Here’s a blue heron trying to be inconspicuous behind a sea grape tree:
Not happening, pal.
We’ve got an exciting weekend planned. If the weather doesn’t suck, the mister and I plan to visit a rustic fish camp and maybe do a little canoeing tomorrow early. Then we’ll come home and watch Bama kick our poor Gators around.
On Sunday, the entire family is getting new glasses. I think I’m going to have to finally break down and get bifocals.
I’ve avoided that reckoning for the past couple of years by wearing my glasses on top of my head when focused on things within arm’s length. But that’s no longer working for me.
Tonight everyone else at my house is snoring away. I’m the only night owl. Reading intermittently and listening to a persistent rain. What are you doing?
lamh36
Watching Golden Girls and reading about this dude that jumped the fence at WH and actually made it all the way into the North Portico before being apprehended.
FENCE-JUMPER MAKES IT INTO THE WHITE HOUSE
I mean, WTH is the Secret Service doing? How the heck did the guy make it as far as he did?
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
At my next eye appointment, I expect to get reading glasses. I will will go with separates. I don’t wear my distance glasses more than 20% of the time (driving at night and watching TV or movies – I can legally drive without glasses). I won’t wear reading glasses all that often either.
Betty Cracker
@lamh36: Golden Girls!
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Lucky guy to have avoided eyewear. I’ve worn glasses since high school, and only vanity prevented me from wearing them even earlier. I think my husband emerged from the womb bespectacled; even in his toddler photos, he’s wearing glasses. Our poor kid didn’t stand a chance with those genes.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
Because it is brilliant. This, this, and this. Go in order.
catclub
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): I got glasses when the basketball score was no longer legible. Not necessarily cheaper than a bigger TV.
Mnemosyne
The folks in my optometrist’s office seem to prefer progressive lenses (aka no-line bifocals).
I’ve been seriously considering getting laser surgery. My eyesight has always sucked, and I’m starting to think that being elderly and having really sucky eyesight would be like being in the ninth circle of hell.
ETA: And by “sucky eyesight” I mean “pretty close to legally blind.” Seriously.
lamh36
@Betty Cracker: Love, love, love Golden Girls. I watch the episodes every night on Hallmark Channel and LOGO.
And it’s the same damn eps too…lol. I swear I still LOL at every episode. Those ladies were awesome. RIP Rue, Bea and Estelle
Violet
Working in the kitchen and thinking about getting ready for bed. And reading more gut/microbiota stuff, which has returned to being my obsession after some time off. Most recent interesting article is on how artificial sweeteners can disrupt bacteria in the gut and lead to increased blood sugar, in mice anyway. Here’s an article on it. It was published in ‘Nature’ this week.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Betty Cracker: I got my first pair of glasses when I was 16. I have been lucky in that that they are a part time thing. My mom had them at five, but my dad at 71 still doesn’t have them. I fall in between. can function without them most of the time, but they make life better at certain times.
Violet
@lamh36: Wow, that’s crazy. How did he get so far?
Roger Moore
I’m on my computer reading Balloon-Juice, which should be obvious. Other than that, I’m planning on trying to undo the damage I did to my tablet by following our IT department’s suggestions on how to make it work with the corporate email system. They demanded that I encrypt it so it’s protected if somebody tries to get sensitive information off it. Now it’s useless to anyone who wants to get information from it. Unfortunately, it’s now so damn slow that it’s pretty much worthless to me, too. I’m afraid I’m going to have to backup, wipe, and set up again from scratch. Also, too, the suggestion didn’t actually let me access my email.
Violet
@Mnemosyne:
Not everyone can handle those. My friend’s son got them–he’s young but his eyesight is terrible and he needs bifocals. They made him dizzy and he had to return them and get regular bifocals. That’s apparently a known issue because they told his mom about it before he got them.
ruemara
It’s been a hell of a week. I’m still on reduced hours but I’ve been told I will be employed through the end of this year. But I keep getting threats to let me go due to “attitude” (I’m not positive enough about my position being taken by the boss’ assistant and I’m not offering enough enthusiastic responses to their marketing ideas) and “energy” (I don’t seem energetic enough with regard to my work and am not doing whatever I’m supposed to be doing quickly enough, although I’m still waiting for a new duty list). On the plus side, my bundled item sale is doing well, once I stepped back in and took over the marketing after they failed to do it right. And retaught the assistant how to read a marketing schedule. And how to write marketing copy. And what the purpose is for marketing. I’m not sure I’ll get any credit.
lamh36
@Violet: Exactly…what the heck were the Secret Service doing?
