The Buddhah would be swearing right now....
I kid you not. He would be up from under that Boddi tree and swearing like a sailor. And Jesus? You think the scene in the Temple was bad? NOTHING, I tell you, NOTHING compared to the temper tantrum he would have trying to reformat and reinstall the drivers on a 6 month old "certified" Gateway refurb.
I put the certified in quotes because I cannot imagine how this Gateway refurbished exercise in illogic and missing restore files could be called "certified".
Yes Windows reinstallled, after three attempts and a final desperate removal of the partition and reinstallation of the partition. But the "restore" disk Gateway so kindly provided lacked a few things...like audio drivers, video drivers, BUS drivers, network drivers, wireless card drivers....not anything essential, right????
So I went to the Gateway site and typed in my model number and started downloading drivers for my computer. Except they don't RUN on my computer! And one wasn't even the file it said I was downloading!!!!
So I have spent the past several days and nights searching the net for the RIGHT drivers. And I am still at it. I have internet access now and sound, and am working on video. Hopefully someday my DVD player will work again...it was one of the things I wanted on this new machine.
As I go through this, I have to wonder...why isn't everything that's on the computer on the disk? Why isn't there a process where the same software installed on a given machine is duplicated onto a disk? Excactly. Completely. Too simple, perhaps? Too logical?
After hours and hours of searches and downloads and reinstalls, my computer is STILL not right. It says it lacks a video decoder and will not play DVDs.
So much for quality and reliability...my first Gateway just became my last.
Saturday, 8 December 2007
Friday, 7 December 2007
Check out my architecture and design blog
I recently joined a community run by the architecture and design magazine Dwell, and started a blog there, too.
I invite anyone who is interested in sustainable design, affordability and innovative architecture to check out my new blog and the entire Dwell site.
My blog is called Affordability and Beauty -- Is It Possible Now? I look forward to seeing what I can learn from the other people on the site, as I try to figure out just what my dream home will be.
In the meantime, I have a question. What is the situtation for afforable, beautiful design in your part of the world? Is it possible? And is it happening? If not, what can we do about it? I would love to hear from you on here or on my other blog or both!
I invite anyone who is interested in sustainable design, affordability and innovative architecture to check out my new blog and the entire Dwell site.
My blog is called Affordability and Beauty -- Is It Possible Now? I look forward to seeing what I can learn from the other people on the site, as I try to figure out just what my dream home will be.
In the meantime, I have a question. What is the situtation for afforable, beautiful design in your part of the world? Is it possible? And is it happening? If not, what can we do about it? I would love to hear from you on here or on my other blog or both!
Monday, 3 December 2007
Karma over vengence
Ever since I posted that blog entry about a bad date experience, I have felt bad.
Not because of what happened on the date, but because I posted it out there for everyone to see. It was a mean-spirited post, IMHO, and I have not been comfortable ever since, especially in light of several of the commments e-mailed to me suggesting various types of revenge.
So I have pulled that entry. Not in the name of censorship, but in the name of karma.
Bad dates, bad moments happen to us all. Sometimes it's our fault, sometimes the other person's. Most often, it's both. In any case, we are all out there, doing our best with what we have at the moment...and in the end, that's all we can ask of anyone.
I make a lousy cynic!
Not because of what happened on the date, but because I posted it out there for everyone to see. It was a mean-spirited post, IMHO, and I have not been comfortable ever since, especially in light of several of the commments e-mailed to me suggesting various types of revenge.
So I have pulled that entry. Not in the name of censorship, but in the name of karma.
Bad dates, bad moments happen to us all. Sometimes it's our fault, sometimes the other person's. Most often, it's both. In any case, we are all out there, doing our best with what we have at the moment...and in the end, that's all we can ask of anyone.
I make a lousy cynic!
Friday, 30 November 2007
A different perspective
I've had several comments on my last post...a few here on the blog, more via e-mail. And while I would never want to re-live that date, I am seeing it in a different light.
Who knows what insecurities or deeply held fears drive any of us to behave in the ways we do? Some people, when confronted with stressful situations, withdraw. Others talk too much, some run, and some lash out, masking their fears with anger and attacks (as in I'll get you before you can get me.)
