help me, Obi-Wan - you're my only hope
1) Have now tried more than 5 times to install spiffy new HP Photosmart all-in-one printer for wireless access. Have uninstalled and reinstalled software for new printer dutifully each time. Have uninstalled software for old printer and then reinstalled software for new printer. Have downloaded newer version of software for new printer. Have tried several things gleaned from search of HP support forums (which are to HP "technical support" as the OED is to a page from Dick and Jane Fail Basic Language Skills). Have even defragged computer as a whole (generally useful, specifically ineffective). Notwithstanding all of this, the process fails at the same !&^(_@$^!@#$&*(@#$ point EACH TIME, giving me a Generic Win32 error. The installation software then pops up a cheerful message saying "Yays, u can haz new printer!" - a message promptly belied by the Printers/Faxes list, nowhere upon which does there appear the new printer in question.
As y'all might imagine, this is. hm. a little hard on what remains of my sanity. (*does newly patented gimpy dance of technorage*)
The printer works acceptably when connected to the computer via an Ethernet cable (although the scanning function has rickets even then). But I bought this thing specifically so that I could print wirelessly. I can't return it - it was a Circuit City castoff - and I'm okay with that. But I would really, REALLY like it to do what I am paying it for. If there is anyone out there who might be willing to help me troubleshoot this, I would be eternally grateful.
2) At her death, very much to our surprise, La Mama left the sistergirl and me some money. I want to use a bit of mine to obtain tools and training in some areas that have long intrigued me but for which I could not hitherto afford the capital outlay. One of these is the intertwined (...!) area of spinning and weaving. I've wanted to be able to do these things since I developed a fascination at ten with the antique spinning wheel my grandparents had at their farm, but I am at a bit of a loss as to where to start, as Aunt Google provides a rather large and definitively unsifted pile of wheaty chaff on the subject. Therefore, I turn - as per usual - to my knowledgeable circle. I believe
aukestrel and
twistedchick both know more than a little about these things; I would be grateful for guidance from you and from anyone else who has thoughts/pointers/links/opinions/etc.
3), a brief open letter to the weather gods:
Dear Thundering Herds -
Spring rocks - not least because it is my birthday season and that of an awful lot of other nifty people. Please quit fucking with it. Workville does not lie in monsoon latitudes. Nor is it Florida. Some brief period of cool bearable prettiness seems requisite before we plunge right straight into hot wet heat, no?
--irritably, Q
4) I've returned to work this week, working 15-20 hours max from home. My goal is to ramp up to 40 hours/week by the end of May, and to return to my firm's physical plant on 1 June, by which time I should hopefully have been cleared to drive again. I am ... ambivalent about this. Bears thinking about, no?
As y'all might imagine, this is. hm. a little hard on what remains of my sanity. (*does newly patented gimpy dance of technorage*)
The printer works acceptably when connected to the computer via an Ethernet cable (although the scanning function has rickets even then). But I bought this thing specifically so that I could print wirelessly. I can't return it - it was a Circuit City castoff - and I'm okay with that. But I would really, REALLY like it to do what I am paying it for. If there is anyone out there who might be willing to help me troubleshoot this, I would be eternally grateful.
2) At her death, very much to our surprise, La Mama left the sistergirl and me some money. I want to use a bit of mine to obtain tools and training in some areas that have long intrigued me but for which I could not hitherto afford the capital outlay. One of these is the intertwined (...!) area of spinning and weaving. I've wanted to be able to do these things since I developed a fascination at ten with the antique spinning wheel my grandparents had at their farm, but I am at a bit of a loss as to where to start, as Aunt Google provides a rather large and definitively unsifted pile of wheaty chaff on the subject. Therefore, I turn - as per usual - to my knowledgeable circle. I believe
aukestrel and
twistedchick both know more than a little about these things; I would be grateful for guidance from you and from anyone else who has thoughts/pointers/links/opinions/etc.
3), a brief open letter to the weather gods:
Dear Thundering Herds -
Spring rocks - not least because it is my birthday season and that of an awful lot of other nifty people. Please quit fucking with it. Workville does not lie in monsoon latitudes. Nor is it Florida. Some brief period of cool bearable prettiness seems requisite before we plunge right straight into hot wet heat, no?
--irritably, Q
4) I've returned to work this week, working 15-20 hours max from home. My goal is to ramp up to 40 hours/week by the end of May, and to return to my firm's physical plant on 1 June, by which time I should hopefully have been cleared to drive again. I am ... ambivalent about this. Bears thinking about, no?