Here’s one lonely seagull heading north toward Ft. Lauderdale. This photo is looking over beach grass, which is supposed to stop the tsunami when the Azores slides into the Atlantic in 2012. That seagull thinks she’s lonely now? Wait till she gets to Ft. Lauderdale.
As usual, I spend Saturday morning reading. In this case, I have been studying. The difference is a lot like listening to music or getting out and playing it.I think I’ve read on Saturday mornings for three-quarters of my life. I see that according to the CompTIA exam people, one of the correct answers for a ‘critical device’ on your computer UPS is an on-line jukebox player. Yep, just gotta have a juke-box on your computer or how are you supposed to get any work done? Speaking of stupidity, here are some items I heard on NPR (National Public Radio). The City of Miami Beach is having their 90th anniversary. A public official was actually bragging about how tax revenues were at an all time high. (See how twisted you become when you work for the government?) Another article was about some petting zoo animals being quarantined by being placed in isolation where they will never again be allowed in contact with the public again. Apparently the humans who caused the infection were later just released from the hospital and allowed to go their merry ways. Insert tasteless queer joke here.
Then, there is the controversy of whether druggists should be required or allowed to withhold the morning after pills from women under 16. (The law avoids the real issue of whether people stupid enough to think women under 16 don’t have sex should be allowed to become pharmacists in the first place.) It is only 10:00 in the morning now.
My new studies are bearing fruit. [A] Mr. Bodman called this morning (just now). I successfully talked my first client through a software installation. I never said it was easy, just that Dell does not do it very well. I got him to install Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0 and open a real estate file. We covered in class about how to set Adobe as the default reader for pdf (portable document format) files. Talk does not work for me, and I can’t find or remember how to do that now that I’m back at home. You know, I have no pricing structure in place for this phone work, nor any way to bill for it directly. Adobe is no big deal, doing a phone install is.
Alaine called this morning, and really wants that laptop cleaned. (It is pretty grundgy and has never been cleaned.) She also wants to pay, but she must know it is a two-hour trip over there. Unless I am visiting JP, it cannot really be done from here. Maybe that explains why a lot of places want $75 for a service call – because unless the repair goes really fast, that works out to maybe $25 per hour which is a loss if you are operating your car.
I tried study, but you know, a host of little things have been falling behind, so I had to get out and spend $60. It was actually a lot of fun. It took all afternoon, and the Hippie kept calling be until I got abrupt with him. No matter how many times I tell him if he is going to download things from the Internet onto his computer, it is his responsibility to fix the problems. Not call me every few minutes. He still tries to sit at the keyboard and click on buttons, which to him is logical but to me is random. I bought several bargain movies. The plan was we were going to get together and watch a western. He cancelled out, but seems to think that means I am not doing anything and am available for troubleshooting over the telephone. Au contraire, I am very busy doing nothing.
[Author’s note: the following as to do with a set of speakers and a radio. The Hippie is trying to flog a set of speakers and I casually mentioned my buddy fifty miles away has a compatible radio head. The Hippie took this to mean I was going to go get the radio, hook things up, test it and then pay top dollar for his speakers, or in the alternative, take the speakers across town and sell them, and so on. The Hippie has a strange concept that if he views something as a good deal, so does the rest of the world. You have to be careful what information you give him.]
I plan to do nothing, which he cannot grasp. When he does nothing, it appears to be because he failed to plan anything else. He also still, at this late date, tends to make decisions based on what I do. I caution everyone not to do that. If you persist, you will be cut off from information about what I do until you either quit or pay.
I grew up in a family where nobody would commit to anything until they found out what you were going to do first, then they would block your path in ways they could not have had they not known what you were going to do. Follow that, and you will see how insufferable it is to deal with such people. So, yes, I am very resistant to that behavior. This time, the Hippie has this set of 5.1 speakers for sale, and I remembered JP has the 5.1 amplifier. I asked, JP does not want the speakers, but he says I can have the amplifier. Now, stop right there and think.
I did not say I would match up the speakers and amp. I did not say JP would give anyone besides me the amplifier. I don’t have any speakers. I do not want to buy any speakers. JP does not want to buy any speakers. It is probably true that the speakers and amplifier could be matched up and sold as a set. If anyone else thinks so, they are welcome to do so without my help because I am too busy. The Hippie seems to think because it is a good deal, anyone who does not drop everything and go for it is just plain stubborn. He is suggesting I drive down to Kendall and get the amp, wire everything up, and if it works, sell it. I am suggesting he should do all that stuff by himself – or I can cut off information very quickly. My system favors the cut off.
When I told him to do it himself, now he thinks I am going to give him $50 for those speakers. I told him that would never happen. I don’t listen to $5 worth of speakers a year. Again, he could not have gotten these crazy ideas without knowledge that I had a line on the amplifier. Such info will simply get repressed from now on. He holds a grudge against people who don’t see money things his way.