POTUS and the girls had literally JUST left on Marine One for Camp David before the lockdown occurred
Mike J
Had the best student in the class in my boat tonight. Only 16 years old and so much better than the adults. When says he’s going to tack, he actually does it. He asked me a few times beforehand if now was the right time, but when he decided to go, he went. No drama, no hesitation. Step across with the tiller and go. Still needs practice, but he understands it. Came home and truly relaxed after a no fuss, no fuss lesson. I was awake and wired until 2am last night winding down from coaching an adult.
TaMara (BHF)
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
@Betty Cracker:
About 3 months ago, I got wonderful multi-focal daily disposable contacts. Makes working on the computer so much easier. With the work I do, reading glasses and my contacts were not working. I have to be able to focus on small print paperwork and then adjust to my computer screen, so I could enter the data, which I do all day long. Reading glasses are not very good for that. These lenses have been a tiny miracle making my work day so much easier.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@ruemara: I can’t do marketing related stuff at all. I tried to go the solo practitioner result for a couple years, and I discovered that while I can do the legal part of of it very well, the marketing side just escapes me. I understand the concepts, but I just can’t do the stuff well.
mdblanche
@lamh36: I’m sure the Secret Service’s job has been a lot more intense than usual for the past few years. No wonder there’s been so many incidents of them getting in trouble for what they do during down time.
I saw a picture of Mark Knoller evacuating. I never realized how fat he was.
Betty Cracker
@ruemara: Ugh, that sounds like a shitty work environment. Sorry you’re stuck in it.
@lamh36: I don’t understand that at all. I’ve seen the White House a few times, and given the distance between the fence and the building and the number of people with eyeballs on every square inch, you wouldn’t think it would be possible.
Violet
@ruemara: Can you look for another job while you have that job? It’s supposedly easier to find a job while you already have one.
It sounds like you don’t fit their office culture. I’ve had that happen. There is not much you can do about it when the office culture is more important to the people in charge than the work being done properly. That happens sometimes. Be professional, do a good job and look for something else.
I remember one job I had, the boss was a woman and her assistant–the woman I reported to–was the biggest suck up, kiss ass I have ever seen. The boss woman would talk about seeing some action movie with her husband and the assistant would immediately chime in about how her boyfriend just looooved that movie. The boss woman would talk about how she liked a certain Mexican restaurant and lo and behold it was the assistant’s favorite restaurant too. Who would have imagined that? That sort of thing was just endless–all day long the assistant loved everything the boss even hinted at liking.
Of course the assistant wanted me to suck up to her in exactly the manner she was sucking up to her boss. I’d been sort of thrown into this situation and I didn’t quite know who they were. I had almost nothing in common with them and I wasn’t inclined to attach my mouth to the rear end of the assistant, thus forming an even longer kiss ass chain. I got out of there as soon as I could. It was awful.
trollhattan
@Violet:
Ever since Obama kept that wheel of cheese in the foyer, these Texans keep coming for “their” cheese. That’s “our” cheese, buddy!
alt: “I blame Obama!”
maeve
i got bifocals 2 years ago – they are crap for working on the computer (which is a large part of my work) but they are great for “meetings” when I both have to see notes and projections on a screen.
My prescription got out of date and I got reading glasses and mostly didn’t wear my other glasses. I actually have “natural” bifocals in that one eye is good at close distance and one better at long distance and the brain actually learns to “see” out of only one eye or the other. It was something when I got new glasses and the world was suddenly in 3D!
The eye doc said (and he was right) that I would not get used to bifocals til I wore them all the time. One suggestion was a combination of contact lenses and reading glasses. I didn’t listen and got lineless bifocals and it took a year before I really took advantage of them. I still don’t wear glasses when working on the computer but enjoy actually being able to see in focus and 3D otherwise now.
