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A Little Courtesy Goes A Long Way

September 27, 2011 By

The other day, Mister and I went out to run some errands. While we were out, we stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts to grab some hometown grub. Since we had Greta with us, we went through the drive-thru. We pulled up to the speaker, placed our order, and prepared to pull forward.

All of a sudden, another car pulled in front of us and up to the window. It was full of people in what I’m guessing is their early 20s, and zoomed in so fast that I’m sure they were laughing at us for being the “suckers” who got stuck behind them during their slick move.

How It Went Down

It was irritating, and so was the fact that the staff inside didn’t do anything about it. I don’t know what their store policies are, or if it was just that the really young kid working the window was afraid to say anything, but had that been me, I would have told them to go back to the speaker to order. But we waited patiently, and finally they pulled forward. But they only pulled forward a few feet, still preventing us from getting to the window. That’s when Mister leaned on the horn, because these rude fuckers had taken up enough of our time. (Sorry for the language, but there’s really no other way to describe them.)

They yelled something out the window, driver’s salutes were exchanged, and they finally pulled around and parked in the middle of the parking lot near where they had first cut us in line. Mister pulled forward, started collecting our order and paying for it as the kid working there said that there was nothing he could do about it (I still hold a different opinion on that), and I watched the side mirror to keep an eye on the rude fuckers. One of the girls in the car had gotten out and was walking towards us, so I let Mister know.

He didn’t react right away, but instead pulled out of the drive-thru lane and out of the way to finish putting his wallet away and take care of the order. By this time, the girl was still walking towards us and was yelling something I couldn’t hear, so Mister rolled down the window and told them not to cut in line next time.

She said she didn’t know that they cut in line. Really? I mean, really? You’ve never been to a drive thru before in your life, so had no idea that there’s usually a speaker at which to place the order, which is why the driver of your car so confidently and swiftly drove up to the window without any hesitation? Yeah, not buying it.

By this time the driver of the other car had gotten out, and Mister had had enough. He didn’t want them approaching our car with me and the dog in there, so he got out and started walking up to them. By this time both sides were screaming, I was reaching for my cell phone to call 911 if necessary, and it was going downhill fast. The scrawny guy was in Mister’s face acting all tough, and it looked for a minute like he was going to take a swing. I was really hoping that didn’t happen, because Mister would let him swing first, then beat him unconscious. We didn’t need to deal with that. But Mister is has a very imposing presence, and apparently the rude fuckers thought so too, because they started walking away.

When Mister got in back in the car, I was shaking, Greta was shaking, and Mister told me it would be fine. He drove off in one direction while the rude fuckers went the other way. Mister told me that they were making all sorts of excuses for their behavior – they didn’t know they cut us, their drinks were falling so they couldn’t pull forward any further, and they didn’t want their kids to see us flipping them the bird. We saw 4 adults in the car, but weren’t aware of the presence of any children. Besides, had there been any children, I’m sure that they’ve never heard the words please, thank you, I’m sorry, or anything else that would imply an understanding of basic manners.

The whole incident had me reeling for quite some time, but eventually I calmed down. I don’t like confrontation to begin with, but an incident like this could easily have gone way further downhill than anyone needs. What if there were guns involved? I’m really not keen on the idea of getting shot for daring to be upset that someone cut in front of us in line. I’m also not keen on the idea of letting rude fuckers like this think that their way is the way to live.

I really don’t think that I’m being a naive idealist when I say this, but maybe if people showed some manners and courtesy towards others, this world would be a nicer place. It worked when I was a kid, and I don’t think the “times have changed” argument is valid. Seriously, just mind your manners, people. It’s not difficult.

Filed Under: Grrr

The Lost Files

July 25, 2011 By

One of the things that prompted me to need a new computer was what has become known as the iTunes Debacle. I was having issues with iTunes that I couldn’t seem to get resolved.

