After which covers the life of a small mountain town and private college for a year after an EMP takes out the electricity and technology. No easy outs and people die. Very realistic.

The Diary of Pelly D., a teenage war diary found in the ruins after a war on a future colony on another planet.

Maelstrom, the second in the Twins of Petaybee series. Always fun to revisit the sentient planet and her selkies.

Legend, a far future novel where the United States no longer exists (and one side claims it never did). The Republic is a harsh military regime purposely inflicting plagues on its population so it can one day take over what it calls The Colonies (the last of United States after flooding took out several portions of the east coast). One military brat and one street brat find their lives forever changed when they meet and figure out the reality of what is going on.

Glow. Two generation star ships headed towards a new planet. One has been unable to reproduce and so steals the girls off the other ship, killing many of their parents, and stranding the boys alone with no adults and a failing ship. The girls fight to get back to their own ship after the older ones have had their eggs stolen and a couple of them are shot. Very intense. Looking forward to the sequel.

And I'm currently in the middle of Divergent and starting Deluge (the 3rd in the Twins of Petaybee series and the 6th in the Petaybee series as a whole). Divergent is a fascinating read, though I don't really think society in a post-apocalyptic New York City would ever set itself up this way. People do not fit this easily into categories. Well, the main character certainly doesn't. In the real world, people would resist being pigeon-holed this way, or being told they could never see their families again if they chose a different personality path than their parents or siblings. But I still really like the book and am reading it voraciously.

My email account was hacked yesterday and sent out a ton of spam. Sorry if any of you were the recipients. I've changed the password. As far as I can tell it's harmless "buy my crap" spam, not virus spam, but I'd delete anything from me that does not have a subject in the subject line (something I never do, by the way).

Just got word from Best Buy that my beloved Sony Vaio is considered totalled (I think they call it a junk out) and they are going to replace it with something comparable or give me credit for an upgrade if that is what I want to do instead. Dang it, I want my baby back. It had the best keyboard I have ever had, which may not sound like a big deal, but it really is. Ease of key strokes is one of the major things for me because I type so much. Plus I just renewed my anti-virus and I don't think that is transferrable. Grumble, grumble, grumble. I should be jumping up and down because NEW! FREE! COMPUTER! But I just hate change when it comes to hardware. Software I will jump on the band wagon for. And also, my one time use Office won't be transferable, so I will have to make them give me one. Or buy the physical copy, which can be installed on five computers, I think. I mean in succession, not at once. Maybe I should do that anyway. *sighs* I am really, really, really glad now that I paid extra for the super deluxe maintenance agreement.

I will go in after my appointment tomorrow and see what they have. I hope I can find something I like.

Taking the computer into the shop again. Screen busted. Don't know how long it will be this time. Hopefully not long since it is just a replacement and they shouldn't have to wipe and replace. I don't know if I'll be able to be on much or write much because of it.

They said it could be up to 8 weeks to fix the other laptop since there are 3 things wrong with it and they have to send it to Seattle, so I said screw that, I am not going that long without a laptop. We bought me an inexpensive Asus ($379 plus tax) laptop. The keyboard is awesome and just like the keys on my Sony, so great for mega typing speed, and it has a ten-key pad, just like my Sony. It was the only keyboard I really liked in the under $500 set. Once I get my Sony back, this one is going to be the backup computer for everyone, since someone or the other's is always going down. It's 18 months same as cash, too, but I will likely just pay for it when the bill comes. I have been setting aside money for a little bit anyway in my computer fund.

I have spent the last couple of hours getting stuff installed. Still installing stuff actually, but Kaspersky anti-virus is on and yahoo messanger and tool bar so my basics are in place. Probably will be for a few more hours. I need to put on Open Office still and MalWare Bytes and MegaUpload and Firefox and a codec and Winamp. I will probably get another copy of Office eventually, but for right now the other will do.

Hopefully tomorrow, or maybe even tonight, I can get back to writing because LoF is spinning around in my head right now like crazy.

I am finally taking the laptop in to be fixed tomorrow. I have been babying it along, but I give up after it decided to turn the screen pink and green. I am so glad I got the "drop it in the bathtub" service agreement. They have to fix anything that is wrong with it no matter what. And no, I didn't drop it in the bathtub.

So anyway, depending on if I can pry either Chris' laptop or T's netbook out of their hands (which is doubtful) I probably won't be on much until it's fixed. Hopefully quickly. Especially since the old laptop with the improvised D key is being stupid, too. I am on such a writing roll right now I hate to stop, but I'd hate it even more if the laptop dies an early death.

I had to swipe my son's Netbook to send this post. I am hoping to get it off in the next couple of hours so I can send chapter 3 to beta. I have been fighting with it for most of the day, because it keeps hiding itself somewhere else. But I think I finally have the damn thing cornered.

Bad Firefox!  Go to your room!  You know, for all that Firefox is supposed to be sooooooooo much better than IE, I am totally not seeing it (other than ad block).  That puppy (er...cub) crashes on me just as many, if not more, times than IE ever did.  If I could throw invisible internet software against the wall right now, I would.  Is Chrome any better or would I just be trading for more of the same?  Between that and stupid LJ not stupid editing correctly in stupid rich text editor, I am about on the ceiling I've been driven so far up the wall.

On the bright side, day 3 of my diet is going well.  No headaches, no (non-computer related) grouchiness, no cravings and I'm down a total of 1.4 pounds.  Which is like a total of 27 since the surgery.  Only now I'm trying.  I have a lot more energy, too.

Not too much going on today so far.  I sorted and folded and hung up and otherwise put away six loads of laundry.  What? (Stop judging me.)  So I got a bit behind.  At least they were all clean.

Doing a bit of writing.  Deadline for finishing this fic is Sunday, and I'd really like to not see another deadline go screeching past me without fic.

If I go quiet for a few days it's due to computer problems.  My laptop's desktop is not wanting to come up after I enter my opening screen password.  It took me ten restarts today and seven yesterday to get it to give me more than just the black screen of death.  I think it's actually a problem with the firewall function of my antivirus software.  I'm going to uninstall it and install a new one, but if it is more than that that is the problem I may not be able to get back on for a bit.  On top of that my internet keeps dropping my laptop.  It's fine on all the other household computers so that might be related to the firewall as well.  Hopefully it's as simple as I think it is, just mind-numbingly time consuming.  First I've got to move all my documents and pictures onto my portable hard drive, though.  Don't want to lose my WIPs.