Trying to make this update free of lists.
Lately I've been feeling a little anti-social. It's not really because I hate people (although I do hate people, I am still quite fond of my friends), I'm just too broke to do anything fun. And I know there are plenty of spend-thrift ways to have fun, but I also feel guilty having fun when there are more responsible, money-saving things I could be doing, like cleaning my car just to find the spare change under the passenger seat, or selling a kidney, or even just getting all the shit out of my trunk so that I'm not using up so much gas.
Life would be much easier for me if I had a guaranteed way to make some quick cash that involved neither activities of dubious legality, nor selling the junk I have laying around that nobody would want anyway.
Instead, I have to figure out how I'm going to pay for repairs to my car before both the registration and safety inspection expire, since I definitely can't afford a new one. I've already paid for the registration renewal, but it still can't be renewed till the safety inspection is done. I know the car won't pass because the check engine light is on, and I know the reason it's on is because of the 2nd air intake, which needs to be either repaired or replaced. I'm sure they'll also tell me the brake pads need to be replaced, which isn't so bad--but if they try to tell me the rotors need replacing too, when they only changed them out a couple of years and a mere 30,000 gentle miles ago, I'm going to sue them for installing shoddy parts on my car in the first place. Well, maybe not sue them, since I can't freaking afford a lawyer--but I'll at least kick up a fuss.
On top of that, my beloved laptop Abraxas is finally starting to show his age. He's about 5 years old, and to give you an idea of how much use/abuse he's gone through, if he were a car he'd probably have over 200k miles on him. Abraxas has been slowing down over the years, though not significantly, and his fans have been working overtime for a while, but everything else had been working fine--until about 2 weeks ago when suddenly he kept acting like he wasn't plugged in when he definitely was. The battery stopped charging altogether on Sunday, and the battery completely drained yesterday morning.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be able to actually hear your AC adapter working. No clicking, no whirring, no high-pitched "eeeee-eeeeeeee-eeee" noises. But that's what the AC adapter is doing. So I've purchased a new one (thank goodness Toshiba still makes 'em), and it'll be shipped to my house hopefully by the end of the week. The problem could also be (and probably is) the battery, but I don't want to buy a new one until I'm absolutely sure it needs to be replaced.
In the meantime, I have no computer at home. (Well, I guess I could borrow Dad's, but ugh it'd be like borrowing someone else's shoes for a day: adequate for my immediate needs, but not what I'm used to, and never quite comfortable.) I can fiddle around on the internet from my work computer in what little spare time I have, but since the internet connection is shared between the whole county, and most of the firewalls are meant to protect the innocent little schoolchildren, that means I can't log on to several social networking websites.
I guess this is kind of a good thing because I'll be forced to stay away from the computer, and find ways to entertain myself without the internet. Maybe I can shake my addiction, eh? That'd be nice. But at the same time, it's irritating because I also can't talk to a few people, since facebook or myspace or whatever is our only means of communication. I didn't even have time to send out a general "hey I won't have a computer for about a week or so" message, so hopefully they'll understand why I've suddenly stopped replying to them.
On top of these real concerns and minor annoyances, I haven't heard from Joe in over a month, and I'm getting really worried. If I still haven't received any emails/letters/phone calls from him by next week, I'm sucking it up and calling his dad. The initial plan had been to contact his friends and brothers, but that would have been through facebook, and since I can't access that right now.......... ARG.
Whatever. Finding out for sure whether or not Joe is safe and sound and just left his cell phone at home is more important than avoiding an awkward conversation with someone who shoved me down his garage steps and slammed a door on the back of my head. Asshole. Ok, now that's out of my system, yeah, I'll have to call his dad to find out if Joe is ok. Bleh.
And then there are some other things going on in my personal/home/professional life that simply add to my overall stress level.
So, life could be better, but I guess it could be worse too. I'll cross my fingers and hope for more of the former and less of the latter.
Life would be much easier for me if I had a guaranteed way to make some quick cash that involved neither activities of dubious legality, nor selling the junk I have laying around that nobody would want anyway.
Instead, I have to figure out how I'm going to pay for repairs to my car before both the registration and safety inspection expire, since I definitely can't afford a new one. I've already paid for the registration renewal, but it still can't be renewed till the safety inspection is done. I know the car won't pass because the check engine light is on, and I know the reason it's on is because of the 2nd air intake, which needs to be either repaired or replaced. I'm sure they'll also tell me the brake pads need to be replaced, which isn't so bad--but if they try to tell me the rotors need replacing too, when they only changed them out a couple of years and a mere 30,000 gentle miles ago, I'm going to sue them for installing shoddy parts on my car in the first place. Well, maybe not sue them, since I can't freaking afford a lawyer--but I'll at least kick up a fuss.
On top of that, my beloved laptop Abraxas is finally starting to show his age. He's about 5 years old, and to give you an idea of how much use/abuse he's gone through, if he were a car he'd probably have over 200k miles on him. Abraxas has been slowing down over the years, though not significantly, and his fans have been working overtime for a while, but everything else had been working fine--until about 2 weeks ago when suddenly he kept acting like he wasn't plugged in when he definitely was. The battery stopped charging altogether on Sunday, and the battery completely drained yesterday morning.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be able to actually hear your AC adapter working. No clicking, no whirring, no high-pitched "eeeee-eeeeeeee-eeee" noises. But that's what the AC adapter is doing. So I've purchased a new one (thank goodness Toshiba still makes 'em), and it'll be shipped to my house hopefully by the end of the week. The problem could also be (and probably is) the battery, but I don't want to buy a new one until I'm absolutely sure it needs to be replaced.
In the meantime, I have no computer at home. (Well, I guess I could borrow Dad's, but ugh it'd be like borrowing someone else's shoes for a day: adequate for my immediate needs, but not what I'm used to, and never quite comfortable.) I can fiddle around on the internet from my work computer in what little spare time I have, but since the internet connection is shared between the whole county, and most of the firewalls are meant to protect the innocent little schoolchildren, that means I can't log on to several social networking websites.
I guess this is kind of a good thing because I'll be forced to stay away from the computer, and find ways to entertain myself without the internet. Maybe I can shake my addiction, eh? That'd be nice. But at the same time, it's irritating because I also can't talk to a few people, since facebook or myspace or whatever is our only means of communication. I didn't even have time to send out a general "hey I won't have a computer for about a week or so" message, so hopefully they'll understand why I've suddenly stopped replying to them.
On top of these real concerns and minor annoyances, I haven't heard from Joe in over a month, and I'm getting really worried. If I still haven't received any emails/letters/phone calls from him by next week, I'm sucking it up and calling his dad. The initial plan had been to contact his friends and brothers, but that would have been through facebook, and since I can't access that right now.......... ARG.
Whatever. Finding out for sure whether or not Joe is safe and sound and just left his cell phone at home is more important than avoiding an awkward conversation with someone who shoved me down his garage steps and slammed a door on the back of my head. Asshole. Ok, now that's out of my system, yeah, I'll have to call his dad to find out if Joe is ok. Bleh.
And then there are some other things going on in my personal/home/professional life that simply add to my overall stress level.
So, life could be better, but I guess it could be worse too. I'll cross my fingers and hope for more of the former and less of the latter.