It started a few months ago, when I tried to download a free sampler album that I got the code for on the iTunes Facebook page. I told you a little bit about this when I first got my iMac. Despite being backed up on an external hard drive, everything was lost. I tried googling the problem, tried every single suggestion I could find, and was unable to recover my library.

When I got my new iMac home, I installed iTunes and set about trying to recover some of my purchases. They say that you can redownload items that are not currently on your computer. I deauthorized previous computers, authorized my new computer, and clicked the button. I had over 700 purchases made over the past 5 years, and I was able to recover exactly 6.

Then I decided to contact support to see what they could do for me. I got a long, stock answer that basically told me to do what I had already done. Ok, fine. I’ll try it again. They were able to get a few more songs back. Then I tried plugging in my iPod to see if it could transfer some of my purchased music back to my computer.

This is where it gets fun.

My iPod has some whole albums that I purchased through iTunes, yet for some reason when I tried to transfer the music back, only a few songs went. This I don’t get. I also don’t get why some albums that are NOT on my iPod were only able to recover some songs and not the whole album. The support guy has been really great about emailing me to make sure all was well, so I asked him about this. If the whole album is on my iPod, and one can supposedly transfer purchased back to your computer this way, why was it not transferring the whole album?

I got another stock answer that didn’t really answer my question. “Kirsten, please realize that we made an exception to the iTunes Store Terms of Sale by allowing you to redownload all the items that had not been modified or removed from the iTunes Store since you purchased them. For Example : If an artist has changed the version of the song.”

Ok, but from the looks of things on my end, it didn’t look like there had been any changes. I do understand that a price change can count as a modified item, so all that stuff I got as the free download of the week isn’t coming back. Fine, whatever. But still, approximately 700 songs that can’t be recovered? I really don’t understand.

Since I wasn’t making much progress with support, decided to save all my playlists. I had already copied and pasted my entire music library to an Excel spreadsheet before I got the new computer, and I went ahead and did the same for my playlists. It was the only way I knew to have a record of what I had before I went and tried to fix things.

First, there were the Amazon purchases. Those were super easy to recover because they save in their own folder outside of the iTunes files, so all I had to do was drag and drop those back in. Then I went through and did the same with the other MP3 files I had on my computer that I had gotten from various places online.

200 songs down, only 4600 more to go.

After that, I decided to hit my CD collection. Since the vast majority of what was in my library was from discs I owned, those were easy to do. I’m still working on them as I write this post. Once all those are done, I’ll be able to see what’s left of the missing files and go from there, either repurchasing from iTunes, purchasing the MP3 files from Amazon, or purchasing the actual CD.

Through this whole process, I learned a few things:

  • Backup your backup. I had everything on an external hard drive, but that wasn’t good enough. When iTunes crashed, it took the files on the external with it. The folders were still there, but they were empty. My photo folders, which were also backed up to the same drive, were empty as well.
  • Gracenote is the ruler in the digital file universe. As I was uploading CDs, I got a few that wanted to send updated info to Gracenote. I looked up what that was, and found out that they are the masters of digital music files. When you put your CD into iTunes, WinAmp, or your car stereo and it automatically knows all the track names, it’s because of Gracenote. Artists can submit changes to them about their albums so it will always display correctly. I think this may have been a factor in not being able to recover some of the music.
  • iTunes will always want to install in your default location – the C drive on your PC or wherever programs automatically go. If you later turn around and point iTunes to a different location, be sure to check it once in awhile to make sure it still points there. I had iTunes pointed to my external hard drive, thinking that the music would be safer there (and I had more storage space). But there were times when my computer would stop seeing the external, or when I had to reinstall iTunes, and suddenly iTunes was pointed back at the C. However, since iTunes was installed on my C and only pointed to the external, I don’t think that the external or my computer only sporadically seeing it was the issue. I’m still convinced that everything is related to the crash. On my new computer, iTunes and the music library is in the default location.
  • When iTunes asks if you want to back up your purchases, DO IT. This is probably my single biggest mistake. I figured I was safe because it was all on an external hard drive, but when iTunes asks you this, it will MAKE A DISC of your purchased music. It will be a data disc only, and you may need a DVD instead of CD depending on how much data there is to back up, but if you do this and lose everything like I did, all you will have to do is pop in the disc and all will be well. The support guy sent me a link to this article on backing up your library. You can do purchases only, the entire library, and choose “since last backup”. I will definitely be doing this on a regular basis.

