From the "Really, Seriously. What the Fuck?" Department

[featherynscale]

So I've finally got triadruid's computer mostly operational. And mine's been having some random freeze-up-and-die moments, so I turn my attention there. It boots fine, all little diagnostic thingies show happiness, and yet, if it's on for any length of time, freeze-and-die. So I think, surely, this is a heat problem. And lo, I consult the oracle, and we are indeed, running veryvery hot. So I open the case and investigate, and lo, there is enough cat hair inside the case to make a whole new cat, and there practically is a kitten inside the heatsink. So I clean it all out, plug it back in, reboot, and suddenly, everything is great! I am very happy for the moment, and all is well with the world.

BUT THEN.

I put the side of the case back on. That's it. All is well with the world and I put the case back together.

AND SUDDENLY.

Blue screen of Death. Hardware malfunction, call your hardware vendor. What the hell? So I take the case back apart, turn it off, see if I've jostled anything. Everything seems to be in place and connected. I put it back together, plug it back in, turn it on. No POST. Turn it back off, wait five minutes, turn it back on. POSTy, but it's now reading all of my components completely wrong, and refuses to boot. Nothing I have done has made any difference to this situation.

So now, I inexplicably have no computer. What the fuck?

So then I am VERY VERY ANGRY. I have to leave the house. I go for a walk, wondering why all relevant skills have abandoned me this week. At some point, I encounter a house with extremely blinky and obnoxious christmas lights. I pause in my wandering to observe the horror of it all. AND THEN. The lights go out. All of them, at the same time. I'm just standing in the street, and I'm killing christmas lights.

So I think that maybe it's better if I don't touch anything with electrical components for a while. Every time I do, lately, it seems to go to some sort of baroque and unlikely shit.

On the other hand though, sannion posted a link to this entry about boys kissing, which is starting to improve my outlook on life a bit. Not that I'm feeling like any less of a cancerous mass, but it does distract one from one's utter and complete uselessness.

Comments

[gamera-spinning.livejournal.com]

Not to worry, you just have anti-electricity mojo right now. Give it a day or two for Earth's electromagnetic field to compensate, or put together a sharp looking costume and become a super villain.

Seriously though, I really do believe things work out. Despite their complex web of logic, computers can be tempermental unpredictable fuckers, as you well know, and sometimes they conspire with other bits of technology. I've actually seen other examples of this first hand - refridgerators and washer/dryers dying within a day of each other in some kind of twisted Maytag suicide pact. It's creepy.

"The best way out is always through."
-Robert Frost

Supervillain

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

You know, that's what zylch said too: "Yeah, but you'd be a great archnemesis."

I'm thinking of giving it a go. Know any good tailors?

Re: Supervillain

[gamera-spinning.livejournal.com]

Spandex used to be the way to go, but vinyl and leather are the current vogue among the metahuman community. This would suggest that it's seasonal, which works out great since we're in winter.

You need a good color scheme and accents, an overall theme, and of course, a gimmick. Also something to showcase the rack - this is a long-standing female supervillain tradition.

Minions or perhaps a cantankerous evil pet are a good match as well.

Re: Supervillain

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

Eels. The evil pets should totally be eels.

Re: Supervillain

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

Eels with lasers!

Re: Supervillain

[gamera-spinning.livejournal.com]

Do we have eels in the Midwest? Maybe we could get you some unagi. Not as threatening, but delicious.

Re: Supervillain

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I had some unagi last week, actually. Very tasty. But you're right. Sushi is crap with lasers.

Re: Supervillain

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I was kinda thinking badgers, actually. I mean, I know with the eels you get the electricity connotation, but I was thinking maybe we could just run some curren through the badgers....

Re: Supervillain

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

Badgers are pretty Hufflepuffy, though. They do not speak to me of supervillain.

Of course, if something mutant were to happen, like in the Secret of N.I.M.H. sequel, when you run the current through them, well, maybe.

Re: Badgers

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I think this one's pretty supervillain:

Re: Badgers

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

Point taken. And it's always a good surprise when the superpet seems to be all cute and then goes Gremlin like that.

