Random Art: Making Your Monday Better Since, Oh About 3:37pm…

Posted on April 21, 2014 by geelw

FEH. So, I log onto PSN to download the games I bought this weekend (two bucks well spent) and WHAMMO! Yep, PSN is down for maintenance. In the middle of the afternoon. On a Monday. Bleah. I did get some good news in the mail in the form of my FruitChia bar shipment arriving, but as there’s a replacement mail carrier while my regular guy is on vacation, the package was shoved and squeezed into my mailbox instead of hand delivered to my hot little hands. I didn’t see her woman-handling my goods, but I happened to drop downstairs as she finished up and was closing the mailboxes so I know who to give a glare to the next time I have to perform surgery on something packed into my mailbox in order to get the darn thing out. Anyway, whee- more trees to ogle, this time more or less complete. Hey, someone has to have a good day on this otherwise goofball Monday, right?

POW! BANG! Monday Being Monday Means It’s A Monday…

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Well, at last I got some good news this morning. Tales of Hearts R is Vita bound this winter! More on that in an actual post later. Other than that, my scanner died (boo!), I’ve a UBS stick that got wiped of useful files (boo!) and I woke up with a slight headache and backache (old!). Eh, nothing to see here, move along. That, and I overslept a bit and now am catching up on stuff kind of in reverse order. Just another Monday with a slightly different flavor to it (somewhat moldy?). Anyway, let me stop griping and get out of here. I need to mail off a box of stuff and get motivated by that nice (but still not quite spring-like) weather outside.

Back in a bit…

I’ve Got The Power (Back)! Or: Be Careful What You Wish For…

Posted on April 17, 2014 by geelw

Ha and double ha. So, my replacement laptop power supply arrived this afternoon and works fine (it’s not OEM, but it’s getting the job done), but I’m now faced with the hi-larious dilemma of catching up to a ton of stuff I haven’t been able to do until now. My brain and overstuffed inbox just let me know what’s in store for me:

(thanks, davstern1500!)

Ouch. Let’s see now… I’ve a bunch of games to download, some articles to complete a digital stack of email to answer and a few other things that have my head spinning a bit. Oh well, no use complaining about it – there’s work to do so let’s get to it. Er, you might want to stay back a few feet… this could get messy.

Day Whatever: Laptop “Crisis” Continues, Work Slowdown Forces Laze-Offs…

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Okay, it’s not THAT bad, but I do miss my portability which adds access to wi-fi. Anyway, the AMUSING thing is my anti-virus program has cloud storage that I used a bit of when I installed it, but as I’m on a crap connection here, I can’t access it to get to the stuff I was working on! Isn’t technology WONDERFUL? Nope. Anyway, the “good” news part one: my replacement power supply should be here by Thursday. The bad/good news: Verizon is forcing everyone in the area still on crap connections into an upgrade over the next few months, but is being kind of shifty when it comes to discussing what it will cost and whether it’s going to be one of those “pay by bandwidth” deals that’s NOT a deal for folks like me who shift words and games around in large enough quantities that we’re hit with fees and caps that make no sense. I hate when companies claim they’re doing stuff in the best interest of the consumers because it’s never, ever true when you get right down to it, grrrr.

(thanks, BlankTV!)

Eh, we’ll see where this new madness goes. I still want to keep the land line as long as possible because mobile phones blow in cases of emergencies around here while I can dial out and reach someone on the home phone. That and I can see nothing but grief from a connection that’s SUPPOSED to be more stable not being so stable, but hey – progress, right?

Monday Happened To Me BEFORE Monday. No Fair!

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Bleh. So, last night I’m working on the laptop on a few things (some stuff to complete and post today) when I notice my battery indicator flashing while the laptop is plugged in. A quick check revealed the stupid power adapter/charger had a busted wire, which I didn’t notice and had me wondering what the heck happened. I figure it was someone in the library a few days back, either the kid running around who hit the table and knocked the power supply to the floor or the cranky lady with her own laptop that may have yanked out my cord and not hers by mistake when she was fumbling around packing up her crap. I was busy writing, but I heard some stuff being unplugged (she was using three of the four outlets under the table) and her mutter “sorry” to no one at some point, so I’m gathering it was me she was apologizing to for pulling something she shouldn’t have. Oh, quite you there in the back! Mind in the gutter, I say!

(thanks, stevensonjohn964!)

Anyway, I’m home of the chuggy connection, so updates will be slim to slimmer until the replacement adapter shows up. At least the GOOD news here is it only cost me about eleven dollars with shipping to replace the power supply, as prices have dropped on OEM parts for this old computer. About a year or so back, I was looking at paying almost four times as much for the same item. So perhaps I should thank Lady Cranky if I ever see her in the library again, but I think I’ll just sit somewhere else or else I’ll be needing to buy up a bunch of replacements and sticking them in a closet here…

Random Art: Darn Kids And Their Subliminally Cheesy Requests!

