Computer Issues Overshadow All Existence
I don't know why I'm such a fixatable freak but when something that was working yesterday decides, for no apparent reason, that it will no longer function today, I get a little tunnel vision as I try to deal with it.
As in this morning when I was still sitting in a pair of boxer shorts at quarter past 8 trying to get my stupid Airport Base Station to revive itself. But all I got, again and again and again and again ad infinitum ad nauseum ad dangerously high blood pressure inducive, were the three flashing fucking lights. Triple red (or amber or orange as Apple can't really decide on their actual hue but it ain't green) flashes on and off and on and off. Nothing will make it stop or change except pulling the plug, there's no off switch on lots of Apple products.

So I'm in the kitchen where the DSL connection is, wired into the net instead of wirelessly, trying to get enough proper info to figure out what the hell is wrong with the bugger. I tried Apple's hard reset procedure, nothing. Tried it three or four times, nothing.

And P, attempting to be helpful, suggested I leave it be and get back at it later. While I encourage her input on things, it wasn't the right time and I let her know that I'm already fixated and about ready to smash the sucker on the ground, although I'm almost positive that that will not fix it very well. So, hon, sorry if I was short but you do know I get like this when things won't function.

And it was not helped by Apple's woefully inadequate support pages. Basically, they can help you if you have a very particular set of problems happening. Other than that, you're on your own, sucker. I had to go searching all over the net just to figure out what the lights mean, Apple wouldn't even tell me that much. I don't know, I'm so thoroughly pissed off at the Airport Base Station that I may just go for the hard wired connection upstairs anyway. But not before I get seriously pissed off at it again tonight when I get home.

What I really need is a high powered disk utility to defrag my hard drive. Apple doesn't include anything like what I need with OS X and the best solution costs $80. Maybe I'll see if I can score one from a pal as I'm not even fully sure it will solve my issues. One of which is that its a pain in the ass to upload pics from my camera now, iPhoto just doesn't recognize the camera or the card when I pull it out and put it in the PCMCIA slot. And that makes snapping pics a wee bit less enjoyable. But I'm going to wrangle this sucker back into fighting form again.

To that end, I may back up the whole drive, zero it out and then reinstall everything. Sounds like loads of fun, doesn't it?