My Random Blog

Sooo… I got my hands on RIM’s latest beta OS for my BlackBerry Curve last night (all hail the Internet) and installed it. There are not words to express how thrilled I am with it.

It seems that AT&T likes to lock down certain features that should otherwise be available. For instance: My phone did not have a video camera or the ability to stream videos online from sites like YouTube. I consider those pretty basic features, considering this phone retails for upwards of $400.

Well thankfully I’ve been modifying phones for years and was able to upgrade my software myself. Now my fab CrackBerry does all the things it was born to do. I’d like to give a big middle finger to AT&T now. Ya’ll can’t keep a true nerd down, bitches.

Gotta get ready for work now. I’m dreading it as I’ve been there once already today and have been up since 7 this morning. I should be off about midnight. My attempt at a nap was futile. God help me when all the sugar and caffeine wear off.

Me and my hangover will be back Monday.

Peace and technology.

Ok, I’ve never been one to pimp products (except for things that my future husband, Steve Jobs, produces) via my blog, but this time I just have to.

I was so thrilled yesterday, that I was able to fix my computer and that it was alive and running well. After my post, I shut it down and went to work. When I got back home, I booted up only to discover that the same problems awaited me again. It booted up to the desktop wallpaper- then froze. No icons, no task bar- just frozen. I turned it off, rebooted in Safe Mode and re-ran CHKDSK. This time, instead of 8 1/2 hours, the process took “only” 3 1/2.

Once my system was working again (obviously temporarily), I went to work researching software that could really fix my problems. I don’t have hours to wait for my system to “repair” itself and then boot up. So in my quest, I found something called ErrorExpert. This is their blurb:

ErrorExpert helps identify and fix errors in the Windows Registry and optimizes the performance of your Computer.

Invalid file and system references can cause serious problems with your computer including system failure and frequent crashing. ErrorExpert will scan your computer for these invalid system references and file references.

Now almost all computer problems can be resolved easily and automatically!

This award winning software also includes advanced utilities that will remove any unnecessary toolbars, popups and unneeded startup items which slow down your computer.

They are not kidding. I downloaded and did the scan of my system. I was shocked to find over 1600 errors all over my system (90% of them in my registry). I bought a license and clicked the “fix errors” button. And I’ll be damned if it didn’t do just that. And FAST. Like 10 minutes or less fast. After the fix, I- reluctantly- shut down again for the night.

Today I was dreading starting up my computer. With a heavy heart, I waited while it went through the motions. I tensed up at the splash screen just knowing that it would be freezing up immediately after that. It didn’t!! It booted right up and everything loaded flawlessly. I was thrilled! SO thrilled, in fact, that I wrote the company to tell them how fabulous they are.

And I’m doing it again here because if you’re reading this, you have a computer, and therefore might at some point have it crash on you. If it does, and you know you don’t have a virus, you should definitely download ErrorExpert and run a system scan. It’s 100% free to do that. And if the program finds anything that needs fixing, it’s only $29.99 to buy a license and fix that shit. It works! They are not paying me to write this- no one is. I just thought my whole experience with that software needed to be shared. I am THAT happy about it.

Anyway- it’s also Wednesday- so I will be posting the usual right after this. I just couldn’t help myself.

Peace and kick-ass software.

Well, after MANY hours of trouble shooting, I discovered that I had a bazillion disk errors and corrupted files on my machine. How that happened, I have no idea. As far as I can tell, I wasn’t the victim of any viruses or the like. But there it was in my log file… A big fat mess.

Luckily, I was able to boot up in Safe Mode (as we know) and I ran a CHKDSK command, along with the “fix this shit” box checked. I restarted. Mind you, it took me several hours to even diagnose the issues, let alone figure out how to fix them.

EIGHT AND A HALF HOURS later- I let it run while I slept- my computer is back in action. And I am one happy ass camper.

I would like to thank my future husband, Steve Jobs, for creating the iPhone and therefore keeping me connected to every nerd forum online during this crisis. I’d also like to give a special shout-out to BleepingComputer.com for their invaluable information on the pieces of crap that are PCs. My next computer will be a Mac. I can promise you that. And while I’m doling out my gratitude… Thank you Marvin the Martian for sending my laptop happy, healthy Martian energy. It worked better than The Force.

Now I must shut down for a while and let my poor computer rest a while. It’s been through quite a battle. I’m, honestly, shocked that it works.

Peace and Martian energy.

(Penicillin not included.)

Ok, so I was reading a post on the I Do Things blog and ran across one having to do with viral linking. Evidently it spawned from One Man’s Goal to get everyone to try it. The thought behind it seems to be promoting your fellow bloggers as well as help everyone build backlinks. Being horribly curious by nature, I feel I have to do this just to see what happens.

If you would like to try it yourself, just copy all the links below and paste them into a post. Don’t forget to add your own, if it’s not already listed, as well as other blogs you’d like to hook up. (Feel free to visit the links, themselves, too.) The blogs I added are in bold.

