Apparently, My Computer Hates Holidays

Image via Wikipedia

I'm sure y'all are wondering where I've been... "Did she start back blogging only to drop us all like hot potatoes again?"

No, I thought long and hard about quitting and then longer and harder about resuming my blog to leave y'all in the lurch yet again.

However, my computer has no such moral compass.

The bitch that I named Juliet died on July second.  Yeah, the week of finals.  Nice, huh?  I swear I'm gonna sledgehammer this bitch the second I am able to replace her  Don't talk bad about her though, she may rebel, and I have a 2000-word paper for my new round of classes due on Sunday.

Nice Juliet.  Good Juliet.

By the grace of God, I turned in my finals on Thursday night and even stayed up late enough that I was able to submit my final two answers for my participation requirements (which had to be posted Friday).  However, my classes are such that the old classes end on a Sunday and the new block of classes begin on the very next day, Monday.

So it was that, even with my finals submitted, I was frantic when I got up Friday and tried to wake up Juliet, but was greeted by the blue screen of death.

A little side note... the same thing happened to me on Good Friday, this recently past Easter weekend.

Juliet, must have had a cousin who suffered a life-altering motherboard incident during a holiday... or something, cause W.T.F?!?

By the way, have you ever tried to get service done to anything on a holiday weekend?

Fucking Nightmare!  'nuff said.

Turns out, after a few hours speaking with many, many, many, many, many people who pronounced words with a lilting Indian-English accent, I finally got someone to not transfer my call after informing him or her that my hard drive went bad, dead and tits-up.

Since I just went through this three months ago, I knew all the tests to perform and the numbers that HP tech support would need, but they still made me do all the legwork with them on the phone, cause I couldn't possibly know what I was talking about so that they could in a marginally understandable accent tell me that my hard drive went bad, died, and was tits-up.  *eyerollmaskedbyfakesmile*

Shocker.

I had to let it go for the weekend otherwise I would have gone into an apoplectic rage and murdered all manner of people with accents and electronic equipment which allowed me to read three books and two magazines and still have time to clean the house and do the laundry, and write in my actual pen-and-ink journal, and play with my son and watch my husband and our roommate shoot off some fireworks in the driveway cause that is the one of the few rare benefits of living out in the country.

Amazing how much time the computer eats-up when one doesn't just do school and blogging, but also starts playing games on facebook... anyway...

 Hubby insisted that I not ship Juliet off to HP, but to take it to his beloved Best Buy.

Somehow, God called in a favor and I got the computer in to Best Buy on Monday, and back from Best Buy on Wednesday morning.  Which was wonderful, except that I was a full day behind from the holiday weekend and all of my assignments for this week were turned in a day late, until today, cause now I am actually aware it's Friday and not Thursday.

So I go to work on my participation due today and find out that Juliet has dropped her 'T'.

The fucking bitch no longer has a working T on the keyboard... and I have a 2000 word essay due for Ethnic Diversity class, in which I have to pretend to be a person from a subordinate group and write the paper in journal form with required APA formatted references, due on Sunday.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!?  NO 'T'?!?  It's not like it's the 'X' key for Pete's Sake!


Luckily, hubby remembered that we had a keyboard in the back, so I am able to blog this and do my schoolwork over the weekend, but obviously, the bitch is going to need to go back to the 'puter doctor for repairs...

Again.

I just keep reminding myself that this and all of the other problems we are currently facing (that I have not covered here) all came on at once.  And the only time we (people) get hit all at once is when we're about to come up higher.

Come on God send me the good!  right now, as in: this very minute, would be great, thanks.

Share

Facebook and Universal Timing

It's called Universal Timing. That thing that happens when you do something and it all falls together beautifully despite the many details and places available for making a mess of it all. Kind of like a Julia Child recipe.

It's also when you want to kick yourself for not doing the thing sooner, but then you realize that if you'd done it way back when, you'd have burnt down the house... or something akin to that on a life choice level.

That's how going back to school tomorrow is for me. For all of you wonderful people that commented on the last post with encouragement, well wishings, and a curiosity for what I'm going to be doing; first of all, let me say thank you from the bottom of my twisted-like-a-corkscrew-heart. As for my major, it will be Health Care Admin with a concentration in Pharmacy Practice. And again I say, I have no idea how I came to that decision. Why I picked THAT major. It's fuzzy in all the details. And yet, so fits me that I can't say one thing against the choice.