So, that’s where I’m at. This experience has been incredibly frustrating and also a bit enlightening. I still have a ton more work to do, but I will get it done. Music is too important to me to not have any on my computer, and I would like to update my iPod.

Have any of you suffered a data loss in iTunes? How have you resolved it?

Filed Under: Grrr, Music

Haters

March 8, 2011 By

I was surfing the web recently and came across something that I just couldn’t wrap my head around.

Did you know that there are blogs set up specifically to bash other blogs? These tend to focus on one blog and will be called something like [insert blogger here]sucks dot com.

I don’t get how a blogger can be so filled with hate for another blogger that they spend that much time and effort on trash talk. I don’t understand why it’s worth it to them. If the blogger they’re bashing has a lot of fans, you’re not going to change anyone’s mind, and the only people your website will attract is other haters. If a fan of the blogger you’re bashing does visit, they’re going to have a “Leave Britney Alone!” moment before running back to the sites to their favorite bloggers.

I’ve seen these trash-talking sites complain that the bloggers they’re bashing aren’t being real. When you think about it, who presents 100% of their real, authentic selves on their blogs? Who divulges all those gory details that readers want to know but don’t dare ask? Come to think of it, who does this in real life? In the real world, we present one side to our parents, one to our friends, one to our coworkers, etc. It’s the same with blogging – we reveal only as much as we want to on our blogs. So as far as claims of people not being “real” on their blogs, I call bullshit. No one puts 100% of the real them on their blogs.

As someone who’s trying to keep some positivity in my life, I have no room for these haters. They’re an energy drain, and just like a good mood that’s contagious, their negative attitudes are just as contagious. I blog as a hobby, and I read other blogs because I enjoy them. I have no room in my feed reader or my life for that kind of negativity.

Really, don’t we all have better things to do than waste time on trash talk?

Filed Under: Grrr

My Car is Driving Me to Drink

August 3, 2010 By

Remember when I wrecked my Kia? Then I bought a fairly new car from my Dad in New Hampshire and drove it all over the country? Then less than a year after having the thing (and while it was still under warranty), I needed major repairs? My 2005 Ford Focus (Ford being an acronym for Found On Road Dead ) drove me crazy but my wonderful husband (who was then my boyfriend) helped keep me from going absolutely bat-shit crazy.

I’m about to go absolutely bat-shit crazy.

About a month ago, during a PMS-fueled bad day, I needed a new battery for my car. Except for it suddenly dying on me like that, it wasn’t a big deal. Batteries are easy to change and inexpensive enough. We went to the auto parts store, got the new battery, and got going again.

Last week, I noticed my battery light coming on. It would seem to come on in the afternoon, when it was hot out, so even though the car sat all day at work the engine was never really cold. It came on when I reached a traveling speed and went off when I slowed down. I let Mister know, and we made an appointment at the repair shop.

Mister suspected the alternator, since the battery was new and the belts were tight, and he would have changed it himself, but the directions to change the alternator include, “using a 2×4, pry the engine off the motor mount…” Yeah. Mister may have one day been able to do that, but not anymore. It’s not exactly a home repair type of job.

The repair shop was pretty good about it. They ran diagnostics, agreed with the alternator diagnosis, and replaced it. They also give a 1-yr, 12,000 mile warranty on the repair. We picked my car up on Friday night, and it seemed just fine. We also drove it across town and back on Sunday, and again there were no issues.

Monday evening on the way to run some errands, I stalled out at an intersection. WTF??? I put it in neutral, started it up, and noticed the battery light was on again. Well this is just fucking great. The battery light now stayed on almost consistently, especially when slowing down or idling at a stoplight.

