sab | Entries tagged with tech support

Is there a thing where you can list all the artists and bands whose tour schedules you want to see, or when they are in town?

I don't mean signing up for individual artists' mailings (done that), or for signing up with a ticket service that lists everything in the area from sports events to comedy shows to concerts (got that too) -- I'm wondering if there's something like http://on-my.tv/ where you can select a set of artists or locations or whatever, and they e-mail you monthly updates or you check a site or something?

At least one of you, including probably

filmg33k and

ropo, knows the answer to this, yes?

So, all seasons considered, what are your favorite SPN monster of the week eps? I do like their monsters and standalone eps, but I get tired and fall asleep when we're talking about Dean in hell or Sam doing whatever it is he was doing with his demon powers or anything with that little girl and the angels (and I like Castiel! Just not enough to watch him have plot. Or with Dean.).

Favorite MOTW? Ep titles or numbers are good so I can find them from the place. If there's a little bit of mytharc I need to know to understand the ep, tell it to me in 15 words or less?

I like this show. I do. But when I sat down to try and watch a season in a row I got so painfully bored with all the mytharc, and thus I turn to you, my tech supporters, for help. Help?

So, based on your knowledge of Sab and television; sell me on:

Demons
Sanctuary
Lie to Me
Trust Me
Lark Rise to Candleford
Sophie
Being Human
Primeval
United States of Tara
Skins

(eta (tuesday): Okay, so thanks to all y'all beautiful people, I will try Sanctuary, Being Human and United States of Tara expecting boatloads of promise, and Primeval expecting boatloads of crack. Will give all the rest a pass and will report back on my findings after executing the experiments. My LORD THANK YOU.)

I haven't seen a single ep of any of these except Skins, of which I've seen a few and actually quite liked, despite my bias against teenager-based shows. Still I haven't seen anything in order and don't remember much; plus I think the cast is all different now?

Anyway; if you're watching, have watched, are loving, have loved, tried and hated, or are ambivalent about any of the above, let me know? And if you ARE loving, or even liking one of the above, pimp it to me, will you? Picspam is always nice but not necessary (eta: because with a handful of very particular exceptions, hot people are not enough to sell me on a show, especially those tiresome young hot people *sigh*). Funny quotes or clever plot references are good! Fic recs too!

ALSO if you're out there and curious about one of these shows, go ahead and comment and second the request and maybe some nice soul will answer us?

LOVE,
SAB

Last night's time trial in sleep medications has proven as follows: Lunesta is indeed the one with the horrible, frightening aftertaste that corrupts any food or drink you try to follow it with and makes water taste like battery acid; I'd tried it years ago and only tried again in case the first experience had had some other tasty cause. Apparently certain folks have an enzyme that interacts with Lunesta and some don't -- I suspect it might be a good sleep aid but someone willing to try it more than once has to do that audition. Still, I think it beats Sonata, where if you don't fall asleep within about two hours it rebounds and you're wide awake. Ambien DOES work for me (though apparently less so when piled on several other meds as last night) but I have to ration because I only have four. *g* The Ativan was just to make me stop freaking out, and is rationed over the course of a sleepless night at about .5mg every two hours. That's the good stuff, baby.

In herbal news, taking 2 or 3 Valerian (also with a stinky aftertaste, but nothing like Lunesta-levels) adds a good punch to anything and tonight I'm going to try a single sleep drug combined with Valerian to see how it plays out. Last night, ultimately, I think it was the melatonin that did it.

And now, to put to bed an issue that was perking in my Ambienated mind last night, a poll:

[Poll #1346042]

The guy who just came to deliver my groceries said, "what's going on down there?" I trotted out to learn that my block was blocked off at both ends, and six police helicopters with search lights were circling, shouting things through megaphones that I couldn't quite make out.

I called the police station, mostly because I wanted to know if there was a crazy meth-head on the loose who might climb through my bedroom window (only to learn I have absolutely nothing but this computer worth stealing, and I'd kill him before he could do that) -- the police said, "it's probably for the protest against prop 8." He looked it up and confirmed, "yeah, the Sunset end of your block is a main staging area."