I know I was on facebook and saw an ad proclaiming that Moms Could Win $10,000. It all goes gray-fuzzy from there. So it is that I credit my unnatural ability to be on facebook for more hours than I spend on anything else, for being used by the Universe to send me where I needed to go. And because of that, I can't quit my beloved site.

I also had to make a tough but clear decision that until I get used to my new School Schedule I have to stop facebooking to that degree. So, I've decided that the only game I'm going to actively play will be FarmVille. I just really like that one.

But I'm also aware that games like Mafia Wars and Sorority Life require you to have "friends"... mobbies, sisters... so I'm not going to completely block those applications. However, gifts sent to me from these apps will be wasted. I appreciate your game-friendship and thinking that I'm worthy to be one of your 20 people gifted today, but honestly, until I am comfortable in my schedule, I will be ignoring any and all gifts from anything other than FarmVille. If I have extra time I will send out gifts from time to time, please don't reciprocate. Also, don't ask me to join any other games. I'm sure Fish Isle and Farm Town are very enjoyable for you, but I'm not anticipating having time and those too, will be ignored.

Please don't take these declines personally. Working FarmVille the way I do usually takes me about an hour a day. Add two classes to that and a toddler, a husband, a long-distance daughter and a house to maintain, not to mention my own personal care and hygiene needs, and I need to give myself a clear cut game plan of how I'm going to spend my time. Those of you with real lives understand, I'm sure. This is the first time in a long time that I've had definitive "have to's" in my life with deadlines and everything... In other words, A LIFE, and yes, I bought this life online... to answer the bumper sticker.

I was going to put all of this into a facebook email and just send it to my 200+ friends cause that would have been the courteous, unobtrusive thing to do, but facebook hasn't caught up to me and wouldn't let me send the email to my group called Everyone, but wanted me to put in each person separately. Honestly, I do not possess that kind of patience. I use it all up putting my many chickens into rows on FarmVille.

Share on facebook

All The Way To The Craptastic End

I betcha all are wondering where the heck I went off to.

Well.

You see.

Aside from doing the two book reviews that I've committed myself to doing, I'm going to be very sporadic from here on out... As in maybe only LMFAO Fridays for a while.

As in, I'm not totally ready to throw in the towel, but I am tired of fighting to be here and fighting after I've been here.

Like when I bitched repeatedly about hubby's wannabe girlfriend the roommate I call Sam, and how much I had to hear about it when he got back from "Talk Trash About Aria Day" at our blog reading friends' this weekend. Or how he complains that I'm ALWAYS on the computer even though those of us living in the grown up world know there is no such thing as always or never.

Also, he has let me know, by way of argument, that after living with me for over three years, he doesn't get me one little bit, but only throws his own issues all over whatever I do and say.

Beyond hubby, I have been going through some major crap because I'm working through my own issues in an effort to get past them. In an effort to not bury them so they can grow out of control like a disease and cause problems throughout my life.

This has been misconstrued inside and outside of my home and I'm really fucking tired of defending myself to all the people that think they know, but can't even ask a question, thereby coming to the wrong conclusion and then holding me to their misconceptions.

Which, by the way, is a total bitch.

In other words I'm working on some personal shit... and as all parents know; shit is nasty, it stinks, nobody wants to be around it or help you with it, and whomever has the misfortune of taking care of the shit cares nothing about anything other than getting the shit off of them.

In short, coming up with funny ha-ha posts and trying to censor myself out of more trouble is so far down on my list of priorities since I'm trying to shuck off my shit.

So there you go. My craptastic~ness may or may not continue here or somewhere else.

Only time will tell.

I do have two book reviews to do (which I already mentioned, but am trying to reiterate to soothe my frowning readers) as soon as I finish the books. I'm on the first and it's wonderful, so I hope to have that one to you next week at the latest.

If Friday rolls around and I'm not sticking my head in the oven, I'll do my best to maintain the LMFAO Fridays. It's the best I can do right now, people.

In my absence, I hope that karma is kind and God blesses you all. I'll see you around as much as possible.

And let me just close with a huge thank you for all the support you have shown me since this blog's inception. I am so grateful for your generosity in commenting and encouraging my spoutings. Thank you.

