time and relative dimension in space

I'm still trying to get used to having a full keyboard. Shanne was (is) a tenkeyless, so now whenever I start typing I'm slightly too far to the right and I have to reorient myself and start over. But I'm sure I'll adjust soon.

Other than that I am deeply pleased with Jocasta. Part of this is the low expectations that comes with having struggled along with a slowly dying laptop for the past several months (I can leave her unattended for a few minutes while I go do something else and she doesn't crash! Files copy quickly! She works reliably and I'm not afraid of losing data!) but also, I'm in love with the 2TB hard drive and multitasking and how quickly everything works. I even like Windows 10 despite being so used to Windows 7 I keep trying to do tasks wrong. I'll get used to that soon, too, probably. I don't use the touchscreen very much so far but it's nice knowing it's there.

Oh, and a presumably working DVD drive, though I haven't actually used it yet.

The Star Wars features are super nifty, too. Admittedly I opened the desktop R2D2 widget once to play with it and probably won't again (it's cute! it's also kinda useless), but the photo galleries are great, I immediately watched all the trailers despite having seen them all before, it keeps making BB-8 sounds and filling me with glee, and while I have never been much of a screensaver person before, now every time I don't touch a button for a few minutes I end up getting distracted by lightsaber duels. LIGHTSABER DUELS.

Engadget's review of this laptop literally calls it "dorky" in the title.

I embrace my dorkiness wholeheartedly.

Lightsaber duel screensaver and BB-8 system notification sounds, mm.

I JUST ORDERED A NEW LAPTOP AND IT WAS INSANELY EXPENSIVE AND I AM MAYBE HAVING A SMALL ANXIETY ATTACK ABOUT SPENDING THAT MUCH MONEY. I mean I very carefully saved up enough for it before buying it and it was a well-considered purchase and I need a new laptop, poor Shanne is five years old, all five of those years have involved very heavy use, and she's on her last legs, my poor bb. She needs a relief pitcher. (Um, is that the right metaphor? I know nothing about sportsball.) But still, spending that kind of money all at once freaks me out something awful.

(According to Google the average lifespan of a Sony VAIO is closer to two years. I'm so sorry, Shanne, thank you for putting up with me and struggling through.)

I bought the HP Star Wars Special Edition notebook, because it's super cool and I'm a geek. It's going to be my first touch screen computer, and it's got pretty great stats, too; I went for the best available options on almost every feature, which is one of the reasons it's so expensive. But I would like it to last like Shanne has.

HOWEVER. This presents a new dilemma. All of my previous laptops have been named after Pogues songs (Shanne Bradley, Sally MacLennane, Lorelai). Originally I was planning to name my next laptop either Victoria or Aisling (neither of which is technically on a Pogues album, but they're both on the unreleased box set so IT TOTALLY COUNTS), but it feels weird to name a Star Wars themed laptop after a Pogues song. So. Straw poll!

[Poll #2036747]

GUYS. I now own a Kindle!

It's the cheapest and therefore most basic model and I only managed to get it because Amazon gave me a ridiculous discount, but who cares? It's AWESOME. I am possibly the last person on the Internet to buy a dedicated ebook reader.

I have named her Clara, because she's both new and shiny and also a throwback.

Massively annoyed at Apple right now. I tried to sync my iPod last night and it kept aborting the sync. Finally managed to finish, turned it on, and discovered that it had not actually finished, it had just decided to erase all of my music, photos, and books and give up. Several attempts to reinstall the deleted media failed. Did a factory reset and tried to reinstall everything from scratch. Managed to get a most of my apps and all my presaved pictures put back on, but still no go on the music or books.

Googling turned up a few people on Apple's forums having the same problem, so I'm guessing it's a software problem of some kind? This does not make me feel better, particularly since the only official word from Apple so far is "um, try this maybe?" and it's all stuff I've already tried. No one seems to have found a solution that works.

I finally managed to reinstall all my apps (via the App Store on my iPod rather than via iTunes) and am currently streaming my music via wi-fi from my laptop. Neither of these are permanent fixes, and this is incredibly frustrating. I just want my iPod to work for what it's designed to do is that so much to ask.

At least now I'm pretty sure it's not my fault?

So I kind of fail at LJ. I'm sorry! Work keeps changing my schedule around to make sure I have as little free time on as minimal notice as possible.