I don't know this man. I mean I know some things about him...what he chose to tell me before our date. Bits and pieces of what sounds like a very nice childhood and a successful life since then. But I don't know the details. The stuff between the stories. And maybe that's where the REAL story lies.
Clearly, we are not a good match, at least not at this point in our lives. But I do not wish him ill. In fact, I wish him joy.
I hope that someday soon, he will see a full moon on a lovely tropical night and smile (because, just for the record, when he smiled, it was dazzling.) And that someone will break through his walls, and help him to laugh, to take a chance, to dance under the stars, and see beauty for its own sake with no price tag ... and most of all, to hold a hand just for the wonder of connecting with another person for the little time we have here on earth.
Who knows what insecurities or deeply held fears drive any of us to behave in the ways we do? Some people, when confronted with stressful situations, withdraw. Others talk too much, some run, and some lash out, masking their fears with anger and attacks (as in I'll get you before you can get me.)
I don't know this man. I mean I know some things about him...what he chose to tell me before our date. Bits and pieces of what sounds like a very nice childhood and a successful life since then. But I don't know the details. The stuff between the stories. And maybe that's where the REAL story lies.
Clearly, we are not a good match, at least not at this point in our lives. But I do not wish him ill. In fact, I wish him joy.
I hope that someday soon, he will see a full moon on a lovely tropical night and smile (because, just for the record, when he smiled, it was dazzling.) And that someone will break through his walls, and help him to laugh, to take a chance, to dance under the stars, and see beauty for its own sake with no price tag ... and most of all, to hold a hand just for the wonder of connecting with another person for the little time we have here on earth.
Tuesday, 27 November 2007
Thursday, 15 November 2007
Saturday, 10 November 2007
My neglected blog
Sometimes it's hard to write because nothing is really happening. Other times, like over the past month, it's hard to write because so much is happening.
1) Things I thought would last have abruptly ended.
2) Things I never expected, have come into my life seemingly from no-where.
3) My work with Project Downtown has moved from a powerful weekly experience to what some of my street friends have called my ministry. I think they are on to something -- it does feel like a calling and I am prividged to minister to these wonderful people.
4) I have discovered that really opening yourself for something good to come into your life, and being clear about what it is you need, can sometimes have amazing results. Maybe "The Secret" isn't such a crazy pie-in-the-sky book after all.
5) At 2 in the morning, when you wake up with tears on your face, it's hard to understand anything...much less the reason in "everything happens for a reason." Sometimes it's not any easier at 2 in the afternoon.
6) When it comes down to it, you prabably have more friends...and better friends...than you think.
7) Having "stuff" is overrated. So are job labels, education labels and family labels. Sometimes we are so focused on the descriptions that we miss the person.
8) These is nothing quite as wonderful as having someone you really love talking with...and having them feel the same way. And there is nothing lonelier than losing that.
...so those are my eight revelations for the month in which I was silent. Ramadan ended, my world changed in good and bad ways. And I am back to my blog.
1) Things I thought would last have abruptly ended.
2) Things I never expected, have come into my life seemingly from no-where.
3) My work with Project Downtown has moved from a powerful weekly experience to what some of my street friends have called my ministry. I think they are on to something -- it does feel like a calling and I am prividged to minister to these wonderful people.
4) I have discovered that really opening yourself for something good to come into your life, and being clear about what it is you need, can sometimes have amazing results. Maybe "The Secret" isn't such a crazy pie-in-the-sky book after all.
5) At 2 in the morning, when you wake up with tears on your face, it's hard to understand anything...much less the reason in "everything happens for a reason." Sometimes it's not any easier at 2 in the afternoon.
6) When it comes down to it, you prabably have more friends...and better friends...than you think.
7) Having "stuff" is overrated. So are job labels, education labels and family labels. Sometimes we are so focused on the descriptions that we miss the person.
8) These is nothing quite as wonderful as having someone you really love talking with...and having them feel the same way. And there is nothing lonelier than losing that.
...so those are my eight revelations for the month in which I was silent. Ramadan ended, my world changed in good and bad ways. And I am back to my blog.
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