Tuesday, August 23, 2005

If at first you don't succeed...

...Sigh loudly, grit your teeth, and go for a walk, during which time you stomp your feet so hard in frustration that they go all the way through the blacktop; you free your left foot, but eventually have your dog gnaw through the right one in order to get back home without being hit by a car, or killed by a rabbit with big pointy teeth.

RIGHT. I churned forth an exquisite post earlier; lengthy, humorous, and practically perfect in every way. Thanks to dial-up and blogger indigestion, that breathtaking post is lost to the the great void (fitting soundtrack: Queen, Another One Bites the Dust).

And, ironically enough, the post began with a tale of technical difficulty, the first item covered being my shame at being outsmarted by my own laptop. I could handle it if it happened once; not hold a grudge, let bygones be bygones, but after it happened TWICE in a few days, I can't. I'm mad and ashamed. My name is Dänika, and I've been whupped by my own laptop.

The first instance of insubordination occurred when I was attempting to take songs from the laptop (call it "Sylvester," just to make things easier) and put them on my mp3 player (call it a piece of BEEEEEEP!, for short* ).

Second: I was attempting to transfer pictures from Dad's camera to the Stubborn Laptop, and couldn't. I can do it just fine with Mom's computer, but not this one. Ehh.

Today Mom and I were talking about beds, and I shared that I always get the name for a "twin bed" messed up, because I can't believe that a twin bed is the one that's big enough for, oh, yeah, ONE PERSON. I have a twin bed, and it doesn't look big enough for twins to me. Unless, of course, we're talking about Siamese twins. That would explain a LOT.

Jake, my soldier-friend, left on Tuesday. He asked if I could meet him that afternoon, so we met and hugged and talked for a while. I wish he didn't have to go. I'm so proud of him, though, for doing his duty and not complaining about it. He's brave and lovely, and before he left, he gave me his ring from Basic Training; I'm to keep it safe until he comes home. It's strange, but I was so glad to get the ring; it's heavy and beautiful and I have it on a cord around my neck; I leave it on except for when I shower -- then, I leave it in my room, for I am scared to death of losing it down the drain. Scared of losing it because I know how much he likes this ring, how proud of it he is of what it symbolises. The ring helps remind me to pray for him, and when I look at it, it wrenches my heart a bit to see the Infantry insignia, because there is no worse place to be than the Infantry. And that makes me pray even more that he'll come home safely. I'm looking forward to giving this ring back to him, safe and sound.


* Shortened Version of a Long Story which I Had Typed up Earlier: I bought the mp3 player off ebay; received it and the screen was all scrambled and undecipherable after 30 seconds. E-mailed the seller's customer service (they have a computer store online); e-mailed them again after three days of nothing, then again, then again, before finally receiving the Return Merchandise information I'd requested. In each e-mail, after commending them on great shipping, I had explained the problem, told them I would be returning the product, asked for the Return Merchandise Information, and requested they refund my money. I shipped the mp3 player back to California, and was waiting for the $42.99 to worm its way back into my bank account, thinking everything was settled. But wait! Plot twist! FedEx stopped by my house a few days ago and delivered what? ANOTHER MP3 PLAYER.

How they could interpret "Please refund my money" to "Send me another mp3 player, please!", I don't know. I was so irritated at first and then decided, What the heck. I'm sick of messing around with these people; I'll just keep it, if it works.

The screen on this one seems to work well. But I can't transfer songs from Sylvester (remember him?) to IT, because IT didn't come with any software that shows Sylvester what to do. I searched the web for the appropriate driver, etc., etc., etc. And I haven't been able to get it to work. Enter, stage left: The computer-savvy brother-in-law who DIDN'T COME OUT THIS WEEKEND. Thanks for nothing. ;P


Addendum: I just noticed that as of today, I've had this place for a year. So in the now four minutes left before tomorrow: HappyAnniverarytoMe. And a big thank you to everyone who stops by -- especially those who comment! :D

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

You spammers!!! Evil, EVIL SPAMMERS!