"Oh," I said. "Then no problem. I totally support the protest against prop 8."

"Exactly," said the cop. "Me too. We're trying not to get in their way too much."

#

That was a heartening story.

#

I find wallpapers really hard to track down. Does anyone know anyone who makes them? Well and on a regular basis? Or, primarily, does anyone know where I might find a (good) House-related wallpaper? My usual icon-maker suspects have some gorgeous icons but I also need a WALLPAPER. Time to replace this Doctor and his TARDIS with that Doctor and his Vicodin.

#

Oh and ETA, I really legitimately don't like the new LJ userinfo. My LJ related bookmarks -- including my browser home page -- are peoples' userinfos, and mine. I go to people's LJs by way of their userinfo, because I liked the quick visual snapshot of a person's friends and interests and fandoms &c.

The new layout is first of all too non-contrasty, the blue text rather than the bold/underlined text is much harder to read and to distinguish. Also, with a widescreen monitor, the text is too wide and therefore I need to turn my head to read it; I much prefer a narrower snapshot. And third, the information that's centered and that first meets your eye when you check the page is the least useful info, the number of comments posted, for example, or the number of memories and tags. Even the basic info and bio are too far down on the page, and the interests and friends' lists take vertical scrolling to get to (and are then, with the blue vs. black non-bolded non-underlined text, too hard to read).

I changed my bookmarks to peoples' actual journals, and have changed my browser home page to MSNBC, and will certainly learn to browse and use LJ without relying so much on the userinfo page, but for seven years I've used that page as a portal, reverting to the previous version (Horizon, or whatever it was) every time there was a layout change because it's such a major part of my navigating.

This new userinfo page is too hard to see. Or maybe it's true and when I turned 30 my eyes got even worse. Be kind to the old folks, people!

1. Waking up to find a fine smattering of feathers on your bed and shoulder and hip means your cat has eaten a bird on you sometime during the night. *re-shudders*

2. Rec me your favorite House/Wilson stories? My only prerequisite is that House is not cuddly and doesn't, at any time, go off his meds or stop being in chronic pain.

ETA: two more things...

3. Yuletide signups are open! I'm going to do a proper pimp post someday soon, explaining how this event goes beyond fandom as we know it and becomes more of a public service to the internet world as well as wish-fulfillment for people who might not even know they like fanfic.

4. Does the House ep "Cane and Able" make anyone else cry like a great big girl?

ETA one more thing...

5.

sophia_helix and

general_jinjur, thanks for all the healing and buffs! A PSA: never be a half-elf cleric. She can't use ANYTHING.

Anybody know if I can simultaneously upload and download using my premium MU and Megamanager?

Still no internet at home. War between me and AT&T is SO ON.

x

Current Music: regina spektor - reading time with pickle

ETA: Never mind. I'm getting my money back.

( expired tale of Guaranteed Overnight Delivery )

Current Mood: irate!

In tribute to the dear and departing SGA, I found the blog post I wrote back when it premiered. [what if they gave a fandom and everybody came?]

While we're at it, can someone tell me how to import a free theme from a free theme site into my free Wordpress blog? THX.

Current Music: joel plaskett emergency - you came along

I'm nearly finished watching Moonlighting on DVD (you can watch me watch it at Twitter.com/Sab) and am taking bids on what to start on next.

Criteria! 1960s, 70s or 80s American comedy (half hour or hour) with a narrative arc or relationship development that makes it something incredibly tasty to consume in one fell swallow.

Sell me!

Here's a youtube link to the last three minutes of Diane's last episode of Cheers, the famed "have a good life" and then the fantasy flashforward and I am, you will, many of you, be astonished to observe, am so well medicated that I didn't cry, neither when I went through the first five seasons this summer nor when I watched 'em again last month. But I can't watch this youtube clip, nonetheless.

