Pets and Babies

Poo. Yes, you read that right, poo. It’s the one thing pets and babies share in common. If you’re going to have either, sooner or later it will be part of your reality. Babies seem have the upper hand in that they tend to grow out of it. They reach a point in their development where it is no longer a necessity for others to participate (if you get my meaning). Oh sure in later years they may opine about it. Use the word as a conversation starter. But as a parent, your physical involvement with the real thing ends. Pets on the other hand, seem to be stuck in some sort of developmental stasis. Simply unable or unwilling to just take care of business themselves. Cats, dogs, lizards, rodents, even fish (you have to change the water, don’t you?) insist on dragging you into their world. Today, as Emma and I chased a cat with what I will simply call a “poo foot” around the house, I questioned why anyone would want to possess such an animal. I was fine with this scenario on the baby front but on the pet front, not so much. I seem to recall voicing my strong aversion to ever dealing with such matters (for pets not babies) and being summarily dismissed by two guaranteed caregivers under my very roof. I can’t help but feel like I was lied to just a little bit. Although, I have to admit, the freshly bathed (that’s right, he got a bath), purring, napping beast resting on my lap as I type this does hold a certain charm. If we could only train him to use the toilet (and wash his paws)…

Lessons from the Bus Stop

When I was but a wee tot making my way through the mean streets of the city, the only bus stop I knew involved tokens (do they still have those?) and a string you pulled to make sure the driver didn’t pass by your destination. Making too much noise might just get you stop skipped out of pure spite. The most exciting thing you could hope for was the arrival of one of those extra long buses with the accordion part in the middle. The most sought after seat was always the accordion seat.  Today’s modern suburban school bus stops are a whole different world. First of all, a simple backpack on the ground is all it take to assure you place in line. What I can’t figure out is why having a place in line matters. There seems to be more than enough seats for everyone and, there’s no accordion seat as far as I can tell. No matter, because you’ll be too busy playing basketball, football, scootering, and generally messing up the neighbor’s lawns by any means imaginable to even notice when the bus pulls up. Luckily a chorus of Moms will ring out “THE BUS!” Mom’s at the bus stop seem to come in two flavors: I’ve given up and I’m wearing sweats or I’m incredibly overdressed and not really going anywhere after the children leave (Mom’s who work outside the house are in short supply at our stop). Dads, on the other hand, always seem to fall into the former flavor. The sights you’ll see at the bus stop. It’s not uncommon to see a King-Kong missing a leg and an arm (presumably from a fight with a T-Rex), any number of dogs running wild, small siblings attempting to stow away on the bus, bicycles, scooters, skateboards, swords, pirates, hot dog vendors, and even the occasional random neighbor who has no school-aged children but still hangs around at the bus stop (Is that creepy? I can’t decide). It’s quite a menagerie to behold, quite a difference from the orderly line of well mannered young people we must have been. Oh, and if you happen to fall in the mud while waiting, no worries, you can go home, change and get a ride to school from a surly parent. In my day we would have just gone to school muddy; but then again, if we ran out of tokens, we had to go home and get a ride from a surly parent.

Acer Fails at Customer Support

If I upgraded all the computers in the house, only one is guaranteed to cause problems: my wife’s. Sorry honey, it’s true. Computer after computer you’ve proven yourself to be the technological problem child (through no fault of your own, life is dangerous on the cutting edge). But hey, I’m only the first level of support, we can always escalate. So, after exhausting my Google and Bing searching skills, I threw in the towel and contacted Acer:

“I recently upgraded to the final release version of Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and I'm experiencing problems with external USB drives. They seem to work initially but on long file transfers, I experience delayed write failure errors and see Event ID 51 in the event log. I've tried the latest BIOS and drivers from both Acer and NVidia (NForce Drivers) but nothing seems to help. I did not have this issue under Vista. I was wondering if this is a known issue and if so is there an available or planned fix?”

Here’s the stellar response I received:

“Please do the steps given below to drain the power.
Turn off computer and unplug power cord.
Disconnect everything except monitor, mouse and keyboard.
Press power button and hold for 10 to 15 seconds.
Plug power cord back into computer and press power button.
Check front panel LEDs (lights) on bezel (front face) or optical drives and listen for power supply fan.
If LEDs are on or power supply fan starts spinning, watch for boot screen on monitor.
If computer begins to start, turn it off.
Reconnect any external devices.
Press the power button and make sure the computer starts.

1>Could you please check the status of device manager?
Start->Run->devmgmt.msc->OK.
2>Do you see any splats, question marks, or red X in the device manager?
3>Since when are you facing this issue?
4>Was the system accidentally dropped or did someone drop it?
5>Has your computer experienced any power surge?
6>Have you recently changed anything?
7>Have you installed more memory, a new hard drive, downloaded or installed new software etc?
Please note that Acer does not support changing an Operating System.  Changing the Operating System may cause driver conflicts.  You have the option of upgrading or changing your Operating System at your own discretion.  However, it is preferred that you keep to the original configuration of your system so that all the programs and applications in your computer will recognize all the hardware installed in it.”

First of all, the Comcast people try that “drain the power” thing every time I call. It’s a trick. I think they get a bonus every time someone reboots a cable box. Don’t fall for it. Did I drop it? It’s a desktop system. I’m not in the habit of carrying it around the house. Have I recently changed anything? I’m pretty sure I mentioned that I upgraded from Vista to Windows 7. Finally, notice the bit about them not supporting changing an operating system? Does that mean no upgrades (which is what this was)? What about service packs, are those supported?

If the only goal was to close the support incident out as quickly as possible, then mission accomplished. Next time I’ll just by a Dell.

Five Guys

Imagine my excitement when we passed a sign reading "Coming Soon - Five Guys". I immediately went home and ordered bigger pants.