How to Win Friends and Influence People (and why I love Chris ;)

[ciroccoj]

Brief Computer Summary of the last week:

• Monday: we have two working computers.
  
• Tuesday: Chris buys networking hardware (Lynksys DSL Router) from Future Shop.
  
• Chris installs router on new computer, no problem, tries to hook up old computer, problem.
  
  • Chris calls Dell.
    
  • Technician gives "help" for a couple of hours.
    
  • Chris gives up and goes to bed.
    
  • (repeat over the next several days)
  
  
• Saturday: Old computer has no anti-virus. Neither computer has internet access. Both slow as pigs. Chris still working away with Dell technicians on the phone.
  
• I freak.
  
• I take the phone from Chris. Talk to two technicians who don't speak English, get even madder, finally ask Chris to just disconnect the damn router.
  
• I go down to Future Shop full of piss and vinegar, get our money back, and loudly complain because Sympatico told us the system Future Shop sold us was not compatible with Sympatico internet access, and they said it was.
  
• Come home.
  
• Computers work again.

We get lunch, and at one point Chris gives me a hug and says, "Thank you for making me stop."
"What?"
"I wasn't going to stop working on the computers on my own. I'd reached the point of diminishing returns, you know, when you've invested so much you don't want to give up?"
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. I was pretty mad at you for making me quit, but after you left I thought about it. And I thought, I wasn't ever going to stop on my own. So what the hell were you supposed to do, other than get mad and take my toys away?"


10 people you want to meet in no particular order:

1. bear
   
2. snarkhunter
   
3. cassatt (... and I've just realized I'll fill up my list this way, so I'll finish the list with non-online people)
   
4. David Suzuki (although I've heard he's actually a jerk in person)
   
5. Madam Justice L'Heureux-Dube
   
6. Jimmy Carter
   
7. Charles de Lint
   
8. Kim Stanley Robinson
   
9. Walter Cronkite
   
10. Bill Moyers

9 things in your room

1. books
   
2. bed
   
3. tv
   
4. clothing
   
5. night table
   
6. coffee table right now (it needs to go downstairs)
   
7. clothing drawer
   
8. VCR/DVD
   
9. lots of videotapes

8 of your favourite foods

1. honey curried chicken
   
2. pancakes
   
3. chocolate
   
4. lamb
   
5. beavertails
   
6. gulabjamon
   
7. apple pie
   
8. baguette

7 of your closest friends

1. chris
   
2. todd
   
3. susan
   
4. sarah
   
5. karolyn
   
6. karen
   
7. beth

6 of your favourite shows (in no particular order)

1. l&o
   
2. star trek: TNG
   
3. star trek: DS9
   
4. star trek: Voyager
   
5. x-files
   
6. friends

5 things you wear every day:

1. underwear
   
2. watch
   
3. wedding ring
   
4. clothing
   
5. white musk perfume

4 things you ate today:

1. egg
   
2. toast
   
3. tea
   
4. chocolate

3 things you could not live without:

1. music
   
2. books
   
3. computer

2 books you recently read:

1. Years of Rice and Salt, Kim Stanley Robinson
   
2. Passage, Connie Willis

1 person you can't go a day without mentioning:
can't pick one - anybody in my family