Bhagwan @ Large

Two months is a long time

I’m not even going to try and summarize. Added categories which should catch just about everything to this post.

So I guess I should talk about two things in particular. TiVO and weight loss. Or rather, the lack of both since January.

The TiVO situation is a customer service nightmare, one which seems to have resolved, but not necessarily in my favor. There is a working box here in my home, which connects to the internet and/or the cable service as it chooses. If there is a Seattle local who would like to take TiVO for a test drive, I’m just about done with it. My contract expires in October, and two months without it has retrained my brain.

Two working Dvrs attached to my televison sounded like a great plan. Especially since they both have dual tuners, use different remotes and operating systems, and have about the same capacity.

But when I turn the television on, I’m checking out the cable first. The service that Lindsey is more comfortable with by far. The one I can cancel at will. The one that doesn’t make financial decisions on my behalf, against my express instructions.

The one that works.

In just a few days/weeks, there will be a media PC attached to this same television. It will do everything that TIVO does, and be even harder to use as a dvr. But we own that machine outright, can upgrade it at will, and also do more with it.

The case against TiVO mounts daily. At present, it’s the dvr that will allow us to save programs off and then burn them to DVDs. We are not doing that at present. It was part of my grand techno-plan, but that plan was concieved a while ago.

Two months is a long time.

I’m not sure what the plan is anymore. I needed a new computer at the end of January, after wanting one for some time. I’ve been doing a lot of ‘need V want’ calculations of late, and needs that are really just wants happen to be free.

My computer was not free. It could have cost me much less than it did by far. Machines that could do the job I’m tasking it for would have come in at 2/3 the price, even without the customer service hassles I battled through to get it. But then I added a heaping helping of WANT on top, and the overall price of a rig I can use to work on for the next couple years doubled.

And I’m not entirely sure it’s finished.

Attention spans (including mine) are flagging, so I’ll leave you with this. A very wise man once said, “in time, you will find that having is not so great a thing as wanting.”

I’m looking at my half-finished system, with a giant stack of media as yet unwatched alongside, and I’m convinced that green blooded, inhuman sophist was right. What’s worse, I’m not really sure I wanted it in the first place. Maybe I just like shopping, and putting things together.

More later.

N-n-n-n-19

2400 and change today including these words : “This is all crap , start over.” After struggling for several hours with both a scene that just didn’t work and with an antagonistic protagonist, I went back to the drawing board and rewrote the first chapter of “round 2,” the second NaNoWrimo project I’m attempting this year.

The revision Moved a character’s introduction forward a “day,” shifted time in general, and used some environmental effects to heighten tension in that chapter. I was really starting to wonder if this piece was salvageable–now I beleive it is.

Earlier today I made some progress on Chapter 2 of that same story, which will now also need revision. The “voice” and function of the aforementioned character has changed, and some good telepathy humor is now not as viable.

Should be doable, but it’s additional mileage. I think i’ll be discarding almost 3K words total when all is said and done.

So you’ll note the time. 4 whole hours this sleep session, aided by a bottle of Pinot Grigio and some sleep/pain/money wasting blue pills. In addition to the joint problems, I’m having difficulty clearing my mind before sleep, and unlike last week it’s not book ideas bouncing around inside the noggin. Getting my biorythms back on track is now a priority, so I’ll most likely stay awake for a few hours and watch some recorded tv.

Time-shifted insomnia ftw.

Later today will be some more words, a delicious egg omelette, and a trip to the happiest and most dangerous store in the world, Half Price Books. I also need to make a trip into Ballard, to pick up tickets for several events taking place this weekend.

It’s going to be a long day indeed, so I’d best get to it.