01 15 00

pooters

Well, today was mostly wasted.

I rolled out of bed around 9am to go to the City with a friend so that she could look for a computer. She was taking me along because she's generally clueless about computers. It's like taking a car aficionado along when going used car shopping. Sorta. I'm not really the computer guru she makes me out to be, but I do know more than she does. So I went.

There was some big huge freakin' sale at the Convention Center. I have no idea what it actually was called - Huge Freaking Sale seems appropriate, though. You could buy almost anything there. Ginsu knives, hot tubs, software, candy, cleaning products, sunglasses, clothing, shoes, books, toys... You name it, they had it. Vendors were set up everywhere. The ginsu guy threw a couple of juicer things at us. I'm sure I'll never use it, but it was free. grin

The computers in question were refurbished. Someone else owned them and sold them, and they were stripped and refitted with new hardware. It's sort of a crapshoot as to what you actually get, but the models they had on display seemed pretty nice.

After some dickering with the salesman, we walked out with a pretty nice setup. If it actually is nice remains to be seen, although they do have an actual store (not just a truck) and a 90-day warranty. She had to go to work as soon as we got back into town, so she dumped the boxes in my apartment for safekeeping overnight. We'll set her up tomorrow.

She was basically looking for something to get on the Internet with. Since I've been "wired' for years now, it still shocks me when I realize some people don't have computers of their own, and have never been on the Internet. My friend isn't as clueless as most, though, since she has played around on other peoples' computers.

Amusing anecdote: A couple who was also buying a computer were totally clueless. The salesman was trying to interest them in a medium-grade computer, basically a starter setup. But the husband/boyfriend/whatever kept eyeing the super dooper model on the end. So the salesman (being a salesman) started showing them the expensive model. This thing was loaded. Anyway, the wife/girlfriend/whatever asked the salesman, "Does the Internet come with the package?"

The salesman tried to explain that they didn't offer any ISP connections, but there was a trial AOL disk in there with everything.

"Just a trial?" the husband/boyfriend/whatever asked. "Well, where can we buy the Internet software?"

The salesman went on about what software came with the package before the wife/girlfriend/whatever interrupted him. "We just want to see the Internet on this computer, never mind the software. Where can we buy the Internet?"

I stopped listening so I wouldn't laugh. I know I'm a geek, and that once upon a time I didn't have a clue, either. But the expression on the salesman's face was too funny. I could almost see him thinking, "Lord, kill me now."

After she left me off at home, I sacked out on the couch for a while. My sleep schedule is so messed up now. Since I slept until 1pm yesterday, I couldn't sleep last night. frown I think I slept for about an hour before the TV woke me up again.

For the rest of the day I mostly futzed around with my computer, downloading software, tweaking settings, deleting old files, etc. Somehow I managed to rid myself of an annoying habit my computer picked up a few months ago. Whenever I booted up, the computer would scan the floppy disk drive, pausing the bootup and making things Very Slow. Why? I have no idea. But it's not doing it now. I wish I could remember what I did.

On tap for tomorrow: Laundry. I must do laundry. I'm down to the emergency, red-alert, backup, backup, backup, you better wash something now underwear. Bleh.

______ of the Day

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