Joelle said in the early morning on June 27, 2008
Yesterday morning, I sat down to wrangle some projects into submission, but my computer said it needed to run a Windows Service Pack update. Fine, fine… I started it up and went to the gym.
When I came back, the computer was powered down and I figured it had just done that when it was finished. But, when I started it up again, it would only get so far and power down. I took the battery out, unplugged the power cord from the laptop and waited a few minutes until I was 100% totally sure there was no power to the laptop, in case perhaps it was stuck in some ‘hibernation power saving’ loop. I’ve had that happen before…
After putting the battery back in, I plugged in the power cord, hit the “on” button and… nothing. Not even a blip. This, of course, makes my stomach seize and I call Fry’s since my laptop is under warranty. I explained the situation… pretty calmly, I think, and he sounded as vexed as I was. He said that sometimes an interruption in an update can cause the operating system to disable, but not getting any power at all must be something else. I should bring it in, he said. Indeed.
As I was packing up my computer, it occurred to me, “Hey, Mensa, maybe it’s not plugged in!”
Apparently, the part of the power cord that runs from the wall to the adapter had just popped out and was sitting half-in, half-out of the adapter, which in turn made the computer sometimes power up, sometimes not, depending on how I was wiggling the cord. Yeah. I’m SO glad I didn’t pay some WoW-addicted tech kid to tell me to plug it in. That would have been embarrassing.
I went to Fry’s and bought myself new geekery anyway, to soothe my blushing ego. You know, as a reward for being so calm and troubleshooting the problem myself. 
*cough* I got a new pink mouse, which I like a lot better because it fits my small hands. I picked up a new headset so I can stop spending 5 billable minutes of every client call asking, “Can you hear me now?”. I got a few cheesy girl movies and the best, best, best thing: a Belkin Mini Conceal Surge Protector.
I’ll wait while the clouds part and the music of the angels rains upon us for a sec.
A surge protector doesn’t sound very sexy, but I consider that jumble of USB cables, power cords, adapters and miscellaneous subpar surge protectors next to my desk an eyesore. I hate it. I’ve always hated it. It’s like an electrical equivalent of Marjory, the Trash Heap. It makes it hot in the corner and damn near impossible to figure out what goes to where until you’ve unplugged the wrong cord and shut down the whole enchilada. But lo… Belkin bestows upon us a new frontier — concealed surge protectors.
I know. It’s almost too much to take in.
I’m dismantling my desk this weekend for a good cleaning and putting in some new office furniture — a cute cabinet from IKEA to hold up my printer and store the office supplies with which I help run our magnificent empire! Muahahahaha! Ok, not really. It’s just some copy paper, a few books and the biggest bag of Sharpies you’ve ever seen. But a girl can dream, ok?
Anyway, I’ll be implementing my new surge protector and I’ll report back. I’m sure you’ll be on the edge of your seat. Who wouldn’t?
Joelle said in the late morning on June 25, 2008
Taken this past weekend in the morning on San Diego Bay.
Joelle said in the early morning on June 23, 2008
There are several terms and phrases that I feel should be dead and buried. In fact, I sometimes say these phrases and when I do, it’s like the proverbial record scratch in my head. I cringe when I hear them, even moreso when they come out of my own mouth.
- Each and Every
Ok, so it’s a bit pedantic of me, considering that anyone who knows me would not say I’m the Queen of Word Economy, but for some reason, this term just bugs. Why each and every. If it’s each, then it’s every, is it not? Pick one.
- At the end of the day...
I’m guilty of this from time to time and yet, it bugs me still.
- I don’t have the bandwidth...
Oh, this one sends me to the moon! It said it yesterday and nearly flogged myself because it irks me that much. “Do you have the bandwidth to take on this project?” “Let’s see if my schedule has the bandwidth...” It’s called time, people. Time. You don’t have time, you don’t have room in your schedule, you’re booked. Your ISP has bandwidth, but you? You’ve just got time, dude. Get over yourself.
