Overheating Computer Just so everyone knows the continuaing and intermittent overheating problem seems to be back. The pc got really REALLY sluggish last night and when I rebooted, it gave me an error about it being too hot.
Some of you might recall that I have burnt out not one but TWO processors in the last few months for some unknown reason. I'm on my third now and I'm terrified that it's going to happen again. I had my pc in the exact set up for over two years without a problem. And now all of a sudden, mine burnt out, then my Love's burnt out (he sacrificed his computer so I could have one), and now I've borrowed one from a friend. For the life of us we can't figure out what is causing this sudden problem.
The only two things can think of are that there's suddenly (for what reason we don't know) an air-flow issue, though this makes no sense since two years and no problems...or, that there's some sort of unstable electric problem which might be causing the power supply to run hot, causing the system to overheat. But again, what's changed? Unless what comes in through our lines has changed, there hasn't been any differences in how I use the computer, what's hooked up into it, or where it's situated. It's the damndest thing.
So anyway, we just poked around and turned it on to test and I wanted to let everyone know in case I vanish without comment, that's why. I'm really flustered and frustrated though at thi and it's very annoying when I have a system that's just burning out with no visable cause why.
The Apartment Saga Continues Day Seven of the Water Leak Saga...today the air control guy came out to get samples of the air both inside the bathroom and out to check for mold spores. It should be about five days for the results so by the end of next week or the beginning of the following, I'll know how things stand. He also said he's going to suggest they bring in some de-humidifiers to properly dry out the wall. He also recommended a re-testing in a couple weeks to ensure that the wall did dry properly and nothing grew.
I've enlisted some help in drafting a letter to give them which will demand they recoup my losses during this. Because it wasn't an "act of god" that caused me to have five days of flooding, but rather their negligence in not coming out to investigate the complaint (which would have revealed sooner the broken pipe), and that they had no intentions of coming out at all (they were going to simply ignore - er, "let it dry") the fact that I ruined six of my bath towels cleaning up the mess and two of my bath rugs that were in their is their responsibility. Let's not even get into the fact that we've not been able to use the damned bathroom for a week now (which is the entire reason we have a 2/2 - the extra bathroom), I'm really just steamed that I have to go buy new damned towels. I am not drying myself off with towels that soaked up the nasty shit that oozed out of our walls and ceiling, puddling on the floor for five days. Fuck that.
But you're damned skippy I'm not letting them slack on this. Wanna be a fucking bitch? Fine. I can play that game too. You're damned well not going to come out on top here though I assure you. If your building and your attitude makes my life hell, then I'm going to return it in spades.
*fumes*
So anyway....my eye has been killing me for two days now. Like when it hurts behind the eye the way it does when I get a migraine. Just that yesterday and today the migraine never came on, just the eye aching. The two days before that I had migraines though. Ugh. It's been a miserable week. Add to it the fact I've not been sleeping because I've been so stressed out over this whole water bullshit AND this week was you know, that time of the month and you can see where it's just been miserable. (Hence the distracting pictures of the Tabby Cat Mika.)
Hopefully things should pick up though. It's the weekend and we're going to WDW on Monday. A cast member there emailed me a few weeks ago and offered me some free tix. So we worked it out and we're going on Monday. I can't wait. Dole Whip, here I come.
So I'm trying to think about that rather then all the rest of the crap that's been going on. I just hope this all gets finished and sorted out soon. I'm sick of dealing with it. Disney couldn't come at a better time.
Thirsty Kitty So my tabby cat, Mika and I have a new daily ritual. Every day - most days a couple times a day - she follows me excitedly into the bathroom, jumps up on the counter and waits for me to turn the faucet on. At which point she drinks.
Oh yes, my cat drinks not from the water puddling in the sink, but from the running tap. In fact, she gets mad if I don't turn it on fast enough for her.
Maiden - The first in our Triple Goddess Series! Basically for the next three weeks we will explore through photography the Maiden, Mother, and Crone aspects of the Goddess.