I first was prescribed glasses at 16 – near sighted – but never had problems reading or anything til age caught up with me.
I got the lineless bifocals because I figured if my far prescription was plus and my near prescription was minus, somewhere in between it would be zero and would work for middle but that region is to small and wavy to be useful. I actually think some verions of steam-punky glasses with a far prescription and lenses that rotate down in front of it would be the most useful. And cool.
ruemara
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Neither can they. But since the boss believes it’s just a skill, not an ability or a talent, I think once she feels confident her sycophant can do the job, I’ll be out on my ear. If I can keep smiling and participating with cheery enthusiasm. I think if there is a god, s/he doesn’t like me at all and if their isn’t, then I’m a cosmic shit magnet. How do you not get credit for a near 103% sales increase for a year ago? This is the same woman who gave a bonus to the past employee that was a terrible failure at marketing and being a decent person-because she cried when she was demoted. All I get is – removed from what I was very successful at.
trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Let the kid unit wear my ’82 tour tshirt to soccer practice last night (mysteriously got tight on me, don’t know how that could have happened). Don’t need to add that not only did the other kiddos not appreciate it, the parents didn’t either. Their loss.
Know Your Rights!
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@trollhattan: All three of ’em!
Betty Cracker
@Violet: I’ve been working from home for about 7 years now, but before that I worked in offices, mostly for larger outfits. Sometimes I miss the direct interactions with people, but then I remember toxic environments like the one you describe and count my freaking blessings.
I’d say 90% of my coworkers over the years were nice, fun people. But man, could the 10% of assholes ruin everything for everybody.
Violet
@ruemara: Some people really should not be in charge of things. Your boss sounds like one of them. Make sure you put the 103% year-to-year sales increase on your updated resume when you send it out.
lamh36
@Betty Cracker: Agreed. I’ve been at least once and actually did the tour and the walk up to the damn beginning of the tour took a bit of time, let alone jumping the fence, running across the lawn and getting INTO the doors.
I mean don’t they lock those doors? Arent’ there cameras like everywhere?
It just boggles my mind and with the other series of dings with the SS these past 6 years, this is just another breach of confidence…
Anne Laurie
Betty, and anyone else who’s considering bifocals or progressive lenses: make sure you TELL YOUR OPTOMETRIST if you spend many hours a day looking at a computer screen. Apparently the standard ‘default’ setting — the part of the lens you ‘naturally’ look through — is still either ‘distance’ or ‘reading a book’. (“Do you spend more time driving, or reading?”) Neither of these matches reading a desktop screen, and I suspect it’s not optimal for tablet/phone use, either. You’re much less likely to have problems if your lenses are optimized for what you’re actually doing.
The other thing, if you’re over 40, it’s really worth getting the Transitions coating if you possibly can. I didn’t think I spent enough time outdoors to worry about it, but the older you get, the more you’ll find yourself squinting every time you step out of a building and into even thin weak winter sunshine, because those apertures just don’t react like they did when we were young!
ruemara
Oh yeah, I have been looking. That’s probably why I feel like I’ve been crushed into powder. I got this job because someone advocated for me and the hiring decision was made by a really fantastic HR person who also gets the fact that she’s here because SHE’S too old and experienced for a non-shitty workplace. I got less than zero hope that I’ll get something. and the very loud silence from the past 2 weeks of resumes is far too familiar. Not to be that person, but yeah, I’m fucking done with existence. It’s a mess. 40+ goddamn years, I’ve been wondering wtf did I do to whoever is in charge of shit, now, I don’t care. I just want an end date.
mai naem mobile
@ruemara: sounds like they’re looking for a reason to get rid of you and just waiting for the right time – probably when you’ve trained the idiot assistant just right time. I have never figured out how bosses don’t figure out somebodys just brown nosing. It is so obvious. Are people so in need of reinforcement of their views that somebody can bullshit them so easily.
