melannen | erk.

My older laptop (the one with working internet) is currently recieving power only by virtue of a couple of thumbtacks, some careful positioning, and a great deal of electrical tape.

My newer laptop (the one with the keyboard that doesn't randomly fall out) is currently receiving power only by virtue of some careful positioning and, um, me not breathing on it.

Just so you know.

Um. Birthday roundup! I got a party, a Boston Legal episode. Some books. A phone call from

dreamsquirrel! Who has a life *off* the internet, apparently. A very spiffy SGA story from

siegeofangels! Some cash money (just about enough to fill Mom's gas tank. Once. *sigh*.) Some cards. Also I got to plant Mom's Mother's Day flowers, and while we were touring the yard beforehand to figure out where, she found two four-leaf-clovers, which are now being pressed in Le Morte Darthur. (Mom inherited from her mother the ability to find four-leaf clovers simply by randomly looking down at her feet whenever she feels like it. Possibly they have fairy blood.) A new shoe rack which holds four times as many shoes as the old one, and may help my closet floor escape from formless chaos, although since the Cthulhu slippers will have to stay down there it may be a lost cause. Some neato Williamsburg Pottery crockery and a tasseomancy cup (without the instruction booklet, so I guess I'll just have to use the Ron Weasley method of divination.) A Young Wizards t-shirt. An airplane. A card, lovingly hand-made by

kenosis_kalon! And possibly some other stuff which has slipped my mind!

Meanwhile, I've been enjoying the weather, and organizing books. See, my books are so, um, 'efficiently' shelved that every time I get new ones I practically have to reorganize the whole thing. Plus, I figure I better get use out of my LibraryThing before both the laptops die for good. I can't wait to get all the sf books tagged - because then I can analyze them! Yay!

Oh, also? All my letters home from my last year at Math Camp are now up on lj! Other years will be going up as I, um, find them.

Apparently I am, um, all about the exclamation points! And the ums! today!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

my books are so, um, 'efficiently' shelved that every time I get new ones I practically have to reorganize the whole thing.

My old boss had that exact problem and now I have the problem too.

They say that librarians aim for every shelf to be at least one-fourth empty, so that you have plenty of room to shelve new stuff.

hahahaha!

Ha!

I just buy more bookshelves, like new one we just installed in the basement. We moved all of my husband's computer books down last weekend there so I could spread out some of my books. Now I have some empty space. You know what that means? Time to buy more books!

Space for new bookshelves! That would be nice too! The last time I put in a new bookshelf, I had to more-or-less loft my bed in order to make room for it. What shall I do next? Hang them from the ceiling? (Actually, hmm...)

Well of course if you were in zero-g everything would be a wall! :)

... how does one shelve things in zero-G?

Serious question! I'm sure you covered it in your studies, right? Lack of bookshelves would be a *major* source of stress for me in space. (:

:)

See that space studies degree is coming in useful!

Since it would be hard to have proper shelves (everything would go flying off of them if not restrained!), they have many, many cabinets and cubby holes all over the place. The cabinets flip open in various directions. I know there are a few that open at a weird angle and look like shelves (like my shoe cabinet) and are a good size to hold books and keep them in order. Some of the areas are designated for "personal belongings" such as pictures from home, books, games etc.

It is not unusual for the Progress missions to include a few books and magazines along with fresh food. :)

I'm trying to visualize the weird angle. Like this (http://www.albapine.co.uk/shoecabinet.gif)? I guess that would work. Hmm. Neat!

Yup! That is very similar to my shoe cabinet and I've seen a few cubbies like that on the Shuttle. :)

And now, you're older still.

Are those laptop power woes more a problem with the laptops themselves, or with the charger thingies?

They are general woe-ishness. To start with, all three of the batteries are at that age where they will hold a charge. Sometimes. If you pray. For awhile.

Meanwhile, the older laptop has a loose connection where the power cord goes in (it has had this problem since about a month after I got it), the result of which is that it only gets juice if pressure is put on the cord in a certain direction. (Also, I suspect it a has a problem with overheating that may or may not be connected.)

As a result, its power cord did not stand up to the stress of being constantly pulled in order to make the connection, and more-or-less distintegrated. I had to disassamble it and splice and jerry-rig it back together with electrical tape. Now it mostly works if the electrical tape feels like staying and you don't put pressure on it in the wrong places and you treat it kindly in general.

So then I got another laptop with the exact same power cord, and started using that power cord instead with the old laptop, too. And now *that* cord is crumbling under the pressure and will only give you juice if you press on it in a completely *different* direction than that require to get the *laptop* to make the connection.

Aren't you glad you asked?

Really, I should just get myself a laptop that works. But I would probably break it right off anyway.

Well, a new cord would help with at least one of them, in the meantime, and you might check with the local computer shops to see if they have a replacement for at least one of the batteries.

But yeah... replacing the connectors themselves could be problematic.

Getting a new cord won't really help until I fix at least one of the underlying problems, or I'll just wear it out again, and probably faster. SO I shall just make do.

Ah, life... That's not to say I don't still spend way too much non-work time staring at the computer.

Anyway, I'm off to pack for the weekend (in Manistee, MI) and perhaps watch Jon Stewart..

Sure. Try to make me jealous, why don't you! *I* am going to spend the weekend sleeping. And messing around on LibraryThing and Lj. So there!

psst! are you interested in reading the Bijou? I notice you've friended the journal, but you haven't commented to the first entry....

*very small* I have now. Um, oops? I'm sure I would have figured it out eventually! So, yes.

erk.

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on having a life

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