I won’t bore you with the details of the comedy known as “Shelly loses then finds then loses then finds her Windows disk,” but I assure you, it was only a comedy in the strictest Greek drama sense (e.g. it does not matter how awful the events were, as long as they ended on an up-note). The short version is that my computer did, indeed, arrive, and I did, indeed get it minimally set up.
Even after the drama of getting the hardware sorted out[1] and getting Windows installed[2], I might have been able to get on-line last night, if it hadn’t been for the fact that the on-board Ethernet is not working. I tried everything I could think of to make Windows find it, but my 133t sk1LLz are not good enough, I’m afraid. I’m going to have to buy an Ethernet card, which means waiting for one to be delivered ($11 including shipping) or buy one locally ($22). I want instant gratification, but it seems really stupid to pay $22 for an Ethernet card. Sheesh! I also need to get a USB-to-Parallel adapter cord, because stupid me wasn’t paying attention and bought a computer without a parallel port. Duh. Considering how much money I saved buying the machine I did, though, a $7 cord seems like small potatoes. It’s just that I’m a spoiled brat and I want my computer to work properly rightthisminutedamnit! Patience is not one of my virtues, I’m afraid.
It’s not all bad news, though. I can snag the modem out of my old machine and use my ISP’s dial-up service to get on-line. It’s not ideal, but it’ll be light years ahead of the crappy-assed connection I had in Spencer. Ah, how quickly we are spoiled by broadband.
Anyway, come hell or high water, I will have some eye candy uploaded by Saturday, hopefully in the ayem. If the planets are in the proper alignment, I may even manage to get a few things uploaded tomorrow.
Crankypantsing aside, I have to mention that the new computer is super fast and uber quiet. You can hardly hear the fan when it’s running, even with the case off and half of its guts hanging out. It also has a capacious hard drive (120G, which is almost 2x as large as my old drive). Once I get things backed up from my old drives, and can reformat them to be used strictly as storage and back-up drives, I will have a metric ass-load of space.
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[1] If you ever have a computer shipped to you, and nothing happens when you first try to turn it on, donut panic. Or, if you must panic, please do the following first: Open the case and check to make sure that the RAM is properly seated. Twice now, I have gotten computers that did not turn on, and it was because the RAM had become loose in transit. The first time, the RAM was half-way out of its slot, which made it pretty obvious that that was the problem. This time, the RAM felt like it was properly installed. I had to pop out both sticks, then pop them back in, after which, Mr. Computational Appliance sprang to life fully armored from his father’s forehead. Wait, no, that was Athene. Anyway! The RAM is probably the easiest thing to trouble-shoot. Even if you have never before opened up a computer, you should be able to install RAM.
[2] I also took pee-churs of my torn apart studio. It looks like a Borg spaceship explodiated all over the place. There are computer guts everywhere. Pandora is happy, though, because she loves–loves, I say!–boxes. She’s commandeered the big computer box, and has been sleeping in it and shredding the sides.
[3] I just can’t get enough of poor Lolrus.
red paper boat 
