yarbroughs dot org

This is part one of a two- or three-part adventure where I chronicle the misfortunes of the week. The writing is “as it happened,” or “at the end of the day,” if you will.  Either way, keep in mind that when I was writing these entries, I was expecting the magical solution to appear and make things instantly well (much like an Obama supporter in this regard).  Some of these things I write about are going to be vague; others are going to totally bore and frustrate you trying to understand. I wouldn’t read this, myself, but I wrote it (most of it, so far, the epilogue hasn’t quite played out yet) and dangit, you’re going to read it. Or not.

Tuesday

Tuesday was an interesting day. I learned quite a bit of stuff. We’ll tackle the things I learned in reverse chronological order. Stick with me, here.

Microsoft Word 2007 is a difficult beast to comprehend, if you’re used to earlier versions. The menus and menu buttons at the top have been replaced by what is called a “ribbon bar.” Everything’s still there, it’s just that you’re only shown a little bit at once. I don’t know if the redesign was an oft-demanded feature, but we old curmudgeons (I’m an old and gnarled 37, and have worked with Office since Office 95) get used to what we like. I like my sandwich how I like my sandwich. I just searched the help function on Word, though, and have been specifically told that changing the look back to the old is quite impossible, sorry, and so is customization.

Interesting side note #1: The program, and indeed the rest of the Office 2007 suite, is a lovely blue hue. Take that for what you will.

Part of the reason I’m using Word 2007 to compose this post is that thumb drives do not like being washed. This is important. Some smart guy once told me that electronics and water don’t mix. I guess it wasn’t wise to test that theory by completely forgetting to remove the drive from my pants pocket prior to laundry day. Now before anyone gets in a kerfluffle about it, I must tell you that the stick is not completely dead; however, it is no longer recognized by my work computer. My computer at work is a giant turd, though, so maybe the replacement I get in 2 weeks will be a bit more forgiving to me and my needs… my needs being “Actually able to have more than 2 programs open at the same time, and more than 1 if Adobe Acrobat Reader is involved, and oh by the way can I have this memory stick plugged in too, thanks ever so much.”

Interesting side note #2: The word “kerfluffle” is not in the MS Word dictionary as a valid word. Neither is the word “turd.”

Interesting side note #2.5: Kerfluffle’s not recognized by Firefox’s spellcheck, either. Turd, however, is.

Now, my thumb drive was needed to access a trouble ticket system at my webhost. Well, not exactly. Exactly was that I needed the password for the site, which is stored on my thumb drive. THAT is because I have passwords to over 96 websites (that I remembered to include; I’m sure there are more out there). Having one password, or even 5 passwords, for over 96 websites, is not smart. Fully one-fifth of the passwords I use are for work-related systems, and every one of them has a different password requirement. It’s frustrating.

Interesting side note #3: Banks that actually have an upper limit on password length both confuse and frighten me.

Now, I need to access the trouble ticket at my webhost because my site has been down since 1:41 AM on Tuesday. As of the time I type this precise sentence (7:10 PM Tuesday) it’s still down. Since I didn’t have my password, I tried unsuccessfully to phone tech support. Tech Support is very busy with phone calls, so the website tells me, and encourages me to use the support ticket system. That I can’t get into. Because I washed my memory stick. Arg.

Interesting note #4: Yeah, I got inexpensive web hosting. I know the old adage, “you get what you pay for.” At the same time, I rarely need support, and I have great uptime.

Now, I’ll grant that when I was finally able to get in to the ticket system, I found that my notification email was actually a trouble ticket, marked “urgent” and awaiting my reply. I typed an unnecessary paragraph and ended it with “how do we resolve this?” This, ultimately, is what I need to know. I wonder how they treat “Urgent?” I replied 2 hours ago (about 5:20 PM)… by the time you read this, I’ll know that answer.

Interesting side note #5: Word 2007 does automatic word counts, and displays them at the bottom. That’s ultra cool, and much better than previous versions of word and every version of OpenOffice.org ever made.

I also learned that replying to the address that sent the email in the first place may not always be the best course of action… “suspended-accounts@” sends an email, with the reply-to address being “suspended-accounts@,” so I replied. “How do we resolve this?” To this moment, no reply via email, either.

Interesting side note #6: The best things in life come in threes. I’ve overused the interesting side notes, now.

So now it’s the baby’s bath time, I’m without a website, and I’ve written the longest blog post I’ve written in a while (800+ words). How much better can the day be?