Family computer maintenance is a bitch

Should be doing instead of blogging: Putting away the pile of clean laundry in my chair. Bottles of Downy Wrinkle Releaser only do so much.

It's so much easier being nicer when you don't say much during the day and the brother is gone for the evening. However, when you take the opportunity to run maintenance on the family computer, it's time to start working on the "be nice" thing again.

Maintenance on the family computer used to be complete hell. There is a definite Windows Effect that makes the computer slow to a halt within a year (if that) of buying it. When it's a seven year-old Dell, make sure you have a long to-do list of other tasks to go with "maintaining the computer," because you're going to need to keep yourself occupied while you're waiting for the Start menu to open, the program to launch, the command to register, etc.

Did I mention that it's also the tech-savvy person's curse to have family that will encounter every issue you've rarely or never had before? Half of my mom's ripped mp3s skip like scratched CDs, my brother's games mysteriously don't open, and Mom insists that she can't bank online using Firefox, even though I've repeatedly told her I've never had any trouble using Firefox to access the same online banking site.

So when I got the laptop at the beginning of the year, I decided to do a good deed and make my life easier at the same time by lending/pretty much donating my iMac to the family cause. Not only does this help convert the family to Mac, it also drastically cuts down on my maintenance time. How much could they do to a Mac?

Well, one week into having it, they trashed the mouse. I didn't have a problem with that mouse for two years — they have it for a week, and the thing refuses to acknowledge clicking. Good thing I have the Wacom tablet and that mouse, though I've been wanting to scan in my latest character drawing attempts and color them in, which doesn't work well with a laptop trackpad.

Unfortunately, if I want to see my tablet again, they're going to need a mouse. Hopefully I can get them to use part of their Amazon credit towards one.

At least I don't have to spend the day in a bacta tank

Should be doing instead of blogging: Absolutely nothing. It's my sick day, and if I want to watch The Empire Strikes Back while writing, then I'm going to.

Actually, the problem with sick days that you take when you're actually sick, is that you generally do a whole lot of nothing. I spent the entire day on the couch, surfing the internet and playing Xargon and Commander Keen. It only hit me about an hour ago that I could've watched the Star Wars Trilogy (and then the wtf prequels) today if my head was just slightly clearer this morning to consider it, and if my brother was a little less annoying when I stay home from work.

Now that I think of it, I could've probably gotten him to set up the movies for me and bring me drinks and snacks all day.

Speaking of Star Wars, do you know who Rogue Two was during The Battle of Hoth in Episode V? Zev Senesca. As a SW movie geek (I admit that I don't read many of the books beyond Timothy Zahn's), I've failed for not knowing that. Okay, so it's not going to ruin my life, but it's going to stick with me for the next couple of weeks.