Violet
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, having a truly toxic co-worker is bad enough but a toxic boss makes a work environment almost impossible to deal with. I had one of those–the toxic boss–once. I loved the job itself but the boss was so awful that at any given time a full third of the people who worked there were clinically depressed.
The boss did and got away with things like spending the entire budget in less than half a year and not being able to buy anything for six months (like no printer paper, etc.), breaking employment laws (ADA, racism, sexism), lying to various employees about what other employees said about them to create conflict (that worked until people finally figured it out, but it took a couple of years before we put the pieces together). It was utterly toxic. You don’t realize how bad it is until you get out.
Betty Cracker
@mai naem mobile: It’s always insecure assholes who cultivate toadies. Like you said, they need the reinforcement.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Anne Laurie: I have green (variable – can seem bright green if I am wearing the color, bluish-green if I am wearing blue, etc. – to the extent that people have asked me if I was wearing colored contacts) eyes. Years ago, my eye doc said that I and anyone with light colored eyes needed to wear polarized sunglasses anytime it was light out. I operate like a vampire. If it is daylight and I am outside, I wear sunglasses. I have several pairs of good quality ones.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
Had laser surgery about 20 yrs ago. Best thing I ever did. Wore glasses for 35 yrs before getting it done. Have to wear reading glasses for anything close like work but that’s because I’m getting old(er).
Went through glasses, hard contacts, soft contacts, disposable contacts. But you always need glasses for when you can’t wear contacts. The cost of all that added up to the cost of the surgery in not that many years.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
One of the reasons you’re in a sucky position is that, basically, your industry collapsed out from under you. I understand that — I was all ready to be launched into a brilliant career as a copy editor when all of the magazines in LA started folding, which is why I’ve now spent 20+ years as an assistant. People I knew 10 years ago were complaining about marketing/advertising jobs vanishing, and it’s only gotten worse unless you have an MBA (and even then the marketing MBAs I know spent a pretty good long while unemployed).
I’ve already stated my opinion way too many times, but I still think you need to GTF out of that geographical area if humanly possible. I just have a bad feeling about it.
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: Well, I have about a solid month and half, if I can keep a pasted on smile on my face. I plan to be packing by November. Not sure of a destination yet but I can’t stand being here anymore. They can keep it.
Jebediah, RBG
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t remember exactly how old I was when I first got glasses, but i do remember I wanted frames just like my dad’s because I thought that would be really cool. So, pretty young. I now wear a contact lens in one eye and the other eye has an artificial lens due to cataract surgery. Finally, 20/20! (in one eye, anyway.)
CaseyL
@ruemara: Wait: didn’t you get out of one hellhole only to get into this one??
I’ve been unemployed since the end of June, and only in the last 2 weeks have I started even getting interviews. It takes time; I don’t know why.
Best of luck finding something else… and take as long to train that idiot as you possibly can, because it’s easier to find a job when you already have one.
Steeplejack (tablet)
I got (progressive) bifocals about nine years ago and adapted well to them. It does take a little while to get used to them (days, not weeks).
@Anne Laurie:
My gripe with Transitions lenses is that (the last time I looked at them) they never get completely clear, so you get the “South American dictator” look. After this last trip to Vegas, though, I would definitely consider them if I lived there or some other ultra-sunny place. Sunglasses were mandatory, even for brief jaunts, and I was constantly switching between my prescription sunglasses and regular glasses.
The Dangerman
I’m late to the party on glasses…
…but I’ll add I went for progressives once; HATED them. It took away my peripheral vision which, for me, was just too much.
Ruckus
@Violet:
Toxic boss syndrome. I’ve had that. It sucks donkey balls. Toxic fellow employees you can usually avoid or find work a rounds. You know it’s bad when you contemplate what their head might look like after a home run level hit with a bat. And no amount of effort or competence will fix the problem, because it’s not you, there’s nothing you can do to change the situation except leave. Well that bat thing but that begets this whole legal thing and that sounds worse than the toxic boss.
Jebediah, RBG
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
I did get to see them once, in a fucking roller rink in Connecticut, but at that point they were Mick-less. And way too loud for the shitty room. But still…. and I really wish I had managed to see The Mescaleros. Some of those songs are just exactly perfect.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
Since everyone posting on this thread seems to be aging and falling apart – Here is something hopeful.
