Abhyastamita

The computer is going back to Dell on Monday.

Yes, three posts in one day. This* made me feel better: http://papersky.livejournal.com/62847.html My computer problems are timeless. It was the same way back in 2003**.

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*I've been reading Jo Walton's Livejournal all the way from the beginning. I love her books a lot and her journal is consistently interesting. Especially since I've gotten to where she was writing Lifelode, which I just read a few months ago. Reading someone's journal from 2003 is interesting in general because, while I still remember it vividly, there are things that have changed that really surprise me. Like how upset we all were back then about the war and various atrocities going on at the time. The war's still there. The atrocities may or may not have calmed down. But I don't know anyone writing daily antiwar poems (as Jo Walton did for a while) or really decrying it anymore at all. We're just glum about it. I guess becoming jaded to war is not something you ever do consciously, but I hadn't realized till now that it had happened to me.

**Actually, come to think, that's around when XP started. The golden years. When Microsoft finally got it about right. I do really like that operating system.

Also, the rant below is the first time I've referred to myself as a professional software tester. And in an indignant this-is-what-I-do-for-a-living-so-I-have-extra-clout-when-I-tell-you-you-are-incompetent sort of way. Funny. Hadn't expected to do that ever.

Ah, if only Microsoft had to fix bugs whenever a judge requested it...

I'm feeling like I have two choices with my new laptop: either send it back or see whether putting Ubuntu on it improves matters. I'd rather put XP on it, but I'm reading that it's very hard to get the drivers and several features will simply be disabled: XP can't handle either the graphics card or the 4 GB of RAM. Of course, XP doesn't need four gigabytes of RAM...

I wanted to watch a TV show on my computer when I came home from work today. I've had good luck plugging my old computer into my TV and stereo system and the new one has an HDMI slot, so I thought it would work even better. No. As soon as I plugged in the HDMI cable, the sound stopped working on my computer. I looked it up, and this can be fixed with a new video card driver (no, sound being controlled by the video card doesn't make sense to me either), but I was having trouble finding the right one, so I just unplugged it from the TV and decided to watch my show on my computer instead. Only to discover that the sound still didn't work. Even after rebooting. If I open the program to configure the sound, it freezes.

Now, I'm relatively sure that downloading a new video-card driver (maybe a new sound card driver too while I'm at it) would fix everything...but everytime I try to use this computer for anything but the internet, I run into this sort of problem! Every time! And yeah, about half-the-time I can fix it (the other half, I will be able to fix in six months when smarter people have figured out more about Windows 7 and posted it online) but I don't want to be fixing my computer every week. The only reason I have a new computer is that I was tired of having to fix the old one every six months or so. This is not a good trade-off.

So I finally watched my TV show on my old computer which played it beautifully. But I'm really angry at what a piece of junk my new computer is. It's supposed to be a nice computer! And the fact is, I don't even need a nice computer. I just need one that works.

And no, I don't want a Mac, thank you very much. I want the comfort and functionality of XP on my 7 year old Dell, which I can browbeat into doing just about anything I want. But I don't think I can make it run a whole lot longer. The plastic casing itself is near giving out. I just think it's shameful* that it still runs better than a brand new computer.

Okay...that's the most I've written here in three months. Probably longer. Good to get it out of my system before Thanksgiving though.

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*I also think it's shameful that neither Dell nor Microsoft will give me free technical support on included software. (Well, okay, I'm not sure why Dell should need to give me support for Windows bugs, so maybe it's a little less shameful for them). Microsoft would charge me $50 to send them an email. It's in their (short-term) best interest to make buggy products so that people have to pay them to make them work the way they should have worked in the first place. I wonder whether I would be this angry about it if I weren't a professional software tester. I'm really not sure.

Last Saturday I went to see Don McLean (the guy who did the song American Pie) at the Birchmere.

Sunday I went to what was probably the best opera performance I've ever been to: the Washington Opera's production of Götterdämmerung.

