Monthly Archive: March 2008

Moss Is An Idiot

I got excited when my mail came today — I got two memory chips (RAM, 256 Mb each raising my computer from 512 Mb to 1026 Mb or 1 Gb) in the mail that I had ordered from eBay.

Shut my computer down.  Plugged in the chips.  Booted computer.  It indicated that the BIOS was loaded, the RAM was good, looked for the drives — and rebooted.  Repeat.

I got on the phone to my favorite computer shop, and they suggested trying them one chip at a time in different slots.  No change.  I put the original chips back in the original slots, and rebooted.

SAME THING.  Now I’m getting panicky.  I called the computer shop back and said I’d bring the computer in tomorrow.  Note that I’ve been REALLY MAD at HP about this computer, and I was ready to blame HP for everything that was wrong.

I went back to my computer and plugged in my dongle (USB 2.0 to SATA/IDE With One Touch Backup), so that I could copy my just-restored documents (and I lost a lot, but I’m glad for what I got back) to my older computer.  I opened the case, plugged in the dongle, went to attach it to my HP’s hard drive…

AND DISCOVERED THAT THE DATA CABLE GOT DISCONNECTED while I was installing the RAM.  Well, hell, no wonder it wouldn’t boot — it couldn’t find the hard drive!

I reconnected the cable, rebooted — and everything works great, including the new RAM.

Some days it just doesn’t pay to think you’re smart… but if you keep plugging you get it done.

Hugs,
Me

What American accent do you have? (Best version so far)

Neutral

You’re not Northern, Southern, or Western, you`re just plain -American-.  Your national identity is more important than your local identity, because you don`t really have a local identity.  You might be from the region in that map, which is defined by this kind of accent, but you could easily not be.  Or maybe you just moved around a lot growing up.

Personality Test Results

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Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Horton Hears A WHAT???

I sit and cringe at what I see
They’re selling movies on TV

Producers do to Dr. Seuss
What they would not to Mother Goose

They strip a story of its rhyme
The change the plot, they change the time

And think that they have done so well
But I cannot ignore the smell

Reviews are just one single word
A sentence, whole, is never heard.

I will not watch it in a seat
I will not watch it on my feet

I will not watch it with Jim Carrey
(I would not, even with Dave Barry)

I will not watch it on a screen
In my house it will not be seen

If this is what they do to Ted,
I wish they would just leave him dead.

– Moss Bliss, 3/21/08

Well, things are winnowing themselves down for me again.  I find myself with more work to do, some of it paying real money… and the romantic side of my life is almost back to zero.  A person I love very dearly and regret the mistakes of our past relationship (over a decade ago) has gotten depressed and is cutting all ties with everyone including me.  I haven’t heard from Lyllyth since she went to New Brunswick, she did say she was coming down here for an extended visit but I don’t know if or when…  so I guess I’m back to me, unless that situation changes.  All for the best — if I’m taking care of myself, I can take care of my debt… one piece of which I go to court over a week from tomorrow.  Guess I really have too much to do anyhow.

Hugs,
Me

I’m an idiot.

No, that’s not news.  But among my idiocies is my love for Linux… and my inability to get it installed on my new computer.  There is a hardware/software conspiracy from HP on my computer that will let me install Linux but then wipes the MBR (Master Boot Record, where the bootloader is installed) and requires me to run the Restore disks… I can get my Windows back to the way it was after a few hours of work and hair-pulling… but while Linux is indeed installed, I can’t boot to it, so it’s just sitting there useless.

Well, I got another idea from a Linux user, to wipe my System Restore partition and try again.  Lo and behold, Windows will not boot without that.  And while I *could* have saved my files then, I trusted the Restore disks not to wipe them…. and was wrong.

So now I’m without all my document files, which includes all the AHN files as well as other business and personal documents, my pictures, my music (I had over 6 days’ worth, played end to end with no repeats)…  I can get some of this back, the way I did previously — i.e., if I emailed it to someone, it’s in my Sent folder, and if I received it by email, it’s in one of my folders.  Good thing I virtually always use Yahoo and Gmail, so these files are saved on their servers rather than my hard drive.

Waaah waaah waaah.  I did it to myself, thinking I knew more than I did and making one or two too many assumptions along the way.  I’m currently restoring the new computer and typing on my old one.  I’d be going crazy without at least that one to work on.

Hugs,
Me

I chopped my beard off again a couple weeks ago… probably won’t keep it this way for long, my face hurts for hours after shaving. 

I went to my Asheville Homeless Network meeting yesterday, and one of the members said, “Wow.  You look 40 years younger.  I hardly recognized you.”

While I appreciate the sentiment… waitaminnit… 40 YEARS???  How old does he think I am???  (That would make me look 15)

Hugs,
Me

I got the following in a weekly newsletter from Colleen-Joy Page, a spiritual teacher in South Africa:

Here are 8 tips for writing inner poetry:

1. Just get it down, don’t edit until you are done.
2. Write the worst poem you can manage until you get over self imposed expectations.
3. Imagery and symbols allows much more to be said than a flat word.
4. Develop your own unique voice and style, don’t try to imitate.
5. Try writing from the position of someone you don’t agree with to stretch your creativity.
6. Keep a notepad and pen with you to grab ideas from the ethers and get them down before they disappear.
7. Dreams are great sources for ideas and inspirations.
8. Write about topics you feel a great deal about.

Hugs,

Me