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Jul. 7th, 2011 12:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sethrakGeek Squad now tells Tom that poor Nidhogg, despite the hard drive transplant, remains defunct because of a problem with the motherboard, which they were unable to diagnose with the old hard drive being broken.
Now we have to send Nidhogg up to Denver for examination by other Geek Squad personnel. If it's less than or equal to a hundred bucks, they have directions to go ahead and fix it. If it's over a hundred, they will call us first to receive approval. If it's significantly over a hundred bucks, we're going to throw in the towel and buy an entirely new computer, because the money we've already put into fixing this one is approaching the cost of a new computer, and it's not as if we're going to retrieve any more data than was already recovered.
In the meantime, we're still using the laptop, and I plan to check out options such as Delicious or learning if it's possible to export one's bookmarks to a data stick, and make myself regular backups that way. Tom has set up the geriatric an d slow as molasses secondary laptop for me as a backup in case he gets sent TDY before we have a new desktop up and running. All that one is good for is email, IMs, and checking webcomics verrrrrryyyyyyyyy sloooowwwwwllllyyyyy..... Possibly it should be rechristened Treebeard. But it's better than nothing.
Until I get my bookmark strategy solidified, I am emailing myself link collections - and today, I am spamming you guys with some choice ones I found today.
Oregon Trail meets Zombies - http://hatsproductions.com/organtrail.html
Haven't finished playing, but looks like fun.
Someone's 24 hour comic challenge, done with Muppets meet Thor - http://occasionalcomics.com/muppet-thor/
I saw this on Subversive Cross Stitch's Facebook, and promptly linked it on to my flist, with the comment that I was tempted to make it for Tom as an anniversary present. He thinks this is AWESOME, and would proudly hang it in his work cubicle. ^_^ http://www.etsy.com/listing/73959920/honey-badger-dont-give-a-sht-cross
Over the weekend, we took the Zodlings to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, in honor of Jack's third birthday. I still refuse to countenance that it's been THREE YEARS since I showed up casually for a routine prenatal exam and wound up with a cesarean scar and a slightly preemie baby. o_o Mark and Jack were both surprisingly good during the entire trip, although they also didn't show quite as much interest in the animals as we hoped. The elephants got the most notice. And the merry-go-round was popular, after Mark recovered from his initial freakout. I had to hold him on with one arm while keeping Jack on his own horse with my other arm. Jack was calm, just had trouble sitting on the moving horse. Once Mark relaxed, he thought it was awesome. Jack liked it, but was quieter about it.
I had to dissuade Tom, with some difficulty, from trying to take both boys on the sky ride. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, as the name suggests, is on the lower edge of Cheyenne Mountain, and very little of it is remotely level. The zoo owners therefore very cleverly set up what looks like a large ski lift from the entrance gate to the top of the property, and charge a stiff fee. Savvy people with the extra cash take the lift to the top and admire the animal exhibits on their walk down. Unfortunately the damn thing has no seat belts and only a light metal bar to restrain passengers, like most ski lifts. There is no way on God's green earth that Mark, who freaked out so over the merry-go-round, to say nothing of poor Jack, would have stayed still in the lift chair, or failed to require massive measures to keep them from attempting to plummet to their deaths. Also, there was no way in Hell I was going on it, with or without the Zodlings. I reminded Tom of the Ferris wheel inside an Omaha sporting goods store he'd once persuaded me on. He snorted and reminded me of an observation tower at Mahoney State Park in Nebraska. I demanded to know why, with two such examples among many others of my acrophobia, he would try and coax me onto this ski lift ride. He didn't really have a good answer. ;p
The zoo looks its age, and a number of the smaller exhibits remind me of the Milwaukee Zoo back in the 80's. The monkey house in particular had a number of very tiny cells lined in ceramic tile with open bars at the front, and no a/c in the building. The poor monkeys had toys and branches and such, but the space allotted seemed inadequate.
A lot of the animals throughout the zoo were unthrilled with the heat. Even the lions hid in the shadiest and most inaccessible sections of their enclosures. But the ones who could cope were clearly enjoying it.
The zoo was fun, but hugely expensive even with the nominal military discount. I suspect we won't be back this year unless they have a major discount day of some kind. May do a photo post soon, but no promises.
Also reading various responses to the incident involving a prominent atheist woman being harassed at a con and various privileged males in the atheist community basically calling her a silly girl. The following links are shamelessly stolen fromnagaina, although I'd been reading about it elsewhere too.
http://skepchick.org/2011/07/the-privilege-delusion/
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/07/05/richard-dawkins-and-male-privilege/
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/07/always_name_names.php
http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/because_of_the_implication
Note: Do not go looking at the comments of conservative bloggers reacting to this. Just don't. I made the mistake of wandering by Ann Althouse's post on the subject, as I read her sporadically to get conservative reactions to things happening in my homestate. Someone with a female username posted the following charming remark: "Feminists? They're just chicks who never learned how to wield a rolling pin. Sad lasses.".