- Ping me!
When someone says this to me, I won’t lie. I want to throw canned goods at them. PING me? As in “I’ll be out of the office this afternoon, but I’ll ping you when I get back!” or “Ping me later and we’ll meet up!” No. No, stop that. Shoosh! I’m not determining if your IP is accessible, I’m not alerting you to a new blog entry, I’m just talking to you. I will not ping you, but I will email or call you if you like.
- Out of pocket
This has been a subject of great debate. When I was living in Texas, people used “out of pocket” to mean “I am busy or otherwise unavailable”. As in, “I’m out of pocket until Thursday at a conference in Boise. Please leave a message.” What? What does your pocket have to do with anything? It is my belief that “out of pocket” applies to cash-money having to come out of your own pocket, as in, “My boss was supposed to cover my trip to the strip club, but they caught it on my expense report and now I’m out of pocket.” But at least now we know why you weren’t available.
- Make it pop!
This you get a lot in design fields, especially within marketing companies. Every client wants their stuff to “pop!” Well… duh, right? Except unfortunately their idea of making it “pop!” usually includes some kind of starburst or animated aardvark or something. That pops alright...
- Going viral
Do I really need to explain why this is irritating? I don’t care of it’s an accurate term or inaccurate term… it’s just annoying.
- You feel me?
No, I don’t feel you. Shut up. And if you add “Dawg” or “Yo” at the end without any hint of irony, everything you said before that was completely negated and you’ll have to start impressing me all over again. Only this time… well, you won’t. But you can try.
You feel me? 
Joelle said around mid-afternoon on June 22, 2008
It’s been a really busy week and with this heat, it’s been difficult to get things done in a timely fashion. My laptop can only run for a couple hours before it’s Africa hot and I can’t even rest my wrists on it. The fans work and are clean, I have a cooling pad underneath, but even with the fan in the room pointing right at me, it needs a cool down.
So, I decided to stop work at a normal time on Friday and join Daniel, Richard, mikey, and a couple other guys from Twitter at Urban Mo’s for a cocktail.
Yeah, a gay bar on a Friday night during a Summer of (thus far) sweltering heat was an adventure. We finally managed to carve ourselves a little niche and this drunk guy comes stumbling up mumbling something about how “there are SO many hot guys in here, right?” and he was wondering if he could put his mug of beer down where I was sitting, which happened to be in the middle of our little group. I was too nice and Daniel had to usher him away. Hey, I’m a sucker for a man who slurs.
Anyway, mikey and I bailed after that because it was hotter than Hell hit with a hammer and my car has air conditioning. I was hungry so we hit the Wendy’s drive-thru over by mikey’s place. While I’m deciding between the salty burger and the greasy chicken sandwich, I overhear this woman in the minivan in front of me ordering her meal. She seemed like she was just ordering and ordering… and ordering, so I start to listen more intently.
“I’d like one baked potato… with butter ONLY.”
“Would you like anything else?”
“Yes, I’d like one baked potato with chives and one with butter ONLY.”
“So is that one with chives and two with butter only or one?”
“Yes and I’d like one with cheese.”
“Do you want anything else?”
“Yes, I’d like one baked potato with butter ONLY and one with chili, but NO cheese. One with cheese. And then one with chives and butter ONLY.”
“Wait. Uhhh… OK, so did you want...?”
And this went on for like 10 minutes. She could have gotten a 5 lb. sack of potatoes for about 1/8th of what she paid at Wendy’s for her epic potatorama. I couldn’t help but send this Tweet which was apparently enjoyed by all we’d just left at Mo’s. They were speculating as much as we were about what this woman could possibly be doing with all these baked potatoes.
Spontaneous dinner party and she without side dish? All starch diet? Tuber fetish? What?
Joelle said in the late morning on June 18, 2008
Kathy on pets:
Joelle: I want two or three weiners.
Kathy: doesn’t every woman?
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