graculus

First off, a request: does anyone reading this have a Windows XP Home installation disk I can borrow? There will be a prize if anyone is able to help me with this!

I thought I was having graphics card issues but it now seems to be both the monitor (which is about 6-7 years old, I guess) and the computer (at least 10 years old, with various bits of it having been previously replaced) both turning up their toes simultaneously. I'm left with a computer that now won't boot up and the recommended way forward seems to be reinstallation, except I don't have the requisite disk and the company that sold the PC went under years back. So, rather than turn to dodgy folks on the internet I don't know for assistance, I thought I'd start with dodgy folks on the internet I do know! :P

In other news, I've just got back from my last full day of invigilating exams, with just one left to do next week. This morning's was for folks doing a Drama module in the English dept. and involved them watching a scene from Faustus (yes, morganmuffle, the one with Evil!Rory as Mephistopheles) six times, after which they were supposed to go off with their respective invigilators and write about it. Except that I took my student and then discovered shortly after that all the other students had trailed along behind us like ducklings because we looked like we knew where we were going. Heh.

Back to the day job on Monday...

I had the great pleasure of calling out the RAC this evening when I was about 10 miles from home after the alternator on my car decided to give up the ghost. It could have been worse, though, since I was on a small country road with somewhere convenient to pull over rather than on the motorway. Also, it only took the RAC guy about 45 minutes to get to me, which was also pretty good going.

So glad that the car's still under warranty, as I'm sure this isn't going to be cheap. The main problem now becomes twofold - a) getting to work tomorrow, and b) getting my car to the Peugeot garage which is only open when I'm at work and should be somewhere else entirely. This is why I need servants! :P

Arrived safely in Nova Scotia at lunchtime and am now nicely ensconced in a very nice B&B with a big comfy bed. Despite being right by the airport last night, I slept like the proverbial rock and was distinctly unimpressed by the 6am wake-up call that was necessary for me to catch my flight. However, it's great to have the cobwebs blown out by getting out there by the water again, even if the seagulls make me feel like I'm back in my hometown (*waves to sg1scribe*).

I also had fun and games with my laptop when I got here, as somehow I had managed to accidentally delete my wireless connection, so that I had to go on the B&B's computer to get an answer as to how to restore it. It was something stupidly easy, of course, so I have to make sure I lock the buttons so I don't get rid of it again.

No Tim Horton's so far today, though I did pass one on my wander around town to orient myself, so I will be stopping by there later on. However, I did have lunch at a nice Italian restaurant (penne with roasted garlic and asparagus, followed by praline gelato... yum!) while I was waiting for my room to be ready. Yes, I really feel like I'm on holiday now!

Oh, the joys of medication side effects. I think the insomnia I had last night is one of those, though it's hard to say whether my current knackered state is due to that or the pills.

I got to 4.30pm today and then O. decided she needed to ask me something. Which was fine except that after I'd finished talking with her, not completely confident that she wasn't just going to do whatever she wanted anyway even though I'd advised her not to, I knew I'd had enough. Someone else in earshot said they felt tired just listening to me and O. so I doubt there'll be too many complaints.

I told O. a few weeks ago that whoever supervises her gets an O. allowance on the principle that she's extra work. I was not kidding. Neither was O's manager when she told me that she thinks she deserves extra pay for supervising O. as she doesn't know what she's going on about half the time.

Why oh why oh why (etc.) is breakfast radio just so gosh-darned awful?

I've been trying to find a radio station I can bear for the drive to work and got stuck in motorway traffic for the best part of an hour this morning, by which point I was ready to get out of the car and bludgeon somebody just because of the combination of relentless inanity and over-played music. The alternatives seem to be:

Radio 1 - fatuous self-obsessed arse, with sycophantic 'posse' and mostly-dodgy music

Radio 2 - Terry Wogan. Need I say more?

Radio 3 - Wagner! On the way to work! Oh lord.

Radio 4 - too dull and worthy to bear, all spoken word.

Various local BBC stations - bleurgh

Various non-BBC stations playing all the same middle of the road pap, with inane people

Kerrang - variously entertaining and annoying, the signal is crappy, and they apparently only have a playlist consisting of 12 songs!

I was forced to go to HMV and buy stuff, just so I had something to play on the way home. And apparently the non-subliminal Kerrang thing worked, since one of the cds features a track in their 'hey, we have the entire history of rock music to fall back on, so let's keep on playing the same Foo Fighters track, something annoying by Nickelback and various other things till they are ingrained in our listeners' brains FOREVER!!11!!!!' insidious plan.

I really must get a new mp3 player, since my current one isn't reliable enough to play through the car radio and thus save humanity. ;)

Sadly, my digital camera seems to have decided that even brand new batteries are not good enough, so I have to try and find the instruction book and see if there's a reset button or something. If not for that, you would currently be enjoying a series of photos entitled 'No, Two Ferrets Cannot Both Be In An A4 Padded Envelope Simultaneously'. ;)

Back to work tomorrow, woe.

