11/9/04: In the Shop

So the laptop is in for repairs. Not good.  The wife is generously letting me use hers, so I may be a little more concise for the next few weeks.  It might be good practice. I guess I could have kept on bumping along with the rotten computer, but it was getting set to blow.  I looked up the receipt and made the discovery that, in a rare moment of forethought, I had bought the extended service plan. I buy the plan about once in every five major purchases, and I guess I figured the laptop was as likely as anything else to crap out. And crap out it has.

So theoretically I should be excited that I am covered, that I am not left flailing naked out in the wind with my busted technology. But the truth is I have a very baaaad feeling about the repair process.  The sales staff is always so cheery when they're peddling that service contract on you, and then the service department matches every bit of that cheeriness with sarcasm, coldness, and condescension.  It's like a precise formula.  I know it shouldn't surprise me anymore, but it still does. The woman who I dealt with at COMPUSA today was a snarling, unhelpful little brat.  She could barely contain her disdain for me and all other humans who work outside the IT industry. I was being extra-super friendly, too, and she was all, You know if this is a software problem it's not covered. Yeah, well, I reformatted the whole thing again so the only software on there is the stuff that came with it, so it better not be a software problem, I thought. I sort of said it, too, in a very nice way. And she completely ignored me.

So the fuckers say it'll be at least two weeks until I get it back. They were ultra-clear about that "at least" part.  It was like they were trying to piss me off. Here is my prediction for what will happen (in either scenario, it will be at least three weeks and maybe as long as a month before I get an answer):

-either they will say the computer tests out fine, so it must be a software problem, or
-they will say they fixed the problem, and within 17 minutes of using the thing back in my apartment, it will become clear that they didn't fix a thing

I know I shouldn't be so pessimistic about these things, it's just that there's really no good place to go for serious computer problems. I'm at the mercy of some douchebag someplace who may have no interest in or ability to solve my problem.  I've tried fixing things myself over the years with sporadic success, but usually you end up just chasing your tail for hours while your blood pressure goes through the roof.

In better news, I played hoops on Saturday with barely a trace of the back pain. It was fun. As you get older, it gets easier and easier to just stop playing sports for months at a time.  But you gotta stick with that shit or it'll be gone forever. I need to lose about 20 pounds and I need to start exercising regularly or I may die in a few years. This weekend I have a charity 3 on 3 tournament and hopefully that will get things rolling.  It's good to indulge the competitive dickweed inside yourself every now and then, and 3 on 3 tournaments are one of the best opportunities to do so.  I am saying it right now: give me the ball and get out the way.

Darn, did that sound halfhearted? I'm still working on it.

Now that my computer options are limited, I feel extremely lucky to have two amazing free news resources right at my fingertips.  I am speaking about AM New York and Metro.  I don't really remember which one is which, but one of them has a "Pet Report" on the lower left hand corner of the front page. That's how you know it's a serious newspaper. Today I learned in one of 'em that Hillary is the Dems' frontrunner for '08. I don't get it.  Who's gonna vote for Hillary that voted for Bush this time? Don't we need to basically go into the lab and engineer a candidate that appeals to the folks in the Red States? If people thought Kerry was cold and stiff, what do they make of Hillary? Watching her in an interview is about as awkward as making small talk in a foreign language. She's just not a very likable woman on a personal level.  I suppose she'll pull more women voters, but she'll probably lose at least that many from men who either don't think a woman is qualified to be President or who have a deep-seated hatred of all things Clinton. I guess she'll combat that Clinton revulsion by invoking some of the happy memories of Clinton days gone by. Still, I have to give the idea of her candidacy at this point in time a decent-sized gas face.

Further word from CT in SF:

Sorry to be obscure, obtuse, if not secretive about my mixed emotions. Possibly switching to vodka tonic double/doubles after Anchor Steam brews may have had something to do with it.

At the risk of sounding sappy, I think anybody who's paying attention out here in the West should be just a tad envious of some of the deeper cultural advantages ya'll back East enjoy, such as actual education, long-time families, real social events, etc. People move out here basically to increase their opportunities to get laid, as far as I can tell. Then all they can talk about is relationship victories; defeats, disappointments and victimizations; total scoring prowess, whatever. So the question arising from that statement is: are these selfsame people the best that liberalism has to offer? Are these (82%) Kerry supporters the shining example of what the Kerry future holds?

There's a whole passel of folks out here in the Bay Area that are very damned efficient at their jobs but who just plain lack their chewy caramel center. They are insipid and uninteresting. (Or as the old joke goes: CA is like a bowl of granola, you take out the fruits, flakes, and nuts and there's nothing left.) These people are devoted to maximizing their hedonistic potential until it occurs to them that there might be more to life. The irony would be that gay marriage reforms the swingles culture, puts an end to AIDS, and furthermore puts to shame the wreckage that hetero marriage has become.

Anyway, it's also kind of funny that the Republican party is the new standard bearer of cultural ideals, when IT consists mainly of proto-fascists and people who are paranoid about fascist takeovers. Imagine the made-for-TV movie. "The Republicans," a heart wrenching tale of a family divided, a clan gone wrong. Will the Thought Police crowd ever reconcile with their Ruby Ridge gun-totin' cuzzins?

Not sure if that explains it any better...

I think it does. It makes for an interesting read, anyway.

I was kinda looking forward to this NBA season, with all the new faces in new places. I felt some silly hopefulness about it, like somehow things would be different this year. Now I have watched a few games, and here's my early review regarding the league in general and the Knicks in particular: it's the same damn animal as last year. Too bad.

Well, once again I've made you wait for the new entry in the Google Image Search Game.  This time we're going first one to five correct answers wins. The prize is another book.  I will give the winner his or her choice of one of three entertaining (used) novels by Tom Perrotta : Bad Haircut, The Wishbones, or Joe College. HERE IS THE FIRST PHOTO. No guesses until noon. I hope it ain't too easy.