*bites spammers*

-Court

Anonymous said...

*begins the old tech support chant*

Ommmmmmmm... always save your documents every 5 minutes... Ommmmmmm... always save your document before you print or leave your computer or do anything else which isn't saving... Ommmmmmm... always copy and save before you post... Ommmmmmmmm

-C

Anonymous said...

Ahhhhhh! They're STILL at it!!!!

*chomps down on spammer*

-C

Anonymous said...

Two people CAN fit onto a twin bed... but only if they really like each other.

But siamese twins makes for an oddly sensible theory.

When the mp3 players cost $2.99 in China, it makes very much sense to read 'please refund all my money' as 'please send me another mp3 player at slightly less profit for you'. Haha. I'm so cynical.

And I think you should retract your thank yous to the spammers for commenting (and stopping by).

-C

Anonymous said...

Man, I hope I'm not lumped in with the spammers...

-c

dänika said...

the comment-deleting system on blogger is lacking. Can only delete one at a time, and have to click "trash," "delete," "delete forever," etc., before they do. Dumb spammers.

Thanks for your spammer-scaring antics, C. ;P

Anonymous said...

Now that you deleted the spammers' messages...Court looks so silly.

Oh wait, you didn't need spam to do that.

Christina said...

LOL! ^last person.

The only wonderful thing about losing a post or letter or file is that you can describe it in terms such as exquisite, lengthy, humorous, and practically perfect in every way and nobody will ever be able to deny it.

Sarah said...

*laughing* Oh Boy.

Ummmm... *choke* (don't eat carrots while laughing)
geez - what was I going to say? Courtney totally distracted me...

Oh yeah, two people CAN fit in a twin bed, if the one person slides down between the mattress and the wall so that her unsuspecting sister will levatate off the bed upon getting into it and feeling hands reach over and grab her. (Not that I would know anything about that, of course...)

And the other thing was, download the new Blogger for Word thing - should be a link when you first sign in to your Dashboard. It works pretty good, so far, and you won't lose anything anymore. (Heh, perhaps I'll be inspired to post more...)

Sarah said...

Oh, and ditto Christina ;-p

Anonymous said...

There WERE spammers! Honest! Really!

;-P

-C

heidi said...

i TOTAlllyy dont believe court about the spammers. he just likes posting hateful things towards spammers.

;-)

anyway, im soo sad for you about your friend leaving. i too have just sent off two boys (friends of mine, not boyfriends, heh) to iraqistan, both in the nitty gritty infantry.

im just really sad and admire you are brave enough to share about it. and he left u his ring thats so sweet! when josh got activated from the reserves in '03 he wouldnt have left me his ring, even now he wouldnt. heh. hes crazy about his ring.

-heidi

kate said...

It's all in your head, Court. It's all in your head.

That was me, earlier. I was in a hurry and had to run before I could log in.

And I saw the spammers earlier. Just had to give Court a hard time.

Anonymous said...

I have been reading your blog for a while, but this is my first post to say "Happy Blogthday to You" or "Happy Birthday to Blog" or whatever you say after one year of blogging. I enjoy it very much.

Anonymous said...

Hello karim, nice to see you here! Thank you so much for reading - and, even more, for commenting. :D

Anonymous said...

Owwww, that's a lot of comments!

I crack up every time I read the tech-support chant. Do it again, Courtney! Do it again! heh.

Chris - exaaactly. *suave*

Sar! Your poor sister. :D And, thanks for the tip about Blogger for Word - the problem is, my laptop has Works. Darn. It looks really nifty, though (and now, you have no excuse for gaps in your posting! muahaha!).

heeds, thank you so much. And yeah, it IS sweet to have his ring. Heh, it was funny; he was about to give it to me, but he's so attached to it that he hesitated for a second, and I jumped in, all "I'll take really good care of it, I will!" because I wanted it. ;P heh.

Awww Face, you're so mean... ;) But you know, if I had deleted my other comment re. the spammers, Court would look (even more ;) ) INSANE. OH, THE POWER!!