Posted on March 31, 2014 by geelw

Ha. So, the library seems to be slipping in it’s “shut the hell up” policy, as lately, I can’t spend a few hours there writing without someone yakking on and on about stuff no one needs to hear about. Between the guy yelling out his credit card numbers and such while ordering personal care supplies, the geeky teenage guy with the whiny voice hiccuping and burping while sexting and chatting too loud with his sweetie for something like three hours non-freakin’ stop (I swear, if I hear him kiss his phone one more time, then hiccup and burp, he’s going to need a lip cast), I’m about to go postal in public. Of course, every now and then I get treated to something that’s actually hilarious like the kid today who kept begging his mom to take him home so he could have some string cheese. As he kept hitting the resend button on that vocal tweet, my brain kept hearing string TREES, so I stopped working on the article I had been trying to complete and knocked this piece out. Thank you annoying child and his mom who finally went home after something like a thousand requests for processed dairy product!

Welp, VR Just Went Viral. Literally. Yuk.

Posted on March 25, 2014 by geelw

People, I’m speechless. THIS just happened and while some in the tech sector are giddy, anyone who had any thoughts about privacy using that Rift when it comes out has just gotten a “poke” to both eyes. Blech, Yuck, Argh and so forth and so on. Not to mention that people who will buy that thing and not clean it because they’re dopey about stuff like this will end up giving everyone in their homes and elsewhere some sort of eye infection or worse. Ewwww…

Now, I’m not a big VR supporter (I still recall when it was attempted with mixed results in the 90’s), but I was willing to give it a chance based on all the people I know who’ve tried both development versions of the Oculus Rift hardware. Now, I’d not touch the thing with a ten foot pole unless I was using said pole to bash those goofy goggles to bits with. Data mining through your entertainment isn’t new at all, but facebook getting it’s money gloves into EVERYTHING is getting to be extremely annoying. Let me shut up here and vent with some ice cream for a bit. Man, what a day… between this and Fed Ex jerking me around with a package they keep failing to deliver (I’m HOME you idiots!), I’m not having a good day today. Blaaaaah.

Bacon Craze Gets People Stupid About A Dumb, Dumb Device…

Posted on March 6, 2014 by geelw

Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer exec
That is who I truly want to be-e-eee…
‘Cause if I were an Oscar Meyer exec,
I’d put a halt to this stupidity!

Sooo, It’s apparent that some people at Oscar Mayer are either smoking that bacon a wee bit too much, as they have no clue as to what hell they’re about to unleash on themselves and a “lucky” few people who get something in the mail that may change their lives (and not for the better). It seems that the eggheads over at the “Oscar Meyer Institute For The Advancement of Bacon” have come up with a tiny device that plugs into your phone and when triggered using you’re phone’s alarm system, puffs out the scent of sizzling bacon along with an accompanying sound effect. What. The. Fork? Look:

Now, this is cute and all, but as soon as I heard about this project, my brain spit out its tea. Then when I saw that video above, my brain hit itself in the head with a cast iron fry pan. What. The. Fork? Continue reading →

Groan, Creak… What A Loooong Week…

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Ay carumba! Me bones are weary bones, arrrr! Or something like that. “My neck, My back, My ass.”* Wow, I’m pooped after waking up too early (5am) and getting to Toy Fair too early, but at least they had coffee and some stuff to snack on. Anyway, updates will be slower than usual for a few days. I’m taking Monday off to do take care of some personal stuff and then it’s back to Toy Fair Tuesday and Wednesday. Now, if you’ll excuse me… I’m going to keel over and sleep for a virtual week… Zzzzz.

*(yeah, that line’s stolen/paraphrased from Matt Groening’s awesome Life in Hell collection)

If I Had A Hammer…

Posted on February 4, 2014 by geelw

I’d probably use it on the heads of a few people today and not feel bad about it. I’d forgotten that today was the day we were supposed to have the kitchen and bathroom fixtures inspected and possibly replaced, but it’s a good thing I was awake and poking around in the kitchen when the inspectors popped up around 9am. Had I been up and well caffeinated earlier, I’d have been out at the post office picking up a box that probably has a game or book in it I need to review.

Anyway, the guys show up and say they’ll be about ten minutes, one gives the kitchen a quick once over as I’m signing a sheet of paper that the other guy is holding that says the place a was inspected before he asks how to spell my last name as he types it out in a tablet. Next up, they both hit the bathroom and as I’m in my room doing a bit of early spring cleaning, I suddenly hear something bang-bang-banging from the bathroom followed by the sound of stuff falling behind the wall. Yikes… Continue reading →