The Dumb

Most people who know me know that I'm a really big computer geek.

Really big. Computer geek.

Me.

At one point I was running off three different computers. My desktop, which runs Windows XP. It's been more or less kind of a game, me and my relationship with WinXP. My old laptop, which runs Mac OS X. I spent some time reformatting the hard disc, doing things in Darwin that are just nifty, and crashing the system. I never really kept anything on there worth keeping. And finally, I had this little Gateway Laptop on which I ran MEPIS, a light running version of Linux ideal for older computers. Man, that thing was old, too. It had a total of 64MB of RAM and a Pentium II in it. When I first got it, it had a bootleg copy of WinXP on it. Anytime I touched that thing I felt myself aging. MEPIS was okay, too. I had DSL (Damn Small Linux) on it for a while, too, but didn't feel like working out the bugs and the wireless card.

Anyway, so this past week I've been priming up to put Enlightenment on my new laptop, my Compaq Presario. Nice piece of work, that is. It's got a 2.5 Ghtz processor, 2 Gigs of memory, 128MB Video Memory, and the thing smokes running even WinXP. Enlightenment I like for several reasons. It's light, not bogged down like KDE desktop or even the Windows interface. It's pretty. Man is it pretty. If you ever get a chance, check out some of the screen shots. And finally, it's pretty AND light, at the SAME time.

Even booting it off a 40X CD drive, Enlightenment smokes on my laptop. The only problem is I've got a broadcom wireless card and from what I've been reading it's hard to support natively. So, what I'm thinking is installing Ubuntu and also installing the Enlightenment Desktop. Long story, I'll skip how that works for now.

Onto the dumb.

Through this, it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to back up my windows partitions, because I do want to keep windows. For now. Maybe forever. Maybe for a week. Who knows. So I'm looking around in my System Tools. There's no back up software. So I check online. I read a bit about (on the microsoft website) a backup utility that is on the WinXP install disk, which I don't have because they just don't give you that kind of stuff anymore, and think, "Well, since I don't have it, I should be able to download it because I have genuine software." *Pause here for a shiny teeth glean*

I find the package I need, download it, and go to install. My installer tells me the program I'm trying to install is for Vista.

Awesome.

I'd rather have large objects inserted into my anus with no lube than put Vista on my laptop. That being said, know that there's a lot more I'd rather do than have Vista on my laptop than just that. Now visualize...

Okay, back to. So I thought I'd copy all of my user files to my incredibly large external USB drive. I tried it, stupid me, I tried it. Popped up with "File in use" errors. I should know. I should know better. Even if you have nothing running, and I mean NOTHING up, you're still using a user file somewhere. So, download Ubuntu I did, started my computer from the disk, and copied over the files that way. (To catch some of you up who may not know, by starting from the CD ROM drive rather than my hard drive, it unmounted the drive, and all the files I needed copied were no longer in use. Pretty sweet, eh? My Mac taught me that.)

It was the most productively unproductive day ever. Last Friday, I think it was.

Now, for the really dumb part. I copied my files and thought also it would be a good idea to make a disk image of the recovery portion of my hard drive (which I'm doing right now with the help of PING Linux, stands for Partimage Is Not Ghost). You download it, burn an ISO CD, boot your computer up, and make an image of whatever drive you need. It occurred to me earlier that having the recovery portion of a drive on the same drive (even though it's partitioned) is the dumbest idea ever. So, making an image of it on an external drive is a good idea for anyone, anytime. That way, in case of total system failure and having to delete (or get a new hard drive), you can run your recovery disks (well, that's what I have anyway), which will reinstall the system software, drivers, etc, and then reinstate the recovery drive with the backed up image and be able to completely restore your computer to it's former state no matter what happens. I'm not sure who's bright idea this partitioning idea belongs to, but the dude needs to be shot.

My Weekend

In a nutshell: Exciting, awesome, scary, unsure, stressful, dramatic...

Hmm.. I suppose I could go on and on, or I can just tell you.

On Friday I had the pleasure of eating dinner with my friend Eric, who I rarely get to see. We had some great food and great conversation. I got some knitting done and finished watching Firefly.

