Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

The World You Want to Live In
December 17, 2012

For Riley's birthday we wanted to fix up his desktop computer, so I grabbed a reluctant Abby and drove to Best Buy to look for a monitor.  Prior to our outing, I checked their web site for prices, and found what I wanted, also noting that they had them in stock at our Downingtown location.  Knowing that Riley's birthday was the following day and shipping would likely not work, we set out to fetch a monitor.

Abby and I looked for the monitor shelf and found the display model of the monitor we were looking for, but we could not find the monitor in a box on the shelf.  Usually I am accosted by 50 blue-shirts while I peruse Best Buy, but for some reason I was not this time.  So without any associates to help me, I simply used my phone to order and pay for the monitor online, and schedule it for in-store pickup at the store I was standing in.  Abby and I continued looking around the store, playing games, checking out movies and cameras and TVs, and finally after about 45 minutes of goofing around, we headed for the customer service desk to pick up the monitor that I had ordered.  

Cutting the Cord
December 02, 2012

I've written before about how we were going to burn our TV.   We since (the day after I wrote that post, in fact) have cut the cord.  There is no more TV service coming into the house.  What have we done?  How have we fared?  I'll explain.

We started with the Fios triple-play service: TV, Phone, Internet.  We dropped everything but the internet.  We've switched to using our cell phones only and a Google Voice number.  The TV connection is a bit more complex.

New Food
November 29, 2012

I'm coming to the conclusion that Cup-A-Noodle is not a drink.  I know that this shouldn't seem startling to anyone, but to me, it's telling news.  I've been suffering from an infection of some kind over the past week, and have at several points completely lost my voice.  When I then went looking for something to drink, I wanted something with some specific characteristics, but I've been unable to find:

My Windows 8 Adventure
October 31, 2012

Last weekend, before the storm, I installed Windows 8 on my primary desktop computer.  The last and only prior time I installed Windows 8 was in a virtual machine from a developer preview ISO.  I was hoping to see some improvements since that initial installation.  Here we go...

Windows 8 installed without a hitch.  Actually, this isn't entirely true, but it's my fault.  There was an old instance of Agnitum Outpost firewall that had some lingering bits remaining and was nearly impossible to remove.  Until I did, Windows 8's installation would not continue.  I think it's fair for Windows to refuse to install until it has the computer in a condition that it thinks would be ideal, and it pays off.