Re: Supervillain

[gamera-spinning.livejournal.com]

Badgers are a good bet, and they can be mighty scary if they had little Hellraiser-like leather harnesses that shocked them intermittently (with the added bonus of making PETA your enemy right off the bat).

So, foul tempered electro-shocked badgers, that's a good start. Any thoughts as to costume?

Re: Costume

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Weeeellll... I'm not sure.
Maybe this:


or maybe something more like this:


It's hard to decide!

Re: Costume

[sxypaganmom.livejournal.com]

it just may be me, but i am getting no pics with this post...makes it hard to vote and all

Re: Costume

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

You may have to wait -- they're a bit on the slow side. :(

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

I was going to ask if she was wearing a wool coat over a polyester pantsuit like that 50,000 volt guy.

[beccak1961.livejournal.com]

I hope your computer problems resolve themselves.

I love Christmas lights myself, shiny....

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Also, I do like the lights, but I will admit to being more of a "tasteful white lights" sort of a person than a "light up plastic nativity with animatronic deer and seventeen different colors of blinky blinky lights all going at different speeds" sort of a person. Which apparently doesn't mesh with the tastes of much of the rest of the neighborhood.

[beccak1961.livejournal.com]

I like the colored lights, the big old fat bulbs one doesn't much anymore. White are nice, not so much into the monochromatic blue

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

I like the blue LEDs, but that could just be a geek indulgence.

I can't wait to convert to HID LED bulbs for the house... even though I just finished converting the new place to Florescent & Halogen. 8-/

[beccak1961.livejournal.com]

We have flourescent in our kitchen and I want to get rid of them. A lot of people like them though.

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

I like them because I have a southern JoCo kitchen, 13 sunken 100 watt bulb sockets. Replace them all with florescents, and you save 87% on electricity for that room.

You can get the true-light florescents though, those are nicer. Actually, I like having a variety of bulbs in a fixture, it combines colors and wavelengths to give you something more natural.

[beccak1961.livejournal.com]

We are actually going to have to work on ours when we get to move back home. The ballast or something is messed up, so we burn through bulbs every 3-4 months. We also need to replace the ugly coverings which have yellowed with age and I think have bugs and dust rhinos living in them. Maybe after we do all that I'll like them better:)
Right now I'd even take my old buggy yellow ones if it meant going home lol

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

Ah, I hadn't noticed that you were from NOLA.

I don't like the old yellowed encased florescents either. I had forgotten about those. I tend to replace light fixtures even in rental houses though, because Light is one of the top mood-setters in a room.

[beccak1961.livejournal.com]

Yes, we were in the middle of several home improvements when Katrina hit. So our downstairs bathroom is already gutted lol.

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

Sweets, you are so NOT useless. Not in the least. I admire you and your skills tremendously.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Thank you for saying so :)

[closer-to-fine.livejournal.com]

Oh, honey. I can feel your pain- many days have I convinced myself that I had become the Angel of Death incarnate.

Even so, I enjoyed your entry- your writing is very clever.

The boys kissing pics were a nice way to start the day, too. :)

[capriciouslass.livejournal.com]

Your icon gave me quite a giggle.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Me too. It reminds me that I was thinking of calling in mad this morning, but I didn't believe I could pull it off.

[closer-to-fine.livejournal.com]

Thanks. The smartass in me just couldn't resist. :)

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

many days have I convinced myself that I had become the Angel of Death incarnate.

It's just like that, except that I'm pretty sure it doesn't extend to anything organic. Electronics only shall tremble at my presence. Seriously, last night we had a meeting at the house, and someone asked "Is it safe for us to be in here with you?" and I said "As long as you're not a cyborg, I think so." And then it occurred to me that if we were living in the world of Blade Runner, I'd so totally have a job.

Also, I'm glad the style is coming off well. It's sort of Early Amazement and Anger :)

"As long as you're not a cyborg"

[rfunk.livejournal.com]

That calls for a Jonathan Coulton song link.