God DAMN that's good TV, people.

Now. Can someone tell me what the music is that plays under that last dance? Doo do do doo, doo doo, doo doo, doo doo. Doo doo, doo do do doo, doo do do dooo. I've been singing it in my head, in my house and in the shower, to

wearemany and my webcam, over and over for half a year now and I'm ready to put a name to it if I can. Yes?

Thanks to

jood and

txvoodoo I can report it's Irving Berlin's "What'll I Do," and here's an absolutely knockout version by Rufus, Martha and Loudon Wainwright: What'll I Do?.

The queue on

whatwasthatbook is maxed out, so y'all get first shot. Enclosed please find details on no fewer than two, but possibly as many as five different books! Tell me what they are!

The following details are probably about two different YA novels, that I read in my youth and conflated in my adulthood, which is why they've been impossible for me to find. Can you nice people help me untangle these details and find one or both of the missing books?

Book one:
About a girl (possibly named Jeremy, after her grandfather) who travels somewhere for summer vacation (possibly to Ohio, possibly during the polio outbreak) and meets a set of identical twins. The twins have a secret club and initiate her by hazing (she ends up reciting OH WAH TA GOO SIAM), but more importantly, they have fat white-wall tires on their bikes and our main girl only has an old ten-speed, but the (hot? mail carrier?) neighbor boy teaches her to love her bike. And she and the twins, something. ETA: This book has been found! It is I Would if I Could by Betty Miles.

Book two:
About a girl (possibly named Jeremy, after her grandfather) who travels somewhere for summer vacation ~~(possibly to Ohio, possibly during the polio outbreak)~~ and meets a set of identical twins. One of the twins has kidney failure, and is hooked to a dialysis machine several times a week. They play lots of hide and seek in the twins' house, which has a dumbwaiter. FINALLY! This book has been found, has been out of print since '86, and is Making Half Whole by Terry Wolfe Phelan. Huge, huge thanks to hadaverde for helping me end a decade-long search...

Two different books? ~~The same book?~~

THEN, in unrelated news, I'm looking for other books, not about twins but rather about a fat girl and a thin girl. These seem more well known, the title's probably on the TIP of my BRAIN, it's someone normal like Judy Blume or Lois Lowry.

Book three:
About a skinny girl who moves to NYC (we never learn her name) and meets a fat girl whose name is probably the title of the book. And their landlord/building manager is a friend of theirs who mops his floors by tying dishtowels to his shoes. And there's some halloween debauchery, iirc? ETA: Found! A Girl Called Al by Constance Greene, thank you everso, pearl_o!

(Book four?):
Unless that's a different book where a girl moves to the suburbs and meets a fat friend, and has an annoying brother, and the fat friend gets skinny at the end and moves away? And there's halloween debauchery. Yes, those are two different books, dammit, again. I'll take the title of either or both!

Book five:
All I remember about this one is that the neighbor had cats, lots of cats, including one called tiny orange kitten that got SQUISHED when someone sat on it. Again, probably about two girls who are friends, probably one of 'em's fat. (That seemed to be a theme at the time!) And I believe also a younger brother, possibly the culprit responsible for squishing Tiny Orange Kitten. ETA! FOUND! Thank you, virulain, this is It's Like This, Cat by Emily Neville!

ALL of these are circa the sort that might be read by a 8-12 yo girl in the early 1980s.

Details that could belong to any of the above books:
- the girls have a sleepover and do slambooks where they each write secret truths about each other, the main girl learns she's "boy crazy." (prob. one of the books w/the twins?) ETA: this detail belongs to Judy Blume's Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great! Which may or may not be one of the same twin books as above?
- the fat girl and the thin girl decide to make matching dresses, the thin girl comments her mom won't let her wear vertical stripes, the fat girl says her mom won't let her wear horizontal stripes, they settle on, like, fabric with tiny horses on it or something. Also, weejun loafers feature prominently. (prob. one of the books with a fat girl and a thin girl) ETA: This detail belongs to Beverly Cleary's Ellen Tebbits, and not any of the other (still vague) books mentioned herein! Thanks, sophia_helix!

