I'm tired.
I'm dehydrated (but working on it).
My feet hurt.
My shoulders ache.
I have no concentration whatsoever.

All because I had to work in stupid London yesterday. It's just as well I take the half day off in the afternoon, otherwise I'd have to come home in the rush hour and it'd be even worse.

*hugs* Maizie... Your post about travelling sounded very positive yesterday, and you said you'd probably feel like this. I hope you feel a bit better soon.

Thank you Miss Ross - getting properly hydrated has helped a lot in making me feel less...well, everything. Still very tired though.

And now my computer has broken. Working fabulously until 11.30 this morning. Then it went absolutely nuts. I rebooted, no help. I thought I'd uninstall the offending program and reinstall, but the thing where I go to uninstall didn't list the program.
So I contacted helpdesk. Who got back in touch almost immediately to tell me they don't support this program, that I have local support/experts to help me. So I contacted my local lead user for one of our programs that uses this base software, to say who is our local support, and it turns out we don't actually have one. But he did remind me of a sneaky workround that gets us in to the old version of where you install/uninstall software.
So I went there, uninstalled the software, reinstalled it. Fabulous.
Started it - and it said 'you don't have a 2009 license'. So I went to the installation thingy and it said I did have one. So I thought I'll do the same with that, uninstall, re-install. Only it won't let me uninstall the license at all, it just says "This component can not be uninstalled".

Which means I probably have to go back to helpdesk again, because while they don't support this software, they do support the installation tools, and if they're not working then I can probably badger them in to helping me. In the meantime, I might just try uninstalling everything again, rebooting, then reinstalling, while hoping for the best.

Obviously, have done no actual work since 11.30am - annoyingly, I was probably about half an hour away from fixing our final problem. But it's all gone a bit 'Friday the 13th' on us now...

I've been up 32 hours and really want to go to bed, but can't because I have to sign for a parcel thats supposed to be coming at some point in the next hour and a half.

Curl up on the doormat and sleep there. That way when the parcel deliverer calls, you're bound to hear it

I could, but I'd probably be curled up on top of by our labrador or licked to death.

I don't really want to scream, but I have had a bad week. I accidentally put my phone in the washing machine, and then whilst looking around my room for it stood on my straighteners, burning my foot, and snapping them in half.

Then I did various ill-advised things due to the demon drink, incurring extreme humiliation.

Plus, I might be having both a spiritual crisis and a romantic one... All at once.
I can't trust my motives for doing anything at the moment! Even my essay topics seem suspiciously orientated around themes that I shouldn't be this interested in...

I still don't want to scream though... I'm more sort of maudlin, and periodically miserable. For a few days I was even inexplicably happy. It's odd.

Hope next week is better. Did you get a new phone? Sorry if this has been answered earlier in the week!

Thanks, yes, I did, it's not a very good one, but I only usually text and phone people anyway. I'll just have to get used to no camera!

At least you have a phone now.

Hah!
At last! Saturday!
I was so frustrated after facing 3 exams in friday! (biology, chemistry and physics)

m_b_s

Hope the foot isn't too badly burned


I had my mock results yesterday. They weren't bad but the RE one wasn't as good as I would have got in year 10 becuase the teacher changed and marks it differently even if it's the same board! I don't have a clue what I might get for the real exam. the teacher in year 10 used to be an RE examiner so should be accurate when marking.

So, Friday, as I screamed above, my key piece of software went a bit nuts. I reported it to helpdesk, who told me they don't support it. So I played about with it myself a bit (with 'local support', i.e. help from the person next to me!). We uninstalled it, reinstalled it, added a 2009 license, with no joy. Uninstalled the license and reinstalled, no joy. Unistalled the license and the program, reinstalled the program and the license, no joy. Same but with restarts at every point, no joy.

So I've come in this morning, given it one more chance (I've no idea why), and it didn't work. So I phoned helpdesk, on the grounds that this is an installation problem - which they do support - not a problem with this particular bit of software they don't support.

