Everyday Randomness

Bored Out Of My Mind

Hubby had to work today, so I decided to set aside today as my day to do some work on my own computers. It’s been so long since I ran it, I forgot just how long it takes to run a full defrag on this computer. I swear it was more boring than having to talk to mortgage lenders. Then again, maybe that’s going a little too far. I’ve never have to deal with mortgage people for myself, and I never plan to. Hubby and I plan on building our house a little at a time. Even if it takes us 10 years at least we’ll know it’s paid for.

Anywho, now I’m waiting on Hubby’s pc to defrag, but since he doesn’t have a lot of stuff on there it shouldn’t take too long. What I’m really thinking about doing is taking a nap. I was up at 2am this morning to hear the news about baby Aislyn, so now I’m getting pretty tired.

You know that nap does sound good.

*runs off to curl up on the couch.*

Chuckles

The laptop is fixed.  Sometimes I have to laugh at my customers, not for their stupidity, but for their total computer innocence.  Today’s customer told me she was having problems with a game.  Her desktop looked weird after she installed a freeware game that she downloaded.

She dropped it off on the way to work this morning, while I was still asleep, so hubby left a note telling me what game she installed.  I didn’t even turn the laptop on until I was finished with my last post.

The problem was so simple.  She downloaded the game, but she never installed it.  What she did was extract the zip file straight to the desktop.  That left her with a ton of little files with extensions and icons she’d never seen before.

I deleted the files from her desktop, installed the game, and she’s good to go.  I figured if something like that caused her to freak out, I might as well go ahead and run a cleanup.  There’s no telling what else she has lurking around.

I always double check for antivirus and install anti-spyware protection for all of my customers.  I show them how to use it.  I type out a very simple to follow list of instructions, and I place it in a folder on the desktop called “Do This Once A Week”.

Well, she hasn’t.  Her virus definitions haven’t been updated since January 13.  I know she’s got a Verizon internet card, so my guess is she only connects the card when she wants to get online, and she still expects her definitions to auto update.

Hers were set to automatically update on a time schedule.  I changed it to automatically update when she “dials up” since that’s how her card interacts even though it’s not dial up.  Now I guess I better check the anti-spyware definitions and run another scan.

Time For My Recertification

I got a letter today reminding me I need to take my IPC Specialist certification test again because my current certification will be expiring in the near future.  It expires January 12, 2009, but the state has a very short list of classes I can take if I want a refresher course before I take the test again.

Here’s how it works.  I can pay about $20 to take the test without going over the material.  I can pay $100 to take a refresher course on the day of the test.  You sit in a classroom for 4 hours listening to someone go over the correct procedures, then you immediately take your test.  You aren’t given any time to actually look over the material on your own, so to me it’s a waste of cash.

The last option is to take a 2 day class that goes over the J-STD-001 Requirements for Soldered Electrical and Electronic Assemblies in detail.  You have to pay $150 for the 2 day class.  You’re allowed to take notes in the classroom, but you’re not allowed to take any of the material home to study it.  Yet again it seems like a waste of money to me.

If I were to take the class I would have to take it at the manufacturing plant where I previously worked.  I hate that place with a passion, so there’s no way you’re going to catch me spending 2 days there.  It’s bad enough I’m going to probably have to spend an hour there taking the test.

Besides I can keep my $100-$150 because I have the power of the internet.  I have already found a place where I can order my own hard copy or electronic copy of all the material for the course for $37.  I would really like to have my own hard copy of the material since I’m using it in my job at least once a week anyway.   Then whenever that times comes every 2 years when I have to renew my certification, I can stick with the $20 recertification test.

Even if I never use my certification again I’m still going to get recertified.  Why?  Because it’s cool to be able to say I’m certified to solder for NASA.  lol

It’s Always Something

The Good News:

Hubby finally made an appointment with the tax lady. I screamed/bitched/nagged until I convinced him that I wasn’t ready to tackle our taxes myself. It would be different if we had easy normal taxes, but no we’ve got 3 W-2’s and 8 1099’s between the two of us plus itemized deductions and all that crap. I’ve been going crazy over this for how long now?

Yeah let the professional handle it! So, our appointment is Tuesday at 6pm because she’s even working around hubby’s work schedule. She also told us to be prepared to spend at least a couple hours with her because she’ll go over everything thoroughly.

The Bad News:

I have all my tax info in order. I have detailed excel workbooks full of everything I need and probably a lot of stuff I don’t need. At least I’m prepared…sort of. I have everything ready, but it’s still on my computer. That’s because I was out of printer ink. I picked some up last weekend. Being the procrastinator I am I waited until today to switch out the cartridges. I sat down and started printing everything out.

*breakage*

I heard the printer make a horrible noise that normally sounds like the machine is possessed and slowly dieing. I went to investigate, and now not only are all my fingers covered in green ink, but I have a plastic piece laying on my desk, and I’m not sure what it is. I do know that tabs hold it in place, and those tabs are broken.

Just great.

The printer still works…kind of. I can print a readable page, but half way down the page the text starts angling to the left. Eventually the first numbers in all the dates get cut off. End of that page. Run the printer realignment. Start next page. Watch things get all out of whack half way down the page. Realign. Print next page.

Yeah that’s my nasty little cycle. So now either I have to continue to do this with oh at least 100 more pages or I can wait until hubby gets home to see if he wants to make a printer run. Now I just need to see what time Staples closes on Sundays because I’m NOT getting another printer from Walmart.