It's not just me thinking this: the Post opera reviewer, who is usually extremely snide about the Washington Opera, really gushed about it, calling it "one of those magical evenings when everyone knew they were experiencing something special," and "a triumph".

And then Wednesday night, I went to see Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Bela is my favorite musician. If I have one. There are lots of other musicians I love too, but if I had to pick, it would be Bela Fleck.

And today, I haven't been to a concert, but I have been listening to WTJU, Charlottesville. Whenever my dad or I drive anywhere near Charlottesville, we always tune the radio to WTJU and I'd say three times out of four, it causes us to buy a CD. I discovered Tin Hat that way as well as a CD by Tangle Eye that's a remix of famous Alan Lomax recordings. Generally that fourth time when we don't buy a CD it's because they're playing death metal. They play just about everything.

Well, WTJU is now streaming online in Ogg Vorbis* format** at www.wtju.net. It sounds way better than I'm accustomed to hearing it on my car stereo driving over Afton Mountain with the signal fading in and out. Especially since I've got a cord to hook my computer to my amplifier now. And if I'm curious what they're playing, I have only to check on their website because they update what they are currently playing and have played in real-time. It's already caused me to decide I want a CD by Rupa and the April Fishes.

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*Maybe you already knew this, and I'm pretty sure I've looked it up more than once, but Ogg is not a Discworld reference, but Vorbis is: it's named after Exquisitor Vorbis in Small Gods. I don't know why.

**Firefox 3.5 will play it, but for some reason it seems to always timeout after twenty minutes. The VLC media player does a much better job.

This is bizarre: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judy-platt/congress-protect-american_b_362047.html I'm not sure why other countries' laws ought to apply to Americans.

So far in my quest to make my new computer with Windows 7 on it usable I have:

1. Switched from only seeing (very unintuitive) icons in the taskbar to having text with very small icons in the taskbar.

2. Edited the registry to allow for a start menu that expands outwards rather than being confined to a small space that requires scrolling (not easy with a touchpad).

3. Loosened the screws in the bottom of the computer because Dell over-tightened them and the CD drive wouldn't work otherwise. I think it still risks damaging the CD to put stuff in there, but it does work now at least.

4. Installed Office 2002 because not only do I despise Office 2007, but my computer didn't come with Office. It came with Works instead, which I didn't even know still existed. Anyway, I really like Office 2002 and I own it, so that's good.

5. Turned off all the things that were trying to automatically update my computer without asking permission and were causing it to crash (these included Microsoft, Dell, and McAffee.

6. Downloaded Firefox and Pidgin.

It's coming along. It's frustrating though because I know how beautifully XP would run on it with all those resources and Windows 7 does not run beautifully*.

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*It also doesn't make any noise when it's working. Which I find perversely irritating because it takes me longer to realize I need to quit clicking things and leave it alone till it's done.

I haven't posted since I got my job, but I'm still here. I like my job. I like my coworkers. I like my new apartment and I really like my new kitten. I don't like commuting, but it has meant that I've had a lot of enforced reading or writing time on the train so I've gotten off to a good start on the sequel to my book. Oh, also, still not published. But these things take time. And patience. And luck. And lots of stamps. You're still welcome to read it, anyone out there.

But what actually prompted me to write is that I just saw the word Carthaginian and it made me really want to play Civilization*, which struck me as interesting: that that's the main reaction I have to that word. Poor Carthage.

Oh, one last thing: can anyone think of why "prior to" would sound rednecky to someone? One of my coworkers claims it does and consequently hates the word ("not that he has anything against rednecks") but he can't really explain why.

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*I can't, because I think it's not currently installed and anyway, I should be getting a new computer** tomorrow so I should not start playing Civilization on this one now.

**Yes, Panther, my faithful companion of going on seven years now, is finally getting replaced. Or maybe just getting a new friend. Panther has a Thai keyboard, which the new computer will not, and I want to start taking Thai classes in February. So it may not be time to retire Panther all the way just yet.

I'm moving to Alexandria on Wednesday. This is the apartment building: http://www.southernmanagement.com/communities/index.cfm?id=LR&b=s# It looks good.