I called Mister, he called the repair shop, and we brought it back. I bet we made their Monday! Now I have to drive Mister’s big bouncy gas-hog pickup to work. I don’t know what they’ll find or what they’ll do, but we’ll find out in the next day or so.

Even though I had a sucky experience buying my Kia (life tip: never try to buy a car by yourself when your Dad is a car salesman. I was woefully unprepared and paid way too much for the thing), it wasn’t a bad car overall. I had a much better experience buying my Focus, since I paid way less than retail and got to see my family as well, but honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever buy a Ford again. It’s 6 years old (don’t forget that model years come out about 4-6 months before the calendar year starts), has 54,000 miles on it, and already has had a transmission rebuild and new alternator. Who knows what else it needs.

I wish I was in a position to get a new car, but I’m not, so I’ll just get it fixed again. And again. And have a drink in the meantime.

*Even though I say this car is driving me to drink, PLEASE do NOT drink and drive. I don’t want to see any of you get hurt, get someone else hurt, or end up with a criminal record. If you want to drink, please wait until you are safely at home or you have a trusted designated driver.

Filed Under: Car, Grrr

Auditory Overload

July 26, 2010 By

Mister and I share an office at home. Two computers, one room. We spend most of our time together in this room – me, blogging and devouring the internets, and him by playing his silly little game. He talks to his guildies, so I hear those conversations. Battles get loud, so I hear that as well. And everyone knows that music is a necessity, so that’s going. Then, on top of that, Mister will talk to me too. Sometimes it takes me a few seconds to realize he’s talking to me and not the guild, because I’m so busy trying to tune it all out.

Before we moved into this house, we lived in an apartment. There was no separate room for the office, so Mister’s desk was in the corner of the living room while mine was in the bedroom. Rather than spend all that time apart, I commandeered the laptop and would lounge on the sofa with that. Also, instead of music, the TV would be on, because, well, it was there. So I’d be trying to watch TV, surf the internet, and have all the game sounds going on at the same time.

It’s amazing that I get any blogging done at all. With all that noise, I can barely concentrate on what I’m reading, never mind keep a single train of thought long enough to actually write a blog post.

On my latest On the Internet post, I included some links having to do with writing and creating. One of them was The No. 1 Habit of Highly Creative People. Want to know what that habit is? Solidtude. The creative types featured in that post all take some quiet time to flex their creative muscles. That’s something I don’t often get is quiet time. I could get up earlier and use the early morning for that, but you know what? I’m not really a morning person. Also, I find that having a time limit like that is more frustrating than freeing.

There used to be a time when I would get up an hour early to spend some time checking emails and relaxing on the internet before getting ready for work. Often times I would find a LOT of stuff I wanted to read or have a lot of pent-up writing to do, but not enough time to do it. I’d end up getting in the shower way too late, rushing to work, and spending the rest of the day really distracted because I’d be too busy thinking about all the inspiration that hit me in the morning. I didn’t really like that too much. Being inspired, yes, I like. But not being able to take advantage of it while the iron’s hot, so to speak, kinda sucks.

Despite the noise and resulting lack of concentration, I’ve been trying. I have a pretty decent set of headphones that, while not noise canceling, do OK at muffling the sound a bit. If it gets too much, I’ll play music or find some quiet background noise to play to further block out all the noise. When all else fails, I step away and go someplace where I don’t have so many sounds coming at me all at once.

Mister doesn’t have this issue. He can listen to half a dozen different conversations at the same time and follow all of them. I get overloaded and stop being able to follow any of them. As a result, he sometimes forgets how hard it gets for me when all the noise is going on. But as soon as he realizes how distressing it is, he’s considerate. He’ll turn down the game noise to a manageable level rather than taking full advantage of the speakers he has, and he’ll turn down the music to a soft background level. He’s awesome that way.

Sometimes, even if it’s not too loud, there can be too much noise. Do you have the same issue?

Filed Under: Grrr, My Blog, Reading and Writing