Mr. Grumpy

Windows IS a Virus
The other day our home PC had another meltdown. It has had a dubious past. It was a white box PC custom built for my music studio. At the time, Rambus seemed like a good idea. A few years ago, within a week, the IBM hard drive (which was also highly recommended at the time) had the dreaded click of death, and the mobo completely fried. Thanks to ebay I was able to replace the mobo, and I swapped out the IBM for a cheapo hard drive.

I started running into some data corruption issues-- blue screens of death and a bizarre issue where no network settings were accessible in the control panel. I had to reinstall Windows XP a few times over the years, but it was of little consequence as this box was retired from music duty. Just before moving here, it had another meltdown, so I installed a second version of XP on the same drive. Everything was moving along smoothly until Monday, when the PC would boot, flash a BSOD, and reboot--- in an endless loop. I thought the hard disk was acting up, so I purchased a new one. Last night I installed it and rebuilt everything. I was a happy camper until Windows Update came along and I was back to square one! Endless rebooting. On a fresh install of XP on a brand new hard drive! This was immediately after Windows Update. There was no system recovery that could fix this. I was livid. An entire evening wasted by Microsoft.

Today I booted from another HD and accessed and edited the hive file to fix the rebooting loop. I then reinstalled XP and was up and running quite quickly. Still, I hate this incompetent product, and am seriously considering Linux at this point. At least I can have fun fussing with it. At least I can get even with MS at work. They like to think they are a competitor to us.

Part II
I am mildly grumpy tonight for other reasons. It is very light out at 10pm- hot and rather humid. I am leaving for India again in a few days. I wish I wasn't taking a chunk out of this beautiful summer. When I was preparing to move to Norway, I was preparing for the absolute worst. This summer has been the warmest in 105 years- a wonderful summer by any measure. I probably catch MORE sun than I did back in the US, since it doesn't get so ungodly hot that I try to stay in the shade. Today was actually hot. I was caught in a light shower as I commuted home from work with my laptop. I also had another small mountain bike crash as I caught the bars on a tree that I was trying to squeeze through. Yesterday it was a wet rock-- slippery than ice. Riding off the beaten path guarantees a few spills. I usually do not stray to far when I have the laptop bag, but this new area was a little too tempting to resist. I then made my way up by NATO headquarters, and found that they had closed my trail. I had discovered a route that was almost all off-road, or at least unpaved- from home to work. I guess I will be taking the road for this section for awhile. What is tragic is that NATO will waste this excellent view for some nondescript office building.

So I made it home early to fix the PC and to oil the terrace. I cleaned it the other night with some caustic chemical weapon that you can buy at the COOP. I was a little skeptical of its efficacy until the power sprayer we had borrowed from Lise's brother to rinse it off sprayed a little onto my arm. It had a pleasant burn to it, if you are into that sort of thing. I think it is some sort of hardcore base. At this point I felt sorry for all the little critters living beneath the terrace, which accounts for our entire backyard. Of course tonight, there is too much chance for rain, so I will wait until tomorrow. Ordinarily, I would pay someone to handle these sorts of tasks, but it simply isn't done around here. I cannot think of an analogy, but the only reason I might be able to wiggle out of my home ownerly responsibility would be because I was a crazy American. So everyone paints their own homes, fixes up their own houses, and so on. Besides, what better way to meet your neighbors. Mine almost seemed offended that I hadn't asked to borrow his power sprayer. I also joked that I didn't fully grasp the metric system, and had purchased 50m of garden hose. Actually I was well aware of the length, but it was the economy of scale that appealed to me. 50m costs only slightly more than 20m. And besides, this is some crazy German hose-- the only option in hose- and it is pure hose. There are no connectors. Those are an added expense. I figured I would just cut the hose and buy a few extra sets of couplers so I could use it more efficiently. Or, if you know anyone who needs some hose, let me know.

So hopefully tomorrow I can finish outside. Tomorrow Lise's parents will be staying "in town" so they can catch a very early flight out of here. Later we will pick up some Americans that will be staying here for a night or two while they are around. Sunday I leave for India.

So I am a little grumpy because I planned for the worst. I never really wanted to move here in the first place, and was so emotionally prepared for hardship and suffering, that I don't really know how to deal with everything being perfect. Lise and I were joking how the dishwasher still isn't perfectly mounted (I don't have the tools right now). She put it into perspective by saying that within the last year, we sold our house and cars, quit our jobs, moved abroad, found new jobs, a car, a house-- so we can get things done. So it really doesn't matter if we take a time out from painting while the weather is so nice. Or that I don't mount the dishwasher perfectly right now. We take care of the things that really matter. The other part of the "everything is turning out better than planned" is that we are expecting a baby in January. We wanted to wait until we moved here, but I never dreamed we would be situated so well, so quickly. I would have never anticipated how wonderful this all is. The waiting business is a little strange. Metaphorically, I feel like a little kid already counting down the days until Christmas-- when the days just creep by, barely moving. Usually, as an adult, Christmas is here and gone before we know it. Of course, the other aspect is that we won't know exactly when it will happen. But this is way cooler than just a having a live-in designated driver for months on end.

It is getting late. I have bike to work daily for the past three weeks, except once when I was running a little late and discovered a flat tire. The hills for the commute can get to me. When I take the long way home, it has 1000ft of climbing. When I am tired, I don't like thinking about it. The distance is nothing-- but there is nowhere to ride without some interesting topography.