El Caganer
What am I doing? Trying to talk myself into getting off the intertubes and into bed. Wishing I was in Florida.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Jebediah, RBG: I never got to see the Clash live, but seeing Joe with the Mescaleros was a high point. They did the concert with three mics lined up front. Joe did his songs but none of Mick’s – which was right. It was brilliant.
Alison
Okay, tech folks. So, a while back, one night when I went to shut down my PC, it had a few updates to install. It installed them and shut down as normal. The next morning when I booted up, it did the registry update stuff at the black start screen. But then when I got to the blue welcome screen and it said “configuring updates” it stopped at 35%, then said “failure configuring updates, reverting changes” or something. Then it went to the desktop and everything seemed to work fine. I figured it was just some weird glitch.
Except every night since then, and this is at least a few weeks now, it’s the same thing. It installs the updates when I shut down, gets partway through the configuring when I start up, then fails and reverts. It’s now up to 25 damn updates it’s trying to install, which is annoying because it takes forever. I’ve run every single troubleshooter on the computer, plus a couple more that the help section directed me to online, to no avail. Am I going to need some Windows/Geek Squad type to do something complicated here? It’s concerning to me mainly because some of the updates are security things, and obviously those are important.
Also, heading this off at the pass because Mac people always do this but DO NOT FUCKING TELL ME TO JUST GET A MAC unless your ass is going to buy it for me. I do not have money for a new computer. I’m hoping there’s either a fix that’s simple enough I could do it myself, or at least something I could pay a nerd a small amount to do. Any ideas as to what might be causing the problem and how I could fix it, without ruining everything?
Jebediah, RBG
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
I am wicked jealous right now! Did they do Coma Girl?
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
I’m leaning towards asking for something like that. I’ve been wearing glasses for about 40 years now (minus a few months of contacts here and there) and it would just feel weird to be walking around with a naked face.
Plus I would probably be expected to start wearing makeup, which I can get away without right now because of the glasses.
Comrade Mary
@TaMara (BHF): OK, what brand did you get? I tried multifocal contacts a while back, but they made my sight mediocre both for reading and distance.
When I wear my contacts, I cheat and correct my weakest eye for pure distance and wear the same strength on my significantly more near-sighted left eye. This strategic under-correction lets me read print and computer screens adequately, not optimally, kind of like a poor woman’s monocular solution.
I’m getting by with computer glasses for now (I take them off for reading print and I pride myself on still officially having awesome naked-eye vision for tiny print of all sorts) but I miss crisp distance vision.
Found out the hard way that progressives (glasses, not contacts) that tried to correct for distance, screens and print are HORRIBLE. Not only was walking vaguely vertigo inducing (which I guess i could have gotten used to) they let me see only 1-2 lines of text on a computer screen at a time.
Alison
@efgoldman: Hm. Do you mean that it could be malware preventing the configuration from working?
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Jebediah, RBG: Nope. They were supporting the first album. Coma Girl is a brilliant song though.
Jebediah, RBG
@Alison:
Its been a while since I have had a PC, so I don’t remember – will the update thing let you try the updates one at a time, so you can narrow down which one is fucking up?
Alison
@Jebediah, RBG: No, it’s just all one go. I can’t even choose to shut down without installing them.
Betty Cracker
@Alison: This is probably insultingly obvious, but did you Google the issue, including the exact wording of the error messages, if applicable? I’ve been able to fix damn near every problem like that I’ve encountered, and I don’t know jack-shit about how computers work. Good luck with it, and BTW, I laughed at your pre-emptive advisory to the smug Mac humpers!
ruemara
@CaseyL: I think that’s why I’m having a massive dose of uncontained anger. who in the fuck let’s go someone who pulls their company out of a slump with NO TRAINING. Oh, an egomaniac fucktard.
Mike J
@Alison: The first thing to do is find out what update it’s trying to install when it fails. I had to do neighborhood tech support a few weeks ago on a similar problem. Woman had a computer that had come with a trial version of Office installed. She never used it, it expired. Windows update kept trying to install a patch for it, Office would say it was expired and refuse the patch. Solution: uninstall the trial, tell windows update to ignore patches for office.
