After an hour or so on the phone with Microsoft getting them to issue me another product key so I could re-install, I’m back on the computer. I’m still getting my programs re-installed, which is why this post is actually not so timely.
So, be warned, if you ever need to reinstall Win7 on a new hard drive, you’ll need to talk to customer support about it. They’re nice enough about the issue, and the time involved isn’t for them to hassle you. But, still, it’s a little ridiculous. I don’t have to call GM to approve a brake job.
One of the hard drives in my two-drive, RAID 0 setup is having issues. It could fail completely at any moment, rendering my computer just another hunk of rock and plastic. But, a new drive is on the way, and I hope to rectify the problem shortly. The rub is that, as a RAID 0 setup, I can’t just unRAID it without losing the data. boo. So, I’ll have to reinstall everything. All this after the update to Win7 went so well.
It’s been a while since I was able to post more than a “look at this video”, so…what’s been going on around here? Not a whole heck of a lot, really. Today was the last day of swimming lessons, and Kaylin is both happy for a break and sad that it’s over. She’s asking, “Now what are we going to do everyday?” I’m sure we’ll think of something. Monday we are heading up to the Great Escape with her friends, Lindsey and Deirdre. That should be fun, though the weather channel is predicting hot and humid. Blech. Guess I’ll actually have to get into the water if we go swimming there.
Speaking of the weather channel, I just finished the 8th book in Rachel Caine’s Weather Warden series. If you are a fan of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, I think you’ll like Caine’s Weather Wardens. The series follows the exploits of Joanne Baldwin, a Weather Warden (there are also Fire Wardens and Earth Wardens that we meet along the way) and part of the supernatural paragovernmental agency, the Wardens. Wardens can control elemental forces and for thousands of years they have been mitigating the worst that Mother Nature throws at us. The first novel opens with a bang, as Jo is hunted for the murder of a man who dies while he’s trying to kill her. Not a good day. If you like strong but credible female characters, a fast moving and straightforward plot, and people you actually begin to care about, then I’d give this series a try.
On the Windows Vista fiasco, I may have finally gotten everything back in order. I discovered that one of my 1000+ fonts that I’ve collected over the years was defective and causing the symptoms that I was seeing. Don’t know where this font came from or if it was a separate issue causing the same symptoms, but manthatsweird. Anyway, I tracked down the offender and it is gone. I look forward to smooth sailing for a while. Shyeah, right.
Oh, I also just finished playing the movie tie-in game X-Men Origins: Wolverine. That’s a pretty fun game. A typical mash-button-combos-for-more-damage fighting game, but it had some cool cinematic kills, and, hey! it’s frickin Wolverine! Play was over too quickly, as it basically followed the plot of the movie. I’d love to see a sequel. I recommend the title, but I’d wait until you can get a less expensive used copy. Full price for such a short game with very little replayability isn’t worth it.
So this weekend the computer started to go wonky again after installing some new updates. Luckily, I had a system restore point I could fall back on this time. So I did, returning to normalcy. This afternoon I installed individually the seven updates, checking the system after each one. No problems have arisen after a reboot following each install. Is that weird or what? I wonder now if the problem was simply an incomplete installation of an update in each case. Who knows? All I know for sure is that I will always install updates singly from now on, as much of a pain as that might be.
Well, I’m still deep in the refenestration of my computer. For the Third time I have installed Vista. After the first time I was able to narrow down my issues to either a Service Pack 2 problem or a printer driver problem. The second install showed me SP2 was definitely causing a problem. It either wasn’t installing completely or there is some incompatibility buried in there. Which would explain why it was mostly microsoft products that were affected. So, I have set up Updates to ask me first before installing and have not tried to hunt down SP2. I’m about to install the printer, so wish me luck that Windows Live Writer (which I’m using now) and Dell Dock still work afterward. Those are my barometer programs that seem the most susceptible.
Anyway, I went forth with the reinstallation of Vista this morning, and Lo! Windows Live Writer is working again. This is a good sign. I still have a shitload of work to do to get back to where I was, but it’s not like I’ve never had to do it before…
While killing time during installs, I was catching up on some RSS feeds and discovered that, as I suspected, Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series will be concluded posthumously. Jordan’s wife and editor, Harriet McDougal, has conscripted author Brandon Sanderson to pen the final three novels from Jordan’s notes and recordings of story concepts he dictated in his final days (that’s just cool and creepy!). The first installment is due out November 3, 2009.
I haven’t been posting lately because of this continuing problem in Vista-land. Even more programs have “stopped working” for mysterious reasons. Some I have been able to nuance using the Vista compatibility tab under shortcut properties. You can force the program to run as Administrator or set compatibility back to XP or earlier. I was able to get Paint Shop Pro X2 to run with the XP compatibility, for example. But Windows Live Writer is still being stubborn. In fact, it seems to be more problematic with microsoftware than any other. For example, an Excel file that choked in Excel, works fine in Open Office. I suspect the macros are the culprit. I’m just hoping that other Vista users are having the same problem and MS is being inundated with error reporting.
On a brighter note, Amazon has a great deal on Windows 7 Upgrade if you pre-order. Which I did. I’m looking forward to the stripped down functionality of Windows 7.
What else is happening in our world?…
Gaming
Oh, the Stories from the Shelter game is starting up again on Sunday. I have some bare bones ideas for 2–3 more sessions before a final wrap up. I like the idea of finishing up before it drags on (ST:TNG anyone?). On the SftS note, Scott and I were kicking around ideas for a new title for the game (and hopefully comic script that he wants to collaborate on) and we’ve settled on a working title: Starlost. It is less descriptive than Stories from the Shelter, but is more evocative and certainly less of a mouthful. Even if it doesn’t end up as the final title, it at least will serve as a breaking away from SftS to allow us some distance from a decade old working title.
In more gaming news, Joel starts his D&D campaign on Thursday, which will interleave with Joe’s usual Thursday game. So that should be fun. New low-level characters to abuse. Also, I’ve dusted off a Rolemaster profession I was working on a few years ago. Some folks in our RM game are considering a character change, and that got me thinking about the Tomb Raider again: a cleric/thief semi spell-user of the realms of Channeling and Subterfuge. It has utility spells for helping with dungeoneering, undead repulsion, skill/activity enhancement, and healing. I just need to put together the last few spell lists and then see if Alan approves.
Family
Kaylin has been taking swimming lessons for the past week and is really loving it. She’s a natural fish, just like her mother.
Cougar has fitted into the family like a missing puzzle piece. He and Charm have become eager sparring buddies and Pixel just mostly ignores Cougar as he does Charm. But no middle of the night fights. No retributive spraying or peeing (that we’ve found!). So, all is well in felineville.
I’m feeling very scattered this week. I feel like I haven’t accomplished anything useful and can’t seem to focus to work on any particular project.
Part of the problem is I’ve spent the last couple of days farting around with Drupal to see if it would be useful for maintaining my website. The final conclusion is, no, it won’t. So the frustration from that adventure is what’s giving me the sense of epic fail, I think. But when I try to put my mind to one of my several projects, it just slides around them like so much Jell-O. I do have moments of shower-induced lucidity, but they don’t last past getting dressed. You ever have days like that?
Apparently there was a problem recently with my cross-posting plug-in interfering with some other privacy protecting plug-ins that I wasn’t really using. No posts were crossing over. Looks like I have that fixed again and we’re back to getting posts at LJ, too. Huzzah!
Q
Edit: Though, after making this post, the last one about the cake disappeared from LJ. What gives?
Edit, edit: Got it back by updating the post here at the WordPress journal. Weird.
DriveThruRPG
Hudspeth Games