So the helpdesk guy took control of my computer and...proceeded to uninstall, reinstall, uninstall-restart-reinstall and basically spend about an hour and a half doing stuff I did on Friday. I know he has to do it for himself. Part of me just wanted it to work, forget the embarrassment to me for having to say 'it didn't do that last time', but no, it didn't.

After all this playing around, he said 'Hmm, OK, not sure what's going on here, I'll refer it on to our group who support this software'.

Um, hello? Helpdesk doesn't support this software - at least, they didn't on Friday when it went mad! Now I've checked the ticket, and it appears that there is a top-secret support group for this software!!!

So now I am working from print outs kindly provided by a colleague, and writing my code in notepad in the hope that when I do get my software back, it'll nicely copy back in and work...!

ARGH!!!!

Not only is my software STILL not working, but Helpdesk haven't even looked at the ticket that the first-helpdesk-guy put in for me - 48 hours ago!!! Really not impressed...but at least there is some other stuff I can be getting on with today, for a while, at least. They've got until 8am EST (i.e. 1pm UK time) and then I'm phoning them up for a grump (I'm not phoning before then because if I phone before then I'm as likely to get India as Canada pick up the phone...waiting until UK afternoon means I'm more likely to get Canada who are in my experience more helpful!)

Are the local helpdesk actually located anywhere near you?

In the organisation I work for I tend to find that getting a ticket logged, then going down in person and pleading speeds things up no end. I have a friend who swears by home-baked cakes. On one occasion I found that being on the verge of tears (after a very stressful weekend working to meet a deadline when my laptop started playing up) took me right to the top of the queue.

Good grief, no!
I'm in the UK, and my helpdesk people are in India or Canada. The only local support I can get from central helpdesk is for hardware.
I'm with the central helpdesk as they've deigned to call it an installation problem; if they decide it's a problem with this piece of software then I'm done for (as they will tell me to go away and use the departmental support mechanism, whatever that is; and we don't actually have one for our department, apparently [and even if we did have departmental support, it would be in the US. Or if I'm very very very lucky indeed, on the other side of London to me. But not on the same site as me )

But now I've just been given a chunk of work to do which means I can spend a couple of days not using this software - so at least I'm not completely lost (but it would have been nice to finish up where I was...)

Our helpdesk are in India too, but if you manage to get the problem escalated far enough you can get it put through to "real" people who you can talk to in person.

Argh! For the past couple of weeks when bad stuff was actually happening all the time, I was in a ridiculously good mood, and couldn't get worked up about it. Now I'm suddenly sad all the time, but I can't talk to anyone about it because it's old news, and everyone thinks I'm dealing with it miraculously well!
Plus I seem to be having a terrible run of bad luck, nothing worth too much angst in itself, but it's all piling up, the amount of cuts, burns and bruises I have now is ridiculous, and my broken stuff is piling up.
As well as all this, there's a lot of what, in a film or book, would be considered foreshadowing, from a couple of my flatmates, which implies that they're going to make a decision soon that will really screw me over, so it looks like the bad luck is not going to go away.
ARGH

Aaaaaaaaaaaargggggggggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Husbands, ... and daughters ............and their fathers ............. grrrrrrrrr. And me caught in the middle.

Been there, got t shirt, and jumper, and bag with logo.
Hugs and tea and sympathy.
Bev

Argh. That was a little scream
Reading all your bad weeks has made me feel happier That makes me sound like a sadist...

No, it makes me realise that my week has been quite the opposite of bad

Sorry, you don't have to read this. I'm just having a mini rant
I was just in a bad mood, because a friend keeps moaning about being bad at music. Grr. I hate it when people moan. You never know what to say. Then she goes on about how much better people are then her. So I made comforting noises and said "they're not better. You're great!" Then she has a go at me for being irritating. Then we chat a bit more. She starting talking about how great it is that she never practises and her teacher never makes a fuss. So I said "Maybe you should try practising. Make your teacher happy." She said she "hates the cello. And never wants to practise because she sounds awful and just hates practising". I told her she should give it a go, and just to try practising every day this week, and that the cello is beautiful and she'll like it more the more time she spends with it.
Then she swore at me and told me that I'm annoying and sound like her mum. And swore at me some more. So then I said "Ok, fine" and walked off.