Many of the updates they put out are optional. If it’s for something you don’t use, tell it not to install. If it’s a critical update, make note of the patch number and google it. Chances are it’s failing for other people too and somebody has probably fixed your specific problem.
Failing all that, switch to linux, which is free, easy to use for mere mortals, and easy to troubleshoot if you’re a compsci professional (and almost impossible for mortals.) (Note I heeded your advice about “get a mac” posts. :P )
Violet
@Alison: Have you tried removing the updates and then updating again? Maybe one of the updates got corrupted on install.
Alison
@Betty Cracker: Well, there is no error message though. It just says “failure configurating”. I did Google and have seen variations of the problem, but most of them seemed solved by the troubleshooters and such, which did not work for me. A couple of sites I found had really complicated looking fixes that I wouldn’t be comfortable doing myself. i was hoping there might be something more straightforward.
@Mike J: The thing is, when I go to the update window and try to uncheck some of them, it just rechecks them when I open the window again. And a number of them are “important”, so sayeth the computer.
Mnemosyne
Why am I getting an ad from UW Whitewater telling me “10 Reasons to Be a War Hawk”?
Somehow, I blame Omnes.
Violet
@Alison: You should have the ability to “Choose how Windows can install updates”. I see that option in my Windows Update window. There is a “Download updates but let me choose whether to install them” option.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Mnemosyne: I have no connection to UW-Whitewater, so you can fuck right off on this one.
Mike J
@Alison: Win7 or 8? On win7, go here:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/troubleshoot-problems-installing-updates#1TC=windows-7
There’s a program that’s supposed to troubleshoot problems with windows update. I’ve never used it, but it’s worth a shot.
Alison
@Violet: Ah, okay yeah. I forgot about that. Found it now. The thing is, I want to be able to install the damn updates at some point, if there’s a security risk involved. And because they’ve increased in number since the first incident, it seems like they’ll just keep piling up behind the fucked up one.
Fuck. I guess I’ll have to pay a nerd. Bleh.
Alison
@Mike J: 7, and yeah, I already tried that, and it didn’t do anything :/
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: Do you feel hawkish?
Violet
@Alison: No you don’t. Not yet. Tell it download the updates but no install. Then do what someone upthead suggested–install them one at a time. If you find the one causing you problems you can google speciically on that one. Depending what one it is, you may be aable to skip it and install other security ones.
It may be time consuming and a pain but mostly just tedious. Like MikeJ said, it’s probably some dumb thing that’s hanging up because of something you don’t use. May turn out to be an update you don’t even need.
Mike J
@Alison:
So tell it to download but not install, and install them one by one. Better yet, if you can figure out which one is hanging, install all the others, then concentrate on the bad one.
Right after you boot and the config fails, try checking the Event Viewer. Under Windows Logs->System, you can sort by source and look for the errors generated by WindowsUpdateClient.
Alison
@Mike J: @Violet: Yeah, I guess I’ll do that. But ugh, not tonight :P That sounds like a Sunday afternoon task.
Thanks, y’all. Sometimes I hate computers.
Violet
@Alison: Agreed. It’s the kind of thing you do while you’re doing other things, like watching TV. At least you could change the update settings so it won’t keep installing them and annoying you on reboot. You just need to remember to do the tedioius one by one install relatively soon.
Alison
@Violet: Yeah, with 25 damn updates……….lordy. It’s gonna take forever :P
Betty Cracker
@Alison: Technical difficulties make me stabby. Hope you figure yours out soon.
Mike J
@Alison: I’ll switch with you. Right now I’m writing code to intentionally screw up my server in the same way another web server is screwed up. I really don’t know how they got it this way without serious effort. I have tried and tried to make mine fail the same way and finding it difficult without the use of a hammer. Once I can reproduce it, then I can start trying to fix it, but that looks like a simple problem right now.