I love you ALL.

1. Who knows how to get my AIM contacts to show up in Pandion next to all my LJTalk friends?

2. LJTalk works like so. It's not its own client. You gots to download something that supports it. Apparently that's Trillian Pro (not FREE, so WHO CARES), and things like Gaim and Pandion (FREE FREE FREE). And then you just sign in with your LJ e-mail addy and password, and next thing you know you're talking to

tzikeh like nobody's business! Come be near me!

3. No, but, seriously. Have you seen Wenders' Until the End of the World??? Seriously. I need to borrow you for a sec.

4. My love for David Tennant's gotten out of hand. I'm doodling "Mrs. Emily Tennant" in my notebooks and I'm even annoying myself. Fortunately he's gonna BLOW UP in six months, take his shirt off, do an American accent, get a meaty part in a breakthrough Trainspotting-type film, drop Who, become the next Ewan and abandon us to the ether. THIS is why we need prenups for our fannish loves. This year's love is gonna CLEAN ME OUT and LEAVE ME HANGING.

5. Lance Bass = STILL THE GAYEST.

Okay, here's a fun game. Pimp me some good icon communities/icon makers? Off the beaten path, maybe? I'm looking for good Doctor Who icons particularly, also good Office and NCIS icons, also some good icons of hot chicks like Pauley P. and Billie P. And any good icons from graphic novels/indie comics (not DC or Marvelverse, IOW), them I want too!

I trawl

pimpicons and

good_fanicons pretty regularly, so I know the folks who post in those comms, or at least can find 'em.

As for individual artists and designers,

slodwick,

winter_baby, occasionally

septicemic and even more rarely

nullsechs are the champ icon makers on my default flist; I also spend time with

saava and

_jems_ and

teh_indy, and several of the other icon artists of worldwide renown and consistent genius.

Some hidden gems I've found include

nihil_est, who has a great and grungy style, and

tamaduh which might in fact be two people, both of whom are awesome. The same can be said for

hellopublic which may also be two people, the one I like is

radiovolume.

Who do you like?

//

OH ALSO. EIGHT MORE DAYS to sign up for

sitcomathon.

This is NOT directed toward

likethesun2,

mazily,

tangleofthorns,

circusgirl and ~~sloganeer~~ (Whoops! Yay!), all of whom I am confident need no prodding and will be all signed up-like come the Day of Reckoning.

No, this goes out to the rest of you, people who don't do ficathons or are scared or might just let this one slip by. First off -- it's not exclusively devoted to crossover; there are plenty of single fandom requests (Jim/Pam! Joey/Chandler! JD/Cox!) to request or ultimately write. You only need to know THREE SITCOMS to be eligible, and everyone here had BETTER know three sitcoms or I'm defriending your asses. And then you've got three months, till Halloween, to write 500 stinkin' words! And your reward will be a fat, juicy archive full of sitcom fic. And while that will still be superfantastic with 30 participants, imagine the fantasticatude with a HUNDRED participants! Um. Sign up for

sitcomathon. It's the right thing to do.

(Which reminds me,

thassalia, my T&L IS coming, slowly, but coming!)

I miss Gmail, back in the good old days when a person could transmit files over the intarweb and another person would receive them on his/hir own computer in an INBOX of some sort! Gmail has been down now for far too long for the ADD generation; I'm getting agita.

Here's more Fruit Bats, this one makes you want to simultaneously bop and whistle, AND contains Chris "We Are Still Mad At You" Carter's favorite horse latitudes. Fruit Bats, "A Dodo's Egg". Holler if you like, holler if you want more, holler if Gmail rises from the ashes and spreads its wings full of e-mail again?

And to celebrate Gmail's reupping, Eisley,"Trolley Wood," which is about a magical wood with trolleys in it! Would I lie to you?