"I'm just standing in the street, and I'm killing christmas lights" made me laugh. I can totally believe it too.

I really need to get a picture of a local display and a neighbor's response display. Maybe you can hire yourself out for killing Christmas lights.....

[ysabel.livejournal.com]

Amy's been killing electronics lately too. Must be something goin' round.

Must be the redheadedness. Yeah. That must be it.

About that redheadedness...

[leiandra.livejournal.com]

does it count if the paint has suddenly started coming off my car in one spot and I've been shocking the hell out of myself any time I touch metal?

[chronarchy.livejournal.com]

Having also recently had computer issues, I would like to note that you should beware of persons insistant that it was *you* who f'ed up, not the machine. :) They're difficult to dissuade.

Sorry about the crazy problems.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure it wasn't me, since all I did was put the cover back on. Quoth triadruid, "Have you talked to your gods about this?" And I have to say, some of them seem like likely suspects.

So I need a bit of advice. Can you suggest an Erisian divination method for this situation? I have some, but at the moment it seems so much more appropriate to have someone else suggest one, for assurance of randomness.

[chronarchy.livejournal.com]

Well, my first thought, quite honestly, was to grab a Magic 8 Ball.

"Is it the Motherboard?" "My sources say No"
"Is it the fan?" "Ask again later"
"Is it the processor?" "Signs point to Yes"

And then you can keep working your way through until you have your full diagnostics taken care of. You can even get more technical.

"Is it the first PCI port on the mainboard?" "Outlook hazy."
"Is it the AGP slot?" "Yes, definitely"

Of course, given the number of items in a computer that could go bad, and the 50% chance of getting a "yes" as compared with a "no" or "I don't know", you could find yourself replacing a lot of things. But you're pretty likely to get the problem solved if you replace that much of the machine.

For this particular project, though, I might suggest that you actually avoid certain Magic 8 Balls, such as the Magic Date Ball or the Psychic Golf Ball as querying on the status of your CD Writer and receiving the answer, "Yes Date him!" or "Hole in One!" may not help. Then again, taken together, these strange balls may very well tell of a future we can only imagine in our dreams.

On the other hand, my personal favourite divination system really is the Discordian Tarot Deck, created by Max Flax Beeblewax, KSC and (boing!) Cnoocy Mosque O'Witz, conveniently put into a .doc on my website for your download and cutting-out.

[ysabel.livejournal.com]

And here I thought "Outlook Not So Good" was just a statement about Microsoft products.

(I really need to get m'self an 8 ball for the next time I'm having baffling computer problems.)

[teross50.livejournal.com]

The polarity will change sweet one. after it does I might also recommedn getting a small air filter for the control room to help with the pet hair in the air

hugs and much love always
T

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Thanks -- I think an air filter is probably a good idea anywhere in our house. Cat hair is just ground in to everything. *yuck*

[teross50.livejournal.com]

trust me babygirl. I can relate LOL xoxo
\
t

[sxypaganmom.livejournal.com]

Hey sorry to hear about the computer problems at home, too bad it couldn't be at work where it would be much more appreciated and give us all some extra time off before the holiday..Hope that at least gives you a small smirk. May your weekend improve. If i can help, like a big hammer or something...(jk)let me know

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

too bad it couldn't be at work where it would be much more appreciated

I'll see what I can do!

[sxypaganmom.livejournal.com]

Yeah!! I'm doing too much work today anyway. If you need help let me know.

[ysabel.livejournal.com]

So, I know that this is genuinely frustrating to you, but do you have any idea how hard it is not to laugh my ass off when you describe it this way?

I'll just be over here, sniggering to myself and, um...finding some booze to offer, yeah, that's it.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I have actually now reached the point where the attitude tipped and it became funny. This may have to do with the sudden influx of coffee into my kitchen and money into my pocket, though. So snigger away. :)

Our Lady likes it better that way anyway.

re:boys kissing

[matchgirl42.livejournal.com]

*fans self*

Meep.