Anywho. Tomorrow I've got a day off school. So I can spend it with my instruments
Ooh, and now I'm happy, because my mum says she needs a hobby, and something to focus and work towards.

I told her she should learn an instrument. And went on and on about how great it is, and stress relieving, and constructive, and you get a sense of achievement. And I've persuaded her to get a little self-teach book on piano, or another instrument and rent one and then possibly a teacher

Aaargh...why do good things always come with a correspondingly bad one?!?!?

My phone appears to be DEAD... I don't think it liked getting snowy and cold

Probably just need to recharge the battery - my phone used to go completely flat if it was left in a jacket in the porch.

and it might be worth simply taking out the battery and putting it back - if you haven't already tried that.

Mine 'dies' sometimes and that usually does the trick.

I hate my PhD.

Aaw, Flossie, sorry to hear that - how far through it are you? A phase of fear and loathing seems to be a necessary part of completing a PhD (not that I can speak from experience, but have witnessed a few crises....)

I'm roughly half-way through writing up, but I'm bored with what I'm doing and can't write the next (more interesting) chapter until I've written this one because the one chapter builds on the other.

And I want a lectureship, but there's just no jobs coming up in my area at all.
If I knew I had a job to go to which I wanted to do then it'd be much easier to do the writing.

At least the end is in sight....hmmm, the academic life is not an easy one, I fear. So how long until you are Dr Flossie? Have a virtual stroke of one of my pussy-cats

And what's the subject of your thesis?

I've been stuck at the same point for a couple of months though. At this rate it will be at least 2020 before I'm finished.

Thanks for the cat Sue.

Have a limerick too - sorry can't help myself, I'm breaking out in awful poetry all over the place..


There once was a swotter named Flossie
Who worked day and night for her 'D'
A lecturer's post
And a plateful of toast
Motivated her write-up so glossy!


Night-night x

Thanks Sue.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. My laptop hates me. King Rat is using the main computer so I want to set up my laptop to use MSN. Will it let me? It won't. I will have another fight with it in a moment.

It's possible an MSN problem may be at MSN's end petrat. It took me three goes to put MSN on my new computer.

Doesn't everyone

Grrr. Why does one particular person's posts always make me feel I want to reach for a hatchet???

*wonders who Cyrilla is referring to*

In our usually quiet and peaceful village we had an armed robbery this evening just a few yards from my studio.

Not mine I hope!

Nope, not yours, mel2!

Sorry to hear that, petrat. I remember how the Hungerford massacre 20 years ago affected everyone in this area. Must be very unsettling; you just don't expect armed robberies to happen near you.

I remember that quite well ... a good friend of mine was driving back here from the west country on that day, and intending to come off the motorway through Hungerford at about the crucial time - however she missed the turn off : couldn't quite work out how she did, but found she had gone sailing past ...

Petrat sorry to hear about yours. Was anyone injured?

Oh my goodness!!! How scary! *hugs*

I've had the same problem for months with msn. Have given up!


Could I borrow the hatchet when your finished with it please?

I'm hiding in my own house. Excellent.

Actually, it's not my house is it? It's just the place I'm expected to call home.

Well my dear, you've been given some excellent advice this week from someone who really does know what they're talking about. All you need to do is apply it. It won't happen by itself, so take some positive action! (That's an order, by the way! )

I really am trying, Elisabeth. I know it won't happen overnight so I'll keep chipping away, just sometimes it gets to me a bit, you know? I do appreciate that person's advice though.

Have had to move house unexpectedly due to somebody messing me around so now I am living on a friends living room floor for I don't know how long and had to give back my rented piano, feels very weird not to have one and also quite inconvenient as I was meant to be starting teaching soon!

My son has just returned from a shopping trip to say that an alleyway in the main shopping area was cordoned off, police everywhere, crime scene markers and blood everywhere being hosed down by fire department. Good grief - this was at 10 o'clock on a Saturday morning in the nice part of town....