Friday, I fried my laptop in a moisture-related incident, yanked the power supply and battery to keep anything from shorting out further, disassembled the whole thing and turned it over to let it dry out as best I could.

Saturday, I put things back together, pushed the button, and got a few clicks and pops and then the Ozone Smell of Doom. Proceeded to raid S.'s and my combined stash of dead technology to start building a new machine, purchased a widget to interface between the possibly-still-usable hard drive and some computer to be named later.

Sunday, I -- well, mostly S., to be honest -- finished assembling the computer to be named later.

Today, I tried the widgeted hard drive in its fourth uncooperative computer, and concluded it was dead, cried a bit, and held a naming contest in my LJ for the computer to be named later, complete with pastiche of psychoanalytic literary theory.

Tonight, I got home, set up the computer to be named any day now, and decided on a whim to hit the button on the late lamented laptop. And lo, a host of angels sang... or, anyway, the little green light came on. With a message that it wasn't recognizing the hard drive.

Rebooted, and here I am, back where I was, except for the fact that I can't make parens or exclamation points, which could make programming rather challenging....

I'm still taking naming suggestions, as the computer to be named later is going to do some crucial backup work now, and may still have some freakish zomboidal life ahead of it.

Buffista jobma rules. The DH has a face-to-face interview tomorrow at 11 AM Pacific time. This is the farthest he's gotten in his job searching since he lost his job a year ago. Thank you kindly for the jobma so far. Please send more. The VP of business development liked him. The hiring manager has heard glowing comments about him already. But we all know that doesn't get him past all the hurdles.

Amych, Check in Buffistechnology.

It's a party!

We're doing an update of an old tradition at Chez Grabien in San Francisco: the annual (sort of) Summer Babies BBQ and General Whoopie Getdown outdoor party, now new and improved with Buffistas!

Right now, we're setting this up for the weekend of August 1 - 3, with the party in the afternoon of Saturday, 2 August. General invites are offered to anyone who wants to attend: So far, NoiseDesign and Perkins have grabbed bunk space at our house, Aimee and Monsieur Miracleman will come and share their wedding anniversary with guests among the ribs and chicken and fish and salad and burgers and desserts and thangs, Beth B and Matt are up for it, and JavaCat, and Hec.....we have seating and a big gas grill and masses of chairs and, well, we've done this before.

So, RSVP, m'dears. There will be food for miles, and drink, and generally a damned good time in Fog City. If you've got a kid, feel free to bring him/her/them, no money required, and all I ask is that you RSVP in a timely fashion (I'll need to get food together) and remember that if you're coming in from elsewhere and need a bunk for the night, you'll need to coordinate with other Buffistas, or else call the Carl Hotel (Stanyon and Carl, walkable to Chez Grabien, very reasonable rates for SF and right in the Haight), or ping me and I'll hook you up.

Profile email is good. We have a month, so talk amongst yourselves and RSVP. Discussion ongoing in F2F.

And when you're rested up from that...

Want to go to Vegas? Aimee, ND and I have also been plotting a trip to Vegas for the weekend of August 15-17. We'll be staying at the Mandalay Bay If you are interested in going, or in getting more information, please contact me at my profile address. For people looking for roommates, I'll do my best to match people up.

Going dark for about a week for a family vacation.

Because the gods hate me, I have an 8:00 am job interview. I understand that the vibes will be somewhat fuzzy until the caffeine hits, but send 'em anyway.

So it appears that the Atlantic is detrimental to the power of Buffista jobma. The buggers haven't even invited me to interview.

Very much at a loss now, as have stupidly been prioritising this job. Am very stupid indeed.

General good luck/everything-work-out-for-the-best type vibes very, very, very much appreciated.

May wind up going abroad and bugger it all.

Goodbye for now loves. I will be dark slate gray for a couple weeks or so. Around and about the great Northeast. I have no return reservations yet so it is hard to say. I hope to see many Buffistas along the way. We have basketball camp in Syracuse, exploring in Maine and catching up with Vixen, fireworks with vw in Massachusetts, Niagara Falls and a visit with Sophia, then some NYC time before flying home. In between a lot of family time in the land where I was born.

Dial-up is evil so I won’t be around much except a few mail pickups a day to pretend I am working. I will miss you. Plan to have as much fun wherever you are as I plan to have while away from you. Write me so I will get something other than offers to increase my penile size or lower my interest rate.

Looks like I'm going gray for a while.

They just cut off my cable and cable modem for non-payment and I'm using a friend's dialup to leave this message.

Even if I get a job, I'm unlikely to return to Charter Cable. The local office is run by a guy who thinks I come in and complain for my health. The regional office and the local office seldom seem to communicate.

I have had enough and with them and decided I was throwing money I did not have down a rathole. As nice as Cable Modems are when the signal gets through...the aggravation isn't worth it.

This might put a crimp in the job search, please send more jobma.