Well, I just got home. *sigh* My car broke down just after I got off the motorway on the way back from work, literally about 100 yards off the roundabout - I don't even want to think about what that sudden lack of go would have meant if I'd stayed on till the next junction, which I would have done if there hadn't been so much traffic.

The prognosis is pretty grim, from what the RAC guy said, so it's quite possible it won't be worth my while to pay for the car to be repaired. Not much of a surprise, given that I had it from new in 2000 and it's done over 125,000 miles. The 90 mile round trip to work every day for two years hasn't helped with that!

I'm not sure when my garage will be able to even look at it, as they're normally really busy, so I've had to hire a car for the time being. What did we do before the internet, when we couldn't just go online and book stuff any time? I'm trying to remember what those grim times were like... ;)

And finally, Brit car-owning peeps on my friendslist... any recs for nice reliable small(ish) cars?

Having given serious consideration to moving doctors after I discovered my GP surgery had shifted in February without anyone actually telling me, I have to admit to a change of mind after actually attending there this morning. While the parking situation is atrocious (and it's almost 2 miles from my house, rather than the 10 minute walk or 3 minute drive of the previous surgery), there's a blood clinic on site so you don't have to troop off to the hospital for tests, which is always a pain in the mik'ta.

Anyway, blood tests duly taken, I'm back there next week for the verdict. My hands don't seem to be worse but they're also not particularly better even on days when I don't go near the computer much, so I expect a course of anti-inflammatory meds is in my future... sadly it seems unlikely Dr. M is going to turn round and ask me if I'd like a few weeks off work. ;)

On a brighter note, I would like to freely admit that I have become addicted to checking the ferret cam...

A belated thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes yesterday, which I will hunt down and respond to individually, promise! And also for the mysterious package my postie tried and failed to deliver yesterday while I was at work... no idea when I'll be able to get into town and collect it though, since next week is already looking crazy.

Meanwhile, the ferret introductions are not going as well as could be hoped for. Initially I'd thought it was just the novelty of the thing, but Dougal has apparently decided the girls have come solely so he can play with them, whether they like it or not, which results in which ever one he's pestering screaming at him till I intervene. He's completely oblivious to their reaction and just continues on till he's picked up, then goes straight back to annoy them some more as soon as he's put down again.

These are also quite smelly encounters as ferrets over here don't get descented and so if they get scared they will let out quite a pungent whiff - not quite skunk standards but you know it's happened. *sigh* The girls would be great if it was just them, since they're really perky and entertaining, but considering that the reason I'm adding to the number is so they can all live together at some point, it's not looking too hopeful.

Meanwhile, in 'oh god, I'm falling apart' news, I seem to have picked up some kind of RSI variant that makes my fingers hurt. I've had an on-off lack of sensation in my 4th and 5th fingers for years, but it's now turned into an aching feeling that comes and goes during the day. Which means I have to try and get an appointment with the quack next week. Trust me to get something that's not likely to get me signed off work! :P

First off, can I just say how much I loathe and abhor the fact that my ISP have got into bed with both Yahell and Norton and the fact that when my firewall started playing up, I forgot the bad experience I had last time around with the 'free' Norton firewall thingy from my ISP and downloaded it anyway? And then it did the same thing that drove me crazy last time around, creating about a zillion pop-up windows whenever I tried to send email before deciding that actually it wouldn't allow my mail program to contact my ISP at all. *headdesk* I guess that's the most secure computer set-up going, an internet-ready computer that isn't allowed to communicate with the internet...

In better news, I'm enjoying the fact I have... *counts*... just 8 days left at work before my holiday. Why yes, I am that annoying person! :) And after the world's most pointless meeting this afternoon, I'm more than ready. I'm pretty much all set as well, since everything is organised (including packing the boys off to the ferret Hilton, as usual).

When I get back from MW (of which more anon), I'm expecting details of my impending graduation in July to be waiting for me. For which event my mother is coming to visit. Yes, a phrase that strikes fear into the hearts of anyone with a lick of sense... which means most of June is going to be spent in frantic cleaning and tidying efforts before the big day. I felt like I had to go through with it, since my not finishing my first degree meant I never got to do the whole silly hat and robes thing, and I knew she'd like it. Which she confirmed within a split second of me mentioning it, though at least she's insisting on staying at a hotel because she's a terrible insomniac and won't feel guilty about having a cup of tea at 3am that way. Or at least that's her story and I'm not arguing with it.

Looking forward to MW immensely, as usual; I also got a pleasant surprise over the weekend when I discovered I've picked up another nomination for a FanQ. Hello to all the peeps who're also making the trek to exotic Lansing in much less time than we care to think about! ;) Bugger, that means it's time to get cracking on the door decoration...