Really? Really? A rehashing of the old claim that only women too ugly/unfeminine to catch a man are feminists? Really? I suspect farther down I'd find a reworking of the demand that these silly feminists hush up and prepare food (preferably pastry or sandwiches) for the male commenters. If you're going to deny male privilege and the very real threats women face when dealing with random unwanted propositions, can you at least do a trifle better than this? ::rubs temples::
Now we have to send Nidhogg up to Denver for examination by other Geek Squad personnel. If it's less than or equal to a hundred bucks, they have directions to go ahead and fix it. If it's over a hundred, they will call us first to receive approval. If it's significantly over a hundred bucks, we're going to throw in the towel and buy an entirely new computer, because the money we've already put into fixing this one is approaching the cost of a new computer, and it's not as if we're going to retrieve any more data than was already recovered.
In the meantime, we're still using the laptop, and I plan to check out options such as Delicious or learning if it's possible to export one's bookmarks to a data stick, and make myself regular backups that way. Tom has set up the geriatric an d slow as molasses secondary laptop for me as a backup in case he gets sent TDY before we have a new desktop up and running. All that one is good for is email, IMs, and checking webcomics verrrrrryyyyyyyyy sloooowwwwwllllyyyyy..... Possibly it should be rechristened Treebeard. But it's better than nothing.
Until I get my bookmark strategy solidified, I am emailing myself link collections - and today, I am spamming you guys with some choice ones I found today.
Oregon Trail meets Zombies - http://hatsproductions.com/organtrail.html
Haven't finished playing, but looks like fun.
Someone's 24 hour comic challenge, done with Muppets meet Thor - http://occasionalcomics.com/muppet-thor/
I saw this on Subversive Cross Stitch's Facebook, and promptly linked it on to my flist, with the comment that I was tempted to make it for Tom as an anniversary present. He thinks this is AWESOME, and would proudly hang it in his work cubicle. ^_^ http://www.etsy.com/listing/73959920/honey-badger-dont-give-a-sht-cross
Over the weekend, we took the Zodlings to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, in honor of Jack's third birthday. I still refuse to countenance that it's been THREE YEARS since I showed up casually for a routine prenatal exam and wound up with a cesarean scar and a slightly preemie baby. o_o Mark and Jack were both surprisingly good during the entire trip, although they also didn't show quite as much interest in the animals as we hoped. The elephants got the most notice. And the merry-go-round was popular, after Mark recovered from his initial freakout. I had to hold him on with one arm while keeping Jack on his own horse with my other arm. Jack was calm, just had trouble sitting on the moving horse. Once Mark relaxed, he thought it was awesome. Jack liked it, but was quieter about it.
I had to dissuade Tom, with some difficulty, from trying to take both boys on the sky ride. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, as the name suggests, is on the lower edge of Cheyenne Mountain, and very little of it is remotely level. The zoo owners therefore very cleverly set up what looks like a large ski lift from the entrance gate to the top of the property, and charge a stiff fee. Savvy people with the extra cash take the lift to the top and admire the animal exhibits on their walk down. Unfortunately the damn thing has no seat belts and only a light metal bar to restrain passengers, like most ski lifts. There is no way on God's green earth that Mark, who freaked out so over the merry-go-round, to say nothing of poor Jack, would have stayed still in the lift chair, or failed to require massive measures to keep them from attempting to plummet to their deaths. Also, there was no way in Hell I was going on it, with or without the Zodlings. I reminded Tom of the Ferris wheel inside an Omaha sporting goods store he'd once persuaded me on. He snorted and reminded me of an observation tower at Mahoney State Park in Nebraska. I demanded to know why, with two such examples among many others of my acrophobia, he would try and coax me onto this ski lift ride. He didn't really have a good answer. ;p
The zoo looks its age, and a number of the smaller exhibits remind me of the Milwaukee Zoo back in the 80's. The monkey house in particular had a number of very tiny cells lined in ceramic tile with open bars at the front, and no a/c in the building. The poor monkeys had toys and branches and such, but the space allotted seemed inadequate.
A lot of the animals throughout the zoo were unthrilled with the heat. Even the lions hid in the shadiest and most inaccessible sections of their enclosures. But the ones who could cope were clearly enjoying it.
The zoo was fun, but hugely expensive even with the nominal military discount. I suspect we won't be back this year unless they have a major discount day of some kind. May do a photo post soon, but no promises.
Also reading various responses to the incident involving a prominent atheist woman being harassed at a con and various privileged males in the atheist community basically calling her a silly girl. The following links are shamelessly stolen from
nagaina, although I'd been reading about it elsewhere too. http://skepchick.org/2011/07/the-privilege-delusion/
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/07/05/richard-dawkins-and-male-privilege/
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/07/always_name_names.php
http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/because_of_the_implication
Note: Do not go looking at the comments of conservative bloggers reacting to this. Just don't. I made the mistake of wandering by Ann Althouse's post on the subject, as I read her sporadically to get conservative reactions to things happening in my homestate. Someone with a female username posted the following charming remark: "Feminists? They're just chicks who never learned how to wield a rolling pin. Sad lasses.".
Really? Really? A rehashing of the old claim that only women too ugly/unfeminine to catch a man are feminists? Really? I suspect farther down I'd find a reworking of the demand that these silly feminists hush up and prepare food (preferably pastry or sandwiches) for the male commenters. If you're going to deny male privilege and the very real threats women face when dealing with random unwanted propositions, can you at least do a trifle better than this? ::rubs temples::
