Update

[urbpan]

Well, I got my computer back, minus the extra RAM we bought for it a while back. It runs, but it runs slow. The applestore people said that the chip failed the test, whatever that means. Alexis was livid, but it appears to be inexpensive to replace.

My first day back at work was exhausting. When I left there were no animals in the hospital (for the first time since I started working) which gave me a lot of time to work on the other aspect of my job, coordinating pest control. Now that I'm back there are eleven animals in the hospital, and the pest control part is still a huge job, in fact it got more busy while I was away. I just have to work harder on both parts for the next three days.

Then Alexis and I are going away together for five days (well, really just 3 with 2 full days of traveling); We're going to richmackin's wedding in Portland (Oregon), and while we've both known Rich for a long time and in fact I went to his first wedding and we wish him and his new wife well etcetera, the trip to Portland part of it is what's really exciting us. It seems so overdue.


I have two more days of vacation pictures to post, and if I don't do it soon I'm going to forget what they all are. The next set is great, but I'm worried they're getting a bit repetitive. Oh, well, the point is to have an online scrapbook to enjoy and share. If someone gets bored they can skip to the next one.

I posted a snapshot from my phone yesterday, but it never showed up on livejournal. The voice posts are more fun anyway--maybe I should switch to a daily short audio message instead of a snapshot. That would create a nice reflection of my time in college, when I started as a visual artist, switched to "talking performance art" then dropped out and went back 12 years later to make up missing credits with science classes. Well that last part is sort of where this journal comes in, so the whole thing is elliptical.

I'm not making much sense; I think I'm really really tired. This would have been funnier as a mistranscribed phone post.

Comments

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

how big was the missing ram? generally speaking, the stuff has a lifetime warranty replacement, but you have to actually have the old ram to send back, so the apple store has to return it or well IMHO replace it. they should never keep it.

#

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

it was extra ram that i bought some random place that i don't remember.

[agelena.livejournal.com]

I love the auto-transcribed audio posts. It's a fun game to try and figure out what you really said.

[smallerdemon.livejournal.com]

Usually it just means "bad ram" meaning that they run some diagnostics software on it, or run it through a little RAM analyzer if they are a big service desk and have such a thing, and it comes back and says it doesn't work properly. I've had to replace RAM every now and then. It's almost always manufacturer error, and frankly, Apple should have given you the chip back so you could contact your vendor and ask to have it replaced. I would still call them and ask them for it back, and if they say no to that request, ask them to replace it. I think it is entirely reasonable.

Speaking of pest control, did you see this LA Weekly story about the animal hoarders that fed feral rats? (http://www.laweekly.com/news/features/palisades-rathouse-unchallenged-by-health-officials-elderly-twins-fed-local-vermin-population/19342/?page=all) *shudder* It's terrifying. And it struck me that you were on vacation so may not have seen it making the rounds online. In that you are dealing in pest control as well as being an urban nature enthusiast, this story overlapped those various areas, along with some other scary areas such as local government impotence and ineptitude as well as questions of public health beyond even the rats (such as "When do you send social workers to deal with crazy old people that feed rats and spew biblical gobbledygook?").

HOORAY PORTLAND! Get your beer drinking taste buds on! It's THE place to drink beer in the US. And wow is it a beautiful city. Honestly, if I could live in Portland I would, but it suffers from exactly the same skyrocketing cost of living issues that San Francisco is suffering from.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

To fair to Apple, they did give me the chip back. Sorry if I gave the impression that they didn't. Now our problem is that we don't remember who we bought it from. Again, it seems like an inexpensive item, and we'll keep better track of who we buy the next one from.

I haven't seen the "feral" rat story, but I'll check it out. Biblical gobbledygook can be used to explain such a wide range of antisocial behavior!

[dragonwrites.livejournal.com]

that LA Weekly story is astounding. i imagine this happens more often than people want to think about. the New Yorker just ran a fiction piece called "1300 rats" on the same theme, except in that story all those rats do the guy in.

[shadowofadoubt.livejournal.com]

Please give Rich our love!!