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Technology will make your life easier, they said...

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 12:37:16 GMT

...until it doesn't.

Had a brief bit of panic this morning. All I wanted to do was check my dang bank balance. Tried last night using the app on my phone, got an error. Spouse tried the same app from his phone, got in. It was late, I was tired, so I left it until this morning.

Got the same error.

No worries, thinks I, maybe someone got into my account and changed the password? Try to change the password, and get THE SAME FRIGGEN ERROR. Now panic is starting to set in, so I decide to check the other bank app I have on my phone, and it tells me that it can't get out to the wider world. Confused, I look at the top left of the screen and finally notice that I'm on network, not on wifi. (My plan is talk-and-text only, no data.)

Well, fuck me.

Get my phone back to recognizing the wifi signal that originates less than a metre from where I'm sitting, and NOW it works, ticketybo. Both apps, balances all checked.

Tech, man. Can't live with it, pass the beer nuts.

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The week that was...

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 22:53:13 GMT

Usually, one reckons a week going from Sunday to Saturday, or even Monday to Sunday. Mine is going from Tuesday last week to today. And it's been a week, I tell you what.

On Tuesday, we all got double-jabbed for fluVID after the kiddo got home from school. Not unusual, but it's good that it's done and I can now relax a little bit regarding whatever respiratory silliness that's going around.

Wednesday morning started with a message from one of the jobs I had applied to, asking if was available to interview by phone the next day. Why yes, yes I was available, thanks for asking. That squared away, I took it easy for the rest of the day because my arm was aching like someone had used it for bare-knuckle boxing practice. I also decided that today was the day to make the switch from Windows to Linux for so many reasons. So many.

The phone interview on Thursday was... meh. It wasn't stellar, wasn't horrid, just there. There was a bit of an accent barrier, and Beans was chewing on my toes because he could. It was exceedingly distracting and I was certain that would be the end of that. (This is fine, because whilst I am looking, I'm also realistic enough to know that a sixteen year gap is a LOT for most companies to take the risk.)

Friday, a call came in from the company, asking me to come in on Monday for an in-person interview. I'm flummoxed, but agree as one of us needs to work if we want to continue our lifestyle of paying rent and eating food whilst living paycheque-to-paycheque.

At it as also Hallowe'en and D was uninterested in going out and scoring candy, I made cheeseburgers for dinner, and we had waffles and a thematically appropriate ice cream for dessert. We deemed Declan old enough and watched The Thing as we ate. When that was over, I showed them the Honest Trailer of the same. All-in-all, it was a good evening.

Saturday, I gamed with my D&D group. We were online due to circumstances outside of our control. This is where I discovered that while the switch between operating systems was fairly painless in most respects, Discord was being a little brat and needed a lot of finessing. We limped along with substandard play until after lunch. My kid, who had made the switch months ago, told me what he did to make Discord behave. I did the same during the lunch break and voila! Success without college. The rest of the game continued as it usual did.

Yesterday was quiet. The only thing of note was a fit-check on my good clothes, in case I needed to make an emergency purchase. I have not needed event appropriate clothes in over a decade, so I was delighted to discover that they fit well-enough to be serviceable. I also read a charming romance that made me cry. It even started with a meet-cute over body bags. It's lovely and warm with an animator and a mortician figuring out how they fit together for their HEA.

Today.

Today, for the first time in almost two decades, I had an honest-to-goodness grown-up job interview. Yes, I was nervous, but I don't think I made too much of an ass of myself. One of the interviewers was impressed that not only was "First Contact Resolution" on my resume, but I also know what it means. I think I made a good impression? I have a lot of tech experience/expertise, and I'm used to monotonous work, so who the fuck knows? I certainly do not. I lost the ability to tell if it went well forever ago. :P

Instead of stressing, I came home and baked a cake, which seemed a better use of my time.

This week has been a bit of a whirlwind and I'm tired. I'm going to go check on my dinner and get ready to eat, complete with gingerbread for dessert.

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Talkin' 'Bout Things

Sun, 18 Aug 2024 13:45:56 GMT

My kid turns 14 next week and starts highschool in September. Sweet baby Christ in a minivan, where did the time go?

In April (I think, it might have been May because my memory is hot garbage), I found something that all women dread finding: a lump in my breast. Because my doc runs a walk-in clinic for his patients on the weekends, I tried to go the following Sunday. I got there early, but not early enough to be seen. Frustrated and freaking out, I had to book an in-patient appointment (and made it for multiple issues for my convenience). I had the lump confirmed, got a requisition for a mammogram/ultrasound, booked that appointment, had that appointment, then had to text for the results which I got in a phone call a few hours later.

I have a lump, yes, but one of the mostly benign kind (the risk of the lump being cancerous is teeny tiny, but it is NOT ZERO). Fibroadrenoma is a mass of tissue that happens most often between the ages of 15 and 35, but can show up whenever. I have to have another ultrasound in six months to make sure that the lump is stable (as in, NOT GROWING because that would be Very Very Bad, M'Kay) and that's it.