Too Many Pies Not Enough Fingers

Oh y'all, I know you're looking around and wondering where things have gone. Has she decided to change it up again???

Oh c'mon, you know the answer... YES. I've got another wild hair up my hiney, and it's all about change and I'm cleaning out and clearing out and organizing... Hubby has so got his hands full, he's going to be begging to work at a morgue or McDonald's or cleaning Port-A-Potty's by the time I'm finished with this kick I'm on. Poor bugger. I already had him clean out his magazine stack by the bed (five hours later...) and I've got plenty more that I'm determined to straighten up (and out!!!) room-by-tiny-overcrowded-room.

And in the interest of leaving no stone unturned, I will not stop at my hearth and home, but will extend my mid-life crisis need for change to my blog. A lot of things are staying the same this time, some are in the process of change. Anything you miss, will most likely return somewhere else when all is said and done. But, it's not all said and done yet... I haven't sung, so it can't be over!

I've decided to consolidate, and make things easier, more functional, and bottom line ~ scale down. I've had my fingers in too many pies trying to be too many things, and I have had enough. SO, I'm closing things down, like my MySpace page... I simply don't have time. A bunch of the social networks have to go too. Because as it stands, I don't have enough time to be social. I'm simply listed and parked in a bunch of places with no time to utilize any of the benefits that being in these places could provide if I wasn't spread so thin I was translucent.

I'm also giving up most of the advertising. It's not doing me much good, and after giving it a good long try I'm giving it up ~ for the most part. I'm keeping a few things. Few meaning three. I'm keeping adsense cause it's content related so it changes. I'm keeping Amazon, cause dammit, they have everything over there. And I'm keeping Noodle and Boo cause they have great products and donate part of every sale to charity... that works for my philanthropic self.

And as for the tabbed pages ~ they will be back; I can rebuild them. Better, stronger, faster, and I won't even need Oscar Goldman's help...

Who knows, one day I may actually be fully satisfied with how the blog has turned out, and settle on only updating the posts... what a sad day that will be for hubby... time to focus on other things, like what's going on in the rest of the house? OMG, he may not survive if that happens! Then again, I'll have to overcome my less than before schedule which means that where my schedule was loose, now it's nonexistent. So maybe this is my way of trying to restore order to the chaos that is living with an unemployed hubby.

Aria'z Ink Under Construction

As you may have noticed, Aria'z Ink is undergoing a major overhaul.

Things are going well and preliminary launch is set to be ready by Sunday, March 15, 2009.

Thank you for your patience, and check back Monday March 16th for the new post.

Great day to you!

Aria

Blog Wahmbulance

OK, so I know you're asking yourself, "Self, WTF happened to Aria'z Ink? She said the writing was going to always come first, and here's this huge long POLL-Thingey all up top and in the way of my reads!"

Yes, I know, and I apologize ~ kind of.

The poll has a two-fold reason. First of all, my ad revenues suck big fat donkey rocks so I want to know what y'all like, cause obviously, my finger is not on the pulse. In fact, by my numbers, my finger is jammed up my ass, far from the pulse... Say, would you like a chocolate covered pretzel?!? (Non Kevin Smith fans ~ heathens! Get out!!! ~ that is a movie quote, not me being incredibly disgusting... that's Brody being incredibly disgusting. OK, back to the reality of writing this post) Anyway, so that is the first reason. Cause, while I love, Love, LOVE Amazon and housewares and the opportunity to make money with my blog, nobody else seems to be on the same page...

Secondly, my blogoversary is coming up in a few (several) months... And since I'm going to do a giveaway for that, I needed to know what'cha all wanted... even if you never buy anything from me... I don't judge... I won't hold a grudge... I'll still give y'all a great big WHOOT Thank You for showing up at all. Honestly. It just means that instead of normal channels, I'm going to have to sell a kidney or donate my breasts to science or something to come up with the money to fund the giftie giveaway... that's the other reason why I'm polling now for a June giveaway.

In light of these general-everyday-blog owner-delights (bitchings), I've been having a kind of blog identity crisis. Signing up for a lot of different directories and working on SEO will do that to a person. How are my keywords? What do I need to change to get my Alexa ranking moving again, and moving in the right direction? Yay, I finally got an actual Google PR, as opposed to a non-ranked zero, but... um, how's Oprah gonna find me with only a 2/10. And the advertising simply reiterates the wrong-way-Jones feeling.