On Saturday I went to my friend Melissa's sort of "Yay I got a new apartment" dinner party. That was great. Tasty Mexican food. Good company. Then we went back to the shiny new apartment and had some coffee and chats. I miss talking to you, Melissa. :( I left there and did my single woman hear me roar sleeping around thing. Well, not really sleeping around thing. I didn't quite make it home, though. ;)

I woke up Sunday really excited. I'd planned with a friend the day before to go to the Inner Faith Thanksgiving Service at the Beth Israel temple. I think it's a temple, you know, the place, where Jewish people worship. Can't think. Clowns have eaten my brains. I'd been excited about it for quite a while because the idea of so many faiths and backgrounds coming together and worshiping under one roof just fascinates me. So I helped my friend with stuff because she was in the procession of religious leaders. It was amazing. There was drumming, singing, dancing, praying, bell ringers, a sitar, and people from all walks of life. I sat next to some really cool people. One lady was nice enough to show me her iPhone. Oh man. Those phones are so sexy.

Then came the part where we got up and greeted eat other. The lady who showed me her phone was the first to ask how it is we greet each other in my religion. "Hi" in Wiccan is either "Blessed Be" or "Merry Meet." I tend to like merry meet, so that's what I told everyone I greeted. The lady on the other side of me asked what religion I was. I told her I was Wiccan.

She was so excited. I wasn't expecting that. At all. Everyone was excited there was representation from within the Wiccan/Pagan community. Even the Unitarian Univeralist Minster in front of me. He didn't surprise me so much. Those guys kind of like us. It was an event of amazing unity. I had tears in my eyes through most of it. I do now, writing this. I didn't ever anticipate such acceptance. The service ended, and my friend and I found a respectful place to smoke a cigarette, then we went for the food. By the time we got to it, there were scraps of this and that. I got a bite of this and a taste of that.

I was satisfied.

My friend. Well. My High Priestess remarked it was like Jesus and the loaves. I believe when people are gathered, in unity and love, when we go to break bread, there will be enough to go around. I saw it. I felt it. I was satisfied with bits of this and that. So was she, and the guys behind me. It was an amazing experience.

From the time I got done with that up until about two hours ago, I've been researching and writing, rewriting, reading, re-researching, and writing more on this memo I've been working on for my research class. Brain over load. I'm surprised I'm writing now, actually.

The last thing I wanted to talk about was last night. I spent a good five hours at the Law Library. I love that place. I do. I decided to give a friend of mine a ride before heading home. On my way to pick him up, I was sitting on the feeder road, waiting for the light and there was this homeless man with a squeegee. And I'd heard stories about the guys with the squeegee's not taking no for an answer. I vaguely glanced his way, just watching traffic, and he did it. He started squeegeeing my windshield without asking, without being asked or prompted in anyway.
So, says I, in my pathologically polite way, "No, but, thank you."

He kept on.

I actually rolled the window down, I know he heard me ask him to stop the first time, so I said in my not so polite way, "You need to get the fuck away from my car."

So he stopped. And wondered off.

What the hell is wrong with people these days?

Am I So Wrong...

In thinking dating is entirely utilitarian?

I was talking to a friend of mine the other night about some renegotiations me and my ex-fiance got into over the weekend. And he and I try and renegotiate every six months or so. If he starts it, I say no. If I start it, he says no.

Yeah. Match made in heaven, let me tell you.

So, this negotiation went like so.

Me: Marry me?
Him: Sure.
Me: Well, that was easy. Would you still let me sleep with other people?
Him: Well.. maybe [he listed a few names of people I would still be able to sleep with, of which names I'm withholding].
Me: How bout this. I get to keep screwing [one name off the list], you keep your crazy girlfriend, and we each get one freebie a year.
Him: Like, just one bit of strange a year?
Me: No, like, one person who's a bit of strange a year. And it's cumulative. Like, I have [so-and-so] now, January first rolls around I get to keep that one and if I get a new one I get to bug him for strange all year, but that's it.
Him: Just one?
Me: Evens the odds. It's not like you get one a year as it is.

Seriously, a match made in heaven.

---

I tend to think this whole marriage and relationship is totally utilitarian because I'm hard to love and it's hard for me to love. I mean, he's reasonable tolerable, decent to look at. He's funny, warm hearted. He's warm. Like, when it's cold like now, he's a little heater. He's the only man I've ever slept with that can give me an orgasm. I mean, when it comes to sex, he's goes above and beyond. I've known plenty of men who claim they can/will do that and fail. Maybe it's me. I do hold the title of "fuck of the century."

It's getting to be more and more my experience that you meet someone, you sack them (or let them think they sacked you. Whatever) and within a week or two, the excitement's gone. It's not funny to leave your bra in their car anymore, and you just want to quietly fade off the scene. Or they do. However it plays out, it gets boring. I guess it's like this. If I'm going to be bored, I'd like to know the person I'm being bored with, and know him well I do.

And if I marry him my mother will kill us both.

Writer's block

It sucks.

A lot.