For the kid's upcoming birthday, I got him RAM for his lappytop, taking him from a paltry 8GB to a whopping 32GB, the max his machine can handle. So now I have this 8GB stick of RAM kicking around that I figured I had no use for. EXCEPT my very own beloved beastie uses the same type (DDR4) AND has 8GB. So it looks like I'm getting an upgrade, too! Huzzah!

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Database Debauched

Sun, 17 Apr 2022 14:03:28 GMT

Yesterday, casting around for something to fill my time, my eyes rested upon the stack of various graphic novels and other comics that I had acquired over the years and not catalogued. My catalogue, an Access database, contained all of the work I had done ensuring that I had an accurate accounting of my collection.

Except.

When I said to myself, "yeah, that could use doing," I tried to load it up. And got nowhere. The database was considered corrupt, which was heart-stopping, since I have over 800 pieces and most of that is in storage at my mom's. The database is the only record I have where it's all in one place. And I did NOT want to entertain doing it again.

I had a few ideas, including hitting up the Googs, which seemed to get me absolutely fucking NOWHERE. Then I remembered that Google Drive has a whole host of tools for creating and editing and sharing documents. Maybe this could work?

I made a copy of the file (because I'm not an idiot), uploaded the copy into my drive, did some jiggery pokery, and... GOT ACCESS TO ACCESS. I downloaded it as as .csv, which seemed prudent given the givens, then loaded it into LibreOffice and there it was. It was a bit janky, but nothing that wasn't fixable. I saved it as an actual spreadsheet and did some cleaning up of the formatting. After that, adding in the comics-to-be-catalogued was a matter of moments.

So, at least now I know how to get into any Access database without needing Access OR losing any of the painstaking hours of work that went into the database in the first place. PHEW!

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Sat, 06 Jun 2020 18:12:19 GMT

I have reduced the news to, "What fresh hell is this?" I am finding that it is necessary for what little sanity I have left given what is going on in the world right now.

Yesterday, Sheldon ate some half-dead cat grass. Then, without warning, he yarked it up (with some used dry food) on my side of the bed. I got to do three loads of laundry yesterday. UGH.

I recently finished reading Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. The next, Harrow the Ninth, is not even out yet and I am already making grabby hands. If lesbian necromancers in space doesn't interest you, then I don't know what to say. It is a seriously good bit of swords-and-spacecraft speculative fiction and I would be remiss if I didn't get others to read it, too.

And my computer did something weird when I was trying to wake it from sleep a few minutes ago, so, wisely (or paranoid-ly? Both apply) I am making a backup of my files. I would rather be overly cautious than not nearly cautious enough here.

Giving my brain a bit of a break from lesbian necromancers (and having already read a fluffy modern romance between a female teacher and male stripper), I was pointed at some military analysis of the Siege of Gondor. From there, I ventured into a bit about War Elephants. Both are insightful and incredibly interesting. I understand that historic military discussion can be a bit of a bore, but it took me a while to finish the treatise on War Elephants because I had to stop and squee at regular intervals. It's an odd thing to enjoy, but I do recommend them. And there's a page of links for world building.

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Holy Crap, It's an Update!

Wed, 08 Feb 2017 00:47:51 GMT

Some stuff that has happened:

- the last full week of January was full of appointments, including a trip to Sick Kids to meet with the Nephrology team and some testing for Declan to determine what's up with his kidneys and the cysts.

- when I went in to find out WTF was up with my knee (possible patellofemoral syndrome, which is only 'cured' by eight weeks of physio), got the results of my blood work. It came back normal. You should really see my surprise face on that one. *rolls eyes* The urine test did come back positive for protein (joy) but it's not enough to be worrying. At least it's an easy test to repeat.

- Declan had no protein in his urine and his blood work came back as normal. So there is that.

- having your knee x-rayed is weird. The positions you have to keep it in is very unnatural. The highlight of the entire process? Connecting with another mother who was there with her son. We both agreed that shame was something for other people, especially after you've had someone fondling your cervix with others watching. Yay, childbirth.

- tried to call my shiny new(ish) psychiatrist, since I'm running low on meds. Hahahahaha, no. Apparently, I had a consultancy appointment, and don't actually have a psychiatrist. Cue lots of swearing and gnashing of teeth. Fine, thinks I, it's back to the doc for my meds and make the appointment, which is for this Friday.

- my games continue to truck along. I am finding that Thorn's voice is nearly silent in my head, but Amy's has gotten very loud. You'll have your time to shine, darlin'. But it's not yet.

- I am currently bashing my head against getting a data recovery program to actually work. It's my fault that the information is lost, but it shouldn't be THIS hard to get it back. I am frustrated and about this close to pitching my computer off the roof.

- small victory: picked up Declan from school AND took out the recycling without falling on my ass. It's been raining since this afternoon and freezing, so not slipping and sliding is worth noting.

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