Another head-spin to compound the who-where-what-Me?-crisis; I've networked like a madwoman. And I'm still going, but I've socially networked so damn much that I scarcely have time to social-anything. And I'm burning myself the hell out... sorta.

I'm still totally addicted to writing the blog, but sometimes, even though I've got an apeload of sites listed under "saved to join" I forget to even go there, cause my mind is going blank to the refrains of "Happy (friggin) Working Song". And with all I've been doing here to promote, build, etc., the Crayzie Aria site may as well be dead ~ except that I'm extremely fond of that template, and the few articles over there, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. Frankly, putting the kind of time into that one that I've put into this one makes me want to get very, very drunk. So, it's not dead, but it is very much in limbo... AGAIN. I should have just bought this domain name instead of that one, but I didn't. So... Live and Learn.

Anyway, if You, my valued, trusted, glorious readers, would like to give me any feedback on anything... Social networks that are must do's. Advertising that You want to see and would consider utilizing. Gift cards that You want to win on the blogoversary... Tell me. I'm pretty sure, at this point, I'm completely clueless.

I'm going to go do housework now. I know that I know how to do that!

Blog Envy

I have a big-time-bad-ass case of blog envy going on. I can't help it. I've gone green... and NOT in the environmentally friendly way.

As I have mentioned, (or you may have just seen the ad down at the bottom of the page here) I have another site that I've been working on, cussing at, revamping, and finally, finally come to terms with; the what and how and why it's going to look and operate...

OK. So, in the process of all that happy horseshit, I went round and round with several different free template sites to get WHAT I WANTED, and more importantly, get said "Chosen One" template to download properly and WORK. Hey, finding one that Blogger will save and not give me an error message about is a Novel Concept I know, but I'm picky. It took me three different templates from three different sites to find a template that could fulfill both of those needs. I got it handled, but...

But... this fantastic template that I really like (and works!) is pretty advanced for a site that is just being built. Crayzie Aria is in it's newbie stages (because, truthfully, I prefer to work on this site) since I wasn't happy with the original site, and now am reworking the entire concept to undo the pathetic disaster that it was. The layout gives me tons of room to build it, but in the newbie phase, it looks a little naked and not fully 'done'. I haven't even marketed it yet and won't really till it's right-enough for me to give it a proper coming-out party of networking and marketing.

However here, on the Aria'z Ink site, (my baby so-to-speak), which has been marketed and put out-there all over the net, I'm working with the same template I started with. I need all that room that I have on the other site for this one. My sidebar and footer are simply getting longer and longer, and I'm constantly moving things around to keep from having my sidebar extend 18 inches past my posts... and while adding another post to the main page would seem to be the easy thing to do, it still wouldn't help the footer at all. The only thing holding me up was that I was afraid of loosing everything I've put into and onto this site because of a template change over.

Then the blog envy took over in earnest this past week, because in my quest to be Oprah's favorite blog, I've been all over the place networking, marketing and surfing like a mad-woman. I've come across a whole lot of new sites that have great layouts and I'm just getting itchier and itchier every time I come back to my good-OLD-BORING-UNINSPIRED-Blogger-standard-layout. It no longer fits the amazingness that is Aria'z Ink! (yeah, I know presumptuous-cockiness, but, if you can't market yourself like the next best thing since sliced bread, who will?)

I'm on a mission this weekend to make the change that I so desperately need and want to make. This morning I have done all the prep work to swap templates without loosing all my goodies. Also, I'm sick and doing computer work is about all I'm going to be able to do today, and when you've got an itch all you can do is scratch-it OR suck-it-up... I tend to be more of the scratch-it variety person.

I'm on such a tear that, I could have it all done today, but hubby is doing some work outside, and for some reason turns into a semi-helpless-where-is-my-this'n'that-come-help-me-wah-pain-in-my-ass whenever I try to get on the computer during the weekend (which is exactly what I just told him so I don't fear this coming back on me at all!) Therefore, the swap might take until tomorrow. And, now the Advil + aspirin combo I take to kick the butt of this throat-ear-thing I'm trying to not-fully-get is also going to have to knock out my hubby-induced-headache...

It'd be so much easier at this point to just crawl back into bed and feign being on the brink of death, but I am WAY too stubborn for that... and I have to scratch my blog-envy itch even if I have to do it with barbed wire...