it's been a long weekend

On the Domstic Front

As a character-growth exercise, I left to Child the option of collecting and hoarding all coin he could find in teh house. This also doubled as a really *great* clean-up-places inducement--"ooh! money there! Go look! And pick up that stuff just to make sure you don't miss anything. Maybe the place it belongs has money too!" And sometimes, this even works.

Child, at the time of this annoucement, was blissfully unaware of the actual value of his collection, so the pennies ("I like the color.") piled up in, let us say, drifts in a multitude of hiding places throughout the house. Drifts that one might trip over and *really* hurt your foot on. A lot.

Then there was School, and the study of Money, and the Value Thereof. Boy, did that piss me off. No longer could Child be entertained with piles of pennies. Oh, no. He's out for *quarters*.

Now, when I said that he could have any coins he found lying around, I was blissfully unaware of what Chld considered "lying around". These places became my jeans, my coin jar, and most lately, my purse, where with complete unself-consciousness he will remove *anything* shiny and check later for actual monetary value. Other people's pockets, sometimes when they are still wearing the clothes in question, became fair game. One's hand, when one is getting a soda? Also thus. Pretty much, my child is slowly becoming kind of scary, but with lucrative results--he pulled out some of his hidden stores, set himself down, and worked out he has quite a bit. I said "savings!"

He looked at me like I'd just blasphemed against Teen Titans.

Yeah, he's eight, I forgot.

On the Technical Front

It took me two and a half hours to get my DVDR in.

The real humiliation of this is that I was reading the box, which had stickers all over it about how a trained personnel person of Best Buy would so install it for me if I needed the help, and my mind offered up many a sarcastic comment at the very thought I would need *anyone's* help handling a computer case and a screwdriver, 'cause after Adventures with Brother In Law's Upgrades, no one, and I repeat this, no one upgrades, downgrades, grades my computer but me. Which, yes, epically stupid, for those of you who have been reading me long enough to remember Jenn's Family's Study of the Vacuum of a Television Trying to Fix the Fuses On Our Own (And Ooh! It Has a Radiation Warning! How Cool!) and Jenn and the VCR That She Kept Plugged In While Stabbing With a Screwdriver, but I have uncanny luck with not getting electrocuted and not causing permanent damage to anything so far, so. That is The Rule.

Dell cases are *made* to be eay to get off, and they are--all you need is to look at the diagram so you know where the catches are that easily slip it off. Ah, but I could not find my books, of course--the one time I need them, they are doubtless packed up in something somewhere, mocking me, and I got the side cover off and two screws loosened, but could not *could not* get that front cover off. Later, I discovered all I needed was the grey part of the front cover off, but that's for later.

An hour of searching, a screwdrvier, and some computer rage later, while trying not to scratch my motherboard into oblivion, I came upon a catch and pulled with all my might, thinking, this is it!

And it was. And I snapped the other clever, easy to slip off catch.

Mmm. Yeah.

Well, got Mr DVDR in and tried to put the front cover back *on*.

Oh, how that didn't work.

Now, strange note--the cover was not wide enough, even in the wide top bay. Becuase the DVD player's slide goes all the way across the front, not just across most of the front, and the case didn't like that at all. So I played with it, discovered the grey part came off, and jerked that off--surprisingly, without breaking anything. I think. Turning your computer on and off with a screwdriver shoved deep into a hole in the middle of one's computer is not only creepily subtextual, considering my major hobby on this thing, but also, I have heard, somewhat dangerous, but hey, I dealt with it.

Okay, I tried to shave down the sides with kitchen sheers, but let's not go there.

Cue to today, whilst I searched the house for something sharp or something hot--let's just all breathe a sigh of relief that my sister's old sautering (soldering? How *do* you spell that?) set isn't around anymore or amateur nightmares would be the theme of the night. Eventually, I came across a Super Exacto Knife of Doom, fit to commit murder or shave down recalcitrant comptuer fronts. My sister and her husband took it from me on the grounds that they were my direct heirs for Care and Feeding of Child and my insurance isn't mature enough to give them enough money to make it worth the effort. So, all's well that ends well. Mostly.

Also, I love my new headphones. They have a wonderous dampening effect on outside noise, which is convenient when Child and Niece are screaming at the top of their marvelously developed lungs. Mmm. Peace.

Done now. I'm full fo the spirit of happy satisfaction, even though the Super Exacto Knife of Doom is hidden again, and, not that I looked or anything, but seems to be in a Very Secret Place. Dammit. I could do some *fun things* with some of my possessions with that.

Comments

[qafhappy.livejournal.com]

Your stories make my day!

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Aww, thanks!

[out-there.livejournal.com]

There are times when I fear for your safety.

