Address Change

Today's task is to work through the three pages of organizations to contact with our new address. We try to keep not just a list of names, but addresses, phone numbers, web sites, account numbers, etc. Every time we do this exercise, I'm amazed how often companies change things around, especially their web sites. I know all those Indian web programmers have to be kept busy some how, but is it really necessary re-hide the address change link every six months or so? We just did this last December; it's not like our list is ten years old or anything.

Found on the label of our new frying pan: Caution For safety, please keep pet birds out of the kitchen.

Of course, this immediately launches a little mini-movie in my head where Mom is swearing and swinging said frying pan around wildly in an attempt to keep the pet bird from crapping in the sauce and accidentally whacks her kid upside the head.

I have no idea what the safety implications are of having pet birds in the kitchen, other than my personal flight of fancy. And given the wording, one assumes wild birds in the kitchen are OK.

Back to work.

Well, That Was a Waste

All that for nothing: partition table is still borked and HDMI still not delivering audio. So we're kickin' it old school with our 1920x1080 running over a VGA cable and audio being taken care of by my trusty, 10-year-old Edirol UA-1A.

This stuff used to be easier. I must be getting old.

As expected, I contributed 600% profit to Best Buy's bottom line. The VGA cable that is $4 on Amazon cost me $25. I wanted to hand a knife to the Check-Me-Out Chick and tell her to point it at me while I swiped my card so I wouldn't feel like such an idiot, but I figure that would just get me arrested as a terrorist.

So now I just have to reinstall everything and get it all set up like I want it. I should have that done about the time the PC blows a drive or something.

I Gotta Go Outside?

More running around today on miscellaneous errands. One involves our main PC. With increasing frequency, the audio will just stop working. Control panel says the HDMI cable is not connected and the sound is going to the default port (that has nothing connected to it). Which is really weird given that the same cable carries both audio and video and the video works fine. The first couple times this happened, a complete power down and reboot fixed it. The last time, the problem was more persistent, but updating the drivers cured the problem. Then yesterday, it struck again. Only this time, nothing was bringing it back. A quick trip around Google just confirmed that there is something seriously wrong somewhere between Win7, the ATI drivers and the ATI Radeon card. Everyone was just guessing and making random changes to their systems which sometimes worked, but mostly didn't. I was already in need of a complete reinstall due to a power failure in New Hampshire that had borked the partition table, so why not? I started the install, which got to a certain point and just seemed to stop with nothing displayed. Duh. The HDMI port ain't gonna work during an install; I needed to drop back to VGA. No sweat. I go rummaging through my cable box: couple thousand feed of Cat5, big roll of coax, various phone cables, a couple XLR audio cables (?!?!?), USB, Firewire, eSATA, spare back plates, every kind of cable converter and/or splitter imaginable. No VGA.

Crap.

So my main system is setting here semi-dead after putting itself into sleep mode when it got bored waiting for me to respond to whatever prompt is on the screen. I'm sure buying a VGA cable at Best Buy is going to cost me about what a new PC would run instead of the $4 Amazon would charge, but we need access to the files on the Drobo, which is connected to the main system. Grrrrr.

So I have to leave the apartment. While I'm out, I also need to make a bank run and a pharmacy run, so it's not just for a VGA cable. But still. Keeping the car means I have to go out not just once, but twice. Unless Debbie wants to walk home from work. Which I'm pretty sure she doesn't. But I really hate leaving my little cave.

Yesterday, I was nosing around checking on the job situation around here. I found a central Florida on-line job listing service with a couple promising leads. But the interesting part was the little stat box up in the corner of the screen that ran through a series of employment statistics: Unemployment - 11.7%. Available jobs - 1,107. Available candidates - 108,853. Hmmmm. Is this supposed to be encouraging? Anyway, I may put on something more professional that shorts, sandals and a t-shirt and stop in on a certain tax prep chain of my acquaintance and see what I can maybe shake loose.

In weather-related news, the current tracks on both hurricanes have them missing us by a wide margin. There isn't anything else really forming up behind them, so we may survive our first hurricane season without so much as a downpour. That can always change, of course, but as of right now, it looks to be another quiet hurricane season contrary to the increasingly-wrong predictions made by the Global Warming Jihad.

Well, time to clean up and get ready for another day.

Settling In

We have all the important stuff set up: computers, printer, internet. The necessities of life. Everything else is still a disaster. I keep looking at the piles of bins. And then our dinky closets. And back at the piles of bins. Then I sit down with a big glass of ice tea and play on the internet. Rinse and repeat.

I did manage to accomplish one thing yesterday: The dreaded trip to the DMV:

The new blogger is attempting some fancy formatting. This may take a couple tries. Anyway, it wasn't quite that bad other than the list of documents required to prove who I am. Florida tries to blame the Feds, but that's a load of crap: I've gotten drivers licenses in two other states since the post-9/11 regs and didn't need to bring a foot-thick pile of documents to the DMV in order to prove my identity. But it's done; I have a shiny new Florida drivers license and matching plate for my car. We were going to get one with baby sea turtles on it, but not for an extra $28 a year. They're cute, but not that cute.

What I love about Florida is how complicated becoming a resident is. I'm sure almost no one does it. Just because you have a Florida license plate, Florida drivers license, work in Florida, pay taxes in Florida, and live in Florida, you are not a Florida resident. In order to be a resident, you have to file a sworn statement at the county clerk's office. Failure to do so is legally actionable, but rarely happens unless you're famous and some petty local bureaucrat gets their nickers in a twist.

Today's task list is laundry, filing, and attempting to empty more bins. One big hold up right now is that we have all the bins piled up in the spare bedroom which is also where the bookcase goes. I need the bookcase set up so I can empty some bins, but I can't do that until the bins are empty to make room for the bookcase. It's like a Zen riddle. Or bad planning.

Well, I should probably get at it.

Back Online

I finally have both computers set up and connected to the internet. With Brighthouse Networks, that is not a DIY project; you have to call them and have the modem remotely reset whenever the equipment connected to the modem is changed. No one told us that when it was installed, so when I tried to set up our network, the internet failed. No big, except that we didn't have a phone number for Brighthouse. When we signed the lease on the apartment, we were given a local number to get a special deal for residents of the complex. That number is just some guy's personal cell phone. None of the other paperwork we had from the installation had a phone number of any kind. And no internet access to look it up, because the reason we needed the number was to get the internet working again. Last night, we spotted a Brighthouse van on the road and chased it down. No phone numbers there either; just a web site. Sorry, but that's just stupid. If someone sees the van and wants information about getting internet access, they have to have internet access through someone else to get it? Or maybe they're supposed to head on down to the public library to look up the phone number on the Brighthouse web site? Ten digits and two dashes cost so much that you just can't put them on your vehicles? Not too bright, Brighthouse. We finally found a brochure in the office here in the complex that gave a phone number in the fine print on the very last page. These people want to make it as difficult as possible to contact them if you don't already have internet access. But the bottom line is that we have internet and all is well.

Now I just have to go schlepping around the internet to figure out what's wrong with the ATI Radeon card in our main PC. Again. Sure wish I had the money for a real video card....

And a quick check for driver updates fixed everything. Woohoo!!

He's Here!

and the Penske truck is completely unloaded already --- thanks to a neighbor that was also moving in and offered to help Ric unload!

We now feel like mice in a maze --- but it is all in the apartment and tomorrow we can start figuring things out. Some things will stay packed (Precious Moments) and store in a climate controlled storage unit. The ineptness (is that a word?!) around this apartment complex is not worth the price. We will do our year and find someplace else. Hopefully a local move next time.