This is a plate I bought from the Franklin Mint quite a long time ago. Back in 1992ish I believe. It's called "Crystal Power" and was the first in a series. I fell in love with it when I saw an ad in a magazine somewhere and ordered it. I really wanted all of them (I believe, doing some research, there are four total) but at the time, the $30 or so dollars it was for them was so much for me I couldn't do it and I missed out. I'd really love to complete the collection.
Anyway, this seemed very maiden to me. Very much a young woman in her prime and vitality. The angel figure in the image is part of another collection of mine - Boyd's Angels. This one is from the Charming Angels Collection and is "Aurora, Guardian of Dreams." They just seemed to compliment each other and so after several days of trying to figure out what imagry I wanted to use for this subject, this just clicked.
You can participate in the Sidhe!Shots Pagan photo project by going here. Enjoy.
Apartment Management Hell The long story short is that five days ago we had a flood in the bathroom. We assumed at the time that the toliet overflowed. Cleaned it up went on with our lives. Four days ago it happened again. Same thing. Three days ago it happened again and no one had used the toliet at all that day. We discover it's coming from the ceiling, not the toliet.
We call the managemet and tell them our roof is leaking. They add us to the list. (I later discover there's like six other people who had flooding in their apartments with the massive rain we'd been having.) They tell us that the roofers should be out the next day to fix it. Meanwhile, the ceiling is actively dripping in the main bathroom and the floor continues to puddle, it's that much water.
Next day comes. No one shows up. No roofers and no maintenence guys. We call them again. Hey, what the hell's going on? It's still dripping and it's getting worse and the wall is getting soggy and the paint's coming off the ceiling and it's flooding the wall between the bathroom and the little closet room where the w/d are. THAT wall is now soaked as well. They tell us the roofers are backed up because of the massive rain and they'll be out the following day.
That's today. They do in fact come out this morning. I hear them on the roof. But, by 2pm, I've still not seen the maintenence guys. Not once have they come to see what's going on in the bathroom, hall, w/d closet and now the little storage closet where the a/c and water heater are. So I go down to talk to them. I'm pissed they're not taking this seriously. It's been FIVE DAYS where it's actively dripping and I'm more then fed up with it. It's dripping inbetween the walls continuously and I'm worried that mold is going to start growing. And they've not come to the apartment once to even see it.
The manager is a fucking cunt. And that's not a word I use lightly, or ever. She treats me like shit. "What do you want me to do?" she says. Oh, I don't know, FIX IT. Her solution is to just wait and let it dry. LET IT DRY? When it's STILL dripping after five days, we've been living in filth and water and flooding and we've ruined our bath towels cleaning it up hour after hour AND when mold starts growing in 24-48 hours, you're solution is just "let it dry" ?!!
I'm fuming. I tell her I want something done. Even just send up some fans to dry the shit faster, anything. I storm out and cry at how nasty she treated me and how fed up with this fucking shithole.
The maintence guys come out about 20 minutes later. I get pissed because I'm sure she sent them by to placate me. Like I'm stupid or something and this will shut me up. They want to get into the attic. I have to empty out my damned master closet to get them access. They go up and there and low and behold, there's a fucking pipe joint that's damaged, has broken and is actively leaking. (This is not the first time one of these has gone; last year one went and flooded my master closet, coming damned close to ruining all my clothes in there.)
Fucking little piece of shit manager wanted to just go who knows how fucking long, without anyone looking at it, waiting for it to dry and then paint it over for me. Here's a clue you asswhipe, it would never have dried. And I would have sat there for days and days more and the situation would have only gotten worse, not better. Had I not bitched her out and demaned someone come by and they actually do their fucking job, things would have gone from bad to worse.
So they replaced the broken pipe joint. Mopped up the water that was the source of the leaking that was still going on. Shop vac'ed up the carpet and managed to stop the dripping.
I asked the maintenence guy when they would be out to check for mold. (Because the manager said after things dried, she'd have someone come out and do a check.) I damned well wasn't going to let them not do this just because they actually addressed the problem. It dripped all inbetween the wall and you know that's perfect breeding ground for mold. And fuck them, I'm not getting sick because they're cutting corners. He had to get back to me and said he's put in a call to their environmental company and will follow their proceedure at this point.