So I got a job working with Nortel Government Solutions as a software product tester in DC starting a week from Monday. I have an appointment to look at an apartment in Falls Church at 2 o'clock on Monday. And should be moving sometime shortly after that. I do wish NOVA was closer. I'm not looking forward to all that driving, especially with Rooney in the car. But I am excited about my job.

I saw the Shenandoah Shakespeare Express*'s performance of Titus Andronicus last night. I don't think it's the stupidist play ever written, as TS Elliot said, but I do understand why it's not often performed. Anyway, they have a summary of what goes on in the play done as a Facebook page: http://www.americanshakespearecenter.com/images/icons/Titus-fake-book.jpg I was very amused, though it may only be funny if you've seen the play.

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*Okay, so they're called the American Shakespeare Theater Company now, but that's boring and generic and I'm boycotting the name.

Rooney and I are moving back to Virginia tomorrow. It doesn't quite feel real yet, but it will as the night goes on and more of my stuff gets packed. I have a pre-interview phone call with Rosetta Stone Friday afternoon and then the actual phone-interview Monday morning*. I'm applying for a job as an editor and they're actually looking for people with Master's degrees in linguistics, so I think I've got a decent chance. Saturday I'm going to see the Punch Brothers (Chris Thile's post-Nickel Creek band). And then after that, I have no idea.

Also, we drank the last bottle of cranberry wine tonight. Which turned out to be cranberry champagne. And oddly much sweeter than the previous two bottles. My method of brewing the wine in individual wine bottles produces more variety than I'd get if I did it the way you're supposed to, all in one big container. I like it. So far, everything's been good and consistency has never been a virtue I valued. I made four more bottles of parsnip wine for people here because the first two bottles were so appreciated. And I plan to start up my winery right away again when I get home. I think I will also invest in a proper hydrometer so that I won't have any more accidental champagne. The thought of exploding bottles scares me.

Enough procrastination. Time to pack.

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*And if that goes well, probably more interview(s) later on. They say they follow the Topgrading interview methodology, which involves a four hour interview and calls to as many references as they can get out of you. From what I was able to read on the internet, it sounds pretty intense and unpleasant, so I'm hoping they don't really mean it. But if they do, I suppose at least I will have lots of interview experience afterwards.

I am (provisionally) graduating today and will be good and properly graduated when grades come out on Wednesday. Rooney and I will be moving back to Virginia at the end of the month, and from there to whatever place contains a job for me. So far the only one I've applied to is in New York, but now that I have time, I'm going to be looking mostly in the Nova/DC area and in Charlottesville.

It's very good to be done with this place. Hawaii and I didn't get along and my department is toxic. I don't regret coming here exactly; I made friends who are important to me and then of course there was the zoo. And I learned Thai, which might be my favorite language now except for English. And I accept now that academia is simply not for me. I think it would have been equally true in a better run university that actually offered what I wanted to study, but much harder to accept and I might have gone on to pursue it anyway. Anyway, I'm looking forward to whatever is next.

In recent days, I’ve heard from many of you about shaking hands at graduation and there definitely are views on both sides of that issue. Uppermost in my mind is ensuring that our university promotes best practices for maintaining everyone’s health, along with educating people about those practices. That is important at all times, but especially in view of the new H1N1 influenza virus currently circulating in Hawai‘i.

I also recognize that this is a joyous occasion for our graduates and that congratulatory handshakes are part of the celebrations. For those graduates who feel comfortable doing so, we welcome you to celebrate your achievements with the traditional handshake. For those who remain uncomfortable with shaking hands, we certainly respect that choice, because our graduates need to make their own decision.

To respect differing views on this issue and also follow best practices, we have developed a plan so that we can enjoy the traditional handshake - if the graduate feels comfortable doing so. At our ceremonies, we will provide an individual hand-sanitizer packet on each seat for the graduates, as well as hand-wash stations in the arena. So, after our handshake and upon returning to their seats, the graduate can use that hand-sanitizer to clean their hands. In that way, we can accomplish both best practices and the pleasure of our traditional handshake.

