Showing posts with label computer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label computer. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

It's like a heat wave...and possessed electronics



Well, it's been a steamy few days here in the ol' Hoogestraat household, and I haven't been too thrilled about it. Yes, I bitched about all the rainy cold weather, but seriously, is it too much to ask for to have a normal summer? We went from the 50s/60s and pouring rains to the 90s and baking heat. What happened to the 70s and 80s?

To add to the fun, our central air conditioning hasn't been working properly. Last summer it died right before we went on our honeymoon (in early August), and we never needed to use it since then, so it sat there, unfixed. Until now, that is. Well, technically it's not fixed. I just figured I'd give it one last shot, and turned it on partly out of desperation and partly out of confidence. And sure enough, it's providing enough cooling air to temper things in here a bit. The dogs aren't panting so badly, and I can sit here at the computer without sweat pouring down my face (yes, it was that bad). I'm hoping the thermostat continues to drop and we hit a nice comfortable range. I'm not complaining in the meantime, though. I'm pretty tolerant of heat, but for some reason it's really been bothering me during the last few weeks.



In other news, my electronics have been on the fritz today. I sat down this morning to do a little blogging and to work on my freelance project, and discovered that the mouse was feeling kooky and didn't want to work properly. That doesn't sound like much of a problem, but if you can't even open up your hard drive or select options in windows (like restarting, or running a virus scan), then you're SOL. It makes it LOTS of fun trying to do anything, much less draw detailed illustrations or edit photos you've uploaded.

So I've spent the better part of the afternoon trying to fix what's wrong with it, and not getting very far. I was able to switch the primary mouse button to the right button instead of the left, so at least I can select things again, but it keeps freaking out and those little windows that pop up when you right click on something are flashing constantly. Needless to say, I've been unable to blog or do much of anything, except throw this post up to complain. I have lots of catching up to do, especially since I wasn't able to blog all weekend due to a Father's Day party I threw. Hopefully things will return to normal soon, especially since I have a deadline Saturday and LOTS of drawing left to do! I wonder if there are solar flares or something going on right now....

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Secret cat code?

Dollie laying all over my other desk and the PC keyboard



I was writing captions for the billions of pictures I uploaded to Flickr for the honeymoon pix, Day Twelve (will it ever end?) and stopped in the kitchen to grab some more coffee and talk to Pete. When I came back, I surprised Dollie, who was on my keyboard and had written this:

\ bbbbbbbbb

```cvw222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222

(and so on for a million more 2's)

222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
11111wbv

For this photo:



I'm not sure what it means. Could it be a secret rendezvous place (in Maui, of all places) for her other cat cohorts? She seemed rather suspicious, and quickly tried to hide what she was typing with her furry body. I was on to her though, and shooed her away from the keyboard, hopefully stopping the code from being transmitted to other cats across the country.

Two can play at this game, my feline friend, two can play...



Dollie laying on my closed (and safe, for now) laptop