Tag: Real Life

I normally would not post about anything remotely related to work, but this is bordering on a funny story and not really related to work per se.

Got hooked on listening to music at night, from co-worker leaving an external disk of his hooked up on the USB. He’s had it sent off to a relative for couple months now, and am getting serious withdrawal.

Not interested in kicking off a remote/Internet stream, as it gets logged and I feel that I’m skirting things as it is with [CGI:IRC][1] (though not as badly, its just a bunch of text). Also, the streams I preferred died due to lack of donations or other funding, or required something like WinAmp or some other player that was *not* the default in a Win2K environment (aka Media Player 9). So, I start to go about getting my own relatively small setup to bring on my own.

Now, one would think that it’s relatively easy to do this. Well, you’d be wrong. I have horrible luck at times…

Attempt 1: 1 Gig USB thumbdrive (fits enough for me to enjoy). I lost it at a Target store within 12 hours of thinking this and loading it with songs. Thanks to that I’m getting [StuffBak][2] tags for the important things, and ordered the second-gen Lexar SecureDrive II so I can also hold important files in encrypted form in case another loss occurs, even while attached to work PCs (thankfully there was nothing important on the damn thing).

Attempt 2: My Camera card (512 CF) and the small USB Reader I bought with it. Well, they’re also MIA at the moment, but known to be in the apartment somewhere anyway so not worried as much.

Attempt 3: A 4 Gig MicroDrive I was able to rip out of a semi-portable USB chassis, for which the normal connector failed (freebie from my father). Though the older reader is still MIA, a secondary was found in the form of the USB floppy drive I bought for my recently aquired SFF case. A bit bulky, but is doing the job OK for now. This begs for a pic, but as I said my Camera Card is missing. :(

Indeed, horrid luck. I’d have used the new notebook, but it will read everything except CF/MD. Figures.

[1]: http://cgiirc.sourceforge.net/
[2]: http://www.stuffbak.com/

This weekend has been troubling for me.

The two visits I’ve taken to hospital, where my mother is at the moment, I left in tears. The nurse present the second time recommended that I not come back, since its disturbing me too much. Some of my friends agree with that assesment, in particular those who know me well.

My father, on hearing this however, asked me an important question: So what am I going to do to help when she gets out? Important indeed, and one that I discussed in private later with my brother. Some initial plans have been set, but my help will be somewhat peripheral though just as important.

The main thing is that I just cannot see her like that; It hurts me too much. Both her mother and father died slowly, her mother in particluar also from multiple strokes, and I don’t feel that it was right for them to suffer that way. How do I communicate such things to my father, as I believe strongly in such things as the Living Will and the DNR Order? Right now, I cannot.

As it stands, I’m too far away to do any real good at her home anyway, and my 3rd shift hours prevent me from doing much else at the moment as well. But there are things I can do to help, things that do not per se require me to be always present, or at least such things that I can do the work using phone calls and my PC, and an occasional drive down.

I’ll be taking a week or so off after the SLCC confrence in early Oct, and will spend some time with both my parents at that time. By then I’ll have a better idea of the situation.

-Alan