As a virologist who spent many years working on influenza viruses, I have a healthy respect for the problems influenza viruses, as well as many others, can cause and for the practices related to preventing their spread. Many “flu” people, like myself, recognize that touching common surfaces that have virus on them represents an important way of spreading such viruses – whether that is a desk, a doorknob, or a hand. As a university official who has participated in well over 100 joyous graduations, I recognize that, since I shake hands with thousands of people on those days, anything on my hands could potentially be transferred to other people through a handshake. That becomes an even greater concern when there is a health problem in the community.

To protect others, my practice is to wash my hands frequently and thoroughly, certainly before and after ceremonies. To protect myself, I am also careful not to touch my eyes, mouth or nose until I wash my hands. We encourage you to follow those same practices at this and other gatherings to reduce your chance of illness and ensure that this truly remains an enjoyable day of celebration for you, our graduates, and your loved ones.

Graduates, congratulations on your achievement. I look forward to greeting you and your loved ones on this very special day.

Mahalo,
Virginia S. Hinshaw
Chancellor
Email: vhinshaw@hawaii.edu

From an email about the Linguistics Lab computers:

"Over the summer I will be downgrading "Branks" and "Wheel" to Windows XP. Windows Vista gives us still too many problems. Especially E-Prime does not work very well on Vista. Windows XP will be much more reliable."

I'm never switching. But then I've only been on Service Pack 2 for three months. Yes, I am a Luddite.

"Aloha!
This is to let everyone know that UH Mânoa will conduct our two Spring 2009 Commencement exercises this Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center as planned.

We are looking forward to a wonderful celebration for our graduates and loved ones. We want everyone to feel comfortable in attending this important event, so, as an educational institution, we will demonstrate the practices that we have been advising our community to follow in protecting against the possible spread of any virus, including the H1N1 influenza virus currently present in Hawai‘i (for information, please see http://www.manoa.hawaii.edu/).

Since we know that keeping our hands clean is one important way of reducing the possible spread of such viruses, there will be hand-wipes and hand-washing stations available and we will also forego the traditional handshake and introduce another sign of congratulations for this ceremony.

Also, anyone who is ill with flu-like symptoms (always including fever, often accompanied by sore throat, cough, fatigue, aches/pains) should stay home and not attend this ceremony or any other gathering. The ceremonies can be watched on a live webcast: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/commencement/

Mahalo,
Virginia S. Hinshaw, Chancellor
vhinshaw@hawaii.edu"

Free online access to academic journals makes me so happy! I will miss it when it's gone. Though it might never be gone. I think I get it for being a UVA Alumna too. Haven't looked into it yet.

Back to my paper now.

This is what the internet censorship thing in Australia's about, by the way: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Australia I do not approve. On the other hand, neither do Australians, which is definitely something. Governments are scary.

It's 9:45 PM on Sunday.  My plane back from Australia just took off about 15 minutes ago and I arrived in Hawaii this morning at 10 o'clock.  Time-travel is fun. 

Note to self: four glasses of wine (even when somebody else buys two of them) is too many. It produces uncontrollable urges to speak French, denounce monolingualism, and it makes the world spin just a bit. More than a bit if you're watching somebody else walk up steps. Then the world keeps going up with them for about five minutes. Very distracting.

Australia's fun. We went to the zoo today. And then we went to see Duplicity, which is not bad, but the twist is quite predictable. And then the four glasses of wine happened. And now it's now and I should go to bed. But I can still type pretty accurately, which means I'm not all that drunk, because that's usually the first to go.

Things missing in Australia: driers, Hulu, drip-coffee. The government seems like it could go totalitarian quite easily. There's talk of banning some websites. Don't know which ones. It's even more nanny-state than Hawaii. But Sydney itself, I like. Very convenient. Very easy to get around. Much nicer than Honolulu. Still, I miss the East Coast. Haven't found any better place than that yet.