One Man’s Goal - Ryan Shamus - Terence Chang - Rich Minx - Slyvisions - Brainfizzles - E-Revenue Select - Misdo Club - Digital Lost Boys - CyberSurge - Technically Easy - How I Will Be Rich - Cool iPhone Blog - Boston Brat - A Blog About Nothing - Your Website Profit - The Dragon Project - Anything Goes - I Am Facing Millions - E-World Vu - Allscm.com - Hiding-N-Public - Webd360 - My Random Blog - Techie Zone - The Insane Writer - Olympic Blogger - Is This Thing On - Norwegian Photo Blog - The King Kong Blog - Bamboo Nation - Mobile Phone Geek - Boogie Mum - Barbara Gordon Photography - Miri Guy - Everything Finance Blog - Vonnegut’s Asshole - Net Monetization - Groovy Vegetarian - Etienne Teo - Omicra - Komirad - Pro Blog Design - I Do Things - Fashion Style Trend - Thinking Out Loud - Marketing Land - Marketing Deviant - Blogging Tips - Rammel Firdaus - Humor Vice - DCR Blogs - Tasty Blog Snack - Don Biz Blogger - Groovy Entrepreneur - Queer Rant - Untwisted Vortex - Mr. Baconpants - The Daily Fuzz - Forex Trading Blog - Zr5 - Cariboo Ponderer - Random - Utah SEO - Queen City Hoops - Demp.se/y - Scraps of Mind - High Fivez - Poewar - Blogging Expertise - Uncle Jay Explains - Escape Job Hell - Oil Offshore Marine - Smart Not Cheap - I Hate Your Job - Thoughtprints - Vegan Momma - Sewing Mom - Lillie Ammann - Life Snippets - Twisted Sister - My New Hustle - Mouseki - Chill Technology

MAN has today been a happy day for me! First of all, I was messaged early this morning, by the best uncle a girl could have, that there was an iPhone software update. Hoo-RAY! If you know me, you know that I am in a serious, monogamous relationship with my iPhone. I believe I have said before that I love it, and want to have it’s babies. Luckily, the boyfriend is totally ok with this. Excited for me, even.

So I slap the sleepy off myself, fire up my computer and plug my phone into iTunes. I clicked the “check for updates” button and the software update started to download. Yipeeee! Several very anxious minutes later, my phone has cool new features. Since I am not the “read the manual” kind of girl, I go to work playing with it and figuring out what’s different. Since I’m also not the “take your time and be patient” kind of girl, I get online and head over to Macworld for the 411 on what my phone now does:

Cool new mapping features- check. Movable, wiggly icons- check. Add web bookmarks to your home screen- check. Have up to NINE home screens- check. Cool new video features- check.

I am stoked. Completely and utterly. It’s like having a new phone all over again. And I LOVE that my upgrades are FREE. So I get a new and improved iPhone with every new software release. Thank you Apple! I am most appreciative of this because of my past experiences with Motorola- a company that likes to release stripped-down versions of a phone, only to unlock “new” features here and there, and release it again, and again, at a ridiculous price.

So THEN Best Uncle Ever shoots me another message telling me watch Steve Jobs’ 2008 Macworld Keynote Address, to watch him explain the new features I downloaded today. That’s where I learned that I can ALSO send SMS messages to multiple people! This may not sound like a big deal to those with phones that can already do that (all of mine have been able to, up until now) but it was a huge for me, that I couldn’t. What that means for YOU, my friends, is that when I get DUI checkpoint texts, I can pass them on now!

However, I still won’t be passing on those lame-ass “chain texts” that wander into my inbox periodically. Oh, for those of you that I haven’t already told: We’re not 15 year-old girls. Stop sending the “forward this/pass this on” texts. It wasn’t pleasant in my email, and it’s even more annoying on my phone. Please and thank you. However, if any of you feel a very strong desire to annoy me, that you simply cannot fight- you have my permission to call me, yell in the phone and hang up. Or leave me obscene voice mails.

Ok, now my phone is all updated and humming along fabulously with it’s new superpowers. I thought I couldn’t get any more excited by anything (electronic) today. I was wrong. (If you have read any of my posts, you’ll see that I’m wrong a lot.) I’m guessing this was in an attempt to make me cry or something, but Best Uncle Ever sends me another link to another one of Apple’s latest marvels: MacBook Air. Are. You. Kidding. Me. Not long ago, I read about Leah Culver who raised money online to buy a MacBook Pro, by selling ad space on said Mac. I am THISCLOSE to trying that here. I am not afraid to pop a PayPal “Donate” button on my blog and beg for money to buy a MacBook Air. But I’m not gonna. At least not yet.

Soooo… after today’s immersion into all things Apple, I now know that I want to marry Steve Jobs and have baby Macs.

It’s been over 2 years since I’ve had to deal with code. Starting a blog site from scratch was not a fun task for me. It’s amazing what my brain dumps when it’s not using stuff. (I pretty much had to learn it all over again.)

I have had zero experience with WordPress, so the whole theme process was quite the learning experience. Blogger templates are cake compared to this. Since I don’t have a clue how to write blog code (with the exception of the css file), I just found a template somewhere online and tweaked it to death. It now only somewhat resembles what it once was (it’s kind of shaped the same). It was interesting to see my original Blogger template (which I liked very much) is now an almost miniature, whacked out version of itself.

Anyway… It’s moved, my posts are here and hopefully everything is working correctly. I had to edit all of my Blogger posts in order to use images from my server and not Blogger’s, as well as fix formatting issues. Thank GOD I did this now before I had a zillion posts to transfer over. Oh yeah, and I upgraded WordPress all by myself, and didn’t ruin anything. Yay me!

I’m now very tired and am going back to sleep until it’s time to wake up and go hang out with the boyfriend, and the girls for a very late Christmas. (And drink lots of beer to celebrate my having lived through this whole blog crap.)

And if you ever have to move YOUR blog… Good luck and may The Force be with you. But you’re probably smarter than me and don’t need any Jedi help.