Alison
@Betty Cracker: ME TOO. Mainly because I’m always convinced any keystroke I make is going to destroy the device :P
Violet
@Alison: That will probably take most of an afternoon because you’ll want to reboot after every update just to be sure it’s properly installed. That’s just tedious work. Boring. Hopefully you can find something good on TV.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Just channeling your nighttime pal. I haven’t seen him pop in yet.
Villago Delenda Est
I’ve been operating with trifocal progressives for several years now…short range for reading, mid range for computer, long range for long range stuff. Seem to work well enough for me, but the next time I’m at the eye doctor, we’ll need to adjust the computer range setting, it’s not exactly right.
I was very careful to explain that I had three needs and I’m basically nearsighted with astigmatism, and have been since oh 11 or 12 or so, near sighted, that is. The other problems are just a factor of getting older, I suppose.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mike J: I suspect you’ll have to somehow replicate the original PEBKAC problem, which is always difficult to do, especially if you have working synapses. Perhaps Louie Gohmert would volunteer to help do that for you? He’s really good at being a PEBKAC.
cckids
@Betty Cracker: Me too. Last week, my tortie cat jumped onto the keyboard & hit some unknown combination of keys that brought up a screen I’ve never seen before; it was somewhere beyond the blue screen of death. Any time you see the words “system reset” on the screen it is not a good thing.
I spent $50 to get it back to something like normal. Catzzzzz.
Alison
@Violet: I have books, and Law and Order on DVD :)
Hal
@lamh36:
Same! My only irritation is that they cut some of the best parts out to fit the allotted time on TV. Logo is a little better than Hallmark in this respect, but it drives me crazy none the less. Will and Grace is another show I like to watch on Logo, and they are better edited.
debbie
Once you get bifocals, you will never see well again. I still need to take them off to see things up close (like while drawing). If I could have a do-over, I’d get two pairs of glasses and switch between the two.
bemused
@Violet:
Did woman assistant also try to dress like woman boss? That happens too according to a friend observing this in a former job. The suckup would do her best to find out where to find the same exact outfits and appear at work in them within days. This suckup didn’t stop at clothing, it was jewelry, accessories cars, home furnishings, you name it.
Howard Beale IV
@Roger Moore: What CPU is in your desktop?
Violet
@bemused: Not the exact same clothes, but yes, she did copy her style of dress. I can’t quite put my finger on how the boss woman’s attire was different from a professional woman’s usual attire, but I’d say it was sort of a woman trying to dress like a professional woman, if that makes sense. There were always some things that were inappropriate. And the assistant copied that style for sure. They were like two peas in a pod on some ways.
The assistant made sure to tell me what good friends she was with the boss. The boss, however, never said anything like that to me. I really couldn’t get out of there soon enough.
Howard Beale IV
@Howard Beale IV: Never mind.
Aardvark Cheeselog
@Alison:
I see that you already got several pieces of decent advice here, but one that seems to have been missed is to locate the history for Windows Update. It should have an entry for the update(s) that failed, along with some indication about why.
Definitely try the thing about examining the Windows event logs. You should not have to do the exercise of installing updates 1-by-1 just to troubleshoot what’s going wrong.
Aardvark Cheeselog
@Roger Moore:
You didn’t want to hook your personal device up to your employer’s network anyway.
Never have any personal data on your work computers if you can avoid it, and make sure that you delete it or get it someplace safe ASAP.
Never give your employer an excuse to go trawling through your personal equipment by having it connected to his network.
Linnaeus
I’m one of those people who keeps reading down the rows of the eye chart and the doctor or nurse has to tell me to stop.
tybee
@Aardvark Cheeselog:
’cause us evil IT admins WILL go looking. sometimes under the guise of making sure you’re not bringing anything infectious into our networks.
the entire BYOD concept is fraught with issues for both the employee and the employer.
Birthmarker
I resisted bifocals, but now I love them. They make things easier, and my brain adjusted in a day or two.
Mnemosyne
@tybee:
I suppose I should be worried that our IT guys are looking at the recipes, knitting patterns, and colonoscopy prep information I have on my work computer, but I feel like snooping through what I have is going to be its own punishment.
tybee
@Mnemosyne:
well, all IT personnel are preverts so you never know what sort of knitting pattern might excite some of us….