Things of note:
- I have acquired new Torchwood, which I plan to watch tonight after I call my parents and reassure them as well that I am not in fact dead. I am not at all sure how I feel about it. I miss Tosh. Is it going to make me miss Tosh more? :/
- I have also acquired (finally) new Flogging Molly, which I am very excited to listen to once I get the chance. I want to listen to the whole album in one straight shot, since it's reportedly a concept album that all ties together? But I'll probably wind up having to break it down into smaller chunks to fit into my schedule. Boo.
- I have been challenged to write Harper meta for andromeda_fans! I am debating topics now from among the list of rambling Harper-related topics that meander through my head regularly. It will probably wind up being about either Harper's relationship to 21st century America or Harper's role in the series as the Fool. I'm not sure yet.
- I think I've decided that I'm going to buy an Asus Eee netbook as my next major purchase, although I'm not sure when that will be. One of the guys I work with has one and I've kind of fallen in love with it. It's so little and portable and durable! And then I would be able to, like, write on buses and in restaurants and whatever.

In conclusion: HI LJ I MISSED YOU ♥

☆ Some generous application of zipties later, I am now able to run my EHDs without worrying endlessly about the dog pulling cables out. Yay, zipties! Almost as useful as gaffe tape.

☆ ARD:U has updated their site with three more books. *bounces* I want them to update more regularly, man, all that time spent without those guys in my life makes me sadface.

☆ Thanks to the ~magic~ of MyCokeRewards giving me stuff for drinking as much soda as I would anyway, I am now the proud owner of some fairly nice wireless headphones. I love free stuff, it's awesome.

☆ Current DW spoilers being leaked are adorable and happymaking.

☆ Yesterday I wrote about a thousand words in Better Than It Sounds, which objectively speaking isn't that much but it got me up to the band breakup, which I have been struggling to get through for, like, a couple months. It's been a major writing block and I finally got through it and that is very yay.

♥

Less than awesomely, when I booted up Sally this morning, she refused to recognize that the TARDIS was there. Well, no, actually, she recognized it -- My Computer listed "G:" in its list of drives, which is the TARDIS -- but she refused to access it or acknowledge that there was anything on that drive.

Upon rebooting Sally, she refused to recognize anything on my USB hub, which is to say the TARDIS, Barbara, Toshiko, or the mouse. Ahaha, not good.

After panicking more than a bit, shutting down, unplugging everything, replugging everything, threatening to call WD for troubleshooting, and rebooting, she finally condescended to admit that they were all there and now I can access them fine. But still. NOT COOL, SALLY. (But I still love you.)


...I haven't been able to sleep properly for several days, so forgive me if I overreact a bit.

The Massive iTunes Transfer is done and working fine. Playcounts intact. Woohoo! Now I just need to get around to updating (and probably overhauling) my trades list. (Has anyone on my flist ever used Weebly? Is it any good? Are there any other good free alternatives to freewebs? I'm considering moving because I'd like to have a little more flexibility with my site.)

In the meantime I'm trapped in TV Tropes which is never a good thing. (The fictional geek-rock band that forms an important corner of one of my original 'verses has just been renamed from "Xanatos Roulette" to "A Good Name For A Rock Band". This is not my fault!)

Doing laundry, which is boring.

Yesterday was International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day, which I somehow managed to miss, so, uh, a belated happy IPSTPD to you all!

I got a tentative schedule and company list from the theater I'll be working at this summer. Woohoo! (Sadly, they will not be performing Hamlet on my birthday. The day before and the day after, but not on. But, still, woohoo!)

I have not started the process of transferring my music library to the TARDIS (as the new EHD will henceforth be called), as I'm still working on backing up, but I'll keep y'all updated on if I'm successful. ('Cause you guys care so much. ;D )

In other news, In The Heights has announced a national tour (although so far it looks like none of the dates will be near me *sadface*) and my dad has officially (finally) picked up tickets for Wicked when the tour comes by here next month.

I have a new external hard drive! Thank you, eBay. This one's 500GB (in theory, 465GB in practice), so it should last me a good while (in theory).

It does however raise two questions, which I am thus passing on to you guys. Because I'm lazy that way.

1) New EHD needs a name. Previous EHDs are named Barbara and Toshiko, if that provides a guide. (iPod is named Martha. Laptop is named Sally. Sally is not named after Sally Sparrow, but aside from that, yes, it's probably the naming scheme you're thinking of.) Any suggestions?

2) What's the easiest way to transfer my iTunes library from internal hard drive to external without losing things like play counts? Anyone know?

But aside from that, I'm just excited to have storage space again. <3 <3 <3