Other times, I'm thrilled that someone with about as much technical-know-how as me manages to do this stuff without electrocuting herself. It inspires me to go into a computer store and see if I could upgrade my computer myself.

Then sanity kicks back in, but the dreams was fun for a while.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I have learned that unplugging? Is a good thing. Apparently, it lowers the chances of death by electrocution. Who knew?

[aivilo-18.livejournal.com]

*giggle*

Oh. Man. I remember when my parents took my brother and I to the cottage when we were younger and because "Time Off" for my parents means "Time to Drink", the beer at the cottage was in abundance. My parents would toss the empties across the backyard and later tell my brother and I that each bottle cap we found was worth five cents and each bottle was a quarter. And failed to tell us that the full, unopened bottles were off bounds and not meant to be opened and emptied down the toilet.

On the upside, I'm was a pro at the workings of a bottle cap opener at age six. Also, I swear my parents are not as 'white-trash-alcoholic' as I just made them out to be. Irish, yes. White trash alchies, no.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Oh. Man. I remember when my parents took my brother and I to the cottage when we were younger and because "Time Off" for my parents means "Time to Drink", the beer at the cottage was in abundance. My parents would toss the empties across the backyard and later tell my brother and I that each bottle cap we found was worth five cents and each bottle was a quarter. And failed to tell us that the full, unopened bottles were off bounds and not meant to be opened and emptied down the toilet.

*laughs* Oh man. Peeved parents indeed!

On the upside, I'm was a pro at the workings of a bottle cap opener at age six. Also, I swear my parents are not as 'white-trash-alcoholic' as I just made them out to be. Irish, yes. White trash alchies, no.

*laughs* No, no, I practically grew up in family restaurant/bars in a very rural area, where *everyone* went to the local bar on Friday night, with kids, grandma, all cousins, all aunts. Which is something I have found makes people look at me *very funny*.

I could play pool pretty much before I could ride a bike. Yet I do neither one well. Hmm.

[hopper-ho.livejournal.com]

Your adventures, or mis-adventures, always kinda scare me. The thought of myself trying to do half the things you, yourself do, makes me nervous. Because unlike you, I have no luck, no matter how Irish my parents claim me to be.

But then on the otherside, your adventures always make me laugh, and give me something to smile about later in the day when I'm bored, or working drive-thru.

I odn't have any money stories to tell like that, unless you count whenever my two cousins(one, one year younger, the other two years older) and myself were at their grandparents they have a "Money Tree" where their grandfather would throw whatever change he had collected during the day, mostly pennies, as we got older some quarters managed to appear once in a while, the change would land in the surrounding grass and car port, and the three of us would scramble to find all the change we could. Course I never got that much, mostly the older cousin was really aggressive about this sorta thing. Myself and younger cousin tended to walk together and then take turns when we found a coin in the grass.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Your adventures, or mis-adventures, always kinda scare me. The thought of myself trying to do half the things you, yourself do, makes me nervous. Because unlike you, I have no luck, no matter how Irish my parents claim me to be.

Fortuna is my friend. I mean, there really is no other good explanation on why I'm still alive.

Course I never got that much, mostly the older cousin was really aggressive about this sorta thing. Myself and younger cousin tended to walk together and then take turns when we found a coin in the grass.

*bares teeth* Evil older cousins. *hiss* I know them well.

[luthorienne.livejournal.com]

I never do anything to my computer that involves taking the cover off. That's why God made technicians. I'll do anything you like with the software, but hardware -- nuh-uh.

Of course, I never pump my own gas, either.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*eyes wide* There are places that pump your gas for you?

I have heard of such things. Huh.

I never do anything to my computer that involves taking the cover off. That's why God made technicians. I'll do anything you like with the software, but hardware -- nuh-uh.

A lot of it is a genuine and really disturbing belief that I can, in fact, learn anything if I stare at an object long enough. I am just hoping that I will not take it into my head to become a lion tamer, cause I think watching the circus on TV is not going to be what could be called practical experience.

*tries not to chew nails*

[pxlated.livejournal.com]

Delurking for a sec because this story made me laugh (I, by the way, love your journal to bits - stories and little RL tidbits alike); I definitely applaud you for installing your DVD-R drive youself, even if your methods are a little bit scary XD My dad works in computer wholesale, so I've grown up around them all my life; and over the past year I've helped my boyfriend put together two brand new computers and a laptop - it's actually a lot of fun if you ever get a hold of some old parts and a good manual. Makes you feel all geeky XD

[stargirl220.livejournal.com]

Like you I seem to have a certain amount of gladly accepted good luck, Unlike you though i do not stick things into my computer, my favorite item to stick things into is, my toaster, I never seem quite able to understand it when people insist it be safer to unplug electrical equiptment before sticking its insides with metal. And I can never remember that metal sometimes is not good for microwaves, hmm not injured myself yet though.