don v2.0

I came into work on Monday and the coworkers sensed something was wrong. I kind of mumbled under my breath something then one of my bosses interuptted, said that there are only two things that can make a man miserable. 1. His relationship and 2. their favorite sports team losing. I never realized it but that was pretty accurate.

Usually when one fails, I'd have the other. But when both fails what is left?? I guess good thing I didn't get owned in some game or I'd kill myself.

I would have never thought that Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and Maine were all ahead of us in gay rights. I thought California was supposed to be a trendsetter for reformation - like the whole "Going Green" thing, polution tax, and the one that you would think CA would lead the way in is gay rights.

Today, I am embarassed to be Californian.

On the way home today I saw a ridiculous sticker on the rear window of the truck in front of me that annoyed me very much.

Ugh. I've never seen one of these around my neck of the woods before so I was very surprised to see this sticker promoting hate behind the truck. Might as well have a bumper sticker that says "I Hate Gays." Anyways, I won't rant on how hateful Prop 8 is/was because that's old news now and any educated person knows that.

Word to the (un)wise: if you don't believe in gay marriage, then don't get one. It's 2009, come join me.

Nothing turns my stomach into knots more than driving and then seeing the dreaded red words of "Check Engine" flashing on my dashboard. It lights up for 10 minutes then goes away, then I let out a sigh of relief. Then it comes back again, what a tease. I've gotten used to the message now like a passenger in my car but it is still gut-wrenching. It's been flashing for a month now, after I had some parts changed and replaced. But I think I found a way to fix it, or at least a work around so I can drive somewhat in peace.

So this is what you need:

Some electrical tape. Color of choice is optional. Take about a 2 inch strip of tape and cover the sucker up. Done.

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) is investigating GameStop's shady practice of selling some of their so-called "new games" previously played.

See, one of the perks of working at GameStop is that the employees get to "check-out" new release games and play it at home, which is pretty cool. But what's not so cool is that when they bring it back to the store, it is re-wrapped and put back on the shelf as a new, never been played game. So when you see scratches on the disc, wrinkled instruction manuals or dinged cases, it is not just in your head, it's just been pre-played.

Oh it does not just stop there. You know those empty cases they have on display? No those aren't just extra cases used only for display, because that would be the logical thing to do. Those are real cases but the manuals and game removed. Then those games get played and tossed around and eventually goes back on the shelf as a new game.

So the flu-y stuff has gone away and the coughing is to a minimum, and so is the phlem. Now I have the Mississippi River running out my nose. Well, not that bad. But I hate always needing to carry some tissue so I can wipe my dripping nose. Yuck. I wonder if my co-workers are annoyed by the sniffling. I know I would be.

I've got more Dell woes! This is the 2nd problem I've had with my Dell XPS 1530 laptop in 8 months. I've had my last laptop, a 13'' Toshiba Satellite M55 and it was flawless for the year+ that I depended on it. Flawless. And I still love it.

My laptop usually can run for 3 hours on battery power, about 2 hours with wifi on. I take my laptop to school everyday and it lasts the whole day without a plug. I got to school early on Monday so I had my laptop on about an hour before my hour-15 class. With 5 minutes left of class, my laptop powers down as the battery is drained. Not sure if this had anything to do with my problem. Could be. Who knows.

So when I got home, I plugged it into the power adapter and it stayed that way for 3 days. Today, I wanted to take my laptop to the other room so I unplugged it and carried it over there. Before I got to do anything, it warned me of my low power and shut itself off. I was thinking "wtf?" I went back and plugged the power adapter back in, wondering if the battery was charging. I googled the problem and found some advice, like: try switching wall outlets, take out the battery and clean the connectors, or open the laptop and check the motherboard.. but I wasn't going do that.

I tried all of that, with exception to the last one. I unplugged the power plug, it went from 3% to 2%. I plugged it back in and the power meter displayed: "2% (charging)". The battery was charging!! What a relief!! I let out a big sigh and thought I was done with the whole ordeal. Then the meter said: "3%" but no "charging" this time. I thought "aww wtf?" I repeated the process a couple times with the same result.

So as the almost-last resort, I called Dell. Dell tip: never do the Dell chat customer service. They literally google your problem on the spot and copy and paste it back to you. They also insult you by trying to blame the problem on you. 

After about 20 minutes of waiting in the queue of callers, I described my problem to the kind lady and she instructed me to shutdown my computer and pop up the battery. On the battery, press the indicator button. Once for battery charge and hold it for 5 seconds for battery health. As expected, my charge lit up one light but the health lit up all 5 lights. So as quick as that, she told me she would need to get authorization to send me a new battery. After being put on hold for a couple minutes, she gave me a couple numbers to write down, so I did. She then informed me that I should receive a new battery in the mail within 3-5 days and when I do, I should use the same packaging to send my defected battery back to them. The total process took about 20 minutes, not counting on-hold times. This is my second experience with Dell (phone) customer service and it has been good. Of course it would be better if I didn't have any problems in the first place but oh well.

At the end she notified me about my warranty and if it was passed my 1-year purchase date, I would have to pay for a new battery. So I looked up the warranty vs battery cost: 1 year warranty extension: $189. New 9-cell battery: $179. 

 

Update:

So I called in on Wednesday and the battery shows up at my door step on Friday and works as promised (so far). I forgot to tell them I had a 9-cell but that's what they gave me anyway. Excellent.

Today is payday. So that means I am and at the same time.

because anytime I get money is good.

because I know all the other employees and bosses are getting 10x more than I am, it's just depressing! I need to eat something sweet.

 

But from being sick all last week and pretty much unproductive, getting work done today felt extremely good. Gives me a feeling of some sense of worth. It's good to be back in action.

It began Sunday, I changed my car oil when it was about a cold 65 with the wind chill. After I was done, cleaned up the oil, I began feeling flu-y - body aching, sniffly, and a cough. Come Monday, it worsened. Tuesday, it was opposite: cough lessened but my body ached, it was very sensitive to every touch and sensation. It was cold no matter the temperature or what I was wearing. So I called in sick for work and stayed in bed the whole day. Wednesday, my body felt better, like my flu was gone but I had this hacking cough. Every cough carried a sample of mucus from my lungs. It would linger in the back of my throat, but I couldn't hock it out. The coughing is getting more painful and each time I cough I feel a little bit more of my lungs each time. The mucus almost goes up through the back of my nose and get that feeling like I just breathed in some water, like drowning, as crazy as that sounds, but not to that extent.

But I did find a soothing suppressant (I wouldn't say remedy). At work, I was drinking Arizona Green Tea with Honey and it was very friendly to the throat. My throat felt hydrated again and my coughing went down by a lot. This was the cold refridgerated iced tea, not warm tea.

Well, I just had to do an fresh reformat. Took about 3 hours. The last hour was for Windows. As much as a pain in the butt it is, I actually enjoy setting up all my apps I need for my system: Office, PS, FF, and other necessities. It reminds me how how clean my computer can be! It also rids of all the junk I don't need.

 

I got some kind of malware going to this foolish site I know I shouldn't have! No it wasn't porn! It was some sports site, playing the Lakers vs Suns over the weekend. As soon as I clicked on the link, the site froze for a couple seconds, I saw the java console in the systray and then a Windows warning saying my firewall got disabled. From then, I knew I was in some Sh#t. But I continued to watch the rest of the game lol. I ran my Adaware and  Avast but to no avail. It slowed down my system and created pop ups every so often. It was a bitch!