Damn skippy you will assholes.
And you know the mananger will never appologize for being utterly, completely and outrageously WRONG in this, in how she wanted to handle it and her so-called "solution" to my on-going water leak. I don't care though because I know and she knows that she's a fucking moron.
So, hopefully in a few days the mold people will be out. I'll make damned sure of it. And I will be getting a copy of the report. You better believe if there's a problem they are going to fix it or I'm going to talk to a lawyer. I'm sick of their bullshit. And I'm sick of their half-assed way of doing things. It's not my job to ensure I have healthy conditions in this building, it's theirs. And I'm going to hold them to it.
Fun week. Lots of headaches and stress. Not a lot of sleeping going on and now you know why. But at least something's been done and we're on our way to a resolution. No thanks to the manager.
just two of the many, many shots I took showing the damage that was done. and this doesn't even give a true look at how bad it was
*Yawn Mumble Stretch* I think all this rain has been screwing with my sleep. I don't know what's going on but I do know that neither my Love nor I are getting anywhere near enough rest. I try but it just seems nothing much in the way of sleep is going on. Let alone quality sleep.
*yawns*
So it looks like we might be able to go to Disney on Monday. Which would fucking rock. Our passes ran out in June and we aren't anywhere near close to being able to save up to get them renewed. But, someone online who works at AK emailed me a couple weeks ago after seeing what a Disney junkie I am. She can get tix as a perk for being an employee. Sweet. We've been painfully, dead broke all this month because we got off schedule with the bills. But finally, we should be getting caught back up and since we're getting in for free, we're jumping on the chance. Oh beautiful Dole Whip, soon, soon you shall be mine. *chuckles*
Lonesome Ghosts and Long Forgotten Memories So I was surfing around ebay as I am prone to do (I window shop and day dream a lot) and I was looking at the Disney Auction listings when I came across this pin:
And it looked so familier to me - but I couldn't figure out why. It was like I had seen it from somewhere before. The pin description said something about it being from "Lonesome Ghosts" but the title didn't ring any bells. It was from 1937 so I couldn't fathom when I'd have seen it. The weird thing was that I had a fuzzy recollection though of watching this somehow, but more then just watching it, being able to watch it forward andbackwards. So I started nosing around google where I came across this. Again though, it didn't really feel right until I saw the viewer. Then it all came back to me.
I remember having one of these! Holy cow, I had forgotten all about it! You'd turn the little crank and the movie would play. Turn it the other way and it'd play in reverse. That's why I remember watching it forwards and backwards! I used to have a great time watching the ghost pop out of something, then winding it backwards and they'd disappear back in. It was the coolest toy ever.
I really want to get one of these toys again. Though, I'd even just love to see the short again. There's some of the movie watchers and carts available on ebay and the short is on a couple dvd's. One is Walt Disney Treasures - Mickey Mouse in Living Color (1937) but sadly, it's out of print. The other is Mickey's House of Villains (2002) and it doesn't appear to be, so I'll probably have to shoot to get that one. The Disney Treasures would be cooler, but darnit, I missed out.
Apparently they had a bunch of different movies for the viewer, but I think I only had the one. It was a great toy though and didn't require any batteries or anything to work. Brilliant. I showed my Love and he had one himself. He didn't remember the name of the movie any more then I did, but when I showed him the images, he knew exactly what I was talking about.
Talk about a walk down memory lane today. How awesome. It's funny as a "grown up" how much I want to re-see, re-experience or re-capture things that I loved as a kid. *chuckles*
Isn't it supposed to be Spring showers? Summer is our rainy season in Florida. Though, our general summer showers are brief, ten minute light afternoon rains, that occur while the sun is still out, and literally (I kid you not), so isolated that they only affect one side of a street.