ETA: Still mad at Chris Carter.

Anybody know how to get to the full version of the userinfo page with the new-school embedded URL? Now when I try t access http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=iamsab&mode=full it just redirects to iamsab.livejournal.com/profile, which isn't the full version? And when I tack &mode=full to the end of THAT URL, nothing whatsoever happens.

Yeah, the embedded URL is nice and sleek and sexy, but MAN so far it's more trouble than it's worth.

~~Why won't my iTunes launch?~~

megolas is our King.

I click on the icon, and I get the arrow cursor and then the arrow/hourglass cursor for a moment, and then just the arrow cursor while the computer thinks, and then the arrow/hourglass a little, and then just the arrow and it's all over and NO PROGRAM LAUNCHES? [ETA: !? interbang!]

( the enclosed is for archival purposes only! )

Did anyone else's VLC media player suddenly and mysteriously upgrade itself to the most fabulous user interface ever?

I'm watching SFC's The Triangle, which so far is coming along very, very nicely. I'm at the start of part two.

This is for me, and also for you, for bookmarking and posterity purposes:

( methods of getting live humans on the phone at various tech support and customer service numbers traditionally staffed with annoying computers who love to tell you that your selection is invalid and also that you suck )

Also, I wrote a Stargate: Atlantis story called The Pegasus Society, which is Sheppard/McKay/Atlantis and unashamedly about Mensa and porn. Godspeed, children of the Revolution!

Lennier, my stalwart companion, my refurbished IBM ThinkPad, got infected with a deadly virus because his operatrix (that'd be me) was foolish enough to open an e-mail attachment from

wearemany (who should not be blamed in any way for Lennier's ailment -- she herself got the virus from mine own father) because I love

wearemany so much I couldn't bear not to hear what she had to say. Even though it wasn't We speaking, per se.

Twelve hours later and I've reinstalled the system software and I've lost everything. Well, everything that

runpunkrun hasn't secured, which, god love her, is plenty, for she is my Runpunk and my Salvation.

But mostly I've lost everything, including -- and most painfully, at the moment -- my pirated full copy of Photoshop 7 which I would swear is on a cd around here somewhere unless I gave it back to PTP. Which I do hope I did.

Also gone is my full install of Microsoft Office, which, who cares, except I don't have Word now and I paid for that.

And all I wanted to do was watch some Buffy. *sigh*

Anyway, it's gone, all gone, my half-fics and my icons-in-progress and the nine hundred fonts I downloaded and the first half of Babylon 5 season one that took TWO WEEKS to get through Bittorrent and all of this season's Andromeda and my address books and my bookmarks and, you know, everything. All gone. Kaput.

Lennier's back up and healthy, in the blue of Windows XP health. I can't even re-make my nice Buffy/Giles wallpaper (the training room shot from...now I've forgotten the ep title, but the nice one, with the couch and the mats and the target) without Photoshop and I'm missing the half-million codecs PTP so carefully selected for me so's I could watch all these Buffys.

Appropriately, Buffy's just returned from the dead over here and she's not thrilled about it. I'm not sure Lennier was in heaven, but he's carrying on cranky for all that he's lost.

I saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind last night. It was very Charlie Kaufman and expectedly weird and solid. It took about forty-five minutes in for me to care about the characters, but it was a good stealthy left hook when I finally did. I would be more eloquent about this if it weren't for Lennier.

A good portion of the Jeremiah fic is gone, I think, stuff I hadn't sent Punk yet. Same goes for the Remix/Redux story which really, really bites because I've already had to recreate a whole chunk of that and I'm not sure I can even remember, now, what was lost. Same goes for a couple of little B5 pieces, an HP drabble, the Atreyu drabble that I'd barely begun. All my screenplays are gone.

This'd be a lot more aggravating if I were more conscious; if I'd slept at all. If it weren't dwarfed by the fact that there's gonna be another money-seeking adventure in the near future so's I can pay my rent.

I want an egg sandwich.