The last week or so has been quite a different story. It's been raining, day and night, with heavy, soggy downpours for lengthy spurts pretty much without stop. Having it rain for more then five or ten minutes is a good shower around here and it's been raining in 20-30 minute bursts on-and-off all day long. Fall asleep to rain, wake up to rain. It's weird.
Somewhere in the mass of all that water and radar green, is me under the rain
It's better then it being feels-like temps of 100F+, but still, it's just a lot of rain. I'll hear it pick up - pattering the roof - and then taper off. When I think it's calmed down, sure enough, it starts again.
My poor plant. I just put him outside to get more sun and now he's getting rained on. Not to mention, we've had so much rain lately that my screen has come down!
The week's forecast seems to call for more of the same. Oh well, saves on sunscreen, though adds to lighting costs! I actually have to turn on the lamps during the day because it's quite dark in here without them. *heh* Kind of odd in the "Sunshine State" to have to worry about lamps! The only other real pain in the butt is power. It likes to flicker out during storms and I don't have a damned ups on my computer (battery backup) so I'm always nervous about when and if I should turn it off during storms. Lately, it's been pretty much nothing but storms!
Witches Weekly - Rituals and Rites Sorry, this will be a boring one. It's not up my alley, so kind of dull answers. *chuckles* (from here)
Have you ever performed sex magic? If not, how do you feel about sex magic? Nope. And not interested in such a thing to be honest.
Have you ever used blood in a rite or ritual? If not, how do you feel about using blood in a rite or ritual? No I haven't. And I don't really see any time or place where I'd want to. Blood is a doorway; it's a granting of permission. Things that can't otherwise affect you can. I suppose under very specific circumstances (perhaps a coming into womanhood ritual for a girl and her first menses for example) it might be something which could be incorporated, but generally speaking, no. I don't really condone such things. (At least not something I'd want to be part of anyway.)
What would you consider to be your most unusual rite or ritual? Nothing much really. Most things I do are very simple; lighting a candle and leaving it lit the whole of the Winter Solstice so there is always light in the darkest night or offering a tear to the ocean (salt returning to it's origin) in thanks, that sort of thing. I don't have many formal rituals, I mainly take things as they come and as they feel right to me.
Weirdness So at the very least it did post the entry last night. Which is good. Less having to go all kung-fo on blogger's ass.
I had the strangest dream last night. In my dream, I woke up and went to my journal. And the cranky entry I wrote last night wasn't the newest one. Someone else had written an entry. It wasn't a troll or flame entry like someone ruined the site, it was just this entry that someone else (no clue who) wrote to me. I remember reading it (and yes, I don't care what "They" say, I can and do read in dreams) but I can't remember exactly what it said at this point. But it was written so I'd read it, not really for anyone else. Strangest thing.
We might not be going to see Cassablanca afterall. We just discovered we basically have $5 to our name until Friday. Ugh. I don't know how we're going to get through the week. Dammit, I hate being so broke like this.
Stop trying to fucking make things "helpful" I don't even know if this will work right or not. If not, I'm going to be pissed. Dammit blogger. Stop trying to make things more user friendly. I don't need a WYSIWYG editor in my journal. I just need a box to type and hit a button and it publishes for me. If I want bold or italic I'll damned well do it myself thank you very much..
I know I need to write an entry. I started to the other day but ran into problems getting the new fucking WYSIWYG editor to load properly. There's some kind of intermittent problem with it and Mozilla. Since I only use netscape (though I need to download mozilla itself again as they don't update netscape anymore) and netscape is mozilla under the hood, this annoys me. I despise IE and I will not use it. Period. So...grumble. I'm going to be really annoyed if this new system requires that I use their damned click-buttons rather then just be able to insert my code. If it renders as text I'm going to yell at them. Where's the "off" button for this kind of crap? You should have an option of typing your own code or chosing the user friendly version.
Anyway, let's try it out. Bah.
Tomorrow I'm going to be out btw - the way cool historic theater is showing Cassablanca as part of their Summer Movie Classic Series and we're going to go see it. It's only my Love's favorite movie of all time. Updates when and if this new damned system works for me.
